Good morning. Can you all hear me? I can hear myself. May 7th, Saturday, May 7th we open our spring practice period with a one-day sitting. The practice period lasts for six weeks and ends with the June Seshin, five-day Seshin. So today I want to talk about practice period. It's a little soon maybe, but not really, to prepare ourselves.

[01:02]

how we're going to participate in practice period. I just want to first read you what's actually posted on the bulletin board, what I call our approach to a practice period. During the six weeks of practice period rejuvenate our effort and re-establish our practice in beginner's mind. So this is a spring practice period is like a renewal of our practice, a rejuvenation of our practice as we go through the year, well as we begin our rejuvenated practice in the spring, little by little our momentum slows down, and then one year later we spring it up again.

[02:09]

This is called spring. Actually, everything springs. So, you know, when I was at Tassajara, every practice period, it starts out with a lot of enthusiasm and effort and good energy. And then toward the middle of the practice period, you can see that things are slowing down and people are thinking, feeling, coming apart a little bit. So then we give a mid-practice period rejuvenation, start over again. Actually, we should do this every day. Anyway, so to rejuvenate our effort, reestablish our practice. So the practice period has some minimum requirements. But within these requirements, each person must create his or her own schedule because of the difference in our lives.

[03:15]

We can't all do exactly the same practice. So this is lay practice period where we have to take into consideration all of our obligations as well as our Zendo practice. So this is the nature of lay practice. Some will be able to do only the minimum, while others who have the opportunity will be able to extend or stretch themselves much more. It should be clearly understood that in no way is any Sangha member required to participate, nor is there any pressure to do so. You should all feel free to continue to come as usual if you are not part of the practice period. When you include your zendo schedule in your calendar, it incorporates zazen into the rhythm of your life as an intention rather than as a random or arbitrary activity. So this is what makes practice practice, is that you have a regularity of practice, whatever that may be, which is, of course, up to each person.

[04:27]

And this is what I always tell people when they say, well, how should I practice? How can I do this? decide how much Zazen you can actually do and then put that on your calendar. And when that day comes, oh, Zazen. Not, oh well, you know. When Zazen is just arbitrary, then because there's so much pressure in your life to do something, and something else will take its place. So there has to be determination and it's not dependent on how you feel. If you make it dependent on how you're feeling then Dzasin will get pushed aside because other feelings at the moment will be stronger. So It's really important to create a schedule for yourself so that it doesn't depend on your feelings.

[05:43]

It doesn't depend on, oh, I'm feeling good now, I think I'll go sit zazen, or I'm feeling terrible now, I think I'll go sit zazen. Oh, this is the time I said that I would sit zazen. So it depends on your intention, not on your feelings. We don't discount feelings, but intention has to be foremost, because intention leads feelings. Feelings and intention interact, of course, naturally, but sometimes we put too much emphasis on our feelings and not enough on our intention, and it won't work. Practice really depends on your intention. If you're going to have a steady practice and a practice that has some vitality and has some influence in your life, a strong influence in your life, then there has to be an intention and a rhythm, a rhythm of practice.

[06:47]

So when you include your Zendo practice in your calendar, it incorporates Zazen into the rhythm of your life as an intention, rather than as a random or arbitrary activity. When we design our schedule for a limited period, six weeks, taking into consideration all of the other factors and responsibilities in our life, we have a foundation for practice. is also necessary to honor our commitments and therefore to be realistic about how we create our schedule. Sometimes we feel, well I have to do this, I have to sit a lot of zazen, and when you do that you overreach yourself and then you become discouraged. So a very important aspect of what makes responsibilities and activities in your life so that you can actually do something without creating a problem for yourself. How much work, how much play, how much family time, how much of this and that, and then how much zazen, so that zazen becomes incorporated in your life and not just an arbitrary activity.

[08:11]

So I like to think of the spirit of practice period as the wish to do it all. In other words, yes, I want to do it all, but given this, given that, I can't. So I have to reduce it down to, well, this is what's reasonable. So then we have to narrow it down to what's practical or possible or reasonable, rather than simply picking and choosing pieces of it based on preference or convenience. This helps to create an edge. So there should be an edge. It's not practice period if there's no edge. In other words, this is my limit. This is what I can do, but it just comes right up to that limit. So I'll try to maintain that edge. So that gives it a certain kind of vitality and strength, which brings something out of you, brings forth some good energy and some good effort out of you. Something to push against, but not enough to be inhibiting.

