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. Welcome again. Good to be with all of you here, whether you're here in person or joining virtually online. Anyone who might not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zorman. And I live at City Center, which is just a block away. And I currently serve as the central habit of San Francisco's Zen Center. And, wow, what a beautiful group we've got here. I'm wondering how many people are here for the first time. Excellent, great. And how many of you are here for the one-day sitting that and Democrats are joining in? Excellent. And how many people just randomly found nowhere in here and don't know how they got here?

[01:02]

Yeah. After 24 years, I'm still wondering, how did I get here? What happened? Well, as I said, a number of us are participating in a day-long meditation retreats. And as we've been doing over the last five months since the renovation of Beginner's Mind Temple, We've been holding these day-long sittings at different locations, including the Unity Church right down from Santa Center, and today we're at the 8th Street Art Center, which is kind of fun, you know, to walk through the halls and see the various art exhibition centers around, and they're putting a new one up now. Yesterday we had a bunch of mannequins in the hallway, so I guess they're going to dress them up and be a costume exhibit of some sort. So, yeah, it's quite an adventure to be moving around in, Tim called the last time, kind of these pop-up Zendos and really finding different settings.

[02:07]

And I think that when we do this, we get a good reminder that the point of establishing a strong and continuous Zen practice is to be able to find your place of practice wherever you are. and under whatever conditions, whatever circumstances that you find yourself encountering. And when we're able to establish a consistent practice, you know, and kind of tune into this very body-mind and be present with what's arising in this practice field, then again, we're able to practice wherever we are. We're able to find a place to practice. And we don't need a particular location, we don't need a particular place, we don't need particular conditions. And this is one of the things I discovered when I lived at Tassara, that monastery, deep in the Bantana Wilderness, how over time, the more you practice and the more you engage in practice places, you know, if you have advantage to engage with them, you realize that you internalize the temple, you internalize the practice place.

[03:18]

And then when you go out into the world, wherever you are, it is your temple. You are a walking, manifesting place of practice. And I dove in. One of our founders said, when you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs. So in other words, this very body of mind is your place of practice. You don't have to go anywhere else. Just be right here all the time. This is the first Dharma talk that I've given since I came back from a two-week pilgrimage to Japan that I took at the end of April. And the impetus for the journey was to participate in a multi-day tour and a series of ceremonies. I can't say the word, help me.

[04:19]

Commemorating, thank you. Sometimes it kicks up. Anyhow, these were commemorating the 700th anniversary, memorial anniversary of Kezon Jokin, who along with A. Dogen is considered one of the principal founders of Soto Zen, which is this particular, if you will, school of Zen. And The tour was organized by a group called the Soto Zen International, and they have an office here in San Francisco at the old Tsukoji, the temple that Suzuki Roshi originally came to. And they partnered with the Japanese Soto Shu, which is kind of like the big, big Soto Shu organizing group in Japan. And they did three weeks of ceremonies for the Japanese practitioners, and then they invited about 100 global practitioners to join for a tour of three days or so afterwards.

[05:24]

And so there were myself, as well as Abit Mako and her husband Joel, Victoria Alston, and Kim Hart. The five of us were able to participate in and it was quite wonderful. The tour included visits to Eiji, which is the monastery established by Dogen in 1244, and Fukui, which is on the west coast of Honshu, well, kind of the main island, and also Sojiji, which is the primary temple affiliated with Kezon, and that's located in Yokohama, which is close to the Tokyo Bay. And then on the final day, after the tour, if you will, Mako and I and a few others went to visit Rinso Inn, which is the home temple of Suzuki Roshi. And his family is still, his son and grandson and the rest of the family are still running that temple.

[06:29]

Very beautiful. It's a very intimate family temple, and it was very sweet to be there. When I... Well, I went to Japan before, like 30 years ago. And when I originally went, I had been practicing Buddhism for Zen for about four years or so here in San Francisco. And I wanted to go to Asia to experience Buddhism in its original cultures of development. And so I spent a year traveling around through Asia. But when I went to Japan, I... because I didn't know enough to go to A.G. and Sajiji and all these other wonderful places. So this time it was quite a privilege and an honor to be able to visit and practice at these historic temples in our lineage. And I'd say it's one thing to experience Zen Buddhism as it's been reinvented here in a Western context.

