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. Some energy into your body, into your breath. Maybe for the first five breaths or so, emphasizing both inhale and exhale a little deeper. Does the body and the breath help bring about some awareness, some presence? Opening up the senses. Receptive awareness.

[01:00]

Just noticing what's coming in through the sense doors. What sounds, what smells, physical sensations. and noticing a state of mind. Not to change it, but rather experience it just as it is. If it has a particular characteristic, experience that characteristic. What does thinking mind feel like?

[02:05]

mind after a busy day feel like is the sound of the dishwasher pleasant or unpleasant not to categorize or judge just receptive and aware And can the abdomen soften? Like in the midst of all this settling, so be it. It doesn't have to change.

[03:13]

It doesn't have to be more or less than what it is. It doesn't have to be calmer or clearer or just so be it. Thank you.

[04:22]

So the homework. Did anyone have any startling, enlightening experiences that they'd like to share with us all? To inspire us about practice and encourage us on the way? Anybody got any comments? Any notable failures or disappoint? Yes. I was waiting for failure. I do have a question in it. What just happened tonight and also about mindfulness? Well, because we have a fault. Yeah. The way I understood it was that we're noticing what we're drawn to what we're repel by, and that if we can kind of remove the judgment piece, and just be there, then we're less willing to grasp or avoid.

[05:37]

So this morning I woke up and I was tired. And I was like, I'm tired. My eyes are tired. I don't want to go to school this morning. And I thought, how do I know it is tired if I'm this tired? Because clearly it's tired. There's nothing positive. I can't say like, oh, I'm just tired. How do I experience tired without seeing it as something popular to make it? Like it seems so inherently, it's tired with time. And what if we said this? What are the constituent parts that get aggregated and labeled as tired? Either way. Your eyes hurt? Yeah.

[06:38]

And what else? My body felt heavy. Yeah. My first response was to think about what I could do to avoid this happening again. Like I need to go to sleep. Well, let's see what the features, the particulars of it. And was there... thoughts or emotions or conclusions that arose in relationship to painful eyes and heavy body? Oh, no, no, way before we get there. It's just there's a set of experiences. There's a response to those experiences. And then together you get a nice little package that then is a clear conclusion.

[07:46]

Tiredness. And then there is responses to the notion of tiredness. and we could say, well, what if those conclusions weren't Adam in? You know, what if the conclusion tired and then the response to feeling tired? Oh, here's my strategy for tiredness for today. Here's my response to that. I am upset about having to get out of bed today. I am anticipating the end of the week. Whatever else. All the accompaniments that come along with it.

[08:48]

And I have a great coin for just that. We'll get to it later. And you'll think, finally... Oh, no, I wouldn't say that. I think coins are more like, I thought I had a problem, but it was much, much bigger than I thought it was. I thought a couple hours more sleep would solve the problem, but oh, well. Was that ever naive? Anyone else? Any other observations from your mindfulness of the week? Only I was looking at the list of the elements.

[10:15]

What's what? You're looking at them where? The elements in this meeting. And I got the effort and I'm working on a project about which I'm inspired. And effort is so easy when it's easy. I mean, I wish I could sort of make sure to have that for the rest of my life. That would be nice, I guess. But at any rate, I'm presently in a place where we're doing this enormous amount of work. It's a substantial amount of work, and it's glorious. It's fun. It's what I wanted to do. Yeah. May it last. May it last. When we want to be doing what we're doing, the energy seems to be very available.

[11:22]

When we'd rather be doing anything other than what we're doing, no. Different story. In a way, that's part of the direct challenge of Zazen. To... to discover how to work with yourself in a way that in a way that you want to be doing Zazen. First of all, you bring your body to the cushion, and then you start paying attention. And then in some ways, reminding yourself, yes, this is what I want to be doing. Rather than, okay, I've got to sit for Well, maybe I could finish a little bit early. Maybe I'll just sit here and think about that project.

