This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. When I was sitting upstairs over there in my office, I was thinking, okay, what have we covered so far? And I thought, well, maybe that should be a collective process. What have we covered so far? As we relate to the Dharma, the truth of what is, and the way to realize the truth of what is, there's one way of thinking, one way of relating to it is,

[01:00]

Just absorb it. Don't even bother holding it in the realm of ideas. Just let it sink into your bones more like a deep feeling, a sensibility. How you hold your spine. And then there's another way, which is have a notion what the proposition of practices no have a notion of the proposition of Buddhist teachings everything's impermanent everything's interactive everything finds its definition in relation to something else and everything else our tendencies are to suffer because We're struggling to make the world the way we think it will make us happy, and feel that it will make us happy.

[02:07]

That's developed over the habitual patterns of being alive. But it misses the fact that everything's always changing. This moment's itself, and it's asking, requesting to be related to just the way it is, as is everybody else. How do we release the energy of trying to fit the square peg of impermanence into the right hold of predictable, secure existence, according to me? How to hold a clear enough sense what the proposition of practice is, so that in the swirl of our thoughts, the swirl of our psychological agendas, in the swirl of our rising emotions, in the patterns, habituated patterns of thinking, that something can continually be a reference, a guide.

[03:30]

It's about practicing with this, waking up to this, rather than living inside the world that this defines and creates. So in reviewing, in reflecting, you could say, well, aren't we just reifying? Aren't we just holding on to our ideas and concepts all the more? Hopefully not. Hopefully we're thinking, okay, what's the proposition of the Dharma? What's my relationship, my understanding?

[04:35]

around that and how does it guide common practice it something asking for a certain kind of clear-headed matter-of-fact so that what's your clear-headed matter-of-fact notion of what we've brought up in the content of the talks and classes so forth. Is that like a zen silence? Fertility, it's a great way.

[05:49]

Fertility of being slow. What are you talking about? Jet flying. Can you speak on a high level? You're talking about jet flying? Yeah. What is people? There's always this, in a way, a similar need to just go deeper and just have this faith that there's always something more than what you're worrying about, you're thinking of. But I wasn't quite sure I thought with you on that. We can objectify people. We can objectify places, situations. We can objectify anything. And in fact, we do.

[06:50]

It's how we make sense of the world. The sign of a car. And then how we keep moving in that direction until the world is a permanent, solid, separate thing. And how to bring awareness, direct awareness, direct experiencing, into what's being experienced sufficiently that it starts to, in a way to put it, disrupt the permanent separate world. As the poet put it, the world is living flesh. It's alive. I see the trees swaying in the wind and it evokes something.

[08:01]

And it's also my notion of what it is That's evoking my response. It's an alive interaction. Does that help? OK. Thank you. What else? Yes. I think we were talking about more to not so much to realize we can live in a container for losing that They'll be saying what's coming up. People, ugly or horrifying people or whatever. And I think maybe at between you're also a lot of special in that.

[09:01]

Part of what I was saying was The fundamental proposition of Buddhist practice is that when it gets stuck and struggles, it creates dukkha, it creates a suffering. In a way, we're trying to make the world something it isn't, and that's a process at which we're going to fail. The world is not going to comply with our insistence on making it something it isn't, and we're not going to be that happy in our efforts, We're not going to succeed. And when that energy, when that effort, through the practice of awareness, comes into harmony with the way the world is, then that energy bears fruit in a different way. We're less distressed. we're not trying we're not failing to make the world the way we want it to be we're we're more engaging in the way it is we experience less distress we experience more satisfaction and that energy is available to engage in a more skillful way settling our being giving rise to insights and giving rise to

[10:30]

a skillful, compassionate response to being. This is, especially when you look at the early canon of Buddhism, this is kind of like the fundamental proposition. What did Shakyamuni start to talk about? Dukkha, how it comes into being, and how not to get stuck in it. how to hold that big picture. And then within the context of that, each of us has our own version of that. Each of us has the way we struggle with it. It's not because we're bad people. It's not because we had terrible parents. not because we're living under such terrible circumstances, just the way the world is.

