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. Shashin starts now. Sometimes I think that Shashin starts on the fourth day. Which happens to be What a coincidence. Almost inevitably, there's some transitional period. Some period of settling into the yogic life of Sushi. some period of letting awareness become the abiding agenda of what you're doing, what you're being.

[01:13]

And that our usual way of being takes some adjusting, however that might be, whether it's letting go of your busyness, letting your body align in a certain way. The breath, the body, the mind, all finding their collaboration in bringing forth awareness. Going through that transition, often a dipping down, a lowering of energy, and then sometimes a kind of emotional, psychological turmoil. And then just about now, in Sushin, it's a little bit more matter of fact.

[02:25]

Okay, here we are, we're in Sushin, yeah. special wonderful would be if all those issues and turmoils both in our body in our mind had left never to return but no it's more they're just not as adamant dominant as They have been. So in some ways, we practice to come to this point. In some ways, we practice the old practice period to come to this point. In some ways, we practice our whole life.

[03:27]

Wow. In some ways, we're the continuation of practice that began with the seven Buddhas before Buddha. All the people who've practiced in this monastery, all the people who support our practice, amazing web of connection that brings us to now. And then somehow it can start to have a flavor of nothing special.

[04:36]

And often mixed in with the nothing special is moments of clarity and moments of distress. And are wished for one and not the other. You can choose which one you wish for. And then examine it in relationship to which one do you cling to? Or which one do you listen to most thoroughly or most deeply? So there's a con by Banzan, and he says, in the three worlds, there is no Dharma. How do you get in touch with, usual translation is, how do you seek? How do you seek mind?

[05:38]

How do you get in touch with your experience? as the way in which more usual mind and the world it evokes the world it participates in creating fields crowded busy as agendas as this time of settling this time of nothing special comes along Then what? What's the path of practice? So in an unspoken way, what I've been thinking about in giving these talks is a Thiravadan list, a list from the early canon, the five faculties.

[06:43]

And the first one is trust. second one is very energy and then I entered that through this notion of feel better no some somehow our effort our energy can get invested in making the good thing the successful thing happen and trying to ensure that at the bad thing the failure however we conjure that up doesn't happen in trying to turn that notion on its head inevitably our karmic life appears as we practice the seeds have already been sawed.

[07:48]

What we're experiencing is the fruits of former actions. They will appear. This is the nature of cause and effect. To wish they were different. To wish the ones we like would happen and the ones we don't like wouldn't happen. So the first world of these three worlds is the world of liking and disliking. And the way it can draw us in, the way in which we can be caught in an existence that's characterized, that's defined, that's emoted. in terms of liking and disliking. And how that basic binary gives rise to our array of responses.

[08:59]

And how the character of karmic life is the sense of unfinishedness. Naomi Shihabnai has this sweet poem where she's teaching a class of all things poetry. And they're about eight years old. And she comes once a week. And then the first class, one of the little boys, Juan, wrote a poem about his parrot. His parrot, the cage door was left open and the parrot flew away. And then each week she'd come back and she'd have a new lesson to teach. Oh, let's write about flowers. Let's write about the spring. Let's write about your family. But somehow, Juan always wrote about the parrot being lost. And then after about six weeks, Naomi said to the little boy, Juan, you will always write about the parrot.

[10:15]

And he said, it's still lost. You know, this way in our karmic life, it's still unfinished. I remember listening to a Waste Seeking Mind talk several years ago. And someone told me about unfinished business with his mother. And you could see, as he talked about it, it was evocative. It was emotional. Mixed emotions. This person he loved, this person he had difficulties with, and there he was, somewhere in his mid-sixties, and his mother had been dead 10, 20 years. interesting aspect of the human condition.

[11:28]

The world, the karmic world, the world of attraction and aversion, grasping and pushing away, it creates an unfinishedness. Can we sit and often our unfinished agendas? What happened to that parrot? Did he find a better home? Will he eventually return? And how these agendas have become embodied. these agendas have shaped the patterns of thought and emotion and psychological significance how can we succeed or fail at being human

[12:47]

Banzan says, in the three worlds, there's no Dharma. Generally considered that he's referring to Dharma Dhatu. There's no substantial existence. It's simply a stream of cause and effect. in this aspect of where something is sustained by our attraction and aversion, by our grasping and pushing away. Even that is just real as it feels, evocative as it feels, preoccupying as it can be, painful as it can be.

