This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Morning. This morning we chanted the Fukan Zazengi, the universal admonitions for Zazen, and it... It seemed like the most appropriate thing to chant this morning at the beginning of our five-day session. At the end of the Fukanzo Zengi, it says, find a way to devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Direct your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute.

[01:01]

devote your energies, devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the Absolute. What is directly indicating the Absolute? Where would you devote your energies? There's a a story that Dogen comments on, a koan that Dogen comments on, a brief dialogue between Bai Zhang and Wangbo. Bai Zhang is Hyakujo, and Wangbo is Obaku in Japanese, and they lived in the 700s, 800s. And this dialogue between them reminded me of the first sentence of the Mountains and Waters Sutra, and then Dogen comments on it, so I wanted to bring this up today for us on the first day of Sashim.

[02:12]

Just to remind you of the first sentence of the mountains and waters, the mountains and waters of the present moment, or the immediate present, are the, depending on which translation I'll do, Okamura's translation, are the manifestation of the way of the ancient Buddhas. The mountains and waters of now, of the immediate present, are the manifestation of the way of the ancient Buddhas. So Wang Bo was Bai Zhang's student, and Rinzai was Wang Bo's student, so that's that lineage. So Wang Bo asked Bai Zhang, how shall I instruct people about the essential vehicle from the ancients?

[03:18]

Mountains and waters of the... immediate present are the manifestation of the way of the ancient Buddhas. And Wang Bo is asking Bai Zhang, how shall I instruct beings in the essential vehicle, the essential way of the ancients? How can I teach people about this? How can I instruct them? And Bai Zhang sat still. just sat. And Wang Bo asked, what will our descendants in later generations transmit? And Bai Zhang said, I had thought you were that person. And then he got up and went to the abbot's quarters. That's the story. So Wang Bo asked Bai Zhang, his teacher, how shall I instruct people about the vehicle of the ancients?

[04:34]

How shall I instruct people about the essential vehicle of the ancients? And Bai Zhang sat, devoting his energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute He just sat. And I don't know what Wang Bo thought there, but maybe it was like, why won't he tell me? So then he asked further, what will our descendants and later generations transmit? If you're not going to tell me anything, how is this going to work here? And Bai Zhang said, I thought you were that person. And then he split, went back to his cabin. So Dogen comments on this various places in the Ehe Koroku, but one of the places where he comments on that is there's a way of working with koans where you hear a koan and there's traditional, you know, it's written down in a traditional way, and then you can comment and say, if I were there, I would have said, you know, this actually for the mountain seat ceremony,

[05:57]

Christina Lendher in the next couple weeks will ascend the mountain seat. And on the mountain, when she climbs the mountain that's created in the Buddha Hall, one of the things that you are asked to do is comment on a koan. And the traditional way is to tell the story and then say something like, if I were there, I would have said. That's kind of the form that the comment can take. So Dogen says, suppose someone said to me, Ehe, what dharma did previous sages present to the people? This is commenting on this same question between Wang Bo and Bai Zhang. And Dogen said, I would simply say to him, I show people my sitting cushion. How are we going to instruct people in the ancient vehicle, in the essential vehicle of the ancients?

[07:09]

How are we going to transmit to later generations? If they were to ask me, says Dogen, I'd show them my sitting cushion. Which reminds me of Suzuki Roshi saying, you know, to that question of, well, can I study with you or what's your practice? I sit every morning at six o'clock or whatever it was at Sokoji in Japantown. Dogen says, I show them my sitting cushion. And then he adds, Dogen adds, so it is said, I came to this land fundamentally to transmit the Dharma and save deluded people, which is an echo of the vow of all Buddhas.

[08:11]

The one great single condition for Buddhas is this vow to, from the Lotus Sutra, open the Dharma, demonstrate, enter and help beings to enter and realize Buddha's way. That's kind of the one great causal condition. So that's what Dogen says here. Suppose someone said to me, eh, hey, what dharma did previous sages present to people? I would simply say to them, I show you my sitting cushion and then I came to this land in order to help beings, basically. That's it. Sitting, helping beings, helping beings, sitting.

