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. It's a joy and an honor to be with all of you here today, whether you are in person, in the Buddha Hall, or online, in that other related Dharma realm. Seems like the numbers are growing. It's lovely to see. I want to begin this morning with a well-known story, a Zen story, which is included in Dogen Zenji's Shinji Shobu Genzo. And the title is Nanyue Polishes a Tile. And for those of you who may not know, Dogen Zenji is considered the founder of this particular school of Soto Zen, Japanese Zen.

[01:03]

And Dogen starts by giving a little context to set the stage before the main exchange of the story. So Zen master Mazu, otherwise known as Baso in Japanese, was an attendant to Nanue, also known as Nangaku in Japanese, and personally received the mind seal from him, exceeding his peers. Before that, he lived in Kaiyuan Monastery and did zazen all day long. Knowing that Mazu was a Dharma vessel, Nanue went to him and asked, Great monastic, what do you intend by doing zazen? And Mazu said, I'm intending to be a Buddha. Nanue then picked up a roof tile, sometimes it's described as a brick, that was laying around and started polishing it.

[02:09]

Mazu, maybe slightly distracted by the noise of Nanue's polishing or what's going on here, said, what are you doing? And Nanue said, I'm trying to make a mirror. Mazu said, How can you make a mirror by polishing a tile? And Nanyue replied, How can you become a Buddha by doing zazen? Mazu said, What do you mean by that? And Nanyue said, Think about driving a cart. When it stops moving, do you whip or strike the cart? or the ox. Mazu said nothing. Nanyue then said, Do you want to practice sitting Zen or sitting Buddha? If you understand sitting Zen, you will know that Zen is not about sitting or lying down.

[03:16]

If you want to learn sitting Buddha, know that sitting Buddha, is without any fixed form. Do not use discrimination in the non-abiding dharma. If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha. If you are attached to the sitting form, you are not yet mastering the essential principle. Mazu heard this admonition and felt as if he had tasted sweet nectar," according to Dogen. Whether or not this is sweet nectar to you, or it's something perhaps a little bit bitter, I think there is still something for all of us to savor in this, and so I'd like to explore this particular nectar with you all today. Zazen is the practice of being a Buddha without seeking to become a Buddha.

[04:29]

Zazen as the practice of being a Buddha is already sufficient and complete in itself. We do not do zazen to make an extra effort of becoming a Buddha. Zazen is already the complete practice of a Buddha when we fully embrace the direct experience of this very body-mind. Therefore, what need is there to add the intention of becoming a Buddha to Zazen, as if Zazen was the cause of one becoming a Buddha? Buddha is before Zazen, during zazen, and after zazen. So zazen, you might think, is simply the verification that nothing more needs to be sought or gained or added to what we are in this moment.

[05:39]

Just sit. Only by actually sitting zazen, wholeheartedly, whole-beingly, can we go beyond the intention and ideas we might have about zazen. Like the monk Mazu in this story I just shared with you, a number of us are attending this talk or engaged in sitting zazen all day long. And perhaps some of us are sitting intending to become a Buddha. Anyone here intending to become a Buddha? Oh, no one's going to put their hand up. Ah, you know that, huh? Okay, and maybe some of you are just intending to sit, just to sit. Anyone? Oh, a few, okay, okay, see. So either way, those of us who are doing the day-long sitting...

[06:42]

We began at 5.30 this morning, and we're going to go until 6.30 this evening. And, you know, you've got to ask yourself, now someone is choosing to get up at the crack of dawn, particularly on a Saturday, thank you very much, when most of us would like to sleep in, and sit for approximately altogether a total of seven hours, solid, as I said, throughout the day. You've got to figure there's a good reason for doing this, right? Or why would people do it? Why would you spend your time sitting around all day in a dark room facing a wall? Why? And inherent in the situation, whenever we participate in a day-long sitting like this or a week-long sitting, you know, sometimes our shashines are seven days or more, right? It's the suggestion that we're aiming for something. You know, there's some kind of reward or some kind of payoff that that can be achieved with all this enormous effort we're making, even though it's often kind of unpleasant and perhaps a little boring effort.

