These ultimate, absolute and relative I've been speaking about, Nagarjuna, in our lineage Nagahara-juna, as it's pronounced in Japanese, Nagarjuna, says that if you don't understand these two truths, the mundane or relative truth and the absolute or ultimate truth. You can't understand Buddhism. So in this session we've been trying to And I've been talking about more than is useful to you in this session, certainly. Maybe if we can understand even a little of what we talked about in this session, that will be enough. These two, ultimate and relative,

[01:31]

if you can penetrate the usefulness of this distinction you can penetrate and resolve the distinctions of big and small, near and far, teacher and disciple universal and particular, one and many, same and different, different, all these, good and bad, all these distinction, being and non-being, animate and inanimate, all these kinds of

[02:37]

distinctions you know your nature and your true nature or Buddha nature all these distinctions can be resolved if you can understand and actualize the understanding of absolute and relative So the absolute we can say is emptiness that you recognize when you accept the transiency of everything. But there's a deeper meaning to emptiness which is emptiness which is not in contrast to relative or absolute which is not in contrast to relative. This which is beyond being and non-being is Tosan's circle number five, utter darkness. It includes emptiness and form. Sometimes we call it emptiness is emptiness.

[04:08]

And this circle, number five, this utter darkness. It's both our goal, you know, the goal of Buddhist practice maybe, but also the starting point. So you already are Tozan circle number five. Well, this is what Dogen means by just sitting. how to stop thinking about your practice even some teachers try to teach this by twisting your nose

[05:37]

Where have the geese gone to? He twists his nose, taking away subject and object. Rinzai was always taking away subject and object. He would say what their objective circumstances are, wrong, and then he'd beat them up. So they didn't know anything. As Huang Po treated him, too. Each time Enzai went to see him, Huang Po knocked him off the porch. So he had no place to stand. This kind of activity can only occur when there's complete trust, though. And not the relative which is taken as the Absolute, but recognizing the relative as relative, as transit. And so there's no rancor in such a situation. And you, you who are practicing

[07:11]

I want you to realize this practice. If possible, it is possible, you'll be able to, if you can realize yourself I'll feel some relief, and everyone will feel some relief. And you can help so many people by giving them some relief in the same way. So it means you should start trying to treat people equally, in the absolute. There are no distinctions. You should be able to try to exist that way, you know, treating each person the same. Quite grateful. And this level of mind, you know, think and thank are, you know, the same, have the same root. And this level of mind is very thankful, full of gratitude. You may notice in a Sashin, you often feel some feeling of gratitude, even though you're very painful.

[08:46]

It doesn't mean something's been done for you so much as you have reached a more fundamental state of mind which doesn't discriminate so much as feel thankful. And if you find that trying to treat people the same, friend or enemy, with some deep respect and gratitude with some effort and it builds up some rancor in you, you should go back to zazen. Zazen is very purifying. This kind of sashin and pain is very purifying. So you should try this kind of practice, recognizing the equality of everything. And when you find you can't do it, it gives you some real depth and meaning to your practice. So you should try to live each day, each moment, with what you've understood by your practice, by your session.

[10:14]

by recognizing your deep, all-inclusive mind. And we sit here, you know, to see into that mind, to become more familiar with that mind. You know, it's a very beautiful day And you might be outside. The hemlock is blowing in the wind. And the pond, too. And the ocean is quite blue. But if you're practicing Zen, you know that seeing a flower is not beautiful because of the flower, but because your seeing itself is beautiful. When you recognize that, everything you see is quite beautiful. When it's not, you realize you're on some treadmill or you have some fearful goal or possessive nature. That is trying to distinguish, engage one thing as good and one thing as bad.

[11:45]

And when you sense, you know, this great activity that Blue Cliff Records No. 3 is about, sun-faced Buddhas, moon-faced Buddhas, when you sense what secho means and baso means, you'll no longer make distinctions between good and bad, you'll realize the distinction is between being in accord with or being in discord with. That there's no realm in reality for that kind of choice of good or bad. Of avoiding this, not doing that, this or that, you know. When you're in accord with things with each particular existence, that changes. That is some creative activity which brings everything. It's not just that you come into harmony. It's that that accord brings everything into harmony. You create. You know, the thing doesn't stay the same.

