And if you are willing to turn on your videos so that Matt can see you, I think that would be helpful. Yeah. So just so you know, this session will be recorded. Near the end, we'll stop the recording and go into the gallery view for... question and answer so that I can see your faces and bodies and we can have a chance to address some of the specific questions that may arise for you this morning. So just welcome. And I'll give you an overview of what we'll be doing this morning. We'll be, I'll be talking about what Sazen is. and some of the elements of this particular kind of meditation.

[01:04]

And I'll demonstrate. I'm sitting on a chair right now. I will demonstrate various ways of sitting on cushions and a meditation bench and go through the various considerations. Zazen is a very physical practice. So there are things that help to make it, to help us tune into our bodies, be more aware of our bodies, as well as of our minds and emotions as we meditate. And I will switch to sitting on the floor shortly. And we will have, after some instruction, We'll sit together briefly. There'll be a chance for you then to put any questions you may have in the chat.

[02:10]

And Matt will read them to me. And then we'll sit again. And following that, we'll have some discussion. I'll also let you know what is happening at San Francisco Zen Center this morning after us and instruction in case you want to stay longer. I'll also talk a little bit about how to establish a meditation practice at home if you don't already meditate at home. Only Matt will be able to see this, but I want to just ask you a few questions. I'm curious about how many, or would you just raise your... hand, thumbs up, if this is the first time you are experiencing meditation. And maybe, Matt, can you tell me how many hands are up?

[03:18]

Just a few thumbs. Tova, I wonder, can you see the gallery from your screen? I can see just a I think there's seven of us total. Okay. I can only see Zendo events and two people. Okay. Okay. And then for how many of you is it your first time doing Zazen in particular? I'll say a little bit more about what Zazen is. Just one time at a time. Okay. And how many of you meditate at home? Everybody. Oh, okay. So this may just be a refresher for you.

[04:21]

That's wonderful that you all sit at home. And I really am curious about what brings you here this morning. And we'll have a chance to talk about that later. So let's start with Zazen. What is Zazen? And it's Japanese for Zen meditation. Zen meditation has its roots in the teachings of the Buddha 2,500 plus years ago. And the teachings of the Buddha spread throughout Asia. made their way from India to China. And in China, monastic practice started, and there were many people who practiced what was called Chan meditation.

[05:24]

And then when Chan made its way to Japan, it was called zen meditation so our roots uh practice our our ancestors go back through japan to china to india and our founding teacher shunryu suzuki roshi came to san francisco in 1959 to lead a congregation in japantown that was japanese japanese american and eventually westerners were san franciscans primarily who found out he was here were curious and went to meet him and he just invited them to meditate with him there was a small zendo meditation hall in the basement of the center where he was serving primarily the japanese community so um zen center

[06:29]

became Zen Center over 50 years ago. I believe the date was 1962. And we have three centers. This one where I am right now at Page and Laguna in San Francisco is we call City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple. There's also a center in Marin called Green Gulch Farm that has a working organic farm. and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana Wilderness inland from Big Sur. And we do the same practice at all three centers. So Sazen, as I mentioned, is a physical practice. And one of the things that I appreciate about Sazen is the focus on posture and finding a position in which we can sit or meditate, because some people are unable to do seated meditation.

[07:39]

You can also meditate standing up or lying down, but focus on seated meditation this morning. It involves having... a position you can sit in for an extended period of time without moving, and that's both relaxed and alert. So to start with, if you're sitting on a chair, they want to have your feet touching, both feet touching the floor, and your weight equally distributed on your sit bones. And some of these instructions apply if you're sitting on a cushion as well or on a bench. Aligning your spine. And the head is in line with the vertebrae of the back.

[08:47]

Sometimes I find it helpful to think about a thread going from the top of my head all the way up to the sky. and to relax your shoulders. And generally, it's helpful to sit forward on the chair rather than leaning all the way back. And that makes it much easier to align your spine if you're not leaning back into the chair. So I'll also just say that with meditation, We start with our posture and finding this comfortable position to sit, and sometimes that can take some experimenting. And then we also pay attention to our thoughts, our emotions, physical sensations, other physical sensations that arise.

[09:53]

So with that, I'm going to move to the floor and I have to relocate my computers so if you'll bear with me this will take just a minute or two. So I think you can see I'm now sitting on a cushion.

[11:08]

I'll just show you the cushion. This is called a Zafu and it's round. It's I prefer, you know, their cushions can be softer or stiffer or stable. I prefer a and I'm sitting in a position where my legs are crossed, but as you can see, my knees are up in the air. People are more flexible. It's possible to sit with one foot on the opposite thigh, which is called half lotus, or to have your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh and full lotus.

[12:15]

I'm not able to demonstrate that, but you've probably seen pictures of people sitting in half lotus or full lotus. So it's very helpful not to have your... knees up in the air the way mine are, unless you support them. So I use these small support cushions. We also have used some square support cushions sometimes at SunCenter. And if you're at home, you can fold up a towel if you need support under your knees. This way I can sit for a long time without moving. The other thing that is helpful is to sit forward on your cushion so that the cushion isn't pressing against the back of your thighs, which can put pressure on the sciatic nerve. And that's why sometimes people's feet fall asleep sitting in zazen.