[07:49]

So what do you think you're going to get out of all this sitting? Enlightenment? Some kind of insight? Maybe a more peaceful mind? Maybe some stress reduction? what do you think you're going to get from all this sitting? Why is it that you engage in Zen practice, and particularly in Zazen and meditation? What is your intention in doing so? Zen Jeweth and Emmanuel gave a beautiful talk on Wednesday where she, one of the questions, things she invited us to do, was to consider, what is our intention? So even after decades of practice, Even when we know that Zen meditation is not about achieving a particular goal or a state of mind, we might recognize, maybe with a certain chagrin, that we still have some idea about what our meditation practice should be like, and that we're going to get something out of all this sitting.

[09:04]

I recently had dinner. with a good friend who is a long-time Dharma practitioner, though in a different Buddhist tradition than Zen. And we were sharing with each other how we're doing and what it is that we're practicing with. This is something that Zen folks commonly do. I don't know if you hang around a lot, Zen folks, but as you practice, what's going on, right? How are you relating to it? How are you meeting it? And my friend mentioned that due to... dealing with painful relationship and family issues that are going on for him right now, he was experiencing a great deal of agitation and restlessness. And he said as a result, he was avoiding his sitting practice. And as we spoke, he came to recognize that he had the idea that sitting practice shouldn't be full of agitation and restlessness. Right? So in other words, he had a subtle goal or an expectation of how his meditation should be that actually kept him from finding refuge in the sitting practice.

[10:16]

I don't know if you've ever had that experience. Like, I don't feel like sitting today because I don't want to sit with what's going on in my mind body. I just don't want to bear with it. So we might use... That is a reason for not sitting. And I think many of us, it's safe to say, have come to meditation practice. We began a meditation practice, you know, began Zazen and Zen, somehow with the idea that all of our suffering and our difficulties will go away, you know, maybe after one or two periods, right? And then we sit down and we experience how much, you know, We get some Zazen instruction and we're told, okay, do it like this, just sit there, be with your experience. And then we experience much of actually the same pain and emotional turmoil and desire and boredom that we were experiencing before we began a sitting practice.

[11:17]

What's up with that? And perhaps we're thinking we're doing something wrong in our Zazen. That our Zazen It should be different. Isn't it supposed to be a bliss field? Am I supposed to be levitating a few inches off of my cushion because everything's just so wonderful? And then, of course, we get disappointed at some point. And we go to maybe a practice instructor, a teacher, go, what am I doing wrong? But in time, as we stay with practice, stay with zazen, we discover that zazen doesn't make our suffering or our problems go away. And if you're new to practice, this is the first time you're hearing this talk, I'm so sorry to tell you that. But I think it's good that someone tells you before you get too invested. But it does help us to find a way to be more skillful and compassionate with our problems, our suffering, when we do experience them.

[12:26]

when they do arise, how to be with in a way that doesn't perpetuate the suffering. In his Shabu Genzo, which is translated as The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, Dogen Zenshi wrote a fascicle, an essay titled Zazen Shen, in which he includes in comments on the aforementioned exchange between nanyue and mazu. And the title, za means sitting, and zen is derived from the Chinese word chan, which is in turn derived from the Sanskrit word jhana, jhana, which means meditation, concentration, or contemplation. And shin is a bamboo noodle that's used for acupuncture in ancient China. That was the name of it. Some of the ways that Zazen-shin is translated include the acupuncture needle of Zazen, the lancet of seated meditation, or simply the point of Zazen.

[13:37]

And Buddhist teaching is often called medicine because it's meant to heal the sickness or disease caused by the three poisonous states of greed, hate, and delusion. So the basic meaning? of the title Zazen Shin, is that Zazen is an acupuncture needle to address and heal the root cause of our fundamental suffering. Zazen can support us to return to our natural, inherent state of well-being. John Dider-Lori, the Zen teacher, late Zen teacher, Commenting on Zazen, Shin writes the following. He says, Just as with healing, Zazen is understood as a process for returning to our original self, a self that is originally perfect and complete and lacking nothing. This perfection is not something to attain.

