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. So I intend this morning to carry on from where I left off yesterday. I hope it doesn't sound abstract, irrelevant, or utterly and thoroughly incomprehensible.

[01:04]

Well, maybe incomprehensible is okay. hopefully useful. You know, it's an interesting process, Shashin, as we intensify our practice. This bottomless request that's made of us, how do we temper it with... the capacity of our own body and mind. And each of us is challenged to negotiate that, to navigate that. If you've been sitting in Sesa, it's kind of foolish to say, okay, for Sashina, I'm going to sit in full lotus. Maybe you'll do it, but chances are pretty slim.

[02:10]

It's its own development in a practical way. And yet, in the midst of those practical considerations, there is a boundless potential. I sincerely hope that in chanting the Enmei Jukko yesterday, something was experienced. Of course we can drive back into the mundane and say, well, if you make a whole lot of noise, when you stop making noise, you notice it's quiet. Which is true. But along with it, hopefully discovering in the doing as attention, effort is given to body and growth and somewhat or a lot diminished

[03:43]

in how it's being given to the constructs of mind, perception shifts. The sense of what is shifts. And as that's done collectively, the perception of collective being is enhanced. And as energy and effort and attention are directed, something in the human organism is affected by that. And we can see it and feel it and engage it in a variety of ways.

[04:46]

sense of energy in the body the the way the breath is in the body the way the body is and this is the outcome a of directed attention And as Dogen Senji says, it's a wondrous art. You can't force an outcome. No. But you can enable in this act of giving. This act of giving. attention this act of energizing the giving and even though in the mundane we can say well make a big noise and then stop of course you're going to hear the quiet but something in that

[06:16]

energized giving and then releasing and allowing and receiving realization and as Dogen goes at great lengths to say you know realization is not the product of our thinking mind. It's not what we conclude, understand. It's the apprehension of the experience in the moment. And sometimes we perceive in that vibrating space, after we've chanted the sound of the blue jay, is more itself.

[07:38]

It always was itself. But the experience of it, the realization of its suchness. How the singularity of its arising appearance. They're very obliging this morning. I really couldn't have asked for better. That way it arises. And that interesting way it draws consciousness beyond thinking.

[08:50]

something we taste something and this is an interesting challenge for us it would be crude to say well what do we do with that Maybe a skillful response would be, no, it's more a process of undoing. It's not that we do something with it. The request, the challenge is it undoes us. That the world that we've diligently glued together into the reality it is becomes a little unglued. that there is a momentary experience beyond thought a momentary experience that can't be encapsulated in any conclusion so this dimension of practice

[10:33]

in other places as Dogen workouts in particular his own practice dropping off body and mind the moment is so vividly and thoroughly itself the usual reality the usual me right time to the usual physicality of body and mind. Opens up. Drops off. Goes beyond whatever terminology we want to give it. So part of Sushin is discovering, exploring, engaging this of consciousness.

[11:38]

And then the initiation of it in the process outlined by Dogen Zenji and I would say has a profound effect on Soto Zen especially in Japan. In some ways his terms here in Bandawa which, by the way, was really, just came to light in the 17th century. It wasn't so available, apparently, as far as we know. When the shilbha-ganza was compiled, it wasn't part of it. This, what's called receptive concentration, receptive samadhi, this indeed you use on my, is the fundamental held out as the fundamental engagement of meditation in the sato zen style and certainly I think it's a valuable contribution and it's valuable to engage in and explore it it makes it gives

[13:06]

a relevance and a cohesion to a lot of the aspects of this practice. Anyway, it does to my mind. And I hope I can communicate some of that. So as I've been saying yesterday, and it stands in contrast to this going beyond, that the initiation of G.U. 's M.I. is this thoroughgoing commitment to just be what is. Yesterday I was saying something like trying to not be what is will never suffice. Trying to not be what you are in the moment can never contact suchness, you know?

[14:13]

Suchness is momentary, it's now. And this is where it can be contacted. As long as our effort is in trying to change this to what seems to us would be a more suitable, accessible moment, there's always a gap. There's always a no instead of a yes. And so in these two components, of our engagement, directed attention and receptive attention, we explore the most.

[15:14]

They're actually not different. They initiate each other. The receptive attention makes vivid the sound of the blue jay. naturally it's attended to this is the great gift of receptive attention in making attractive what's apparent in the moment and then at other times directed attention it's almost like in despite the clamor in the mind. So how do we sustain directed attention when the mind is agitated, disturbed?

[16:29]

So as we start to sit, or actually any time we're starting to stimulate awareness, this careful involvement. And sometimes it occurs to me that in the Soto style, all the emphasis is on this point of initiation. If you look at Dogen's Zazen Shins and the Fukhan Zizengi, the point of initiation is where all the detail is. And then what you actually do when you initiate, it's kind of a mystery, you know? You know, this is someone who studied Xiryi's extensive texts chapters written on how to count your breath.

