Though our past evil karma has gradually accumulated, being the obstacles and positions of obstacles in practicing the way, in the way that you have brought into us and free us from karmic effects, allowing us to practice the way without ignorance, may you share results with your compassion, which fills the boundless even with the virtue of their enlightenment. We in the people are all people as an ancestor. Ancestors, we are one Buddha and one ancestor. Awakening Bodhi mind, we are one Bodhi mind. Presently under compassion and goes freely without limit. And are able to attain the Buddha and let go of the attainment. And for the Chan Master Lungas, those who are in past lives, who are in the enlightened world.

[01:03]

Right in the character of the body, which is the fruit of many lives. Buddhas were, and they were the same as we, the people of today, or exactly as those of old quietly explored. A fellow who reached these causes and conditions, as his practices, the direct transmission of a verified Buddha, passing and repenting in this way, never sails to see profound help from all Buddhas and ascents. healing and disclosing our lack of faith. Before they put us, we melt away the root of transgression, loud of confession and repentance, the eternal color of true practice, the true mind of faith, body of faith. Good morning, everyone.

[02:08]

In the latter part of Dogen's Mountains and Water Sutra, he writes that from the timeless beginning to the present, the mountains have always been the dwelling place of the great sages. Wise ones and sages have made the mountains their personal chambers, their own body and mind, and it is through these wise ones and sages that the mountains are actualized. Although many great sages and wise ones have gathered in the mountains, ever since they entered the mountains, no one has encountered a single one of them. There is only the manifestation of the life of the mountain itself, not a single trace of anyone having entered the can be found. So since time immemorial, sages and wise ones have entered the mountains for periods of fasting, pilgrimage, retreat, and sashin, and to build temples and monasteries.

[03:27]

We are very fortunate to have the wise sage, Shinryo Suzuki Roshi, himself entered these mountains over 50 years ago and established Zen Shinji. And now we too are here, having entered this mountain, monastery for the practice period or longer, making it our home or abiding place for a while. So why then does Dogen say that not a single trace of anyone having entered these mountains can be found? The dwelling place of the great sages is the realm that is free of the dualities of motion and rest, wise sage and clueless student, man and woman, being and non-being. It is free of all the dualities arising from the mistaken notion of a distinct and separate self.

[04:36]

When Dogen speaks of entering the mountains, he's speaking of the non-dual dharma. There's no separation between the sage and the mountain. When we have made the mountains our own body and mind, our personal chambers, there is no meeting them. Since the mountains and the sages are one reality, That the sages have entered the mountains means that there is no one to meet and nothing to be met. There is only the mountain itself. The appearance of the mountains is completely different when we are in the world gazing at the distant mountains and when we are in the mountains meeting the mountains. Meeting the mountains means belonging to the mountains. being totally within the mountains of interdependent origination, of all reality presencing at once.

[05:42]

A monk asks Zen Master Chosun, how can we make mountains and rivers and the earth belong to ourselves? Chosun responds, how can we make ourselves belong to the mountains, rivers and the earth? How can we make ourselves belong to the mountains, rivers, and earth? I think that the current environmental and climate crisis that we're witnessing, in my view, is largely human-generated, although some may disagree, is a matter of the human species having lost touch with a felt sense of belonging to the earth. of losing contact with the embodied wisdom that tells us we are intimately dependent on the health and vitality of this planet and the rest of its species and flora and atmosphere.

[06:47]

We don't know who we are, nor the source of our being. Or rather, we have a mistaken view of who we are, one that is not rooted in a totality of being. Because we don't know who we are, we don't love ourselves. And we don't love ourselves, and when we don't love ourselves, we don't feel like we belong. Or our sense of belonging is a mistaken view of belonging to conditioned, ever-changing circumstances rather than the unchanging circumstances Like the monk in this koan, we have a backwards understanding. The question of how can we make the mountains, rivers, and earth belong to us is backwards. Backwards because it makes the separate self the center of the equation.

[07:56]

Teacher Chosen flips this to reorient the monk. How can we make ourselves belong to the mountains, rivers and the earth. This way of seeing says that when we are naturally ourselves, and even though ourselves are also mountains, rivers and the earth, then we are never apart. We never feel separate. Even belonging doesn't restrict or limit us. In fact, belonging expresses the nature. of our nature. Brother David Stendelrast, who is an American Catholic benedicting monk and who was actually once a student here at Tassajara. Did you know that? And for many years he co-led retreats with Paul Haller on Zen and Christianity, a dialogue. And he's just more or less recently retired in the last year or so.

