Okay. Thumbs up. Yes. Great. I think it's the standard greeting in Zoom. Can you hear me? So anyhow, it's good to be with you all again, everyone. Thank you for joining the Tuesday online practice session. And it's always a gift for me to be with you in our mutual practice together. So thank you for joining. If you are new to these weekly online practice sessions, I'll just give you a brief kind of overview of what we'll do together. We'll start with about 25 minutes of Zazen or silent meditation, after which I'll offer a brief Dharmat or Dharma encouragement, you could call it. And then we'll have some time to come together and see if there's any questions. questions or something in your practice that you would like to share this evening, either that came up for you during the meditation or that's general in your life that you're working with at this time.

[01:37]

So that's kind of the overflow. And the intention is to finish around 630, although sometimes we do kind of linger on a little bit. So feel free to lead when you need to lead and take care of yourselves. Before we go into the meditation, however, I want to just let everyone know that due to the again Zoe retreat or a special meditation retreat that we're holding next week, which is the week of August 10th through the 17th, we won't be holding the usual online practice sessions on Tuesday and Thursday of next week. So please keep that in mind. It's listed on the webpage as well. There will be meditation, however. So the meditation will be blended in with retreats, participants. So if you do show up at 5.30, there will be a 40-minute period of zazen followed by a short service. And there won't be any dharmet.

[02:38]

Sorry. Definitely encourage you to join, participate, and have the opportunity just to sit awesome together. So just wanted to make sure that you are aware of that. And why don't you, without further ado, go ahead and get started with our meditation. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to take your meditation posture. So find a posture that is upright. attentive, and best accommodates your particular body. And throughout the meditation, I invite you to give yourself over to both a physical and a mental posture that is attentive and yet relaxed. So now allowing yourself to become aware of, connect with, and Simply relax into your present moment experience.

[03:41]

I'm going to say a few guiding words at the start of Arsasana as a support for those who may be newer to meditation and then eventually settle into silence. And I'll start by ringing a bell three times and then we'll end the period of meditation with one bell. And as I ring the bell, I'm going to invite you to allow your awareness to note and illuminate the full expression of the sound of the bell. Also kind of just the quality of the sound, but also the feeling of the vibration as it makes itself known to you. And then its duration. And then in time, noticing when it fades away. And what is it that remains? after you no longer hear the sound of the bell. Here we go. Having followed the sound of the bell, now directing mind's attention to the breath, using that same focused awareness that you gave to the sound of the bell, tending to the sensations of the breath, or maybe the sounds of the breath, whichever is easier for you to notice and follow.

[05:58]

Breathing naturally, allowing the natural flow of the inhale and the exhale to happen on their own accord. We're using the breath as a focal point, if you will, for the flashlight of mindfulness. Setting and stabilizing mind's attention with constancy focused on the breath. Giving the mind something other than our thoughts to attend to. Since it's our thinking that can make us feel more unsettled or tense or anxious in some way. We invite the mind to focus on the breath. keeping the aperture of mindfulness narrow enough to focus on just that small area of experience for a period of time until the mind begins to stabilize and quiet and subtle.

[07:22]

Breathing in, being aware of the in-breath. Breathing out, being aware of the out-breath. Breathing in, being aware of the in-breath. Breathing out, being aware of the out-breath. mind wanders away from mindfulness of the breath. We find it's becoming occupied with thoughts or worries or concerns of any type.

[08:35]

That's okay. That's what happens. That's what the mind does. It has a tendency to wander. So we do notice it. This is a moment of waking up. And that moment just gently and without judgment redirect mind's attention back once more, to the breath, or to wherever you have set the intention to be. And it's most likely that throughout the meditation, the mind's going to wander, and it will bring it back. If it may wander, it will bring it back. It's continuing in this diligent way. to stay as present as we can to present moment experience, into what it is we've set mind's attention towards. time as the mind quiets and settles.

[10:01]

A great way to kind of focus on the breath. You might wish to widen or open the aperture of awareness to include the experience of awareness of the breath throughout the whole body. So the entire body becomes a field of awareness. And again, if the mind becomes distracted in any way, wanders away from being aware of the whole body as a field of attending, you can simply once again narrow the aperture of awareness to focus once more on just the sensation of the breath, wherever it's most noticeable for you, the nostrils and the chest, the abdomen or the horror.

