Good morning. Diligence, clearly knowing, awareness in abiding without sadness and attachment. Those are the four qualities that in satipatthana it says we bring to awareness. We bring awareness to awareness. Sounds appropriate. And then when it describes the four kinds of awareness of sati, again it has awareness as one of the qualities of awareness.

[01:07]

Here, a willingness to be aware, and then in the four kinds of sati, the activity of awareness. I want to talk about the fourth quality, abiding without sadness or clinging. And I think this poem describes it quite lovely. It's a poem by Seamus Heaney, using an old English word called nonce, which means presence. And he calls the poem, Nance Words. Words that conjure up the present, that express the present.

[02:16]

The road taken to bypass cabin took me west, a sign mistake. So I derell in, I turned east. Sun on ice, white frost, on reed and bush, bridge, iron cast, in the advent silence I drove across, then pulled in and parked, and sat breathing mist on the windshield. Reckless cut. I got out, well-happed up, stood in the frozen shore, gazing at the rimmed horizon. My first stop like this in years. and bless myself in the name of the nonce and happenstance, the who knows, the what's next, and the Soviets. The who knows, the what's next, and the Soviets.

[03:31]

when those happenstances happen they feel so straightforward Higgin Roshi said you can't make it happen it's an accident but you can make yourself accident prone sometimes think we can do everything else first we could try too hard we can goof off we can tighten up so much our whole body aches we can relive all our past failures we can frighten ourselves with thoughts of the future we could fantasize

[04:39]

And then despite ourselves, we can fall into the Soviets. So this is, rather than try to express some exquisite state of consciousness as the essence of sati, some exalted goal that we should constantly aim at. More an all-inclusive notion. How could what you're thinking or feeling not be the present moment? It wouldn't exist if it wasn't the present moment.

[05:46]

How could, as the product of all the causes and conditions that made you, how could you possibly think you're going to tidy it all up into some neat, predictable, orderly thing? And yet, if we don't make ourselves accident prone, Those accidents never happen. The so-be-its never occur. This morning someone was serving me cereal and I gave a sign, you know, a little. But for some reason, between seeing the sign and putting out the ladleful.

[06:50]

And they quickly poured the whole ladleful in. And I slightly jolted, and they slightly winced. How lovely. What a wonderful accidental meeting. And in a way, that exchange, everything was immediately forgiven. get to see, well, do you really have to have an amount of cereal down to the closest, you know, milligram?

[08:00]

Is it going to kill you? And where did you get that notion from anywhere? And how fickle a mind, you know? Okay, got it? Whoops, didn't get it. Too bad. On to the next person. No. What a practice we have. Do your worst. Immediately drop it and move on. In the commentaries to one of the coins in the Book of Serenity, it says, she dropped the water pitcher and didn't even look back. Meaning, what a mess.

[09:04]

Drop the water pitcher, it breaks, you make a mess everywhere. What's next? What is that? Is that teaching ourselves not to care? I don't think so. That flicker of a wince gave me permission You know, the way we take care of each other. Okay, if you want just that much, I'll give you just that much. Who am I to say whether you should have two scoops or one and one-tenth?

[10:06]

But if that's what you want, that's what you'll get. instant intimacy. And then in the factors, in the kinds of, the four kinds of sati, the first one says internal and external. What's happening here, what's happening between us, and how we can move so rapidly between the two. How, as we're settled in our practice, little cues say so much.

[11:17]

You know, when we explore the inner, in one way, it's like an archaeological dig, you know, the grand scheme of evolution, but even just the learned habits of your own being. the short or long, however you want to think of it, history of practicing together. I was talking to one of the current set of dawns, and I was saying, there's a rhythm. Of course, it always has variation and individuality,

[12:26]

But there's a kind of apprehension of the exposure of being a new dawn. And the clinging and the sadness of screwing up in front of everybody. Sometimes not realizing half the people you screwed up in front of have been in exactly the same situation. And they're more inclined to remember, oh yeah, that hurts, than to think, how could you? How could you have that lapse of memory? How could you know that the bell is not there, but at the Shashubba?

[13:29]

Hmm. How many of those events have happened in our life? Some of them whimsically light and some of them brutally wounding that we still carry the scar or the sensitivity. And then what is it? abide without clinging or sadness. Is it like Seamus Heaney says, you know,

[14:35]

put it in the context of maybe like San Francisco. So you head off for the Castro and you end up at Twin Peaks and you suddenly think, you know, it's a long time since I've been in Twin Peaks and looked at the view. So you just get out of your car and for a few minutes be a tourist thinking. So be it, the happenstance. And how do we weave that ephemeral quality into our practice of awareness? I suggest to you, if we make it heady, oh, it's this and it's this and it's this.

[15:50]

Maybe we just miss something that's so straightforward about it. Maybe we miss something that's heartfelt. And yet, you know, in the attunement between myself and the server this morning, the shared awareness to catch that interaction, that was a matter of seconds, you know? Certainly less than 10. to make ourselves accident-prone.

[16:59]

And this quality asking us, what is that sensibility? How will you persuade, coach yourself in that regard? How will you, when you find yourself in the moment, allow it to be the moment? How will you, when you have a coincidental interaction, how will you let it be a brand new, one of a kind now? rather than burden it with, oh, that always happens to me.

[18:05]

Oh, that person. How can we remind ourselves and dispose ourselves in a way that the moment can be itself? that it can sparkle in its own quirkiness. How do we not get caught up and lost in our own inner workings and their bottomless intrigue? How do we not get lost in variations of how we interact with each other?

