Good morning. Today, I am... speaking with the flu. And so I have this mysterious voice that may end at any moment. So I would like to speak with you about practicing with sickness, old age, and death. It just seemed like an appropriate topic for today.

[01:02]

After a week spent doing the things that everybody here knows how to do. And sickness and old age and death are not traditionally pleasant topics that people love to speak about, although that may be changing in this culture as people begin to accept death not as an enemy to be fought and conquered, but as an inevitable part of our lives. And as for practicing with sickness and with disability, That is also not a traditionally attractive topic in our culture, but that may change as we have the example of teachers who are practicing with disability and with old age and so on in our community and in other communities like ours.

[02:20]

We actually have 2,500 years of Buddhist teaching about practicing with sickness, old age, and death. And to end the human tendency to suffer, to allow that to come to an end, to allow that to be conquered, is Buddha's original motivation for giving us this path, for waking up and teaching us. So maybe after 2,500 years, maybe we can learn how to just receive the events called sickness, old age, and death and treat them with the dignity and respect that every bit of human life deserves instead of

[03:23]

rejecting them and suffering and so on. But even if we suffer in sickness, old age and death, if we're practicing with sickness, old age and death, somewhere there is someone who is not suffering. Because who is it who makes the decision to practice? And so if I have a cold or the flu and I'm coughing or throwing up, that is an occasion for practice. If I'm feeling healthy and wonderful, it may not be seen so easily as an occasion for practice. So sickness, old age, and death has its advantages in that you can tell that something urgent is going on, that you may not always have the abilities that you have now, practice, you may not even have them for another week, so you better start now.

[04:28]

So anyway, that's how I feel about sickness, old age, and death. Maybe I should stop now. But if you really learn to practice with sickness, old age, and death, and I didn't stop, and if I still have a voice, I'll keep speaking, is that when you practice with it, You can also enter the continuous practice of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down in a very different way. And, you know, those postures, how many people are here for the first time? So, welcome. And so, welcome. And the Buddha taught. the awakened teacher taught four noble meditation postures in which you could study four noble truths.

[05:34]

Okay, so maybe I'll just say what they are. And if you already know what they are, then maybe it's review. Something I review about once every, about once every couple hours. So... in my life, so I hope it's okay to review this. So the four noble postures, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, are the four main postures of meditation that are taught by the Buddha, in which you can stabilize your awareness and mature your experience to be able to see into the quality of your life and the life of everyone. So walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. What moment is not covered by walking, standing, sitting, or lying down?

[06:41]

So I practice yoga, so I could say, well, you know, it's not exactly standing if I'm standing on my hands, but actually it is. It's just standing on your hands. That's standing. And you might say, well, it's not exactly lying down if I'm on my back with my legs around my neck and my arms twisted around each other. But actually, let's see, what would they be? I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack right now. Excuse me. But anyway, some posture that you can hardly even visualize, much less do. Let's just put it that way. But actually, that is. It has elements of standing because you touch the ground and there's an action away from the ground.

[07:43]

It has elements of sitting because there's a stable enjoyment of the posture, and it has elements of lying down because there's restfulness and repose in that posture no matter what it is, otherwise you couldn't stay in it. And so it covers every moment of the day. The Four Noble Truths are Buddha's basic teaching. They sound almost as pessimistic as a topic of sickness, old age, and death. Okay, they are life is suffering. There's an origin to suffering. There's an end to suffering. And the end to suffering is the path.

[08:46]

And I won't go into the Eightfold Path because it's too many folds and so on for one lecture, probably. But it includes various aspects of your life, the Path includes various aspects of your life, ranging from the social all the way down or in to the most refined consciousness. that's possible in human life to something that transcends any consciousness or mind state that we can have. So life is suffering just means there's always something that gets in the way of not suffering. There's always something. And it's just I don't know, when you're on vacation, you're going on vacation and everything is wonderful and then you happen to realize that you've brought along all the things that you need and they happen to be liquids that are over an ounce.

[10:06]

Or you're best friend has just had a baby, and you want to go see the baby, but your shape makes the baby scared. Or, you know, you're on the street enjoying driving your car, but then there's an accident in front of you, so you can't go anywhere. All you can do is sit in this car that you were previously enjoying. Or, you know, the food is really good, but you think you should be on a diet. Or, you know, anything. It's always, it just means that we generally live in a yes, but relationship with our lives. And if we don't actively live in a no.