[11:39]

And then along with that, the innate capacity for awareness. Something about discovering how to initiate awareness, And how to let that awareness illuminate the experience of the moment as a teaching of what is. Illuminate the experience of the moment as a teaching of what is. Kind of a key notion. Here's how Dogen Zenji put it in one of his fascicles called Bend the Well. In the authentic tradition, this is Kaz Tanahashi's translation, in our authentic tradition of our teaching, it is said that this directly transmitted, straightforward Buddha Dharma is the essence of practice.

[12:59]

What awareness teaches, what awareness transmits, is the essence of the teaching. And it's straightforward. Just, there it is. From the first time you begin to practice, without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's name, repentance or reading scriptures, You should just wholeheartedly sit. And drop away body and mind. Sitting. Body and mind. Sitting, holding both cross-legged sitting and... the practice of Zazen as meeting the moment as it is and seeing it for what it is.

[14:11]

That's the core practice that initiates the teaching and that actualizes the truth. And those three aspects are all included in Zazen and Zen practice. Anything else come to mind? Yes? You were saying that notice how you speak. Notice how you speak. The power of the spoken word. I'm looking for my own notes.

[15:19]

Get to hear what I thought I was talking about. The basic paradigm of practice. So you have the fundamental proposition, and then it's like, okay, then how do you do it? And Dogen's end, he says, well, before the incense offering, before the chanting, before the repentance, not to say that those are misguided or irrelevant, but just to say they're in the service within Zen practice, they're in the service of waking up. They're in the service of awareness of the moment. So in Zen practice, we offer incense as awareness in the moment. We chant awareness at the moment. Repentance, chanting Buddha's name, awareness of the moment.

[16:25]

And then within the Zen tradition, as you look at it over the centuries, there's often an active debate. Should they be part of Zen practice or should they not? You'll have teachers say, nope, I don't do that. Uchiyama Roshi, a prominent teacher who died not so long ago in Japan, didn't do service, didn't do that. It's not fundamental. Don't waste time on that. Practice awareness. than the basic paradigm of practice. Sila, Samadhi, Panya. The discipline, the structure, that helps create the container for practice. Helps us set the setting for awareness.

[17:37]

Helps us not just get carried from habit energy of thought and feeling into habit energy of behaving, habit energy of relating to others in a certain way. So we contrive a particular environment. I think part of the challenge of Zen practice is to be serious, about our own contrivance. But not too serious. This is how we do R.E.P. And the details are important. But if you miss a few, don't worry about it. There'll be another chance. It's something about that kind of wholehearted engagement that's also got this lightness. Don't be sloppy and don't get uptight.

[18:46]

And then samadhi, continuous contact with the moment. Which yields its own truth. Oh, this is what's happening. Sila samadhi vanya. And then I was talking about how we can have the experience of like two versions of the world. In those times, when you're absorbed in the world according to me, and its definition, what's real, what's substantial, what's permanent, relation to herself, relation to other. And then other times, when you're more in the moment and the moment's creating its own arising.

[19:58]

And it's more fluid, it's more interactive, it's more, to go back to that phrase, it's more alive. The person I'm meeting is less the opinions fixed ideas I have about who they are and they are who they are in this moment and not to set these two worlds up in opposition okay that's the pure good world and then there's the evil bad world of the self but to see that And we'll talk some about this, but look at how Buddhism, certain schools of Buddhism, define the notion of self. That it has its function, it has its way of coming into being, and then it has its dysfunction, the ways we can get caught in it.

[21:10]

these two worlds and then how how they inform each other on one hand we could say entering in to the world of impermanence starts to cut the way in which we're bonded to the world according to me When you're bonded to the world according to me, well, then the world according to me better go well or life will just be suffering. When you're bonded to the world according to me, I better preserve the world according to me or I will die. That's why we have intense emotions. That's why we have this feeling, if I don't get that, it's going to be awful.

