The main reason that I wanted to change our Sashins from Saturdays to Sundays, mostly, this year, is because during Sashin, I like to talk to the Sashin people. And when you have a lot of other people come in to Sashin space, then I have to modify my talk to include them. And I can't be as free to just talk to the people that are in Sashin. And it also does something to the Sashin energy space. But it can't be helped. And so we do have Saturday sessions, sittings, but it's nice when it's on Sunday so that we can just be concentrated on session without any interference or any modifications.

[01:25]

So, you know, our practice is called shikantaza, as you know. And shikantaza means just sitting. But it's just sitting without a self. If it's just sitting without a self, then it's shikantaza. If it's just sitting with a self-centered idea, that's not shikantaza. So some of us are doing shikantaza and some of us are just sitting down. So we should know the difference. and practice the difference. Shikantaza is a foil for ego.

[02:48]

So, in a sense, Sashin is resistance, is a wall for your ego. And the only way we can sit comfortably is to let go of self-centeredness. And the problems that we have are mostly based on self-centeredness, whether we know it or not. Beginners will have a lot of trouble, no matter what. If you're just beginning to sit, And you wonder, how can we do this? We all felt that way the first time we sat Zazen. How can they do this? So one period of Zazen after another, just sitting still, doing the best you can.

[03:57]

So we always appreciate the practice of beginners. because we are very encouraged by that. The older members are encouraged by the pure practice of beginners, and beginners are encouraged by the mature practice of the mature students. So it works both ways. But what's really important is to learn how to sit. Although zazen is not a technique. It's not like, if you learn this technique, then everything will be okay. It's not like that. Although there is some technique, there is a way to sit. And the way to sit is to make it easy to do this.

[05:09]

It's like when you learn to play the piano, you learn the scales and you learn the arpeggios and all the technique that goes with it. And you're very strict. And after you After that becomes part of you, then you have the freedom to play music without thinking too much. And it's the same for Zazen. From the very beginning, you learn correct posture, put your effort into correct posture, and learning all the aspects of correct posture and breathing. and thinking or not thinking, then you will have the ease or the freedom within zazen.

[06:11]

But if you don't learn the right approach to sitting, you'll always have a problem. So, That's why it's important to really work on posture and why I keep going around and not as much as I should anymore. I used to go around all the time adjusting people's posture. But I don't do it so much. People have pretty good posture. I think we have pretty good posture. But when I go to adjust posture, I find that people are so stiff and like a rock, you know. Within posture, we make this effort to have a good form in the posture. Good form is really most important so that you're supported in the right place and you

[07:23]

Good posture allows you to do the most work with the least amount of effort. And that's what we should be working for. To do the most with the least amount of effort. That's the balance between effort and letting go. And if you're using If you're not supported correctly, then you compensate by excess effort in the wrong places, like in your shoulders, or in your back, or in your arms. There's no need to have any tension in your arms. What's that for? There's no need to have any tension in your shoulders. Why do you need that?

[08:24]

It's putting the effort in the wrong place. So, effort should be in your lower back. I know, we all have different backs. And when you start talking about backs, people say, oh, my back, you know. You should put the effort in your lower back. to push your lower back forward. And when your lower back is pushed forward, and your upper back, your upper body is supported by that arch, then, little by little, your posture becomes effortless. And then you have this wonderful feeling of effortless practice. This is what we should be working toward. If you're not working on your posture, then your mind just kind of wanders around. I see people looking out the window.

[09:26]

Sitting like this, looking out the window. Well, what is there to do? What is there to do? Well, there's only two things to do. Three things. One is to think. look out the window, and the other is to put your attention into a posture of breathing. So, we have to keep coming back to posture of breathing and good concentration. When, in the beginning, you should really have good concentration, really be concentrated, and then after posture becomes effortless, then it's not so necessary to have so much concentration. Concentration is a good factor, but you can allow your mind to go to, I don't know how to describe it, but

[10:40]

to just experience pure existence. So I want to remind us to put the effort in the right place in the lower back and keep the form, maintain proper form. And when you sit, you go over all the points of your posture. And when you're concentrated on the mudra, the mudra covers everything. The rest is in the background. And for a good mudra, The thumbs should be just very lightly touching. Very lightly touching.

[11:46]

And you should hold your hands up against your body. Some people go like this, but try this. This is more proper. And your elbows are, your elbows, it's interesting because just raising your hands or lowering them makes a big difference in your posture. and the feeling of your back. If your hands are up here, actually it's, you can feel that your back, lower back pushing forward. But it can be a kind of a strain holding your hands up here. So you can put your hands down, rest them on your heels, but not rest, just not lean on it, you know, but just keep your hands down around your navel. That's why sometimes I see people holding their hands up here and it just looks very uncomfortable.

