This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. My name is Katie Lynn Schatz. I want to thank the... for the invitation to coldly this practice period with my Dharma brother, David. Is anyone here for the first time? All right, special welcome to you all. And does anyone feel like that newness of a first time? Or the anxiety of it? I certainly do. So we're just beginning.

[01:04]

The one day opens up. Today's a one day sitting and it opens up this mini practice period. It's a time in which we gather to concentrate our effort and practice. And for this practice period, David and I are doing wise effort. Wise effort in everyday life. harmonizing stoneness and activity. We're going to present it in the next six weeks in four ways on meditation, on relationship, on work, and on engaging with the world. So the practice spirit began on Tuesday officially, and then Wednesday we had a Dharma talk in which David and I did it together. And it's It's been a while since I give talks here, I practice here, but it's been a long time since I've lived here. So we started out with what we call way-seeking mind talks.

[02:09]

It's a way that you introduce yourself to the community, and then we had a twist on it since it was on effort, and we did it on ways-seeking effort. So just how effort has gone through our lives. So I thought I'd start out with another story to set that up. set us off here. So a while back, I had a girlfriend who said to me, Lynn, you're like a dog. When you meet people, you right away just trust them 100%. Just like dogs do. They're just right there and they're like, there to please you. do whatever you want, follow at your heel. And she meant it as a compliment, and I took it that way. And then reflecting on it, I was thinking, hmm, is this true?

[03:12]

And then I was thinking this dog I had in my 20s, a different girlfriend, and I had gone to the pound and gotten this dog that was a mixed breed dog, lab head, Australian shepherd, coloring, you know, with that flacking. And then husky, because of the tail, and one eye is blue and one eye is brown. And huskies love to run. We were living in Oregon, so we'd go on hikes a lot, and I remember one time we were in, like, high desert. It was kind of desert-y, but rocky. And a vagabond was off the leash, so... she ran so far away that she was like a little dot. And then at some point, that little dot came back and became the dog. And her tongue was hanging out, tail wagging vigorously, her eyes bright.

[04:16]

And so I thought, yeah, okay. I like that idea of being like a dog and wholehearted. giving 100% to everything, sometimes even 110%. Now, then I came to Zen, and we know what that means. There's the wholehearted way. So it's a really thing in Zen to give ourselves wholeheartedly over into everything we do. And in fact, Dogen, founder of this practice, in his earliest dharma writing in Japanese, in the Bendawa, written in 1231. It's called the Bendawa, or a talk on making effort in the way. Ben means effort. Do is the way. And wa means a tale or story.

[05:21]

So a tale or talk on the way. about making effort in the way. Here's how it starts. And this is from the Munina Dewdrop version. All Buddha Tathagatas, who directly transmit inconceivable Dharma and actualize supreme, perfect enlightenment, have a wondrous way, unsurpassed and unconditioned. Only Buddha is transmitted to Buddhas. without veering off, self-fulfilling samadhi is its standard. Sitting upright, practicing Zen, is the authentic gate to the unconfined realm of this samadhi. Although it is inconceivable Dharma is abundant in each person, it is not actualized without practice. and it is not experienced without realization.

[06:23]

When you release it, it fills your hand. How could it be limited to one or many? When you speak it, it fills your mouth, and it is bounded by length, and it's not bounded by length or width. All Buddhas continuously abide in it, but do not leave traces of consciousness in their illuminations. Sentient beings continuously move about in it, but illumination is not manifested in their consciousness. The concentrated endeavor of the way I am speaking of allows all things to come forth in enlightenment and practice all inclusive with detachment. Passing through the barrier and dropping off limitations, how could you be hindered by nodes in bamboo or knots in wood? So, Buddhas are continuously transmitting this Anuttara Samyaksambodhi, right?

[07:29]

Enlightenment, right? The perfect highest awakening to us. And the method that they do that is Samadhi, or concentration. Now, Dogen frames it as Chichiyu Samai. And here is from Norman Fisher, one of our past abbots. on his commentaries in this version of the Bendawa. He said, did you use a Mai, right? It's something that Dogen talks about as concentration, and it's an important one. Ji means self, ju means to receive, and you means to use. Ji, to use a Mai, self-receiving and self-functioning concentration. He says, this means concentration that is absolute and all-inclusive. In other words, self here doesn't mean me, like my personality, or sense of separateness.

