I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. It's kind of foggy and cold this morning. It's a good morning to stay inside. So how did we get here? Here we are. We let go of our jobs for a little while and our families for a little while.

[01:03]

We brought ourselves to this place. And why did we do that? Maybe we did it because we want to find out what Buddhism is. Maybe we did it because we want to find out more about ourselves. We did it. Nobody else did it. And so we're here. And maybe we don't know what we're getting ourselves into. But something brought us to this room.

[02:06]

And we should have some kind of honor or faith that whatever it is that happens can't be all that bad. So we have this place that we're able to do this in. And we're kind of lucky we found it. That this is a place where we can, we can settle down and be quiet. So what are we going to be doing anyway?

[03:11]

Well one of the things that we've figured out is that to sit this way helps to make us calm, helps to calm us down so that we can see more clearly. And every time we come to sit down we can sit down a new way. Okay. So I'd like to encourage you when you come to your cushion to sit down that you find a way to be comfortable and rooted. The reason why we sit this way with either our feet on the ground and our spine straight or our knees on the ground and our spine straight on a pillow is because this is the easiest

[04:24]

way for our bodies to experience ease. So when we do go to sit down it is really important for our spines to be straight because with our spines straight we are alive to everything. So you may want to readjust your sitting when you first sit down to make sure that you feel like your spine is straight. Okay. You can come to a new period and maybe try something new.

[05:35]

And with the back of your spine your head is connected to the top so it's good to keep that energy there as if you're supporting the sky with it. These things that I'm telling you already know and it just feels good to be able to say them again because this is what we're doing. And so when you sit straight, lots of things you could remember to do, for instance your ears. When I sit, I only recently, like two periods ago, realized how important it is for my ears to be over my shoulders because it helps your spine to stay straight.

[06:48]

When I put my ears this way my spine is not straight. I'm not sitting up straight. So I put your ears over your shoulders. And your eyes should be awake, that's what they say, and we all know what it's like when our eyes are closed or when our eyes are wandering around. So our eyes should be slightly opened and not focused on anything but gazing ahead two

[07:50]

or three feet ahead or if you're right in front of a wall, downcast slightly and not focusing on anything. And the chin is another thing that helps you to be aware of your chin because you can see what happens when your chin is up in the air or when your chin is tucked in and your head is lifted upward. You seem to have more energy when you do that. And if you're sitting on a zafu and your knees can't touch the futon, then you need probably to put something under your knees so that they will not be dangling in the air.

[08:54]

This will be a help to you to be grounded. And your hands you can pay attention to because when you make the mudra of a mind coming person your fingertips can lightly touch and it takes energy to do that. If you don't pay attention, the fingertips can separate or they can peak together and it can become tense. So there's a whole lot of things that we get to pay attention to. The reason for that is that this is the gift that we give ourselves to get to know ourselves.

[09:59]

So we put this form on that makes it so easy for us to get to know ourselves on the most basic level. And you can watch how your body is. And we can do this every time we sit down to zazen, but now we have five long days to do it. And some people haven't done this before. You may not know what you're getting yourselves into.

[11:01]

And I want to say that this is an intimate time for you to be with yourself for five days, every moment, every last moment. This is a really rare opportunity. And you are here and maybe you don't know that, that this is what's going to happen to you. This is going to be intimate for five days. There's not going to be any running away. And actually to set your mind at ease, it's much easier to stay with it than to run away

[12:14]

from it. That's what's called wasting time. The important thing that I wanted to say about sitting like this is that you already come to this place knowing something about yourself and hopefully willing to find out more that you don't know about yourself. What it takes is energy that you know that you have and some that you know, but you don't,

[13:19]

you don't know that you have. And it also takes love of yourself. It takes some gentleness about yourself that you have. So with this energy and this ease or familiarity or gentleness about yourself, you can sustain the very difficult, possibly, and possibly things have already come up, especially towards

[14:38]

the end of the day or the second or third day you'll get very, maybe possibly get very tired and discouraged. This is why you are here. This is the whole point for you to see that. This is a great thing if you can get to that space because you get to see how you are when these things come up. And to wiggle around, try to get through it, but in the most minimal way, you're missing an opportunity to just be there with it. So, we do this because we get to do this sitting concentration, this zazen, because we've

[16:04]

learned how to do what's right in front of us. We learn how to be present in whatever we do. So, not only sitting, in not only sitting do we see ourselves and use our energy and our gentleness, but in standing and doing Kinyin, for instance. To pay attention to how you do Kinyin is a way that you can continue the feeling and you can receive and give off energy.

[17:07]

One of the things in Kinyin that I remember that helps me to have energy is when my hands are, I pay attention to my hands and just people tend to be tired maybe and just to bring your hands up a little bit and pay attention to that and keep them out a ways. And also it's a wonderful thing to be able to take care of yourself by keeping yourself clean and brushing your teeth and washing your feet. It gives you a lot of good energy to do these kinds of things. Now, I know that it may seem that it's very serious today, heavy, and that's because

[18:33]

it's a chance for people. It's a different way to be. It's a different way to be able to let us all focus on ourselves. So, I would like to encourage you not to run away from yourselves and be constant. So, whatever comes up for you, whatever you see, oh, I see I'm acting this way. Oh, I see that I'm tired. Oh, I see that this happened and I caused this to happen. That you try to look at it possibly as being a dark, dark, black sky where things can come

[19:51]

up and disappear like a flash of lightning. So, when you interact with other people during Sashin, just remember, bring yourself back to yourself and try again, over and over again. Let go of your thoughts. So, we're going to find out what the meaning of our lives are all about.

[20:56]

To find this out, we can find out how to be in our everyday lives. And to do Zazen, we can become aware of the meaning of our life. And if we can persevere and stay with it moment after moment, we will gain an understanding that will help us in our everyday lives. You may not think that what you're doing is very important and you may finish Sashin

[22:02]

and leave Zen Center and forget about this. But the truth is that people are affected by you and your practice. And you may never know that. But I want to tell you that it is true. And I hope that you all can embrace each other, embrace yourselves, and enjoy yourselves

[23:05]

and be gentle with yourselves and push yourselves a little bit and take good care and good luck. Thank you very much. We are intention.

[23:25]

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