[07:29]

It's quite another to witness and touch the living Buddhism that's in Asia. and including Japan. And it was also inspiring to connect with both the Japanese practitioners at the various temples that we visited, as well as many of the kind of international ones that had come to participate in the tour. And to have very interesting conversations about how is it to practice in our particular locations? How is it to try to hold solace, to support solace, lead them? How is it to deal with the various issues and challenges that are arising in this particular day and age for each particular sangha? And then how can we kind of foster greater connection among each other so we can continue to support each other in the practice of the Buddha Dharma? One of the highlights of the tour was an opportunity to spend the night at Sojiji, which is Kezan's temple.

[08:34]

And this included eating some very traditional temple meals. They were vegan meals laid out in mini dishes. Very delicious, wonderfully made. And also do a communal bath in the temple onsen. And there was also the night we arrived that lectured by the head of the meditation hall of Sejiji. That was on Kezon. And then the next morning at 3.20, you know, They rang a wake-up bell, though it wasn't the traditional one, it was the speakers throughout. And so we had to get up, we'd have like 20 minutes to get up, we'd get dressed, and then kind of go through all these hallways to get to what was the guest zender. We weren't allowed the primary zender because that's just reserved for the monks who actually are kind of cloistered there in practice. So we went to the Gessendo, we spent a period of Zazen, and then we went to the main hall, the Daisodo, or the Great Ancestor Hall, to participate in a series of ceremonies for Kezon.

[09:48]

And this hall, it's dedicated to Kezon. It's actually not dedicated to the Buddha or others. It's actually for Kezon. It's huge. We were told it has 1,000 tatami mats. So the problem is the size of this compounding, 1,000 of these. And also that it could accommodate 3,000 people. So almost as many as we have here today. But it was huge and very tall. And the thing that was amazing to see is just how the size of it all dwarfed for the ceremony, about the 200 people that were there, particularly just for the ceremony. And there was something about the the grand scale of the hall, and the beautiful, very elaborate, very carefully choreographed ceremonies that were undertaken on behalf of Kezan, that kind of underlying both the vast and the inclusive hearts of Zen practice, as well as a particular ethos that's known to Zen, of mimitsu no kafu.

[10:55]

And Mimitsu Nukafu basically describes what we would say is the Soto Zen family style, which is the style of careful, exquisite, very considerate, intimate, warm-hearted, and a continuous attention to detail that characterizes much of Zen practice. And it was really beautiful to see, to be in Japan again and see how that just comes alive, that particular practice comes alive in so many places. How many of you are familiar with Kezan Jokin? Well, I'll do a little to introduce you. While Dogen, Zenji, and Kezan Jokin are considered the founders of Seltzer today, it's usually Dogen that gets more attention and reverence. How many of you have heard of Dogen? Yeah, quite a bit more. But in fact, it wasn't until the 19th century, late 19th century, that Keizan was actually officially designated as one of the two founding patriarchs of the Japanese Soto Zen school, so along with Dogen.

[12:06]

So Keizan was born in 1264, and he was born 12 years after Dogen had already died. And he was born to a serious Buddhist mother who was devoted to Kenan Bodhisattva, in the Bodhisattva Compassion. And the story goes that she dedicated her son to the Buddha before he was even born. She said, this child, this child is for Buddha. And who knows whether or not this is true, but the thing that we do know is that Khezan started to practice Zen at the age of eight, aging. So he went to the main monastery at the age of eight, started practicing Zen. under four of Dogen's leading disciples, including the second abbot of Heiji, Koanejo. And then he was ordained as a monk at the age of 13 and later received Dharma Transmission from his master Tetsu Gikai at the age of 32.

