One spray of scarlet plum blossoms, blooming constantly. That is completely pure activity. When you see, when you encounter ballet, that's just one spray of scarlet plum blossoms. But it's very difficult because nothing to hold on. Because everything is white. Nothing. Nothing to make you excited. No sense of pros and cons, or advantages or disadvantages. All you have to do is just bloom. Where? In the many aspects of the human world, which is called philosophy, psychology, ethics, and whatever. If you bloom your plum blossoms, well, you enjoy very much because there are lots of choices.

[01:06]

But if you bloom just in the smell, nothing to compare, nothing to comment. How wonderful it is, or how miserable it is, how ugly it is. All you have to do is just bloom. Why should we do so? This is the original characteristic of time and space. Where you are present, time is changing. Nothing to hold. Nothing to, well, nothing to have droppings of ornament in order to get excitement when you die. When the time comes to die, just to die. When the time comes to gassho, just to gassho. When the time comes to have breakfast, just to have breakfast. But just breakfast is not just breakfast.

[02:12]

You have to have breakfast, and eating breakfast, and your eyes, your nose, your belly button, and your stomach, and your hands, your past life, your future life. You have to eat everything. That time, that is what is called just eating. Well, it's very difficult. This is shikantara. Remember this. Just sit down. Just sit down. Don't expect anything from Zazen. Zazen is blooming. Anyway, call it plum blossoms, blooming right in the middle of snow. That's all. Because this is exactly the same as the problem of life and death. Whatever you do, that's fundamental practice for us. All you have to do is anyway dwelling in there.

[03:16]

Dwelling in means to be transparent. Just to bloom. That is not the attitude that you try to understand. That is a kind of faith. The faith is anyway actual activities, practice. You say, I believe God, I believe Buddha, I believe Zazen, how wonderful it is. But if you don't do Zazen, how can you understand Zazen? You never understand. If you say, I understand how wonderful Zazen is, you do it. Just do it. This is anyway right understanding. Right understanding. One of the eight noble paths mentioned by Buddha. Next is right thinking.

[04:20]

Right thinking is when right understanding is actualized in your daily living. Your thinking, your understanding, your thinking, your seeing, your hearing, all things are anyway based on right understanding. Right understanding. When you hear that you are chanting, your voice, when you chant, you should chant your chanting not with ear, with eyes, with nose, with mouth, with each pore of your body. At that time, you can chant perfectly. So we put the sign under the bell. When I was, when we were in the Sokoi's temple behind, we moved to this building. We say, chant with eyes. People didn't understand.

[05:21]

How can we chant? How do we chant? With eyes. This is very true. That is right thinking. When you think, when you hear, when you see, when you taste, when you touch, at that time, anyway, you have to understand not only the single one, the whole world, hidden behind a single object. And then, all we have to do is, anyway I told you before, you should continue dwelling in this right understanding, right thinking. Continuation of right thinking, right understanding is what is called right mindfulness. Right mindfulness. Right mindfulness is continuation of right understanding.

[06:28]

Right understanding and right thinking. So, it means, Shonin, right mindfulness is. Anyway, we do our best to anyway see eyes, including anyway whole body. We should see a guitar with two hands and whole body and whole circumstances and whole world. How? Through vivid activity. Vivid activity means to dwell in rapport between guitar and you. This is to dwell in. That to dwell in is activity, activity, which is vividly alive.

[07:33]

So, maintain this. Maintain this activity. Continually maintain. Do our best to maintain this activity, which leads you to dwell in a harmonious rapport between tick-up and you. Ballet and ballerina. Stage and audience. Composers and ballerina. Anyway, this is. This is right mindfulness. Right mindfulness. So, right mindfulness is very simple practice. Silence. Just continuation. Just continue. Activity. Right mindfulness is activity which is carried on and on. That's all. This is right mindfulness. So, Buddha says, Buddha says,

[08:38]

If you seek both a good teacher and good protection and support, nothing is better than not forgetting right mindfulness. If you seek both a good teacher and good protection and support, there are three points. Good teacher and good protection and good support. A good teacher is, anyway, a person through whom you can have a chance to listen to Buddha's teaching. Buddha's teaching. And also, the second is good protection. A good teacher is a person through which you can have the practice to the good thinking in one way.