[12:25]

How do you get closer to who you are and what you are, want to be doing what you're doing so that energy starts to come to it? It's not an easy proposition. Usually you need to scan around, well, what is going on? Where is the energy going? What's it being distributed to or what's it focusing on? Noticing that and then arousing a genuine commitment to Zazen. It's quite a challenge. Any other observations? I thought you were just scratching your lip there for a moment. I didn't want to put you on the spot.

[13:29]

So just the word thing, I mean, that's brain speech and all of it, and the breathing, trying to stay in the moment. It's been helpful, like reading. I'm also reading Joe Quebec's Everyday Zen, and she's just relentless, right, about that. Joe Quebec once said, there's three things to remember in Zen. Attention, attention, and attention. Thank you, Paul. And the challenge, I'm finding, of course, I'm sure everybody makes that. is the younger people, right? Like, how come they're not mindful? How come they're not what I can't expect them to be? So how do I dance like that? How do I do that? So that's the challenge. But yeah, and AA would just say respect to time intent, right?

[14:37]

English? Restraint of time and time, like just don't say anything. Don't be nice to say anything at all. Which is, I guess, right speech, sort of. Yeah. Well, yeah, you know, you get down the list and you're not able to check them all off, so you just shut up. Yeah. Is it benevolent? No. Okay, well then, be quiet. Any others? Yes. There's a question. I know when, right, me, and sometimes one of the places that's right is when I go down to talks about a worker. There's not so much what I'm doing there. There's a lack of distraction. I don't have my mind that I should do the details of what we should do, say, project.

[15:41]

Yeah. Call me. I just do what's in front of me. It's easy to do what's in front of me. It's quite a magical experience. But in everyday life, it's distractions that seem to get to me. My mind doesn't take place. Yeah. Well, if you remember in the first class, I was suggesting the notion of thinking about your environment and your behaviors in the context of practice. How can your environment be set up and related to in a way that supports practice? How can your behaviors be monitored in a way that supports practice? So another option is just go somewhere where that's the ambience, that's the ethos of the place, and... Be supported.

[16:43]

I mean, I think that's why we have practice centers. And there's also discovering how to bring that wherever we go. As you said that occurred to me, I wouldn't worry about unfinished projects if I had to have unfinished projects. Because they draw my attention. I'm going to belabor the phrase, so be it, tonight. Part of so be it is there's always unfinished projects. If you're not tired getting out of bed in the morning, there'll be something else. Don't worry. There'll be something else about your life that's unfinished or not quite the way it could be. or maybe more than it should be or something.

[17:46]

And sazan is not to fool ourselves that all the projects are finished, that everything's in the order and place it should be, and that we are somehow perfected as a being. It's more raw. It's more this is how it is. And this sounds like bad news. But underneath that, it's very good news. Anyway, that's what I'm going to try to sell tonight. So it occurred to me last night and this morning when I was thinking about your talk yesterday, How do we prevent that from falling into this sort of resignation, bordering on not changing what needs to be changed?

[19:00]

Yes. Yeah. Acquiescing to what may be also. Yes. That's a very good question. And how do we know that we're actually... How do we know the difference between what needs to be changed? Yes. What's the difference between acceptance and resignation? Certainly in the process of practice, acceptance is a way to alleviate our agitation, our distress. That tension that's inhibiting us to accept what's going on. Can some of that tension release? Right there on your cushion. Can the gross and subtle preoccupations, agitations, can they release?

[20:05]

So that so be it becomes this just matter-of-fact observation of what's happening in the moment. In contrast to, so be it, there's nothing I can do about it, I hate it, but so what? I'll be dead soon. If I didn't have this, I'd have something else, so. More like, when you're on the cushion and you find yourself being distracted. Yeah. And part of that is, so be it, but then at some point, shouldn't you direct your attention in such a way that you kind of go, let's maybe avoid the distraction for a minute and really focus in here so that we can settle a little more. So that's where I'm going. There's two notions. One notion is the diligent directed attention.

