words. Good morning. Good morning to everyone online as well. So it's day seven. Day seven of Rahatsu. I imagine there are many feelings and experiences in this room and online at this moment. I imagine that they've been coming and going all day, all week. But I'm wishing for all of you that on this last day there's some subtleness and some joy to be found along with tiredness and everything else. Just being whatever, being with whatever arises and maybe considering what you might want to take with you into the week and going forward.

[01:17]

So although this is the last day of Rohatsu and this particular manifestation of the flowering of the Sangha jewel will be ending. It's not over till it's over. So, just as at the end of the ceremony yesterday, when I was inviting all of us to bring our attention and awareness back, See if you can keep your mind as well as your body here as much as possible rather than looking so much ahead. So we're going to finish the Satipatthana Sutta today. I hope to. It will be, as we go forward, at increasingly high levels. because when it gets toward the end, I think you'll be familiar with all of the contents, and we're already quite familiar, I think, with the form.

[02:29]

So we've gone through body and feelings, pleasant, unpleasant, or neither unpleasant nor unpleasant, feelings. And now we get to mind. So the contents of the mind are mental formations, perceptions, and consciousness. So that's the remaining three skandhas of the five skandhas. So the Thich Nhat Hanh Persian says, Bhikkhus, monks, how does a practitioner remain established in the observation of the mind in the mind? So again, how in the realm of mind, what are the aspects of mind, the contents of the mind that are present in this very moment? It's not calling them to mind, but when sitting to be noticing and aware of what is arising in the mind.

[03:45]

When her mind is desiring or lustful, the practitioner is aware, my mind is desiring. When her mind is not desiring, she is aware, my mind is not desiring. Often in Buddhism, desire is seen as a hindrance or a source of suffering. And desirelessness or nirvana, extinguishment, we might hear that as kind of nihilistic or cold but I think in this context desire was understood as this craving the flame of desire and it's of not having any more fuel for the flame so that it's that excruciating itch isn't continuing all the time it's Or the craving of addiction.

[04:59]

It's calmed. It's at ease. So again, noting the presence or the absence, which is partly... in support of noticing the arising and the passing away of all phenomena. So desire is arising now in the mind and then you might notice later, oh, it's not arising. Just as you might notice, oh, there's pain in my knee and later realize I don't know what happened but now there's no more pain in the knee. It's not fixed. And noticing this in the body, in the breath, in pleasant and unpleasant feelings, and now in different stickier qualities of the mind, like desire. So it continues in the same form when the mind is angry or hating.

[06:08]

And Thich Nhat Hanh has a lovely poem that he wrote about practicing with anger. Breathing in, I know that anger is still here. Breathing out, I know that anger is me. And I know that mindfulness is me also. Breathing in, I know that anger is an unpleasant feeling. I know that this feeling has been born and will die. Breathing in, I know that I can take care of this feeling. Breathing out, I calm this feeling. Breathing in, I know that anger is still here.

[07:11]

Breathing out, I know that anger is me. And I know that mindfulness is me also. Breathing in, I know that anger is an unpleasant feeling. Breathing out, I know that this feeling has been born and will die. Breathing in, I know that I can take care of this feeling. Breathing out, I calm this feeling. So he's pointing to the mind with which we are aware of all the passing phenomena of the mind. Kind mind, grandmotherly mind, compassionate mind, loving mind, a mind that's free from judgment. And we practice cultivating that with

[08:16]

Whatever state of mind arises, whatever content of the mind or experience in the body arises, we practice with patience, with gentleness, as much as we can, even in the presence of the absence of those qualities. When we touch our own suffering deeply, it softens us. And it opens our hearts because it's actually what's happening. And we can feel the tenderness of it. And it also helps us open to others, practicing awareness internally, practicing it externally. of others. And it goes both ways when we have compassion for others in their suffering can also help us feel compassion and presence with our own suffering.

[09:36]

For a long time it was much easier for me to be with others suffering than with my own. And when I realized that I could turn the care that I gave to others inwardly, I realized that I had everything I needed to learn how to be there with my own suffering. But it works in both directions, it doesn't matter which way. The sutra goes on, the practitioner is aware when the mind is in a state of ignorance or delusion or not in a state of ignorance or delusion. The practitioner is aware when the mind is collected or not, distracted or not, wider in scope, narrowed in scope.

