This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here, taking time out of your day to join us. here and turn the Dharma together, reflect on our practice. So many of you know that I've been continuing to read Suzuki Roshi's lectures. I've been kind of diving into Suzuki Roshi's teaching in part because I'm trying little by little to complete this project that my late teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman, invited me into a couple of years back of editing some of the talks that weren't quite edited yet and making a new collection out of them.

[01:17]

So it's bittersweet to be continuing that work without Mel, and I'm appreciating the intimacy with Suzuki Roshi's teachings. and also with the feeling of Mel's presence in that with me. Something that stands out as I look over Suzuki Roshi's teaching, and as I think about Mel and bring his presence in, is just this great simplicity and straightforwardness that shine through the practice. shine through the teachings. It's totally simple and straightforward teachings. So this really simple and straightforward way is feeling just right to me, just what I need, just how I want to practice. So if I had to or wanted to name or put some words on what this simple and

[02:28]

straightforward feeling or teaching that I feel expressed in Suzuki Roshi and in Mel, in his teachings and in his life, it would be how about calling it a warm heart and empty mind? What if it were that simple? What if the and the teachings were that simple. Just a warm heart and an empty mind. So, those of you who come often know that this year I've been talking quite a bit about this warm heart, warm heart in our practice. I'm really coming to see that it's an essential element of our Zazen posture. So we sit upright, our ears over our shoulders, our nose in line with our navel, and then our heart, a warm and open.

[03:38]

So Suzuki Roshi says, when you take care of your posture and your breathing, there is a warm feeling in it. When you have a warm feeling in your practice, that is a good example of the great mercy of Buddha. So we put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen. I love this line. May it be so. So we put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen. The warm feeling we have in our practice is, in other words, enlightenment or Buddha's mercy, Buddha's mind. The warm feeling we have in our practice is, in other words, enlightenment. So I want to continue, as long as I can, deepening my understanding of this wisdom and compassion in this warm heart, Zazen, and life.

[04:48]

The practice of it. not necessarily the attainment of it on any given day. So today, though, I wanted to talk about this other side that I'm seeing in Suzuki Roshi's teachings, this teaching or practice of empty mind. Warm heart and an empty mind. How about this empty mind? So just not thinking. Not thinking. Or no concepts. Or quiet mind. Resting mind. Still mind. Maybe no mind. Empty mind. It's a funny concept.

[05:55]

I remember just before I got interested in Zen, I'd heard rumors that Zen was very cold and very aloof and all about something called no mind or empty mind. And there was a spiritual teacher I was reading at the time who wrote just scathingly about this idea. Why would you want no mind? What about the fullness of mind? What about the fullness of life? The depths of our imagination and the height of our spiritual ideas. Why would you cut that off with some no mind? And so that was my first encounter with this teaching of no mind. Yeah, what's with that? That sounds pointless. And so... It might sound, if we hear empty mind or no mind, it might sound like we'd be missing out on something or cutting off some important part of ourselves.

[07:05]

Then eventually, I started to practice with my body this empty mind teaching. And the thing about empty mind when we, in actual embodied practice, is that it's not really empty. You know, it's empty of itself. But this so-called empty mind is just an open mind, flexible mind. A mind that, you know, by releasing itself, allows everything else, allows the whole world in. This empty mind is a mind that can finally, truly welcome the whole world and all of life. can rejoice in things that aren't it. So there's room. There's room in empty mind. And then when the world comes in, you know, if we need to see it this way, the world coming in to fill the space of this empty mind with all of its light and color and shape and sound, there's an intimacy with that.

[08:21]

We feel connected with that. We are not separate from that. And we can move and act with it. So I've come to really trust and appreciate in this practice of empty mind that there is or can be real wisdom there. The world coming in is not separate. It's not anywhere else. It's not out there. A real wisdom in this practice of empty mind. And also real compassion. this world that flows in to the empty mind, we connect with, we can care for, we can respond with and to. So I think this maybe cold-sounding practice of empty mind really is worthy of our consideration and perhaps practice. It's a teaching to study and celebrate.

