I hope you can feel some difference between the start of this sasheen and the start of the last sasheen. I hope this one feels less scary. Yes, sasheen practice asks something of us. a delicate proposition that there's a term in Buddhism called Kano Doko. Somewhere in Dogen's writings he remarks about his teacher in China, Guruji, saying to him, without this connection, without this sort of interaction, the heart of practice is not

[01:12]

the request and responding to the request sometimes some translators translate it as a mystical communication sometimes it's described as what happens when we do service. Somehow the offerings, the incense offerings, the bows, the chanting are in the service of creating a connection. What does practice ask of you? And I would say the process of our practice, if we can be foolish enough to say there is such a thing, is that we skillfully, patiently, compassionately meet the turmoil of our own life.

[02:34]

The hungers of our wants and the contractions of our versions that we meet them and work with them and something loosens up hopefully gets a little softer and a little more spacious and makes space the mental space, emotional space for something more then the traumas that they create, the wanting, was it the immersions? Because up until that point, what do I like from practice is a much more compelling and maybe you could even say appropriate question.

[03:37]

But then if something starts to soften and loosen, then I'll just practice asking, is the person standing in front of me what's a helpful response to them what is it to be open to the morning so it's my hope for all of us they're even more available to that kind of disposition as we started this issue. I think of it as the basics never change.

[04:45]

Be present. Experience the experience being experienced. But it's both the antidote to the incessant dramas of our mind and heart. It opens up consciousness to experience something more than just the word according to me. It develops the capacity to take it. So I quoted the last line of Wallace Stevens' poem, which is, nothing that is not there and the nothing that is. And I think it says something about

[05:54]

as it was primarily emphasized in early Buddhism. Derupping the self and experiencing the suchness of the moment. always there to help clarify the great metaphors. And yet, as I said in my last class, quoting the sixth ancestor when he was eight years old, but I have eyes. I have ears. I have a nose. I am thinking, feeling, caring, human being back to that, but here's Wallace Stevens' poem.

[07:04]

The Snowman. One must have the mind of winter to regard the frost and the boughs of the pine trees encrusted with snow. It had been cold a long time to behold the junipers, shagged with ice, the spruces rough, and the distant glitter of the January sun. And not to think of any misery in the sign of the wind, in the sign of a few leaves, which is the sign of a land full of the same wind that is blowing in the same terrible place. For the listener who glistens in the snow and nothing herself beholds nothing that is not there and nothing that is Okay, so we'll kick that off. Okay, done. January's over. Yes, it was cold.

[08:06]

Of course, in a way, we never done. The world, according to me, is simply a momentary proposition. poetic construct, hypothesis that invites us to further exploration of what is. And whether it's the first machine, the middle machine, the last machine, or the last breath of our lives, there is a request to just need it as it is and not get lost in all of the stories and imaginings we might have about it is the time of your turn the practice initiated by shakramunit

[09:29]

Out of it that grows. The heart. The place of the heart. In the practice. Maybe we could say more than just. I have eyes and ears and nose. Maybe we could say. I care. I care enough to what? I care enough. to have aversions. This experience of being alive has fleeting moments of retraumatic and abundant moments of wanting and aversion. In Avalokiteshvara, when contemplating Prajnaparamita sees that the five skandhas are not only mere constructs, but they're also the aliveness of it to be.

[10:50]

They're also the warmth and the care that relatedness is intrinsic to us. not just a new proposition an academic proposition that in some ways it's interwoven with the impulse doesn't be about it and so the challenge becomes for us and in my mind this middle issue this is the middle of the practice period. This is the middle Shishi. We're as far away from the beginning as we are from the end. Hopefully that gives us the refuge of not still grasping at what happened before we came

[12:02]

and not yet preoccupied by what's going to happen after a week. In that regard, I would say to you, this is precious. In case you haven't noticed, a moment of disobedience, that we're at the present time, the present place, the present experiences and relationships are primary its questions. So in this midst of, in this middle of being like middle of me the Sun that we are worn smooth by our own diligence and our collective practice we can sustain that diligence in a softer

[13:32]

And more inclusive way. In one way we could say, bringing forth radical honesty. But maybe there's a kind of intimidation or judgment in that. would suggest to you that when we think of our yearnings, the hunger of our wants, the fears of our aversions, they rise from the grind of caring. And this caring is the fruit It has a wisdom.

[14:38]

It invites us beyond the self the same way that no self of experience from element does. And so I would suggest to you that in this exchange, This radical honesty expresses itself as inclusion. The directed attention to momentary experience doesn't change. When it's interrupted, how the so-called interruption or distraction is related to that's in a way almost welcome but certainly a willingness to experience it.

[15:50]

What the Prajnaparamita is offering us is that when we look deeply at the human condition, we see that this caring, this intrinsic caring, and what it generates is an inevitable consequence of being alive. It's not a crime to be roaming over Julian. It's not a crime to care.

[17:06]

And when we break this I'll intervene, this acceptance of caring and enjoying it with this momentary awareness. This is indeed just the constructs of a climically conditioned consciousness. When we bring them together, we get this This mystical evening, that they need each other. One without the other, the analogy they use in the sutras is, it's like a bird with only one wing. It needs two wings to fly. I would hope that in this tradition that each of us in our exploration steams the diligence of the fundamentals of practice.

[18:28]

Not just observance of the shingi. not the guidelines of practice, but in a deeper way, that we reflect on the deep request. There's a deep request in going beyond the habit energies of our thoughts and our feelings. Do they need to be the stoic snowman that Wallace Stevens talks about? I think we can't dismiss it too well.

