This morning I want to talk about posture and breathing. We say that our practice is so-called shikantaza. Shikantaza literally means just sitting. But this can, if we don't understand, then it sounds kind of passive, you know, to just sit and let the thoughts come and go and so forth. It sounds very passive. And there is a passive side to shikantaza or to our zazen. But there's also a very active side.

[01:05]

And the object, or what we try to do in zazen, is bring both passive and active together equally. So at the same time that we're letting everything come and go, we're also bringing our whole body and mind to this activity, fully functioning, fully engaged. It's important to be fully attentive and engaged and concentrated.

[02:14]

Although concentration is not the only factor, it's of utmost necessity to be fully concentrated. So when our mind wanders, we bring our attention back to what we're doing. And while we're sitting, we're constantly concentrated on posture and breathing. So the foundation of our practice is posture. Not everyone feels okay physically. Zazen is not physical culture, but we do it with our body. Every one of us has a body.

[03:20]

So what we do Zazen with is the body. So we have a certain standard for zazen, a certain way to hold our posture. And we can talk about the various subtleties of how to keep our posture. But since every one of us is a little different, we have to be able to see what that ideal is and see where we are on the scale of the ideal according to our ability, our capabilities. Some people can't cross their legs. Some people may have some problem with their back or with their knees or something, you know, some physical problem. But nevertheless, each one of us has to be able to see where we are on that scale and then find our posture according to our

[04:34]

So when I talk about zazen posture, I'm talking about ideal zazen posture. And you may say, well, I can't do that. If not, then you have to find out what you can do. Some people have to sit in a chair, which is fine. Some people might want to sit on a bench. Some people sit in seiza. But when I do talk about zazen posture, I talk about ideal zazen posture. So, the posture is the foundation. And in our posture, we hold our back very straight. For ideal zazen, you push your lower back forward and raise your sternum and keep your head on top of your spine so that you feel that your body is being stretched, your upper body is being stretched and your ears are in line with your shoulders.

[06:04]

So there's a slight curve in your lower back. This is ideal posture for Zazen. And during Zazen, we put all our energy into keeping that posture. And our posture is always changing. So we have to continually go over all the points of our posture. And keep our mind concentrated and alert. to the changing posture, changing aspects of posture. So it's important to keep our ears in line with our shoulders, otherwise our head falls forward. That's not ideal posture. Ideal posture is to keep our ears in line with our shoulders and our head on top of our spine.

[07:13]

Then you can lift up your sternum and you feel like your whole body is opening up, opened up and rising. If you keep your head like this, you're looking out over something. So we keep our gaze slightly down without pulling our head forward. This is the basic posture, basic foundation. And then our mudra, when we hold our mudra, we keep our thumbs facing each other, the tips of the thumbs facing each other. Not like this, but like this. And you hold a good form with our mudra.

[08:19]

feels like a round form, even though it may not be round. It feels round. And with our elbows away from our body. Some people hold a mudra up here, like this, but that's, I think, too much of a strain. It's not natural. So we should find a natural way to hold our hands. But we put our hands up against our belly and down by our feet. If you lean on your mudra, that's too convenient. So although we can touch our feet with our mudra, we shouldn't lean on it. But I think this is better than holding our hands up like this.

[09:22]

It doesn't feel natural. So then we allow our shoulders to relax. Your upper back and shoulders can relax because there's no need to have any tension there. So tension is caused by anxiety and pain. What we tend to do is, because there's nothing else to do in zazen, zazen is very open and we're not preoccupied with something. So when we have a little pain in our legs or someplace, our mind tends to focus on the pain. Our mind tends to grab onto this thing which is the most dominant subject. So if we are just passive, then our mind doesn't have anything to occupy it.

[10:39]

So in an active zazen, our mind is occupied with posture and breathing. And this is where our concentration lies. And if our concentration is not focused on posture and breathing enough, then it tends to get sucked into the painful spot. And then we dwell on the painful spot, and the painful spot becomes bigger and bigger and more enormous in our mind. So we actually have to go against our tendency, because our tendency is to focus on something, on our discomfort. And we have to make a conscious effort to bring our attention to our posture and breathing.

[11:50]

And then our discomfort will be incorporated into our posture, and our posture will help us to deal with our discomfort. So maintaining this balance of these factors is what we should be working with in zazen. allowing every state of mind, body and mind, to come and go, being open to bodily sensations and thoughts, letting them come and go easily. the balance between our passivity and our active offering of body and mind to the activity.

[13:05]

And in our breathing, our breathing should be deep. When we inhale, our lower abdomen expands. And when we exhale, it contracts. This is deep breathing, normal. It's not any deeper than a normal breathing, but this is our normal deep breathing. So this is unconditioned breathing, breathing which is not conditioned by anxiety or by fear or by pain. So usually when we have anxiety, our breath tends to be up here. Or when we have pain or fear, our breath tends to go up here. So we have to consciously bring our breath down to here, even if those qualities exist.

