This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations by people like you. Good evening. Hello everyone. Hi. So tonight I want to talk about Zazen. I guess I want to start by talking about Zazen. Is there anyone here tonight who doesn't sit, doesn't have a meditation practice? Well, welcome.

[01:02]

Later on, tell me if you're any clearer on what it might be. So we use the name Zazen for it in the Zen tradition. And this practice of sitting, facing ourselves, facing the wall, facing the present moment, this practice of Zazen is at the heart of our Zen training program. And I say at the heart of our Zen training program, but actually it's at the heart of the Buddhist waking up program. In fact, this event of sitting down and being present with oneself is the common denominator of meditation.

[02:08]

of Buddhist practice across Asia, in the United States, wherever Buddhism is spread. The Buddha himself, during his life, over and over spoke in suttas about this and he asked on some occasions he asked the question himself of his audience he said what is the condition of knowledge that supports the vision of things as they really are and then he would answer that question and he would say this question is answered by saying concentration or samadhi or he used some word that was in his language which I'll call Zazen.

[03:11]

I'm going to provide a Zazen instruction that is in the voice of a Tibetan teacher named Padma Sambhava, a very important teacher in the Tibetan tradition, one of the founding teachers of the Tibetan tradition. And he said, He described meditation like this. He said, direct your eyes into the space in front of you. See that thoughts pertaining to the past, future and present, as well as wholesome, unwholesome and neutral thoughts, along with the causes of thoughts, are completely cut off. Bring no concepts to mind. Let the mind, like a cloudless sky, be clear and empty. and settle it into utter, the translation says, vacuity. By doing so, Padmasambhava tells us, by doing so, there might arise joy and luminosity.

[04:26]

Examine whether or not there enters into that experience attachment, clinging, grasping or excitement. and recognize the difference between virtue and advice. So that's one description of Zazan. Another way to describe Zazan is to say that we sit in the correct posture and we breathe naturally. as naturally as possible. And we remain in the present moment, focusing on neither past nor future. And sitting like this, making this effort to just simply be in the present moment, you might notice that thoughts arise. The point is not to be victimized by these thoughts.

[05:28]

Simply let them pass. and come back over and over to the clear space of the present moment. That's another description. And whatever description you follow, if you make the effort to sit, one of the signs of progress that you might experience, you might notice, One of the signs of progress that you might notice is that our minds are untamed and chaotic and thoughts naturally arise. Compelling thoughts arise. We might try to come back over and over to our focus, but

[06:30]

It might be that we notice we actually lose this effort, this attention. It might be that we not even realize at the time it happens, but that in retrospect, we can see that we slipped into a daydream or a reverie. Making the effort to sit, we come back again. As soon as we notice it, we come back to the present moment. And we bring our attention to the simplest thing. We bring our attention perhaps to our breath. Fundamental. Fundamental event. Dogen, in his very wonderfully.

[07:33]

A strong statement of Zai Zen called Fukan Zazangi. He tells us, you should learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate yourself. Cut aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Have no designs in becoming a Buddha. Have no designs in becoming a Buddha. Maybe you didn't, anyway, have those designs. One thing that happens in the close observation of the thoughts that spring up when we sit by ourself is that we might have the feeling that what our, quote, natural mind, close quote, is not automatically full of wholesome thoughts.

[08:56]

And this is one of the points of practice to be aware of. What happens, not everything that happens when we sit in the zendo is actually useful. And part of the effort we make, and I say effort, part of the effort we need to make is to develop attention and hold it on our breath. on our posture. And when distractions and thoughts arise, not investigate them. There's plenty of time in your life for that. So these thoughts, directions that our mind might pursue as we sit in the zendo are often linked to our whole life, to the story of our life, to the story of our family, to what we believe we need.

[10:31]

It's useful to understand that our lives are not just automatically fresh, pure expressions of Buddha's mind. And so especially when we practice sitting, when we practice the development of concentration, we need to be careful that we are concentrating that we're not bringing forth our habitual story. That we're not in just some more sophisticated or complicated way affirming our smaller self. This is kind of a story about noticing.

