Good morning, everyone. I don't know if it's still the case. Only if it's not, you know, it's at one point this year, probably it was a parking lot. Is that right? Yes. Very good. So... I, um... This morning, as Dushu and I were doing our agenda to the authors, as we were agreeing, we were walking from the kitchen to the gatehouse, and something on the right side of my eye caught my attention. And I looked up, and what I saw was flag rock illuminated by the full moon to the top part of it. And it was just stunningly beautiful, and the way in which

[01:04]

You know, it was so upright, steadfast, and brilliant in the way that the moon was illuminating it. You know, it was kind of as if the mountains and the moon were having a conversation, speaking with each other, and fully engaged in glory in their radiant relationship, their radiant friendship together. And as I saw that image, it made me think of a calligraphy that is in the abyss, kind of with something you may have seen. I didn't know what it said for a long time, and unfortunately, Taishan Tsama very kindly had to translate it with the help of his teacher. And what I became to understand is the calligraphy is written by the abyss of Zan Zenji, which is a Winsai temple in Japan. And it reads, is that my question?

[02:10]

And so, which translates as, the lone mountaintop is roaring at the moon. The lone mountaintop is roaring at the moon. Actually, maybe I'll pass this around because it includes the characters as well as the translation of each of the characters. As many of you know, the moon is one of the symbols of enlightenment and the war, this idea of the Buddhist war, his thunderous war of his dharma teachings. And so imagine each of us are a long mountain where our particular dharma see what long mountain mean. We're sitting upright here in our seats in our particular position wherever we are walking in the world. And we are in conversation. We're in conversation with this very body, mind.

[03:13]

We're in conversation with the environment and those around us. We're in conversation with nature. We're in conversation with our own inner illumination. ongoing conversation, this ongoing friendship, we could say. And at times this conversation is very solid, very quiet. It's almost as loud as an earthworm clawing along the ground. And other times it's as thunderous as a thunderstorm where a lion has been, what's the word, microphoned off of the mountaintop, roaring, proclaiming, her space, in this world, in this lendo, in this valley, in all of this earth, and all in the family of things. It just so happens that today is a full moon, and we are celebrating the full moon tonight with our own ceremony.

[04:23]

And our ceremony, as we were just chanting confession and repentance, Special independence. And as we're going to do, as we did before, once again, we're going to have the ceremony outside in the work circle. And this time, the moon will actually be there the whole time, illuminating us as we are bowing and chanting. So what a wonderful conversation we'll be having with the moon. And as you may know, the Japanese term for this ceremony is Ryaku Fusatsu. And the yaku means abbreviated or simple. And phrasatshu means to continue good practice or to stop a wholesome action or unwholesome karma. So in other words, this is kind of a version, it is an expression of our precept ceremony in which we reaffirm our commitment to living our vows and living according to the 16-way sapa precepts.

[05:24]

which are guidelines for ethical life, guidelines for how to be in a good, harmonious relationship with each other and actually with all beings. So what auspicious that we prefer this thing that it is that we're able to hold this ceremony today, tonight, at the beginning of our sushim, which is emphasizing the wholesome action of just fully expressing our being in relationship with all beings. If you get cold easily, we'll add something to warm you up tonight. Even though you'll be dying, you'll probably warm up a little bit. But you want to make sure you take care of yourselves. So, welcome to the first day of our mid-practice period, seven days sushin. And I very much appreciate the fact that here at Tassahara, which is the only one of the three centers, we have sushin three times during the practice period.

[06:28]

And for those sorts of guardians, you actually have four sashims. You've got the first five days, which is those sashimi sorts. So you are so lucky. It's a fortunate thing. And as many of you know, the word sashim literally means touching or gathering or uniting the heart and mind. So the word sashim is a Sino-Japanese term compound made up of two ideographs Setsu, and Shin. And Shin means mind as well as heart. And Setsu has several meanings. It means to touch, receive, convey, or gather. So Shin can literally be translated as touch to mind. It also means to receive the mind, to convey the mind, and to collect the mind. And again, you can add substitute heart for mind, all these, to receive the heart, to condate the heart, to collect the heart.

