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. So hopefully you're settling into Sashim. that we are drawn to and maybe in equal measure or greater measure dread this curious process of being present that we have a deep conviction of its appropriateness But in the expression of our being, we have great reluctance in immersing in it.

[01:10]

It's a great deal of the Dharma. The investigation of the Dharma is, what is that about? This attraction, aversion, this great appreciation and this reluctance. So yesterday I was attempting to speak about intention, vow, commitment, dedication, something in that realm. Our mind, the formulation of our mind, draws us forward into practice. Our intention draws us into body and breath, and then our body and breath undo the mind that set forth the intention.

[02:31]

That's why sometimes in Shashin, in the midst of it, you wonder, what the heck is going on? We've long since forgotten why this seemed like a good idea. Antonio Machado said, a Spanish poet, Between living and the dream, there's a third way. Guess what it is? That's the whole poem. A disciple of Basos, you know, we've been going through Huenen, Nangaku, Basso, Basso's disciple, Banzan, said, There are no things in the world.

[03:39]

Where do you seek mind? So we initiate through our intention with some formulation, some notion of what the world is, of what we are in that world. And then we go beyond the very expression of the Heart Sutra, going beyond, arriving at the point where the mind is no hindrance. Bodhisattva practicing deeply the Prajnaparamita, the mind is no hindrance. Without hindrance, no fear arises. hesitancy. No reluctance to be what is.

[04:45]

Okay, that's what I'm going to attempt to talk about today. So here goes. It's like turning our world inside out. Normally, what's formulated, what's conceptualized is validated with our effort, with our energy, with our emotional involvement, with our psychological response, with our intellectual thinking response. live as if what we've conjured up is the most important thing.

[05:53]

The request of Sashin is to turn it inside out. That looking at the process by which all that comes into being is the most important thing. What it is that comes into being, yeah, we'll get to that in good time. First to see it in the light of Prajnaparamita. First to see it as the expression of Shunyata. This dynamic interplay of being. That which arises formulated, which becomes real, is relabeled a dream.

[07:01]

That process of formulating, that process of taking the raw data and being stimulated into thought and feeling and memory and anticipation, that process becomes This is the request of experiencing firsthand shunyata, of experiencing what exactly the Heart Sutra is trying to teach. How is the teaching illustrated? The teaching is illustrated by seeing what's formulated and not grasping it as real. Time after time after time.

[08:09]

When we don't grasp it, we literally realize impermanence. Nagarjuna says, the mind that realizes impermanence experiences awakening. And we all know Nagarjuna was a really smart guy. So how do we do it? We let the mechanics, the movement, the workings of body breath become prominent. We sort of displace mind as the most important thing that's happening. We let the sensations that are arising

[09:23]

become prominent in contrast to the concepts, the ideas, the memories, the imaginings, the anticipations. And part of what makes this so extraordinarily difficult is that those now relabeled dreams enormously potent when they're grasped. They not only define reality, they infuse us with an emotional response to it. So we explore Pasadi, that factor right in the middle of the seven factors of awakening. mindfulness, investigation, virya, energy, joy, pasadi, the forerunner of samadhi and prajna, wisdom, equanimity, excuse me, concentration and equanimity, or wisdom, not so different.

[10:47]

This pasadi, sometimes called settling, sometimes called tranquility, sometimes called calmness. But those terms can be a little misleading, all three of them, in that something of the vitality, the vibrancy of being, has been subdued. This is not the nature of connecting, bringing forth pasadi. Mahayana is the product of non grasping of seeing through of letting it arise and letting it fall away it's some it in some ways it's the product of letting it arise and letting it fall away and then in another way it's the basis of

[12:06]

literally the capacity, it's the non-involvement, the non-agitation that facilitates it. We come back to the body breath. We come back to the sensation of the moment. We come back to the sense spheres. We come back to the sensation of seeing and hearing and touching and smelling and tasting. We invite them, we allow them to be more relevant, to be more authoritative than the ideas, than the judgments, than the memories, than the anticipations. We breathe in this sense body.

