Today is the opening of our spring six-week practice period, and we always open with a one-day sitting. So a practice period is a way for all of us to renew our practice, given spring, and set a tone for the rest of the year. And I want to go through the practice period standards, which are called Shingi. Shingi is like, you know, when Dogen, Master Dogen, was practicing in the 13th century,

[01:04]

he wrote a lot of wonderful treatises, but the Shingi was based on how you do everyday practice. So our practice period doesn't deal so much with philosophy, but with the practicality of practice, how we actually do something with our body and mind. So, Master Dogen says that Zen students should blend like milk and water. When you blend milk and water, you can't tell which is which. So although each one of us maintains our individuality, at the same time our practice harmonizes all

[02:15]

of us as one. One of my old teachers at Tassajara, he says, this is the practice of one monk. We're all just one person with many different faces, personalities, likes and dislikes. You may not like that, but, or you may. Pretty good. It's like one person, five people. Five is one, and one is five. So this is blending like milk and water. So, it's also called peaceful and harmonious abiding with all beings.

[03:16]

So, this is Spring Renewal, and I want to talk about how we do this. What we should be thinking about when we practice this six weeks practice period. First of all, to find the right rhythm for your practice. One of the most important things is the right rhythm. So when you signed up for practice period, you said, I'll do this, and I'll do this, and I'll do this. Do you remember that? Sometimes we don't remember, but I would remind you that we did do that. And, so when you find the rhythm, I always suggest to people, write down on your calendar the times when you're going to sit zazen at the zendo. You can sit zazen at home as much as you want, but at the zendo, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, morning, afternoon, whatever.

[04:27]

And then you keep your commitment, because the secret of practice is commitment. Without commitment, there's no practice. Commitment is really important. That's the strength of your practice. No matter what else comes up, you say, oh, but I have to do this because I committed to it. So, very important. So this is how we set our rhythm. We commit to a schedule, and we keep a schedule. So it's important to not overestimate yourself or underestimate yourself. To just find exactly the right rhythm, which is not so easy. So my suggestion for usual practice, ordinarily, we set a rhythm for a month, and then we try that out.

[05:35]

And we say, well, that didn't work so well, so it needs adjustment. So at the end of that month, you adjust the practice for the next month, so that you're not overextending yourself, and then you say, oh, I can't do this. So knowing how to adjust your rhythm is really important. Very important part of practice. Of course, you committed to six weeks, so you're stuck. So then we have to balance zazen with our other activities. So much school, or so much work, or so much family time, or whatever it is. We have to balance that with zazen and with other activities. So that's very important. If you neglect something that needs to be done, then you find it as an impediment.

[06:37]

So we have to be very careful. So this is the basis of how we practice. In a monastery, you commit to doing everything that everybody does in the monastery, and everybody does the same thing, and you don't have outside influences. But for a lay practice, or a practice in the city, we have many outside influences. And so our zendo extends to wherever we are. And so all of the events that we meet in our life are parts of practice. So we say continuous practice. Gyoji is the term. Continuous practice is also called the ring of the way, the way ring. It has a wonderful ring to it. The ring is like a circle. It's like something you put on your hand.

[07:41]

It's like the ring of a bell. A wake up. It's a wonderful word. And circles are a very important part of Buddhism. We always explain things in terms of circles. The way ring is very important because it's the continuous practice of, it's like the thread that runs through all of your activities and holds them together as one practice. So, zazen, family, work, school, whatever it is, to incorporate all of those factors in a harmonious way that all work together. And then you know, I can do this, and I can't do that. You have your yes and you have your no. And then your mind becomes clear.

[08:44]

And you don't get confused about what you should be doing. So honoring our practice commitments and creating a reasonable schedule. And then limiting our activities. During practice period, we have to give something up. It doesn't work well unless we give something up. One little thing. It doesn't have to be something big. But something that we don't need to do. What is it that you don't need to do? We have these busy lives. And our mind becomes scattered. So practice period is to gather the mind together. Gather our activity together. So we're not leaking. We're always leaking. We're leaking baskets. But to patch up some of the leaks so that we're not simply scattering our energy.

