Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare I think that it's important for us to, every once in a while, to look at why we're practicing. Actually, we should look at it every day, but I have to say something every once in a while about why we're practicing if we lose the purpose of our goal, of our practice. we get very confused. As we know, and the reason most of us come to practice is, Buddhist practice is aimed at enlightenment.

[01:15]

And there's a lot of emphasis in Zen on enlightenment. And there's a lot of overemphasis in books that we read about Zen, about getting enlightenment. And it's true for us as well that enlightenment is the beginning and end of practice. But instead of pursuing enlightenment as a goal, or instead of pursuing it as a goal, our effort is to manifest it in our lives and then to realize what it is. and to realize that we already have enlightenment if we manifest it through our practice.

[02:27]

To chase after enlightenment is like somebody trying to get a cat out of the zendo. If you've ever experienced that or seen it happen, you know that the more you chase it, the more it eludes you. And then you start making a fool of yourself, running up and down the walls and the rafters and so forth. And in the end, the cat always wins. So we have a kind of different way of approaching the cat. In the first place, we're very careful not to let the cat into the zendo. But if the cat does come into the zendo, then we let the cat go out of the zendo by himself. We have patience and go about our business, and eventually the cat leaves the zendo.

[03:36]

So our pursuit of enlightenment may be something like that. We just take care of our business. Just go about our business. And if we go about our business of practicing, enlightenment will manifest. So we always put more effort on how to do something rather than going after the cake. So the most important thing for us is how to practice. And we put enlightenment kind of off to the side. Say, never mind about that. Just pay attention to how to do something. how to sit zazen, how to extend zazen into our daily activity, and how not to get caught by some concept or idea, or any concepts or ideas, or actually how to be free from everything, how to be free of everything so that we actually have some great freedom in our life.

[05:11]

And if we practice in this way, enlightenment will manifest. Because when we have that freedom, we have the freedom of enlightenment. So I want to, today, I want to remind us a little bit about the eight, so-called eight factors, or eight awarenesses of the enlightened person. Several years ago, if you remember, we studied Dogen Zenji's last fascicle of the Shogun Genzo, which the last thing he ever wrote about was called the Eight Awarenesses of the Enlightened Person. And according to Dogen, according to some Mahayana tradition, These were Buddha's last admonitions to his disciples, the Eight Awarenesses.

[06:23]

And interestingly enough, Dogen's last words to his disciples were pretty much the same thing. If we really pay attention to these eight awarenesses, we have some real consciousness of enlightened practice. Real awareness and consciousness of what is enlightened practice. So there's no need actually to be in doubt, no need to wonder. And if we really know how to practice these eight, they're very difficult to practice, very hard practice. But the essence is there.

[07:36]

The first one is called having few desires. And maybe all the other eight, of course, are found within each one. But as a base, having few desires is the very basis of enlightenment. So having few desires is very difficult because each one of us is a mass of desire. So as you can see, the first one is a great barrier right there. Barrier to enlightenment is our incessant desire for things, for something. And when we're free from desire, we have real freedom in its true sense, because we don't have to chase after anything.

[09:02]

We don't have to flatter anybody. We don't have to compromise ourselves. If you have desire, and you really want something, then the more you want it, the more you have to compromise yourself. If you want something and someone knows you want something, then they can catch you with your desire. And the more you want something, from somebody, the higher the price goes up, the more the price goes up. Desire is what drives up the price of everything. And within enlightenment, it's so too. So if we turn desire, within Buddhism we say, you don't eliminate desire.

[10:04]

When we talk about few desires, sometimes we talk about cutting off desire. But what we really mean is to turn desire so that what we desire is enlightenment or a way-seeking mind. If you desire enlightenment, the ante goes way up. And it goes up to the point where you have to give up everything in order to get it. That's a great price. But everything has its price. So it depends on what you want. If you want a mansion, a very wealthy kind of life, then that kind of life has its price. And either you pay it willingly or unwillingly. If you want material things, you pay the price for them.

[11:08]

And the more you want them, The more people want them, the higher the price goes, until you're caught by that. So in some sense, the same with enlightenment. If we want enlightenment, then we have to pay a very high price, because the more we want it, the higher the price. But everything has its price. And when we turn to desire into toward what we call way-seeking mind, the pursuit of the way, we have to pay the price for it. And it means that you give up desire for material, for wealth and material things. we need a certain amount of material wealth and things in order to survive, in order to live our life.