[07:33]

All these meanings are included in this expression sashim. And sashim is an opportunity to further simplify our monastic lecture at Tassahara. We've already stripped down things pretty simply, but this is taking a little bit further so that we can continue to gather our energy and concentrate it in order to clarify the great value that is our life and death. And again, we do this very simply. The simple activity of focusing on our breath, focusing our attention on the direct experience of just sitting. And we do so as a group, as the support that each person gives each other is very vital. for a strong sushin. It will be really hard to do a sushin on your own. So this idea that we're together doing this, encouraging each other, holding each other up in this container of intention is very beneficial. And during sushins, the forms are pared down significantly.

[08:41]

The landscape and all the activities have all been simplified in the service of helping us to not get carried off. Keep your as plain as simple as can be, and allow us to be as completely as present and available as we can to everything throughout the day. So in this way, Sashim forms support our bodies and lives to settle quietly, even if other. You might already think, oh, my mind's already time for quiet and subtle, but going into Sashim illuminates what is even more What is it that still needs to come to rest? What still is unsettling your being that is yearning to come to rest, to come to stowas? No burden to be laid down. Last night the anal read those ashamed admonitions or encouragements. I don't know if they're keen to read admonitions.

[09:42]

I actually refer to encouragements because I think that's what their intention is. And keeping these incursions or admonitions will help us tremendously. So they're not something that will just be taken lightly. If we cut corners or make excuses, then the energy of our sashimi will be cut or eroded in some way. And it will change the quality of the sashimi for us, perhaps even others, because the energy will leak away in some way. And this is particularly the case with silence. That's why I really strongly encourage everyone to focus on maintaining silence as much as possible. Really not speaking. If you can, then you have to communicate with a note. But also, in your own kind of ways that we self-talk, notice where there's talking going on, internal chatter, notice the ways that we just yearn to somehow get out of the silence because it can be uncomfortable for us at times. but it really is illuminating for us when we can just rest in silence.

[10:46]

So please, please maintain silence. At least the shame forms hold us and sustain us and support us. And the thing is, they're helping us to really experience whatever it is that we're experiencing, to really be with the experience of perhaps the order Now you get bored in Sushin, right? Sleekiness, does that ever happen? A few times, right? Exhilaration, giddiness, or anxiety. So what is it to be with these experiences completely? It's better than disrupting ourselves and turning away from them in some way, which is also our usual heart types to avoid. So really take up these Sushin forms in a... in an impeccable way, as best we can. Help us create a gathered and collected body-mind.

[11:49]

Sashim will only be doing something a little different midway through. On the fourth and fifth days of Sashim, we'll have two silent days, even more silence. But we'll simplify the schedule further. And these Sina days are modeled after those that Sha'ako Gamora's teacher, Uchiyana Roshi, offered up in Taiji in Japan. So I'll say a little bit more about these forms at the beginning of the lecture on the third day, and then Nina will also give us other instructions. But just to know that that will be what is offered midway through. So I hope you find it helpful. During the Sashim, as we've done in the other one, we'll be continuing our study of Dogenes Mountains and Water Sutra.

[12:58]

I'm hoping during the Sashim to walk through the rest of the mountain section. And ideally, by the end of the week, the last day, the latest, to get to the water section. And we'll see. how far our journey takes us over the next seven days. In San Suikyo Dogen writes, the Blue Mountains devote themselves to the investigation of walking. The East Mountain studies moving over the water. Hence, this study is the mountain's own study. The mountains, without altering their own body and mind, with their own mountain consonants, have always been circling back to study themselves. And this passage points once more to Domingo's proposition that the body of mountains and our own life are mountain. So the study of the mountains and water sutra, that is, the study of how the mountains and waters are themselves expressing and the expression of the Dharma of dustness, it's the study of our own mountain being.

[14:15]

And the state of the mountain of our own being is the state of the mountain of all reality. To know and appreciate the true mountain of where we are right here in this moment is to know and touch the eternal mountain, the mountain of the blue way. And as God tells us, the way is the intimate knowing of how the mountains are constantly walking and constantly being. and to concurrently experience both the impermanence and eternity of this very mountain being. How is it that we are constantly walking and constantly at rest? What does that mean? What does that experience mean? Here's an exact column to help us on our journey. I actually don't know what the source of this is. I hope it's a real column and there's one somewhat made up. I'll eat it and we'll use it as a comment.