[21:12]

Okay? Don't go there. Don't energize that. Attend to the details of body and breath. And the experience of the sense doors in the moment and the distraction isn't being energized and it falls away. Then the other notion is accept the moment, don't energize it, and just let it flow. This comes up, let it come up, let it fall away. If it's not energized, if it doesn't get compounded with associated thoughts and feelings and memories and imaginings, it's just an event. It just has a limited lifespan. It's just like, okay, there it is, there it goes. And you know I've been saying, and the breath is very good for this.

[22:15]

This, in a way, sets the stage. If you look at Anapanasati, connect to the breath, connect to the body, settle the body, settle the breath, settle the mind, and then with that settled existence, with that settled consciousness, clear apprehension of what's going on. If you look at Satipatthana, same thing. Mindfulness of this, mindfulness of this, mindfulness of this, the core constituent aspects of mindfulness, and then notice. Tend to notice what you might call the building blocks of the human experience. And in the Satipatthana, it says, okay, well, what's hindering? What's blocking? And then it says, notice the aggregates.

[23:30]

Notice when you're not caught up in your own stories, notice how the moment comes into being. Notice how the notion of self comes into being. Then simplify it. Just notice what's coming in the sense doors. It's like a deconstruction of the way in which we combine and create a self. So you wake up, your eyes are tired, your body is heavy. You're having basic elements of experience. You put them together, you associate a thought, you associate a feeling, you give it a label. You have a response to the label. You have a judgment. You connect that to your day.

[24:32]

You connect that to your life. You connect that to your week. All in your world comes into being. So this close attention that sees it coming into being. And usually our mind is not settled enough. to watch that rapid process. You're more likely to notice you're counting the days. How long is it? The Saturday? What day is today? Two more days? Ah, and I have a heavy day today. Oh, God, maybe I could call in sick. Then you kind of notice, hmm, look what's going on. The aggregates, the sense of self. the compounding, the collecting of those into a worldview. So something about settling so that that's not so swiftly and determinedly energized, so convincingly and compellingly brought into being.

[25:47]

So on one hand, directed attention is cut through it. Pay attention precisely and dedicatedly to the phenomena. And then the other one is, sometimes in Japanese it's called soft mind. Just see it for what it is. Don't grasp it. Don't struggle with it. And then last night in the talking, I was using this phrase, so be it. And it's true. There's always some sense of we'll lean one way or the other. Our practices seldom, until we're deeply settled, it doesn't have that kind of accuracy. Acceptance and resignation are two entirely different things only when the mind is well settled.

[26:54]

And this soft mind, this Soviet, is supported by the notion of sunyata. That these are constructs. This is dependent co-arising. The sensation in my eyes, the associated thought, the feeling in my body, the associated thought with that, time of day, all these factors come together and create this moment's reality. It's a construct. And of course, when the mind is busy, when the mind is busy grasping and reifying, the notion that it's a construct is just like an intellectual notion.

[28:02]

This is the usefulness of Zazen, is that the mind can settle enough and the urgency and the compelling energy of the emotions can settle enough that we can start to see this coming into being before it's fully formed and fully and compellingly grasped. Can you see it before you're utterly convinced that you're tired, you resent your life, and you're definitely not going to work today? In fact, you hate your work because the people that work there, well, they're terrible. In fact, your life is terrible. Why stop there?

[29:08]

Yeah, right. Exactly. Why stop there? So it stays like just an intellectual... Emptiness stays as an intellectual notion until there's some settling. And usually... throughout the day, we can sort of pick apart. You know? Sometimes coming at it intellectually reminds us, oh, look a little bit more carefully at this. Okay, this is dependent co-arising. Different factors are forming this moment's experience. This is impermanent. This is not a permanent state of existence. This is a temporary state of existence. The way it's being judged, the way it's being concluded is a relative thing.

