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 evening. We are in the process of engaging continuous practice in this practice period, and maybe not surprisingly, that's what I'd like to talk about tonight. You can hear me okay? Seems a little loud to me. Is it kind of booming a little? That's good, thanks. What I'd like to do tonight is read a piece by Dogen Zenji from a fascicle called Continuous Practice, and then contrast it to a piece by Jack Coynfield called Deepening Practice.

[01:14]

And here's my thinking about it. Dogen Zenji, at the start of each fascicle, has this marvelous way of making an extraordinary statement about the nature of practice. Equal parts, you know, profound insight, religious expression, poetic, and all-encompassing. And Sometimes, unfortunately, it can leave you feeling like, what the heck's he talking about? And then this piece written by Jack, which we'll just sort of skim across the top of, it's called Deepening Levels of Practice.

[02:24]

You know, I happen to know that in a way he's talking about the process that goes on for folks during an extended three-month meditation retreat. Three months in silence where you're meditating and being aware all the time. Sort of unfolding that occurs under those circumstances. Not to say, you know, that... It's simply linear. Very few of us are simple or linear. There's a way in which as you pull on any thread of your life, your whole life gets involved eventually. the parts you yearn for, the parts you detest, the parts you resent, the parts that bring you into a state of gratitude and joy.

[03:31]

But in the midst of that, and in a way this is what they're both talking about, in the midst of the human condition there can be this steady process. If I can sort out my papers, I will... Here's Dogen's opening couple of sentences. On the great road of the Buddha ancestors, there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms a circle of the way and is never cut off.

[04:41]

Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there's not a moment's gap. And here's the way I utterly corrupted that. You probably gasped at the audacity. In the vast way of dedicated practice, the most important thing is continuous awareness. That sustains the practice, aspiration, enlightenment, and nirvana. And then one other piece Dogen adds a couple of sentences below, he says, You can't force it, and others can't force it upon you either. So, here's how Jack opens up.

[05:46]

And I think, without, maybe, I assume, without even knowing Dogen's writings. Maybe he does. He knows some of them. Practice is a dynamic living process out of which new perspectives, new ways of understanding and appreciating our lives continually emerge. As we follow this path, we discover a process of deepening through observation, opening, and being. And he started, he said, Four phases are arriving, observing, opening, and being. And Dogen's four phases are aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana.

[06:51]

It's noted to me that both Jack and myself, two people who've been practicing Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Thravadan Buddhism, whatever you want to call it, for over four decades, neither of us used the word Buddha. If I was obliged to give a definition of that word, which I normally use, would try to avoid. I would say the timeless, formless, immediate presence of every moment. So if you hold that notion and then you think And that's our guiding principle as we do our chanting services and our boughs and incense offerings.

[08:12]

Is that religious or not? I remember once someone, they don't live here now, so you don't have to set your mind thinking as to who it was, And they haven't lived here for a while. But they are a priest, and have been for quite a while. And they said they look upon morning service as a mindfulness exercise, that they have no immediate involvement in the more usual religious flavor of it. But to me, and the reason I mention it is because I think each of us is obliged, one way or another, if we want to practice and we want to sustain practice, to have some inspiration, some way of stirring within ourselves the motivation to practice.

[09:33]

And I would say to you that that is a very significant ingredient in how it takes shape for you, you know, whether the words, what words did I use? Formless immediacy, I mean, if that enthralls you, well then, great. If it leaves you utterly cold, well, Throw it away and find your own inspiration. And I would say at the heart of Zen, there is this... It's the process we engage in that's what's important. It's not the particularity we attribute to any part of it. And I would say this is what Dogen's getting at when he's talking about this continuous cycle of practice.

[10:40]

It's the process we're engaging in, not the particularity of any part of it. And then he goes on, and not only does he say you can't force it, and others can't force it upon you, but engaging the process beyond... what you might want from it, how you might assess your own involvement in it at any particular time. It has this kind of license, it has this kind of universal expression. And for Dogen, this is all thoroughly expressed in what, under conventional terms, might be considered religious language.

[11:42]

In the great road of the Buddhas and ancestors. Still, it's talking about something innate in the human condition. The aspiration and then the engagement. And as we engage the moment, so I called the practice period continuous practice, what's happening now? what happens now is the full catastrophe of human life. To coin John Kabat-Zinn reference to Zorba the Greek, in case you didn't know that.

