Where do you want me? I think I'll just be here. Okay, got it.

[01:25]

Okay. For future sessions, would it be possible to move that screen over to the... Yeah. I can put it anywhere you want. So in future sessions, we'll just congregate over there. You mean all of us on the other side? Next time we meet. This has been an interesting challenge for us.

[02:33]

We're literally just setting up the whole building after being closed in a year. And in the process, we added a bunch of tech wiring all over the place. And we're still discovering how to use it. still discovering how to use this space. So what we'll do this evening? Can you hear me okay? Yeah. So then can you switch to a gallery of So welcome everyone.

[03:58]

And welcome those of you who are online. Hopefully as the weeks go by, we'll all get used to being in place and being online. simultaneously. What I thought we could do this evening is just start with the logistics. Thanks. Start with the logistics and then we would sit for a little bit and then I would go through the content of of the course. And along the way, at any part of all of this, you're very welcome to ask questions.

[05:07]

Hopefully, between myself and Dan and Michael, we'll be able to answer your questions. logistics. This is Dan Gudjo, and he is... What's your title, Dan? Director of Online Content. He is the Director of Online Content. And for now, he seems to be the camera operator. And this Monday night session... will be both in person and online. And then just to make life complicated, there will be a Thursday morning session at 11 a.m.

[06:11]

And that will be solely online. And if you wish, You can sit in on that even if you're attending this one in person. So is that clear to everyone? We will meet here every Monday evening. And you can come in through the Laguna Street door. There will be someone there about 7 o'clock. And then we'll start up at 7.15. And then we're encouraging you to participate in a small group.

[07:14]

Or a peer group, maybe is a better way to put it. And each of those groups will have a teacher. I will lead one and other teachers who you probably don't know. One is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. One is from France. The other one is from Sebastopol. Miles is from Sebastopol. Vanessa is from the south of France. Mary is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. And so what we've done is all the people who said they wanted to be part of a peer group, and you were asked to give your first choice and second choice, and so another person, David Chow,

[08:26]

who does the technical mechanics of both the online and on-site, he has allocated you to a group according to your preference, your stated preference. And if you have any problems with that, I will post, David Chow is his name, the tech person. I will post his email address. So if you have a question or a concern or something you don't understand, like you can't access the portal or something like that, he's the person to talk to. And by this point, he's quite proficient with the moving parts of the class.

[09:37]

And then your small group will meet once a week. And that will be according to what you said you would prefer. And then in distinction to that, there'll be one small group that will be on site and that will meet here on Thursday evenings. And so if you said you would like to be on site, that will be what will happen. Any questions so far? No. Good. Sorry, what was that?

[10:46]

Someone waving your hand to ask a question? Yeah. Head-scratching does look a little bit like... I have something to say. I was going to ask a question, but no. Okay. And then within the course, each week we will both, after the Monday night class, On Tuesday, we'll send you some materials that relates to the class and relates to the suggested mindfulness exercises that were mentioned in the class.

[11:53]

You'll both receive an email and it will be on the portal. And I think David either has or will send you a link to that portal. Is anyone on the portal or anyone? Yes? You're all on the portal? Okay. I'm impressed. so I won't say anything more about that. And what we'll do within our time together, we will start by having a short sitting, and then we will discuss what the...

[12:58]

suggested practices were for the week, and then there'll be a kind of a Q&A in relationship to that, and then there'll be a presentation of what it is to practice in the Zen, what it is to practice mindfulness and awareness in the Zen tradition. And then we will discuss that either as a group or in dyads or triads. There will be a variety of ways to discuss that. So what I'd like to do now is we'll just sit for about ten minutes or so. Oh. Let me mention one other thing, one other logistic.

[14:02]

Every Friday morning we will have what's called a zazen-kai, which is just a Japanese word that says we come into the zendo and we do zazen, and then we leave. And that goes from 9.30 to about 12.15. And you can come for all of it, or you can come for as little as one period of zaza. And if you are going to just come for part of it, we would ask that you wait until the walking meditation is ending, and then come in as people are walking back to their seats. Was that clear enough? Do you have a question? We're going to do 25 minutes of zazen and then 10 of hindin.

