Thank you. I think you are facing actual problem in your doesn't practice. The worst one may be the pain of your legs, maybe. It is some, not secret, but it is some certain way to sit in pain.

[01:38]

Because it is... So direct that you have no time to think of some way, you know, before you think it comes and you are involved in the pain. that it's so-called it, you know, that you are involved in the pain immediately. It means that you are

[02:44]

your way of life or your attitude towards your life is not well trained. For instance, if you I think some of you must have this kind of experience. If you are going to a fair, for instance, from the tree to the ground, the moment you leave the branch, You lose your function of the body.

[03:58]

But if you don't, you know, that's a pretty long time before you reach to the ground. And there may be some branch, you know. So you can catch the branch, but you can do something. But because you lose the function of your body, you know, before you reach to the ground, you may... your conscience. In other practice, the first problem you face will be the pain.

[05:09]

Even for Japanese people who are sitting always on the floor. This problem of pain. But how you endure the pain is As I always say, not to lose your power right here. And free your legs from pain, having more strength here. And this is this kind of way.

[06:20]

This way will be applied for various problems you have. For instance, when you are about to be angry, you shouldn't be involved in the anger immediately. You must part time before you become angry. Count. Ten. Before you become angry. Count. While you are counting. One, two, three, four. My cough is, you know, same thing. You know, if I have, you know, some strings here, I don't cough, even though I cough not so bad.

[07:34]

But when I laugh or when I'm excited, in other words, when I have no... preparation in my tummy. My doctor said, nothing wrong with your throat. Maybe that it's some, you know, nervous. So I was very ashamed of being so nervous, you know.

[08:42]

So I decided to conquer the cough. Before, I didn't matter so much. But after, doctor said, nothing wrong with your throat. If you cough, let your wife collect 10 cents each time. He said so. So I'm trying to have always some power here. But when it comes, it comes so suddenly, so I have no time to prepare for it. My cough is good practice for me.

[10:07]

That you have some problem or difficulty in your practice is, I think, a very good thing. It is much easier to practice that without any problems. If you have some problem, you have some excuse to work on it instead of Shikantaza. Shikantaza is actually not so easy. If you are supposed to practice skantaza, maybe. It is pretty difficult thing. It is difficult to continue it.

[11:08]

Well, you can do it, you know, five minutes, 10 minutes, you may be able to do it, but without cessation. To continue Shikan Tata is pretty difficult. We say, Selflessness. Selflessness is to say, you know, just to explain what is selflessness. It's not so difficult. But actually what it means is, you know, not something to explain.

[12:21]

but something to actually practice it or attain it. The stage you must attain. Although there is no such self, no such thing as self we have. No self. Originally, we have no self. But we feel as if we have self. And we see as if everything has its own self-nature. But there is no such thing as self-nature. You may say water has its own nature. And iron has its own nature.

[13:23]

But that nature is conditioned by many factors. That is why water is flowing, iron is hard. So, as Buddha said, all... A constituent object has no self, self-nature. The universal nature takes some particular way of function under some That's all.

[14:24]

So there's no such thing as self-nature. But although there's no self-nature, there's some rules. The fundamental rules are rules of causality. If there's a cause and there's an effect. That is the immutable truth. And that is maybe the only truth we can The rest of the truth, there is no special truth.

[15:38]

To explain in this way is not difficult. And whatever you feel about it, Even though you say there is self-nature, but there is no self-nature. That is very true. Excuse me, can you hear me? So there's two ways of understanding about self-nature. Self-nature, which exists, and no self-nature, as the ultimate truth.

[16:53]

And no self-nature. nature as a goal of practice. For a human being, unless we strive for, unless we make a great effort, it is difficult to realize the self-nature, no self-nature. Even though there is no such thing as self-nature. For us, I don't know why, you know, it is necessary to practice and to attain no self-nature. For us, it is something to attain. That is why we practice Zazen, you know.