[30:09]

It's not an absolute thing. Tired is only a bad state of being in relation to something else that's considered a good state of being. as we start to see this. And so then the teachings say, settle and clarify consciousness attention so that this can be apprehended not just as a conceptual notion, but as a more immediate experience. So in the Heart Sutra it says, and when this is apprehended, the mind is no hindrance. And when the mind is no hindrance, no fears exist.

[31:21]

The need to resist the unsettling agitation, anxiety, disappointment, or whatever is bubbling around within us. starts to loosen up. One of the images in early Buddhism is you walk into a room, you stand on a dark room, you stand on something and you think, oh my God, I stood on a snake. And then there's fear and all sorts of associated thoughts. Then you turn on the light and you see it's a rope. Fear is gone. All the associated concerns, they just fall away. They've been seen through. So the teaching of emptiness is to see through the solidity, the compelling truth of our assumptions.

[32:29]

Okay? The question is, what does it take? How do you bring that about? And so the five capacities. It's a... So there's a progression, a cultivation, a progression in many of the teachings in early Buddhism, you know, Anupana Sati, work with your breath, have this happen, that creates the capacity for this, and then with that capacity, this kind of investigation into the nature of what is can happen. Same with Satipatthana, the same kind of progression. And then not in contradiction to that,

[33:35]

Zen developed a different style. Maybe a complementary style. I mean, that's the way I think about it. I think of it as complementary. It's like coming at the same thing from a different kind of formulation. You with me so far? Thank you. At least one person is. That'll do. I'll settle for that. I'd like to relate to the same thing with three cons. You can think of a koan, as last week I was saying, you think of a koan as a way to reframe the experience.

[34:43]

When I have these experiences, when I wake up in the morning and my eyes hurt and my body is heavy, I relate to it like this. And then koan comes along and says, well, How about if you thought about it like this? It's very interesting because that very quality of mind to be intrigued by ideas, to be educated in how we see things by concepts and perspectives, And also that human quality, human capacity to direct our awareness and our perception in a particular way.

[35:47]

So in a way you could say co-ens are to take those human capacities and bring them in as an ally to our practice. And of course, something in us has to be up for that. Because there are other statements about reality arising out of our conditioned existence that also have a certain amount of authority. And part of what we're doing in Zazen is those statements come forth and the practice of Zazen is don't feed them. Don't grasp them. Okay, the thought is coming forward and making this assertion about reality. Okay. There it is. What's next? It's just the experience of the moment.

[36:56]

It's just the current example of the process of emptiness, impermanence, Interdependent existence. No abiding. Independent of everything else. Okay. Let's see. Start with a truly scary one. Piece number 43. A monk goes to Tozan. It's heat and cold. Sometimes it's too hot. I've been in monasteries in different places around the world, and I've never actually been in one where it felt like

[38:06]

It had a nice temperature bridge, you know? You know, went from like 70 to 80, you know? Like Tassajara. In the winter, it's wicked cold. And then in the summer, it's wicked hot. I think this is what was on the monk's mind when he asked this question. He said, sometimes it's too hot. Sometimes it's too cold. How can we avoid this? That's what he asked Tozan. And Tozan said, why don't you go somewhere where it's not too hot or not too cold? And Tozan says, where is that place? And Tozan said, when it's cold, let it be so cold, it kills you. And when it's hot, let it be so hot, it kills you. So that's gone.

[39:09]

Let the cold kill you. Let the heat kill you. We have an unpleasant experience. We shrink back. We have a pleasant experience. We grasp towards it. You know? You woke up. Someone approaches you that you're kind of annoyed with, so you turn your eyes away, you turn your body away. You see someone down the hall that you really want to talk to, you move towards them quickly. You wake up, it's not so comfortable, you resist the experience. So this coin is sent What if you didn't? What if you didn't respond in that way? What if you deliberately said to yourself, okay, just open it, open it up to being approached by someone you're uncomfortable talking to.

[40:28]

Just open up to it. What's it like? Open up to waking up in the morning and feeling tired. And in a way, the killing, it's like something in us is constructing the world. And if you get a little bit of a psychological approach to it, this process of constructing the world, putting together the world according to me. It's this intricate involvement of trying to boot together a world, a life that brings satisfaction, happiness, security, those sorts of things, and avoids unhappiness, uncertainty, danger.

