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 from people like you. Good morning. Wow. Thank you all for coming. How's the volume? I hear myself. Ah, it's wonderful to be back here in the Buddha Hall, here at City Center. Such an illustrious group. Anyone here for the first time this morning? Okay, a few of you. For those of you who don't know me, my name's Neel Kai Kristen Diggs, and I'm a former longtime resident. It's been a few months since I've been here, and it was really good to be back. I'd like to thank the leaders of the practice period, Reverend Lucy Shao and Tonto Tim, for inviting me.

[01:08]

It's an honor to drop in here for this practice period, offer a talk. How many of you in the room are fully participating in the practice period? Okay, so a small number of you. I understand that the focus of the practice period is, or what's being studied during this practice period, is the Platform Sutra by our sixth ancestor, sixth Chinese Chan ancestor, Wei Nang, and that the focus of the practice period is continuous practice nothing lacking. In this context, continuous also means complete. How can practice in our everyday lives be continuous if it doesn't include everything completely?

[02:21]

And in the context of Zen, Nothing lacking also means nothing to attain. In the Heart Sutra, which is chanted in Zen temples all over the world quite frequently, it says, with nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on complete, perfect wisdom. Sounds out of this world. Unless complete and perfect just means undivided. A Zen master by the name of Koro Sawaki Roshi famously said that the primary Zen practice, the heart of Zen, which is Zazen, is good for nothing, which

[03:28]

Sounds almost rude, a bit harsher than nothing to attain, only wholly relying on that which is undivided. But he went on to say, we should hear this good for nothing until we get calluses on our ears. and we actually learn to practice good-for-nothing zazen." He said, unless we learn to practice good-for-nothing zazen, then zazen is really good-for-nothing. I'm currently teaching a class on the Dogen Zenji's essay, Fukanza Zengi. which is often translated universal recommendations or guidelines for Zazen or sitting Zen.

[04:29]

So I've been giving a lot of thought to Wei Nang's influence on Dogen, the founder of this school of Zen. His influence was quite significant In the Fuganza Zangi, Dogen wrote, Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. Those of you in this room who are practicing or studying the Platform Sutra, this practice period, will probably recognize Wei Nong's verse. in Dogen's opening lines of the Fukhans of Zengi. For those of you not familiar with that sutra, In It Weinong tells the story of a poetry contest that took place at the monastery.

[05:40]

Sort of a playful way of talking about it. The abbot of the monastery extended an invitation to all of the monks to expressed their understanding of the Dharma in verse. And one of the more senior monks, later known as Master Shengshui, who was presumed by all of the other monks to have the highest understanding, posted a verse that read as follows. The body is the Bodhi tree. The mind is like a bright mirror stand. Time and again, polish it diligently. Do not let dust alight." And when Wei Nang heard the verse, he thought that Shen Shui had not understood completely. So he wrote two verses of his own.

[06:45]

The first was, Bodhi, or Buddha mind, or awakening, is fundamentally without any tree. The bright mirror also has no stand. Originally, there is not a single thing. Where could dust alight?" And then he wrote another. The mind is the Bodhi tree. The mind is Buddha mind, Buddha nature. The body is the mirror stand. In the body, the mind shines. The mirror itself is so clean, or the mind itself is so subtle. Dust has no place to land. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? So, as I said, I've been contemplating

[07:51]

the influence of this teaching on Dogen, specifically with respect to his essay, The Fukanzu Zengi, which is believed to have been the very first teaching that Dogen wrote upon returning to Japan from China. Many people have referred to it as his Soto Zen Manifesto. I won't go into the history this morning. I'd like to focus my talk this morning on Zazen, as it was described and taught by Dogen about 800 years ago, and as it continues to be taught by many contemporary teachers, Soto Zen teachers, because there's a lot of misunderstanding out there about Zazen, a lot of confusing it with other styles of meditation. Here's what Wei Nong said about Zao Zen.