[18:08]

By Zazen, we can realize, or a realization of self, no self nature, will appear, will take place. With that, it doesn't. Even though you know that we have no self nature, it doesn't work. That is fine. we practice and intellectual explanation of non-self nature is to give you some confidence in our practice to point out the possibility of attaining

[19:36]

No self nature. Or even though you don't attain it perfectly, you know, if you, you will find out, you will have some confidence in your practice. That is, we have teaching for we have various explanations for that practice. And you may ask then, After we realize, or realization of selflessness happens to you, what will be your way of life?

[20:56]

If you, you know, think something, you know, after attaining non-therapy nature, you will have some wonderful, you know, feeling or some special power that is also a mistake. Nothing will happen. If nothing happens, why do you make such an effort? Because it's pain. Here, you know.

[22:15]

And there is an interesting story. Here is some interesting or famous koan. Do you know the koan of Hyakucho? Wild fox and Hyakucho. Chakujo was a famous Zen master, as you know, who established special precepts for Zen monks. Before Hyakujo, Zen monks were practicing at some other temple, some temple which belongs to mostly precept school.

[23:39]

Precept master were lit. There, they were practicing jazan, as you have been practicing jazan at Sokoji, because they haven't their own temple. And they observed mostly Indian precepts, but Hyakujo, established a monastery, and he set up monastic rules, like we have precepts, like Buddha set up precepts.

[24:41]

And one day, every day, he was giving a lecture. And one old man always came and listened to the lecture. But one day... He didn't leave after lecture. So Hyakujo asked him, why don't you go back to your room? And the old man said, in many

[25:47]

hundreds of years before you come to this temple. I was a priest of this temple. And when I was asked, is it possible to be Free from the truth of causality. If you do something good, you will have good result. If you do something bad, you will have bad result. This is the rules of causality in morality. And there must be various truths, theories.

[26:59]

And you may say this is truth of karma. Is it possible to be free from karma? To be free from... the truth of causality. And someone asked him, and he said, yes, it is possible. And that answer was not proper. So I reincarnated in facts. And I reincarnated Fox again and again, about 500 times maybe. And I cannot now.

[28:07]

I cannot be, I cannot get free from that. Because I did, I said something wrong. And the old man asked, and the fox actually, in disguise, a fox asked, what will be the right answer? And the hacker said, The right answer will be, you will not. You cannot be free from karma. That will be the right answer. And at that time, the folks attend enlightenment.

[29:10]

And next day, He didn't. The old man didn't come to the lecture. And Hyakucho said, we'll have a funeral. And, you know, students amazed. Who died? At that time... Buddhists didn't take funeral service for someone else. They took funeral service for their students only, or teachers only. When no one died, why do we have funeral? But...

[30:13]

Hyakujo said, go back, go to the mountain, back of the temple. And they found dead folk in the mountain. And they had a big funeral for him. And this is the story. And since then, we have... we made it as one of the many coins. To be free from karma is fine. And not to ignore karma, that is, you know, next to... We have two. But...

[31:13]

What do we mean by we not ignore the truth or truth of causality? And, you know, to be free from... without ignoring karma, and to get free from karma. What will be the way? After you attain enlightenment, your way is still. You should follow the truth of karma.

[32:16]

or truth of causality. You cannot ignore the truth. But you should not be caught by it. The way is just I wear such a troublesome robe. This is karma. Because of karma, I have to wear it. Long-sleeved koromo like this. And without taking off the koromo, you know, to have freedom from koromo, it's the way. Can you understand? Sometimes, To use koromo to hide something underneath when it is necessary.

[33:27]

To use karma to help others. Or to enjoy the karma without ignoring it. Or to enjoy our life, complicated life, difficult life. without ignoring it, and without being caught by it, without suffering from it. That is actually what will happen to us after. you practice that. Actually, whether you attain enlightenment or not, if you continue this practice, naturally you will have that kind of quality.

[34:43]

It is a matter of just subtle feeling. Like, you know, this, like the sound packs. Some, you know, there's slight difference between my own voice and the voice you hear through this box. But this slight difference makes a big difference. It is, you know, you think, you say, I practiced jazen for two or three years, but I... haven't made any progress, you may say.