[15:06]

Is that the cycle? That's the cycle. And then what we'll do is we'll do what you just said. And then before we sit down, I'll just offer a couple of pointers about zazen. And then we'll sit down, sit again for 30 minutes, and then start over. Logistics for the door down here? Yeah. Do we want to ask people if they don't come at night 30 to go upstairs and then come through? Do you happen to know when the front office is going to be available? Probably not for a month or so, for a couple of weeks at least. Because we have a big sign saying, if you want to come in, go to the Laguna Street door.

[16:11]

And so if you just knocked on the door and there was no one in the front office, it would be sort of random as to whether or not... I think the bell works, actually. Anyway, I can... Yeah, well... We'll keep you posted about the Zazen Kai on Friday mornings. How many people think they would want to come? How many? Is that what you said? Yeah. Okay. So if you're going to come from the whole thing, if you could just... come to the Laguna Street door sometime before 9.30. Actually, ideally, if you could come between 9.15 and 9.30, then the person who's going to stay by the door a little bit after 9.30, they can just come and join the city.

[17:21]

So let's sit for a little bit. I was just sitting, I was just thinking today, not while I was sitting, but I was thinking... That zazen is an extraordinarily difficult endeavor. That we're making a radical shift from a state of mind and attention and even physical being that's developed over years and years Actually, it's developed over all of our lives.

[18:30]

And now we have the audacity in zazen to just sit and not be hooked by the thoughts and feelings and memories and anticipations. So if you can remind yourself that that's quite a challenge to practice within that proposition of just sitting with awareness. So if your mind gets caught up, don't be surprised. So just ponder for a few moments what happened in your being in that, actually I didn't time it, about somewhere between five and ten minutes.

[27:15]

What happened? then we can divide what happened into categories. What happened in your body? What happened in your breathing? What happened emotionally? What happened in the realm of thinking and in the realm of the world according to each of us? And in a way, in Zen practice and with other awakening traditions, what happens for us when we bring attention to what's going on, we discover how to learn from it.

[28:33]

And that's the process we would like to lay out in the first part of this course. We've thought of three parts to the course. One is learning the technique of awareness meditation and more subtly, creating a capacity and maybe we could even say a habit of relating to what's going on for us with awareness. An image I offered in the talk on Saturday It's a little bit like what it's like to drive a car.

[29:45]

Is there anyone who doesn't know how to drive a car? Okay. So can either of you swim? Yeah? So in experiential learning, or maybe learning a musical instrument is also a good example. The reason I used driving a car is that you start off with a lot of instruction. You're going to do this with this foot, and you're going to do that with that foot, and you're going to put your hands here, and you're going to look in this mirror, and you're going to look in that mirror. And then you're going to drive. And initially, there's a lot of thinking. There's a lot of conceptualizations. And as you continue, and the process of experiential learning applies to swimming.

[30:59]

It applies to many things that we do in our lives. our body learns how to engage that kind of experience, whether it's driving, swimming, playing the cello, or whatever. And when our body learns to engage it, it shifts from being something I think about, and then I think about doing, and then I do it in the way my mind says to do it, it becomes a more visceral activity. And awareness is like that. And if you think of driving a car or maybe swimming, I don't know about musicians, I can't play any instruments, but when you're driving a car, when your body learns to do it, then often your mind starts to think, well, I can just do something else.

[32:24]

I can worry about getting where I'm going on time. or listen to the radio or music, whatever. Experiential learning is facilitated by keeping your attention on the activity. So even though your body is starting to learn what it is to sit upright, what it is to sit in a balanced pose, what it is to sit with a kind of open awareness. Amazingly, our body starts to learn how to do that. And the challenge is, can you persistently and patiently invite your mind

[33:33]

back into your body so that the mind is happening here rather than yesterday or tomorrow or somewhere else. And for most people, this is a very challenging proposition. So at the start, you have like a double whammy. The double whammy is that there's all sorts of details about how to sit, about how to breathe, about how to relate to your thoughts and feelings. And I'm going to go into them some way.

[34:38]

They're in this service of discovering for yourself this experiential process of being in your body and letting what happens happen. In some ways, conceptually, It's that simple. Be in your body and keep inviting your mind back to now, here and now. But given the human condition, that's not only a challenge, we have a lifetime of habits developed that often, maybe we could even say usually, inviting us to do something different from just staying in our body and staying present in the moment.

