What I hope for this session is what I hope for generally and that is that we may, by our efforts here, encourage ourselves and others to practice Buddha's way, to practice the true Dharma, to practice what we call Zazen in its most authentic and useful way. In order to help realize this vow, this wish, this hope for the whole world and our own personal practice, I at this point plan to invoke, to call forth the presence and teachings

[01:40]

of the Buddha ancestors. So this morning I call forth the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, in particular where he said to one of his disciples, Dear friend, please practice. Please train yourself thus. For me, this encouragement is the essence of the Buddha's teaching.

[02:54]

Please train yourself thus. now and forever, please train yourself thus." And although he gave a variety of teachings, this is what I feel is the formless sight of his awakening, this teaching of thusness, this encouragement to practice thus.

[04:03]

Buddhadharma cannot be known by a person. An ordinary person has never realized the true meaning of Buddhadharma. It is only realized by Buddhas, with Buddhas, The practice of thusness is not something that I can do. It is not something I can know, however, a knowing, doing person can completely commit herself or himself to the practice of suchness.

[05:46]

And in the complete commitment one is no longer a person. In the complete commitment to practice suchness without any holdout, without any delay, in that practice, the body and mind of the person is dropped away. This is called Zazen. So in morning service, may we chant the merging of difference and unity and the song of the jewel mirror awareness.

[06:59]

The jewel mirror awareness is the awareness of this thusness, of this teaching of thusness, which has been transmitted to you now. And when the Buddha says, train yourself thus, It means the teaching has been given to you. Now please take care of yourself. Take care of this teaching of thusness. Practice it. We may wonder at that time, how can I do this?

[08:10]

And again, I just said that I don't think you can do it. You can do various things, but you can't do the practice of suchness. You can't do the practice of Zazen, of the Buddha. However, your dropped off body and mind is the same thing as the practice of suchness. And your dropped off body and mind is what's really happening right now. All you need to do is give up all worldly affairs of doing and not doing things and immediately this dropped off body and mind is realized and the teaching of suchness is realized.

[09:40]

Even though there's no way we can do this practice of Zazen, and we can't make Zazen an object, and no person has ever known what Zazen is, even so, the Buddhas have given teachings to us to guide us along a path which we can't do. So, starting with the invocation of Shakyamuni Buddha, Please train yourself thus." He says to train yourself thus, but not to do something. Please train yourself thus. And how do you train yourself thus? By not doing anything, by not moving. How do you train yourself at not doing anything?

[10:45]

In the herd, there will be just the herd. In the scene, there will be just the scene. In the imagined, there will be just the imagined. In the thought, there will be just the thought. When for you the heard is just the heard and the seen is just the seen and the imagined is just the imagined and the thought is just the thought,

[12:16]

then you will not identify with these things. When you do not identify with these things, you will not be in them or outside of them. When you're not in them or outside of them, you will not be here or there or in between. And this will mean the end of suffering. And this is the dropped off body and mind. The Buddha taught many other things and Some of the other things that the Buddha taught are the same point and some of them are not.

[13:33]

Some of them are kind of satellites or walking around this basic central message. There's an accidental pun in this English translation of his teaching. In the herd, there will just be the herd, means that in what you hear, there will just be what you hear. Or in hearing, there will just be hearing. But also, herd could be a group of animals. For example, four-legged animals. It also is true that when the herd, in the sense of a group of animals, is just the herd, it's the same.

[14:45]

And also the scene can be what you see, but also can be the scene, the whole scene of a situation. That also is true. But when a herd of animals is there, you can hear it, you can see it, you can imagine it, you can have a thought about it. Everything you meet can basically be dealt with under these four headings of conception. So there is this sound outside of the sprinkler right now and a sound of an airplane, I think. A small airplane.

[15:47]

You think it's a truck? Maybe a truck? Maybe a tractor? When the herd is just the herd, body and mind is dropped off. The sound enters the ear.

[17:04]

And there's not anything in addition to that. There's not the sound entering the ear and somebody listening. In the scene, there would just be the scene. I look at somebody's face and I see the face and I immediately think of myself as somebody who's separate from that face. But when the seen is just the seen, you do not identify with it.

[18:11]

You're not identified with it or not identified with it. There is just what is seen. About a year ago, a year and a half ago, I was in Minnesota, and I was there in the autumn, and I was there in the part of the autumn where the leaves were turning color. And I had been hoping for years to be able to go back to Minnesota and be there when the leaves were turning color. So I finally was able to do that. to be there at that time and every day I took a walk around the lake in front of the Minnesota Zen Center and all these beautiful trees and it was sunny too so the light was going into the leaves and lighting them up for my eyes and I had appointments with people to discuss

[19:30]

their practice, and most of the appointments I just took walks around the lakes with them. One lap of the lake was a pretty good amount of time for an informal discussion. The color of the leaves and the grasses and the blue lake and the blue sky and the walking was very nice. And after five or six days of that, I was pretty grateful and happy that I'd had this sensory experience. And then the last day or so of my visit there, it started to rain. So the sun was not coming through the clouds and the rain made the leaves darker and the color went more subtle and not so brilliant.

