Well, there are two things that I want to talk about today. One is our attitude toward the upcoming practice period, starting on Saturday the 30th of this month. with the one-day sitting. And the other thing I wanted to talk about is our new publication of Suzuki Roshi's lectures called Branching Streams, Flow in the Darkness, which is the first book of Suzuki Roshi's talks to be published in Since Then Mind Beginner's Mind. in 1971, I think.

[01:02]

So I thought, I do have a copy, it's coming out, it's supposed to be November 1st, and I wanted to just read something from that for your enjoyment. I want to talk about our attitude toward practice period. When I looked at the bulletin board, this may not be relevant. It's irrelevant to people who are not used to coming here, but please bear with this. It actually has to do with practice. When I looked at the bulletin board, I saw there are maybe 52 or 54 people signed up for the practice period. and 25 for the one-day sitting. Now, there is some discrepancy there, which is the opening of the practice period, so I just want to talk a little bit about what that means.

[02:13]

Basically, there are many events in the practice period There's morning zazen, evening zazen, Saturday morning, Monday morning talks, Thursday night class, mid-practice period dinner, one day sitting to open the practice period, one day sitting in the middle, the seven-day rohatsu seshin at the end, the shuso ceremony, and tea with shuso, head student. The correct attitude is, I want to do all this. To do practice period is to do everything, that's the correct attitude, but you can't do everything. Somebody can do everything, some people, but

[03:24]

most people can't. You're working, you have your family, you have your events, all of the responsibilities of your life don't allow you to do all this, but the attitude is that to do this practice period that's what I want to do, but I can't do all that. So Joe can only sit three days a week you look at all the things that you can't do and you don't do them. And that shows you what you can do. So it's kind of a process of elimination due to what you can't do. And then you know what you can do. But to pick and choose, say, well, I'll take some olives over here and some sushi over there. It's not like that. You have to discriminate what you can't do. can and can't do, without picking and choosing.

[04:27]

This is called non-dualistic activity, to discriminate without picking and choosing. So this is the first fundamental, the most fundamental attitude of our practice, is to know how to discriminate without picking and choosing. is your wonderful koan, but you should decide on the basis of, I would like to do the whole thing. I don't like that one part so much, or maybe I won't do this because I don't feel like it. That's not it. If that's your attitude, you should not come to practice period. It's okay, you can sit zazen, it doesn't matter. But you shouldn't come to practice period unless you have the attitude that you really would want to do the whole thing. In a monastic practice period, you have no choice, or your choice is to do the whole thing.

[05:36]

You have no other choice. But here, everyone's life is different, right? So in order to have a practice period we have to take into consideration that everyone's life is different and our activities are all different, and so in order to do a practice period which includes everyone or everyone that wants to be in the practice period we have to make allowances for everyone's position, but if we all have the right attitude, correct attitude, I mean, then everyone's practice is equal, whether you're coming to everything or just coming to what you can come to. That means that everyone's practice is equal because we all have the same aspiration.

[06:39]

if you think, well, if I sign up for the one-day sitting, there'll be too many people. If everybody signs up for the one-day sitting in the beginning, there'll be too many people. That's not your problem. That's my problem. Don't worry about it. Do you have any question about it? Yes. What happens if you know what you can do and then your circumstances change and you can't meet your expectations? You just kill yourself. Ritually?

[07:54]

With Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid. Be reasonable. You should always be reasonable with yourself. that's a good point when your circumstances change to let people know so that they don't expect something from you which you can't fulfill and it also helps people to know where you're at. So of course your circumstances will change. You may have less time to do what you said or you may have more time.

[09:00]

I think that's a good point for... I mean, I'm not sure. I kind of felt or assumed that it was a group thing. But is it a group thing? What is a group thing? Well, the practice period. Meaning, we're doing this thing together and it's nice to say, I'm so sorry, she's so fine, I can't make it. Is it a good thing or is it an individual thing? Well, from the point of view of individuality, it's an individual thing. From the point of view of something we do together, it's a together thing. This is a hypothetical question. At one point I was able to sit in this session What I can't say is I never really wanted to sit a seven day watch.

