I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Laura, Kristen, Sarah, Martha, Lance, Ren. And we have two people who are going to recite tonight, Lance and Matt.

[01:08]

Yeah. Would anyone like to go first? Laura. Okay. Pūkansā-Zengyi. The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very part, from this very place. What is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet, if there is a hair's breadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, detaining the way and clarifying the mind,

[02:10]

arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you still are short of the vital path of emancipation. Consider the Buddha. Although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shine it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. If you want such a thing, get to work on such a thing immediately. For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge true or false.

[03:12]

Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full lotus or the half lotus position. In the full lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh, then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your ropes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left hand on your right palm, thumb tips lightly touching. Straighten your body and sit right up, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth with teeth and lips together, both shut. Always keep your eyes open and breathe softly through your nose.

[04:18]

Once you have adjusted your posture, take a breath and exhale fully. Rock your body right and left and settle into steady and movable sitting. Think of not thinking, not thinking. What kind of thinking is that? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharmagate of joyful ease, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the koan realized traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountain. For you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that from the start, dullness and distraction are struck aside. When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not move suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred and dying while either sitting or standing

[05:22]

have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle or a mallet and affecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff and a shout. These cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural power. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. In general, practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair. In general, in both our world and others, in both India and China,

[06:22]

all equally hold the Buddhist seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they all are simply devoted to sitting totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are 10,000 distinctions and 1,000 variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential activity of the Buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flint stone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass. The fortunes of life, like a dart of lightning, emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant,

[07:24]

do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Continue to live, no, accord with the enlightenment of all the Buddhas. Succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue to live in such a way and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open up itself and you may enjoy it freely. Oh boy. All right. My turn? Okay. All right. Fukan Zazengi. The way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How can it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient.

[08:25]

What need is there for special effort? Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who can believe in the truth? Is there even a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place. What is the use of traveling around to practice? And yet if there is a hair's breadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth. If the least like or dislike arises, your mind is lost in confusion. Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens. You are playing in the entranceway, but you still are short of the vital path of emancipation. Consider the Buddha. Although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma, although he had received the mind seal, his nine years of facing the wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice? Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words

[09:26]

and chasing phrases and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will manifest. If you want such a thing, get to work on such a thing immediately. For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvement and suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full lotus or the half lotus position. In the full lotus position, first place your right foot on your left thigh and then your left foot on your right thigh. In the half lotus, simply place your left foot on your right thigh. Tie your ropes loosely and arrange them neatly. Then place your right hand on your left leg

[10:27]

and your left hand on your right palm, thumb tips slightly touching. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. Rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth. With teeth and lips together, both shut, always keep your eyes open and breathe softly through your nose. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath and exhale fully. Rock your body right and left and settle into steady and movable sitting. Think of not thinking, not thinking. What kind of thinking is that? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharmagate of joyful ease, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the koan realized. Traps and snares can never reach it. If you grasp the point, you are like the dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taken to the mountains. But you must know that the true dharma appears of itself, so that from the start dullness and distraction are struck aside.

[11:28]

When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both mundane and sacred and dying, while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the power of zazen. They've all depended entirely on the power of zazen. In addition, triggering awakening with a finger, a banner, a needle or a mallet and affecting realization with a whisk, a fist, a staff or a shout, these cannot be understood by discriminative thinking, much less can they be known through the practice of supernatural powers. They must represent conduct beyond seeing and hearing. Are they not a standard prior to knowledge and views? This being the case, intelligence or lack of it is not an issue. Make no distinction between the dull and the sharp-witted. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly,

[12:31]

that in itself is wholeheartedly engaging the way. Practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward is, after all, an everyday affair. In general, in our world and others in both India and China, all equally hold the Buddha seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are 10,000 distinctions and 1,000 variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seed in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you. You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not pass your days and nights in vain. You are taking care of the essential activity of the Buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flint stone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass. The fortunes of life, like a dart of lightning, emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen,

[13:32]

long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not doubt the true dragon. Devote your energies to the way that points directly to the real thing. Revere the one who has gone beyond learning and is free from effort. Accord with the enlightenment of all the Buddhas. Succeed to the samadhi of all the ancestors. Continue to live in such a way, and you will be such a person. The treasure store will open up itself, and you may enjoy it freely. Thank you. Would anyone like to volunteer to recite for next week? Greg? Anyone else? So we have two more classes. Thank you. So tonight what I was hoping we would do is look at the paragraph that starts with,

[14:37]

for practicing Zen, or actually, therefore put aside the intellectual practice of, we did that one, okay, for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable, that paragraph, and the next one, at your sitting place, spread out a thick mat, and also I wanted to go through the posture, to look at the instructions for posture and talk about posture and see what other teachers, other meditation texts say about unifying body, breath, and mind, and save for next week, think of not thinking, not thinking what kind of thinking is that, to not try to do that all in one night, because I think that maybe takes a whole class to really get into it deeply, and I'd like to spend tonight on these very particular details of posture and talk about that. Does that sound okay? And then the next class will be the think, not thinking,

[15:40]

and then we may very well take the whole class, and then the last class we'll try to look at the end of it, although it's obvious six classes are really not enough to get really through it in a thorough way. Yes? I've been dying to also talk about the zazen I speak of is not meditation. It's not learning meditation. Yes, we can bring that up when we... where it says, how could this be limited to sitting or lying down, kind of points to that as well. Yes, maybe... I realized as I was studying for this, I kind of entered into this absorption, study absorption, you know how that can happen where you just... and the time just flew by, and pretty soon it was 7 o'clock and I wasn't dressed,

[16:42]

and it reminded me of hearing about Dr. Louis Lancaster, who taught Buddhist studies at UC Berkeley and used to teach here, and he talked about going to the library and being immersed in his Buddhist studies, and for 8 hours he just would be just in samadhi, really. It's a kind of scholar samadhi, and not that I'm a scholar by any means, but it's wonderful to just swim through the material, and there's so much. So we'll just see what we can do tonight. So do people have their comparisons of the different versions? Are you bringing those? We haven't really gone through those carefully, but we might look at that and see what the different versions say.

