Good morning. In our sasheens, I want to continue talking about Kencho Koan. But today, the first day of our three-day sasheen, I want to talk about something about our attitude and a way to focus in our activity in a kind of analytical way. In the Abhidhamma, you run across the six, so-called six qualitative factors, sometimes called the twelve or the six pairs.

[01:21]

And these twelve factors always arise in a good or wholesome state of mind. They arise together and interact with each other. And these six factors are tranquility, agility, pliancy, workableness, efficiency, and uprightness. And these are qualities that are always present in meditation, or zazen. And these are the qualities that are always present in our activity, whether we're working, eating, sitting, zazen, playing, thinking, no matter what we're doing.

[02:36]

in a good state of consciousness, or a wholesome state of consciousness, these six factors are rising and interacting. So, because we're sitting zazen today, I want to apply them to, I want us to think about how we apply these six factors in zazen. Also, because we're working in the kitchen, we can apply these six factors to how we do zazen in the kitchen. Tranquility, of course there's no special order, but tranquility comes first on the list. And tranquility actually is a basis.

[03:37]

Tranquility is like the horizontal aspect. Tranquility lays down, goes this way. Everything falls and tranquility receives it. So the opposite of tranquility is Restlessness, agitation, worry, depression. And the last one, uprightness, grows out of tranquility. It's upright, it's vertical. So tranquility is horizontal, uprightness is vertical. And where the two meet is where the other factors have their play.

[04:45]

Agility, well before I talk about agility, uprightness is like sincerity. And its opposite is hypocrisy, or self-gain, doing something, doing a kind of pure activity, but with another motive. So in zazen, you know, Our activity is pure when our only motive is to sit. If there's some other motive, then it's not really sincere activity. If you think about some gaining idea or some motive other than just pure zazen for its own sake,

[05:59]

then that's not sincere activity. It's mixed with some personal egotistical motive. So uprightness is pure sincerity, doing something just for its own sake. Agility is the activity which is lightness of mind, lightness of consciousness, the ability to spring to life. Tranquility is horizontal, kind of lays down, and agility

[07:01]

it keeps tranquility from falling into some kind of depression or slothful frame of mind. So, in our zazen, we're always coming back when we drift off or become lazy or sleepy or slothful or heavy. Agility of mind of consciousness keeps waking us up, bringing us back to the subject and keeps our zazen light. So it's lightness, lightness of mind, wakefulness and brilliance. It's like it has the qualities of a monkey without being monkey mind.

[08:03]

But by itself it becomes monkey mind, dancing around. So it needs some control. So tranquility controls agility. And agility keeps tranquility from falling into oblivion. So they work together. very nicely. So we walk around with a stick, helping our agile mind to wake up. Please wake up your agile mind. Bam. Oh. When one person is hit, everybody wakes up for a moment. The third factor is pliancy. Compliancy is like the ability to stretch and the ability to let go, the ability to open up and to take any shape.

[09:14]

And its opposite is stiffness, stiff-neckedness, rigidity, prejudice, hanging on. Pliancy is sometimes called soft mind. Soft mind which will accept whatever is present and will assume the shape of things. It doesn't hang on to any special shape, but it's like water, which can take the shape of any vessel. So, pliancy is the ability to relax, the ability to let go.

[10:22]

And the next one is workableness. Workableness is the ability to take all the elements, all the opposites, and make them work together. And it's like if you have a piece of clay, you work the clay. If it's too stiff, you put a little water in it. and then you work it some more. And if it's too wet and slippery, too mushy, then you add a little more powder, a little more substance, until you get just the right consistency. This is a kind of balance of elements.

[11:25]

And sometimes it's described as gold in the same way. If gold is too hard, you can't work it. And so you heat it up and just the right temperature so that it can work. If it's too liquidy, then you have to cool it off until it gets to just the right temperance. So temper. This quality is like a temper. A sword has a temper. Any metal has a certain temper in which it holds its shape. If it's too stiff, it will break easily. And if it's too soft, it won't hold together. So it's how you bring soft and hard together, how you bring cold and hot together, and make them work.

[12:29]

And I can't emphasize this fact enough in zazen. Soft and hard. We're always working with soft and hard. Energy and relaxation. Effort and letting go. These are all the problems of workableness. And we have to be thinking about this constantly. This is our work in zazen. Our workableness is our work in zazen. Always keeping the body in temper, right temper, so that it doesn't get too stiff or too loose. And the next one is efficiency.

[13:46]

Efficiency sounds a little strong, but it's the ability to do something with confidence. You know how to sit zazen. You know what the rules are. You know that if you hold your back straight, you will be able to sit. You know that if you hold your mudra correctly, the rest of your body will fall into place. You know that you know how to do it. If you don't know how to do it, you make the effort to learn. Actually, we don't know how to sit zazen. We're always learning how to sit zazen. Every time we sit zazen, we have to teach ourselves again. If you think, I know how to sit zazen, you're making a big mistake. Every time we sit down, we give ourselves zazen instruction.

