I vow to taste the truth of the Holy Ghost's Word. Well, this is the fifth day of T'Sheng. He's been sitting four days. This is the fifth day. I just arrived. So I'm kind of a come-lately person. Last night we chanted Dogen Zenji's Kukanza Zengi.

[01:19]

So I thought that today I would talk about Kukanza Zengi. Before I begin, because I thought I would forget, I want to remind you that tonight we have Shosan. Shosan is a formal question and answer that we do together. And that will be explained how we do that. If any of you haven't, I think most of you have, And Shosan, each one of us comes forward and asks, we have a quick question.

[02:34]

Shosan is kind of a joke song that we do together. Everybody participates in it. And we all get to hear the questions, and we all get to hear the answers. I'd not like to focus on what you talked about in your problems, but it's just a question and a response. And then maybe begin a little deeper. But it doesn't go on too long. It's fairly short, if I take. So we'll But I don't want to explain the procedure here. We'll explain the procedure some other time. I'm not sure when. This doesn't seem to be... It's all right. We don't have to preserve anything. So while you're trying not to think during Zazen,

[04:10]

come up with a good question. In Fukan Zazengi, Dogen talks about actual practice of zazen. In his festival, Bendoa, he talks about the philosophy of zazen and practice. But in Fukan Zazenki, he actually talks more about what to do.

[05:27]

in Zazen and why. I don't want to read the whole thing, but there are certain points that I want to bring out and talk about a little bit. So he begins by saying, the way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one right where one is. So what's the use of going off here and there to practice? The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How can it be contingent upon doing something called practice? The Dharma vehicle is free and traveled, I don't know that I like the choice of words here so much, but in this translation, uninhibited, unstopped.

[06:44]

What need is there for concentrated effort? Why do we have to do anything? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Didn't the Sixth Patriarch say so? He said, why wipe the mirror clean when there is no mirror? To wipe. It is never apart from one. Right where one is. Hit. That which we seek is never apart from one. Right where one is. Why do something? Why look for it? It's very logical and there's a lot of truth in it. You can't argue with it. This was Dogen's, apparently Dogen's, question when he went to China.

[07:47]

This was kind of at the bottom of his questioning. If indeed Buddha nature is everywhere and all-pervading, and not apart from one, right where one is. What's the use of going up here and there to make a stir? He says, and yet, or but. And yet means but. If there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth." So it all hinges on this slight discrepancy. What he says in the first paragraph is quite true, but there's some discrepancy. Apparently there's some discrepancy.

[08:51]

If there's the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. So even though everything is here, as it should be, there's something about liking and disliking, being attached to liking and disliking, that spoils it. or makes it difficult to see or impossible to comprehend. So somehow, like and dislike are a problem. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one's own attainment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, raising an aspiration to escalate the very sky.

[09:57]

One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontier, but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation. One who has this kind of aspiration is not wrong, but it sounds like he's referring to someone who likes to criticize people who don't do it right. So even though someone like this is doing it, they're not doing it quite right. Someone may have years of practice and be high up on the hierarchical ladder of Buddhism in some way, and have lots of knowledge, but still, if they don't If like and dislike are still, even if that person is attached to like and dislike, they may be close, but close is not good enough.

[11:15]

So then he tells us how to do Zazen. And then he goes down to the bottom and he tells us how to do zazen, talks about Buddha and so forth. And then he says, once you have adjusted your posture, this is after zazen instruction, once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady and mobile sitting position. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of Zazen. So, he tells us how to sit Zazen, and then he says, but this is it. This is the core. This is the essential art of Zazen. Think not thinking. The Zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharmic aid of repose and bliss.

[12:23]

the practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like the dragon when he gains the water, like the tiger when she enters the mountain. For you must know that just there, in zazen, the right dharma is manifesting itself, and that from the first, dullness and distraction are struck aside. These two words, dullness and distraction, are important words which I'll talk about. Dogen wrote a fascicle, as you know, on this question of think-not-thinking called Zazen Shin, Zazen, heart-mind. And he begins by saying, when Yakusan was sitting zazen, monk said, what do you think about when you're sitting zazen like that?