[09:14]

This is the way. So here we are at the beginning of a five-day session where we are voluntarily and maybe enthusiastically, devotedly bringing our energies to our cushion, to sitting together, and to practicing Zazen together. And you can check out, you know, is this in alignment with helping beings, waking up for the benefit of beings, or is there something else going on?

[10:21]

Are we trying to get something or gain something, or is there grasping? the end of the mountains and at the end of the Sound of the Valley Streams, fascicle of Dogen, at the end it says, I think it's the last paragraph, Kaz translates this way, When you have true practice, then valley sounds and colors, mountain colors and sounds all reveal the 84,000 verses.

[11:25]

And this, when you have true practice or genuine practice, is the letting go of trying to get something. illusion trying to either get something or push something away, then the sounds of the valley streams and the mountain colors call out the verses, the myriad sutra verses, when we're not clouding things with our own leaning into things and grasping. or pushing things away. And all that means for our body-mind, what that feels like in the body-mind, and how difficult it is to accept what is, to accept the sounds, sensations, visuals, thoughts, when we're after something.

[12:32]

So while we're sitting for these five days, I wanted us, we haven't talked about kind of some details about our sitting practice together, and I wanted to mention, so we take, we're often, it's called taking the shape of the mountain, right? If you're sitting cross-legged, you have a wide base and a narrower at the head, and this is a kind of triangle shape, a kind of mountain shape. So we take this very stable posture with this wide base, and make an effort to sit still, immovable. And yet, as we know, as soon as we sit still,

[13:42]

we realize how much we're moving, right? Not just thoughts, but all the physical sensations are flowing and moving. The breath, as the breath flows incessantly in and out, and as it flows in, it flows into every cell of the body. Every cell is oxygenated. There isn't a bunch of cells that kind of don't get their oxygen. Every cell is oxygenated and then carbon dioxide. This flowing throughout the body, through every inch. So we have the flow of the breath. and the whole body breath, the whole body breathing. And I would like to ask you to take a posture that is relaxed enough, not like a limp noodle relaxed, but a firmness which is...

[15:05]

a firm relaxation, a firmness in the body to allow you to be upright and yet completely relaxed. The shoulders dropping away from the ears, the shoulder blades dripping down your back, as my yoga teacher says. This feeling gravity, allowing yourself to feel gravity and go with it, and at the same time, feeling the movement of breath throughout the body and up and around throughout the body, through the spine and around. The spine, as we take a breath, it does mini back bends and mini forward bends. When you inhale, there's a little teeny tiny back bend that you're doing. You can feel it. And as you exhale, there's a kind of mini...

[16:06]

mini-forward bend. This kind of undulation is going on. And if we're rigid and kind of holding and stiffening, thinking that, oh, that's what a mountain is like. It's a stiff, solidness. There's all sorts of complications that ensue, including pain, over and above the pain that you might be experiencing by just taking a yogic posture for a long period of time. There's also a spinning of the mind and involuntary thoughts, a kind of tug-tug-tug of thoughts that go along with tension, rigidity, holding, bracing, contracting. And when we relax, the body... and experience the actual movement that is within this flowing mountain body, and are paying attention to all the sensations, paying attention to the breath, paying attention to the sounds, smells, tastes, and touchables, as well as thoughts that come and go.

[17:33]

There's a great lessening of that kind of racing mind, racing thoughts. Sometimes those thoughts are very like a wheel, you know, like a tape. That goes round and round. And it's very old, stale, but you get on it and it keeps going. You've been there before, it seems. And if you can bring your attention to your body, the sensations of the body, the sounds, this... You can't do both at once, actually. You can't pay close attention to all the sensations of the body, the movement in the body of the breath, and have this kind of thinking. The two don't go together. So to sit like a mountain, to be like a mountain which is constantly walking, which is flowing, which is constantly changing, that kind of mountain is the mountain of the Zazen posture, not some stiffened shape.