[09:00]

I think he's in his 80s now. So, He has this beautiful definition of love that I appreciate. He defines love as the felt sense of belonging. Love is the felt sense of belonging. And this felt sense of belonging, I would propose, is the heart of Zazen. We sit in stillness and silence and allow ourselves to belong to our experience and our experience to belong to us. And this belonging manifests because something happens in the process of our sitting where duality of self and experience, a self experiencing something called desire or pain or sensation or seeing, falls away, leaving no trace. Here's a poem by the 18th century poet Li Po called Zazen on Qingqing Mountain that speaks to this sense of non-duality at the heart of practice.

[10:14]

The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain in me, until only the mountain remains. The birds have vanished down the sky, now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain in me, until only the mountain remains. So, welcome to the first talk of the first sushin of this particular practice period. Over the next five days, we will further deepen into being in these mountains and waters and into the mountains and waters of our own being to discover what it is to belong to them and to belong to our own being. Usually the first talk of us as Sheen focuses on the essential practice of Zazen, exploring ways and approaches to take our seats.

[11:27]

to settle into our bodies through attention to our posture and orientate ourselves to turn the light inward to illuminate the internal landscape of the heart-mind. So I attend to weave throughout this sushin an ongoing study of Dogen's Sansui Kyo, the Mountains and Water Sutra, the fascicle that we're walking through this particular practice period. In our first two classes, I offered some background and context for our study, and now we're going to enter into the text itself, kind of like finally entering the mountains after we've done some pre-programmage preparation. The real way to most thoroughly engage this fascicle, as I've said before, is through Zazen. So this morning I'd like to say a few things about Zazen. The Japanese of word zazen simply translates as sitting meditation.

[12:31]

Dogen uses various terms to describe zazen, one of them which is gotsuza, gotsuza, which means sitting immovable like a bold mountain. The image from which the Chinese character for gotsuza is derived is said to be a level place at the summit of a mountain, and furthermore, a place where there's not even one tree growing. And since this represents a mountaintop with no trees, no matter how hard the wind blows, there is absolutely no movement. So this expresses well the immovable nature of Zazen. I appreciate this description of Zazen as Goetsuza, sitting immovable like a bold mountain. And we're fortunate here that at Tassajar, we're surrounded by bold mountains, mountains that offer us powerful examples of what it is to sit upright in stillness.

[13:37]

I find the most inspiring mountain of this particular valley to be what we call Flag Rock over here. Does anyone know, is there a real name for that mountain, or we just kind of named it and it stuck? I've always known it as Flag Rock, so... And it's the one over here on the north side, above the pole, rising out above the pole. And basically, there's a strong sense of us being nestled here at its feet. To me, it looks and evokes the presence of someone sitting zazen. And for those of you who are new to Tassajara, if you ever go up or if you even look up, you can see it from down here. Look very closely at the very top. You'll see two boulders, almost like two eyes, right? And between the boulders, you'll see some prayer flags strung between them. I think they increased the size of the prayer flags in recent years because I could see them much better now than I could before. But it's just this beautiful image.

[14:40]

And I love the way that I have this... imagination that these prayer flags there sitting there, the mountain sitting zazen, is generating the thought of bodhicitta, right? And other prayers of compassion that it's sending out on the wind, you know, as the kind of the wind radiates and passes through this spectacular wilderness. So maybe that's what you're doing here too when you're sitting. There's prayer flags in your mind. You're generating thoughts of bodhicitta and sending them out for the whole world to benefit from them. While the most common meditation posture is to take the shape of a mountain, a triangle with a broad base that's stable, The Buddha did mention four other postures, or what's called Chinese dignities, sitting, standing, walking, and lying down.