[22:16]

it's going to be disastrous. When we're not bonded to the world according to me, then psychologically something more adaptive starts to become possible. And this is why it's so helpful for us, even in the context of our personhood, in the context of our psychological makeup, to have some taste, of stepping out of the world according to me. And then within the classic teachings of Buddhism form an emptiness. The solidity and the particularity of existence and the fluid nature of existence. And in that fluid nature, emptiness, shanyata, impermanent, interactive, and each existence is in relationship to other existence.

[23:34]

There is no mother without daughter. Mother is not an independent entity, and neither is daughter. And that applies all ways in which we characterize existence. It's in relation to something else. You can only be Indian if you have a notion of India. If you don't, it's not possible. If you have no notion of nationality, well, nations, there's no notion of nationality. and every identity we place on ourself has that relational nature. And then how that plays out in two ways that I've mentioned so far.

[24:39]

One is directed attention and receptive attention. When we're directing attention, to notice something, whether it's your breath, the sensations in your back, the thoughts in your mind, and also there's some supposition about the nature of reality that's saying, well, this is a good thing to do. There's some implicit description of existence. Go for practice. Directed attention. Receptive attention. No assumptions. No agendas. Just let it be what it is. And then within Zen practice, to experience directly Shunita.

[25:48]

The fluidity of existence. Experience it to wrap up. Dogen Zenji is saying, this is a transmission. Before you get into all the other stuff, this is the transmission, then all the other stuff is in the service of this. Yes. particularly in thinking, oh, why are you sitting? Part of what I'm trying to figure out is, by the way, What do you do with motor cycles? So now I'm planning opportunities for practice.

[27:00]

Yeah. Yeah. And just to recognize, to get to that point, you know? So this is part of what's happening in the realm of experience, and the question, how to practice with it, is coming up, you know? This is the brain, what Dogen Zenji calls, way-seeking mind, you know? How do I practice with it? And how... kind of inquiry evokes, provokes an attentiveness. What happens right now?

[28:03]

What's my experience of it now? Do I get agitated and critical of just the noise? Do I see it as interference to the serenity of mind which is which should be my experience which is appropriate such no or as you say well then how does it relate to directed attention how would you we just say down this the heart of your question Well, we always start where we're at, right?

[29:19]

Start here, okay? What's happening? The sound of the motorcycle causes attention, causes connection, is accompanied by agitation. Sometimes that gets accompanied by thoughts, fixed views. Maybe sometimes it doesn't. The fixed views are... We should ban traffic on that street. We should get more insulation on the windows to keep the noise. I should be a better meditator and not be upset. So with that kind of attention, you start to see...

[30:20]

that even those fixed views are just the particulars of the moment. They're just part of what's happening in this moment. And when they're held in a kind of open awareness, they just are what they are. They're just this moment's flowering. Maybe to look at it from the point of view It's just this interactive being of the moment. And then to look at it more pragmatically, well then if you spend the rest of the period, you know, restless, agitated, frustrated with yourself, frustrated with practice, decided you're going to leave as soon as the bell rings and never come back, you know? Well, maybe another strategy might be helpful. how to practice with that.

[31:29]

And to be careful that the question isn't how to fix it, how to fix me, how to fix the sound, how to fix something. How can this help transmit the nature of what if? You know, that's why I would start And that's why I would say Dogen Zenji starts in the same place. All ancestors and all Buddhas who uphold the teachings have made the true path of awakening to sit upright in practicing self-fulfilling samadhi. What arises as the constructs and experience of the self are the Dharma.

[32:37]

To be present for it is to experience the Dharma, to learn the Dharma, and to actualize, to relate to it, to let it flow, and to actualize the process of liberation. This is the core of the teaching. So the question is, okay, given this set of circumstances, what's skillful? Should I work more on directed attention? Should I work more on this receptive attention, letting it flow through? And it's not like... There's the right answer. However, whatever answer seems appropriate, engage it with as much awareness and clarity as you can.

