This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Well, it's good to be here, Tosahara. It's a nice, warm time of year. And I see you, if I talk... into this, it's better. We've been having our annual Suzuki Roshi seminar where I comment on Suzuki Roshi's teaching and we've been having a very good time and it's been going on pretty much all day. And I have to say I'm a little tired of it. But actually, I never really get tired of Suzuki Hiroshi's teaching.

[01:09]

I remember the first book that came out, Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, of Suzuki Hiroshi's talks. Suzuki Hiroshi, you remember, our teacher, our original teacher, never wrote a book. But his book, his... talks were edited into books so we have three books of Suzuki Roshi's edited talks and I've worked on editing a couple of them and I can say that I'm really glad that I knew him because if he didn't know Suzuki Roshi and the nuances of his language he could easily skip over things that just seemed usual so I can't say that these lectures were perfect there are a lot of problems or some problems whether or not to use his voice as he spoke or to actually edit his words so they make sense without overriding the meaning so that's very difficult

[02:25]

because Suzuki Roshi was Japanese, which is not his original tongue, but he could express himself in a way, in English, better than most translators, most people who are translating into another language from Japanese that I know of. But far from perfect English, he would sometimes make up his own words. And sometimes you'd think that he was mixing up his tenses and so forth, but actually he was saying what he meant. And so if you didn't know that, you would edit out those so-called mistakes, which were actually what he meant. So we did our best. Everybody's done their best to make that work.

[03:30]

So Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind was the first book published, and then Branching Streams Flow in the Dark was the second book, which was a series of lectures that he gave here in 1970, in the summer. I was his jisha, his attendant, and it was even hotter than it is now and he gave 12 lectures but it was on a theme of a piece called the Sandokai and it was a lot of Japanese terms that he was explaining so we don't use that so much mostly when we give a class on that text but the third book is called Not Always So which is a kind of sequel to Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. So I'm going to use that tonight.

[04:31]

Because I know these lectures so well, these talks so well, I think everybody knows them, but I don't think everybody does. When I was first beginning to study Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, I would read it through, and then at some point I'd start reading it again. And when I read it again, it was a whole different book, an entirely different book. And then I would read it again, and it was another entirely different book. So every time you read it, it's a different book because your understanding, my understanding was maturing. And when my understanding is maturing, I can see things in it that I didn't see the first or second or third times. So there's certain books although I have quite a large library, there are three or four books that I just read all the time. And Suzuki Roshi's teachings are at the top of the list. So my feeling is that our teacher, Suzuki Roshi, was a very unusual person.

[05:38]

And he had a great background in Buddhist understanding in academic Buddhism and in intuitive Buddhism. And he expressed all that in his very simple, straightforward words, which if you understand the background of what he's talking about, all the background is there expressed in a very simple way. So that's what's so remarkable about this teaching. And when you study Buddhism academically by reading and studying and so forth, you see, and you're familiar with his simple talks, that all the meanings are there. So it's very profound.

[06:46]

Sometimes people read this book and say, I don't understand it. And then I scratch my head and I think, but it's so simple. Why don't you understand it? Anyway. So I'm going to read a bit. And comment. So this talk we called The Zen of Going to the Restroom. So Suzuki Roshi starts out by saying, how do you feel right now?

[07:53]

And then a little chuckle. And he says, I don't know how you feel, but I feel as if I had just come out of the restroom. You know how that feels. And he says, as I am pretty old, I'm not sure how old he was, but... He died when he was 67. As I am pretty old, I go to the restroom quite often. It says, even when I was a young man, even when I was young, I went to the restroom more often than others, and sometimes I had an advantage because of that. When I went to Eheji Monastery and set Tangario, which is a period of continuous sitting for several days required for entering the monastery, I would go to the restroom without a guilty conscience, because I had to. So, when you enter the monastery, and Tassajara is like this as well, when you come to the practice period, you sit five days of what is called Tangaryo, in the Tangaryo, it's the sitting room, basically.

[09:08]

And it's the entrance exam. You sit for five days, and... There's no formal walking. You just sit there. And then when the regular students come in, they do the service, and then they have breakfast, and you do the service with them and have breakfast with them. And then they go out, and you stay. And periodically they come in again during the day and do the same thing. But you're always there. And formally... After Zazen, a period of Zazen, we do walking meditation. But they don't do that. We just sit. So I say it's the entrance exam and it's very difficult to do. Some people, it's easier than others. But it's the small door in which you wash the world off of you so that you can enter the monastery. It's not just washing your body, it's washing your brain.

[10:14]

When I was back in the Second World War, we used to talk about brainwashing as a technique for captured soldiers, that they were brainwashed. But Zazen is kind of brainwashing, actually. And actually that's what he's talking about. How to wash our mind so that we always have a clean mind. So he says, Zen master Unmong, very famous Zen master, who Suzuki Roshi admired very much, who was in the Tang dynasty of China, was a famous Zen master at that time. He may have been the first to make a connection between our practice and the restroom. So, what is your practice? What is Buddha? Someone asked him.

