I want to elaborate more on the last paragraph of Sazen-gi, which I talked about yesterday, where Dogen talks about, he says, This is the very end. He says, sit solidly in samadhi and think not thinking. How do you think not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the art of zazen. Zazen is not learning to do concentration. It is the dharmagate of great ease and joy. It is undefiled practice enlightenment. Well, first, I want to talk about samadhi. sit solidly in samadhi.

[01:09]

Samadhi means concentration. It means one-pointedness. It means stability and steadiness and attention When one is in practicing samadhi, then attention is one-pointed, single-minded, and at one with the object of concentration. So when he says, sit solidly, this solidity is actually samadhi. But it doesn't mean to sit like a statue, as if you were poured in concrete.

[02:12]

Some people sit that way. Some of us, sometimes we get very tense and make our body into one massive piece of steel. But this is not proper sitting. When you sit, actually, you should feel The best way is to feel very spacious and light, if you can. And the way you sit spaciously and lightly is to let go of all the extra tension in your body and mind. So, I'm always recommending that when you sit, make a conscious effort to let go of the extra tension, which I call tenseness, in your body and mind.

[03:16]

Tension is necessary. Everything is held together by tension in this world of some kind. But that doesn't mean to be tense. Tenseness is the extra effort because you don't trust bearing points. If you locate the right bearing points, by bearing points I just thought that up, but those places where those hinging points that bear the stress of the structure you know, a large structure rotates on those bearing points.

[04:22]

And the bearing points are right here on your hips and in your lower back. And all your joints are bearing points. And to be able to have loose bearing points, never lock them, Never lock your joints in Zazen. Horses sleep standing up because they can lock their joints. But we're not horses. So we should keep all of our joints moving freely, no matter what your posture. And then you have a feeling of spaciousness within your posture.

[05:24]

And you can rock. So this is what Dogen means by sit solidly. It's a kind of... I don't think solidly is a very good translation of the word. Stably. I think it's better. Sit stably. With stability. Sometimes, you know, they use the term sit like a rock, or sit like a mountain, you know. But as Dogen says, mountains are always moving. Mountains are always moving. So when we sit in Zazen, it looks like we're not moving.

[06:27]

But everything is moving. And we say, sit still. But even though we sit really still, everything's moving. Everything's changing. So to sit stably means to sit loosely. To sit like a mountain or like a rock means to sit loosely and stably and with good form. Good form. Because once you... you know, we're always looking for the perfect posture. And even though you may find the perfect posture, next minute it's changed.

[07:37]

So we always have to continuously find our posture. And that's what we do in Zazen. Continuously find our posture. Because it's not established once and for all. And the posture you had when you sat down is not the posture you have when you finish. So if we're not loose, we can't keep adjusting. So this idea that we have sometimes that we should sit down and get into our posture as fast as possible and hold it. all through the 40-minute period. But you will break down if you do that. So, yes, we sit up straight, and we maintain our posture, and we slowly get into our posture, and we keep subtly adjusting the posture throughout the whole period of Zazen.

[08:50]

making subtle adjustments. Your mind wanders, and then you bring your mind back, but in the meantime, your posture has changed. So, you have to readjust your posture. Your back starts to slump a little bit, and you have to pick it up again. You start to lean to the side, you have to come back. Your mudra starts to collapse, you have to readjust it. So we're continuously readjusting our posture and finding our posture moment after moment. There is no right posture. Right posture is the posture that you're always adjusting. There's no fixed posture. So if you are continually, subtly adjusting your posture, the only way you can do that is to be loose. and stay as loose as possible, and at the same time, to have as straight and structurally good posture as you can.

[09:59]

So, this is staple stability. sit stably or unmovingly in samadhi and think not thinking. So samadhi, as I was saying, is one-pointedness and concentration, concentrated one-pointedness. But on a subject or object which is wholesome. One can be concentrated on a bank robbery, or concentrated on murder, or concentrated on anger. One pointedly concentrated on greed.