[19:09]

So I'd like to ask you, when you take your posture, you may think, I know how to get into my posture, I do it this way, this is it. I'd like to ask everyone to really take care of, each time you sit, finding your posture. Because your posture will be changing over the five days. Each period of zazen is a different posture. And we have habits of body that feel so normal that we don't... even realize it and I'll be doing some posture suggestions and often a suggestion is made by touching in a certain spot or bringing someone up to what looks like uprightness and they feel that they've been knocked over to the side. How can they sit this way? So all the muscles and all the body memories get We have a familiar shape that we take.

[20:17]

And it can be stale and it can be hurting ourselves, actually. So I'd like to ask each of you to really pay attention, freshly, each time you take your seat. And build your posture up from the bottom. Where are your sitting bones? Are they even? Are they even on the cushion? Are we tilted forward? Are we tilted back? Are we crunching and smashing our vertebrae by overarching or slumping? So to take the most healthful posture is the most still and the most flowing all at once. The head, you know, is a heavy... heavy, and if it's hanging forward or back and not right on the spine and kind of in a bobbing, moving way at the top of the spine, not big bobbing shape, but moving with the breath rather than a tight neck.

[21:34]

If the head is not in alignment Other things are strained, the back, the shoulders. So, just like it said in Fukan Zazengi, you know, you take your seat, you rock your body, inhale and exhale, cleansing breath, rock your body right and left and settle into a steady and movable sitting. So I think that's for each period of Zazen, not just when you're first introduced to sitting. So making all the effort you can to find your alignment and feel. If you're leaning forward, you can feel heaviness in the front of your body. If you're leaning back, you can feel gravity. And if you find center, there's a lightness and a freshness actually there. Another thing I wanted to mention is...

[22:43]

the natural movement of the body, of the breath through the body and the blood and all the secretions and so forth that are, the body wants to be moving in this way. It doesn't want to be tamped down. Zazen posture is not a tamp down, holding down. It's a freeing, relaxed shape, animated by breath. And the mind follows, is unified with body and breath. So some of us feel like we want to move, but it takes the form of restlessness, fidgeting, micro movements that, because if we want to move and are holding ourselves rigidly, then there's a kind of anxiety we can feel, you know, or just along with other anxieties that we might have.

[23:59]

And we create little micro movements to kind of bind the anxiety or break the anxiety. And that can take the form of all sorts of fidgety gibbets, you know, moving around, cracking our head, cracking our knuckles, just all sorts of restless fidgeting. But really, I feel like what it's coming from is wanting to allow the body to fully move in the way it moves in stillness, the flowingness. And so because we're not relaxed, we find other ways to kind of break that anxiety that grows. So it could be playing around with facial things, eyebrows, or wanting to pull on your ears or stuff. And if we're not aware of the tension that we're carrying and then that we're doing these tiny things, just

[25:10]

Bring your attention to it and see where it's coming from, wanting to move in that way, fidget. And see what it means to let go of it and breathe in a way that takes care of this anxiety. Staying with your breath. I wanted to talk about pain and working with pain. I would venture to say that everyone experiences pain daily in their Zazen practice and when we sit long sittings, maybe different pains arise that don't come up in daily practice.

[26:13]

So part of working with pain is similar to what I've been talking about. when we begin to brace against it and hold, we cause more, actually, a heightening of the pain. So can we gently, gently allow the sensations that are coming up to express themselves, I would say. And there's a kind of movement in the pain often. There might be a throbbing, which is a kind of pulsing, throbbing movement. There can be electricity, kind of sharpness. There can be dull ache, which has a kind of movement and rhythm to it. So there is, in our own bodies, this flowing which will come to these places that may be

[27:18]

One image is like a log jam, you know, of tightness, where the river, the waters can't flow in a natural way. And so we'll feel that, you know, this pulsing. So to most gently stay with, without contracting, whatever the sensation is, and to watch it and see what happens. Because it doesn't stay the same. It doesn't stay one thing. It has a life. It has a movement. And, you know, if you were to, which happened to me once in a lecture, I was in terrible, terrible pain, and then the lecturer made a joke, and everybody laughed, and I laughed, you know, big, hearty, ha, ha, ha. When the laughter was over, I was pain-free, just sitting there.

