Good morning. I bow to Thay, Supreme Buddha, Thay Thangka Translucent. Good morning. Good morning. Sorry to keep you waiting. This new format—we haven't got all the kinks out of it yet. So, last night I mentioned this quotation from W.E.B. Yeats. I'll have to bring it up again. Shortly before he died, he said, when I try to put it all into a phrase, I say, man can embody the truth, but he cannot know it. I must embody it in the completion of my life. Man can embody the truth, but he cannot know it.

[01:07]

This embodying the truth is what I think Dogen Zenji is speaking of when he says, to teach the Dharma with this body is foremost. And Kadagiri Roshi used to say, you can't understand your life, but you can live it. This again is, cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illumine the self. I often quote Koen Shino Roshi, who, I've heard him quote him before, there's a quotation

[02:30]

from him down in the current Jikoji newsletter about Sesshin. You may say you're going to Sesshin and sit, that's a big lie. If you say to your friend or partner, I'm going to die, no one can let you go. You say, I'm going to Sesshin to die, no one will let you go to Sesshin. So you say, I'm going to sit. No wonder it's such a difficult thing. And when Gates is talking about his dying, and Kobin is talking about dying at Sesshin, they're not speaking of quite the same thing.

[03:31]

Gates is saying, I must embody it in the completion of my life, and still he's talking about his personal life. When I first went to Zazen instruction at Sokoji Temple, Katagiri Roshi was giving Zazen instruction, and he said, we sit to settle the self on the self, and let the flower of your life force bloom. I like to think of it, let the flower of the life force bloom as you, as Mary Oliver says

[04:39]

in her poem, When Death Comes. I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular. But to settle the self on the self, and let the flower of the life force bloom as you, you have to let go of all of the old dead flowers, and let yourself bloom fresh on each moment. I have shared with you before a letter which Suzuki Roshi wrote to one of his students,

[05:45]

which turned up in the closet of his apartment when you and I moved in. I think this must have been the first draft, and he recopied it, he says, your question of who is you, this question will be answered when you recognize that there is no self besides the temporal union of various factors, objective and subjective, physical and mental, etc. Moreover body or brain are just temporal existence, although they are temporal, they exist in the smallest particle of time, but strictly speaking they are constantly changing to one being to another. If so, our body and mind is the non-graspable.

[06:51]

The only way to have full experience of it is to follow the being as the two hands of a watch follow the reality. To follow your breathing is to follow reality. This is how to have the direct experience of being, the absolute being which is more than objective or subjective, mental or physical. To let the flower of your life force bloom in that way, arising fresh on each moment, meeting the circumstances of this moment, without being encumbered by thoughts, definitions,

[08:03]

memories of the past or plans or expectations or attainments of the future, but just being willing to meet each moment fresh as you are. This is what Colvin is pointing at when he talks about going to Sesshin to die. This is what Suzuki Roshi speaks of when he speaks of beginner's mind. Each moment beginner's mind, each moment beginning again with nothing to support you. No wonder it's so difficult. Just to be willing to be this one as it is without definition, just to throw yourself

[09:13]

into the ocean of your life. It's not so easy. Suppose you sink, suppose you don't float, what is there to hold on to? What guarantees are there? There are no guarantees. This is Sesshin, nothing to hold on to. Everything to lose and nothing to gain. Just one breath at a time.

[11:10]

Another quotation of Colvin's, which I appreciate a lot, is Zazen is the first formulation of the accomplishment of Buddha existing. The more you sense the rareness and value of this life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally such a person sits down for a while. It's not an intended action, it's a natural action. I think we are all here because one way or another we have discovered

[12:30]

the rareness and the preciousness of this life. And there has arisen in us some undeniable urge to find out how to embody it, how to manifest it, how to manifest the truth, how to manifest Dharma

[13:35]

in this life, moment after moment. I think we are here because we all feel some urgency to find a way. And so we have come to sit down for a moment. Perhaps to drop off body and mind, which impede us from living fresh in each moment. Perhaps to trust throwing ourselves into the ocean of this life, to sink or swim. What else can we do?

[14:40]

Just to settle the self on the self and let the life force bloom, let the flower of the life force bloom as it will without our control, without our direction, just as it will. Can we trust it? Here we trust it. Can we do anything else? Thank you. Please just stay with your breath

[15:57]

throughout Sashi. Let everything else go. There are the patch road monks who will live together and die together. We are here in this room. We are here in this room.

[17:20]

Just therefore give up practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illumine the self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness you must practice suchness without delay. Satsang with Mooji

[18:47]

www.mooji.org

[19:04]

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