Distinctions or limiting constructs such as ideas of good or evil between designations such as ordinary people and sages, delusions and enlightenment, sentient beings and Buddhist body and mind. It goes beyond all those distinctions. So how then do we go beyond dualities and black companies? How do we learn to rest in the liminal space of Zazen? But one way that Kazon suggests is by first, he says, putting aside all concerns, shared all attachments. So in other words, stop dwelling in your problems or your ideas about your problems. Often you actually come down and sit on Zaza, and then you spend the whole period just thinking about all the problems you have, all the challenges, the issues, what so-and-so said to you, what you're going to do, planning, et cetera, et cetera. So much of our psychic emotional energy is taken up by worrying or by planning. or trying to manipulate or fix things, ourselves or our world or our lives, you know, to be a certain way that we imagine ultimately will make us happier, more ease.

[01:14]

And sure, you know, there is a time and place to consider how to take care of what needs to be taken care of. how they address the various challenges and the various injustices in the world. We need to do that. There is a time and place for that. But so often our minds just kind of indiscriminately chew, you know, mindlessly, if you will, and go up any kind of direction on whatever pops up to them. And Zazen is not the place for that. Zazen also advises to shed or drop your various attachments. and whether there's attachments to material objects or various societies. I'll let you kind of list all those for yourself. And particularly to draw up your attachment to your sense of self. Probably the hardest thing to do. It's the stickiest attachment of them all. Near the end of Zazen Yojinki, Kezon says that, when we are thinking, the various views have not been put to rest.

[02:22]

And the mind is still running over. Kind of like thumbing up the faucet on. It keeps running on and on and on. Zazen alone brings everything to rest. And flowing freely reaches everywhere. So again, no boundaries. Zazen is like returning home and sitting at peace. That's kind of nice. And then Kazon Instruct says, do nothing at all. Don't fabricate anything with the six senses. In other words, stop. Just stop. Stop the tendency to try to fix things or move away from reality as it's presenting itself or trying to fabricate another one. Just stop. Stop the endless contracting, oh, I don't like this, you know, or grasping, oh, I want that, pushing away or pulling in. All these ways that we do in body and mind. It's fascinating when we sit down sometimes.

[03:25]

We sit, we come as awesome, we stay still. And when our minds are still pushing and pulling, contracting and moving all over the place. And then we notice how our bodies kind of start doing the same. Leaning into the future, dwelling in the past, trying to get away from something, like leading to the sun. This is constant habitual twitching that we do in our body and mind. So do nothing, says Keisa. But I think we have to be careful with this idea of do nothing at all. Our practice of Zazam is also known as Shikin Taza. It's a Japanese term which basically translates as nothing but precisely sitting. So the whole point of Shikin Taza is just this appearance. doing nothing but sitting with the fullness of our being. So it's practice, if you will, rather than doing zaza, it's a practice of non-doing and non-thinking.

[04:30]

Or you could say doing non-doing and thinking non-thinking. However, it's so difficult for us that we can hardly even conceive of the possibility of doing this, right? Instead, we kind of sit here and we kind of think, I'm supposed to meditate. You have an idea what meditation is, right? And so we try concentrating. I'm supposed to concentrate or be aware of this moment or, you know, how my mind be a certain way or how me be a certain way. And we still just do all this, right? But it's impossible, right? What's being asked is, you know, just be here. Doing nothing. It's hard for us to do anything but violate absolutely nothing. Nothing other than resting in the ocean of reality. Resting in our Buddha nature as it's manifesting here and now. Half a page to go, folks.

[05:33]

So this doing nothing that Hazan is encouraging us to do in his description of Zazen is resting comfortably in your actual nature. So when we put aside our concerns, shed our attachments, and do nothing at all but simply relish being aware, then we can fully rest in our direct, unmediated experience of being alive. If we want to call this experience awareness, if we want we can call this experience awareness, as I proposed earlier, then We can simply rest, you could think of it as, rest in and as awareness. So resting in and as awareness. And we're not resting in a thing that is awareness. Sometimes we want to make awareness into a thing. Sometimes we want to make emptiness into a thing.

