I'm happy to be back. I've been going for a week, I think. That's a nice woman. It's a lot. She gets content. I was on vacation. My wife's vacation. And my wife takes a vacation. She's a nurse. And when she takes a vacation, that's when I take a vacation. I'm sorry about that. It wasn't my intention, but I have to go for a circumstance. So I'm going to make an effort. There were no wildflowers, but there was a full moon.

[01:11]

I took one walk in the desert by myself. Just one of me now, because it was in me. It was very quiet. There is no movement. It took a few years. I was wondering if I had seen a harassment, but I didn't. We saw a jackhammer at this point. I realized, not much. I've been peaceful. And I'm sorry to say that I forgot a lot to vacancy my grief. We didn't think about it too much. But I did think about it. It did occur to me. And when it did, I really paid attention to it.

[02:14]

But not so often. It's hard when you're busy to pay attention to that. But it's possible. So I said I'm happy to be back and happiness is a very important part of our meditation practice. Sometimes we feel that it's not right to be happy. Is there anything you have left to do? that in meditation practice it's not ready to be happy or joyful. I mean, probably it's important to go beyond joy and happiness.

[03:22]

Actually, it's important to go beyond the feeling of joy and happiness. Nevertheless, joy and happiness are a very important aspect of meditation practice. The joy of happiness arise with a peaceful state of mind. And especially in the earliest stages of meditation and joyfulness, happiness are necessary and important aspects. When Sukhira actually worked around, we used to do a chant, an informal meal chant, when we had cookies or tea or something like that, when something like, now I've got to take food and drink and vow with all beings

[04:30]

to partake of that pleasure in Zen and to fully enjoy Dharma. I used to say that every day. To actually express happiness and joy, happiness and joy as a practice. Sometimes I feel that it's missing in our Zen practice. It's important when we practice to be concentrated that sometimes the concentration can cause the field to be sincere and concentrated that you shouldn't be happy or joyful.

[05:33]

Those two are opposed to joy. But actually, one gives rise to the other. Concentration gives rise to joyfulness or happiness. And essentially, concentration on the breath. When you're mindful enough to keep coming back And throughout all of our days, to be aware of the breath, we have a joyful happy state of mind. When our minds become concentrated, they're not scattered. And when we collect the mind, joy and happiness are on us. Joy, it is like a gun. It's sometimes described as a person walking through the desert.

[06:48]

He's very thirsty. And you see an oasis. It's not a mirage. It's a real oasis. And you feel the joy. And then you go to the oasis and you drink the water. when you feel happiness. So joy and happiness are a little bit different. Happiness is like satisfaction. And joy and happiness One of the seven packets of enlightenment also appears. One of the seven packets of enlightenment. Deep joy. Not a superficial kind of joy, but fundamental. Deep, fundamental.

[07:48]

Could you close the door, please, when it comes out? Underline a stream or river, which we have. That's a plundered line of delivery of joy that becomes like a well-affirming our feet. And meditation, darkness, when we collect the body, mind, breath, that joy that river of joy. So at the same time, we go beyond all desire or any kind of feeling.

[08:55]

We have to leave joy in time, joy in happiness in time. It's pretty easy to get attached to joy and happiness. But nevertheless, we don't make any progress unless we have some happiness, some good, happy feeling, or a period of well-being with joy and greatness.

[09:55]

The Anapanasaka Sutra, which we've been studying, joy and happiness, And in the end, the last method, when we investigated the Dharma, we let go of it. I want to fresh online. There will be 16 methods from the Anapana practice. Pana and Pana. Pana means awareness and mindfulness.

[10:58]

And Pana and Pana means in and out, move. Sometimes it's reversed. The man will sometimes say, sometimes honor means bringing out, and honor means bringing in. And we get stuck there. Pretty simple. Bringing in and bringing out. but I don't mind repeating myself. So there are the 16 metrics . 16 metrics of concentration and breath.