[13:08]

And so this placed him in fourth in the generations of successors to Dogen. There's a story related to Keizan's Awakening that I'd like to briefly share with you, just get a sense of him. Keizan was listening to a lecture on Nansen's Ordinary Mind is the Way that his master, Gikai Esenji, was offering. And during that talk, Gikai noticed that Keizan seemed to have kind of achieved a realization of some sort. And so he asked Keizan to explain the meaning of what he had just been speaking on, ordinary mind is the way. And then Kazan stated, it is like a black ball racing through pitch darkness. In other words, zazen and realization are ultimately the same. But then the guy stated that, although you are correct, it is difficult to understand, so please clarify to me.

[14:14]

And so Kazan replied, second time, when tea is served, drink with tea. When meals are served, eat the meal. So, in other words, awakening, enlightenment, if you want to use that word, can be seen in our daily life, in our daily practices. It's nothing special. It's the practical Dharma teaching that can be practiced in our daily lives. Just doing what we have to do, attending to what we have to do, when we have to do it. So, showing up and meeting things as it is, here and now. Keizan actually never became the abbot of Eheiji, like oftentimes successors would become. But his major accomplishment, and the one that would give rise to him being regarded as the second ancestor of Soto Zen, was the founding of two significant trimming temples. One was Jokoji, and the other was Sujiji. And Sujiji, in a very quick time, began to overshadow Dogen's Ahiji.

[15:22]

Ahiji started to not be as well regarded, and Sujiji started rising up in recognition and in importance. And it really wasn't until the late 1800s when the two temples, Ahiji and Sujiji, were kind of like conflicting for a long time. they decided to put down a difference and recognize each other's equals and become partners in the leadership of Soto Zen. And that relationship still continues to this day. They actually take turns, Eheji and Sajiji, dedicating an abbot to Eheji or to the main Soto Shu. And so it's wonderful to have that continue. Keizan's influence on the Sotter Sack is often described as a counterpoint to Dogen. So Keizan is remembered as a warm-hearted fellow whose dharma presentations were a lot less mystical and more down-to-earth than Dogen.

[16:29]

I don't know how many of you have read Dogen, but sometimes you're like, what is going on here? And I'm going to share some Keizan with you later, and you might have the same thought, but that's the general take. Kezan was more accessible. And where Dogen is described as strict and fatherly-like, Kezan was described as compassionate and motherly. And also whereas much of Dogen's energy was, you could say, internally focused, you know, his writing went into, he was writing, going into writing and teaching on behalf of the monastic community. the community in residence, Kezon was primarily concerned with widening the reach of Zen practice. And so many consider him a visionary and aesthetic. He was very active his whole life, trying to make the tradition more accessible to everyone, not just to the monastics. And so he very much was connecting to the lay community.

[17:31]

And it's said that Kazan did the precept to over 70 lay people, which was extremely unusual at this time. And one of the ways he was able to make Subdescent more accessible was by synthesizing much of what was being done previously, like the ceremonies that we chanted and the way that merit was being offered into a ceremonial form that could be more widely participated in. So, for example, today, they just did a service together, you know? And in the past, late people couldn't participate as well. So Kaesong changed that and made the ceremonies much more accessible and resonant. He also championed women practitioners, having always been very vocal about the gratitude that he felt to his mother and his grandmother for his own spiritual developments. In fact, he was the first to give Salter Dharma transmission to a woman, to then Ekkyu.

[18:35]

So I don't know, many of you, sometimes we chat, the women ancestors here, etc., and Ekkyu is included in that list. And he later went on to ordain at least 30 female students and to establish a conduct. That's pretty significant for his time. And it was because of several... Keizan's Dharma heirs, including Gassan Joseki and Haigen Soshin, that Soto Zen's influence and presence in Japan was expanded and expanded and was able to actually thrive for a number of centuries. There are many scholars who, perhaps nearly all, believe that without Keizan and his particular impact, Soto Zen would never achieve the prominence that it holds within Japanese Buddhism today. So we have a lot to thank Kezon for, and since this tour, I've been wanting to study Kezon much more and get a better sense of him and his teachings.

