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 by people like you. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Welcome to the San Francisco Zen Center. Francisco Center of Zen Study. I want to offer first a short four-line stanza that for about a thousand years has been used as a kind of concentrated description, definition of Zen studies and practice.

[01:06]

This four-line stanza, this four-line verse goes like this. A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence upon words and letters. Direct pointing to the human mind. Seeing into one's own nature and attaining Buddhahood. transmission outside the scriptures no dependence upon words and letters direct pointing to the human mind seeing into one's own nature and attaining Buddhahood so that's the order of the day and if you think that this

[02:12]

Description of a way of being a way of making effort in your life a way of understanding Is interesting appeals to you And then the question arises well, how do we do this? I say if this appeals to you because there's no certainty that actually this is what people want to do. You may be here out of curiosity or various reasons, but actually taking this up, clearly not everyone in the United States has made the decision to focus on this. I heard some years ago a quote from a very great Tibetan teacher, Thunkpa Rinpoche, he said about practice, about Buddhist study.

[03:20]

He said, oh, practice. It's better not to start. But if you begin, you have to finish. Such a warning. But anyway, so Zen is a transmission outside of written words. It's a way that directly points to the nature of our own human heart and helps us to wake up. You know, speaking with words is simple. Actualizing realization is more complicated. I can say, wake up. And so what?

[04:21]

What's needed is a personal effort to make that waking up real in your life, our life, my life. And in the way, in the Zen tradition, the way we begin to wake up and see into our heart and mind, the way we encourage people to begin the path of experiencing Buddha's peace is through doing something called meditation. There's a Japanese word for this sort of meditation that we use here at the Zen Center. It's called Zazen. So at the Zen Center, We arrange our life, our schedule, in a way to encourage and support us to be able to sit zazen.

[05:30]

And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about zazen. of expectation that's placed upon it, zazen, is actually quite simple. Really simple. We sit carefully erect, neither leaning to the left nor right. Our ears above our shoulders, our nose in line with our navel. And we settle into a steady, immovable, attentive physical position.

[06:36]

And along with this upright physical effort, upright physical posture, we take a mental posture as well. Alongside our body awareness, we commit our mental attention to closely observing the present moment. Now, this may take the form of carefully following our breath or carefully observing the thoughts that arise and fall in our mind. But however we carefully observe the present moment, one aspect of it is that we make the effort to drop our normal discursive A leads to B leads to C mind.

[07:41]

And in exchange, have a mental awareness that's patient and calm and observing. While there are many books, and many lectures, perhaps including this one, and much steam that's been generated on the topic of saying, what is meditation? What is meditation really? Zazen is not so complicated. What does get complicated, though? What is complicated is you and me and our minds. and how we deal with what happens when we do this simple thing. There was some years ago, a long time ago, 1500 years ago, there was a person named Bodhidharma.

[08:52]

He was born in India, traveled to China, and he's considered to be our first Zen ancestor. In the family tree that starts with Buddha and comes through Suzuki Roshi, Bodhidharma is one of our great, [...] great grandfathers. And he had a student named Uike, who later became Bodhidharma's son, you might say, Dharma son. And Huike said to Bodhidharma one time, my mind is anxious. Please help me pacify it. And Bodhidharma replied, bring me this mind and I will pacify it. And Huike said, as much as I look, I cannot find it to bring it to you.

[09:59]

And Bodhidharma said, there. I have pacified it. But maybe that's too simple. From a collection of stories about this tradition called The Gateless Gate, Muman Khan, Case 29. Weenings. We Ning was a descendant in the Dharma of Bodhidharma. Two students at We Ning's temple were in the courtyard and they were looking at a flagpole. The flag on the pole was flapping back and forth, back and forth, fluttering in the wind.

[11:01]

And one student said, the flag is moving. And the other student said, the wind is moving. And they were having a, well, I don't know what, they were having a conversation. When Wei Ning came by and overheard them, and he said, to those two students, he said, it's not the wind that's moving. It's not the flag that's moving. It's your mind that is moving. Mumman, who gathered this story in a collection, commented, he said, it's not the mind that moves, excuse me, it's not the wind that moves. It's not the flag that moves. It's not the mind that moves. How shall we understand this?

[12:03]

If you gain an intimate grasp of its meaning, you will see how the two monks intending to buy iron got gold. The ancestor, Weining, the ancestor could not repress his compassion for the two students. And so we have this disgraceful scene. A wind flag and mind moves. all confirmed as guilty of error. Our mouth opens. We don't know how our speech went wrong. Here's another story. Les K. was a student of Suzuki Roshi and a student of Cobincino, and he was at a, some years ago, he was at a radio station being interviewed about Zen.

