I think our changing is stronger in a way that we appreciate in effort. Today, I want to talk about something a little different. The people in the practice period are... I don't know if I have to tell you, but here the ten beneficial practices of Bodhisattva. And today, from the Avatamsaka Sutra, today I want to talk about the third beneficial practice, which is called Or, you could say, non-defensiveness.

[01:07]

Or, not opposing the nature. Or, from the other side, you could say, accepting reality as it is. Or you could say, seeing reality as it is. Or you could say, seeing one as things that they are. So non-opposition also has but maybe better to say, to be.

[02:18]

Patience has the feeling of waiting, or long suffering, or because there's movement in time, When we get stuck in movement, then we want something else to happen. When we get stuck in time, when our movement gets stuck, we want something to happen. And when it doesn't happen, then we say, well, let's have patience. We'll wait. But for patience, waiting is one form of patience. The higher form of patience is to be, just to be. The ability to just be.

[03:25]

Without anxiety, without waiting for something. So non-opposition. I was taking a walk down in the field, up in the garden, and there were all those nice trees, apple trees that were still in use, and some pear trees. All of the trees are expressive. He would come up and walk by one of the trees.

[04:29]

They were very vibrant. Especially the little ones. Very young. And they have a certain kind of vibrant energy. And the wind was moving the trees. Just slightly. So the trees and the wind The trees were playing with each other, being harmonious. And when the breeze moved, the trees moved with the breeze. And all the branches were very flexible because the trees were young and very full. and the wind and the trees are granted response immediately.

[05:32]

And when you think about these trees, trees and grass, each one is rooted in the ground. You can't run away. Human beings are like trees that can run. Running plants. So we have a feeling that we can, it's easy for us to feel that we can escape. That's one of the characteristics of human beings is that We have this idea that if it's something we don't like, we can run away from it. Either physically or mentally. If we don't run away on foot, we can run away in our mind.

[06:39]

We can't escape things by not thinking about them. I'm thinking about something else, transforming it into something else. But the trees and the grass stand their ground. And when a deer approaches, the deer will eat the leaves. And the tree has to The trees often do this, even though you may say, well, maybe the tree's a victim. You know, the tree's standing there helpless. And the deer are coming up and eating the tree.

[07:42]

I remember a long time ago in Tassajara, Somebody was driving in the road and they saw a, I think it was a snake eating a toad or something. And when they first got to Kazahara they asked Suzuki, I'm looking at her and she says something like, maybe the toad is a little Bodhisattva. And if you go to save the toad from the snake, the toad will say, leave me alone. I'm working this afternoon, so thanks for your help. You may not have to deal with it.

[08:56]

But it is. You know, we can say various things. Maybe we should save the turtles. Maybe not. But all the turtles, maybe you save that turtle, but there are many turtles that you may not be able to save. And all those tolls have to save themselves. Just like each one of us, we have to deal with whatever is happening to us. So our practice of non-opposition It doesn't mean that we can't defend ourselves. As human beings we do have a lot of opportunities to defend ourselves.

[10:01]

That other beings don't have. But we can learn a lot from other beings. We can learn a lot from trees. and we can learn a lot from grass. A tree, when we sit in zazen, we're sort of taking the position of a tree. What's being a tree? Our legs are folded, and they're like the roots, big roots going into the ground. The main reason why we take this Zazen posture is because it's so stable and immovable. If someone comes and pushes you over, you can bend, but it's pretty hard to push you over.

[11:05]

Very stable position. Our body is like the trunk of a tree. And our arms are like the branches. Our arms and hips are like the branches on the tops of trees. And we can't go anyplace. Firmly rooted. And whatever comes, we have to meet. How will we meet whatever comes? How will we deal with life without running away and accepting whatever comes? For the tree, on a nice day, a nice sunny day,

[12:07]

and it becomes rainy and stormy, the tree appreciates the rain and the wind. Without complaining, the tree just absorbs the rain. Just absorbs the rain. And the rain, and the wind, and the sun, and the various actions of the weather, If the tree doesn't stand in the wind, then the branches break. This is what's so wonderful about grass. Grass is so flexible. And in the winter, the grass just stands way down. Grass doesn't oppose the wind, or hate the wind. And in some way, grass embraces me.

