Well, as you can't help but noticing, there's a lot of turmoil in our world and all the benefits that we've been either taking for granted or appreciating, are destined to be, or probably will be, eliminated. So that keeps us awake. In the New Yorker magazine, Calvin Trillon, remember him, wrote a little page about how he gets himself to sleep. And he does it by counting shrimp.

[01:03]

He says, you know, I wake up, and he says in such a marvelous, humorous way, you know, I wake up and think about all this, you know, as many of us do. And that, so his way, he thinks about in Las Vegas, a million pounds of shrimp are eaten every day, some large number. And so he's taking it on to count the number of shrimp, and when he gets to maybe two million, he finds that he's finally fallen asleep. But I'm not going to talk about that today. No, I'm not. I'm going to talk about the music of the spheres, a little respite from our unusual, worried life. Today is Sashin also, so I want to talk about an appropriate lecture for Sashin.

[02:19]

If you've heard of the, probably heard Everybody's heard something about the music of the spheres. And since ancient times, this has been a preoccupation with philosophers and musicians and some religious organizations. And they have different ideas about it. And it's like there's the seven planets, or whatever number there are, and how they organize themselves and create a harmonious, a starry harmony, and what that sounds like.

[03:25]

that people are, what does that sound like? So that's kind of a theme. Do you know Billy Collins? Billy Collins is a really great contemporary poet. He was a poet laureate for a couple of years back there. And I really enjoy his poetry. I don't read much poetry, actually, but I really enjoy his poetry a lot. So, this poem is called The Music of the Spheres. The woman on the radio, who was lodging the old complaint that her husband never listens to her, reminded me of the music of the spheres. the chord of seven notes, one for each of the visible planets, which has been sounding since the beginning of the universe, and which we can never hear, according to Pythagoras, because we hear it all the time.

[04:40]

So it sounds the same as silence. But let's say the needle were lifted from the spinning grooves of these celestial orbs. Then people would stop on the streets and look up, and others would stop in the fields. And hikers would stop in the woods and look this way and that, as if they were hearing something for the first time. And that husband would lower the newspaper from his face, look at his wife, who has been standing in the doorway, and ask, did you say something, dear? Did you say something? So, I don't want to explain this. You either get it or you don't.

[05:44]

So then I have an unpublished talk by Suzuki Roshi, which, and these two seem to echo each other so nicely that I, that's why I'm talking about both of these. So he says, Confucius said that the most visible is something invisible. There are more proverbs like this. One in Japan is, the silent firefly, unlike the noisy cicada, glows with light. In Japan, cicadas are very prominent. They're talked about all the time. Akinroshi used to talk about the cicadas chirping all the time. So this means the same as the most visible is invisible.

[06:51]

And this kind of idea is quite common in the Orient. We don't use the term Orient anymore. We say Asia, right? But I like it. I think it sounds better to say the Orient in this sentence. That's why I put it. So in the Japanese, we have the word shibui, which means not conspicuous. not colorful, not uncommon. So, which brings me to what is the meaning of common and uncommon? There's this famous koan where Joshu asks Nansen, what is the way? And Nansen says, ordinary mind is the way. But what do we mean by ordinary? Usually we think ordinary is like what I go about my business every day, unspectacularly.

[08:04]

You know, just to get up and go to the bathroom and eat breakfast, and these are ordinary activities. But ordinary, is a much bigger sphere. Ordinary is the invisible, which is always visible. The most ordinary thing is what we don't see. The ordinary because it's so omnipresent that we don't really see it. Master Yunlin said to a government official who was also a poet,

[09:19]

were walking along and Nansen pointed out, I mean Yunmin pointed out to him, people see this walking in a garden and the official was talking about how beautiful the flowers were and Yunmin said, people see this flower as if in a dream. So because our life is so routine and so kind of narrow, we tend to see things as images rather than to see directly. It's hard to see directly because we're always thinking in terms of images.

[10:25]

What is the music that surrounds us in our ordinary, everyday activity? In the Lotus Sutra, which Suzuki Roshi quotes, just light up our corner of the world. It's not necessary to have a wide range of knowledge and activities, but to actually penetrate one thing, this is Bilgen, to actually penetrate one thing thoroughly. You know, our practice is so simple, it's really hard, what's really hard is to keep our practice simple and not so spread out.

[11:37]

When our practice is kept very simple, it reaches everywhere. As soon as it starts to become complicated, it gets narrower. You know, when we sit zazen in the zendo, we're very quiet. And many things can be ascertained that we don't necessarily usually recognize or allow to be there. We leave our ears open. We leave our eyes open. we leave all of our senses open.

[12:39]

When we're thinking, our senses close down. I can sit in the Zen Dojo and my mind, and I don't hear anything, I don't see anything, I don't feel anything, but that's not Zazen. Zazen is actually to leave all of our senses open and our discriminating mind open. and we can hear that which is not usually heard, seen, or felt. This is our universe. Right now, this is our universe, and how do we allow ourself and our universe to harmonize? to actually see things very clearly.

