I remember this story that Kanegiri Roshi used to tell. He attributed it to Sawaki, to Uchiyama Roshi, who I think attributed it to Sawaki Roshi. But the story is very short and goes like, there's a man riding a horse through the town at full speed. And you've probably seen these movies, you know, where the horse rides through the town and through the marketplace and upsetting all the bins, and the oranges are flying, and the apples are flying, and the proprietor is like... And so... He's riding this horse through the marketplace and all the apples and oranges are flying around and somebody says, ìWhere are you going?î And he says, ìDon't ask me, ask the horse!î Which is a commentary on our modern day civilization.

[01:17]

And an introduction to my talk on the five spiritual controlling factors. how to stay in control. So yesterday I was talking about the seven factors of enlightenment. I think that was yesterday. Long time ago. And one of the factors was Number two was investigation, investigating the mind dharmas. And so one of the ways of investigating the dharmas of the mind is to investigate the five spiritual controlling factors of the mind.

[02:33]

I guess you'd say of the mind. And the controlling factors are faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. These are called the five indriyas or controlling factors. They also, when they're well established, they're called the powers, five powers, mental powers. And they're called controlling factors because they exert a controlling force on each other, kind of like a planetary system. The planets stay in balance because of the way each one of them, some of them are small and some of them are large, but they all, each one of them has a controlling factor on all the others.

[03:38]

And some are more obvious than others. And each one has a function. Faith has the function of belief or confidence. And energy has the function of power or sustainability. And mindfulness has the function of recollecting or keeping to the task. And concentration has the function of staying with something and not getting distracted.

[04:43]

And wisdom is not prajna, it's more like panya, which is knowledge or the functioning of the mind, the wisdom of the functioning of the mind. Prajna is more like intuitive wisdom, whereas panya is more like more conventional, mundane wisdom. So each one of them has a function in meditation practice and in our life practice. All of our functioning actually is dependent on these five factors. So, any really wholesome activity has these five factors as controlling factors.

[05:54]

But they easily get out of balance. For instance, faith is a necessary function for any endeavor. because it gives you something to believe in. We all have to have something to believe in, and people believe in various things. So faith will, because it needs something to attach to, will find various objects for attachment. And so You can say our life is kind of like a sea of people, all kind of floating in this big ocean and clutching to one thing or another to sustain them.

[06:58]

Someone has a raft of straw and someone has a raft of a leaf or a log or something. And then these lifesavers have various names. But, you know, in the end, when everything's taken away, what do you really depend on? So what do we really believe in? Where do you put your faith, ultimately? People put their faith in money, in property, in relationships, in family, in whatever. But ultimately, we lose everything. So where do we put our faith in? what ultimately is there.

[08:00]

So when we study or practice Buddhism, we put our faith in Buddha nature. It's, as Dogen says, you can't really practice unless you have faith in Buddha nature. You can practice at it, but you can't really penetrate the practice unless you have faith in the practice, unless you have faith in your own Buddha nature, which is not an object. It's not something that you can identify easily, and yet everything is Buddha nature. It doesn't come or go or have any special characteristics, but it's what everything is. So when we practice Zazen, we're not saying anything.

[09:01]

We actually have faith in Buddha nature because we let go of everything and simply depend on Buddha nature. So what do you depend on? In Zazen, we let go of everything. Just put body and mind on the black cushion. and open ourselves to this moment. Some people say, well, I'm not very religious, you know, and so I'm hesitant to believe in anything, even though they're practicing Zazen. Even though you're practicing Zazen, you may feel, you know, I don't want to believe in something. But, unfortunately, the fact that you are sitting Zazen means that you believe something.

[10:06]

You have faith in something. You may not be able to name it, which is okay, because even though we say Buddha nature, it actually has no name. You can call it myself, which is okay. I believe in myself. But that can be misconstrued to mean I believe in my ego. But if myself includes everything, then you can say I believe in myself. So it's important for us to believe in myself, our big self. which will sustain this small self. Something is sustaining this small self. So, when we have faith that

[11:15]

There's something that's sustaining this small self, some big self, which is sustaining all of our small selves. And this is where we all meet and how we know each other. How we know each other is because we all have the same basic nature. And then there are the differences. Each one of us is different on the surface. but in the depths of our being, we're all the same person. But faith can become overbearing, you know? And without some direction, faith will attach to anything. Faith is like an innocent girl who gets seduced by every man that comes along because she doesn't have any wisdom.

