This morning we chanted a text of general encouragements to the practice of sitting meditation, actually it's general encouragements or universal encouragements to the practice of the ceremony of sitting meditation. In Japanese, fukan za zengi. Gi means ceremony, also means procedure, but I'd like to stress the point that it doesn't have that character there, which means it's an encouragement for the general population, including all of us, not just for priests, on the procedure

[01:03]

or the ceremony of sitting meditation. So actually there's kind of an introduction which you remember reading and then there's actual instructions on the ceremony, crossing your legs, how to wear your clothes, sitting, the arrangement of your cushions, and so on. Actual procedural instructions on this formal practice of sitting meditation. And after the formal, the physical, and yeah, more or less physical and emotional instructions, the author Dogen Zenji says, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of za zen. And I

[02:09]

think shortly after that he says, the za zen I speak of, or that I teach, in this current translation, it says, it is not meditation. The sitting meditation that I teach is not meditation. When I heard that this morning, the way it struck me is, of course it's meditation, and when he says not meditation, he means the za zen I'm teaching you, the meditation I'm teaching you, the seated meditation I'm teaching you, is not your idea of meditation. It's also not my idea of meditation. Didn't you hear me just tell you to think of not thinking? So the

[03:12]

practice is entered by thinking of not thinking. What's that? Non-thinking. The practice is beyond thinking. So the way of entering the essential art of the meditation is beyond thinking. And of course people say, well how am I going to do it? How can I do it? And that question comes from thinking. So, nice question, but the practice is beyond your question. It's a free situation here, you can ask questions, but the answer is, it's not really something that you can understand, I shouldn't say that you can understand, but something that you can grasp by thinking about how to do it. As a matter of fact, the way of entering it

[04:12]

is to give up thinking about how to do it. In other words, think of not thinking. In other words, enter into a practice that's beyond your thinking, a practice that's beyond your idea of the practice. Of course, you do have ideas of the practice, fine. The practice is beyond those ideas. It's not necessarily different from them, because then it would be sort of in the realm, it would be still in the realm of those ideas. It's not the same as those ideas, it's not different from those ideas, or it's not, of course it's somewhat different from those ideas, and it's somewhat the same as those ideas, but it's not really the same, and it's not really different. It's free, it's beyond those ideas. And again, some people might say, please give me a break. I just came here

[05:14]

today, can I just sit here quietly and follow my breathing? Leave me alone, don't ask me to practice non-thinking, that's too hard. Can I just do something I can think of, like my breath, like following my breath? Sure, but that's not the practice that Dogen's teaching. However, the practice he's teaching is not different from that either. So if someone was following their breath, how would they follow it if they were practicing non-thinking? If they had a practice that was beyond thinking, and they were thinking about their breath, how would their practice look like? Thursday night, someone, after a sitting group in San Francisco, a woman came up to me and she said, can I ask you about meditation? And I said, okay, fine. She said, well, we're supposed to follow our breath, right? And I said, supposed to? I wouldn't say you're supposed to. I said, do you want to follow your breath? She says, I don't know. But when I try, I can't. I said, well, if you

[06:22]

can't, you can't. But if you want to, go ahead, follow your breath, follow your breathing, if you want to. This is a kind of concentration camp, but it's not a forced labor camp. You don't have to, you're not supposed to be following your breath, but if you're breathing, which I guess you are, and you want to follow that breathing process, I would say, I would support that. I would say, that's probably a good idea. That's, I mean, that's a nice idea. That'll probably be beneficial, to follow your breathing. I mean, to pay attention to your breathing that you're doing, which seems like a good idea to me, you also have a body. It seems like a good idea to pay attention to your body, too. Fine, but to make it into, you come in this room and suddenly, you're supposed, because you're in this room, you're supposed to pay attention to your body, and you're supposed to pay attention to your breathing, you're supposed to, supposed to, that doesn't sound like non-thinking to me. That sounds like a lot of thinking.

