This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I've been teaching Zuki Roshi's way, our original teacher. this weekend. And I thought I'd bring some of that to you. We're all interested in what the old master had to say and how he taught us how to practice. First, I want to say how much... I just want to express my appreciation to the dining room crew who worked really hard day after day, and to the kitchen crew, and to the bed makers, the cabin crew,

[01:29]

which actually keeps our practice going. And it's so important. You know, often we talk about these positions as jobs. Your job is in the dining room. Your job is in the kitchen. But I don't speak in terms of jobs. I think of jobs as something you get paid for. in the unreal world. But I see them as positions. Everyone who is practicing at Tassajara has a position. There's the practice leaders, sometimes the abbots, the heads of the departments, And in there, Father Cruz, and it looks like a hierarchy.

[02:33]

But even though there is a hierarchical component, everyone is equal. Everyone is totally equal. So the practice, in that sense, is based on our understanding of equality and differentiation which actually is carried out in this monastic situation. Everyone is, all the practitioners from the dishwasher to Itanto and Itanto's, what's Leslie? The abiding teacher. are equally responsible for making Tatsuhara work.

[03:36]

So in that sense, we're all, as Tatsugami Roshi, one of my old teachers, used to say, we are all one monk making this practice work together. And we all have a different position. During the summer, it's difficult. during the practice period, there's more variety in our practice, more zazen, and so forth. So I think it's very difficult for, I mean, I know it is. I spent so many summers during the summer for new students because new students come expecting something called practice. And we throw them into these work positions.

[04:38]

And so they say, a lot of people say, all we do is work hard for you guys. So this is a kind of us and you, UNS situation, which is not such a good thing. Practice, the actual The fact is that everyone is working equally hard, even though some people look like they're not. Everyone is working equally hard. And to work equally hard is an aspect of practice. So, what is practice? What is practice? We usually think of practice as zazen. That's the attractive activity when someone comes to Tassajara, is we get to do meditation, even though you don't know what that is. But we do sit sa zin, but we do a lot of work.

[05:48]

You know, the old Chinese Zen master, Hyeku Zhou, was famous for saying, A day of no work is a day of no eating. In India, the monks were not allowed to work. The monks were not allowed to work. They would beg and sit in the town for one meal a day, and the rest of the time they would practice meditation, or whatever, maybe cleaning, study, conversation. I'm not sure what. But when Buddhism moved to China from India, Chinese had a totally different conception of how to practice. In China, they do a lot of harvesting of the crops, the rice fields and so forth.

[06:53]

And the young men who would be in the monastery were missing because the Buddhists built monasteries and a lot of young men would go to the monastery and they wouldn't be available for harvesting. So at some point the monks were kind of made, I guess you'd say, to to work in the fields. And then eventually the monasteries had their own fields and the monks would work in the fields cultivating their own crops. So the work ethic became part of practice in China and it continued on into Japan. And it filtered into America. So by the time Zen came to America, through various teachers, but mainly through Suzuki Roshi's teaching, this being the first monastery, there are four aspects of what we call practice.

[08:06]

One is meditation, or zazen. Zazen is not really one of the meditations, but we call it meditation. Zazen. It's just sitting. And study. And seeing a teacher to talk over your practice. It's really important to see a teacher to talk over your practice. Not just keep it to yourself, like, oh, I know what I'm doing. And when you have questions, it's important to take it to someone. And listening to the teacher's day show talk. And work, work practice. Work practice is really important. Work practice is the actualization of understanding, of our understanding, both in the monastery and in the world.

[09:19]

How you actually put your understanding into practice is through work. So work is really important. When Suzuki Roshi, when we opened Sasahara with Suzuki Roshi, it was a lot like the summer schedule, just during the practice periods. We had one seven-day session at the end of the three-month practice period. And we said zazen every morning. And we also said zazen at noon. and in the evening. But all the rest of the time, it was just work. And we were building Tassahara. We were making Tassahara, converting it from a resort into a monastery. So work was really an important practice for us. I remember, you know, my summers and also my practice periods, hauling rocks all over the place.

[10:21]

We built this place with rocks. And we had a lot of fun doing it, so much. So it felt like we were pioneering, you know. This had never happened before, a Zen monastery in America. And we were making this happen. And it wasn't just that we were studying texts or talking about philosophy. we were actually doing something with our hands. So when we started Tosahara, we didn't quite know what to do in the summertime. It didn't seem to work right to have sishins in the summertime, long sishins, because it's so hot. And there were many guests who had been coming here for years and years.

[11:25]

And they felt that this was their place. We bought Pasahar in 1967. And up to that time, you know, people came in on a stagecoach from Salinas. It took a long time. And they felt that this was their place. They'd been coming here for so long. And who were these intruders, the Zens? to take this over and shut us out. That would have been pretty terrible. Shizuki Roshin didn't want us to do that. He wanted to invite the people in who had been coming there. And so we started the guest season. And the guest season became the student's practice in the summer. It's not like there are practice periods on each end of the year. The summer itself is a practice period. It's a practice period of generosity to people.

