We're not going to go through that. I know, I'm just saying. You're coming in with the person. You're coming in with the teacher. I guess so, yeah. Okay, welcome to the Berkley Zen Center. Now, you don't know how to, right? Sorry. But that's okay, you can bow if you want. and I'm the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center, and I'm going to show you how we do meditation, which is called Zazen. Za means to sit, and Zen means to practice. In Zazen, there are three fundamental activities that we do. One is concerned with the body, and the next is concerned with the breath, and the next is concerned with the mind.

[01:05]

So these three, body, breath, and mind, are the three aspects that we're concerned with, and we're not concerned with anything else. So first of all, I'm going to show you what we do with our body. But before that, I want to show you our procedures for entering the zendo and how we act in the zendo toward our surroundings and each other. So when we enter the zendo, we put our palms together. You can do this. Stand on two feet. When we stand, this is our center. So we stand with awareness of our center and upright. So we put our palms together like this, the thumbs in, and our fingertips about even with the bottom of our nose.

[02:10]

And then we bow from the waist, not too much. So that's entering the zendo. we turn toward the Buddha figure, toward the altar, and bow. And then we put our hands like this, on the left, the fingers of the left hand around the thumb, and then the fingers of the right hand around the left with the thumb on top, against, right, so the arms are parallel to the floor. This is called shashu. and it's something that we do mindfully with our hands and gives us a feeling of strength. Then we walk up to where we're going to sit, the cushion, and we bow to the cushion. Let's do that. Bow to the cushion, then turn around to the right so we don't bump into each other, and then bow out.

[03:13]

And when someone facing us bows, we bow to them. And if we're sitting in our seats, and if we're sitting in our seat and someone comes and bows to their cushion, we bow to them. So we're very aware of whatever's going on around us. We get onto the cushion, if you're on the lower Tons, it's called the Tons, if you're on the lower Tons, you just step onto the Zappa Tons, which is this big cushion, and if you're on the raised Tons over there, we sit, I'll show you how we sit. That's too high for me, but anyway. This board that's in front of the mat is called the meal board, and we eat there.

[04:17]

So it's like a table, so we don't step on it. And then, sitting down, you put yourself onto the cushion. So we approach the cushion backwards. So why don't you do that? Just sit up on the cushion, trying not to step on the meal board. So once we sat down, ordinarily, after sitting down, we turn around and face the wall.

[05:22]

But we're not going to do that now because we're having instruction. Can you see? OK. So for purposes of instruction, we'll sit facing each other like this. And so I'm going to demonstrate the various ways we have of crossing our legs. That's the first thing. So there are various positions that we have. There's the full lotus, where we cross both legs. There's the half lotus, where we put one leg on top of our thigh. There's the quarter lotus, where we put one leg, usually the left leg, on the right calf. Then there's also the Burmese position where we don't cross your legs at all but put them in front of us. Then there's the campfire position where you just cross your ankles. And then if you can't cross your legs or sit on the cushion, you can sit with your legs behind you called Seiza on the cushion, or you can sit on a bench, or you can sit in a chair.

[06:36]

Or if you really have problems, you can lie down. That's more rare. But I always encourage people to try to sit cross-legged, even though you may think that you can't. Try it out first. So to demonstrate the lotus position, I haven't done this for a long time, but I'll do it. You put the right leg on the left thigh, and the left leg on the right thigh. You don't have to do that. That's a very advanced position, so don't worry about that. The half lotus is with the right leg on the left thigh or the left leg on the right thigh. Either way. And the quarter lotus is like this. And the Burmese position is like this. And campfire is like this.

[07:38]

Just crossing your ankles. The hardest part of go down after a while. So my suggestion is that you start with the easiest position for you. Don't try to do something difficult or compare yourself to somebody else. You have to take into consideration your own body and your own flexibility and adaptability. So if we continue to sit zazen, your body will accommodate and stretch out to the position, whichever position, if you continue. At first, it may feel awkward to you, or it may be very painful, but

[08:42]

When I began to sit Zazen, I couldn't cross my legs, except for the cowboy position. And then, little by little, my knees would go down, and so I could see that progress. Progress is something very incremental. To make progress in Zazen is little by little. If you make a little bit of progress that's very good and that should be encouraging to you. So my suggestion is cross your legs in the easiest position for you because Zazen period is 40 minutes usually and you may feel that you can cross your legs in an extreme position but not for 40 minutes. So just take an easy position and see if you can get through 40 minutes. That's the main thing.