[10:16]

That's good reason for sitting. Yes, it has nothing to do with what you want to do. No, it has to do with what you intend to do, but it has nothing to do with what you feel like. If it depends on your feelings, it's not Sashin. So, in the face of fear of not being thinking you could do that, Yeah, you bring your fear with you as a grindstone to wear down your self-centeredness. So, when you're trying to figure out whether to sign up for the 7-Day Rahasi Session, how do you weigh that? The only thing that would keep you from doing it is if you have some other I remember, actually many years ago, when Ron Nestor and I were living in an apartment above the community room after the Rahat Sufshi, so we described it as the best kind of difficulty.

[11:35]

I noticed that there are the minimum sign-off days are four out of the seven this year. That's close to three, I think, they were last year. Is that? Oh, four, you mean for sitting there also, Sashin? Yes, you have to sit at least. Four days instead of three, yeah. Is that, does that have to be successive? Oh, well, you can discuss that with the Sashin director. Well, this is their new book, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. And about four years ago, I can't remember how long ago, it seems like four or five years ago, we were

[12:54]

deciding, looking over Suzuki Roshi's lectures in order to make a new sequel to Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, and someone suggested doing this Suzuki Roshi's Sando Kai lectures which he gave in Tassajara in 1970, it would maybe be something that was easy to do and 12 lectures and it would make a nice little book. So Micah Wenger and I said that we wanted to edit this Suzuki Roshi Sandokai lectures. Sandokai is, most Zen students are which we chant in our liturgy, and we didn't know, well, we knew it would be difficult, but we didn't know how difficult it would be, actually.

[14:12]

These lectures, you know, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, the culled from all of Suzuki Roshi's talks, so you could just take a piece, a nice piece out which was cohesive and edit it. But this book was quite different because it was consecutive lectures, 12 consecutive lectures on a Suzuki Roshi wanders around and he'll say something in two or three different ways before he lands on what he really wants to say, and then he maybe doesn't finish a few sentences or drifts off. It gets thin and thick, right? So those are just some of the problems, but many, many problems. editing to have a consistent voice that is readable, very different than listening to something to read it.

[15:28]

So Michael Wenger and I edited these lectures maybe 20 times, I think 20 times is not saying too much, over a period of four years then showing it to people and then saying, well it needs more editing. And so going back and editing it over and over and over again, I was never discouraged actually, because every time I edited it I could see something that really needed work, even though I thought it was finished. But we had to come to a place where we had to stop editing it and It reads quite nicely, I really am pleased with it, and I can still see that it could be edited more, endlessly. Some people complained that it sounded too Japanese, which I thought was strange since it was a Japanese man giving the talks.

[16:38]

But the main thing was not to lose Suzuki Roshi's voice. to keep it flowing so that his voice, some critics said, well it doesn't sound like Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, doesn't sound like the same voice, and I'm sure that in some way that's so, it is and it's not, but I think it's good to have different Suzuki Roshi voices through different editors. It kind of points out the way different people heard Suzuki Roshi speak, so that doesn't bother me, it may bother some people. I think there's some people who are so kind of attached to the voice of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, which is an edited voice, it's certainly not So I like the way this reads and there are still some clumsy places, you know, some places where you have to bridge a gap in thinking, but I think that's good.

[17:58]

It shouldn't be just all simple explanation. There are points where it leaves you thinking and kind of making you take the leap. So anyway, I thought that I would read a little bit. When I tried to pick out what to read, everything I picked out sounded pretty good. If I read this, I'm neglecting this part, I'm neglecting some other part which I would like to read, but I'll just pick this part at random and read it and make some commentary on it. So, you know in the Sandokai it says, hearing the words, understand the meaning. Don't set up standards of your own. If you don't understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? So, Suzuki Roshi says, hearing the words, understand the meaning.