[11:11]

But that's not samadhi. That is concentration, but it's not samadhi. Usually samadhi is not so well... The Mahayanists don't define samadhi so well. You find that the Theravadins... I don't like to say Theravadins, but the old schools defining samadhi And they define samadhi as, in a way I just, well there's a lot of elaboration, but basically on what I just said, on a wholesome subject or a wholesome object which leads to liberation. Concentration which leads to liberation. But I think from a Mahayana point of view, it would be concentration which is non-dual.

[12:22]

Non-dualistic concentration. Concentration which eliminates self. So when Dogen says, think not thinking, how does one think not thinking? And then non-thinking. But if you think about non-thinking, not thinking, in connection with Zazen, it means that the thought is the same as the action. When your thought is exactly the same as the action and there's no self in it. So the subject and the object are not two.

[13:29]

So that means when you sit in zazen, you should think the thought of zazen. That's think not thinking. I don't say you shouldn't, but you should avoid thinking about the laundry list, or shopping, or whatever it is. Something outside of what you're doing. When you sit Zazen, there's just Zazen, which means posture and breathing. It's really simple. Think the thought of posture. Think the thought of breath. Those are the only two thoughts that you need. And when you think the thought of posture, then the thought and the activity are totally one. There's no duality.

[14:34]

Thinking and acting are one. The subject and the object are totally non-dual. When breathing, you think the thought of breath. There's just breath. And there's no thought of the thought. You're not thinking about something. As soon as you start thinking about something, then you have a subject and an object. subject and the object are not separate. Then there's samadhi. This is when samadhi arises.

[15:39]

The mind is totally unified. Body and mind are totally unified. And because there's no self, body and mind are totally unified with everything in the universe. enlightened practice. So there are various kinds of samadhi, which I won't go into. Then what we're concerned with here is samadhi of liberation. Liberation means No gap. And no gap means no self.

[16:40]

What causes a gap is self-centeredness. Without self-centeredness, there's nothing but enlightenment. And what causes delusion is interjecting a self, making it split. So we say, Suzuki Roshi used to say, sitting zazen is returning to your true nature before the split, before the division. some other thing to think about.

[17:55]

It's not contemplation, as he says. It's not digging into the past or creating some interesting subject or thought. It's simply the boring, of being one with your activity. So, we come in and out of it, you know? We lose it and we come back, and we lose it and come back. This is the nature of Zazen. It's very hard to stay concentrated for that long. because the mind is always moving into a dualistic state. The mind is easily distracted and worried and looking for satisfaction and

[19:18]

Security. Security, you know, some kind of emotional security, mental security, physical security. So we're looking for it outside, but actually we can only find it inside, so to speak. So then Dogen says, Zazen is not just learning to do concentration, meaning it's not step-by-step meditation. Concentration is very, of course, important in Zazen. But this term, as I said yesterday, It's not just learning to do a certain kind of meditation practice, although concentration is naturally present, has to be present in every state of consciousness.

[20:39]

That is the Dharmagate of great ease and joy. Another word for ease is tranquility, which is more like technically correct tranquility and joy. It is undefiled practice enlightenment. So undefiled means non-dualistic. It means not splitting the subject from the object. This is kushala, non-defiled practice. And samadhi is concentration in non-defiled practice, in kushala state of mind. So yesterday I said that most of the factors that Dogen was talking about in these two sentences, three or four sentences, are highlighted by the seven factors of enlightenment.

[22:06]

The old, one of the old, standard Buddhist practices, meditation practices. And each one of these is an aspect of practice. And also, when practiced correctly, each one of these factors of enlightenment is supported or founded on samadhi. So when I talk about them, I'm talking about the samadhi of each one. The first one, of course, is mindfulness. We always associate Buddhist practice with mindfulness.

[23:11]

all Buddhist practices associated with mindfulness. And mindfulness is recollection. Zazen, or meditation practice, is called the practice of recollection. It's continually coming back to what am I doing? So mindfulness is to be able to clearly discern what you're doing and remembering that. So there are various, you know, many aspects of mindfulness. One aspect is to remember what you're doing, to remember, oh, this is Buddhist practice. Oh, this is Zen practice, or this is Zazen, or this is Metta practice, or this is Karuna, whatever.