[14:45]

It's something that we are all born with and that we die with. whether we realize it or not. We may go through life suffering from illness, but our original healthy nature is there, hidden. Sickness is no different from the delusion at the source of our suffering. And the reason we suffer is because we don't understand the true nature of the universe or ourselves. Does that seem like the root of your suffering? Not understanding the true nature of yourself or the universe? So Zazen functions as an acupuncture needle, one that heals the body and mind. I love acupuncture.

[15:48]

I go like twice a month, you know, I find it very beneficial. you know, laying there. And so as the needle, it touches, touches the skin, it enters, it encounters the place where the energy is blocked in the body-mind or the philosophy, get the energy, get the chi flowing, right? And then that needle helps the energy to flow again. So the question is, where is the block or the constriction or the holding back of your being in your body-mind, of your energy flowing throughout your body-mind? Not just in your body-mind, but in your life in general. Is there some form of blockage or resistance or struggle against or within the flow of your life? Something you perhaps can't let go of?

[16:50]

something you're fighting against, some truth that you're denying? And how might it be to engage zazen in a way that something's released and that the energy is allowed to flow again? And the entry point to zazen is And this is whether or not you're engaging zazen for five minutes, for a day, for an entire week. This is very simple. Just be. Simply be. Just be here now. Be fully present for what is happening at this moment. Enter into this moment in that way. Period after period of zazen, we simply sit, intending to sit upright, still, silent, and simply be, be, right?

[17:57]

And the entryway, the gate to Zazen is, you know, it's actually very wide. Everything is included. You know, everything, anything that arises is included with the inquiry, what is it? So can we notice what's present, acknowledge it? make contact with it, experience it. In whatever state of mind, whatever sense door in which the experience gives rise, nothing is outside of the range of sasa. So can we sit with our radical willingness to receive the needle prick of reality? in whatever way it's making itself known to us in this present moment. And when we can, doing so offers us a release from our habitual tendency to manipulate our experience, right?

[19:05]

From our habit or our compulsion to try to do zazen, you know, to try to make something happen in our life or in our sitting, something different than what's already happening. You know, some sense of, I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to do Zazen. You don't do Zazen. Zazen does Zazen. What is it to get out of your way in Zazen? And part of what Dogen is wanting to address, that how pure, in his practical Zazen-shin, is not only our fundamental sickness, but also the sickness of Zazen. That is, the various false understandings that we have about Zazen, the most understandings of what we think we are doing when we are sitting Zazen. Often when people begin a meditation or a Zen practice, they think of Zazen as an effort to control the mind, to achieve a certain...

[20:13]

state of mind by applying a particular method or a technique somehow, right? But Zazen is not a method that we can learn or master by studying it, by following a manual of sorts. And his classical of Phukhan Zazenki, the Universal Recommendations for Zazen, Dogen writes that Zazen is not Shuzhen. And he pieced the statement in some of his other writings. Shu here means learning. And Zen, of course, means Zen or Chan or Jhana, meditation. So together, Shuzen means learning Zen. And Shoha Kokomura translates Shuzen as step-by-step meditation. And Shuzen is about some special state of mind that we can attain by applying some method to the body and mind. But shuzen is not zazen.

[21:14]

And zazen is not shuzen. And the bulk of Dogen's writings are meant to clarify the criteria for what it is to discern authentic zazen. And Fugan Zazengi, he writes, the zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the dharma gate of repose and bliss, the practice realization of totally culminate in enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. So again, we understand that zazen is not meditation or contemplation. It's not about quieting the mind, focusing the mind, or studying the mind. It's neither mindfulness nor mindlessness. As Nang Rai says, In the koan, if you want to really understand zazen, then know that zazen is not about sinning or lying down. Zazen is zazen.

[22:16]

We could say it's undefiled. Elsewhere in the Shobaganzo, Suimakindogan says, when you sit upright with no idea of something to gain or something to realize, then immediately this is the way of the ancestors. So in other words, one mustn't. practice zazen with a gaining idea of something to realize. Because doing so is to defile zazen, is to bifurcate zazen, is to split it in two by having an idea that you're gaining something by doing zazen while practicing zazen. And this is not the way of the Buddhists and ancestors, according to Token. So that's why we're told to do zazen without gaining mind. Zen, Zazen is not just a training or an exercise for us to attain some preferable goals, but a spiritual practice of, as he says, immediately entering into Buddhahood.

