I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagatagarbha's words. Good morning. Good morning. Yeah, we're all together. Yes, we're all together. About once a month, I'm on a schedule to give Vasant instruction. And usually when I do that, we start out the usual way. We take people downstairs and show them the zendo, the meditation hall. And then we come back up here. And what I find myself always doing at the beginning of that is I just tell the people, ask them to sit down facing me. And then I say, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to pretend that you're the wall. And I'm just going to sit down and get ready for Vasant.

[01:00]

And I do that silently. I usually go through the whole thing that I do. And then when I finish settling in, I say, that was the instruction. And they say, that really was the instruction. But of course. So then I'll verbalize what I did. I sit down, cross my legs. And I usually do a little bit of rocking. So I say, this is to get the feeling of becoming centered. And I usually talk about that little Daruma doll that they have all over Japan. And the kids love them. They're round-bottomed. You've probably all seen them. You push them and they always settle, come back up. So when I'm doing that, I think I'm a Daruma doll.

[02:02]

And that Daruma doll is supposed to represent Bodhidharma who came from India and brought what we know as Zen today to China for about the 7th century. So I go through that. I get settled. I feel how I'm getting in there. Sort of tuck my chin in a bit. Not military style, but I always say this is always relaxed. Settling. And then finally, I'll bring my hands together. You can't see it very well because of the podium, but most of you are doing it. Your left hand on top of your right. And then I say thumb tips touching, but just barely. I was looking at this statue of Shakyamuni here, this fabulous old statue.

[03:07]

And you look at the thumbs, they're not touching. That may have been the sculpture, couldn't really get it together. But they certainly are lined up, but they're about that far apart. No one's called me on that when I've said that. You say you can hold a piece of paper between the thumbs so lightly that someone could come along and just easily take it out. So maybe he's holding a Morning Chronicle. Lightly. Thumb tips touching. And my hands are resting on my lap. I mentioned that people have different laps, different bodies. Sometimes I see people holding their hands way up here, and I don't know if that's taught. Because we think about... Even in the books, the instructions say it's the area around the navel. But I think sometimes people feel they have to line up with their navel.

[04:10]

And the navels are different. They move around. So I always think it should be resting lightly, not leaning on it, but just kind of resting on your lap. And then I'm almost ready. I'll take a few breaths. Deliberate breaths. Through the nose. And keep my mouth shut. I think there's even a place for the tongue. The tip of the tongue will be touching the back of your upper front teeth. But just touching, not pressing. You line up your ears with your shoulders. And then I say, just breathe naturally. We all know how to do that. Especially when we're sleeping. And then I say, that's it. Just do that. And then something might happen.

[05:22]

My thoughts. How long have I been sitting here? So I just let them go. It's a thought. There are things to do that are helpful. Because when you begin to meditate, you have to learn how to concentrate. So that's where the thumb tips come in handy for me. I'm checking them out a lot. Are they just touching? A lot of times they're spread apart. You can also check if you're still sitting straight. Your ear is still there, over the shoulders. You can count to five. Another thing you can do is count your breath. Try to count to nine.

[06:26]

When I first started sitting, I had a great deal of difficulty concentrating. I think I was expecting something. I don't know, but I was ready. Counting the breath was pretty useful to tell me that I was not concentrating. Because I was never sure if I was going to get to nine. I wasn't even sure when I got to three. Three or four. So then I started playing a little game. I was not absolutely sure whether it was the number three or whatever. I would start back at one. So most of my early thought was saying one. Then I found out later that one is not a bad number. Anyway, I just thought I would review that.

[07:37]

You can spend a lot of time checking your posture, seeing if your shoulders are pulled back a bit, your elbows away from the sides. It helps pass the time. And it gets you concentrated. I know one time, one session, I think it was five or seven days, I spent the whole time just on my mudra, not only checking the thumbs and the line up, because I always say I was taught to. If you look down at your mudra, your thumbs will be directly over your middle fingers. So I try to keep that there, the thumbs touching. And also, I would try to bring it up a bit. Don't lean on it. So try to have it a little bit up. I spent the whole time just doing that. It's an amazing place where it would drift. So that's really all there is, two thousand.

[08:53]

Just sitting there, breathing, being with your posture, your breath. I want to say, when I mentioned about counting the breath, that's not necessary to do the whole time. I mean, this is just something to settle into. Because there was a story that got back to us who gave zazen instruction, that someone came to zazen instruction once, and then several months later said there were up to 36,742. I mean, they were really counting. They had that kind of mind that they could remember. I don't know whether they had a calculator. So it was, oh no, no, please. No, no, don't. Stop. Check your posture. So you can also just follow your breath, or watch it. Sometimes use the Sometimes teachers say that you can...

