Well, for those of you who haven't been here all week, this is the last day, final day of our seven-day Sashin, where we've been sitting from five in the morning until nine in the evening, and we've all been having a very nice time. side. So this is a wonderful event that we have every year. This Seventh-day Sashina in December is to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment. December 8th is usually the date. And in my talks I've been commenting on Suzuki Roshi's commentary on Sekito Kisen's Sandokai, the unity of diversity and oneness.

[01:18]

The absolute and the relative, basically. The relative or the diversity is an expression of oneness. and oneness is contained within diversity. Stillness is the activity, stillness is the essence of activity, and activity is the expression of stillness. So, there are 12 talks that Suzuki Roshi gave at Tassajara in 1970. And I've only been able to give, to talk about five of them, or something like that, six. So today I'm going to talk about the last one. So, you know, in Japan, in Heijin monastery,

[02:27]

They have all the sutras in volumes, and each volume is cardboard, like a cover, maybe one cover, and then Japanese books are like accordions sometimes, like this. And so, because the monks can't They express the sutras in the morning chant, in the morning service, by opening and closing them, like this. So they're chanting and they're just opening and closing, and then they take another one, and then they go through the whole tripitaka, more or less, fanning the sutras. And then all of the words and letters and characters fly out all over the universe.

[03:36]

So this is how they express the sutras. So they express the sutras through practice rather than reading them. Then this is what this is all about. It's about how you practice. So, this last chapter, I think almost any one of these talks is independent in a way that you can relate to without knowing anything. So, these are the last four lines of the Sandokai. Practice is not a matter of far or near. But if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way.

[04:40]

I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, don't pass your days and nights in vain. That's the end of the Sankhya Kai. I have some of my own footnotes here, my own comments. And one that I just wrote down was, I can't practice everything. So I practice one thing, and that one thing includes everything. That's the essence of our practice. Just do one thing thoroughly. If you do one thing thoroughly, it includes everything. That's practice. So Suzuki Roshi quotes the first line.

[05:42]

Practice is not a matter of far or near. He says this is very important. When you are involved in selfish practice, you have some idea of attainment. You want something. When you strive to reach a goal or attain enlightenment, you naturally have the idea, I am far from the goal, Or, I'm almost there. But if you really practice our way, enlightenment is right where you are. This may be rather difficult to accept. When you practice Zazen without any idea of attainment, there is actually enlightenment. Usually when we come to practice, we want something. That's normal and usual. Why would I come to practice if I didn't want something? But when our practice matures, then we realize that there's nothing to attain, nothing to gain, and there's nothing we can put in our pocket.

[07:00]

You know, when Dogen Zenji went to China, He had to clarify his understanding. When he came back, people said, well, what did you bring back from China? He said, well, the only thing I really have any value that I brought back is to realize that my eyes are horizontal, my nose is vertical. So Dogen Zenji explained that in self-centered practice there is enlightenment and on the other hand there is practice. In other words, to split practice from enlightenment. So to split practice from enlightenment means that we want to practice in order to gain enlightenment. That's a very usual way of thinking. We want something, we do something, we want a result.

[08:04]

So we're always working to get a result. That's the usual way of thinking. But in practice, the result is contained within the practice. The result is contained within the activity. So instead of looking for something, we have to find something in each step. We have to find ourselves in each step instead of looking for ourselves over there. When we're looking for something else, It's always over there. So practice, instead of looking for something over there, is to come home. To find your way home, which is here. So, the most difficult thing is how to be here. Because we always want to be there. I remember when I lived here, I lived upstairs, And my son would be watching, when he was a little kid, he'd be watching Sesame Street.

[09:16]

And I'd go up there during my break, during Sashim, and I'd sit down and I'd watch Sesame Street. And it was wonderful because it was so simple. Here. There. And this is here, and that's there. That's it. So he says, Dawkins then explained that in self-centered practice, there is enlightenment, and over there, there is practice. That's self-centered. But practice and enlightenment are events. that we will encounter in our life, but when we realize the practice and enlightenment as events that appear in the realm of the great dharma world, then enlightenment is an event that expresses the dharma world, and practice is also an event that expresses the dharma world.