[15:46]

And she so gave a beautiful exposition of these four dignities in her Dermatalk last week. And each of these might have a variation of them based upon one's particular physical needs and capacities. So sitting isn't the only expression of zazen. The main thing... is to have a sense of uprightness and alignment in your posture. Posture of the body affects the posture of the mind. So body, mind, or Nato and Zen, both are manifestations of awareness. So what shape of awareness is your being taking? So when you sit down and take your posture, please really take care of finding your posture Each and every time you sit, take the time to kind of get on your cushion, find that stable, upright, attentive, alert posture, and settle and center into your being.

[16:49]

Because every time you do this, you're bringing an experience into form. The shape you take shapes your experience. So finding the form of your body in each moment. And find the foundation of your form, of your posture. So the foundation of your sitting bones connecting to the earth. Also, how is your foundation? Are you kind of slumped over? Leaning in one way or another? Or are you kind of drawing upward through the center of your body with the crown of your head touching the sky? So there's a sense, the posture, there's a sense of stillness and flow at the same time. So it's not rigid or stiff. There's a kind of a live vibration happening with it. And the head is balanced on the shoulders. So notice if it's kind of heavy in some way or a little hanging forward or not quite right or your stiffness in your neck, right?

[17:59]

Just notice that and try to center it again. Shisou and I will be offering posture suggestions throughout the sashim. So we'll come around perhaps once a day and help you to kind of be aware, become aware of the particular habits of your body as you're sitting. Do you have a particular way of leaning or crunching or whatever you're doing to the body that actually doesn't help you to sit and movable in some way? And as we offer these posture adjustments, here's an opportunity to retrain your body, to step out of the habit patterns, and find a new way to be settled in your posture. So we'll look forward to offering that. I didn't tell this just how we were doing that, so she's going, what? So fortunately, you have a yoga teacher, so she'll know a little bit about the body. So in his Fukan Zazengi, the Universal Recommendations for Zazen, Dogen instructs us that once we've adjusted our posture to take a breath, exhale fully, rock our body right and left, and then settle into a steady and movable sitting.

[19:10]

In other words, to sit steadily without any movement, like an immovable mountain. We do this for each period of Zazen, not just for the first time. Make your effort to find balance and alignment so that you have established a stable pose, one that isn't easily unseated. Zazen is the mountain that can be imperturbable. So lightning or rain or storms or snow or fire, regardless of the weather, the mountain is not disturbed. Cultivating stability of sitting means that one has the intention has established the body of intention of not moving, not grasping, and not turning away. Each of us sitting today is together creating a supportive container of upright intention from which we all benefit. However, anyone who is engaged in any period of zazen for an extended time will recognize that it's not possible

[20:22]

to sit in a settled way if we are always reacting to every thought or emotion that comes floating by, right? Or all the various body sensations we feel, whether pleasant or unpleasant, pain for itchy, and so on. So it's only natural that when instruction is given concerning zazen, that emphasis is put on sitting continuously with as little movement as possible. In zazen, we explicitly do not move the body in response to stimuli. This also applies to strong sensations of physical pain and mental agitation. In fact, it can be said that the essence of the practice of zazen is first to be found within the not moving the body. Are you moving now? Is the moving happening? Are you reacting in any way to any bodily or mental experience that's arising?

[21:23]

Just noticing. Just noticing what's happening. What's your relationship to the experience? That said, there is a tendency to overemphasize the matter of not moving in zazen. Paying attention to the breath helps us realize realize that practicing gotsuza, immovable sitting, is not a rigid, stiff expression. It's an alive stillness, an alive immovability. The teaching of Zen and Zazen is of how to knowingly embody this very life, or this life force, as Kadigiri said, and Shuso quoted him earlier. By mindfully attending to our own breath, we feel the movement of our body and those around us. The fact is, our body is never still.

[22:26]

Even when dead, our bodies keep moving insofar they are decaying and moving through deterioration. Nothing is fixed in the world of impermanence. So dedication to immovable sitting means feeling the alive pulsing and coursing of our body and breath. Not gross movements, but subtle ones of feeling alive, feeling the arising and falling of the breath, arising from the tantiyan or the hara, the center of your being, and up through the spine. Sitting in gotsuza, we feel the alive sensation of being and alive. mountain. So here again is the first line from Dogen's Mountains and Water Sutra as translated by Karl Buehlfeld.