[09:24]

When we all have this attitude, it creates a strong sangha feeling of mutual support and encouragement. This can also provide a good atmosphere for those who are sitting and who are not in a position to practice fully. In other words, the strength of the zendo will help those people who are not in the practice period. What makes the difference are the requirements and commitments. Except for that, we participants and non-participants are all practicing together. So we shouldn't feel that I feel obligated to do the practice period because people are doing that, even though I can't do it. It's okay to not do it. No problem. Practice period can set a tone for the whole year, which is one of the reasons we changed it back to the spring rather than continuing to have it in the fall. We've gone back and forth. Sometimes we have it in the fall, sometimes in the spring, but spring seems to be better, and for various reasons we may do it in the fall. So, I want to talk about some of the qualities that we want to think about during practice period.

[10:40]

The name for practice period is Ango, Japanese Ango, which is three months practice period. Ours is a six week practice period and it's not monastic. But Ango means peaceful abiding, peacefully abiding, peaceful harmonious abiding or practice with everybody. So one thing I think that is very important is that we not be in competition with each other. Our friend may feel, well, I can sit zazen every day. And you may feel, I can only sit zazen once a week. And then you may feel in competition with that person. But actually, each person's practice is each person's practice. Your practice is your practice. Your friend's practice is your friend's practice. As I said before, and said many times, this is like a one-room schoolhouse.

[11:53]

The 12th grade, the 1st grade, and all the grades in between. So everybody is in a different place. depending on how long they practiced, how long you practice, how much time and effort you've put into practice, and they're beginners and people have been practicing two days, one year, so forth. So everybody is in a different place according to all those different factors, and each one has to be addressed according to where you are. So that's why it's very difficult, you know, to have something like a curriculum. It's a one-room schoolhouse, but it's not a school, exactly. There's no curriculum except Zazen. Well, there is a kind of, you know, there are two sides of practice.

[12:55]

One is, first of all, way-seeking mind is the basis. Way-seeking mind is the basis of practice. And then it divides into two sections. One is actual physical practice, and the other is study. So study has its divisions, and practice has its divisions. Study means more than just studying books, it means association and it means how you interact with your teacher. There's a term for that, it's called Sanchimampo, means going to the teacher for instruction. It also means listening to the talk. listening to the talk and discussing in one way or another the essence of the practice and understanding with the teacher.

[14:07]

The other side is sitting zazen and working with and helping all beings. So one is kind of dialogic and study, and the other is what you actually do in practice. So those are the two sides and they're both together create what we call practice. If one side is missing then it's like walking on one leg or only having one wheel on your cart So these are the two wheels of practice. Dokasan, you know, we say lecture, but really it's not lecture. Sometimes it's lecture. Lecture is when you're talking about something, a subject, with information. Teisho means inspiring people's practice.

[15:15]

a talk which comes from the teacher's own practice and inspires the practice of the students. That's called tesho. We say lecture, but actually sometimes it's lecture, but for me it's mostly tesho. And I try to get the people who give talks to give more tesho and not so much lecture. sometimes lecture is good, and sometimes it's both, sometimes it's mixed. But if it's only lecture and it doesn't have the quality of tesho, then I don't like that so much. We can always read a book if we want to get information. But there is stuff that you can't get from the book. And that's why we have, it's called the second principle and the first principle.

[16:21]

Second principle is what you learn from the book, from study. First principle is what you learn from your own practice. Because study, although study stimulates your practice, it's receiving from outside, so to speak, whereas practice itself brings forth your understanding from within. That's called education. Those are two sides of education, actually. But basically, the word education, as far as my understanding is, is that education is to bring forth something from you, and whatever comes from the outside is stimulus to bring forth something from you. So in Zen, bringing forth your own treasure is what it's about, it's not about learning something, although learning is important.

[17:27]

So not being in competition with each other, but simply paying attention to our own practice and basing what we do on what we know we can do. And then there's limiting your activities. There's so much that we're, so much stimulation, so many things that are vying for our attention. that unless we limit our activity, we can't really practice. We have to choose, but what are the most important things in my life? If practice is really important to you, then it's important to limit your activities so that you can actually do that. Well, I won't do this and I won't do that, I won't take on another this and I won't take on another that, because if I do, I won't be able to get up in the morning and do Zazen, or in the afternoon, or whatever.