[12:32]

It introduces people to our practice, and it allows us to be generous. Even though the guests pay for it, maybe through the nose, but it's not so expensive considering other places. I think we do a nice job. And everybody's working toward this goal, this end, not just the new students. So how to see the summer as practice and not just as a job, to wait until it gets over so you can do the practice period. That's not practice. Practice is everything we do. It's not just meditation. Meditation is not carried over into your daily life. Meditation is your daily life. It's not two things.

[13:35]

It's not like you take zazen and stick it on your daily life. Again, Master Dogen, his well-known work is called Genjo Koan. And genjo koan is our practice. It's the koan of our practice. Genjo koan, as Suzuki Roshi described it very nicely, genjo koan is our activity of practice as we leave the zendo and enter into activity. And there should be no gap. No gap at all. When you can enter the zendo, sit down and zazen for a couple of hours, and then go out and do your work or whatever it is that you're doing, there should be absolutely no gap because it's exactly the same thing.

[14:40]

It's just different activities expressing realization, practice realization. So it's not always easy to recognize what is realization. And Master Dogen says, no matter how much one practices, some may realize it and some may not. But even if we don't realize it, it's there. So often people, very often, people come to a practice wanting to get enlightened. Enlightenment is a big advertising gimmick. It is. It's a big advertising gimmick. it's not that there is no enlightenment and it's not that there's no practice and enlightenment but practice enlightenment is one thing when we enter practice it's not that enlightenment is there it's that it's enlightenment is always there but practice stimulates enlightenment and enlightenment supports practice

[15:57]

So Suzuki Roshi didn't emphasize enlightenment. He emphasized practice. He emphasized not trying to get something through practice. Because we always want something. If we're going to do something, we want a result. We're going to put our effort into working, we want a result. But what we want is a result other than the thing that we're doing. This is the problem. The result of practice is practice. The result of work is work. The result of sitting zazen is zazen. We do not sit zazen to get something. Matter of fact, we do zazen to let go. That's what zazen is. You can't get anything from Zazen except yourself.

[17:05]

So there you are with yourself. So what you are is what you get. And that may take a while. So that's the hard part. We have an idea about enlightenment, but enlightenment has nothing to do with your idea. As a matter of fact, the more idea you have, the further away you are. So what do you do? You drop the idea about enlightenment and just practice. And when you drop your idea about enlightenment and just practice, enlightenment is there. But it's peek-a-boo. You can't peek. Oh, there it is. No, it's gone. But it's there because it's who you are. Enlightenment is who you are, not what you've been. You are enlightenment.

[18:06]

That's what you are. But how do you know that? Well, you know that when you let go of everything, when you drop yourself. Dogen says, Master Dogen, to... To study Buddhism, to study the Buddha dharma is to study the self. And to study the self is to drop the self. So how do we drop the self? We just do the work. We just do the work. And without thinking about what the result is going to be, without being attached to any result, So in a way, it's like working in the dark. Working in the dark, actually, when working in the dark, if you're really working in the dark, the dark begins to glow.

[19:13]

And then you see the light in the dark. So I know how hard it is to work all summer. Low pay. 25 bucks a month. That's pretty good. I think, isn't it? Yeah, 25 bucks a month. I mean, what do you need? You know, toothpaste. A hamburger snuck in. I had a jishu one time when I was We're leading a practice period. And she would go out and bring me back. Steak. Because, you need this. I didn't need it. I didn't even want it. Anyway.

[20:17]

We can't be too serious about our practice. But at the same time, it's serious. So these aspects of practice, you know, we were talking today, is practice like playing the piano? And I used to think, no, practice is not like playing the piano, of course, you know. But actually, it is. It's like doing something over and over and over again. Playing scales over and over again. Your practice matures. And doing the same practice over and over again. your practice matures. So we're not used to doing that, mostly. And monastic practice has limitations. Monastic practice limits your number of activities and narrows your life down to a few activities which you practice over and over again.

[21:26]

So a place like Tassajara is like, we say, like rough stones, a bunch of rough stones rubbing up against each other over and over again. Like you put a bunch of stones in a cement mixer and you turn it on overnight and in the morning you have a bunch of gems. They're all beautifully polished. That's practice. We just practice with each other over and over again, day after day, doing the same practice. And the diamond in the rough turns into a jewel, because every one of us is a diamond in the rough. And you get the corners rounded off, the rough corners rounded up. And you come out nice and rounded, well rounded. So Suzuki Roshi would talk about the practice of repetition.

[22:56]

how in a monastic practice repetition is so important. When Suzuki Roshi came, he just brought what he knew. And, you know, he left Japan because in Japan, the vitality of practice was not very strong. And he could see that Americans, we were all very naive, and we didn't know anything about Buddhism, we didn't know anything about practice, We had no baggage at all. And we were perfect material for him to transmit the Dharma to because we had nothing, no defenses. We didn't have anything to let go of, any cultural baggage. So he was so honest and um careful he just taught us the fundamentals he said in japan there are all kinds of things that i'm not bringing to you i'm just bringing to you the most fundamental practice just the most fundamental practice nothing fancy nothing mysterious nothing fancy just the basic fundamental practice

[24:25]

And that's why our practice has worked for so long, even given a lot of problems that have arisen in the last 60 years. Zen Center has survived intact pretty much all the big problems that have arisen due to At Tassajara, or in any of our practice places, the schedule is the master, so to speak. Just follow the schedule. If you don't follow the schedule, then you get caught in the gears. So you have to stay on top of it. Following the schedule and being...

