This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Now that we've mastered awareness, investigation, energy, joy, ease, we can move on to concentration. It occurred to me yesterday,

[01:05]

after the talk that maybe this signs rather prescriptive you know here's what you should do or here's the experience you should have and certainly my intention is to be more descriptive maybe in the service of how do we reframe the experience we're already having The habit of our mind is to see it and relate to it the way it habitually sees it and relates to it. So then its inclination is to simply repeat the experiences it's had. Or to have that subjective impression of what's happening. How do we reframe the experience we're having and how do we relate to it in an awakening and liberating way?

[02:18]

And of course, there's an edge in there. There's some way in which we are inclined to create a prescription for ourselves. be doing this or I should be having this experience hopefully dissipated with the admonition the good at Zen admonition I don't know But as we approach the topic, the area, the activity of concentration, shamadi, this in many ways comes into relief, the notion of attending to what's happening and the deportment, the framing,

[03:43]

the deliberate engagement that allows that to become evident, that allows that to become accessible, that draws it into awareness. You know, Endogan, Zenji's, various places where he mentions the disposition of Zazen the engagement of Zazen the territory of Samadhi sit upright and correct bodily posture when even for a moment One engages with uprightness.

[04:48]

The whole world expresses awakening. I would put it something like this. We start with the basics. each time we sit, each time we return to awareness. Because the mind with its habit energy can so readily shift to a well-used frame of reference. It's so close for us. It's so enticing. This returning to the fundamental proposition of practice.

[05:52]

Be present. And in addition to that, I would say that with humility we start with the basics. We start with uprightness, that uprightness of body. And as you practice body, you discover the endless subtleties and teachings of body. We practice being breath. And again, we discover all the wonderful nuances of the breath how attending to it helps bring concentration attention how letting it flow helps bring a disposition

[07:05]

engaging without grasping of how allowing and releasing helps make evident the impermanence of everything the impermanence of a thought the impermanence of a mind state the impermanence of an emotion the impermanence of a sensation in the body and similarly as we attend to the basics of mind disposition and content that the nature of how we attend to them non grasping Openness, awareness, not knowing.

[08:09]

Dogen Zenji calls all this together the Buddha Mudra, the disposition, the deportment, the structure of Buddha. Buddha in the abstract notion of awakeness, the structure of awakeness. to this we attend to this and in this returning and attending we could say the emphasis is on a kind of one-pointedness a kind of concentration in contrast to what we might call objectless awareness where we sit

[09:09]

Not knowing what's supposed to happen or what's supposed to not happen. Available. Open. To whatever each moment brings. We chant the Kansayan. And the rigor of it. The vigor of it. He demands and takes our attention. And we stop. And there's more space in the Zengo. And there's more space in the mind. Even the body and the breath have more space. So the territory, the activity of attending to the singularity.

[10:23]

Of staying with a particular object. Something valuable in a yogic sense. in a dharmic sense too, is learned. Sometimes it's called, this kind of one-pointedness is called calming and stopping. Calming the restlessness, the busyness of mind, and stopping the incessant narrative that's constantly defining reality. often inside a construct of consciousness. And then even when there's connectedness, still there's a lot of background narrative or there's a lot of imputed, imposed adjectives on what's happening.

[11:45]

So this rigorous discipline of just this, of attending to the object, it helps loosen up, it helps dissipate. And of course, it can feel that it's in opposition. It's like concentration is saying, okay, this is what's going to happen. And the mind and emotions are saying, no, it's not. This is what's going to happen. I'm going to think about this. It's important. Or I'm going to think about this even though it's not important. And sometimes within that, it helps us see the weight, the size, the urgency of our constructed world, the world according to me.

[12:56]

And as that world is cracked open, There is an attentiveness to connect to what comes forth. And usually when we first taste this, when we first experience this, as I was saying before there's an associated joy there is a a mental celebration sense of sparkle in the mind a brightness

[14:16]

There's a sense of ease in the body. The object itself, instead of being elusive, like trying to catch a chicken in a farmyard that can run that just a little bit faster than you. It's more like it starts coming towards you. the object quite literally starts to become kind of sticky. It's more available. And then maybe in contrast, because

[15:19]

It occurs to me that often in our practice, our diligence, our sincerity, our perseverance bring forth an effort that has a flavor of being prescriptive. happen like this and I would actually say we shouldn't try too hard to outsmart ourselves sometimes our sincerity our diligence the Dharma in a way we wouldn't have figured out like in the process of concentration almost inevitably we learn patience we learn persistence and we learn patience and persistence as a similar activity

[16:53]

We learn forgiveness. The mind incessantly wanders. The mind thinks of an amazing array of things. From deeply held secret truths to utterly irrelevant thoughts that appear out of nowhere. I remember hearing Jack Kornfield give a talk once, and he was saying he was in Burma doing a particularly intensive solitary retreat. And one or two months into the retreat, he was sitting quite concentrated. And then all of a sudden, a little jingle about a soap ad that he'd heard when he was a child floated through his mind. Where did these things come from?

