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. There's an image in the Bible. Um, I was going to say Joshu, Jonah. I was going to say, Joshu got swallowed by a whale. That Bible hasn't been written yet, as far as I know. Jonah gets swallowed by a whale for 40 days, and the whale is deep in the ocean. This is what we hope for ourselves in Shashin.

[01:00]

That we are immersed. We're immersed in being immersed. And that it has almost like a womb-like quality to it. in that not knowing, in that intensity of coming apart something original, something new comes into being. And as Dogen Senju says, and this process is beyond perception. Don't figure it out. It's not the product of what you've skillfully strategized, implemented, and accomplished.

[02:09]

Thank goodness. You know, this style of practice that we're doing, someone came and said to me, Well, I read a book, and in the book it talked about establishing a nimitta, and that nimitta became the singular object of attention, and through that process, absorption was developed. Jano. Yeah, that's not what we're doing. One way you can say it is that the single-pointedness, the focusing on a single object, and the receptive consciousness, the continuous contact,

[03:30]

integrating they're moving back and forth this single contact helps us cut through it helps us cut through the way we have established a definition of reality earlier I was saying you know coding Antonio Machado you know there's this dream and there's something called living. This live, dynamic, incomprehensible event cannot be held within our comprehension. So the one-pointedness cuts through. Attend carefully to any particular experience, it becomes phenomena, and the phenomena is just the aggregate of the senses and the skandhas.

[04:36]

And then the continuous contact is the abundance and dynamic nature of existence. It's always in motion. It's always formulating and unformulating. It's always setting forth a particular and then the particular unfolds. And then in Shashin we invite an intensification of that process. As if we weren't in enough trouble already, we go looking for more. We immerse.

[05:48]

A particular form of absorption is to allow ourselves to be directed, to be contained, by the schedule of Shashin. We give over. And it allows us to not know. In a way, it allows us to not even care. You sit there and all sorts of experiences happen. Fortunately, sooner or later, someone will ring the bell. You'll stand up and do the next thing. This is Joshu's, this monk does not abide in clarity.

[06:58]

This monk is not determinedly mapping out what should happen. creating a strategy for making it happen, and then diligently engaging that strategy. Determinedly, clear-headedly. It's immersion. This is how we... renounce what we're clinging to, you know, renounce the way we explicitly and implicitly create reality and hold onto it, even in the expression of our visceral arisings, those deep-seated emotions.

[08:00]

For some reason, my mind went to neuroendocrinology. I was looking for... So the endocrine system is the glands that secrete neurochemicals, the hormones, the adrenaline, the dopamine, the serotonin. you know when you look at the human organism from this place you realize we don't stand a chance some incredible workings our physicality bringing forth these neurochemicals delighting us, dismaying us, energizing us, deflating us.

[09:11]

We don't stand a chance in terms of figuring them out. As far as we know at this point. But the amazing and marvelous thing about staying present is we can experience how they manifest in the moment. But to do this, this immersion is very, very helpful. We immerse in the experience of now. We live according to its arisings.

[10:19]

When we separate from it, when we return to the constructed world, some valuable, extraordinary, essential information about living is obscured. this is just the fact of it so when Joshua says this a monk does not abide in clarity it's like one of those Zen tricks what's implied in that statement is this monk stays present this monk meets once arising tension and awakeness. This monk, as Dogen Zenji says in Jiju Yuzamai, is practicing unconstructedness in stillness.

[11:28]

The mind is not busy constricting its reality, judging, understanding assessing its own constructs. That formulation takes our energy. That formulation distracts us from the basic aliveness. So now we are in the belly of this great whale called sashim, right in the middle. And the challenge for each of us is to stay absorbed within it, to be immersed in it. Whatever arises, whatever your neuroendocrinology

[12:43]

decides to serve up today. So be it. I sincerely hope it's not too painful and in a way I sincerely hope it's not too easily accommodated to. It's a delicate balance. If it's too painful, we get agitated and distressed. If it's too serene, we just float along. Maybe get a little smug or arrogant. You know, it's like, I'm doing really well. I've got this Zen thing covered. And can we stay with the basics in a way that they keep us honest?