[25:27]

being on time, doing what's assigned to you. We never used to ask people what they wanted to do when they came to practice. We always said, this is what you will do. This is your assignment. And then we said, okay. Whatever card was dealt to you, you said, okay, this is my card. I will do my best with this card. That's practice. And so I noticed during the years that when I wasn't around, that people would ask more like, what would you like to do? I don't think that's a good idea. Sometimes it's okay. But just being said, this is the task that you have figured out. That's Zen practice. Suzuki Roshini, said, we will never tell you exactly what to do.

[26:47]

We'll give you something And then you have to deal with it. And having to deal with your assignment without being told exactly what to do means you have to put forth some effort. And that effort is called practice. So I know that this talk is not so long. It should not be so long. So I'm kind of going to stop there because I can just keep going on. If you have one or two questions to ask, I can deal with that. Yes? Oh, well, you know.

[28:03]

The schedule is like a wheel. And it's like a merry-go-round. The merry-go-round of practice, it just goes on. And we have to hop on the merry-go-round. If we resist or fall back or something, then you're able to fall into the merry-go-round. get hurt. You have to kind of stay on the track. That's what I mean by the gears. It's hard to get going. So, here's what I have to say about it, is that the difficulties we have is our practice.

[29:34]

That's Suzuki Roshi's basic teaching. Without difficulty, you can't practice. Unless you have difficulties that keep coming up, emotional difficulties, mental difficulties, physical difficulties, that your difficulty is your practice. And if you try to avoid that or want to change it or think it should be a different way, you're avoiding your practice. This is like meeting your practice straightforwardly. Meeting what comes up from you straightforwardly. he also said if you look for advice then that's not so good either because you're depending on somebody else somebody else's help you should be able to find out for yourself which is not the way psychology works today but it's that's our practice find out for yourself.

[30:40]

And this is what brings up your spirit. This is what brings you beyond what you think that you can manage. Your practice has to go beyond what you think you can do. Even though you may think it's killing you. Mostly, yeah, mostly your conditioning. Well, you know, I don't know about that sequence. But to realize that we're not seeing things completely as they are. We're seeing according to our bias.

[31:43]

And our conditioning is a bias. We need some conditioning, you know, our reflexes and so forth. But when we depend on, when we don't realize that it's our conditioning that is stopping our clear vision, then that's the problem. So zazen is to let go of our conditioning activity. and simply be one with our original nature, because conditioning conditions our nature, covers our nature. So that's why we say people live in a dream, because their clear, pure nature doesn't have an opportunity to express itself.

[32:45]

So our conditioning puts a damper on our nature, on our Buddha nature. So by letting go of our conditioning, it was not so easy. The way we can let go of our conditioning, that's why we said zazen. It's the unconditioned activity. We don't get caught by good and bad, right and wrong, should or shouldn't. the dualities of life, which create conditioning and just accept everything as it is. But then you realize that when you can do that, you're more comfortable. Effort in what?

[34:08]

So even though zazen is a letting go of the conditioning, isn't there still some effort there that needs to be exerted? Of course, zazen is the balance between exertion, between exertion and ease. You have to find the balance with those two. People think sometimes zazen is just slumping, letting go. It's actually putting effort into presenting yourself to the universe with all your energy. As in presenting yourself to the universe, it's like Adam saying, here I am. And totally. I'm offering myself to the universe totally without any reservations. Chop my head off. at the same time, letting go with total flexibility.

[35:15]

So it's the balance between those two parts of our activity. Total exertion, and we call it total dynamic activity. And it includes total flexibility. rigidity at all. Even though the zazen posture looks rigid, when you're truly sitting, you're totally at ease. There's no... like this. But it looks like this. But it's totally at ease. Totally flexible. And so that's how we... that's what we take into our life is being totally present with total dynamic activity at the same time comfortable with ourself and with others and at ease the soft mind soft flexible mind this is the balance the balance it's not falling into one side or the other it's called non-dual activity within

[36:36]

Stillness is activity. Activity is stillness. So that's how we, the attitude that we take into our work. You know, when we're working in the kitchen, it's a dance. It's all the other people you're working with. And all of the materials and getting everything out and getting everything done. And you can do it with lightness. flexibility and uprightness, you enjoy it. It's enjoyable activity. When you're serving other people in the dining room, when you do it lightheartedly, with sincerity, looking out for what people want or need, kind of discerning, well, what does that mean? What does this one mean? That's a joyful practice because you're serving others. That's the basis of our practice, actually, is serving others.

[37:38]

That's what it's really all about. What a great opportunity to have. The opportunity to just do nothing but serve others. You don't even have to think about what you need. What a great opportunity. Anyway, let's enjoy our practice. There's only two weeks left. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[38:27]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_92.21