[11:16]

Or forget about it. Relationship with our lives, it means there's always this tendency to, well, yeah, but. Or, uh. Or, uh. All those things. Life is suffering. And that's called... You know, we live in a reactive mode. And so, Buddha's great discovery was that there's an origin to it, there's a beginning to it. Because it seems beginningless and endless. And so, if we didn't know that, we would just be frustrated with life and not want to live it, possibly. or live in a state of suffering. But Buddha's great discovery was that events aren't just mysterious, that there's an order to how they unfold, and that's because the only thing we know about events is our experience of them.

[12:40]

And that experience comes up in certain very predictable, repetitive ways. We just don't know about that, and so we continue to suffer over and over again. But because it's kind of repetitive, we can learn how it comes up, and then eventually we see that there is a beginning to suffering. And where it begins is in our wanting things to be the way they aren't in our thirst or our aversion for various features of life. So that's one of the places. That is probably the key spot that Buddha identified as suffering. And Buddha's victory song is, I've found the ridge pole, you know.

[13:42]

that he had found the ridge pole of the structure of suffering, and that he had conquered suffering by finding its beginning. Because where you find something's beginning, especially in a repetitive cycle, the next noble truth is there's an end. So if you can find the beginning, you can find the end. And the end that he found was a path, or a method, or a way that we practice here. So, the way is practiced in four noble postures. And in those noble postures of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, you can see this very, very well. So for instance, let's say that you've, maybe this is not an example that everyone can relate to, but you've gone through menopause and your hips are getting stiff.

[14:57]

And so standing and walking is difficult. The people who have gone through menopause are laughing, but the people who haven't gone through menopause are not laughing. Thank you for your sympathy. So if you're a menopausal stiff practitioner and there's walking to be done, that you do walking practice, standing and walking practice with stiff menopausal Okay, close your ears for a second. Blanche, do you mind if I use you as an example? Okay. I'm not using her as an example of menopausal stiffness. I'm using Blanche as an example of someone with clearly white hair with a walking practice.

[16:01]

So I'm going to pass around a card which recently, if you're in Buddhist Peace Fellowship, you may have received. which shows Blanche walking under a flag of the Buddha's eyes with her bowl overturned in support for monks. This is walking practice. Evidence number one. It doesn't mean that if you're not menopausal you can't do walking meditation. Please don't make me laugh.

[17:02]

So... Standing and walking are done. They're not states, you know, like if you stand this way, you're really standing, but if you stand that way, you're not really standing. If you walk this way, you're really walking, but if you walk that way, you're not really walking. the practice of standing and walking. Standing as a noble meditation posture is a practice of insight into experience through the body, your body. So if you're standing in a wheelchair, you're standing.

[18:12]

If you're standing with leg braces, you're standing. And if you're standing with one leg or no legs, you're standing. Does that make sense to you? If you stand with two legs, you're standing. If you stand young, you're standing. You know, if you stand pretty, you're standing. It's not necessarily that whoever stands is practicing. Do you understand? But the practice of standing can be done by anyone who says, now I am standing and practices standing. The practice of walking can be done through saying, now I am walking and practicing walking. The practice of sitting, as you know, particularly if you're here for the first time, can be done by saying, now I am sitting.

[19:22]

And then saying, what? Am I doing it right? But yes, and now practicing sitting. So the practice of lying down, it's a little harder because you say, now I am lying down. But actually, if you say, now I am lying down, and you practice lying down practice, you are practicing lying down. And there are 84,000 such postures which are described by walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. There's this great couplet that's mentioned in continuous practice, fascicle one, Shobo Genzo Gyoji, which is the theme of this practice period that Abbot Vyushin has been teaching.

[20:37]

This couplet was written by teacher Xiangyan on the occasion of being at the waterfall at Mount Lu. The water gouges the cliff and pounds the rocks unceasingly. Even from a distance, we know how high it is, how high it is. Okay? So when we first start practicing with walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, we are far from ourselves in a certain way. Because when we say, I am practicing walking, maybe suddenly we start tripping over our steps. When we start practicing sitting, suddenly it's, am I doing it right?