[23:33]

These mountains and waters of the present are the expression of the old Buddhas. These mountains and waters of the present are the expression of the old Buddhas. And so as I mentioned the other day in class, it's Dogen's habit that in each of his fascicles in the Shovagenzo, he begins with what he most wants to say. And then, for example, offering a summary of his main points in the first sentence or the first paragraph of his fascicle. And then the rest of the fascicle is an unpacking of this first part. So the first question for us then is, what are the mountains that Dogen is talking about here? And the second question is, what do these mountains have to do with us? Whenever I have the opportunity to leave the city and enter into mountains with high elevations, such as here in the center of the Uchiha mountain range, there's a set of verses from Dogen's Ehe Kuroku that come to mind.

[24:45]

The first verse was composed by Hong Xiu, the 11th century Chinese Chan Buddhist monk who compiled the collection of 100 koans with commentaries known as the Book of Serenity. His verse is as follows. With coming and going, a person in the mountains understands that blue mountains are their body. Blue mountains are the body and the body is the self. So where can one place the senses and their objects? And I think I'll just say here that sometimes the character for blue in Chinese can be either interpreted as blue or green. Basically, it's the same thing. And I understood at one point the color blue didn't actually exist in human consciousness. So you would look at the sky and you would see something other than what we now define as blue. So this ambivalence between what is blue and green is very unique here. So that's why sometimes you read the translations, one moment it'll say green mountains and the next moment it'll say blue mountains.

[25:51]

And even when you look at the mountains, sometimes they look green and sometimes they look blue. Even here at Tassajara I notice that. With coming and going, a person in the mountains understands that blue mountains are their body. The blue mountains are the body and the body is the self. So where can one place the senses and their objects? So Hongshu is saying that we are persons coming and going in the mountains. We are the people in the mountain and the mountain is us. Hongshu says that the mountain is his body and his body is the self. That's why I, as a mountain or body, can't see the self. For example, an eye does not see an eye. So this is a good thing insofar as it means that there is no separation between us and the mountain. So the second verse is a response by Dogen to Hong Xiu's poem and follows the same rhyme scheme that Hong Xiu used.

[27:02]

A person in the mountains should love the mountains. With going and coming, the mountains are their body. The mountains are the body, but the body is not the self. So where can one find any sense of their objects? A person in the mountains should love the mountains. With going and coming, the mountains are their body. the mountains of the body, but the body is not the self. So where can one find any sense or their objects? Now, one way to understand mountains of both Hongshur and Dogen's verses is that they represent the entire network of interdependent origination. The principle of interdependent origination, or sometimes it's called dependent arising, in Sanskrit it's patita- pratitya samupada, says that nothing has independent, permanent, or absolute existence.

[28:08]

So all dharmas, you can also translate dharmas as phenomena, arise in dependence upon other dharma or phenomena. A traditional refrain for this says that if this exists, that exists. If this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist. Everything, the whole world and the entire universe is intimately part of a limitless web of interconnections and undergoes a continual process of transformation or impermanence as a result. Therefore, we are always in the mountains and always connected with all beings in this entire world. The mountains are the world we live in And at the same time, the mountains are our body. And what a beautiful reminder that Dogen offers us when he says, a person in the mountains should love the mountains.

[29:13]

And whenever I'm in the mountains, such as here at Tassajara, I certainly love them. And I feel particularly inspired by and deeply connected to their beauty and their awesome presence. In Sansrikyo, Dogen also writes that mountains belong to the people who love them. And another definition of love that I've been using recently, and I find particularly germane in this case, it says, love is the knowing of our shared being. Love is the knowing of our shared being. Love is the recognition of our great intimacy as interdependently originated beings. We are intimate and we are one. All one inconceivable network of shared being. So according to Dogen, when we love, we recognize that we are in the mountains and we love them.

[30:16]

Our mutual relationship is one of love and belonging. We belong to the mountains and the mountains belong to us. When we love mountains, mountains belong to us, and we belong to the mountains. The mountains love us unconditionally in return. However, in contrast to Hang Shur, Dogen says that the mountains are the body, but the body is not the self. In other words, his body is not the self. Dogen is not identifying his mind and body as being his true self. His mind and body are there, functioning, as part of interdependent origination, but he is not identified or defined or limited by it. So don't limit your identity to just a fraction of the mountain or to the appearance of the mountain.

