Maybe Dogen's commentary. But Zazenki itself, rules for Zazen, is actually quite short. And there's no commentary. So I'll have to end the commentary. So Zazengi was written in 1243 when Dogen was 43 years old. So he starts off by saying, practice is Zazen.

[01:02]

For Zazen, a quiet place is suitable. Lay out a thick mat Do not let in drafts or smoke, rain or dew. Protect and maintain the place where you settle your body. There are examples from the past of sitting on a diamond seat and sitting on a flat stone covered with a thick layer of grass. Day or night, the place of sitting should not be dark. It should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer. This is kind of interesting because Within the development of practice, Japanese practice, there's a little austerity that goes along with practice. Like, you know, if you go to a Japanese monastery, they sit in the snow,

[02:10]

There's kind of a relationship with weather, and we have the same relationship at Tassajara with weather. You don't turn on the heat until it gets really cold, so that you actually flow with weather. you adjust to the changing of the seasons and the changing of the weather. It's sort of like, you know, animals are very good at adjusting to the changing of the seasons and the changing of the weather. So, when Dogen says, when it's cold, you know, turn on the heat when it's warm.

[03:21]

What did he say? The place should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer. That's nice. But there's also this other aspect, which is not always making things convenient for yourself, by adjusting the weather. But to go with the weather, to go with the way the weather goes. But at a certain point, in order to be comfortable, it's good to have some heat. And it's good to cool things off when it's too hot. And then he says, the place should not be dark. So in other words, don't sit in the dark. And this also goes with keeping your eyes open when doing zazen, so that you don't have the feeling that you're cutting yourself off from the world.

[04:35]

And so he says, don't let in drafts or smoke, rain or dew. That's nice. Make it cozy, but, you know, Dogen also quotes these, in his fascicle on, large fascicle on monastic rules, he quotes stories of Zen masters in China, where the roof is falling in and the wind and the snow is coming in on the floor and blowing in. And he says, and nobody bothered to fix up the building. He said, this is the way to practice. The snow is blowing in on the floor and the roof is kind of leaking and caving in.

[05:46]

All the monks are sitting Zazen and their bones are rattling. He said this is the way of practice. So he says various things depending on the situation. Then he says there are examples from the past of sitting on a diamond seat. Diamond seat is like Buddha's seat under the bow tree on the day of, you know, where he became aware of his enlightenment. And sitting on a flat stone covered with a thick layer of grass is Sekito's, Sekito Kisen's seat. Sekito actually means stone head. Because he used to sit on a big stone. covered with straw or pine needles or something like that. So then he says, set aside all involvements and let the myriad things rest.

[06:57]

So when we sit zazen, we just let go of everything. It's the kind of activity where we just let go of everything. Of course, you already know this, but I'm just going to go over to remind us. But there's a kind of meaning to letting the myriad things rest or letting the myriad things settle. One aspect is to let go of your activities. of all other activities. The other is to let go of mental objects, the stuff that's in your mind, the stuff that is going on and on in the mind. And that's kind of to settle or to settle in a non-dual way.

[08:01]

It means settling the self on the self. Even though there's a lot of stuff going on in the mind, especially the first day of Sashin, the whirlwind is still there, and the stuff is still spinning, and the mind is gradually settling through Zazen. and to just let it settle, not to try to stop it or to criticize yourself or something like that. But through Zazen, to just let the spinning spin and let the mind settle. It's kind of like if you have a glass full of orange juice and you haven't strained it and you mix it up with a spoon and it's going around and around and around and around but it's also the little pieces of orange are settling down at the bottom but it takes time and there's nothing you can do about it.

[09:25]

It spins less and the pieces settle and then it becomes clear at some point. So even though the dust is there, there's still clarity. He says, Zazen is not thinking of good and not thinking of bad. It is just conscious endeavor. It is not introspection. So not thinking of good and not thinking of bad means to let the mind rest in purity, in its pure state, which is non-discriminating. So, pleasure is not good and pain is not bad. And pleasure is not bad and pain is not good. Everything is just this.

[10:32]

So whatever we experience is just what we experience without judgment. This is, of course, we know. So it is not conscious endeavor to do something or to gain enlightenment, is what he means. It is not conscious endeavor to create a certain state of mind or to seek enlightenment. Just to sit, sitting, just to sit. And then he said, it is not introspection. And it is also not visualization. And it is also not analysis or contemplation. So there's no effort to work on the mind.

[11:37]

There's no effort to work on memory. There's no effort to solve our problems. And there's no effort to bring our problems into view. Sometimes people wonder about, well, you know, I have a lot of thoughts and zazen. So maybe I should think about them. And some of them are very important. They had to do with problems in my life. And maybe just give me an opportunity to work on the psychology of the mind, or my psychological problems, or something like that. But that's not dozen. It's very tempting to do this, you know, to introspect, to analyze, to contemplate, because that's what our tendency is anyway.