[11:26]

Let's include the sound of the breath. Until there's some stability of awareness, in which case then you might once again explore widening the aperture of awareness to include the whole body. In time, you might even wish to explore widening the aperture of awareness even more, to include the space beyond the body and into the room and beyond. But taking in the whole field of experience. And this is sometimes described as a sky-like awareness. An experience of awareness as a vast open luminous space in which Any thoughts or feelings, body sensations or other phenomenon that I rise are simply noted.

[12:36]

And you're allowed to kind of flow through this illuminated space. You don't need to grasp onto or get caught up in any of the experience that makes itself known. be doing our best to allow all experience to pass through this open awareness, just like clouds passing through an open sky. Once again, if we find that our mind begins to drift or get caught in particular experiences, you know, becomes kind of unsteady, know that we can simply, once again, narrow the aperture of mindfulness to a smaller field, perhaps once more focusing on just the sensation of the breath for a period of time, to collect the mind, to gather the mind, to stable the mind.

[14:06]

stabilize the mind. And then time once again, if you wish, to expand the adventure, to include mindfulness of the body, and then even wider to include just the whole field of experience in this present moment. if we can allow the aperture to be as wide as possible, to allow the light of awareness, the spotlight of awareness to be as inclusive as possible of the full range of experience that's presenting itself in this moment. Continuing in this way for the rest of the period.

[15:12]

Resting awareness. Resting insight. Thank you very much, everyone, for sitting together in this way.

[30:29]

So I'll go ahead and transition into my dharmettes. And the meditation this evening and the dharmette that I gave last Tuesday, I spoke about meditation using the analogy of mindfulness as the aperture of a spotlight. and directing and focusing light on certain objects in our field of experience, such as on our breath or the body or just the other phenomenon that might arise in our skylight field of experience. And we can think of our innate awareness as the light itself, that which illuminates all experience. And one of the things we can explore in our meditation, in our daily practice, It's just how, you could say, stable and how wide we can allow the spotlights for the aperture of mindfulness to become.

[31:36]

With the eventual goal, I might suggest, being one of widening the aperture of awareness as much as possible, to have what I like to call radically inclusive of all experience. both internal experience and also external experience. Enduring sounds such a way that we minimalize any instability that might arise from any sense of aversion to or reactivity to any experience that we might be having. Not just aversion to, but also desire, desire to grab onto, grasp things in some way. Now we might ask, why is it important to be able to widen our aperture of mindfulness to be radically inclusive of both internal as well as external experience?

[32:38]

And for some of us, it's enough of a challenge just to be aware of what's going on inside of us, right? Am I the only one that has that experience? You know, what is going on inside of this being, right? And yet we're also being asked in mindfulness to Also, you know, be aware of what's happening externally. Be aware of the rest of the world beyond just our personal experience. And the answer, why is this important from a Zen perspective, is that we're not practicing mindfulness just for ourselves. I hate to tell you it's not just about you, right? Even though that's usually our kind of, you know, the way that we constitute our universe, right? I am the center of the universe. But the reality is that we're practicing from a Zen perspective for the benefit of all beings, to help alleviate not just our own suffering, but the suffering of everyone else, of all beings.

[33:44]

So according to Buddhism, when we are able to recognize our profound intimacy and interconnectedness with all of life, we naturally begin to step out of old habits of selfishly centering ourselves, perceiving ourselves as the center of the universe. Instead, focus on how it is that we are in harmony or can be in good relationship with other people on all forms of life. So we live a life that is about all of life, not just this personal experience. The Buddha taught very clearly that mindfulness is a relational practice that does not stop with being aware of just our own experience. Satipatthana Sutta, which is his formal teaching, which the Buddha gave detailed guidance on mindfulness practice and how to expand the practice into all experience of our lives, the Buddha says that noble ones abide contemplating internally.