[14:00]

not an abiding independent existence and to try to resolve it with a new and improved version of like and dislike and maybe maybe it modifies it in a helpful way. But still, it's still in the same territory. It's still held in the realm of karmic constructs. And then the second world, the world of form.

[15:07]

The world of more phenomenal existence. In many ways, greatly upheld in the Zen world. Noticing. the details, the physical details of here and now. And as we continue to practice how those details tend to come more into relief and the chatter, the agenda of the karmic self to mute. I think that's what I was trying to say in saying the fourth day. And I don't anyway mean to say this is the experience you should be having.

[16:19]

Each of us will have the experience that is simply the fruits of our karmic life. that will be met with the vow and the intention and the engagement of practice. And what arises out of that is what arises out of it. Just in general terms. This period in Shashin tends to have this character. starts to feel more simple, more available. Just be the chanting. Just be the chorus of voices.

[17:26]

An interesting way, figuring it out. Our voices tend to harmonize. That interesting way we listen to each other and come to consensus, more or less. In my mind, I often think coming to consensus is one of the important teachings of Zen practice. Let's do it together. Yesterday when we were chanting the Nmejuku Kanan Go,

[18:39]

At one point, it leapt off in a certain way, and I thought, how did that happen? But I better go with it. This is how we practice together. In a way, it supports the burden of individual consciousness its karmic agendas. It helps us to see that trust, Shraddha, is not simply an independent quality. Maybe someday we'll see that the whole world is part of that consensus, that we are all chanting together.

[19:47]

This world of form. And then the third world is, so the Buddhist term is rupa, and then the third world is arupa, the world beyond even form. Even form is a construct. As neuroscience would tell us now, that when we see 80% of what's seen arises through the activity of mind our own brain we're taking a certain amount of data and then we create a world so solid apparently to us

[21:04]

Way in which, as we start to develop samadhi, continuous contact, we start to see our mood changes, what preoccupies us changes, what's arising phenomenally, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. the dominant sense door changes. Even when we attend to a particular object, it changes. If the attention becomes more astute, we see that even the phenomena as, in a way, a translucence.

[22:26]

The phenomena, like when you attend to the sore knee, the painful knee, in the careful attending knee disappears. It enters sensation. carefully the sensation, it becomes more like energy. And Banzang says, given this, given that this is the state of existence, How do we practice? How do we engage it all? Is the non-form the most elevated consciousness?

[23:36]

Or do we need a progression? Do we need to work through our major issues? So the mind is quieter, more available to cultivate attention, directed and receptive. And we need to tune in to the energy of being, letting the body that it's not held up like an inert weight that's willfully and must held up with our muscles is there a demand that we discover there's a way of being body that has energy and holds itself up

[24:44]

of noticing the alchemy of attention. When something is attended to, it's enlivened. If it's attended to karmically, in the service of like and dislike, it enlivens the karmic connections we have with that. if it's attended to phenomenally, it's enlivened in the suchness of what it is. If we attend to the non-abiding, if we attend to the flow, if we tend to everything coming into being, going out of being. The character of wonder entering the unknown.

[26:17]

walking with your eyes closed. The senses come alive. And then open your eyes and let your eyes come alive like all the other senses. This is outside kingdom. Can you walk into the wondrous world of not knowing? can be glazed over with knowing. And the three-dimensional multicolored world becomes more two-dimensional. In fact, if your mind gets active, even that two-dimensional world starts to fade.

[27:31]

labeled now we're at the floods there's the compost and then if you're the Benji and if you saw you have all your associated thoughts pleasant and unpleasant Maybe the challenge of Zen practice, as Banzan is hinting at, is it offers no prescription. You should do it like this. This is how you relate to the karmic world. This is how you relate to the phenomenal world. And this is how you relate to going beyond phenomena.

[28:43]

It doesn't say it's a three-phase program. It doesn't say it's spontaneous arising. Maybe it says whatever world arises, that's what's happening now. And if this world has arisen in the workings of your individual consciousness, attend to it. Study the self to go beyond the self. And if that karmic consciousness has persistent and significant details

[29:52]

Open to them. Experience them. There's something in experiencing that follows the middle path between desire and aversion. And sometimes it can seem paradoxical. But if I open to it, Am I not just stimulating the desire or the aversion? No, because as we open to it, the phenomena of it, the arupa of it, start to unfold. When we take the story and allow it to be feeling.