[15:19]

Let me go from there. A Zen master who lived as a heaven on a mountain was asked by a monk, what is the way? What a fine mountain this is, the master said and replied. I'm not asking you about the mountain, said the monk, but about the way. And the master replied, so long as you cannot go beyond the mountains. you cannot reach the way. What is the way? What a fine mountainist says, I'm not asking you about the mountain, I'm asking about the way. As long as you cannot go beyond the mountain, you cannot reach the way. So for me to truly see the way and the mountain, as the Zen Master advises to go beyond the mountain, requires that I draw my ideas about the mountain, or what the path or the wave should look like.

[16:23]

I need to draw up any concepts about there being any other way than me appreciating what's here, right now. What a fine mountain this is, right here is the place of practice, right here the wave unfolds. The waves beyond our preferences, likes and dislikes and a multitude of ideas. There is no other way. And there's no other sashimi than the one you're encountering. Right here, right now. What a fine sashimi this is. Maybe you can keep saying that to yourself. What a fine sashimi this is. Oh, my knees are aching. My back is hurting. What a fine sushina says. Oh, my heart is broken. My mind is in clouds of dizzying thunder. What a fine sushina says. Just right here.

[17:26]

This is the way. Right here. Turning. Turning on the way. Hence, Duncan tells us, this study is the mountain's own study. The mountains without altering their own body and mind with their own mountain consonants have always been circling back to study themselves. So we don't need to alter ourselves to study ourselves. Just being ourselves, just being our own mountain being and studying how we are is enough. So we need to change who we are for how we are in a study. Just being in this body, observing through the practice of Zaza what it is to be this one. And so Zaza is not a get better or get different project. It's not meant to change us in any way.

[18:28]

We're not doing it to change us. We're doing it to realize our already inherent freedom. is to endure what is ours to endure. To experience the experiencing we're experiencing, as Paul Haller often says. What is it to experience what exactly it is that you're experiencing? To endure it, to bear it, to be with it completely. And then to stage who? And what we already are. And what it is that we're just dancing. Without meaning to fix it or change it in any way. In order even to be worthy of this virtuous study. We're already worthy. We don't have to earn a sense of worth. We come completely worthy of being this very life.

[19:31]

So how do we touch the ground of that? without needing to change ourselves. So what is the gate or portal to this study of the way? Nobody tells us this through the body. He says, to study the way with body means to study the way with your own body. It is the study of the way using this lump of red flesh. The body comes forth from the study of the way. everything that comes forth from the study of the way is the true human body. The entire world of the Ten Directions is nothing but the true human body. The coming and doing of birth and death is the true human body. As I mentioned before, the meditation I was taught by the Buddha and practiced by Buddha's ancestors is deeply, somehow,

[20:38]

fully grounded in bodily sensations, sensory experiences, feelings and emotions, and so on. All of it found in the landscaping environment of this very human body, this red lump of flesh. Human thoughts are related to and are practiced as somatic, as a burst of energy Experiencing the body rather than as non-physical phenomena that disconnected from our environment. What the Buddha offered was a systemic process that results in a profound awareness. Awareness that's in your body rather than in your head. What is it to experience awareness in your body? Awareness as your body. Now, while Dokmi and others get instructions for zazen, they often have a tendency to give brief directions for attending to the external physical posture, how to place our limbs and torso.

[21:53]

But they don't really say much of anything about what we might call the internal posture, that is, giving attention to the vast interior of the body, which is just as important. And the instructions for what to do with the internal landscape are even more thick. Do you want to know what to do with the posture of your mind? The instructions are typically direct attention to the breath, and then think not thinking, and not thinking. Okay, well. I'll return to that point a little bit later in the talk, but very little instructional work to do with our mental posture. So as a way to support us, I entered more deeply into the body of Sashin and the internal wilderness of our own bodies. I don't know about you, but my body often feels like a wilderness. A lot of wild things going on inside. Parts of me that I never really explored, but I'm afraid to go into the checkouts.