[33:50]

Okay, I will practice letting it flow through. I will practice labeling the sound noticing the reaction, and noticing whether the reaction, the response to the sound is pleasant or unpleasant. I'll bring it into the kind of the building blocks of the experience. And then maybe you find it just doesn't cut it, because as soon as you're a motorbike, your mind leaps in there and has this charge story. God damn it! These motorcycles, they just don't have any appreciation of other people's privacy. And all those subtle details about pleasant and unpleasant are irrelevant.

[34:52]

Well then, what you might think of is kind of a stronger response. Okay, when those stories come up, the practice of labeling, the practice of acknowledging. Okay, right now, the mind is creating and grasping a fixed view. Right now, the emotional quality is agitated. But the inquiry. How can it teach and express the Dorma? And then sometimes, even things that agitate us, distress us, are extraordinarily valuable because, let's say something like that.

[35:58]

Then you learn, this isn't the first time in my life I've been agitated. This isn't the first time in my life I felt something came along and disrupted the harmony and serenity of my life. You see that there's a thread there that runs through your life, that you're not just learning how to deal with this, you're learning how to deal with the aspect of who you are and how you are in the world. something here could be extraordinarily valuable okay so we'll all offer homage to the motorcycle signs you can sit there expecting when is something unpleasant going to happen how will i ever practice if it doesn't

[37:01]

So last night I said, maybe that was enough elaboration on directed and receptive. Today I'd say something like this, especially at the start of the period of Zazen, just to see him when I did the guided meditation last night. Start with concrete, directed engagement. when you're sitting. Particular, exact, set the stage. And then open up. And if you're opening up, becomes dreamlike, go back to particular. And monitor. And if you're opening receptive attention, stays bright and connected, fine.

[38:16]

Stay right there. The directed attention teaches us body and breath. And it's endless, that teaching, working with the body and the breath. We do discover subtleties. something like, might be called effortless effort. It's one of the things you discover in yoga. You're making an effort to do a certain action. And then you're adding on secondary effort. You don't need to tighten your jaw and grimace to stretch your hamstrings. In fact, in a very interesting way, tightening your jaw and grimacing inhibits how your hamstrings stretch.

[39:24]

So refining our effort, effortless effort. And then another detail we can discover in Hatha Yoga. as we're opening to the nature of what is. And we're exploring the dicey business of trying to stop making the world fit our definition of it. There's a certain way in which we resist. even when we're quite sincere, there's a certain way we want to stay with the world according to me. And we think, oh, the Dharma, so beautiful, so wonderful, so profound. But no.

[40:28]

When we try to stretch our body, you stretch, and at a certain point, your body says, I'm not doing that. That's as much as you get. If you pay attention, at that moment, often there's a discomfort and there's a distress. It's something similar when we're stretching the world according to me to allow for this fluid existence. There's a resistance and a distress. And when you do Hatha Yoga, you can grit your teeth and push. And your body will grit its teeth and push back. And then you can see who wins. Or you can notice the distress.

[41:38]

You can notice the tension. You can notice the resistance. And you can allow something to soften. So this kind of effort, too, that directed attention helps to create. When you notice that point, can you meet it? Can you feel it? Can you see it? You can let something soften. Okay. This is not an easy experience. I see the request to practice, and something's resisting, something's distressed. Maybe somebody says something to you, and you're really annoyed.

[42:45]

And there's a strong impulse to kind of like feed the annoyance, you know, that you've rehearsed a whole lifetime. And then there's this voice saying, but wait a minute, aren't you practicing Zen? Isn't this just the flowering of the moment, its own dharma blossom? something in you doesn't want to go there. Something in you says, but look at they did. Can you meet that moment? Can you just connect to that distress, resistance, reluctance? It's not about

[43:50]

can you overwhelm it? It's not about can you annihilate it? It's more about can you make contact? Can you let something in the fixedness of it in the permanence of it, can you let something soften? Sometimes it's about patience. Sometimes it's about compassion. Sometimes it's about generosity. Sometimes it's about courage. Something about meeting that moment and letting something move towards fluidity.

