If anybody is sitting behind somebody else, you can't see, you can just sit up here. Well, this is still the first week of the new year. So, I would like to, in my talk, to set a tone for our practice for this year. comes to my mind is the old subject of the seven factors of awakening, also called the seven factors of enlightenment, which I've talked about quite a bit in the past.

[01:13]

But I think it's Seven Factors of Awakening gives us a way to deal with our life as an awakened life in a way that we can put into practice at any moment, on any occasion. And actually, it's like the substance of both zazen and daily life. The seven factors of awakening are mindfulness, investigation of mental states or mental objects, mind objects, energy or effort, joy, calmness of mind, concentration, and equanimity.

[02:39]

The awareness of these factors and the balancing and interfusion or cooperation or harmony of these factors is our enlightened mind. Dogen Zenji says, practice is not practice without enlightenment. Enlightenment is not enlightenment without practice. Practice brings forth enlightenment and enlightenment brings forth practice and they can't be separated. So through practice enlightenment or awakening comes forth. And because of awakening, we have practice.

[03:53]

So it's a non-dual practice. And This is very important to keep in mind. When we think of these seven factors of enlightenment, we shouldn't think of them in a dualistic sense. So we can think of them both as what we deal with in zazen and what we deal with in our daily life. The first one is mindfulness, the old. If there's anything dogmatic about Buddhism, it's mindfulness.

[04:58]

But mindfulness, what does mindfulness really mean? It means almost anything you want it to mean. But in this sense, it means mindfulness of being awake, mindfulness of awakening. So in Zazen, we are mindful of the body, mindful of mental states, mindful of feelings and mindful of consciousness. And when we find ourselves falling asleep in various ways or drifting, we keep returning, we keep waking up.

[06:04]

So mindfulness is like the act of waking up, constantly waking up when we find ourselves drifting or falling asleep. So the koan of mindfulness is, what am I doing? Or what is this? Or what's doing? You can take the eye out and just say, what's doing? What's this? And so we can practice mindfulness in very minute ways. How we lift our spoon to our mouth is mindful practice. How we walk across the floor is mindful practice. How we address someone is mindful practice. Mindfulness accompanies all of our activity.

[07:09]

And if we're not mindful, then we're asleep, or we're dreaming, or we're drifting. or we're not awake. So many times during the day we find ourselves asleep or unaware or drifting. And the effort or the reminding is mindfulness. are constantly waking up, falling asleep, waking up. This is zazen. In zazen, we fall asleep, our mind drifts, we forget what we're doing, and then we remember, and we wake up. So constantly waking up is mindfulness. And it accompanies all of our activity. It's the

[08:13]

It's sometimes called the practice of recollection. And if we are always forgetting what we're doing, and what I mean by forgetting what we're doing, there are different ways of forgetting what we're doing. One way of forgetting what we're doing is in the act of doing something, we forget what we're doing. But the other more important way of forgetting is forgetting that this is our practice. We have to keep reminding, be waking up all the time to what is our practice? How do I practice in each situation of my life? And what is that?

[09:21]

What does that mean? To practice in every situation of our life. Old Zuigan, you know the koan of old Zuigan. Zuigan used to wake up in the morning and he'd say, Master. And then he'd answer himself and say, Yes, sir. Then he'd say... What else did he say? That's the third thing. The second thing. Are you awake? Then he'd say, Yes, I'm awake."

[10:22]

And then he would say, uh, don't be fooled by anything. And he'd say, yes sir, okay. So that was old Zuigan, uh, constantly waking himself up. So, This is our practice, constantly waking ourself up. We drift and dream and wake up. And that's what Zazen is. Constantly waking up. The second factor is investigating mental states or mind objects. And that has two aspects.

[11:24]

One is the passive aspect, the other is the active side. Passively, to just be aware of any mind object that arises. This is anger, this is joy, this is pain, this is jealousy, blah, blah, blah, whatever, to be aware of everything that comes up. And in Zazen, we just sit passively, allowing thoughts and feelings to come up and be in consciousness and then pass. The other side of that is when anger comes up or too much joy or too much of any mental feeling or state of mind is excessive, then we have to actively balance that with some other mental state.