[12:30]

And she's very innocent and beautiful. And her nature is wonderful. But she doesn't have any control. So faith needs wisdom to have control. And I often think of it as like an airplane, you know. Faith is the motor. the power, the incentive, the incentive to move. And wisdom is like all the controlling panels, the ailerons and the rudder and the pilot that says, don't go over there, go this way.

[13:45]

If you go over there, you'll crash. So wisdom is steering and faith is the enthusiasm and the belief and the optimism. So wisdom needs to control faith and faith needs to control wisdom. Because wisdom without faith is like leads to cunning or you know in this world you can see that because it's so easy to be ambitious and make a lot of money for yourself and

[14:55]

As soon as you start making a lot of money, then you want to make more money. And then you keep making more, and you can't stop. And so you see that what you're doing is ruining other people's lives, but you can't help it. You have to continue to build your monopoly at the expense of other people. and then pretty soon you lose your humanity. So, we need to have wisdom or intelligence or mind, thinking mind, needs to be controlled by faith. by some higher order of things in order to function properly.

[15:58]

Science is wonderful, but it's the runaway horse. Scientists need faith. I don't want to say this, so I won't. I keep having this contention with my father-in-law, who is an atheist scientist, who not only is an atheist, but belongs to the Skeptical Society. That's not exactly the name, but something like that. and fights religion. His great friend for years was Roger Sperry, who was the guy that first understood the left and the right sides of the brain.

[17:19]

and put forth that understanding, and did the experiments with the monkeys, and who wrote a book saying that all of the disciplines, religion, the arts and science, should all be working together in a harmonious way. And he says, well, Roger's a great scientist, but God, you know, he's gone off the deep end. So this is the argument, the contention I have with my father-in-law all the time. So science, the arts, religion should all be working in harmony because these are all facets. factors that should be controlling each other and harmonizing.

[18:28]

So this is a very emotional, actually, thing for me, somehow. So we see the world being torn apart by disharmony and people sticking to their opinions and their belief systems.

[19:54]

Faith is not a belief system, not necessarily a belief system. I think it's important to understand that. belief system is something that you have attachment to, some idea that you have attachment to, which doesn't tolerate other ideas necessarily. So faith in Buddha nature means faith in nothing especially. It just means that you have faith That's all. And what's real?

[20:57]

So you're always investigating what's real. What's reality? So science investigates reality from one point of view, religion investigates reality from another point of view, art investigates reality from another point of view. There's no need for contention. So, faith and wisdom control each other and are in balance with each other. So, when the mind starts overpowering the rest, then the other faculties should harmonize and bring the mind back into balance.

[22:02]

So we see these, you know, we see faith being overbalanced in the world. Especially like in the Middle East, right, where faith is such a dominant aspect. And you see people destroying each other because they don't have the wisdom Wisdom is not strong enough to rein in this overbalance of faith. And in the technical world, faith is not strong enough to bring in the balance of the mind, the intellect. So we have these imbalances that are really shaking up the world. And then energy and concentration balance each other, control each other.

[23:24]

As I said yesterday, concentration tends toward lethargy or Because by itself, when you see someone who's concentrated but doesn't have energy controlling the concentration, it's called spacing out. So it's easy to space out with concentration. You tend to dream or get into a reverie or some kind of reverie. It's fine, you know. Dreaming is fine, but for meditation or for positive thinking, concentration needs energy.

[24:30]

It needs to be energized in order for it to sustain its object. Otherwise, the mind will have concentration, but the concentration will drift from one point to another. So concentration really gloms on to its object, but it needs the energy to make it do that. So concentration controls, or energy is a controlling factor for concentration, but concentration is also a controlling factor for energy, because without the concentration, energy is just restlessness and agitation. And so we see, you know, all these people running around with lots of energy, but no place to put it, no place for it to land.