[13:13]

You don't stay the same. This is acting in utter darkness again. So you don't know where you are. You don't know anything. You're just acting with things. When you find, when you see that and you instead pull away or act in discord in some way too tired to be there maybe to be here so you find of course you have to practice the paramitas more so that your conduct and your energy and your patience allow you to be present and not tired all the time, not always turning away into some thought chain. As soon as you turn away or act in discord, you isolate yourself and have some sensation of you against the world or

[14:44]

you at the mercy of circumstances or you some cut-off feeling and then you have to make some big effort to prove something or attain something. But when you are in accord there's absolutely nothing to attain. We don't want to believe this moment is good enough though. this vast moment, but it's the only realm of the future of the expression of your existence So it requires some effort to try to cut through your moods, cut through your attitudes, cut through your plans for yourself, and just be there for everything, for each person equally. Not comparing this moment to the next, this person to the next person,

[16:34]

And when you can't do it, you know where and how to practice. You know, in Buddhism before Bodhidharma or before Nagarjuna, there was not much emphasis on posture. I think so anyway. And Indian people today are not so, don't sit so. straight as Chinese and Japanese Buddhist who emphasize conduct and posture, which is rather a Chinese emphasis. They emphasize more where to put your mind, how to take care of your mind, your state of mind. And so they developed a quite elaborate system of mental states and the resolution of one into another. It becomes quite complicated. So Chinese Buddhists emphasized, which was also part of their cultural emphasis, conduct and posture. So I began this teaching.

[18:06]

talking about establish your state of mind by your posture and your conduct. So Zen did away with this kind of elaborate system and so it's very important for you to practice in the minuteness of your conduct with people. And you, by Sachine and Zazen, you'll find out that calm, clear, transparent, non-distinctive state of mind in which everything that appears is clear and beautiful.

[19:15]

I don't know if I should say beautiful, but it feels like that. And more and more, as you know this state of mind as pervading all your states of mind, you should be able to treat each other in this way. Not forcing it, but knowing that this should be possible and when it isn't possible you know how to practice. As was said yesterday, the sixth patriarch said, my mind is a field of blessedness in which wisdom spontaneously arises. Wisdom spontaneously arises, it means not that this is ever-present now, it means that if you are one with each particular existence, wisdom spontaneously arises. Great activity is present. And, as you know,

[20:51]

as I've talked about at some length, the sixth patriarch, you know, said to his teacher, what will you give me to do? For in the realm of great activity, there is no need to prefer one thing over another. Just what will you give me to do? Or as you know, Layman Pang begins his poem about carrying water and chopping wood, our wondrous power and marvelous activity. He begins this poem by saying, doing just what comes to hand. So we have to start practicing this way, doing just what comes to hand. Finding wisdom spontaneously arises Knowing that circle number five and circle number one are the same thing. If we start from circle number one, it's grasping way. If we start from circle number five, it's granting way. But circle five, utter darkness, is beginning and end of our practice. It means you are already enlightened.

[22:24]

Each one of us has his own perfect Buddha nature on each existence. This confidence, even if you can't quite believe it, this confidence is necessary for your practice to have depth for you to be able to penetrate into every corner of your activity so you're not looking for the geese in the absolute or the relative but finding everything you need right now just as you are and knowing how to go from there, not losing our real continuity. This is instant Buddha or 1800 year or one Kalpa Buddha.

[23:54]

And each moment you return to this, and come out from this, and return, and come out. And in that returning and coming out, there is absolute calmness beyond the returning and coming out. Not so much because you've found some way physiologically to become, but because you've realized in an instant the actual nature of reality. Indeterminate, vast, present being.