[10:45]

capable of reaching a higher state or unsurpassable. The mind is in an unsurpassable state. The practitioner is aware when the mind is composed or concentrated and when it is not, when the mind is free or liberated and when it is not. And as it does after every section of instruction, it ends with the refrain, this is how the practitioner remains established in the observation of the mind in the mind, from within or from without, internally or externally, or both. She remains established in the observation of the process of coming to be in the mind,

[11:49]

or the process of dissolution, or both. Or she is mindful of the fact, there is mind here. When I read that, I thought, what a good reminder. Because we tend to think of mind as like me, or I, or it's just, it's not like, oh, there's a mind working here. There is mind here. The practitioner is mindful of the fact there is mind here until understanding and full awareness come about. This is how to practice observation of the mind in the mind. Then it goes on to objects of mind. So these are... These are various lists of things that we may be familiar with.

[12:52]

The first, oh, so bhikkhus. How does a practitioner remain established in the observation of the objects of mind in the objects of mind? First of all, he observes the objects of mind in the objects of mind with regard to the five hindrances. How does he observe this? When sense desire is present, he is aware sense desire is present in me and when it is not present in me. He is aware when it begins to arise, when it has already arisen and sensual desire is abandoned, he is aware of it. So when it begins to arise, and when it's already arisen, when it's abandoned. Aware of both.

[13:54]

And that similar pattern for anger, dullness and drowsiness, or sloth and torpor, the physical and the mental or emotional aspect of it. agitation and remorse or restlessness and worry. Similarly, the body and the mind, how it manifests, and doubt. And then the five skandhas. Practitioner is aware, such is form. Such is the arising of form. Such is the disappearance of form. Such is feeling. Such is the arising of feeling. Such is the disappearance of feeling. And the same process for perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

[15:03]

I don't have the... I didn't have any way of finding this out. Thich Nhat Hanh translates it as... Such is form. And I thought, oh, suchness. All of this is. We usually say it the other way around. You could say form is such. Feelings are such. But such is form. Just this is it. Everything, everything, everything. He's going through labeling all these things that we don't usually think of as this too. This too is it. And then it's the six sense organs, the six objects, and the six consciousnesses. So we also go through that in the Heart Sutra, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, color, sound, smells, taste, touch, objects of mind, and then the realm of eyes until the realm of mind consciousness.

[16:13]

So that's, there's In order for there to be seeing, there has to be an eye, a functional organ of the eye. There has to be something that the eye is seeing. And there has to be consciousness, what is called consciousness. We might refer to it as mind, but there's a particular way that it manifests. You need all three. And it's this interrelationship of what we think of as seeing. is the bringing together of the organ and the object with consciousness. How mysterious is that? But literally everything that we experience is processed through our sense organs in our minds, in our brains. And some of it is really fascinating, like the lenses in our eyes flip the image that comes in through our eyes upside down, and then our brains flip it the other way around so that we're looking at the world right side up.

[17:32]

And there was a study done where they gave people glasses that would flip it upside down. So they were seeing it the way that we would... If the lenses of our eyes didn't do that, it would be happening. And then after about two or three days, people's brains adapted, and they flipped it over again so that they could see, which is pretty amazing. And then they had them take off the glasses, and then, of course, they're looking at the world upside down again because their brain adapted. In two or three days, their brain's adapted again, and it's like, you know, we think it's just this... that happens very naturally, and it is, but it's this whole interconnection of all these things that make seeing or smelling or hearing possible. And this doesn't just happen individually and internally, it also happens relationally.

[18:40]

It happens one-to-one. It happens in groups. It happens over cultures. Pretty much every human being is born with the capacity for language, the mind capacity for language. But if we're not exposed to language, we'll never learn language. It's not something that spontaneously happens. It has to come together. You have to learn a language. And apparently babies are born with the capacity to learn literally any language that occurs on earth. Even though if we don't learn it by the time we're about five, we'll never get the subtleties of certain click language. It's very hard to learn that past a certain age. But when we're really little, it just all goes in. So the outside and the inside are forming our minds, are forming our brains, are forming our awareness, are forming our relationships in all these amazing ways.

[19:52]

And most of the time that goes quite well. It's beneficial, it allows us to survive, it allows us to be with other people, navigate the world. And, of course, some of the time it causes a lot of suffering for ourselves or maybe for other people as well. And it used to be said that once you got to be a certain age, your brain couldn't change anymore. You couldn't learn anything else. You couldn't overcome things. So, you know... They just kind of didn't bother with older people about if they'd had an injury or learning something new or whatever. But now it's really clear that learning never stops. You know, the mind can continue to change. That saying, you know, can't teach an old dog new tricks turns out not to be true.