[13:46]

Suzuki Roshi talked about seeing things as it is. To touch directly, to hear directly, to see directly before discrimination. So when we have a pond that's very clear, very calm, serene. Then we throw a pebble in, and when we throw the pebble in, there are ripples. So ripples are beautiful and interesting. pond is not so interesting, but when we throw the pebble in, it becomes our interest is raised.

[14:46]

So it's very hard to stay within the compound, calm pond, and look all the way down to the bottom. When the ripples are there, we can't see to the bottom. We're only interested in what's going on in the waves. So most of us, most people live in the waves, swimming in the waves. Dogen says, when swimming in the waves, you should be walking on the bottom with your feet. That's a kind of interesting image, to walk on the bottom, always be walking on the bottom. And no matter how deep the water is, the body stretches out to meet the bottom. But there's nothing wrong with the waves. We live in the waves because each wave reflects the whole, as Dogen says, and each drop of dew on the grass, the whole universe is reflected.

[15:57]

So in every particular thing and every particular action and moment, the whole universe is reflected. So, the clear pond and the waves are both necessary. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Master Gensha said to somebody, somebody asked him, what do you do with a clear mirror? And he said, you smash it into a million pieces. But each piece reflects the whole universe. So you can't stay in meditation just by sitting down. People say, well, what do I do when I leave the zendo?

[17:04]

There are all these waves. The waves are the action or the expression of the water. But when we're sitting, we're just sitting and experiencing the music of the spheres. But we should be doing that all the time. The way we practice is not some special way. It's just to be aware. And the only way to be aware is to let go. And the only way to let go is our koan. How do you do that? That's why we practice zazen. We practice zazen in order to let go. So if you can sit zazen as zazen, we learn how to die.

[18:16]

So every breath is letting go and coming back. Letting go, coming back. It's like, as Suzuki Roshi says, Breathing is like a swinging door. Exhaling, the door opens into emptiness. And exhaling, the door swings into form. Two sides of one coin. So every moment is a moment of birth and death. Have you ever crossed the Golden Gate Bridge with the windows open on a windy day? You know, the bridge is held up by these ropes, metal ropes, cables, and a number of cables together.

[19:29]

with a space in between. When the wind blows, it makes music. It sings. It's a singing bridge, actually. So the stillness of the waves, of the cables, and the momentum of the waves together create the music. There's many analogies in Zen that are like this. A dragon is singing in a withered tree. That's a great go on. A dragon is singing in a withered tree. The tree looks like it's dead, but when the wind blows, it sings. So Suzuki Roshi says, he talks about shibui, which means not conspicuous, or not colorful, or not uncommon.

[21:08]

It expresses a deep sense of taste. These ideas may have originated in Zen practice. This sense is important if you want to maintain a tradition or a culture. To develop this sense of Zen is called accumulating unknown virtue or merit. It is to do something which nobody notices. It is to do something fundamental, to devote ourselves to fundamental work. To set up the foundation is the most valuable work. If you wish to devote yourself, choose some fundamental work rather than conspicuous visible work. be silent like the firefly, we must work with a far-reaching plan or far-reaching eyes. In Japanese, we say kenchiki, to be far-seeing, to have a far-reaching idea, not just temporal work. So this is why our practice is so simple, to simply always be aware of the foundation.

[22:17]

We have, you know, I remember Suzuki Roshi teaching little children. They used to have a kindergarten at Sokoji, which never really worked, but Suzuki Roshi showed the kids how to sit zazen. And the kid said, now what? Now what? That's the problem that we have. It's hard to just simply sit zazen without saying, now what, now what? Because now what, you know, is normal. That's the way we say it. Now what? I'm bored. The word boredom, you know, when people sit zazen, we often express our feeling as boredom. Boredom to me means I'm disconnected.

[23:25]

If we're connected, you can't be bored. Boredom comes from disconnection. So I'm bored. Well, try this. Well, that's not so good either. Well, try this. Well, eh, not that good. So because our mind is always looking for interest, interesting things, we become bored when we're not connected. So it's hard to be always connected with the invisible music. I think, and I've said this before, you know, each one of us has a note. I call it a hum, and it's an Actually, the word Aum, right, is like that. When we say Aum, we don't try to harmonize, but I guess some people do, but without trying to harmonize, when we say Aum, it's just a natural tone.

[24:41]

Some of us have a deep natural tone, some of us have a high natural tone, whatever. But that natural tone is always with us, and it's always with us in our breath, but we don't hear it because we're listening to other things. But when we stop listening, or stop listening to other things, we can hear the hum that each one of us has. And when each one of us is sitting together without saying anything or thinking about something, that harmonious, because everybody's home together is always harmonious. If it's natural, it's always harmonious, no matter what the different tones are. So he says, even if we successfully compete in the visible world, our work will be neglected before we die.

[26:03]

In other words, he doesn't think too much of that. It is important to work for future generations, for our descendants. We must be dedicated to do something, even though people do not usually know its value. To devote yourself in this kind of work is to have eternal life. However, if you are occupied by a nearsighted idea, you will lose your value, actually your virtue, and you will not find your true composure. That's a kind of interesting statement. I've rarely heard him say something about eternal life. But then, what is eternal life? That's actually not an uncommon statement in Zen, eternal life. Eternal life is the foundation of temporal life.