[09:52]

There's so many things to be attracted to. So bring it all together in a concentrated effort. So then there's home practice and work practice. These are the two most difficult practices. When we're practicing zazen and zendo, we know what we're doing. So when we enter the door, when we enter the gate, the atmosphere of practice permeates. Oh, I'm entering into this Buddha field. Practice field. The door has this wonderful feeling of, you know, beautiful handmade door. And we walk in the zendo under the cushions and the zafus and the zabata and the altar. Beautiful floor. And we sit down and do zazen, chant sutra.

[10:54]

This is practice. And then when we walk out the door, where's that influence? So we have to take that influence into the world. This is your work. The work of a zen student in this environment is to take your practice. It's like a paper bag. When you walk out the door, you turn the paper bag inside out. You turn your practice inside out. Here you know, this is the zen atmosphere. Outside, we have to, every event that we meet, we have to find our practice in that event. How do I practice in this event? How do I practice standing on the sidewalk? When the cars are going by. And I want to walk across the street.

[11:56]

That's a practice situation. Do I walk out in the middle of the street and make all the cars come to a screeching halt? While I'm on my telephone? Patience, let all the traffic go by. Just let it all go by. Traffic goes by and you never have to wait more than 30 seconds. I've timed it. I have timed it. Rarely do you have to wait more than 30 seconds to walk across the street. But we're always going someplace, getting somewhere. How do we just stand in our position? How do we find our dharma position on each moment? How do we come back to ourselves, find our balance, our center, our breath, and just be there on the corner? Sometimes...

[13:00]

This is one of my favorite. Geese. Sometimes the good Samaritan will be driving down the street and see somebody that's waiting to cross the street. And they stop. All the traffic behind them comes to a screeching halt. And all the traffic's coming the other way, doesn't see what's happening. And this person who's a victim, standing on the corner, has to judge how to get across the street. And the oncoming traffic's coming the other way. So we have to be aware of what's going on around us all the time. You're not just isolated. If I do this, that means that something else, everything around me, is affected. Everything around you is affected, even though you don't know that or don't feel that. So we're always affecting everything around us.

[14:01]

So how do we move in the world? When you're in the workplace, at home, whatever you're doing. So this is practice. To be aware of how we're affecting our surroundings. And to create a harmonious atmosphere, wherever we are. So, then there is helping others. Putting aside your own self-interest in order to help other people. That's a hard one. Then there's being prepared for the class. We have practice period, we have a class. And then we have material to read. Some of us do that, and some of us don't. But it's really helpful to you to be prepared.

[15:09]

So, practicing with intention instead of being pulled around by karma. I did talk about intention, but I didn't talk about karma. Karma is, by definition, an intentional act. It's an intentional act. And then there's a consequence to that act. So when you write it up into good, bad, and neutral, in order to explain it. A wholesome act produces wholesome karma. The act itself is the karma. The result is the fallout. The result. So there's the act and the result. So every act we perform has a result. And the result is either immediate, or a little later on, or much later on.

[16:23]

And much later on we say, why did that happen to me? Because we don't remember what we did. But sometimes we do. I have karma that I thought would never have a result. And then 40 years later, 50, there's the result. So we have to be very careful about what we do. I keep doing the same karma over and over again. We all do this. So it's hard not to perpetuate. But we should all be careful. Mindful and careful about how our actions come back to us as a result. So then there's setting an example. We have the teacher, and we have the students.

[17:25]

So the teacher talks a lot, you know. But that's not teaching. Teaching is how you set an example. So the teacher should set an example, and I'm sorry about my poor example. But the student also should set an example. That's the student's task, is to set an example for everybody. And I see so many really good students setting an example for me. We think that it's just one way, but it works both ways. And the reason why we have such a wonderful sangha that's been going for so long is because we have such great students who are setting wonderful examples. And it always boggles my mind that people will want to practice with me.

[18:35]

So thank you all for doing that. And we should keep doing that, because this is what helps everybody. That's why sangha is so important, because we're all setting an example for each other without worrying about it. Not that I'm setting an example. Don't get self-conscious. Just do the work. So older members help the newer members. And the newer members are struggling along, which inspires the older members. This is what's so wonderful about it. New people come, and they think, I don't know anything, and I can't do anything, I'm always bumbling around, and I don't do ariyoki, you know, and I can't... But this is what inspires the older students, is the sincerity of the younger students. So, for the younger students, people who haven't been around for long, you should know that your practice is in your ignorance.

