I vow to tell you the truth and not to talk down the words. Morning. So, for the last four or five days, I've been kind of ill with a sore throat. that seemed to have hung on for a long time. And so I came in yesterday afternoon and I have to say that my energy is not too high. So I thought about many things to talk about but none of them were inspiring to me.

[01:02]

And so I decided that I'm going to talk about Zazen. This is the third day of Zazen. this is what we're doing. And so I thought the best thing would be to encourage our practice and encourage mine. So I want to talk about give us some kind of reminder about what we're doing and about how we regulate our body, mind, and breath in Zazen. Regulate is a word I rarely use, but it popped into my mind.

[02:16]

and how to use our energy in the most efficient way, so that we use the least amount of effort to do the most work. If we push too hard, we tire out quickly. And if we don't use enough energy, we never bring ourself up to the critical point. There is a critical point, you know. A critical point is like the balance point. where everything is working, body, mind and breath, are working together in a complete balance.

[03:30]

So, you know, in Zazen, in Sashin, We usually settle on some posture that works for us. And sometimes it's a posture that's not what we would call ideal, but it works. It's the posture that, you know, allows our back to function and it's the least painful for our legs. So the body is like a piece of cloth, one piece of cloth. In order to make it straight, you kind of spread it out. If you put it on one corner, then all the rest of the corners are affected by it.

[04:49]

So if we pull on one corner, then the clavicle is a little out of balance. And then we pull on the other corner. So the body is always changing, always moving. And it's never quite perfect. Even though we sit up straight with our back straight and the lower back pushed in, head on top of the shoulders. Still, after a while, it changes. So, we have to keep a perfect balance of parts, because as soon as one part falls out of balance, the rest of the parts are affected. So we say, sit still, don't move.

[05:57]

But don't move doesn't mean not to move. We're always moving subtly. Even though you try to keep your body without moving, it moves anyway. Because nothing stays still. So, don't move has a bigger meaning than don't move anything. It means keep your position. And within that position, there's some Wiggle room, which doesn't mean to wiggle around. It simply means that you're always fine-tuning your posture. If you don't continue to fine-tune your posture, then you get stuck in a certain position. So, the important point in posture is flexibility.

[07:08]

I reiterate this over and over again. Flexibility is the most important thing in posture. As soon as your body becomes rigid, that's called overexertion. Togen says, when you let go, it fills your hand. Talking about Jiju-Yu Samadhi. When you let go, it fills your hand. In other words, letting go is what you have to do with your posture. and at the same time to exert effort. But it has to be proper effort, right effort. So at the same time that you're making the effort to sit up straight and well balanced, keeping your head on top of your spine, you're letting go.

[08:22]

You're totally letting go of everything. So if, you know, what happens is when we start to have some problem, there's nothing to cling to. There's nothing, there's no, no branch to hold on to. So what we do is we hold on to ourself. We cling to our body. which, of course, is the wrong thing to cling to, because then you become more and more tense and more and more stiff. So, we have to go the opposite way that our reaction would go. Our reaction is to hold on. cling, to close down. But we have to just keep opening up, opening up, opening up.

[09:26]

If we start opening up from the very beginning of our zazen, and open up to every sensation, then we can deal with whatever sensation appears. But if you wait until your legs hurt, then it's too late. Because the leap is too great. So we have to start the process of opening up from the beginning. To be aware of each sensation and to open up to each sensation. then opening up to each sensation becomes natural and you avoid a lot of problems.

[10:30]

Still have problems, but they're not the same intensity as when we cling to our body. body. Dropping the body is to let go of clinging and simply open up to each sensation from the beginning. And then you stay loose, you stay flexible. So if someone comes and adjusts your posture, you don't stiffen up. You just let somebody do what they want with you. Have their way with you.

[11:37]

So many people, you know, are so resistant to having their posture adjusted. It's really amazing. Like, don't touch me. This is the enemy of Zazen. So, when you're sitting in Zazen, to actually feel the tenseness draining out of your body. So you just, as loose as possible, but at the same time, in the right posture, maintaining right posture. So it's like having a string, like a puppet. You know, if you put a, tie a string to the puppet's head, on the crown, and you pull up and, you know,

[12:48]

So this kind of looseness, this is what it means by the wooden man. The wooden man sings. The stone woman gets up dancing. The wooden man is like a puppet. No resistance, no ego. be like the wooden woman and let the stone man get up to sing, to dance. Just think of your posture in that way. Just loose, you know, the wrist is attached to the The hand is attached to the arm by the wrist. Everything is flexible.

[13:57]

And you sit that way. And you don't have a lot of problems. You eliminate a lot of problems this way. And then you work on balance. So, what is the point? The point is to work on balance. That's the focal point, is balancing. And when you're balancing, you have to go like this in order to keep your balance. When you're walking a tightrope, you go like this in order to keep your balance. So in Zazen, it's the same thing. You have flexibility to move. There's nothing rigid, no rigidity whatsoever. The legs are like roots planted in the ground.

