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. Good morning. Together we're setting out on a journey together. going nowhere together. The word sesshin I've heard translated in various ways. One way is the shin part is the mind, heart. And the first character is setsu, shortened with the shin to be sesshin, sesshin. So I've heard it translated as to gather the mind, to collect the mind, to convey the mind or mind heart.

[01:12]

Shin is mind heart. And Suzuki Roshi translates it a little differently. He talks about the setsu part as being putting things in order and also the way that one treats, the way a student treats their teacher, or the way you would treat a guest. So if a guest is coming or your teacher is coming for tea, you put things in order, I guess. and collect and gather your mind to be ready for this meeting. And in the way that one does that takes care of things you convey everything about your relationship and your practice and your life is all conveyed with the tiniest of actions.

[02:17]

So to set aside these days to change our regular daily routine and invite the guest, the teacher, which is just our own body-mind, to make a space, collect and gather ourselves and make a space. And the sesheen forums, just to say a few words about them, the Everything is pared down. Everything is nothing elaborate. All the soundscape is a little, is more simple, right? Just, we don't need 15 minutes of the Han to bring ourselves to the Zen. Just two hits of the Diancho, that's enough. You hear it, you go. And we let go of, you know, we don't let go of offering, uh,

[03:25]

the Buddha tray, but we let go of the more elaborate ceremony of offering with the drum and other sounds, the umpan and the dialogue of sounds, umpan, han, which are wonderful mindfulness practices and create a wonderful atmosphere for us. And for Sesheen, we just let it go and go to the most simple clack. Chant. Couple bells. End. So this simplified and simplified service, this all helps us to not get carried off, to keep everything as plain and simple as can be, to allow us to to completely be present and be practicing zazen all throughout the day, whatever we're doing.

[04:36]

This, I think, is the admonition for our regular schedule as well, but this shift will help us to settle the simplicity of it helps us. So we wear our robes all day, unless they get dirty and soti, or if we're going to the baths, of course, we take our robes off, but we wear our robes, we walk in shashu, eyes cast down. So whatever we meet, whoever we encounter, we bow just the way, in the simplest way, no eye contact, no chatting. know how's it going, know pulling ourselves away from right foot, left foot, breath, our standing and walking meditation, which we're doing in between the periods of sitting meditation and eating meditation.

[05:46]

So this helps us to have our mind-body function very smoothly, very simply, and it's a calming. It's not a deprivation chamber or some kind of straitjacket, you know, no talking, no writing, no phone calls, no... eating between meals or eating things that are not being offered by the kitchen, all that is very exciting, can be very exciting activities. Very exciting means blip, rather than one, kind of a one flavor. So it's not depriving us, but it's giving us a chance to calm down the usual activity of running around, even in We've already calmed down a lot.

[06:56]

I'm not saying that. By just being a tasar, you've let go of a lot. You've renounced lots and lots of things. And still, as you know, we can be pretty scattered, pretty active. Monkey mind can be very active, jumping around. So our sesheen allows, monkey mind allows this kind of activity, quiet, and then... Suzuki Roshi says, big mind activity has a chance. The one who isn't busy. Suzuki Roshi says, when small mind becomes calm, big mind starts its true activity. So we give ourselves this gift. We invite this. through all the different forms. And our keeping the admonitions, keeping the forms of Sashin, this will help us enormously if we cut corners and the energy of Sashin will also have its corners cut.

[08:18]

You know, our thinking, oh... I'll just do thus and so or whatever it is, break the silence when I don't really need to for functional speech. But that will change the sesheen for us, will change the quality of the sesheen. The gathered energy of the sesheen will be leaked away. So the sesheen forms are to help us. hold us, support us not to, I don't know what we might think, punish us or make it difficult or make life boring. The sesheen forms allow us to see that what boring is actually really. We never allow ourselves to find out

[09:20]

As soon as we get a little bored, we go to the back door or do something. So this helps us to see our life in a very, very full way. So I really encourage us all to stay with the forms of Sashin in a kind of impeccable way. I mean, things happen. that's fine as well. But to, as best we can, stay with the forms of sesheen will create, help to create this gathered, collected body-mind. And then what we see, what we can find, is that the joy of our life is not dependent on all sorts of things that we often think it's dependent on. Being able to do our usual stuff, read and write and talk and do whatever.

[10:34]

We might associate that with some feeling of well-being, but those are impermanent, not to be counted on, to not have confidence in those very things as if those will bring us happiness and joy. Our happiness and joy, true happiness and joy, is not dependent on arranging our life the way we like it or according to our preferences. And it's hard to let go of that in our regular daily life, even in tasahara regular schedule, our strategizing and our rearranging to make things the way we like, it's hard to let that go. We don't even know we're doing it.

[11:34]

So the sesheen forms help us to, if we make the commitment and the agreement to follow the sesheen forms, we automatically let go of certain things that we love or like writing in our journal or preferences, and find that our life and joy and calm and happiness doesn't depend on those things. This is a great gift, a kind of unintended consequence, actually. So this other part of the word sashin, to convey the mind, all of our activity, all of our actions in sashin are also conveying, even the tiniest thing, conveying who we are, conveying the mind to others, bringing it forth.