[09:24]

So maybe you understand this, maybe you also agree that, have the thought that empty mind sounds like a good idea. You know, we might intellectually understand this or even fill our minds with thoughts as I was doing, preparing this talk, filling my mind with thoughts of how wonderful it is to have an empty mind. So we can be excited about that practice, we can think good things about that practice. But to really trust it in our body and being, to really trust letting the mind settle down, quiet down, empty out, can be quite difficult. So I feel that this simple practice is something to try out little by little, just in little moments, as we gradually develop our faith in it. So rather than just think that empty mind would be a good idea, we try allowing our thoughts to settle.

[10:36]

And we practice this and see how it goes. And if it goes well or if it goes poorly, we register, fully register with our whole being that result. By doing this over and over again, just in these little moments, our faith grows. I have really found this, my faith growing in this empty mind by trying it in little ways now and again. So one of the reasons it may not be easy to take up the practice of emptying the mind is, you know, the first hurdle, the first objection comes from the mind. you know, which you're threatening to empty. So the mind, the thinking mind might not be up for really allowing or supporting this kind of effort. Maybe part of why we talk about it, try to warm our mind up to this idea of letting go of itself.

[11:49]

Ease it in. So it's understandable that our mind wants to stay full and is very suspicious of very suspicious of being emptied. So this full mind, this thinking mind, busy mind, controlling mind, has thought that it was running things, running the show for a very long time. So it's hesitant, understandably, to give that up. What will happen? What will happen if I empty my mind? You might have that thought. It sounds good, but what will happen? What will happen? Or maybe even worse, you know, what if something happens and my mind is empty? That could be really bad. You know, it might be one thing to empty my mind for a moment in Zazen, but what if something's happening and I need my mind, but it's empty?

[12:56]

That could be really bad. I had the image, you know, of this... dream that is often reported of, for example, arriving at school and noticing that you're not wearing pants. That's like the feeling of something I needed, something I really needed to have with me. My pants, you know, my mind won't be there when I need it. I didn't bring anything in my mind and maybe I was supposed to have. So what if I'm supposed to do something or say something, but my mind is empty? So we have this kind of fear. Maybe you are familiar with this kind of fear or anxiety. And to the extent that we've been living centered in our minds, centered in our thinking, and emptying the mind might seem not only impossible,

[14:03]

but very risky. What else could we rely on? What else could we rely on? How could that work? That this thing that's been doing all of it for us could just be let go of. So, We can acknowledge what we're up against in taking up the practice of emptying the mind and just keep trying when we can, how we can, like right now, to test out this practice, to let the mind rest. So as I begin here, and I want to say more about this practice of emptying the mind, but I want to make sure that it's clear and ask you to please understand that none of what I've said or what I will say is to say that our minds, you know, should not be full or that they're supposed to be empty or that, you know, you're doing something wrong if there's thinking.

[15:32]

The point of this practice is not to have us... thinking, more worried thoughts about how we're thinking and we're not supposed to be thinking and we're supposed to be emptying our mind and I can't empty my mind. So the point of this practice is not to think more about how we're thinking. The point of this practice is to just grow this capacity to allow the spaces between and around and beneath the thoughts. It's just to grow this tolerance or appreciation or capacity for this kind of emptiness of mind when the thought subsides. Even if it's just for a moment. This is not another thing to worry about or to think that we're doing wrong. It's also not to say that thinking is bad or thinking is wrong or thinking is unhelpful. It's not a simplistic teaching in that way.

[16:34]

I think to say, just never think. Thinking is bad, not thinking is good. That sounds to me simplistic. In the sense that it's a kind of absolute. This isn't a simplistic teaching. It's just a simple practice. A simple practice that offers great nourishment. Great nourishment. And deep rest. and healing, and wisdom, and compassion. So it takes some willingness or some courage to step into this emptying the mind, and the teaching, and our teachers offer that it's totally worthwhile to do so. That's all. So as I talk about these practices of emptying the mind more, I want to point out maybe two ways of thinking about or seeing this empty mind.