[20:38]

But I thought, well, I've had all these days of ecstasy, no problem. I'm willing to have a few days I'm willing to have the rain now, and I'm ready to give up this color." And then I went for a ride in the country, actually, where my brother lives, and as I was driving through the country looking at the beautiful trees and the subdued light, a thought occurred to me. Yes, but still, if you turn the sun up a little bit now, it would be actually kind of, you know, it would be good, kind of nice to have a little bit more sunlight on these leaves. My greed.

[21:43]

My greed returned for those colors after about 24 hours of rain. It was very subtle because actually it was very nice to be in the country in the rain. It was very beautiful still, and yet my mind still thought, well, couldn't I now have a little sun too? So the mind did this and there was then some kind of messing around going on again. But it is possible, even at that time, to realize that the thought, which seems to be greedy for some other colors to be coming other than these, In that thought too, or in that imagination too, this desire for more color is not actually something seen or heard.

[22:45]

It's something imagined or thought of. If one can still allow the practice of suchness at that time, then again one allows the practice of suchness. And the seen is just the seen and the imagined is just the imagined. And unity is restored or rediscovered. When the herd is just the herd, you will not identify with it.

[23:58]

When the seeing is just the seeing, you will not identify with it. You will not be in it or outside of it. In order to let the seen just be the seen and let the heard just be the heard, in order for that to be allowed, the practice of zazen has to be realized. Or put it the other way, when the practice of zazen is realized, then the herd is just the herd.

[25:18]

When the herd is just the herd, the body and mind are dropped off. Or the other way around, in order to let the herd just be the herd, the body and mind must be dropped off. There cannot be a body and mind in addition to that herd. To realize the herd just being the herd is called renouncing worldly affairs. Worldly affairs are basically that there is me and the herd. There is me and the seeing. There is me and the person who is talking to me. There is me and the person I see. This is worldly affairs.

[26:21]

But when the person I see is just what is seen and I do not identify with it, That's the practice of dustness. And because of a long-standing habit of not dropping body and mind, of holding on to body and mind, because of that habit, there is a, what do you call it, I don't know what, it's like there's a habit force. And these habit forces are sometimes called demons. They're demons in the sense that they will be transformed into whatever form

[27:28]

they will be creatively transformed into whatever form will distract us from body and mind dropped off. So as you settle into, as one settles into the herd just being the herd, the force of habit takes on the form to tell you that there must be something better to do with your time than just to let the herd be the herd. You have better things to do than just letting the scene be the scene. This is boring and dead to just let things be as they are without jacking them up, pushing them down, being even separate from them, to enjoy them, to grasp them, to reject them.

[28:31]

Eliminating all those worldly affairs, the force of habit creates a demon which says various things, but the most powerful refutation of the practice of suchness is, it's boring. You're wasting your time. You have more fun things to do than this. For example, just make yourself separate from things and things will get a lot more interesting. And sure enough, as soon as that Hare's breath deviation occurs, heaven and earth are separated and you've got everything in the world back again. And you're back in business of worldly affairs. And then the demons back off because they've done their job. They even kind of sit in the bleachers and cheer you on. Good work. This is really interesting. You're accomplishing a lot. You're even doing Zazen now.

[29:34]

You're practicing Buddha's way. You're doing it. Good going, kid. Keep it up. You're making flowers more interesting by what you say about them. You're making people more interesting by what you think about them. You're making everything more interesting and exciting and painful by being separate from them, by being over here or over there or in between. You're cooking. You're suffering. You're back in birth and death. Keep it up. They say this to you. They encourage you. These habits do. And if you should happen to drop all these habits, and do something which you've never done before, namely be this, be thus, be thus, then they say, come on, this is boring, this is a waste of time, this is stupid, this is profitless, this is useless.

[30:42]

And I can go on, but I think you know some of the things that have been said as you approach the living center of Buddha's way. And Buddha set, again, the Buddha set the paradigm. When the Buddha said, I'm going to sit here and realize the true Dharma, he was severely assaulted, massively, boundlessly assaulted by every possible distraction from being still and realizing the way. So although we can't do zazen, we can guide the mind and allow the mind to be such.

[31:48]

And you can do that practice right now by just letting the heard be the heard, the seen be the seen, the imagined be the imagined, thought be the thought. Just let it be. Amen.

[32:31]

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