Good morning. This is the fourth day of our five-day Sashin. We've been sitting steadily for the past four days. Tomorrow is the end. We start at 5 and end at 9.10 and sit Zazen all day. Last week, I think it was last Saturday, I I can't remember exactly, but I think it was last week that I said something about... A good question to ask your teacher in Dōkasan is, please instruct me.

[01:20]

Or, what is the way? I don't remember saying what is the way, but all kinds of people came to me and asked me, what is the way? That is what you said. It must have been what I said. And that was very touching. And, you know, being able to ask that question is itself the essence of the way. That's to be able to give up all your ideas and views and preconceptions and expectations and just simply open yourself and say, what is the way is already deeply in the way.

[02:25]

The first requisite of the way is humility and letting go of everything, letting go of, I know something Someone said to me, you know, the plum tree, the fruit is falling off the plum tree. We have two plum trees, this plum tree here, which blooms in February, and this plum tree in the back, which blooms in June. Fruit starts falling in June. And it's quite obvious because the plums are all over the ground.

[03:31]

And he said, the world of plums know just when to fall, when they're ripe. Plums are ripe and they're falling. And he said, but I never get that feeling myself. Here I've been practicing for 10 years or whatever, and I don't feel that I'm ripe like those plums and ready to fall. So I thought that was a very wonderful statement. The plums actually don't wonder this. For the plums, the plum is inherent in the seed. And the plum tree grows out of the seed and is nurtured by the rain and the ground.

[04:40]

And every stage of the way, the plum tree is fulfilling itself as a plum tree. continuous cycle. But we tend to feel that the fruition of the plum tree is when it produces fruit, which is not wrong. It's true. But the plum tree is fulfilling itself in every stage of its development. Even in the winter, when the plum tree is dormant, But it's not. It's still completely, totally functioning and fulfilling itself as a plum tree.

[05:54]

So this is the way of the plum tree. But the plum is the final product, according to our way of looking at it. I don't know if the plum is the final product or the fulfillment of the plum tree. Maybe so. I don't say it's not the fulfillment of the plum tree, but it's one stage of fulfillment for the plum tree. Winter is a good time for the plum tree. Spring is a good time. Fall is a good time. Summer is a good time. But the plum doesn't say, this was quite a journey.

[07:01]

It just recognizes itself as a plum. If you try to look for the plum in the seed, if you try to open up the seed to get the plum, you won't find it. Nevertheless, it's there. So I want to This is case 19 of the Mumangkha called, Nonsense, Ordinary Mind is the Tao. This is a case involving Zhou Shu, or Zhaozhou, and Nanchuan, or Nansen.

[08:20]

Nansen was Zhaozhou's teacher. And this was when Zhaozhou was maybe a novice, around 18 or something like that, 20. And so Zhaozhou asked his old teacher, Nanchuan, What is the way? What is the Tao? This is a wonderful question. So he asked Nantuan, what is the Tao? He's feeling him out. And Nantuan said, ordinary mind is the Tao. And Jiaojiu asked, should I try to direct myself toward it? Meaning, how should I practice? Should I look for it?

[09:23]

Should I seek it? And Nan Chuan said, if you try to direct yourself toward it, you betray your own practice. Or you stumble past it. And Zhao Zhou asked, well then how can I know the Tao if I don't direct myself toward it? Logical question. And Nantuan said, the Tao is not subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion. And not knowing is simply not knowing. If you truly reach the genuine Tao, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirming and negation? With these words, Zhaozhou had a sudden realization.

[10:25]

So Wu Man has a comment, and he says, questioned by Zhaozhou, Nanchuan lost no time in showing the smashed tile and the melted ice, where no explanation is possible. Though Zhaozhou had realization, he could confirm it only after another 30 years of practice. And then Wumen's famous verse, spring comes with flowers, autumn with the moon, summer with the breeze, winter with snow. When idle concerns don't hang up in your mind, that is your best season. So it's ordinary mind. What is the Tao? And what is ordinary mind? Ordinary is a word that has two aspects.

[11:37]

And when we think of the way, we're actually thinking in these two aspects. We say, what is the way? What is the Tao? And so one part of our question is, what is ultimate reality? And the other part of our question is, what shall I do? How shall I go? How shall I proceed? So when we ask this question, we're actually asking both sides of this question. And if you ask someone this question, They may respond from one side or the other. A teacher may say something like, �You are the Tao,� or maybe say, �What you should do. Perseverance is the Tao.� Something like that.

[12:43]

So there are many answers. many ways to respond to this question, infinite ways to respond to this question, yet there is no special response. So, Nantran's response is a very good response. Ordinary mind is the Tao. We tend to think of a path as a trail of some kind. And then the trail starts here and goes there. That's what a path is. Tao means the way or path. But the way has no special direction. The Tao has no special direction. In emptiness, there is a path.