[19:39]

Now, Kezon wasn't as prolific as Dogen in his writing, but he did write several things of major importance. His masterpiece, somebody may have heard of, Denkuroku, which is the Record of Transmission of the Lights. And that's a series of 53 cernes that are detailing, say, the soto-sewn image from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way through Dogen and his immediate successor, Ejo. And there's another significant text, what's called the Kezon Shingi, which was his set of monastic standards that he established. And he did this just a year before he died. So, and he died at the age of 62. But what I understand is this shingi was so prevalent and so important that actually to go to Japan and practice today and go to a temple, you will basically be participating in keizan shingi rather than dobin shingi, guidelines.

[20:42]

And the third in the text by keizan is the zazen yajinki. And that translates as Notes on What to be Aware of in Zazen. And Zazen Yog-jinki, it's very short. It's about eight to nine pages. And I should guess from the title, centers on the practice of Zazen or seated Zen meditation. So literally the word, Yog-jin, means be cautious or careful. And ki means record of notes. So notes of what to be aware of. And then Zazen, of course, Zazen. And in many ways, it's very similar to Dogen's Phukhan Zazen-gi. Anyone familiar with Phukhan Zazen-gi? These kind of instructions on Zazen. But in Kezan's text, he offers meditation and practice advice that's both immediate and practical, as well as more general and global.

[21:43]

For example, he writes, to practice sitting, find a quiet place, and lay down a thick mat. Don't let rain, smoke, rain, or dew come in. We're doing our best to avoid that. Keep a clear space with enough room for your knees. How's that going, folks? There's also a lot of instructions in his text about how to conduct, for monks to conduct their daily lives in a way that's conducive to practice. such as what to wear and frivolous activities to avoid and what to eat and how to deal with various unusual experiences in meditation. And as you read through his text, you might find some of his advice kind of quirky and maybe even amusing, such as, don't wear luxurious clothing nor dirty rats. Do not sit where there are fires floods, high winds, or thieves, nor by the ocean, near bars or brothels, where there are widows or virgins, or kings or ministers, or people who have many desires, or would like to argue meaninglessly.

[22:59]

Well, I guess that leads out San Francisco, right? Well, many parts of it, as I say, are kind of fairly straightforward advice, you know, again, instructions, related to supporting practice and meditation. There are other parts that are more difficult to understand. You could say a bit dense, particularly the sections where Khezon is trying to convey the deepest meaning and purpose of zazen. And given that this day for many of us is dedicated to sitting in zazen, I thought I would take the rest of my talk and share with you a few points of guidance from Khezon's text I want to keep in mind when practicing. I'll let you know now that the section I'm choosing, because it's on Zazek, is a little denser. So just bear with it. Keep an open mind. Just allow it to kind of wash over you if it gets too dense. And you could spend a whole sushi on this particular text, the whole week long series of talks.

[24:03]

But today we'll just do just the first couple paragraphs. So... He starts off, Zazen means to clarify the mind ground and dwell comfortably in your actual nature. This is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground. In Zazen, both body and mind drop off. Zazen is far beyond the form of sitting or lying down. Free from considerations of good and evil, Zazen transcends distinctions between ordinary people and sages. It goes far beyond judgments of deluded or enlightened. Zazen includes no boundary between sentient beings and Buddha. Therefore, put aside all affairs and let go of all associations. Do nothing at all. Don't fabricate, do not fabricate any fate

[25:06]

with the six senses. What is this? Its name is unknown. It cannot be called body. It cannot be called mind. Trying to think of it, the thought vanishes. Trying to speak of it, words die. It's like a fool, an idiot. It is as high as a mountain, deep as the ocean. Without peak or depths, its brilliance is unthinkable. It shows itself silently, between sky and earth, only this whole body is seen. Though it might not be immediately apparent, what Kezan is trying to convey throughout all of Zazen Myochinki, What he's trying to convey in this case is the taste of the Namdur experience that both Zen and Zazen unabashedly celebrate.