[12:06]

And the first two, or the first four, are breath, body, and mind. Just breath, body, and mind. And the six themes are divided into four parts. Body, feelings, four methods of concentrating on the body, breath, and mind, four methods of concentrating on the feelings, four methods of concentrating on the mind, and four members have concentrated on mental health and mental illness. So the first four, I talked to my last time. Concentration on the breath, breathing out.

[13:12]

Concentration on the breath, breathing in. Japanese, I don't know if it would be known, we're talking about Harvard. It's a solar crisis. It's a place where our strength is. The Vicky Oshini used to say, you should always have a strength here. We point to his belly and say, you should always have, when you medicate, a strength here. And I always used to wonder, what does he mean by strength? How do you put strength on him? And then I realized what he was talking about was attention, focus, attention, mindfulness. To always keep bringing attention to his heart.

[14:18]

And when you have attention, We have strength and power. This is, uh, the heart is our power base. Just the old navel. Right? It's the center of our body. This is where the depth of our breathing takes place. The breath is the connection between body and mind. And in our activity, while we're doing so many things, the breath is coming and going, so to speak. The breath is always rising and falling from its place.

[15:20]

to return to the center constantly return to the center and allow our activity to map us from that center is to put strength in the heart that I would gather the mind and hold In our daily activities, the mind takes a bit very static and drawn off. And we have so many things to think about. But meditation always keeps coming back to this. And when we can't operate and move and remind ourselves that no matter what our activities,

[16:23]

No matter what kind of thoughts are arising in our mind, no matter what kind of feelings are coming up, we come back with honor. And this is where we settle. And it's beyond thinking. You know, we try to figure out all the time what to do. But it's possible to just cut through your thinking mind. I want to come back to the fundamental. This is meditation. That's really the thinking mind, and always abide in the fundamental. The thinking mind takes its rightful place. Thinking mind takes its rightful place in the hierarchy of our body and mind. dis-eases of our society is that we're taught for it.

[17:32]

We depend on the thinking mind to such an extent that we lose our intuition. And when we lose our intuition, lose the channel to our intuition, and that becomes closed off, and we're not trusting anymore. then we become sick and easily become mentally ill because the mind is cut off from the rest. So I have a nervous, nervous system. It's beneficial to find the center.

[18:38]

Come back to breath. Scripture says, breathing in a long breath. Breathing in a long breath, one knows, I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out a long breath, one knows, I am breathing out a long breath. Sounds really simple. It's really hard to do. You can do it a little while, as we know, as we sit and die, how difficult it is to count ten. breath. And so to be aware of what's actually happening, for any long period of time, it's very difficult to keep getting lost in our dreams.

[19:41]

The dream is necessary, but get lost in the dream, you lose touch with the reality. So, it's a very simple method of just being aware of the breath. It's pretty tough. It's pretty hard to maintain. It's pretty hard to really be that much in touch with reality for any of the time. But most of the time, our electors find the dream. We're always picking up something and acting something out. Dreaming is okay. It's necessary to have a dream and act it out. But the problem is that you get lost. You're not going to dream. And these really touch reality.

[20:48]

So along with our dreams, When we're busy, our mind is going to leave. We don't want to come back to the breath. But for a dentist, the most important thing is to come back to the breath. We have to know practice. What is the most important thing? This is the biggest question for all babies. And we should answer this question. What is the most important thing? important thing presented is to live reality.

[22:17]

So when you make that choice of careful what we've been using our choices on. We were talking this morning, earlier this morning, in Berkeley, we had a discussion, and the subject was, why do Zen students, after a lot of Zen students that are practicing for 10 years, start practicing on their own and then kind of drift off? an interesting question. You know, when is the end of your practice? What happens to people? Well, it's important to know what the real purpose is.

[23:22]

And not anyone knows. How do we want not all dentists to understand the purpose of their life as a dentist? When we come to practice, we are thinking about something that will benefit us. At some point, we feel that our practice will benefit others. That's in a very advanced stage. To realize that it's a practice that we do for ourselves. It's not just for ourselves, but it's also for others. That's in a pure stage. But that's also not correct, completely correct.

