It's a little funny to say, but I'd like to congratulate all of you on sitting this session, our first session in the rebuilt Zindo. Congratulations. It's pretty obvious to everybody that it's going to be a very wonderful week and we're very lucky to be able to sit here. Also the timing of this session is such that today is the 7th of December which we may remember as the day of Pearl Harbor bombing and Ironically then, the next day, December 8th, is the day we celebrate the wonderful awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha.

[01:13]

Oftentimes we schedule the sesshin so that they start on the first and end on the seventh or eighth so that the culmination of the Sashin is the day of celebrating the awakening of the Buddha, which is nice because then after settling into our human condition for seven days, we're pretty able and ready to feel close to this wonderful thing called awakening. So when I thought about the fact that it's after one day of sitting we already have to face complete perfect enlightenment, I thought it's kind of a rush. So we have to settle immediately into our circumstances in order to be ready to meet the Buddha tomorrow morning or perhaps tonight.

[02:32]

This morning, at the beginning of morning service, we did our usual formula of confessing our ancient twisted karma. And as we were doing it, I wondered if we could admit fully enough this ancient twisted karma, if we could accept and admit enough the depth and extensiveness of the karmic hindrances of our life right off at the beginning. To feel how obstructed, blocked, hindered, and hung up we are right away. And by this admission, at the beginning of sashi, we can feel purified.

[03:50]

By being willing to sink down into this human situation, we will be released. and then ready for the next thing we did in morning service, and that is to go for refuge in the Buddha, to go for refuge in complete perfect awakening. And if we can, then tonight and tomorrow morning we can perhaps meet the great ancestor. we can realize the great ancestor in this room, in this temple. In one sense, I feel that we have a huge ship here.

[05:45]

And also, in another sense, I feel like we have many small boats, almost like children's boats, sitting in the Dharma Sea. So partly I feel a responsibility to point this great vessel of all of us in the correct direction, to point or steer it towards this wonderful thing we call awakening. I also in some sense feel a responsibility to point each of us, myself and each of you, in the correct direction, the proper direction. But then I feel I want to be very polite to myself and to each of you.

[06:57]

refrain from what we like, and that is to give some device, some method by which we can get some method we can grasp to orient ourselves properly in the practice. I feel it's more polite for me to say that I think already we are pointed in the right direction So rather than give methods for pointing in the right direction, I want to emphasize finding the eye which sees the way we're already directed in the proper way. the eye which can see in our present personal circumstances and which can see in the activity of other living beings that can see the way people are already pointed in the right direction.

[08:20]

And again, I I hesitate or shudder to suggest that we search for this I that sees Buddha. It seems too soon in our sitting, but I suggest right off That we look for the eye that sees Buddha. That we look for the eye which sees, in our present circumstances, the middle way, the correct orientation.

[09:29]

the correct way to steer this heart through an ocean of misery to freedom. When we do a ceremony to open the eyes of a statue like Manjushri Bodhisattva, when we newly installed the statue in this room, in order to open the eyes of the statue, we do a chant, which we do in Japanese, but we could do in English, too. It's just that it's easier to say in Japanese. And we say it seven times, starting quietly. and each time saying it a little more energetically.

[10:49]

In Japanese it's jigenji shujo fukuju kaimuryo. With eyes of compassion, contemplate living beings. An ocean of happiness accumulates beyond measure. Eyes of compassion contemplate living beings. An accumulated ocean of happiness beyond measure. And of course, eyes of compassion contemplating living beings includes contemplating this living being sitting here.

[11:59]

Eyes of kindness contemplating this body and mind coping with this schedule. Norman told me that last night he referred to the old-time Buddha, Zhaozhou, and who recommended something like the practice of non-Zazen.

[13:12]

Is that right? And a monk asked Zhaozhou, what did the monk ask Zhaozhou? What is zazen? And Jaja answered, non-zazen. And then the monk said something else. How could zazen be non-zazen? And Jaja said, because it's alive? Is that right? Can you see this living zazen. And although your fleshy eye may not see this living zazen, there is an eye in this room that sees the living zazen.

[14:19]

All the billions of Buddhas put together can never realize, can never understand, or anyway, can never know what Zazen is. But there is an I which sees this living Zazen. Please find this I. I'm not saying this like something to do. I'm just emphasizing this I which is already arising here moment after moment. The other night I rented a movie called The Miracle. a quirky Irish film, and towards the end of the film I got a feeling for the miracle that I wanted to have happen in that film, or the miracle which might happen.