[13:14]

We breathe out this sense body. Not in an endeavor to purify it, to bend it to our will, to somehow make it orderly and contained so that it will stop bothering us and then we can become In some ways the opposite. In some ways this reckless permission for everything in its own reckless complexity to just be. Within the agendas of our mind and psychology, this is truly a dangerous proposition. What if I let everything just be? How do I know it will turn out okay?

[14:19]

How do I know I'll be happy, free from harm? How will those deep-seated psychological agendas of my being be safeguarded and reassured their needs will be met? In this turning inside out, in this cultivation of Pasadi, it's not on the terms of our psychological agenda. Dugan says leaping clear. And how do we leap clear? With the inhale, breathe in everything. Beyond thought. Beyond thinking.

[15:21]

Beyond measure. Beyond assessing its value, its sanctity or its profanity. Simply breathing in. Simply breathing in the entire universe of the moment. simply opening all the sense gates that everything that is is vibrant and met just as it is. This is the inhale. Sometimes it's taught that there's a precursor to this. It's somehow organizing an attentiveness, a stability of contact.

[16:29]

I would say right in the willingness of breathing in, contact is made. In the willingness of letting go, contact is sustained. Write in hovering between birth and death, between inhale and exhale, between exhale and inhale. Attention is sustained. This breath is not an abstract event. This breath is a physical event. It registers in the body. Each part of the breath has a characteristic.

[17:46]

Inhale, pause, exhale. Again, the mind offers an introduction. That's all. The willingness to engage when it's actualized creates its own stream of contact, its own continuous contact. The willingness to engage invites the body release its holding. Invites the mind to release its holding. It tutors the effort in that this is not a determined doing. This is an allowing. This is allowing being.

[18:49]

It's more about release, then direct, directing. So as we breathe like this, letting the body open up, letting the body release down, letting the body Discover the courage to not resist. You may call it the weather tree, but really it's just the tree preparing for spring. And then with the exhale, the letting go, the release, this is also a deep study, also revealing

[20:26]

Where is the body holding? Not to make holding the enemy, but just letting it be a point of contact where intimacy can be discovered. When we release, when there's non-holding and non-hindering, the contact deepens. We discover more about the intimacy of being. in this process which turns reality inside out. The substantiality of the particulars of our usual world melts.

[21:26]

Except when it doesn't. Except when we grasp it. And then we can hold it even intellectually. This is a construct of the moment. This is a stimulated arising. This is a version of reality of which there are an infinite number of versions. Leave it in. Because it's just simply part of conditioned existence. So like this.

[22:37]

As steadily, as continuously as you can. In this condition, Banzan, Basso's disciple, says, no things in the world. There's no fixed things in the world. So where's the problem? The Heart Sutra says. This sets the stage, this brings forth in our being pasadi and ease, as the Heart Sutra says, and the mind is no problem.

[23:51]

The mind is no hindrance. Mind initiates involvement in body breath, and body breath supports mind to open in a courageous freedom. There's no need to get busy creating a desirable, safe, We can start to explore the underpinnings that bring forth thought after thought, image after image.

[25:01]

We can start to support and stimulate the steadiness of ease that supports the equanimity that just lets each thing arise so be it lets each thing arise and when it comes with its accompanying emotions So be it. Breathe it in. Don't resist. Become one with. And let it go. Let it enter through every sense gate.

[26:08]

And let it flow with the exhale. This is what Banzan is pointing at. He's pointing at the point of initiation. that allows the Bodhisattva to explore Prajnaparamita. Not as an abstract concept, but as a lived reality. So as we enter more fully in decision to let this diligence become closer to devotion through our steady effort to let something shift

[27:36]

from something we're imposing on ourselves to something that's intrinsic in our being. And what could be more intrinsic than breathing? What could be more intrinsic than being a physical being? What can be more intrinsic than hearing and seeing and smelling and tasting and touching? This is the flavor, not just of this kind, but this is the very flavor of shikantaza. This is the very flavor of zazen. And as we engage in this way, the impulse of mind, the fragment,

[28:46]

attention to separate from. It's supported, it's eased by Pasadi. This and the mind is no hindrance. The impulse to find within this present moment the cause for dissatisfaction starts to ease. One of the challenges for us is to not turn that into an intellectual process. It's not the place of the intellect so much.