[10:01]

Well, this was from a Theravadan teacher I know, Lucila Nanda. He practiced vipassana meditation. But he said that one of the teachings that they have is that you follow the... you watch the breath right here, right at the tip of your nose, the nostrils, where it's going in and out. And that's the place that you pay attention to. I tried that a while. It's not bad. When I first came, I was very enthusiastic about zazen. I had been practicing sort of a yoga-type, Indian-type meditation, and so I found out that this place here, that's what they specialize in. I came over, and I thought, oh, great. And I just couldn't wait to go home and try it, and come back here every day and all. And then I found out I couldn't count.

[11:06]

But then I started looking for literature, writings on this, besides Suzuki Roshi's book, which also was one of the reasons it got me over here. And I came upon a poem called... translated as Song of Meditation. It's by Hakomen Zenji. He was a 17th century Zen master. And I wanted to read that today. When I read that, it just seemed to say, oh, okay, this really makes sense. This is what it is. All right. Anyway, I'll sort of share that out today. Okay. Song of Meditation All beings are from the very beginning buddhas.

[12:15]

It is like water and ice. Apart from water, no ice. Outside living beings, no buddhas. Not knowing it is near, they seek it afar. What a pity. It is like one in the water who cries out for thirst. It is like a child of a rich house who is strayed away among the poor. The cause of our circling through the six worlds is that we are on the dark path of ignorance. Dark path upon dark path, treading. When shall we escape from birth and death? The Zen meditation of the Mahayana is beyond all our praise. Giving and morality and the other perfections, taking of the name, repentance, discipline, and the many other right actions all come back to the practice of meditation. By the merit of a single sitting he destroys innumerable accumulated sins.

[13:18]

How should there be wrong paths for him? The pure land paradise is not far. When in reverence this truth is heard even once, he who praises it and gladly embraces it has merit without end. How much more he who turns within and confirms directly his own nature. That his own nature is no nature. Such has transcended vain words. The gate opens and cause and effect are one. Straight runs the path. Not two, not three. Taking as form the form of no form. Going or returning, he is ever at home. Taking as thought the thought of no thought. Singing and dancing, all is the voice of truth. Wide is the heaven of boundless samadhi. Radiant the full moon of the fourfold wisdom.

[14:22]

What remains to be sought? Nirvana is clear before him. This very place, the lotus paradise. This very body, the Buddha. So when I read that I said, oh yeah. But then I said, do I really understand it? What is he talking about? This very body is Buddha. Crying for thirst in the midst of water. Many times people have asked me, what is the purpose of zazen? And usually say there's no purpose. Zazen is zazen. That's not a very good answer. But it is the answer.

[15:24]

I know one time somebody came by and I was available. Somebody was my age and they thought I'd be better to talk to him. And anyway, he was searching. He was trying many, many different ways. And he asked me how long I'd been practicing. And I told him. And he said, do you feel any different than when you began? And I said, I should not give this an answer. And he said, no. No. He got really angry with me. He said, you mean nothing? I said, nothing happened. Even the zazen answer, you know. But, really, there is there. I mean, that's what he's saying. From the very beginning. There's no place to go. The land, the ground beneath your feet is pure land.

[16:29]

Nirvana is right in front of you. He didn't mention, there's another term you say, samsara. Samsara is the world that we see that we're in right now. The suffering world. The painful world. The desire world. And we think we're going to go to nirvana and get away from this. Well, yeah, we are. But nirvana and samsara are the same. They're like that. And, okay. He refers to a child from a rich home wandering away. There's a chapter in the Lotus Sutra. It's kind of like the Buddhist prodigal son story. The son of a king goes away, or somehow gets taken away from home. And he's gone for years and years.

[17:31]

So he forgot where he came from. And he comes back to the kingdom and they recognize him. And your son's back. But they say, come in, you're welcome. And he's really frightened because he had been wandering out. He was poor. And this great king is saying, come in, come in. Well, no, no, no. So they have to kind of gradually get him in. They give him a job shoveling dung in the stables. But gradually and gradually they slowly bring him back in. But this is the reference of that. We have this great kingdom. This wonderful treasure. But we don't believe that we have it. We think we have to go somewhere and get it. Or something like that. A lot of the quest tales in the Western literature of going on quests and going on journeys

[18:34]

to find something. They go through all these fantastic adventures and they're going for years and years and years. And they come to what they're looking for and they realize they've returned home. And they're back where they started. So it was always there. But words are cheap. You can say this. So, we say, please just sit still. Breathe. There's many, many poems that have been written about the experience of realization. You know, whatever you call it. A lot of times they're just brief flashes. I've always liked the one of the Japanese poems that

