separation of subject and object. We say pleasure and pain, and pleasure is different than pain. But they both come from the same root. Both pleasure and pain come from the same root. And when we understand the unity of pleasure and pain and relief, we have some insight. And there's an old Chinese story, a ghost story. I should mention a collection of Chinese ghost stories from time to time. And the story is about a very famous story of Seju, Seju, and her divided soul.

[01:34]

Not soul in the sense of Hindu soul, something that transmigrates. But in order to talk about it, they used the word soul. And the story takes place in China a long time ago. And there was a father who had a very favorite daughter. His name was Seijo. And Seijo's cousin, Otsu, used to play with her a lot. And so he always used to, the father always used to kick him and say, when you two grow up, you'll be married. And they grew up taking him seriously. And so they were very fond of each other, and they always felt that they would be married.

[02:42]

But actually, the father had different plans for his daughter. There was another man who, to have married his brother. So he told her that both Sojo and Ocho were really crushed. And Ocho was so disconsolate that he left town and took a boat for another country. But to his surprise, After about 30 days, we found out that Sergio was on the same boat. And she followed him. And they were both over Joe to find Joe. And they went off and had a couple of children and raised a family in this other country. And after about five years, Sergio was beginning to get homesick.

[03:47]

And she liked her father a lot. And she didn't really want to hit him. And she wanted to go back and see how things were going at home. And so they decided that they would go pay their father a visit. So when they got back to the old homestead, Sage had stated in the book with the children, and Ochu went to the father's house and knocked on the door. And the father appeared, and he said, Santa and I will come back to pay you a visit. And the father looked at him, and he said, what are you talking about, Ochu? He said, it's nice to see you.

[04:49]

But Sejal has been here these past five years, lying in bed, without saying a word. Ever since you left, she's been in a coma, just lying here in bed. And she hasn't said a word to anybody. And Cochin scratched his head. And he said, well, why don't you come down to the boat, and I'll show you Sejal. Floddy said, no, I'm not going to go through that. But I'll send for a servant with you to check out. So Archie and his servant went back to the boat, and it turned out it was Sajo with the baby. And they brought Sajo back. And as soon as Sajo entered the house, Floddy looked, and he scratched his head,

[05:52]

We went into the bedroom, and there was Seijo lying down in bed. And so when he told me what had happened, the Seijo lying in bed, woke up, got out of bed, met the Seijo that was married to Ochi. And as soon as they met, they became one person. That's the end of the story. But, uh, Van Neumann has used this story in the Neumann film. And, uh, involves Goso, who is a Zen master of the Tang dynasty, of the Sun dynasty.

[07:10]

And Goso asked, the case was that Goso asked my mother, my sister's mother, Seijo's soul is separated from her. Which is the true Seijo? Assuming that I do not need a story, which was a popular thing at the time he said. Seijo's soul is separated from her. Which is the true Seijo? And that's the poem. Now, this is a very interesting, wonderful poem. Because it's so obvious. It's an obvious plan for us. Although, it's considered one of the most difficult plans. Seijo's problem is suffering.

[08:31]

Something like that. But that's not the sense of this particular story. The sense of this story is how do you become one with yourself? How do we become one with ourselves? How do we meet ourselves? And where do we meet ourselves? And what does it mean to meet ourselves? What our practice is about is how we meet ourselves. What this whole practice is about is how we meet ourselves. And I'm reminded of Kozang's famous poem, when he crossed the street after meeting his teacher, Hingang.

[09:33]

Bonjour. Kozang Ryokai was crossing the street. And he saw this reflection in the street. And he had this wonderful realization When he saw his reflection in his tomb, he said he wrote this poem. It partly says, everywhere I go, I see myself. I meet myself. Every place I go, I meet myself. an object. What did Tozan see? That's a good one. When Tozan looked into the screen, what did he see?

[10:40]

What did he see in the screen? What was Tozan's impression? So how do we meet ourselves? How do we get together with ourselves? How do we unify body and mind and direct? So in our practice, Zazen is the example of the touch state for unity.