[30:55]

Allow it to be physical sensations. The storyline, the never-ending story. The hand of thought opens and lets something go. underneath the story that was fueling it, that was energizing it, that was making it more urgent and relevant, is released. And something, I would say, interestingly more relevant than the particulars of this story is accessed. I think we've all experienced that we tumble around in the process of Shashin and then after Shashin one of our favorite issues appears but before it was a heavy stone and now it's not such a heavy stone and of course we can immediately get to work on it

[32:28]

make it heavier than ever, but we can also notice that the encumbrances that came with it, with habitual mind, have loosened up. And more interestingly, we can do this in the process of Shashin. Sashin starts now. We can start to walk into the unknown of our own so-called life. Walk into the unknown of something we're calling Sashin. individually and collectively.

[33:30]

We can start to bring continuous contact. Quietly, steadily, noticing, acknowledging, contact, And end that process. When the mind is more agitated, you start with cognitive what's going on what's going on with this mind it's so agitated oh I'm thinking about this issue mmm okay and what's happening what's it feel like what's what's the storyline experience

[34:51]

dominant emotions physical sensations and then is the minds more settled and perceptive this whole process happens with it with that an immediacy this is the nature of consciousness when it when there's a When it's less bound up by karmic constructs, it's more perceptive. It brings the energy of attention and connection more quickly. But it's important not What's going on?

[36:01]

Oh, now I'm in the exalted state. Okay, now I'm in the hell of karmic life. Whenever I read Hakka and Singh, what's wrong with hell? My uncle was a preacher, a Catholic priest, and he would lead seven-day retreats. One of the attributes of Catholicism is hell. One way to intimidate and frighten and arise the vow of practice is the image of everlasting hell. He was a marvel at it.

[37:02]

Every night, he'd give a sermon. By the end of the third night, you knew you were in trouble, and you knew you had only one option. So reading, I go and say, what's wrong with hell? What's wrong with the karmic life? What's wrong with liking and averting? Of course, the Dharma says when we get stuck in it, when we're hopelessly clinging and losing a more balanced perspective. in the realm of practice. Whatever arises has arisen.

[38:11]

Forget your notions of success. Forget your notions of progressing or falling back. When the mind is settled and clear, be clear and settled mind. When the mind gets caught up in something, to something called being caught up this is the heart of shikantaza and now our diligent efforts brought us here. There is a capacity to be like this.

[39:21]

Maybe in the language of Bhan San, what will we attain? Nothing. Where is the mind creating something called attainment? Look at it. But this way in which our very own being is a mystery to us, this mystery will start to open. It starts to see the particulars of it. And can we make contact? Maybe as an anthropological study?

[40:29]

Look what the native is doing now. They've decided one spoonful of rice and as much salad as the ball can possibly hold. Obviously this tribe values salad. Shall it be a... psychological study. What evokes a sense of connection or disconnection? A sense of loneliness or a sense of kinship?

[41:40]

And are there historical images that tend to attach to either. And how do they ripple through physical being? Does the chest tighten slightly? What about the reverse? What about when the body opens, how does that influence the state of mind, the psychological state? And this attending the phenomena, what facilitates that?

[42:41]

What obscures it? to the state of mind when the visual field is allowed to be three-dimensional and multicolored. And does attention tend to rest more on Painful objects are more on pleasurable objects. And what is it to bring an even-handed attention? We study the self and without any intention

[43:43]

in that direction, we undo the self. Its role of authority in defining existence starts to loosen up. It becomes more a participant in existence than a definer of it. the inevitable inconclusiveness of karmic life starts to shift. Oh, right now there is the feeling of loss of the parrot. And it feels like this. It evokes this image.

[44:46]

So I would say, be careful. This can feel like nothing special. I'm not that concentrated. I don't have any of that nice tingling energy I have when I'm more concentrated. And my mind is still got a bit of a jabber going on back there. doesn't have that nice sparkly silence that I prefer. This very mind is Buddha with its inadequate energy and its limited attentiveness. if that very mind opens the Dharma gates.

[46:02]

You know, we could say this open acceptance of whatever arises is how we integrate these three bodies of being. This is how we illuminate the territory of karmic existence, how we become skillful with it. But in the doing, there's a kind of innocence, there's a kind of foolishness. of one continuous mistake. That some witty person might say, well, start again, more diligence, and fail better.

[47:19]

we return to awareness and we return to awareness and we return to awareness. And something unfolds. And we can watch, sometimes we just throw it aside and grasp some karmic agenda. And with a great shot, we energize it. We devote attention to it. And it billows up in whatever way it billows up. Okay? Notice, acknowledge, contact, experience. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[48:35]

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, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[48:48]

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