[19:38]

You inspire everybody. So, patience is to practice patience. To practice doing one thing thoroughly at a time, and completing one activity before going on to the next. Ross came and talked a while back about entering the door. When you enter the door, how you are aware of how you open the door, how you are aware of going through the door from one world to another, and closing the door, as one total, complete act. Before going on to your seat, or wherever you're going. To complete, to have your act as beginning, middle, and end. Now we have what we call multitasking.

[20:40]

It's always happened, but Zen is anti-multitasking. Unless multitasking is one complete act. Eating your lunch, and reading the paper. As one complete act. For me, it's breakfast. Depends on what you're reading. I won't comment on that. So, and then always being centered. Finding your center in all activities. So, this is how we, if you want to say carry our practice into the world, is to always be centered. Continue to always know where, be aware of where your center is,

[21:43]

and where you're breathing. To breathe from here. It's the same thing. You breathe from your center. So, you're always aware of breath. Whatever you're doing. And when you find yourself breathing up in your chest, you know it is anxiety, or fear, or confusion. So, you keep lowering your breath, and then you find your ease. So, we control our mind through our body, as well as controlling our body through our mind. This is a body practice as well as a mind practice. The way you handle your body affects the way you think. So, it's very important how we hold ourselves. In Zazen, we sit up straight,

[22:43]

keep our head on top of the spine, breathe. So, this is what you carry out into the world. And so, you meet all circumstances with Zazen posture. So, this is also called Chikantaza. Chikantaza means just doing. Even though we have goals in our life. And we're always going someplace, doing something. something for some reason, within each moment, to just be centered on the moment, so that we are bringing our life to life moment by moment, and not just going from one place to another. That is, cleaning up our act. Whatever that means. Cleaning up our act means

[24:06]

not getting strung out. When we get strung out, we know we are getting strung out, and we know we are getting caught in various venues that are simply straining our mind, and we need to pull back and recollect. Sometimes meditation practice is called the practice of recollection, which is, oh, this is what I'm doing, oh, this is what I should be doing. If you stop practicing for a couple of months, it's difficult to get back into practice. So, we start doing other things, and pretty soon say, I don't know when I need to practice. So to practice the practice of recollection, this is what I'm doing, and letting go of

[25:18]

superficial things. So, we need to pay attention to how greed, ill-will, and delusion arise, as well as when loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy arise. Now is arising ill-will. You know, ill-will comes up all the time. And, of course, delusion comes up all the time. Greed comes up all the time. We're bombarded with things to be greedy about. So, just to be aware of our states of mind, and to treat each other respectfully. This is a very big point. No matter how you

[26:22]

feel about somebody, to treat everyone respectfully. So, there are some personal practice examples, which you might want to concentrate on. Maybe just pick one for this period. One is opinionatedness, you have an opinion about everything, whether it's true or not. One is overbearing, or taking over, taking over a conversation, or getting someone's attention and not letting them go. And then, there's withholding. I will give so much, but not this much. It's kind of like, you count your

[27:28]

pennies, you know, I'll give this much, but I'm going to keep this much. It's like, when you give with yourself, to give wholeheartedly, without stinting. And then there's critical mind, just being critical about everything. Nothing is right. Nothing is right. Then there are value judgments. This is good, and this is bad, and I like this, and I don't like that, and blah, blah, blah. And then gossip, talking about somebody all the time. And then there's the inability to say yes. This is like withholding. Never say yes to anything. Then there's the inability to say no. You can't

[28:31]

stop. This is kind of greediness, in the middle of the inability to say no. And then holding a grudge, and competitiveness. So, the positive, those are all negatives, the positive is forgiveness and repentance. So, in forgiveness, you find your own freedom. Because when we have a grudge of some kind, and we can't let it go, we're the ones that are caught. And so, to let go of the grudge, and to forgive, means you yourself are freed, and the other person is freed. Which doesn't mean everything is

[29:32]

okay between you. It simply means that you're not bound by that anymore. You feel loyal to our grudges. So, you let go of that loyalty. It's really hard. This is what keeps the world in constant conflict. And repentance means to free yourself from your own karma. So, these are two ways of freeing yourself. One is to free yourself from others, from being bound by others. And repentance is to free yourself from being bound by yourself. Very important. So then, Master Dozan, at the end of his Hokyo Zanmai, Jewel Mirror Samadhi, says,

