Is that too low? Too high? Too right? Okay. So this morning, since we're sitting session, And I want to talk about our concentration. Suzuki Roshi said, true concentration is not concentrating on anything in particular.

[01:01]

Usually we think of concentration especially in meditation, as concentrating on one point. But it says our true concentration is not concentrating on anything in particular, but simply keeping your mind totally open and your perspective totally open. You know, when we do sit in tsa-tsen and face the wall, Sometimes we pick out a little spot or something, but actually, in the process of sitting, we really don't look at anything. Our eyes are open, and the eyes see, or perform their function of allowing the mind to see. but we don't really pick out something to look at.

[02:09]

We simply keep our mind open, keep our eyes open, keep all of our senses open, but without making an effort to concentrate on anything in particular. So, he uses the example, when he's sitting in this seat, and watching everybody, or his view, he has the view of everyone, and since he's not concentrating on anything in particular, if something moves over here he sees it, if something moves over there he sees it, but there's no effort to look at anything. So this is kind of like the mirror mind without concentrating or expecting anything.

[03:11]

The mind simply reflects whatever is there. So in zazen, this is fundamental concentration, totally concentrated and open, but with nothing in particular. So everything is seen just as it is, without naming or having some expectation or simply open and ready. Sometimes it's described as like a cat waiting for the mouse to come out of the hole. The cat's not particularly... Although the cat is aware of the hole, the cat's mind is simply open, and there's no movement.

[04:21]

But when the mouse appears, or the frog sitting on the rock, and when the fly appears, This kind of concentration, totally open and aware, but listening to the... allowing the sound of the bird, but without saying, this is a bird. So, but at the same time, there are various components of our concentration and various components of our consciousness which we have to take care of.

[05:37]

So when we're sitting in zazen, we do scan our body. We have total concentration on scanning the body, not by naming anything, not that kind of scanning, but making sure that our posture is correct. Are the teeth held correctly? Is the tongue at the roof of your mouth? Is your lower back pushed forward? Is your sternum raised? Is your mudra relaxed? Is there any tension in your body? Or is there any tenseness that's not necessary? Are you balancing all the factors of your mind and body? So this is, of course, as we know, very important.

[06:40]

So every once in a while I give a talk on the six pairs, which I will... We're from the Abhidharma. The six pairs of qualitative factors, as they're called, kind of a technical term. But these are factors of qualities. That's why they're called qualitative factors. There are various qualities, and I'll read you what the qualities are. They're balancing factors. There's tranquility, agility, pliancy, workableness, proficiency, and uprightness.

[07:49]

So these are six factors that are always present together in, I would say, in our daily life, but also in our daily life of zazen, of sitting. all of these six factors should be present while we're sitting zazen. And they fall into pairs, pairs of balance. So, for instance, tranquility is like the basis. It's like, tranquility is like the ocean without ripples. Unwavering. When I thought of the word unwavering, it occurred to me that unwavering means no waves.

[08:52]

Tranquility is like settledness. And it's associated with samadhi. Samadhi is the settled state which is waveless actually, so there's no extra activity going on and it's stillness. And the opposite of tranquility is agitation, restlessness, anxiety, and so forth. So, the next one is agility.

[10:01]

We don't usually think of agility in zazen, but actually agility is necessary in zazen, because it means lightness, buoyancy, a presence of mind. And the opposite of agility is heaviness or rigidity or sloth, apathy, dullness, the kind of weightiness that we sometimes feel. So agility is like a space between the atoms. When the atoms are compressed, then there's heaviness, and when there's space between them, there's lightness.

[11:03]

And the third one is pliancy, softness or openness, elasticity. flexibility, adaptability, sensitiveness, the ability that helps letting go and opens up intuition. This is pliancy, this is a cure, she used to say, soft mind. which means flexible, adaptable, not rigid. So rigidity, stiffness, brittleness, obstruction, dogmatism, opinionatedness, conceit and inflexibility are its opposites. So the fourth one is workableness. Workableness is balance between firmness and softness.