[34:58]

They abide contemplating externally. They abide contemplating both externally and internally. And this is refraining throughout the sutta a number of times. It's repeated. So the Buddha is inviting us here to be aware of more than just ourselves, more than just our internal experience. He's inviting us to be aware of those around us, of our communities, our culture, our world. And finally, to be aware of the relationship between all of ourselves in the totality of our experience together as a whole. So we're no longer the center of the universe. The center of the universe is in everything, everyone. know if any of you are familiar with a Dharma book called Awakening Together, the Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community.

[36:12]

And it's written by Larry Yang, who is one of the founders of the East Bay Meditation Center here across the Bay. And if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's a wonderful book. And in it, Yang, I know him, he's a friend, so I know him as Larry. unpacks the Buddhist teaching of relational practice and three dimensions of mindfulness in regard to relational practice. So the first one, he says, is mindfulness of our internal experience. Again, he's basing this on what I just read from the Satyapatama Sutta. So the first one is mindfulness of our internal experience. The second is mindfulness of our external experience. And the third is is the experience of mutuality, or you could say mindfulness of both internal and external experience. And this internal and external experience being held simultaneously and with equal regard.

[37:18]

And Yang goes on to discuss the importance of balancing both the inner awareness and the say, individual or personal action which gives rise to, and an external awareness and the collective action in the world that arises through the enacted intentions of groups and communities and cultures. So our collective activity together that arises. And ultimately, he stresses in his book the importance of being mindful of both the internal and external impacts on ourselves and others that our individual and collective intentions and actions have. So it's something we continually study. We might have an intention, and there's always an impact on the actions that we take.

[38:20]

And those intentions and impacts don't necessarily always line up. So we need to be aware and study how it is that our personal and collective intentions have a personal and collective impact. And so with increased awareness of this interrelationship between internal and external, there comes a greater learning and a greater wisdom into what kind of personal and collective intentions and actions that we might wish to cultivate in order to create conditions that are conducive to the, you could say, the liberation from suffering of all beings, the awakening of all beings, and the happiness of each and every one of us. So how do we hold both personal and collective awareness, mindfulness, intentions, and actions?

[39:25]

And how is it that we're kind of giving energy to the way that we can personally and collectively create the conditions for liberation for all beings? Of course, when we come to a meditation practice, we often begin with focusing our attention on our internal experience and the way that it's often impacted by the external world around us. So we sit down on our cushion or our chair or our wheelchair or lay down on the floors, and that's what our body needs. And then we cultivate mindfulness of our internal experience, recognizing it, acknowledging it, accepting it, maybe investigating it with curiosity and seeing the ways that we might get caught or thrown off by it or react to it in some way. And really doing our best not to identify. with our internal experience, with our thoughts, feelings and body sensations, and more so not making a self out of it.

[40:33]

So I've spoken about this before, you know, when I spoke about that can use the analogy of the snow, the snowman or snow person in the snow globe, the way that we contract around and compact around particularly particular experiences, and we make a self out of those experiences. So just be aware of how we do that. Be aware of our internal experiences, the breath, thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and so on. And then our meditation, we can use those as foundations for mindfulness. And in time, being mindful of our internal experience, it's one of the ways that we begin to make You could say the unconscious or the hidden or obscured aspects of our being to bring them into the light, right? To help what is kind of unknown and unrecognized inside of us to be illuminated and just be seen in some way.

[41:40]

You know, and that includes our deeper intentions, our deeper values and what's going on inside of us. And... We also can be able to study in times what our belief systems are, our value systems are, and how it is that we act them out into the world, you know, through our behaviors, through our decisions, what it is that we give our time and energy to. You can really tell what you most value in your life, but what it is you spend time on and give attention to, right? Are you giving it to others, engaged in some way, special projects that you think have purpose and value? Or do you tend to squander your attention and time on things that don't fulfill a deeper sense of happiness and betterment in some way?

[42:43]

So in the interest of time, I'm gonna move on to also talk about the second aspect of mindfulness, in which we're directing mindfulness externally. So external events or people become the objects of our attention in this case. And this means not only being aware of events happening in the world around us, but the ways that we affect or impact each other, both in subtle ways and in large scale ways. So as we do this, as we become aware of this, a greater intimacy is supported to grow. And Larry, in his book, points out that mindfulness or meditation practice is never about our own personal experience. He says that while we continue to be aware of our thoughts, emotions, and intentions, We do not just stop at the boundaries of our bodies, minds, and hearts.