[13:57]

No. We don't get too agitated. We don't get too complacent. And usually when we do that, All hell breaks loose. Someone said to me yesterday, said, and here I am on the third day and I'm still busy fantasizing. Amazing. this deep, powerful drive within us. I don't like this reality. I am going to create my own. Okay. Understandable.

[15:02]

But to turn the light inward and see the drive. to see the particular of what's created. Okay, if you were master of or mistress of the universe, what would it be like? Okay. Whatever arises is the con of the moment. As we establish the ease, as we establish the equanimity, the matter-of-factness of what's arising allows the particularity of it to be more evident. What would be the point?

[16:13]

in condemning or condoning. Who needs to know? What is the point of trying to step out of this cauldron of existence that we are inextricably part of? We're as much part of it as if We were in the belly of a whale and that whale was at the bottom of the ocean. This is Joshu's, this monk does not abide in clarity. Can you let yourself be part of everything? sort of extraordinary permission to be.

[17:18]

I've been talking about this can be supported with the inhale. The initiation of each inhale can be a moment of pause, and coming back to awareness. The initiation of each exhale can be a moment of pause and coming back to awareness. This is the exacting practice that keeps us honest. It keeps a brightness in consciousness. so that it doesn't sink. In the unformulated existence, in the unformulated consciousness, the danger is it becomes an amorphous dream.

[18:27]

And just swirling around in uncharted waters, and the mind has lost its clarity. And then that dream can take on a dreamlike quality. That dream can take on a different kind of construct. Instead of constructing our usual world, we construct the more mysterious world. of our usual dreaming. The more usual mysterious world of our usual dreaming. So the pause and contact keeps consciousness from sinking like that.

[19:41]

The pause and the contact helps keep creating A brightness. Contacting the particular, the phenomena of the moment brightens the mind. So even though we say, oh, not knowing, unconstructedness, the mind that apprehends it is bright. It's attentive. It's alert. It's not swamped in an amorphous state. In a way, it's open to being amazed and delighted by the phenomenal world. This is the great gift of G.G.U.

[20:52]

Zamai. To be open to being amazed and delighted. So it's not that we develop a nimitta, an internal spark that's like the crystallization of concentration. But there is a particularity, and it's important to remember that. Shukantaza just sitting is not sloppy. In some ways, it's the most demanding thing a human being can do.

[21:55]

Attending carefully the consciousness moment after moment. When we study the process, we will continually be taught. evermore about the body. We will be taught evermore about the breath. These are endless teachers. But it has no particular goal. This is its great liberation it has an complete trust in the process so as we enter into the belly of she she we invite ourselves we invite every single part of ourselves to enter into this immersion

[23:19]

enter into this intimacy. And to let the intimacy be met moment after moment. We discover the energy of the body. We discover how the breath can purify. We discover how the breath can hold up consciousness and keep it bright through this attending to the movement of breath and the movement of mind.

[24:23]

We discover how the normal version of reality can be a Dharmagate. It's not a hindrance, it's just an expression of what is. how does it appear one way and not another? Joshua says, the why is not so helpful. In the process of design, figuring it out is not so helpful. Maybe later.

[25:33]

You can read exciting stories of neuroendocrinology. They are fascinating. You know, they're as intriguing as any Greek mythology. Great dragons to be slain. Great hardships to overcome. Finding your way back. to your original home. Okay. And now, young man. Young man put it like this. He said, holding up this very piece of stick he said this staff has become a dragon swallowing heaven and earth what is there to rely on what is there to stand on

[26:57]

The steadiness of practice. The staff. You know, the staff, the pilgrim has as they walk on the path, on the great pilgrimage. Steadily, we enter deeper into Shishin. We enter deeper into the uncharted territories. of our own being. We enter into the uncharted territories of being alive in a different way, with all life. We see the tree that we've seen so many times, but this time we see it in a way that we've never seen it before. remarkable in our moments of insight.

