this podcast is offered by san francisco zen center on the web at sfcc.org our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you good morning All Buddhicottagathas who transmit a wondrous dharma, actualizing, unsurpassable, complete awakening, have a wondrous art, supreme and unconditioned. Receptive samadhi is its mark. Only Buddhas transmit it to Buddhas without deviating.

[01:00]

Sitting upright, practicing Zen, is the authentic gate to free yourself in the unconfined realm of this samadhi. So there you go. Okay. Hmm. I hope, I hope, by now, that makes just some sense to you. In some ways, it seems just a little relevant to what's going on in Shashin. Because it follows on from there, it's a little bit like then the bad news. You always know bad news is coming when it starts with all low.

[02:05]

Although this inconceivable Dharma is abundant in each person, it is not manifest without practice. It is not experienced without realization. You know, there's an early sutta in the Pali Canon that talks about effort in relationship to mind. And when it gets down to it, it says, get in there like a wrestler wrestling with another fierce wrestler. Bring all your strength, all your exertion, and pin that mind to the floor like a wrestler would pin a wrestler.

[03:09]

And Thich Nhat Hanh was writing a commentary on this. He said, they dropped the rest of it. They dropped off the important part. The important part that they dropped was this. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. That wrestler's too strong. You just get exhausted and tired. And that's not the way. The way is the wondrous art. We return, we explore. we discover, we realize this wondrous art in noticing. The extraordinary thing about practice is it's so immediate.

[04:20]

It's so utterly available. It's so direct. It's so simple. And it's seemingly so incredibly difficult that when we turn it into a wrestling match, we lose. It's too big and too strong and knows too many good moves to be pinned on the floor. So is device, is strategy, is technique a waste of time? Maybe.

[05:25]

If technique, if device, if strategy come from dualistic mind. As it says in the sutras, it's trying to clean mud with mud. No matter how hard you scrub, there's still mud. Dualistic mind. There's something that should stop happening and there's something that should happen. The whole universe is involved in every moment. Who can possibly control it? And yet, the capacity to notice rather than struggle.

[06:29]

And Doga Zenji says, this is a wondrous art that's the key to practice. This is how each person in their endeavor to practice has discovered exactly, authentically, what it is to open the gate of liberation. Everybody is capable. When you release, your hands are full. When you speak, it fills your mind. Now, as our so-called life, according to me, is becoming a little looser and a little more dreamlike,

[07:44]

can start to be here. Now, that the end of Sashin is still far enough away that we know if we start to fixate on it, we'll just torture ourselves. Now, can settle into our new life. We can let our new life be timeless. This will go on forever. Or more exactly, when this moment is allowed to be itself, what happened before and what's going to happen after are not so relevant.

[09:17]

And all that comes here from before and after, can start to be seen. We enter through the three gates. Make your best effort in every moment. Blanche used the railings to pull herself up the stairs when those knees just wouldn't cooperate. And then I heard today that since they're not cooperating, her next strategy is go out Laguna Street, walk up the street, come in this door.

[10:18]

your best effort. You know, sometimes in the world of Zen it can seem a little anal to start saying, don't be late, do it exactly like this. But it's an encouragement, it's a support to bring forth your best effort. We create the surround of wholesome activity. That which stimulates within us. Yes. That which helps us not to get entangled in, is this what I want?

[11:30]

Would I rather be somewhere else? Is that person over there doing it right? Those thoughts, when they're real, when they're defining what's happening, they dissipate our focus. They dissipate our capacity to attend to now. They distract this from noticing. The way of Zen is something like this. Make your best effort, the first dragon's gate. Say yes to everything. The second dragon gate. Be what is.

[12:34]

The third. And then the Dharma unfolds like this. Being what is, it's seen as impermanent. seen as a combination of factors, causes and conditions. Sign of a sneeze. An idea associated with an auditory experience. Maybe what gets associated with it is a judgment. For a person, I hope they're okay.

[13:38]

Why did they do that? They're not a good Zen student. The conditioned nature of existence. Always ready to bring something into concrete. reified being. As it's held in the light of attention, it's seen as more fluid. It's seen as more circumstantial of the moment. The very habituated processes that we go through start to become evident. quite soon after I woke up this morning, I thought of something. And in noticing the thinking, it was like that thought had a shape, had a weight, had a familiarity.

[14:54]

A familiarity that I don't particularly like. So as we start to see the characteristics, usually what arises defines reality. What I think is reality. As we start to settle and bring more attention, what I think starts to be what I think. It starts to be the substance of now. With just a passing glance, no big deal.