[23:19]

Zazen is immediately entering into Buddhahood. Dogen begins his classical, Zazen-shin, with another exchange between two practitioners. And this one is between the priest Yao Shan and then an unnamed monk. And it goes like this. Yao Shan was sitting in meditation, and a monk asked him, what are you thinking? Sitting there, so fixedly. And Yao Shan answered, I think not thinking. And the monk asked, how do you think not thinking? And Yao Shan replied, non-thinking. And sometimes this is translated as beyond thinking. So according to Dogen, and we have heard this a million times, not thinking is the essential art of Zazen. So Zazen is, again, it's not a contemplation. It's not a visualization. It's not thinking. On the other hand, it's not some kind of brain-dead state, right?

[24:21]

Some blankness. It's not spacing out. It's not not thinking. Zazen is beyond thinking. It's beyond something that can be grasped by thought. So Zazen includes the arising of thoughts, just as the sky includes passing clouds, but it's not limited by them or defined by the presence of the clouds. And so Zazen, we rest as lucid, non-grasping, receptive awareness. It's an open, wakeful receptivity in which all experience is simply being illuminated without there being any attempt to grasp or fix or reify with active thinking or thoughts. So not thinking is the willingness to have no agenda of what's supposed to happen in Sasa.

[25:27]

And of course, many of you have been practicing for a while, have heard this many times, but it's something else to be able to, each time you sit down, to actually do the practice. Each time we enter a period of zazen, can we do this with a Suzuki Roshi called a beginner's mind, with a mind of not knowing, don't know. And when we do this, we can rediscover zazen again. Every time, zazen is something new to discover. Okay, so all that was an overture. You're like, oh no. But I actually want to go back to the koan that I shared with you at the beginning, the polishing of the tile, and this exchange between Nanue and his attendant. See what we can savor or pull from their exchange.

[26:29]

And so Dogen tells us that Mazu was an attendant to Nanue and personally received the mindset from him. So he was a Dharma vessel, and he exceeded his peers, right? And of course, Zazen, you know, Mazu was doing Zazen all day long. And for those of you who are not familiar with these two figures, Nyongwei is the successor of the six Zen ascester, Wei Nang. And Mazu is both Nyongwei's disciple and actually currently serving as an attendant. And in Dogen's version of this story, Mazu has already received Dharma transmission from non-waste. So he's not a newbie, you know. He's someone who's actually quite versed in Zen and practice. And he's also a full-pledged teacher. And in fact, Mazu as a Dharma vessel turns out, historically, to be one of the greatest masters in Zen. He said he had 84 enlightened disciples.

[27:31]

And his lineage continues down to the present day as Rinzai Zen. So you've heard Zota Zen as Rinzai Zen. So it's important to understand that the story is an exchange between two people who are accomplished Zen teachers, who are equals, who have both gotten to the essence of Zazen and then kind of corroborate together to express the true nature of Zazen. And I think we should recognize that Each section of the story, I'm going to go through each of these, is in and of itself a practice instruction and a meditation instruction. And there are three sections, so three particular instructions. And in the first section, Nanwei approaches Mazu and asks, maybe with a little playful glint in his eye, let's see what trouble I can get into today with my disciple here. Great monastic, what do you intend by doing zazen? In other words, what's the point of your zazen?

[28:35]

And Mazu says, I am intending to be a Buddha. And Nanui picks up the tile and he starts polishing it. And Mazu, perhaps puzzled, says, what are you doing? You're bothering me. I'm sitting here quietly. Leave me alone. And Nanui replies, I'm trying to make a mirror. Okay. And Mazu then asks, well, how can you make a mirror by polishing a tile? a pretty good question, right? Narnway replies, well, how can you become a Buddha by doing zaza? And Mazur apparently, you could say, maybe he doesn't get the point. Who knows? His teacher's point says, well, what do you mean by that? And other translations sometimes have him asking, well, how should I practice then? Or what is the right thing to do? That's what we always wanted to know, right? or a teacher with a zazen question, and we're like, what is the right thing I'm supposed to do in zazen? Did they ever really tell you?