[13:36]

And Yakusan said, I think not thinking. And the monk said, well, what is not thinking? What is thinking not thinking? And Yakusan said, non-thinking. Non-thinking can be translated in various ways, but it's okay to say non-thinking. Implication of non-thinking means beyond thinking, or beyond thinking and not thinking. And to get back to this, you must know that right there in zazen the right dharma is manifesting itself and that from the first dullness and distraction are struck aside.

[14:42]

Dullness and distraction, my feeling about these two words is they're not just usual dullness and distraction. Dullness may not be the right word, but dullness in this sense means trying not to think of anything. In other words, a blank mind. Trying to hold a blank mind where no thoughts are entering. And distraction means just letting the thoughts run rampant so that to the point where our interest in the thoughts is greater than our interest in bringing our mind, controlling our mind, or bringing it back. So these are the two extremes of mental activity.

[15:45]

One is blank mind, which is in which the word dullness here is used, and uncontrolled or unbridled mind, which means distraction, or which is termed distraction. Often we think dullness means, well, you get sleepy, and then you think he's not so clear, and so forth. That is a kind of dullness. But here, it means trying to maintain a blank mind. So Dogen always warns us, and in Zazen Shin, he warns us, he talks about those people who think that zazen is to keep a blank mind.

[16:50]

And when we have a blank mind, which is free of all forms of thought, then we settle down in peacefulness. It's true that if you have a blank mind, then you do settle down in a kind of peacefulness. But this is, he says, beyond the Hinayana way, worse than the Hinayana way. So these two terms, dullness and distraction, you can also see them as being aversion and grasping. Because aversion tries to keep away all thoughts or all disagreeable things.

[17:57]

So if you think that thoughts are disagreeable, then you'll try to keep them away, keep them from entering. And if you like them too much, then you get distracted by them, and you want to keep them and hold on to them and play with them. So dullness and distraction also stand for aversion and grasping. And the two biggest hindrances in zazen are aversion and grasping, dullness and distraction, liking and disliking. What do we think about in zazen? I think not thinking. What is not thinking?

[19:00]

Non-thinking. Which means beyond thinking and not thinking. Thoughts are all right. No thoughts is okay. If you have no thoughts in zazen, no need to try to produce them. It's okay. If you have thoughts, no need to try to eliminate them. It's okay. But when there are no thoughts in zazen, sooner or later there will be a thought. For a moment, for a little while, No thoughts, but then thoughts again. And when there are many, many thoughts, at some point, no thoughts.

[20:06]

Which one do you like? Which do you want? beyond thinking and not thinking. When a thought arises, just this thought. When it goes, no thought. When there's no thought, just no thought. So, But we get very caught up. All during Zazen, I had nothing but thoughts going on in my mind. Obsessive thoughts. This is one of our biggest complaints. And it goes on and on and on. No matter how long we sit Zazen, we always complain.

[21:15]

Oh, I have so many thoughts. We leave the city where our mind is busy. where we have many interactions, distractions, desires, and we come to the mountains, deep in the mountains, where there are no distractions. Even somebody picking their nose the wrong way can be a big distraction. The way somebody walks with a tray would be a big distraction. The fly on the nose would be a big distraction. So we may be able to get away from the city, but we can't get away from ourself so easily.

[22:18]

So what do we do with our thinking? We have it. Here it is. If we try to get rid of thinking, we just raise another thought. Someone said it's like pouring oil on fire to try to get rid of our thinking. So, in Zazen, we take the positive step rather than trying to drive away thoughts. We just keep our attention on posture and breathing. Think not thinking means to think the thought of Zazen. It means when doing Zazen, think the thought of Zazen.

[23:34]

But then something comes and mind, consciousness is carried away. Then we wake up to, oh, think the thought of Zazen. And then we let go of our grasp on the thought and come back to thinking the thought of Zazen. Think the thought of posture. Think the thought of breath. That's all. That's all there is to do. When consciousness, attention, is completely posture, then there's no gap between body and mind. And when there's no gap, there's no problem. Just close the gap so that the thought is the activity.