[12:49]

So to keep it down to your navel. And when you find your thumbs pressing against each other or going like this, you know that there's a lot of tension going on in the body. And when they start falling apart, you know that there's not enough effort. So in all aspects of posture, we want to keep the balance. The mudra has a way of balancing between two tense and two loose. And the posture of the back should not be too tense or too loose. And to keep your head on top of your spine, not falling forward, and not looking up like this.

[13:53]

This is called ego practice, to keep looking up. Rotate your head further. You can look down if you want. A little down from straight ahead. And you can feel like a string hanging. The crown of your head is hanging from a string suspended from the ceiling. like a puppet, everything falls. How does it feel to let, to hang from the crown of your head and let everything fall and keep your back straight? And then you can feel the tenseness draining out of your body, out of your upper body.

[14:54]

Feel the tenseness draining out of your arms, out of your back, out of your shoulders. So there's plenty to work on while you're sitting. Keep checking all the points of posture in rotation. And then you come to a place where you are concentrated on the whole body at once. All the parts at once. But we should remember that each part is independent. The mudra is practicing as the mudra, independently, and all the other parts are supporting the mudra. The back is practicing as the back, but all the other parts are supporting the back.

[15:59]

So all parts are supporting each part. and each part is supporting the whole. This is how we exist without a self. There's nothing that's favored, but all the parts are working together harmoniously, even though the mind thinks The breath comes and goes. The heart beats. The blood runs through the body. The limbs all have their place. Each has their place in the hierarchy of body-mind. And each functions differently, but they're all equal. And they all work All the parts work interdependently without a substantial self.

[17:07]

So ego, this is the inhibitor of ego. The resistance to ego comes up against this You know, in the Zen dojo, we're always bowing. And when we bow, bowing covers the whole universe. This bow covers the whole universe. But bowing can be getting in the way of what we want to do. You know, what we really want to do is sit down. And so we just kind of bow to get that out of the way so we can sit down. So the bowing can be a kind of nuisance in the way of what it is that we really want to do. If we come into the Zen Do late, or everybody's sitting, and there's the atmosphere of the Zen Do, and it's very thick, to walk through the atmosphere of the Zen Do,

[18:32]

It takes a lot of courage when everybody's sitting there in Sashim. So you have to be very careful and enter into that atmosphere. That is an inhibitor. We want to get to our seat. What we want to do is get to our seat. So we have this idea of what we want to do. And getting through the atmosphere of the Zendo takes some We have to adjust ourselves to the atmosphere of the zendo and walk very quietly and slowly in zazen. As soon as you enter the zendo, it's zazen, no matter what you're doing. You take one step, another step, very careful about your steps. Each step is concentrated activity. Then you come to your seat and you bow.

[19:37]

But you don't rush to your seat and then get through the bows in order to get to your seat. Because we feel, well I should get to my seat as soon as possible so I don't disturb everybody. Which is just the opposite of what you should do. You should get to your seat as fast as possible so you don't disturb anybody who will disturb everybody. So just let go of self and enter this endo one step at a time. Bow totally. Turn around. Bow totally. Down. Turn around. Up. Sometimes when people come into dokusan,

[20:39]

When you come into Doksan, you bow, and then you sit down and cross your legs, and we sit facing each other. But quite often, people sit down, and while they're crossing their legs, they're starting to speak to me. They're already engaging before they're actually sat down. So it's one thing at a time, one thing at a time, totally. You don't have to be ostentatious. When you learn to do one thing at a time, totally, and it becomes part of you, then you have freedom, great freedom to do one thing at a time in a very natural way. So our practice is

[21:43]

how to be natural, but not your egotistical naturalness, but true naturalness. So what we practice is how to be, how to do one thing at a time thoroughly in a natural way. We have to go through all the steps to get to where we're going. And we have to go through all the steps thoroughly to get to where we're going. And each step is where we're going, is where we are. Where we are is where we're going. And then we're going to the next place. Now we're going to the next place. So this way, we don't have to worry about fast or slow, or hurried or unhurried.

[22:55]

In the zendo, when we're serving, there's a lot of movement. This is usually sitting very quietly. Not much is happening, it seems like. But when we start serving and eating, A lot of movement. So how do we take care of that movement? How do we take care of ourself in that moving space? How do we handle our body? How do we handle the objects and our equipment? We handle these things in the same way we handle our body. When you learn how to handle your body, take care of your body in zazen, then you extend that to all the objects that you handle.