[28:23]

It seemed like a miracle. How could that happen just from one instant to the next? But I think when we laugh fully and give ourselves, there's a full relaxation and movement-flowing life. You can't hold too tightly when you're... laughing like that. And whatever was going on, whatever I was creating, was dissipated. So I can't predict that I'm going to tell jokes and our back pain will go away. But I do feel like a relaxation and staying with what's going on with a gentle attention and allowing it is a way to work with pain rather than fighting or wishing that something would do something, someone would save you.

[29:39]

A doan, usually. And then we get so mad at them, why won't they ring the bell? So that kind of thinking as a response to pain, I think, adds more pain, actually. Mental pain as well as emotional and physical. So to stay with the pain as information and actually ask yourself, where am I tightening? Am I tightening around it? Can I breathe into it? Can I bring warmth and consciousness to those spots? Is it because I'm not actually upright that I'm adding to this pain by leaning or leaning away? What's happening? Can we stay with it rather than fight? So allowing and breathing in a relaxed way and many of you may be practicing following your breath, many of you might be practicing counting your breath, many of you might be practicing just sitting, just bear attention without a particular object, whatever object arises

[31:17]

you're attending to that without anything in particular. Whatever your practice is, still our breath, whether it's the focus of your, the object of your concentration or the focus, still the awareness of breath and the allowing of the breath and attention to breath will come and go whatever you're around. And if you can relax the body enough, you might have shallow breathing up in the chest area at first, but usually after a while, the breath will deepen and you can follow it as your abdomen, your belly rises and falls.

[32:19]

So that's one area to pay attention to. However, the breath is a full body event. It doesn't just go to one spot. So can you feel the breath in a particular spot? Can you feel it throughout the body? wanted to mention our Oryoki practice, which feels very quiet for the most part. I feel like people are very attentive to the sounds they're making with their bowls. And please continue that practice and also be aware, this is going to be very unconscious, of sounds you might be making in cleaning your bowls with your Setsu or with spoons, trying to get the last rice grains or something.

[33:28]

And often I feel when people are making the most noise, it's when they're thinking about something else. They're actually not thinking about the Ryoki practice or the spoon and the rice. We're often away thinking about something else, which is when I think most of the noise goes on. So to be... with the meal from beginning to end, from the last, from the first sounds of the meal beginning, the meal ceremony, to placing our bull back behind us with awareness and quietness, the last part of that ceremony. Can we be present? And one thing I'd like to ask people to be aware of is that for our meal we're taking a zazen posture.

[34:30]

There's no difference between how we sit in a meal and how we sit zazen. So if you're eating, the bowl is held up and your head is just like it would be for zazen. So you can check this out whether you're leaning down into your bowl or taking some odd posture as you eat. raising your shoulders. If somebody came around and snatched your bowl away, it wouldn't matter, you'd just be sitting. Whether you're eating or sitting, it's the same thing. So this is something to be aware of, taking this noble posture and then feeding the Buddha. We eat to wake up and the meal is brought to us as an offering to help us to wake up in order to serve the many beings.

[35:37]

So to take a posture like the Buddha and feed the Buddha is how I think of our Oryoki meal. All these practices might sound like an individual my practice or your individual practice for Sesheen, but when we practice this way together and harmonize together, this practice covers the entire earth and is one mountain, one interconnected being. Intentive, awake, relaxed, and devoting our energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute.

[36:51]

Sitting on our cushion. Find a cushion and sit on it. Find your cushion, find your place, and sit down. how shall I instruct people about the essential vehicle from the ancients? Bai Zhang sat still. This has been passed down to us from teacher to teacher, teacher to student to teacher to student to teacher to student. And now through our... own karmic life, we have a chance to devote our energies. We're completely supported to do this. Please don't waste time.

[37:55]

Let's not waste time. That's it. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

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