This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations by people like you. So for the last month here at City Center, we have been studying a fascicle, an essay by Dogen Zengi. the finder of this style of practice called continuous practice. And I intend to attempt to talk about it some more today. Well, undoubtedly I'll talk about it, but how much I'll reveal about its essence is another question. And I'd like to talk about it using these two poems, just for the heck of it.

[01:05]

You know, when we talk about study and Zen, it's a little bit as if we hold something with awareness and we look at it and we turn it and we look at it and we turn it and we look at it and all these different perspectives help us to know more about it but the request is that at some point we realize something which is different from knowing and realization is more to do with becoming intimate with that, becoming non-separated from it, experiencing it from a place of connection. And then something is realized.

[02:11]

So in Zen practice, when we study our life, you know, we start off by looking at it in as many different ways as we can to help us not get stuck in one perspective. Life is too amazing and wonderful and varied to fit in one perspective. There's endless ways, there's endless perspectives. And we're never going to know them all. And even if we know a whole bunch of them, we still can miss the essence. The knowing can become a substitute for the realizing. So part of the challenge in study is, yes, it's very valuable and helpful to see many perspectives.

[03:16]

It trains the mind. It enables the process of awakening. But if we cling to the knowing, we're going to miss the opportunity to experience directly. Actually, that's one of the reasons I like to read poems and use them as teaching tools. Because poetry not only talks of something more than what it says, It offers it up for appreciation. And I would say that in this process of looking and knowing, something about appreciation ripens this engagement that leads to the intimacy that gives birth.

[04:25]

realization. Of course, we want to figure out our lives. Of course, we want to suffer less and be happy more. And of course, we're going to think a lot about that. And we're going to feel a lot about that. And it's important to realize that practice is not saying, don't do that. Practices saying let that be used as a tool Let that be part of the process of making connection So to my mind poetry offers up and its way of that form of engaging Combining thoughts and feelings and images And offering them up for appreciation.

[05:27]

So, I'm going to read two poems. The first one is by Rumi. It's called The Gastise. This being human is a gastise. Every morning, a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He might be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing. Invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide to From beyond. Okay.

[06:35]

So, here's the other one. So, this one's called, that one was called the guest house. This one's called when the shoe fits. When the shoe fits, the fruit is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, for and against are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions, no aversions. Then your affairs are under control. You're a free person. Easy is right. Begin right and you're easy. Continue easy and you're right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way and forget that the going is easy.

[07:52]

Are they offering up the same admonition or a different admonition? Are they in opposition or are they complementary? What perspectives on practice do they offer? What perspectives on how to relate to the human condition do they offer? it to think of your being as a guesthouse receiving the guest what ripens being the host being available to receive the guest what is it to receive the guest no matter whether it's sweet or sorrow

[09:00]

delightful or terrifying? Is it possible to stand at the door laughing when all that seems to enter is affliction? These questions are the kind of trouble that Zen practice gets us into. And any one of them, we could spend a lifetime tackling. They're invitations for engagement. In the process of Zen practice, it's not to go off in a corner and think.

[10:07]

It's more to become curious, to become interested in who we already are. What does go on in my life? what would it be to be more receptive to it? So today, about 60 of us are going to spend the day in doing zazen, the practice of awareness. The practice of awareness, the practice of zazen, as we practice at Shikantaza, is a very simple, very difficult practice. It's simply that whatever arises, rather than struggle with it within the context of your karmic habituated way of struggling is to shift to just seeing it as it is rather than being trapped and lost in the content to see it and let it be just held

[11:33]

with awareness. It's a very simple process and a very difficult one. And it's difficult for a variety of reasons. One reason is that we have habituated our responses. We've rehearsed them for a lifetime. And somewhere in that repetition, We've come to believe our very life depends upon them. We've come to believe this is the most likely way we will experience more happiness, more love, more contentment, more security. This is the very way we will avoid suffering, loss, danger. Uncertainty. And the process of Zazen is that each time we simply notice the grasping and we let it go and return to basic awareness.

[12:58]

This is what it is to become the host who receives the guest. This is what it is to learn to trust what is and not place our trust in what we're trying to create. Today, 60 of us will spend the day studying this, practicing this, getting lost in thinking, releasing thinking, getting lost in feelings, returning to just noticing and experiencing. This is what it is to practice continuously.