[19:00]

Kato means words. Koto also includes everything. Words, things, and ideas that we see or hear. Ukete means to receive or to listen to. Shu is the source of the teaching, which is beyond words. When you listen to the words, you should understand the source of the teaching. In other words, the words are pointing The words themselves are not the source of the teaching, but they point to it. When you listen to the words, you should understand the source of the teaching. Usually we stick to words, so it is difficult to see the true meaning of the teaching. We say that the words or the teaching is the finger pointing to the moon. Words just suggest the real meaning of the truth. If you stick to the finger pointing to the moon, you cannot see the moon. We should not stick to words, but should know the actual meaning of the words.

[20:11]

In Sekito's time, who is Sekito, of course, is the author of the Sandokai. In Sekito's time, each master had his own way of introducing the real teaching to his disciples. As students stuck to their teacher's words or particular ways, Zen became divided into many schools, and it was hard for the student to know which was the true way. Actually, to wonder which was the true way was already wrong. Each teacher was suggesting the true teaching in his own way, from the same source that was transmitted from Buddha. to stick to words without knowing the source of the teaching is wrong and that is what many teachers and students of Sekito's time were doing. So Sekito is saying here if you receive words you should understand the source of the teaching that is transmitted from Buddha and is beyond each teacher's own way of expressing or suggesting the truth. So actually through the teacher you should find your own way.

[21:18]

the Kamakura period in which Dogen lived, 13th century, there was Dogen and Shinran and Nichiren, the three dominant teachers, and each practice was totally different, but each one was expressing the source of the teaching and you didn't cross from one school to another, you simply used each teaching, whichever teaching you were engaged in through that teaching, and that it's a kind of feudalistic, it seems like a kind of feudalistic way, because in those days it was a kind of feudal society, and actually Japanese Buddhism still has that kind of feudalistic overtone, but there's something very important to be said for

[22:50]

which doesn't mean that it's the only practice or even the best practice, but it means that through the practice, that practice, if it's genuine, you will reach the source of your own being and you will have your own true understanding. If you start to shop, one of the criticisms that teachers when they came to America had was their students was that they wanted to do shopping, you know, they'd go to this place and get a little bit of this one and go to that teacher and get a little bit of that and then you have this big purse and you put all these little gems that you got from these places into your bag and that was your treasure, but they discouraged us from doing that. Rather than picking and choosing from disciplines you only have this intellectual understanding which includes a lot of information but you don't have the one true practice which engages you totally.

[24:11]

So he says the next sentence is You should not establish rules for yourself. You should not stick to rules or be bound by them. Most people are doing that. When you say, this is right or this is wrong, you establish some rules for yourself. And because you say so, naturally you will stick to them and be bound by them. That is why Zen was divided into many ways or schools. Soto, Rinzai, Obaku, Uman, Hogen and Igyo. Those are the five schools of Zen in China. Originally there was one teaching, but each teacher or his disciples established a school and they stuck to their family way and were bound by it. They understood Buddha's teaching in their own way and then stuck to their understanding and thought that it was Buddha's teaching. In other words, they stuck to the finger pointing at the moon.

[25:17]

If three teachers are pointing at the And so there are already three schools. But the moon is one. So Sekito says, don't establish your own rules for yourself. This is very important for our practice. We are liable to establish our own rules. This is the rule for Tassajara, you may say. But rules are the finger that points to how good, that points to how we have good practice at Tassajara according to the situation. Rules are important but you shouldn't think this is the only way. Our rules are true permanent teaching, quote, or their rules are wrong, unquote. You shouldn't stick to your own understanding of things. Something that is good for one person is not always good for another. So you should not make rules for everyone. Rules are important but don't stick to rules and force them on others. You know, rules are something that are expedient for the situation at hand.

[26:25]

When Buddha was teaching, he didn't set up rules. But people would come to him with some problem. And when they would come with a problem, they would say, what should we do about this? And he'd say, well, do this or this. And then a rule was established. So the rule came out of the situation. I remember being at Tassajara when we first were organizing Tassajara and we didn't have a lot of rules and Suzuki Roshi never laid down a lot of rules, but as things came up we made some ground rules and I remember somebody saying, we should have a rule Why do we want to set up a rule for no liquor? Because nobody was drinking. Why should we say that?