[17:45]

The first is maybe the top layer of this practice. This is the practice of letting go of thoughts. So you maybe have a thought now. This practice is to just let that thought fall away. It will fall away or change. And we let it. It's a practice of returning our attention that has been diverted by the thought. Returning our attention to the breath. the body. To not keep the thought. Just don't keep it. This, I forget where this teaching is, you know, don't serve it tea. Suzuki Roshi, or maybe it's a more common teaching.

[18:48]

You know, the thought can come, but don't, you know, don't pull out the chair for it. Don't serve it tea. Just open the front door and open the back door and just let it walk through. Don't go out onto the porch. And, you know, holler for any additional guests. So a thought comes, and once it's done, you just let it fall away. And then for a moment, maybe a wonderful moment, maybe a terrifying moment, maybe a moment we try to paper over as quickly as we can. For a moment, you know, the mind is empty. The mind is at rest. Our practice is to feel into that emptiness. See if we can extend our... for and appreciation of that silence. One of the things we may notice right away, I notice is this casting around for a next thought. So like, as soon as there's some quiet, there's this casting around, I think pushed by some anxiety.

[19:57]

about the silence. Like, there's something I needed. Am I wearing my pants? There's something I needed. Something's missing. And this impulse, just this embodied impulse of, like, what should I think about next? What should I think about next? Starts itself back into motion. So maybe you might feel that impulse, notice that impulse, this kind of casting around for something to think about. What should we think about? Or maybe there's just such a barrage of thoughts sometimes that we don't notice that casting around. We don't notice that we're going after them. And maybe just find a sliver here and there of quiet in between. So either way, The practice is the same. When we notice our thinking, we accept its appearance, and we just try not to move.

[21:05]

We just let it get swallowed back up, you know, into wherever it came out of, in its body and breath, in its stillness, the light and the sound. So our practice, our effort is just to stay for a little longer in that space between. So this is maybe the first way of looking at emptying the mind. It's maybe what Dogen would call not thinking. It's kind of the top layer, coarse aspect. And then the second aspect is maybe deeper or more subtle. That's this practice. of emptying the mind in the sense of experiencing things, things as it is, as Suzuki Roshi said, things as it is, which is like all of it at once, you know, things as it is.

[22:14]

So this practice of experiencing things as it is without concepts or names or comparisons or calculations, evaluations, or judgment. So this aspect is more subtle. This is about emptying our mind, our deep mind, or emptying our experience, Suzuki Roshi sometimes says, emptying our mind or experience of the deeper, more basic thoughts and concepts that we have, the ones that are barely conscious. or maybe even totally unconscious. So it's about pointing to knowing and somehow experiencing in our body and our deep mind and our warm heart, experiencing that reality of things as it is, is just beyond that conceptualization and naming and measuring.

[23:26]

describing, and that that reality of things as it is can somehow be touched without, at least without quite so much of the distortion that our naming and judging and measuring brings. Or can we see something without calling it something? at least can we see that calling it something is different from what it is. Maybe say more about that. First, I wanted to share a little bit from Suzuki Roshi about what I'm calling this first aspect or this practice of, no, just don't think about stuff.

[24:28]

Just have a mind empty of thoughts. Practice that. Try that out. So I want to share from a piece from Suzuki Roshi that's become my new favorite. And I'm sorry to those of you who hear this over and over. I find it so moving and profound. Hopefully it will be the first chapter of this forthcoming collection. I'll try not to dwell on it too much, but I still appreciate it. So Suzuki Roshi says, sharing the feeling right here, right now, is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice. Zen is, in a word, to share our feeling with people, with trees and with mountains, wherever we are. That is Zen practice. So I've spoken many times now about this sharing the feeling.

