And tonight I want to look at the one which is in Sanskrit virya, translated sometimes as effort, or endeavor, or enthusiastic engagement, energy, various ways to look at this word virya or this practice of virya. Suzuki Roshi talks about effort a lot, and actually most of what I say tonight is not going to be coming from the commentary on Shatideva, but will be on my own exploration of effort and what Suzuki Roshi had to say about it. Because, as I've mentioned many times, I was

[01:11]

very struck when the first time I ever heard Suzuki Roshi talk, he said something about, he said, you're perfect just as you are. And that was a very startling thing for me to hear. And I assumed, of course, that he was speaking to people who had been his students for some time, but I was very new there and I knew that he wasn't talking about me. But as I kept coming to hear him, you know, I have a notion that, although cognitively I said, well, he doesn't know me, something in me heard that and responded. And that's something about why I kept coming back. Although cognitively it was very dissonant with what I thought about myself or what I thought I knew about myself,

[02:23]

somewhere in me there was something that resonated with it and needed to hear more about what he could possibly mean by that. Because right together with you're perfect just as you are was there's always room for improvement. And Zen is about making your best effort on each moment forever. And these were paradoxes for me, but they were, you know, much of what he said is paradox, but this one caught my attention because there's no gaining idea, you're perfect as you are. What does it mean to make effort continuously, forever, when there's nothing to gain, when you're perfect as you are? Or another phrase we hear is, you know, no goal-seeking, or in the Heart Sutra we say, no attainment because there's nothing to attain. What can that mean?

[03:33]

So this has been, continues to be, a real koan for me and one that I commend to you. We talk about the perfection of effort, we talk about the necessity for continual effort, and yet we're also again and again reminded that from the beginning we're a Buddha. This very question was one which drove Dogen Zenji, which was his continual koan. If we're Buddha from the beginning, what need is there for practice? He pursued this question through practice, and he expresses it again in the opening paragraph of Fukan Zazengi, which we chant sometimes, always on one-day sittings. The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. What need is there for practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled.

[04:51]

Why do we need all this effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? And yet, if there's the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. So we make this continual effort to really come to the point where we appreciate fully just this as it is. Where we come to actually realize that the way is basically perfect and all-pervading, that it's never apart from you, right where you are. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?

[06:04]

We need to realize it so that we can actually live in such a way. We have this expression in colloquial English, you know, one who can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. The great teacher Hui Hai, in his Shastra, says, what is the meaning of proficiency in teaching but not proficiency in transmission? And he says, this refers to one whose deeds are at variance with his words.

[07:07]

And the next question is, what is meant by proficiency in teaching and also in transmission? And Hui Hai says, this refers to one whose words are confirmed by his deeds. And when we do the Bodhisattva ceremony, when we chant the precepts at the end, the Doshi chants a little teaching about each precept. These are teachings of Dogen Zenji's about each precept from his teaching on precepts called Kyoju Kaimon. And he says that on the tenth precept, not to abuse the three treasures, he says, to expand the Dharma with this body is foremost.

[08:16]

It is unfathomable. We just accept it with respect and gratitude. So this effort that we make moment after moment to be present here as we are, fully embracing all that is, just this as it is. This effort is what may allow us to expand the Dharma with this body, may allow us to come to the point where our words are confirmed by our deeds, where we can walk the walk.

[09:20]

So we take up this Bodhisattva vow, which aims us in the direction we want to go. And we don't set up any particular goal to achieve at the end, we just vow this is our path. And we go this way, and our effort is just to stay on this path, just to be completely who we are on this path. Just flipping through Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, we run into effort again and again. At first you will have various problems and it is necessary for you to make some effort to continue our practice. For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice. For the beginner, the practice needs great effort.