[09:53]

In one way. Anyway, good teacher. When you see, when you contact, when you communicate with a good teacher in his daily living, gassho, whatever he does, gassho, bowing and chanting and reading and sit down and talking, whatever he does, anyway, in one way, you can get a certain hint what, how to do gassho. Even though he doesn't say. How to do zazen. How to see person. How to talk. How to sit down. How to stand up. How to walk. How to come in. So, that is good protection. This is really good protection. So, the teacher, good teacher is,

[10:55]

anyway, good teacher, good person through whom you can have a many chance to listen to Buddha's teaching. To listen to Buddha's teaching is good practice for us. Because you can get out of your stinkiness. When you are always selling the fish, after finishing selling all fish, nothing, no fish, even though your body is fishy. But if you are always there, you don't smell. You don't smell how fishy you are. Because that means you are always chasing after your own tail. Switching your tail, your understanding, one understanding to another understanding. So, you always switch. One understanding to another. Change one understanding to another in your whole body. It looks like chasing after your own tail.

[11:58]

So, no end. No end of solutions. You cannot find solution. So, finally you are upset. Completely upset. Finally you scream, help. If you cannot get anyone to help, unfortunately you have to be in a mental hospital. This is very common. We do. So, teacher, good teacher is, anyway, listening to Buddha's teaching is very nice. Listening to Buddha's teaching is a good practice which enables you to get out of your stinkiness. And to get out of your stinkiness doesn't mean to escape. To realize how stinky you are. Yes, it is. I always give a lecture. In public. It seems to me not wonderful thing.

[12:59]

I don't think it is wonderful. Because I am always expressing my shamelessness. Shamelessness or misstatements. Misstatements or lack of perfection. Or talking about some aspect of Buddha's teaching, not private, in public. Do you understand? Can you? It makes sense? Okay. But if you talk by yourself in a small group, you cannot show your mistake in public. But if you talk like this, it's really showing mistake in public. It's not so easy. It's not so easy. But this is very good. Very good. In a sense, it is very good. But in a sense, it's bitter. But bitter thing is very good medicine for me.

[14:04]

Because I know how stinky I am. I know how stinky my English is. I know how much you understand through my poor English. So I have to always look at yourself. I have to always look at yourself, your eyes. If someone says, that's it. You don't understand my talking. So I have to say something, same things from a different angle. So your talk is sort of repeating the same things. But it's not repeating the same things. I explain one thing from a different angle. So sometimes you're fed up with listening to the same thing. But sometimes you don't understand well. So that's why I try to explain. So that bitterness is very good medicine for me to see,

[15:06]

to get out my stinkiness. From the stinkiness, anyway. Get out of the stinkiness. Not escape. It doesn't mean to escape. Anyway, to get out of the stinkiness is to realize perfectly. That's very nice. That's why we have to listen to Buddha's teaching. Even though you don't understand, that's okay. If you don't understand, forget it. Next, sit down here, listen to it. And then next time, maybe you can understand a little bit, even though I say the same things. So you can understand a little bit. That's pretty good. So anyway, if you don't understand, don't worry. Forget it. And sit down again, listen to it. If you don't understand, don't be confused. Don't forget it. Sit down, listen to it. That practice is very nice for us. So a good teacher is a person through whom you can have many chances to listen to Buddha's teaching.

[16:14]

And also, a good teacher is good protection. With good protection, you can realize how to take care of gassho, how to take care of zazen, how to take care of breakfast, how to talk, how to anyway stand up, how to sit down, how to kinyin, how to do kinyin, even though he doesn't say anything, through his activities. Inwardly, you can get a hint. You can get a hint. That is good protection. And also, a good teacher is good support. Good support. Even though you don't understand. You don't understand skandhara. Without expecting anything, just sit down. Well, you should have a good teacher. If you have a good teacher, anyway, that is a really good support.