[24:25]

have to go beyond it's for me or for others otherwise we get caught in some purpose purpose of being a practice is not to do something wonderful for ourselves or to do something wonderful for others it's just to maintain the darkness It's just a real reality. It's hard to see sometimes. Either way, doing something for myself, or doing something for you. It's just for me. that it gets for me, who really wants to say that it gets for me?

[25:35]

Why should I continue to do that? The role of a priest is just to practice the Dharma, for the sake of the Dharma, just to keep the Dharma alive, and really benefits oneself and benefits others.

[26:50]

This is God to tap the underlying river of joy and happiness. Some students cannot maintain happiness just by practicing God's name for themselves. You can't do it at different words. At some point, you can tie it up. So, priest, correct understanding for a priest is to just dedicate, to practice, to practice, to practice, practice with dhamma. And that is the one. non-attachment to self, and non-attachment to others.

[27:55]

He's just a complete freak. But, he's not, even freaks don't always understand it. And when something else comes along that's interesting, you don't go along with it. You don't get taken up by it. The typical thing about coming back to reality of breath is that to live in our dreams.

[29:06]

So the purpose of that is not to get caught up by the dream of the world. To live within the world's dreams without being caught up in the dreams of the world. to see all those dreams for looking who they are. And you can breathe. You can see the dream of the dream. You can see the reality of the reality. Then the second Part of the second method in the subject is breathing in a short breath. One, in other words, I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out a short breath.

[30:14]

One, in other words, I am breathing out a short breath. Short and long, you can also say, deep and shallow. Usually, deep and shallow is short, and exhale is long. That's why, when we count our breath exactly, we should count and exhale. Take it, inhale, and then one, inhale. Inhale, and then exhale. Let's get into the time now. One is the breath. And not to tick off breath. Two, three, one. That's not breath counting. Breath counting is body, breath, and mind, not one.

[31:17]

It's a counting. The counting is no longer one. When you say one, it's no longer the number one. It's just a sound. It could be . It could be . Move is a very good form. You could say Buddha. But Buddha, I was thinking about that. Buddha is good. It's a good point of concentration. But it brings to mind something. It creates an image in your mind. It's easy when you say Buddha to create an image in your mind. But if you say . What's moving? What is a moving like? It's just sound. It's heavy. It means no. But what does a no look like? So it's pretty good.

[32:21]

What is a good for one? Right? One is a good for one. Two is a good for one. Three is a good for one. I know. It's a hard mission. It doesn't mean you can say that to yourself. Saying that to yourself is very important. And not necessarily. It's the awareness. Not like you say to yourself. Actually, it's not necessarily saying to yourself. You know what you recognize. And you know what that recognize. You know what you say. You don't want to touch that. Then the third one says, I am breathing in and aware of the whole body.

[33:26]

I am breathing out and aware of the whole body. The third one refers to the body parts. Even though it says the whole body. It refers to the parts of the body. And when you sit without it, where we have a posture in the back, where we hold the neck, where the ears and lying on the shoulders, where the cavity is open, where the nuja, or the tail, where the shoulders, where the nose, and all the body parts. And there is a lot of them, we investigate each one. We go around and around, and adjusting so we can divide together.

[34:27]

We lift the breath with awareness of the breath sometimes. When we wear out the muja, it's the awareness of the muja with the breath. Breathing our breath again with awareness of the weekend. ... [...] I am breathing in and making the whole body calm and peace. Now, making the whole body calm and peace.

[35:31]

This refers to the whole body at once. First one, third one, refers to the body part. Being aware of each one. This fourth one, The fourth message, your choice is being aware of whole body and breath at once. So, the whole body. Do you ever see yourself as real? When you sit, your choice, do you see yourself as real? It's a challenge of the body sitting with the breath. being aware of the whole item, being aware of the whole item, being aware of the whole item.