[12:59]

And the notion I'm proposing through this practice period is that We need this sort of versatility, adaptability, in the environment in which we find ourselves. In a Zen monastery, or a Vipassana retreat, or a Thuravadana monastery, or most spiritual environments are structured. You do this, you do this, and whether you come to service, the chanting service, as a mindfulness exercise or an exaltation of the glory of all the Buddhas and ancestors, still it's asking for presence. It's asking for engagement. It's asking not to just let the mind wander and ramble in a distracted way. Certainly, if you go on to Vipassana retreat, similarly,

[14:06]

That's the intention of the structure that's established. And yet when we enter this urban environment, how often you pull out your smartphone or your iPad or whatever, device connects you to the great world of the internet, how often you do that, what you engage in when you do that, sort of up to you. The opportunities for following the impulses and desires and aversions that are arising are more readily responded to. And so in this environment the challenge is can there be an internal mechanism that stimulates this way of noticing, acknowledging, experiencing each moment, each arising.

[15:31]

Now, usually when you continue to practice, despite all the machinations of your mind and emotions, you have your moments where you taste presence. And these moments are deeply encouraging, finally, in the midst of my great rambling mind, here I am, present. you might say, to be a little bit exotic about it, we have our glimpses of nirvana. They're deeply inspiring and instructional. And then the challenge is, how do I carry this? Not exactly like this, but how do I carry

[16:42]

the essence of this into all states of mind, into all situations. And then the other inquiry is how in any situation, in any state of mind, how can there be a contact, an engagement that lets the moment be what it is? And sometimes in Zen, this image is used. The going forth and the coming from. The moment comes forward and expresses what it is. And the non-attachment is a willingness to experience whatever's happening. If it's pleasant, okay.

[17:46]

If it's agitating, okay. If the mind's serene, okay. If the mind's ranting with resentment, okay. It is what it is. Is there a willingness to experience it? The going forth to whatever degree our inspiration, our tastes, of direct experience have informed us of the yoga of awareness, can that come forth and meet what is? Sometimes the image is these two come together and co-create presence. And this is part of what Dogen is talking about.

[18:51]

Aspiration, practice, and this co-creation of direct experiencing. And then in this co-creation of now, in letting it be what it is. And when now is allowed to be what it already is, without wanting to diminish it or change it, make it more or less, this aversion and grasping cease. Nirvana. Dogen elaborates on this a little later. He says this.

[19:52]

The term he uses for this co-creation is the moment actualizes itself. Awareness meets what's arising in the moment and the moment actualizes itself. It becomes what it already is. It's realized for what it already is. So that's often why the word here is translated as enlightenment. But it can also be translated as realization of what it is. Or as Dogen puts it, actus kastanahashi. translates how Dogen puts it, to be precise. Continuous practice that actualizes itself is none other than right now.

[21:01]

The now of this practice is not possessed by the self. The now of this practice does not come or go, enter or depart. The now of is continuous. The moment of actualizing is called now. And it's very interesting because In some ways, particularly in this fascicle, but in many of Dougal's teachings, there's an extraordinary absence of methodology. It's almost as if he's saying, just do it.

[22:05]

There's no particular way to do it, and there's endless ways to do it. Just do it. I don't know if you've read anything by Krishnamurti, but he had a very similar flavor. was critical of any method. And then really, in Jack's article, he lays out a methodology. He talks about a progressive engagement that, in a way, unwraps the human condition. It's like it takes it apart in layers. You start by making contact.

[23:08]

And what you make contact with, you start to make contact with all the ways you don't make contact. All the ways you space out, get distracted, try to control, try to separate, spin off into yearnings old, deeply embedded difficulties. And then he says, stay right there. to interject Dogen's image, continuously stay in the turmoil of the human condition. It is what it is. Is there a willingness?

[24:11]

That somehow, in the engagement, we discover the aspiration, the motivation. And indeed, sometimes that's how it is. You start to sit and you discover you want to sit. And then as you continue to sit, you discover... that being present more fully represents what you deeply aspire to than the agitations and distractions and fantasies that flow through your being. And then there's an interesting kind of...

[25:25]

In Jack's article, he really talks about a process of inquiry that's wonderfully expressed in the Vipassana technique. And it's more about continuously opening to what is without deviation. And as I say, this unfolding of the self, this unwrapping of the layers of being. And in his allegiance to that, he doesn't add any deliberate involvement. But I'd like to muddy the waters a little bit in that... In working with the human condition, and one of the things I hope to introduce into the practice period is the teachings of Anapanasati, you know, working with the breath.