[30:45]

work secretly, like a fool or an idiot. To do this continually is called the host of the host. Just be a fool or an idiot. If you really act with integrity and good practice, people will think you're a fool or an idiot. Why are you doing that? When you could be accumulating all kinds of stuff. So, this is what we work on. This is the flavor of practice period. There's a lot of stuff. It's all about what's really going on in all of us. But it helps us. It's all one piece. When you practice one of these,

[31:53]

you're practicing it all. One piece contains all the pieces. So, if you simply choose one piece to concentrate on or take up as a practice, all the others are included. If you try to do everything, you can't do it. Just do one thing, and one thing includes all of it. Today, we're going to enter our shiso. I forgot your dharma name. Hoshin Bokorin. Hoshin Bokorin. Dharma fits unadorned practice. Great name. Unadorned means simple and straightforward. Nothing special, nothing glamorous, but true practice.

[33:07]

So, Jake Van Ackeren is going to be our new shiso, and we're going to install him in the front seat for the practice period. And his practice has been so wonderful all these years. Steady, unselfconscious, many wonderful qualities. So, this afternoon at 4 o'clock, I believe it is, we have the installation ceremony, and please give him all your support, and he'd be happy to have tea with all of you and discuss the dharma. So, I'm looking forward to having him shiso.

[34:11]

Do you have any questions? I don't know what time it is, but... Could you explain more about this practicing like a fool and an idiot? You gave one example, but I'm still not clear on how that's a simple good practice. It looks simple-minded. Yeah, it looks simple-minded. But what does it feel like internally? It feels like not wanting anything. You know, I think Ryokan is a really good example. You know Ryokan, the Soto Zen fool? He's kind of a fool, because he didn't have a temple, he just practiced for the kids. He was innocent, you know, just totally innocent, and he practiced formal practice for quite a while, and then many things happened to him which were very traumatic, and he decided to give up everything, let go of everything.

[35:38]

And he didn't own anything, and, you know, kind of like a real clown. A real clown, you know, has the smiling face and the frowning face, and smiling through the grief, and smiling through something wonderful coming out of their suffering. Something very pure and undefiled that comes through all the suffering. And just enjoying playing innocently with children. And, you know, he had a little hut that he would stay in in the winter and the summer, and he wrote poems about how cold it was.

[36:43]

And then one time he was sleeping, and it was a full moon night, and someone came in, a thief came in and took off his blanket, and he woke up and he said, Gee, you know, it's too bad that you don't have anything more to give him, you know, if he had asked, I would have said, please take this moon, you know. Thank you. Thank you. Could you speak a little about the seeming duality between encouraging people to prepare for class, and then coming to class and just letting the Dharma wash over you? That's fine. I don't see any problem with that.

[37:45]

Preparing, you know what, sometimes I'll prepare a lecture, and then when I get here, I have the book in front of me, you know, and I'll just start talking about something else, and I'll just let the Dharma wash over me. I think it's good to just let the Dharma wash over you. Of course. You spoke about forgiveness and repentance, and to me they sound like the same thing. No. Well, there's something about them that's the same, but they're not the same thing. Or maybe go to the same place, but from a practical standpoint, if one were choosing to practice that, what would be the considerations to start from repentance as opposed to forgiveness? Well, forgiveness is generally... there's forgiveness for yourself, but we usually associate it with someone else.

[38:52]

So, when people say, well, how will I... I sometimes suggest to people that they forgive, right? Well, how will I do that? Write them a letter. You can send it or not send it, but you express yourself. The main thing is you express yourself, and then you see what that looks like. Is this genuine? Or is this just a stereotype? And then you see how you're really feeling, and then you can act on that. Repentance is about you and yourself, but it's also... I think that repentance is recognizing your own acts, and reforming. We used to call jail, for kids, reform school. That's what I called it when I was a kid. Now it's called prison or something.

