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. Thank you for this book. Got a lot of mileage out of it. A day with no name. Today... Nothing is missing except the word for it. The morning is too beautiful to be anything else, too brief for waiting, and behind its pellucid passage, another light that does not appear to be moving, fills the horizon. There the word waited for, like a wild creature, not glimpsed as seasoned, not seen by anyone. must be watching.

[01:01]

Today nothing is missing except the word for it. The morning is too beautiful to be anything else, too brief for waiting, and behind its pellucid passage another light that does not appear to be moving fills the horizon. There the word waited for, like a wild creature, not glimpsed this season, not seen by anyone, must be watching. Beautiful for a word. This morning, too beautiful to be anything else. Thank goodness that hot spell is over. Oh, that was rugged.

[02:09]

and I can relax. The air conditioning's on. So we engage with all sorts of agendas and non-agendas, with all sorts of techniques and non-techniques, all sorts of responses, understandings and non-understandings. And despite all that, some process,

[03:12]

some way in which we're being undone. We do and we're undone. And can we get a taste for it? Can we get a feel for it? It's a little bit like, can you get yourself out of the way? But you are the way, sort of. Can that arising self, marvelous and awful, can it be the very substance of practice not simply a hindrance, a distraction.

[04:27]

How can that be so? So back to case 98. A monk asked Dung Chan. Among the three Buddha bodies, the three Buddha bodies, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya. Dharmakaya, beyond ideas, judgments, opinions, beyond even this and that, self and other. like sitting, just experiencing energy. What's at the heart of each experience?

[05:29]

My left knee really hurts. And then we go to the experience. Sometimes the experience is so demanding, so ferocious. There isn't even space for my left knee. There isn't even space for hurts. And what I think about hurting and what I feel about hurting. Sensation. a sensation mysteriously present, without specific location. Drawing attention.

[06:42]

Demanding attention. The vow to engage and the human wish cannot suffer. And all the responses that are stimulated by the interactions. to let it just be sensation, energy, beyond thoughts, ideas, judgments, and opinions. The pure Dharmakaya.

[07:54]

The Sambhogakaya. bliss of interaction, of engagement, the intimacy of connection. The joy of connecting, of interacting with a morning too beautiful for words. Of interacting with a night sky that's ridiculously beautiful.

[09:03]

of noticing that the concept, the arising thought, has its own heft, has its own accompanying feelings, has its own potency of stimulation. And in the engagement, even the unpleasant has a certain spark, certain valence, a certain opportunity to be savored just as it is.

[10:10]

each moment an opportunity for such interaction, such engagement. Each taste of food, its own delight. Each placing of a foot on the zendo floor, feeling the texture, the surface, the heat the pressure spreading from the ball of the food down to the hill offers up engagement a non separation yearned for in our being, in energy.

[11:27]

Amazingly, as we engage in that way, the physical body is suffused with sukkha, pleasant sensation. The mental body is suffused with pity, joy, mental gladness. In a rising sense of appreciation, enthusiasm, gratitude, Sambhogakaya. Nirmanakaya. The particular manifestation of the moment. This moment, this is what is.

[12:40]

Exactly itself. Too beautiful, too awful, too hot, too cold, whatever, exactly itself. Inviting us to dance. Be the moment. Enter through activity. enter it through engagement. Forget the self. It's like when you work. Can it just be work? Can it just be doing? An invitation beyond

[13:46]

how I usually work, what kind of agendas I usually have, what kind of strategies. I like to do things the most efficiently. I'm going to trudge through this until it's over. Just work. Start when it's time to start, end when it's time to end. No beginning, no end. Just engage fully and let it turn out the way it turns out. Just work. Monk asked Joshu, could I have a teaching? Joshu said, have you had your lunch? Mm-hmm.

[14:49]

Wash your bowl. things just do what's next no big deal nothing elaborate exotic esoteric it's right in front of you for 23 years I've said to my daughter when you finish eating could you please wash your plates She travels to Asia, to Northern India, to Thailand, for special Dharma teachings. The Bihar School of Roga, Kashmir Shaivism, Dzogchen, Vajrayana Buddhism.