[44:56]

And Hatha Yoga is a great place to experience this and explore it, because it's very tangible. You try to stretch, your body says, no. And you can grit your teeth, and start fighting your body. Same in your practice. You grit your teeth and start fighting your experience. You know? I've been practicing long enough. I should know better. I should be able to do this. I should not have these feelings. I should be able to... Yeah. And often those, you know, the wonderful expressions of your sincerity And often the intention of them is wonderful. It's not like you're making up some crazy nonsense. But just trying to get in touch with how your sincerity and your effort are stimulating kind of rigidity.

[46:17]

This outcome should happen. So this is the challenge of directed effort, directed attention. It seems to say this outcome should happen. And it links directly to Orioki. There's a particular way to do Orioki. You should do it like this. And give it as much directed attention as you can. And then it turns out the way it turns out. And it turns out the way it turns out that particular meal. And that's today's offering. Giver, receiver, and gift.

[47:27]

Dancing together. So this is a very helpful thing to study. And to study yourself in relationship to it. What do I tend to back off? Because it feels like I'm not ready for that. would I tend to push hard some kind of determined ambition? Like I've learned in teaching a yoga class, if you say, okay, you could do it like this, or here's the more advanced way. Everybody does the more advanced way. Except the more seasoned students who think, oh, I think today would be good for me to do it this way. We all want to get to the head of the class.

[48:33]

We all want to get enlightened today, which is great. It's a great attitude. But if it becomes fixed, ambitious, determined, our very sincerity is leading us to strife. So trying to remind ourselves of refining our effort. And then on the other side. Opening. First case in the Hekugan Roku, the Blutcliffe record, the Koan teachings of the Soto School.

[49:43]

Bodhidharma says, don't know. Just reminding ourselves, the world is always changing. The world is always unfolding. Each time you sit down, who am I now? What am I now? What's the state of mind? What's the state of body? Who am I during this yoga class? Nothing to know, everything to learn. This... this disposition that ripens our curiosity about practice that opens up.

[50:53]

One of the things you learn in doing yoga is that the more you open up to your body, The more you open up to your experience, you start to notice, oh, in this pose, this muscle's like this, and postures like this, and reach out through your fingers like this. All these details start to come alive. This is the nature of practice. It's not so much when you should notice your fingers, and you should notice the position of your foot, That's helpful. But in the opening up, it comes alive. You don't make it come alive. It's a gift that's given to receptive attention. So as you open up, to go back to Aureoki, as you open up to the particulars, you see

[52:07]

The choreography of it is leading you through an aware relationship to the function of eating your breakfast. You say, oh, you should lift them like that. That's the kind of minimal movement that's needed. That's the minimal movement to put your setsu in the middle of the bowls. And then one more notion in relationship to that, the notion of pausing, both in sitting and in the flow of experiencing during the day. If you can start to make a habit of pausing, pausing and opening to receptive attention just pausing noticing what's being seen pausing noticing what's being heard pausing noticing whether you're breathing in you're breathing out pausing noticing is there some strong mental or

[53:43]

a mental content to think right now. This is a great environment to do that. And to let that become something that occurs frequently. You can build it. You can make practice of, oh, when I walk from my room to the bathroom, I do it mindfully. Or, before I wash my face, I just become aware. So as much as you can to try to interject these moments of pause. And try to let them be light. It's not like pause and I have to be good, whatever good is.

[54:48]

I have to just pause and discover what's happening now, what's happening in this moment. And then the other part is whatever's happening is what's happening. Can you not move to Uh-oh. I'm thinking. Bad, bad, bad. Uh-oh. I'm having a negative emotion. If you're having a negative emotion, you're having a negative emotion. That's how it is. If you're wrapped up in thinking about something, you're wrapped up in thinking about something. Can you pause?