[09:49]

So take a position for you now, which is good for you, which you feel that is the most comfortable and the easiest position is fine. Don't try to push yourself. Okay, so once we've put our legs into position, then we work on our posture. The ideal posture for Zazen is if you put your hands on top of your knees, upside down. The ideal position for Zazen is to push your lower back forward. Your spine has a natural curvature. and the lower back curves in and then out again. And to not necessarily exaggerate that position, but to be aware of that.

[10:59]

If you push your lower back forward and lift up your sternum, this is just your natural posture, which is not conditioned by anything. We tend to take our postures conditioned by our fears, anxieties, and propensities. So in Zazen, the purpose of Zazen is to let go of all of our conditioned response. Push your lower back forward. You may not have ever done this before, or not since you were a kid. Push your lower back forward and lift up your sternum. This is natural posture. And if you look at children, this is usually the way they're standing, unless they have some bad conditioning.

[12:04]

And when you watch the little child, they stand up straight with their lower back forward, and their tummies go, as they breathe. This is the state that you want to move forward to. I don't want to say return to, because we don't return to being a baby, but we go forward to being childlike, not childish. So this is natural posture. We're not trying to take some unnatural thing, like putting our legs behind our neck or something. So when we have, so you also want to keep your head on top of your spine. Not let your head fall forward. When your head falls forward, then it pulls all of your muscles in the upper back forward.

[13:05]

And then you tend to be drowsy. So keeping your ears in line with your shoulders, and your nose in line with your navel, and not looking up, but just rotate your head so that your head is on top of your spine without falling forward, and you're looking just a little bit ahead, a little bit down from straight ahead. And then it's good if you sway to the right, and make it a wide swing to the right, and then a wide swing to the left, slowly, slowly, in order to stretch your body out. And then each swing is a little bit less than the other. And do this maybe three or four or five swings until you're sitting up straight. So you're not leaning to the right or the left. You're not leaning forward. You're not leaning back. So when we have our posture established, the position of your mouth is that your teeth are together and your tongue is sitting on the roof of your mouth and you're breathing through your nose.

[14:27]

But I'll get to breath next. So to complete our posture, this is called a mudra. actually called cosmic mudra. We put our left palm inside of our right palm. And I usually say with the fingers, the tip of your longest left finger goes right in the middle of the palm of your right hand. And then with your thumbs, you form a circle. In this circle, the top tips of your thumbs are barely touching each other. It's not a full circle. It feels like a circle, but it's kind of oblong. And then you put your hands up against your abdomen with your elbows a little bit out. And this mudra is kind of like the barometer for zazen.

[15:34]

If you become tense, then your thumbs tend to press together. And if you become lax, your thumbs tend to fall apart. So in order to keep the proper disposition of alertness and awakeness without tension, you keep your thumbs barely touching, just barely touching. So this is the completion of the Posture, lifting up the sternum is important. Not throwing your chest out, but simply lifting. And you can feel it in your lower back when you lift. Posture is like, if you visualize a string from the top of your head to the ceiling, pulling you up. That helps to maintain posture. So we try to maintain this posture and keep returning to posture, which is always changing throughout the Zazen period.

[16:39]

Now, as for breathing, we advise abdominal breathing. Nothing special. When you inhale, the abdomen expands. When you exhale, it contracts. So if you breathe in your chest, then there's some anxiety or fear or confusion or something. So if you have chest breathing, you should make an effort to get your breath down. And the way to get your breath down is to take a large inhale, like, you can exaggerate it through your mouth. and open up this abdomen, and then exhale. I'm making a sound in order to emphasize, but you should do that, but feel your abdomen squeezing, and then expanding, maybe three or four breaths like that to pump, to prime your breath, and then naturally breathe through your nose.

[17:54]

Just let your breath come naturally through your nose, but as abdominal breathing. So as much as possible, you should be aware of the rising and falling of your abdomen as breath. It's like a saw. When you saw a piece of wood, you don't watch the tip of the saw going back and forth. You simply watch where the saw and the wood meet. So that's how we watch our breath, how we pay attention to our breathing, just here. You don't have to worry about breathing, the breath reaching your ear because it has to go through here before it gets to here. So we don't try to control our breathing. Simply let the breath be fast or slow, but simply deep.

