In the book I've been studying on the Satipatthana and these seven factors that I've been talking about, seven factors of awakening come from, the book at the end of the chapter has a list of supportive conditions for these factors. And each factor has its own set of supportive conditions. So the next factor is tranquility. Here's the supporting conditions for tranquility. Good food. Agreeable weather. Comfortable posture. So, there'll be a menu served at lunch today. Make the weather's obliging and comfortable posture. Well, what could be more comfortable than sitting cross-legged? No. Balanced behavior.

[01:13]

Balanced behavior. Avoiding restless people. So maybe you could point out to the Eno, the people you don't want to sit with. And associating with calm people. Inclining the mind accordingly. Each one of the factors has the kind of people you should avoid. So much for practicing with all beings. Yeah. How to get things just right. There's always a tension between skillfully creating what you might call supportive conditions and taking what you've got.

[02:28]

How do you work with this body and create a basis, a foundation for awakening? And then how do you live with the body you've got? And here it is. There's an old Irish joke about this guy, this tourist is driving around and he's out in the middle of the countryside and he's totally lost. And there's a farmer working in a field and he stops and he calls the farmer over and he says, how do I get to Dublin? And the farmer thinks and he thinks some more and he thinks some more and says, you know, if I was going to Dublin, I wouldn't start from here. you know you are where you are you've got the body you've got the mind you've got the personality the psychology the company the food here it is

[03:47]

this play between, okay, what's this skillful creation that supports awakening? And watch this broad acceptance. This is what you got. There's a coin where a monk asks young men, What's the teaching of a whole lifetime of practice? And young man says, responding to facing oneness. It is what it is. Responding to just this. And in his two poems that talk about this,

[04:56]

talks about wideness. To be great, to be whole, don't exaggerate or leave out any part of yourself. Be complete in each thing. Put all you are into the least of your acts. So, in each life, The whole moon shines. The footnote says this poet was never really very well known and died in obscurity. I thought it was a beautiful poem. Here's Chung Su's words. Perfectly simple.

[06:09]

No obstacle. So when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, for and against are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions. Then your affairs are under control. You're free. Begin right and it's easy. Continue easy and it's right. The right way is to forget the right way. And forget that the going is easy. So as I've been talking about these factors, I've been trying to describe two sides, both sides.

[07:27]

Our glimpses of opening, our glimpses of connecting, our glimpses of going beyond the preoccupations of self. And then the other side, embracing yourself. Okay, this is what's happening. These thoughts, these feelings, this body. This response to all of those. So whether we experience them in harmony where they disappear, or in our glimpses, we go into an exalted state. It's very interesting to watch when we have our glimpses, our taste of oneness, our taste of connectedness to the moment, of non-separation.

[08:41]

Usually there's a sense of affirmation. Often a deep sense of appreciation. And then when we have our experience of disconnection or disharmony, you know, a sense of agitation, distress, discouragement. of facing oneness. Either way, this is it, this is it, this is it. How can it not be? What's happening is what's happening. You know, mindfulness, awareness is to hold what

[09:54]

ever arises. And the blessing of Shishin is that this structure keeps bringing us back, keeps offering us, pointing us back towards this is the foundation that supports awareness. And so this very mind, this very body, that we've lived with all our lives, we can look at it a little more carefully, a little more astutely. The amazing and marvelous thing about awareness is that awareness becomes more sensitive and more astute. Something you've seen a thousand times, you see something that you didn't see in any of the first thousand times you noticed it. Ah. And the previous factor, the one of rapture, the one of devotion, where we become the moment, where the energy of it draws us in

[11:20]

into a state of intimacy. And of course, we can become intimate with the pleasant, that which brings ease, that which settles the heart, clears the mind. And we can become intimate with that which unsettles the heart, agitates the mind. Facing oneness is okay. That's what's happening. Okay. That's what's happening. Okay. That's the teaching of the moment. Okay. That's the teaching of the moment. In the commentary on this quote, that quote says, horrendously difficult. That's his comment. teacher says, like scaling a cliff a thousand feet high.