[17:45]

But for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. I want to say something about this quiet room. Practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. So these are the universal admonitions for practicing Zazen, the general recommendations and promotions. So I know that we also have some teachings that you should kind of accomplish feeling where you should be able to practice Zen anywhere, in the marketplace, or I think that's a kind of ideal or something that we've also heard, but here it's saying this is kind of the universal admonitions or recommendations, and for beginners, and for people maybe who are just starting out, you wouldn't say, well, go practice on Market Street,

[18:49]

or that might be difficult for someone to get a feel for it, right? So for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Now in Page Street, the Zen Do in Page Street is not necessarily a quiet room. It was pretty quiet, but there is a lot of traffic on Page Street and a lot of street noise, and in some ways it's been said that practicing at Page Street is actually people really, you have to make a different kind of effort because of the noise of the street and the distractions and the garbage trucks going by, although we have garbage truck too on Wednesday, but sirens and just the whole thing. So when you actually settle into your practice there, there's some feeling that more easily you can take it anywhere to a more disrupted kind of situation. But generally, going to the mountains or going to a quiet place

[19:51]

is thought of as a suitable place. So for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable, which is, you know, we have all these admonitions in the monastery for being quiet while you're walking around the Zen Do in Cloud Hall. Someone may be practicing Zazen somewhere, so you want to bear that in mind. And the whole Cloud Hall, for those of you who don't live here, Cloud Hall is the kind of residential space or dorm space that's connected to the Zen Do. So we try to bear that in mind when we're in Cloud Hall, keeping our voices low and all. So quietness is suitable. And Sun Tzu in the So Chang Yi doesn't say anything about quietness there. He just jumps right into casting aside all involvement. So the next line is, eat and drink moderately. Now, that's all he says is eat and drink moderately, but there's other places where Dogen really gets into

[20:53]

about eating and what kinds of food to eat. You know, there's traditional foods that you don't eat in the monastery, the pungent foods like garlic and onions and spicy, a lot of spicy things, because, well, I think there's probably a number of reasons, but one is that in consideration for others, when you eat those pungent, what are those, what's the general name for the onion families? Allium. The what? Alliums. Alliums, yeah. So those can be disturbing to your neighbors, you know, especially if they didn't have Colgate toothpastes. They did have toothbrushing sticks and things, but I think that may have something to do with it. In fact, Dogen, there's places where he talks about the monks, some monks where he visited and they had terrible breath and so forth.

[21:58]

So this can be a disruption for you, which is one of the reasons in the Ehe Shingi, in the rules for monastic life, you brush your teeth, you use the cleaning stick, you scrape your tongue, you do all these yogic, yogi kind of cleaning practices in consideration of others and also for your own practice and taking care of your body in a very careful way. Excuse me. Yes. They also, they didn't have really any personal space though, right? Weren't they kind of like lying right next to each other on a tongue? Right. They didn't have a cloud hall necessarily to go and sleep. They slept in the zendo, in the shuryo, which was both zendo and study hall and eating place and sleeping space. So you're really close to people. And I think personal hygiene was really important, or Dogen really emphasized it in monastic life.

[22:59]

And he taught, there's a whole, the whole chapter's in the Shogogenzo about using the cleaning stick, the willow twigs and chewing on them and gathering them and throwing them away in the proper place. So eat and drink moderately. But this is the meditation text from Zhe Yi. This is the Tendai meditation text, which is the Xiao Zhe Guan. And this one in here, the Jing Guan, the So Chan Yi from Chan Wan Jing Guan, derives from this, which is the Tendai teaching. And it's very about foods. Regulating or harmonizing food, sleep, body, breath, and mind. So there's a whole section in this. This is from Zhe Yi lived 536 to 597, Chinese.

[24:04]

And this was one of the first places where a lot of these oral teachings were put down in writing. And this text was pretty well known in China. And also Dogen probably saw this from the Tendai school, Tendai. So about food, regulating food, Zhe Yi says, food is to nourish the body so that it becomes fit to enter the Tao. If too much is taken, the stomach will be full and will keep one out of breath. You know how that is when you eat too much and then you have to open up your belt and you can't breathe very well? You know how that is after Thanksgiving? So if you're going to sit zazen, if you're going to do meditation, you are mindful of how much you eat. You want to eat just enough so that you feel satisfied and settled

[25:06]

and ease and joy are the benefits of eating. But too much and you can't breathe very well, which is one of the reasons why after day-off dinner we only have one period of zazen because it's the night where we have dessert and you go for seconds. And at Tassajara also there's zazen, either it's a little bit later, there maybe isn't. Sometimes there's a Dharma event so you don't go to sit after that day-off meal. So this is, or zazen is a little bit later to give you a little bit more time. But if you're going to be sitting, then to be aware of food makes a difference about how you feel and how you, yogically speaking. So jury goes on that you'll be out of breath if your stomach's too full and that will result in the inner psychic centers

[26:07]

or the chakras will be blocked and the mind obstructed, therefore interfering with meditation. Now this is learning meditation. When it says later on, it says the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation, this whole text is more like the techniques, learning the techniques of meditation. Now Dogen, of course, in Fukan Zazen, he goes beyond learning techniques. He's talking about a zazen mind as it's not walking or sitting or any of the postures, or even sitting cross-legged. It's the mind that's not thinking, which isn't relegated to any one particular posture or a technique, which is why he wrote his meditation manual, because he felt he needed to correct that. He was not happy with, you know, the first one here, the Changwan Jingui. He felt it was too much, more of a manual technique. So he brought in the theory and the philosophy of what he's talking about, the teaching.