[10:27]

Especially for young people, it is necessary to try very hard to achieve something. You must stretch out your arms and legs as wide as they will go. Form is form. You must be true to your own way until at last you actually come to the point where you see it is necessary to forget all about yourself. Until you come to this point, it is completely mistaken to think that whatever you do is Zen, or that it does not matter whether you practice or not. But if you make your best effort just to continue your practice with your whole mind and body, without gaining ideas, then whatever you do will be true practice. Just to continue should be your purpose. When you do something, just to do it should be your purpose.

[11:33]

Form is form and you are you and true emptiness will be realized in your practice. Zen Meditation with Dr. Paret This is the Soto way of practice. We can say either that we make progress little by little, or that we do not even expect to make progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.

[12:38]

There is no nirvana outside our practice. To be a human being is to be a Buddha. Buddha nature is just another name for human nature, our true human nature. Thus even though you do not do anything, you are actually doing something. You are expressing yourself, you are expressing your true nature. While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas.

[13:41]

In other words, just practice Zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself. Sometimes when we read Shantideva and the commentaries on Shantideva, there is a possibility of reading it dualistically. To do this is good and to do that is bad.

[14:44]

You should do this and you should not do that. I think more if you read the, if you read carefully, you will see, to do this brings great benefit. It is not sort of good or bad or should or should not. But look at the benefits that happen when you practice this way and look at the difficulties that occur when you live this way. It is more trying to encourage you to live the way you want to live. It is not so much chiding you for doing wrong or not doing right. But I think as I read the commentaries and as I read Shantideva, it can be read that way.

[15:54]

And guess what, we have a big tendency to read it that way, don't we? We have a big tendency to set up some ideal. And if we notice that we don't meet that ideal, then we tend to think of ourselves as being very bad or it is a bad thing. We tend to criticize ourselves. But really I think setting up notions of attitudes and conduct that lead to joy and appreciation of our life. And it is trying to find some way to encourage us to make effort to appreciate our life.

[16:58]

And I think that it is most helpful rather than comparing ourselves to some ideal and criticizing ourselves when we don't meet it, to just keep checking in with what Suzuki Roshi used to refer to as our innermost desire or our deepest intention or our ultimate concern or how we really want to live. Not some rules from outside, but what is it about this practice that attracts us? Why are we doing this anyhow? What made me choose to do this? When I consider what made me choose to do this, it is beyond naming.

[18:12]

It is somehow when I met this practice, it didn't seem to me to be a case of choosing. It seemed to me to be a case of I had no choice. The choice was made quite apart from any cognitive process. But surely something in me chose it. And I can talk about what apparently encouraged me to choose it. And frankly I think it was meeting someone who expounded the Dharma with his body.

[19:17]

But also a lot of what I read made a lot of sense. I had a lot of resonance with a great deal of what I read. But to meet someone who expounded the Dharma with his body was more convincing than words, although the words are very encouraging. And so as I've mentioned before, I have had this great yearning to be able to see all beings as Buddha. To see everyone that I met as perfect. To actually see perfect beings wherever I looked, which is how I perceived Suzuki Roshi.

[20:26]

But you know, I can't get there by wanting to do that if I can't accept this being as it is. You know, I've mentioned to you that I'm working in therapy with a therapist who's also a long-time Zen practitioner. And we finally got down to the ground yesterday on this thing of if I want to be a compassionate being, I have to be able to be compassionate to this being. She says if you want to see Buddha wherever you look, you have to see it in the mirror. You have to look at the one in the mirror and embrace everything that's there. It's not that you ought to or that you'd feel better if you did.

[21:29]

If what you really aspire to is to be able to meet each person you see with that compassion that you saw in Suzuki Roshi, you have to be able to meet yourself with that compassion. Otherwise, you're just talking the talk, but you're not walking the walk. And people will see that you're not genuinely seeing them as Buddha, that you're not genuinely meeting them as Buddha, because you still are not willing to be as you are, completely and without reservation. So she is not talking to me about being nice to myself, being kind to myself, indulging myself, being egoistic.

[22:37]

She is talking to me about the gate I have to go through if I want to be the compassionate being I yearn to be. To be able to embrace whatever arises, and when something arises that is painful, and I notice it, instead of saying, oh, there it is again. When I notice it, say, good for you, you noticed. Now you don't have to do it. In other words, just recognize that I have all these habits.