[08:54]

He said, what do we mean in this school by to practice Zen? In this school by to practice we mean not to be obstructed by anything internally and externally not to give rise to thoughts about objective states. You might say not to give rise to thoughts about objects. And by Zen, we mean to see our nature without being confused. And what do we mean by Zen meditation? He continues. Externally, to be free of form is Zen. And internally, not to be confused is meditation. Externally, if you are attached to form, then internally your mind will be confused. But if you are free of form, externally, internally your nature will not be confused."

[10:01]

So that's Hoi Nong. In a way, what he says is quite straightforward, and yet something about the way it reads, it feels to me a bit disorienting and perhaps questionable. At first glance, you know, externally free of form? What does it mean? I'll return to this passage a little later, but first I want to introduce the teaching of a contemporary Zen teacher whose teachings, I think, can really help us to better understand some of the older teachings on Zazen in this school. There's a wonderful teacher, a Japanese Soto Zen teacher by the name of Isho Fujita, who was the first teacher I ever sat Zazen with in Western Massachusetts, where I was living. He was the guiding teacher there. of a zendo called the Pioneer Valley Zendo, founded by Shohaka Okamura and his Dharma brothers, built by, in fact, by hand.

[11:06]

He returned to Japan with his family shortly after I met him, and then I met him again about nine years later here at City Center, quite unexpectedly. He wrote, We as ordinary human beings are always seeking for something that will give us self-satisfaction. In the Japanese Buddhist tradition, this way of being is called bonpu. It literally means an ordinary person. It is so difficult for us as bonpu to become relaxed or restful because we are constantly seeking for something. I don't know about you. I've recently been appreciating and really deeply reflecting on his teachings on Zazen. Isho-san is deeply knowledgeable about the psychosomatics of our sitting practice.

[12:16]

And I've been considering his teachings alongside Dogen Zenji's teachings on his Zazen instruction. Anyone not familiar with Dogen or not familiar with the name Dogen? Everybody knows perhaps in this room. Okay. Dogen Zenji or Eihei Dogen was the Japanese founder of Soto Zen Buddhism in Japan. In the 13th century, he brought the tradition from China back to Japan after meeting his caodong teacher, which is what sotozen was called in China, the caodong school of Chan Buddhism. And about 700 years later, Suzuki Roshi brought this lineage to San Francisco.

[13:20]

And in that instant, Japanese sotozen became American sotozen. which was possible, I think, because the heart of Zen or the essence of Zen, which is Zazen, knows no bounds. The truth of Zazen didn't originate in China or India or Japan. Suzuki Roshi said, Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice. There is no other way of life than this way of life. That sounds quite different from the Zazen that is taught during formal Zazen instruction.

[14:25]

Downstairs in the sendo, or here in this room, When a person first begins practicing at one of these Zen centers, they're often invited to join Zazen instruction. And I've never heard one of the instructors say, strictly speaking, there is no other practice and no other way of life. Welcome. You know, it's all about how to enter the room, how to get onto your cushion, how to sit upright in a correct bodily posture, how to breathe and remain apparently still and inaudible. All of that is what we sometimes call the ritual or the ceremony of zazen. So the two different uses of the word zazen, the ceremony of zazen

[15:31]

and what Suzuki Roshi speaks of can be confusing. Is those in a posture and a ceremonial way of getting onto and off of our cushions and in and out of the zendo? Or is it something all-encompassing? And the answer is yes. A teacher by the name of Uchiyama Roshi describes zazen as follows. It is an effort to continuously aim at a correct sitting posture with flesh and bones and totally leave everything to that. There is no other need to reach a certain state of mind as a goal or to attain a special experience. Therefore we are freed from anxiety and frustration which comes from seeking for a special state of mind and experience which we have not yet attained.

[16:41]

And because we are not seeking this, we are able to peacefully rest in the here and now as it is. First he describes the bodily posture and leaving everything to it. And then he describes the mind's posture not seeking anything, free from anxiety and frustration, peaceful and at rest. So you could say that the ritual practice of zazen that we enter in this room downstairs in the zendo or elsewhere is simply establishing an intentional posture of body and mind and trusting everything to this bare minimum of intention until the bell sounds and that ceremony of zazen comes to a close. This is one way of talking about it.