[12:14]

and gold is used usually as an example. The right consistency, gold or clay workableness is that right consistency that allows something to be malleable and worked into a shape. Not too runny, not too stiff. So proficiency is the fifth one. Proficiency is like fitness or competence, inner certainty, assurance, proficiency in spontaneity, actually. And its characteristic is like faith or confidence. Confidence through constant practice, actually. So its opposite is like sickliness or lack of faith, lack of confidence, feebleness, inefficiency, uncertainty.

[13:27]

And the sixth one is uprightness, which is like posture. And its qualities are sincerity and a balanced state. And it's the basis of prajna. If you look at the first one which is serenity or tranquility, tranquility is the basis and uprightness is its activity, so the basis is samatha or samadhi, uprightness is its activity or prajna, wisdom, or vipassana. Samatha and vipassana are these two terms which are serenity or tranquility or samadhi and wisdom, but in Mahayana we don't use those two terms

[14:47]

in the same way, because the two terms are one term. Where there's samadhi, there's prajna, and where there's prajna, there's samadhi. Where there's tranquility, there's wisdom. So we don't divide those terms into two and just use one of them. So, tranquility and agility balance each other. Agility is the ability to for the mind, for the body to be still and for the mind to operate in a free manner.

[16:01]

And tranquility is the quietness, right? So agility keeps quietness from becoming sunken. If we're too, you know, One of the complaints of the Rinzai school about the Soto school is that they just sit still and become sunken, like dead wood. But if tranquility is not tempered by agility, then it becomes sunken. So agility is the activity of Tranquility. And it's a balancing factor. And of course, tranquility is the balancing factor of agility because it keeps agility from just jumping around like a monkey.

[17:09]

Workableness sets limits to pliancy. So, pliancy is like the ability to take any form. It can be very loose, but workableness gives it the consistency to stand up, to have just the right shape, just the right consistency, like when a plum is ripe, it has the right consistency, it's not too soft, it's not too hard. So in our zazen, not too soft, not too hard, not too tranquil, and not too agile. Uprightness prevents agility and pliancy from falling into insincerity. Uprightness

[18:16]

Agility and pliancy can fall into insincerity by showing off or becoming self-conscious. I was reading someplace, Buddhadasa was talking about you know, people becoming self-obsessed and are self-concentrated and showing off their good looks or their wares or, you know, attracting attention. He said even animals do this. Animals show off their good looks. They show off their abilities, you know, in order to attract peacock feathers, you know.

[19:25]

It's built in to both humans and animals, I think, to do this. So there has to be some... I mean, I can see my dog showing off, you know. It's like, look at me. So, uprightness prevents agility and pliancy from falling into insincerity. Agility and pliancy take care that uprightness does not grow rigid. So, when one is too upright, then you fall into rigidity. and create a critical mind. I am so upright while everyone else is bent.

[20:27]

This is one of the problems with good Zen students. Zen students who can sit well, and then you compare your sitting with someone else. I can sit so well while they're all having so much problem. So agility and pliancy take care that uprightness does not grow rigid and unimaginative. So proficiency gains sureness, gives sureness and smoothness to agility. So agility can act in any way it wants, but it needs direction. So proficiency, when you can do something well, it gives agility a task.

[21:35]

Agility prevents proficiency from becoming over specialized. and habitually inflexible, limiting potentiality. So agility is a counter to proficiency from becoming too specialized in some singling out one special thing that it's good at, and eliminating all the other factors. So, These six factors are constantly balancing each other, or should be constantly balancing each other.

[22:46]

And when we are practicing, when we're sitting zazen, we can see how we have some factors that are not necessarily balanced by other factors. We may be sitting too rigidly, or maybe too loose, or we may be too sunken in our tranquility. Our mind may be jumping around like crazy and has no counter. Or we may be so heavy. One of the problems, I see one of the biggest problems, two problems, one is using too much energy to do a little task, too much effort to do a little task.

[23:48]

So what we should be looking for is how to use the least amount of effort to do the most work. This is called conservation of energy. I think conservation of energy is at the basis of the whole thing. How you use your energy in just the right way What is the point that everything balances on? Where is the balance point for the whole thing? Where is the center point for the whole thing? When you find the center point of the whole thing, I mean your body-mind, then all the rest of the factors can naturally fall into place. Yes. So would that be like, in response to Buddhadasa's comment about people showing off and to gain attention to propagate the species, that it would be so-called okay for humans to attest themselves in a little way to be attractive and attracted to others to propagate the species?

