I bow in thanks and truth to Tathagatastu. Good morning. So, during practice period, we've been studying Prajnaparamita heart sutra, and how we practice this in our daily life, how this manifests as our life. So, what's... been given to us to work with are the so-called six prajnaparamitas.

[01:03]

Generosity, appropriate action, patience, enthusiastic effort, meditation, and prajna itself, wisdom, so-called. So these are the six paramitas that are, or six practices of prajnaparamita. six ways to practice Prajnaparamita in our life. I talked about dana, which is generosity, but I haven't talked about the others.

[02:11]

So today I'm going to talk about patience and enthusiastic effort. Patience and enthusiastic effort are complementary. They're the two sides of our activity. Patience or kshanti is forbearance. Forbearance or patience. And one is, that's, forbearance or patience is like containment. And viria, which comes from the word virility, but actually it's more like vitality. Vitality applies to both sexes.

[03:14]

Virility is a little bit on the male side. But vitality, I think, is probably more accurate anyway. I like to use the word enthusiasm, sometimes energy, but energy is more systemic rather than psychological. So enthusiastic effort is... I really want to talk today about enthusiastic effort, but I can't talk about it without talking about patience and forbearance, because they really balance each other.

[04:20]

And if you think about it, this is what we're always talking about in practice, are these two sides. You know, basically we're talking about stillness and activity. And these are the two basic aspects of our practice. Containment and activity. How we put ourself into activity and how we maintain our practice with enthusiasm. So, I've come up with a number of terms or descriptions of patience and zeal, sometimes called zeal, zealous. Patience or forbearance, kshanti.

[05:21]

So, Here are some descriptions or composure is patience, composure or calmness of mind. Being in time, not behind time or not ahead of time, just being right in time. not getting ahead and not falling behind. To settle into the present moment. Often we think of patience as waiting. I'm very patient, I'm waiting. But that's a lower form of patience. Patience is really just being totally settled in this moment without anxiety, without waiting for the next moment.

[06:25]

But I'll talk about that. And forbearance is to endure under pressure, to be able to stand your ground, to be able to when things are really pressing on you to find your composure, to find your center. And it's also to not resort to backbiting or retaliation, and to be able to wait your turn. and to be present moment by moment, to be aware so that you can act at exactly the right moment. Like a cat, or a tiger, or a frog, just being totally settled, but at the right moment, you do the right thing.

[07:40]

Like they say, kicks, can wait 20, 30 years for somebody, for some animal to walk by. True, I think. Also, forbearance is like long suffering. you're able to go along with something that is very difficult and not give up. So zeal, or viria, or enthusiasm, enthusiastic effort, of course enthusiasm, wholeheartedness, meaning doing something completely Thoroughness, saying something to the end, not holding back, meaning I give so much, but I retain something.

[08:54]

This is a big one. Positive attitude. Assertiveness, which means leading, but it also means balanced by following. and leading and not just following. We say to be a engine as well as a boxcar. To be able to move the load as well as to be moved by it. To move the practice as well as to be moved by the practice. So that's a big one. And then there's taking responsibility. Positive aspect. And overcoming hesitation. And inspiration.

[09:59]

That's a big one. And affirmation. And balancing faith and doubt. And commitment. So these are just synonyms that I have thought of pertaining to these two categories, patience and enthusiastic effort. So, this is like practicing with these qualities is how we allow prajna to come forth. And how we practice these two qualities is how we allow ourselves to drop away in emptiness, to bring forth prajna

[11:09]

practicing, letting go of self in all these activities. But, you know, the paramitas are called the perfections of wisdom, perfection of dana, the perfection of enthusiasm, enthusiastic effort, the perfection of patience. But it doesn't mean that everything you do is perfect. in a sense of attainment. Perfection in this sense means ongoing practice, sometimes failing and sometimes being successful, falling off and coming back, falling off and coming back. Sometimes we're always falling off. Within the realm of practice, falling off is practice.