[23:39]

I have these habits of mind, critical and judging habits, and they'll arise. We all have them. No? They will arise. When they arise, can I say, oh, there's my habit, hello. Can I really embrace it? Can I really not turn away from it? This is the effort that I need to make, and I think that each one of us needs to make. Just to come back to Suzuki Roshi a little bit. If you want to express yourself, your true nature, there should be some natural and appropriate way of expression.

[24:44]

Even swinging right and left as you sit down or get up from Zazen is an expression of yourself. It's not preparation for practice or relaxation after practice. It is part of the practice. So we should not do it as if we were preparing for something else. This should be true in your everyday life. Whatever you do, you should just do it to do it, and not with some gaining idea. When you cook, you should just cook. To cook is not to prepare food for someone or for yourself. It is to express your sincerity. You should allow yourself plenty of time.

[25:53]

You should work on it with nothing in your mind and without expecting anything. You should just cook. That is also an expression of our sincerity, a part of our practice. It is necessary to sit Zazen in this way, but sitting is not our only way. Whatever you do, it should be an expression of the same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There is no preparation for something else. Then he has a whole section on right effort. He says, our effort and our practice should be directed from achievement to non-achievement. Usually when you do something, you want to achieve something.

[26:57]

You attach to some result. From achievement to non-achievement means to be rid of the unnecessary and bad results of effort. If you do something in the spirit of non-achievement, there is a good quality in it. Just to do something without any particular effort is enough. When you make some special effort to achieve something, some excessive quality, some extra element is involved in it. You should get rid of excessive things. If your practice is good, without being aware of it, you will become proud of your practice. The pride is extra. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. So you should get rid of that something which is extra. When you are involved in some dualistic idea, it means your practice is not pure.

[28:04]

By purity we do not mean to polish something, trying to make some impure thing pure. By purity we just mean things as they are. When something is added, that is impure. When something becomes dualistic, that is not pure. If you think you will get something from practicing Zazen, already you are involved in impure practice. It is all right to say there is practice and there is enlightenment, but we should not be caught by the statement. We should not be tempted by it. When you practice Zazen, just practice Zazen. If enlightenment comes, it just comes. We should not attach to the attainment. The true quality of Zazen is always there, even if you are not aware of it.

[29:10]

So forget all about what you think you may have gained from it. Just do it. The quality of Zazen will express itself. You will have it. There was an exchange between the sixth ancestor and his disciple. When the disciple first arrived, the sixth ancestor said, What is it that thus comes? And after some silence the disciple said, Just to say that it is something misses the point. And the sixth ancestor said,

[30:18]

Does that mean that there is no practice and no realization? And his disciple said, It is not that there is no practice and no realization. It is just that it cannot be defiled. So although there is practice and there is realization, when we practice, we shouldn't attach to realization. It will interfere with the purity of our practice. When we practice, we should just do it. But suppose we notice some attachment to attainment.

[31:26]

Well, then just notice it. Oh yes, there I go again, thinking this isn't good enough. There I go again, thinking there is a goal. And I'm not there yet. Oh, okay, there it is. I just keep on practicing. We will come up with ideas of this isn't good enough. I need to improve. And actually, we probably wouldn't have ever begun to practice if we didn't have some notion like that. So even though there is a notion that we need to improve,

[32:28]

that we must become Buddha for the benefit of all beings, maybe we must be Buddha. Be the Buddha we are for the benefit of all beings. Be completely this one, wholeheartedly, with enthusiastic engagement. Be this one. And when you recognize its completeness, you will recognize, as Dogen Zenji says in Genjo Koan, no creature ever falls short, or no creature ever fails in its own completeness. Wherever it stands, it does not fail to cover the ground.