[23:58]

And when you learn to sit in a balanced way, then You walk in a balanced way and you move in a balanced way with objects. And objects are no longer objects. They're extensions of yourself. And then we treat everything as an extension of ourself. So, say, Zazen is a Buddhist practice. Buddhist practice is simply practice without self-centeredness, or just doing something, just doing whatever is doing, called shikantaza.

[25:16]

So, some people say, well, shikantaza is a very concentrated zazen, which is true, but it's broader than just an aspect of zazen. The main thing about shikantaza is that it's selfless practice. difficult practice because it's the resistance, it creates the resistance that we find for our self-centeredness, for our ego. But it's very good because it slows us down, makes us pay attention

[26:33]

and do one thing at a time. So, do you have any questions about Zazen practice? Does one, or how does one practice Shikantaza while doing activity, like listening to a lecture? or serving or cooking. When you listen to a lecture, you should be sitting Zazen. Sometimes we say, please take an easy, you know, relax, take an easy posture, but don't lean up against the wall. It's not good to lean up against the wall. No matter what posture you take, don't lean against the wall.

[27:42]

And just listen. It's very difficult to just listen, because what we have is our own opinions coming up. They all start chattering. Our mind can start chattering. Although we do, it's normal to have thoughts provoked. To just listen is how you listen while practicing Shikantaza. Just hearing. bringing up your own opinions. And when cooking, to just take care of what's in front of you. You know, you have to think about timing, and you have to think about the ingredients, and you have to think about how you're going to chop, and how you're going to do all these things, right?

[28:58]

And you have to also be aware of all the people working around you. So it's a very complex shikantaza. Very complex. And if you keep your attention here, your head will work well. If you're up here in your head and forget about this, you'll make a lot of mistakes and get anxious and goof it up, more likely. You get very nervous and tense. So you want to avoid getting nervous and tense. So you keep your attention here, just like in Zazen. That's the basis. And then thinking mind will take its rightful place and work well, because there's not a lot of anxiety.

[30:00]

and you can allow your attention to encompass all the factors that you need to pay attention to, and at the same time, you just deal with one thing at a time. Just deal with what's in front of you. And at the same time, it's just like sitting zazen. All the parts of your body are working together harmoniously, but you're only thinking about or attention is on one part, and when your attention is on this one part, all the rest is in the background, but it's not forgotten. When your attention is on the mudra, the mudra is directly in front of you, and all the other parts are in the background, but they're present and supporting. So it's the same as Zazen.

[31:06]

That's how you practice Zazen in the kitchen. So we say that the cooks practice Zazen in the kitchen. That's Sashin practice is in the kitchen. It's no different. So it's not like we're sitting here in the Zendo and the cooks are there doing their work in the kitchen. The work is seshin. So the cook should be working in that way. Practicing zazen and shikantaza as work. And then we don't call it work, we just call it practice. Things are stripped down pretty bare in the Zendo, so it's more conducive, it feels to me, to be very mindful and to go slow and to do each thing completely.

[32:11]

And yet we do tend to cut corners, and it's perhaps we might hang up the phone too quickly or whatever without breathing and sort of doing that. And I know there's no right or wrong, everybody has to find a place of ease and efficiency, but one thing you said some time ago, you said Suzuki Roshi never appeared to be in a rush, and yet we're always rushing around. Suzuki Roshi had mastered Shikantaza, even although, you know, no one completely masters life.

[33:14]

He was pretty good. And so, you know, this is our model, aspiration, and we should we should realize what our model and aspiration is, and we should also realize that we're all in a different place on that path, and not get excited because we're not doing it. or not doing it so well, we should know, oh, I'm not doing it so well, or I know I could do this better, or something like that, without getting worried. If you get too worried or anxious, then you're creating a problem. Just to realize where you are and what you need to do.

[34:21]

I think I could slow down or I think it'd be better instead of hanging at the telephone so quickly or, you know, take a little more time. Just do that more thoroughly. Do this more thoroughly. Do that. But our life is so fast, you know, so many things coming in that it's hard to do everything thoroughly. So we should also realize that. I should be doing things more thoroughly, but I have so many things on my desk or my plate that sometimes I just look at it and walk out the door and do something else thoroughly. Well, it's almost like our Zen Doctrine practice is sort of the benchmark or a reference point, and for the sake of efficiency,

[35:24]

Be a little bit more careful. Yeah. More thorough. Yeah. So, you know, and it's just like Zazen. You're always losing it, right? In one period of Zazen, you just keep losing it. And then you come back. And you lose it, you come back. And you lose it, you come back. That's what it is. And if we have that attitude in our life, daily lives, you lose it, then you remember. It's called re-minding. Recollecting. The practice of recollection. That's what it's called in Theravada. The practice of recollection. You just keep coming back over and over again. I saw a funny cartoon in the New Yorker. There's a man on the phone. He's talking to someone. He says, you know, I'm really busy right now. Can't this wait till we're dead? Yeah, that's not good either.