[22:58]

Feeling kind of overgrown and kind of... almost incomparable in some way. So here we are entering into Sushin, an opportunity of entering more deeply into our own physical and mental willingness. As a way to support us in this practice, I thought I'd share some somatic meditation practice points. And these points are based on teachings by the Dharma teacher, Reginald Gray, Richard O'Reilly, if anyone knows him, comes from the Tibetan tradition. He was once a student of Chöpyam Trungpa. Richard O'Reilly focuses a lot of his teachings on what he calls somatic meditation, or meditations of the awakening body. The approach of somatic meditation looks at the body from the inside. The process is called interoception, or looking from the inside.

[24:04]

That's what that means. According to Ray, somatic practices involve two aspects. The first involves paying attention to our body, bringing our conscious attention focused to and into our physical form. So sometimes we pay attention to our individual parts of our body, to very minute various locations of the body. And other times we're attending to our body as a whole, what Ray calls the soma or the ultimate body, the whole being body. And the second aspect of somatic meditation, exploring the sense of openness and acceptance without any prejudice or judgment or conscious agenda whatsoever, what it is that we discover when we are paying attention to our body in this way. And that can be a little bit more challenging for us. I know for myself throughout my life, I have a way to, anytime I look at my body, receive my body, a lot of judgment comes up.

[25:09]

I have been kind of throughout my life struggling with weights. I was overweight when I was a child and it carried on to my teens and I still struggle with it. And so I have often a perception of myself as somehow not good enough. physically because of my weight. And many of us may have other ways. And we look at our body and just kind of have this sense of, I don't want to be in this body. I don't like this body. Why do I have this body? Why is it like this? Can I have another body? Can I have it fixed in some way? Maybe I'll get some plastic surgery. Maybe I'll get a little bit better. Something like that. So this desire to change ourselves because we haven't been able to come to terms with this is the body we have how can we accept and acknowledge it for how it is so just paying attention to this body the first step coming to and into the body to attend to it and then the second is opening our consciousness to what Ray calls it interior wakefulness interior wakefulness

[26:27]

interior wakefulness that's going on beneath the surface. And these two aspects of somatic meditation I've just described respond to what traditionally is called mindfulness or shabhatam and awareness of vipassana, which are found virtually in all Buddhist meditations. So the The following offers essentials of an approach that Rizal Ray calls pure awareness practice. And he acknowledges that there are similarities between his emphasis on the importance of posture and the same emphasis given postural instructions for Shikin Tazu or just sitting. And Rizal Ray's training has included actually Zen. And he acknowledges learning A great deal from Zen about somatic essence of meditation and how to approach the body as a gate to the unborn or to the unconditioned.

[27:30]

He describes the posture of pure awareness as one unified, organized way of sitting. It is one all-inclusive somatic feeling and natural process of unfolding while also being composed of discrete elements. Again, posture of pure awareness is one unified, organized way of sitting. Sushin, gathering the heart-mind. It is one all-inclusive, nothing's left out, somatic feeling, a natural process of unfolding, unraveling, you could say, while also being composed of discrete parts, so also tending to the particularities of our experience. And he offers 17 elements all together for how to unify or gather the part of mind. And I'd like to walk through these with you now. But before I get started, I want to say that some of you might feel these elements are somewhat obvious and elementary, and maybe the years of Zaza practice that you've done.

[28:35]

And I have to say, however, that I'm quite surprised what I focus on with people. And also, as I look around the Zen, though, I've noticed that a lot of people aren't feeding their body and have talked about in many ways not having their body to sense themselves, how much they're up in their heads and their mind and feel basically disconnected from their body down. And just observing people's eyes and seeing how you borrow your minds and embodying yourself in some way is an indication of what is it that you're doing in the way that's also How is it that you're embodying it? Exhausted. Exhausted is embodying. That's what we're doing. Exhausted. Embodied. So if we're not actively, consciously embodying moment by moment, we're not doing exhausted. If we're painting work up here, that's not exhausted.

