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. Just now, after finishing bowing, I leave my zago there so I have a few minutes of leisure while I... And I was enjoying those moments of leisure by watching how the Eno picks up her zago.

[01:05]

And then I realized I'd been doing that for several days and just noticing... the similarities each day. The same adjustments, the same hand movements, or very similar hand movements, very similar adjustments. Am I doing it right? Which brings me to, I quoted this fascicle yesterday from Dogan, Miojo Shin. Miojo Shin means unsurpassable. Well, that's how everybody seems to translate it. Unsurpassable mind. Unsurpassable in that it's completely itself.

[02:11]

It's like each of us is unsurpassably ourselves nobody can do a better job at being us than we can and there is no self we can be better than this one right now because this one's completely itself so it's unsurpassable and it's interesting because usually you know um am i doing it right is there a better way to do it you know these so often close and unsurpassable seems to me that well it surpasses all the things compared to it and then we get to the proposition of the Dharma which is there is no comparison this is just completely itself Heather puts her zago back on her arm exactly the way she does it

[03:16]

I stand there and watch. Somewhat amused, somewhat marveling at the particularity and the repetition of particularity. So as we enter more deeply in this machine, you know, There's no rush, we're not going anywhere. Come on, get your saga together. No, just don't dawdle, but at the same time, give each thing the time it needs. Simple but elusive quality of being. give ourselves that permission?

[04:30]

Does other people give us that permission? Does life give us that permission? Give each thing the time it needs. I was saying yesterday how the practice doesn't change. We change. The way it makes sense in our mind is, I'm doing sasheen. But stepping out of the subjective, it makes as much sense to say, sasheen is doing me. And then we're not always happy with what it's doing. I'm prone to say this machine is undoing me the practice doesn't change I change and what about that is the is it about quickening that process enabling it

[05:54]

How do we explore that? You know, yesterday I was saying, well, they directed attention just watching the Eno put this algo back on her arm. No sense of, is she doing it right? Why doesn't she hurry up? Just watching, just directed attention. Nothing special. Just watching, you know, put her zaga on her arm. What's so great about that? And receptive attention and taking in what that

[07:03]

the experience that arises from directed attention. So we immerse more fully, more thoroughly into the process of awareness, the process of being what is. And then just in case we thought this was nothing special, Dogen says, the great ancestor of India, and that would be Shakyamuni, the great ancestor of India said, the snow mountains, and that would be the Himalayas, are like the great nirvana. Know this precise analogy, intimate, indirect.

[08:08]

To take up the snow mountains, is to speak of the snow mountains, to take up the great nirvana, is to speak of the great nirvana. And not to contradict the great master Dogen, but putting the Zagu on the arm, is just unsurpassably itself. Just the same way the snow mountains, the great Himalayas, are unsurpassably themselves. And just the thoroughgoing willingness to be present and experience without judgment, without before and after,

[09:10]

cessation of what can qualify it. Or comparing it to something. Or what I wanted to be or not. The cessation of that nirvana. And in this almost deceptive way that those simple moments of awareness, of presence, can slip right past. Because we didn't make a fuss. In that nirvana, in that simplicity of just this is it, No great exclamation of being, of accomplishment.

[10:24]

This perfect mind. A moment being unsurpassably itself. And maybe we could say, on a conscious level, it goes unnoted. But in the workings of our being, something registers. Some learned experience giving something the time it needs, of giving a moment the time it needs. In the poem of Rilke I read yesterday, you know, he ends the poem in the English translation.

[11:38]

It has no limits, but not until it's held in your renouncing. Is it truly there? It has no limits, but not until it's held in your renouncing. Renouncing what? The German is on the other page, and I was trying to, I don't read or speak German, but I was trying to figure out the word held. What's the word in German for held? Held, H-E-L-D in English. I wish I could. Reminds me of doing calligraphy.

[12:45]

You know, I do calligraphy. I think like a three-year-old. Do you speak German? Richard does. Valerian does. I mean, maybe somebody who speaks German. I know, but I was thinking of someone who was within arms like this last sentence. Can you see it? Er grenzt sich nicht erst in der... First in the Eingestaltung in dein Versichten wird er wirklich...

[13:45]

It's okay. I just wondered about the word held. Not until it's held. In our use of language, held, you know, it's close to grasped, you know, but maybe just apprehended. at a point in his life, Roque went to Paris, and he became Rodin the scholar's assistant, kind of secretary. And then he became fascinated by the difference between their arts. You know, like, Rodin made these big, solid sculptures, things. And he, you know, he conjured up

[14:48]

images and ideas and wrote them down. And Rodan gave him this advice. He said, look and see what you see. And then he gave him this practice. He said, take something and look at it and look at it. Look at it for an hour. Just stand there and look at it. and see. And then Rilke found that provocative, informative. That famous poem he wrote about the panther in the cage was one of his. He went to the zoo and looked at the panther. give each thing the time it needs.