[29:37]

They shouldn't. They do. So throughout this koan, we hear echoes of the same questions that Dogen grappled with for many of his early years of practice when he was very young. And the Buddha said, all sentient beings are perfect, incomplete, lacking nothing. So Dogen reads this, and as a young monk, he wanted to know, if this is so, then why must we practice? If all beings are already Buddha and perfect, why do I have to do zazen? Why isn't our perfection obvious from the beginning? Can't you already see that I'm perfect? So Nanue asks, what are you intending, sitting zazen? And Masu replies, I'm intending to make a Buddha. Now, the Chinese character for the word intending here is sometimes translated as figuring, right? So what are you figuring, sitting zazen?

[30:39]

I'm figuring to make a Buddha. And the ideogram for the word figure in Chinese looks like a figure, or sometimes a diagram or a map. So you have that. So Dogen says in Zazen-shin that there must be figuring or some kind of intention or plan prior to and subsequent to making a Buddha. So figuring is always before, during, and after making a Buddha, according to Dogen. This figuring is figuring or posturing at Zazen. at making a figure of a Buddha. So at the deepest level, Buddha is being made manifest at any moment of intention from the very beginning. So it's not a matter of waiting for one's plan to be realized at a future time in the future, but in the very beginning with intention itself.

[31:48]

So while we might think that this koan is telling us to give up intending to become a Buddha by sitting zazen, Dogen is actually pointing to non-dual teaching, non-duality, saying that from the beginning, with the intention, I'd like to be or make a Buddha sitting zazen, a Buddha is made. They arise simultaneously. They arise instantaneously. Nanway picks up a tile and starts polishing it, telling Mazu he's making a mirror. Now, mirror has a—there's a lot of mirrors in Zen, in history and Buddhism, for that matter. Mirror is a cherished, ancient Buddhist image of the mind in Zaza. It's that of a boundless mirror that reflects clearly whatever is said in front of it without any distortion. This mirror consciousness holds within and displays whatever arises, accepting everything, all without preference, without judgment, without rejection, both the beautiful and the ugly, the painful, the difficult, the joyous, the welcome and the unwelcome.

[33:14]

Even our stormy emotions are shown in the mirror's just passing images. And they don't affect the fundamental nature of the mirror itself. What is it to sit in Zazam as if our mind was a boundless mirror? Simply reflecting whatever experience arises without distortion or resistance or grasping. Okay, but then you ask, what is this relationship between mirror practice and polishing practice? Between simply reflecting reality as it is in ourselves and making a concerted effort of some sort to be an upright Buddha. Does polishing a tile make a mirror? And if so, does it do so in the future or here and now?

[34:16]

When does the mirror happen? And what's the relationship between this polishing practice and just being a mirror from the start? That is between sitting to become a Buddha and being a Buddha from the start. So in his comments in Zazen-shin, Dogen essentially says that in the very act of polishing, a mirror is there. So in the very act of wholeheartedly polishing, that is, practicing zazen with a sincere and attentive effort, mirror awareness is there. For Dogen, polishing the tile or polishing the mirror and doing zazen is an act of expression. It's not an act of transformation. There's nothing being transformed. Nothing needs to be transformed at a certain level. So just as we might polish a car or silver flatware, not because we're going to turn it into something else by all that care and polishing, but as simply a means to take good care of it.

[35:31]

And the activity of cleaning will help reveal it for what it is. We'll allow us, even as we polish it, to enjoy and appreciate and know its nature. So in the same way, we could say that the polishing of zazen is an act of appreciation for who and what we are and who and what this moment is. So any dichotomy between our everyday ordinary mind and our Buddha mind and awakening is dissolved in the action of polishing or in sitting zazen. practice realization, in other words. They arise simultaneously. They are not two. The second section of the koan entails an analogy about a cart and an ox.