[14:58]

until we learn it over and over and over and over again. If you just sit down and start thinking your thoughts, that's not zazen. Zazen is when you sit down, you teach yourself how, every single time. And you never know what it is. You never learn it enough. Because it's always a different experience. But there are rules. I'm not so interested in the fact that we... I'm not interested really in chanting the Fukan Zazengi. But what I am interested in is every single time you sit down for Zazen, you give yourself Zazen instruction. That's the real Fukan Zazengi.

[16:02]

And uprightness is zazen. That's the last factor. So this next to the last factor, efficiency, proficiency, proficiency, is feeling confidence that you can do that. Even though zazen is not perfect, you feel that You have established an affinity with it. And you can do it. If we know how to do that, then even though we have problems in zazen, the problem is not bigger than our intention. Problems don't get bigger than our ability.

[17:15]

So these factors are constantly working together, whether we're aware of them or not. If you analyze consciousness, you'll see that these factors are always there. especially in zazen, working together. And if we're conscious of them, we can actually make effort in the right direction to emphasize certain factors which help to balance other factors. So balance is the most important thing. I say most important because that's what I'm talking about at the moment. No one factor is any more important than any other factor. But all together, we have to take them into account.

[18:30]

So tranquility is the base, is like the ground lying flat. And uprightness is like the trunk of the tree. And agility is like the branches which have springiness. And flexibility is like the wind blowing in the trees and the tree being able to go with the wind. And proficiency is like confidence and faith in yourself and in the activity and in your nature.

[19:56]

And all the thoughts, feelings, emotions, hindrances drop to the ground of tranquility and come up again as food for the trunk of uprightness. And it's a continual recycling and process of growth. All of our problems, hindrances, feelings, ego, emotions drop and are recycled as energy back up the trunk of the tree of uprightness. So in our zazen, we have hundreds of bones and parts in our body.

[21:16]

And we align all these little parts, put them all together in one position in a little pile called zazen. But each one is independent. Each one of these little parts is independent. All the little bones in your fingers and hands are independent. Your forearms are independent. Your upper arms are independent. Your ribs, your backbone, all those vertebrae are independent. Your pelvis, leg bones, feet bones, all independent little pieces. And yet, all these little pieces are doing, all adding up to one activity. Isn't that amazing?

[22:20]

So it takes a little bit of work to keep all this together. If you think about it, those are just the bone parts. The other parts, the flesh, the liquids, a lot of it we just don't pay attention to, which is fine. No need to pay attention. If our stomach is working well, we don't notice our stomach. That's pretty good. So we don't need to pay attention to it. But in order to keep all these parts together, we have to work a little bit. So the trunk of the tree is our backbone. Main part, main thing is to keep the backbone straight and to concentrate on keeping it straight the whole time in zazen.

[23:36]

If you don't do anything else in zazen, but keep your back as straight as you can, that's enough. All the rest is commentary. Keeping the back straight, I know your back's hurt. A lot of, from time to time, your back will hurt, and sometimes your back hurts all the time. I recognize that people have problems with the back. And sometimes my back hurts. But if mostly your effort can cut through your problem, part of our effort

[24:41]

is to keep the back straight. The other half of our effort is to stay tranquil. So these two have to work together. If there's too much effort and not enough tranquility, then your effort will make you tired and will make your back sore. If there's not enough tranquility, or if there's not enough effort, where am I? If there's too much effort, you hurt yourself by making your back sore. If there's not enough effort, then you wear out quickly and easily because you have no foundation. and your back will get sore because of that.

[25:45]

So the balance between strong effort and calmness or letting go or tranquility or whatever you want to call it has to be there all the time. So during Zazen Although we make this effort to keep upright, we also have to make the conscious effort to let go at the same time. This is called tranquil effort. It's like if you're working in the kitchen, tranquil effort is like if you do something, make some wonderful dish, you feel good about it, but you don't get so taken or overjoyed that you make a fool of yourself.

[26:53]

Or if you make a big mistake, you know how to accept it without feeling depressed. or blaming others. So in zazen, for three days, just a tranquil effort, constant tranquil effort, with lightness, and confidence and faith in Buddha nature. And with no other motive than just to sit. There is no tomorrow.

[28:03]

There is no yesterday. Do you have any questions?

[30:03]

Yes, Brian? I'd say most of my experience in sitting in Zaza is kind of imbalance for me. I feel when the work period rolls around, I have to go through a period of recovery in terms of being in a heart attack. I have to open my mind to let me know what's going on. Perhaps I'm happy to lead more walking meditation. The way we do it, everybody follows exactly the same schedule, more or less. And so I'm always, I'm asked constant questions.