[15:55]

And as we're in the process of discovering that, we make a fuss about it. You know, we make it something special or difficult or not activity it is. I think marvelously Shishina wears us down till we can't remember the special thing we're supposed to be doing. What am I supposed to be doing again? Oh, I'll just eat my breakfast while I try to remember. And in the forgetting and just doing what we're doing, the renunciation.

[17:11]

Not to say there aren't fierce moments of renunciation. But we're sitting and there's a lot of pain. And it's so demanding of attention. But it's the only show in town. And that... It's not so much about directed attention. It's about what's being demanded. And just this is it, is the assertion of the intensity of the moment. So that too. And then here's what it's all about. in my mind, in my interpretation of what Dogen's, these translations of Dogen said. This curious slogan that I've conjured up, notice, acknowledge, contact, experience.

[18:29]

Sashin changes us. We're more available for the experience. Why stand in front of a cage for an hour instead of three seconds to enhance the possibility of experiencing the experience of looking? Can we, in the process of Shashin, can we literally become this process of contacting, experiencing? In the midst of all the things that are going on for us.

[19:39]

Buddhist Abhi Dharma teaches this experience and then we we build a world inspired by that experience experience response kind of feeling response to that a conceptualization in response to that an association in response to that, a significance. Sometimes in a fraction of a second, sometimes in a couple of seconds. And the experience is lost in it. And the fully developed, fully created, constructed world is there, solid, demanding. involvement and in this fascicle doden is rather than starting from the human condition he's starting from a different place he's starting from the moments when the experience is the experience

[21:10]

And he calls that the mind of stone and wood. The mind of tangible experience. As tangible as a stone or a piece of wood. I was likening it yesterday to being invited outside the self. And of course, in those moments where the self isn't being so thoroughly and adamantly constructed, outside the self is a simple process. And yet, it's helpful for us to have a steady,

[22:31]

Continuous practice. Notice, acknowledge, contact, experience. And to discover the variations on the field. Discover in the moments of ease. That's as simple as just watching the Eno Folterzago. And in the moments of turmoil, when some mysterious workings of our being takes hold. Okay. Some mysterious workings of being. And how is it arising? Is there an emotion? Is there a mental state? Is there a physical sensation?

[23:34]

And then rather than thinking it, experiencing it. And here, Dogen likens it to Daikani knows, think not thinking. It's just the same process in the experiencing sidesteps, sets aside, lets go of thinking and experiences. And immersion in that. undoes the self.

[24:41]

And sometimes that just floats along like a ball on a rushing stream. It has more of the quality of ocean it's just fluid it's just available it's not grasping anything it's just as something arises it arises something else arises that's experienced that sense of fluidity and non-grasping And then sometimes it has a potency of sinking or immersing in the experience.

[26:00]

And more thoroughly, the way we imbue it with meaning or label it conceptualize it or hold it in significance to our being our psychological being the more thoroughly that's dropped the more it becomes itself and the quality of consciousness is palpable So as we move more deeply into sashim, we can start to explore. We can start to see and feel and hear these moments. And we can start to...

[27:16]

just open to them and contact them I was like dwell in them or abide in them it's like we can carry that no self and we can watch when you make it into a thing I'm doing well then course it's gone when it's continually allowed to reveal itself there's a taste of liberation we experience a difference between renunciation

[28:22]

willful act and non-grasping. The absence of willful act. And we can start to explore the yoga of it. You know, what's What's the state of mind or the disposition that enables that simple presence? No. We can even see it in seeing or in hearing. We can feel it in the body. What is it to let a moment just be what it is?

[29:37]

And sometimes our clues are what comes into awareness when we take up that activity. becomes more evident sometimes the release becomes more evident sometimes something releases in the body that we didn't even know we were holding you know until it releases or sometimes we see the contraction or the impulse to move feel its urgency or its authority. And even that, either way, that whatever arises is completely itself.

[30:58]

Whatever arises is unsurpassably itself. which of course confines our usual mind because our usual mind has something to say about it. No, don't like that. That's not what I want to have happen. I don't want contraction. I want release. I want the mind to experience a palpable sense of ease and joy. That's what I'm looking for today. that flickering, not so easily deciphered unsettledness. But as we see that, the usual way that echoes out, ripples out, creating, you know, an emotion, an associated thought, description of me, reality.

[32:15]

is we see that we're staying closer to the source. And we can go the other way. We can go from the construct to the source, return to the source. And as we experience this, as we explore this, we're in the process of discovering and learning The immense simple request of it. High trite and simple, just to be what is. And in the human condition, how incredibly elusive, challenging, and perplexing and mysterious.

