This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. We just chanted a verse for opening the teaching. The last line of which in our translation is, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Do you remember chanting that? So. Hearing that and saying that. and the experience of tasting the truth of the Tatagata's words.

[01:37]

So part of what I'd like to talk to you about today is letting go of the discrimination between the way you are now, the way you feel about your own understanding, and the wonderful situation of tasting the truth. the Buddha's words. I think I might come back to this again and again, this letting go of dualities between things. In this room and other places, we often chant the following. Now, all Buddhas and all ancestors have made it the true path of awakening to sit upright, practicing in the midst of

[02:58]

The self-fulfilling samadhi. The word samadhi could be translated. As concentration. Or. Undistracted. Directed mind. Anyway, or just as awareness. It's an awareness. self-fulfilling awareness. A self-fulfilling samadhi. This is what we are currently chanting here. And what is this samadhi? Well, it's that within which we practice. So again, it has been For those Buddhas and ancestries who uphold the true Dharma, they've made it the true path of awakening to sit upright, to be upright, in the midst of an awareness.

[04:16]

What awareness? Again, we call it self-fulfilling awareness or self-fulfilling samadhi. So does that seem simple to you? The true path is to sit upright in the midst of an awareness. What awareness? The self-fulfilling awareness. So what is this self-fulfilling awareness? That's what I'd like to talk to you about today. Let me just start off by keeping it simple. The self-fulfilling awareness in which We have the opportunity to practice. It's unsurpassed. Complete perfect awakening. Anyuttara samyaksam buddhi. So again. The beings. The awakened beings. Who uphold the Buddha Dharma.

[05:19]

Have made it. The path. The true path. true path of awakening to sit upright in this what? To sit upright in complete perfect awakening. The true path lives in the midst of this awareness. And we can sit upright and practice within that awareness. Everybody in this room is sitting. I don't know. Are you sitting upright? I have an advantage. I don't have anything to lean back on. I'm not. You might consider sitting upright. So. We sit upright.

[06:21]

And we practice. So what do we practice. In this samadhi. Well the practices we can do. The practices we can do. The practices we can do. practices we can engage in, are unlimited. And these practices could also be called samadhis. Things we concentrate on are boundless. Some people are concentrating on sitting upright, having upright posture. Some people are concentrating on tending to their breath. Some people are concentrating on some Buddhist teaching. Some, like for example, some people are concentrating on sitting upright and observing all sentient beings with eyes of compassion. That's a practice which we can be devoted to. Sit upright and observe all sentient beings with eyes of compassion.

[07:26]

Sit upright and follow the breathing. Sit upright and concentrate on sitting upright. That's my main practice I do. Is I sit upright. Sitting upright. I'm devoted to sitting upright. When I'm sitting upright. That's a practice which in a sense. I am devoted to this person. Or this being. Is devoted to the practice. Sitting upright. In this Zendo. I usually sit upright there. But they move my cushion from there to here. So now. I'm talking about. the practice which all the Buddhas who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the true path. So, of course, Buddhas do sit in the midst of this Samadhi. Many translations of this Samadhi, another translation of this Samadhi could be...

[08:33]

Buddha Samadhi. Another one would be Bodhisattva Samadhi. Another one is Jewel Mirror Samadhi or Precious Mirror Samadhi. So the true path of awakening is to sit upright in the midst of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Juhamara Samadhi is a Bodhisattva Samadhi. It is a Buddha Samadhi. Bodhisattvas are those who aspire and commit to an unceasing effort to free all beings so that we may live in peace. That's the Bodhisattva unceasing effort and Bodhisattvas also can be like Buddhas and practice sitting upright in the midst of the Bodhisattva Samadhi, which is complete, perfect awakening.

[09:49]

It also be called the Samadhi of universal all-pervading illumination. The samadhi of all-pervading universal awakening. That's the samadhi in which we can practice sitting upright. Right now, sitting upright can enter this samadhi. Not by our own power. Not by somebody else's power. But by the power of Buddha. The power of awakening. Which is not my power.

[10:58]

It's not somebody else's power. It's the power of our awakening. Our perfect awakening will carry us into this samadhi. If we allow it. So. One might. Sit upright. And one might wish to enter this samadhi. And one might feel like. Well. I must have entered it. Because it must be what's going on right now. So. I'm sitting upright. I wish to live in this samadhi. And I trust that. That's where I am actually living. And I cannot see this samadhi. Or smell it. Or touch it. But I can sit upright in it. And in sitting upright in this samadhi. I understand. I am joining the Buddhas. In the Buddha practice.