[20:58]

Maybe not as many as a young dog, but can still. We still learn. We still grow. And I think this is... I feel like this is so much of where the Buddha is coming from. It's like all of this is workable. Everything is workable. Our minds are workable. Our being is workable. Our way of being is workable. And he's pointing out again and again. It's like, wow, when you kind of break it down, you can see that... these things that I thought had to fit together in this certain way, maybe they don't. Maybe there could be some space around that. Maybe I won't actually die if I speak up or whatever, or if I don't say something. Or that, yeah, that I can survive things I didn't think that I could

[21:59]

which gives more space around a lot of other things. I think that's why for, you know, like outward bound programs are really powerful. Like, I can't, you know, I could never do something like that. And then it's like, well, we're all going to go out and you're going to be together, but you're also going to do it quite individually. You will be doing things that you maybe didn't think that you could do. And there's that feeling of possibility. which is really great. The mindset that we have in the world determines how we see things. So the idea that we can actually awaken, even in this very life, can be very powerful. You know, this isn't just, it's not hopeless.

[23:02]

Nothing is hopeless. And so this process, this practice is... is both the same for everybody in certain senses because we're all working with the same basic human stuff of bodies and minds, but it manifests in different ways for everyone. So there's always that interplay of like, how do I enliven my practice now in this moment? What does it mean in this moment to be skillful, to be kind, to be patient? What do I say?

[24:02]

What do I not say? If you bake bread, you probably know that the weather has a big impact on bread and baking time and all of these things. And you learn to be sensitive to that and to work with it and to take it into account. And elevation, all these things about attuning. So this increase in awareness helps us to see more and more finely grained levels of our experience and our awareness. And when we're in a state of being more on the side of balance, calm, open, receptivity. And when we're resourced enough, encountering difference or challenge can be really opening and growing and an opportunity for a lot of learning.

[25:18]

And when it's not, we can... get reactive and shut down. So there's this kind of middle range where we're cultivating a space where it's as wholesome as we can within the constraints of our own mind and body and the circumstances of our lives for practice. So the section ends with the same refrain of observing the arising and passing away of states of mind and highlighting the absence of a permanent mind or mind state, the no-thingness of mind. And then the seven factors of awakening, which are mindfulness, investigation of phenomena,

[26:23]

energy or virya, joy, ease, concentration, and release or letting go. And these are basically arranged in order, on the foundation of mindfulness, of concentrated awareness, investigation of phenomena grows and on the foundation of investigation energy or virya or effort grows and on that joy and then ease and then concentration and letting go. And then the Four Noble Truths. The practitioner is aware this is suffering as it arises. Practitioner is aware this is the cause of suffering as it arises.

[27:28]

They are aware this is the end of suffering as it arises. And they are aware this is the path which leads to the end of suffering as it arises. So the Four Noble Truths are said to be the content of awakening, that there is suffering or dukkha. I like translating dukkha as unsatisfactoriness or stress, because it's not just the intensity of suffering, it's the wanting it to be otherwise. softer, or the more subtle rather, pushing away of something or grabbing onto it. So the awareness of all the workings of mind and that the cause of this is our relationship with it.

[28:47]

and to see, to notice again and again, oh, this is the end of suffering. It's passing away. I let go. And then the path, the Eightfold Path. One way, one possible way to frame this practice might be how is the mind? How, kind of like a check-in, how's it going, mind? What's up? How you doing? So, yeah, like a check-in, but continuous, moment by moment, not just one and done, but just that watching and also how, like, what is the mind up to?

[30:01]

What's it doing? What's its activity? So it's not about the thoughts themselves. It's not about the content of the thoughts. The storyline, the meaning, the interpretation. It's what is the mind doing? What is it up to? How is the mind manifesting in this moment? This background kind of driver of our experience. And similarly, you know, the practice with the body is like, how is the body? What's going on with the body? So it can feel like there's a shift from experiencing the mind as kind of an entity, you know, my mind, to considering mental objects, mental events as objects and looking at their kind of qualitative characteristics.

[31:16]

So the practice again and again is just to notice the presence and absence of various states of mind and body, mind with or without desire, with or without anger, etc. And then the ending is the prediction. Bhikkhus, he who practices in the four establishments of mindfulness for seven years can expect one of two fruits, the highest understanding in this very life, or if there remains some residue of affliction, he can attain the fruit of no return. Let alone seven years, Bhikkhus, whoever practices in the four foundations of mindfulness

[32:20]

for six, five, four, three, two years, or one year, can also expect one of two fruits. Either the highest understanding in this very life, or if there remains some residue of affliction, he can attain the fruit of no return. Let alone one year, because whoever practices in the four establishments of mindfulness for seven, six, five, four, three, or two months, one month, or half a month, can also expect one of two fruits, either the highest understanding in this very life, or if there remains some residue of affliction, he can attain the fruit of no return, let alone half a month bhikkhus. Whoever practices the four foundations of mindfulness one week can... can also expect one of two fruits, either the highest understanding in this very life, or if there remains some residue of affliction, he can attain the fruit of no return.