[31:21]

In the last line of Dogen's verse, he asks, So where can one find any senses or their objects? In other words, he is pointing to the realization that there is no separation between eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind and their objects, color, sound, smell, taste, touch, objects of mind. There is also no separation between the selfless self and all beings. So as Okamura notes, Dogen is using mountains and waters to talk about the reality of our lives before any separation between self and others. We are the mountains and the mountains are us. Together we are one seamless life. This non-separation is happening all the time. But we don't usually see it because we are in the middle of it. We are in the middle of the mountain.

[32:25]

Just as an eye cannot see itself, we can't see the reality of the all-inclusive, interconnected web of existence that we are. We can't see the true face of the mountain because we are always in the mountain, so our view is always limited. That's the way it is for us as humans. Here is Tozan Zenji's enlightenment poem, which I think nicely expresses this point. Do not try to see the objective world. You which is given as an object to see is quite different from yourself. I am going my own way and I meet myself, which includes everything I meet. I am not something I can see as an object. When you understand self, which includes everything, you have your true way.

[33:26]

Do not try to see the objective world. You which is given as an object to see is quite different from yourself. I am going my own way, and I meet myself, which includes everything I meet. I am not something I can see as an object. When you understand self, which includes everything, you have your true way. What is your true way? In zazen it becomes clear that we are living the same life with all beings. So now another term for zazen which Dogen uses, which I think you're all quite aware of, is shikantaza, just sitting, or nothing but precisely sitting. And the whole point of shikantaza is just to sit here.

[34:34]

doing nothing like a mountain does nothing, right? Nowhere to go, nothing to accomplish, no special state to achieve. However, this is so difficult for us that we can hardly even conceive of it. Instead, we imagine we are supposed to sit here meditating or some other idea of something we're supposed to be doing. There's a story about the great Chinese Zen master, Yaoshan, in Japanese, Yakuson Ingen, in which he is just sitting. He's here in the Zendo, just like all of you are, right? And his teacher, Shitao, in Japanese, Sekito Kisen, who happens to be the author of the Sandokai, which we chant here regularly, his teacher comes in and practices together with him, asked, What are you doing?

[35:37]

And Yao Shang replies, I'm not doing anything at all. So Shi Tao said, Then you are just idly sitting. And Yao Shang replied, If I were idly sitting, I would be doing something. Finally Shi Tao said, You say that you are not doing anything at all. What is it that you are not doing? Yao Shang said, Even the 10,000 sages don't know. Even the 10,000 sages don't know what the mountains are doing when they are just sitting. The sages, like the mountains, let go of knowing. We could say that zazen is a deliberate exercise in knowingly not knowing. Not doing doing and not knowing. knowing, knowing. When we sit in meditation, our zazen is stepping back from our conditioned thinking and releasing into the open, intimate space of not knowing.

[36:48]

It's stepping into silence, stillness, and non-striving. Do nothing. Doing nothing means to not move, to not not to engage or try to fix or change or seek anything in our experience. It's profoundly peaceful. Instead, we soften into simply being, to not resisting or moving away from what is happening. We make the effortless effort to just be, just be the presence you already are, and let everything else just be as it is. So we relax. Allow ourselves to ride the waves of moment-to-moment experience with an easeful attitude, allowing a larger field of being to hold us.

[37:49]

In Zazen, we do nothing, hold no particular view or goal, and simply observe what happens. To note the various experiences, images, thoughts, sensations, feelings that arise as we sit there, as if we were just the wide open sky and all kinds of weather and objects, planes, birds, clouds, rainbows, lightning, passing through. And we don't grab onto anything or try to follow it. We simply are observing the passage. of apparent phenomenon. And the thing is we might think like we're here as the witnessing sky and the objects are over there. But the reality is the sky and the objects are not true. So the witnessing part is a first stage. Or actually the first stage is that we're clumped together, right?

[38:52]

And we think we are the object and this is over there and so on. But at some point there's this kind of point in our practice where we become awareness observing whatever is arising in awareness. But the third stage is there is no difference between awareness and appearance of the objects arising. So already knowing that, it might help to be able to release any tendency to try to track or grab onto the objects appearing in awareness because they're just modulations of awareness. It's just one open field of emptiness dancing. So when our intention is to do nothing, then we can more easily notice how quickly we can be pulled off balance by the movement and perpetual agitation of our small self. So anytime you feel any kind of grasping onto the object, that's the separate self.