[11:59]

In the precious mirror samadhi song. It says. the teaching of suchness, the teaching of the way things are, is intimate transmission. It is Buddhas. So Buddhas are intimately transmitting to us right now. What are they transmitting? They're transmitting the teaching of suchness. And then after saying that, the song says, now you have it. They're transmitting it to us, to you, And you have it, but not have it like grasp it, but you have it as your life. It's completely surrounding you and completely pervading you. Now you are completely pervaded by it. So please take care of it. And there's many ways to take care of it.

[13:10]

One of the first ones that comes to mind is Let go of any distinction between the way you feel, the way you think, the way you experience life right now. Let go of any distinction between that and this teaching of the Buddhas, which is now completely given to you. So I'm sitting, receiving the teachings of the Buddhas, receiving the Dharma, receiving the support of Buddhas, I am in the Samadhi of the Buddhas, where the path of awakening lives. And the Jyomir Samadhi also says, it is bright just at midnight. It doesn't appear at dawn. It's bright at midnight means it's bright

[14:15]

When you can't see anything. It's bright, I should say, it's bright when you can't see it. If you can see it, that's not it. It's not what you're seeing. We're all seeing something right now. And seeing things is not midnight. In midnight, we don't see anything. And we are sometimes at midnight and we don't see anything. This teaching this samadhi the brightness of the samadhi is bright in when we give up seeing things or give up looking for it in these things and it doesn't appear at dawn so we also can see things at dawn we can see things well it isn't that it appears with them these things that appear at dawn are not this samadhi are not this dharma So it's not what appears.

[15:17]

And it's not the darkness. However, it shines in the darkness. The meaning of this is not in the words. But it responds. It, the samadhi, is not in the words I'm using. But it responds to my speaking. in this offering of my words, and it's responding to me in that interaction, it's using it, and that relieves all suffering. Again, this instruction could be seen as also mentioning two kinds of practice. One, Sitting upright, practicing.

[16:20]

Kind of like me sitting upright and practicing. My individual, this individual effort of sitting upright and practicing sitting upright. In the midst of an awareness, which is not something I'm doing and not something you're doing. It's actually the reality. of the intimate communion between us. So the practice involves, in a sense, an individual practice and a universal practice. And these individual practices and the universal practices can be distinguished.

[17:25]

One seems to be possible for a human to do. The other is not done by a human. It's not even done by a Buddha. It is Buddha. Buddha is not an individual effort. It's the universal effort of illuminating and liberating mechanics. that practice, that universal practice, and the individual practice live together. They're not separate. Of course, the universal includes all the individual ones. So in this room, when we're meditating, each person meditates in their own individual way. And the great way of this samadhi, this bodhisamadhi, It includes all of our individual efforts. And part of the individual efforts that it includes are efforts to distinguish between my practice and your practice or between my practice and this samadhi.

[18:38]

Such discriminations arise in the minds of living beings. Buddha Samadhi includes all those distinctions, all those discriminations, and is not separate from them. It includes them and doesn't cling to any of them. The Samadhi in which the Buddha's practice includes everybody's individual consciousness and doesn't cling to any of the individual consciousnesses. for any of the discriminations. sitting upright, practicing, can be quite busy.

[20:29]

So it's perhaps being quite busy in the midst of this universal awakening, which is not busy. The inclusion of all busyness is not busy. The inclusion of all busy beings and busy bodies is not busy. It is simply the complete inclusion and complete pervasion of all busy people. Buddha Samadhi doesn't get rid of busy people. It includes them. And each busy being includes the Buddha Samadhi.

[21:38]

And each individual being includes all the other individual beings who are different from each individual being. We include all beings, we include all Buddhas, and they include us. This is the teaching of suchness in which the Buddhas and ancestors practice. Yesterday I was trying to sit upright and practice sewing my robes. rogues require maintenance. They come apart easily. I laugh because someone gave me a merchant marine jumpsuit, which I wear, for example, when I wash dishes in the diner in the kitchen.

[22:40]

And this thing does not come apart. I've had it for a long time. It's not even showing signs of wear. And yet it can be put on. I guess eventually it'll come apart, but robes are much more fragile. So I was trying to repair my robes. That I wear. And I was trying to sit upright. And I was practicing, trying to sit upright, repair my robes. And I was doing that in the midst of this samadhi. I was doing it in the Buddhist samadhi. And I was having a hard time sitting upright. It's hard for me anyway. I don't know how it's done, but it's hard for me to sit upright and sew. Like if your hands are down here, it's hard to sit upright because you can't see your hands. And to raise your hands up where you can see them, it's difficult to sew up there for me.

[23:42]

But anyway, I was struggling with trying to be upright and do the sewing. Because the tendency was to bend over, put my head down into the sewing. Whatever we are doing, no matter how busy we are, there's one who's not busy. And the one who's not busy cannot get away from us and can't get close to us. Because it can't move. It is completely still and always with us. And even though it's completely still, at the site of awakening, it reaches everywhere. Like the riddle. What always stays in the corner and can go all over the world? What's always staying in the corner and goes all over the world?