[12:13]

A monk needs less than a layperson. So if you pursue way-seeking mind, In a monastery, you give up everything. That's very extreme. Extreme practice of just giving up desire for anything except way-seeking mind. For a layperson, you give up what's necessary in order to continue your life in a realistic way. So a layperson should have a stove and a refrigerator and money in order to buy things and to support a family or children or just whatever, you know. But we should know the limits. We should have some kind of limit and limitation.

[13:16]

Know how to do something, how to live a life with things in the midst of material things with sanity and within some reasonable way where you don't get caught by the desire for things, for material things. With a monk in a monastery, just cutting off and living a life with other people in the same way. When you do that, it's easier. But a monk living in the city with people who are involved with desire for material things has a much more difficult time. So if you're going to practice as a monk with nothing,

[14:19]

The easiest way is to do it in a monastery. But if you're going to practice as a lay person, then you practice with other lay people who support your desire for the way, and with a minimum of possessions and desire for material things. So having, it doesn't say, he doesn't say not having any desire, but he says having few desires. If you have few desires, you can really penetrate one thing well. And in order to penetrate one thing well, you don't want a lot of distractions. You want to be able to see something all the way through.

[15:26]

And the more we can limit our activity to just what we want to do, just what's necessary, just what fulfills our wish in the realm of desire, the more we can accomplish. So for someone who practices, that's the accomplishment, way-seeking mind. To be able to really settle into way-seeking mind and to direct desire in that way is one goal of practice. One time I asked Suzuki Roshi, what is nirvana? And he said, seeing one thing through all the way to the end.

[16:34]

And that's been a very important thing for me. I knew that from his, just from watching his actions. The more you can direct your effort in single-mindedly and turn your desire single-mindedly, actually the happier your life becomes. The more single-minded we are. If we have a desire that goes in different directions, you know, if we're caught by different kinds of desire, Then we create a kind of two-headed snake. We talked about this before. Two-headed snake is like a man and a woman who have different desires and who have different ways of life or who both want to be boss.

[17:48]

You create a two-headed snake which doesn't know which way to go. One head actually has to become inoperative. I remember when I went to the Hall of Science in Golden Gate Park, they had all these snakes in little glass cases, and there was a two-headed snake in the case. And it was fascinating, you know, because I was trying to figure out which head was leading, you know, and how they decided how things would go. And I realized that one head was very strong and was the dominant head, and the other head just went along with the other one. It would be very difficult if they both had equal power or desire and wanted to do different things.

[19:00]

So if we can just tuck our other heads in and let one head lead, then we become much happier. Most of the frustration in our life becomes resolved or becomes resolvable. But as long as our desire is going in different directions, as long as we keep growing different heads, we haven't resolved the great problem of our life. And we remain confused. The most difficult thing in this day and age I've talked about this before too, is that we have so many choices. It's a great plague of our age. Everything is available to us.

[20:04]

And the more that becomes available to us, the harder it is to decide on what to do. Because everything is so enticing. Everything is so wonderful. There's so many clouds, castles in the sky to be involved with. And we can go to the university until we're 50 and just keep taking on new things. And we feel that if we keep learning new things, that we get smarter and smarter. But actually, if we can decide what we want to do. And decision is difficult because it means something else has to go. When we go to college, we learn various things in college. And that's the opportunity for us to learn things.

[21:09]

of a great variety of things and not have to decide. It's a kind of wonderful time. You can learn many things and branch off in many different ways and not have to come to a decision. But when we get out of school, then we have to make some decision, or just before that is best. And if we can't make that decision, then we keep going along and along and along. And the longer we go, the harder it is to make the decision. But if you know what you want to do in the midst of this great realm of choice, and decide on something, and decide, even if it's the wrong decision, maybe the wrong decision, but some decision is necessary. There are a lot of people who, very old, and when it comes to the, they can go along with something for a long time, but when it comes to the point of really, really deciding,

[22:25]

they can't do it and they have to leave and do something else. Someone who can't hold a job, because when they get to the point of really committing themselves, they can't do it and they have to go seek some other job. It gets to that point. So, to be able to make a decision and see it all the way through, even though you can't even though it may be not a good decision. We say maybe that Buddhism leads to enlightenment. And so it's good if you can make a decision to practice. Some other way may say, this is the best way for everybody. And if you do this, our way, then you'll have a happy life.