[18:36]

I fill my life, there's only so much we can fill our life with, unfortunately. It'd be great if we can do everything, but we can't. And the more we do one thing thoroughly, the more we get from that one thing. So then there's something called spring cleaning. I think during practice period, to look at our mess or whatever, look at what we've accumulated, and do I need this, do I need that? and clean up our act, so to speak, which is a way of cleaning our mind. Spring cleaning is really cleaning our mind and refreshing our mind so we don't have so much to carry around with us.

[19:38]

I remember Suzuki Roshi when he was at Page Street and he was sick in bed and in the morning the students would go out and they'd sweep the sidewalk And he said, I'd just love to hear the sound of them sweeping the sidewalk because, he said, they're sweeping, it sounds like they're sweeping the sidewalk, but they're really sweeping their minds. So creating a reasonable schedule, which I already talked about, and review and the balance of our activities, reviewing our activities. Do I need to do this? Do I need to do that? And really look at that. And then there's practicing at home, which is how you take care of your place, how you take care of your space, which is, all the practice is not at the zendo. The practice is at home, at work, at school, wherever you are.

[20:38]

That's where your practice place is. When we walk out of the zendo, we don't bow. because we extend the zendo to wherever we go and every place is our practice place. How do we practice in all these situations? So in the zendo it's very clear. We have all these rules about how to practice. Then when you go outside, it's just the border, the framework is off. you're out there in a limitless situation. And so, what are the limits, what are the limitations of each place where you're actually practicing? And how do you practice within those limitations? Without limitations, we can't practice very well. So, you know, this is why we have a zendo, because it has limitations, and why we act in a certain way, because we have limitations. And all these limitations create a space for practice.

[21:41]

So how do you practice within the limitation of your home or within the limitation or boundaries of your workplace? So then there's harmonious family and Sangha practice. taking care of the Sangha and taking care of your family, if you have one, or your friends. How do you relate to them as practice? You know, when we have our practice period, we're going to be studying the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, not as an intellectual study, but as Five skandhas are empty, all dharmas are empty. What is prajna in our daily life? It's not just an abstract document. It's related, how do we relate everything we do in the light of this sangha, of this sutra, which we chant day in and day out.

[22:57]

What does it mean to be empty? What does that mean in my life? So, that would be very interesting. So we should pay attention to various things, how greed, ill-will and delusion arise. What is it that makes these arise? And how does a self arise with greed, hate and delusion? When we say empty, all five skandhas are empty in their own being, forms, feelings, perceptions, mental constructions, and consciousness. What does it mean that they're all empty in their own being? We create a self around these five qualities which make up a human being, but there is no self in it, but we create a self, continually creating a self through grasping and clinging, through greed, ill will and delusion.

[24:11]

So this is very, not about somebody else, it's about you and me. So how does greed, ill will, and delusion arise? And how does loving kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy arise? And how does equanimity arise? And then there's taking the time to study. study, sanshimonpo, study, and interacting with the teacher or the various teachers that we have. So it'd be nice to study. There's two books on the Heart Sutra.

[25:14]

One is Thich Nhat Hanh's book, which is very thin, very good. And then there's The Tiger's Cave by Abbot Obora, which came out in 64, I think. And it's a wonderful book because his approach to the Heart Sutra is about daily life, about how we understand self and emptiness and prajna as every activity of our life. So that's going to be the main text that we use. So then there's being mindful, of course, and being aware of self-centeredness and letting go. Being aware of self-centeredness and letting go is actually the central part of the Heart Sutra.

[26:17]

How to not be self-centered and how to let go when we are. because grasping, clinging, and attachment is what creates a self. Without them, there's no self, even though there's a person. So then it's possible to take on a particular personal practice. such as one precept, you know, I won't gossip or something like that, you know, or I won't harbor ill will, or I won't misuse my sexuality or something, or I won't, you know, so to take on a precept is a good idea, but actually, you know, we have the six paramitas. Six paramitas are actually six prajna paramitas,

[27:21]

Dhana, so forth. So how do we practice those six paramitas or just taking one paramita and practicing that? I think that's a really good idea. Six paramitas, well actually there are ten, but usually we speak of six. What is dana, what is real generosity, the meaning of real generosity? Not just in things, but in spirit. And what is right conduct? And what is forbearance or restraint? Maybe that's a good one for, you know, how do I practice restraint? or zeal, how do I practice enthusiastically, or dhyana, of course, with zazen, and wisdom is prajna, and then there's upaya, which is, that's number seven, which is skillful means.