[13:11]

And Cobincino was with him. Cobincino was a wonderful teacher, a person who's passed away. An anecdote. about Kobanchino Roshi, I understand. I heard that he was teaching a class at Esalen on archery. Chino Roshi was an archery master, the traditional Japanese martial art of archery. And at the very beginning of the first class, it was a relatively modest and small target in this archery, Zen archery, Japanese archery. And it's not like the big bullseye that we have that I've seen when I grew up and I went to archery class. It's like the end of a bale of hay. It's not so much bigger than this at some distance. And he approached the target and stood.

[14:16]

This was on the open lawn at Esalen. And slowly and carefully raised his bow and arrow, which is an immense eight-foot-tall bow. carefully focused and aimed at that bale of hay, which is at some distance. And then while he was aiming, he's turned and revolved his body around till he was facing away from the target and released the arrow, which shot off the edge of the lawn and into the ocean that comes up by Esalen. He watched the arrow closely as it parched away and then entered the water. And he turned to the students and he said, bullseye. So he was a man of a few words, actually. And he's at this interview with Les Kaye, and he hasn't said a word, leaving it to Les to speak.

[15:25]

And the interviewer asks Les, about Zazen. The interviewer says, what technique do you use to encourage people in meditation practice? What technique? And Les replied, well, in Zen we don't use any special technique. We don't have any special visualization or mantra or even really any system at all besides just wholehearted sitting. And this is actually a pretty good answer. This is a true answer. But Cobin, Cobincino, who was sitting beside him, he spoke up. He leaned over toward the microphone. And he said, in Zen, we have a technique. We use the most important technique in Zen

[16:29]

We use people's sincerity. So Zazan depends on our sincerity. On the intention that we manifest when we sit on the cushion. And Zazan begins with the most simple moment. We come into a room and sit down. We turn around from the crowd and we face where we are. So looking around this room, I see people who I might think are other than me, but also I think you're like me.

[17:30]

People, we all share this thing called a human life, which has a rhythm to it, which has a flow. We were all born, and we were most likely adorable, cute little kids. Admirable children whose parents loved us and sent us off to school with pride. This maybe is our common beginning. But with time, we all discovered that we're independent from our parents, from others, and we realize we can make decisions for ourself. We can even start off to school and then not go there. We... We start by making decisions that we think will satisfy us and then we discovered that our life has become complicated.

[18:41]

And this discovery or this feeling and recognition that our life has become complicated, this sense That we may have that we've entered into a place where it's not clear if we're going forward or backwards. This problem is a piece of our life journey that can become a strong foundation for our waking up. Because we can't really find ourself until we first realize we're lost. So our problem might be that we think that we're incomplete as we are.

[19:56]

We might be convinced that we're separate, small, and alone. And feeling this, we look for relief. We look for a lover. We look for a job. We look for a friend. We look for the world to appreciate us. We look for spirituality, for practice to rescue us. And really, this looking is just mind looking for mind, a Buddha looking for Buddha. down in the effort to face ourselves, when we sit down in an effort to be fully in this very present moment, one of the things that we might discover is how much of our walking day, is how much of our

[21:44]

daily thoughts might even be called a daydream. And this daydream that we make our best friend, this solace that we, this private and personal friend that we have that's Our interior voice that talks to us as we walk quietly down the street and tells us how we did and where we're going and who likes us and who didn't. This interior monologue is something that we think we need in order to bear the burden of the day. But this story we have about who we are is what we need to take.

[23:03]

I say we need to take a backward step from it. this backwards step a step which is towards just simply being present is a first step it's both backwards and forwards because it's a step forwards to realizing the love we have for everyone This is what Zazen offers us. This is what Zazen provides us. A way to stop the daydream of our life. And instead enter directly into and experience who we are.

[24:05]

And how our life unfolds. But these are my words. facts are my facts and they can't really nourish you until you make them your words make them your facts if you want to make that effort a great master ma that this very mind is Buddha. And I think we will be forever restless within our hearts until we realize personally, deeply, thoroughly that this very mind is Buddha.