[27:27]

Since we were all there to practice, we weren't there to drink. It is a precept, yes, it's already a precept, but even though one has precepts, you know, there's a major precept, right, ten major precepts, and then you have minor precepts, and minor precepts are precepts according to the situation. So the major precepts are Sangha or for the world Buddhism, but the minor precepts are rules that you set in order to contain a certain situation. When you enter a monastery you shouldn't say, I'll do things my own way or I have my own way.

[28:30]

If you come to Tassajara You should not establish your own rules. To see the actual moon through Tassajara rules is the way to practice at Tassajara. Rules are not the point. The teaching that the rules will catch is the point. By observing rules, you will naturally understand the real teaching. And I remember so many people coming to Tassajara wanting to do things their own way. But the rules really helped them. When you enter some place and you want to do things your own way, this is your ego, you know. When you enter the zendo, you put your hands in shashu, you bow to the altar, you mark to your seat, and so forth. There's rules, right? You don't walk with your hands at your side strutting up and down, you know, Hopefully the rules help you to adjust your ego to the situation.

[29:47]

From the beginning, this point may be missed by all of us. Most people start to study Zen in order to know what Zen is. That is already wrong. They are always trying to provide some understanding or rules for themselves. Zen is this or Zen is this. There's a rule. The way to study Zen should be like the way a fish picks up its food. It does not try to catch anything. It just swims around. And if something good comes, even though it's very hot, you are observing Tassajara rules, eating in the hot zendo like a fish swimming around, and as something good comes, as you are doing so, you will get something. I don't know whether you realize it or not, but as long as you are following the rules, you will have something.

[30:54]

Even though you don't have anything or study anything, you are actually studying like a fish who doesn't seem to know what he is eating. That's all. We should study Zen in that way. To understand does not mean to understand something through your head. If you ask the question, what is good of a Zen student, his answer may be, something you should do is good and something you shouldn't do is bad. That's all. We don't think so much about good or bad. Dogen Zenji says, the power of should not is good. This is something intuitive, the very inmost function of ourselves, our innate nature. Our innate nature has its own function before you say good or bad. It appears to be sometimes good and sometimes bad. This is our understanding, but our innate nature is beyond the idea of good and bad. Wondering why we practice zazen in such hot weather leads to confusion.

[32:00]

It's very hot at Tassajara. Actually, we stopped sitting so much Zazen in the summer because it was so hot, but at this time we sat a lot in the hot weather. Wondering why we practice Zazen in such hot weather leads to confusion. We should be like a fish, always swimming around in the river. That is a Zen student. Dogen Zenji said, the bird does not need to know the limit of the sky or what the sky is before flying in it. Birds just fly in the big sky. That is how we practice Zazen. Actually, when it's hot, you just practice in the heat. When it's cold, you just practice in the cold without questioning whether it's a good idea or not. So you should not try to make rules for yourself. These are very strict words. They may not seem to mean much, but actually, when Sekito Zenji says this, he is waiting with a big stick.

[33:08]

If you say something, he answers, don't make rules for yourself. Don't try to understand through your head. He is waiting like this. And Suzuki Roshi holds up his stick as if ready to strike. He's waiting like this. So we cannot say anything. Yes, that's all. We needn't even say hi. You should just do things like a mule or an ass. You may think this is absolute surrender, but it is not. It is the way to understand the source of the teaching. We are likely to wonder what the source is. It is not something you can but something you have when you do things quite naturally and intuitively without saying good or bad. Time is going on and on, and we do not have time to say good or bad. Moment after moment, we should follow the flow of time.