[27:10]

So this is more, Lance, the technique side of things, which was oral tradition. See, the thing is that Dogen in Fukan Zazen, it wasn't that he didn't know all these things about eating too much. He says eat and drink moderately, but he doesn't go into it in depth, in depth where you're not going to be able to breathe and you're going to be, you know, your psychic centers will be blocked and the mind obstructed, therefore interfering with meditation. Now where it says eat and drink moderately, so if you eat too little, there's problems too. You know how it is when you haven't eaten for a while and you feel a little shaky and a little bit, you know, you can't really settle because your body needs food. So moderately means you need to have food too, right? So if insufficient food is taken, and the stomach is not full enough, and the mind and its cognition will be unsteady, you know, a little bit. So if you're, which is one of the reasons we ask people not to fast during,

[28:13]

we actually don't have a fasting practice that we all partake of. Some people may fast for health reasons or if you're sick, you don't eat very much. And we also have the smaller meal in the evening. At Tassar, we have only two bowls at night. And during Sashin, we have just two bowls at night, so we eat a little bit less. But, you know, I remember one instance where someone fasted during Sashin, but they didn't tell anybody, they practiced ariyoki, but no one noticed they weren't taking any food in their bowls. And they actually had a, what would you call it, kind of, they flipped out, that's colloquially, they had a kind of break, a psychotic break during the Sashin. And we kind of realized afterwards they hadn't been eating, they had been sitting a lot, they had been sitting up late, and they kind of,

[29:15]

they lost their steadiness, right? They were not stabilized and may have been predisposed and so forth. So you want to eat moderately. If insufficient food is taken, the stomach is not full enough, and the mind and its cognition will be unsteady. And then these two conditions do not help one to realize jhana. Now, this realizing jhana is this meditation technique of jhana, or that's, you know, the word chan comes from the Chinese way of saying jhana, D-H-Y-A-N-A, which is the Sanskrit for meditation or samadhi. And zen is, but, the zen that Dogen speaks of is broader than that. You know, it's not, it's not narrowed to this. Impure food causes confusion of the mind and its cognition.

[30:18]

Unsuitable food causes a relapse into sickness and keeps the four elements in disharmony. A student, therefore, should be very careful about all this when beginning to practice meditation. Hence the sutra says, and I'm not sure which sutra he's referring to, if the body is at ease, the Tao will prosper. If food and drink are properly regulated or harmonized, happiness will be enjoyed in quiet and the still mind will make a great show of zeal. This is the teaching of all the Buddhas. So, it matters. It matters actually if you eat carefully or if you sort of disregard this and your body will respond. And we know this. But we also don't want to be on a trip. See, this is the middle way. You know, like, ooh, I can't eat any of this. Oh, onions are in the soup, I mustn't eat that.

[31:20]

That's kind of being attached to having it be just the way you want it for your zazen practice to be just right. That's going too far. And totally disregarding it and not even paying attention to what it feels like to eat various things is going too far the other way. So, in the Universal Admonitions, he says, eat and drink moderately. And behind that little phrase is this whole practice of centuries. You know, Dogen's writing in the 1200s. This was the 500s. And in the sutras from the Buddha, he also talks about, you know, how you gather the food in your alms-bowl and eat and so forth. So, this is a long tradition, excuse me, a long tradition of attention to food and not necessarily vegetarian or not vegetarian. He doesn't say when the Buddha gathered food, whatever they put in the bowl. Reminds me of the story about Pinda's thumb. I don't know if you know that story.

[32:21]

It's one of those stories you never forget when you hear it, which is... Does somebody not want me to tell it? You can imagine the story of... Well, anyway, so they're gathering and I think Pinda gave food, but he was a leper and his... fell into the bowl and it was... That was the offering of the day for that particular monk. So... But anyway, whatever the food is, so to not be attached to have it be one way or the other or just right. There's so many practices around food that are really great, really helpful. But let's move on. So, for practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Now, this part, put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. They say, in the Chanwan Jingui, it says,

[33:27]

then cast aside all involvements and discontinue straight. He just took it straight from this Socha Ni and he dropped it from this other one, didn't he? Oh, no, it's down here lower. Oh, in this Shogo Genzo Zazen Shin, which is this bottom one, he gets into a little bit more... There's little tidbits here and there where he says more about a quiet room is suitable. This is Dogen Zenji in another chapter of Shogo Genzo, says, do not let in drafts or vapors, rain or frost. Secure and maintain the place where you practice. And then it says, people sat on a Vajra or a rock and they all put... Oh, then talking about putting down a thick layer. Anyway, this quiet place, a suitable place, I just wanted to say, we're very careful about it being not too light and not too dark. Having the lights, the Ino takes care of the lighting and the windows so that it's not too cold, not too hot.

[34:31]

You know, this is all to help us with our Zazen and the fact that one person's job with, you know, in consultation sometimes with other people is all to create the best conditions for people to sit. So put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad, do not judge true or false. This is... You know how it is when you come to sit and you've got... You are so involved in something that just happened or a letter you just got and your mind is just racing, racing, racing, racing. So the admonition is to just set that aside. Can you set that aside and just drop the involvements and drop thinking good or bad? Or if this is what's going on, looking at that and watching how the rising goes, you know,

[35:35]

rather than chasing after it and adding to it and gee, I wish I said this and making your list. So we all, I think, struggle with this during Zazen, this cast aside all involvements and cease, suspend all affairs. Do not think good or bad, do not judge true or false is more of this admonition. Now, where it says give up the operations of mind, intellect and consciousness, the Japanese for that is give up shin, i, shiki. Shin is mind or heart, mind. It's translated in Japanese as either heart or mind. And that's translating the word chitta in Sanskrit, c-i-t-t-a, chitta, which is kind of the overall encompassing mind is one way to think of that. And i, spelled i, shin, i, shiki is thought.

[36:39]

So give up shin, i, shiki, so give up operations of mind. This is translated as intellect. And the Sanskrit for that is manas, m-a-n-a-s, which is when we talk about the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, that is mind as an organ. Those are the five eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body is the five sense organs and then the sixth is mind as an organ, as the organ of thought, you might say, which translates i, the letter i, manas. And shiki, s-h-i-k-i, is perception. Shini, shiki, that's interesting because I, yeah, is vijjana or discriminative consciousness. So the admonition is to give up the operations of mind, intellect and consciousness.