[28:28]

how you do something skillfully and not unskillfully, which causes problems. You may do something really good, but if it's unskillful or not done correctly, it can be worse than if you didn't do something good at all. That's possible. And aspiration. And knowledge, knowledge is not exactly, well, knowledge has some prajna in it, it's panja, but knowledge and wisdom are mutually supporting, but they're not necessarily the same. And there's knowledge and prajna, and there's prajna and knowledge, but they're not exactly the same. So any one of those would be good as a personal practice. So to use Zazen as the touchstone for your life, I always like to say,

[29:41]

If Zazen is the central thing in your life, is at the center of your life, Zen, if the practice is at the center of your life, then everything you do is suffused with practice. When all of your successes and all of your failures are practice. And it's all equal. We have this saying, all things be equal. It's interesting. Good saying. All things be equal. That's Zen practice. So, back and forth. Zendo practice daily life. Zendo practice daily life until it becomes one circle. So these are some possible choices of things to, qualities to be careful about or think about or make some effort to be mindful of.

[30:57]

Opinionatedness, taking over, retreating, critical mind, value judgments, gossip, Inability to say yes. Inability to say no. Awareness of habitual problematic behavior. Forgiveness. Repentance. Practicing with vow of intention rather than just being pulled around by karma. That's a big subject. Doing one thing at a time. Patience. Always being centered. engaging thoroughly and wholeheartedly, setting an example, maintaining an awareness of breath, practicing shikantaza, and practice period can be like a tune-up. You know, take yourself into the Zendo garage for a tune-up. And then work secretly like a fool or an idiot.

[32:03]

To do this continuously, it is called the host within the host. Do you have any questions? So this is practice period. Some of the possibilities and our attitude. Russ. Well, thank you for reminding me of that.

[33:04]

I forgot to mention Shiso. Karen Sondheim will be our Shiso for the practice period. Some of you know her, some of you don't, but actually she's been practicing for many years. She started practicing on Dwight Way, She's a little shy, but she has great spirit. And we felt that it was really a good time for her to do this. And she works very hard. She's a librarian. She's the head librarian in the Castro District Library, which is called Bedlam Let Loose. So, I think a lot of her, I've asked her to talk about her experiences as practice.

[34:09]

within her work situation, not to worry so much about explaining the Heart Sutra as a intellectual study, but to talk about the Heart Sutra as her heart, and how it affect, how she deals with all the stuff that goes on in that, dealing with crazy people, addicts, all kinds of, you know, the library is a draw for all this stuff, homeless people. So I think it'd be very inspiring to all of us to to hear how over the good number of years she's been working with her practice in this place.

[35:25]

So she's going to have teas, as the Shuso head student usually does, and so you're all invited to sign up for her teas. Greta will be her attendant and set up the teas, and she's graciously agreed to do that. So you'd be able to discuss Dharma with her, and that'd be nice. And of course, after our five-day session, she will have a shuso ceremony where we'll all ask her a question. not everybody comes to the shuso ceremony, which is very disappointing, because this is like the culmination of her, of his practice period, and his person's, you know, intense practice, and meeting everyone face-to-face.

[36:36]

So it's very important to do that. Well yeah, I usually like to use the word intention, vow is a little bit stronger. I hesitate to say vow because what happens is people take vows, I vowed and then they can't do it somewhere along the line and then it like breaks their spirit if they can't continue. I'd rather say intention because And it means, yes, I'll make mistakes, yes, I won't be able to do it all the time, and so forth. But the intention is still there. Vow can be the same. So, for some people, vow is good. But for some people, vow is not so good. Well, it's the same idea whichever one works.

[37:38]

Whichever works for you, yeah. Yeah. I've got a little stuck on Yes, you have a self. But that self that you have is not a self. But what about the person? If you should be so lucky as to get rid of the self, nonetheless you say there is still a person. Yes. Which isn't the same thing as big minds, right? No. Person is our construct. It's really our construct. Oh, I am a person, and I relate to you as a person, and you are a person, and we relate to each other as persons, right? So this is in the realm of relationship that we have to designate. When you go to a party, when people don't know each other, you have a pin, and you write your name, and, oh, you're so-and-so, oh yeah, and I'm, right?