[15:01]

And the body is like a tree, the trunk of a tree. And these are the branches. And the tree sways in the wind. And the roots are there, but they're strong, but they're also open. The roots are open, so the energy flows completely throughout the body. It doesn't get stopped here, just because there's a little sensation called pain. But you let the energy flow completely, so the whole body is, every part of the body is helping every other part of the body. and there's complete circulation of energy throughout the whole body. So when you get up from Zazen, you should feel energized, because you're inducing energy.

[16:13]

So in balance, If you can push your lower back forward and lift up your sternum, then you have good balance. And keeping the head on top of the spine is the hardest part, because our tits tend to go like this. Even with the oldest practitioners, they go... So... And then I'll say during Zazen, put your head on top of your spine. Everybody goes... So, this is like a big stone, you know, big round stone, and it's got a lot of weight. So, keep it up on top of your spine so that it doesn't pull your back forward. If you keep your head forward, it puts a strain on your back. So, how do you sit without any strain on any part of your body?

[17:23]

Sometimes you say, oh, my mudra gets kind of tired. I get tired holding my mudra like this, you know. But actually, there's a way of holding your hands with your mudra. And, you know, it starts up here in your shoulders. Your mudra starts up here in your shoulders. And then you feel this roundness. Find the balance. And so, there's the balance this way, and there's the balance this way. So, not sitting up, not leaning back too far, not leaning forward, not leaning to the side, but sitting up straight. That doesn't, that's... And it doesn't take much effort. It takes effort to begin with.

[18:30]

But then the effort becomes more subtle as you allow the energy to settle down here. Then it feels very good. The energy is just right, the effort is just right, well balanced. That's the mindfulness. Mindfulness is coming back to this over and over again. Then there's the breathing, which should be down here in your lower abdomen, feels like your lower abdomen. If you have trouble breathing down deep you should take some deep breaths to begin with like through your mouth in order to prime your breathing don't allow yourself to breathe up in your chest you should know where your breath is at all times in zazen

[19:47]

So sometimes we say, count your breath. Sometimes we say, just let your breath be. Just be aware of it. And then sometimes people say, at some point, you don't even know. You're not even conscious of breathing. That's also true. In Shikantaza, you're not necessarily conscious of breathing. Because when you begin, you're conscious of breathing. But then, at some point, you just let go of everything. And there's breathing, and there's posture, and there's thinking. Thinking the thought of Zazen. That's our thought. Think the thought of Zazen. You know, you don't need to think the thought of anything else.

[20:54]

That's called thinking, not thinking. Think, not thinking. Which is non-thinking. Beyond thinking and not thinking. When thoughts pass through the mind all the time, it's like A fish swimming in the ocean. And then schools of fish swim by. A shark goes by. An octopus goes by. Rocks go by. But the fish is just swimming in the ocean. Just over and over returning.

[22:01]

You may have emotions come up, various feelings come up, various thoughts come up, but no need to worry them or let them worry you. You may get angry, but that's just anger. It's simply a feeling called anger. You may not like what's happening, but it's simply a feeling called not liking what's happening. So this is called Shikan Taza.

[23:19]

Just sitting upright. Taza means upright. sitting in Samadhi. But always keep looking for that balance, the balance of the body, loose body, loose body, accepting everything that happens without discrimination, Just this is what this is. It may be interesting or it may not be. But this is letting go of the veils and letting light come forth.

[24:33]

That's what Zazen is. Pulling out the shade and let the light come forth without interference. Do you have any questions? Why do you do that? I don't know. Well, it's not your light. But it doesn't belong to you. You know, like we say, Suzuki Yoshi, we say, these are my glasses, but they don't really belong to me.

[25:38]

But I appreciate that you let me use them. So, you have to be careful about yours, what's yours. It's not yours, and at the same time, it is you. So, if you say, it's not mine, That's not right. And if you say it is mine, that's not right either. And yet, if you say it's not mine, that's right. And if you say it is mine, that's right too. So don't worry about it. Mary. You said the other day, this is not a concentration practice, and yet we use our breath somehow, and it's also, I think, and I'm asking you to talk about this, it's also, it's not just sort of diffuse and effortless, in the sense that we're just sitting in the middle of our lives or something, not that upright or something, but

[27:10]

It's not about just sort of wandering around in your mind. So how do you find a balance? It's a highly concentrated, effortful practice. You have to keep exerting the effort all the time. Exerting effort is the difference between tension and tenseness. You should maintain the tension but let go of the tenseness. Tenseness is extra. You don't have to be tense, but tension is the structure that holds things together. Without tension, nothing, you know, holds together. So the body has tension, but just the right amount. Tenseness is that kind of tension that's extra. So you let go of that. And as far as concentration goes, yes, of course.