[26:12]

So right from the start, Kezan, like Dogen, emphasizes that the Soto Zen view that Zazen is neither a meditative technique nor some volitional practice that we can do from land. In his Fukan Zazengi, Dogen tells us, Zazen is not step-by-step learning meditation. It is the culmination of fully realized enlightenment. And then later on, Dogen says, Zazen is the Dharna Gate of Joyful Ease. How many of you have experienced the Dharna Gate of Joyful Ease and Zazen? Have you? Great. How many have not? Yes. Kezon puts it another way here in his, and the first two openings he sends to this list. And I'm going to offer a slightly different translation. So Zazen is the way to clarify the ground of experiences and to rest at ease in your actual nature. And then he asks, this is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground.

[27:20]

Another translation puts it like this, revealing your original face. and then ask it to the basic ground. You hear this often, what is your original face? What was the face before you were born? Much like Dogen Kezan, doesn't espouse zaza in the kind of perfected practice? If you do it enough, you get it just right. So that's not it. Not some practice to be accomplished. And it's also not some technique by which you're going to achieve enlightenment. I'm sorry to tell you, if you came here thinking, I just do enough zaza and I will become enlightened. That's not what they're advocating here, right? In fact, according to both these instincts and ancestors, zazen is not a meditative technique at all, but rather a process of revealing and resting in our true nature. Or as Keeson puts it later in zazen-rujinki, dwelling content within your own Buddha nature.

[28:23]

And then Aswar Kesa Aswar says it this way. He says that Zazen is entering directly into the ocean of Buddha nature and manifesting the body-mind of the Buddha. Sounds pretty amazing. Now, of course, the minute we take our seat and attempt this dwelling comfortably or contently in our particular manifestation of our body-mind, this body-mind of Buddha, we realize it's not so easy. Almost immediately, all kinds of thoughts and emotions and sensations kind of just flood in, and they're leaving us feeling anything but content or at ease. Not only is Zaza not easy, but as our Septuagint tradition tells us, only a Buddha can do Zaza. That's to say that Zazen is not a path to becoming a Buddha.

[29:30]

We can't make ourselves into Buddhas by sitting Zazen anymore than one can make a mirror by polishing a tile. So we need to disabuse ourselves of any notion that Zazen is a technique or a means or a tool for becoming a Buddha, much less for achieving something called enlightenment. So what then is Zazen? Well, as Kezan and others have repeatedly put forth, Zazen is a gesture of awakening. It's a profound expression and a verification of who you already are. In fact, what each of us already is and what Everything and all phenomenon already is. A verification of that. So as such, zazen is an act of concurrently revealing, manifesting, and resting in ease in and as our basic ground of being, our fundamental nature, our Buddha nature.

[30:48]

So again, the opening sentences of zazen, you're thinking. Zazen means to clarify the mind ground and dwell comfortably in your actual nature. This is called revealing yourself and manifesting the original ground. And when I reviewed a number of different translations of these two sentences, each of them more or less kind of say a similar thing, that zazen allows something to be revealed, to be illuminated, to be clarified or realized. And what is it that's illuminated or clarified? Well, again, depending on the translation you're looking at, it's called the mind. So the mind is clarified, the primordial mind. Another translation says it's the ground of experiences or the foundation of our minds. Jacques Okamura identifies it as the mind-ground.

[31:50]

But you want to ask him, what exactly is this primordial mind or mind-ground? And how is it that Zazade clarifies it or reveals it? Another name for it that I tend to gravitate to, even if it's not perfect, is simply the word awareness. And all the same, we want to be careful about fixing any kind of a definitive label to our ground of experience, right? Because that's what comes to reminding them then, it cannot be fixed. You can't capture or fix or sum up in any way, you know, your ground of experience, the fundamental nature. Nor is it an object that we can somehow experience or identify as separate from ourselves. So our mind realm, our fundamental nature of awareness can just be experienced.

[32:53]

It's impossible to definitively name or grasp. Kazan points this out a little further down in his text, which I read. He says, what is this? Its name is unknown. It cannot be called body. It cannot be called mind. Trying to think of it, the thought vanishes. Trying to speak it, the words die. So whatever this mind-ground is, there isn't a living word for it. And thinking about it or using thought to get to it only actually makes it disappear. You can notice this when you try to actually look at your thoughts. They can't go away. It just kind of evaporates when you turn the light of awareness onto them. And yet, while the same, we need to use words and language as supportive pointers to the Dharma. This is how we share the Dharma with each other. Help us in our practice, our path of practice.