[36:42]

It's essentially another contemplation about how it is that we might not get sazen, about how we work with the body and the mind. So Nanrui asks Masu, how is it that he thinks one can become a Buddha by doing Zaza? And then Masu asks in return, how should I practice that? And then Nanrui says, think about driving a cart. When it stops moving, do you whip or strike the cart or the ox? Sometimes the ox is translated as horse, right? Now, this can be interpreted in a number of ways, kind of one of the most common ones being that the Heart is the body, and the ox is the mind. And striking here, you know, means to direct one's attention towards something. So the primary practice of Soto Zen school is shikantaza, a word you might have heard before. It's a Japanese word, usually rendered in English as just sitting or nothing but precisely sitting.

[37:44]

And so shikan means nothing but. And the word ta means to hit. And za means to sit. So a very little translation of shikantaza would be pure hit sit. Or just hit sit. So in shikantaza, do you strike or focus on the body, on the physical posture of zazen? Or do you strike or tend to or engage the posture of the mind to maintain the mind's alignment with the present moment experience. Usually we say you would hit the ox, hit the mind, do something with the mind. But Dogen is saying not so fast. In fact, he's approaching zaza in many cases as a method for first prodding the cart. focusing on the physical side of the posture.

[38:47]

So that's why we're always, our meditation instruction starts with, get your body into the posture. How do you sit with the body in this case? And when we attend to the physical posture, tending to the components of upright posture, then the mental posture often follows, right? So if your body is leaning forward or back, it usually means that somewhere your mind is leaning forward or back, you know, in the past, in the future, and so on. So you can study the relationship between the posture of body and mind. And when we attend to the mental posture, bringing the mind back to being in alignment with the present moments, then the physical posture is likely to also find its alignment and vice versa. So both need to be attended to with a skillful, balanced measure. So Nanyue asks, do you strike or engage the cart or the ox? The body or the mind in Zazen.

[39:48]

And Mazu is silent, you know, who maybe he's just speechless, maybe he's just choosing not to answer. I'm not going to say anything, I'm not going to get myself in trouble here, who knows, you know. And another interpretation is maybe he's manifesting Rinpoche's silence, you know, this full understanding of non-duality. So he's not going to say anything because nothing can be said to represent the truth here. In any case, Nanyue takes the pause as an opportunity to elaborate, and in doing so, he offers the third key instruction for zazen and practice that's presented in this koan. He says, Do you want to practice sitting Zen or sitting Buddha? says Nanyue. If you understand sitting Zen, you will know that Zen is not about sitting or lying down. If you want to understand sitting Zen, you will know that Zen is is not about sitting or lying down. If you want to learn sitting Buddha, know that sitting Buddha is without any fixed form.

[40:49]

Do not use discrimination in the non-abiding Dharma. If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha. If you're attached to the sitting form, you are not yet mastering the essential principle." And of course, he ends, you know, Dogen ends by saying, Mazir heard his omniscient and felt he has tasted sweet nectar. Is it nectar for you yet? Maybe it will turn in time. Who knows? So there's a lot we could have packed here in this section, but I'm afraid I've already probably made this talk too dense. And so I'm just going to touch on a few key points before concluding. Now, basically, Nanre is saying that your study of Zazen is the the study of sitting Buddha, which you recall isn't, it's not a matter again of Shuzan, it's not a matter of learning Zen, it's not a matter of using words or theories or methods to study sitting Zazen, but to actually practice Zazen with your whole being, to understand by Zen, by thoroughly experiencing throughout your very body-mind that Zazen is the activity

[42:06]

of sitting Buddha, of awareness, embodied, manifesting, taking the form of this body-mind. And so the question, the inquiry is always, what is it? And furthermore, according to Nan Wei, if you want to study, to learn or study sitting Buddha, know that sitting Buddha is without any fixed form. And this is a key instruction here, key meditation instruction. Buddha is without any fixed form or mark. In the Diamond Sutra, it says that the true Buddha, the Dhammakaya Buddha, has no marks or characteristics. The true Buddha has no fixed marks and cannot be seen by marks. The Buddha having no fixed mark means the Buddha is not graspable. It's not to be grasped. or comprehended, has no characteristics that can be seen, recognized.