[21:42]

Even though we've been sitting our whole lives. But even from a distance, we know how high it is. We know the profundity of what we're about to do, even from a distance. And the water gouges the cliff and pounds the rocks unceasingly. You know, think about driving along Route 1, okay, near Devil's Slide. Doesn't the water gouge those cliffs? cliffs and pound those rocks, that feeling of the water continuously working the way water works. It's not that waves just gouge the cliff and pound the rocks. Without the full force and responsiveness of the ocean,

[22:46]

to the tides and the winds, there wouldn't be waves. Do you understand? There couldn't be any waves if there weren't an ocean for the waves to be along the surface of. But often we just see the waves. But then when we say, no, now I'm going to see the ocean, suddenly Where is the ocean? You can't see the ocean because where is the ocean? That intention to see the ocean itself suddenly makes you doubt what you're doing. So let's say you say, now I am practicing walking or now I am practicing lying down. Suddenly the intention that the... possible depths of the word practice and what that might mean, what kind of change that might mean, leads to a certain kind of doubt or fear.

[23:54]

You know, because it could be so deep and suddenly you don't know if it's right. Let's say it is right. Okay? So, just like the ocean, on the great path of Buddhas and ancestors, There's always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. And this moment's sitting, this moment's, you know, I can't do this even for one more second, you know, is a wave on the ocean of continuous practice of which this moment of sitting is at peace. So let's take a moment to refresh sitting, okay? Since we have sitting to work with, let's take a moment to refresh it. So first you might want to rest your mind.

[24:57]

And if your body doesn't yet know how to rest your mind, you may need to rest your legs or rest your position for a moment. And when you've come to a sense of normalcy about your perception, and there isn't any fight or flight going on, and you're not feeling reactive or in pain, which is in the 7 to 10 range, then take a moment to find yourself evenly on your two buttock bones. So whatever you're sitting on, you could be sitting on the left side or the right side of it or in the middle of it.

[26:03]

It's okay to sit at the front of it because you can feel the bones better if you sit at the front of it. But are you even on it? Is it fair between your left and right buttock bone? So distribute your weight. evenly on those two bones. And be ready on those two bones. If you take yourself backwards on the bones, you'll notice that your mental state withdraws slightly. If you bring yourself just to the front of the center of the buttock bones, you'll notice that your mental state sharpens. If you don't notice it now, try it at home when there aren't a hundred of your closest friends sitting in the room with you, when it isn't a social situation.

[27:05]

But sit equally on the two buttock bones. And if your knees are higher than your hips, then you may need to sit a little higher on something because that will throw you into a place in which you're inviting for your back to be thrown backwards. So sit evenly and sit with your knees lower than your hips in whatever posture that means. Okay, just there, can you feel the connection with Mother Earth. And that's the earthiness or solidity of the sitting posture.

[28:10]

But there's more to it than that. From your buttock bones, make space from the hips up to your ribs. So let your ribs be high up and a space there. And you'll notice that the middle of the body begins to become more known to you. And that middle of the body, that hara region, that center of the body, where if you're sitting in the meditation posture, you've put your mudra is a place where assimilation occurs. This is an important area. Anyway, I could go on. The beauties of the sitting posture are endless. And the same is true of walking, standing, and lying down.

[29:16]

Dogen Senji says, Because of practice, there are the sun, the moon, and the stars. Because of practice, there are the great earth and the open sky. And because of this practice, we can add, there are knees and ankles, you know, lungs, ribs, thumb tips, and so on. All of these express continuous practice. And how do we enter the gate of continuous practice? It's by practicing with the part that doesn't want to practice. So find some, if you find some part of your body that doesn't want to practice right now. You know, that doesn't want to sit. I mean it, I don't mean like,

[30:22]

There shouldn't be any or something. I mean, there always is one. That's the first noble truth. So find what that is and what is the problem. You know, it might be that you've been sitting here long enough. I mean, could it be that? It could be that the chair is hard, or the zafu is soft, or that your knee hurts, or you feel restless, or whatever it is. Find it. That very thing that keeps you from practice. is the gateway in.

[31:24]

So anyway, in further episodes we'll hear about the origin of practice, the end of suffering, the end of suffering, and the path. I think it's really important just to first find it and honor it, what it is. so that you can sit with it. Sitting doesn't necessarily mean one position. It means be with it long enough to admit it, to give yourself the possibility to respond. That's all. So that's the very everyday, very, very everyday practice of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down with sickness, old age, and death.

[32:54]

That is the beginning of practice and the end of practice. It's also the beginning of our suffering and the end of suffering. And it's the beginning of our lives. And it's the end of our lives. You know, what could be better to study together than this? I'm going to go drink some hot water now, some tea. And there are tea and cookies. There'll be more announcements about cookies in a moment. And I really appreciate your patience and your ability to join me in sitting practice this morning. Thank you very much. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[34:06]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[34:16]

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