[16:03]

So what? What's interesting? What's exciting? What's going to get me? Whatever it is I hope to get. with more attention, it starts to reveal itself. Not only as what's happening in the moment, but it starts to reveal itself as the very process of how things come into being and the very process of how we get stuck. Or don't. This is the wondrous art. And although we're in the midst of this all the time, we don't realize it unless we practice.

[17:12]

We don't awaken unless awareness, attention is brought to meet that. We're habituated to a process that's something like, well, when the moment is the way I want it to be, then I'll be present. After lunch, in the courtyard, on my break, when the sun's shining, when my body feels a little more at ease and my mind's alert and relaxed. Then, bring it on. Sometimes those moments are very, very helpful.

[18:29]

Those moments, something cracks open and there's a vividness. And you realize the authority of presence can express itself just with the cooler touching your skin. just with the sheen of the sunlight shining on the tatami. There can be a glimpse of liberation just watching, noticing and watching, oh, the way that came to mind, the way that started to take shape, that repetition of a well-rehearsed piece of personal theater. Conditioned existence is starting to show in that moment the characteristic of shunyata, emptiness, impermanent, arising through conditions and related to existence.

[19:52]

That's how it has its relevance. And when we can look a little deeper, we see that that relevance comes up in relationship to the characteristics of it. And when we see through that Profined okayness. It's just what it is. Maybe my mind's inclined to judge it good or bad, success or failure. Maybe my mind's inclined to have it boost my self-esteem, deflate my self-esteem. just the play of conditioned existence.

[21:01]

The gate of liberation is wide open. So the request, the challenge, the opportunity Now, in the heart of Sashin, to let something ripen, to let the request of practice not only be more resonant with our effort, to let the experience of the moment start to have more authority than our ideas about practice.

[22:12]

Letting the experience have more authority than our ideas about practice. Our ideas bring us close. They got us here. Our ideas bring us to our cushion. Help us take our posture. Help us bring forth the intention and resolve. Entering into just this. As we pass through the third dragon's gate, let it be what it is. So each time we sit down to do a Zazen, we pass through all three gates. We arouse the intention.

[23:14]

Make your best effort. We arouse the willingness. Say yes to everything. allow that intention and willingness to ripen into experiencing. And after you do this a hundred thousand times, two, three hundred thousand times, it starts to feel and be a little more familiar. After you watch yourself veer to the left, veer to the right, turn it back into a competition.

[24:20]

Turn it back into success or failure. After you watch yourself veer off into the urgencies of your stories. To gently, deliberately Come back. Now, as we start to sit, present for the inhale, present for the pause, present for the exhale. Present for the physical sensations. Present for the sound of the traffic.

[25:27]

We start to get the message. The Dharma is not some exotic story about an existence far away from what's happening here, in this body, in this breath, in this mind. The Dharma completely applies to what's happening in this body and breath and mind. How you move your legs when they're uncomfortable. what arises? Is there a sense of failure? Is there a sense of agitation? Is there a careful attending to noticing when the knee is lifted the distress, the discomfort dissipates and the breath softens?

[26:48]

And as the breath softens, the body softens. And as the breath and the body soften, the mind softens. The pace of our involvement in what we're doing slows down a notch. comes more exacting not through demand, not through coercion or compliance, but more about surrendering to what's happening. It's like surrendering to the experience of the breath in the body.

[28:05]

Surrendering to letting the breath breathe the body. Surrendering to the nagging sensation behind your left shoulder blade. The unpleasant tangling in your right knee during a long period. we can listen, maybe with bemusement, maybe with puzzlement, or maybe with deep appreciation to the words of the Dharma.

[29:16]

Although this inconceivable Dharma is abundant in each person, it's not manifest without practice. It's not experienced without realization. When you release, it fills your hands. How could it be limited by one or many? When you speak, it fills your mouth. It is not bounded by height or width. All Buddhas continuously abide in this. And do not leave traces of consciousness about where they are. Sentient beings, those terrible sentient beings, sentient beings continuously move about in this Dharma.

[30:26]

But where they are is not clear. in their consciousness. Now, which are we? Are we those gorgeous Buddhas or those awful, awful sentient beings? Well, we're both. And the practice, in a way, Quite straightforward. In a gentle, persistent way, don't run off with your habit energy. In a gentle, persistent way, open up to the experience of the moment.