[24:22]

So that when you engage in any activity, you always remember, this is my Buddhist practice. How do I do this? In this situation, how do I manifest this Buddhist practice? So this is mindfulness. One aspect of mindfulness is to always remember what you're doing. To always remember that whatever you're doing, you're manifesting practice in that situation. And another aspect is, whatever you're doing, you are concentrated on doing it. mindful, with your mind attuned to what you're doing. So in zendo, when you open your bowls, to remember that you don't make any sound.

[25:31]

That's being mindful, and it's associated with being careful. Katagiri Roshi used to tell us that at Eiheiji, the monks were told to eat pickles. They eat pickles every day. Pickles are actually quite good for you when you eat grains because they counteract the acidity of the grain. We used to eat pickles a lot when we had Japanese teachers. But anyway, so at Eiheiji, You're supposed to eat the pickle without making any sound. So it's kind of a pickle koan. How do you eat a pickle without making any sound? But it helps to adjust your mind, concentrate your mind on what you're doing. And it helps you to be careful to have something to do which is more than you can do.

[26:33]

Try to do something which is more than you can do. It's very good practice. It's like taking the precepts. People say, I can't take the precepts because I can't follow all that stuff. Of course not. Nobody can. It's more than you can do. That's why it's a good, that's why precepts are such a great practice. So mindfulness is to keep from straying, helps us to keep from straying, and keeps us always coming back to our intention, our deep intention. There's this wonderful poem, if I can find it.

[27:36]

Anyway, and the second factor is investigation. Investigation usually means studying. It means to study all the aspects of Buddhist psychology and doctrine. But in Zazen, it means to investigate the body-mind, not in the sense of intellectual study, but to investigate what is happening in the body. to continually know what the parts of the body are doing.

[29:36]

Dogen says to study the Buddhadharma is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. This study, as I said before, doesn't mean to study intellectually. It means to be concentrated on doing something over and over again. In the same way, investigate here means study, in the sense of zazen. to keep, to know minutely what is happening in your body and mind, and to be aware of that. It's kind of like awareness. And with that awareness, we know what we're doing.

[30:44]

To not just be oblivious. to not fall into some kind of a trancic state, but to be awake, awake and aware. That's why, as much as possible, we try to keep our eyes open in tzazen. The easy thing is to close them. But, and I must say that I really enjoy closing my eyes. But, to make the effort to keep them open. That's Zazen. There are a lot of teachers, you know, in the middle of Zazen will shout, open your eyes. It's pretty good. I mean, you don't need to shout away to say something.

[31:48]

And then, so mindfulness, mindfulness and investigation, mindfulness leads to investigation, awareness, and knowledge of what's going on, which arouses energy or enthusiastic effort. If we don't have enthusiastic effort, it's really hard to sit. or it's really hard to do anything. So in a sense of studying, when we first come to practice, I remember when I first came to practice, there wasn't very much to read. But little by little, more and more books would come out. interesting books, you know, and after sitting and listening to Zsuzsanna's lectures, at some point, you know, I got very turned on to studying.

[33:02]

And I used to study all the time, read books and study, and that kind of interest really, I mean, that study really leads to interest, which leads to I mean, if you can get what's being said and take it to heart, the study is really inspiring. And some of the most inspiring books to study are the old Pali texts. Not just the Mahayana sutras, but the old Pali texts are very inspiring to study. They leave a very clean taste in your mouth. And I would actually recommend studying the Pali texts and some of the doctrinal works because they give you a good foundation for practice and are a good supplement or counterpart to the Mahayana.

[34:13]

inspirational works. They're very grounded in how to practice. So I always keep going back to the old Pali texts. As a matter of fact, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment are some of the oldest fundamental Pali scriptures. But I like to associate them with the Mahayana practice. To me, that's what's interesting, is to take the so-called Hinayana or Pali texts and give them a Mahayana twist. So energy or effort, enthusiasm is really important.

[35:22]

And if you can combine your study with your sitting practice and your daily practice, you have a very powerful infusion of energy that will sustain you. And it keeps you moving. It keeps your mind and body and your investigative interest going. There's no end to studying Buddhism. You can't possibly study it all. And each text has the whole thing. You don't really need to study everything. Because each text contains the whole thing, but from a different point of view. And so studying these texts gives us a different way of looking at the same thing.

