Good morning. This morning it's a little bit different. And we have our monthly one-day sitting, and this begins our 12-week practice period. So if we seem a little more serious than usual, or a little more contained, I think you may understand why. Practice period, and one-day sitting, and formal meditation practice in general, is a way for us to take the backward step, and not look at so much where we're going, but

[01:13]

where we're at. Most of us spend most of the time thinking about where we've been, or what we want to happen, or try to make what we want to happen, happen. But practice period is a time, and one-day sitting is a time, and even one meditation moment is a time to notice where we are. To not be screening out that which we don't want to hear or experience, or running to

[02:14]

that which we want. The first talk I ever heard Suzuki Rishi give, he had a cup of tea and he said, it And the way he did it was convincing. When we had formal eating in the zendo this morning, and when we carry the pots, we carry

[03:17]

them with both hands and put them down, and when we give our bowls to be served, we hold them with both hands, and when we bow, we bow with both hands. Suzuki Rishi's wife, Oksan, who lived here for many years, would never point with one finger. She wouldn't point very often at all, but when she did, she used two fingers to point. This practice period, Blanche Hartman will be leading the practice period, and she's busy at Tassajara helping Mel do some dharma transmissions, but she's going to lecture

[04:19]

on and give a class on the shin-shin-ning, which is translated as faith mind or unbelieving in mind or something like that, and I'm just going to talk about one little piece of this. It begins, just the perfect way knows no difficulties, except that it refuses to make preferences. Only when freed from hate and love, it reveals itself fully and without disguise. Of course, this is impossible, to not love or hate or have preferences. But there's still a point here, and what I'd like to talk about is actually a few lines later. To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of the way is not understood, peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose.

[05:26]

To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind. It may be that we'll always have likes and dislikes, that they will come up, and we should notice them, take care of them, understand them, but to set them up against each other, that may be a problem. So, a practice period is a somewhat artificial situation set up, in which we're not aware

[06:30]

we can encourage ourselves to experience what is. We make our choices three months in advance, and then live with them. We commit ourselves to a schedule that is bound to stretch us a little, and bound to at different times make us cranky and irritable, because we're not trying to cover all that over. We set up a reasonable schedule, though difficult, and see what comes up around it, not trying to run away or pursue, but just see what comes. And a lot of stuff comes. And it's not the stuff we either pursue or run away from, or sometimes it's that. It's

[07:39]

unknowable what's going to come up. So, this is the kind of funny thing to do, to join with a number of people, make a commitment to follow a certain schedule, notice what happens, and follow through on it. And notice what happens, without trying too much to have some end, or some goal. Just doing this is goal enough. Just holding a cup with two hands, without thinking where to put it, without thinking where, what has to happen next.

[08:41]

Just sitting in this room, listening or speaking words, noticing what's going on, what's happening, all kinds of things, physical discomfort, physical joy, puzzlement or understanding. Noticing our likes and dislikes in a way that we may have not noticed them before. In fact, I would like us not to too much think about noticing our likes and dislikes as something we don't like to do, or even our likes and dislikes as something that just may not arise.

[10:00]

It arises. It's interesting information. In our life, it's not so much, perhaps, it's not so much about what we get or what we don't get, or what the objective measures of our life are, but how we meet it, and how we understand what we need. A one-day sitting or a practice period also has limits. We do it for a certain period of time. Then we can decide to get off the bus and get on another bus. We're all a bundle of likes and dislikes, of idiosyncratic experiences, of individuals,

[11:13]

of different backgrounds, different cultures, different aesthetics. We're just bundles of all, on any variable. We all tend to like one end or another, or be likes and dislikes the middle and not like the ends. And that's the way things are. That's the diversity of our life. And of course, having preferences is the diversity of our life. However, if we begin to believe them too much, or put our likes and dislikes against each other, real trouble arises. So you know the famous phrase in Zen, not one, not two. It's all one. We're all related.

[12:28]

We hold the cup, we join with everything. And yet we're all specific, individual, concrete, particular. And we shouldn't be some amalgam which denies that. So how we understand the unity of things and their diversity? It's about how we learn who we are. So for the rest of the day, or for this practice period, or for any time during the day, or time that you choose, to just notice what arises. Appreciate it. Appreciate your annoyances.

[13:43]

Appreciate your preferences. And don't set up your likes against your dislikes. Whatever happens is okay, is information. To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of the way is not understood, peace of mind is disturbed to no purpose. Later on it says, pursue not the outer entanglements, dwell not in the inner void. Wherever you are, include the outward entanglements and the inner void.

[15:07]

Hold them with both hands. And if you become frustrated, or angry, or upset, or blissful, say hello to it. Learn from it. Don't run away or run to it. There's another you coming to visit you. When we eat in the Zen Do, we eat to eat, and we taste, but we also include the noise

[16:29]

we make, the sounds outside, the attention we give. Eating is all of those things. It's not just a narrow line. I think this is the 19th or 20th practice period, or something like that, here in the city. And of course we trace the practice of having practice periods, of having intense group meditation sessions, back to Buddha's time. So there have been thousands, thousands and thousands of these. It's been 2,500 years since Buddha.

[17:34]

And people have been doing this for a long time, learning about ourselves, giving the space not just to act, or not just to react, but to experience. I think it's a very common, and also a very wise, statement to say, just don't sit there, do something. That's important. But equally important it may be, just don't do something, sit there. And that's what we're emphasizing today. To think that we can live in a world where we don't act on preferences, or don't act and just receive, is a little one-sided.

[18:38]

However, that may be our habitual understanding. Our habitual understanding may also be, I've got to do something, I've got to accomplish. I find it curious that when I speak with people, people don't say, I'm not busy. Everyone tells me how busy they are, and I tell everyone how busy I am. As if that is of value. Please don't use that camera unless you have permission of the people you're shooting.

[19:47]

Thank you. Well, I don't have that much more to say. Sorry. Just for the rest of this day, for just this moment, let's try to be as aware of where we are, as of where we're going or where we've been. Find the gift of each breath, of each trip, when you trip, of each experience. Suzuki Roshi used to say that, to a Zen student, a weed is a jewel,

[20:50]

something to be composted and from which beautiful flowers will grow. But if we don't notice the weed and don't compost it, our soil becomes a little thin, not so rich. So let's continue with this simple, rich day. Thank you. May I have your attention.

[21:29]

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