[23:33]

And so we try to make the best choice. And we kind of maybe sometimes agonize over what's the best choice to make. It's good to make the best choice. But even if you make a poor choice, And you do that thing completely, really completely. In some way, you can fulfill yourself, even if the vehicle may not be the best vehicle. You don't need a Cadillac. You can still get across the country in an old Volkswagen. If your desire is in the right place, and if you are single-minded, you can walk across the country if you're single-minded. So it's good to have a good vehicle like Buddhism, but you can do it in lots of different ways if you really penetrate.

[24:45]

The next awareness is how to be satisfied, knowing how to be satisfied. And of course, if you have few desires, you know how to be satisfied. But knowing how to be satisfied means to really look at what you actually have, to develop what you already have. If we go looking for something too much, We want, you know, there's a tendency always to want to find something outside of ourselves. And this is the problem with seeking enlightenment.

[25:52]

The problem with seeking enlightenment is we tend to want to get something. And we see it, even though we know that enlightenment is not something outside of ourselves, We seek it as if it were. If you know how to be easily satisfied, then wherever you are is a satisfactory place. And this is a real freedom to feel okay or satisfied. wherever you are and in any situation. This is definitely the life of a monk because you have nothing. Whatever you have is, whatever comes to you is quite wonderful because you don't live any place special.

[27:05]

Wherever you get to live is quite wonderful. And because you don't demand a lot of things, whatever comes is quite wonderful. So it's living a life of appreciation, actually, for everything. If you get blown up by a bomb, it's quite wonderful. No problem. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make things go some certain way, you know. For a person in a monastery, to go along with things in that way is not to have anything. For a lay person, a person living in the city,

[28:10]

and interacting with all sorts of people, to be able to have what you have, and even though you may be generating a lot of wealth, a person may be generating a lot of wealth, but not to be caught by that wealth, and to be satisfied with very little, doesn't mean, you know, it's Big problem in the city, you know. How not to be caught by what we don't have. And how to help people with what we do have. I know people who generate a lot of wealth and generate a lot of power and complications, but who actually lead a very simple life, and who don't demand very much.

[29:25]

And what they generate, actually, it helps other people. It's not necessary to, it's good to limit yourself, but if you can't help having a lot of things, some people's karma is that they can't help generating a lot of stuff. But they know how to deal with it. And they're not caught by all this wealth, whatever is generated. And that's a very advanced kind of practice. The third one is how to live with serenity and tranquility.

[30:32]

It means not to be bothered by anything. It's kind of like equanimity, upekka, how to have an even mind or a mind that's not thrown out of balance by either desire or wealth or possessions or tragedies. Just not to have a mind which nothing can upset. And it means that you can be in the midst of the busy world and just be able to take one thing at a time, just to be able to handle one thing at a time. And even though you have many pressures, lots of pressures from all sides,

[31:38]

to be able to respond to something. And when you're responding to that thing, your attention is on that thing, with that thing. You're one with that, what you're responding to. And even though there's the demons at the door, you're not disturbed by that. You're only paying attention to this little thing. And when you're through with that, you can turn to the next thing. You know the demons are there. They all want your attention. But you can respond to just this thing, and you have calmness. If you start letting all the demons in, and everything that wants your attention, pretty soon you start getting torn apart, because there are so many factors, so many things that want our attention and want to be noticed right now.

[32:44]

And to be able to pay attention to everything in its turn and in its time means that you have to have some kind of real rhythm of life. You have to establish some rhythm of your life. And if you establish a rhythm around practice, which includes zazen and mindfulness, then as you encounter each thing, you can take care of each thing. And there are always many, many more things to take care of than we can take care of. And always, if you open the door to the things that need to be taken care of all at once, we're always completely overwhelmed. So, how to take care of each thing, one at a time, and remain tranquil and serene, is

[34:08]

not to lose your calm mind in any situation. Of course, you can become too calm and something needs to be taken care of and you're doing this. You have to know the difference. So you're writing a letter, which you know has to be written, and someone's falling down the stairs outside, you can't say, oh, wait until I finish my letter. You have to stop that and run out and take care of that person. But that's also calmness of mind, knowing what to do at the right time, and not being upset that you have to leave writing your letter to go help this person. You know, there's a koan about the, well, it's an old story about a Bodhisattva who was meditating, a Buddha who was meditating, maybe Bodhisattva, for thousands of kalpas.