[17:46]

Dogen in his universal instructions for zazen said, this zazen that I speak of is not learning meditation. He said that it is simply the door to joy and ease. And that once your heart has grasped it, by which I think he meant once your heart has opened to and received it, you will fully and naturally express yourself in your true element. Actually, what he said was metaphorical. He said, you will be like a dragon gaining the water. like a tiger taking to the mountains. The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. Those of us who've been around for a while are not surprised to hear this, but for newcomers it's often quite surprising.

[18:52]

I thought that's what we were doing here — meditation. That was fundamental to Dogen's teaching. And he considered his teaching, or Soto Zen Buddhism, to be the continuation of an unbroken lineage of practice and realization, extending all the way back to Shakyamuni Buddha. To help clarify some of this, Zazen is not learning meditation. I'll return to Isu. Dogen repeatedly emphasized this point, zazen is not shuzen, in his writings. It can be said that the bulk of his writings were written to clarify the criteria for discerning authentic zazen. Shuzen is a Japanese word for what Dogen called learning meditation.

[19:54]

In the sentence, zazen is not learning meditation, so zazen is not shuzen. Yeshua goes on. But before I say that, I want to say something about a word that he uses, a Sanskrit word, dhyana. And in this context, the practice or training of dhyana that he refers to is understood as uninterrupted meditative concentration on a single point or object, which is one style of meditation. Zazen is not a training of dhyana, which is one genre of Buddhist practice. Like the three studies, sila, samadhi, prajna, or six paramitas, dhana, sila, kshanti, virya, dhyana, prajna.

[20:59]

That is all quite different practice from zazen. In other words, shu zen is a personal training to achieve a human ideal. And zazen is an expression of something transpersonal or universal, the great vehicle, Mahayana. In English-speaking countries, zazen is usually translated as zen meditation or sitting meditation. But this translation makes it almost inevitable that people think of zazen as an effort to control the mind. and attain a certain state of mind by applying a certain method. This is exactly what Shu Zen means. Then Isha goes on to quote Uchiyama Roshi, his Zen grandfather. And I read this passage earlier, but I'll read it again. There is no need to reach a certain state of mind as a goal or to attain a special experience.

[22:06]

Therefore, we are free from anxiety and frustration which comes from seeking for a special state and experience which we have not yet attained. Being free of that, we are able to peacefully rest in the here and now as it is. Here and now, I want to acknowledge one very common feeling of obstruction in this ceremonial practice of peacefully resting in the here and now. And that is the sensations in the body and constrictions in the breath and deeply conditioned habitual mental activity, busyness, proliferation of thinking. And that might sound like several obstructions. But everything that I just listed is actually one in the body.

[23:09]

One experience, moment after moment, conceived of in different ways in different moments. When there's a feeling of pain in the body that I experience as though it were an obstruction to my practice of zazen, I'm thinking that it should be some other way, like this can't be it. And when I'm thinking that my experience should be some way other than how it actually is, I'm subtly divided in myself. And the physiology of my breathing is affected by my state of mind. My breathing is not fully freely functioning. And my mind is engaged in some restrictive, habitual, dualistic activity, some pattern of thinking. So in that way, each of these things, these feelings of obstruction are actually one experience, one multidimensional experience, if you will, one complex system or one process.

[24:24]

So peacefully resting in the here and now is more easily said than arrived at. We all know this. So here's some of Isho's psychosomatic understanding of the practice that I think can be helpful. In Zazen, the spine should elongate by itself instead of our lengthening it by effort. I would like to briefly touch upon the topic of outer and inner muscles. When we try to lengthen our spine consciously, we use the outer muscles, the volitional muscles. These are designed for purposeful movement. When the spine elongates by itself, the body is using the autonomously controlled or involuntary inner muscles. These are the muscles of being, the non-volitional muscles, designed as a system of supportive movement, as different than purposeful movement.