[15:47]

I'm holding myself back from telling you the whole movie. I'll just say that towards the end of the movie, the hero, a young man, went into a church and I think he looked up at Jesus and Mary and said something like, I'm just going to stay here until you guys do something about this. I'm just going to sit in this pew until something happens." And just before he said that, he was referring to his parents, who he recognized

[17:14]

were just kind of, each of them, in a big mess. And it wasn't their fault. They didn't know what they were doing. But he wanted something to happen. And a little while later, you see that he fell asleep and he woke up. And he turned around in the church and saw an open door. And then he saw an elephant. And he took the elephant out of the church. And then I looked and I thought, and then I saw the end of the movie and I saw, well, I guess the miracle was that this elephant came into the church. That was what Jesus and Mary pulled off for him to get him out of the church. to get him out of the pew. And I saw that some other miracles I was hoping for didn't happen.

[18:21]

His parents didn't get it worked out and didn't get back together, which is what I was kind of hoping for. But then I started to see that there were a whole bunch of other miracles that also happened in that story. And then I started to see more miracles. And finally I realized that the entire movie was a miracle. And that everything that happened from the beginning to the end was a miracle. And the one miracle that I wanted to have happen didn't. The one miracle Complete perfect awakening that I want to have happen in the next few seconds, in the rest of the day, during this session, will not happen.

[19:26]

However, there will be, from now on, an incessant production of miracles. There will never be a gap or a break in the miracle production. Now I said that. And this morning also you chanted, some of you chanted, the servers didn't, I suppose. You chanted, the teaching of suchness or thusness has been intimately conveyed, transmitted, entrusted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it. You have the teaching of thusness.

[20:29]

The teaching of thusness means the teaching of thus. The teaching of thus. The teaching of thus is the current miracle. This is the miracle that's being delivered to us right now. You have it. You have it from the Julemir Samadhi. You have it because you heard me say it. But that mind seal of, now you have it, so keep it well, that mind seal of every moment of this sitting is a miracle is not enough. You must also have this eye, this eye of compassion which observes every moment of your lump of flesh, this eye of compassion which observes this living being sitting in the pew.

[21:58]

moment after moment. And this eye of compassion will be the eye that also sees the Buddha. Having this eye and receiving this news together is attaining the way. is attaining the ancestor. This I does not depend on conditions. It does not depend on sasin. It does not depend on not having sasin.

[23:00]

It does not depend on being awake or asleep. It isn't here more now that we've started this sitting than it was before we did. And after we stop, it won't be here any less. This I is arising right now. And this I together with our circumstances of being who we are, this I, together with our circumstances, is a freely extended hand, a freely offered hand in the midst of all living beings. In that way, your body and mind, your circumstances, is Buddha's compassion freely offered.

[24:10]

And each person's circumstances, together with the arising of this I is the same. Shakyamuni Buddha said, anyone who practices all virtues is tolerant, peaceful, upright and stable, will see my body.

[26:30]

All virtues means getting dirty to help those who are stuck in mud. It means getting wet, saving those who are drowning. This week in this room, you yourself and your friends may get stuck in mud, may be drowning in experience. Being willing to get dirty and get wet with this kind of situation is what's called practicing all virtues.

[27:53]

sitting with this living zazen that's arising right now, renouncing our human tendencies to try to get a hold of it and cash in on it, is being tolerant tolerant of the teaching that nothing at all is happening and the living Zazen can never be grasped. Tolerant, stable, and upright in the teaching that Buddha's mind can never be perceived.

[29:24]

And that accepting this and being upright in the face of this is called perceiving Buddha's mind. So again, in one sense I want to say, point yourself, resolve yourself on complete, supreme, perfect awakening. But do that without doing anything. Try to wake up to that. Try to see that you're already, moment by moment, this is your direction, really.

[30:33]

It always has been, and it will continue to be so. However, we should also be honest and realistic. There are incredible karmic hindrances also in our lives. which make us dull, discouraged, and so on. But the mind or the eye that sees this is not hindered by these hindrances. However, we must admit these hindrances and sit in this pew. So I hope that what I basically suggested to you is very simple.

[31:42]

Namely, just sit upright and don't move from this pew. Sit upright with this lump of flesh. It's all you have to do. It's very simple. Okay? And then, if you're willing to be that simple, you will be assailed by great complexity, by many contradictions and complications. If you then can remember the simple instruction of just finding this I which sees Buddha in the midst of all this mud and water. If you can remember that simple practice and wake up to it, then again you will get more complexity and more confusion and more contradiction.

[32:52]

And to face these complications that arise from a simple intention, like realizing complete perfect supreme awakening, is called practicing all virtues. tolerant, peaceful, courageous, practicing all virtues in uprightness. And Christopher Robin goes hoppity, [...] hop. Whenever I ask him politely to stop, he says he can't possibly stop.

[34:07]

For if he stopped hopping, he couldn't go anywhere. Poor little Christopher. That's why he always goes hoppity, [...] hopp. These are our circumstances. And circumstances like this, together with this mind of awakening, this eye which sees Buddha, those two together are the realization of the old Buddhas. So with that we start our sesshin with great simplicity.

[35:25]

We enter great complexity. Through this day we celebrate the awakening of all Buddhas. And then there's tomorrow where we will continue So let's practice non-sazen because it's alive.

[36:43]

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