[12:20]

Getting back on track is practice. If we see all of our activity as practice, then falling off is also practice. Getting back on is also practice. These are the two sides. This is ongoing. practice within all situations. So we're making this effort all the time in all of our activity, patience and enthusiastic effort. In Zazen, our mind always wanders. When we become mindful, we bring our attention back.

[13:27]

This is the essence of practice. This is the essence of perfection. We may think, someday my Zazen will be perfect because I won't have any thoughts. That isn't Zazen. Not having thoughts is not zazen. Zazen is letting thinking think. Think, not thinking. Simply always returning, coming back to your intention. You don't intend to think, but thinking happens. So our intention is to stay with posture and breathing. So we keep coming back over and over again. And the perfection is within that effort. The nature of mind is to think. You can stop thinking.

[14:31]

It's possible to just cut off thinking. But that's not satsang. That's just cutting off thinking. to be able to sit with, free of the thinking within the thinking, to be free of thoughts within the thoughts. So that's the effort. The effort is to be free of the thoughts within the thoughts. The patience is to not judge yourself The patience is to not think, this is wrong, to have thoughts going on.

[15:34]

And the same holds true in our daily life. So this is the essence of composure. Composure is to be able to not get pushed off our seat by anything. This is containment, to contain self-containment. So in Sazen, we learn this, right? We learn to be in each moment, to be totally on each moment without expecting anything, without even expecting the next moment. This is containment. This is composure. No matter what happens, pain in your legs are killing you.

[16:40]

and you simply go deeper into settling and composure. And this is the effort. Effort and containment at the same time. Both are present at the same time. So when we come to practice, we come to follow the practice. And so we give ourselves freely to the practice. Of course, we don't, always. Sometimes we do. But often we're holding something back. And even when one has been practicing for many, many years, we come to a point where

[17:42]

we realize that we're really holding something back. We're not really fully engaged. There's something that we keep for ourself. I don't want you to take that thing from me. Do you know that place? I want this. I'll give you so much. I'll give the practice so much, but not this. So there's this koan about the buffalo going through the window, passing through the window. The head, the horns, the legs, the hooves all go through the window except for the tail, that little tail that just won't go through. It's just that little thing. So, we have to be able to let go so that the whole buffalo goes through the window.

[19:00]

And that's the sticking point with most everyone. So, enthusiasm, wholeheartedness. Wholehearted means, you know, to give yourself to something without reservation. I don't expect that everyone will do that, but I always say, if you want the most precious thing, You have to pay the highest price. You get what you pay for. Nothing is free. You say, oh, free.

[20:01]

No. Everything is paid for, some way or another. You do something, you pay for it. You do something wrong, you pay for it. Even though you may not get caught doing something wrong, you still pay for it in your psyche. So if we really want the precious jewel, you have to pay the highest price. What is the highest price? Total giving, to let go of everything. So that's thoroughness. Dogen talks about thoroughness. That's essence of his practice, actually. Just throw yourself into the house of Buddha. Don't look back. And this is what gives us a positive attitude.

[21:08]

There's some doubt. Doubt is fine. Doubt is also a complement of faith. It's the same thing. Here is patience. Patience is like doubt. And as faith is to doubt, patience is like, or faith is like Effort, like running off. Optimism, that was a little like pessimism. Hold me back, that's good. Because doubt is important to check faith. Because you can see what happens with faith. It can destroy the world.

[22:08]

The most important thing is faith, but it can destroy the world. faith run amok, it destroys the world. So there has to be some doubt to hold it back and refine it, keep it in check, keep it in... So the same with patience and enthusiasm. So enthusiasm wants to run off and give itself fully, but patience says, whoa, [...] a little bit at a time. And I think this is important in practice, a little bit at a time. We have enthusiasm when we come to practice, and we have maybe some inspiration. Inspiration is important. We're inspired by something. And that euphoria, or whatever you want to call it, enthusiastic euphoria, can take us into practice.