[24:45]

The Buddha Samadhi. And also established. What is it just like postage stamps? So we have a, what do you call it? A story of two of our ancestors who were Practicing together. They were Dharma brothers. And one of them was. Busy sweeping the ground. Now I don't know. If he was. Practicing being upright. Sweeping the ground. Opening. To this. But I think he was. Practicing being upright. Sweeping the ground. In the midst of.

[25:46]

this Buddha Samadhi. I think he was involved in the intimate transmission of the Buddha Samadhi while sleeping in the ground. And his Dharma brother said to him, you are too busy. And he said, you should know there's one who is not busy. And his brother said, then are there two moons? busy moon and not busy. And the one who was sleeping raised his broom and said, which moon is this? It's not like the not busy one is better than the busy one, by the way. It's that they live together. And the Buddha way is the non-duality of not being busy and being busy.

[26:50]

So we're all quite familiar and could be more familiar with being busy. What we need to be more wholehearted about is being mindful and not forgetting that there's one who's not busy. And it's not separate from us right now. Individual practice in the midst of universal practice. individual practice can be experienced as war, as war, as strife.

[28:10]

That's great difficulty. And that's busy practice. That's practice busyness. And in addition to the war there is a discrimination that might arise too, which is that this war is separate from peace. That discrimination quite easily can arise. I think we've all perhaps seen that. War and peace and a discrimination between them. Taking care of the Buddha Dharma is to let go of the, don't grasp the distinction. It's not to get rid of the, I don't say to get rid of the distinction between war and peace.

[29:16]

I'm saying it is to be aware if there is a discrimination and let it go. That's how you take care of the samadhi. By letting go of the distinction between war and peace, we are contributing to the realization of peace, which is freedom of the distinction between peace and peace. In our lives, in our individual lives, we can be aware of horrible things and we can be aware of joyful things and peaceful things. In this samadhi, we do not cling to the distinction between them.

[30:24]

They still appear and there may be distinctions, but we don't Get caught by the distinctions. Not being caught by all the distinctions. Is this. Radiant. Jewel mirror samadhi. Wherein. We actually are. All the time. But if we hold on to distinctions. Between ourself and others. Between war and peace. between good and bad, we hold on to those distinctions, we cover, we hide the radiance in which we are actually living. We hide true peace and freedom. And I haven't heard of these...

[31:25]

I haven't actually seen an end to these distinctions. But I have seen a letting go of them and a freedom in the letting go of the distinction. And being free of the distinctions is the unceasing effort to free all beings so they can dwell in peace. try to make an effort to free all beings while holding on to the distinction between freedom and bondage, it's not available in that holding, but it is available in the letting go of the distinction, which you can observe, and you can observe that you're holding on, and you can also observe that you're not going to let go of it. And then you can observe your unwillingness to let go of distinctions.

[32:31]

And observe it with eyes of compassion. And observing the unwillingness to let go of the distinction between self and other and observing that grasping of the distinction with eyes of compassion, a blessing comes. And the blessing is letting it go. And opening to the one who's not busy. And realizing that the busy one can open to the unbusy one. And I don't know which one really is busy and unbusy. So, I'd just like to rephrase the basic teaching, which is that all Buddhas and ancestors have made all Buddhas, ancestors, and Buddhas who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the path of a true path.

[33:58]

All Buddhas and ancestors who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the true path of awakening to sit upright in the midst of this Buddha Samadhi. Now, I just want to say, that's what they have been doing. They've been making this sitting upright in the midst of this Samadhi, the true power. But I want to add, that's what they are doing. That's what they are doing. We may not have been doing them. Welcome. coming in and going around. They are doing that. They are making the true path of an awakening to sit upright in the midst of this awareness. And they will.

[35:07]

They have been have made it, they are making it, and they will make it. And even before I gave this talk, I was actually quite enthusiastic about making the true path of awakening to sit upright, practicing in the midst of this samadhi. And now my enthusiasm has been refreshed by what I said. I hope you, I pray that you become enthusiastic about making the path of awakening. Making it by your practice together with the Buddha Samadhi. The more people that are working on this, the better. And anybody who's not working on it

[36:12]

is completely included. Most of you look quite depressed. Now you're smiling. I don't know what happened, but now you don't look depressed anymore. Isn't that amazing? You look depressed, now you don't. If I'm quiet a little longer, you'll probably look depressed again. Or if I talk too long, you'll really get depressed. Since you may be depressed, or you were a few minutes ago, I don't want to keep you any longer.

[37:13]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[37:44]

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