[41:31]

And so we're carrying that agenda. Not so much as a conscious idea, but more as how we relate. How we contract, how we expand, how we pull back, how we reach out. As we go through our day. What if you offered yourself the radical notion? Whatever it is, don't hold back. Just give over to it. Let it kill you. Let it untangle the constructs that have become implicit in your personality, in your behavior, in your way of relating. Doesn't sound so hard, does it?

[42:36]

All these coins come with a verse. A helping hand, but it's still a thousand foot cliff. No arbitrary distinction here. And then they have these references to Chinese literature, which are a whole story in themselves. The ancient Emerald Palace shines in the bright moonlight. Clever Canro climbs the steps and finds it empty. So the Emerald Palace is like the desired fruition, the goal the completion of what it is we're practicing to achieve, accomplish.

[43:45]

The moonlight is insight, realization, clarity. So in a way, it's a little bit of a tantalizing play. Seeing, oh, When you see all this happening, then your life will be perfect. It will be like an emerald palace. Things will be so good. Then he goes on and says, well, you know, actually, you know what you're really going to find out? It's empty. You're just making it all up. So that's the first going. When it's cold, let the cold kill you. When it's hot, let the heat kill you. Then the second con is, and you'll see these three cons are complementary, at least they are in my mind.

[44:56]

The second con is case number six. Uman addressed the assembly and said, I'm not asking you about before. But what about from here on? I'm not asking you about what's happened before in your life. Where's it been good life? Did you have a good childhood? Where are you treated well? You know... lots of supportive people around and all that. I'm not asking about that. You know? We've all got something in our history we can point towards and say, you know, that was difficult.

[46:03]

That was painful. That was challenging. That was disappointing. And actually, if you think a little about it too, there were also there were also people that encouraged you. And I would say, actually, the reason you're sitting here tonight is because in your life there was that kindness, there was that example of people of integrity who inspired you and encouraged those qualities within you. That's why you're here. To all of that. But John Mann says, I'm not asking you about that. I'm asking you about going forward. And then he answered the question himself. Every day is a good day. What is it to...

[47:13]

Be willing to meet your life. What is it to say, okay, I'll practice with this. Okay, I'll do it. I won't be just defined by hesitancy, disappointment. wondering what might be, or what could have been. They're fantasizing about how wonderful it would be if it was something different from this. Okay, here's today, and it's today. And it'll have what it'll have. It'll have its pleasantness, its unpleasantness, its successes, its failures.

[48:16]

Whatever it'll have. That's how it'll be. Every day's a day that you can practice with. It's like every period of Zazen you sit, there's something there to be aware of. There's something there to connect to, to experience. There's a way in which every period of Zazen is an opportunity for liberation and realization. Every period of Zazen is an opportunity to not grasp and release the agitation and suffering that's in your being. And from that, freer, more available space to realize directly the nature of what is. And every day is like that. Every day is a good day. Doesn't matter, you know, where you were born. Doesn't matter, you know, how fortunate or unfortunate you think your life history is.

[49:24]

Here you are. With this day. So that. Okay? Famed for emptiness. It flowers rain down on you for shame. Snapping my fingers, I scold you. Don't be confused. Okay. Any comments or questions about that, Cohen? I guess I should ask you about either of those. to ask you about the first one, too. Any comments or questions? Yeah.

[50:30]

You said that every day is just a good day. Every day is a good day. It's a good day. It seems to me that good is a judgment. Why not every day is a day? An ordinary day? Well, no attitude. Every day is a day? Yeah. Yeah. To bring forth that thought. To bring forth the thought, every day is not a good day. Some days are lousy days. Sometimes really bad things happen. You know?