[37:48]

And those three refer to kind of the complete operations of the mind, how the mind works. And it's to give it up. Now, let me go a little bit further. Give up operations of mind, intellect and consciousness, so citta, manas and vijjana, and stop measuring with thoughts, ideas and views. And that's in Japanese is nen, so, kan, n-e-n, s-o-k-a-n. And nen is sense, feeling or memory, recollection. And in Sanskrit it's smirti, s-r, no, s-m-i-r-t-i, smirti is like memory, recollection, that operation. See, these are all part of the list of dharmas, which I was talking about on Sunday,

[38:50]

there's elements of reality, you could say. And so the mind, the operations of the mind are delineated in detail, in various ways. So this is recollection, and this has stop measuring with thoughts, this has sense, feeling, memory, recollection, thought. And so, nen, so, kan, so, is, this is translated as ideas, it's also think, expect, perception, or samjna, s-a-m-j-n-a, samjna, which is perception. And in the five skandhas, when we say form, feelings, perception, that skandha is samjna, s-a-m-j-n-a, which means together maker. J-a-n-a is like in prajna, or vijjana, it's consciousness,

[39:54]

and the sam is together. I feel like somebody is about to correct me on that, j-a, like j-a-n-a, or cognition, that's what it is, cognition. And kan is views, or examine, or insight, or contemplative observation, and it translates vipassana. So this is one reason, you know, you have these, the Japanese characters, the Chinese characters, which are very particular Sanskrit terms, which have a lot of meaning and history, and mean something very specific. And when we translate it into English, it kind of is more general. You wouldn't necessarily know that you're talking about smrti, which you can read about and study about that particular term when we say recollection or memory. Well, what is that exactly?

[40:59]

So that's why it's really helpful to have the, not that I've done it personally myself, but to have the Japanese characters, the Chinese characters, to go through and see what they actually mean when they're bringing that up. So basically give up all thoughts and views and this mental functioning that's related to all of this whole apparatus. Just give it up. Now, it doesn't mean that you stop your mind working. As long as you're a human being, there will be, this is the middle way, you know. It says give it up, and yet it will function in a natural way anyway. But it's this attaching to it, getting involved, getting, as we were talking about last week, kind of involved in externalities, manipulating, creating more, and making that the focus of your attention. So you kind of let it go, although it functions along. Thoughts arise and go away, and perceptions arise and go away.

[42:04]

So give up the operations of the mind, intellect, and consciousness. Stop measuring the thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs. I kind of want to get down to this next paragraph, so maybe I'm going through this too quickly. But anyway, have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? So the designs on becoming a Buddha are, to have designs on something is to be thinking about how am I going to get that to happen? How am I going to do what it takes in order to become Buddha? That's gaining idea or seeking for something, which Dogen's whole teaching is practice, realization, are naturally undefiled. One doesn't need to seek any further than,

[43:08]

why go off to the dusty realms? Right here, right now. So if you have a design about becoming a Buddha, like, okay, now I'm going to sit, and I'm going to gain enlightenment or become a Buddha. Here I go. That's, in and of itself, is kind of straying. It's a hair's breadth deviation. It's as far as heaven and earth. So drop that too, about having any designs about becoming Buddha. Just sit for the sake of sitting, and that's it. Drop gaining idea. So that's what this paragraph is pointing to. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down? Which is, this is not a technique. This is how to live your life thoroughly. Okay, so are there any questions about that? Yes. Well, I'm also wondering if that, things I've noticed about becoming a Buddha means, how would you presume to know what Buddha is?

[44:11]

You know, like, already knowing what Buddha is is going to hinder you. Yes, yes. Yes. So if you have a conception of, well, this is a Buddha, and I'm going to... This is what I'm going to be. That's right. Then you're not going to do... That's right. Yes. I wanted to just ask about the stop measuring. Yes. Does that, oh, the stop measuring part, would that refer to, like, using thoughts or ideas, or you said use thoughts to be like insights? Does that mean, like, stop doing, like, when you are checking your practice, while you're doing your practice, like, checking, like, is this, am I doing it the right way? Am I doing it... Or are you having an insight into, like, oh, I'm on the wrong path. I can, if I jog myself over to here, it's more the right... Is it referred, would it...

[45:11]

Is it also important to give that up, to just forget about that? Um... Checking... I think not to give up checking your posture, you know, like, if you feel like I'm slumping, oh, noticing you're slumping and bring yourself upright again, I don't think is what they're saying not to do. Right. It's more, how am I doing, you know? Right. Which I think you're pointing to, measuring in that way, good or bad, you know, I'm doing it right, I'm a good Zen student, I'm a terrible Zen student. That is sort of beside the point, but to actually notice wandering mind and coming back to the present or those kinds of things, I don't think they're measuring in that way. If you add to that some kind of critical mind that's saying, oh, how terrible, or, boy, this is a better sitting than this morning, now I'm really getting it, and that kind of thing, is a kind of deviation, right?

[46:12]

I wanted to just see how they translated it here. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Sanzen has nothing whatever... Sanzen is Zazen. Has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down. Let's see. The gauging. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. So gauging yourself. Comparing and gauging all the time, yes. This one says, you must not strive. Oh, that's the designs. Cease conceptualizing, thinking, and observing. This one says, just relax and forget that you're meditating. Stop the movement and working of the mind and empty the mind of all thoughts. These are different translations of that part. Just relax. Forget you're meditating. I think that's pretty good. Dogen doesn't quite say that, but... And gathering kusha grass.