[14:25]

we calm our mind. When there's some problem or discomfort, the way we calm our mind is to consciously bring our breath down to here. And to consciously focus on the body and the breath rather than letting our mind dwell on our discomfort. This is how we take charge of ourselves. So when we sit down to zazen, when we first sit down, if you're not used to breathing here, or even if you are, it's good to take a few deep breaths before you put your hands in your mudra. When your hands are still like this, you can go... and expand your lower abdomen.

[15:34]

And then... push all the breath out. And then... push all the breath out. About three or four times. And that will prime your breathing. And then you just resume your normal breath. through your nose and put your hands in the mudra. keeping our posture, keeping constant attention on posture, and following our breath, breathing deeply, allowing everything to come and go, and at the same time,

[16:55]

putting all our energy into sitting. All of this is conducive to the calmness of our mind and to being able to accept any state of body or mind. In Zazen, there is no special state of mind that we're trying to achieve. Sometimes we talk about enlightened state of mind, but enlightened state of mind is not some special state of mind. Enlightened state of mind is no special state of mind. So whatever comes up, comes up and also leaves.

[18:02]

So without having some special preference, just to let everything come and go, this is an enlightened state of mind, without being bothered by anything. And you know the story of Gutei's finger, one finger. Gutei was a Zen master in the Tang Dynasty, China. And whenever anyone would ask him a question, he'd always raise his one finger, like this. That was his answer to everything. But Gutei didn't always answer that way.

[19:09]

Although he was a teacher, one day a nun came into his zendo for an interview, and she walked around him three times, which is traditionally the way that you pay respect to somebody in that position. But she didn't bow. And she says, if you can give me a word, I'll bow. And he couldn't think of anything. He couldn't say anything. And he said, well, it's getting late. Why don't you stick around for a while and stay overnight? And he asked her a couple of times, and every time she said, Well, if you can give me a word, I'll stay. But he couldn't say anything.

[20:11]

So she left. And he was rather dejected. And so he gave up his place and went around to study. He went to visit various teachers to study. And he finally... No, I'm sorry. That didn't happen. He wanted to do that. But he had a dream in the night. And Dream said, don't go away, someone will come. So the next day in walked a monk, and his name was Tenryu. And he told Tenryu the story of the nun. And he said, what do you think of it? Ute got enlightened. And then ever since Ute, whenever anybody asked Ute a question, he would always hold up his finger like this.

[21:17]

One day he had a young acolyte to call him, a young student. And the young student didn't quite understand what Ute was doing, but when somebody came to ask him a question, He went like this. And one day, Gotei caught him doing this, and he cut off his finger. And then he said, hey! And the kid turned around, and Gotei went like this. But the kid didn't have anything to raise, and he got enlightened. This is a terrible story. I don't know if it's a true story or not, Probably not. I don't know anyone who would go to that length to enlighten somebody. But, it might.

[22:20]

But, what is this one finger? When we sit in zazen, isn't our whole body and mind this one finger? Anybody can hold up one finger, but when Gutei held up one finger, this one finger was the finger of one. When Gutei held up one finger, everything was included. The whole Dharmatattu was included in this one finger. So, when we sit in Zazen, with our whole body and mind fully engaged, moment by moment.

[23:40]

The whole universe is engaged. Gutes, one finger, is rising everywhere. So don't be lazy. Zazen, although we say Shikantaza is not working for something. Zazen is a lot of work. Real Zazen is a lot of work. to really sit well is a lot of work. And the other side of a lot of work is nothing, you're not doing anything at all.

[24:53]

This is Koan Uzazi. It's a lot of great effort at the same time. It's no effort at all. This is where we find our freedom. So harmonizing body, breath, and mind in great total effort. Sometimes, you know, our back hurts and we have a hard time holding it straight, but we hold it straight anyway.

[26:08]

Sometimes our knees hurt. So we want to unfold our legs, but we keep them folded anyway. All kinds of conditions will arise that make it difficult, but if we persevere, this difficulty will arouse our spirit. Without difficulty, we don't arouse our spirit. Maybe you have a question?

[27:18]

I'm having trouble staying awake these days. Yeah. If you have to sleep, then there's no way out of it. But you can always ask to be hit with a stick. And you can always make some effort to keep your posture. So your posture is actually, I can see you're working on your posture very well. So that helps. But even so, you know. So my suggestion is to go to bed early. And when you have a break, take a nap, I, myself, had a hard time keeping awake this morning.