[25:32]

He attributes this way of understanding the body to a teacher by the name of Jeremy Chance, an Alexander Technique teacher. So I think it's helpful to recall an experience of our own while sitting as we consider what Isha was saying. recall the difference between making and holding the posture with outer muscles and the arising of support and alignment from within. He continues, The idea of outer and inner muscles is about the body, but I think we can also apply the idea to the mind. When we are absorbed in our thoughts, thinking of this or that as usual, It is a function of outer muscle mind. In everyday expression, we say, use your head. In contrast, inner muscle mind functions to support the appearing and disappearing of thoughts at the basic level, to support — I'm sorry — at the basic level, enabling intuition, awareness, and mindfulness to arise.

[26:51]

Here again in Zazen, we can say that we are calming down an excessive activity of outer muscle mind and activating and manifesting the function of inner muscle mind, which has been suppressed because the outer muscle mind has been holding court. When we engage in meditation technique, when we engage in Shuzhen, Our mind inevitably becomes active and is dominated by outer muscle mind. In zazen, the mind is dominated by inner muscle mind. It is not focused on any particular spot or experience. It is evenly and softly permeating inside and outside the body, calmly receiving sensory inputs, including all kinds of thoughts with equanimity. It suspends any reaction and any control against the inputs, whatever they may be.

[28:01]

So I want to zoom in for a moment on this word equanimity, the description of the quality of zazen as equanimous. Regardless of any kind of thought or sensory input, he says, Granted, we're talking about a place of meditation right now. You know, not some place where the body may be assailed by extremely difficult conditions. I think the word equanimous as meaning — I think of it as meaning supremely balanced. And in my mind, supreme balance means wholeness. Boundlessly whole and complete. Which also means totally inclusive. Nothing to keep out. Nothing to pull in.

[29:05]

Continuous practice, nothing lacking. Nothing to attain. The ultimate meaning of zazen is totally inclusive. The ceremony of Zazen, which I've mostly been talking about this morning, is conditional. To return to what Isha was saying about inner and outer, I want to return to something Wei Nong said, which I read at the beginning. Let's consider it again in the light of what we've just heard. And what do we mean by Zen meditation? Externally, to be free of form is Zen. Maybe to be free of outer muscle mind. And internally, not to be confused is meditation. Not to have our inner muscle mind, our intuition, our awareness, mindfulness, suppressed.

[30:16]

Externally, if you are attached to form, for instance, if the outer muscles are trying to control the body in an effort to attain something, then internally your mind will be confused. But if you are free of form externally, internally your nature will not be confused. Zazen is not a method which we can learn or master by studying it following a manual. This is Isho. In his Universal Recommendation for Zazen, Dogen writes that Zazen is not Shuzen, and he repeats the statement in some of his other writings. Shu means learning, and Zen means Zen, Chan, or Dhyana. Together, Shuzen means learning Zen. Shahakukumura translated Shuzhen as step-by-step meditation.

[31:22]

It's about some special state of mind which we can attain by applying some method to the mind and body." I thought method is a very gentle word, it's neutral. But we can also say, I think, and it would be fair to say, manipulation or control. Trying to attain special states of mind by way of self-manipulation. It's very easy to fall into sitting manipulation in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, all the way up to and including severe control, which is one side to which the pendulum swung for Shakyamuni Buddha in his early ascetic practices before he arrived at the middle way. the experience of which he likened to a childhood memory of sitting peacefully, naturally, alone beneath the rose apple tree in the garden.

[32:27]

So it's like that. But we as ordinary human beings are always seeking for something special, something that will give us satisfaction It is so difficult for us as bonpu to become relaxed or restful, Isho says, because we are constantly seeking for something. This pattern of restlessness is so deeply rooted in us that we naturally feel zazen practice is something very unsatisfying, disappointing and unresponsive. So don't just do something. Sit there. And then when we arise from our sitting slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately, hopefully whatever we do will be less confused.

[33:41]

It will be whole and undivided for the benefit of the world. I was going to quote Suzuki Roshi again, but I think that's enough for this morning. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Domo.

[34:35]

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