[18:59]

And as a beginner, you can learn to count your breath. So to count your breath, you count on the exhale. After you inhale, we exhale. And on the exhale, you count one. And then inhale, and then you count two. And we count up to 10. If you can get to 10, that's pretty good. So when you get to 10, you start again with one. This helps to keep your attention focused on your breathing. And if you lose count, just start again with one. You're not trying to add up anything, you're simply trying to focus. It's okay also to allow you to not count, But if you learn to count, it is always a help. So I encourage you to count maybe for the first six months.

[20:07]

The third aspect is mind. When we sit, our attention should be focused on body and breath. And of course, the mind will wander. Our attention will wander. So when our attention wanders, and we realize that, oh, my attention has wandered, then you let go of your thought or your fantasy, and you bring your attention back to posture and breathing. So no matter how many times your mind is wandering, you let go and come back to posture and breathing. You have to be very careful to not be judgmental about your thoughts. Don't think, oh, this is a bad thought, or, oh, I shouldn't be thinking, or, I'm so bad because I'm thinking, or, I never have a moment when I'm not thinking. Those thoughts are counterproductive. There's no judgment. Matter of fact, in Zazen, we let go of all of our judgments.

[21:16]

If the mind wanders, it's simply mind wandering. And when we let go, it's simply letting go. We don't try to push away thoughts. And we don't try to hold on to thoughts. We simply let the mind, the awareness or the consciousness produce what it needs to produce. The subconscious mind is continually at work, hard at work all the time. And so, It's when we're not thinking about something abstract, the mind is looking for something to hold on to. So our thinking mind will continue to produce thoughts one after another. The main thing is to not attach to thoughts and not be bothered by them. not be bothered by the fact that you're thinking, because your mind will always be thinking.

[22:18]

And even though you may stop your mind, that's not zazen. Zazen is to be free of the thoughts within the thoughts, to be free of hindrances within hindrances, to be free of pain within pain. So these are natural processes, and we're not trying to do something special. So we're simply allowing our self to have this perfect freedom, which is associated with the most confined posture. to try to have perfect freedom within the most confined posture. So we say, don't move.

[23:20]

And then we have to be able to internalize our freedom. Do you have any questions? As a student or as a? Say that again? Just ask any question. If you practice for 10 minutes, If you tell yourself, I'm going to practice for 10 minutes, no matter what, then you set yourself that goal.

[24:28]

And then no matter what happens, I'm going to do this. So unless you have that kind of intention, you can't sit zazen. unless you sit in a chair or find an easy way to sit. Me, you may think, well, I'll set myself a goal of five minutes. That's good. If you're at home, I'll set myself a goal of 60 seconds. But you honor your intention. If you honor your intention, little by little, you'll be able to find your way because what restricts us is not so much the body as it is our attitude. We have to realize, when we really understand zazen, we realize through our experience that it's the mind that's the problem more than it is the body.

[25:36]

And the mind creates problems for ourself. For instance, If you're going to, in my own experience, if I'm sitting zazen for an hour, I may feel a lot of pain and discomfort and all this, but if I'm going to give a talk, I don't feel anything. Why is that? Because I'm not dwelling on my, what I call my pain. So there's a difference between pain and suffering. Pain is simply pain. but we create suffering out of pain. Pain is a condition for the arising of suffering. But pain itself is simply a feeling. So if we stop creating the condition for suffering, of course pain is a condition for suffering, but it doesn't necessarily have to turn into suffering.

[26:39]

It's our sense of self that turns it into suffering. Our sense of wanting it to be a different way. So zazen, it helps us to understand how to accept what is right in front of us, or to accept who we are, where we are. That's a very important aspect of zazen, is to be able to accept whatever is there. So something, happy feeling comes, oh, this must be enlightenment, but it's simply a feeling. We treat every feeling the same. If it's a happy feeling or a feeling of euphoria, that's simply what it is. It's not any more desirable than any other feeling. When a feeling of excruciating pain comes, that's just a feeling. It's no more important than any other feeling. So this is called equalizing mind.

[27:43]

Everything is equal. When we start comparing one thing to another, then we have suffering. The cause of suffering is when we compare one thing to another. And the suffering is called samsara, or the saha world, the world of comparative values. So in zazen, we learn to stop comparing and just accept each thing equally. This is called the realm of nirvana. No, just accepting, period. Just, oh, this is what this is. If you say, this is what this is, it's pain. And then the subtle mind says, but I don't want pain, but I don't want this feeling. As long as you don't want it, the more you don't want it, the worse it gets, the more suffering you have. The more you don't want it, the more suffering you have.