[29:37]

What is it having to do? Cultivating, invading of body awareness. The past itself What is an audit practice? These, I'm going to offer these as encouragement for all of us to practice an audit zaza throughout the gym and onward. So, 17 on somatic meditation of pure awareness. And I described it, you might have followed along as if you were receiving a guided meditation or a form of zaza instruction. So, here we go. The instructions in Fukazazagi get yourself situated and they change your posture if you need to. Define the right position at the outset of your period is also. So take the time whenever you come to the Xander to arrange your cushion and settle into your mountain seats and whether find whatever base you need that's helpful whether that is sitting cross-legged.

[30:43]

or in a chair or even lying down, that's something that you need to do at some point. The second step is to come into our body. So bringing our awareness fully into our body. And you can do this simply by feeling it out of the sensations of the body, where your body makes contact with the environment. So with the seat, with your clothing, your robes, With the sense of the breeze around you. The room temperature. And you can come even further into your body. But also into the inner sensations. In the form of breathing. The awareness of breathing in and out. So that external breath going internally. Internal breath going outward. The sense of your heart being. The sense of your blood flowing. with waters flowing through your body.

[31:47]

The third step is then grounding in the earth. So contact, connect with the sense of the mountain and the earth beneath us. And I don't know how often we actually do this. When you sit down, are you actually aware of what it is that's holding you up right where you are? Are you aware of your relationship to the ground beneath you? But without that ground beneath here, you're going to sit where you're sitting. The same thing when you're walking. So bring awareness to the earth, that which is holding you up and supporting you. And feel yourself resting on the earth. Give your whole body to resting and being held up by the earth beneath you. Feeling this earth supporting you in some way. And then try to feel it even deeper into the earth. Feel the presence. but the eternal body of the earth. What is that sense of presence like if you feel into the earth beneath you?

[32:50]

The fourth step, breathing into the lower belly. Now imagine that you are slowly and gently breathing directly into your lower belly. It's then you say the heart. And as you do this, you can visualize this spot, subtle inches below your navel, on your central line, roughly midway between the perioma and the navel. And imagine yourself bringing the breath directly into that place, into your heart. Keep breathing in this way, into the heart, until you begin to feel some sense, a kind of sensation. focus your attention down there and just rest in the line in the heart and breathe into it. Finding the sensation, keeping the breath centered, allowing it to be subtle. And as we work with this inner breath, the product or key, note the breath coming through into the heart.

[34:07]

Right up to our respiratory system, which is more of an outer breath. Keep breathing in this way until you can sense the space in the heart opening up. What does that space feel like? Let the space open further. Dance slightly as you breathe. According to Chan, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as some Taoist yoga practices, this space is an entry point or portal to primordial reality, or the life force. It's considered this is where the life force enters us. Keeping our attention there, keeping our awareness there in the lower belly.

[35:13]

Developing that attention, that awareness as we breathe. Feeling the life force entering in and through this inner spaciousness by way of the breath. And the first step, have a straight back. So directing your awareness to your spine and allow it to come into an upright and relaxed alignment. Allow the spine to express what is a perfect and relaxed balance for it, rather than trying to force it into some particular position, something that's more ego-driven than it is, simply allowing the spine to rest in its own natural way. And the core element of our posture is count. And the back is straight. With a feeling of relaxation.

[36:17]

A sense of the spine rising. Rising means a kind of subtle flow flowing upward. Starting a rooted in. Emerging from that space in the heart. Starting there. And then there's kind of awareness of a sort of channel, central channel, corridor of awareness. It blends up from a curandium to the top of their head. See if you can note that now. The light force entering in and heart running up through the back, through the spine, up to the column of the head. Feel the energy of that channel. And then imagine the top of the crown of your head lifting upward towards the head. I help you to direct our attention to the back part of the skull, the two-thirds back, with the sutras of the skull bones knitted together.

[37:24]

You can, if it's helpful, visualize the core attached there, gently pulling the head up. And at the same time, allow your chin to drop gently. All of us are supplicating towards your chest. Remember the Greek foot analogy that I used in the last sessions? The head is like a Greek foot that has been sliced from side to side. And the back half slides upward. You could say it might have a cord. And while the front half slides downward, just very gently. And then the eighth step, is imagine the ears are chuckling back, bringing them into the playing of your shoulders. So there's a feeling that the ears are continuing drifting and moving backwards. And this is an important step because it balances and corrects our tendency to hold our head tilt too far down, especially in chin dropping.