[39:57]

And it's grabbing onto something because that grabbing is what makes the separate self. It's dependent on grasping to exist. When it doesn't grasp, it begins to dissolve. The meditation taught by the Buddha and practiced by Buddhist ancestors is deeply somatic, fully grounded in sensations, sensory experiences, feelings, emotions, and so on. Even thoughts are related to a somatic, as bursts of energy experienced in the body rather than non-physical phenomenon that disconnect us from our physical and neurological network. What the Buddha offered was a systemic process that results in a profound awareness. In your body, an awareness in your body rather than in your head.

[41:03]

I'll say goodbye now to the kitchen crew. Thank you very much, kitchen crew, for nourishing these mountains that are sitting. Dharma teacher Reggie Ray says that when we work deeply with the body, including in zazen, we make a series of discoveries that bear directly on the fundamental question that practice asks of us. Who am I? Who am I? An essential discovery we make when we look deeply is that the unknown or experience of not knowing is the very center of our somatic being and the core of our personality. This unknown is open. empty space, simply clear and unobstructed. As we are able to surrender more and more fully into it, we discover that this ultimate space of the body has no boundaries or limits.

[42:09]

In fact, it is absent of any reference points at all, including that of a concept of self. At the moment of meeting this space, if you will, There is quite literally no one, no separate subject, observing and nothing being observed. So this is truly how to know the unknown, not as a concept, but as a direct embodied experience, precisely because it cannot be known in any dualistic way. In other words, we can't stand back and observe it as a perceiving, thinking, and judging subject. Because when we do step back, it is gone. Only in the moment of touching this state of being in our body, of touching embodied awakening, is there the true knowing of our fundamental nature as simply awareness knowing itself.

[43:19]

In her last talk, that she so read a quote from Tendon Yojo, from the Shobo Genzo Ango, in which he describes Zazen as stacking our bones upright on the flat earth. We each dig a cave in space. Immediately, we pass through the gate of dualism. So sitting and not knowing is digging that cave in space. Not knowing, knowingly sitting within nothing to be known. Not knowing, knowingly sitting within nothing to be known. This cave of not knowing is spacious because it contains no objects of perception. But this cave isn't a special place somewhere else that we have to get to. In fact, it is always present right here. waiting for us simply to turn the light inward to illuminate it.

[44:28]

And in a flash of insights, we might, for timeless moments, get a glimpse into the reality that this cave is without walls. It is boundless. And it is this boundlessness that is the heart, mind, body of all the Buddhas. Zazen is the way in which we take up the practice of deeply listening to and meeting reality. To willingly enter into the cave of emptiness and to be one with the nature of the mountains and waters and our own true nature. Zazen is the dropping away of our limiting self and thereby making ourselves available to hear and taste and realized the teachings of true reality, including the reality of being human. As Dogen said, I came to realize clearly that mind is not other than mountains, rivers, the great wide earth, sun, moon, stars.

[45:44]

I came to realize clearly that the mind is not other than mountains, rivers, the great wide earth, sun, moons, and stars. So, before I conclude, I want to say a little bit how it is that we might establish together the container of sashim. So, last night, the Eno read the admonitions, which I find very encouraging. And just a reminder that this is a very precious time for us. It's an opportunity to have an even more extended time of silence and stillness in which to quiet the mind and be able to step out of our usual habitual way of being. So we've already done that by coming here to the monastery and stepping into our practice period. And here's a chance to even do this more intently here in this particular sashim.

[46:51]

So for this reason, I really, really want to encourage this request to maintain silence. Really make a sincere effort to not talk in any way unless absolutely necessary as part of a functional speech for work or for practice discussion or dokasan. So whenever you can, simply write a note. And the more we refrain from engaging in conversations, either with each other or in our heads. Those are probably the most obnoxious conversations that I have when I'm here at Tassajara, the ones in my head. The more we can just be silent and still, our minds become like a clear mountain lake. Be careful not to take the treasure of silence away from others, because doing so is a form of stealing. Do not take their attention away from their inward focus.