[17:59]

Why in that moment in Burma did a jingle from the soap pad decide, now is the moment. What's the most important thing? A jingle about Tide detergent. And then this just sitting, not knowing what's supposed to happen, what knowing what's not supposed to happen. This, in contrast to this directed attention of concentration, this receptive attention. gain the breath can be an ally.

[19:02]

Allow release. And as just as one of the especially in the formative stage the directed attention can have of drawing in the receptive attention has more of a feeling a disposition of opening up and we in our practice we discover that When we struggle, this drawing in feels like compression, feels like restriction.

[20:08]

We're inclined to tighten the body, tighten the mind. In this expansive, we're inclined to wander off. just go over here for a while and then I'll go over there and back up here. And we can say, well, not knowing what's supposed to happen, not knowing what's not supposed to happen, and where's the problem? Well, the problem is we were in a dream. And we weren't aware of the dream. And so we've defeated the very notion of waking up. But the virtue of receptive concentration is in its non-attachment.

[21:30]

shadow of directed attention is it it can stay within the prescription this is what should happen to practice the virtual receptive attention is that the world reveals itself. What arises teaches how to practice. And then when we put these two together, the directed attention gives like a home base gives like a grounding in the here and now that receptive attention can orientate around second doing walking meditation outside no open to everything

[23:04]

and letting it come here. In the first case of the Mumman Khan, the gateless gate, the little verse underneath says, do you go to the sand or does the sand come here? This is the instruction of walking meditation let everything come here and then Dogen Zenji puts them together and Gigi was on my self employing employing in the process of waking up employing the self in the process of waking up and in that process discovering the intrinsic joy, self-employing and enjoying Samadhi.

[24:13]

Sitting upright in correct bodily posture in the Buddha Mudra, Dharma world is realized and I would say that it's our humble and diligent efforts in the realm of making contact sustaining contact paying attention directed attention It's in this world we learn the yoga of upright posture in the deportment of Buddha Mudra. And we carry it forth into the world of receptive attention.

[25:25]

and all the other awakening factors. In as much as we may think of them as sequential, it's interesting that concentration comes as number six. That the other factors they form a basis. That in this deportment, in this disposition, a sense of ease is helpful. If we're just carrying forth the karmic dispositions of our life,

[26:35]

whether they're controlling, aggressive, anxious, distressed. The energy of responding to the request of here and now is dissipated. So with concentration as a base and receptive attention coming forth to invite, to engage without knowing what should or should not arise. knowing what how it should or should not be related to each thing teaches us how to practice each thing presents itself and teaches us about engagement when you're doing hatha yoga

[28:08]

I would say whatever body practice you do and listening to your body and let your body teach you how to engage that activity how do we hurt ourselves usually we don't listen to our body sometimes unfortunately this signal is not very strong We don't listen to our body and our mind dictates what should happen. And with this disposition, then the object that arises in receptive attention starts to become sticky. We can indeed, with willingness, with diligence, just say yes.

[29:20]

We can keep turning towards the arising object. But something more is asked. And the something more is everything you've got. What is asked? Everything you've got. So Rumi starts by saying it's love. It's like being aware is not an act of supreme discipline or control. It's an act Willingness to give over to what is. And it's interesting because Dugan Zenji's key phrase in Jiji Uzamai is unconstructedness in stillness.

[30:37]

In the stillness of now, everything comes forth as itself, rather than what it should be, what it shouldn't be, or what it reminds you of, or what your feelings about it or understandings or conclusions or judgments about it are. Without the constructs, this intimacy, So Rumi, in a Rumi-like way, just calls it love. Inside this new love. And this remarkable feature that this very activity that when the mind is agitated and restless is so elusive that

[31:45]

is so opaque, so unavailable, that it feels like hostile territory. Oh, I got to go and do Zazen again. I have to enter back into the torture chamber. When will it ever cease? What day is this? Are we done yet? He said, almost time for lunch. Couldn't I just fantasize for this period? Imagine the perfect vacation. Wow. I think when something clicks, This hostile activity that's an affront to ease has an allure.