[47:16]

Do you know this? Gathering this grass called kusha grass, which the word for wholesome and unwholesome comes from the word kusha grass. Kushala means wholesome, and akushala means unwholesome because the grass was sharp. You probably heard Rev speak of this. The grass was sharp, and when you gathered it, unless you did it carefully, you could cut your hand. So doing it carefully with attention is kind of a wholesome state of mind. So they made these cushions, you know. Now, there are other lineages that sit flat. They sit on a mat, but they don't have a mat on top of it. They spread out a thick mat, but Dogen says, and put a cushion on top of it. So there are, you may know of, I think in Theravadan schools you see people sit sometimes just plain down on a mat. Have you noticed that? But anyway, in this lineage,

[48:18]

you put a cushion on it, put a zafu on it, and we have not only zafus, but we have support cushions, and we've got chairs, and we've got whatever you need. But I've been told, let's see, this is not a put-down, but of another school or lineage or monastery or whatever, but you can go to certain monasteries where there's just one regulation-size cushion. It's just one-size-fits-all kind of a thing, and if it doesn't fit you, it's sort of like too bad. You just make do. So we have all sorts, you know, big, fat, puffy ones, little, thin pancake ones, and you can create your own custom-made seat. Just like gathering the kusha grass, I'm sure they gathered whatever they needed. If you're a big, tall nun or monk, you've got a whole bunch. So we get to do that. We don't have one regulation size. Excuse me, I saw a picture of Japanese monks sitting zazen.

[49:21]

They didn't have a zabaton. They were just on tatamis with zafus. Uh-huh, no zabaton, uh-huh. Well, I guess they weren't spreading out a thick mat. No, they weren't. Now let me just see. This is the Ehe Shingi. This is the rules for monastic life. And this is Ben Do Ho. Ben Do Ho has lots and lots of details. Oh, about the tooth stick, the gata, the verse you do when you hold the tooth stick. Do you want to hear it? Excuse me, that's a diversion. Here we go. So he says, when you do zazen, always use a zafu. Now he doesn't say spread out a thick mat. But you're doing zazen in the place where there maybe is a mat for your sleeping mat. So maybe because they're saying you have your quilt, you have to put it away.

[50:23]

But anyway, when you do zazen, always use a zafu. And does he say anything about that? Regulating food. Well, let's see. For studying Zen, the modern food, cassava. Okay. Spread a thick mat is in zazen shin. When you sit in meditation, spread a thick mat in a quiet place. Oh, that's what the So Chan Yi says, the Chan Wan Jing Wei says. So he does say in a quiet place, but later. When you sit, spread a thick mat. Everybody says spread a thick mat. Okay. So I think that's important for your knees to have a thick mat. Sometimes if the zabatan is a little too thin, your knees really can feel it, especially if you're doing a lot of long sitting.

[51:28]

And to actually get the zafu to be the right height for you is really important. And as you sit, the more you sit, you need different sizes. Like in a seshin, you can start out with a certain height, and then you don't need that height. As your hips open up more and you get more flexible, you actually don't need quite as much height. So be mindful of that. You can take out the kapok. The zafus have little openings where you can go in and take the kapok out if you own your zafu. And do we have a bag of kapok to stuff? We should. So if you need a little more height, there's kapok, which is this very nice material that is kind of breathable and sort of a natural material that puffs up.

[52:29]

If you need your zafu and fluff it up, in the proper manner, you kind of turn it. This one feels pretty. So that's a good way to keep your zafu nice, to puff it up every time. But it will collapse and you add more. So even a quarter of an inch will matter a lot in your sitting posture because it's nerve and, you know, we're talking about muscle and nerve and blood flow. So really be attentive about that, the size of your zafu. The kapok, though, you shouldn't inhale it. Yeah, it's kind of nasty stuff it gets on you. It's a dust mask. Be careful with the kapok. Eat and drink marijuana. Spread a thick mat and put a cushion on it. Sit either in the full lotus or half lotus position.

[53:31]

Now, let's see, what do they say here? Then sit in either the full cross-legged or half cross-legged position. Sit in the full cross-legged position. So they talk about sitting in the full lotus or half lotus position. And I'll just say a few words about that. They talk about having first the right foot and then the left foot on top and the same with the hands. And the right side of the body, traditionally, is thought of as the kind of dominant side. Now, if you're left-handed, it switches for you probably, but the right side is thought of as active, dominant, action, that kind of thing, and the left is more inward, introverted, introspective, passive side.

[54:44]

So in zazen, you put the left on top to kind of balance that in terms of your overall psychophysical being. You have left on top. And same with the hands, left on top. Although, if you have your right leg on top, it's also okay to have your hand go with your leg. So if you've got right on top, then right can go on top. But for most people, they stick with left on top. But I've seen Reb, who's my main meditation teacher, also have right on top if the right leg is on top. But they talk about in here the left on top, which is this is universal admonitions. So I think, again, there's a huge, there's a vast oral tradition and particulars to each person's situation. Some people have injuries. They can't put left on top. They have to have right on top because they spasm.

[55:46]

Each person is very particular. But for universal recommendations, it's left on top, and I think it's for this active-passive balancing. Yes. I may have asked it earlier, but I've tended in my practice to alternate one on top of the other on top between periods to sort of feel less, so I can open both hips and knee joints more. Yes, thank you very much for bringing that up. If any of you have taken yoga, you know that you always do the asana on one side and then you do the asana on the other, and usually one side is more, you feel it differently than the other. In fact, sometimes vast differences because one side is more flexible or opened up. Whatever the asana is, you're not usually even. So yes, I think it's a good idea to switch,

[56:50]

to be, it doesn't have to be every period, but to have both sides of your body, to not overstretch one side. So to try, and you'll see if you're used to putting your left on top and you do the right on top, it's like a new world. If you've never done it before, you can't find your body in the same way. So it's like beginner's mind all over. So it's very refreshing, actually, to try it, and also healthy to make those changes and to do both sides. Let's see, I have some more notes on this. Yes? Oh, yes. So what if you're only doing the quarter lotus or not even the quarter lotus sometimes, just like sitting on your mat with your legs behind you? Yes, seiza. So let's see.