[10:18]

If both express or suggest the big dharma world, then actually there's no need to be discouraged if we do not attain enlightenment. In other words, enlightenment is not something you get, it's what you are. So instead of realizing what we are, we look for something to get. It's like, there's a phrase, selling water by the river. It's like someone expressed, the pumpkin flies into Kennedy Airport, New York, and gets off the plane and says, well, where's the airport? So practice and enlightenment have equal value. One moment of practice is one moment of enlightenment. So we don't have to look for something. Suzuki Roshi, people would say, well Suzuki Roshi, this is the old days, he's not enlightened.

[11:25]

He never talks about enlightenment or about getting enlightenment. Whereas all the other teachers were talking about getting enlightenment. Forcing the students. They'd come in and have these sashins. where they fly around their country having sushis and hitting people with sticks and urging people to get enlightenment. Where Suzuki Roshi was just talking about practice. Just that. Just everything you do is practice. There's no need to force you to get something. You just simply realize your nature. So, and he would also say, enlightenment is not so difficult. So don't worry about it. We hold enlightenment up as this big prize. He said, don't hold up this enlightenment as a big prize.

[12:26]

Enlightenment's okay. The main thing is practice. Do the work. Not try to get the prize. Not to get the gold ring. as you go around and the merry-go-round. The prize itself is in ordinary activity. Enlightenment is ordinary activity, but we don't see it, because we say, oh, this is just ordinary activity. The word ordinary, we think of ordinary as something down here. Actually, ordinary is the most valuable thing. Every breath is the most valuable thing you will ever have. Each breath, the breath you have right now is the most valuable thing you will ever have. Why go looking for something? but there will be no need to be excited about it.

[13:44]

Step by step, we will continue endless practice, appreciating the bliss of the dharma world. That is practice based on enlightenment, practice beyond our experience of good and bad, beyond all self-centered practice. So, We practice for the sake of practice, not for myself and not for you. But when we practice for the sake of practice, I'm included, and so are you. In the last lecture, I discussed Sekhito's statement. If you don't understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk? Whatever you see, that is the Tao. this, your practice will not work. Now, he says, if you practice our way in its true sense, there's no problem about being far away from the goal or almost there.

[14:48]

A beginner's practice and a great Zen master's practice are not different. But if you are involved only in self-centered practice, that's delusion. And there's a big silence. There is no then what. There's only now what. And so what is it? This is what. What is it? What is it? Or what is it? And it is what. So on.

[15:50]

So in the next line, he says that if you practice our way with a dualistic sense of practice and enlightenment, then you will be separated from the Tao by difficulties as great as those of crossing mountains and rivers. As soon as there's a separation, it's a huge gap. So you see this big chasm because you're separating yourself from the other side. Then he says, I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, don't pass your days and nights in vain. So then he gives us a little Japanese lesson. Here the sutra says, ko in ima shiki wataru koto nagare ko here means sunbeam and in means shadow so ko in means something like day and night actually we used to say through sunshine and shadow instead of day and night a little more poetic that way I like through sunshine and shadow better than

[17:14]

night and day. That's more poetic sounding. So nakare means not and munashiku means in vain. So don't pass your days and nights in vain means don't goof off. We like to use those terms. Don't goof off, don't goof off. Even though you work very hard sometimes you may be spending your valuable time without actually doing anything. If you don't know what you're doing we may say I'm striving very hard to put $10,000 into my savings account. But to us, that may not make much sense. So even though you may work very hard at Tassajara during the work period, it does not always mean that you're doing the right thing. And if you goof off, you're wasting your time. And even if you work very hard, you may also students go down and take care of the guests for five months.

[18:24]

In between practice periods, which are each three months, where there are no guests, which is Zazen. So during the work period, the students just do a lot of work, and then they have Zazen in the morning and evening. So he's saying if you goof off, if you don't have enough yourself. I don't want to put that much work in. I need it for myself. That's egotistic practice. And if you're working too hard, you say, see how good I am? I'm really a good Zen student. I'm working more than anybody else. That's also egotistical practice. So either way, you've got a problem. So, you know, there is a koan, every day is a good day. You know that one?