[06:36]

There is no thing called emptiness. There's no thing called awareness, right? So we're not resting in a thing that is awareness, but in the essential experience of being aware. Another way that sometimes this guy does is being aware of being aware. Maybe you've heard that before. Being aware of being aware. So when we can rest in awareness as awareness and being aware of awareness, then we come to realize that zazen, that meditation is fundamentally something we are. It's not something we do. Zazen is something we are. Meditation is what we are, not what we do. This is why Kaizan says that Zazen is like returning home and sitting in peace.

[07:40]

Zazen is coming home to ourselves and completely manifesting who we truly are. Isn't this why many of us are drawn to zazen, even enjoying zazen at times, despite the times that it's frequently not easy? Zazen is like returning home to our place of refuge and ease and just being completely ourselves, unfabricated, unguarded, without worries or demands, simply relaxing into the ease and the rejuvenation of our fundamental nature, our Buddha nature. Okay, well, there's much more I could say from just the opening line that I shared with you earlier, and much more of his classical. I'm going to stop with, so we can just sit outside. And I'll close with some final words of encouragement from another essay by Kezon.

[08:43]

This one's titled, which is three kinds of Zen practitioners. The whole other classical is kind of interesting to read. But here he says, in perfect ease, go, stay, sit, and lie down. Seeing, hearing, understanding, and knowing are all the natural display of that nature. From first to last, mind, is mine, beyond any arguments about knowledge and ignorance. Just your zazen with all of who and what you are. Never stray away from it or lose it. Just your zazen with all of who or what you are. Never stray away from it or lose it. But going back to the beginning, when I said every place is a place of practice. Everywhere you are is a place of practice. Don't leave your place of practice.

[09:46]

Don't leave this very experience of being alive right here, the fullness of that experience. It's always waiting for you. If you happen to forget it or lose it or drift away, it's always waiting for you to return back to it. So thank you all for your patience. I probably want a little bit of time. I know many of us will continue sitting together, and for those who are continuing on into this beautiful day, wherever you are, may you go with ease and peace. ... [...]

[11:06]

Thank you. Everyone, I have a few announcements.

[12:47]

If you would like to see Abbot David this afternoon from Doksan, which is a one-on-one interview Dharma meeting, Ellen, who just left Mubin, is his jisha, his attendant. So she'll be in the hallway, I'm guessing, sharing this time. And you can go up to her and ask her to schedule a meeting at Doksan with Abbot David this afternoon. If you would like to schedule a practice discussion with Tim or Tonto, you could do that. And for that, you would see Denise, who is Tim's Chico. And Denise will also be... Susanna. Oh, sorry. Susanna. Susanna is Tim's Chico. So she'll also be in the hallway. And you could see Denise make a schedule for practice discussion with Tonto. Susanna. Susanna, sorry. Go along that... Savannah with Tim, and Ellen with Abbott David.

[13:52]

That concludes the public program today. So if you are here for the one-day sit, 11.40 will start. So there will be a clock art. Now it will be open keening. So you could do keening in the hallway, or you could do keening here with the open keening. Of course, you're also free to use the restrooms. A note about the restrooms, the ones up here at least are not gender, and there are also a number of stalls in there, so you don't have to wait outside for what person goes in. So you're free to use the restrooms. At 11.40, there will be three boughs, which will start the last period of Zazen. And because the talk went a little bit over, we won't have our king in the middle, but we'll have an interval bow. So in the middle of that... 40-minute period, there'll be a small bow, and you're free to relax your posture for five minutes. You can stand up if you like, and then there'll be a bow to end the interval, and then we'll sit down again and finish at 12.20 for service.

[14:57]

So thank you so much. And so 11.40 will be the next period. Just one other thing. If you can, I know it's confusing. Try to wear your shoes in the restroom, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The breakfast is $10 too.

[16:00]

Thank you. Thank you.

[16:37]

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