Well, today, with this one-day sitting, opens the six-week practice period. And our head student, our head seat, called Shuso, will be Raul Moncayo. And I think we have quite a good sign up for the practice period. It's very unusual, actually, to have a practice period at a lay temple like this. We've been developing this kind of practice period for some time. It's always in the stage of development. how to make it work for everybody is what we're continually doing.

[01:08]

Usually our practice period is something that happens in a monastery, but since our practice has elements of And since the background of our practice is monastic and also lay, we combine elements of both sides of the practice. And so we have a practice period for everybody while living at home and working at your And during practice period we intensify our sense of practice. Even adding just a little bit to what we do intensifies our sense of practice.

[02:17]

Even adding one period of zazen, or taking a class, coming to Saturday morning every time. This intensifies our practice and gives us focus, because during the year, although we practice, our focus tends to become diffused. And so to have some kind of activity over a period of time helps to refocus our practice and make it more intense and also to give a strong sangha feeling and acknowledge the leadership that has been continually developing over a long period of time.

[03:25]

So the position of shuso acknowledges the leadership within the sangha. And so far we've had three shusos and Raul will be the fourth. So practice period. gives us an opportunity to really focus on Big Mind and how to allow Big Mind to permeate not only our Zazen practice but our daily life. Big Mind It has many names.

[04:35]

Essence of mind, original face, the underlying vitality of life itself. and especially it means non-self-centered mind, mind which includes everything. So how do we express big mind moment by moment? from the Mumonkan, which is an expression of a big mind, total mind, how to express total mind.

[05:56]

This is case 18 from the Mumonkan, and it's called Tozan's Three Pounds of Flax. This Tozan is not Tozan Nyongche of the Soto school, but a different Tozan. Tozan is a mountain. It means southern mountain. There are a lot of southern mountains in China, but there's a famous southern mountain, where there's a monastery. And this is where many famous teachers came from. And this Tozan is Tozan Suchu. And he was a disciple of Unmo. and quite well-respected Zen master.

[07:06]

So the case is very short. A monk asked Taozang and Dengshan, what is Buddha? And Dengshan said, three pounds flax. or flax, three pounds. Ma-sa-jin is Japanese. Ma-san-chin is Chinese. Ma-sa-jin is what he said. Something like that. Actually, since he was Chinese, he said Ma-san-chin. Ma-san-chin. And then Master Mumon has a comment, and he says, Old man Dungshan attained something of clam-zan.

[08:12]

He opened the two halves of his shell a bit and exposed his liver and intestines. Be that as it may, tell me, where do you see Dungshan? And then he has a verse, and he says, thrusting forth three pounds of flax. The words are intimate. Mind is even more so. If you argue right and wrong, you are a person of right and wrong. There are differences in how people view this case. Some people say Tozan came from an area in China where they harvested flax and made it into linen.

[09:17]

Flax is the raw material for linen. And that in his temple that the monks maybe spun linen out of flax as a way to make a living. Nobody knows for sure. And that maybe he had some flax in front of him and when the monk asked the question, what is Buddha? He just said three pounds of flax. This is a common viewpoint. But whether this happened or not, whether this was the circumstances or not, really doesn't matter. Because this koan is not about whether or not flax is Buddha. The first thing that comes to our mind is, well, all sentient being is Buddha.

[10:25]

So of course flax is also Buddha. This is the obvious first response that comes to your mind. But this is not the meaning of this statement. If you look at Joshu's answer, when someone asked, does the dog have Buddha nature? Joshu said, no. Or actually, since he was Chinese, he said, Wu. Wu means no. But if you think dogs don't have Buddha nature, or if you think that he's talking about the dog, then you're way off the track. So,

[11:26]

We have to look a little more closely at the question. Does the dog have Buddha nature? The monk was not asking about dog. Another time, a monk asked, does the dog have Buddha nature? And Joshi said, yes. So this ma-sa-jin, ma-san-chin, is very much like moo. A question and a response, just like a shout, an echo. Tozan just says, my son, Ching, that's all.

[12:37]

He just grabs something out of the air and presents it. Here. It's like a kind of wonderful offering. Dogen says, you should be able to build a wonderful temple out of a blade of grass. Where is the wonderful temple? If you think that massaging means something, then you lose the meaning.

[13:54]

Three pounds of flax. It's actually flax, three pounds, or three chin. Chin is a kind of measurement. Ma Sa Ching, three pounds of flags, just a vehicle for Tozan to present Big Mind. He could have said anything he wanted to present Big Mind. This is called using the phenomenal to express the absolute. using a piece of dust to present suchness. There are many

[15:19]

Names of Buddha. In the meal chant, we name the Vairocana Buddha, Laochana Buddha, Nirvanakaya Buddha, Dharmakaya Buddha, Sambhogakaya Buddha, all the Bodhisattvas, Maitreya Buddha. What is Buddha? If you just name Buddhas, They're just empty names. So this monk says, what is Buddha? And without hesitation, Tozan presents something. No hesitation at all. So in his comment, Mulan says, old man, Dungshan attains something of Clam-Zen.