[25:32]

And so they think up all kinds of things to do, which are not necessarily constructive for others or themselves. So what is it that's really constructive or worthwhile to concentrate on? It's a good question. We choose various things because our energy is very strong and we need to settle on something. And so we choose all kinds of things to settle on. But basically, a lot of them don't work out. So as a factor in meditation, we need to have the energy to concentrate. And we need to have the concentration in order to give the energy a place to do its work.

[26:43]

And mindfulness is right in the middle. Mindfulness is like the grandmother. or somebody that's always going around saying, don't forget, don't forget, don't forget, don't forget. Don't forget what you're doing. Remember what you're doing. Pick up your mind and keep moving. And you're getting distracted now. Bring your mind back. So this is the function of mindfulness. And mindfulness goes around, visits all of these faculties, and keeps them in tune, keeps them remembering what they're actually doing, reminding what they're actually doing.

[27:47]

It's really easy to stray and get lost. So in Zazen, mindfulness is this factor that's awakening us all the time and bringing us back the practice of recollection. So, we have concentration, but the energy lags, you know, and so then the mind starts dreaming up things, and then mindfulness says, remember this? You're doing zazen. let go of that and come back. And then our concentration becomes energized. And over and over again. And then wisdom says, you know why you're doing this, don't you?

[28:48]

And faith says, yeah, I believe it. I believe in what I'm doing. So, you know, I think in our posture, we do have a lot of good concentration, but we don't have a lot of energy. Some people have good energy in their posture. We can have a lot of concentration, sit pretty still, but without a lot of energy. And I think that's the one thing that's most missing. in our Dzogchen is the energy. Because we find a comfortable posture, but it's kind of like this, you know. And it's concentrated, but it's not energized.

[29:51]

In order to energize your posture, you should really make an effort to sit up straight. And we don't make that effort, And we may think we're sitting up straight, but it's not so. To really sit up straight, your head should be on top of your spine, and you should feel that your spine and your head are in one line. So I was talking about this the other day. You put your ears in line with your shoulders, but you don't do that. You think you're doing that, but you're not. And if I come and I'll adjust your posture, the newer students will let me do that, but the older students, they'll let me do it, but then as soon as I pass by, they go back. So we've formed our habits, which is not so good.

[30:56]

And I think, well, maybe I should have really insisted more 10 years ago. I did what I could. But to really put energy into your posture, you feel like you're really lifting your back, lifting it up and stretching it out. And if your back gets sore, that's the best cure for it. The back gets sore because the muscles are lax. When the muscles are stretched out, your back doesn't get so sore. Or if it does get sore, it's kind of like a self-massage. To sit up really straight with your back stretched out is like a self-massage.

[32:03]

So there's nothing but good things about sitting with energy because it also fills you with energy. It just opens you up so that the energy flows really well in your body. And you have a really wonderful, joyful feeling in Zazen. And it takes the attention off your legs. because you're putting your attention into your posture. See, I keep saying, come back to posture and breathing. And when I say come back to posture, this is what I'm talking about. I'm talking about coming back to really putting energy into your posture, stretching your back. And then it takes the attention off your legs. Your legs are just some piece of wood down there. and you don't notice them so much.

[33:07]

It just feels fine. And then here, but it feels so good. Stretch it back. You just keep stretching it and stretching it and stretching it, stretching it. So I would like you to try that. So, um, uh, This is the energy which helps the concentration. And the concentration helps the energy. So all working harmoniously, all these factors should be helping each other to work harmoniously. And then when you feel that your body and mind are working harmoniously, then When you relate, you relate harmoniously because everything is, there's nothing to do but relate to everything harmoniously because you feel that harmoniousness in yourself.

[34:17]

And since you feel that harmoniousness in yourself, you have faith in yourself, you have faith in your practice, and you can appreciate everyone else's practice, and you can appreciate who everyone else is. You don't need to contend or compete because you have everything you need. There's really nothing lacking when all of our faculties are working together harmoniously, there's nothing lacking. Do you have any questions, Rebecca? How does clarity... You have to speak a little more clearly.

