Good morning. So today is the first day of the session, of a six-day session most of us that are sitting in here have signed up for. I don't think everybody, but most of us, or for parts of it. And it's an opportunity to... actually realize that each one of us and every one of us is awake, is Buddha, which means the awake.

[01:19]

That it is actually inherent to being human. The capacity is there. in each one of us. And sesshin is a kind of a structure, a container that supports us in getting out of the way so that we can have, we can actually experience that. So during sesshin, our job is to get out of our own way so that we can experience what has always been there, has always been present, is always present within each one of us and every one of us. So the first day is, I think, is really helpful.

[02:27]

It is really helpful to... concentrate on our bodies, because they have to get used to the schedule. We come with enthusiasm, we had some reason, something made us sign up, and maybe soon we think, why did I sign up? This is hard on my body. There's pain. So I think it's really important to, particularly on the first day, develop a friendship with your body. Develop being an ally of this body because without it, you can't do it. Without it, actually, you can't wake up. So waking up is not mental activity or a mental actual experience. It's actually a physical experience. Awakening is a physical experience.

[03:27]

whole body experience. It's your body that wakes up and there's no separation between body and mind. The whole being wakes up. So there is a Zazen posture we're all taking and that you can practice Zazen, you can practice stillness Sitting in different postures, cross-legged, on a chair, full lotus, half lotus, Burmese style, on a bench, lying down, that's not the limitation. But how you sit has a big effect. So posture, that's why posture gets so emphasized, because posture and breath, And mind and emotions actually align with each other.

[04:33]

They influence each other. So today, use that first day to keep checking in with our body and to particularly pay attention when we sit down to take some time to find the most upright, most relaxed, posture of that period, that moment when you sit down for that period. So whether you sit on a chair, and if you sit on a chair, if you can sit in the forward third of the chair so that your spine is supported by your muscles and you're not leaning backward because that actually has an influence on your mind, Sometimes you have to have a back support because you can't do it otherwise. Then that's fine. But then sit as much back as you can with the back of your spine and your pelvis so that you're upright.

[05:45]

And then there are sometimes situations where that's not possible and you have to lean back. So that's not an impediment, but it makes it a little harder. So if you don't have to, sit in a way on your bench, on your chair, cross-legged, Sesa, on your knees and on a little bench, so that your spine balances itself. And you can lean back and forth. You read the Fukanzasengi this morning. Rock your body back. back and forth and left and right to really find where's the middle? Where's the middle this time? Till you find here it is. You know, here, you're not quite, not quite now, here it is. And then the instruction is to align your ears with your shoulder and your nose with your navel. And that you lift up a little bit up here. So you're like a nice horse that is a little bit...

[06:49]

You know, like those dressage horses. They don't go around like this. They actually have a nice... And you can feel, do that a little bit, kind of if you lift your chin, actually something right between the top of your head and the occipital bone, the top bone of your neck, it pinches there. That's actually a very important place, an acupuncture place, and a... And if that's open, so that's open when you kind of drop your chin a little bit. And you can feel it. There's a difference. There's something that then the head can just rest on your neck without the neck being pinched. So when you sit down each period of Salsa and today, take a moment to really pay attention to how close what is your most balanced, most upright, and most relaxed position.

[07:53]

And relaxed, you can scan your body, so you found it, and then you wander inside with your awareness through your body. You feel your feet, and if you feel a tension there, see if you can let go of it. Feel your legs, the calves of your legs. And you take time. Take your time in Zazen. You don't have to do it right now, because that will maybe take a whole Zazen period if we do it now. But you can wander through your calves, your knees, your thighs, your sitting bones, or you're sitting on your sitting bones, or behind them, or in front of them. You can actually feel them when you do that rocking. Your belly. your chest, your back, and wherever you feel attention, see if you can let go of it. If it's necessary to be there, if you can relax it.

[08:59]

And that may mean that your body shifts a little, finds a more relaxed position. Your shoulders, your arms, your mudra, your neck, and then also your face, your jaws, around your mouth, around your eyes, and just scan through to see that you are in the most relaxed position at this moment that you can find. So that's physical posture. And you can always return to that when you notice that Maybe a pain starts. You can see, are you still balanced? Or have you started maybe not noticing, but you started to lean forward or to lean to one side or backward or tensed up and rebalance your body?

[10:05]

And if the pain persists, you start a dialogue. You start a conversation. You feel into the pain. Because We have a tendency when there is a pain to lean away from it. And we lean away from it physically sometimes. And we can notice it, we tense up against it. Or we lean away by distracting ourselves, start dreaming about something, being somewhere else, or I forget about the pain. Or we... brace against if we're getting agitated. Why is the Doha not ringing the bell? It's for sure already 40 minutes or 30 minutes. We get busy with something external. But if we can feel into the pain and feel it inside and then ask, for example, the back shoulder blade or where it is,

[11:13]

is this okay for one more breath? Can I be there for one more breath? Can you stand it for one more breath? You ask the pain. Feeling it inside. Not thinking about it, but feeling it. And you get an answer if you ask. You get an answer. It goes, yeah. So you take one more breath, and then you ask again. The answer might be yes. And you take one more breath. The answer may be, I don't know. So then you take a breath and you keep feeling. And then it maybe says, no, that's enough. So when it says no, you act on the no. You don't argue with your body. When it's no, you put your hands in gasho, you do a slight bow, and you very... quietly and calmly, not abruptly, change your position.