[35:59]

And so what we're going to do is we're going to... invite you to take up various exercises. The first one is very practical. If you haven't started a meditation practice, that's part of the course, we would encourage you to do so. Actually, we'd encourage you to sit every day. And in your small group, you can ask about, you know, what posture seems good for you, how high should your cushion be, or how low should your cushion be? So there's how you're going to relate to your own physicality. But then there's also, like, when are you going to sit?

[37:07]

Where are you going to sit? Are you going to offer incense before you sit? Are you going to chant something after you sit? And in the primary engagement of awareness, those details... have a relevance in the context of your life. And they're just there to come up with a practical answer. There's a Tibetan teacher, a Westerner, and for reasons I won't go into unless you ask me, he ended up doing a prison sentence 12 years.

[38:10]

And when he was in prison, the only place that was quiet enough to sit was the broom closet. So every day he went into the broom closet and meditated. And interestingly, And maybe not surprisingly, now he runs meditation in different prisons and teaches the prisoners how to meditate. So where are you going to sit? Certainly you're welcome to come here, although we have prescribed times when we meditate. 5.40 in the morning, and then we have a second period about 6.05.

[39:14]

When? When's a good time for you to sit? Some people find when they first wake up, that's the time their mind is quietest and still and has an alertness and their day hasn't quite begun. And then some people find the other end of the day before they go to bed. So ask yourself, what's a good time for you to sit? And then, of course, you have to relate that time to the context of your life. Well, I need to go to work at 5.30. Well, maybe you don't have time to sit before you go to work. Maybe you go to sit meditation in the evening.

[40:25]

And then where? Should you sit in the broom closet? Or should you sit in this majestic space? Or should you sit on your bed? That one, I would say to you, is a little tricky. Maybe get off your bed and sit beside your bed. You know, you get up early, sit up straight, get very comfortable, relaxed, go back to sleep. So where, when, and then what kind of, if any, what kind of ritual do you want to have?

[41:28]

And even if you've been sitting a long time, maybe this is a good opportunity to kind of like renew it. Like, oh, is that a good place to sit? Is that a good time? Would it be appropriate for me to bow, light an incense and bow? to a Buddha statue, to the whole world, to your cat. Trust your own process. And then also to ask yourself, is there someone I need to let know? If you're suddenly sitting in the broom closet, maybe you should let your partner know or your family.

[42:40]

Is there someone you need to negotiate with? If you're going to meditate then, who's going to walk the dog? And then maybe you have to agree, I'll walk the dog and then I'll meditate. So when? Where? How will you set it up before and after? And is there anyone you need to negotiate with? And this is the kind of hardware of getting ready to meditate, to do zazen. And then the software is getting ready internally.

[43:47]

How do you take your seat? How do you remind yourself that when you sit on your cushion, you start to tune into your own life force? And it's not unusual initially that it feels... Like, for that five or ten minutes we sat, you know, and I was saying, think about how, what you just, what happened when you were sitting, you know. And, you know, when you can reflect, when you can recall some of it, it's like, oh, I thought about that, and then I thought about that, and then...

[45:01]

And then I don't know what I did. And then I came back. The mind is incredibly complex. Incredibly so. And can we sit almost in a humble way? my whole life will express itself in this ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. And how do I learn experientially to be present? This is our constant Challenge.

[46:03]

So we'll offer you some mindfulness exercises that you can do during your day. So the first one is who, when, and how. And who do you need to negotiate with? And then the second one is discovering how to come back into the moment. And some of the exercises are about directed attention. Some of them are about receptive attention. Like if you just pause for a moment and just stay open to whatever is being experienced.

[47:15]

And then directed attention. Can you tune in to, can you bring your directed attention to the sound of the fan overhead? will offer you exercises to help you see how both of those can play a role in being aware. And then we will email you some guidelines for how to participate in this small group, the peer groups.

[48:46]

The notion is... I'll actually send you a couple of documents. One is one that we've made up ourselves, and then the other one is from... Thich Nhat Hanh, who came up with a process. It's quite a simple process. Maybe the most primary thing is you talk about your own experience. When I was sitting, this is what happened. When I was walking down the street, I noticed this. It's like staying present with how it was for you. Oh, when I tried to take those instructions and meditate each morning, after two days I forgot and I just remembered as I was coming back to the class.

[50:04]

Even that. What was so powerful and persuasive for you that distracted you from just sitting and brought you into something else? What was it? What made it so enticing? And then to bring that to the group, whatever your experience is, whether you're proud of it and think, well, that was a marvelous achievement. I can't wait to tell others. Or whether it's kind of like you sheepishly admit, well, I just totally forgot after two days and never sat for the other five. in the realm of awareness, it all has something to teach us.