[25:14]

And the reason that zazen is satisfying, if it is, is In some ways the same reason that sitting zazen and making the effort to do meditation is also difficult. Because in zazen we can't hide from ourselves. And this is true especially when our sitting practice is difficult. Especially true that we can't hide from ourselves when our sitting practice is painful. Mentally, emotionally, physically awkward. don't want to sit down and face the wall that's when we can really learn something about what what Zazen is for us in Zazen we cannot be hidden from ourselves and this is true whether we realize it or not

[26:23]

In this world, this Saha world, where there are millions and billions of people, poor people and rich people and happy people and sad people and healthy people and sick and endless numbers of folks. In this enormous world, I feel some confidence in saying that there's something true about nearly everybody who's alive. which is that their life has with it some discomfort, some disappointment, some pain. And I don't say this in a morbid, unhappy way. I say it's just being honest and realistic. This pain we all all share can be a gross thing like the toothache which i had yesterday quite a gross thing or it can be a subtle thing like a beautiful vase of fresh flowers slowly behind our back withering and wilting so buddhism is a teaching a way of life that's founded on awakening but

[27:58]

It also includes the fact of our delusion. And Zen is a practice that trains us to walk the line between delusion and enlightenment. And in this walking, if we do it completely, we might understand that our own very mind is naturally Buddha's mind. Zen is actually quite pragmatic. It's not a teaching about purity. Rather, it is an instruction about how to live a helpful life in a complicated world.

[29:03]

I think it's important to say that the way that each of us approaches our practice and our life and each of us approach meditation is going to be different. But there are some common threads. Common threads that tie us together in this endeavor of awakening. Who among us has not on some occasions remembered with a jolt, with a painful jolt, some word said to another person, some pain felt through the actions of this world?

[30:21]

I really feel that without, while our life may be full of positive happy moments, without the dark shadow of recognizing the pain of our life, we wouldn't know how lucky we are. And I want to say that I really feel that all of us are actually fortunate, lucky, to have the chance to wake up. I don't say this personally, you know, like because you're lucky to be able to hear me, but I think we're lucky to be here in this room at this temple having heard the teaching of awakening. But we're really even more fortunate when we realize that this teaching is something that we can take up personally. Because the meaning of awakening is not in the words.

[31:31]

It responds to the inquiring impulse. The meaning of awakening is that this is a personal task for you and me and us. One day during Zazen, Suzuki Roshi said out loud to the assembly, he said, it doesn't get better later. And on another occasion, he said, in its wide sense, everything is a teaching for us. The color of the mountain, the sound of the river, or the sound of a motor car. Each one is a teaching of Buddha. And another time, Suzuki Roshi said, Buddha is very fair. to everyone.

[32:32]

You cannot escape from what you've done. So practice begins in various places, but often for each of us, practice might begin with recognition that we feel somehow incomplete. Somehow we feel we can do better. Somehow we feel we can be more helpful. One of the reasons that we reached this point is because when we grew up, we made different little decisions about who we were.

[33:52]

Things that were useful at the time. And we figured ourselves out and we figured out. where we fit. And as time passes, what was once useful becomes a trap for us. The way we define ourselves and the way we figured out how to get through the day loses its freshness and becomes a habit. A hindrance. Or maybe even tiny little prisons that confine ourselves. And there was a Greek poet named Constantine Cavafy who lived in Egypt a hundred or so years ago who wrote a small poem about this.

[35:02]

He called Walls. It goes like this. He said, Ah, why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls? When I was building my walls. I never heard any noise or sound of builders. Imperceptibly, they, me, shut me from the outside world. And we do build so many walls. that separate us from the true adventure of discovering life and being with each other. Walls coarse and fine. And the practice of Zazen is a way for us to melt these walls.

[36:03]

be born fresh. When you, quoting Suzuki Roshi, 1964, when you accept everything, everything is beyond dimension. The earth is not great, nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of great activity, picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your effort of this moment to benefit one person is the same as the eternal merit of all the Buddhas. Back to Bodhidharma. It's said that later in his life he wanted to return to India and leave China.

[37:23]

And his students were gathered with him. He called his students together for a final meeting and at this time The following exchange was recorded. Bodhidharma asked, can each of you say something to demonstrate your understanding? And the student Tao Full stepped forward and said, my understanding is not bound by words and phrases, nor is it separate from words and phrases. This is the full function of the Tao. Bodhidharma said, you have attained my skin. The nun, Zhongqi, stepped up and said, it's like a glorious glimpse of the realm of Apshobhya Buddha. Seen once, it need not be seen again. And Bodhidharma said, you have attained my flesh. And Daoyu, third student, said, the four elements are empty.

[38:34]

The five skandhas are without existence. Not a single Dharma can be grasped. Bodhidharma said, you have attained my bones. And finally, Vike came up. Vike, who we met earlier. And he stood in front of Bodhidharma and bowed deeply and in silence said nothing. And Bodhidharma said, you have attained to my marrow. This teaching of Zen, the teaching, the experience of Zazen, is something beyond words. So here I am.

[39:48]

Autumn, moon. Winter, snow. Spring, flowers. Summer, breeze. Footfalls echo in our memory. Down the passage. which we did not take, towards the door we never opened. Oh, what lesson is there in a dream that has no end? 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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[40:57]

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