[24:38]

The thought of Zazen is the activity of Zazen. The activity of Zazen is the thought of Zazen. Body and mind, one piece. The thought of breath is the activity of breath. The activity of breath is the thought of breath. thinking and activity, one, one piece. This is called waking up over and over. Consciousness, a thought appears in consciousness, some thought appears in consciousness, and that thought has the right to be there. But, excuse me, I'm doing Zazen.

[25:52]

You can be there if you want to. Go ahead and sit there if you want to. But, excuse me, I can't pay attention to you right now because I'm doing Zazen. Come back later. We can hang a little sign on our mind. Come back later for tea. Our biggest problem, actually, is we get bothered by thinking mind. On the other hand, if we're not bothered by it, that's to ignore it, or to ignore the problem. If we're too bothered by it, then we get caught by the problem. So, without ignoring the problem, and without getting caught by the problem, how do we do it?

[27:02]

If we ignore the problem, then we just let the mind have free reign. If we get caught by the problem, it means that we can't stand that thoughts are coming. Because we want zazen to be perfect. This is tending toward aversion. So, aversion is a kind of grasping and holding on is a kind of grasping. Either way we get caught. So how do we stay in the middle way between grasping and aversion? Between anger and compassion? Between desire and letting go? Our whole life is right here in this problem.

[28:22]

All of our mental baggage, so to speak, passes through. Some of the suitcases are huge. and some are small. Monks, you know, traditionally give up all of those practices which create mental baggage. They give up sex, which is one of the biggest ones, and desire for possessions, for money, fame, power, so that there's no... their minds are no longer generating karma, which fills their bags, mind bags.

[29:50]

So, in some sense, we're monks, but we have lots of ties in this world. And it's very difficult for us to let go of the ties in this world. So, in some sense, it's a little harder for us to let go of mental baggage. Even if we do let go, we still have it. The fly on the nose bothers me. The way somebody walks across the floor bothers me. The way somebody talks to me bothers me. And I can keep that in my head going round and round for five days. That's a recurring theme. So this is called the scenery of our life, even though to us it's of vital importance.

[31:20]

Vital importance, but it's really the scenery of our life. So we just have to let the tape go until it plays itself out. Residual karma is like this. Even though we're not creating karma while we're sitting, the residue of our life has this momentum. And you can't cut it off. It has to play itself out. When it gets tired, when there's no longer any impetus for it to continue will gradually slow down and no longer appear so often and gradually fail to appear again. And then some other obsession will take its place.

[32:27]

But the important point is to keep coming back to posture and breathing. never mind chasing it away just do the positive thing is to keep coming back to keep waking up to this fact and just climbing back on board mind wanders and you wake up to this fact and then you bring your attention back and become one with the activity again over and over and over again in this effort to do that is us in the effort to keep maintaining and sustaining our intention without getting angry, without complaining, without blaming, without getting tired.

[33:40]

of it. Just over and over and over again. Dogen says later on, he says, you have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not use your time in vain. You are maintaining the essential working of the Buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the Flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass. Destiny, like the dart of lightning, emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash. And praise honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. You all know the story of the elephant, don't you?

[34:41]

Well, it's time to stop. Now, let's see, how did they go? There was a king at Raja in India. He wanted to test all of his wise men. So he blindfolded them and brought out an elephant. And he said, feel this thing, whatever it is, and tell me what it is. He took hold of the tail and he said, oh, this is a long rope, you know, used to blah, blah, blah. Someone else felt the elephant's feet, and he said, oh, this is a huge tree, and blah, blah, blah. Someone else felt his trunk and said, oh, this is a great snake. And everyone came up with some different idea, because they were blindfolded.

[35:57]

So this example is a very common example used in Buddhism. Don't be fooled. Long accustomed to groping for the elephant. Don't be suspicious of the true dragon. That's another story. Short. There was this man who loved to collect. He loved dragons. And he loved collecting anything pertaining to dragons. He had pictures of dragons all over his walls, and statues of dragons, and literature on dragons. And one day, a dragon came along, and poked his head out the door. And the guy ran away. He couldn't stand the look of a true dragon when he finally arrived. The dragon heard about him, he thought he'd come to pay his respects, you know.

[37:06]

So, please, think of a good question in your spare time. Yeah.

[37:37]

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