[13:51]

It's like the bird's path in the sky. What is the bird's path in the sky? And what is the fish's path in the water? Although the fish goes somewhere, you can't follow its trail. Although, which doesn't mean there is not a trail. And when the bird flies in the sky, you can't follow its trail, which doesn't mean there's no trail or no path. Bird goes, I was watching the birds outside of my window yesterday. These little birds, they must have just been born in the spring. move like this, the birds go... And you wonder, where do they get their direction?

[14:56]

How do they know to do that? Because it's so fast and so direct, and no hesitation at all. Very interesting. Tao, the ordinary, the root of ordinary, means constant or eternal, actually, or sustaining. And our usual way of thinking about ordinary is mundane, moment-to-moment, day-to-day, our usual ordinary activity, which is nothing to shout about.

[16:01]

Just ordinary life, you know, go to work, drive the car, feed the kids, wash the diapers, answer the phone. which is neither interesting nor not interesting. Sometimes interesting, sometimes boring. But root meaning of ordinary is much different than that. that which is always sustaining but which we don't recognize or pay attention to because it's so close.

[17:09]

I tend to think of it as like you don't notice it until it's turned off. Like the refrigerator is buzzing, you know, and then suddenly it stops and then you realize that it was there. So this constant support, constant life, sustaining eternal life is ordinary existence. And then there's our activity, which is ordinary existence. And both of these, these two aspects, are really one aspect, are really one thing, two sides of the coin. That which is not visible, but always present, and actually visible, but we don't see it.

[18:20]

And all of our activity is based on, all of our ordinary activity is the activity of ordinary mind. Constant, sustaining, eternal ordinary mind. So how do we, the question is, how in our activity do we move in accordance with ordinary mind? So when we ask this question, what is the way? It means, how do we in our ordinary daily activity act in accord with the way? So that they're not two things. So often, you know, we think of Zen practice as something working toward a big experience that will open our mind.

[19:43]

D.T. Suzuki popularized Zen in America, and his books are wonderful, but what he did was to take all of the dramatic experiences that were written down and put them into a book, so that when you open the book, from cover to cover, it's dramatic experiences. And you think, gee, this is Zen. Nothing but dramatic experiences. But we don't see that all the space in between, all of the thousands of years have been between all those dramatic experiences. We should have dramatic experiences. That's fine. But we shouldn't think of Zen as something sensational. It's rather boring.

[20:50]

This is a curiosity. I always used to say, Zen is not exciting. People would always come, you know, looking for something exciting. Kensho, you know, in the 60s, Kensho was the big thing. And a lot of the teachers were emphasizing pushing people to get Kensho. They don't do that anymore. but they were doing it then. And Suzuki Roshi was just doing his ordinary everyday practice. And people would sometimes criticize him, you know, you're not driving people to get Kensho. You should have an enlightenment experience moment by moment.

[22:06]

Don't make so much of it. Don't be driven by some kind of excitement as practice. You should find the way in each moment. You should find your way in each moment. This is what's the important aspect of practice. People feel that when they have Kensho experience, that all their troubles will be over, and they'll always be smiling, and nothing will ever go wrong in their life again. Kensho experience is important. Kensho means opening the mind. The mind opens to realization. we should have a Kensho experience, which is the beginning of your practice.

[23:11]

So, the reason why we practice is because we've had some experience. You may not realize what your experience is, or you may not recognize it, But because you've had some experience, some insight, is the reason why you come to practice. And during the course of your lifetime practice, you will have other experiences, awakenings. You should have some awakenings. If you're lazy, you may not If you have good determination to practice and to really seek out the way, you will have some experiences. Some experiences maybe seems more important than another, but the main experience

[24:29]

that we should have is realizing the ordinariness of the way. Suzuki Roshi's most compelling words was It's nothing special. Enlightenment is nothing special. It's disappointed a lot of people and excited a lot of other people. It's nothing special. Don't look for some special thing. Why should we look for some special thing? What's the matter? What's the matter? What's the problem?

[25:34]

Well, I'm deluded. And I want enlightenment. So now, Joshu says, should I try to direct myself toward it? Should I do something special? Should I What should I do anyway? And Nonsense says, well, if you try to direct yourself, you stumble past it or you betray your own practice. Then he says, well, then how can I know it? If I do it, I stumble past it.

[26:38]

If I don't do it, I neglect it. Sekito in Sandokai says, or maybe it's in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, Tokyo Zamai, if you You can't put your hand in it and you can't not be there. So what do you do? You can't not seek it. And yet if you seek it, you go past it. This is the koan in practice. So what do you do?