[12:44]

And to have our tiniest actions be an expression, and be in alignment with our vows, with the Dharma, with the teachings of the Buddhas and ancestors, to have even the tiniest thing be, you know, here is breadth deviation, to be, have each thing convey our understanding. Each thing is an expression of the mountain, right? Of the reality of the mountain. Each action of body, speech, and mind is the action of the mountain. So the last time we had class, we were talking about the backward step

[13:50]

forward and backward step as part of our practice, as part of our family way, the wind of the family house. The tradition of this particular family passed on teachings is to turn the light in, take a backward step, or go up the mountain, go into the mountain to practice, and then take a forward step and bestow with gift-bestowing hands to all beings, the fruit, give the fruit of our practice. And these two, these backward step and forward step, this was also the Buddha's life. This is not just Soto Zen. The Buddha exemplified this in the story of his practice, going in, leaving, leaving, his regular life and going and immersing himself in practice and sitting and trying various things as we know and then finding on his, through his determination and courage and sitting still opening to who he really was.

[15:17]

This is the backward step turning the light in to illuminate the self, as we read this morning, as we chanted this morning in Fukanzazengi. And then he came down the mountain and transformed the beings, the forward step. So this is our seshin time, I would say, is it's always both. We might not be going into the marketplace or walking out of the gate, but in conveying the mind, in... turning the light inward and shining the light on our awareness, on just our full life, aware life. And then we step forward in our soji, our serving, any kind of work that we're doing, our walking around.

[16:19]

That is conveying and taking the forward step and expressing our understanding in our tiniest actions. So even in seshin we have backwards and forward steps. How can we not? This is our nature, is forward and backward stepping, walking. We also spoke in class about the beginner's mind, which is a boundless mind and a compassionate mind and a soft mind. So in our seshin, we don't want to make these forms and the schedules some kind of rigid and hard activity. It's a softening activity. And to take our posture carefully,

[17:19]

and thoroughly find your seat each time. And your posture will change throughout the day. So you might need to take a support cushion away, get a support cushion, bring a cushion for under your knees, go into Sesa, whatever it is that you need to do. That's part of, that's not failure. That is part of soft, buoyant mind to say, oh, I think I need to attend to this. I need more height to be that attentive to quarter of an inch. And also paying close, close, close, close attention to what's going on with your knees and hips and back and ankles and head and being very soft about this, not rigid.

[18:23]

Soft and firm. I think soft and firm is like a muscle, you know, a well-worked muscle has a softness to it, pliancy and a firmness. It's not flab and it's not so rock hard. It has no, you know, that's maybe overdone, overworked. So it has a soft firmness to it. And that's our mind as well. So be ready at any time to get an extra cushion or maybe even ask for somebody to help you with what's happening with your posture if something comes up. And on your breaks, there's time to attend to your posture with yoga or stretching or maybe you want to do some walking. We'll do some walking meditation altogether. hip openers, Erin has kindly put a sequence of yoga that takes about 25-30 minutes to do that can be done after a meal.

[19:32]

Those are posted. Take care of your body and your body will speak to you, will let you know what it needs and you can respond with pliancy and soft mind. And there's nothing to be afraid of. You know, in our sitting together, we take our place, we find our seat. And if there's difficulty and pain, then you can take rest posture. If there's emotional things that are coming up, The zendo can hold it. The zendo can hold the agony and the ecstasy. It's big enough to hold everything. And to feel like you have to go somewhere else to take care of it, I invite you to check that out with a practice leader, whether you feel like you can't be in your seat with your life

[20:48]

supported by everyone. So in being soft and generous, it doesn't mean following maybe a habit mind or a tendency to want to run or go take care of yourself in the way that you think might work. This is a time to find and experience a full way of taking yourself right here by being completely with yourself, completely aware with what is, just sitting with whatever comes up, and not pushing out things, and not holding on and grabbing and clinging and elaborating, but just allowing things to come up

[21:49]

And go. So this quality in Sashin of allowing things just to be, leave things as they are, and be aware. And you will know whether you need to change your posture or get help if you're staying very, very close. So our practice is not, the Zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. We chanted this morning. Learning meditation is concentration techniques. This is kind of learning meditation. The Zazen that Dogen is speaking of is not techniques, various techniques and strategies.

[22:50]

The Zazen I speak of is... not learning meditation. It is the Dharma gate of repose and bliss. It is allowing whatever is happening to be there without leaning into it and grabbing hold or pushing away and running and averting and suppressing. It's allowing each thing. But just that. Let it come and nothing more. No adding, no grabbing hold and trying to figure out what that one was. Just let it come and go, which it will. Another of Dogen's meditation instructions in Zazen Shin, he said, when a thought comes, pay it

[23:52]

Look at it or be aware of it and it will vanish. When a thought comes, you're aware of it and it will vanish. There's no need to push and there's no need to hold. Just stay with awareness. This backward step activity. So I'll be talking about mountains and rivers, mountains and waters sutra during our time together. And this next section coming up is about the four views of the mountains, different ways to view the mountains that are all, none of them is complete. They're all based on We view things based on our karmic consciousness.