[17:46]

He was the finder of Tendai Buddhism, and he wrote copious, a mammoth text and a shorter text, and laid out in utter detail the steps involved in relating to the breath, counting it, attending to it, residing in it. But it's so enticing for us to take up a technique to create a desired outcome. Why else would we take up a technique? And if we don't take up a technique, in Vendor Wilder it says, but without practice it isn't

[18:52]

manifest it doesn't come into being something doesn't take shape if that's too much in a way but there is you know that practical sense we chant the cancer young and the silence appears in our consciousness more thoroughly, more vividly. Was it always there? Yes, it was. Were the Blue Jays always doing their thing? Yes, they were, more or less. But then, though they practically and directly says, it's that engagement that makes vivid, try to stop fiddling, just sit still.

[20:00]

It's that engagement that makes it evident, and then when it's evident, then Dogen says, then what's manifest can be realized. to hold this proposition as we start to sit. And then this notion of unconstructedness in stillness, there is a way we have to let the experience happen. sitting. So we have this energetic involvement of chanting, of bowing, whatever we're doing, whatever the doing is, the engaging of it.

[21:11]

But in the sitting, stillness. And there's a curveful alchemy there for us. There's a curveful working with the conditions that are arising. How do we notice the small or large impulses to move? From the place of stillness, when the impulse, as we all know very well, you know, the fly lies in your face. If you open the sensation, the irritation, the discomfort of the fly on your face, the moment becomes more itself.

[22:12]

If you reach up and swat it, something else happens. moment each arising gives us a clue about allowing what is to be what is directed attention stimulates that process And this is, in Chikantaza, this is the delicate balance. There's directed attention, purposeful, in some ways asking everything we've got.

[23:15]

Give. So much our impulses, we want it. We want to own. Even the thought, we want to find its place inside our mental constructs. But the experience too. We want to respond to it in the context of me and my agendas. It's so subtle that sometimes it's so utterly instructive to pay full, to give full attention to the sensation of the fly on the face.

[24:26]

It's so instructive to attend to the sensation in the body. to discover giving. And in Shikantaza this is how we pay attention. We give full attention and I would say the heritage of Shikantaza is to body and breath. And then we give attention as thoroughly as we can to the breath breathing the body. It's a little bit like the fly landing on her face. In simple terms, it's not our conditioned impulse.

[25:36]

When we return from distractedness, our first impulse is to take charge. Okay, I'm back. I'm going to say what's going to happen. And this is our mind. The breath is going to happen. It's going to be like this. And the body is going to do it. You say, can we Turn that upside down and rediscover the breath always happens. That there's some innate wisdom of being, some life force that's always pulsing. That when it's not inhibited by constructs, blossoms in the body the breath breathing the body allowing the breath to breathe draws us into that territory how far into that territory we go well that won't depend on a lot of things

[27:09]

how sad the mind is, how open the body is, how familiar we are with that practice. But the point is not about success and failure. The point is about giving attention, thoroughness, willingness of engagement, and experiencing what happens. What will happen when we're chanting? Who knows? What will happen when we stop chanting? Who knows? Who cares? When we're chanting, there's nothing but chanting. When we're giving attention, there's just giving attention. There's no before or after.

[28:12]

There's no designed outcome. that will mark success or failure. This is the hallmark of Shikantaza. And you can read Dogen's writing to say, this is what he's always trying to establish thoroughly. Almost as if he's saying, before you go to Sri and read those chapters on how exactly to punch your breath. Establish this non-dual, this agenda that doesn't have an outcome. This giving that is just giving.

[29:16]

Let the breath breathe the body and noticing as carefully as possible the sensations in the body that are evoked. Contacting the sensation. like the fly landing on the face. In its very nature, it's inviting experience beyond thought. Now, is our active mind gonna be happy with that? No. It's immediately going to reintroduce thought.

[30:27]

But just as we chant the Kansayan, you know, it's not that the moment we start to chant the Kansayan, all thoughts disappear. The steady involvement is inclined to. Not always. Something's inclined to loosen up, lessen in its persistence, the thinking. So this kind of dedication. And of course, in engaging the breath, doesn't have that cm exerted energy it has a subtle attentive energy it's more about release and open then energize and assert but i hope you can see in a way they're both just modalities of the cm core practice you're both

[32:00]

directed and receptive attention. So we start to sit in this way. opens up. The subjective nature of being is stimulated. Even as the mind starts to settle in quiet, something's quick. Something is inclined to come up and come forth Can it be experienced like the sign of the blue jay?

[33:14]

Of course, in the context of your life and your description of reality, it has identity. It has a sense of time and place and significance. That's part of what's stimulating it to come up. in momentary experience it's the next manifestation and as the mind and the body are invited into just being also inviting this momentary experience and of course now I'm trying to turn this into words and ideas and notions, maybe even giving a sense of progression or success. But in the doing, none of that is relevant.