[27:38]

It's like the fourth day of Sashin. You can't sit there and you can't move and you can't go away. You can't stay there and you can't go away. the moment. That's all there is. The way. What is the way? What is the Tao? Just one moment after the next. Just this moment, this moment, this moment. What is there to seek? How do we find ourself in each moment?

[28:58]

How do we find the Tao in each moment? Yesterday I was talking about not sacrificing this moment for some future time, although what we do in the present also has its effect in the future. And, you know, parents save their money so that their children can go to college, right? But is that a good idea? Sometimes. Maybe if everybody didn't send their children to college, the world would be different. Anyway, to sacrifice this moment for some future time is to give up this moment, unless we know that this moment sacrifice is the Tao.

[30:13]

That it's living this moment fully. this moment's sacrifice is just nothing more than living this moment fully. But what we do in the present has to count for the present. The future and the present in some way. But if we never fully live the present, always thinking about the future, we lose our way. So he says, Nansen says, when Joshu says, how can I know the Tao if I don't direct myself?

[31:34]

And Nansen says, the Tao is not subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion, and not knowing is simply not knowing. Why is knowing delusion? Because the Tao is more than we can know. The Tao, you will find, it is vast and boundless as outer space. You know, vast and boundless as outer space means that there's no fixed thing.

[32:37]

Nothing is fixed. So in space, we set up something. And as soon as we set up something, we have something to relate to. But in outer space, there's nothing to relate to. And this is the vastness of the Tao, where there's nothing to relate to. There's not another thing. This is absolute reality. And in the midst of absolute reality, we put up a sign, a post, we put up a pillar, and then everybody relates to that. And then everybody relates to each other. And pretty soon you have the world. And so we keep creating the world by putting up various points of reference. And then we have an order according to our points of reference.

[33:44]

And when the points of reference are no longer valid, we have disorder and chaos. So whatever we do is up to us. We create this whole thing. It's all mind created, this whole world. So what is the way in a world where we create it moment by moment with our reference points reference points of work, family, social order, buildings, city planning, conquering, greed, anger, delusion.

[34:48]

These are all reference points with which we create our world. But it's really boundless, this space. And within this dream, where do we find the way? It's a dream. And we're dreaming it up all the time. And then we put our dream into actuality. We actualize our dream. So nothing's fixed in this realm where nothing is fixed, and it's just setting up reference points in outer space, inner space. What is the way? How can it be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation? And with these words, Choshu woke up. So, in Zen practice, we don't try to create some special awakening.

[36:14]

We just take care of the ground. We just take care of day-to-day, ordinary activity. And when we understand how to take care of ordinary, everyday activity as practice, then realization comes by itself, sometimes in a very quiet way. The characterization of realization is walking in the fog. You realize by touching your clothes that they're wet. But you don't see how that happens. It's not something dramatic or sensational. It's just, oh yeah, now I understand.

[37:20]

It's wet. So Master Muang says, spring comes with flowers and autumn with the moon, summer with the breeze and winter with snow. When idle concerns don't hang in your mind, that is your best season. Wherever we are, this is the best place to be. Whatever you're doing, that's the best thing that you can be doing. When you accept everything, every moment's activity completely as the right moment, the right place, the right thing, then you will realize, you will suddenly feel your clothes and they'll be damp.

[38:36]

The purpose of Zazen is to let go of all of our opinions and ideas and postures and tensions and just resume our original state of mind, our original And just accept everything as it comes and goes without judging. Just each moment is the right moment. Each sensation is the right sensation. Each feeling is the right feeling. Hard to do. So, to just practice, day by day, being with your experience, being with your life completely, moment by moment, not valuing one activity over another, is actually enlightened activity.

[40:54]

But it's hard for us to see that because of our longings and our desire. So we need to practice. Enlightened practice is something that never stops. But it's very satisfying. And there's satisfaction when you feel the satisfaction of pure practice, which means non-dual practice, pure non-dual practice. It's very sweet taste. And I wrote something down here.

[42:18]

It says, ordinary mind is the vortex of good and evil, beautiful and ugly, happy and sad, joy and pain. We can't add something and there's nothing to get rid of. Do you have a question? discrepancy that I cannot put together between our practice and what we study.

[43:48]

Well, there was a time when practicing in the mountains was the thing to do. Now is the time to practice in the midst of all the difficulties of the world. The old masters said, there's nothing we can do to change the world, so we'll go to the mountains and practice. People feel now that the difficult practice is right here, now, you know, practicing with, in the midst of the busy world, right in the middle of it. I can't cut off my arm. Why not?

[44:49]

I'm too dirty. You don't have to go to the mountains to do that. You know, best kind of zendo is one where there's traffic all around, horns beeping, people shouting curses, walking down the street. It's easy, you know, to find tranquility in the mountains, but much more difficult to find peace right here. So, The atmosphere has changed. It may seem that this is a lesser kind of practice, but it's actually much more of a challenge.