[51:32]

To bring forth that thought too. And then what is it to not be caught by either? What is the disposition of practice that's willing to practice The low conventional good and bad are neutral. No? It seems to me that every day is a day. That seems more suited to what you're talking about acceptance as opposed to a gaining idea. See, there's a question there. Was he pointing towards a gaining idea? No, I'm saying, I brought it up as a question. Is he pointing towards, see, part of Cohen's is, okay, they're engaging our faculties.

[52:44]

But they're also asking us to sort of step beyond conventional thinking. Let the heat kill you, let the cold kill you. Well, that's not a nice thing. That's not what I want. I want a place where it's not hot or cold. You know? And you're giving me the very answer that I most dread. That the heat or the cold are going to kill me. In my moments of dread, that's exactly how I feel. This is awful. It's going to kill me. But to engage it with the mind and see how it sets up a certain convention or definition that can limit the response. So it's kind of like bending the language or using the language in a kind of blatant way so that we're not caught by it.

[53:58]

It's like saying every day is a good day. And part of you goes, no, it's not. And that's not even a good proposition in terms of practice. Yeah. But setting aside that, what's the subtle teaching? You know what I'm saying? Not really? Not using the word good in a conventional sense. Exploring more, what is the willingness to practice? More like that. And to say, if you practice, everything will be lovely. So there's a kind of formulation, but really the formulation is pointing at something beyond.

[55:10]

It's pointing at a willingness to practice. Okay? Okay, number three. Okay. Are you finding this baffling? Or dare you even say if you were? Very good. Yeah, well. Maybe that's all three, huh? Akiso Osho asked, how do you proceed on further from the top of a hundred foot pole?

[56:30]

How do you proceed from the top of a hundred foot pole? So here you are, you've been living this human life. You've been bringing your efforts, your energies to it. You have been doing your practice, bringing your efforts, your energies to that. And they've created what they've created. How do you How do you step beyond that? How do you step beyond your own creation? So you can develop the five factors. You could take each one and study it in detail and say, okay, trust, what do I need to do that?

[57:43]

I'll work on that diligently. Oh, energy, what do I need to get to get that going? more constructs. No? More notions of creating a jade palace. What is it to step beyond? When you come into the dining room in the evening with your dinner, what is it to not go sit at the table you usually sit at? What is it to not look for the persons you usually sit with? When you come home at night or go to your room at night, what is it to not engage in that space in your habitual way?

[58:49]

and your eyes are tired, what is it to not be the person you usually are? When you're sitting zazen, what is it to not do zazen the way you have come to do it? What is it to be undone by zazen? The way you would be undone if you stepped of a 100-foot pole. Okay. In case that wasn't scary enough, I'll read the rest. What number is that? 46. Well, it's 46 in the Muman Khan. The other two are from the Hekiga and Roku, the gateless gate. Yes.

[60:01]

Yeah. That's right. Remember, I was saying earlier, you know, you think you have a problem, and then Zen comes along and says, wow. You think it's that simple? Just that little problem? It's way bigger than that. Another eminent teacher of, this is the rest of the coin, another eminent teacher of old said, you, who sit on top of the 100-foot pole, although you've entered the way, you're not yet genuine. Proceed on from the top of the pole. And you'll show your whole body in 10 directions. way existence is being related to will shift radically.

[61:12]

It can be a subtle instruction about how you meditate, how you do Zazen. very helpful you know to watch in Zazen when I'm doing Zazen you know and I'm doing Zazen the way I do Zazen this is what Zazen is because that state that attitude that approach usually your effort starts to become kind of mechanical and then you start to bore yourself you know and then you're bored You need some distraction. You need something more interesting. So why not think about work, fantasize, go back to the things you really need to be worrying about. This tapping into realizing that each moment is incredibly alive.

[62:32]

Each moment is is utterly unique. It's not a replay of something else. It's utterly unique. In this moment, you are living yourself as authentically and dynamically as the organism that you are brings forth. And what is it to not let that settle into some habituated, somewhat distracted, somewhat agitated, somewhat unattentive, inattentive way? Now what is it to realize that the quest of Zazen is to go beyond it?