[12:53]

Tendency is for the mind to figure itself out. And in our normal, ordinary activity, we're always trying to figure out by analysis and so forth, which is okay, but it's not zazen. It's not the activity of zazen. So it's a great temptation. So then he says, do not desire to become a Buddha. Let sitting or lying down drop away. Sitting and lying down are two of the four postures. Sitting, lying, standing, sitting, lying, standing, and walking are the four characteristic postures of folks. And he says ASEAN is not one of those four postures.

[13:57]

And it's not the sitting of ordinary sitting. And then he says to be moderate in drinking and eating and be mindful of the passing of time. That's interesting. When you sit dozen, We do have a certain time that we sit. And we're actually very conscious of time. We're conscious of the 24 hours. We're conscious of 40 minute periods. We're conscious of when is breakfast, when is dinner. Actually, we really pay attention, very close attention to the time increments. I always thought of that, you know, I thought, geez, you know, so I was in, you kind of forget about time, you know.

[15:05]

But actually, when we sit, and especially during Satsina, we're really very conscious of the passing of time. But we're also conscious and aware of the non-passing of time. He doesn't say that, completely aware of the non-passing of time, as well as the passing of time. So this is non-dual activity. To be aware of the non-passing of time is total stillness. And to be aware of the passing of time is movement. even though time is not a thing. And it's an experience. Strictly an experience for us.

[16:23]

So he says, be mindful of the passing of time and engage yourself in zazen is though saving your head from fire. Sometimes people don't understand what this saving your head from fire means. Fire means desire. And Buddha had a, Shakyamuni Buddha had a famous fire sermon where he says, our head is on fire with desire. And we should be cooling it off. And he says, engage yourself in Zazen as though saving your head from fire. Saving your head from burning up. And when we're absorbed in Zazen, this is cooling off.

[17:28]

have warm feet and cool head. That's, that's all I said. Even though, you know, during Sashim, you're with people, same people, day after day, and you wonder about, you know, the person across the aisle, And desire starts to come up sometimes. And this is also something that one has to deal with. So he says, on Mount Huangmei, the fifth ancestor practiced Zazen to the exclusion of all other activities. The fifth ancestor is Daimon Konyu, who was the teacher of the Daikon Inu, the sixth ancestor.

[18:35]

So he says, he didn't have to say this, but he says it. He says, I'm not Huang Mei, the fifth ancestor practiced Zazen to the exclusion of all other activities. When he says to the exclusion of all other activities, it's like saying Bodhidharma sat facing a wall for nine years. Sounds like he didn't get up. or eat or anything, but it's just a way of talking about his activity. Then he says, when wearing the kesa, I mean, when sitting zazen, you should wear your robe and use a round cushion. Now he starts to talk about actually about how to sit zazen. And he says the cushion should be placed, should not be placed way under the legs. but only under the buttocks. In this way, the crossed legs rest on the mat and the backbone is supported with a round cushion. This is the method used by all ancestors for Zazen.

[19:38]

So this is an important point. The main reason for the cushion is to help you hold your back up straight. If you sit on the mat, then although you can sit up straight, it takes more effort. But if you use a cushion, then the cushion helps you to hold your back straight. And if you put the cushion, you should sit about maybe halfway on the cushion, or it's hard to say exactly because each person's anatomy is a little different, And each person's cushion is a little different. But it's not so good to sit fully on the cushion. Under ordinary circumstances, sit a little forward on the cushion so that your knees go down more easily. And if you have trouble getting your knees down, in the beginning, a lot of us sit with... we can't get our knees down.

[20:49]

And that doesn't mean that your knees won't go down. They will go down. If you work them over a period of time, the knees will go down. So if you support your knees too much, then you're not giving them the opportunity to go down. It's a little painful, you know, the process of letting your knees go down, kind of painful because what you're doing is stretching out your legs. But you have to allow your legs to do that. So it's good to give yourself that opportunity and not think that there's something wrong with you. A lot of times people start sitting, their knees are way up. My legs are like that. When I first started sitting, I couldn't get my knees down. But I noticed that when I would sit, By the end of the period, the knees would be further down than they were when I started.

[21:53]

And then I realized that little by little, they go down if you let them, if you continue that way. And it's not a problem. A lot of people think, my knees won't go down, so there's something wrong with me. That's not so. They will go down if you let them over a period of time. And if you support them too much, then they don't, you don't have that, it takes longer. So you have to judge that for yourself. And if your knees are higher than your waist, then it's good to build up a seat so that your knees have a chance to be lower than your waist. You should sit pretty high. I sit pretty low on my cushion. My cushion's pretty low. And so it takes more effort for me to sit up straight because my cushion is pretty flat. If I sit on a hard cushion, a high, hard cushion, then it hurts my sciatic nerve.