[51:16]

And it's a very interesting proposition to be yourself and hopefully in a safe way. share with others and listen as they share their experience. And one thing we will ask of you is confidentiality. That what happens in the small group, you don't repeat it in a way that the person who said it in the group would be identified.

[52:39]

If someone else, if you were thinking, oh, well, that person is going to tell all their friends about how I'm a miserable meditator. Maybe you may make up a story about being a good meditator. Hopefully, eventually, you will learn about your own stories and your own notion of what's good and bad. I'll send you both a summary of what I've just said, and I'm hoping that you're recording this, right? And did you know that the artificial intelligence in Zoom can give you a summary?

[53:43]

OK. I'll make a summary off my own notes. But yeah, I think it's something you can look down at the bottom. To give you a summary of what was spoken this evening and then some suggested practices and then hopefully you would do those practices and then when you come to the peer group meeting that you would share your experience. There seems to be something powerful about having people bearing witness to our truth.

[54:57]

It sort of helps it register. And it gives us some insights as to how we relate to the world. And then, of course, when others speak, we bear witness to how they relate to the world and themselves. I'm going to mention now. Actually, maybe that's enough talking for a moment. Let's do this. Let's break into dyads. And then in the dyad, discuss with each other the notion of where do you sit?

[56:14]

Or where will you sit if you're just getting started? How long will you sit? Will you have any ritual before you sit or after you sit? And then is there anyone you need to discuss the time and the place with? And as you... We'll just do this for about three or four minutes each in pairs. As you're in the pair and your partner is talking, try to keep your attention on them. There's something...

[57:15]

Like, when someone's listening to us, it helps us stay connected to our own being. Okay? So, if you could just turn to the person beside you and... And if you do have a routine, if all this is... Just before you start, could I say one more thing? I know I've said a lot. Maybe not. If you could just... I'll time it, and one person can talk until I hit the bell again, and then if you could just switch.

[58:24]

And then you can have a couple of minutes to go back and forth. Just tell your partner what doing that exercise felt like for you. Okay? So if you could decide who's going to go first. you're going to talk for about three minutes uninterrupted okay My intention is that what we've done [...]

[59:29]

... [...] So, a difficult time. Does that have a really good answer for you? Is that not consistent or something like that? Like a guitar, you're blocking me. And I have two places to try to, you know, trace back to someone else, right?

[60:29]

I forget what to see what's your name, and say, all the data that you see inside the U.S. Spaces. And we are all out of this. And we talk about it. It's so interesting. Anyway, we're all out of this. You know, we're all out of this. We're [...] all out of this. You know, we're all out of this. We're [...] all out of this. And we go up there, so very successfully, so I don't know how to tell you. Why it's a task? It's amazing. [...] So if you could finish your sentence.

[61:49]

And then just close your eyes and let yourself feel whatever you're feeling, notice your state of mind, maybe even your physical energy. And then in a moment I'll ring the bell and you'll change around. The person who was listening will now be speaking and vice versa. Oh. Oh, I'll take the phone here. It's hard. [...]

[62:52]

It's hard. [...] I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah. [...] Now I'm just... Oh, is there anything else?

[63:52]

I said, hey, you cannot have me if I do the... There you go, I'm a stranger. I'm just... [...] Yes, sir. My green is this plastic. This is so good. Yeah. Wow. To see what it's got. It's so good to see what it's got. It's got to see what it's got. It's got to see what it's got. It's got to see what it's got. . . .

[65:15]

Happy next week, if you are, whenever, if people want help with sitting on commission, if they want to come early next Monday, I'm happy. Okay. I mean, I'm happy to select 645 or something. Yeah. And I can offer. Okay. Thanks. I should call this. So you can just finish your thought, and then you can just take a couple of moments, sharing with your partner what it was like to do that exercise. Yeah, yeah. And I do like what you said, because I talked to you here, I'm not happy today. Yeah, it's very nice.

[66:35]

Yeah. [...]

[67:51]

That was it. You could turn back this way. So, ideas, ideas, ideas, and then... translate those ideas into action and hopefully enough noticing in the action that something is being learned experientially. Do you have any questions? In the time we have left, I wanted to go through a couple of other exercises you could do by yourself or with someone else, if you wish, before we finish.