[08:30]

It means that you recognize in the midst of concentration that I am without limits, I'm all-inclusive, and that I can enter into everything right here within my own feeling awareness. So sitting upright Practicing Zen is the way to do that. Now, to me, that sounds great, right? And I'm really inspired that. But to me, here's the catch. It's hard for me to know that I'm without limits and all-inclusive. How about you? Especially when you're sitting and it's... third or fourth period, which will happen later this afternoon, right? Or you've just made a mistake in some form, you drop your whatever in oreo key. It's really hard to not see the limit of messing up, right?

[09:35]

So it's hard to have open acceptance, functioning of what is coming and going, moment after moment. without any sense of limitation or desire to hold or push away. Because I mostly find myself not open and straining to push and pull all the time. So while, like my dog, you know, I feel that I'm trying to give 100%, but that sense is really over-effort because it gets really tiring. When you guys think about effort, do you feel tired? Now, the Buddha gave guidance on how much the amount of effort we could use. Here's from a sutra called Sonata. Sonata is a person. It goes like this. This is a Dhanasara Bhikkhu translation. I've heard that on one occasion, the Blessed One was staying near Raya Gatha.

[10:43]

on Virtual Peak Mountain. And on that occasion, Venerable Sonja was staying near Pratyagatha in the cool wood. Then, as Venerable Sonja was meditating in seclusion, after doing walking meditation until the skin of his soul was split and bleeding, another over-efforter, this train of thought arose in his awareness. Of the blessed one's disciples who have aroused their persistence, I am one, but my mind is not released from their fermentations through lack of clinging sustenance. Now my family has enough wealth that it would be possible to enjoy wealth and make merit. What if I were to disavow the training, return to the lower life, enjoy wealth and make merit? You've worked so hard.

[11:44]

It's kind of almost natural consequence to going to say, oh, I can't do it anymore. I really want to quit. What doubt arises, right? Now, having heard that, the Buddha, there's this whole thing about his arm, which I'm not going to go into, but basically extends his arm and all of a sudden, he's right next to Sonia, right? So he said, hmm, he calls him out on it. This is my prayer phrase now. He said, you just say what I thought you said? Are you going to give up on this practice because you feel tired, right? And Sonia says, yes, Lord. And the Buddha says, now what do you think, Sonia, before when you were a house dweller, were you skilled at playing the vena? Vena is a class of like lutes, right? They have strings in India in the Buddhist time. Yes, Lord. And what do you think when the strings of your vina were too taut, was your vina in tune and playable?

[12:48]

No, Lord. And what do you think when the strings of your vina were too loose, was your vina in tune and playable? No, Lord. And what do you think when the strings of your vina were neither too taut nor too loose, but tuned to be right on pitch, was your vina in tune and playable? Yes, Lord. In the same way, Zona, over-aroused persistence leads to restlessness. Overly slack persistence leads to laziness. Thus, you should determine the right pitch for your persistence. Attune the pitch of the five faculty to that and there pick up your theme. So, around effort... You know, most of us have this kind of dualistic sense, right? Either I need to be doing it all or nothing. Another way I think that we frame effort is about what I call the five Ws.

[13:52]

What should I be doing? Where should I do it to get the best results? When is the best time or the best place? And why do it? What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of this if I do it? So that's a who. Who's going to benefit from the efforting? So when we frame it in the five Ws, there's a gaining sense of mind, let me say. So instead of focusing, often we focus on the what, the where, the when. I want to propose to you that if we focus on the quality of the effort or the how of efforting, that's where wise effort happens. Now, wise effort is part of the eightfold path. People know that? So in the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, the fourth noble truth is the path, right? And it's made up of eight parts, which is right understanding or right view, right intention or right thought.

[14:55]

And that makes up, they're broken up into three grouping, what's called the wisdom grouping. And the wisdom grouping leads into the... You would say the acting or the compassionate living section, which is right speech, right action, right livelihood. And then the third grouping classically is what's called the samadhi or the concentration grouping. And it includes right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. Now, it's really important that classically it is translated as right, the word sama. But right here is not so much about right and wrong. It's much more about complete and whole. Enough, correct, appropriate, and these days, wise and skillful is part of that. So wise effort, or right effort, is samasayamo.