[11:43]

I'm about to tell a story about noticing when we're affirming our smaller self. And it involves an anecdote about Ed Brown, who I haven't seen the movie, but I understand there's a movie coming out this weekend at the Landmark Theater with Ed. And when he first started cooking at Tassajar, He was, amongst other things, he was baking. And he had a problem. The problem was that he couldn't make biscuits so that they tasted good, so that they tasted right. He couldn't make them to his satisfaction. And despite this feeling he had, well, other people would say, oh, this is a good biscuit. Mm-mm. But he wasn't happy. He felt there was something wrong with him. And it's kind of wonderful to think about the ideas that we get inside of ourselves about the way things should be.

[13:00]

The ideas we might have about how biscuits should be. life should be because Ed at some point he realized that in the matter of biscuits growing up he had two models and one of them both of them came from the supermarket one of them was from a company called Bisquick and the other was from a company called Pillsbury Now for the bisquick biscuits, you just poured milk in the batter and spooned it out. It was not recommended at all that you rolled it or anything. You just used a spoon. And for the Pillsbury biscuits, you took the tube of dough and you whacked it against the counter and twisted it. And you peeled back the little sort of

[14:05]

I don't know why, a package of biscuits, biscuit dough, and you pulled it apart and put it on the thing. I was very familiar as a kid with those biscuits. I would sometimes help my mother, and she would say, do you want to bake the biscuits? And I'd say, yes. And I'd go to the fridge, and I would take the Hillsbury. They had Parker House. They had a whole range of biscuits, and I'd whack it against the thing, twist it, and put it. So I know these biscuits. And... So finally one day Ed had an epiphany. He had a sort of maybe modest little awakening. He recognized that the biscuits that he was baking didn't live up to what he had as a kid. And so compared to what were his biscuits no good? Compared to something that actually he had no real interest in duplicating.

[15:08]

And then he actually tasted the biscuits that he was making himself. And he, with a fresh palate, a fresh mind, he saw the crusty, salty dough and the delicious flaky flavor. And he realized that what he had right there was incomparably more satisfying than the idea that he'd been carrying. And I think that this insight that it had is something that Zazen helps us to have with the rest of our life. But first, one of the ways that we get to that point is we do have these thoughts about the way things should be. So we spend a fair bit of time thinking them through, calculating how we can make it happen.

[16:12]

And then the bell rings and we stand up and we're still where we were when we entered the room. Maybe the point I want to make from Ed's experience is that we have to be careful in our effort. with our life and our effort with sitting Zazen and try to see underneath what we're looking for, what we're striving for. And be careful that what is comfortable for us is not maybe just that comfortable, but not really an investigation of the present moment.

[17:14]

homage to the fascicle byoji continuous practice great master dogan says on the great road of buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice this continuous practice forms the circle of the way and is never cut off continuous and sustained Without any effort from us, all Buddhas of the past, present, and future are already actualized right here, right now, in this room. And this is the truth of zazen. This is the truth that Buddha proclaimed under the bow tree when he said, at the time of his awakening, he said, I, along with all beings, together, we awaken right now. Buddha said, I and all beings are awakened at this moment, but he didn't rest in that place because he continued.

[18:48]

He rose from his seat and he continued to teach, to guide, to suggest practices and to help people wake up. we want to sit zazen? Why would we want to sit down on the cushion in the zendo or in our home and face ourself? And I think it starts with a sense that maybe not everyone in this world has, but a sense that perhaps we might have or some of us might have a sense of some unsatisfied emotion connected to the way we're living life. Buddha our great Zen ancestor taught about this and he taught about the truth of impermanence he taught about the cause of impermanence he taught about the truth of awakening and he taught a path to awakening these are the four noble truths I just said and they're not

[20:15]

particularly fancy metaphysical truths. They're truths that can be felt in our own lives and in our own experience and even on the cushion as we sit with ourself. This road of teaching, this road of communication starting with the Buddha and continuing in this room tonight, has survived. It's a thin, it's sometimes been a thin thread that continues and brings us into Buddha's family as we sit here today. delicate line of practice and connection to our tradition that brings past into the future in the place of this present moment.

[21:37]

And this continued story of awakening that Buddhism teaches, is something that is best supported with spiritual friends, in face-to-face relationships, is best supported in connection with other people. It's very difficult to sustain and maintain, and especially to transmit and convey on our own. It might seem that sitting zazen is a solitary act, a thing that you do by yourself. But really, I think that zazen, this solitary act of zazen is the necessary, or not the, but a necessary piece of our having the space to meet other people.