[33:33]

So we've been here for a week. How's it going? And there's still time left. That is why we said that this path, the path of the four grounds for the establishment of mindfulness, is the most wonderful path, the direct path, which helps beings realize purification, transcend grief and sorrow, destroy pain and anxiety, travel the right path, and realize nirvana. The bhikkhus were delighted to hear the teaching of the Buddha. They took it to heart and began to put it into practice. So I wanted to bring this into our Zen practice a little bit. Hong Shi says, if you think that you have cut off illusory mind, instead of simply clarifying how illusory mind melts,

[34:49]

Illusory mind will come up again as though you had cut the stem of a blade of grass and left the root alive. I feel like this text gives us a good way of looking at, you know, it's like if we just cut it, if we cut it off and like push it away, but allowing it to melt, allowing it to dissolve. this more... Yeah, and I'm thinking like, yeah, it kind of melts and it might come back and melts and it might come back, but it's going in that direction. It continues to melt away, the arising and the passing. Hongshu also says, take the backward step and directly reach the middle of the circle from where light issues forth. So the backward step of turning the light to shine within, of directing attention to observe closely one's own awareness.

[36:01]

In Zen, that's called Eko Hensho. It's a basic Zen meditation practice. So this turning the light of awareness to shine it on the various aspects within us. Dogen says, turning the light inward to illuminate the self is the practice that allows body and mind of themselves to drop away and the original face is manifested. So dropping off body and mind is Shinjin Datsuraku. Literally, I found it in the Kanji Dictionary. That was fun. It's literally body, mind, shinjin, body, mind. Datsuraku is escape from or extricate oneself or drop off.

[37:03]

Yeah, it's kind of like slipping out. It's like, oh, free. Letting go of what I think of like my concepts of mind and body, seeing things through them, seeing the interest net, the hologram, the endless, resonating hall of mirrors that just goes on endlessly that is our actual being in the world. I said hall of mirrors. That sounds like it's a delusion. I was thinking of an amazing art exhibit I saw that you walk into this box that's about 12 feet tall 12-foot cube. And there's lights hanging down in the middle of it, above your head. And only a few people can go in at once. And all the walls and the ceiling and the floor are mirrors. And they're perfectly aligned. So it's just like... So it's like you're seeing it in all directions.

[38:09]

It's really powerful. And beautiful. These lights going on forever. With nothing to depend on, the bodhisattva relies on prajnaparamita, and the mind is no hindrance. This thing that we are run around by, that we are fascinated by, the contents of our mind, the mind is no hindrance. The Bodhisattva relies on Prajnaparamita, on the perfection of wisdom, seeing clearly the true nature of all reality, and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. Far apart from every perverted view, one dwells in nirvana. So this is just the letting go of attachment or clinging to our body-mind.

[39:16]

And this release, this letting go, has some intentionality to it. It does fall away spontaneously, just like the Buddha under the rose apple tree that just arose spontaneously. But when he sat under the Bodhi tree, there was some intentionality there. but it's intentionality without striving, without grasping, without aversion. Wholehearted effort, free from attachment to outcome. What is it? Just this is it. Tired Buddha, impatient Buddha, excited Buddha, joyful Buddha, grieving Buddha.

[40:20]

All the Buddhas in each of us. Always. So, just a few words before we close about post-sashin practice. As you're maybe a little before you're transitioning back into the world, you might want to have a little bit of intentionality around things like devices and conversation and being gentle with yourself. And just continue, whatever you decide and mostly whatever happens, I'm not going to be on devices all night until I go to work tomorrow morning. Oops. That's 45 minutes.

[41:26]

I won't get back. And then, you know, it's like, okay, so how is it? You have all this beautiful mindfulness that's been cultivated over these days. And it's like... You have that... So this transitional time, this... Yeah, this transition from retreat space back into our daily lives is a very powerful time. This integration of the two ways of being. So make the most of it, however you do, of just noticing whatever is arising. Just kind of checking back in. The quality of it, of course, will change. The objects are different. But... Yeah, it becomes more continuous to go in and out of it. And when you know how do you go in and out of it, then you can do it. Your treasure chest will open up itself and you can use it at will.

[42:28]

Thank you all for your practice and for being here and Thank you to all of you who joined us online these last several days. It's really... It's so joyful and special to be able to practice together. It's rare. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity to practice with you so intimately. It's just... Yeah. My gratitude for you all is boundless. Thank you very much.

[43:20]

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