[36:25]

And it's quite wonderful. And of course, Dogen says, Zazen is just the dharmagate of ease and joy, or tranquility and joy. And joy and tranquility, or calmness, are two factors of enlightenment. He says it's just these two factors. But this is just one way of saying something. Joy, if you have mindfulness, investigation and energy working together harmoniously, then joy arises out of that.

[37:32]

And the joy of practice will naturally just come up. Everyone should experience that joy. That's what keeps us going. And of course, there's also difficulty, but there's joy within the difficulty and difficulty within the joy. You know, it's nice to see somebody smiling through their pain. If you can smile through your pain, you're okay. Calmness is actually a synonym for Samadhi. Calmness of mind.

[38:39]

Suzuki Roshi never talked about samadhi. I don't think I ever heard him, rarely heard him mention the word samadhi. But he always would talk about settledness, having your mind settled and calm. Calmness of mind was his, he used to say all the time, you should cultivate this calmness of mind. But he was talking about samadhi without saying samadhi, because when people talk about samadhi, it tends to be misinterpreted as some special state of mind, which is some special power or something of mine, which it is.

[39:41]

But it's just the power of ordinary mind. It's not the power which is conjured up to take over something or to be used in some evil way or some special power. It's the power of disappearing. It's the power of no-self. So he would talk about imperturbability, or calm mind, or composure. Composure was the word that he used a lot. You should find your composure. All those are synonyms for Samadhi. But composure was a big one.

[40:45]

And he used it in connection with Zazen, to find your composure in Zazen, which is how do you accept everything without being moved, without being moved off your seat or your position. And that was the essence of his teaching. and gave us big problems. How do you sit still when you want to move? How do you find your composure so that you can do that? That was the essence of his very simple teaching. How do you find your composure?

[42:03]

And then there's concentration. Concentration is very much like mindfulness. Mindfulness and concentration are two aspects of the same thing. But concentration is not being distracted. Mindfulness brings you to the point and concentration keeps you there from not being distracted. So there are many things which will distract us. And how do you maintain your composure when so many strong aspects or things are trying to distract us?

[43:04]

This was Buddha's practice when he became enlightened. On the night of his enlightenment, he sat under the Bodhi tree and all these demons came to distract him. And his concentration was very good. And his composure was very good. And he didn't let them distract him. He didn't get pulled off. He maintained his equanimity, which is the last one. Equanimity. It's not being unbalanced. To maintain a balance. And when you maintain a balance, you know, a teeter-totter doesn't work if it's solid, if it's fixed.

[44:08]

It has to keep moving. That's what makes it a teeter-totter. And our lives are like this. And so how do you keep the balance when it swings over this way? How do you get it to stay centered so that it doesn't make these big swings? Or if it makes a big swing, how do you bring it back? How do you keep bringing this thing? and harmonious, creating a harmonious space around us. So this is enlightenment. These are the aspects of enlightenment, of enlightened practice.

[45:11]

And Dogen says, practice itself is enlightenment. This is practice without an object is enlightenment. Practice of non-seeking is enlightenment. Practice of oneness with the activity is enlightenment. That's why Zazen is enlightened practice. You say, well, where's the enlightenment? All I have is pain. Where's the enlightenment? You can't see the enlightenment. If you look for it as something, as an object, you can't find it. You can only do it. You can only be it. You can't see it. So, when

[46:20]

the thought and the activity are the same. There's no subject, no object, no self. There's just this activity. This is Samadhi. This is enlightened practice. And the fruits of enlightenment are Metta and Karuna, loving kindness and compassion. And when you have enlightenment, then you have this great urge to be kind and compassionate. without wanting anything in return. If you want to know if you're enlightened or not, look at your compassionate and kind mind and look at what it is that you want.

[47:45]

If you're too self-preoccupied, you know that you're not yet enlightened. But when you practice Sazen, it's enlightened activity. No matter what the result is, if you are totally really doing Zazen. So I would urge that for the rest of the day to really concentrate on composure, mindfulness,

[49:30]

enthusiasm, joy, ease, concentration, and equanimity. And see if these are present in your Yes.

[50:36]

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