[35:34]

How does clarity fit into all these different factors? Clarity is the mind. When the mind is controlled, well controlled, then its function or its nature is clarity. If I'm working on something, even explaining something, or if I'm working on something like sculpture or something, I think I lied to myself. I can imagine things being there that aren't there.

[36:38]

I don't see it, see what I'm doing very clearly sometimes. If I'm in a bad mood or worried about something, then everything looks like shit. So I have to... Yeah, you don't make it function that way. All you do is let go of opinions, ideas, let go of everything and just let the mind be and then you have clarity. You can't create clarity. Clarity is just the natural function of the mind when opinions and ideas and partiality is gone. So just stop, and stop thinking, and just look, and you have clarity. That's what Zazen is.

[37:40]

Stop thinking, you stop opinions, you stop attachments, you stop discriminating, and then you have clarity. Who is that person? And I can imagine you saying, Buddha, is there another response that you can give me? Why do you want another response? I can appreciate the emotions that came Okay, that's all I can think of at the moment.

[39:17]

Miriam? Your explanation of mindfulness made a lot of sense to me, but I think I've also heard other explanations. Sure, there are a lot of explanations. So like, I get confused I'm working in the garden, is mindfulness putting total attention on the movement of my hands and everything that I'm doing, the movement I'm making. That's also called mindfulness. And how important do you think that is? Well, it's as important as your hands and feet. But following your emotions, you know, being totally concentrated on your emotions, not emotions, not when you're seeing Zazen, do you think?

[40:22]

Well, it's bare attention. And bare attention means without anything extra. So, this is called shikantaza, just doing. That's what it means, it's just doing. And so you have some intention, you have a goal, you want to cut the roses and trim the bushes and so on, but at the same time, there's just the doing of something, right? That's called mindfulness practice. But the just doing of it, independent of the goal or the intention, is Shikantaza. just being with this. Bear attention. And mindfulness is one of its, we say mindfulness, but mindfulness is one of the factors.

[41:30]

There are other factors too. So when there's mindfulness, there's also attention. There's also concentration and and energy and wisdom and faith. But you're singling out mindfulness as a point of concentration. So when we're in the middle of a long Sashin or a long practice period or a particularly esoteric Zen ceremony and we think Why am I doing this? Do we just wait for faith to come back or is there something we can do to encourage the return of faith? Both? Whatever works. You're thinking, this is nuts.

[42:33]

Well, if this is nuts, you should do something else. No, but you know, you think this is nuts, and if you've practiced a long time, you've thought that many times. I've never thought that. You've never thought that? This is nuts? I never thought this was nuts. If I thought this was nuts, I'd do something else. I got plenty of things that I could do, you know, that I could just do like that. Well, but you sit here and you're thinking maybe something else you'd rather do, but you're still sitting here. That's because I think this is the best of all the things I can think of to do. So that's faith. So how do you encourage faith? Well, you have esoteric ceremonies. That's to encourage your faith. You know, like we have bodhisattva ceremony to encourage your faith. That's exactly what it's for.

[43:34]

It's kind of letting go, it's like renewing your intentions. So that's one way of encouraging. Yeah. To have an esoteric ceremony. Yeah. And it's not esoteric, it's just a ceremony. Doug? I want to tell a story that will encourage you to keep correcting yourself. When I was a young student... Can you speak up a little? I started to develop this hunch that I didn't know what I was doing. And in those days we sat on the floor. Suzuki Roshi was walking around, and he just came up behind me, and he stuck his knee in the middle of my back, and he grabbed my shoulder, and he just pulled me over.

[44:42]

And I think about that every time I sit. So maybe we should just put the older students on the floor. Put our knees in their back? Well, that's right. When we used to sit at Sokoji with Suzuki Roshi, we just had the Goza mats on the floor. We didn't have Zabatons. And sometimes we just sit on the floor with our ankle. I remember putting my ankle bone on the floor and think, God, am I going to sit this way? But I just did it, you know? And then later... Somebody insisted that we have these zabatons, but we didn't have them for a long time. But Suzuki Yoshi never let me slump. He would walk around in a just posture all the time, and he'd never let me slump.