[29:55]

It's a lived process. It's an experience process. After Nangako and Vaso have their preliminary discussion around, Vaso says, oh, I'm sitting to become a Buddha. Nangaku says, it's not about a before and after. It's not about your version of reality will be fulfilled because of your intentional effort. It's about, Nangaku says, it's about immersion. You become immersed. being and in that immersion the nature of being becomes evident immersing in the inhale in the allowing immersing in the releasing

[31:13]

something beyond thinking in the process of her being facilitates Pasadi. And the okayness, the suchness of what is becomes evident. In more context, then just becomes evident, it becomes a felt experience. Not to say, as we engage this, there won't be moments when the issues of your psychological life rush forth with great authority. slightly and in some ways this opening facilitates them but when they can be invited into this intimate being there's an integration when they can be

[32:45]

experience deeply in the same territory of body and breath. This integration is facilitated. And as this stabilization, as this ease comes about continuous contact becomes closer, becomes more accessible. And the mind and its content become more evident just for what it is. Why use the mind and not a hindrance?

[33:49]

Because we start to see it for what it is. This is a thought about that. And look, that thought stimulates these feelings. And look, that registers in the body and in the breath. And look, that draws energy to it. And look, if the energy is sustained it grows. And if it's allowed to release with the exhale it falls away. great struggle about success or failure.

[34:52]

Whatever arises is now. This is breathing in. And for no good reason, I'm going to read another poem by Antonio Machado. Because of the simple term, blessed illusion. Antonio Machado was fascinated by the dream world. last night when I was sleeping last night while I was sleeping I dreamed blessed illusion a fountain flowed inside my heart water tell me by what hidden channel you come to me with the spring of new life I never drank last night

[36:19]

While I was sleeping, I dreamed blessed illusion. A fountain flowed inside my heart. Water, tell me by what hidden channel you came to me with the spring of new life I never drank. Last night, while I was sleeping, I dreamed blessed illusion. I had a beehive inside my heart. And from... My old bitterness, the golden bees, were contriving white combs and sweet honey. Last night, while I was sleeping, I dreamed. Blessed illusion. A fiery sun glowed inside my heart. It was fiery, giving off heat from a red fireplace. It was the sun throwing out light and made me weep.

[37:23]

Last night, while I was sleeping, I dreamed blessed illusion. It was God I held inside my heart. I almost changed that to Buddha nature, but I thought it is his poem. All the time while we sit, our fingernails grow. Our digestive system turns away. Our circulatory system, our respiratory system, countless varieties of microbes in our being. All this beyond our thinking.

[38:28]

All this an expression of being alive. All this determinedly knowing what it is to be. And in some mysterious way, the mind and its calculating and its thinking, the last one to get the message. This amazing world through extraordinary coincidence has come into being. And we walk through it in a dream.

[39:41]

Between living and the dream, there is another way. guess this is our precious opportunity not simply to guess but to investigate to intimately explore to not see set up some holy battle between presence and the activity of mind. But to allow this integration that not only shows the nature of mind, but helps us integrate

[40:54]

the workings, the characteristics of our own individual consciousness. This is the great gift of Pasadi. It sets a foundation. It's a very close ally to equanimity. That as each arising arises, it's met as itself. So be it. So again this morning we'll go outside and see. Watch. In the free form activity.

[41:58]

of walking? Does your mind race away endlessly? Does the very grind in sky and trees become invisible? Do the birds become silent? The dream between your ears taking charge. Can what arises through the sense doors support? Can it keep illustrating this vibrancy of being so persuasively that something in you can loosen its grip on feeling like I make reality?

[43:01]

And if I didn't, terrible, terrible things would happen. Maybe they wouldn't. And how will you ever know unless you take this great leap from the top of a hundred football Feel the next foot on the path and hear the next bird. And see a three-dimensional, full-colored world. living and a dream.

[44:03]

There's a third way. Guess. 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. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

[44:34]

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