[11:15]

He answered, shit wiping stick. He says toilet paper, but that's not right. They didn't have toilet paper at the time of Einstein. They had a stick that they used to wipe themselves. I hope this doesn't offend you. You all do this. He said, a shit wiping stick, that's how it's characterized. Something to wipe yourself with in the restroom. That's Buddha. If you say that to other people in a different religion. So that is what he said. And since many Zen masters are thinking about it, practicing with this koan, this very famous koan, what is a shit like these days? And what did he mean by that? So... So Suzuki Roshi goes ahead and talks about this a little bit.

[12:27]

He says, in our everyday life, we eat many things, both good and bad, fancy and simple, tasty and not so tasty. Later, we need to go to the restroom. Similarly, after filling our mind, we practice sazen. Otherwise, our thinking will eventually become very unhealthy. He's saying, if we don't sit zazen, eventually our thinking will become very unhealthy. It is necessary for us to make our mind clear before we study something. It's like drawing something on white paper. If you don't use clean white paper, you can't draw what you want. So you need a clean slate. So it is necessary to go back to your original state where you have nothing to see and nothing to think about. I think most of us are afraid of that.

[13:32]

If we have nothing to see or think about, who are we? That's a big question. What am I if I don't have anything to see or think about? then you will understand what you're doing. So, what he's talking about, of course, is letting go of our attachment to the flotsam and jetsam of our thinking mind. The more you practice Zanzen, the more you will be interested in your everyday life. you will discover what is necessary and what is not. What part to correct and what part to emphasize more. So by practice you will know how to organize your life. This is to observe your situation accurately, to clear your mind, and to begin from an original starting point.

[14:40]

Usually we think in terms of the continuity of thought. What keeps us going in our life is basically the continuity of thought. When we lose the continuity of thought, we feel lost. But in another talk, Suzuki Roshi talked about the starting point of our life. One day is a cycle, a life cycle, actually. We start from the time that we get up in the morning and our life goes around until the time we go to sleep and that's one life cycle of a day and so that day has a life of its own and then the next day starts again and has its cycle and so on and so forth so we need a starting point to start our day and he talks about an alarm if you have an alarm you have to set the alarm for a certain time

[15:49]

so that you know when your day starts it doesn't make any sense otherwise so that starting point for us is zero and then as we start to move we add 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 which is all of the activities of the day and then we come back to zero And then from zero, we start again. So zero is always the starting point. So for us, zazen is zero. The first thing we do in the morning at Tassahara is sitzazen. And our mind becomes very clear and clean. And we can do anything from that point. But we have things that we have to do. We have plans that have to be worked out.

[16:49]

But basically, from that starting point of zero, our life begins. So it's not just continuous without stopping. So we clean our mind in Zazen, and then we clutter it up during the day. So he says, the more you practice Zazen, the more you will be interested in your everyday life. you will discover what is necessary and what is not, what part to correct and what part to emphasize more. So by practice you will know how to organize your life. This is to observe your situation accurately, to clear your mind and begin from the original starting point. This is like going to the restroom. Our culture is based on the idea of gaining or accumulating Science, for instance, is the accumulation of knowledge.

[17:53]

I don't know that a modern scientist is greater than a scientist in the 16th century. The difference is that we have accumulated our scientific knowledge. That is a good point, and at the same time, dangerous. We are in danger of being buried under all of our accumulated knowledge. It's like trying to survive without going to the restroom. We are already swimming in the pond of polluted water and air and we talked about this pollution and at the same time we can hardly survive the pollution of our knowledge. So it sounds like he's anti-science but he's not. Buddhism does not argue the science. But atomic waste is going to creep up on us. We always keep avoiding it. We keep creating it and avoiding it, avoiding any discussion of it.

[18:57]

And there's no place you can go for millions of years. And then someone says, well, we can have it guarded, you know. Well, who's going to do that for a thousand years? Anyway, that's my opinion. which I think is true. Each one of us knows how to go to the restroom. It's built in. Without attaching to something that we have in our bodies. When we realize that we already have everything, we will not be attached to anything. In other words, sin practice is letting go of everything. When we come to practice, we want something. But as our practice matures, we realize that what we want is to let go. So actually we're going to the mental restroom all the time.

[20:02]

Whenever we pick something up, we also let something go. Anything, actually we have everything that we need. Even without going to the moon, we have it. We already have the moon. In Japan, they used to teach people, the kids, there's the moon up there. See the moon up there? You are the moon. The moon is not way up there. The moon is right here in your own mind, even though it's up there. So even without going to the moon, we have it. When we try to go to the moon, it means that we think the moon is not ours. So our mind, as Buddha told us, is one with everything. Within our mind, everything exists. If we understand things in that way, then we will understand our activity.