[36:40]

And these are the four members, my point of view, bottom line of the room. And this is how we describe it. Wonderful. This is a basic test for doctors. So in this first one, it's making my whole body calm and peace. Making my whole body something that really settles. And paying attention to the posture. And breathing into the posture. And the first one, which is the fifth one, that I am really willing and feeling joyful.

[37:48]

I am really out and feeling joyful. This is just pure, joyful feeling. Just pure, joyful feeling. And we should appreciate that. Thank you. The sixth one says, I am breathing in and really happy. I am feeling happy. This is happiness, which is the result of joy. It's deeper.

[38:49]

It's more acceptable. The next stage. Although these are stages, they're not necessarily stages. And you can concentrate, you can use any one of these to have plenty of concentration. without having to think about all the work that's another work that's step by step. Not necessarily the use of 16, you know, step by step. I think if you have a question, if you have a question, you can just ask it. If you do have a question, you can ask it. And the seventh one, I am breathing in and aware of the activities of the mind. And I am breathing out and aware of the activities of the mind. The seventh one is very important. The activities of the mind, meaning the feeling of activities of the mind.

[39:55]

How do you feel? You know, you say, I feel good or I feel happy or I feel sad or I feel hurt. or feel distracted, or, you know, scattered, or feel crowded. You feel it. [...] You to be able to see all these feelings that they come one by one and to see them as they really are and just these feelings

[41:03]

What happens when anger arises? What do you do? Count to 10. So when you count to 10, while you're counting to 10, you're no longer angry. For anger is, there is anger, but it's no longer anger. Anger in the same way. Because the counting to 10 is to shine awareness, the light of awareness. This is called turning the light inward. Taking a step back and turning the light inward. Take a step back and turning the light inward. Shine the light of awareness. And with the breath.

[42:22]

Breathe into it. Breathe with that feeling without being carried out by the feeling. When we get carried off by feelings, we should know. This is being carried away. The thought should be carried away. But we should know this is being carried away. This is being scattered. This is being distracted. This is being collected. This is being consecrated. Whatever it is, you should know it and be aware of it. This is meditation. So in the body, to instill, we let the body know.

[43:24]

We can't act on anything. When we're sitting, we can't act on anything. So it's much easier to observe it. Observing, you know, doesn't mean to see it as an object. It needs to be very careful. It needs to be one object. That is good. So even though there is observation, there is not an observer in the body. It's very important. We don't separate ourselves from whatever it is. Our self is the object that is being observed. The anger arises. They say, I am angered. This mind is angered. There is no mind apart from this object. So when desire arises, I'm in desire.

[44:29]

When anger arises, I am angered. This mind is angered. But the mind, the subject and the object of the mind is a pain moment. and controlled by this, how do you prepare yourself? I'm not that things don't come up, but I know to practice, I prepare myself. I prepare myself. shifting. What we're doing is practicing to have control. Not to be pushed around with things.

[45:31]

Not to be controlled by being If we are too much in control, then we don't interact with things. If we're not in control, then the world just takes us over. So control means not too tight, not too loose, but to be able to interact with every situation. seek them to think they really are. First, it's important to see what you think as it is.

[46:40]

And you know how to interact with it. But even then, we get pulled around. Someone throws something at us and we get angry. But when we step back, out of response and not out of reaction. Reaction is when somebody throws something at you to lose yourself in anger. That's reaction. But response is even though you may get angry, you take a step back and respond in a way that it's appropriate. You have some space to do something. That's called control. To have the space to act from what you believe.

[47:47]

Well, from how you see reality. And if you want to, Take a step back. The easiest way to do that is to come back to the breath. This is the seat. Come back to our throne. Come back to our seat. Breathe. And from there, our mind calms down. And then we respond to a calm moment. This is how we practice often at a time. This weekend we're having sashimi. And I invite all of it.

[48:49]

It starts Friday and Saturday and morning Sunday. So I encourage you and beseech you to come to practice on your practice. The practice that you are here for.

[49:05]

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