[38:31]

And this one I find really one of the most beneficial. It's such a subtle thing. To actually have the sense that Someone's tugging your ears back. So it keeps the head up. It keeps my spine progress. I just tend to see the ring forward in Zaza. So whenever I remember, I remember tugging the back of the ears backwards. That automatically helps my whole body to rise again, to lift upward. So it's a good idea that I have the back of this knee. Sitting behind you, having fingers on your ears, is gently getting on and tugging. Are you upright? Are you upright? Are you upright? Does that sense? And also, bring your attention to the back of your neck, the cervical spine area between the top of your torso and the shoulder level and the base of your skull. as if you're feeling any tension there, any kind of restriction.

[39:35]

Get that area of tension. Attend to it and see what it needs. Feeling it, allowing it to open and lock it and relax. Oftentimes when I offer posture suggestions, one of the first places I start is right there. It's a little bit of a finger massage to help us kind of loosen any tension that's there. Help us to kind of open up and elongate, relax. Now then it kind of goes down the back and helps the back to open up as well. And this continues to form that energy channel in the back, energizing it. So how do you practice these aspects? Now we can refine our alignments. In that Fukunza Zangi Dermen says, to rock your body right and left and settle into a steady, movable sitting position.

[40:40]

However, that's kind of a gross instruction. I think it really can focus more on a subtle way of attuning to having an upright posture, finding this place where our front and back alignment feels the most upright, open and upheated. So you can start with kind of larger movements, go back and forth, crossing the midline, noticing where the center is, where it kind of feels completely empty and open. Where is that empty openness feeling? When you find that your body centers, there's that sense of openness within. You can continue making the movement smaller and smaller until you... You're barely deviating from the midline. And when you find that space, simply rest there. Rest in that open, empty, effortless midline space.

[41:43]

And the other point is the mouth and the jaw. The jaw should be relaxed and teet. that your lips just touch it. And the tongue either rests at the root of your mouth or floats inside the mouth, which enhances a sense of identity, open awareness. You might actually be aware of fluid. Is there any tension residing in your jaw? Is there a way in which you're holding your mouth or your jaw that is potentially tense? What is it to relax the jaw, not to rest? Kind of open it a little bit. See if we can get it to release in some way. Soften it. And then the 12th step is to include the heart. And then generally we've been making so far in posture, we can't read out something that's very central, which is a heart. A heart in all its own feelings needs to be included.

[42:53]

So we're turning our attention to a heart center. For many of us, that's the feeling of the middle of our chest. Allow that area to have a feeling of softening and opening. Relaxing to openness and spaciousness. As we relax into this openness and spaciousness, we're going to notice all kinds of subtle feelings, intuitions, sensations that we haven't perhaps previously noticed, we're allowing them to be included in our awareness. Whatever we may be experiencing there, regardless of how seemingly random, simply explore allowing them to be included, acknowledged, felt. Even if they're difficult and strong feelings that we can't quite name, how much

[43:58]

in our chest is unnameable to us. Not that you have to name it, but can you make space for it? Can you allow it to be as it is? Explore softly in allowing the experience to rise in a warmth and light of awareness, without fixing it in any way, without changing it. If anything feels too intense or threatening, then simply stop back. Return to the sensation of the breath and the heart and the nostrils. Don't force into the heart. Soften into the heart. In our tradition, the form is to place our hands in the cosmic mudra. one hand nesting in the other with the thumbtips simply touching forming an open circle in your belly, the heart.

[45:02]

You might need to occasionally adjust your mudra depending on your physical condition. I sometimes switch my mudra because of arm problems so that I don't find my hands get less tight. Point is the breath. So we're tending to the elements of the posture, but the inner and outer will also be kind of aware of our breath, noticing breathing in and breathing out. But we need to practice with the breath is not to do anything with it. It doesn't matter how fast or how slow or deep or superficial or relaxed it is. Simply note it. developing, rising in the body and leaving it alone.