[15:57]

So, excuse me, I'm a little dissected. Vayamo. Vayamo is exertion, endeavor, effort. Now, West, you know, we kind of forget about that. Notice Sama goes in front of all of them, right? Or wise goes in front of all the Eightfold Path. Because, for instance, we talk a lot these days about mindfulness, right? But we never talk about what is right or wise mindfulness, right? I have a great story about that. One of our... fellow friends who used to practice with us, and his name was Leilio. So then, this was when we were at Tassajara, and then he actually changed to the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition. And a few years ago, just a couple years ago, when Thich Nhat Hanh was here recovering from his stroke, Leilio, now his name is Huichuk, came to take care of him. So he was telling me, He lives in Plum Village. When he lived in Plum Village, one time they had a gathering of all the senior teachers in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition.

[17:05]

And this very prominent French teacher was there and asked the question of Thich Nhat Hanh. He said, Thai, the French army wants me to come and teach them mindfulness. What do you think? What do you think I should do? And I, you know, in my idea of Thich Nhat Hanh thought, oh, Thich Nhat Hanh would just go, yes, so open, just go do it as long as you're mindful of how you do it. Wouldn't that be your sense? And Hoytrik said, Thich Nhat Hanh said, hmm, don't forget that in front of mindfulness is wise or correct or skillful. So is it wise, correct, correct? or skillful or appropriate to be teaching mindfulness towards the cause of harm. That's how you have to hold it. So it's really important, this part. So when we think about effort, it then is useful to think about what makes it wise effort or not wise effort, wouldn't you say?

[18:14]

Now, the eightfold path work together. That's the other thing. We tend to just kind of separate them out. They actually work together. Now, when you have right understanding or right view, which is basically the four noble truths, which are there is suffering or disease, discontent, dissatisfaction. There's a cause to it, which is the obsessive quality of clinging. There's a possibility of ending. And then how it could end. I like to say Thich Nhat Hanh says that the third noble truth is healing. healing from, you could say, our obsessive quality. It's possible to heal from that. And then the Eightfold Path is the fourth. So when you have correct understanding, then the aspiration comes out of it. Wise intention. Now, wise intention in the Buddhist sense also literally means thinking.

[19:16]

So it's the... thinking, not so much in our sense of thinking, in which it's just the mind doing its thing, it's much more a purposive kind of thinking. A thinking that leads somewhere, that's why it goes into the next section of compassionate living, or usually ethical conduct, which is wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood. Now, we know that just thinking, or... Understanding, having wisdom, right? Having right understanding, having the aspiration to do, and then doing it is hard. Otherwise, none of us would be here. We'd be out there, right? And if that was easy, there'd be no disagreement, no war, no all sorts of suffering. Wouldn't that be true? So, in the teaching, the bridge, the section of the Eightfold Path that helps us... to bridge how we understand and what our thinking is to how we act is the third section of samadhi.

[20:20]

So wise effort, wise concentration, and wise mindfulness is in that. So this is why people often think of effort as an action, I think. Most of us think of it as doing, but really it's how do we apply effort towards the... Samadhi factor towards a sense of being settled, having clarity of mind and heart. That's where our effort is. So again, it works together. And here's a great simile from the sutras. Three boys go to the park to play. While walking along, they see a tree with flowering tops, and they decide they want to gather the flowers. but the flowers are beyond the reach of even the tallest boy. Then one friend bends down and offers his back. The tall boy climbs up but still hesitates to reach for the flowers for fear of falling.

[21:26]

So the third boy comes over and offers his shoulder for support. The first boy, standing on the back of the second boy, then leans on the shoulder of the third boy, reaches up and gathers the flowers. In this simile, the tall boy who picks the flower represents concentration, samadhi, with its function of unifying the mind, focusing on the purpose. But to unify the mind, concentration needs support. The energy provided is wise effort, which is like the boy who offers his back. So concentration rests on your effort. It also requires the stabilizing awareness provided by mindfulness. Mindfulness is when your sense of what is happening is focused, right? And open and aware.