[25:36]

And today maybe I want to say less about that aspect and more about this practice that he's really talking about in this piece, this practice of an empty mind that he says is really at the heart of this sharing. So Zen practice is to share. the feeling right here, right now with people and trees and mountains. But usually our mind is filled with something like ice cream or bananas or how much the soap costs in one store compared to how much it will cost in another or looking at the newspaper and seeing an ad where there is a sale. So it is almost impossible to share the actual feeling we have where we are right now. That is how our life is going on and on, endlessly filled with rubbish. It is not rubbish at that time.

[26:38]

At that time, it is important for you. But it is not necessary to hold on to it. It is the same with our everyday life. Because we have so much useless rubbish in our mind, it is hard to share our feeling with people, with things, with trees or with mountains. Even though we are right in the middle of the woods, it is still hard to appreciate the feeling of the woods. And we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods that is Sazen. So to me, this speaks to this top layer of practicing emptying our minds. Our minds are just full of rubbish. And so we can't really let the world in. There's no room. You know, there's no room for the feeling of the woods because there's like soap and ice cream and sales. And so we can't really see or fully experience or participate and give ourselves to what's happening around us.

[27:44]

This is like the story of my life, right? So we're talking to one person while thinking about someone else. And then we talk to someone else while thinking about the last person. We think about our vacation during our work and then we go on vacation and we think about work. So there's no problem with any of these thoughts. It's fine to think about all those things. We need to think about work and vacations and maybe even people too. So I love how he puts it. The thoughts are not rubbish when you're using them. They're not rubbish at the time. But before and after its time, they are rubbish. They're not serving anything. They're just getting in the way. Endlessly filled with rubbish. Because we have so much useless rubbish in our mind, it is hard to share our feeling with people, with things, with trees or with mountains.

[28:50]

So he uses these examples, you know, ice cream and bananas, soap and sales. But his point is also much, much deeper and broader about what our mind might be filled with. So he says, before attaining enlightenment, Buddha practiced under many teachers, studying many things and becoming occupied with various philosophies or religions. When he realized he was caught by this, he lost interest in such things. He got tired of that kind of effort, so he gave up everything. So as Suzuki Roshi tells this familiar story, the Buddha first tried filling up his mind. The Buddha knew he needed to figure something out, so the first approach was fill up his mind with the right stuff. But it didn't satisfy him. So then he decided to take the other approach and practiced emptying his mind instead, giving things up instead of getting new things.

[30:02]

So Suzuki Roshi says, continuing his story, Finally, he sat under the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment. We say he attained enlightenment, but it may be better to say he completely forgot everything. He had nothing in his mind at that moment. He had nothing in his mind at that moment. And when he saw the morning star rising up from the east, that was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind. That is why he had such joy at the sight of the morning star. So to see something, or later Suzuki Rishi also says, you know, to say something. So to see something or to say something from this, Empty mind is the source of the turning of the wheel, is the source of the Buddhadharma, is seeing or speaking from empty mind.

[31:09]

This completely empty mind then is the ground of the arising of all of the true teachings and practices and of this awakening. oh, can we see something with an empty mind? Can we clear the rubbish? Even for a moment. So later on, Suzuki Roshi says, we can sit in Zazen posture with empty mind. But there is some technique or some explanation needed in order to do this. You might be feeling this. They're like, okay. Empty mind sounds great, but how do I do it? What do I do? It's not emptying. So there is some technique or some explanation needed in order to do this.

[32:15]

The purpose of our practice is to open up our mind. You must open it like you open a tin can. You must cut hard and open the tin so that you can eat what's in it. You must open it like you open a tin can. There's a strong effort. So Suzuki Roshi, you know, often is so gentle and warm. And in our teachings on Zazen also, we tend to be gentle, maybe too gentle sometimes. There's something strong, Suzuki Roshi is saying, and we might feel ourself, something strong is required. to cut through these layers of rubbish, you know, especially if a lot is piled up. Like something, some technique or explanation. So the image, you may know, many of you do know, the main altar image in a Zen meditation hall is Manjushri, embodiment of wisdom, who holds traditionally, most traditionally, is depicted with a sword.