[36:57]

But you can manage what you can manage. And, you know, I find that there are a lot of things that pass by that don't necessarily need to be taken up. If you feel that you have to address every single thing that comes by, then you get very frantic. Because as our life becomes more complex, which it does in the information age, sheets of information are driven by us. on a faster clip than we can take care of them. I mean, if you look at your mailbox every day and all this stuff that, you know, well, I don't really want to look at it, but I'll look at it anyway.

[38:02]

Maybe there is something there. But, you know, mostly just wholesale toss it away. That's pretty good. If you can just toss it all away wholesale without looking at it. But there's some things, you know, so it's a matter of being selective. But I find, though, that although there's a lot of stuff there, a lot of it doesn't really need to be taken care of. And then I look at my desk after six months, And a lot of those things were just... didn't matter. Maybe they're dead. They're the DOA. Robert?

[39:07]

First, it is true, if you leave anything on your desk long enough, eventually... I'm wondering about the fitting posture as sort of a balancing act. We talk a bit about balancing everything on the lower back and sometimes I do feel that there's sort of a balance but it's a like being on a tightrope with one foot and finding that place on the tightrope where everything is resting easy. And yet, that's hard work. But going along with that is the idea that there is this perfect position

[40:18]

to be in, the one, if I can just find this position, well, everything will be just fine. I was wondering, does having proper posture, is that comfortable or uncomfortable? Well, in the first place, you don't really rest on your lower back. You're actually resting on your thighs. To push your lower back forward puts the weight on your thighs. So it really takes the weight off of your lower back. And you're always looking for posture. There is no correct posture. There is no one spot that's the right spot. And it's always moving. It's like on a joint, you know, like your thigh, like your pelvis joint.

[41:24]

You know, it's a ball and socket. And so you're always moving on that. And you should always be very flexible. Not stuck. If you're stuck, that's absolutely wrong. a rigid position. So it should always, all the parts of your body should be moving and flexible all the time. As soon as you feel stuck, that's wrong. I say wrong, it's a strong word, but it's not right. As soon as you get stuck, you know, stiff, stiffed into some position. Not right. It's always flexible. And although you're not moving visibly, there's always room for movement. And the ball and joint are sitting in equilibrium.

[42:30]

But it's going to be free to move. And so you make subtle adjustments. I'm always making subtle adjustments in my posture, because it's changing all the time. Posture. It's not like this post. Even though that post is changing, but it's much slower. Your posture is always changing, and you have the right posture, and two minutes later, it's changed. And so you have to keep readjusting. Subtle adjustments all the time. And in order to do that, you have to be flexible. And so all the joints in your body should be open and flexible. And there's no special posture that once you get it, you've got it. As soon as you get it, it's already falling out of balance. So it's a continuous adjustment. Finding your posture is continuous.

[43:32]

That's why I say, you continuously Concentrate on your posture. Because it's always changing. And you always have to keep finding it again. Keep finding it, moment after moment. What was the last part of your question? It was a finality. And so my question is... Is it comfortable or uncomfortable? Comfortable or uncomfortable. Comfortable or uncomfortable depends on whether you're self-centered or not. If you're self-centered, it's uncomfortable. If you're not self-centered, it doesn't matter. Not so important. When it becomes not so important, then it's comfortable. I appreciate what you say about finding your balance and being able also to let things go and not have to deal with everything that comes across your desk.

[44:58]

I think it's going to be very useful to sit in front of my desk and breathe first. But it's very important to me to come to things with some balance, with some breath, with some posture. To bring that, to take it outside and present it was just a very important thing. Well, I find also that if I really start cleaning up all the things that come to me, usually within about 15 minutes, everything disappears, right?

[46:00]

Although you'd think it was going to take forever. But, you know, sometimes somebody will give me a manuscript and say, will you please read this? I can't do it. impossible. So these kinds of things, like what choice, well what should I do and what can't I do? What can I take care of and what can't I? I think what's important is to be able to say yes and no to things. I just want to say one last thing and that is to stay with your breathing and if you haven't been practicing Zazen so long to really count your breaths from one to ten on the exhale and also for

[47:32]

everyone to maybe count your breath for a while until your mind settles and then just pay attention, be aware of the breath, be aware of the breath down here. When you get anxious it comes up so keep letting your breath drop to here and when you're breathing here your body will feel much more comfortable.

[48:05]

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