[14:08]

once every five or ten minutes. Then there's a whole stream of thought moments that are reinforcing the world according to me. And then there's one that releases it. So quite literally, the challenge of awareness is to increase the moments where the grasping is released, consequentially decrease the moments where we grasp and say, grasping is a necessary part of survival. It's not. But as we continue on the practice of releasing... Sometimes we open up to ease, and sometimes we don't.

[15:19]

Sometimes we thoroughly release, and sometimes it just creates the psychological discomfort of not enabling our habitual way of responding. Our habitual way has its own comfort, its own familiarity. challenge of Zazen, the challenge of awareness at this very turning point, this turning from grasping to releasing, the challenge is to discover the capacity to do that. And the amazing thing is the very fact that we're here now discussing this or talking about it, I'm talking, you're listening,

[16:23]

The very fact that we're here now is that this matters to us. That something in us intrinsically knows this. We've been experiencing, right along with grasping for a whole lifetime, we've been experiencing moments of intimacy, of connection, of release. Part of the wonderful challenge and mysterious challenge of working with our own being is letting that intrinsic knowing have its say. To me, it's something like when we hear Rumi's words. pride of sorrows that violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

[17:30]

Still, treat each guest honorably. It may be clearing you out for some new delight. I would say something in his nose that this is the way of the workings of our human life. we have experienced it. We know it from the inside. We know it from the place of realization, not just knowing as an idea. So the challenge is for us to learn to trust what we have realized and to be able to distinguish between that And what we've learned to know.

[18:34]

And sometimes what makes this tricky is we can know a lot in very wonderful spiritual teachings. Like when you think of Chang Su's teaching. Easy is right, begin right, and you are easy. Continue easy, and you are right. The right way is to go easy, is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy. What a well-crafted teaching on just meeting each moment as it is. is to not hold on to the idea, but realize the practice.

[19:37]

The challenge for us is to discover how knowing can facilitate realization. is the invisible work, the invisible activity of Zazam. That each moment we let go of thought and return to experiencing. We're initiating the intimacy of realization and we're releasing the struggling of knowing. I know I have to dislike this or I have to yearn for this or I have to be frightened by this or I have to be resentful about this. I know I need to do that to have my life be a better life.

[20:53]

That moment releasing, of experiencing directly what's happening and letting that experience realize something. That's what it is to wake up. In the festival that we're studying, there's a marvelous place where Dogen Zenji says, And you know, that might not be so extraordinary, this waking up. He says, sometimes you don't see it because it's not that remarkable. You know? When the shoe fits, the fruit is forgotten. It's when the shoe doesn't fit, that we notice.

[22:05]

When you have a toothache, you notice you have teeth. When you don't have a toothache, who even knows they have teeth? So part of our practice is to cultivate an appreciation. for having teeth when we don't even have a toothache. Part of our practice is to feel our body even when it's not complaining. And part of our practice to appreciate our life even when it's not complaining and also in a way to appreciate our life even when it is complaining

[23:29]

can appreciate the toothache because it shows us our path. Because it asks of us, please, relate to your teeth. Brush them more often. Take care of this cavity. This is what it is to cultivate To cultivate the willingness, the appreciation, the commitment, the trust on being available for the life we already have. This is an intrinsic element of awareness. This is an intrinsic element of awareness. of shikantaza, just sitting and being what is.

[24:38]

Every time you meditate is to rediscover, is to see this period of meditation's version, this period of meditation's chapter on this great book of how to wake up. is not to hold these attributes of appreciation and trust as abstract ideas, but to discover how to let them be the bridge between thinking about it and experiencing it directly. Discovering how it initiates realization. Another attribute, now that I've clarified that. And don't worry if this doesn't make a darn bit of sense to you.

[25:45]

That might be good. It's even harder to cling to that way. So if you're just thinking, what the hell is he talking about? Maybe that's very helpful. Maybe you should sigh with relief and think, oh, thank goodness, that didn't sound interesting. Ripening the host. And then the other one is the guest. The guest appears in endless forms. continuous practice is, what is it to practice with this? When it rains, what is it to practice with this?

[26:50]

When it's a drought, what is it to practice with this? When you're feeling powerful and confident and capable, what is it to practice with this? When you're feeling confused, distraught, and depleted of resource, what is it to practice with that? guest is worthy of your hospitality whether you stand at the door laughing or weeping why because the guests already here you actually what he didn't happen to mention was you don't actually have an option about whether the guest comes or not Your experience arises. And I'm not so sure you can ask the guest to leave.