[47:56]

Don't take that gift away. And silence also extends into oryoki. Please be as quiet as you can with your bowls and utensils. Know as hard as that you can cultivate stillness, even in the midst of the activity of eating and washing your bowls. And keep your gaze inward. The inward gaze at all times, including during service in Oriyogi when we're outward facing in the room. It's easy to try and want to look up and see what other people are doing. So notice that tendency, right? To look outward, to objectify the world, to get away from the inward environment. Turn back inward and stay focused. Keep your gaze there. Everything in Sashin has been stripped down to the essential, right?

[49:01]

Including the instruments that we use throughout the day and the meal serving that we do. And this is to support us to settle even more so that we have less to track and less to have to take in. And I realized this morning, it's been a long time since I've done a Sashin here at Tassajara, I love the simplicity of Sashin forms. I kind of yearn for them. Once the drums have stopped and the bells and the gongs and everything else, I just love the stillness that Sushin forms offer us. So give yourself over to that stillness, to the spaciousness that we've created in silence. And also, move slowly. Move more slowly than usual. Move as if you were a mountain moving slowly across the landscape. Feel your connectedness to the earth as you're walking, right? And keep your attention focused in your breath, in your hara, the center of your being, in your feet, your connection to the mountain itself.

[50:08]

Feel the breath of the mountain come up through the soles of your feet into your hara and into your chest. How is it that the mountain is breathing you? How is it the mountain is walking you? Move in that conscious, slow pace, feeling your connection to the breath, earth, and sky. A couple posture tips. Sitting upright, rooted, balanced, extending upward again. So I always have this idea that we are this conduit between the earth and the sky. When we sit upright, the sky can be upright, and the earth can be in its place. with this channel between the two, right? And again, as Tendoniojo recommended, is our bones skeleton stacked? Can you feel your spine, just the bones stacked and settled in place? So you put the bones in the right posture, and you just let the muscles and the flesh soften, as if they kind of folded over your bones, folding over your skeleton.

[51:18]

So all that tension that we usually have in our flesh, allow it to relax. Just let it give over to the support of the skeleton. And also notice relaxing your face. We carry a lot of tension in our face. So also allow that just to settle your eyes, your forehead, your cheeks, and so on. Settling, allow your shoulders and stomach and hara to also rest. I don't know about you, but I carry a lot of tension in my stomach. I kind of move from my stomach, right? This kind of doingness that comes from that place. And if I can just allow it to soften, particularly in zazen, have a soft belly. Let that tension go. Let it just plop in your lap, right? Again, balancing your head on your shoulders.

[52:19]

And you know how we're taught to kind of tuck the chin a little bit? And an image that I find very helpful is imagine your head as a grapefruit, right? A giant grapefruit. And it's been kind of sliced from side to side like this, right? And so this grapefruit, if you imagine the back of the grapefruit, the back of your head moves up and the front of the grapefruit moves down. So feel that on your neck, right? Back of the grapefruit goes up And the front of the grapefruit goes down. So you don't have to hold that with tension. Just allow it to kind of fall into place. When you do that, the tension in the shoulders is going to relax. The tension in the shoulders will next relax. And then the mudra, finally. Keep it open, spacious, attentive. You're holding with care and generosity the whole universe in your mudra. That's why it's called the cosmic mudra. Right?

[53:19]

It's the cave of emptiness. It's your own little personal cave of emptiness, which is connected to the whole universal cave of emptiness. So is it awake? Is it alive? Is it energized? Keep it a wide oval. You know, the Shouseau in her talk the other day realized that she discovered she was kind of having her fingers too far over each other, and that was making for a small, kind of stingy mudra. So what happens when you open your mudra and allow the whole universe to channel through into your hara? So the universe is breathing in through your cosmic mudra, into your hara, and your inner universe is breathing out through the same mudra, right? Allow your mind to settle there, in that place of breathing, breath, enter in and out. Okay, so that's enough for today.

[54:21]

Let's continue our sitting. And today, rather than walking after zazen, I'd like us to just continue sitting so that we have a chance to kind of settle a little bit more deeply into our bodies, into our posture, into our mountain seats, and just allow our whole being to be here, right here, and give over to this. space of Sushi. Thank you very much for your kind attention. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Thank you.

[55:26]

Thank you.

[55:36]

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