[55:53]

Can you notice? Can you open? Experience? Let it register. And that's a big long list of words for what can happen in half a second. But sometimes the words might be a guide. Something like pausing, noticing, opening, experiencing, let it register. But as much as possible, not to encumber it with all those words and all those ideas. I mean, don't trip over. I mean, don't try to go through all that just as a way to takes half a second. And take in whatever comes up.

[57:01]

And play with it. Play with it. And know that awakening is a very delicate process for us as humans. We're holding our world together that seems like a very very important thing to do you know to let it fall apart to become fluid you know we can sit here and think oh yeah but I'm really into that but if you watch yourself you're not really you're probably quite ambivalent and then sometimes you're not ambivalent at all you're the answer is just no This moment's grasping is so necessary. I have to do it.

[58:02]

I have to think this. I have to feel this. Okay. Can it be experienced? It's a delicate process. Helping something to loosen and open. It's a delicate process. not just being held by our psychological defenses, not just being contained by our habits of thought and feeling. There's a beautiful poetic image in Zen practice. The image is the peach blossom in the spring wind. And as the spring wind blows, the petals of the blossom fall off.

[59:04]

Something's opened and revealed. And that spring wind is just the gentle, persistent effort of opening to the moment. Something opens, something's revealed. Any thoughts, questions about all of that? They make that all sound wonderfully simple? I think you make it sound wonderfully possible. Good. I'll settle for that. And then as we get involved in the delicate workings of it, sort of this kind of daunting, possibly daunting notion that we have, a deep hesitancy.

[60:31]

But if we keep looking at it carefully and tenderly, something wonderful happens. And another ingredient I would say is whatever comes up can give a look at it tenderly. And in a strange way, at least told intellectually, that the motorcycle noise, the thing that annoys you, the thing that causes you to contract and cling, has a lot to teach. Because this is not the first time you've contracted and started to cling. What you're seeing is some of the determined workings of your being. And here's a great opportunity to relate to them skillfully and to see them for what they are.

[61:44]

Very valuable opportunity. Any other thoughts, questions? Yeah. You said something like, you know, when is something else going to happen? How will I be able to crack in a dozen? How do you keep practicing when it starts, when you deduce everything, all the noise and all the distractions? How do you avoid waiting for that? What if life is just too wonderful to have negative things to practice with?

[62:51]

The negative thing is the anticipation. Yeah, right. Exactly. It's a quick question. When things are going well, enjoy. When you look to the roof and feel the sun, the warmth of the sun, and look out over the city and feel an expanded feeling, have a good time. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. it's nourishing. It's healing. There's no need to wait for the next nasty thing. It'll come. So when it's good, enjoy. And it's actually helpful in terms of practice to allow ourselves to enjoy what's enjoyable and to

[63:54]

allow ourselves to appreciate the pleasant. If it's only unpleasant, like sitting with physical pain wears a stunt. It takes our energy. It usually saps our enthusiasm. This is the nature of conditioned existence. And in our practice in general, if our practice in general is all challenging, difficult, pushing a rock up a hill, then, you know, we become discouraged. We lose our enthusiasm. Noticing those moments of spaciousness.

[64:56]

I was walking into the Zendo, the last couple of mornings and noticing the patterns of light and shadow on the windows on the Laguna Street at that early time of day. Noticing that each day, they're strikingly different than they were the day before, but each day has its own kind of beauty, to my eye. Just that moment of savoring. So, when it's sweet, enjoy the sweetness. When it's bitter, practice with bitter. If you're sitting, why it's hard?

[65:56]

Was I sweet or was I... It's a great question. And where's the answer? The answer isn't paying attention to your sitting, right? It's where the answer is. I could conjecture right now and ask you a few questions. Either way, I can get caught up in your thoughts and... lose track of time or I can open up to the moment and let time drop away. And either way the usual sense of time shifts. But one's about connecting awareness beyond time

[66:58]

Another one is just going in to store it and forgetting places. So, check it out. Okay. You know, when... If this is going to have difficulty, I have to remember that this is part of my life, part of my journey, part of being all great or rare. It's difficult to go back to that, but often I get the effort to remind myself what I want and therefore that's not I feel a bigger picture, you know, just on the back direction of awakening.