[63:37]

proceed from that habituation so here's here's the maybe the pitfall of these kinds of statements is then you can get all caught up in your head you know all caught up in your ideas Oh, yeah. Like this, like that. Oh, this, like that. The challenge is, can you take it and bring it into the very momentary activity of your life? It's not just some abstract mental exercise. that it acts as a mnemonic. It acts as a reminder to be awake and engaged at a particular moment in your life.

[64:44]

And 20 questions about the third one, stepping off a 100-foot pole. Is it actually about stepping off, or is it just about advancing? Well, proceeding, moving forward, stepping off. When you say advancing, what do you... You could go back down. You could go back down. No, please don't. It's more about a sense of... Okay, what is it to proceed from here? What is it to move forward? Not, you know, the way I was trying to describe it, not so much as, you know, in the illustrations I was giving, going beyond your habitual being.

[66:06]

going beyond your accomplishments or your failures, going beyond what's constructed. Whether you want to say advance, proceed, step off, go beyond, not so much to get hung up on the verb, because it's only language. In a way, language is powerful, of course, but it's still only language. In a way, it's almost like trying to evoke a sensibility beyond language. all of these koans. It's an important thing to remember, to not get too hung up on the language. More like, can you get a feel for the sensibility? Yeah. You want to say something, Jim? No? Yeah. I'm thinking that the three koans all have something in common that they're challenging when it's being spoken to, to see all of the possibilities to go beyond, you know, where they've been before.

[67:19]

You know, the first guy is sort of like looking for his comfort zone. So, you know, whether it's really the temperature or at least talking about his practice, he wants to be in his comfort zone. And the... response of go where the cold will kill you, go where the heat will kill you. Don't just stay in your comfort zone. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's like, what would be the reverse of staying in your comfort zone? We'll do that. Yeah. And the second one starts off with, like, forget about the past. And if you do that, then every day is a good day. Well, it's true that, you know, when we're, you know, the past kind of conditions us to be limited in a certain way. You know, like, I've got my, well, I've gotta, you know, go to my job today, and then I'm gonna go to the Zen Center, and I'm gonna eat dinner, and go to the, but the day, every day has infinite possibilities. If you see it that way, then every day is a good day, because terrible things could happen, or wonderful things could happen, but the day itself has infinite possibilities.

[68:26]

It's like it's challenging, and what will you do with this day? What will we do with the future? And that's unwritten. And the third one also is like a challenge. You also sort of like saying, well, I'm at the top of the pole. You don't have to go anywhere when you're at the top of the pole. Oh, I'm already in like whatever. And it's saying, where do you go now? What do you do next? What's next? They're all saying like a challenge. What's next? What are you going to do with, it's like that Mary Oliver poem, what are you going to do with this one loud and freshness? Yeah. Yeah. That kind of, yeah. Almost like invocation. Can't you see? This is how it is. Yeah. Each one of them, you get that flavor that each one of them is

[69:28]

is like a challenge. So not to make it abstract, not to get hung up on the words. It's more, can it become a sensibility? Can you get a feeling for it? And then, interestingly, can you get a feeling for it in a way that touches something inside of you? No? That in the midst of usual consciousness, that instead of just going with the stream of usual habit formations and the behaviors and responses that creates, that something different is evoked.

[70:57]

So this is what I thought. could work with this week. And then I thought, okay, what would help this be? So I hope this is making sense. We notice. Then we notice what's going on, and then we say, hmm, what would it be to help relate to my circumstances, and my habits in a way that would support awareness. Okay, and then as I engage awareness, what's the particularities of engaging awareness? Okay, and then as you engage awareness, how does momentary experience and habit energies start to become apparent? Can you start to see

[71:57]

that it rises and falls? Can you start to see it has no substantial existence other than what's imputed upon it? And then given that, how can mind and what's touched by our thoughts, how can that be an agent in helping to create a more open, enlivening, a way of relating to it. Not as a punishment. Not as a kind of... way to become a superhuman. But just... to discover aliveness.