[35:24]

there was someone who needed help, or not needed help, but there were some people outside of his room and making a ruckus. And he complained about them. He said, oh, they're making a ruckus and disturbing my meditation. And by doing so, lost his enlightenment. I don't remember all the particulars of the story, but I do remember the story that much. Because he complained, he lost his enlightenment. But that's obvious. He lost the calmness of his mind, which couldn't include some disturbance. So a calm mind doesn't mean to go someplace and eliminate all the disturbances.

[36:44]

Most of us want to calm everything by having a calm place by going off to the country or stopping all the disturbances around us. You be quiet. You stop this. You stop that. so I can have calm mind. That's not calm mind. Calm mind is wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whatever disturbance is happening, you always have calm mind and tranquility. I remember Suzuki Roshi. One of his most wonderful characteristics was that no matter what was happening, no matter how much pressure there was, he always moved at a certain pace, and he was never ruffled. No matter how many demands there were on him, no matter how much anxiety was going on around him, he was never ruffled, never disturbed.

[37:54]

I mean, he had problems, you know, and there were disturbances going on in his mind, but His pace was always his pace. You never felt that he was hurried. You never felt him being in a hurry to do something. Everything was done in its time, somehow. Even when there was a lot of something to do, even when there was a lot to do about something, he was always moving very wonderfully. And everyone moved in that way with it. And a lot got done. A lot of stuff got done in a short period of time. Oh, it's almost time.

[38:56]

Well, maybe next time I'll talk about the other factors. Anyway, we should continue to study the eight awarenesses. And if we really put the eight awarenesses into practice, the eight awarenesses of the enlightened person, or the eight, I like to call them eight characteristics, of the enlightened person. You can tell an enlightened person through their characteristics. we no longer, we don't need to question about what is enlightenment.

[40:15]

And the way it manifests is through continuous practice, continually practicing. When we're continually practicing without any gap, That's practice within enlightenment. So enlightenment is not an object that we grasp, but is our own intrinsic nature which is brought forth by our practice. So that's why we always put the emphasis on practice rather than on getting enlightenment. We always put the emphasis on our activity and our conduct. So next time I want to talk about the other five awarenesses.

[41:35]

Do you have one question? I think we have time for one question. It's more a comment, I think, than a question. In AA, you talk about the promises. And in some ways, it sounds like this is the list of Buddhist promises. what happens after practice. I'm kind of practicing with these ideas in mind. I feel like the actual inside of practice, it's more that that comes, those states are real unenlightened mind.

[42:57]

It's an ongoing question I have about what right effort is. And I think sometimes right effort is surrender and other times right effort is trying very, very hard. You have to know when to do which. But don't misunderstand me. These aren't states. Enlightenment isn't something that comes after. It's like if you eat cornflakes, then you'll eat cornflakes. The result is eating cornflakes. I'm not saying that if you turn desire, I didn't say give it up, I made a point of saying you don't give up desire, but you turn desire into a way-seeking mind. then you'll have way-seeking mind, which is enlightenment.

[43:59]

I'm not saying that if you turn desire to way-seeking mind that later on you'll have enlightenment. The turning itself is enlightenment. way-seeking mind itself is enlightenment. That's why we don't talk about the result of practice is enlightenment. First we have enlightenment, then we develop it. Enlightened mind. First, so our practice is backwards from usual way of thinking. As soon as we sit down in zazen, we have enlightenment. As soon as we begin to practice, earnestly, that's enlightenment. So enlightenment is not the goal so much of practice, it's the starting point. And then the rest, after the starting point, after enlightenment, then we develop ourself, develop our practice, continue to develop our practice after enlightenment.

[45:11]

So don't look for enlightenment. Starting to practice is enlightenment. I know you can't see that. We don't see that. But because we have some idea about enlightenment. As long as you have some idea about enlightenment, you've got this object which is called enlightenment in your mind. And that's not it. So in order to have enlightenment, you have to throw out all your ideas about enlightenment. And as long as you're pursuing it, You have some idea about it, and then that's like the cat, jumping, trying to catch the cat in his endo. So we start from enlightenment.

[46:19]

That's the beginning of practice. And it's the middle in the end, too. But it's not that you start from delusion to go to enlightenment. That's not our understanding of practice, that you go from delusion to... There's delusion all the way. And there's enlightenment all the way. Delusion and enlightenment are together, like this. They go together. So if you say, I'm enlightened, it also means you're deluded. If you say, I'm deluded, it also means I'm enlightened. So don't worry about it. Just practice. The main thing is to practice. That's where it is. It's not in some idea you have.

[47:26]

Okay. Thank you.

[47:31]

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