[57:51]

So full lotus and then half lotus. Let me get to that. Also, just since I have this audience that's not going anywhere, I just wanted to mention, when you get into your position, it's really important, probably most of you know this, but any cross-legged position, to pull your leg up first like this. The knee joint is a very delicate joint, and it's a kind of primitive joint. If it gets hurt, it doesn't do very well. Grace, you can corroborate this, but it doesn't heal all that well. If you hurt your knee, it can be really... So it likes to be in a hinged shape rather than being torqued and turned. So you want to keep it like this, and then the hip joint is ball and socket, and it's meant to do rotating things. So you leave this in a nice hinge, just the way it likes to be,

[58:55]

and then leaving it in its hinge, you turn from down there and place your leg. And you also, when you bring your consciousness to the hip, somehow your foot, it gets up higher on your leg rather than just pulling it up from down below. So this protects your knee, and also the reason people have difficulties getting into cross-legged position is the hips aren't flexible, and there's lots of hip openers that you can do to help that. So anyway, whatever cross-legged position, to pull up first and then turn. And if it's quarter lotus, so that's half lotus, and then quarter is like in this, he doesn't mention it, but in this crease here between your calf and your thigh, but even do it then, pull and place, rather than from here going erk,

[59:57]

because that kind of puts a torque in the knee, and over time. And also when you don't, it's really a good practice not to pull on your foot. You know, the tendency is to grab your foot and pull, but if you pull your foot and make the sickle, if you sickle your foot, they say in yoga class, don't sickle your foot, meaning making your foot like a sickle shape, because that pulls the ligaments on this side of your knee and can damage. So use your shin, which is a nice strong bone. You can just pull from there and move your leg, rather than yanking on your foot. And then for Burmese, you know, Burmese is, actually Burmese, the true Burmese has the heels in line with heels. It's a very wide posture, and it's... What, what, Greg?

[60:57]

That's what I do. Yeah, well... I should switch to Burmese. Burmese? Anyway, I find Burmese, I can feel it in my hips quite a bit, because it's very wide, and the full lotus and half lotus are really narrower in the hip department, if you do it with the heels in line with heels, but mostly I think people do it like this a little bit more. So, in any case, put, you know, have your knees go into the posture carefully. And then Seiza... I don't have a cushion, but you know how... Well, okay. You know, we used to ask people not to sit on the cushion this way, because it would split the Zafu, because of the sewing, the seams would split if you sat. But people like a little more height, but... Anyway, so Seiza is a wonderful, wonderful stable posture.

[61:58]

Your back can be nice and straight, and it's great, you know, during a long Sashin and all, to be able to switch into Seiza. Usually the feet should be on either side. And these do stretch out. The more you do it, they stretch out pretty fast. In fact, my son Davey is in Aikido, and they sit Seiza into all these stretches, and he couldn't do it at first. And now, he sat... The other day he was sitting in Seiza saying, This is really comfortable, this is really great. Because he got stretched out in his quads, and then you're sitting there, and you're just... It's, um... You're ready for anything. It's a wonderful posture for doing all sorts of things. Japanese arts are done in Seiza, you know, calligraphy and things. And then in a chair, for those of you who use a chair on occasion or regularly, having the knees in a...

[63:01]

Let's see, I can't do it. In a 90-degree angle, you know, not having them up or low. So if you're short-legged, I guess, your knees would go lower. You need to put a little cushion under your feet so that it's a nice 90-degree angle for your legs. And also, the cross-legged positions are warmer, you know, because your legs are all curled up close. In fact, they talk about drawing them in to... close to your body. This is... Keizan Joki, and he says... Now, see, I can't find it as usual. Anyway, it talks about drawing things in close. So if you're in a chair, it's very cold sometimes because you're all out and exposed.

[64:05]

So bring a blanket. Those of you who are using a chair, you can bring a little lap blanket because you don't have robes covering you. I think that's OK to do. Yes? I usually sit half lotus. Lately, my feet have been... Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And do they remain asleep during kinyin, or when you get up? No, it stops. It stops, so it's really just during sitting. Well, it might be height. You might have... you know, try... sometimes just a little bit of shift that way. Yeah. So this is how he describes it, the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right, and then Tai, half lotus, and then there's all these other postures which are traditional, you know, Burmese is traditional, and that half lily they sometimes call it,

[65:07]

but the one where it's tucked in, those are traditional, but this is all he mentions. Tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. So if you're not wearing robes, we ask people to undo their belts or buttons that are around their waist so that you can really breathe from low down. So wearing the proper clothing for zazen is you don't want anything too tight, and yet the traditional clothing which has an obi, which is a thick band belt, that's worn low, it feels very... like some strength there, you feel that, not too tight, but some... consciousness down there with that band around your stomach. And there's stomach sweaters, have you ever heard of those, haramaki, that are woolen sweaters that are about...

[66:08]

they're like a tube out of wool and you wear it around your stomach to keep your stomach nice and toasty warm? I have one if you want to see one sometime. Yeah, I've got one too, except I got mine out of the drawer and it was all muffy. I haven't worn it in a long time. I suppose we could order them from Japan, stomach sweaters, haramakis. They're really funny looking. They are funny looking, yeah. But keeping that area of the body warm, you want your head cool. See, this is all the oral tradition about meditation, and it's not in here. But this is what you hear when you are hanging out with meditators. You keep your head cool. We don't wear hats in the zendo. It's not really out of respect for the Buddha. For meditation you want to keep your head cool and the lower part of your body warm. And that's why to have it a little bit cooler in the zendo is... and also for drowsiness and stuff.

[67:10]

Okay, so tie your robes loosely and arrange them neatly. I love that detail, arrange them neatly. And you know how you see people get ready for lecture and they... I remember when I first started sitting watching the lecturers, and it was like, this is really far out, you know, tucking, tucking, and then the next thing, and then just adjusting and adjusting. And it was so fascinating. Anyway, but to take that kind of care with... You know how when things are... If you've got a tuck under here that's not... If you've got a wrinkle under your knee, it is so... You can actually get... For me, I have sciatica, and if I have even a tiny little wrinkle from my robe under my left leg in the wrong place, I'll get... Go to sleep and pain radiating. I mean, it just takes a little wrinkle. So arrange them neatly. It makes a difference. Whatever you've got on,

[68:16]

whether you've got robes or not. I mean, it's a practice to arrange it neatly, not having them all over the meal board. And same with your cushions. The cushions shouldn't be on the meal board or kind of strewn around you. If you've got a kind of setup and you place them in front of you and not on the meal board hanging off, just, you know... Okay, then place your right hand on your left leg. Now they're talking about a leg... This is a question that people have. I think the leg they're talking about is this leg, you know. Place your left hand on your left leg rather than a leg that's lower down. I think it's a leg that's right up close and higher because of being in full lotus probably. So it's really... I think what's a better... Not better, excuse me, Dogen. I don't mean to say better, but...