[07:28]

That sounds like thinking, [...] I'm supposed to do this, thinking I'm supposed to do that. The sitting meditation of the lineage of Dogan is beyond thinking, which means it can be thinking or not thinking. It means it's free of thinking. It means you're thinking, the practice can be there, and if you're not thinking, the practice can be there. The meditation practice of this lineage of Dogan is beyond your ideas of meditation practice. It's that kind of meditation practice, but still, most of us do have ideas of meditation practice. Some of you are maybe beginners, so you hardly have any ideas of meditation practice, and in some sense, if you have

[08:32]

no ideas, in some sense, you might think it's easier to be free of them. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but as you practice longer, you may hear various ideas of meditation practice, and then say, that sounds like a good one, and start grasping these ideas of meditation practice. Grasping ideas of what the practice is, is antithetical to the practice. So the practice is basically not grasping any ideas of the practice, any ideas of anything, so the practice is basically not grasping, and it's also not seeking. So you come in to the practice, into this room, into the temple, into the world, you come into the world to practice, right? That's what you came for, right? Here you are to practice, and now that you're here to practice, now all I got to do is don't grasp anything, including the practice, and don't seek anything,

[09:36]

including the practice, and don't seek anything from the practice, or through the practice, or by the practice, and that's the practice. Just don't grasp anything or seek anything, and if you happen to enjoy following your breathing, you're a lucky duck. Enjoy it, and while you enjoy it, enjoy it, but enjoy it. Don't grasp it, that's not the way to enjoy it, and don't seek anything, just enjoy it, so fully that there's no room for grasping and seeking, there's just total engagement with breathing, or if you have bodily sensations like the sensation of being upright, just enjoy it, don't seek being upright, and don't grasp being upright, just be upright, and if you enjoy it, fine. I would say to you it is enjoyable, but you may not find it enjoyable. If you

[10:40]

don't find it enjoyable, then I would say don't find it enjoyable, but don't grasp not finding it enjoyable, and don't seek not finding it enjoyable. This way can be called non-thinking. So you have thinking equipment, and your thinking equipment can grasp and seek things, so basically we're talking about a practice beyond that equipment, and beyond that equipment, again, doesn't mean separate from it, because Buddha, which is this beyond that equipment, that non-seeking and non-grasping, joyfully plunges into the realm of grasping and seeking, the realm of breathing in and breathing out, without any grasping and seeking. So to be breathing, and to notice the breathing, and to notice the breathing

[11:45]

without trying to get anything from it, or use the awareness of it for anything, this is really an enjoyable way to be with the breath, and then an inhale comes, and then an exhale. Fine, have a ball, if you want to. Now, in this lineage of Dogen, he has an ancestor named Dongshan, who's like the founder of the Soto lineage in China, Dongshan, and one day Dongshan was walking through the countryside of China, and he walked into a kind of hilly area, and he came to a stream, and I actually, last year, went and saw that stream, and

[12:50]

now you have to walk through a parking lot, and then you come to a bridge, and then on the bridge is a sign, the sign on the bridge is, the sign on the bridge says, encountered it, encountered it. In other words, this is the place he encountered it. Who encountered what? This is the place Dongshan encountered the stream. He's walking through the stream, which is still there, and he looked down, and he saw his reflection in the stream, and he understood who he was, and he also understood who the stream was. He understood that he's a stream, and that the stream's Dongshan, and he was very happy about this, and a little bit later he made a poem, which starts out, there's

[13:51]

many ways to translate it, but one way to translate it is, earnestly give up, seeking outside, lest it recede far from you. Now I walk alone, it is me, and yet I'm not it, and you can also rephrase that, instead of saying it, if you're, whatever gender you are, you can put your gender in there. If you think you're a she, you can say, earnestly give up seeking outside, lest

[14:55]

she recede far from you. Now I walk alone, she is not me, now I am exactly her. In other words, we're talking about finding out who you are, man or woman, find out who you are. How? Give up seeking, finding out who you are, give up seeking, of course you're Zen students, of course you're seeking who you really are, you're seeking reality. Fine, give it up, because if you keep seeking it outside, of course, inside or outside, any seeking for what truth is, it moves farther away