[31:28]

again and again and again. As Dogen's teacher said, Ruji, he said, it's like carving the cave of emptiness out of the mountain substantiality it would be lovely if we just stopped thinking and feeling it would be lovely if the things

[32:45]

that naive at us and annoy us from the past and the future, magically turned into lotus blossoms. It would be lovely if our bodies were simply fountains of liquid energy. Until that happens, we'll just practice with the Dharma of Zaza. This deep willingness to sit in the middle of the life that's presenting itself right here. Just bring your best posture.

[33:52]

And when you can't hold it any longer, move. Don't move in anticipation of not being able to hold it. Don't grit it out, tightening, getting into that wrestling match. You're not going to win. bringing the non-dual mind. Nothing to gain. Nothing to accomplish. The noticing. The willingness to be what is. To say yes to everything. And the wondrous art is

[34:56]

Resolute commitment to attention, directed attention, and bindless opening to whatever arises. It's an art. It's rediscovered in each moment of awareness. It's experiential learning. It's not simply what you've figured out, what ideas you've held over, from what you've read or heard. They'll bring us close. They've brought us to the fourth Dev Shashin. And now, to let what arises, the experiences you have, Let them become the teacher.

[36:02]

It's a little bit like practicing from the inside out. Listening to the body carefully and discovering posture. It's like when you do yoga stretches. Your mind has some idea. You know, I'd be offering a particular asana, and I'd say something like, okay, and this is the more advanced way to do it. Then everybody does the more advanced way. I guess we're all advanced yogis. But actually, yoga is just like every other aspect of our practice. It starts with the basics. And we're always at the start. It's always beginner's mind. It's always posture and breath and willingness to experience what is.

[37:14]

But our mind wants to take over. Oh, I'm going to stretch this far. Or I'm going to do this. And what happens? You trick yourself. You move your hip a little to make that happen. You move it a little out of alignment so the stretch, the twist, is a little easier to do. We think, I'll just move my body like this. around my shoulders a little like this. Sorry, but your best effort, your best posture. Okay, you won't accomplish so much.

[38:25]

but it never had anything to do with accomplishing anything. As we settle in, it's like we're starting over. Okay, the BS is over. all the fussing. Now, something quieter. Now, something more steady, continuous. And what do we start to see? We start to see the glimmers

[39:28]

of liberation, and we start to see the knots, the entanglements, the habituations of mind and emotion. And to hold them with extraordinary patience. That they too can be timeless. but they too can be met and experienced with yes. The very nature of our habit formations is contraction, is grasping. Meeting them with patience, meeting them with kindness, meeting them with compassion is what helps that contraction. that reification to start to loosen.

[40:39]

This wondrous subtle art starts to reveal itself. And we start to see it's not simply liberation. confinement, it's also liberation from suffering. That we're blessed by being Buddhas and sentient beings. We glimpse the bangles, And we discover how more fully, how more compassionately to be the human being that we are. How to hold more tenderly the quivering of a human heart.

[41:48]

of fear and anxiety and despair and yearning that move through so easily. Although this inconceivable dharma is abundant in every person, It's not manifest without practice. It's not experienced without realization. When you release, it fills your hands. How could it be limited? When you speak, it fills your mouth. It's not bounded by length or width. Buddhas continuously abide. And don't leave choices.

[43:09]

Sentient beings continuously move about. And it's not clear to them where they are. The concentrated endeavor of the way I'm speaking of allows things to come forth. that they may practice going beyond and letting go. Passing through the barrier of dualism, dropping off limitations, how could you be hindered by the concepts or theories the ideas and judgments. So, there you go.

[44:14]

That's what Dogen has to say. Ah. Isn't life amazing? Can you imagine when you were four years old saying, oh, and then when I grow up, I'm going to go somewhere and sit until my knees hurt like crazy. My back aches. I'm determinedly doing nothing and can't stop doing everything. And yet here you are, and it all seems like a good idea. Suzuki Roshi said, we should take practice seriously, but not too seriously.

[45:31]

We're going to do what we do. We're all going to go down there and involve ourselves in the causes and conditions of our individuated consciousness. And that extraordinary being that is within us that brought us here. that stirs up within us an incredible, sincere dedication. In the midst of all the palaver of a human life brings forth that superb effort. What a gift that we should be so lucky.

[46:40]

How many ways we could have wandered off, caused ourselves and others a whole lot more suffering than we have caused ourselves and others. to return to return. Until now starts to feel and appear as abiding, as an available experience. This is the steady, continuous activity in the heart of Sushi.

[47:51]

On your cushion in Kinhin, while we eat, while we work, while you sit and relax on your break, while your mind is settled, while your mind is distracted. while you're grateful, while you're resentful. This is the opportunity we have. 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, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:57]

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