[21:05]

To study something is to appreciate something. To appreciate something is to be detached from things. When we become detached from things, everything will be ours. Our practice is to realize this kind of big mind. In other words, to go beyond each being, including ourselves, and to let our self work as it works. This is Zazen practice. When we practice Zazen, we actually clean up our various attachments. We are very much afraid of dying. But when we are mature enough, we understand that death is something that should happen to us. If you die when you are young, that's a terrible thing. If I die, it's not such a terrible thing. Either for me or for you. Because I am mature enough to die. I understand my life pretty well, what it is to live one day and what it is to live one year.

[22:12]

and what it is to live sixty or a hundred years. So anyway, when you become mature and experienced having eaten many things in this life, I think you will be happy to die just as you are happy to go to the restroom. It happens in that way. So, we have mental constipation, emotional constipation, so forth. Then he says, an old person, 80 or 90, doesn't have many problems. Physically, old people may suffer, but that suffering is not as big a thing as you may think. This is his opinion. When people are young enough, they think about death as something terrible, so when they're dying, they continue to think that. But actually, it isn't. There is some limit to our capacity to endure physical suffering.

[23:15]

And mentally, there is a limit to our capacity. But we think it is limitless. We have limitless suffering because we have limitless desire. In the Four Noble Truths, Shakyamuni says, The cause of suffering is desire. So we are accumulating our problems one after another with limitless desire. So we have bottomless fear. Actually, when we know how to clear up our mind, we will not have as many problems. Just as we go to the restroom every day, we practice zazen every day. In a monastic life, the best practice is to clean the restroom. He says the best practice.

[24:17]

What he means is when we have a head monk during the practice period, the head monk is a kind of position of honor, but the head monk's practice is to clean the restrooms and to do the compost, which ordinarily would be the lowest kind of jobs, the lowest kind of positions. So... But this is an honorary position to clean the restrooms, take care of the compost. So wherever you go, whichever monastery you go to, you will always find a special person cleaning the restroom. We do not clean our restroom just because it is dirty. This is a very important teaching. Whether it is clean or not, we clean the restroom until we can do it without any idea of clean or dirty. So clean and dirty are just dualistic ideas that we have.

[25:21]

So when that is so, it is actually our Zazan practice. To extend this practice to everyday life may seem difficult, but actually it's quite simple. Our laziness makes it difficult and that's all. That is why we put emphasis on endurance to continue our practice. There should not be any cessation of practice. Practice should go on one moment after another. So we call this continuous practice. It means that Your whole life is practiced. People, I talk about this all the time, we talk about this all the time, and this is not new to the students, but everything we do is practiced in the monastery and should be in your daily life, wherever you are, if you're a Zen student. So cooking is Zazen, cleaning the toilets is Zazen, sweeping the grounds is Zazen, studying is Zazen, taking a break,

[26:39]

is Zazen, so that you're always, what it means by Zazen, the word we call Shikantaza. Shikantaza means living your life thoroughly, moment by moment. It's not a matter of what you're doing, although what you're doing is important. It's a matter of being present in your activity, one moment at a time. This moment's activity will determine what the next moment's activity is. which becomes this moment's activity. Then this moment's activity will become the next moment's activity, which will be this moment's activity. And we live our life one moment at a time. That's monastic practice. So there's nothing to complain about. The only thing you can... People blame the practice. They say, well, you know, it gets kind of boring and monotonous and blah blah. That's because we're not thoroughly engaged. When you're thoroughly engaged, life comes to life.

[27:41]

When you're not thoroughly engaged, life does not come to life, no matter how nice it is. So the simplest activities become, the most commonplace simple activities become spiritual practice, so-called. We don't divide spiritual into mundane. Going to the bathroom is spiritual practice. There's no division between spiritual practice and sitting on the toilet. You do it every day. Why should it be something apart from your mind? Somebody said the most Eating is really the most important thing you can do. But actually it's not. Going to the toilet is the most important thing you can do.

[28:45]

Actually, they're both equal. But you say that for emphasis. So we should be really, you know, feel really good about this instead of trying to cover it up. So some students who practice Zazen very hard are able to ignore their everyday life because they want to divide Zazen from their everyday life. They don't see the connection. If someone attains enlightenment, they may say, I have attained enlightenment under a great Zen master, so whatever I do is okay. I have complete freedom from good and bad. Only those who do not have enlightenment experience are stuck to the idea of good and bad. They may say that. Speaking in this way is to ignore our everyday life. They do not take care of their life. They do not know how to organize their life or know what kind of rhythm they should have.

[29:51]

To know the rhythm of our lives is to understand what we're doing. It is necessary to see our activity with a clear mind through those and experience and through a clean mind. I don't think I have time to be in song. I think I don't. So this is just a taste of Suzuki Roshi's teaching. He had a very nice way of expressing himself. So, thank you for listening.

[30:53]

Good night. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[31:21]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_92.87