[33:57]

That's why we have all these wonderful words and teachings from various Zen ancestors. Doga himself goes on later in the opening section, to call this unnameable, unaggressable, a body. So he says, between the sky and earth, only this whole body is seen. And he also calls it mind, saying that it is this mind which is enlightenment itself. So I think by using these terms, Kezon's pointing to the relationship between body and mind and the place in our experience of being here. Body and mind together give rise to our experience of being. As one commentator noted, mind points to the role of our awareness in our experience of linnahendul. Body points to the reality of our life that's beyond words and concepts, but is always pervasive and present.

[35:01]

Yet no single word or concept captures the whole deal. So all we can only do to truly experience and manifest this body-mind ground of Buddha is to take up the activity of zazen and to allow it to be revealed. Zazen is an act of revelation. Now, we want to be careful about not making this mind ground. into some kind of mind that is separate, that's somehow maybe buried below our everyday mind, and which can finally be revealed if we get the everyday mind out of the way, right? And so, as Mao Zedong reminds us, this very mind, and White pointing out here, this is what we need to say, this very mind is Buddha, right?

[36:08]

This very mind is it. There's not another or a different or a better mind that's waiting to be exposed when you do zaza. I'm sorry to tell you. So it's this mind, the mind which is experiencing itself, experiencing the moment in its totality. That is the very mind-ground being. And just to clarify, we're not saying that the ever-changing content of our minds our thoughts, our images, etc., is the object of reality of our minds. But rather, it's the very quality of a luminous knowing that is Buddha. So when we take our seats with Asa, it's not a different or better mind that is waiting to be revealed. Rather, what is revealed of your life is this very mind, The one that you're sitting with right here and right now. The one that's illuminating all of your experience.

[37:12]

Kind of like the sun. Everything is illuminated. Everything is, you could propose, made of that illumination. So rather than starting off his instruction for what to be aware of in Zaza, by talking about where to sit or what kind of posture to take in Zazen, which is usually the kind of focus of Zazen's instruction. When you come to, like, Sarkis's presenter and other temples, they'll give you basic instruction, which is how to, you know, sit up, posture with your body, maybe talk a little bit about the posture of the mind, right? That's a traditional Zazen instruction, and that's important, and that's helpful. It has its place, you know? But Khezan is saying something different here. He begins by saying... First, realize your true nature. Know who you are and your place in the universe. Then do Zazen. So he's recommending that we begin by connecting to something that's more essential than our physical and mental posture, or even our breath.

[38:24]

Even though they're helpful touchstones. He's pointing to something else. And what is this? Even though its name is unknown, as Kazan said, we can nevertheless venture one. We have to. We have to use language. As I suggested earlier, we might call it awareness. Now I'm going to venture to call it something else. I'm going to call it the direct, unmediated experience of being alive. The direct, unmediated experience of being alive. Can you taste that right now? Don't think about it. Don't look for it. Just drop into this experience of being alive fully here. And sometimes it helps if you drop into your heart right down here to the center of your body and rest there. Then you can feel this aliveness reverberating through you and beyond, if you will.

[39:28]

The whole universe is reverberating in this way of this aliveness. So Keizan is suggesting, even before we begin zazam, to first connect with our fundamental feeling of aliveness, of I am-ness. I am. Touch that I am-ness. The very fact of our being. The experience of being right here, right now. It's the fundamental ground of experience. Or you could say, the field in which everything arises is known. and is known. This fact of being is the field in which everything arises and is known. And it's also non-dual. It's not divisible. You can't divide into a self or another, an object of any type. And it can't be separated out of your experience whatsoever. And once connecting to this feeling, feeling into this field of universal aliveness, it's then that we're invited by Keizan.