[12:00]

So we have Zazen, which is how to bring body, mind, and the universe together in unity. And then you have activity, which is how to bring the body and mind and the universe together in activity. And we have study, which goes on. in between, which means how to understand what we're doing. Why we study is to understand what it is that we're actually doing. To be able to understand intellectually and to be able to communicate it.

[13:08]

So actual practice is in stillness and in movement. And maybe there's no need to understand it. You can practice without understanding what you're doing, actually. then you can actually live in enlightenment without understanding what you're doing. But it's necessary to understand what it is. Intellectually, we should understand what we're doing. Otherwise, we only have one part of the equation. One part of the equation is to actually do what you're doing. And that's the most essential, that's called the essential. The essential is to just be immersed in the actual. And the other side of the equation is to be immersed in the activity or the expression of the actual.

[14:37]

is the stillness. And the other part, third part of the equation is to study so that you understand what it is that it's about or what you're doing, to be able to not rationalize Satisfy or annoy and communicate that intellectual understanding. So this is Buddhist practice. I was talking to Robin about this. We were talking about what's the difference between the practice that common kind of practice that people do, what we call natural life, natural living, and Buddhist practice, Zen practice.

[15:50]

What's the difference between, I mean, isn't Buddhism natural? Kind of natural life? So what makes Buddhism distinct from everyday activity of ordinary people? We say The way is ordinary mind. Ordinary mind and ordinary activity is the way. So what makes that ordinary activity different from everybody else's ordinary activity? And why do we call it Buddhism again? The use of the word natural, I remember we used to talk about Suzuki Yoshi used to talk about natural a lot. And people, that question was around people 10 years, 15 years ago.

[16:52]

People were talking about zen versus the natural way. And Suzuki Yoshi was very careful to what people think of as natural tends to have a kind of uncontrolled spontaneous feeling you know when people say natural it means what comes naturally to me you know what I tend what my tendencies are kind of uncontrolled tendencies no impulses. But I think that's not what we mean by natural in Buddhism.

[17:59]

It's also natural to control impulses and to create a framework and a structure from which to live your life, within which to live your life. And also to You have a purpose and a direction in our life that's based on some kind of reality rather than just setting up feelings. So it's not so much the natural versus unnatural. You know, we tend to think of any kind of control or framework as being unnatural. And he was careful to say, this is natural.

[19:07]

To do that is natural to human beings. Human beings set up structures and act within them. And if you look at the various ways of life of people around the world, you find that each society sets up some kind of structure that works for that society. Primitive societies especially are so varied in their working structure. And when they set up those structures, There are taboos and do's and don'ts and rights and wrongs and certain rules and procedures to follow in order to maintain the structure that keeps the society going. And if those structures are violated, then the society doesn't work.

[20:14]

But if the structures are maintained, then the maintenance of the structure becomes the way of life of the people. And one of the sad things is that missionary people have gone to these various cultures and said, that's all wrong. You people should live some other way. And as soon as the slightest gap is made in those structures, they no longer work. People say, that's superstitious. All of these structures are superstitious. Of course they're superstitious. It's the superstition that keeps the structure viable. Superstition is like a set of beliefs that if they're maintained, the structures, even though it's an illusion, it stays there.

[21:19]

Just like our structure is also an illusion in the set of superstitions. Superstition of money and power. And we live in one big superstitious society, as you can see. But the superstitions, we're not calling them superstitions, we're calling them structures. And the myths that keep those structures valuable, are all necessary. As soon as they stop believing in it, it falls apart. As soon as everybody stops believing in money and loses confidence in the government, they all fall apart. So the myth and the superstition, it's all necessary. We can't do without it. And when people go to another country, and make the people doubt their own superstitions or their own myths, then you can leap and fall apart.

[22:31]

And they say, yeah, it's all wrong. But you can create a way of life for anyone you want. And if you believe in it, and the myth works, and you're strong enough to maintain it, it will work for some amount of time. So we keep doing that, we keep creating new myths and creating new structures and we keep pulling apart and make something else from it. Zen practice is how to... where's the real structure? It's not just mythical. and brings you together with the reality of yourself.