[25:04]

And you will feel how tactilely we are identical with each other. And each of us is only waiting for the other to recognize it. You can't recognize it. They can't recognize it. It must be actual mutual accord, like two arrows meeting. So when one doesn't understand, the other not only must pretend not to understand, but can't understand. So each of us is waiting for the other. And by this practice you can answer people's waiting. There is nothing to be gained beyond this.

[26:46]

beyond this seeing into our own nature, which is one with everything. This is not just talk or encouragement, actual fact. actual fact when you are ready for it.

[28:31]

Anything you'd like to talk about, have us talk about in this session? Please keep putting yourself out on a limb. I said please keep putting yourself out on a limb. What did you want to say? Pardon me?

[30:17]

I've read the same sutras. Yeah, I think so, that it's... I don't know. No one knows this kind of statement exactly, so that's why I said, I don't know. But it seems that the emphasis came... What I mean, of course, if you go to... if you talk to Indian people who are Buddhists, they read the same books and follow the same things, but they don't sit straight. They sit rather... Usually, some curved back. What? Sit, yes, more relaxed. But there is an incredible posture, Tibetan posture, which I can't do. My legs are... I mean, my arms are the wrong length. You have to have... Oriental people have shorter limbs and longer torsos than we do, so they can do some postures we can't do. One posture is you put your hands here and you then force...

[31:47]

I don't know quite how it goes with your feet and hands. Then you force your elbows forward, locking them into position, which locks your back into position. So, you have both, it's like snapping, you know. You snap your arms and then you sit there. So it's not completely true. Lama Govinda has given me. Lama Govinda used to say, why is it so straight? But there's some... So they emphasize a little different way of practice. But it's not just an emphasis on posture, very careful posture, but also on conduct. But again, of course, if you read, it sounds like it's the same. It's not an important point. Yeah? Could I say something about sitting this Sashin anonymously and... Anonymously? Is that what you said? Okay, why don't you just ask a question? We don't know who you are.

[33:09]

One way is to start is to ask questions for other people and have that feeling of the question which is for everyone, but for us, not just a question you think up for someone else. To be anonymous means not that you don't know what your name is, but that you don't care what your name is. Something more like that. If you can really know how anonymous it all is, you won't care about Shakespeare,

[34:15]

One thousand years from now, somebody will be reading this poem. That kind of feeling. But there is some other kind of meaning to that kind of feeling. You know, I described in the Tassajara Sashin, I described lineage. I talked about lineage in this Sashin too, a little bit. But I described lineage as a stream of blood flowing in utter darkness. But that can describe everything. A stream of blood flowing in utter darkness. I want to holler at you.

[35:18]

Excuse me. In case there's one in my community that has to interact with other people, I'm always confused how to make the effort you're talking about and still be I feel like I have to give up my family and not to be me. I don't know how to... What's me? I don't know. You want to... That feeling of... There's so many things we have to see through. But maybe you can get some feeling for that. I spoke about here a couple months ago, you know, not being honest to yourself, but honest to what you're doing. But we do have some deep belief that we have to be true to ourself or honest to ourself. So it's some dishonesty not to be me,

[37:35]

that comes from some belief in some moral commandment. And a great deal of our Western ethics are based on this idea. But in Buddhism, there's no such idea as being true to yourself. It's just true to what you're doing. So as I said, if you're bowing, if you're thinking, is bowing an expression of myself or not? You're wandering about in delusion. If you just, it's time to bow, so you are true to the bowing. You're not worried about yourself. So it means to see and know the relativity of your self. And to know and see the relativity of your black mood. If so, you can continue your black mood and still be cheerful. But that, of course, your black mood isn't so much fun anymore. You don't get that wonderful feeling of sitting in the corner and everything is poking you. Which we rather like. It's like being caressed all over.

[39:05]

very much a complete physical sensation. And it means you've broken the links of one of the connect modes. So each moment you're some new mind arises. But you can't wait for something like that to happen. Just know when you have some black mood that it's relative. Don't try to... Why force it on someone else? It's not their fault. And even if it is their fault, we should respect the absolute nature of their existence.