[33:25]

This sword, it cuts through delusion. So you must cut hard and open the tin so that you can eat what's in it, which is like the whole world. So Suzuki Roshi is maybe too gentle to bring up the sword, but the tin can, you know, that feeling of just crunch, you know, crunch and then turn. So we need to break in at some point. We need to break in or disrupt this torrent of habitual thinking and living. So that's one part, but just that disrupting, just that cutting is not at all the whole story. So he says, the purpose of our practice is to open up our mind. You must open it like you open a tin can. You must cut hard and open the tin so that you can eat what's in it. But just to open is not enough. I opened it. The spirit of repetition is also necessary, he says.

[34:30]

If you do not have this kind of spirit, or if your everyday life is not based on this kind of spirit, to repeat it forever, you cannot cope with the problems you will have day after day. Opening the can yesterday does not feed you today. Day after day, these problems, we won't be able to cope with them. If we don't not just know how to open the can, but have this feeling of like again and again, a million, billion, trillion times, spirit of repetition. It says, as long as you live, you must eat something. After you eat, you may have a big rubbish pile of cans and papers. So continuously we should work on it. We should clear our table every day. So this is another maybe image of the continuity of this practice. You don't just empty the mind. You don't empty the mind. You are emptying the mind.

[35:33]

It's this continuous process. So clearing the table again and again. And then allowing it to be clear for a little while. So this is clearing the thoughts and then allowing the mind to be empty. before it refills. So each thing on that table had a purpose. There's no criticism, no judgment. It's no problem that there's cans and papers all over. It's not rubbish while you're using it. It's just that once it's used, it's helpful to clear it. So we clear the table again and again. It's like the old poem says, you know, the old and a much maligned but right on poem, you know. Moment after moment, wiping this great mirror of our mind, keeping the dust, clearing the dust over and over, all day long, wiping this mirror so the dust can't stick.

[36:44]

This is our actual everyday practice. clear the table and see if we can bear or even appreciate that empty table, all that empty space. So this is the first aspect of emptying the mind. And before concluding, I wanted to share some from Suzuki Roshi on this other aspect of emptying, which is this emptying of the deeper thoughts and categories and names and judgments. This is emptying the mind that's the effort, not just to clear away the conscious thoughts, but to try to experience reality more directly, in a way not so distorted by those, you know, barely conscious or unconscious concepts.

[37:48]

So he says, Besides the world which we can describe, there is another kind of world. All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake because what is described is not the actual reality. And when you think it is reality, your own idea is involved. That is an idea of self. So here the emptying the mind is seeing that the descriptions that we're putting into reality are not touching it, are really just our own idea. And every time we do that, you know, describe and live in our description, we're putting our self at the center. So our Abbas Phu, sometimes tells this very simple story of a teacher and a student and a cat.

[38:58]

The monk pointed at a cat in the corner and said, Master, I call it a cat. What do you call it? The master said, you call it a cat. I call it a cat. What do you call it? You call it a cat. So we don't usually experience, you know, that's a cat with clarity that that's a thought or a concept. We just usually, you know, that's not a description. That's just, it just is a cat. It's not me thinking it's a cat. It just is a cat. So this story, this just simple little exchange is about two people trying together to point out that it is a cat is a long way off from reality itself. Reality doesn't have... any cats in it. Cats are just something that we call it.

[40:00]

So Suzuki Roshi says, To empty water from a cup does not mean to drink it up. To empty means to have direct, pure experience without relying on the form or color of being. So our experience is empty of our preconceived ideas, Our idea of being, even our idea of being, our idea of big or small, round or square. Round or square, big or small, don't belong in reality, but are simply ideas. That is to empty water. We have no idea of water, even though we see it. reminded me long ago of being on a meditation retreat and on a break outside a break from meditation I was outside and I saw some birds and I saw I guess I had slowed down enough or was quiet enough but I saw these birds and then I saw this thought three three you know I don't think I was quite quiet enough to see the thought birds but I was quiet enough

[41:30]

to see how three was not happening before that thought. Three kind of came a little late to the party. There's something happening, and there's birds. We'll give it that. But there's not three of something. Three comes late. Three wasn't involved until I made it be involved. So I don't know whether we can really get quiet enough to see... all of these thoughts or concepts to see, you know, birds, or maybe to see shapes as a concept. Or, you know, whether and how we can really see around or somehow see entirely without these descriptions. Some of these concepts may be too deep in our consciousness to see around or really to uproot. Or maybe we can't. Maybe we can see... really absolutely directly without any concepts at all.

