Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma. Is rarely met with even an hundred thousand million galpas. Having it to see and listen to. To remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. When we chant, like when we do in the before lecture chant, one classic way to relate to it is to try to chant the whole line in one breath.

[01:44]

It makes it a lot of fun because we tend to do it quite slowly. So you have to find extra breath. And as you have to find that extra breath, you have to reach a dime deeper into your own resources into your own being like sometimes practices about enabling the universe to request something from us Of course, we can readily get distracted into succeeding and failing responding to that request. And of course, that's a distraction. But just to be supported in reaching down into ourselves, into reaching down into our own breath, in discovering its bottomless capacity, now echoes through our zazen.

[02:59]

So that each exhale in Zazen finds that same bottomless quality. You know, with each exhale in Zazen, we release everything. And then with each inhale, complete acceptance and permission for life to start anew. This cycle. is what gives life its vibrancy, its sparkle. So the particularity of our school, so docent, of these details, they offer us an engagement. by going to meet that engagement, by endorsing that engagement, we allow it to draw out of us everything.

[04:14]

As you may have discovered, it's hard to pay attention It's difficult to stay present. The yoga craft of staying present, of discovering attention, of letting the vitality of our being flow, in some ways it's quite subtle and in another ways very straightforward. Bow as best you can. Go down with balance. Fold over completely. Come up and rise with balance.

[05:25]

With a minimum of extraneous moves. Does that mean there's a right way and a wrong way? That's an interesting question. And if engaging that question helps you endorse the activity and bring full attention to it, then engage the question. If the question just distracts you from engaging the activity, throw it away. So this, in case you haven't been counting, is the fourth day. But in another way, in a more significant way, it's the first day.

[06:31]

It takes a while. It takes a while to settle in. It takes a while to let this be our new life. It takes a while to let the noise and commotion that we brought here settle down enough that this here can be here. thing is that starts to happen the capacity to let this here be here is enhanced and this is a precious opportunity because now these little details like I was just mentioning rather being some annoying contrivance

[07:48]

or some virtuous activity that we have to engage in to prove our self worth or to appease others or win their approval they can become vital activities like a hammer striking emptiness you know it's like throwing a pebble in a pot When you toss a pebble in the pond, there's the splash and then there's the ripples and the ripples ripple out to the bank of the pond and actually beyond the pond to the whole universe. And when that's just seen as itself, It's almost like it has a majesty to it.

[08:52]

Now normally we're throwing in pebble after pebble and causing all sorts of waves and splashes and that just seems like we're stirring up confusion. It's quite difficult to know what the hell is going on. So we make up a story about it. Or we just get distracted and forget the whole thing and live inside a dream. So the fourth day of Sashin offers us an opportunity to watch to listen to learn to discover what's happening what is it practice with it what happens when it's engaged with the heart and mind of practice

[10:11]

Fortesha Shin starts to offer us this opportunity to experience the Dharma directly. The degree to which we color it and confuse it with our own likes and dislikes has started to dissipate. The capacity to see it more directly has started to increase but it requires a careful kind of attending to nurture this arising possibility Because that same capacity to attend can be hooked onto the arising concerns, the arising likes and dislikes, the intrigues of our life.

[11:35]

It can pull us off into some wonderful or awful story. Tending to engaging is what generates energy. Vriya, the paramita of energy, arises with engagement. When we engage the breath in chanting, the nuances of chanting become visible, apparent. When we engage attention and consciousness, in some old resentment that's popped up into our head. The nuances of it, the bitterness, the hurt, the resentment, are enlivened. They become all the more compelling.

[12:38]

So it's a subtle effort at this point in Tsushima to let this enhance capacity to attend. And maybe or maybe not, we can notice this. This enhanced capacity. Anyway, it doesn't matter. If we bring attention to it, it's like it takes care of itself. It's like enchanting in the mudaha. You know, you can attend to whether your voice harmonizes with the other voices.

[13:48]

But if you bring full attention to chanting, your voice will harmonize. The piece of Dogen that I was reading yesterday was, as throughout the Genjo Con, you know, Dogen Zenji mentions this. Maybe you don't realize this, but still, this activity is proceeding. I thought today I'd try to be a little bit more entertaining. Maybe you needed some perking up. As you may have noticed, personally I have an appreciation of Just steady, dry, monotonous dharma talks.

[14:55]

As I've mentioned before, I remember once when Mahasi Sayadaw came to Tassajara. A Burmese teacher. Wonderful person, wonderful teacher. And he was giving a steady, dry, monotonous dharma talk. And he had brought about 10 monks with him, his, you know, from Burma. And they were all sitting there, and they were so fast asleep. And they were falling all over the place in every which way. And I was sitting there thinking, way to go. Let's have some of that old time religion. And he'd say, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, like a saw, back, forward.

[16:15]

the good old days there's always the good old days thank goodness we can you know soothe our suffering some sweet memories so here's a poem by Mary Oliver every year the lilies are so perfect I can hardly believe their lapped light crowding the black midsummer ponds their lapped light crowding the black midsummer ponds if that doesn't stereo You don't have a well chart.

[17:24]

Nobody can count all of them. The muskrat swimming among the pads in the grasses can reach out their muscular arms and touch only so many. They're that rife and wild. But what in this world is perfect? Hmm. What in this world is perfect? I bend closer and see how this one is clearly lopsided and this one wears an orange blight and this one is a glossy cheek half nibbled away and this one a slump purse full of its own unstoppable decay. Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled. To cast aside the weight of concerns.