[17:16]

Support. Because in many ways, visibly, invisibly, verbally, not verbally, anyway, a good teacher constantly shows you, tells you, talks to you. Buddhadharma. Unity of man and his object. How to unify man and his object. Having harmonious rapport in the relationship between man and his object. Gassho and you, and gassho, you and the same. Okay. So, if you seek both a good teacher and good protection and support,

[18:27]

nothing is better than not forgetting mindfulness. This is the best way to maintain right mindfulness. How can you keep, maintain right mindfulness? You should practice three. Listening to Buddha's teaching and anyway to think what you have listened to Buddha's teaching. Through the teacher. And also next, you should put what you have listened to Buddha's teaching in watching, in your daily life. That is three practice. That means, in other words, good teacher, good protection, good support. Support. That three practice is, anyway, best way to understand, to experience, to experience how to maintain right mindfulness.

[19:30]

How to maintain. Just sitting. Just sitting. Even though you cannot hit to the mouth, what the right, just sitting is. Because teacher doesn't give you anything. That's why you cannot hit to the mouth. What the right, just sitting. Because just a bloom. Just the sky turn, plant bloom, blossoms, blooming in the snow. This is Zazen itself. That's why nothing to hit the mouth. That's why we need teacher. Good teacher is, good teacher give you Buddha's teaching and good protection, good support. Next, for those who do not forget the right mindfulness, the rubber like multitude of deluding passion channel break in.

[20:39]

If you continue to do that, continuation of right mindfulness, continuation of right thinking, right understanding, is to create no room to let delusions insert into your body, your mind. This is the best way. Even though you don't understand. So, someone says, it's pretty easier to practice guitar when you want to learn with Samadhi. When you want to experience Samadhi. Samadhi means one-pointedness. So, it's pretty easy to practice guitar instead of just sitting. Just sitting is pretty difficult. So, why don't you play the guitar?

[21:40]

Why don't you dance? Why don't you paint? Why don't you have a tea ceremony? Because always there is something you can see. There is something you can bring into yourself. By what you can concentrate on. It will be easier. But this is not. Real Samadhi. Real mindfulness. Because as long as you have object seen objectively, it is something by which you can create certain delusions. Like or dislike. I don't like. I like. Many delusions come up. So, without using any obstacle, any object, how can you bloom? Scarlet, plum, blossom in snow.

[22:43]

That's why you have to bloom. You as scarlet plum blooms, anyway blooms in snow. Snow means anyway nothing to get. No object you can see. You can touch. You should always keep right understanding, right mindfulness in your mind and regulate it well. For if you lose this mindfulness, all sorts of merits and virtues will also be lost. Very confused. If you don't maintain right mindfulness, immediately there is small waves, big waves.

[23:48]

That means a sense of pros and cons, success and failure, advantages and disadvantages, pleasure and not pleasure, favorable or not favorable. Many things come up. That is something which makes you confused, bewildered. But anyway, whatever you do, always there is something. If you ballet, if you perform ballet, all you have to do is just ballet. This is zazen, just like zazen. But right after the ballet, everybody is willing to give applause. Then you are very infatuated with your performance, performance. That is what is called a sense of pros and cons, success and failure, I got it, sort of enlightenment. If you make a mistake, you are completely disappointed.

[24:49]

So you give up. But that is not so easy. So whatever happens, anywhere from the beginning to the end, just to perform, just to practice ballet, blooming in snow, that's all. This is fundamental practice for us. But if you don't do that, it's very difficult to keep yourself in balance. If the power of this mindfulness is strong and firm, then even though you mingle with the rubber-like five desires, you will not be injured. Well, that means just sitting. If you're just sitting, if you're just a ballet, performing just a ballet, from moment to moment, at the stage, at that time, sometimes, still your consciousness catches something.

[25:52]

Oh, I made a mistake. Right after performing something, you think, oh, I made a mistake. But no way, no excuse to stop. So continually you have to do. So immediately you can see something. That is a flickering light. I made a mistake. And then during the dancing, you feel good. But even though you don't think, you don't think, you feel good. Well, that's nice. Perform. Perfect performance. At that time, you smile. But this is also a flickering light. But no way, no way to be confused, to upset, to be agitated, or to be bewildered. All you have to do is just perform, because no chance, no room to stop, to see objectively. Time is changing, changing. Time and the activity of ballet

[26:55]

is completely changing constantly. So, at that time, you never endure it. Just look at flickering lights. Oh, I did a mistake. Okay, do it. If you see good, oh, that's okay. Just do it. All you have to do is look at flickering lights. And continually to practice. Well, if you have a chance, sometime in the future, some book explaining about death. Most people don't say, this is perfect attitude, how to take toward death. No, no perfect solution. Always, always, finally all you have to do is to see actual activity, right in the middle of death.