[12:36]

And the example that's always given is the balancing factors of a mind. Faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. These are all mental states. Faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. And when one is too strong, It doesn't allow the others to operate well. These are just good examples. How we keep our mental states balanced and working together to make a wholesome, one wholesome state of mind. And our mental states are constantly getting out of balance.

[13:42]

Very easily we become unbalanced. Joy, well, faith is a very important factor. But if faith is too strong, then it doesn't allow the other factors to work easily. Faith has to be balanced by wisdom. faith too easily attaches to any object and gets very enthusiastic about something. And in the enthusiasm of faith, We can easily go off in some direction which is unwholesome or not wise. So, wisdom or intelligence has to balance faith.

[14:48]

So, we're always cautioned not to let faith get too out there, too expanded, too big. It has its proper place. It's pretty interesting because in most religions, you know, faith is really big. If you have faith, you don't need anything else. But in Buddhism, faith is really necessary, but it has to be balanced. It can't just go off on its own. There's no one focal point, no one factor that's the focal point. Even wisdom is not the focal point. Although in Zen, we put a lot of emphasis on wisdom. Monjushri is the embodiment of wisdom, but Monjushri has to be balanced with faith.

[16:01]

Otherwise, Wisdom can easily become arrogant and lead to cunning and thinking of it and lead to egotistical states of mind. So these two always have to remain in balance. And concentration tends to become very strong and brittle. And it needs some kind of ease, some softness to give it vitality.

[17:08]

So when we investigate our mental states, one side is to be aware, the other side is to balance, to always keep harmony among the mental states so that we don't get off on one or the other or get entrenched in some special feeling. or attached to some special feeling or attached to some idea. We should be actually willing at any moment to chuck everything and start all over again. It's very important. So, dealing with mental states, our practice is to constantly keep coming back to beginner's mind, starting from the beginning over and over again, so that our thoughts and feelings can arise out of emptiness rather than out of

[18:56]

some false foundation that we built up for ourself and that we cling to. Then we have pure thought, pure feeling, and harmonious relationship within ourself. And when we have harmonious relationship within ourself, then we can have harmonious relationship outside of ourself. So in this Zen practice, you know, we usually talk about ourself. Sounds a little egotistical, but actually, when we work on ourself, then we can do something beneficial for the world. So that's why we put so much emphasis on dealing with our own harmonious relationship between all of the parts of ourselves first.

[20:16]

Then we can harmonize the world. But if we can't harmonize ourselves, how can we harmonize the world? So this factor of investigating the mental states is very important, and we can do it everywhere, anywhere, all the time. People say, well, how can I practice when I'm not in the zendo? Well, we do it all the time. It's just that we should be aware. that this is what we're doing and this is what our practice is. So it's important to cultivate wholesome mental states, to cultivate loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, compassion, so that

[21:26]

When something arises in you like anger, you're already dealing with it. You don't have to be bowled over by it. You're already dealing with it because you're cultivating loving kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy and equanimity. If we're not doing that all the time, then when something comes up in us, it's very hard to deal with. But if we're cultivating all the time, then when something hard, some kind of anger or difficult state of mind comes up, we know how to balance it. We have a big cushion. We're not just riding on the rims. And it's natural for us, it becomes natural for us to do that.

[22:33]

The third factor is effort or energy, which I like to think of as enthusiasm as well. Energy and effort, of course, are motivating factors. In Zazen, often after we find our posture, we tend to get lax. In the beginning, when you first come to practice, really put a lot of effort and energy into what you're doing. You have to, otherwise you can't really sustain yourself. But then we get to a point where we tend to relax, tend to, because we can sit, we just kind of become like lumps. They're called, in Japan they're called rice bags. Don't be like a rice bag.

[23:45]

But it's also an endearing term, that old rice bag. But rice bags have a way of sitting, you know, which is why that's really a real rice bag. So in order to really sit and enjoy zazen over the long term, it's necessary to sit with strong effort continuously. I can't tell you enough how important this is to keep your back straight and keep the energy going in your posture. And we do forget. It's mindfulness again.