[31:05]

How do we really experience these 12 factors in balance? I'm glad to hear that we're really supposed to do that, but I rarely have this experience. My suggestion is, when you sit Zazen, to exert real effort, stretching your upper body. You know, so many people, when they sit, they sit, but they don't sit upright. Even though it looks upright, it's not upright. I mean, it's not fully upright. There's a kind of collapsedness to the body, like this. The Kamakura Buddha, you know, the famous Kamakura, kind of sitting like this, in a kind of collapsedness, which has a feeling of breadth, you know, wonderful samadhi.

[32:12]

But in zazen, actually, you should hold your sternum up and keep your head on top of your spine. I say this over and over again. Sometimes people understand it, sometimes they don't. to keep your head on top of your spine means that it's not like this. It means that your spine is like this and the head is right on top. And then you are constantly feeling of stretching. Then you're awake and alert. And it's a completely different, totally different experience than this. This is like exerting continuous effort. And when you exert continuous effort, energy pours in. You're inducing energy. When you hold your back straight, you're inducing energy. When you keep your head on top of your spine, keep your back straight, lift up your sternum, let go of the tenseness in your shoulders, let go of the tenseness in your arms, and this energy keeps pouring in.

[33:26]

And then you can make adjustments. Subtle adjustments. They're always subtly adjusting your body in zazen. The body in zazen is not like a statue. It's supple. It should be supple, flexible, and even though you have what looks like rigid posture, It's not rigid. It's just good form. The right form. But the right form is empty. It's not heavy. And it's not stiff. It takes some practice to find this posture. But we should always be looking for that posture. That's what I mean when we give ourselves Zazen instruction and look for this posture.

[34:34]

That's all there is to do in Zazen, is keep looking for this posture. And if you're not doing that, you're not doing Zazen. You're doing something else. You're just kind of sitting there like a rice bag. So, tsa-zin is constant alertness, awakeness, energy, exertion of energy, total energy, total body and mind. Otherwise, what are we doing? People are out there in the world, you know, doing all kinds of things. Why do this? If it's just escaping, then you should get back into there, into the world. So there's a lot of, this is how it should be.

[35:44]

What do you do with yourself when you experience something that shouldn't be? Well, shouldn't, then you're getting into should and shouldn't. You know, you make your effort and nobody's perfect, right? But you know what your direction is. And then you say, well, it's your intention. If you don't have that intention, you should know it. If you do have that intention, then you should know that. So within your intention, sometimes you make it, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you do well, sometimes you do badly. So what? So what should one do when one is experiencing stiff, heavy, and all that kind of stuff? This is stiff. This is heavy. That's all. Stop judging. I'm judging you, right? Give up that judgment.

[36:45]

Oh, I'm so bad. Oh, I'm not doing it right. Just keep doing it. This is stiff, Zazen. I'm comfortable Zazen. That's all. This is flexible Zazen. Stop getting hung up on right and wrong. The main thing is your intention. I intend to do this, but I can't. It doesn't turn out right, you know. But you keep making the effort. As long as you're making the effort, it's Zazen. It's not a matter of perfect Zazen. That's what I say. You're never sitting perfect Zazen. The only time you're sitting perfect Zazen is when you know that you're making that effort. But there's no standard that's the perfect standard. There is a kind of standard, but to say that you fit it or don't fit it, to either fit it or fit it is not Zazen or Zazen is not correct. Just keep making this effort.

[37:55]

We know what it is that makes it. And so we continually are balancing these factors. And we do it in our life. It's like saying, well, I should stop trying to do this in my life because I still keep making mistakes in my life. Well, our life is nothing but mistakes, right? But still, we know how to go, hopefully. We know the direction. And within that direction, we keep refining our life. So enlightenment is knowing what your direction is. And going that way. And you run into all kinds of problems. And you never do anything right. But that doesn't mean that it's wrong. Yes? It's the same to me when she was saying when I experience stiffness or tiredness.

[38:58]

For me, it helps when I allow myself just to be, when I'm tired, for example, just allow myself to hang for a while. Yes. And then it comes back. Right. When you're stiff, just allow yourself to hang for a while. When you feel stiff, just let yourself hang for a while. Just let everything go. That's the antidote for stiffness. Let go. Let go. That's flexibility. Pliability. So that's the factor of pliability, is that when you get stiff, you let go. Letting go is probably the hardest thing. And if you look at your anger, your opinions, your thoughts, feelings, the hardest thing is to let go.

[39:59]

And it surfaces in your body. It gets expressed in your body. And in Zazen, all this stuff gets expressed as stiffness, pain, blah, blah, blah. So what we're working with is how you let go. How you maintain uprightness, at the same time, let go. the same time. That's all there is to do, is to hang on and let go at the same time. Please work with this. And when that perfect balance is achieved, there's nobody there. But don't be discouraged.

[41:04]

Anyway, that's our work. This is where, you know, Dogen says, Sazen is just the gate of repose and bliss, but at the same time, it's work. This is our work. People are out there in the world working, working away. And we should be here getting blissed out. We have to do our work too. If we're not doing our work, then we shouldn't be here. and shall be reconstructed.

[42:09]

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