[45:42]

If there was anything a little bit off about my posture, he would correct it. So I just learned to sit, you know, with correct posture. And I taught that for a long time, but then I got tired of it. I used to go around in correct posture, the slightest little thing, you know, for years. But then I got tired of it. Well, for various reasons. One reason is not everybody can do that. And You know, it's like, I think about this a lot. I think when you take a horse out, you never ask the horse how it's feeling. The horses are standing there in the stable, and they say, well, we're going to go riding today. But nobody asks the horse how it's feeling today. They just put the saddle on and assume that the horse is going to go. And the horse does, but the horses must have different feelings and be in different stages of repair and health.

[46:57]

But we just assume that they're going to go. But they can't tell you that. But people can tell you. So I realized that not everybody can do exactly the perfect Zazen posture. But I encourage everybody to do as much as they can. If you can't do that, do the best you can. So I kind of gave up. I adjust everybody's posture. And then if they want to sit some, you know, if I see that they can't do any more than that, then I leave them alone. But, I don't know, Suzuki Roshi used to come around and adjust everybody's posture and everybody could do it. He had this magic touch. They liked him better than they liked me. I know, he'd go around with his stick and hit them, bang, bang, bang, bang.

[48:00]

Anyway, maybe we should put our knees in everybody's back. I don't know. Peter? Is that Peter? Yeah. Your whole relationship with your father-in-law reminds me of other people I've encountered. I've met some people. with arguments or what have you. Yeah. How does one respond to such people? Well, with skill and not arguing. Arguing. As soon as you start to argue, you're lost. So you have to develop some skill, and I can't tell you how to do that. Did you do it? Do you feel like when you talk to your father-in-law,

[49:05]

Well, it always ends up in a kind of, he believes what he believes, I believe what I believe. He is so determined. I mean, you know, he writes diatribes about how bad religion is, you know. So, he would have to have a complete revolution in his life, which I think is possible. I once told him that he was the most religious man I know. And that just made him so angry. But he is, you know. Very religious. He just doesn't know it. So anyway. I avoid arguing about how righteous religion is or, you know, how bad science is or something like that.

[50:12]

I mean, it's just this kind of impact. We don't talk about anything, but every once in a while it comes up, you know. And it's bound, it creeps in, you know. But usually we don't say anything that's very relevant to each other. You know, please pass the butter or something like that. Pretty awful. Actually, I don't see them anymore. And he just got so intense, you know, his intensity got out of control. And he wrote some letters saying, you know, how Zen has no philosophy, you know, and it's no, you know, it just, you know, meditation just being in a trance and you know all these things that people have never done anything don't know and It was so insulting that I just stopped relating to him But I realized that I should continue relating to him But it's difficult difficult to relate so I Stopped visiting him

[51:29]

but mostly because it's so boring. You don't eat butter anymore either. Yeah, I don't eat butter anymore either. Anyway, it's one of those impasses that I don't feel good about, but it's like, you know, it's like two worlds. It's like a great koan. Immovable object meets an irresistible object or something like that. Or an immovable wall meets an irresistible object. Huh? Irresistible force. Force, yeah. I would think you'd ask yourself who got insulted. Well, I do. That's what I'm saying. And so I just let that go by. I don't attach to that one. And that's a really good point. So then I think, well, I should just lighten up, you know.

[52:32]

But it's good. But still, it's not enough. It's no fun. No fun. But yesterday you said impasses were really good. Yeah. So this is a good impasse. I mean, it's the ultimately good impasse. So, you know, I think it's not a bad thing. It's just, you know, impasses have their painfulness. So, but, No, I think it's a very good thing, because unless this thing is resolved, you know, it has to be resolved. But you can't resolve it by forcing it. It resolves by listening itself and untying. Unless you're Alexander.

[53:37]

Then you just go... That's the Zen way. We'll see what happens. To be continued.

[53:52]

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