[19:14]

Yesterday I was thinking of young men, and I was realizing of all the ancestors, young men is one of my top three. right up there with Basel. And I was noticing a kind of familial feeling, you know, as if he was actually my grandfather that I just didn't have a chance to meet. the associations we create within our practice. Positive and negative.

[20:31]

Maybe there's someone in the practice period who's your go-to person to dislike. But then you keep practicing some more and you discover maybe the things I don't like about them are the things I don't like about myself. But it's a whole lot safer to attribute to them than I can separate from them and separate from the person. and how those moments of simple being can help us see the complexities of what we are and help us discover how to relate to them. Maybe we do really care just how much hot cereal we get.

[21:45]

But maybe sometimes we care about each other more. Yeah. Sometimes we see a lapse of attention and think a lapse of attention. and we forgive it. We abide without clinging our sadness. And as we discover how to live this way, how to engage this way, the territory of practice becomes a safer and more attractive place to be. It's not so fraught with messages pointing out your inadequacies, inclining you towards flights of fantasy, suppressions.

[23:09]

moments of contraction it makes more inviting moments of investigation hmm okay now that I'm here I'll take a look at the view Now that this has happened, which I expressly didn't want to have happen, I'll see how it is. I'll let it help me unpack my own fixed ideas. I suspect tomorrow server will come in with hot cereal.

[24:13]

And I'll have a fixed idea of how much I should take. But now I'll have a kind of conundrum. Is that really the whole story? A state of curiosity that opens the world, that makes it a more interesting place to live in. know another server is going to mess it up again. And all these workings going on for us in moments, all these interactions. How do we

[25:20]

How do we let something stay fresh? How do we engage that sati, that awareness that goes in, goes out, goes in, goes out, just guided by the dynamics of the moment? throughout the supta. Awareness of the body. Awareness of the body. Like home base, the body.

[26:26]

Letting that be the reference point of directed attention. And letting that tapestry of moments of contact, moments of abiding without sadness or clinging. Letting them sink into the body, letting them become part of what we are. Letting them support being accident-prone. Letting them stimulate beginner's mind. And as we engage the body, letting even the body be

[27:57]

internal and external. The body opening up, receiving. Through its obvious sense doors, but in human interactions, that mysterious, magical way we communicate to each other. In one of the commentaries that Inalio was referencing, he was saying, well, then you would need to be psychic to externalize and know another's feeling. And I thought, hmm. Somehow, when we're tuned into the little cues,

[28:59]

Something comes across. Yeah. And so how to carry this samadhi, this process of continually making contact? pick it up as an expression of diligence. Like letting the body of Zazen teach you the body of awareness, the body of letting something stay fluid or soft. the rigor of posture both has its yin and its yang.

[30:19]

It has the yang of uprightness, but it also has the yin of fluidity, softness, release. And you can watch. you get wrapped up inside something you're thinking about and you become it how that the body calcifies into the shape related to that version of reality whether it's your sadness or your clinging know and at this point of transition hello the marvelous thing about practice period is that sasheen ends and it's hard it doesn't end you know what are we going to do we're going to go to bed and get up and go to Zazen

[31:43]

I was at Shashin with Harada Shoto Roshi. And we ended Shashin 10 o'clock at night. And he said, Shashin's over. Let's do Zazen. And I thought, I don't think he's clear on the concept. But since he was running the Shashin, guess what? We did Zazen. I thought, hmm, that's the funniest ending of Shashin I've ever seen. So we have a little bit of that. And you can watch. Does something, some version of reality, some version of self, it resumed or does now just flow into the next now or some mix does your mind create well here's how it ought to be

[33:15]

Can it be continuous contact samādhi? Here's how it's expressing itself, and now here's how it's expressing itself. Can we start to see the practical workings of not clinging? Can they give us some clues about the path of liberation? No. There's an extraordinary aliveness in letting it unfold. There's an act of trust in feeling that moment that says, oh, thank goodness that's over.

[34:29]

And then watching it being followed by... Oh, I wish this scene would still go on for another seven days. Human consciousness. So varied. So fluid. Can you let the lessons of Shashin, can you let them register? Maybe you register in your body. And can you let that process

[35:38]

remembering embodying and letting register can we let it not be in opposition to flowing into what's next intellectually we can say the essence of practice has no fixed form so it flows into every form mmm But what is it to practice that? What is that spark of awareness that has no fixed form? What is that spark of awareness that's adaptable, forgiving, including, that lets the dharma appear all manners of way.

[36:41]

This is the calling of this time. What will your mind and your heart do with it? How will you relate to it? And I would say, Remember the basics. Awareness of the body in the body, awareness of the breath in the breath, awareness of states of mind, and awareness of mind content. And hopefully what you've learned in these seven days will make that an interesting place to explore. with many moments in which you can stop and bless yourself in the name of the nuns, and the happenstance, and the who knows, and the what's next, and the so be it's.

[38:06]

Nun's words. The road taken to bypass cabin took me west, a sign mistaken. So at Derry Lynn, I turned east. Sun on ice, white frost on reeds and bush, the iron bridge cast in an advent silence. I drove across, then pulled in, part, and sat breathing mist on the windshield. Wreck-o-scat. I got out, well-happed up, stood at the frozen shore, gazing at the rimmed horizon. my first stop like this for years, and bless myself in the name of the nonce, and the happenstance, the who knows, the what's next, and the Soviets. Thank you.

[39:05]

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