[13:19]

So once you have a stable base, I wanted to just demonstrate one other thing. Many people find it comfortable to kneel instead of sitting cross-legged. And you may want to experiment and find out what's best for your body. So this is kneeling on a zapu. Just place the zapu between your legs and you can sit back. You can also use a meditation bench. I brought one to demonstrate. This is very stable and actually not so comfortable on this bench. But the idea would be to sit back on the bench and use that as you would a cushion if you're kneeling. So the

[14:25]

The main consideration, I would say, is to find a position that works for your particular body. And all of our bodies are different, and our bodies may change from time to time. And to pay attention if you start feeling pain when you're sitting, it may have to do with the position that you're in, Maybe you need a cushion that's higher or lower. So experiment until you find what works for you. So I also want you to... So again, I don't think you can see my head. I don't know how important that is. But again, as on a chair, take a moment to align your spine. People often will... Rock back and forth before finding center and also forward and back.

[15:34]

Sometimes without being aware of it, we may be leaning forward or leaning back. So if you're rocking until you find center, that can help. And again, see if you can relax your shoulders. Imagine that thread going from your... the top of your head up to the sky, and see if you can distribute your weight evenly on your sit bones. And I find it helpful, and I'll talk more about this, the mind often wanders during Sazen, sometimes just bringing it back to an awareness of the sensation of my knees on the cushion, or my sit bones on the cushion. Or if you're on a chair, you can notice your feet and the sensation of your feet touching the floor. So we use a particular mudra for hand position in zazen called the cosmic mudra.

[16:48]

Demonstrated the left palm goes up, the right palm goes up. Sorry. The right palm is the one that's underneath the left palm on top. And the fingers of the left palm rest right at the knuckle, the point where the fingers of the right palm are joining the palm itself. And then you... touch your thumb slightly together so your hands form kind of an oval. And you rest that just below your navel. And the arms are slightly extended as if you had an egg under each armpit. This is called the cosmic mudra. And there are two things that are helpful about using this mudra.

[17:50]

If you're not comfortable with the mudra or if you feel some stress around your shoulders, you can also sit with your palms on your thighs. Just demonstrate the mudra again. Right palm up, left palm up on top of the right fingers, thumbs lightly touching and resting just below the navel. So one of the things about this mudra is it is a way of noticing if you lose your concentration or even drift off, doze off, sometimes the mudra will just drop into your lap. And then it's, you know, you'll notice that. And so you can form the mudra again.

[18:51]

it's touching the body at this, basically it's, this place is sometimes called the Tan Tian in Chinese. It's this energy source in our body. And when we breathe deeply into our belly, we can, you can feel it under your, under your mudra, where your pinkies are touching your body. And that can, also be very stabilizing. So a few other things before we start sitting. The suggestion is, and I would just say, try these things on if you're used to doing things a different way, and just you might want to use this opportunity to experiment doing something differently. So the breathing is through the now, through the nose with the mouth closed, tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

[20:00]

Sometimes at the beginning of a period of meditation, I will take a couple of deeper breaths so I can actually feel the rising and falling of my belly. Be aware of the sensation of the air coming into my nostrils as I inhale, leaving as I exhale. And then we also sit with our eyes partly open and cast down. with a very soft gaze, so I'm not staring at what's in front of me. And generally, when we sit in our meditation hall, we sit facing the wall.

[21:12]

And sometimes at home that can be helpful as well, just to minimize distractions. So in terms of thoughts and emotions that you may become aware of as you're meditating, if possible, just notice as they arise and change without getting too involved in problem solving or memorizing something or allow your thoughts to arise and go like clouds passing across the skies.

[22:28]

Sometimes that's difficult to do. And if you find yourself engaged in thinking, remembering something that happened earlier, or planning something coming up you can just very gently notice that then notice your breathing or physical sensation and similarly if you notice emotions arising See where they are located in your body. Notice how things may change from moment to moment. And it's always helpful

[23:36]

to the breathing, kind of a place of refuge. So I'm going to ring a bell and we will sit for five minutes. Ring the bell once at the beginning and once at the end. So if you like, if you're sitting cross-legged or on a cushion, you may want to take a moment and sit in rest position where your knees are up.

[29:59]

And you want to wiggle your toes. So I'm wondering if anyone has any questions at this point. If so, you can put them in the chat and Matt will read them to me. Let's sit again for another five minutes. And during this sitting, I'd like to read a passage from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a collection of Suzuki Roshi's Actually, many people find their way to Zen practice by coming across this book and reading it. And it's a passage about the breath. So just to let you know, you can expect that.

[31:04]

And after that, we will stop the recording again and have further question in it. Well, will we stop it? Yes. I might just say a few words about sitting at home, but all of you already have a seat in practice. So I will stop the recording after the next period of Zazen. I'll do what we call a dedication of merit. And then we can have some discussion. And I can tell you what's happening later on this morning if you're interested in staying connected. after the zazen instruction. So again, I'll ring the bell and we'll sit for five minutes. And during that time, I'll share these words of Suzuki Roshi. When we practice sazen, our mind always follows our breathing.

[33:56]

When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. say inner world or outer world, but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. think I breathe, the I is extra. What we call I is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

[35:06]

It just moves. That is all. So I'm going to do a very simple dedication of merit.

[40:13]

And the idea behind this is that whatever we do in our practice is not only for our own well-being, but it can ripple out. And so we can dedicate the merit or the goodness, the whatever... maybe beneficial about our meditation to the well-being of others. And a simple one is, and I'm putting my hands in another mudra. This is called gasho, where the palms are pressed together. Typically a fist width, holding my hands a fist width from my nose. And the... Arms are parallel to the floor. So this is a gasho. It's called gasho.

[41:14]

May the merit of our sitting this morning be of benefit to all beings near or far. Okay, so I'm going to return to the chair so I can... my computer in gallery view and actually see you see your names and we can have some discussion usually we stop by 10 after 9 because people will be arriving for a period of meditation that's offered to the general public at 925 so just take a moment to move back OK, so I'm going to switch if I can to gallery view.

[42:35]

Yes. So I can see all of you now, except Annie.

[42:40]

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