[38:44]

So it's a kind of a construct. We call ourself by our name. But it's a convenience. Problem is, it's fine. This is the realm of delusion. And delusion is OK. We have to realize, delusion is not bad. But what's bad about it is that it obscures the reality. So as long as we understand the reality, then we can be OK with the delusion. But we have to understand the reality first, and then the delusion is okay, because we know what it is. When we don't know what it is, then we have problems, like anger, and all this stuff comes up, and we cling to it. And what clings to it is our false sense of self, defending something that isn't real.

[39:47]

And we get caught by our self. We get caught by, it's called ego. That's another word for it. But self is good because we don't say, I am an ego. We say, I am myself. Me, myself, and I. I'm three different people. That's what we used to say when we were kids. I'm three different people. Me, myself, and I. That's right. But actually, we're none of those, and we're all of those at the same time. So this is why we sit zazen. We don't sit zazen to feel happy, although happiness would be good. It's okay. We sit in order to let go of self. To let go of self-centeredness, we sit zazen. And then we have pure existence. Pure existence without, it's the self settling on the self, as somebody said.

[40:59]

The self settling on the self. So, small self settling on big self, dissolving in big self. But you don't lose, like I say, drop body and mind. But it doesn't mean to throw something away. It simply means to let go of the false idea of the self. You said the basis of practice is way-seeking mind. Yes. So what is way-seeking mind? Is that the self? It's where the self turns itself over to the self. way-seeking mind, you know, seeking, right? The mind, which of course is turned around, it's the mind-seeking way and it's like bringing the self to Buddha and offering the self to Buddha, that's way-seeking mind.

[42:05]

Like, oh here's my ego, I offer it up, We're taking our ego and offering it up. So we bow and we lift up Buddha's feet. We don't go like that, otherwise Buddha goes over our shoulders. We lift Buddha. This is the Buddha that is our Buddha nature. There's nobody really standing there, but it's the feeling of, I like to think of it as the feeling of offering, lifting Buddha, yeah, but it's offering my ego, offering self. It's like, okay, here. So we're Buddha and we're self. We're Buddha and self at the same time. You said we sit in order to let go of the self?

[43:06]

I didn't say that, I think. Oh, yeah, you said it. I didn't like that. You said in order to? In order to. You said that, didn't you? Probably. I have to watch my words. That's precisely what I was going to ask, because I thought we were sitting not in order to do anything. Really? We're sitting in order to sit. Precisely. Yeah. Meaning? Meaning letting go. Letting go is the practice of just sitting. Shikantaza. Just sitting. Just sitting for the sake of sitting. Sitting as sitting. Yeah. Which means letting go. Letting go. But at the same time, it doesn't mean just relaxing.

[44:12]

You're putting all of your energy into this one act. Everything you have that's real, that won't fall off if you shake, will go into this one act. So it's called total dynamic activity in stillness. And then when you leave the zendo, it's called stillness within total dynamic activity. Those are the two sides. And you simply do your activity for the sake of the activity. And you simply do zazen for the sake of zazen. In order to do nothing. How do we have empathy in emptiness? Yeah. You can't have empathy without emptiness.

[45:14]

Empathy means emptying so that your feeling extends to others. You feel the feeling of others. In order to feel the feelings of others, which is called empathy, we have to have some space. The only way you can have that space is to let go of something that's filling it, called me. Well, you know, a fool is one who is so crazy that people think that he's a fool. One who is not attached to worldly values. So like, Rio Kahn, Rio Kahn the Great, Soto Zen poet who liked to play with the children and didn't conform to anything, he was just a foolish guy, the most well-loved priest in Japan, except for Ikkyu,

[46:34]

hung out with a lot of women. People loved him, too. He carved a lot of pretty wood. Ah, that was, that was... Enku. Enku. Enku. Yes, Enku. He was also a kind of foolish guy. Yeah, he just went around everywhere just carving thousands and thousands and thousands of Buddhas, little Buddhas, you know, and in trees, and he had his little hatchet. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes. Emotion means, e means moving, or motion means moving, e means to, to move.

[47:48]

So it's your feeling, it's the movement of your feeling. It's like I have a feeling, but when I have an emotion, it's move. Like you say, I'm moved to do this. The feeling is a feeling. Feeling is simply a feeling. Emotion, this is my definition, emotion is when the feeling is moved into action. Yeah. Thank you. So there's a sign-up sheet on the, big tension in it

[48:43]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