[22:29]

I like to call it like the maitre d' of a restaurant, right? They know exactly what's going on. And they can decide what needs to happen next. That's mindfulness to me. Which is like the boy who offers his shoulder. When right concentration receives the support, then empowered by right effort and balanced by right mindfulness, it can draw in the scattered strands of thought and fix the mind firmly on its object. So from the place of focus or unify attention, concentration, and stabilize awareness, mindfulness, we are able to respond, make effort, embody speech and mind from wisdom. So wise effort, you could say, is the carefulness of how we use our energy in the service of what's important to us. Making it completely appropriate for this one day.

[23:30]

So what's important to us in a one day? Why are we all here? To have a sense of sadoness, to be able to be with what's going on directly. Now, I know that, you know, we think just sitting is enough in Shikantaza. We're just sitting. And I think it's possible without a doubt. And how many of us are doing it? And how many of us, another way to put it, how many of us are doing it in a sustained manner? Anytime, right? All right, good for you, excellent. I myself get caught all the time, right? This morning in Orioki, I'm sitting there. Clack, clack, clack. There goes my, right? I direct my attention over there as opposed to staying unified in my concentration.

[24:32]

I'm easily distracted. So here's from Suzuki Roshi. Usually our mind is very busy and complicated. And it's difficult to be concentrated on what we are doing. This is because before we act, we think, and thinking leaves some trace. Our activity is shadowed by some preconceived idea. The thinking not only leaves some trace or shadow, but also gives us many other notions about other activities and things. These traces and notions makes our mind very complicated. When we do something with a quiet, simple, clear mind, we have no notion or shadow. and our activity is strong and straightforward. But when we do something with a complicated mind, in relation to other things or people or society or activity, it becomes very complex. For instance, when the chopstick dropped, besides my eyes looking over, I have to go, who dropped the chopstick?

[25:37]

Oh, and did the soku hear it? Right? Oh. And did the tanto make a face when, you know, like all sorts of things is happening, right? This is the trace we're talking about, right? That it isn't just the sound and going, ah, hearing. We go chopsticks. We go, who is it? What is going on? And next thing you know, you know, and then we have stories, like I already told you, several stories, right? I didn't tell you who dropped it, but I already gave you a sense of my idea of the tanto. And you all shared it with me because I said when he made a face, you all had an idea of what kind of face he made. So you have traces. We all have traces happening all the time. So this is not the, you know, we're speaking of. This is not the enlightenment of just the clarity of what is. Because then, also what most of us do is when we do like that, then we go, awake.

[26:37]

I'm supposed to be keeping my eyes down, right? I'm not supposed to be looking around. I shouldn't be judging, right? Isn't that true? And yet, we do. Or at least I do. So maybe I'm a bad Zen student, or perhaps just not Zen enough. I've been characterized. But these days, I've been turning over Dogen's phrase, a practice realization, right? Which means, you know, practice, he put them together. which means practice and realization are not separate. But I've been thinking about it, you know, which is a great idea, a great idea. When I'm practicing, I'm in enlightenment. But my experience of it is I'm usually too flustered, right? Moments of it, maybe I feel like I'm close to it. But so then I've been thinking, maybe he's kind of giving me instructions, right? Especially for certain times. So there's practice, then there's realization. So while they're not separate, most of us, or myself, really have to make a concentrated effort to practice.

[27:45]

And in the practicing, I get to meet realization. So mostly, I'm practicing. So the quality of how we practice is the key. So this is where wise effort begins. is useful. Let me have a watch. I have no sense of time. Thank you. So, wise effort. Before I get to effort, I say, what are we efforting towards? Yes, yes, yes, concentration. But what helps concentration? your aspiration or the quality, more the quality of concentration. And that then takes us back to wisdom. Because this is where our aspiration is. And that's wise intention, the wisdom grouping.

[28:48]

So in that, here's what the Buddha, the Buddha, when he meditated, realized that there were two sets of qualities of his mind state. And they were either towards obsessive desire, towards ill will, or towards aggression. And then the other is towards renunciation, towards good will, or towards compassion. And so if we are practicing intensely, What would happen today, if not the whole practice period, that you just frame your sense of how you perceive what's going on, right? How you meet your experience as either. Are they, which one of them is this, right? Is it, I'm having a sense of grasping, right?

