I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. Good morning. I had thought that to have the lecture here at the Zen Dojo would be least disruptive to our sitting and most intimate. Mary reminds me that in this more intimate setting of Sashin often we all bow together at the beginning of lecture. I didn't want everybody to get up having gotten all settled today, but perhaps tomorrow we may try that. I hope that those of you sitting on the tans can just stay in your seats and turn this way, and so a minimum of people will have to change their seats from the other side of the divider to this side. Let's see if I can keep my voice at a level that you can all hear me.

[01:05]

I have said that I want the theme of this Sashin to be Dogen Zenji's teaching to expound the Dharma with this body is foremost. Its virtue returns to the ocean of reality. It is unfathomable. We just accept it with respect and gratitude. And Lu, perhaps, in his lecture on Saturday, set up another theme on why I plan to have short Dharma talks and short Dogen Zenzis, so that we don't get into a lot of discursive thinking. When he talked about the line from Sukhansa Zenji, you should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding.

[02:13]

Pursuing words and following astral speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward 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 should practice suchness without delay. So here in this Zen dome, once again, each moment, we renew our effort to practice suchness without delay, to expound the Dharma with this body. What does that mean?

[03:17]

Well, for example, we have been studying Shantideva's Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life this practice period, and I've spent a lot of time expounding the virtues of the practice of patience with this mouth. But I had called to my attention just this morning a way in which I have been expounding the virtue of patience with my mouth and have been expounding impatience with my body. So, when the doshi and jisha enter from this door, the doshi has a shorter distance to walk to the bowing mat and the jisha is supposed to walk a little faster and come around and be in position to bow

[04:20]

together with the doshi. Well, my jisha had her foot run over last year and even though I walk rather slowly, she's never there when I am. And so, expounding impatience with my body, I do the shashu bow and step up on the mat to do the dasho bow before she gets here. And I got called on it and got it brought to my attention what I was doing. So we can watch ourselves and see how do we expound the dharma with this body. In all of our actions, what are we expounding? What are we saying? What are we teaching? What are we learning?

[05:22]

Everything we do expresses who we are and how we are and our state of mind. And if we are paying attention, we will learn a lot about ourselves. One teaching of the dharma which we chanted and chant sometimes in metta sutta, the Buddha's teaching on loving kindness, says, let us be strenuous or energetic, upright and sincere, easily contented and joyous. And my name happens to be Inconceivable Joy. And sometimes I feel joyful,

[06:30]

sometimes I don't. But how can I express this easily contented and joyous state of mind? How can I expound it with this body? One thing that I notice in myself is a tendency, sometimes I notice my jaw is rather tight. And rather than analyzing why my jaw is tight and what that's expressing and where that comes from, I can speculate. I can even make some pretty good guesses that it has something to do about subterranean anger or control or something or another. But another thing I can do is just notice when it's tight and loosen it. Let it go. Soften it up.

[07:32]

One way to do that is to smile slightly. Not much, just enough to soften the tension in the face and jaw. But keeping that in mind, I can be more attentive, I can be more aware, I can be more alert to the ways in which I'm not expressing my inmost request with this body. The Metta Sutta goes on to say Let one be strenuous, upright and sincere,

[08:35]

easily contented and joyous. Let one not be submerged by the things of the world. Let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would approve. May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle or low realms of existence, near or far, born or to be born,

[09:37]

may all beings be happy. It says, even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind, let us cherish all living beings, suffusing love for the entire world, above, below and all around. Let one cherish an infinite goodwill toward the whole world. May all beings be happy. All living beings. How do we

[10:42]

express, expound this Dharma with our body? One of the ways that I notice that I fail to expound that Dharma with this body is sort of leaning toward beings that seem desirable and seem to me desirable, pulling away from beings that seem undesirable. Remaining upright, but expressing something less than the ideal toward which we practice. I take the teaching of the Metta Sutta as

[11:49]

something toward which I practice. And I take an awareness of body, breath and mind, which I can particularly see in awareness of body. I can find out rather subtle things about mind through an awareness of body. And this leaning toward and pulling away from is one of the ways in which I can notice am I suffusing love over the entire world, above, below and all around without limit? Or am I picking and choosing? And in my own mind are there aspects of myself which arise

[12:55]

that I lean toward or pull away from? You know, the sixth ancestor used to say to save all beings means to save all beings in your own mind. These all beings include aspects of my own mind toward which I need to, I want to extend the same attitude of suffusing love over the entire world, above, below and all around without limit. May all beings be happy,

[14:00]

may they be joyous and live in safety. These beings in my mind, whether whether they appear to be in a body separate from me or whether they are images of self which arise can I truly wish them all joy and safety? Can I include them all in the same embrace like a mother watching over her only child? You know, these all beings

[15:01]

that we think of as separate from ourselves, in a way, yes, we are all separate and in a way we are all part of one body of life. It's like the hands and feet of a single body. And particularly in Sashin we can notice we are like all parts of one body of Sashin. If we can practice in that way with one another during Sashin, we may be able to carry that practice into a wider context when Sashin is over. These all beings are not separate

[16:04]

from ourselves. Not one, not two is the way Suzuki Roshi often expressed it. Self and other are not one and not two. Hands and feet are not one but they are not separate. They are all part of one body. All beings are not separate from us. So how can we

[17:09]

expound that Dharma with this body? How can I meet each being in this body? With total and total acceptance. So fusing love over the entire world, above, below and all around without end. We can begin with each other and we can begin within ourselves

[18:11]

the many beings of our own mind. Please take note of the ways in which we fall short of this ideal toward which we practice and embrace that too in your awareness. Sometimes the best we can do is just cultivate a little humor. Oh well.

[19:16]

We can't make it that time. We'll try again. Please explore as you sit what it means to expound the Dharma with this body Please observe what Dharma are you expounding with this body this moment. And please let us continue with this upright sitting as the way in which we can study the truth of all being together.

[20:31]

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