[23:31]

I guess there's a kind of zin here, but we don't like to see it as a zin, or as a superstition. And we like to keep our outlet fresh. And what brings most of us, I think, to Zen practice is the freshness of that outlook, which is not clouded by, you know, superstition or dogma. But there's still dogma, and there's superstition, and, you know, a little of that. And we accept it. But, on the other hand, we don't cherish it. or hang on to it when it's necessary. But what is necessary is to set up a structure that allows us to bring everything into focus.

[24:40]

The three things that are necessary, sitting zazen, having contact with the teacher, and having some kind of study and work that allows you to practice. If we don't have a structure, if we don't have a framework within the practice, we don't know what to look for and how to focus on our practice. Nick has just opened a book, he said, The Great Escape. No one can complete the escape. But the great escape has to have, once you pass through this great escape, where the And enter into practice.

[25:56]

Practice becomes matter. You enter into a matter state. And then you have some definition. We can say, you can say, my body is the whole universe. But that doesn't work, you know. You can't live that way. You have to say, my body is bound by this outline. that I can really work with. So that's, we have this limitation, and so we have something to work with. But at the same time, we know that the whole universe is my body. But what we're working with is this body. This is our definition of myself. So we have two definitions.

[26:58]

One is this limited body, and the other is the unlimited body. But in order to deal, in order to understand the unlimited body, you have to understand the limited body. So how we practice is to live with the limited body in a limited circumstance. grab on to the tail of the comet and people will pity you. So to limit our activity and to find a framework we need to study and practice and actualize ourselves

[28:01]

It's the most necessary thing. And within the structure, you find your realization. So structure practices great form, and is great form, and is form and is form. But if you ignore it, If you try to find realization or practice outside of that, you just wander around. Because you have no place for focus, and no place to bring all of your loose ends into unity. the highest freedom.

[29:05]

At the same time, it's the most unlimited freedom. But you have to be able to find your freedom, most unlimited freedom, in the most restrictive spot. To bring two extremes together, this is Seijo and his soul, you know, you bring the two, which is the right one, which is the true Seijo? restriction of being. And two sages come together. There's only one sage, and that sage was both limited and unlimited. But at the same time, there are on many things. So, it's quite a wonderful thing.

[30:10]

As practice, it's expressed as become one with your activity. You may be sigil, but you don't understand who the other sigil is. Let me say, be one with your activity to eliminate two Seijos. Seijo is whatever act the other Seijo is, is whatever you do. If you're washing dishes, Seijo is the other side of you, which is the dishes and sink and the water. Everything that you come in contact with is the other side of yourself. If you ignore the other side of yourself, it's called the realm of suffering.

[31:22]

To ignore the other side of yourself, it's called the realm of suffering, because you're always separated from yourself. That's why he said, do not leave me alive. It's the way. and what you're doing. Just don't see everything only as an object. Don't see yourself. As long as you don't see yourself as an object, you can see yourself. So we have a limitation in practice. We have the opportunity to unify. This is what we mean by, something of what we mean by unifying body and mind with the rest.

[32:25]

Real unity. Not just this mind and this body, but this mind and unlimited mind. And this body and unlimited body. The other part of myself. So, separated and not separated at the same time. Newland's verse, he says. Well, Newland's commentary is very interesting. He says, if you realize the true meaning of this, in this case, you will understand that getting out of one shell and entering another is just like a caravel staring at an inn.

[33:34]

And what he means here is this can be easily misconceived as reincarnation. You know, you get out of one husk and you're going into another. He doesn't mean that, actually. But the meaning is, moment to moment, birth and death. Moment to moment, leaving behind one body and entering another. That's what a life is about. Even though we see it as continuity, one continuous life, Your mind says, moment by moment, entering and leaving, being born and dying. If you realize the true one in this, the true one in this, you will understand that getting out of one shell and entering another is just like a traveler staying at a inn.