[27:05]

So what is the foundation of temporal life if it's simply momentum? Right? Our life goes on and on due to momentum. Momentary change is momentum. And so you're going downhill and you gain a lot of momentum. And then we go uphill, then the momentum carries us uphill, downhill. So this is the undulation of life, which is supported by stillness, but eternal. people think of as a line going to infinity, and Buddhism is more like a circle going around and coming around.

[28:11]

That's how Buddhists think of something like eternity. Eternity is maybe not the right word, but that's the word that's used. So, as a Buddhist, as a Zen Buddhist, That kind of focus is the most important focus. Not so much the waves, but the ocean itself or the calm lake itself. So Zazen is the touchstone for us to experience or to immerse ourselves in the stillness of that, it's also called nirvana. So, he talks about a barrel.

[29:26]

with many wooden staves, but in order for the barrel to function as a barrel, it needs to have a ring around it to keep all the pieces together. So that's a limitation. So in order for something really to exist, it has to have some, our practice has to have some limitations in order to not leak in order to function. So things function through limitation. And that's where our freedom is, is through the limitation. But we usually think our freedom is to do whatever we want and do many things. I used to have this analogy,

[30:29]

You know, modern refrigerators don't make much sound, but the old refrigerators, it gets kind of noisy, but it's in your kitchen, and it goes on and off. But when it's on, because you're used to it, you don't hear it. But as soon as it goes off, it's like, Yes, that stillness is hard to take. And so we start making noise again. Because we live, noise energizes us. Sound energizes us. And so we have to keep making it in order to energize us. But for our practice, we enjoy the stillness and the quiet because in order to do that, we have to let go of ourself.

[31:38]

It's like embarrassing silence when a bunch of people, a number of people are talking together and there's a lot of energy going on And then suddenly the thread is cut and everybody's sitting there not knowing what to do. It's called the embarrassing silence because the continuity is not flowing. But we don't take advantage of that. And then we start saying something in order to let go of the embarrassment of not having anything to say. So, I'm going to stop there, and if you have any questions, John.

[32:44]

I'm listening to, I'm feeling actually my feet all the way to the ground, and my head above the ocean, and feeling the experience of eternal life, as it were, in the moments of fully connected to the bottom and still present in the waves and the silence. And eternal life is something that philosophers and everybody's been talking about forever, and people do all kinds of stuff to earn eternal life. Now, if we find eternal life when our feet are on the bottom, Can you say how we can just stop looking for it elsewhere? I mean, is there something to be said? Just stop looking for it elsewhere. Just proclaim, I am alive moment after moment.

[33:50]

That's our practice, is to simply be alive moment after moment, fully, when you're fully present. It's called, when you are you, zen is zen. So when I am me, I'm putting out a note to, that's an idealistic idea as well. We all have a special note. That's me being me. Does that arise? But you're not trying to be you. You're just being you. You know, when you are at one with your activity, totally. That's you are you. Because you're allowing your environment to create you. I have less identity when I'm engaged with my activity fully. Except your identity gets bigger. Because it includes everything.

[34:53]

That's why when we sit sadhana, it's the most immobile position, right? We're not moving around, we're not, we're simply allowing. To be the most confined is to be the biggest When we just completely let go, then what's left? What's left is our true identity. So, you know, we create a personality, and then if we say, well, let go of the self, well, what about my personality?

[35:57]

Well, our personality, There's a small personality and a big personality. So, we let go of our small personality in order to allow our big personality to come forth. It's called big self, small self. But, you know, we have a small self, which is the waves of the small self. The lake, the calm lake is the big self. So when we, it's easy to be disconnected from the big self when we're totally immersed in the small self. That's all. And we don't have confidence to let go or not have identity. It's hard. It's hard. Well, it's not have identity. We have true identity.

[36:59]

fundamental identity, fundamental identity, true personality. So when our self-centeredness, we're no longer centered on self as self-centeredness, when we allow our big self to emerge, which it's always trying to do, then that's our true personality. And then everything that we do is connected to our fundamental nature. I'm just going to read this poem once more.

[38:03]

Just for the fun of it. The woman on the radio who was lodging the old complaint that her husband never listens to her reminded me of the music of the spheres. that chord of seven notes, one for each of the visible planets, which has been sounding since the beginning of the universe, and which we can never hear, according to Pythagoras, because we hear it all the time. So it sounds the same as silence. But let's say the needle were lifted from the spinning grooves of those celestial orbs, then people would stop on the streets and look up, and others would stop in the fields, and hikers would stop in the woods and look this way and that as if they were hearing something for the first time.

[39:17]

And that husband would lower the newspaper from his face, look at his wife and say, who had been standing in the doorway, and asked, did you just say something, dear? Anyway, I'm kind of blabbering on and on, so I'm going to stop there.

[39:40]

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