[43:46]

So we can begin to recognize how deeply connected and impacted by the so-called external world around us that we are. And a very small way to notice this is that when I lived at the monastery, even though we were all sitting in silence together in the zendo, you know, and not really talking to each other that much. We really got to kind of know each other just through the sounds of how each of us kind of walked around the entranceway into the meditation hall, the way we moved in the Zen Do, the rustle of our clothes, kind of the subtle sense, you know, each of us held, the way we cleared our throats or cough and something like that, or breathed even, right? And even, you know, I may be in meditation, drifting off in daydreams, you know, and then suddenly the sound of the person breathing next to me brings me back to the awareness of my own breath. So these subtle ways in which we impact each other, where we're in deep relationship with each other, being aware of just the external field and the way that has impacted our internal field.

[45:00]

And of course... You know, you can extend this much wider to the sense of the way that in society, the numerous forms of the ways that we relate to each other and harm, you know, and have ways that the systems of society and culture have both negative and positive impacts on us to varying degrees. And so we can describe the relationship between our internal experience and our external experience as a dance. It's a dance between being fully present to our inner world and to what it is that's happening in the outer world. And the question, I think the real challenge for us is really how do we hold, how might we hold both worlds simultaneously? Holding both the internal and the external equally, with equal regard and at the same time. And furthermore, the practice is not just one of holding internal and external mindfulness simultaneously and equally, but noticing the way in which they inform and impact each other.

[46:16]

How our awareness of our internal experience impacts and changes the way we perceive and relate to the world, and the way in which we which our collective practice of mindfulness informs and impacts the way we perceive and relate to ourselves. I'm sure you can think of ways that this happens, you know. In time, we can see these as kind of interwoven practices that help deepen a shared sense of mindfulness. And another name for this shared sense of mindfulness, I would suggest, is collective mindfulness. The mindfulness that rises out of holding with regard and respect both our personal and interpersonal experiences. And when we hold that collective mindfulness, when our personal and collective apertures, you could say, are wide open, then we're inclined to meet each other and act in ways that express great care and love for everyone.

[47:25]

both as particular individuals, as different individuals, and also as part and parcel of a community, of a collective. So, again, given the limitation of times, I'm not going to go into further detail here, but I think that if we reflect on what's currently happening in our personal and collective lives, and particularly vis-a-vis the multiple pandemics that we're experiencing. You can name the pandemic of COVID-19, the pandemic of racial injustice, of economic inequality, or climate disruption, and all these other forms of distress and disease in our world at the moment. We can begin to recognize the value of holding a mutuality of awareness. mutuality of awareness about internal and external mindfulness as a way to inform both personal and collective intentions, as well as the personal actions and collective actions that we take in the world.

[48:42]

At the moment of the Buddha's enlightenment, the moment he saw the morning star and simultaneously saw into the true nature of reality, all existence, and his own being, it's said that he exclaimed, at this moment, all beings and I awaken together. Right? So it wasn't about the Buddha just awakening. He said the whole universe at that moment awoke. The whole universe at that moment was liberated. All awakening is like this. And this is possible because we are all the same awareness. We're all the same light, illuminating, all experience. So waking up together requires both internal and external work to support the conditions in which we see through the fog of a separate self.

[49:52]

and work together to create supportive environments and conditions for our mutual awakening. My own and all beings together awaken and being free of suffering. So I'll just leave us with the question, how might we do this? How might we want to contribute personally to making these conditions for the liberation of all beings a reality? personally, and collectively work together. Okay. I went longer than intended once again. So I'm going to stop there and open up the floor and see what you might like to share, either based on something I said this evening, something that came up in your meditation, something about what's coming on for you in your practice, whatever's alive for you Everything's welcome.

[50:57]

Do our best to meet everything. So I think you know how to raise your hand. The little blue hand, if you go down to the participant field, and maybe Matt's put this in the chat field, I don't know. But you can go down to the participant field and find your name. And then if you want to share or ask a question, click on raise hand.

[51:19]

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