[40:32]

to engage in zazen. He continues, he says, in zazen, both body and mind drop off. Zazen is far beyond the form of sitting or lying down. For those of you who are familiar with Dogen will have heard before this description of body and mind dropping off as a key experience in zazen. And he gave up a short Dora Mahal discourse in his age, Kuroku, and he says that body and mind dropped off is the beginning of our effort. Dropping off body and mind is, it's a very important technical phrase for Dogen. In Japanese, Shinjin Datsuraku. And body and mind dropped away is what the name that Dogen uses for Zazen. So you're sitting here engaging in Zazen, you're sitting here engaging, dropping off body and mind. And for him, Zazen is simply dropping off body and mind, but this dropping off is dropping off your concepts of and your identification with your bodies and minds.

[41:40]

And in such, dwelling, again, in this non-dual awareness, which is beyond body-mind fabrications. And it's also Dovin's name for Anattara Samyak Sam Budi, which is complete, unsurpassed, Perfect enlightenment. Kezan next points out in his text that zazen transcends dichotomies or dualities. He says that zazen is a matter of going beyond such forms of sitting or lying down. And so don't think that zazen is only taking a sitting posture or lying down posture. You can do zazen in many different ways. It's beyond any posture. He writes, free from considerations of good and evil, Zazen transcends distinctions between ordinary people and sages. It goes far beyond judgments of deluded or enlightened. Zazen includes no boundary between sentient beings and Buddha.

[42:45]

Now, I don't know about you, but I think it's kind of second nature for human beings to create dualities and dichotomies, right? It's what our minds do. It's how we... interpret and make sense of the world, right? It's a useful tool. It's not a problem in and of itself, but if we misuse the tool and believe in these separations, dichotomies, and dualities, then we're in trouble. And again, this is, we're not creating dualities and dichotomies in Zazen. We're not trying to make sense in Zazen. Zazen is not a sense-making activity. It's rather an activity of being at one with our senses, or directly sensing if you hold a body-mind, you know, what's going on. And sensing into, you could say, beyond any physical or mental posture.

[43:45]

Sensing into space itself. Space within, space without, right? And I like to think of zazen as liminal space, as an in-between realm. It's a non-dual realm that's without boundaries, without parameters, without any thing here or there. And as such, it transcends or goes beyond evaluations or... sages, delusions and enlightenment, sentient beings and Buddhists, body and mind. It goes beyond all those distinctions. So how then do we go beyond dualities and dichotinities? How do we learn to rest in the liminal space of sasa?

[44:48]

Well, one way that Kezon suggests is by first, he says, putting aside all concern, shed all attachments. So in other words, stop dwelling in your problems or your ideas about your problems. Often you actually come down and sit on Zaza and then you spend the whole period just thinking about all the problems you have, all the challenges, the issues, what so-and-so said to you, what you're gonna do, planning, et cetera, et cetera. So much of our psychic emotional energy is taken up by worrying or by planning or trying to manipulate or fix things, ourselves or our world or our lives, you know, to be a certain way that we imagine ultimately will make us happy with more ease. And sure, you know, there is a time and place to consider how to take care of what needs to be taken care of, how to address the various challenges and the various injustices in the world. And you need to do that. There is a time and place for that.

[45:49]

But so often our minds just kind of indiscriminately chew you know, mindlessly, if you will, and go up any kind of direction on whatever pops up to them. And Zazen is not the place for that. Zazen also advises to shed or draw up your various attachments. And whether there's attachments to material objects or various desires, I'll let you kind of list all those for yourself. And particularly to draw up your attachment to your sense of self. Probably the hardest thing to do. It's the stupidest attachment of them all. Near the end of Zazen, Yojinki, Kezon says that, when we are thinking, the various views have not been put to rest, and the mind is still running over. Kind of like someone left the false alarm. It keeps running on and on and on. Zazen alone brings everything to rest, and flowing freely reaches everywhere.

[46:53]

So again, no boundaries. Zazen is like returning home and sitting in peace. That's kind of nice. And then Kizan instructions, do nothing at all. Don't fabricate anything with the six senses. In other words, stop. Just stop. Stop the tendency to try to fix things or move away from reality as it's presenting itself. or trying to fabricate another one. Just stop. Stop the endless contracting, oh, I don't like this, you know, or grasping, oh, I want that, pushing away, or pulling in. All these ways that we do in body and mind. It's fascinating. We sit down sometimes, we sit, we come as often, we stay still, and our minds are still pushing and pulling, contracting and moving all over the place. Right? And then we notice how our bodies kind of start doing the same.