[33:31]

Would you like to have some discussion? Yes. I'm always confused about that exchange with the six ancestors. What does it say at that point? It's not that there's no practice, no realization. It's just that you cannot be defiled. How does that relate to what he said previously about just to name it as to... Did he mean that just to name it as to defile it? Yes, to say, what is this? If you try to catch it by a name, a description, you're already kind of attaching to something. This just to name it, is to miss the point,

[34:41]

is somewhat related to not knowing is nearest. So, in his answer to that, the six ancestors said, does that mean that there's no practice and realization? Did that mean that he meant that because we can't name it, there's no practice, that it's already present? I don't see the... I keep looking for the logical relationship. Don't try to study koans by looking for the logical relationship. Still... How else could I do it, though? Sit with it. Really. Sit with it and let it cook. I was just trying to see why...

[35:44]

There was a quotation in here of Suzuki Roshi's that I felt spoke to that particular case. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't... Okay. It's this... By purity we mean things just as they are.

[36:45]

When something is added, that is impure. It is all right to say there is practice and there is enlightenment. We should not be caught by the statement. You should not be tainted by it. When you practice zazen, just practice zazen. And I think if enlightenment comes, it just comes. I think this is completely from that case. I think this is commentary on that case. This whole section... It's 56. It's in the section on right effort. I'm sorry. I had another question on just that section. He says... He has a quotation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. And then he says, form is also form. Emptiness is also emptiness. Which is a translation I've found before. When we read it, the Heart Sutra,

[37:46]

our translation doesn't say that. I don't know. I don't know if that's in the Heart Sutra, or if it's in the larger Prajnaparamita. It's true. It's not in the Heart Sutra as we chant it. You know, there are many Prajnaparamita Sutras. The Heart Sutra is the most condensed of them. There's the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 lines, and the Prajnaparamita in 25,000 lines, and the Prajnaparamita in, I think, maybe even 100,000 lines. Have you seen that in other translations of the Heart Sutra? I mean, he says, fortunately, it goes on to say, form is form, and emptiness is emptiness. In Kokai's class on the Heart Sutra, we talked about that. I think maybe Kansa... In Kansa's translation? I don't know why that's not in the one that we chant.

[39:02]

But it's true that Suzuki Roshi speaks of that a lot. He goes back to form is form, and emptiness is emptiness, quite frequently. Yes? I think that form uses the phrase, Beautiful Tantra Buddha. Is that a good description of what you're talking about? If it's a description, yeah, of one whose words are confirmed by her deeds. Yeah, that's a good phrase. I like that. Thanks. Or... preaching the Dharma with this body. Expounding the Dharma with this body. It has to do with things like,

[40:06]

when Trudi was at Tassajara, and she wrote a letter home, and she said, This morning I got up early, and I saw Suzuki Roshi walking in his garden. And do you know what he was doing? He was walking in his garden! It's sort of like... Or someone else, a friend of Lou's, who... Lou said we'd gone over to San Francisco to hear Suzuki Roshi or something, and he said, I saw him once! And his whole face lit up. There was something about his meeting him that made an impression on him, although he didn't practice then, but there was something about... There's something about someone whose...

[41:13]

words are confirmed by their deeds that catches your attention. I think that's... We fear Rat and Dick, not Han. Yes? It just makes me think of the way I've been trying to work with the word compassion. Since I was getting it, I, as well as other people, not everyone, was using it as a place of superiority, like feeling compassion for others, as though I'm above them. And I think that com meaning with, changes the whole thing. Because you're not really feeling compassion for people, for their sake,

[42:13]

but more, compassion comes from non-separation, or from that with being with. So, if compassion is considered more as a pure relationship with everything, then it just has a different feeling for me, or a different tone than trying to put it outside my relationship. Yes, you might say compassion with others instead of compassion for others. It's said that the near enemy of compassion is pity, which is that feeling that I think you're talking about when you say this I think it's very, very difficult to feel here with everything and everyone. And it's much easier to think, oh, I need the help

[43:14]

of someone else than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So, let's continue making our best effort with everyone on each moment forever. Thank you. Thank you.

[44:08]

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