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. We all got a par for less than that. despite what we hoped for or intended or were trying to create. Life presents itself the way it presents itself. And as practitioners, there's a dilemma there. If you remember, I was talking about form and emptiness. I was talking about the world according to self, and then we could either say the world according to the dharma, or we could say this fluid, interactive, unpredictable, ever-changing event called existence, called life, individually, collectively.

[01:22]

And then how do these two worlds interrelate? The world according to self and the world according to the Dharma and the teachings. So we're drawing by an intensity, by an energy, by the weight of what happened into experiencing. And practices about... Stay. Don't go away. Don't turn away. Stay. And to recognize that in a way staying intensifies If you incorporate your usual psychological mechanisms and behaviors, whatever they are, to lessen the negative impact, then the intensity dissipates.

[02:54]

But if you stay present, the intensity becomes more apparent. And it can move us either way. It can move us more into the world according to me and the reactions and defenses I have in relationship to it, or it can move us more into the world just as it is. And we could say, well, surely the latter is the desired outcome. Isn't that the fruits of practice? Isn't that the expression of enlightenment? And in some ways, the answer

[04:01]

would say is yes however this world this glorious world of enlightenment includes every single aspect of the world according to self it's not in denial it's not in rejection it's not even in contrast It holds the very same world and lets it be seen, experienced, understood, realized as completely part of the world of enlightenment. So how? How does that come about? In our school of practice, as in many schools of practice in Buddhism, it's a little, maybe a lot, more than a little, it's a lot counterintuitive.

[05:15]

Not only do you stay, you turn towards what's happening just as it is. You don't immediately resurrect an agenda, okay, what should this be? What do I want this to be? What does the Dharma or the practice say this should be? You turn towards it just as it is. So what's happening is what's happening. What's happening is the moment. What's happening is requesting presence, connection, intimacy. And for a human being, That's an extraordinary challenge. Because as we respond to that request, there's a way in which we're thwarting a psychological need.

[06:18]

A psychological need that may be about security, may be about predictability, may be about what enables and supports our own sense of well-being, our own capacity, our own wish for happiness, and moving away from the suffering. It's one of the things I want to leave. And then Buddhism has essentially two modes. know of addressing this tension and the two modes of this one is to see through to see and see through the

[07:28]

the negative experiences that are arising, or to see through the way in which what's arising is considered negative in some way. And then the other one is about stabilization. The other one is about contacting the agitation and distress that arises in the core of our being, whether we're turning towards what's happening, staying present with it, or whether we're doing our darndest to get away from it. Because when we're doing our darndest to get away from it, quite literally, we're not that happy either. We don't do that with a big smile on our face saying, isn't this wonderful? So in a way, you could say, in particular, is about stay present, stay with it, and discover in doing that what is it to stay with it?

[08:45]

What is it to stay grounded? What is it to let something stay non-reactive? What is it to let something soften? And we could say we move towards that yogically. There's something about deep release in the physiology of our being that connects to the psychophysiology, the psychosomatic, that can be enormously helpful. And then there's something with regards to the skillfulness of patience, compassion, generosity, kindness, that as we stay with that arising tension and distress, that those attributes come into being. That whether we're staying with it in a group of 60 or six or all by ourselves, that those attributes are activated as needed.

[10:01]

But what I'd like to do now is discuss a little bit the core settling. And I'd like to do it in the context of a basic Buddhist text, Anapanasati, mindfulness of breathing. I think we have a version of that. Virginia, do we have a version of the Anapanasati there? Did I put that on the list? Buddhadasa's book? Oh, Thich Nhat Hanh's book has it too, that one there. No, that one above it on the left. No, see the one with the red cover? That one. I think this one is essentially, yeah. No, it's not. But it's included in here.

[11:04]

It's interesting, Thich Nhat Hanh calls this book, Transformation and Healing. What's that? Well, it's Satipatthana Sutta. It's the four foundations of mindfulness. So the way the sutra is laid out is something like this. Notice the breath. Notice the breath a little more thoroughly. Connect to the breath. Let the connection to breath become an agent in settling. An agent in settling.

[12:10]

As the breath becomes an agent in settling, and there's some settling in a sense of being in the moment, look at what's going on as a teaching. How do we do that fundamentally in our practice? And so the sutra lays it out. The four foundations of mindfulness, satipatthana, does the same thing too in a slightly different way. So connecting to the breath. can be done with directed attention or receptive attention. You can direct your attention. You can count the exhales.

[13:17]

You can count the inhales and the exhales. You can pay attention to where the breath is experienced in the body. can be done through receptive attention you can let the body breathe just give over to an experience and receive it you can receive the breath in the being of the body you can let the breath breathe the body and then And I would say they're not exclusive in any part of practice, but particularly they're not exclusive in the practice of mindfulness of breathing.

[14:21]

And I thought we'd do it right now. So if you would stand up for a moment, just shake your body back to life, just let your circulation back into your arms and legs, just become a little bit more body and less of a mental involvement. And then if you could sit back down and sit in meditation posture. Try to sit in a way where the body is as alive as possible.

[15:25]

Sit in a way where it feels like an upright Balanced, open, disposition. Upright, balanced. Sitting upright. Spine is upright. Balanced, not leaning back, not leaning forward, not leaning left or right. And open. The chest is open. The face is open and relaxed. The arms, the fingers are open and relaxed, coming down, touching gently in the mudra.