[15:49]

She's learned many mantras. how to make offerings, how to use a vajra, a drum. Still at home, I say to her, when you're finished eating, could you wash your plates? Now I've added a commentary to this coin. I say, 23 years and you still don't do it. Now we both marvel. Some things we learn so incredibly slowly. Not to be discouraged by your own slowness. It's beautiful.

[16:53]

Just how amazing, how wonderful, 23 years. The teaching is still out of reach. The practice is still too difficult to master. All around us. The nirmanakaya. the manifest Buddha. What is Buddha? Take a look around. It's too beautiful for words, but it's Buddha. So this monk, don't know where he got all these ideas, all these words, comes to Dangshan and says, of the three bodies of Buddha,

[18:03]

the three bodies of Buddha, which one? Which one does not fall into any category? Oh, don't you just hate a guy like this? Come on. Dangshan's thinking. Even in the old days, people would just ask you, what is Buddha? Nowadays, you know, they got their smartphones and they're twittering the Dalai Lama, you know, looking up Wikipedia, you know, coming up with all these fancy ideas. Krishna just says, you know, the basic practice never changes.

[19:14]

Talk about it any way you want. Basic practice doesn't change. The human condition is the human condition. of consciousness dividing in the self and other. The conditioned mind bringing forth habitual ways of thinking and feeling and perceiving and emoting. So as we keep seeing our own delicious version of this. Can there be a steady response, like a heartbeat?

[20:23]

When it's cold, the heart beats. When it's warm, the heart beats. When you're deeply inspired and grateful for practice, the old heart just beats away. When you're really, really discouraged, just want to curl up in a ball, the heart just beats away. What's happening now? Something steady something conjuring up vow not based on some fixed idea something conjuring up effort not based on success or failure

[21:33]

almost tasting some way of practice beyond human agency. As the heart beats, as the breath breathes, as the body bodies, as the mind minds, Getting out of your own way. Like holding yourself close. And experiencing more fully than ever before.

[22:50]

Look at that. A full drama in three acts with heroes and heroines. A comedy, a farce, or a tragedy. we keep coming back, we keep coming back, we keep coming back. Something of a matter of factness.

[23:56]

Some kind of truly stupid recognition. I guess this is me. This is what I call me. Look at it. The energy, the attention that's being thoroughly directed to something separate starts to stay a little closer. The tumbling stream with its multiplicity of thoughts and feelings and images and memories, starts to slow down a little. Sometimes it slows down a lot. It becomes a little easier to notice.

[25:07]

gone through that drama before has a familiarity to it. And those feelings, I think this is not the first time I felt them. this beautiful process called getting out of our own way starts to happen. Not because being the wonderful, dedicated, skillful practitioner we are, we're engineering it. It's more the by-product of our devotion. Devoting ourselves

[26:22]

into the morning too beautiful for words. Captivated by the morning cold. Delighted by the warmth of the afternoon sun. So that's what it is to get out of the way and let the way unfold. That's what it is to let the unrelenting urgency of karmic patterns start to soften and release

[27:24]

to the particulars and we discover the process we intend to practice and practice occurs as a consequence of our intention and despite our intention. To let our intention, our attention, to let our effort, to let our involvement

[28:37]

To let that noticing permeate into the workings of our mind and heart. To let that noticing permeate into walking to our cabin, into walking to the baths, into eating a mouthful of soup, into pausing and bowing as we enter the Zendo. To let the day, too beautiful for words, to let it be populated with moments of noticing. some virtuous activity, some 16-foot golden Buddha being constructed.

[29:47]

But just what else would one do with the human life except live it? Not live it? Unlive it? Have you had your lunch? Wash your bowl. Just something very straightforward. Are you alive? Well, live. Do you have eyes? Well, see. Do you have ears? Well, hear. Do you have a body? Well, body. So the monk has his beautiful question.

[30:56]

And don't you just... Here's the sincerity. Here's the education on Buddhist terminology. Here's the subtlety. Okay, what should I emphasize? Should I emphasize sitting and just experiencing the energy of engagement? Should I emphasize noticing the rising and falling away of momentary existence? It's codependent nature. How this thought arose in response to looking at that tree. How this pleasant experience arose in relationship to lead.