[13:33]

Trees embrace me. The tree, although it's standing very still, very flexible, And in Vajrayana, even though we're sitting very still, our body is very flexible. So Vajrayana is a kind of lesson in life. How to flow with life, even though we're sitting still. But this not going is dynamic flowing, even though we seem to be sitting very still.

[14:42]

So Zazen is also like the tree, it's an offering. You know how the tree is. The tree is going like this. And offering itself. And the sun is coming down like that. Zazen is the same. Buzzing is nothing more than a complete offering to our nature. So we open ourselves completely. The difficulties that we have with buzzing are mostly all related to difficulty when we're open.

[16:07]

But the difficulty we have when we're open is not the same kind of difficulty we have when we have opposition. The difficulty that you have when you're open you can walk away from easily. The difficulty we have when we have opposition stays with us. because we become attached to our difficulty. Our opposition is a kind of attachment to the difficulty. So our effort is more and more to wake up to the present moment with complete openness. and non-opposition.

[17:17]

So when we sit, we sit. Take the opposition away. Take off the coverings, mind coverings and body coverings. so that we cannot demonstrate a different kind of posture than we have in our ordinary life. Because the kind of posture we have in our ordinary life is covered by events. The tensions of life, the tensions of our ordinary life modify our posture, give us various postures, so we carry ourselves in various ways.

[18:20]

So little by little, we can, when we sit, we can let go of the tenseness in our body which is caused by fear. When we walk through life, we're always looking out for something. On the road, we have to be very careful. of all cars around us. Imagine you're going 60-70 miles an hour down the road. When you're driving, it just seems like you're sitting there. You're talking to the person next to you. Everything seems fairly safe. But if you think about it, if you took out the shell of your car, the body of the car, and you're just sitting out there with the wheel on the chassis, you would know that you were going 60-70 miles an hour. So on a motorcycle, it's very different than in a car. But because it's so comfortable, we tend to ignore it a lot.

[19:46]

But there's a lot of danger in the world. And so our fear determines the way we think and our posture We can let go of our fears. And just open ourselves. Let ourselves sit up really straight. And all the efforts that we ordinarily put into fearfulness, we put into offering. And just let up. Our breath comes and goes. You can allow your breath to go down where it belongs.

[20:50]

Here brings our breath up to the upper part of our body. So the more fear we have, unless we're centered, the more fear we have, the more our breathing is up here. And unless we're conscious of where our breathing is, it's very easy for our breathing to reside in our chest. pretty straight, but naturally fall down to the lower part of your body. And then your body becomes energized with natural breathing, and less fearful. And like a tree, and when the sun shines and you feel good, you can accept that very easily.

[22:13]

Sometimes, when you feel very good, sitting jogging, you become attached to that nice feeling. And when I start But if you notice the tree, when the wind is blowing, the tree is just dealing with the wind. And when the wind stops, the tree is still. Without wishing for change. Without wishing for any change. That's just what's happening.

[23:30]

Staying centered. This is called rice paddy. This is for rice paddy to be centered, or feel at home, without being moved by events. But moving with events, without being caught by them. everything completely and fully. Without getting too excited or wishing too much for what you want or what you don't want. Naturally, when something nice appears, we want it to go away. When something that we don't want appears, we want it to go away. without disregarding or ignoring what we like or what we don't like, it's still possible to not be caught by it in the end.

[25:12]

And thought then is how we prove that to ourselves. by the proof of freedom from non-duality. Freedom from non-dualistic thinking. Life in its wholeness. You can even just sit comfortably. Comfort doesn't mean that undesirable things will not appear. But true comfort comes from inside, not from adjusting our surroundings. Because our surroundings, once we make ourselves comfortable, everything will change in our surroundings.

[26:17]

And then we have to run around and find some other way to make ourselves comfortable. And then that will change. So even if you find the most wonderful position to lie down in, with all the cushions and pillows that are at your disposal, at some point you'll get very uncomfortable. So change, or ability to be malleable inside, is what's necessary. So, non-opposition, of course, in our life, there are many things that we want to oppose and should oppose.

[27:20]

And we can talk about that, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about non-opposition, from this point of view. I know that there are a lot of new people here, and so I want to really make this point.