[33:00]

The sound of the melting water splashing off the roof has a charm. As Anna Swerve says, grateful. Thank you, my life. Thank you, splashing water. Thank you, wooden floor. starts to shift and almost to our own surprise we actually enjoys as in almost to our own surprise it feels

[34:25]

Starts to feel more like where we belong. Starts to feel like our true home. Starts to feel like our new love. And Rumi says, in this new love, hold on to that old self. Actually, he just says, die. I take it to mean it's a kind of a sweet way of dying. I practiced with a Rinzai teacher once and he would say,

[35:32]

Die. In a kind of samurai way. Die. Okay. I think of this more as, hey, do you really need to bring all that pain with you? Leave it outside. knows old worries caused you enough suffering so very interestingly both concentration applied attention and receptive attention can engender

[36:34]

their own joy, their own sukha, physical joy, and piti, mental joy. And very additionally, as something cracks open, both become sticky, both become alluring rather than repelling. Part of the challenge for us is to be a humble and attentive student to what they both create. To let them instruct us on how to practice. To let them teach us the subtlety of giving over to the experience. it ripples through the body.

[37:38]

Sometimes unknotting those mysterious psychosomatic knots. How it can release the energy flow. But we have to be careful not to make this prescriptive. Oh, here's the magic formula. I just need to remember it, the ABC of it, and then reproduce it next period. The humility is every period we start with the basics. We start at the beginning. We start with beginner's mind. part of the amazing nature of our practice is even when we've tasted the sweetness we're still inclined towards the habituated constructs somehow they're still alluring but as we continue

[39:00]

As Dogen says, as we have our glimpses, as we have our moments of contact, to let those moments instruct us and to learn how to give over to what they offer. And in the realm of samadhi, continuous contact, either directed or receptive, or I would say, a combination. When the mind is deeply saddled, then the directing needn't be emphasized.

[40:05]

But it's so elusive. You can be quite saddled. Get up, do kinhin, sit back, dine. Wow, how did this happen? I just did kinhin. The mind has resumed a more active, distracted state of being. So I would say a combination. We always come to our cushion. We always come to the moment as a diligent student. Please teach me. And so in their more settled, their more absorbed states,

[41:08]

open into another world but in a very interesting way there is a profound teaching when the influence they have illuminates our usual constructed world In our usual consciousness, the constructs are so alluring, they're invisible. Because we're fully committed. When we taste some of the connection and validity of concentration, loosens up this tight bond to the world according to karmic existence and we can start to see it we can start to see oh look at this arising and look at how it ripples through the mind state look at what Vedana and emotion it tends to bring forth look at the kind of

[42:43]

trajectory of it I'm inclined to start thinking like this and look at how my chest tightens a little bit you start to see the dance of the skandhas right there in that arising thought in that arising experience self its patterns its propensities start to come forth and the very interesting thing is to my mind the very interesting thing is that

[43:45]

We don't need to be deeply concentrated. We don't need to be deeply in continuous contact. There's a powerful and profound teaching there. There's also a teaching in whatever state of existence we bring forth. Dogen Senji says, when even for a moment, when even for a moment, when even for a moment we can interrupt the adamant assertion of our habituated narrative. then Doga Zenji goes on and says you know the Dharma world appears the Buddha mudra includes all being whether or not that's what arises when even for a moment something

[45:21]

allowed to crack open some of our adamant commitment to the world according to me is allowed to dissipate you know we have noticing acknowledging, contact, experiencing. So we could push experiencing a little further right and say absorption. So this is the range. Where you are at a particular moment is due to the nature of the moment, which is due to the arising of the causes and conditions. existence the point is not to manufacture the perfect moment the point is to meet the moment as it is where it is how it is and as we start to see and experience

[46:50]

we start to facilitate, not as a figuring out process, but as a more visceral integration. You know, in the world of psychology, I would say, our continuous contact, our continuous awareness is disrupted by by the defense mechanisms of our psychological makeup as we continually meet the moment in the light of Dharma the light of presence illuminates the moment there is an integration we're drawing

[47:53]

we're integrating we're making one we're making whole the the way in which our being is broken into pieces the way in which our concentrate our attention is interrupted by distraction aversion suppression concentration in a way has these three modalities directed receptive momentary and in a way that configuration really just holds together conceptually because as we practice they're not so separate

[48:57]

Even in our settled experience, often there's a moment of awareness, a moment of awareness. True, as the mind settles below that, it has more of a feeling of continuity. But each of them can be attended to, no? Directing attention. Body, breath, mind state, uprightness. Receptive attention. What's happening now? Not knowing, just receiving. What's happening now and how does it ripple through this? human organism I call me. And then this momentary pausing as you go through the activity of the day.

[50:12]

Returning to just being. Once I was taking a class from a very brilliant Buddhist scholar, Thomas Cleary, and someone asked him a question and he gave a long answer. And then he paused and he said, well, you could tell from the length of my answer that I don't know what I'm talking about. So maybe the length of my talk is indicative. 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.

[51:19]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit SSCC.org and click giving.

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