[69:10]

But there's time now if you have any questions about what we've talked about so far. or the process of the structure of this course, if you have any questions about that either, or anything else related to the course. online from Janos. Okay. Put on my audio.

[70:12]

Unmute. Hope everyone can hear me. This is Janos. Yes, so I looked at the beginning. Thank you, David Chow, for outlining the whole program. How long to schedule for the Monday night and for the Thursday morning. So about how long are each one of those sessions? Both of them will go for eight weeks. And for any one evening or morning? How long is, should I schedule for an hour and a half or two hours? An hour and a half. Okay. We're going to go until 8.45, 7.15 to 8.45. And then on Thursday, I think it's 11 to 12.30.

[71:18]

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Is that someone else with their hand up or is that Janos too? Oh, I just thought it seemed like one square was active. That's us? Okay. We're active. Did you have a question? Maybe my question is something like this. If awakening is so close to our heart's desire...

[72:21]

Why isn't it that everyone is just drawn to it? Do you have an answer? Is awakening a word that's used often in Zion tradition? Tibet and Vajrayana, they talk about awakening. I just not use that. Oh, yes. There are other words that imply awakening. But the word awakening in English is used. You're surprised? I read Zen books. I don't particularly remember this word in the Zen tradition.

[73:32]

I don't know where it is, but I will learn. Because in different traditions, they particularly use some words to talk about essence. So I wonder what is in Zen. Well, awakening is not so much a description of essence. as it is a description of activity. It's a verb, not a noun. Although it can be a noun. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, let me read you a little bit.

[74:36]

So we're going to offer you suggestions for the first meeting. We're going to offer you some questions about, well, have you set up... And I would ask you, I know some of you have sat... for years and years. But just allow yourself to be a beginner and rethink those questions like, how do I sit? When? And maybe if you've been sitting longer, you can remind yourself of like the deeper questions. which are not so mechanical, but remind yourself that you're giving your attention to what's happening in the moment and not so much to conceptualize that as to feel it.

[75:55]

What is it to be connected in the moment or available for what's being experienced. You can just deepen the inquiry. And in the forced peer group, we would encourage you to kind of talk about your process of sitting. When I started sitting regularly, I was sitting by myself, and I had Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. And after I would sit, I would pick up Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, open it at random, and read like one or two paragraphs. And then just try to...

[76:58]

Let that sink in. And then carry it into the day. Maybe having, you know, I just said that as a for instance. Not to say everybody should do that. It's not at all what I mean. And the second activity is... A writing exercise. For some people, writing is very powerful. And for some people, it's just not. And I would say, if you're a person for whom writing is very powerful, then write. And if you're not, then I would suggest just think about it. What's your intention?

[78:02]

What do you need to bring into the moment to make that happen? Where in your schedule will you make space each day for sitting practice and other practices? What needs to be shifted to create that space? Just to kind of write that. And then another one. When you're getting dressed, notice your pattern. When I put on a shirt or a jacket, I always put my right arm in first. Or when I'm putting on my pants, I put my right leg in first.

[79:04]

To change it. Because often when we're doing something routine, it's like driving a car and your mind goes somewhere else. So just play with it. Shift your routine for getting dressed. And just notice how that is. And the nice thing about it is there's no great virtue. There isn't more virtue in putting your left arm in to your jacket than your right arm. It's just an exercise. Yeah. And then the last one is when you're drinking, can you pause and consciously taste the first mouthful of whatever it is you're drinking?

[80:22]

You know, water, tea, coffee, whatever. Can you just make that little connection of experiencing the liquid and tasting it. We'll sit for a matter of minutes, but before we do, you can just stand up and stretch your legs for a little bit. Oh, there is one other thing that I forgot to mention. And that is... Do you still have access to the video we did at Tassajara of... You do?

[81:30]

Okay. Good. So we'll send you a video of a series of... Maybe you would call it a yoga series or maybe you would just call it a mindful stretching series and encourage you to just loosen up your body. And I'll talk more about that next time. Okay, so we're just going to sit for a few minutes. So in a few moments, you'll get up, walk out the door.

[84:30]

What intention will you bring with you as you walk out the door? you very much. And if you're inclined, we need to set up the space as we find it. And also, if you could return the zabutan and the cushion to the seat you find them in.

[85:26]

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