[29:50]

It's okay to have desire, like, you know, oh, chia pudding, right? I love chia seeds, right? Chia pudding. But I had to resist going two flops, right? It was plenty, and I'm so glad, Nancy, I did not ask for a second because there's quite a bit there, right? So is there greed, you could say, right? And it's okay to have greed, but if there's a lot of greed, is it keeping you from your sense of trying to create a sense of settledness? so that you can meet experience fully, then if that's the case, then how is it that you can have renunciation? So when you have grasping, the antidote, you say, or the response, the wise response would be to let go, wouldn't you say? Or to relinquish, or to allow for it. So, if you could frame your experience,

[30:53]

hmm, whatever's going on, am I grasping, or is it possible for me to let go? Then there's also the sense of if you have ill will. Nobody here has ill will probably in a one day. So if you have ill will, then you could also, so if you were clear, it's desire, ill will, Harmfulness, right? So if I have ill will, so the three responses in what is called wise intention is to renounce, to bring in a sense of kindness, or a sense of compassion, which you've got to say is gentleness. Then if I have a sense of ill will, one time, then I can meet it with one of the other three. One time I was at Tassajara. And, you know, we all want to be really open and kind people, right, without a doubt.

[31:59]

And yet, especially in one-day retreat or sashin or any time where you're really close with people on a very regular basis, like they're next to you all days of the, what, what time do we get up at Tussara? 3.30 or whatever until... Nine o'clock at night, was it? Anyway, many hours. You start to, this little space starts to feel really small, and everything they do next to you affect you, right? And there was someone who had come, and I swear I thought, oh my God, does this person not see me? Because her sleeve would hit me. She had a scarf, and when she went like this, it would hit me, right? And... My son, she was never in the Zendo except when it was time to eat. And then when she ate, she took a huge amount of food, right? So this is, I was just having all these stories just going on and on, right? And so, right, the response, the teaching of the response is to have metta, right?

[33:08]

To send the person some kindness or the situation some kindness, right? And so I will say that I try that and I wasn't very successful, right? So then you could try renouncing, right? Renouncing. Or you could try gentleness, right? Okay. Now, I'm supposed to get to wise effort, right? So in wise effort, let me say a little more about that. Can you get one? Now in wise effort, The thing is this. In our efforting, or in those two groupings that I just talked about in terms of wise intention, there's what's called skillful. The skillful ones are renunciation, goodwill, and compassion. When you say those are skillful mental quality, the unskillful are greed.

[34:14]

By that I mean grasping. at wanting, right? Or grasping at having. Greed, ill will, and hatred, right? So those are unskillful. So the Buddha taught that in the case where the monk generates desire, endeavor, arouses persistence, uphold, and exerts intent for the sake of the non-arising of harmful. unskillful quality that have not yet arisen, for the sake of the abandoning of harmful, unskillful qualities that have arisen, and for the sake of arising of skillful quality that have not yet arisen, and for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plentitude, development, and culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. Did you get that? Yeah? I thought I'd try to make it a little simple for you. So here's the acronym, right?

[35:17]

PACE, P-A-C-E. Think about the dog, vagabond, right? PACE. By the way, in English, the word pace is to do something at a slow and steady rate or speed in order to avoid overexerting oneself. So first, if there is unskillful or unwholesome or not useful, right? Mental... Then P is for preventing. How is it that you can prevent or guard them from arising altogether? Now, our practice has that built in, actually. This is why in Sashin, or one day, we keep our eyes down. You don't read. So the more input you have, the more you're likely to have unskillful thoughts like comparison, judging, wouldn't you say? If I kept my eyes down, then I wouldn't have all those traces of whose chopstick it is, what is David doing, is the soku taking care of things or not, because I don't need to worry about that.

[36:29]

And I'm practicing keeping a balance of mind and what's going on with me. That's the gift. That's why you come here. You didn't really come here. Remember, we're just sitting. You came here to just sit. not to figure out who's doing anything wrong, right? Or is it right or not? So that's not useful. I like useful too. Not useful to your practice. So then you want to prevent it by keeping your eyes down. Following the schedule is also a prevention. You realize that? Because if you just follow the Han or the Bell, then your mind... doesn't get into the unwholesome thought of like, should I go? Shouldn't I go? You know, what would I get out if I go? No, no, no, no. And your mind's just all more traces, right? So if you just respond, if you made the aspiration or the endeavor, right, the effort to just prevent deciding or not deciding, then you would just respond, right?