[35:56]

But actually, you know, the feeling you give by your conduct, by your words, will be quite different. It is like to feel something, you know. This is a wood, this is cloth, you know. And this is an enamel, and this is a kind of lacquer. Looks like the same, but if you feel it, the vision is quite different. and feeling you have from it. When the feeling you have from it is different, you feel as if this is something else, you know.

[37:14]

This is quite different from that. That kind of difference, subtle difference, difference, but big difference in our actual life. Physically, it is very small difference. But spiritually, or feeling you have from it is And we, you know, when we talk about our practice, we, a merit of practice, a value of practice,

[38:18]

We tentatively talk about the value in terms of good feeling or bad feeling. If you help others or not. If you help others or don't help others. Or give some... We say non-discrimination. Non-discrimination. But when we try to help others, you know, we should say good and bad.

[39:30]

Or else we cannot tell fathers good being or bad being. But originally there is no such thing good and bad. But when people fail, something is good and some other thing is bad, we should also involve that kind of idea of good and bad. Even though we don't actually feel as they feel, But the feeling is not exactly the same. But...

[40:44]

But we must give. We must be able to express our sympathy by some words. in terms of good and bad. That is also actually two contradictory attitudes. One is non-attachment. The other is attachment, looks like attachment. But not actual attachment, but it looks like discrimination, looks like attachment.

[42:02]

But there's slight difference. If you do not have complete calmness of your mind, you know, you cannot tell the difference. You see everything nearly the same, exactly the same. You cannot tell the difference of the quality. One may be glass and one may be jewel. But you think all jewels or all glass So if you actually practice jajan with pain, you will know what is pain in its true sense.

[43:09]

If you sit in calmness of your mind in pain, you will know what is pain in its true sense. which you didn't know in your everyday life. So when you have time, you know, to wait when you are angry, you will know what is angry exactly. So you will not make any mistake. You are so subtle, you know, in handling your work. Even though you are angry, you have time to think. So it is necessary for us to have complete calmness always.

[44:25]

And we should be able to go back to the complete calmness. Even though sometimes you are angry or excited, you should be able to go back to the calmness of your mind. Over and over, if you train yourself in this way, you will have complete freedom from the karma. So, you know, not to fall into karma. Not to be caught by karma. And not to ignore the karma. And the third stage will be to have complete freedom from karma.

[45:36]

Those things should not be different, as I explained, as we wear robes. It does not mean to take off, to be free from karma does not mean to take off all my traps and robes. Now I am free. This is not the complete freedom we need. This kind of stage is the stage Buddhists are aiming at. So under the difficult situation, without

[46:41]

escaping from it, we should have freedom from the circumstances. Adversity or easy circumstances. If there is you know, no pain in your legs, it is rather difficult to make progress. But if you have some problem, I think you will make progress easier. It is true with calligraphy. or pursuing painting.

[47:46]

When you start to feel some difficulty, you know, you start to make progress. When it is easy, you don't make much progress. When you are wealthy and happy with money and with family and with everything, you don't make any problems. After you rule, you have lost everything, you know. Without money, without family, without house, without baking ball, then you will start to make some problems.

[48:57]

That is why we go for a trip of takuatsu. But nowadays, You know, we have big temple like this. Once in a fire, we go out with baking ball, so it doesn't, it isn't so difficult. But the real takuhats should be done without anything. But after you attain complete liberation from this world, without escaping from it, you will have all the money people have. So there's no problem.

[50:00]

If, you know, every one of us will know one out of ten people have this kind of freedom. We will have no war, no social problem. We will be all happy. With this kind of understanding of practice, we, you know, practice Shazam. So, we must trust people, you know, and we must

[51:14]

Trust Buddha. And you must trust yourself. And you should be completely giving yourself to practice. Completely involving practice. Forgetting everything. Pain or... they have confusion. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

[52:14]

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