[12:18]

You might lift up your leg, put it forward, and give your knee a rest while the rest of your body stays as upright as you can. And then maybe after a while you put your leg back down or you wait till the period is over. But you create a relationship where your mind isn't running away or your ideas how it should be, nor is your body running everything. But you are in a dialogue and you are allied because you can only get through it with your body. It's not going to work otherwise. So pay meticulous attention to your posture and keep coming back to your posture and finding the one that's working for best for this moment, and then the next period, and the next period.

[13:18]

When we do that, we also help the body of this esheen, which is all of us are going to be the body of this esheen. And we create, actually, our presence and our energy and our efforts create that shared body that supports everybody in it. When you're sitting on a chair, also make sure that your feet are flat on the ground and hip-wide apart so your feet aren't together and your knees further out. So your feet are under your knees and not back and not forward stretched out, but so you're sitting like a chair with your legs and the feet are flat on the ground. That also helps you be... And that might be against a habit of your body. So now we're going to the mind, because there's also something about the mind.

[14:27]

So Marsha read this yesterday in her lecture, and it's something that we read in a Dharma study group. And what Suzuki Roshi says is, I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color, something which exists before all forms and colors appear. This is a very important point. No matter what... God or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea. So, there is something that exists before form and color, and that is ready to take form and color, depending on circumstances.

[15:42]

completely open to take any form and any color because it doesn't have a form or a color. That's what is called nothing or no thing. And then he says, while you are practicing zazen, you may hear the rain dropping from the roof in the dark. Later, the wonderful mist will be coming through the big trees, And still later, when people start to work, they will see the beautiful mountains. But some people will be annoyed if they hear the rain when they are lying in their beds in the morning because they do not know that later they will see the beautiful sun rising from the east. If our mind is concentrated on ourselves, we will have this kind of worry. But if we accept ourselves, as the embodiment of the truth of Buddha nature, we will have no worry.

[16:49]

We will think, now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. So this is about mental posture, which is also really wonderful to start cultivating this on the first day of Sashin, which is like our entry gate. the way we enter will have a big influence on how and what will unfold. So the mental posture that I would recommend for today is to remember that everything is a temporary appearance. Every thought, every physical sensation, Every feeling is a temporary arising. Temporary has a temporary existing.

[17:50]

It's moving. It's not fixed. So the practice is to let go. Letting go. Letting go of preferences. So the food comes around and you think, oh... I wish it were veggie juice, not orange juice this morning. So when that comes up, it's not a problem that it comes up. This stuff will come up, any kind of thing. Oh, I wish it weren't so beautiful, then I wouldn't mind so much being in here. Anything. When we notice it come up, we let it go. We don't... engage in it we don't feed it we don't spin that thought in the trust in mind poem from the 11th century it says the way is easy and simple something like that as long as we do not pick and choose

[19:07]

So, for example, when the preference comes up, like I prefer veggie juice to orange juice, I actually have a choice. That that comes up, I don't pick and choose. But what I do with it is what I choose. Do I now get hung up by that thought? Do I cultivate it or do I just let it pass? and not give it any more energy? Do I pick to get upset? Upset may arise, but then I have a choice point. Do I just notice I'm upset about something or my body's upset about something without obsessing about it, without entering it, without feeding it? Can I come back to my posture and realize that there is my choice? When love and hate or likes and dislikes are absent, everything is completely clear and unobstructed.

[20:16]

Actually, our likes and dislikes and our opinions we have about things are what hinders us to see how things are. So... is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things. So rejections or acceptance are choices, and if we choose to accept this and reject that, and we like this and we don't like that, and this deserves it and that doesn't deserve it, that is what blinds us, obscures our capacity to see the true nature of things. And another letting go is of what we think we know.

[21:30]

So this is called Beginner's Mind Temple. Suzuki Roshi talked about beginner's mind and he said in the mind of the beginners there are many possibilities and in the mind of an expert there are few. So we are so attached to what we think we know and to our habits and our prejudices. So this is how how we should bow, or this is how the bell should be rang, or this is how serving should happen. You know, we learned it, and now we think we know it, and now we are attached to the knowledge, and that closes us down. That is a very big obstacle. So when you are sitting today and your ideas about yourself or about others...

[22:33]

or about anything come up? Can you notice, oh, an opinion? I think I know, and they don't. And can we just notice it and then let it go? Just go up, opinion, not getting engaged in it, not spinning the story. According to Buddhism, Knowledge is the greatest obstacle to awakening. So Zen Buddhism is a tradition outside the scriptures. It's not the words, it's not the concepts, it's not the knowledge that sets us free. It's the experience of being present without those getting in the way, all those ideas we have about ourselves and everything around us.