[18:34]

Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled. What a hopeful line. cast aside the weight of concerns, or maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I'm looking. I want to believe I'm looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing and that the light is everything. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing and that the light is everything. That it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and fading.

[19:44]

And I do. The marvelous opportunity of the fourth day. This capacity to savor the human condition. Savor. So I said again? this capacity to savor our human condition. Maybe it's not to believe that the imperfections are nothing and that the light is everything, but in a way what are we going to stress?

[21:08]

Are we going to energize those moments of difficulty and pain and disturbance and pull ourselves down? Are we going to energize those moments of simple clarity? When the bell rings and you stand up And for no good reason, the Zen doll looks beautiful. Those moments when for no good reason, you hold out your ball and you just love the person who's putting food in it. You love their generosity, their sincerity. And the careful way they give you the very food that keeps you alive it's not that the imperfections disappear no it's this intriguing existential possibility what's important at this point in my life that I remember

[22:38]

the good reason I have for being sad the ways in which I've been hurt or that I light up my existence by turning towards the gift of being alive still What I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled. You know, maybe in the realm of nonsense, ordinary mind is the way this is a little too much. Maybe. Maybe not. Cast aside the weight of facts.

[23:44]

And maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. Fortunately, or unfortunately, our teaching, our practice is a little more exacting than that. Stay right in the middle. Cast nothing aside. Receive everything completely. The more fully the exhale quite organically, quite naturally, the more fully inhale. The more fully we release the breath, the more fully we release into the moment, the more fully the inhale, the more fully the moment arises and vibrates with its own magnificence.

[25:00]

Can we be grateful for our painful bodies, given the fact that sitting in the midst of that pain draws us down into a deeper sense of our own being? That in its harsh and uncompromising way, it demands our presence. Be grateful for that. Is that within the range of human capacity? To move into such a ferocious place with gratitude. Is our whole life not ferocious?

[26:22]

Is it not possible to be caught to suffer wherever we turn? Is our life not asking this all the time? Be here. Be what you are. Leave it completely. Is it not a great stroke of fortune to have a practice that can guide us in that activity? So each time we sedine, the immensity of the request, the proposition

[27:34]

Please realize that even something as seemingly solid and tangible as your body. Last period, my right knee really hurt. So obviously this period is going to hurt just as much. Maybe, maybe not. The very thought The very mind that affirms that idea and clings to it brings forth the certainty of that suffering. The mind that doesn't cling to it, the mind that enters not knowing what's going to happen, opens up a vast field of possibility. whether that mind opens up because it's willing to be dazzled or because something in its bones know the truth of the way so be it to just sit down with that conviction to return to that conviction

[29:21]

each time the mind distracts. To let everything come forth and meet and join that conviction. I want to believe I'm looking into the white fire of a great mystery. So we bring forth that conviction and we cook in it, in this very human stuff that we're made of. Then we watch ourselves rant with our selfishness, explode into greed, confusion.

[30:26]

in a hundred different ways like so many white lilies growing on the pond Hafiz says there's a fire that burns under the water what is it to keep the deep Dedication to practice alive and illuminated in the midst of all the stuff your mind and body can generate. Wu Ji, Dogen's teacher said, there is a moon in the light young men said everybody has a light the capacity to be aware is innate so please

[32:03]

Don't be deterred by the unrelenting nature of your karmic arisings. So what? Be willing to be dazzled. Don't sell yourself short by doing some arithmetic. Seven minus four leaves three. It does. Seven minus four leaves three. But it doesn't, too. Ugh.

[33:10]

This is our life. You know, life is really made up of moments. It's not really a linear process, tick-tock, tick-tock. Some moments expand because they're saturated with significance. many moments disappear because they weren't really lived what do we wish for this life that we have Mary Oliver says still what I want for this life is to be willing to be dazzled

[34:17]

cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. Well, good luck, kid. I want to believe I'm looking into the white fire of the great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing and that the light is everything. Be aware you're aware when you're aware. In 30 minutes Zazen, if your mind jumps all over the place, there's that sparkling poem by Hafiz where he says, the mind is like 10,000 idiots running crazy around.

[35:30]

Even if just for a second those 10,000 idiots by sheer coincidence happen to shut up. Be aware you're aware when you're aware. Register, connect, be dazzled by that moment. Let something in you Here we are. This is it. This is my life. I don't exist anywhere else. I like it. I don't like it. I'm confused by it. I'm grateful for it. All of that. Whatever it is, the whole plethora of responses you're capable of. Let something in you settle.

[36:42]

Okay. This is it. We're in the dark belly of Sushin. Precious opportunity. It's a significant moment. You can practice your arithmetic if you wish. But I would suggest to you there are other more savory practices with more dazzling consequences. that express more the reason why you came here and hold more potential and possibility for your life don't sell yourself short something in you want you to do this

[38:12]

What is it to connect to that something? What is it to express and live that something? So, I'll end with this poem again. Every year, every year the lilies are so perfect. I can hardly believe their lapped light crowding the black midsummer ponds. Nobody could count all of them. The muskrats swimming among the pads and the grasses can reach out their muscular arms and touch only so many. They're that rife and wild. But what in this world is perfect?

[39:18]

But what in this world is perfect? I bend closer and see how this one is clearly lopsided. And this one wears an orange blight. And this one, a glossy cheek half nibbled away. And that one, a slump purse full of its own unstoppable decay. Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled, to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I'm looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe That the imperfections are nothing and that the light is everything. That it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and fading.

[40:28]

And they do. The true arithmetic goes like this. One in one, make one. May our intention equally extend through every. The true arithmetic.

[41:32]

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