[32:03]

Or should I just do what's in front of me? Be burned up in the activity. No thoughts of gain or loss. Just do it. Sudangshan hears the question. Beautiful question. Powerful question. Appropriate question. The monk doesn't even ask, well, which one? He's even more subtle than that.

[33:15]

He says, what is it to practice with that and not get stuck in any particular one? cannot fall into one way rather than the other. I always stay close to that. A certain shift in attitude.

[34:15]

And it's like It's not like the mind is some burden you have to practice on. The feelings are some burden you have to practice on. Other, the world. That tension that has something of being what we already are. If you have a life, live it. We're not noticing it's not some great ponderous Buddhist activity. It's just the natural expression of what's going on.

[35:25]

It will teach us how to practice. Your body will teach you how to be a body. Your breath will teach you how to breathe. Now when you lose the plot, when you lose the connection, you go back to basics. How do we do this again? What's going on here? where am I but then let that initiation draw you into connection and let that connection teach you how to practice let the soup teach you how to eat soup let the floor teach you how to walk on the floor meeting other teach you how to meet other.

[36:49]

The verse. in the crucible of the ages there is a family tradition how could it be other than this it's always been human beings practicing with being human not being able to stop being human and having discomfort with what they can't stop means. The family tradition. Father tells daughter, could you wash your plates when you're finished eating?

[38:11]

Hmm. I still say it. She still hears it, appreciates something about it and doesn't do it. She does take them to the sink now. That's not bad for 23 years. So they're close to being washed. Maybe that's how she interprets Dong Shan saying, I always stayed close. I hadn't thought of that. Not entering the world. Not getting caught up in all the agendas. following after conditions not getting caught up not getting stuck in your own conditions this is the crucible of the ages crucible where something submits itself

[39:47]

to the alchemy of transformation, interacts, engages, becomes all the Buddha bodies. and has nothing at all to do with that sophistry. So noticing, noticing. And maybe you'll notice some of the particulars of the alchemy. In the Dharmakaya, when there's a sense of energy carried in your being, you can notice how the energy sort of leaks when you go back into some old familiar story with all the entanglements it has.

[41:13]

contrast to something, a way of being that's not making anything. Or in the Sambhogakaya, when there's noticing the process. As we stay present, as presence is sustained, the coming and going, now a sound, now a sight, now a thought, now a physical sensation. The process of attention.

[42:23]

The process of allowing to arise and allowing to fall away. Engaging in work. Like working with no mind. No chatter. No chatter other than this activity. And even no chatter about this activity. Okay, I really want to get this done before the bell goes. How long do I have? I have 15 minutes. Okay, well, if I did it this way and that way, and if that person would only work harder, you know, the... mind.

[43:31]

Just do. The three bodies of Buddha are always functioning. Here. Not elsewhere. They're not conjured up in thinking. They're not carved out of stone through diligent effort or determination. Just the activity of practice, like the morning, too beautiful for words. something flowers of its own accord, not the brilliance of your sincerity or intellect or insight.

[44:51]

Just the suchness of what is. carrying noticing letting the subjective become potent letting the objects of mind become aspects of self rather than there and other here and now watching, watching, watching, succeeding and failing until it starts to dawn on you.

[46:08]

Those are really just two more notions, just constructs. Everything is placed in the crucible of awareness. And the alchemy takes place. That's the family tradition. And who's not part of the family? So it, whatever it is, undoes us, whatever us is. And we study.

[47:14]

We study with our body, with our hearts, with our eyes, our ears, our breath. maybe a tiny, tiny bit with our mind. But don't overdo that part. It is experiential learning. It arrives here. Don't go searching elsewhere. Today, Nothing is missing except the word for it. The morning is too beautiful to be anything else, too brief for waiting, and behind its pellucid passage another light that does not appear to be moving fills the horizon. There the word waited for like a wild creature, not glimpsed this season, not seen by anyone.

[48:25]

Is there? That is no word. 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 sfcc.org and click giving.

[49:00]

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