[68:06]

And I try to remind myself, you can see, because it's my leadership. Let's go back with that. Just go back to? To remind myself a bigger picture. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, I think that sometimes it's an effort. Shri Mataji, I call Myself with, I call it Rehmanwe. Shri Mataji. Rehmanwe. [...] Obstructing yourself from meeting what's happening?

[69:10]

Yeah. So what I've been trying to say, especially in the last half hour, to create a disposition where we're moving towards, we're willing to meet whatever comes up. There are refinements on that, but especially we can soak those in. That's a key strategy. willingness to open to whatever's happening. So I would say, even in sitting, you know, when you notice, you come back to awareness and you notice you're being distracted, pause and just notice the moment right there before you adjust your posture or do anything else, just notice the moment.

[70:15]

And I would say the same. When you come to awareness in the floor of your life, notice it right there. before you make some movement. You're sweeping the sidewalk and you notice, even though you were sweeping the sidewalk, you were lost in your thoughts. In that moment of becoming aware, just notice. And then let that noticing flow back into sweeping. And not so much as best as possible accompanying it with what your mind should be doing or that you should be concentrating on the sleeping and not being lost in thought. Coming to awareness, noticing.

[71:25]

And then from that place of conscious engagement, doing what's appropriate. If you're in the middle of an activity, maybe it's appropriate to go back to that activity. If you're in Zaza, maybe it's appropriate to let that noticing connect, open, register, If your body has moved in your thinking, connect to that body, and in the connection, come back to erect posture. As much as possible, literally, to realize and experience what is, is. This is the teaching of suchness. What's happening is what's happening. If I like it, I like it. If I don't like it, I don't like it.

[72:28]

If I think it should be different, what's happening is what happens. Dogen Senji is saying, this is the transmission of all the Buddhas and all the ancestors. This is the direct transmission, the suchness of what is. Before we get into all sorts of different practices, established it. So, yeah, good. I hope we have a question. Thank you for your teaching. Thank you very helpful. I'm getting set with, I've been reading about mindfulness, and when you use awareness, there's a reason there's two words. Can you sort of talk about the distinction between awareness and mindfulness a little bit? Actually, they're very similar, because in the use of the word sati in the text, you can see it covers a range.

[73:36]

Sometimes it's describing a process of remembering to come back to being present. And then sometimes... It's much more particular. It's about what I've been calling this open, available, receptive attention. Sometimes called it bare attention. But it seems to be, in how it's used in the early texts, covering that wrench. Something quite concrete and deliberate, and then something formless and just available. Okay, so those three classes so far, all about being in the moment. That's the basis.

[74:42]

And then where we'll go from here is looking at strategies and understandings that support that. You know, look a little bit at Buddhist psychology, look a little bit at Anapanasati, how to work with the body and the breath and let it settle. But to put it in the terms of Buddhism, the first thing to do in the Sokdo tradition is to have a clear notion of what's called the non-dual approach. You're not trying to manufacture or create a particular outcome. You're trying to realize what is already happening and the innate compassion and wisdom of it.

[75:45]

And then, then you can chant bow and do all those other lovely things, count your breath, all that sort of great stuff. But they're all in the service And so when you're sitting, there's a kind of interesting way you can keep yourself busy. I have to count ten breaths in a row. Do you? Is that what it takes to be aware? Or is that a skillful way of relating that helps you develop the capacity of attentiveness and helps loosen up the persistent habits of your thoughts. Be able to distinguish. And how do you refine your effort? How do you not tell yourself, push, push, push?

[76:51]

How do you tell yourself, okay, skillful, appropriate effort? in the service of being aware. Okay, 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. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[77:31]

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