[25:07]

It's kind of the wiring They do stuff in order to propagate themselves. That's right. So, it's a good question. You know, the point is our practice can be an example, right? So, when we put our whole attention into practice and really make an effort and that effort is sincere, then that becomes an example. So we teach by example. But when we become self-conscious of doing that, then it becomes a kind of vanity.

[26:17]

So we have to be very careful. Our practice is the practice of Shikantaza, which is just doing, just doing, without any gaining idea. And we teach by example. This is called jujuyu zamae, you know, self-fulfilling samadhi, which is also the samadhi which is called tajuyu, which influences other people or encourages other people's practice. But when we think, oh, I'm encouraging other people's practice and look how good I am, So we have to be very careful that it's showing off.

[27:20]

So do you have any tips on how to heighten the awareness as if our head's on fire, when in fact we don't need to hear everything with that same kind of attention? I mean, we do as far as being so-called good Zen students, but it's not like our life is on the line, like in a war zone, or an animal needs to feed itself. Well, the problem is we don't think our life is on the line, but it is. our life is always on the line. I remember when I went to Shashin with Suzuki Roshi, he had a sign that said, it's a matter of life and death. I thought, wow, Shashin, a matter of life and death. But it is, we just don't ... because we become lazy, we can become complacent, easy to become complacent. Because it's the matter, the great matter of birth and death. That's what it's about.

[28:48]

But at the same time, it's simply just this moment. So I remember Suzuki Roshi describing the fish. The fish is swimming around, not looking for something. Not looking for anything. And then somebody goes by and slows it down. Anyway, I think so. I think it's as important, if we see our practice as important as life and death on the battlefield, that gives us something to think about. It's not the same thing, not the same event, but life and death is the present, birth and death is the thing that's present all the time, whether we're on the battlefield or at a rave concert, wherever you are, that's the thing.

[30:03]

But we forget about it because it doesn't look like anything's happening. except that time is ticking. I think that the animal, you know, Apart from vanity, they rouse desire, sort of immediate. And I wonder about that. Because I think of times when I've served like the third meal of sashimi, and I just walk into the endo, and there's something immediate that I didn't do. So... I wonder how that works.

[31:08]

I really do wonder how that works. How that kind of... There's some kind of contact among beings that's immediate. I'm trying to see the connection between... Oh, I'm thinking... I guess I'm thinking of the pheromones versus... I understand what you're saying about vanity, but it's like the... you were, there's some kind of an analogy between how we affect each other and how animals show off, but, and then we're also saying, they're, it's natural, they're propagating the species, they're not keeping you submediate, you know, and they tell us about the pheromones, and it's kind of like iron filing to a magnet, those kinds of things. That's what I wonder about, like it's not on your Well, that's spontaneity. We talk about spontaneity when something, things just click into place.

[32:13]

It's, you know, what happens spontaneously is just simply this. What we do with what happens spontaneously is something else. So when something appears, we have a choice as to how to follow up on something. We can follow up on it in a balanced way, or an unbalanced way, or in a vain way, or an unvain way. But emotions, feelings, thoughts just arise. And then we have the choice of how to incorporate that feeling or what to do with it, how to use that as a condition or be used by it as a condition.

[33:18]

So you walk into the zendo and then, you know, you feel the essence or the presence of the zendo, of the conditions in the zendo. Then you respond to those conditions, somehow. But I'm not sure what you're thinking. I know you're thinking something. I'm wondering about this eating and being eaten, and, you know, Alan did a memorial service in which he read about time eating us. I don't know if that's true. Well, you're eating time or time is eating you. Time is eating you when you're not in the moment. When you are totally present in the moment, then you're eating time. Joshua says to the monk, you're controlled by the 24 hours, whereas I control the 24 hours.