[46:04]

Leave the breath in its own place, how it wants to be. Perhaps as you sit, you'll notice the breath arriving in your lower belly and moving almost in perception up your central channel. being with the breath, allowing to feel as it is without interfering, or land in with it. Allowing our relationship with the breath to deepen. And the 16th element, to be in what Ray calls the Soma, our ultimate body. To allow your awareness now to inhabit operating your body as a whole, As much as possible, merge awareness into the entire field of your body, both the sense of exterior and interior environments, or space.

[47:06]

Whole body awareness. The body that extends beyond your inner body and flesh. And this rest, continue to rest in this open, spacious, mountain wilderness of being. As it fully arrived and coming to nowhere for the first time, thinking in this landscape of the present moment for the first time. Lastly, don't move. Convict to remain in a posture of pure awareness without moving for the duration of the period of sunset. While resisting the demands of being imposed to fidget or squirm or shift around in your cushion, explore your experience.

[48:20]

Take great interest in the play of the mind Take it however you want to move. Don't get into the impossible. Try just to kind of remain unknowing. This last outline reminds me of something that Suzuki Roshi once said during Spirit of Zazen. Apparently he spoke very little during Zazen, but this one time he said the following, Don't move. Just die over and over. You don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment. Not even an item will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully.

[49:22]

Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. There's no anticipation. Nothing can save you now because you only have this moment. There's nowhere else you can be. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, Be true to yourself and express yourself fully now as you are. Don't move away from who you are in this moment. So I encourage us to keep these 17 elements of somatic meditation practice in mind as we're sitting during this week. You can let your awareness kind of cycle through these occasionally as we check in where your attention is. So I kind of see it as kind of a coming through a circular process of awareness, getting into the body, entering internally, going into the power, the place where the light force enters in, the heart, the breath coming in, the energy going up the back of the spine to that channel, coming up to the crown of the head, the openness of the back of the neck is the chin right.

[50:53]

And coming down to the heart, checking in with the heart. And just allowing that sense of our eyes to also rest, kind of almost in the back of our head, as if our attention is surrendered in some way. And we're looking at the world from the back of our eyes rather than our visual frontal focus. and the heart connecting again with the breath the breath internally and the breath of the whole body the whole Soma and then just be unmoving as best we can this morning I've given a lot of attention to being in the body, to the body as an anchor for our week of meditation, being in Sushin together.

[52:07]

And I want to, Yerisdokin reminds us in Phukang Zawzengi, the Zawzen I speak of is not learning meditation. So it's not a concentration technique. It's not just these techniques altogether. They are supportive. Zaza is simply the dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. Before I wrap up this talk, however, I want to say briefly something about the blinding of that, even though essentially there aren't really two sort of things. So bear with me for another couple of minutes. And to this end, here's a koan that starts off the metaphysical. Right after great master Yokosani had finished a period of meditation, a certain monk asked him, as you were sitting there all still and awesome like a natcha, what was it that you were thinking of?

[53:21]

The master answered, what I was thinking about was based on not deliberately thinking about any particular thing. The monk then asked, how can what anyone is thinking about be based on not deliberately thinking about something? The master replied, it is a matter of what am I thinking about not being the point. It is a matter of what am I thinking about. not being the point. And Dobin follows this comment. Having heard about this state described by Master Yokosan, we need to investigate through our training, and there's again that instruction, to thoroughly study, investigate, examine. What's sitting as still as a mountain? Last sushin, I mentioned another word for zazen that Dobin uses is gotsuza. which means sitting immorably like a low mountain.

[54:27]

So investigate what sitting as still as a mountain means and directly transmit this. For this is how the thorough exploration of sitting as still as a mountain is passed on through the words and ways of Buddhas. Even though it's said that the way in which Buddhas think about things while being all still and awesome, like a mountain, diffuse, Yokosan's way of thinking about is not being based on literally thinking about any particular thing. It includes thinking about as the skin and flesh, bones and marrow, and includes not thinking about as the skin and flesh, bones and marrow. Dougie uses the word zazen in a number of his discourses to describe two different states. The first refers to sitting in meditation, that is physically sitting down in order to practice meditation.