[19:36]

You think, as you've heard me say several times, in awareness there is an aspect of renunciation. You're not saying the way you're grasping that feeling, that memory, that mental construct. in the yoga of your own being that in that release there is a release of dukkha and in that release of dukkha there is an invitation for sukha back in the first class I was saying

[20:40]

The doom of dukkha can be translated as contraction, and the soul of sukha can be translated as loosening or opening. So the fundamental practice of not grasping and holding is interwoven. The embracing practice of the prajna-priority are quite simply the embracing practice of allowing ourselves to experience and to be however and wherever it appears. Hope Sutra says, through the guidance of Avarokiteshvara, it's simply an expression that will occur a lot.

[22:06]

In Sukkant now, what does practice ask of me? Can we allow it to sink in? Can we allow it to have an influence right in the legs of all the other things that are going on for us? And one of the ways we can trip ourselves up is we can tell ourselves, oh, practice is simple, it's like this. Practice is not simple. Practice is as complicated as the human mind and human heart.

[23:09]

It is not as fascinating as the states of consciousness each one of us can go up. being in the moment is an endless cause constantly presenting another experience that's asking for appropriate response constantly asking us to find the balance between letting go and letting in. And I would ask you this, though, that when we engage in hardback, being the person that we are,

[24:20]

doesn't somehow seem in opposition or in contrast to the request of practice. It starts to become the very grind of expressing the response to request of practice. And as we do that, we can notice even the very act of bringing attention can have a quality of sukha.

[25:23]

When the act of bringing attention has the flavor of opening to experiencing. It has a different quality from the act of bringing attention to correct something that's wrong. Oh, there's thick and that's wrong. The cutting off The contradiction that the human existence is hardwired to care. Except we care so much, we resurrect the past and imagine the future.

[26:26]

that we renegotiate within our own thoughts and feelings, the disconnects, the discomforts of interactions. We can rummage through the emotions that we're still holding in relationship to certain memories. physical care. And when any of those and all of those can be held with an awareness that's willing to experience, it invites its nature.

[27:30]

And of course this working isn't mediated by our consciousness. It functions with an immediacy and authority that's not simply the product of our attitudes or understandings. basic practice experience the experience that's being experienced doesn't change how we're appreciating how we're relating to the consequence of it it carries a different kind of attitude or disposition

[28:40]

Maybe we set aside the inquiry that's deciphering what should happen or shouldn't happen and giving over more fully to experiencing what is happening. And I would suggest to you This notion that all this arises out of our caring. You know, it can sound like, and it can feel like, an indulgence. It's like the fundamental practice where we aren't simply just running rampant. self-indulgence, indulging the likes and dislikes of our karmic being.

[29:56]

But as we let go of that, it opens up this opportunity for a different relationship to the very same horizons. Now we can let them be what they are and experience them in that way. rather than be dictated to by what they want or what they want to afford. Guruji said to Dota, this unit this mystical interaction, this way of being and experiencing that goes beyond our constructs of what practice should or should not be.

[31:05]

This way of being is the heart of our practice. So I would say to you, This is a precious opportunity. It's quite likely after this issue, the arithmetic of counting the number of weeks we have to practice through, or the number of days or if you're quite proficient, it doesn't take any of you to cut the number of hours, the number of arioki meals.

[32:09]

That way I yearn it to steal the present from way our deep courage expresses itself it somehow doesn't enable enriching being alive but being grateful and appreciative of this I wonder if we can explore my yearning get in touch with its core, its heart, its caring. And then rather than busy ourselves in trying to neutralize our aliveness, we can relate to it in a skillful way.

[33:31]

This is the heart. of the Makayana. We're all in it together. And that's a good thing. Despite all the addedness to the country. We all care. share that care and care for each other and not a mystical transformation So please, now that your body, your mind, your bio-rhythm has started to find its way in the rigorous machine, now that the proposition of seven days of sitting is no longer a help,

[35:01]

terrifying, maybe a little intimidating, but not so that it leaves your heart and mind stuck in contraction. Give something in yourself the authority to make this machine do Each of us is on our own path on this issue. That request, what does practice ask of you? It is, in some ways, the same for everyone. But in another way, each of us has a unique response. Trust them. Explore that.

[36:06]

What is that? Remind yourself, as the heart sweetness says, and thus relieve all suffering. Avalokiteshvara, practicing deeply the prajnaparamita. saw that all five skandhas were shouldn't have both the negation and the affirmation. Both the non-appointing to the constructs and the acceptance of it to be. And thus relieved also Without even knowing what it means to say it, we say it.

[37:20]

I want to be okay. I want to live. I would add, without even knowing exactly what we're proposing, we vow to do so with all beings. one of his talks, Suzuki Roshi, someone asked Suzuki Roshi, he said, but I don't always want to say all things. What can I tend to? It's not true. but we can invite ourselves to keep returning to it.

[38:39]

So I would encourage you as we enter into this issue, invite yourself to keep returning to the body and breath thoughts and feelings of love. And when they become simple and connected to the phenomena, wonderful. When they burst forth in the multifaceted expressions of your karmic being, with great kindness the birds and the insects and the plants and the trees have committed themselves wholly to supporting the submission

[39:52]

Kind of ear. Kind of whisper. So let yourself notice. What is it to embrace all existence and maintain the diligence to meet the request of practice? ways do I lean one side and try to make the world fit inside what I want and what I don't want?

[41:17]

In what ways do I hold back from opening up and just simply being part of it period of sense this is common each time we come back to awareness this is common not as a mental construct maybe initiating something but as a way to experience the present and read what it's

[42:10]

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