[12:32]

Because it's asking for this delicate balance, you know? Right here, right now, just this. have that be so wide that nothing is left out. Like Ferdinand Pessoa says, you know, the great lid. Be whole. To be great, be whole. Don't exaggerate or leave out any part of you. Tension itself has a kind of ease and liberation. You know, to sit with this notion that everything, every experience is invited to be here. Because it's already here. If it arises here, it's already here. So the path to tranquility

[13:54]

have to settle in. And it's interesting because shamatha, you know, the word that means focused concentration. In the skillfulness of the meditation text, the attributes of shamatha are tranquility and returning to one. sometimes called stopping, but returning to the direct experience of now. So as we settle into Hashim, you know, and our lives are becoming more momentary, are becoming more evident, as our lives are becoming somewhat less, maybe a whole lot less, I have old movies. The greatest hits of the world, according to me.

[14:59]

Or the sequel. With its heroes and villains. Right in the middle of that. and let it start to become less mesmerizing, less delving off into obscurity. And then what's asked of us increasingly is can you deal with being with yourself? Can you deal with the arising of this moment the whole world itself this experience is co-created by the conditioned vital energy of this being is a full active participant in the moment that arises can that be acknowledged

[16:23]

be taken responsibility for. And in something in there, can we discover the heart's release? And can we stay present when the heart doesn't release? Can we start to notice and confirmation of Hakuin's words. Horrendously difficult. Can you start to watch the amazing ways in which your mind, your attention, wants to spin off? Can you start to watch that when you ask the mind, stay

[17:25]

But that adds a certain intensity. It's as if some part of us with great determination says, no. Are you kidding? Is they here? tiny speck, you know, when I have the vast regions of all my past memories and all my future possibilities. With all their magnificent stories, their wonderful imaginings, and the dramas of their memories. Then we cast The White Knight.

[18:27]

That's just part of here. It's never been and can't be anywhere else. This delicate interplay of both of these factors. Just here. Just this. Forever. And everything's included. physical sensation after physical sensation, breath after breath, and whatever arises is acknowledged. And if the mind has a lot of energy, then it's acknowledged with some kind of

[19:33]

in some significant way. If the mind's not so energetically dispersing itself, then the acknowledgement is just momentary contact. The momentary contact, does it fall away? Or does it pick on identity, a significance, a passion. Either way, meet it with awareness. Either way, just this is it. Sometimes the The Koan is translated like this.

[20:38]

What's the teachings of the Buddha's whole lifetime of practice? Facing Oneness. Sometimes it's said, all the teachings are just a variation on this. how to come to it, how to open to it, how to abide in it, how to realize it. So as we settle in this issue, the capacity to do this has been cultivated. Maybe we could even say has been hard-earned. Some energy has been accumulated.

[21:53]

Some energy and capacity to attend has been cultivated. So that can be, as we open, And things rise. This energy can be given over. And do we get hooked? Or do we just let it be a play? The energetic play of light. Do we get hooked? Do we identify with it? Do we struggle with it, grasp after it? Or is something released? Is something softened? Some sense of ease. This play between staying connected to the moment, attentive to it,

[23:01]

letting it be whatever it is, and not grasping it. This is the grind that gives birth to tranquility. And Hakuin, great teacher, says, horrendously difficult. You know, for some of the other coins, he has... all sorts of statements and all sorts of colorful images and poetic allusions. That was all he had to say about this one. So we come to this place. to this request. And we heard it the first day we started to practice.

[24:09]

And we intuitively knew it before anybody else told us. And we've heard it every day since. And today asks us to hear it and to take it to heart Maybe more fully than we have ever done before. And to stay with it. To realize, literally, its exactness and its liberating scope. This is... And shamatha gives birth to samadhi.

[25:12]

And samadhi is continuous contact. So when we look at it with a certain kind of discernment, what we're trying to do is rather than have a moment of contact, wander off for five minutes, have another moment of contact, is can the moments of contact become closer? can here and now be energized more than there and then. So that the felt experience, the lived experience, is more about now than there and then. And no matter what our mind is figuring out or concluding, in some way, or like a little kid, you know, the parenthesis of a little kid, When you grow up, never smoke a cigarette. And then the parent goes out and has a cigarette. You know?