[42:32]

There's good arguments, you know, to be made on either side of that. I'm not really so interested in getting to the bottom of it, you know. Can you really experience with absolutely no concept or not? The point for me is everyday practice of can I look a little bit beyond? Can I notice, you know, oh, I'm calling that a cat. Can I just step a little bit back from, that's a cat. to just that awareness, well, I'm calling that a cat. Just more and more aware that what I'm operating on is a label, the world of description, and that there's another world flowing, you know, this world of emptiness, as Suzuki Roshi says, that's inviting, that's inviting us to connect, to contact it. So he says, when we analyze our experience, We have ideas of time or space, big or small, heavy or light. A scale of some kind is necessary, and with various scales in our mind we experience things.

[43:36]

Still, the thing itself has no scale. That is something we add to reality. Because we always use a scale and depend on it so much, we think the scale really exists, but it doesn't exist. If it did, it would exist with things. Using a scale, you can analyze one reality into entities, big and small. But as soon as we conceptualize something, it is already dead experience. And so these scales, you know, measuring, calculating, weighing, evaluating. This mode of thinking that, for example, in Fukanzo Zengyi, many of the meditation instructions is named specifically, this gauging, the gauging of thoughts and views, this calculating, comparing, judging, these scales.

[44:42]

Maybe they'll be present, you know, but knowing that these are not in reality itself. There's nothing as big or small Nothing is round or square. So even if we can't see without these, you know, big, it's small. Even if we can't see without big and small, see without round and square, we can be fully aware that this is our world of description, used by our minds for convenience and not in reality itself. So when Suzuki Roshi is talking about the Buddha seeing the morning star, this is the kind of emptying really that he's referring to. When the Buddha saw the morning star having forgotten everything, not just about ice cream, but about stars and Buddhas, he didn't see a star and he definitely didn't see a big star or a small star or a round star or a square star, a bright star or a dim star.

[45:48]

He did not see a good or a bad star. And he didn't see it for a short time or medium time or long time. So thinking about this Buddha and this star that's neither big or small, I was remembering long ago, so many things now are long ago. Let me think. So long ago, I was on horseback riding in the mountains. with a friend in the Inyo Mountains, maybe some of you know, near the California-Nevada border, a beautiful, stark landscape. And we're riding along, and the moon was out. It was afternoon, but the moon was visible. And we could see that the moon was pretty close to full and was big and pale in the sky. And so it felt special to me. And I pointed out the moon to my friend. Look at the moon. It's so beautiful. And my friend, Fritz, my friend paused, and he looked at it with me.

[46:58]

And then he said something like, you know, to be honest, it's not that great. To be honest, it's not that great. And I really knew what he meant. You know, it made me look again. Yeah, it's not so great. I mean, it's not a great moon. It wasn't that special. It was kind of dim. pale. And, you know, he showed me in a way that I was trying to make something special here. It's supposed to be spectacular, so isn't it spectacular? But at the same time, you know, to be honest, it's not that great. It's just a hilarious thing to say about the moon. To be honest, you know, the moon, the moon's not that great. It just stuck with me. And so, what's so ridiculous, you know, what's so obvious and ridiculous about that moment is that the moon is really not waiting.