[28:17]

We have an insight into something that we've probably seen or experienced many times before. But in that moment of insight, we see something we never saw before. Because the dragon has swallowed We can't manufacture this original being out of our determination. Can we manufacture fantasy? I wonder. from the genius of our creativity we enter this uncharted territory

[29:35]

We bring everything to this place. Until the steadiness of our practice becomes a dragon that transforms. The magical part of a dragon is that it can not only swim in the water, walk on the land, it can also fly in the air. It is not bound by any fixed way of being. In our conditioned existence, oh, whenever this happens, I always get frightened, get agitated, get filled with desire, pull back, push forward. In this original being, it invents itself in the moment.

[30:58]

So the steadiness, the preciseness of our practice blossoms into liberation. But the steadiness, the preciseness of our practice is the steady heartbeat that keeps the practice alive. We never discard it. Each time we return to just this. And this transformation is mysterious. Sometimes we need to do battle with the things we've constructed in our own minds and hearts and said we need to do battle with them.

[32:15]

We need to live out our great foolishness to see maybe there's another way. Maybe I don't have to do this. Sometimes we just exhale and everything's forgiven. mysterious. It's not cause for sloppiness or lack of diligence. It's just Joshua saying, this monk does not depend upon having figured it all out.

[33:19]

So in this style of practice, most likely in Sishin, you will have all sorts of states of consciousness. Clarity, unclarity, sharp and strong, dull and weak. all the abundant energy of immersion. There's a koan where the teacher asks a monk, he says, what are you up to? I'm on pilgrimage.

[34:28]

I'm just doing a steady practice. And the teacher says, how is it going? And he says, I have no idea. The teacher says, just like that, this is the way. your mind is filled with fantasy how amazing your mind is bright and clear and your body feels like a stream of energy and when the bell rings to end the period something in you goes no could happen Good.

[35:45]

Can something relax, release through granting a great permission? Whatever's gonna come up, is going to come up there's no need to sit here wording will it all happen just the way it should who could possibly prescribe what should happen This is Jiji Uzamai. This permission, this willingness, this not holding the energy back, not directing the energy into controlling, and letting it be available for the steady process of practice.

[36:56]

And as this energy becomes available, if we think of the seven factors of awakening, Poseidon sets the stage for concentration and equanimity. And that steady practice transforms. The staff becomes a dragon. And it's not like it gives you something to hold on to. Okay, now I've got it. Now I've accomplished it. This state of mind, this insight will last for everything, last forever. clarify everything. No. The process.

[38:10]

We engage the process and the way unfolds. Dogenzenji says, leaping clear of grasping, leaping clear of trying to annihilate it with emptiness. They come together. there's nowhere to stand in the words of young men but the world appears magically every moment one way or another and then after forty days and forty nights Jonah

[39:31]

comes out of the well, arrives back on land. There's nothing like a good story. So just to say, I remember hearing the Dalai Lama give a talk on the function of familiarity in the process of insight. The gist of it was something like this. Think about when you hear a foreign language for the first time. You hear garbled sound. Unfamiliar.

[40:34]

utterances you continually listen and something becomes evident you start to hear a familiar phrase a familiar signed a pattern of science this is also the steadiness of our practice you keep examining this uncharted territory, and you learn how to recognize, how to notice, how to work with. You attend to the subtle particularities of the body and they become more evident in how they are, in what they are. bring your attention back to adjusting the posture from the inside.

[41:38]

And you learn skillfulness. It's not helpful to grasp it. That will always adjust my posture just right. unlikely that will always settle my mind or clarify my mind or just in the skillfulness of now attending with this awareness we explore appropriate response This is how Joshu sets the stage. Don't waste your energy holding on.

[42:45]

Don't waste your energy figuring out. Attend to the particulars. As we attend, something becomes evident. But we don't grasp it. We give over to it. When the body sits as in, not ruled by the dictates of mind, something blossoms. When the breath breathes the body, something blossoms. When the mind is invited to the party and is allowed to just be the workings of consciousness, something blossoms.

[43:52]

Like this. And how many times will we grasp it? How many times will we put it inside an understanding? How many times will our, will the constructs of our consciousness distract us? Can, with each one, can it just be breathed in? Just be breathed out. Can Zazen become timeless? Can the commitment be like that? Can there be no inside and outside?

[44:58]

This is the jhana of sushin. This is the absorption of sushin. This is where every arising is the nimitta of the moment. Thank you. 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 SSCC.org and click Giving.

[45:50]

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