[16:23]

Clam-Zen is like, when a clam opens, you can see all the way to the bottom because there's no, it's not like a tube, you know. You can see everything at once. When the clam opens up, it's all there. Very plain, right on the surface. The depth of the clam is right on the surface. And the same with Tozan. When he opens up his shell, you see his whole guts and intestines. It's all right there. You don't have to search around for it. He presents, he just gives it right to you. And you can see all the way down to the bottom. So he says, he opened the two halves of his shell a bit and exposed his liver and intestines.

[17:28]

Be that as it may, tell me, where do you see Dungshan? He's not asking you, where do you see Dungshan? He's saying, where do you see yourself? So the koan is not about Dungshan. The koan is about you, or about me. What about when he says, where do you see Dungshan? He's saying, where do you see yourself? Or how can you express this? What is your expression? Where is your big mind? What would you use to express this? If you look at Tozan, as weaving flax into linen.

[18:33]

Weaving flax into linen is Tozan Zen, and Tozan Zen is weaving flax into linen. Actually, one thing doesn't change into another. Flax is flax, and linen is linen. This is a nice metaphor, actually. Flax is flax and linen is linen, and one doesn't turn into the other. Within flax is already linen, and the essence of linen is flax. It's all right there. Through the activity, it becomes apparent. Through the practice of weaving flax into linen, it becomes apparent.

[19:35]

And Master Muhammad in his verse says, thrusting forth three pounds of flax. After the question is the response. He thrusts forth three pounds of flax without hesitation. The words are intimate and mind is more so. Mind is more so, it's just another way of saying it, just another view. Mind is intimate, or words are intimate and mind is intimate. Meaning, there's no gap between the question and the answer, and there's no gap between, there's no space, there's no way to objectify what he's saying. Three pounds of flags has no object.

[20:53]

It doesn't describe anything. It's like there's an old Hasidic story. I can't remember the story exactly. All I remember is what happened. But I have to reconstruct it a little bit. In this rabbi's congregation, there was a little boy who got a whistle. He was just dying to blow his whistle. It was the Sabbath. He was not allowed to blow his whistle. He was just dying to blow his whistle. So they went into the temple and were having a service. different people were speaking or something.

[22:01]

And it came to a certain point where the rabbi was, where maybe God speaks in some way, you know. And right at that point, the little kid takes out his whistle and blows his whistle. And the rabbi says, this is the true voice. So then, Luman says, if you argue right and wrong, you're a person of right and wrong. Right and wrong here just means duality. If you argue relative and absolute, right and wrong, good and bad, this and that, you fall into hesitation.

[23:04]

When you fall into hesitation, the reality of the moment is lost. As soon as you start arguing or discussing right and wrong, good and bad, absolute and relative, the moment is gone. You're already making an object of it. There's a poem. from somebody, it says, time passes without hesitation. There is no gap between the question and the answer. To meet Tozan in this way, never will happen again. To meet Tozan in this way, never will happen again. This moment, this situation, never will happen again. How do you bring this to life?

[24:08]

How do you bring each moment to life? This is the question, when he says, but be that as it may, tell me, where do you see Dungshan? Means, how do you bring each moment, how will you bring each moment to life? In Zazen, we have this opportunity. That's all there is to do in Zazen, is bring this moment to life, moment after moment. And when we carry the stick, if you're sleepy, you can ask for the stick. And then, the important thing about the stick is the way it sounds. That's the most important thing about the stick.

[25:11]

How does it sound? Because when there's the right sound... Crack. When you disappear, the person who is hitting you disappears, and the stick disappears. Everything disappears in that sound. And everybody wakes up for a moment without thinking. Gone beyond thinking. Right straight to the source. This is the value of the shout and the value of the stick. These are old devices, but they're still good.

[26:15]

Even though we have to think all day long, how do we allow ourselves to go beyond thinking? We think that think-not-thinking is just the koan for sitting zazen, but it's actually the koan for our daily life. How do you think not thinking? Beyond thinking. Beyond thinking and not thinking. Be careful not to turn everything into an object.

[27:27]

There are no objects. There is only myself, which is also yourself. So this is an interesting Japanese poem. It says, Buddhism is practice at the doorknob, on the pine tree of yonder hill on the matches and the cigarette that you like and in the songs of spring birds.