[27:57]

That is to die, to die. But within this total activity, which is called to die, you can see, I don't want. You can see flickering light, I don't want, I want to die, or I am ready to die. On the other hand, you say, I don't want to die. That's why Zen Master says, Zen Master was asked by the monks, please give us wonderful message to us in order to educate us. So, because he was enlightened Zen Master, so he said, I don't want to die. So all monks, all disciples were very disappointed because he was completely ready to die with no suffering, with no suffering. But he said, I don't want to die. Well, he just explained, one flickering light,

[28:59]

I don't want to die. That means monks, all of you, students, watch out. This, you cannot ignore this flickering light. You can glance at, even a moment, and that time you feel immediate, oh, I don't want. You cannot ignore this flickering light. That's why he warned all students, all monks, what is a perfect being ready to die? What is that? Nothing to say. Just like a performance, so performing ballet, exactly the same as performing ballet. Nothing to say. From moment to moment, just show the ballet. Well, right in the middle of ballet, you can see the flickering light, I did good, I didn't good. But all disappears. Appears, disappears. No chance to be confused, to be agitated

[30:04]

by those flickering lights. So all you have to do is just continue to maintain right mindfulness. Anyway, just a few activities. That time you never be injured, just as if you go into battle dressed in armor, you will not fear the enemy. This is the meaning of not forgetting, right? Mindfulness, okay? Mindfulness. Next, practicing Samadhi. Samadhi, dwelling in the Dharma, undisturbed in what is called Samadhi. Samadhi is merits, merits coming from right mindfulness. Right mindfulness is continuation, continuation of right understanding. Right understanding, okay? Right understanding.

[31:04]

Right understanding, is continuation of, continuously maintaining right understanding. Shikan means with whole-heartedness, shikan walking is shikan dynamic, but it is very still, very still. So, bai is very dynamic walking, but simultaneously it is very still, very still. This is zazen, this is samadhi. Samadhi is one-pointedness, one-pointedness. So, one-pointedness and samadhi is merits of right mindfulness. Just to continue, if you continue anyway, continue to right mindfulness. Shikan gassho, shikan zazen, shikan yelling, shikan chanting, shikan walking, shikan talk, shikan being categorized as he really is.

[32:14]

That time, anyway, it is called samadhi. That means, that's why dwelling in the dharma, dwelling in the dharma, anyway, everything is produced by conditioned elements and changing constantly in many ways. So, how can you dwell in this dharma changing constantly? That means, in a way, each moment you must be you, you fill yourself in the self, at each moment, at each moment. That is, anyway, dwelling in the dharma. At that time, that attitude, that activity, that attitude towards human life is not something disturbed or injured. So, you can dwell in dharma undisturbed, undisturbed.

[33:17]

That means to dwell in dharma, which means to be transparent. To be transparent means to communicate with Chikap and you. Chikap and you, Chikap with your emotions and your consciousness, completely experiencing harmonious rapport. Rapport, there is no gap between. That means just drink. That is beautiful performance, performance activity. So, dwelling in dharma undisturbed is what is called samadhi. The Buddha says, when you unify your mind, unify means to maintain the right mindfulness. The mind is in samadhi. Very naturally your mind is in samadhi, in one-pointedness. Your mind is really working in dynamism, but simultaneously your mind is very still.

[34:22]

Just like a spinning top. Spinning top is working in dynamism, but simultaneously spinning top is spinning one point. At the one point. Since the mind is in samadhi, you awaken to the characteristics of the creation and destruction of the various phenomena in the world. If you do continually right mindfulness and samadhi as a merit of right mindfulness, at that time you can awaken to characteristics of the creation and destruction, appearing, disappearing, birth and decay, life and death, good and bad, in the phenomena in the world.