[28:47]

When you can accept everything equally, You don't suffer so much. If I move my legs during zazen, will I be kicked out of the zen hall? You'll be beheaded. It's better to be beheaded before you move your legs. Okay, I'm never coming back. Then I'll start chewing on your ears. You can move your legs. There's no stigma to moving your legs. As a beginner, you will have to move your legs. But you should make your effort to stay still. But then there comes a point where we're caught by our pain, so we move our legs. That's okay. When you move your legs, don't judge yourself. Just simply, oh, now I'm moving my legs.

[29:49]

That's all. So, but at the same time, you make your effort. At some point, you'll want to not move your legs. And at that point, that's a different phase of practice. As a beginner, you'll wanna move your legs. So there's no judgment attached to moving your legs. There's a very subtle thing in that, well, when do I know when it's time to move my legs, right? And when do I know when it's time to not move my legs? Well, no one can tell you that. You have to, that's up to you. But the main thing is not to judge yourself. It's simply, I couldn't do it, that's all.

[30:53]

So I changed my life, no problem. Even though we say, don't move, We don't say that a lot. When I was with Suzuki Roshi, he would say it all the time, don't move, don't chicken out. He'd say that. But that doesn't mean don't move. So there's this double thing going on all the time. Don't move it, of course move. Of course if you have to move, you move. But when you make big effort, you feel a lot better. But you can't do that until you have some experience. Some people can sit right away, but their experience may not be as satisfying as your experience.

[31:58]

A person who has the most difficulty and continues gets the most benefit, if you want to talk about benefit. A person who has the most difficult time and continues to sit and develop has the most benefit because they have the opportunity to go through all the difficulties and come out. Well, benefit meaning being able to do it. and getting the deeper insight, that's the benefit, getting enlightened, raising up your enlightened mind, bringing that forth. Any other questions? I'm just wondering how long that all took.

[33:00]

Oh, I see. In other words, what do we do? when I get here. Well, okay, our basic practice is sitting Zazen in the morning and the evening, you can come either of those times, and then Saturday morning, we have a schedule that starts at six with two periods of Zazen, blah, blah, blah, blah. You just hand them the schedule. No, I was just thinking whether you said anything about, like, if you come, you know, you'll come in and you'll take your seat, and then after that there'll be a bell, and then you get off and you don't have to... Yeah, that's a good thing. Those are all good things to say. There'll be cheat books and people will pass out cheat books, don't worry if you don't know. Yeah, that's very good.

[34:11]

To say all those things is good. Otherwise they just show up and come down and sit. That's right. I tell people that there's a lot I'm not telling them. Yes, that's right. There's a whole lot that we do here that I can't explain in this time. That's right. What I used to tell people when I did this was just look around you, be aware of what's going on around you and just follow what people are doing for the most part and observe. That's really, excuse me, more like Japanese style is you come in and you observe and you learn through observation which keeps you The other thing I wanted to say, which I didn't say about zazen is about the mind is that you make every effort to stay awake.

[35:19]

Yeah, and so coming back to posture and breathing is waking up. So drifting and waking up, drifting and waking up. And so to continue to keep waking up is what we are practicing. Did you want to say something? Well, I was just going to say related to that is, you know, we're facing each other, but when you come into the Zen Dojo, normally we're facing the wall, and then keeping your eyes open. Well, that's right. That's right. I didn't talk about the eyes. Keeping your eyes open. Keep making an effort to keep your eyes open. You're facing the wall, but you're not concentrating on anything in particular. simply keeping your eyes open. So eyes are seeing, ears are hearing, nose is smelling, tongue is tasting, body is feeling, but there's no person, there's no self that's doing that.

[36:25]

It's simply seeing is seeing, hearing hearing. You don't have to say all that, just say seeing is seeing, hearing is hearing, but you don't have to identify it as myself. time. I don't because we only do Kinhin one on Saturday and Sashin. So they can learn that stuff. I don't want to, I don't, it's too much. I would rather show them how to bow, prostrate. Yeah. Yeah. So when I show them, and I'll show you because not everybody, even though everybody knows this, they don't know it. Good. Show us, then at least we'll know it. We hope. I'll get out here.

[37:31]

I'll get, yeah. Take the cushion off though. that we put our hands in like this. Of course, I have to draw this, which not everybody does, but you go down on your knees, and then you hold your fingers and thumbs, not like this, not like that, but the thumbs are in. And then you put the back of your hands on the floor and your elbows, You try to keep your behind down. Don't stick your behind up in the air. That's called ego. But, but, but, and then you put your forehead on the ground and lift your palms, lift your hands as if you were lifting somebody's feet in their hands.