[23:02]

So I have a very soft, low cushion which adjusts to my anatomy. Rather than my anatomy trying to adjust to the cushion, So sometimes it goes the other way. That's my trade-off. So he says, sit either in the half lotus position or in the full lotus position. And then he tells us how to do it. But actually, you can sit in any position. Full lotus and half lotus are kind of ideal. that or inhibited by that. When I give Zazen instruction to people I show them all the positions and people can often do all the positions but I always say take the position that's easiest for you because it's one thing to be able to assume the position it's another thing to be able to sit in it for 40 minutes or five days.

[24:17]

So you should take a position which enables you to sit the most comfortably. And little by little, as your legs become more accustomed and your body becomes more accustomed to sitting, your posture and your legs will gradually want to take a more extreme position because it's more stable and actually more comfortable. So you should give yourself that time to allow your body to adjust itself and naturally find a more extreme position. Because if you take too extreme a position to begin with, then you're struggling too hard and you just defeat yourself. So often people compare themselves, you know, to somebody else. Oh, so-and-so sits with a full lotus, you know, and so on.

[25:19]

Don't compare yourself. Just sit with what's right for you. And that will be your full exertion. And then he says, for the full lotus, you put the right foot on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh. the toes should lie along the thighs and not go beyond. And for the half lotus, you simply put the left foot on the right thigh. So, you know, if you sit with your left foot on your right thigh, and then at some point you want to sit in a full lotus, you have to start all over again because your right foot goes first and then your left foot. So sometimes the teachers in the Soto school get very attached to this, to what Dogen says.

[26:37]

And Suzuki Roshi was kind of attached to what Dogen said. And he said, no, you put your left foot on your right side. Don't sit with your right foot on your left side. But actually, you can sit either way. And sometimes it's good to trade back and forth. It's OK, too. For a long time, that gave me a big problem. And I thought, you shouldn't trade back and forth. But actually, if you're going to sit in the full lotus, you have to trade back and forth. You have to train your right foot, right leg, to sit in a half lotus, so you can cross both legs. Sitting in a full lotus is good. It's a very wonderful, comfortable position. I used to sit that way for about 20 years, but I don't do it anymore. that's most comfortable.

[28:04]

And then try something more extreme, you know. If you sit in the Burmese position and that becomes very comfortable, then maybe try moving your leg up a little bit to your cat and then work with that for a while. And when that becomes very comfortable, move your leg and sit in a half lotus. So that it's okay, you know, to kind of stay in the same position. It's very safe. But it's also good to give yourself a little bit of a problem. Push yourself a little more, but gradually. Because the tighter position is more stable and creates a better concentration. But I'm not saying, you know, problem that you have in any position helps concentration.

[29:08]

And if it's too much of a problem, it hinders concentration. So anyway, it's a big field to work with. And you can't say anything that you should do, but there are all these possibilities. And then he says, loosen your robes and arrange them in an orderly way. Actually, this is very short. Loosen your robes and arrange them in an orderly way. So when you sit, you get under the cushions and you arrange your robes so that you're paying attention to your clothes and your robes. And so they're not just in disarray, but you're paying attention. Because your clothes accompany you, and the way you wear them determines or expresses your state of mind.

[30:22]

And also, it's good to have clean feet. And to generally take care of ourselves. When we sit, make sure we don't smell too bad. I remember in the early 60s, a lot of people weren't taking baths regularly. People would come to Sokochi to sit. It was hippie days. People had dirty feet and they didn't smell so good often. And they'd sit next to somebody and complain to Suzuki Roshi, you know, so-and-so really has B.O. and so forth. So he would, every once in a while, give a little talk on taking a bath, washing your feet, and maybe wearing some deodorant.

[31:27]

The Japanese are very careful about that kind of thing, very sensitive to that kind of thing. They often have these little packages of deodorant that they put in their clothes and put in their purses and things. So then he talks about zazen. He says, place the right hand on the left foot, and the left hand on the right hand. So lightly touching the ends of the thumbs together, and with the hands in this position, place them next to the body so that the joint thumb tips are at the navel. So this assumes, of course, that you have your feet up here. And so you rest, put your hand on your heel, your right hand on your heel, and your left hand inside the right. make a circle, feeling of a circle, and you join the thumb tips, very lightly touching.

[32:36]

And then the thumb tips should be at the height of the navel. Often people hold their mudra way up here, or here, or something. But this way, you rest your mudra on your heel. If your heel is not up there, then you have to get the heel of the person next to you. If your heel is not there, then you can rest your wrists on your thighs. If you're sitting Seiza, or if you are sitting in the Burmese position. Burmese is where one foot is in front of the other, but they're both down on the mat. But they're not crossed. But resting doesn't mean leaning, right? It's not leaning for your own convenience, but just touching.