[34:10]

You should go with time. When you become tired of doing something, you may talk about this way or that way just to kill time. But when you see that the vegetables in the garden have almost dried up in the hot weather, You do not have much time to discuss what is the appropriate thing to do today. While discussing it, you are becoming more and more hungry. So the kitchen people should go to the kitchen and prepare food for the next meal. That is the most important thing. This does not mean it is a waste of time to think about things. It is good to think about things, but we should not stick to words or rules too much. This is a very delicate point. Without ignoring rules and without sticking to rules, we should continue our Tassajara practice. This is what Sakata is suggesting. And then he says, if you don't understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? The only way to use your five sense organs wherever you go and simultaneously to understand the source of the teaching, sorry,

[35:11]

The only way is to use your five sense organs wherever you go and simultaneously to understand the source of the teaching. In other words, to understand the light side and the dark side at the same time. If you don't do this, even though you move your feet or practice, you cannot know the way, the true way, So the most important thing is not rules, but finding the true source of the teaching with your eyes and ears wherever you are. This is a direct way to know the source of the teaching without trying to establish some particular way for yourself. If you stick to words, if you do not see the true way through your own eyes, ears, nose and tongue, if you stick to rules and ignore the direct experience of everyday life, then even though you practice zazen, it doesn't work.

[36:12]

to have some direct experience of everyday life without thinking Rinzai or Soto, this way or that way, is the most important thing. This is how we understand the true source of the teaching transmitted from Buddha. The true way may be a stick. The original way of Buddha could be a stone. As Master Uman said, it may be toilet paper. There's a koan book record about Uman and toilet paper. Uman's shit stick, actually. They didn't use toilet paper in those days, just a little stick or whatever. What is Buddha? Buddha is something beyond our understanding. Buddha could be anything. Instead of the word Buddha, you could just say toilet paper or three pounds of hemp, as Tozan did. So if someone asks you, who is Buddha? The answer may be, you are Buddha too.

[37:15]

If someone asks, what is the mountain? You may reply, the mountain is also Buddha. In Japanese, we say, mo mata, also. Mo mata, also. You shouldn't say simply, this is Buddha. That statement will lead to some misunderstanding. But if you say, this is also Buddha, it is OK. If someone asks, where is Buddha, you may say, here is Buddha, too. Too is not definite. Buddha may be somewhere else as well. You can say, I am the center of the universe, too. I also am the center of the universe, as well as you. The secret of the perfect Zen statement is, it is not always so. As long as you are at Tassajara, this is our rule, but it is not always so.

[38:20]

You shouldn't forget this point. This is also Buddha's rule. If you know this, there is no danger and you will not invite any misunderstanding. This is how you become free of selfish practice. Even though you think you are practicing Buddha's way, you are liable to be involved in selfish practice when you say, the way should be like this. You should definitely say, this is our Tassajara way, but you should be ready to accept some other way too. This is rather difficult, to have a very strict, strong confidence in your own practice and to be flexible enough to accept another's way as well. You may feel that to be ready to accept another's teaching is not a strict way, but unless you are ready to accept another's practice, you cannot be so strict with your own. Strictness may become just stubbornness. Only when you are ready to accept someone's opinion can you say, you should do so.

[39:25]

When other people come, we can observe their way. Otherwise, you cannot be so strict with yourself. Suzuki Roshi always used to say, you should be strict with yourself and compassionate to others. And when you go to another practice place, forget what your practice is, not forget what your practice is, but forget your own rules and just join in with whatever anybody's doing. There's nothing more arrogant than someone coming to the zendo and doing things in the way that they did them at home and expressing through their bodily action This is the right way. You guys have it all wrong. When you go to another practice place, you inevitably think, they're doing all these things wrong.

[40:28]

They're not doing it right. Because you have this attachment to your own practice. But you should be able to let go of that and just blend in with what other people are doing. So if you go to another practice place, just practiced in their way, even though it may feel strange to you or even wrong to you. Good to do something wrong on purpose. Usually, strictness means to be rigid, to be caught by your own understanding and not to provide room for understanding of others. If someone asked my master's opinion about some matter, he always said, if you ask me, my opinion is this. Bam. When he said so, he was very strong. He could be so strong because he said, if you ask me. That is our true way. To be just yourself is to be ready to accept someone else's opinion too.

[41:36]

Each moment you should intuitively know what to do, but this does not mean you should reject the opinions of others. In everyday life there is Tao, or the way, and if you do not practice in the midst of everyday activity, there is no approach to the true way. This is what Sekheto means. Don't stick to words. Don't make your own rules and force rules on others. It is not possible to force rules on others anyway, because each person has his own way and should have his own way. It's almost time to quit, but do you have a question?