[19:26]

This famous koan doesn't mean that you shouldn't complain if you have some difficulty. What it means is, don't spend your time in vain. I think most people are spending their time in vain. No, I'm always busy, they may say. But if you say so, it is a sure sign that they're spending their time in vain. Most people do things with some feeling of purpose. as if they know what they're doing. But even so, I don't think they have a proper understanding of their activity. Master Joshu, the monk came to Master Joshu and said, I just don't have enough time to do all the things I have to do. And Joshu says, you're being pushed around by time, but I'm controlling time.

[20:27]

Time is controlling you, whereas I'm controlling time. So how do we live without being pushed around by time? In our society now, this is called the society of being pushed around by time and circumstances. Nobody has enough time to do anything. We need more tools to push us around. So, when you do something with a purpose based on some evaluation of what is useful or useless, good or bad, more or less, valuable, your understanding is not perfect. If you do things that need to be done, regardless of whether the results are good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, that is real practice. If you do things not because Buddha or truth or yourself or others, not for all that, but for the things themselves, that is the true way.

[21:38]

So, you would say, when you watch the windows, you just watch the windows. You just do it that way, because that's what you do. In other words, we're sacrificing this moment for some other moment. We're sacrificing this activity for some other activity called clean windows, for some result called clean windows. When we walk to the store, we want to buy something, right? Otherwise, why would you walk to the store? That's very logical. But when we walk to the store, we have this idea in mind, I'm walking to the store to get something to eat.

[22:38]

But the fact of the matter is that there's just the walking. What's happening in activity is just the walking. And then you have something imaginative going on in your mind. But the fact of walking to the store is where your life is. This is the essence of your life at this moment. which covers the whole universe, if you understand what you're doing. It's just doing. Even though you have some purpose, enlightenment is in just the doing. So we can have enlightened steps if it's just this. But we miss most of our life doing something for the sake of something else. That's his point. even though we have to do it that way. I wrote something down here that said, we think of practice as something to do and enlightenment as something we get.

[23:47]

You could also say enlightenment is something we do, and practice is something we get. Or practice and enlightenment are the same thing. That's the point. So I can't explain this so well, and maybe I shouldn't explain it much. He says, you shouldn't do things just because you feel good, or stop doing things just because you feel bad. bad, there's something you should do. If you don't have this kind of feeling when doing something, you have not yet started the practice in the true sense. It has nothing to do with how you feel. When we sit tazen, it has nothing to do with how you feel, because your feelings, emotions and thoughts will always distract you from what you're doing, and your Why am I doing this?

[25:02]

I'll never do this again. When I get up, I'll never do this again. Again, you do a little kin head, and then you sit down again. So, you know, it's easy to fool ourselves, and it takes the easy way out. So I don't know why I'm It's not for you or for myself or even for Buddha or Buddhism. I'm just here. But when I think I have to leave Tassajara in two or three weeks, I don't feel so good. I don't know why. I don't miss... I don't think it's just because you're my students. I don't have any particular person who I love so much, and I don't know why I have to be here. It's not because I'm attached to Tassajara. I'm not expecting anything in the future in terms of a big monastery or Buddhism. But I don't want to live up in the air.

[26:06]

I want to be right here, and I want to stand on my feet. The only way to stand on my feet when I'm at Casa Harva is to sit. That's a cute little statement. That is the reason I'm here. To stand on my feet and to sit on my black cushion are the most important things for me. I don't trust anything more than my feet and my black cushion. They are my friends, always. My feet are always my friends. When I am in bed, my bed is my friend. There is no Buddha, no Buddhism, no Zazen. If you ask me, what is Zazen? My answer will be to sit on my black cushion or to walk with my feet. To stay at this moment, in this place, is my Zazen. There's no other Zazen. When I am really standing on my feet, I'm not lost. For me, that is nirvana. There's no need to travel to cross mountains or rivers.