[28:15]

When they say concentration practice, it means bowing practice, incense practice, concentration practice. All those things are included, but it's not one of the concentration practices of Buddhism. of which there are certain kinds of concentration practices. Concentration is present in every moment of zazen, but we don't call it a concentration practice, quote-unquote. It's not like, you know, watching a casino, a blue flame or something like that. It's called a concentration practice. In order to reach a certain state of mind, So we're not trying to reach a certain state of mind as a concentration practice. But of course, concentration is absolutely necessary for sitting.

[29:19]

So the mind is gathered and it's concentrated. But it's not concentrated in order to reach a certain state of mind. There's no special state of mind that you're trying to reach. through concentration practice. And how do you work with the breath in that context? Well, there are various ways. You can count the breath, or you can follow the breath. Both are following the breath, but one is following the breath through counting. So, but we don't concentrate on one aspect to the exclusion of other aspects. So, when you're sitting zazen, you go over all the points of your posture, your mudra, your teeth, the angle of your head, all the points of your posture, you go over and over.

[30:24]

And you shine the light on each one of those. And when you are concentrated on the mudra, the mudra is in the foreground, and all the rest of the body is in the background. It's not like it's eliminated, but it's in the background. And then when you concentrate on your posture, the posture of your back is in the foreground and the rest is in the background. And then you go to the breath and then you count the breath or you follow the breath and at that time the breath is in the foreground and the rest of the body is in the background. And then sometimes you concentrate on the whole thing all together. Posture, breath, You're just aware of the whole organism at once.

[31:27]

So, you don't stay with one thing, but you move around and around, the light of concentration. When you were talking about resistance, there's this kind of resistance we have with the body, and I was thinking about resistance, like letting go of opinions or beliefs or mental delusions. What helps at that point of resistance to let go? In letting go, when letting go, At the point of resistance, when you meet resistance, what helps? What helps? Well, I'd say... What is this?

[32:30]

Do I need this? Is this necessary? Is this important? What is the most important thing? So, question it when it comes up. You know, it's interesting watching football players. If you ever watch the quarterback, you know, it's the guy that tosses the ball or hands it out to somebody else. He's the key. And everybody from the other side is trying to get him before he can get the ball away. So often he gets the ball away just in time, but somebody tackles him. So the quarterback has just kind of let these big, huge, 250-pound guys tackle him. without knowing if they're even coming, or knowing where they are, necessarily, and are knowing that they're there, and that he's going to be hit.

[33:41]

So, what does he do? He just goes limp. He just lets go of everything, and just lets himself be pushed around by these guys. It's amazing. Totally amazing. If he didn't do that, he gets hurt. I was reading recently, I think it's the Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness. I think that was the one. The Buddha was talking about awareness of breathing. He says you should be aware if you're having a deep breath, or a shallow breath, or a long breath, or a short breath. It sounded sort of almost analytical, which seemed odd. That's right, it's analytical. So you have to be careful when you read that, because it's analytical. It's like, But when you're actually breathing, you don't go through that analytical process in the same way that when you're reading about it as when you're reading about it.

[34:48]

So it's like swimming is different than reading about swimming, right? So that's a manual for how you do something. when you're actually engaged in the process. So it gives you a hint about awareness. So when you're breathing and say, this is shallow, you could do that. It's possible you can do that. But mostly what we do is we say, let the breath be what it is. So when you breathe, you don't try to control the breath. You're simply aware of each breath. And to let the mind follow the breath is very subtle. Because as soon as you start to allow your mind to follow the breath, then you start controlling it subtly.

[35:57]

And then you find you're setting up a rhythm. Then you just, when you find you're setting up a rhythm for controlling your breath, just let go of that and come back to your body and posture. And then, it's very hard to allow your mind to follow your breath without controlling it. But it's good practice. So, we say, if your breath is shallow, try to make it deeper. But if your breath is you know, the rhythm is short, let it be that way. And if it's more slower, let it be that way. So that's the way we say the same thing. You know, rather than notice a short breath or notice a long breath. If the breath is quick, let it be quick.

[37:04]

And if it's long, let it be long. So it's pretty much the same thing, but you should be aware. For the past year or so, I've been transcribing Suzuki Roshi lectures, and the longest one was like 20 pages. But the shortest one was only one sentence. And he said, do not be bothered by your mind. And I guess my question is, does that sentence alone capture the Buddha Dharma, or are the other 19 pages necessary? Well, only one word is necessary if you get the whole thing. But often there needs to be some commentary. So it's like the 16 precepts.

[38:13]

There's only one precept, which is take refuge in Buddha. And the rest is commentary. So yes, don't be bothered by your mind. Don't let your mind fool you. Let the Buddha's mind come forth. OK.

[38:49]

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