[69:18]

Having your left hand... Having your thumb about even with your navel. Your left hand... Excuse me. Your right hand on your left leg and the left hand on top with the baby finger about two inches below your navel touching your belly and your thumbs even with your navel. And if you've got a leg there, that's touching your leg. But if you don't have a leg, it's in the right position. You don't want to do this, putting it down on your leg. This will pull your whole upper body forward and your back will hurt. Can you see, Sarah? You don't want to rest your hands on your legs unless your legs are up high. So I think to think of two inches below your navel where your baby fingers rest actually touching your belly and your thumb

[70:22]

in line with your navel. And that makes this round circle of your arms. And of course the tendency is to have your mudra fall apart or go lower or to think, oh, I can't hold it. It's... I can't do that. But it's not from your shoulders. It's resting there. And I was telling somebody about astronauts. When astronauts are floating in zero gravity, their arms do this, just naturally, just like Zazen. If they put their hands together, they do this and float along. This is completely natural posture. It's not holding anything. So it has to do with relaxing the shoulders and letting the arms go in this round circle. Also the dead man's float. If you're floating in water on your stomach, the arms do that too, just naturally. So if you...

[71:24]

This is a really important point for your back because the arm muscles start from your lower back. If you were to look at the muscles, they come up from the lower back like a big fan and around your arms. Your arms don't sort of start from the end of your shoulders and kind of hang off. They're completely connected with all the musculature of your back. So if they're down too low, your whole back will feel it, and lower, upper, somewhere. So that's really important to make this effort. So placement of the hands and thumb tips lightly touching. And I'll just mention this, that if you have long nails, it's very hard to have the thumb tips touching. You end up having to do this. So this is one of those... You can cut one nail and fit it over the top of the other one

[72:24]

if you really want to keep your nails long. The other ones, of course, dig into your hands too if they're too long. So keeping your thumbnails nicely trimmed will really help that thumb tips touching. And Suzuki Roshi said, as if there was a piece of paper between. And also the placement of where the other fingers are. You can have the fingers right where the fingers meet the palm, right there, and thumb tips touching, and then this is a round shape. Or the third knuckle, or this middle knuckle in line with middle knuckle. And for me, that makes my fingers of the left hand go into the palm a little bit. And it makes a smaller circle too. But either of those is okay. Now when you look down at your mudra,

[73:25]

if you've got it in the proper place, and you look down, your thumbs should be blocking your vision from your middle finger. So when you look down, because it rotates, it's up and down, and it rotates in and out. So when you look down at it, you should not be able to see your middle finger. Do you see how that is? So that's the Cosmic Mudra. Straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left nor right, neither forward nor backward. Now let me just see what they say here. Press the tips of your thumbs together, then press them together. This is what, it says in the Sochani, it says press the tips of your thumbs together.

[74:28]

Dogen, in his first Fukan Sasangi, said press the tips of thumbs, and press the tips of thumbs, place your right hand, and press. This may be just the way Carl translated place your thumb tips lightly touching. He says press. Press the tips of your thumbs together. With your hands in this position, place them against your body, so that the joined thumb tips are aligned with your navel. That's from Zazen Shin, which is another meditation text. So place them against your body, so that the joined thumb tips are aligned with your navel. So there it says it. So it's, you know, certain places he goes into more detail. Okay. Then straighten your body and sit erect. How are we doing for time?

[75:33]

I can't see that. Can too? Just barely. Okay. So I want to talk about straighten your body and sit upright, leaning neither left or right, either forward or backwards. The spine, the energy, the posture has both an upward energy and a downward energy, but at the same time, which is consonant with lots of yoga postures where you're going grounding and, you know, you're going out and down. You know, you're doing two things at once. So it's, it's not unusual. So, so when you sit upright, you're, you probably all heard this in Zazen instruction, but you're pulling up in this, this part of your head back here is the top of most part as if you're being pulled up.

[76:33]

And it's, but at the exact same time, you're also going down in the lower part of your body, your buttocks and legs and lower, you know, abdomen is, is grounded and, and rooting itself down, you know, and feeling the, the feel of the cushion under you going down as you're going up. So it's both are, both are happening at once. And the spine, the vertebrae now says it in one of these, which one does it say it? About the vertebrae being like a stupa. Let's see. Maybe it says it in this guy, because he's real detail about the body. Oh, it's the Chinyuan, Changyuan Qingwei, he says about the stupa. Yeah, page 180. Okay. Okay. But for safety,

[77:37]

keep your, Oh, good. Keep your hips, back, neck and head in line, making your posture like a stupa. But do not strain your body upward too far, lest it make your breathing forced and unsettled. So there's this upward thing, but it's not a straining upward. You, in fact, your, your rib cage, you're not moving your rib cage up and like that. There is an upward, your sternum is lifted. It's a lift from here, a lift up and down. But it's the rib cage isn't like raised up and you're not straining like that, because you can tell if you're moving your rib cage up, you can't breathe, your diaphragm is changing. So, but if you're pulled up like this string, you're actually, your belly is kind of loose and just ready to breathe and kind of hanging, hanging it's, it's loose. It kind of has a loose quality

[78:37]

rather than holding it tight. If you're pulling up, it's very hard to hold onto your belly if you're pulling up that way, the top of your head actually. So, and then your vertebrae stack on top of each other, like, like stupa. So this sitting erect, there's energy and neither leaning to the right or the left or forward and backwards. So from all sides of you, forward and back, there's energy is even, there's no part of you, you're not just taking care of the front part, the whole back of you, there's energy. If you were to draw it, you'd see energy coming out from all around rather than just the front. but, but if you're leaning one way or the other, then that will, you'll lose the energy in one side or the other. So it's this balance. And I want to mention this, rocking your body right and left,

[79:39]

he mentions, they all mention that, right? And I've noticed that there's maybe a tendency, sometimes the second period is as in a row, to not rock your body right and left, to just kind of zap in. But please take the time to do that rocking which helps you to find your center. So you can be leaning either to the right or the left. Now, when you're doing that rocking, if you bring your attention down into your sitting bones, your sitting bones are like two little feet. You can imagine that you have these two little feet that are your sitting bones and they're standing on the cushion. And you don't want them to stand like this or like this. So when you're doing this and you rock back and forth, if you bring your attention really into your sit bones, you notice when you come to stopping that you're off.