[42:39]

Peter? What happens if you encounter someone else's way, and their way is destructive? And there is destructive? Well, you can leave. You don't have to go there. You know, you should be able to discriminate. There's a difference between entering someone else's practice intentionally and being caught in some place. You're always free to leave.

[43:46]

You don't have to follow, you know, something that you don't want to follow. It's not a question of following, it's just witnessing. It's what? It's just witnessing the activity. Well, we witness destructive activity all around us. If you can do something about it, do something. Without picking and choosing. Well, discrimination is to be able to choose something, one thing over another, right? Picking and choosing means to discriminate on the basis of ego.

[44:57]

So there's picking, there's discrimination, which is simply making choices. Picking and choosing, as I'm using it in my terminology, means making a choice based on preference or desire or ego. So we have to discriminate on the basis of non-discrimination. Obedience, you know, I always felt I was being obedient to my intention to practice.

[46:05]

What Suzuki Roshi always emphasized was when you make a decision you go with your decision and you don't easily change that decision. So, my intention to practice was what I was always obedient to, and I would deviate from that in one way or another, but that's what I would always come back to. And my teacher never said, you should be obedient to me. I'm almost coming to the word obedience towards what's going on. Okay, obedient to the schedule, to give up your own desire to do something and be one with the schedule. And this is the practice of monastic practice, Tathagatagarbha practice, or Christian, I don't know what Christian practice is exactly in a monastery, maybe it's similar.

[47:11]

The schedule is the boss. you must be obedient to the schedule. You can't say, oh, I don't want to get up today, or I'm not going to go to service today, or whatever. You just do everything. And if you don't, then you suffer. If you become the schedule, then you are in harmony with everything. So it's not a matter of sticking to rules. It's a matter of allowing yourself to be harmonious. Because even if you give up all the rules, there are still rules. Life itself is rules. You cannot get out of rules. So there's no way to get out of rules. So you have to decide, well, which rules are we going to follow? It's more like that. That's not a rule, that's a guideline.

[48:31]

As a matter of fact, rules are guidelines. Someone way in the back. And, let's say, as opposed to the practice of thinking your way through practice, is that a phrase that Suzuki Roshi used himself? Stupidity? Yes. Katagiri used that phrase. have to be a little bit stupid to practice Zazen, to practice our style of Zen. But stupid, you know, has the same... stupid is to stupid as Bodhidharma's I don't know is to I don't know.

[49:43]

I just have a comment. When I was a child or teenager, my father used to always tell me, because he was a jazz musician, he says, listen, you've got to know the rules to break the rules. And it's been taking me two years to really understand what the rules are. Yeah, that's a good koan. Yeah. Do you think being true to yourself is being true to your ego? It's not being true to yourself, it's just being true. We have to recognize our ego, but not indulge it, because ego is a false sense of self. But we incorporate it, you know, we don't try to cut it off. They say cut off ego. You can't cut off ego. Ego has a function.

[50:54]

It's a matter of allowing ego to do its proper functioning, and then it's not a problem. So ego is actually an asset. So to be true to our self is to, in that sense, understand the proper function of ego, that ego is a messenger between discriminating consciousness and storehouse consciousness. But when it becomes too big, it takes over. And then you say, God, there's a big ego. And it covers everything. It obscures everything. It's not functioning properly. But that's a whole other story. Susan?

[51:54]

To hear thoroughly, yeah. Yes, yeah. Okay. When we say a wall is true, it's just straight up and down. It's not a judgment so much. No, it's zazen. True doesn't mean good or bad. It just means the place where it's not going to tip one way or the other. That's right. It's zazen posture. It's not leaning to the left or the right, not leaning forward or backward. Don't lean too far back.

[52:55]

Maybe it will not be true. Time to quit. The truth is that it's time to quit. The year is too late. True and tree are from the same root. The New European root. True and tree. Yeah, thank you.

[53:23]

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