[34:41]

So don't let yourself be eaten by time. Eat time. It's time to eat. Pretty soon it'll be time to eat. You said that true concentration, you're not concentrating on anything? In particular. Not one thing in particular. I was going to say, why is it called concentration? I mean, you're concentrating on everything then? Because it's open. Simply openness. Concentration, simply openness. It's like, there's no self there. is simply the mere mind which sees everything just as it arises, catches everything as it arises, without a comment, without making it into something, not creating a world around it.

[36:00]

That's letting everything come and go. And it means everything, not just seeing, but feelings as well, so that we're not caught by our feelings or our emotions. Emotion thought is the raw material for creating our world. So this is before creation. Well, because it's concentric. It's not eccentric. Excentrication is what we usually do. This is concentrication. So the concentration that we're not diluting with our energy.

[37:10]

Yeah, we're not diluting. It's in pure concentration because it's not dualistic. In the metaphor of the frog or the cat, what is the fly and what is the mouse? What is the what? What is the fly and what is the mouse? What are we catching? You know the frog sits and... Yes. What is he catching? of the fly is whatever appears. In other words, whatever appears, it becomes unnoticed, right? And pouncing or, you know, it's just a kind of way of saying notice it.

[38:14]

And with the frog, it's, well, the frog gets it. If the frog likes it, he'll swallow it. If he doesn't like it, he'll spit it out, but then he stays the same. But actually, it's just a way of saying, totally open, and when something comes, there it is. That's all. Whatever it is, appears. And whether you like it or not, there it is. So, you may not like it, but then you let go of not liking it, and spitting it out. Another question, I was thinking that life's kind of self-correcting too. What is? You know, like, if you're really proud of something, it comes along and just, you know, for me, like, for instance, my job, like, there are days when I feel like, hey, man, I can do this, I can do any of this.

[39:34]

Sazen is the microcosm of the macrocosm. This is where you learn all that stuff without having to go through it. You learn how to deal with the reality, hopefully. So, while we're sitting, And if we locate that place, which is the center of our body, which is the lower back through the front, through just the hara, and the whole thing rotates around that place. So if you push your lower back forward, then you become balanced, and your upper body is balanced with the lower. This is like the roots. Your legs are like the roots.

[40:58]

And your upper body is like the trunk of a tree. And, you know, trees, they sway in the wind. Trees are not rigid. If they're rigid, they get blown over. Anything that's rigid gets blown over. So stay loose. That's the secret of Zazen, is to stay loose, even though your legs are in all this. And be flexible. Just learn how to be flexible at the same time that we have good form, to maintain the form as it looks like. It's rigid, but it's not. Within that form, there's no rigidity. This is pliancy, this is openness, this is lightness. So in our zazen we should feel light and airy and spacious. heavy and dense and unworkable.

[42:00]

So we're always being workable. During Zazen, you're always working the posture subtly. It doesn't look like it, but from the inside, you're always loosening yourself up. The joints are flexible. They're not meant to be stiff. And you don't need muscularity. All you need is balance. It's how you balance on that point. Keep balancing, finding that, never straying from the center point. That's why, you know, our lower back is arched rather than rounded out. As soon as it's rounded out, you lose your strength. So you balance your body over your this part, and then I remember someone describing it as a big rubber ball here, and you kind of, you know, using that rubber ball as a buffer.

[43:06]

like a tire instead of just having your wheels on the road, you have a tire, you know, so that you're not just riding on the rims. And so you have that flexibility and extensive feeling and pliability and agility and workableness, and all the factors are right in there, in this thing. in mudra, very light, the thumbs are facing each other, just barely touching, very lightly touching, arms are flexible, body flexible, and yet upright, and the form is correct. So in the form you have all this freedom, rather than Feeling like a victim of Zazen, you feel the freedom of Zazen, even though there's a lot of stuff going on.

[44:23]

It looks sometimes like, oh, well, you know, he doesn't have any problems, you know, in Zazen. He just kind of gets up there and gets off, you know. But I have lots of problems going in Zazen. But I just throw my problems into Zazen. I don't try to escape my problems. I let zazen work out the problem, and by paying attention to workableness and lightness and all these factors, things get worked out. The body is kind of self-adjusting. You know, like life is self-adjusting, sort of.

[45:39]

So, when we can do that, then we really build up our confidence in the practice. Do you have any other questions?

[46:07]

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