[55:35]

And the second refers to seated meditation, and that is the act of being spiritually centered no matter where one is or what one is doing, either pushing away or denying anything as it arises, no clinging to anything, including some particular form of meditation. To truly do siddha meditation is to be, as Dogen says, siddha Buddha, to become the siddha illuminated mountain that expresses the teachings of thisness. So in other words, the mind of zazen is only allowing whatever is happening to be there, without grabbing onto it, or repressing it, or pushing it away. Just allowing whatever rises in the mind to come and go, which it will. And I appreciate the metaphor of the mind as a sky in which various phenomena appear and disappear. And just as the sky doesn't grab on or reject whatever rises in its vast boundless spaciousness, so too can we allow our minds not to grab onto or push any experience away.

[56:50]

whether in the form of feelings or thoughts, sensations, or such as sounds and smells. So just staying upright as awareness, without thinking about anything in particular. That is not making thoughts or the content of our thinking the object or the focus of our meditation or awareness. We could say, to take an act of disinterest in the content of our thought. By practicing this quality results and residing in awareness and allowing things to be as they are, then we are better able to stay very close to our experience, which enables us to better know what might be needed in each moment, rather than projecting our habitual ideas towards me. Dobin says that Lyokasan's way of thinking about is not being based on deliberate thinking about any particular thing.

[57:53]

It includes thinking about as the skin and flesh, bones and marrow. It includes not thinking about as the skin and flesh, bones and marrow. This skin, flesh, bones and marrow includes the body of our mountain. Giving our full attention awareness to the totality of our embodied experience in such a way that there is no experience of inside nor outside. Just one vast field of illuminated, boundless, empty spaciousness. So I'll close now. Before I do, I want to briefly mention one thing, and that's the practice of yaza, late night sitting, or sitting that is not only on our normal daily routine. Although this is mentioned in the Sashim Admonitions, it seems that not everyone was aware of this opportunity or forgot about it.

[58:59]

And as the admonitions say, the form is after the last period of Zazen at night, to remove your rock or soda or casey if you've had one, and perhaps to get some of the delicious hot drink in the kitchen. Does anyone know about hot drink? Yeah, it's kind of rice mixed with ginger and what else is it? Molasses, right? And so it really helps to give a little extra energy boost for la yaza, late night sitting. Although you can also have, if you decide you don't want to do yaza, there's no ammunition against it, enjoy having to get out there in yaza, but its initial intention is to give you more energy for yaza. And then After your hot drink, you turn to the set dough and sit as long as you'd like, as long as that feels right for you. Yasa is a personal practice, so it's not competition. The idea is like, whoa, who's sitting around here? How long are they staying? Maybe I can sit longer than I am, and then I'll be king of the mountain at the end, right?

[60:05]

And that's not the point of yasa. The point of yasa is just to take this energy that we're cultivating, that we kind of notice after a few days particularly, It begins to rise in us. How to take that energy, turn it back into a practice, turn it back into cultivating an open presence. So it's an opportunity to sit more, but to do so in a way that feels right for you, that feels supportive for you. Focusing and just sitting as long as how you feel inspired to sit. I will say that tonight, because of the full moon ceremony, We're only having performance early. And we'll end early, until we end at 8.30, if not even before that. So it's an opportunity time if you'd like to come check out what it is to sit yasa, to do so without losing any speed. That's something that you're concerned about. And you might notice as the week goes on, you'll have more energy to continue sitting if you'd like to do that.

[61:06]

Okay, so that's it. developed up now and so we can continue our sitting this morning. Today we're not going to do outside kin in because I really would like us on the first day just to settle in as much as possible and to be here, right here. And don't worry, tomorrow and the rest of the week we will continue our practice of outside kin in after the Dharma talk. Thank you everyone for your very kind of time. And every hour, I am trying to show you that I'm going to leave you at the S7, to write a break, and you can make a happy place. We're going to get back with the thug children, but we're going to go back with it, because it was all public, but we're going to go back with this sort of thing. She was going to go back with it, but we're going to go back with this sort of thing. She was going to go back with it, but we're going to go back with it.

[62:01]

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