[35:25]

You can see the total picture. Just like I told you before, maybe before, just the haiku, Japanese poem, a maple leaf, maple leaf showing its back and front, it is falling, it is falling. A maple leaf showing its back and front, it is falling. Maple leaf is all of us, all of our life, your life, tree's life, everything. But life is not ideal. Not ideal, you understand life. Life is, in a way, total dynamic working. Nothing but working in dynamism. So, how can you work? Showing total picture of your life, keeping in perfect balance.

[36:32]

At that time, you have to show back and front. This is flickering light, good and bad, right and wrong. But those good and bad, right and wrong, are very naturally appearing, disappearing, if you don't meddle with it. Very naturally. All you have to do is, it is just falling. It means just concentrate on the center. That is the meaning of poem. Maple leaf showing back and forth, it is falling. It is falling is activity of maple leaf's life. Maple leaf's life doesn't like a sun and water. Life is, in a way, dynamic working, concentrating from moment to moment. In keeping balance, how? Showing back and forth. You cannot ignore back and forth, good and bad.

[37:36]

But if you don't meddle with, if you don't attach to them with conception, conception, consciousness, at that time, you finally dwell in vivid activity, which is called falling. Just falling. You can touch. Sky, flowers, blossoms, blooms in the snow. Just bloom. So you can understand, in a way, total picture of human life. Total picture of maple leaf's life. Then, through the falling leaves and activity of maple leaf, you can see whole world, which is called autumn. And also, you can see your physical situation, mental situation. Feeling autumn.

[38:37]

You can see whole world. So all you have to do is continue to have, in a way, right mindfulness, and continue to have, in a way, samadhi, as a merit of the right mindfulness. And he never lacks anything. At that time, he never lacks anything. Even though you can see, you can think, I made a mistake. You don't scramble over there. In a way, you can continue practicing. You can continue practicing. Even though you think, I made a mistake, it is not lack of your personality, your life. You can just accept and throw it away. You can pass by. Then, he never lacks anything.

[39:41]

Having few desires, he is in nirvana. This is called... Oh, excuse me. I'm at a different place. Characteristic of creation and destruction of the various phenomena in the world. For this reason, you should concentrate, practice with diligence. Diligence is effort. Effort is... Anyway, shojin in Japanese, sho is state you can take attitude toward one practice with pure sense. Pure sense. Completely chikan-zazen. Scarlet, cloud-blossom blooms in snow. This is sho of shojin. At that time, white snow becomes bluish. Bluish is something added to the white. But actually, if you don't know where, bluish disappears.

[40:44]

And you can see just the white. But when your white is completely pure, it becomes bluish. That is good and bad, right and wrong, you can see. But actually, white snow is white. White snow is white. This is sho of shojin. And jin is not to regress. Not to regress. So, anyway, without regressing, anyway, we have to dwell in this pure practice. Pure practice. Scarlet, cloud-blossom blooms in snow. For this reason, you should constantly practice with diligence and cultivate all kinds of samadhi. When you see the zazen, there is samadhi. Anyway, cultivate samadhi. When you have breakfast, there is samadhi.

[41:45]

When you play the guitar, there is samadhi. You can cultivate. Cultivate. When you gain samadhi, the mind is not scattered. At that time, your mind is very calm. Just as those who protect themselves from floods guard the dike. For the sake of the water of wisdom, then cultivate samadhi well and do not let it leak out. This is called samadhi. Just as those who protect themselves from the floods guard the dike. Those who fear the floods. Take care of water. Stay healthy. Making a perfect dike.

[42:47]

So, you cannot have samadhi at random. If you want to maintain samadhi, you have to make arrangements of your physical and mental conditions. All circumstances. So, you have neat room, not noisy room, not bright, not dark, and anyway, perfectly just right. You should maintain your room, your body, and your mind. At that time, you can, anyway, plant into samadhi. For the sake of the water of wisdom. For the sake of means to prevent. To prevent the water of wisdom from leaking out of your life. Leaking out of your life. So, wisdom is deep knowledge coming from samadhi.

[44:01]

Wisdom is a merit coming from samadhi. Which is good enough to see the total picture of human life. How to behave, how to take care of ourselves. So, from this, anyway, we have to cultivate samadhi well, and do not let it leak out. This is called samadhi. Ok.

[44:37]

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