[24:46]

We tend to slough off and then mindfulness reminds us and we sit up straight again. When we have that kind of energy in our tzazen, then we can have the same kind of energy in our daily life. Energy and enthusiasm for whatever comes. Whatever we engage in, we have that strong energy and enthusiasm. Without it, we just easily drift. So it's really easy to drift in this world, you know, or to forget what's going on. If you think about it, you know, there are no paths. It's just, you know, when you get above the ground, as soon as you get a little bit, one inch above the ground, there are no paths.

[25:50]

On the ground there are all these roots, but when you get one inch above the ground, there are no paths. It's just, you know, the bird's path. Tozan talks about the bird's path, that a monk should practice the bird's path. It's like there's no trace. When the bird flies through the air, there's no trace. When the fish swims through the water, there's no trace. And yet, the bird knows just where to go. And the fish knows just where to go. It's uncanny. And human beings should know just where to go, just what to do. But unlike the bird and unlike the fish, we get lost. We just drift around.

[26:54]

So the path is something that in our mind, you know, we have to know and remember what we're doing. It's a lot more complicated than being a bird or a fish. So, effort to stay on the path that we know we're walking is really important. Otherwise, I see so many people, they're on the path, and then they're off, and then they're drifting, and then they're doing this, and then they're doing that.

[27:57]

Pretty soon they don't know what they're doing. Because sometimes life is pleasant, and sometimes it's not. And when it's pleasant, it's really easy to do what you're doing. But when it's not, then you want to do something else. And that desire to want to do something else is very dangerous. It can be very dangerous. They say, well, geez, there's nothing going on. There's nothing here. I thought this was something, but now I don't see it. And that's where you have to really continue, even though you don't see it. It's like walking blind. You feel your way sometimes, but you don't get off the path. And then, you turn a corner, and there it is.

[28:59]

So, part of that is having confidence, which is faith. Faith and confidence, that even though You don't know what you're doing. You know that this is the path. And you just keep going until finally you realize what you're doing again. And the fourth factor of awakening is called joy. Joy But it's not the usual kind of joy. It's not a joy of worldly kind of joy, but joy which comes from actually not depending on anything.

[30:11]

It's the joy that comes through everything being taken away. It's the underlying joy of our life, which is natural to us, but which becomes obscured because we try to seek it through other things. We try to seek it in all kinds of gratification. And because we seek other kinds of gratification, that joy becomes obscure, because although it's always there, it's subtle and non-demanding. So we tend to run over it and then try and find it here and there, but we can't find it here and there. But we're walking all over it.

[31:16]

And as soon as we stop walking all over it and stop seeking it someplace else, then it fills your hands. And it also comes through effort. Effort usually has that kind of reward. It's like when you walk to the top of a mountain and you have that kind of difficulty, but you also have the joy that goes with the difficulty. Difficulty and effort always is accompanied with that joy, which is much deeper than just looking for satisfaction. So maybe it's the joy of never not being attached to fulfillment or not being attached to satisfaction.

[32:30]

And it's not something you can seek. It's just something that comes. Maybe, like it's in Christianity, maybe it's called grace, but not necessarily. And then the fifth factor is called calmness of mind. And calmness of mind

[33:48]

is the opposite of agitation. It's the opposite of worry and flurry and restlessness. And this is very important, calmness of mind. Suzuki Roshi used to really emphasize this factor. Calmness of mind is like the entrance or Unless we have calmness of mind, we can't really do anything in a settled way. So in our daily practice, of course in Zazen, focusing on the breath calms the mind. Just putting our attention on the breath calms the mind and calms the body. and brings everything into equilibrium.

[34:53]

And in our daily life, it's really important to not lose the awareness of breathing. This is where our breath takes place, down here. And I think for a Zen student, it's really important, for everybody it is, but to emphasize breathing, letting our breath be down here. And you can practice that all the time. As soon as the breath starts to come up in here and be shallow, then there's a sign that there's some anxiety, or some agitation or some fear of something. So, by allowing the breath to go down, we can establish calmness of mind.