[48:01]

The moon is really not waiting to hear what we think of it, you know. Whether it's daylight or nighttime, you know, if it's bright or dim, the moon is just so profoundly, completely beyond our evaluation. You know, to say... I like the moon. I don't like the moon. The moon is great. The moon's not that great. You know, it's absurd to weigh in with our opinion about the moon. But then, you know, when does it stop becoming absurd as I back off? Okay, maybe you agree. It's absurd to like weigh in on like for or against the moon. But, you know, backing off of that, well, what? What is it ever that's really so different than that? All the time we're weighing in, you know, with what we think about moons and stars, about things as it is. That sunset's not so special.

[49:04]

That person is not so interesting. That flower is unimpressive. None of these things are calling for any kind of evaluation. or measuring, or comparing, or assessment, their reality is so far beyond any of that. So also, of course, it's ridiculous to say that sunset is so special, the person is so interesting, the flower is so beautiful. And this reminds me of another story that Daigon Luke used to tell a lot, familiar, is an image of the elder and younger practitioner. again, on a mountain, and the younger practitioner having just, you know, opened the tin can of his heart and mind and just absorbing the whole world, just filling this, you know, the rubbish finally clear, the whole world just filling in its vibrancy in life. And he just carried on as they hiked, you know, carried on exclaiming about the beauty.

[50:09]

It's so spectacular. It's just so wonderful. And then the elder is saying something like, well, yeah, of course it is, but what a pity to say so. What a pity to say so. So the elder in the story is saying, no, please don't put this beautiful scene into good and bad. Good and bad, wonderful and terrible. Either way, it's not really adding anything to the brightness of this moment. So I think it's as if Hiroshi is saying the same thing. The thing itself has no scale. That is something we add to reality. When we analyze our experience, we have ideas of time or space, big or small, heavy or light.

[51:12]

that is something we add to reality. As soon as we conceptualize something in that way, it is already dead experience. So the very last thing I want to say, just if you feel moved to either now or later, A practice emptying the mind in both of these senses. To remember, to know, or to trust, to have faith that that is not the functioning of our life. Our ordinary functioning, and also our great bodhisattva functioning, will continue to flow. Even without all our concepts, even without all of our ideas, our life will continue to flow. My ordination teacher Lee Teperos would say that sometimes.

[52:15]

Action flows from somewhere deeper than thought. So this emptying the mind is not like a stuckness. It's not a flatness. It is activity. It is the flowing of our life. The way Suzuki Roshi puts this is to say, if we empty things, letting them be as it is, then things will work. Originally, things are related. And things are one. And as one being, it will extend itself. To let it extend itself, we empty things. When we have this kind of attitude, then without any idea of religion, we have religion. So we do this practice of allowing, you know, emptying things as it is, to allow these things as it is to extend. itself, themselves, in their harmonious basic relatedness. And so this letting be is a religious practice, essentially.

[53:21]

It has to be a religious practice because it's a deep entrusting. There's surrender, surrender into this functioning that is deeper and more trustworthy than our superficial ideas. So this emptying won't hinder our helpfulness or our functioning. The teaching is that it will only support it. And that too is something we can test out in practice. Try it for a day. Do a day of thinking and a day of no thinking and compare on the third day. Just see how it goes. See if it's trustworthy. So I'm sorry for... offering so many concepts today. I mostly just wanted to say that I'm practicing this and extend the invitation, the reminder of this part of our teaching, which is just to let the mind be quiet and deeply at rest between thoughts and to notice the names and scales

[54:41]

descriptions that I'm filtering my reality through, and seeing if those also can soften, or fall away. What would it be to see now, you know, without big or small? I'm practicing noticing that my mind wants to fill itself with something. And I'm noticing that I want to evaluate and weigh and measure, assess what's my assessment. So noticing these impulses, trying to make space around them, letting them go, and enjoying that silence, deep rest, nourishment, and growing in this way, growing our faith. that this is a good way to live. So homage to Suzuki Roshi and to our many great teachers, those still with us and those departed.

[55:51]

May our life reveal their compassion. And may any merit of our being together this morning extend for the benefit and liberation of suffering beings. Thank you again for being on Zoom here at Green Gulch. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[56:41]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.24