[26:53]

In Anapanasati... Really, the first section of it is about what does it take to get in touch with psychosomatic being? That interplay in which our psychological process has become embodied in our physical process. That we somatically hold our dominant emotional experiences. to get in touch with it, and then let it become an agent in this undoing. And then Anupana Satya goes through a couple of layers of that, and then it says, okay, now you can start, now you can go to Jack Kornfield's second phase of observing. But really,

[28:00]

what it's referring to is deeply observing. Because in any moment we can notice. You can notice agitated mind. You can notice the intensity of an emotion. You can notice the persistence of a train of thought. Now it is true as the mind and the body settle, the noticing is qualitatively more capable. We notice a lot more. There needs to be some settling to start to notice how that particular experience is reverberating through our being. As we notice it more, we notice how it reverberates through the body. We notice how it reverberates through the breath.

[29:06]

We notice the accompanying emotions. We notice the sense of self, the sense of the world, the sense of other that comes up. And as we notice all this, as our observing increases and continues, the word Jack uses is opening. If you want to look at it psychologically, you could say, well, the psychological complexes or neuroses or whatever way you want to talk about the ways in which psychologically our experience gets stuck in a fixed way. As we notice, they undo. the mythology of them loosens up, the psychosomatic tightness of them loosens up.

[30:20]

And then both Jack and Dogen said, as we continue in this way, the capacity to just be starts to come into being. So in a way, it's a beautiful process that everybody is capable of. And then another way, it can be a trap. Quite recently, a couple of people came to me and they said, I want to be enlightened. Just classic enlightenment, that's what I want. You'd think, well, isn't this the place to have that kind of aspiration?

[31:26]

around here, any sentence that starts with, I want. You know? He's asking for re-examination. In a way, I love the boldness of it, you know? If that's what you want, fess up, you know? Put it out there. But that way in which we can say, I want the goal, and I want to skip the process. Part of the paradox of practice is forget the goal. Forget these glorious teachings and outcomes that are embodied in the sacred teachings.

[32:32]

What's happening now? This is the continuous request and the continuous engagement of our practice. What's happening now? It's like there's a deep trust that This unfolding has its own wisdom. And this unfolding has its own methodology. It can't, as Dogen says, it can't be forced by you and it can't be imposed or forced by others. And even in the process that Jack's describing, and he references it in a wonderful variety of ways, as we move through the process, we have to constantly be attentive to the ways in which we're trying to force something to happen.

[33:46]

We're trying to get what we want. So the Greek paradox is, forget what you want. Be here. Be this very body and mind, just as it is. Let it be the entirety of your being. And it's interesting because just like willingness, just like aspiration, willingness, you know, it's a potent state. And it's not the product of concentration. It's not the product of determined discipline or strenuous effort. It's not sloppy either.

[34:50]

Oh, whatever. If you sit Zazen with whatever, distracted, rambling mind. This process isn't potent. The willingness to be what is has its own exacting request. And what it gives rise to, it gives rise to a more continuous contact. And this is what both Dogen and Jack are referring to, this continuous contact with now and now and now and now. You want enlightenment?

[35:57]

What's the experience happening now? How does the body feel? What's the state of mind that says the sentence, I want enlightenment? Is it supported by what you don't want? Does it have a fixed view of what enlightenment is? And in Jack's process, as he talks about it, you know, the last piece he comes to is being. And I would offer in relationship to the word being, the word abiding. And as I was offering the homework in the class last week, and I was talking about being in the moment, and I was saying, and it's fine to construct a moment for yourself.

[37:20]

Being in the moment isn't simply an onerous process. Sometimes sit in the sun. Sometimes sit in a way that invites ease. Invite a state of mind. is more turned towards savoring the moment than determinedly forcing it upon yourself. As I say, willingness to be is subtle. It's closer to happiness than it is to determination.

[38:24]

Another term that Dogen came up with was engaging the self. And this word engaging covers both engage and play. So why does it have that kind of touch as we engage awareness? Can it have a sense of play? As I was Thinking about this talk this evening, my grandson came in and interrupted me and said, let's play baseball. So we played baseball with a squash racket and a ball about this size.

[39:42]

And he demonstrated to me what it is to play with awareness. And that you don't need any particular rules or you don't need to have any particular outcome. And when you set aside such distractions, whatever happens is a home run. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:49]

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