[27:08]

I am right here in the dharma world. So I have no difficulty crossing mountains and rivers. That's how we don't waste time. Moment after moment, we should live right here, without sacrificing this moment for the future. So, for some beginners, just living your life a little bit at a time. at a time, or one moment at a time. Each moment is your total life at this moment, to express and experience life totally and thoroughly on this moment, without the next moment or the past moment, and then the next moment to experience your life totally and thoroughly. So in China, in Segito's time, Zen Buddhism was very polemical. In the background of the teaching, there was always some controversy. There were many schools, and they were often lost in dispute.

[28:09]

And because they were involved in ideas of right and wrong teaching, or traditional and heretical teaching, they lost the main point of their practice. So Sekento said, don't spend your time in vain. Don't sacrifice actual practice for idealistic practice. Trying to attain some kind of perfection, or trying to find the traditional So the disciples of the Sixth Ancestor compiled a sutra of the Sixth Ancestor in different versions, and each said, this is the Sixth Ancestor's way. Those who do not have this book are not the descendants of the Sixth Ancestor. This kind of understanding prevailed at that time. But we can't practice all of the practices of Buddhism, except to practice our practice totally.

[29:30]

If what we practice is our practice totally, we don't have to practice all the other practices of Buddhism, because they're contained in our practice. People go and they visit this one and that one, they Pashtunize them, Tibetans, and that's fine. But it's good to do that. No problem. But if you have confidence in your own practice, you will see how those practices are contained in our practice. And if you spread yourself too thin, it's hard to be present in your own practice. Or you think, oh, they have it, so I'll do that. That's OK. But there's no need to do that. You can appreciate all the practices without having to spread yourself thin, because what you're practicing Wherever you go, there you are. So this is sometimes called tile polishing practice.

[30:33]

Usually people will polish a mirror. If someone starts to polish a tile, you may laugh at him. Polishing a tile makes it shine. Someone may say, oh, this is just a tile. It cannot be a mirror. That is the practice of those who give up easily. thinking, I cannot be a good synth student, so I have to give up sitting. They don't realize that a tile is valuable, sometimes more valuable than a mirror. No one can afford to make a roof with mirrors. Tiles are very good for making roofs, just as a mirror is important for looking at yourself. That is tile polishing practice. You polish yourself into yourself. You don't polish yourself to make you into something else, like a Buddha. So this is also called virtue rather than value. As you know, there's a famous story about Nangaku, a disciple of the sixth ancestor, and Baso, his student.

[31:40]

Baso was practicing Zazen when Nangaku passed by and asked, what are you doing? I'm practicing Zazen. Why are you doing that in order to become a Buddha? Ah, it's very nice of you to try to become a Buddha, said Nagaku. And he picked up a tile and started to polish it. So Baso asked with some curiosity, what are you doing? I'm going to make this tile into a mirror. His disciple asked whether it was possible to make a tile into a mirror. How do you make a tile into a mirror? Nangako answered, you said you were practicing zazen to be a buddha, but buddha is not always someone who attains enlightenment. This is the Buddhist interpretation. Everyone is a buddha, whether they have attained enlightenment or not. So Baso said, I want to become a buddha through sitting practice.

[32:43]

Whatever you do, that will be zazen. So this needs some clarification. Whatever you do, that is zazen. So in our daily life, our practice is expressed as it proceeds from zazen, from sitting practice. So sitting practice and daily practice are the two sides of practice that are one practice. When, every day, we come and go to the zendo. You come to the zendo and you go to life in the big world. Then you come back and you sit, so then you go to work, whatever you do, in the world. So back and forth and back and forth. And when there's no difference between sitting on your cushion and your activity in the world, that's practice. That's thorough practice. That's when you have enlightenment, not have enlightenment, but a practice, your life is taking place in the realm of enlightenment.

[34:01]

It's not your practice, it's not your enlightenment, because enlightenment contains you. It's not something that you have. Suzuki Roshi talked about, in Japanese, that They don't say, the tree contains the water. They say, the water contains the tree. Water contains everything. Isn't that an interesting way to think about things? They always think about everything the opposite of the way we think about it. That's true. It's the other side of the world. So Baso said, I want to become a Buddha through sitting practice.