[28:26]

So I took a little nap during the break. That helped. But, even so, if we're sleepy, we're just sleepy. And that's the state of mind that we have to accept. It's just, I'm sleepy as is. So in some way, when we're sleeping, our effort has to be greater. It's really hard. If you're watching your posture and your breathing, but you're not having, it doesn't hurt, then does that mean you have to, that you should try it?

[29:46]

In a way, it doesn't, that if you're sitting without pain, do you have to say you're not doing it right? Could be. Anyway, don't worry about it. Worrying about not having a problem is the same as worrying about having one. It's just worrying. Don't look at it, but don't focus on anything.

[31:00]

A meter ahead, you were told to look a meter. Well, here, just look straight ahead, a little bit down from straight ahead. Don't try to, If you're sitting here looking at that wall, you can't look a meter ahead because it's too short a space, right? So maybe you should go crazy. When you see that wall, just let seeing see. Don't try to see anything. Just let your eyes be open or a little bit shut and just Not think, I am seeing this. Just let the eyes see. Let the ears hear. But there's no one seeing and no one hearing.

[32:04]

Some people give instruction because they want to be very precise. And so they say, well, look a meter ahead and at a certain angle at the floor and so forth. That's a little bit over-instruction, I think. But people say that in order to make sure that you're doing something well. So that's OK. But we shouldn't be bound by that kind of instruction. So a little bit down from straight ahead is good. And just let seeing see. Don't try to see something. I'm farsighted. And I find it painful to be sitting, even when I'm trying not to focus, to be sitting so close and staring and looking ahead. So I've been closing my eyes a lot, because I feel like it's really clustering. Well, what you can do is close them halfway, so that you're not intently looking at the wall.

[33:11]

But they're not closed either. so that you see So in a way, it's nice to use the stick. We used to use the stick a lot in the old days, but we don't use it so much anymore. But I think during Sashin, it's good to use the stick more because it keeps people awake and alert and with the feeling that not driving people, reminding us of what we're doing.

[34:14]

When someone asks for the stick and everyone wakes up, at least for that moment. And we become aware of the intensity Yeah, to the left and then to the right. You lean to the left and you get hit on the right shoulder. And you lean to the right and you get hit on the left shoulder. So no one will hit you unless you ask for it. So if you're not used to the stick, and you want to have the stick, then you lean. lean to the left and then put the stick on your shoulder and hopefully hit you in just the right place.

[35:26]

But if they don't hit you in just the right place, it's okay too. We should be able to accept that. But we make an effort to hit you in the right place so that it doesn't hit you in the bone or something. if you're very tense or if you're sleeping, the stick is a big help. So that's why we use it. And when we use the stick, It's not so much a matter of how hard or soft one hits. A good deal of it is this quality of the sound. The quality of the sound can wake us up and put us in tune with the atmosphere.

[36:44]

of his endo. So when we hit someone, mostly we should be concerned about the quality of the sound. Because the quality of the sound will indicate whether or not something is happening harmoniously. When we're hit, both ourself and the stick and the hitter disappear, if it's done just right. So when we hit someone, we should be aware of the quality of the sound.

[37:49]

Try and make a good sound. Pop. Bang. Thuck. Although anything we do is okay, but still, we should make that effort. your shoulders get tense, then relax your shoulders. It's like I'm constantly yo-yoing. Yes. Seesawing back and forth. Right. That's right. That's good. Constantly making that effort, you know.

[38:51]

So you lift up your sternum and you can feel it in your lower back. And then you realize that your shoulders don't play any part in it. They're just there. So you can let go of all the tenseness in your shoulders because they're not necessary to hold you up. So that's why you really pay attention to your spine and setting that posture, that foundation. And all the rest you can just let go of. And you can just concentrate on letting go of that tenseness. Letting go of the tenseness. Letting go of the tenseness. Then you're not so preoccupied with the pain in your legs. We really get preoccupied that way. So there's plenty for your attention to be concentrated on aside from the difficulty you're having.

[39:59]

And so you pay attention to that instead of focusing on your discomfort. and just keep opening up and accepting. there for someone to pick it up. But we didn't use it for various reasons. Some people didn't like it. And people don't sleep as much as they used to. People used to sleep more. So Azen has changed a lot in the last 20 years.

[41:04]

I remember years ago, everybody was going, everybody. And maybe we kept the windows closed, or I don't know. But people don't sleep the way they used to. So we gradually used it less. But I can see that people are not paying as much attention to their posture as they used to. Not quite as much. I mean, I don't mean to say that everybody's not doing that. It's a little more lax than it used to be. So I kind of favor using the stick more now, although we don't use it in dailies as in so much. I walk around in the afternoon with it. But I think in Sashin it's good, not every period, but often.

[42:10]

Well, usually when I hit a priest, I don't want to hit their okesa, their dharma rope, so I just hit them on the other shoulder twice, one shoulder twice.

[42:55]

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