[27:54]

Somehow it seems to me that when you ask the guest to leave, they're much more inclined to stay. This willingness to meet and be the life we already are. The equanimity, the resilience, the courage. Of course life has its joys and its disappointments. Its successes and its failures. its intimacy and its loneliness and of course we would like the pleasant and of course we would like to avoid the unpleasant the challenge for us is to not tighten around those deep human tendencies to not let them make us anxious

[29:16]

Okay, that's how it is. This is another essential element of shikantaza. We sit down and with our body, with our breath, with our disposition, we say, okay, this is how it is. This is who I am. This is what's happening on the planet, the city, my family, my stomach. It is what it is. And each arising, each guest is an amazing story, an amazing teaching. A beautiful poem, painting, piece of music, work of art, dance.

[30:26]

Each guest has its own beauty, whether we realize it or not. sleep the guest goes unnoticed when host and guest meet like a shoe they fit Something very organic and simple called harmonious living happens.

[31:34]

And it's not because I made it happen or because somebody else made it happen. It's just the nature of existence. of awareness. Moment after moment, guest after guest. What is it to practice with this? Very different question from is this what I expect? Is this what I want? Am I going to Get what I want from this. Avoid what I fear. Very different question.

[32:40]

What is it to practice with this? And as we engage this intimacy, it goes beyond words. But even with words, it's helpful. When you notice yourself struggling, with some state of mind or some circumstance in your life? Can you shift the nature of the involvement, the disposition of the involvement? Maybe it's a little too much to expect it to be easy or even easeful. Maybe it's more, as Remy would put it. Just let it all in. A joy, a depression, a meanness, a momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

[33:43]

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, a dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door. Genzenji, in his talking about this, he says, when we engage in this way, something opens. Our life, rather than being a series of disappointments and obstacles, opens. It becomes a path. It becomes a way to move into greater being. Out of the cage are habituated thoughts and feelings. Each situation becomes itself. Each situation becomes a new way to live, a new way to discover, a new way to engage.

[34:54]

It crafts and creates within us a versatility, an ingenuity. Life's boring when we insist it stay within some box where we say, yeah, I've seen it all before. I know what it's all about. I know it's going to happen. Some willingness to just let it unfold. To let it be met. just as it is look at this to marvel at a flush of resentment or utter selfishness what a fragile thing a moment of utter selfishness that

[36:10]

vulnerable fear if I don't make it all about me things will go terribly wrong you want to live inside that very small box like the answer is yes that's it please close the door on your way I there's a way in which to practice thoroughly you have to be utterly shameless

[37:12]

You have to see those moments of utter selfishness and meanness and pettiness and just think, okay, that's what's happening now. What is it to practice with it? And of course, only when we've given ourselves the kindness to cultivate the host. Can't we be utterly shameless? If we're still working with the notion that self-criticism is going to bear fruit, that resilience, that trust, that deep self-respect that can allow for moments of utter selfishness won't be there. discover that the intrinsic nature of our life, of all life, is giving and receiving.

[38:24]

Now, the utter selfishness just can't possibly believe that life can be about giving and receiving. I have to be utterly selfish. how else will I get anything and will I hold anything and have anything but when we open up when we allow ourselves to receive when we allow ourselves to give when you smile at people you're much more likely to have people smile at you. This is the easy way.

[39:34]

From the karmic location, this is an extraordinarily difficult way. As we engage it and let it unfold. It's just like wearing a shoe that fits. Nothing special about that. There's nothing special about not having a toothache. It's just ordinary. The non-toothic.

[40:38]

The shoe that fits. The Saturday morning sun shining in the window. The waves of sound of the passing. sensation of breath as it enters and leaves the body. Nothing special. again.

[41:45]

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival, a joy, depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if there are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still Treat each guest honorably. She may be clearing you out for some new delight. That dark thought, that shame, that malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.

[42:52]

When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, for and against are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions. Then your affairs are under control. You're a free person. Easy is right, begin right, and you're easy. Continue easy, and you're right. The right way is to go easy. The right way to go easy is to forget that the right way and to forget that the going are easy. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support.

[43:55]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[44:03]

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