[33:19]

Until the moment it's not. And as we settle into Sashin, and Sashin settles into us, returning to this process of experiencing now and as we do now becomes a viable alternative to the world according to me Usually there's no show like the world according to me. Everything else is just some passing fancy, some theoretical possibility.

[34:32]

But as we keep returning and keep returning, as Dogen would say, this continuous practice, now, viable. With its spacious mystery. With the way it stirs up flowed mind, stuck mind, no mind. The way it shapeshifts from a simple flow to the solid, stuck mountains of the Himalayas you know we can watch the minds of the day we can watch the minds of the situation the mind of chanting service and the mind of going back to your room and what happens what mind arises there

[35:48]

And the great thing is when we're in the throes of sushin, we don't need to worry. Oh, will I do something terrible? No, you won't. Probably the worst thing you'll do is eat some chocolate. And you can marvel at, what is chocolate? You know? Is it saving me from destruction? Is it the reward for my virtuous actions? Is it the nourishment that fills up my sense of lack?

[36:53]

pulls up its own Dharma banner. Everything offers its own teachings. Everything is a Dharma gate to experience. Everything and express now everything can offer us its glimpse of liberation every arising as we allow the suchness of it as we allow its unsurpassable presence

[37:53]

It gives a glimpse of liberation and it illuminates the habituated constructs that normally qualify it. And it's a delicate process. We can lose it in a flash. And then we just start over. As I was saying a couple of days ago, it's a slower, more deliberate way of being. I was leaving the Zendo last evening by myself. And so I was walking slowly. And I felt like a little kid just playing the game. It was dark and the stars were out.

[38:59]

nobody was watching so I could just walk slowly and be with the stars and the dark for no good reason to give ourselves that kind of permission this In the middle of intensity, in the middle of demand, there's no rush. Unless you're making lunch. In which case, you're on the clock. Thank you. I'm going to watch you.

[40:02]

And in this fascicle, Dogen, as he so marvelously and terribly does, puts forth all sorts of images, usually with a reckless extravagance. But for each of us, as we explore this way of being, discover the intimacies within our own being that connect, that give access. Each moment of palpable contact, when we attend to it, it has a certain quality of being, a certain quality of presence. Maybe seeing is more vivid.

[41:33]

Maybe sensation in the body. And to let that teach. The difference between letting it teach experientially and letting it teach intellectually. The intellectual uses citta. It has concepts. But experientially, it registers through the other sense gates. and to let that be learned. What is it to walk in the body of palpable being? The other day, I rebuked Kim because her steps were too large as she was walking.

[42:40]

Kim loves that kind of stuff, so... The notion is this. In walking, stay balanced. Stay with the balance of sitting sasen, you know, because it invites that embodied being you know and then take steps that stay balanced so to find within the workings of your own being these kind of intimate details of shiggy the nuances of being that keep you close, that turn you back towards awareness, turn you back towards embodying presence.

[43:47]

The mental disposition that does it. And as you work with yourself, you know, if your tendency is to get tight, then What reminds of easing up? If your tendency is to space out, what reminds of contact, directed attention, mimitsu no kafu, careful attention to detail? Just before I gave the talk, I was sorting some things in the cabin and there was a box of tissues. And of course, we all know in Zen, you move everything with your hands. So I kicked it. You know, in the secret of your own room, you can do such terrible things.

[45:01]

And I was messing with the mind that has a fixed idea. It has to be like this. What if it's not? What if you just cake the box of tissues? Does the world split in half? Do you go into a state of deep distress? Curiosity. What's it like to be me in its unsurpassable me-ness? Can each arising be a cause and an invocation and a curiosity?

[46:11]

too much to say we make it our own because then it comes like there's too much me in there but there is a way of saying we discover that intimacy we discover how to be skillful with this conditioned self in the realm of awareness and we invite all the ways we appear into it. Sometimes reading Dogen and taking on that. Sometimes reading Dogen and finding it in how you breathe.

[47:29]

Bodhidharma, the first ancestor of China, said, mind is wood and stone. What is called mind here is the mind of Dasmas. The mind of the entire earth, the mind of self and other, the mind of Buddha ancestors in the ten directions, the mind of heavenly dragons, and the mind of other beings are like wood and stone. There is no mind other than this. That's what Dogen's mind created. What does your mind create when it flows? What does your mind create when it forgets itself? What does your mind create when it gets caught in the psychological experiences

[48:37]

tends to get caught in. This is all the minds of interbeing. This great paradox, liberation, is realizing everything's conditioned. to go outside conditioned existence. But it's possible to keep exploring it and to wake up within it. And what is that delicate, continuous activity?

[49:42]

advocating suppression, control, limitation. It's asking us to note our glimpses, our tastes of liberation. Sometimes in their ordinariness and sometimes and their astounding difference. And as Dong Shan says, I stay close to this. Thank you. 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.

[50:56]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit SSCC.org and click Giving.

[51:06]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.66