[26:18]

And the little kid's thinking, hmm, cigarettes must be pretty darn good. It's what we say. It's what we think. It's even what we say to ourself with deep sincerity. the lived experience is a more convincing and believable teaching. So this is our challenge. Can we live this teaching? Because something will be metabolized. And it's just this kind of now, it's this patient, skillful, returning, returning, returning. And in some ways, part of its challenge is as Chung Su says, you know, when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.

[27:37]

When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, for and against are forgotten. So part of our awareness... is to enjoy enjoy the moments of ease and harmony when you come up out of the zendo and stand in the courtyard in the midday light free from that torturous dungeon. A few moments of liberty. But often, in our settled openness, things we experience are more alive.

[28:45]

The quality of light is more apparent. simple beauty of the plants growing around the fountain. Speak more authoritatively of who they are. To let ourselves enjoy If we want to put it psychologically, we can say to let healing take place. To let the difficulty and suffering of a lifetime start to melt in this moment of simple harmony. To let something

[29:50]

Settle into our bones. Into our breath. Into how the body is held. Into how the mind turns towards the world. To let that nourishment, that's never far away, to let that nourishment be received. Pause and appreciate. Something very simple. Beyond all the agendas, all the things we've figured out,

[30:54]

persistent arisings of our distress and agitation. Let something simply nourish our being. Samatha gives rise to tranquility. Settling gives rise to Samatha. We open up and appreciate, and the whole world supports us to be present. And as Chung Sao says, in that moment, we just forget. As Gildan Zenji says, forget the self. In that moment, it is not horrendously difficult.

[32:11]

It's just nothing special. There's nothing to accomplish. It's just the light of that moment. It's just the array of plants around a stone fountain. pavers of uneven ground. The strange fern grown in the corner from a prehistoric age. The magnolia permanently reaching up into the mindless sky. Nothing special.

[33:19]

And then the world, according to me, comes back as that wonderful older friend. Can we hear it for the first time? Say that again, let me listen. Really. That's who I am. Amazing. just glimpsed vastness. And yet I'm still a sucker for that same old story. How amazing. When the heart settles, that same old story has its own kind of beauty.

[34:39]

It's no longer, you know, some bitter evil. No longer the confirmation of your inadequacy, your unworthiness. some extraordinary play of conditioned existence. As Ferdinando Pessoa says, and the full moon shines on the light. The light of awareness just illuminates The moment.

[35:43]

And then, of course, we say, heck with this. I got to get back to worrying. I got to get back to being upset, to being distressed, to being disappointed, frightened. But can those glimpses not just simply be cast aside as some adoration, some moment of temporary insanity when you thought everything was okay? offer themselves as a guide.

[36:56]

A moment ago, this courtyard was just this. Empty and simple. Now it's packed wall to wall. with memories, attitudes, concerns. A moment ago, I could see from this side to that side. Now there's layers of stories and memories and imaginings in between. Even so, still, just this is it. And Hakuen says, it's horrendously difficult to do that.

[38:12]

To just be that wide, even after a moment of simplicity. absurdly simple when it happens. Can we pause and appreciate? Can we avail ourselves of what's always right at hand? Can we let it sink in? And then of our karma brings forth the next situation. Can we just open to that too? Okay.

[39:21]

It's as if we're not agitated that we're agitated. We're not distressed that we're distressed. We're not angry that our calm mind has changed to agitated mind. It's like we're not making things worse for ourselves. Okay. That's what's next. That keeps us close. When we layer agitation on agitation, then instead of some subtle movement, it becomes a storm. So can we stay close so that when we pause, something is touched?

[40:30]

This is the blessing of this pile of shashin. It would be nice under such conditions that all food was good food. All weather was agreeable weather. All posture was comfortable posture. And all behavior was balanced. All people that we were associating with were common. But we can incline in that direction. Our diligence

[41:40]

and have a softness to it. A non-grasping. Not to veer up so far, but to stay close. and to let those moments of connection truly soak in. To be great, behold, don't exaggerate or leave out any part of you. Be complete in each thing.

[42:45]

Put all you are into the least of your acts. So, in each lake, the whole moon shines. May our intention be...

[43:14]

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