[22:49]

So having a spacious mind that allows us to meet, connect and support other people to be helpful to them. And one of the reasons why we start our practice alone by ourself on our own cushion or chair. is that this practice isn't done for the sake of changing the world, remaking others. It's done from this place of changing ourself, remaking our own small self into a big heart, a big mind. Remaking our own eyes so that we see the world more clearly.

[23:56]

Again, from Dogen, a different fascicle, only a Buddha and a Buddha text. He says, Buddha Dharma cannot be known by a person. Because it is realized by Buddha alone, it is said only a Buddha and a Buddha can thoroughly master it. Padmasambhava tells us, don't try to become a Buddha. backing up a little bit. We're born. I think.

[25:03]

Apparently. And we live a life of uncertain duration. And then we die. It can seem like a tragedy or it can seem like a wonderful And maybe it's both. And the concern of a place like Zen Center is to help us, help people who are born and who will die to be useful to each other. to help us live our lives in the most useful possible way. And in this effort, it's really important, I think I said earlier, it's really important to not try this on our own, but to practice with others, to have spiritual friends.

[26:26]

Sitting zazen is a piece of our life, but it's not the whole thing. The bell, we sit down and sit for a period of time and then the bell rings and we get up. And perhaps we've been successful at developing concentration and attention. Well, you might say, so what? Because What next happens is we walk out of the zendo and we meet other people. And it's how we treat them and how we are with them that I think is the real measure of our practice. The calm mind that we might realize in Zazen alone can't do the entire job of waking us up. And so it's kind of a mystery what that extra piece is that helps us.

[27:59]

We need to wake our hearts up, not just in silence, but in communication and doing this. Waking our hearts up, perhaps it might even be like bringing the heart of love to our experience with everyone we meet. This is cultivating the perfection of wisdom, which is lovely and holy. This perfection of wisdom which brings light and is unstained. and sets in motion the wheel of Dharma. And it's important in practice to know that we don't count on faith all the way.

[29:19]

At some point, practice is something that we need to make real and true in our own heart and mind and life. But still, this thing called faith is useful, is helpful. When I first came to Zen Center some years ago, I remember having the feeling that faith, spiritual faith, It was a kind of corruption. I thought that Zen was about discovering things for ourself. And maybe I saw the Zen. I had the idea that Zen practice was in some ways opposed to taking things on faith. And there's maybe some truth, maybe, to that. But in order to practice, we have to have continuity.

[30:33]

And we need to not be discouraged when things get difficult, as they will. When things don't seem like they make much sense, we need to still continue. And continuing in the face of the disappointments that our life will bring us. This is made much easier if we have faith, faith in this tradition, faith in the idea that we can wake up. And what's strong about, what can be strong about our practice and life expression, what can be strong about it is not so much based on a single moment of inspiration that's powerful, but rather a process over time of loosening our grip on old ways of thinking and feeling and allowing our mind and heart to find its own true course.

[31:49]

based on unexamined habitual inclinations. Please know that all Buddhas, every Buddha Practice is to live in the midst of the world. In the midst of the entire universe. And if it's not a practice that includes all of us, then... Who am I to say this? But here I go. Then it's not the practice of a Buddha. I want to read a very lovely quote, a very lovely section from this only a Buddha and a Buddha.

[33:04]

I want to close with these words. There has been a saying since olden times, no one except a fish knows a fish's heart. And no one except a bird follows a bird's trace in the sky. Yet those who understand this principle are rare. To think that no one knows a fish's heart or a bird's trace is mistaken. You should know that a fish always knows one another's heart. A bird can see traces of hundreds and thousands of small birds having passed in flocks. and can see traces of so many lines of large birds having flown south and north. These traces for a bird may be even more evident than the carriage tracks left on a road or the hoof prints of a horse seen in the grass.

[34:16]

In this way, a bird sees bird's traces. You may wonder why you do not see and know. The reason is that while Buddhas see these traces with the Buddha's eyes, those who do not have a Buddha's eye just notice the Buddha's attributes. You never know a Buddha's trace when you are not a Buddha. If you find footprints, you should investigate whether they are the Buddha's. On being investigated, the Buddha's trace is known whether it's long or short. Accomplishing this is the path of the Buddha Dharma. So, please keep investigating your life and be alert to seeing the Buddha's trace.

[35:18]

Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue the practice of giving by offering your financial help. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May all beings be happy.

[35:41]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.65