[80:39]

But it's like Harris Breath Deviation. It's like you just need to go and then it's, that's right, you know. But you have to bring your attention to your sitting bones. And if you, I think it's really helpful to imagine them like feet. And then you can find them. And even pressure, there's exactly even pressure on either one. If there's slight pressure on one side or the other, you're off. You're actually leaning. Okay? And same with forward and backward, you know, to find that. So please take that time to rock your body right and left. Um. Oh, here's this thing drawn close to your belly. When going to his meditation bed or tan, it's talking about a practitioner, he or she should arrange

[81:41]

his or her cushions so they are fit for a long sitting. Then he or she should know how to sit cross-legged in a half lotus posture, the left leg should be placed on the right one and drawn close to the belly so that the toes of the left foot are parallel to the right thigh. And those are the right foot to the left thigh. If a full lotus posture is desired and so forth. Then, see this is from 500, 47 or whatever. The next thing to do is to loosen his belt, his or her belt, but just enough to prevent it from slipping. You want to feel it there, but you don't want it too tight. Now, isn't that a great detail? Loosen the belt just enough to prevent it from slipping. Then, left hand laid across the right one and so forth. Both being placed on the legs and drawn close to the belly. So, that's really important, this touching the belly thing. It's a very important point

[82:42]

for your stabilized sitting. And then, after this, the body should be adjusted by keeping it straight and by shaking it and the limbs seven to eight times to relax them. I think that shaking is really rocking the body from right to left. I don't think it's shaking the body like that. That's my guess. Some of us have done that kind of shaking. Thus, the body will be erect with the backbone being neither bent nor raised. After that, the neck and head should be held at the proper position. So, let's see. Align your ears with your shoulders and your nose with your navel. So, that almost naturally happens. But, you know, there could be a little coming forward. So, you visualize the ears in line with the shoulders, nose in line with the navel. And there's this neck. There's a feeling of the neck being wide

[83:42]

a kind of wideness like spreading out, having your body spread out in all the directions. Not a tight and rigid neck, you know, like a military thing, although the chin is drawn in to get the ears in line. But, the neck has a wide feeling. And I just wanted to show this picture of Suzuki Roshi, which, I don't know, for some reason, you've seen this picture, but I just felt like it showed this kind of wide neck, you know. Maybe that's total projection on my part, but there's something about that. He feels the neck, he feels the space, you know. You know what I mean? So, it's not a tight, rigid thing, but, you know, shoulders relaxed, pulling up, and then, think of widening the neck. I mean, it's, you can suggest it to yourself in words, and then the body will respond, you know,

[84:42]

just to say, widen the neck. Spread, spread out. Occupy your space. After that, the neck and head should be held in the proper position so that the tip of the head should be either slant or inclined to one side. You know, sometimes we don't even realize, but we're sitting this way and someone will correct your posture and it's like, you know, the world has just kind of flipped over to one side. But we have habitual ways of holding our head. So, it's kind of intimate to have somebody come and go, but you can see that from the back. Let's see, what do they say? Ears should be in line with your shoulders, your nose in line with the navel, exactly the same. The eyes should, oh, wait a minute. Ears in line. Okay. Now,

[85:42]

rest the tip of your tongue against the front of the roof of your mouth with teeth and lips both shut. This sort of mouth apparatus, if you put the tongue there, it actually closes off the cavity of the mouth so that when you breathe through the nose, which you're supposed to, part of the air doesn't go partially into your mouth. It goes, you inhale and it goes completely into the abdomen rather than part of the air getting into the mouth. So you want to make sure that that's teeth and lips both shut and that tongue up on that top palate behind the upper teeth. And to have all these things quiescent, quiescent, tranquil because this apparatus is very connected with the brain and all the thought processes are connected with. You know, you start moving your mouth fast and your thoughts go faster. So you want all that to be very quieted.

[86:47]

It's not that it's going to stop your thoughts, but to have the mouth hanging open or the tongue moving or the mouth and lips moving, thoughts get generated when there's movement. Same with when the chin is out. Like the thinker. You know, that's a very different mudra that... Is it Rodin? The thinker? The chin is just out. When the head is back like that and the chin up, maybe you can think better. I'm not exactly sure, but... So this bringing the head in and the neck, that it doesn't stop thoughts, but it quiets. It quiets the kind of racing thinking. Same with the mouth. And... Yes? You know, speaking of generating thoughts... It's till 9 o'clock? I'm thinking that if we just go right into this, you know,

[87:49]

thinking of not... of not thinking next time... Yeah. ...that we're kind of cutting ourselves off. I know, because there's more things to say here. Let me just mention one more thing and then let's go next week with the eyes and the breathing. Well, let's stop now. No, it's 9 o'clock. Because also maybe a lot of people have, you know, kind of... things have come up during this. Good. Good. Well, why don't we practice what we've been talking about or what I've been talking about and we'll continue with this next week. How about that? And we'll see if we can do that and I think that's thinking. Thank you for suggesting that and for stopping me from going after 9 o'clock. How do I remember my questions? Yeah, jot your questions down. No, but you'll have more questions as you practice this way or, you know,

[88:50]

add some more consciousness to how you're sitting already. Have those of you who are not here been reciting in four counts at home? Yes? Yes? Good. I'm so glad. Good. Okay. May your future... May your future...

[89:12]

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