[24:55]

We experience things and view things based on our bodies and gender and education and families and all the circumstances of our life. That's how we see things. And this is when we know this, that we have this limited karmic consciousness, we can be we can be more skillful when we feel like our view is the right view. So Dogen says about this kind of view, karmic view, is that it's a narrow-minded view. And the idiom for narrow-minded is looking at the sky through a straw or a bamboo tube. And you see this little tiny circle. But if that's how you're looking, you feel like that's the sky.

[25:58]

It's this little thing. And I can see it. And don't tell me that it isn't because that's what it is. And it's also like another idiom for that or image is a frog at the bottom of a well. Frog at the bottom of a well looking up and seeing the sky and thinking that's the way things are. And then the moon, every once in a while, maybe the moon crosses over. Ooh, what was that? What was that thing? This is very auspicious. We have a new moon, as you've been noticing the crescent moon hanging low in the evening sky about to set, and it will be waxing during our time. and, you know, they say a new moon is a good time to start something.

[27:03]

You can feel the moon supporting us. And I came upon this part of the commentary about the frog and the well, and actually when I read this several weeks ago, I was brought to tears actually by this this image, and so I thought I would share it with you today. And it's about our, it's an image for our practice and for Sashin and for our daily practice. And I'm not sure exactly, because of my own karmic consciousness, it struck me so deeply to bring me to tears. And I don't understand that particularly, but it did. So this is something that Dogen says in a lecture, one of the many lectures, hundreds of lectures and snippets of lectures in the Ehe Koroku, the extensive record, that's translated by Taigen Leighton and Okamura Roshi.

[28:18]

There's many, many, many little sections. And in this one, at the end of this section, he says, I didn't copy down what he was talking about at the beginning of the section, but I think it was that we have to leave behind our old nests. Our old nests is an image for habitual ways of doing things and thinking and routinized things attitudes and all that. These are like nests that we've made for ourselves. But they get like an old nest. The birds leave it. It gets kind of not so livable anymore, right? It gets a little soiled. They make new nests. So leave your old nests of views and narrow-mindedness and leave your

[29:24]

old sandals that go in and out of each atom. I just thought that was a great image. The atoms, you know, are... So the sandals, these old sandals that go in and out of atoms is an image for this momentary, you know, each moment. We are arising and vanishing. Each one of us is a dependently co-arisen moment, moment, moment. So get rid of your old sandals that go in and out of the atoms. Anyway, so that's what the first part of that paragraph is. And then at the end, this is the line that struck me. He says, a frog on the ocean bottom eats medicine bowl. The jeweled rabbit in the heaven washes the bowl. Actually, he said eats gruel.

[30:29]

A frog on the ocean bottom eats gruel or porridge. The jeweled rabbit in the heaven washes the bowl. So we have this frog, you know, and Suzuki Roshi used the frog, you know, as our sazen, our practice frog, you know. Frog, not in a well, not in a narrow, dank thing that never can get out, but in the ocean bottom, the frog sits in the ocean bottom eating gruel, you know, just doing our practice in the In the ocean, in the ocean of entering deeply, the merciful ocean of Sangha and our Dharmic ocean, we sit in the middle of the ocean eating our gruel, eating our medicine bowl. And the rabbit, you know, in Asian countries there's not a man in the moon, there's a rabbit in the moon.

[31:36]

So the rabbit in the moon washes the bowl. This is our practice, you know, we do our practice and the moon, you know, the moon of realization or the moon of the Dharma body, you know, we're supported and met and our bowls are washed by that rabbit, the jeweled rabbit in the moon. So when we do our practice, when the mountain, the fact that our practice is the mountain's practice and the Buddha's and ancestors' practice, our practice is, you know, even though we can't, you know, we say the universal and the ultimate and the mountain is the reality of all existence, all those things, right?

[32:43]

Those are... wonderful words to align us or realign us or open us, but still we can just eat our medicine bowl, you know, go to the Zendo, wash our bowls, wash our bodies. We do our universal, the universal is expressed in the tiniest thing. The frog sits in the bottom of the ocean and eats gruel, eats porridge, and the jeweled rabbit washes the bowl. The Buddhas and ancestors are right with us, supporting us. How could it be otherwise? How did we get here in the first place if it were not that the Buddhas and ancestors have been practicing and we are continuing to practice? The Blue Mountains are walking. So in each tiny thing that we do, we express and convey the universal, whatever that is.

[33:59]

We convey and express that we are Buddha nature, that we are one with, not separate from, one expression, one more expression of the mountains. And all the Buddhist ancestors are supporting us. There's nothing to be afraid of. And not only that, the Jeweled Rabbit will wash your bowl. The Jeweled Rabbit is washing your bowl. So let us take care of ourselves, take care of each other in everything that we do and gather ourselves together in one suchness of this sesheen.

[35:03]

We are supported to do this and by practicing this way we support all beings. All beings will be supported. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[35:39]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.01