[34:43]

If you have not realized it, don't rush about wildly. When earth, water, fire, and wind are suddenly about to decompose, you will be like a crab which has fallen into boiling water and is struggling with its seven arms and eight legs. At that time, don't say I didn't warn you. Here's the way they cook crabs. And that's what he's referring to. If you don't understand, if you don't have that... When the elements separate in your body, you'll be at a loss if you don't understand it.

[36:01]

You don't live it. If you live it, you should have some way of living with it. Old people, when they died of a so-called natural death, should be helped to let go rather than resisting. When you see that the end is really near, really there, we should help people to let go. But we have to know how to let go ourselves. You can't help someone to let go unless you know how to let go yourself. is to be able to not comfort him by trying to make him well again and feeding him some food to him.

[37:24]

Even if I don't, I can help him to let go of his grasp so that they're unified and become unified with themselves and with what's happening. Become one with what's happening. I don't know whether it's a pleasure or not. I think that we can take pleasure in that experience. Because it's magic. So then the verse goes like this. The clouds and the moon are the same. Valleys and mountains are different from each other. All are blessed. All are blessed. 10,000 things, 10,000 blessings. Is this one? Is this two? It's what? You might leave this at that point.

[38:27]

The clouds and the moon are the same. That's the meaning of sameness and difference. Different things are the same. pressure and pain are the same. But when we tie them to the root, when we see that they're tied, come from the same root, they're the same. In that sense, they're the same. And then he says, varieties and margins are different from each other. And then he says, All are blessed, all are blessed. Ten thousand things, ten thousand blessings. Is this one? Is this two? That's also a kind of prayer.

[39:29]

Is this one? Is this two? Is it one or two? That's always a prayer. So how do we practice in this way? Pay attention to try to do everything completely. Do not say, oh, this is good enough. How we do something is significant as to who we are and what we are.

[40:46]

It's easy to tell when someone is really unified or not, just by looking at how they do things. So to think that we're practicing Zen and to ignore our actions, that's to be miles away from myself, poles apart from myself. and to ignore how we respond, how we act, how we do things. It's all tied up with our minutest activities. You can't escape. There's no escape from this reality. We're either one with ourself and things, or we're completely out of it. And the other side, the other me, is what's here in front.

[42:02]

So, taking care of our surroundings, paying attention to what's around us and what's in front of us. should feel good about ourselves. You know, when we're really engaged, when we're totally engaged, we feel good about ourselves. And as soon as we start to step back and separate from that, there's a gap. Then we feel terrible about ourselves. And until we get engaged again, we can't stand ourselves. And if you look around, most of the people accepting of us and liking of us, our people are not engaged. As long as we stand back and wonder, doubt,

[43:14]

I think that becomes a habit. You can isolate yourself to such an extent that no matter how hard you try, you can't get back into it. So, you know, sometimes people say, well, you know, I have doubts about engaging in Zen practice. I don't want to engage fully in the practice because I have doubts. But if so, you should do something. You don't have to practice in practice. You should do something that engages you completely. I mean, I would support you all the way.

[44:33]

And it's like, I like this story. It's like, and I think of it in musical terms. When you're playing music, music is the epitome of how to live our lives in harmony, in a harmonious way. And music doesn't sound like, unless it's in tune, unless all the instruments are in tune with each other. So the first thing that the musicians have to do is tune with each other. And when instruments tune with each other, and when they're in tune completely, the musicians don't hear it themselves. They hear themselves, but in a way that you hear yourself, but you don't pick yourself out. You know, you don't distinguish yourself.

[46:12]

Although you know that you're there completely. And it's the feeling of being completely there. And when somebody goes out of tune, you feel disengaged or out of focus. You know, something's overrides and it's not right, and there's a jagged edge. And when all these things come at anything, it's... No matter what's happening in music, there's always stillness and peace. No matter how allegro or vivace the music is, at its center, it's always So you can listen or play without being anxious.

[47:24]

As soon as anxiety comes into the situation, you've lost it. So good musicians have a sense of stillness and peace, and never speeding up or slowing down. And it comes from doing anything that is supposed to do, right. Being careful to do everything that is supposed to do is completely right to execute. It's simple. Thank you.

[48:54]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