[35:58]

And so, especially if you're having a problem, you know, if you realize your breath is shallow, you have fear, anxiety, just take a moment. to get the breath down and to breathe easily. The body, you know, we say the mind controls the body, but the body also affects the mind. So, by making an effort to calm the body, it also calms the mind, because the mind, although there may be some problem, we tend to easily to overcompensate. And we can create a tremendous mental state over a little thing. And if you make the effort to calm the body, then you can see just what size that little rock is in your shoe.

[37:02]

or in your mind or in your heart. Sometimes it's just this little teeny thing, but it's really painful. But by allowing the mind to be calm, you can see the real size of the thing that's giving you the problem. And then you can react to it or respond to it more clearly. So keeping a calm mind is something that you can do consciously. And when you practice over and over again, it becomes natural. And the calmness of our mind is also called tranquility.

[38:07]

And it's the basis of samadhi. So if we have tranquil, tranquil means clear. not much wave, no waves, then we can see very deeply into the bottom of ourself. You can see clear down to the bottom, and your mind is very still and calm. And if we always have that calm samadhi, whether we're sitting in Zazen or acting in the world, then even though we're affected by things, we're not so affected, not overly affected.

[39:17]

We're affected in a reasonable way. So the sixth factor is called concentration. When we think about Zen practice, or Zazen, the factor that usually comes to mind is concentration. And people get really focused on concentration. Concentration is really necessary. just like mindfulness. Mindfulness and concentration go together and should be present in every act. But Zen practice is not just concentration. Zazen is not just concentration.

[40:17]

And concentration tends to be billed as the star of Zazen. So, concentration keeps us focused. And concentration and energy together keep us focused on the path. Very, very important. And when we sit Zazen, we really should be concentrated. Concentration has to be balanced with the other six factors. And it's just one of the seven factors. There is no star in this collection of factors. Concentration is just one of the seven factors.

[41:24]

but necessary. When we have good concentration, we don't let something pull us around. We don't get pulled around by things. We just stay there. Wonderful. So we should practice concentration in all of our activity. But it's good if concentration is balanced by tranquility. by settledness.

[42:27]

Concentration is like if you hold up a magnifying glass to the sun, you can get that little spot that burns a hole in a piece of paper. So concentration can be a little bit dangerous. You have to be careful. We can get too one-pointed. Concentration can be like a blinder. We can't see anything else. So, we have to be careful and at the same time concentrated. And the last factor is equanimity. Equanimity is impartiality, not being partial to anything, which is very difficult because we always want to be partial to something, good and bad, right and wrong, this and that.

[43:50]

And impartiality, is like the balance, the balancing act. If, when one side comes up, we should also see the other side. Sixth Patriarch says, when somebody asked him about duality, how do we act in a non-dualistic way. He said, well, when you mention one side, when somebody mentions one side, you should bring up the other side. If someone talks about the sun, or about light from the sun, you should talk about darkness. If someone talks about something good, you should talk about something bad, bring up something the other side, so that we never get weighted on one side or the other, but we're always standing in the middle and synthesizing all opposites.

[45:13]

So, you know, when someone brings up a subject that is difficult for us, then we tend to start an argument. Because we want our way. We want to prove our way. This is very difficult. This happens all the time. Which is better, Christianity or Buddhism? You can start a lot of arguments that way. Which is better, Judaism or Islam? So, all opposites need each other.

[46:22]

In order to complete each other, men and women need each other. In order to complete each other, or at least the male and female sides of each one of us needs to complete each other. If somebody says, are you a man or a woman? You can say, well, I'm a man. Or you can say, I'm a woman. Or you can say, I don't know. It's a good question. But if you're a man and someone calls you a woman, you may want to prove that you're a man. That's losing equanimity.

[47:30]

That's getting pulled off your place. That's how we start our wars. It's really easy to start a war. People do it on purpose in order to sell guns. It's a trick. It's a great trick. They do it every single day. Otherwise, how could they sell their guns? Nobody'd want them. But you throw a little bait, you know, pretty soon we're all off balance defending something. So equanimity is the realization that there's no self. To have true equanimity and to see everything as yourself. If there's no self, then everything is myself. Then whatever you're dealing with, you're dealing with it as yourself.

[48:37]

So you have to be careful. We always had to be careful.

[48:49]

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