[47:54]

Leaning into the future, dwelling in the past, trying to get away from something by leaving to the sun. This is constant habitual twitching that we do in our body and mind. So do nothing, says Kesa. But I think we have to be careful with this idea of do nothing at all. Our practice of zazam is also known as shikantaza. It's a Japanese term which basically translates as nothing but precisely sitting. So the whole point of shikantaza is just to sit here. Doing nothing but sitting with the fullness of our being. So it's this practice, if you will, rather than doing zazam, it's a practice of non-doing and non-thinking. We could say doing, non-doing, and thinking, not thinking.

[48:54]

However, it's so difficult for us that we can hardly even conceive of the possibility of doing this, right? Instead, we kind of sit here and we kind of think, I'm supposed to meditate. You have an idea of what meditation is, right? And so we try concentrating. I'm supposed to concentrate or be aware of this moment or... you know, how my mind be a certain way or how me be a certain way. And we still just do all this, right? But it's impossible, right? What's being asked is, you know, just be here. Doing nothing. And it's hard for us to do anything but really absolutely nothing. Nothing other than resting in the ocean of reality. Resting in our Buddha nature as it's manifesting here and now. So this doing nothing that Hezen is encouraging us to do, in his description of Zazen, is resting comfortably in your actual nature.

[50:02]

So when we put aside our concerns, shed our attachments, and do nothing at all but simply relish being aware, then we can fully rest in our direct Unmediated experience of being alive. Now if you want to call this experience awareness, if you want we can call this experience awareness, as I proposed earlier, then we can simply rest, you could think of it as rest in and as awareness. So resting in and as awareness. And we're not resting in a thing that is awareness. Sometimes we want to make awareness into a thing. This is what we want to make emptiness into a thing. There is no thing called emptiness. There's no thing called awareness, right? So we're not resting in a thing that is awareness, but in the essential experience of being aware.

[51:09]

Another way that this is sometimes described as is Being aware of being aware. Maybe you've heard that before. Being aware of being aware. So when we can rest in awareness, as awareness, and being aware of awareness, then we come to realize that zazen, that meditation, is fundamentally something we are. It's not something we do. Zazen is something we are. Meditation is what we are, not what we do. This is why Keizan says that zazen is like returning home and sitting in peace. Zazen is coming home to ourselves and completely manifesting who we truly are. Isn't this why many of us are drawn to zazen, even enjoying zazen at times, despite the times when it's equally not easy?

[52:14]

It's always like returning home to our place of refuge and ease, and just being completely ourselves, unfabricated, unguarded, without worries or demands, simply relaxing into the ease and the rejuvenation of our fundamental nature, our Buddha nature. Okay. Well, there's much more I could say from just the opening line that I shared with you earlier, and much more of his classical. I'm gonna stop there so we can just sit outside of him. And I'll close with some final words of encouragement from another essay by Kezan. This one's titled Saen Kanzazen Setsu, which is Three Kinds of Zen Practitioners. The whole other classical is kind of interesting to read. But here he says, In perfect ease, go. Stay, sit, and lie down.

[53:19]

Seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing are all the natural display of Buddha nature. From first to last, mind is mind. Beyond any arguments about knowledge and ignorance. Just to zazen with all of who and what you are. Never stray away from it or use it. Just dissolve in with all of who or what you are. Never stray away from it or lose it. But going back to the beginning when I said every place is a place of practice. Everywhere you are is a place of practice. Don't leave your place of practice. Don't leave this very experience of being alive right here. the fullness of that experience. It's always waiting for you. If you happen to forget it, lose it or drift away, it's always waiting for you to return back to it.

[54:23]

Amen. So thank you all for your patience. I probably went a little bit high. And I know many of us will continue sitting together. And for those who are continuing on into this beautiful day, wherever you are, when you go with ease and peace. 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.

[55:08]

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