[33:42]

And then your little fingers are up against your abdomen, at the navel more or less, but actually your thumbs are at the level of your navel. So that works out just about right. And then, You're not, you know, putting a strain on your arms. You're actually letting your hands rest. And the thumb tips should be, sometimes we used to say, as if you had a piece of paper between your thumbs. But, and then, Maybe just a little bit of a gap, kind of like a spark plug. And then the electricity can snap through. But mudra is like the barometer of zazen. To hold your hands in good form, and yet very lightly.

[34:52]

No strain, no tenseness. And when you start to fall asleep, or the mind wanders, then the mood just starts to collapse. Thumbs collapse, you know, and you can see what the state of mind is. So you put them back together again. And then you start getting anxious or tense or, you know, something like that. And then some start pressing against each other. That's the other way. And then you realize, oh, this is tense. And then you let go and come back to it. So taking care of the mudra is just like coming back to your breath, or just coming back to your posture and breathing. It's very important to take care of the mudra. And it indicates to you what your state of mind is.

[35:56]

And so you come back to a state of mind which is neither tense nor falling apart. Not too easy, not too hard. And that, you know, sometimes we're having a very difficult time to really pay attention to the mudra. And the mudra, that paying that attention to the mudra, helps to bring your whole body and mind back. So, you know, we practice through the body to condition the mind. People usually start from the other way. We condition the mind in order to bring the body into line with the mind. But in Zazen, we bring the mind in line with the body. But it works both ways. Like when you want the cart to go, do you whip the cart or the horse?

[37:06]

Usually we whip the horse. But in Zazen, we whip the cart. Taking care of the body brings the mind to its right position. Which, you know, if you say whip the horse, that's okay. If you say whip the cart, that's okay. But either way, we shouldn't be just one-sided. So... Pay careful attention to the mantra. I don't have my watch, so I don't know what time it is. Then he says, straighten your body and sit erect.

[38:35]

Do not lean to the left or the right. Do not bend forward or backward. Your ears should be in line with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. So during Zazen, our effort should be to really sit up straight. During Sushin, sitting up straight sometimes causes us a lot more pain, a lot more discomfort if we sit up straight. So sometimes during Sushin we find a kind of modified position. It feels more comfortable. Does that work? Yes, that's right. So, during Sashin, if a person feels that that's the position that gets them through, I don't usually mess with it.

[39:41]

Sometimes people come around during Sashin and straighten everybody up, which is also okay. I would say for an older student, we should maybe straighten people up. But not even then. Sometimes people have certain kinds of difficulties, and to put everybody in the same box is sometimes not so good. So I usually don't stress I talk about posture during Sushumna, but I don't usually mess with people unless there's some, you know, they need it. And then I have to judge that, knowing who everybody is. But basically, you know, the effort is to keep our posture straight and to keep the head on top of our spine.

[40:46]

When he says ears in line with your shoulders, that's very important. If you think about, are my ears in line with my shoulders? In order for your ears to get in line with your shoulders, your head has to be on top of your spine, not leaning forward. And your back has to be really straight. And then your ears are in line with your shoulders. So if you think about that as a practice, something to pay attention to all the time, then your zazen will be very lively and full of energy. It's important, actually, for zazen to be very lively and full of energy. When you hold your back really straight, then the energy really flows. And maybe you may find some discomfort, but You also find more satisfaction.

[41:50]

And don't lean to the left or lean to the right. Your nose, you check yourself. Your nose is in line with your navel. You're sitting like this, you know that, oh yeah, come back. And if you're sitting like this, you know, oh yeah, ears, shoulders. Lifting up your sternum and reasserting your lower back, pushing in your lower back. Finding your posture the whole time, that's what Dzongzhen is. And sometimes, you know, you just feel, I don't want to do anything. That's okay. You go through various states of mind and body during Cixin. But it's good to keep coming back to reasserting your posture continuously. If you do that, you find you won't have much back problem.

[42:57]

Back problems, generally, they come for various reasons. But generally, they come from two roots. One is putting too much strain on the back, using the wrong muscles to do some work. If you sit up straight, all your muscles are working together to do this one thing, and there's no real strain on your back at all, because the whole thing is working in harmony with the mind. So that's wonderful. Holding anger and resentment is one of the major causes of bad problems. forgiveness practice, or do I hold a lot of anger, do I hold a lot of resentment, something like that, and then look at that and see how you can let go of it.

[44:33]

But physically, to line up the vertebrae and line up all the muscles in your upper body and to be in harmony with the various large masses like your head and arms and torso and the mind, thinking. Everything is doing, the whole mass is doing one complete activity. Then there's no strain and you generally won't have a back problem. So that's as much as I want to do today. That's as much as we have time for.

[45:42]

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