[35:07]

And Nangaku said, you speak of practice in the sitting position, but to sit is not necessarily always Zen. Whatever you do, that will be Zazen. Baso was lost. Then what would be the appropriate practice? And Nangaku replied, if a cart does not go, what would be the appropriate means to make it go? To hit the cart or to hit the horse? And our usual response is, well, of course, you hit the horse. Dumbbell. In Zen, we hit the cart. If you want to make the cart go, you hit. In Zen, it's not that you don't hit. You don't hit anything. Hitting means, what do you do? We use the word hit. a lot, but it means various things. No matter where you hit, it doesn't matter.

[36:08]

You want the cart to go? Hit it any place. Hit the wheels, hit the horse, it doesn't matter because it's all one thing. That's the point. It's all one piece. Your life is not separated between practice and enlightenment. If you want enlightenment, call the horse, hit the cart. Because it's all one piece. There is no such thing as one piece. But it's all one piece. The pieces of one piece. All these pieces are pieces of one piece. Just like when you say, this is my body, it's all one piece. This, all the balloons and the fingers and the parts of the body are many, many, many things. They're not, but these many, many, many things is one piece. But it is not one piece without many pieces. So it's all one, and yet it's all me at the same time. So it doesn't matter where you hit the cart.

[37:10]

Enlightenment is everywhere. All you have to do is breathe it in or breathe it out. So practice and enlightenment are one, like the cart. Well, before I get there, So Nangako continued his explanation. Nangako replied, if the cart does not go, what would be the appropriate means to make it go, to hit the cart or hit the horse? Baso couldn't answer because he was still involved in practice to attain something. So Nangako continued his explanation. I can't tell you all the details, but in short, what he said was, trying to figure out which is right, to whip the horse or to whip the cart, is wrong. are one. So practice and enlightenment are one, like cart and horse. So if you do actual physical practice, that is also enlightenment. We call practice based on enlightenment, real practice that has no end.

[38:13]

And we call enlightenment that starts with practice and is one with practice, beginningless enlightenment. You know, we think, I am deluded and I will go practice to get enlightened. But actually, our practice starts with enlightenment. Enlightenment is what brings you to practice. Buddha seeks Buddha. What else will bring you to practice? You say, my deluded mind, because I'm suffering and deluded. I go to practice enlightenment. mind is the enlightened mind. So if someone starts to practice, there is enlightenment, and where there is enlightenment, there is also practice. There is no enlightenment without practice. If you don't stay on this spot, realizing your position, then you're not practicing our way.

[39:19]

So to stay on your position is the most important thing. doesn't mean not to be moved. To stand your ground is to know how to move. In Zazen, we just stand our ground, right? And the movement takes place inside rather than outside. When we sit, we have discomfort, so we want to move. But we don't move outside, we move inside. And moving inside means letting go. Zazen forces you to let go of your resistances and your ego and your self-centeredness. That's the only way you can do it. That's what it's about. And then you don't need to move outside because all the adjustment is taking place inside. And there is no inside or outside. Sekito is also a direct disciple of the Sixth Ancestor.

[40:23]

was very well. So when Kataku Jin, who was one of, I don't want to spread all this, and his disciples started to denounce the northern school of Jinshu, Segito felt bad about being attached to some idea without realizing what practice is. His understanding was carried on by Dogen Zenji in Japan five centuries later. Dogen extended this understanding, not just logically, but more widely and with more feeling and in a more poetic way through his tenacious mind. Some people say the Sando Kai is not such a good poem because it's so philosophical. It may be so if you don't understand the background of Seketo's teaching and if your mind does not penetrate through the words. We say, read the back of the page, read the back of the paper, not just the printed characters. But the other side of the not just the printed characters but the other side of the page. We say read between the lines.

[41:29]

It is important for us to understand Sekito's Kassando Kai in this way. That's the end. We have a ceremony today. We're celebrating So if you don't worry about time, it always works itself out. That's my motto. So you're all welcome.

[42:10]

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