[23:15]

And then at some point, what am I doing? Some doubt comes in. The momentum slows down. And then there has to be something else that keeps the practice going, besides that initial momentum. So we have to find, sometimes re-find our inspiration. And we do go through cycles. A Zen student will always go through these cycles of inspiration and doubt. So, inspiration and a letdown of energy. So, I think the important thing about that sustaining What sustains effort is our commitment, our intention-slash-commitment.

[24:22]

Intention-slash-commitment is what keeps everything going, whether there is doubt or faith or whatever. because you will find places where the only thing that will keep you going is that intention, because you know that you'll come out the other side. So when we come to practice, we have various ideas about what practice is. And as our practice matures, we begin to realize what is really going on in zazen and in our daily life practice. It is not just to improve ourselves in some way.

[25:33]

but to settle down into reality so that we can let go of self-centeredness. And drop body and mind. You don't quite get that in the beginning. Some people do. But then we have to look at our reasoning. So when we begin to practice, we follow the practice. which is good. One of the characteristics of Zen practice is when you enter the practice there's resistance to you entering, and so you kind of have to push your way in, and that itself stimulates your effort. to kind of push your way in. You don't know what's going on, but you know that you want to do something, or at least you want to explore it. So that resistance tests your intention.

[26:40]

So people, we're much more open than we used to be, but in the beginning, we were very resistant to people entering the practice as a test of your sincerity. If you really want to practice, you have to kind of find your way in. And then, if you go to, well, in Japan, the monks go to the monastery and they go to the steps and put their head down on the steps until somebody comes out and lets them in. You may think, that's not a good idea. I don't know whether it's good or not. that tests their sincerity. If they don't think that's a good idea, they go away and do something else. Because given the intensity of practice, they only want to deal with people whose practice is sincere.

[27:49]

So it gets all sorted out at the steps rather than after they enter. And even then, there are problems. So we enter practice and we follow along, and we find our way. And when a practice becomes more mature, then we start taking leadership. Leadership doesn't mean that you give some, you know, now you're the leader. No, it means that your enthusiasm and your effort is encouraging other people. Actually, the beginner's enthusiasm, the beginner's practice is the most encouraging. Sometimes when people come to practice, the first session is the most wonderful because All of us jaded Zen students appreciate the naivety of someone's first Sashin and the effort that's going on, and that's encouraging to everybody.

[29:00]

Wonderful. But that's what Suzuki Roshi meant by beginner's mind, to always have that first time doing something. not to get jaded in our practice. Oh, I've done that a lot of times. I've been to a lot of sushins. This sushin, my legs didn't hurt at all. God, how come they're hurting in this sushin? So without expectation, we just don't know what we're doing. People say, well, when I come to Sashin, what should I think about? How should I prepare for Sashin? And I say, don't prepare for Sashin. It's just the next thing you do. Just walk in without any idea about it at all. No preparation. The more preparation you have, the worse it's gonna be.

[30:02]

Because it's not going to accord with the idea you have. The same with enlightenment. The more ideas you have about enlightenment, the more your enlightenment is blocked, because it's never going to accord with the idea you have. When you totally let go of all ideas and all expectations and just enter, that's enlightenment. So another aspect is taking responsibility. Once your practice matures, then you're asked to take responsibility. So one thing I wanted to talk about was our positions. Ideally, for all members to have some position that they take care of, which

[31:10]

plugs you into practice, which is an interdependent practice of everybody taking care of the practice. Practice only works if everyone is involved in taking care of things. So, that's responsibility. And it could be just a tiny thing, like, taking care of an altar or something, but something that includes you in responsibility for the practice. Not just coming to practice, sitting zazen, and letting others take care of things. So every, I don't like to call them jobs. We fall into calling it jobs, but I like to call them practice positions. if you call them practice positions, you say, oh, this is my practice, it's not my job. And then you think about it in terms of my practice, or instead of my job.