[40:01]

Juvenile hall. Juvenile hall, yeah. But to come back to oneness, to wholeness. That's the point. The point is to allow yourself to come back to wholeness. And what is holding you back? What is holding you back is your stubbornness. What you're hanging on to, you know. So, it's a kind of cleansing. Repentance is about cleaning up your act. Why do we hold grudges? Hold what? Why do we hold grudges? In a broad sense, grudges. Oh, why do we hold grudges? Well, because we have the ego. And holding is the problem. We have a feeling, and we can't help having feelings.

[41:05]

You know, feelings of resentment or anger or whatever, but we let them go through. When we hold it, then it holds us. So, it's like a dog with bone. We really like to chew on the bone, and so it becomes obsessive. Yeah, and then we're caught. You know, when I see a person walking down the street with a dog on a leash, people say, I have a dog on a leash, but actually the dog has the person on the leash. The dog is controlling the person, as much as the person is controlling the dog. And usually it's the dog. It seems like the grudge only involves the one person. No, it involves both. Your grudge, yes, involves you, but it's the mental attachment to the other person.

[42:13]

Yeah, it's just your attachment. So, do you want to take up all that space in your mind? And people who are obsessed with grudges, their minds are totally full, and so there's no place for the airplane to land. This is a metaphor that's used about forgiveness. The airport is full, so there's no place for the plane. Why do you want to give all that space to your mind? So the mind becomes more full, and your heart becomes more full, and you become heavier and heavier. So when you can let go of all that, then you spring back to life. But holding is holding. We say, don't harbor ill will. That's how we express the precept of not being angry.

[43:15]

You can't help being angry, but when you hold it, when you harbor it, then it has you. Anything that we have has us. So when I have this cup of water, it's telling me what to do. I think I'm in control. I am, but it's telling me what to do. So it's a partnership. When you have a grudge against somebody, it's a partnership, even though the other person may not be at fault. That's okay. It's just water. I don't know about your partnership with that cup. It's kind of leaking there. Yeah, it's leaking. I apologize, too. I'm an expert at holding grudges, and I'd like to offer my understanding of why I do it.

[44:20]

It's out of fear, but I'm trying to protect myself from getting hurt again. That's why I hold them. And, of course, it's a very bad strategy. I just hurt myself continuously. But it's very hard. It's out of fear. It's hard to let go of it if you're that afraid of getting hurt. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's right. So much of our holding on is fear, but it's also being hurt. You're hurt. You hurt me, so the way I can hurt you is to hold a grudge. No, no, it's different from that. What I was saying is that it's my way of protecting myself from getting hurt again. I stay on guard. I know you're bad. I stay angry, and that will keep me safe. Yeah, yeah. Very bad strategy.

[45:23]

Thank you for that. Adam? Yeah, unrelated though, I've had very sleepy zazen, and this morning there was the wake-up stick. I'm wondering what the Dharma lesson of the wake-up stick is. It's when you're sleepy or your mind is very busy. So when you ask for the stick, and the stick hits, it does a sound, bang. Then you disappear, the stick disappears, and the person hitting disappears. So this is a totally brand new moment. For others also. For others also. For others also. Yes, that's right. One person getting hit with a stick, the sound wakes everybody up.

[46:28]

But this morning, it was bam, [...] bam. We used to carry the stick. There was a time when we had two people carrying the stick. This was in San Francisco, in Plaza Harp, mostly. In the period. But for various reasons, we don't carry much anymore, which I don't want to go into. There's a plane looking for a place to land. There's a plane looking for a place to land. Yeah. Did somebody else... I don't want to go too long, but... One more. Okay, some hand without a face. Oh, yeah. Well, I just go around a lot being opinionated about people who are fools and idiots.

[47:39]

Yes. I find, maybe it's a koan, that the structure of a Zen center is so practical, so well-oiled, and moves so smoothly. And within it, we have this, I don't know what, this condition. And I'm trying to formulate a question about it. As I was formulating, I think, well, that's opinionated. Well, that's overbearing. I don't know. To me, I don't quite understand, and I worry about people who... I worry about the idiocy and the foolishness that I judge. I don't know. Well, I think that, you know, I see all those things that you see.

[48:41]

And then I say, they're all Buddhists. So I don't identify them. Although I can see people stupid and foolish, and they do all these idiotic things, and blah, blah, blah. They're all Buddhists. So, yeah. And when I look at you, you're so innocent. I know. Just a nasty Buddha.

[49:23]

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