[19:36]

have all this kind of blackness. Something happening in the dark. I'll say. I know that there's one that refers to a black lacquer bucket filled with water. It's in a dark room at midnight and the bottom falls out of the bucket. You try to visualize that image. But the danger in that I like to read poetry in Japanese, Chinese translation but then you might get caught and say, well, OK, I'm going to have that experience. I'm going to sit that up and then in the next session I'm going to try to have that black bucket fall apart. Then you get all off track. These are all personal, inward experiences. So you don't want to get caught up trying to hang on to these things. Just sit. Well,

[20:39]

like I say in the Zazen instructions there's not much to say. We go on and on and on and get caught up with the words and then try to follow the words and then you're losing it and you're off on the trail again. You're losing sight of the the wonderful house that you have because you're looking for it out there somewhere. But I could go I could always say a little bit about Dogen Dogen Zenji who founded, the founder of Soto Zen. Now Hakuin wrote this song, Meditation, in the 17th century. This is something Dogen's more like 13th but there's not much still there. This is from the Fukanza Zenji.

[21:41]

The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe what it means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice? They're saying the same thing. Why do you have to go somewhere? Again it seems very simple but when you read it just sit down and do it. Or walk around and do it. Go to the movie and do it. Listen to the loud sounds of the city.

[22:47]

Hear the sound of Buddha. And yet if there is the slightest discrepancy the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises the mind is lost in confusion. So this reminds me of another poem by the third master after Bodhidharma in China third ancestor. And he starts out saying the way is basically perfect. What need is there to pick and choose? Uh-huh.

[23:49]

Okay, I got it. I won't pick and choose. So, I won't go to Zazen tomorrow. Well, that's picking, right? That's deciding. I will go to Zazen tomorrow. Oh, here I go again. Well, we'll see. When the time comes I'll be there or not. Oh. But we hear a lot of, you know use the non-discriminating mind. Don't discriminate. Things as they are. See things as they really are. Don't judge on them, good or bad. They just are. That's what they are. And then you see things that are awful. Is that a Buddha? Read about what's going on

[24:58]

at what used to be Yugoslavia. It's horror. People who were as one correspondent put it that a couple of years ago they were trading recipes over the back fence. Now they're killing each other. Wow, that's the Pure Land. Okay. So, it's very difficult to read these words. All beings are Buddha. Okay. All right. I'll just better sit here and breathe or do something else. I believe in Zazen.

[26:15]

So, we can't make any promises. But we can say come to Zazen instruction we'll show you what we do. Zazen instruction It says cease understanding practice based on intellectual chasing words, following speech. It's telling me

[27:44]

not to try to understand. Learn the backwards step. Turn your light inward. Illuminate self. Body and mind drop away. Original face comes. If you want to see suchness practice suchness. What I find was difficult for me over the years is I would think that I was escaping.

[28:45]

See, turn the light within. So, don't look at Yugoslavia, don't look at the homes. That's not what it means. Well, I think I've already said too much. Unless a cop out. I don't know what else to say. I didn't prepare. I would like to finish with I was reading like a 13th century poem, a 17th century. This is a 20th century. This is a Japanese Buddhist poet named Miyasawa Kenji. He wrote in the 1920s. That was during the time that Japan was really getting into the world. They already had been.

[29:48]

He was a Buddhist. He also was he worked with poor farmers. I forget the word you call somebody when you teach people how to grow things. I just, I really like his poems. So this is more of a feeling of a modern Buddhist. I think he practiced reading the Lotus Sutra a lot. He didn't do Zen. I'm sure he meditated. I mean, he wasn't part of a Zen group. This is called Winter and Galaxy Station. Birds fly like dust in the sky. Heat haze and blue Greek letters busily burn over the snow in the field.

[30:53]

From Japanese cypresses along the Great Passant Highway, frozen drops fall in shining abundance. The distant signals of Galaxy Station stagnate scarlet this morning. While the river makes the ice flow away steadily, the people in rubber boots in fox and dog furs pretend interest in ceramic boots or size up the dangling octopi. This is that noisy winter fair of Sushi Sawa. Alders and blinding cloud, alcohol. I wouldn't mind if a golden goal of parasites was hanging coolly there. Ah, the light railway of the galaxy in winter that Joseph Pasternak conducts passes under many layers of feeble ice. Red insulators on electric poles and pine forest dangling

[31:54]

metals of fake gold. Its brown eyes open proudly under heaven's bowl that turns cold. Blue, it hurries over the sunny, snowy table land. The ice ferns on the window glass gradually turn into white steam. The drops from Japanese cypresses on the Great Passant Highway burn and fall everywhere. There are blue branches that spring up. Rubies, topaz, and spectrums of things are traded vigorously as in the fair. Well, I don't know what you think about that, but it feels good to me to read this guy's poetry. Ahem. Thank you.

[33:16]

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