[32:17]

Your job is what you do someplace to earn your living. But here, you have a practice position. And so you practice from that position, and you see the whole practice from, you relate to the whole practice from that position. If you're the work leader, you relate to everyone, the whole practice, from that position, and then you see how the practice works from that position. If you're cooking, then you see how the whole practice works from that position. And so, to rotate positions, gives you a full sense of how the practice works for everybody and how you can participate in making that happen. And then that's called selfless activity. You're not just doing something for yourself. You're giving yourself freely and totally for the practice, but you're only doing it from that small position.

[33:26]

And so each position is valuable and has virtue. So a big position is good, a small position is just as good. So if you don't have very much time, Just taking on something small to participate and make the practice work is wonderful. So it helps everyone else, and it also helps you. And if you can just take on the smallest position, with enthusiasm and patience, you have your whole practice right there. Nyogin Senzaki was talking about a student.

[34:35]

He wanted to test her practice, so he gave her a piece of incense to offer, and she offered the piece of incense, and he said, I passed her. on her understanding. Do you have a new question? D? Thank you. I agree with you about work positions and the huge importance of them and personal, that all of these were personal growth and community growth.

[35:37]

not that I'm waiting patients, but the other. And I feel like, and I think it's the world is like this, that we're so encouraged to be patient and generous that sometimes we forget that we're not supposed to just sit back and say, oh that's fine, oh that's fine, oh that's fine. And I think that that's to be. So I find a lot of people, myself included, sit back and don't do anything, and then things just don't get any better. And I guess I don't understand why, or maybe it's just my mind, that there's not, it feels like there's not a lot of talk about how to gauge that Well, everything's perfect doesn't mean that there's no room for improvement.

[37:09]

I don't think we do say that. I don't think we do say all those things that you said that we say. I really don't. You know, oh, everything's okay. You know, everything's not okay. In the big sense, everything is just what it is. But in a utilitarian sense, there's right and wrong, and this has to be done this way, and that has to be done that way, and it all has to get done. That's why your whole life is a koan. This, our practice is called the practice of gencho koan. Everyday life, moment by moment, what do you do, given that everything is just as it is, and yet there are all these things that have to get done, and there's right and wrong, and good and bad, and so forth.

[38:19]

So, that's right where the koan is, moment by moment in our life. work on that koan, which I hope you will do, then you have your practice. That's the essence of our practice, to work on that. If you forget it, then you don't know what you're doing. I think I'd like to be working on something else. Yeah. I mean, I'm still here, so the intention is still there. Yes. Yeah. But you know, the fact that you can say I'm missing something is practice. Even though you're missing, you're doing the practice. Katherine? When I hear patients, because, for me, too much enthusiasm has gotten me in trouble.

[39:43]

And enthusiasm can cross a line for me to become kind of rigidcy. It's almost like It evolves into frustration and protest and I get tied up in knots and it evolves into impatience. being grounded.

[40:44]

So patience is like being grounded. And so that activity can, you know, it's like someone may suddenly become enlightened, have a big enlightenment experience, big Kensho, you know, opening, and exuberance for a week and two weeks, you know, like I couldn't walk on the ground for two weeks, you know, and stuff like that. So this kind of experience, you cannot live in that kind of experience. So you turn that energy over to permeating everything so that it doesn't stand out. It's not like your enthusiasm is standing out in some way, you know, like sometimes, oh God, you know, tone yourself down, you know. But you spread it out into all these activities so that the energy is like veins going into the body, running through the body, so that everything works smoothly and harmoniously, body, breath, mind, and activity.

[41:53]

It's all moving. together harmoniously, so that nothing stands out. It doesn't stand out necessarily as enthusiasm, but that enthusiasm is subtle and it permeates everything. It doesn't stand out in some way. That's harmonious practice. One more question. I was thinking, why not call it vigor? includes the body, includes, I think of blades of grass having vigor, but enthusiasm means something else to me. Yeah, vigor-tality. Vigor-tality. I think of collars with their tongue hanging out. I know, I have a dog like that.

[42:47]

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