[28:41]

Buddhism is practiced at the doorknob means when you approach the door and put your hand on the doorknob and turn the handle What are you doing? When we approach the door, put our hand on the doorknob, what are we doing? We turn the doorknob and open the door. At that time, the doorknob is not an object and the door is not an object. The door and myself are not two things. And then I open the door, and I look outside, and there's a hill with a tree in the sunlight. And the hill and the tree are not an object.

[29:48]

The hill and the tree are me, and I am the tree and the hill, and I've forgotten completely about the door. No more door. just myself, tree, and hill. And then I take out a cigarette and light it. And then I am myself, cigarette, match, fire, smoke, all one. And the tree and the hill are out of the picture. And then I hear the song of the bird. And I am bird song. Cigarette.

[30:53]

Smoke. Song of the bird is myself. This kind of understanding is practice. It's not practicing something. It's just living life completely as myself, with myself. So this kind of activity, is rare, actually. Kind of rare. This is the kind of activity for a person who is completely relaxed, because they don't even think of Zen.

[32:00]

All that goes on is through Zen. He doesn't even think about practice. He's had it. He's not trying to teach anybody. He just responds to the monk as himself. But for you and me, we have to think about practice. and we have to think about what we're doing, and we have to be careful. Well, Tozan doesn't even have to be careful. He just is careful, because he just naturally treats everything with care. That's just what his life is about. But for Tozan, he has to go through all the other stages before he gets there. just like we have to go through all the other stages before we get there.

[33:08]

And not that there are stages, but first comes enlightenment. And once we have realization or enlightenment, then we have practice. And practice is the refinement of that realization, of our initial realization, until we come to the place where we can be as free as Tozan. Just snatch anything out of the air and present it. He has nothing. Old Tozan has nothing. He has nothing to answer with. He has no money, no possessions, but when challenged, he just picks up something out of the air and presents it.

[34:12]

And it's the right answer. It's the right presentation. Everything is there. Having initial realization is like being born. And practice is like growing up after you've been born. That may be too much to say. Don't stick to that. But that's actually the way it goes. So some of us are in baby stage, some in youth stage, some in adolescent stage, teenagers, teenage Buddhist Ninja Turtles. But you may not think, I've had some realization.

[35:39]

You probably don't think that, which is okay. That's good. But actually, you've all had some realization. It's just hard to realize that, because you think, well, if I had had some realization, I would be this way or that way. My legs wouldn't hurt. But everyone here has had some realization. Otherwise you wouldn't be here practicing. There'd be no point to it. So we don't necessarily know what our realization is. But it's there. And it keeps unfolding. The understanding of it keeps unfolding as you practice. So, sudden realization takes a long time to unfold.

[36:42]

I was painting a house one time, and I started at this end, and I knew I had to go to the other end. And as I was painting a house, at this end, and I realized that there was the other end that I had to get to. But here I was at this end, and I was paying the whole house just where I was. And then it occurred to me that, yeah, this right here is the whole house, except that I have to continue to work before I get to the end of it. So we just take it one breath at a time, one moment at a time. No need to worry about it. No need to hurry. You can't hurry to the end. You can only live your life moment by moment. I remember one time Suzuki Goshi said to me, Don't get behind yourself or ahead of yourself.

[38:08]

That's hard to do. Hard not to get behind yourself or ahead of yourself. How do you do that? If Tozan had been behind himself or ahead of himself, he couldn't have said, three pounds flax. One other example, my last example is when we bow. Bowing is something that we do all the time.

[39:20]

And what is the meaning of bow? There is no meaning to bow. Bowing has no meaning. It's just something that you do. You say, I bow because of this, or I bow because of that. Just bow. If you give bowing a meaning, then you defile the bow. You may say, who do we bow to? When we bow, who do we bow to? If you say Buddha, it's too easy. We make an object of Buddha. What do we bow to? Just bow. And when we bow, to bow is when you stop.

[40:23]

Just going like this is, to just go like this is actually to divide things. You're just cutting the air. But bowing is stop at the bottom for just a little bit. And when you stop, everything stops. The whole world stops. This is where the bow is. And everything in the universe is included in that bow. This is just like three pounds flax. No meaning. And yet, it means everything. So in our daily life, our activity goes from moment to moment, and we have things to accomplish, which is very good.

[42:07]

But it's also important to remember that in our busy life, although our life looks continuous, it's made up of minuscule moments. And each moment is distinct and discrete from every other moment. And this distinctness and this discreteness of each moment is absolute life. You can't stop and scrutinize each moment. But within our activity, each moment is perfectly still. And although the moments seem to add up to something, each moment has its own past and future, as Dogen says.

[43:21]

And the more we can allow ourselves to experience each moment, each moment's activity, discreetly, can we really appreciate our life, or the life that is lived?

[43:44]

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