[28:23]

that the main thing, zazen, is to be centric. And when you sit in zazen, what you do unceasingly is maintain and find your center. If we have a wonderful before feeling, The higher we go, the lower we drop when our feeling is no longer there. So it's pushing. It's kind of like that. When we get down to the very bottom, then we can go to the very top. And when we get real high, When the cause for that high is no longer there, then we drop. So if we don't have some place to come to, then when we go up, we go all the way down.

[29:36]

But if you have a center, When you go up, you come back to the center. When you go down, you come back to the center. Instead of going up and then going all the way down. You're always coming and going from the center. Our life has a lot of dynamism, and to deny that dynamism is suppression. So there's no need to have a lot of suppression. We can reach out a long way, but when we reach out, we know where we're reaching out from. Because we're always thinking, no matter how far out we go, and no matter how deep we So it's not a matter of up and down as opposing each other.

[30:42]

Both up and down are related to the center. So if you have a high feeling, when the high feeling is no longer there, you're still in the center. And when you have a low feeling, when that's no longer there, you're still in the center. is the most important. When nothing is going on, no need to be bored. You're always sustained by just pure being. The other day I was talking about the difference between doing and being. There are two aspects of our life. Being is, you might say, like the source. of pure existence. And doing is the activity based on pure existence.

[31:49]

in our doing, if our doing is always firmly rooted in our being, no problem. But if we're only doing and have no consciousness of being, or awareness of being, then our doing just goes from one activity to another without any grounding. grounded, our doing is to always be grounded in our being. So, this is Bhajan, to always be grounded in being, pure being. So, Bhajan is a combination of being and doing, without any separation.

[33:02]

Great dynamic activity. Complete full functioning of our body and mind. Your being. So when we sit dozing, be careful not to be lazy. Lazy dozing is not real dozing. Real dozing is Fully dynamic, full dynamic functioning of your whole body and mind. Completely involved. Nothing left out. Strong jogging is really important. And when you do really strong jogging, with complete attention, Then you can find your balance with your center.

[34:07]

Your body can fully function around that center. And when you find your balance around that center, more and more you can refine your effort so that you're using the least amount of effort Pure balance. me or want some encouragement, I'll hook you up with a stick.

[35:40]

And one important thing, this is really important, as you center yourself, as you begin to find your balance more and more, and let go of the temptations in your mind, put one finger on your chin and one finger on the small of your back and just put you in the lung. But most everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people are very stiff. And if you do the simple operations, you don't need to feel like that. It doesn't. should be very flexible and malleable, even though it looks like very stiff posture.

[37:30]

No need to be stiff. This is not stiff. This is just good form. If you know where to put the effort, this is just good form. Elbows are loose. Body is loose. So, if your arms, you're sitting like this and someone hits your elbow, what does your elbow do? Your whole body doesn't have to move because your elbow is just attached. It's joined up here. It's not a tense position.

[38:44]

It's an intense position. Very intense, but not tense. Very attentive, present, but not tense. So, that depends on the strain on your body. Continually, when you find your shoulders are going up, you have pain in your legs. But don't let down your back. This is too much. Good point. Good point. The effort is in the small of your back and in your waist. And the rest is just balance. No need to have any tense tension in your arms. Just enough to hold it neutral. And then equalize the effort in your body.

[39:45]

feel the effort in your palm, whereas the least amount of effort is to keep this form, without pressing my thumbs together. If I'm pressing my thumbs together, that's tension, cancelling. No need to do that. Just when you feel that tension, just let it go, and equalize the effort because it's just another feeling. Your mind tends to want to get drawn to that spot. And you ignore the rest of your body. You're kind of indulgent. When you find your attention is going to the pain in your legs, because it's pretty strong, Let your mind dwell in the rest of your body.

[40:48]

After all, the rest of your body demands its meditation. Why ignore it, just because you have a little family of it? Good. This is all there is for you to do. Keep a good balance. Let go of the tenseness in your body. Keep equalizing. Don't oppose. Not opposition. Be patient. Just be. There is no next moment. This is only 11 o'clock in the morning.

[41:57]

We have all day long to go. That's not joy. What does somebody else think about that? That's life. That's life. If you give it just one moment at a time, you can do it. Just one moment at a time. No need to go anywhere. So anticipation is covering. The mind covers. And it objectifies. It takes us out of the moment. You don't need to be angry.

[43:01]

Aum.

[43:48]

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