[40:44]

But you, Charles, you had something first. I'd like to ask, how does one practice Buddhism without being engaged in some, in terms of a parent practice, like fishing? How does, please say it a little louder. How can we practice Buddhism without being engaged in something like fishing? Ideally, when Sesshin is just like everything else, then you would never say doing Sesshin is different from something else. And Sesshin is just our way of practicing with each other, of making our practice visible for people. Our basic practice is secret practice or hidden practice, which we don't even make note of it to ourselves, let alone to others. And that occurs each moment. Right now, you know, this moment or the next moment, the first moment after the session is over, you have many worlds in which you to practice in each instant.

[42:15]

But for someone beginning I think you have to make a effort to do Zazen and to go to Sashin. Eventually it's no effort but you do it because you found it's a useful way to be with other people. Otherwise you're limited to a very small number of people who can understand what's happening. I was saying recently to someone, I would like to have some opportunity sometime to not go to Sesshin and Zazen and Zen Center and just wander about You know, walking up the coast. And often I don't have time for things. If I go into Zen Center, there's some very upset person on the front steps. I don't have time to stop. Or when I'm walking downtown, sometimes I see somebody who's obviously wants a friend.

[43:52]

I would like to just be able to start walking with them, going somewhere. That's part of our practice to do that. But we also need a focal point for practice. even if I walked with some person for a while, who I saw. Pretty soon he wants to say, where... You can't walk with me every moment. Where can I go do Zazen? So I have to say, go to Zen Center or someplace. So we must be here for people to have a place to go to. So we're here. You're here as a teacher, actually.

[44:55]

as leader of Zen Center, because you are here to make a place for people to come and practice. Including yourself, but that's irrelevant. It's not important, you or someone else. Me or you. I'm here to have a place to practice. You're here to have a place to practice, that's all. And someone else can join us. So don't, when you try to think about how do I just practice, anonymous practice, don't think that this sasheen isn't also anonymous. If you say, oh that's everyday life and this is not everyday life, this is also everyday life if you understand it thoroughly.

[45:58]

I don't really trust the lineage. I don't understand what the lineage is. I mean, nobody really has a lineage. It seems like it's just you. And you? Did you hear what she said? No. She said, how can we trust the lineage when we don't know any of them? Except just me. I feel sorry for you. Actually. But can't be helped. The lineage is, you know, I say this kind of thing and I think you must get tired of hearing it, you know, but it's true nevertheless, tired of hearing it or not. The lineage is nothing but you yourself. And the lineage ends and begins with you. And it's not, the patriarchs are not separated from us

[47:46]

time or space. If you practice Zazen, if you resume to your own nature, you understand the patriarchs intimately. The mind of the patriarchs is your own mind. But because you make some comparison, you don't think so. I suppose practically it means how to trust, just how to trust this way of practice. There's really no alternative. Once you have seen this, there's no alternative. All your life, if you don't trust the lineage, you'll regret it. Unfortunately, it's true. Too late for you all. That's true. Do you know that?

[49:33]

Better not to get started, but once you've started, you really can go on. Yeah, he's right. That's why I feel sorry for you so much. On the one hand, I feel some joy in practicing with you. I feel very good being here, coming to Zen Center. I always feel like a stranger when I knock on the door. I think it's wonderful. But at the same time, I feel sorry for you. and grateful for your karma too, that your karma brought you here and you're willing to try to realize yourself. And you will find that at the base of everything is this resolve,

[50:44]

inmost request which becomes a willingness. And there is nothing but this that we can identify. When you examine closely your mind and body and your every state of mind, including emptiness, there is no Nothing you can even begin to call real except this resolve. And when you understand it thoroughly it is utter darkness. It merges completely with everything. So there's nothing anymore that you can identify except tentatively or temporarily. So we are very lucky we have this chance to practice together. It doesn't come very often, very seldom.

[52:05]

Namaste.

[53:54]

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