[73:02]

What would I call it? So here was my thought. We'll email you those three cons, and you make up for yourself, for each one, a single phrase. thinking, well, you know, it works for me to phrase it like this. No? When I say it this way, something in me is touched. No? And then you write them down on something. And then... And then quite deliberately, each morning, after you've noticed your tired eyes, your aching body, pick one of them, whichever one seems, I don't know, most appropriate or most inappropriate.

[74:21]

There's an old Sufi story where the teacher says to the student, he says, read these 50 stories. And he says... Now, did you notice which ones you really liked and which ones you didn't like? He says, okay, well, ignore the ones you liked. And study the ones, you know, look at all three and think, which one is least appealing that day? Okay, well, practice for that. I'm kidding. You can do it either way. Exactly. Take one of them and read it out loud slowly three times. In some ways, we're embarrassingly impressionable. You know, we think, I'm so, so sophisticated, you know.

[75:28]

Actually, just reading something out loud slowly... It registers, you know. Just read that light, not slowly, three times. Take a few breaths. Let it get into your body. Let it, you know. And then throughout your day, bring it up. Something comes up that is notable. Frame it with that. Go on. Every day is a good day. Well, every day is a good day. I know. What I'm saying is, well, thank you. That doesn't mean that you're obliged.

[76:31]

to come up with something different. Just that, like Marsha was saying, well, every day's a good day. Well, you know, what about every day's another day? You know? But just to make sure that that isn't a kind of, you know, the trajectory here is about engagement. So every day is another day. It could be, oh, God, I've got to get through this one, too. You know? Whatever captures the flavor of the coin for you. So that's what I was getting at, Roger. And you might think, well, just the way it is does it for me. You know? Or, let's say, let the heat kill you, let the cold kill you. You might think, you know what works for me is to say, just do it.

[77:37]

Or just be it. That would work for me for that one. I'm saying, you know, do it. If you feel like, yeah, that really works for me, go for it. That's what I mean. And if you feel like just the way it is, it's fine. Stepping or proceeding from a hundred foot pole. Yes? So do you suggest, I mean, I'm just being like nitpicking here, that we read this out loud before we actually sit in meditation and kind of like bring it into the meditation? I wasn't being that precise. Maybe not. I wasn't trying to say... Well, I wasn't saying, you know, like, make this part of your meditation. I was thinking more of carrying your practice into your life and just offering you this experience of something engaged.

[78:53]

You know? This way that... this heritage of the mind and what the mind brings forth as an ally of reframing experience. And then in the heritage of Zen, you would bring it into your meditation. But you would bring it into your meditation below, beyond words, beyond ideas. You don't sit there and create a whole bunch of ideas around it. Is that suitably intimidating? Yeah? Any comments or questions? Yes? How does this creation of the, how does that not mimic some way of creating a world according to meaning?

[80:01]

Yeah, that's a very good question. That's what you have to watch for. Yeah. Yeah. That's what you have to watch for. It's like if you change the language. He said, how do you not rephrase it in a way that's just echoing or mirroring the world according to me? Well, I would hope, I was trusting that in your reading of it, you would get it. You know, you'd get the proposition intellectually. I mean, they're not that complicated, right? Every day's a good day. I mean, it's not that complicated a notion. The subtle workings of it and bringing it into your everyday activity, you know, that's where the juice is. So I was thinking, well, these are not... They're not that complicated a proposition. So I was hoping we'd...

[81:04]

keep ourselves out of trouble that way. Listen, we're all utterly capable of creating trouble. You haven't cornered the market. Anyone else? Okay. I do want to say we have two more classes, and the last week I would like to change the class from Thursday to Tuesday because on Thursday, I have to be in Boston, so it will be hard to do it. So for the last week, we'll do it on Tuesday. It will be the 15th of November instead of the Thursday, the 17th. Okay, thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[82:06]

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.

[82:19]

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