[23:43]

So in the Sutra of the 100 Parables, there's a story of a father, a widower who goes to town and then when he comes home, his house has burned down. and his five-year-old son is missing, and then a little later they find a corpse by the ruins close by, and he thinks this is his son, and he's just totally distraught, and weeps and weeps and weeps, and then puts the ashes in a bag and carries them around with him day and night. But the son has not died, he's been abducted by the bandits, and... A few months later he can escape and returns home at night and knocks at the door that's locked. And the father inside says, who's at the door? And he says, I'm your son. And the father says, no, you've been dead. My son died three months ago and can't be.

[24:47]

And he's just so convinced that he knows that... it can't be his son, that he does not open the door and then the son goes away and he's lost his son. So it's a parable to say how when we think we know something and it's this, we are actually not open to the reality of what is and we lose maybe something very precious. So that's the attitude that Suzuki Roshi talks about in that fascicle, believing in nothing, he says, while you are practicing Zazen, you may hear the rain dropping from the roof in the dark. You may hear any kind of experience, like, for example, the rain, which we won't have today, but anything else. Later, so a little while later, there will be another experience. The wonderful mist will be coming through the big trees.

[25:50]

And later, when people start to work, they will see the beautiful mountain. But some people will be annoyed if they hear the rain when they are lying in their beds in the morning, because they do not know that later they will see the beautiful sun rising from the east. They will not allow for the possibility for something to change. They think I'm going to get wet when I have to go to work. If our mind is concentrated on ourselves, we will have this kind of worry. But if we accept ourselves as the embodiment of the truth or Buddha nature, if we accept that we are an embodiment of the truth and of Buddha nature, that is what we said yesterday, we all are Buddha. It just comes with being born.

[26:52]

We all have the capacity, the potential to be fully awake. There's nothing lacking. Nobody is handicapped in that department. It has an impediment. our habits and our opinions and what we hold on to and that we don't see that, don't accept that we are an embodiment of the truth, a temporary form arising. If we accept ourselves as the embodiment of the truth or Buddha nature, we will have no worry. We will think, now it is raining, but we don't know what will happen in the next moment. So that will be another letting go. I don't know what will happen the next moment. The pain arises.

[27:54]

It's not going to get worse and worse and worse. And how am I going to get through six days and get all upset? We don't know what's going to happen the next moment. Because sometimes the pain actually goes away. By the time we get out, It may be a beautiful day or a stormy day. Since we don't know, let's appreciate the sound of the rain now. This kind of attitude is the right attitude. If you understand yourself as a temporal embodiment of the truth, you will have no difficulty whatsoever. You will appreciate your surroundings and you will appreciate yourself as a wonderful part of Buddha's great activity, even in the midst of difficulties. This is our way of life. So one is attention to posture.

[29:15]

One is the mental posture. And then what actually connects everything is our breath. When we are born, we begin to breathe air. We don't in a womb. And it's when our breath... When breath leaves us, this physical existence is not continuing, it's ending, has ended. When we take our last breath or give our last breath, that's the end of this existence. So breath, the word spirit means actually breath. And is key, is a key part of Sazen. Because posture, breath, and mind are closely also related to emotions.

[30:20]

They're all related and they all influence each other. So what we're thinking actually affects our breathing. How our posture affects how freely our... can happen in our body and how freely oxygen can actually nourish all our cells. When we're tense or bent over or in an unbalanced posture, these are hindrances. They make it more difficult. So you can come back to your breath and just let it come and go and be concentrated on it. And as Marcia said yesterday in her talk, when you do that, you might, the self, that part that's occupied with thinking about me, this person, kind of dissolves.

[31:22]

And a lot of people say, I feel like suddenly the universe is breathing me rather than I am breathing. is breathing this being. It's just like going out, coming in, going out, coming in. It's also what connects us to the whole universe. We're all sharing the air we breathe with the rest of this planet. So maybe we have a short little time for questions or comments. The main point is really whatever helps you to cultivate a friendly and ally-bent attitude towards your experience so that you can accept it as a temporary experience and be friendly around it.

[32:28]

It's really an important point of the first day. to your body so it can get used to sitting so much time and being still, to the mind, to the feelings, to your surroundings. So one is the physicality of it and feeling into it and rebalancing and really being conscious and meticulous. How can I be the most relaxed and the most upright? And the other is the mental. How can I let go when I have a fixed view or an opinion or think I know or a preference or a like or a dislike? Can I notice them and just let them go for the time being? And can I trust? Can I...

[33:30]

allow the possibility that I am an embodiment of the truth and that this is Buddha. So are there any questions or comments? I lose you all? No? Good. That's a good answer. Thank you. So I think we just go back to the Zendo and try it out.

[34:35]

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

[35:04]

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