[34:25]

The experience generates realization. This is a practice of realization. This is not a practice of accumulating ideas this is not a practice of creating an experience the self says that's it this is a practice that the vibrancy of being allows the self to exist as just Another option of being. Look at this sense of being. Look at this formulated notion. I'm failing. I'm succeeding. I'm in samadhi.

[35:30]

And such is the contrary nature of our being as we invite release and allow of the breath. Most usually it makes evident the resistance, the hesitancy, the not knowing, the alternative to release and allow. in an almost paradoxical way we allow the resistance we allow the contraction however it manifests and experience it as fully as possible In one way we could say it's cultivating a deep compassion for the human condition.

[37:01]

We could also say it's cultivating all the paramis, you know, the diligence, the patience, the engagement, all of them. But what arises Can we meet that as it is rather than as it's not? I'm supposed to be getting calmer and I'm not. The body is supposed to be turning into liquid energy. And it's turning into a bag of old bones and creaky joints. If it's a bag of old bones, it's a bag of old bones.

[38:06]

It's momentary. It's conditioned. It's the dependent core rising of now. But it's also momentary experience it's also available in the realm of sensation and as we can patiently diligently return in this way Rather than compounding, rather than reinforcing and embellishing the world according to me, we are inviting this wondrous being.

[39:23]

and he says, Marvelous, which reminded me, this is an abrupt segue, but I'm... of this poem. I know you thought I was going to end right there, but hey. It's a poem by Shimizhine, It rolls along in a peculiar way. And like many of Shamashini's poems, the zinger comes right at the end, quickly. If you're not attending, you miss it. It's a poem about a story. dare to say a true story but i wouldn't say an untrue story either about an old irish monastery mostly in that but it's seventh century eighth century ninth century climate noise but they're very much involved in contemplative meditative tradition and here's the story

[40:51]

The annals say the monks of Clon MacNoise were all at prayers inside the oratory. A ship appeared above them in the air. The anchor dragged along behind so deep it hooked itself into the altar rails. And there, as the big hull rocked to a standstill, a crewman shimmed and grappled down the rope and struggled to release it, but in vain. This man We can't bear our life here and we'll drown, the abbot said, unless we help them. So they did. The freed ship sailed and the man climbed back out of the marvelous as he had known it. We'll be drowned in the marvelous. In one way the answer is, let's hope so.

[42:00]

That's the nature of absorption. To become what is. And then in another way, this aspect of our human conditioning. a matter of life or death to keep resurrecting and recreating the world according to me. So especially as we're entering in the Shashin, you know, remind ourselves that what's happening is intensely personal it's intensely subjective these thoughts about others and other places and other times they're arising now in the functioning of the self

[43:19]

They're arising now. They're expressing now. They're immersed in now. We are part of the marvelous. We can't be separate from it. We can conjure up the idea of separation from it, but that's part of the marvelous too. however far afield your mind goes let that be part of now let it invite directed attention as some of you have heard me say many times in the past notice acknowledge

[44:30]

Contact experience. Notice, acknowledge, contact, experience. It works as a formula when we're attending to the fine sensations that ripple through the body and the breath with still and steady mind. And it works with When mind has gone far afield, picked up some old wounded issue and is poking at it to see if it still hurts. Yep, it still hurts. Yeah, if I poke it a little harder, it hurts a little more. Ouch. Notice, acknowledge.

[45:32]

Ah. In that acknowledging, you know, in that contacting and experiencing the weight of it. The deep meaningfulness it can have, the deep significance it can have in your world. Feel that. The modality of sensation isn't just simply a flickering physical sensation in the body. It can also be emotion. In Buddha's teaching, at the base of emotion, Vedana, the feeling content, it gives rise to the active emotion.

[46:39]

the sensation of mind no when we're attending sometimes we can feel the mind contract around a particular subject and we can feel the mind contracts in the body joins in in the party yeah and the breath becomes more shallow it's all heart of the marvelous, this human experience. When we think of the marvelous like this, a big sailing ship sailing through the earth while we're meditating is not so improbable. Maybe it all really happened. particulars of meditation technique my understanding in the Soto Zen school we emphasize more embodying the breath than abstractly content you know like with each breath with each inhale with each pause with each exhale with each pause can can there be

[48:30]

embodying can there be experiencing that and then when we give attention to this just as we give attention to chanting kanzaya Something's received. What exactly that will be? The moment will show us. We're just sitting. We're not going anywhere. We're not achieving any special consequence. We're not drawing great conclusions. It's a wondrous act that has a marvelous consequence.

[49:38]

As we engage in this way, even the Blue Jays squawk the Dharma. Thank you. For more information, visit sscc.org and click giving.

[50:20]

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