[43:09]

So if you're sitting Buddha, Buddha has no fixed marks, no fixed way of being. A sitting Buddha is not a fixed thing, an event, or an experience. Sitting Buddha is a flowing Buddha, is a continuously unfolding universal phenomenon. that can't be fixed or encapsulated in any way. Not only does sitting Buddha have no marks, but Nanuai says, if you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha. Another translation of this line goes, when you practice being Buddha in Zazen, you inevitably get rid of the concept of Buddha. In other words, As you often maybe hear, don't put a head on top of your head. Don't put another head on top of your head, the one you already have. Don't add the concept or idea of a Buddha sitting to the direct experience of Buddha sitting.

[44:11]

Just sit. Just sit without any attachment to the sitting form, because the form results in posture itself is not the essential principle. According to Mahayana Buddha's teachings, We understand that our true self, our innate Buddha, infinite luminous awareness, has no abode. Buddha is non-abiding and has no fixed form and location. And a non-abiding Buddha, which the mind doesn't rest on any objects in meditation, such as the breath or mental phenomenon, is the purest form of meditation. Meditation is not something you do, it's what you are. And you just sit as being this, presencing. Non-abiding, just resting as awareness itself.

[45:19]

And this non-abiding meditation is called shikantaza. Because there's no grasping. There's no rejecting or abiding or engaging in any phenomenon or any experience. So this is, I think, the key meditation instruction. Because grasping and rejecting can be said to be instant suffering. Even the hairbreadth aspect of grasping and rejecting. And not grasping and rejecting is the sensation of suffering. That's the Buddha taught. So it's actually kind of very simple. but it's very hard to do. And how do we not grasp or reject anything? Well, we see for ourselves that there's no abiding or fixed dharma, that all phenomenon are empty of inherent existence or being. When we see this innate, this natural emptiness, we see that there's nothing to be grasped. If you grasp the mark of sitting, this is not reaching the principle, according to the koan.

[46:26]

Because the ultimate principle is not something that can be reached to grasp. And Dogen finally offers another way for us to understand this when he says that what Buddha is, is continually going beyond Buddha. Continually polishing. Continually sitting. Continually going beyond the sitting form. This is dropping off body and mind. And then finally, John Daedalori offers, you could say, our concluding instruction. This is the actually concluding line of his commentary on the Koran. He says, all of this notwithstanding, what is the truth of the universe that fills your body and mind? Don't tell me, show me. So while it's fine to have the intention to be a Buddha by sitting sasana,

[47:28]

The intention isn't enough in and of itself. Only wholehearted sitting realizes Buddha. So the next time that you engage in Zazen, maybe it's going to be right after this Dharma talk, maybe it's sometime in the future, whenever, right? The invitation is to take the form of sitting Buddha, or the form that best works for your particular body, whether it's sitting, lying down, standing, walking, right? And if you're taking a sitting posture, then rest your hands in your lap with your thumb. Rest slightly, together, lightly. And lower your eyes. Keep your eyes open. Close your mouth. And just breathe normally. And then, just sit solidly, steadfastly, thoroughly, thinking, not thinking.

[48:30]

going beyond thinking. And most importantly, trust yourself. Trust your mind's natural capacity to illuminate the entirety of your experience. When you do that, you see that nothing is missing. Nothing needs to be gained. Nothing needs to be achieved. This moment is perfection itself. Trust that what you are seeking, you already are. And this is the true form of not knowing. I've gone a little longer than I intended, my apologies, so I'll stop there. I hope you found something encouraging in this talk. Something, maybe a little sweetness in it, emits maybe some vinegar, who knows. Perhaps the Eno already noted that There won't be a Q&A today because of the one-day sitting, so maybe I took advantage of going over a little time.

[49:39]

In any case, I want to, for those who are sitting, I hope you enjoy sitting, Buddha. And those who are going into your day, I hope you enjoy going into your day, Buddha. Thank you for your presence and your patience and your kind attention. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[50:27]

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