[37:35]

So that's a prevention. Now, once it has arisen, any unskillful, then you abandoned it. Can you just let go? Can you just let go? And like my example with the person sitting next to you, sometimes just abandoning is hard to do. So then sometimes you can add metta. You can cultivate, which leads us to the next one. So A is abandon. And then C is cultivation. When it's hard to just detach from what's going on, when it's still sticky and you still just find yourself going there, then you want to give your mind something skillful to place itself on. And that's called cultivation. Metta is a cultivation practice. In this case, you cultivate accessing metta. People know metta is loving kindness, right? I'll give you this...

[38:36]

a couple of phrases. You could repeat this all day and it'll be really great. It's actually a concentration practice too because you repeat it repeatedly. It's like a mantra, right? May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be well. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be happy, right? So when you, or for that other person, but it has to be sincere, right? May you have ease. If you see someone dropping a chopstick, You could go, oh, may you have ease. Now, when you already have skillful quality, that's the other thing. An effort, I think a lot of times we're looking for, what have I done wrong? What have you done wrong? What is going on that's not how it should be? We can also extend, ease or extend, what is already skillful. What is already skillful? Oftentimes, when I'm aware of my eating, I just did a retreat last Sunday.

[39:42]

And while I was eating, I took a bite. I was really mindful of eating. So when I took a bite, I felt gratitude. And because I was paying attention... Gratitude was the sense, I really felt it in my body, right? It rose up. It was like this warmth that came up and filled my head and then just flowed back down, right? So now, when I feel gratitude, I know to see if I can extend that sense by remembering that. Remember, mindfulness means to remember as a practice, right? So remembering, right? That's what... Again, as a practice, mindfulness is. So, here's Suzuki Roshi on right effort in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. The most important point in our practice is to have right or perfect effort.

[40:46]

Right effort directed in the right direction is necessary. If your effort is headed in the wrong direction, towards unskillful, not useful, unwholesome, If it's headed in the wrong direction, especially if you are not aware of this, it is diluted effort. Our effort and our practice should be directed from achievement to non-achievement. Usually when you do something, you want to achieve something. You're attached 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's a good quality in it. So 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.

[41:51]

That 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. This point is very important, but usually we're not subtle enough to realize it and we go in the wrong direction. Now, you might have thought, well, you just told me all sorts of things I should be trying to achieve, right? And I'm actually not. I'm just offering when it's hard, right, to be centered. When you feel yourself attached, right, as opposed to non-attached to things, then these are ways in which you can respond. And in the quality of responding is that it's renunciation. The word is akema in Pali. And in the commentary on it, it means to go out from like a stuffy room. Like you've been in a stuffy cabin and you go outside.

[42:51]

So renunciation helps you to open up. So letting go. If you can just see, okay, what happens if I try that? You're open to what might happen. Staying open is the quality. Or you could try metta and see what might happen. And then your compassion, in this case, I would say is much more about gentleness. Is gentleness useful here? Here's from Tony Packer in the work of this moment. Sitting quietly, doing nothing. not knowing what is next and not concerned with what was or what may be next. A new mind is operating that is not connected with the conditioned past and yet perceives and understands the whole mechanism of conditioning. It is the unmasking of the self that is nothing but mass.

[43:55]

Images, memories of past experience, fears, hopes, and the ceaseless demand to be something or become somebody. This new mind that is no mind is free of duality. There is no doer in it and there is nothing to be done. The moment duality ceases energy that has been tied up in conflict and division begins to function wholly. intelligently, caringly. The moment self-centeredness takes over the mind, energy is blocked and diverted in fearing and wanting. One is isolated in one's pleasures, pain, and sorrow. The moment this process is completely revealed in the light of impartial awareness, energy gathers and flows freely, undividedly, all-embracingly. So we gather here, and for the next six weeks, it's really not so much to figure out, you know, am I efforting rightly, wrongly, well or not?

[45:17]

I think it's useful to hold whether it's in the service of skill or not skillful, usefulness or not usefulness, wholesome or not wholesome. But it isn't so much to make it happen. What if I lean my mind in that direction? What if I lean my heart in that direction? That's the instruction. What is the practice is? What happens if we lean our mind in that and then really being open to the response is the key. So the quality is really important. I wish that for you as you go back to the zendo. Thank you very much.

[46:28]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_94.31