[46:00]

It's the challenge of our time. to rarify the practice so that only a few elite virtuosos can do it. It doesn't work today. Today it's just more open. This has never happened before. So it looks different, but this is how we have to find our way. With all the temptations around us, and sometimes we give in to them, you know, and sometimes we're pulled

[47:03]

To have this kind of clumsy, imperfect, childlike practice in the midst of the busy world, in this dangerous world, is the way to transform it, rather than going to the mountains. The mountains are important too. I think it's a good effort. We don't have much time. You read that line about when your mind is free from idle concerns, it's the best season. Well, I think my whole life is idle concerns. Right. So if I can accept my whole life as idle concerns, it's the best season. But if you can say, my life is all idle concerns, then you have a way of dealing with it.

[48:19]

If you don't realize my mind is all idle concerns, then you just go on in your delusion, in your way of idle concerns. So when you realize, my life is nothing but idle concerns, then you have some opportunity to do something about it. Yeah, but at this point, it drives me crazy. Yeah, good. But if I could accept that my life was idle concerns, then I think it is. Yeah, but what are idle concerns? Well, for example, I just spent two days trying to deal with the sofa, what to do with the sofa. I called up five friends, had five conversations, tried to get rid of the sofa, finally found a place to get rid of it, now it doesn't have to be moved anymore, okay? This is what I'm doing with my life. This is an idle concern. But I needed to do it. It's great that you could get rid of a sofa.

[49:28]

It's an accomplishment. I don't need to get rid of the sofa. I'm sorry. So now, you know, just keep working in the same direction. Get rid of the armchairs. When you speak about valuing everything equally in one's life, I want to ask you, it seems to me that it's important to know how to make distinctions also. And the example that always, always, always comes to my mind is of a woman who's being beaten by her husband. under what circumstances does she say, okay, no, I don't equally value... No, that's not what I'm talking about.

[50:28]

I'm talking about all of your activity, you know, washing the dishes is just as valuable a time spent doing something as buying a new dress. Okay? That's what I'm talking about. Valuing all of your experiences equal. In other words, every moment has to be lived completely. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about making a mistake. Why should I interfere with this guy? That's not what I mean. I mean, when you do something, you have to do it completely. Otherwise, you're missing your life. We tend to value certain activities more than other activities. Some activities are utility activities. And the utility activities are just we do in order to do the more interesting activities.

[51:36]

But if we don't live our life completely within the utility activities, then we're missing something. It's just, you know, I'm just doing this so I can do that. I'm just going to college so I can get a job. That's just wasting your time. If you go to college, you should study hard and enjoy it for its own sake. That's why when we practice for its own sake, We don't practice to be Buddha or to get enlightened. You're already Buddha. That's why you practice. So practice has to be done for the enjoyment, strictly the enjoyment of practice. Not to get something. Not to, you know, for something in the future. If we can't practice just for the enjoyment of practice,

[52:41]

Now, then we're missing something. So you should look at, why am I practicing? Why do I do this? That's a good question. Why do I do this? This kind of crazy practice. What's going to be the result? I've never thought about the result. I've never thought about, you know, what will happen, or will I get enlightened, or blah, blah. I just do the practice. It's the enjoyable thing to do. When I say enjoyable, that doesn't mean I always like it. But there's something about it that is very creative. I don't mean creative, but fulfilling. I do the practice because the practice itself is fulfilling.

[53:46]

So more it's like enlightenment, isn't that a hindrance? It can be a hindrance, yes. It can be. Nevertheless, it's okay, you know, because it means allowing light to come forth. What if? No, it can be. Is the word birth a hindrance? I mean, anything can be a hindrance, but actually there are no hindrances in practice. If you really enjoy the practice, if you really wholeheartedly engage in practice, then whatever comes up as a hindrance is not a hindrance. That's what practice is.

[54:57]

It's finding an opportunity in every so-called hindrance. That's called a freedom. So if you don't find your freedom within the practice, then you won't enjoy the practice. That's what practice is. And when you find your freedom, perfect freedom within every situation, no matter what it is, you don't hinder the light.

[55:58]

And then you say, oh, it's enlightenment. But the E word, you should be careful with. Because then it becomes like a rabbit, or a carrot. So if you find that you have some problem, just wake up to this moment, because there's no other fulfillment than in this moment, with all its difficulties. You can't avoid difficulties. We want to wipe out all the difficulties so that we finally have some ease.

[57:06]

But we have to find our ease within the difficulty. You can't avoid problems. Within the problem is where you have to find the ease. So how do you do that? Sādhyāya. How do you find ease within the problem? There's no escape. There's only one way to go, and that's to let go and find your ease within the problem. Ease and joy. Then you will enjoy your life. I'm

[58:10]

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