[38:37]

You don't want to go like this. That's the Tatsagami. You're going to go like this. There goes Buddha over your shoulder. And some people go like this. People do all kinds of things with their hands. It's amazing. But you simply just lift. Right? So, it's called five points. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. No, no, no. With your hands. Yeah. And then, when you drop your pads, you actually don't bring them down like this. You let them go as if you're swinging up and down. You let them go. I've never heard that one before. Yeah, that's a really special thing. That's very interesting. Actually, I've seen somebody do this.

[39:39]

Yeah, some people do this. Yeah, some people do this. Where did that come from? Well, they start this way. They actually go like this. And then, it's more like to get you down. I was going to ask that about sometimes some people steady with the hand because they feel like they'll... Well, yeah, people have all different kinds of ways of steadying themselves. You can't count for that, but this is just simply the ideal way of doing this. And then you don't have to lift your hands very high. Just enough, just a little. And they put them down again. And then, when the dough on, those that everybody's hands are down, that's when they do the clunk. And on the ninth bow, they do the bell when their hands are up.

[40:40]

It's like... It's like... Sometimes the 11th door, sometimes the 8th door. Okay. So that's how I demonstrate bowing. Standing up? Okay. Well, what I do when I stand up is position my feet and then if I'm If I'm looking down, it's harder. But if I'm looking up, and then I put my attention on my heels. If I'd lose my concentration,

[41:52]

then I tend to wobble. But if I don't lose my concentration, what I used to do when I was younger was just sit on my heels and then stand up. So if you sit on your heels, it's kind of a little rock. So it's a little spring. You come down on your heels and then spring up. That gives you the momentum to spring up. So concentrating on the heels is what does it. I realize I've been forgetting to do this, and I don't know if there's really time, but when do people learn to fluff their cushion? Because I've been noticing lately there's so many flat cushions in the bedroom all the time now. Well, this is what I used to teach too. I used to teach fluffing the cushion. So I think we should try to Well, they have to get up to leave.

[42:53]

So, you're absolutely right. Since we didn't get to that yet, this will be the grand finale. So, then I say, when you're sitting there with your legs crossed, right? I have to get back in my... get all this cloth together. It's harder with this thing. So you got your legs crossed and then you take a slight swing. Just the opposite of what you got into your position in order to loosen up your body. People don't do this. But I always teach it. It's definitely a part of the whole thing. It gets your blood flowing and loosens up your joints. So it makes you more flexible. Flexibility is a thing. I don't have time to talk about flexibility in zazen.

[43:55]

I just, you know, but that's the advanced part is how you be flexible in zazen. That's the most important thing. Okay, so you, and then you're sitting up straight again. Then you undo your legs. Stand up. I tell people just to sit there a moment. After your legs are undone, Well, yeah, so you make sure that you're not going to fall down because your legs are asleep or something like that. Yeah. And then, I'll do this back here. Adjust your cushion with the palms of your hands, not like this and not like that. The palms of your hand, you're not making dents in it, you're simply covering the whole thing.

[44:58]

You push with your weight, then you turn it, push with your weight, turn it, push with your weight, turn it, push with your weight, and then it's standing up nicely for you when you come back, or for somebody else. Don't do this, because it just makes dents in this. Poor guy. Okay. I also, I've been telling people, I've been encouraging people that it's not too lowly to come to the abbot with questions about posture. Absolutely. Oh, lowly, that's what you should be doing. So I encourage people, because I think people are like, what do you go to do? A great thing to do is to go Absolutely. This is the best thing to talk about in Dhokasan. He said, well, you know, I had this problem. We solved all the problems on the cushion.

[46:01]

No whining. Stop whining! And then, they Get up. So let's do that. Let's get up and do the cushion thing. Are we rushing Zabaton? Well, let's wait until after we do this. Okay. So when we've finished adjusting out of the cushion, and turn to the right, it's there.

[47:16]

The cushion, we're bowing to all the ancestors, everyone who's come before us that's given us this practice. And when we bow out, we bow to the whole world. If you brush off the You don't have to brush. Quietly. Welcome. And now.

[48:19]

Yes, you're welcome to stay. Then it's like sharing and. The zabatons are all going to be on the floor when you come in. But still I think it's good because so everybody comes in together instead of coming in when people are here. Thanks for...

[49:20]

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