[16:46]

is open and relaxed. Not something you're imposing, something you're inviting, making space for. Noticing the inhale. Just as it is. Don't move to change it. Just noticing as it is. Where is it noticed? Where is it experienced? Just noticing the exhale.

[18:16]

And as you turn into noticing, are there any smaller adjustments to the posture? And if there are, make them very slowly, very deliberately. Gently, persistently returning attention to the breath. Can there be a connection in noticing of inhale, the transition between inhale and exhale, and noticing of exhale?

[20:08]

from exhale to inhale. Continuing this effort. If the mind quiets, let the connection deepen. If there's thoughts and emotions, if the mind's not so settled, notice unsettled.

[21:26]

Notice A disposition. Mental, emotional disposition. Can it be breathed the same way the body is breathed? inhale have a sense of allowing, of opening, of accepting.

[22:39]

Whatever comes up, whatever comes in, Exhale, have a quality of soft release. Of letting go. Like a silent sigh. Loving, accepting, releasing, letting go. Very tender relationship to being alive.

[23:58]

Just returning to trying to stay with this fullness of breath. Physical, mental, emotional. Coming in, going out. Receiving, releasing. Whatever arises, let it be part of the breath. Breathe the sound of the traffic. Breathe the thought.

[26:05]

Breathe the feeling. Breathe the physical sensation. Can there be a taste of what it is just to let life settle?

[27:54]

Can there be a taste of what it is to touch and hold tenderly any agitation, any emotional difficulty? up in relationship to just letting it open and settle of its own accord. ready, you can just transition back into being here.

[29:27]

In terms of what we might call settling and releasing, sort of core existential anxiety, reactiveness, deeply ingrained psychological and emotional habits as they happen on a psychosomatic axis. I hope you can see something of that. We'll come back to it, don't worry. And then something about, you know, to see the interplay of existence. This arises with this and creates this momentary experience and then that falls away. It requires a certain dispassionate acknowledgement and observation. This dispassionate acknowledgement and observation, the urgencies of the self need to have saddled some.

[31:18]

Or those urgencies reach out and take the situation and define it in terms of their needs. It's like you're distressed and upset. You look around and see a distressed and upsetting world. And then guess what? By strange coincidence, someone says something to you that's distressing and upsetting. And you think, what's up with people today? They're all distressing and upsetting. What's their problem? So Buddhism teaches in the system of Buddhist psychology.

[32:21]

This is one definition of how the self comes into being. And then the next definition is, this is not the whole story. There's some sense of interaction. When that person behaves like this, I experience them, I feel distressed and upset. When they look at me like that, it's distressing. It's upsetting. Starting to glimpse something of the interactive interbeing of existence. And then the third one is where the moment is more vivid.

[33:26]

The moment is more experienced just as itself. and less defined by the commentary, the conclusions that are attributed to it. That tone of voice, that body language stimulated negative feelings. And as I attended to them, as I held them in my breath and in my body, they tended to be like energy and dissipate. Something fluid, interdependent about the nature of existence. Or to put it in another terms, seeing the marks of emptiness. Interactive, impermanent. Each existence, momentary existence, arising in relation to something else.

[34:34]

Self in relationship to other. There's an article, for those who are inclined, called Consciousness Only School, an Introduction and Brief Comparison of Young Psychology. Well, before you go there, the first four pages describe his version of what I was just trying to say. And I'll double-check. that there is a couple of versions of Anapanasati.

[35:39]

For a more extended exposition of these views of self, living Yogacara, which I think is there too? I'll put my copy down that in. We didn't have it in the library? No. Okay. It's a book on Buddhist Yogacara psychology written by a Japanese psychotherapist. Not to declare it as the definitive representation, but just an interesting, accessible one. So I hope you could see within that little bit of sitting.

[36:44]

I hope you could get a glimpse, a taste of something. This is a helpful tool. And I hope you could get a glimpse that settling is not in opposition to what's going on for you. I should suppress this. I should stop this so I can settle. more about inclusion you include what arises and let it become part of what's happening and let it flow in and let it flow out it's quite different process from suppression okay and And then I know I rushed through that, I just wanted to get it right there before we finished. But those two notions.

[37:44]

Settling, what you might say, underneath the preoccupation of self. And settling as an agent to look at what is and let it be an example, let it be an expression. of the Dharma I mean you when you read down upon a Sati sutta you know you see okay make contact settle okay and then settle that settle disposition becomes the teacher and what is that what is taught the nature of the self and the nature of what is and then in the service of giving ideas, constructs around what is a dangerous business. The Zen school tends to stay away from it.

[38:49]

But maybe just having different ways to define the self. The three things I mentioned are codified within Yogacara as different ways of considering the self. And if you read the whole article, you'll see there's a follow-on from it. Okay, given that, then we can look at the structure of our emotional life. We can look at the structure of our psychological life. And then he goes on and contrasts it briefly with Jungian. version of the same thing. So we'll pick it up from there tomorrow. I hope you'll have a chance to look at those. Anapanasati is really only two, three pages.

[39:59]

It's quite brief. Maybe this afternoon we can just photocopy Vyanapana Sati. Not the Satipatana. It's... I'll probably get it on a couple of pages. Okay, you got the... 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.

[40:49]

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