[15:58]

from you, you're seeking pushes it away. Following your breathing, looking at a stream, don't seek or grasp, give up seeking and grasping, because if you do, what you're looking for will move farther away. And Suzuki Roshi, the founder of this Zen Center, he spoke of this time when Dungshan was looking in the stream, the way he talked about it was like this. This is what he said Dungshan said, this is his way of phrasing what Dungshan said when he saw himself in the water. Don't try to figure out what you are. If you try to figure out what you are, what you understand will

[17:08]

be far from you. I think maybe, although he didn't say end of quotation, I think the quotation of Dungshan maybe should end there. I thought that was an interesting reworking of what he said. And then Suzuki Roshi says, you should not even have an image of yourself. And I would elaborate on that by saying you should not even have a concept or an idea of yourself, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an idea of yourself or an image of yourself, because you can't stop your nervous system in any healthy way from having an image of yourself. Your nervous system is constantly producing ideas of yourself. It's not that you don't have an idea of yourself or an image of yourself, it's

[18:11]

that you don't grasp it. You learn how to not grasp it and you learn how to not seek anything around it. That's what Dungshan I think was practicing there when he understood, and that's what he encouraged us to practice. In other words, non-thinking. The Dzazen I speak of, the Dzazen I teach is not meditation. It's not any of your ideas or concepts or images of meditation. And it's not the opposite them or the slightest bit different from them. It embraces everything. It is total emancipation. And it emancipates us from any distance, from any being. It

[19:11]

is the release from anything that hinders us from our intimacy with all beings. That's what this Dzazen is. It makes us find the true relationship, not makes us find, it is the realization of the true relationship with all beings. That's this kind of meditation. Well, let's see, it's almost time to stop, but maybe I have time for some stories that I like. One is in the Tang Dynasty, around the same time that Dungshan, yeah, around the same time Dungshan lived, the Chinese Emperor had two sons. Well, I

[20:25]

don't know how many sons he had, but at least two. He had an older one and a younger son. And the younger son was 13 at that time, and his name is Shunzong. And one time after, you know, in the Imperial, the ceremony of being an emperor is that every morning about the time when Zen monks are practicing meditation, the Emperor gets up early and has court, and all the ministers come and present their memorials to the Emperor at sunrise, I think early, and then the court disperses. So after the older brother had held court,

[21:26]

the younger brother was there. The older brother got off the throne and, you know, went to Dimsun, and the younger brother got up on the dragon throne, the Imperial throne, and started like, you know, playing emperor. And somebody, some minister saw that and thought he was insane, demented, and told the Emperor. And the Emperor, I don't remember exactly what he said, but he said, my little brother is really cool. He thought it was cute and very clever. And then he died. And he had three sons, and the way it works is that the sons of the Emperor become the next Emperor rather than the brother of the Emperor. So the first son became Emperor, and he had a

[22:27]

hard time, they got rid of him pretty fast. The second Emperor also had kind of a hard time, they got rid of him, and the third son became Emperor, and when the third son became Emperor, he remembered that his uncle, who is now a little older, what he did when, you know, when he was 13, of getting on the throne, and he had him beaten nearly to his death. And then had him revived by throwing, I guess, you know, like toilet water on him. So he decided to split the Imperial Palace, which at that time was in Chang'an, and he went to study Zen, and had his head shaved, and sort of like went into Zen monasteries to kind of hide and practice. So now we have this little

[23:33]

aristocrat, maybe he's in his 20s or 30s now, in Zen monasteries, and various interesting things happened, but I'm not going to tell you the whole stories of all of them, but I'll just tell you that finally he came to study under a Zen teacher, and at that temple, the head monk was Wang Bo, the great Wang Bo was the head monk. And Xuanzang, who by the way, I don't know, I don't think they know he is, you know, the son of a former emperor and actually a future emperor, he's going to become emperor pretty soon, because his mean older brother is going to die. No, no, his mean nephew is going to die, and he's going to become emperor. But I don't think they know this necessarily, but whether they know it or not, anyway, he's in the monastery with them, and Wang Bo is the head monk,

[24:37]

and Wang Bo, he's not the master of the temple, but he, you know, he is teaching, and he teaches, what does he teach? What does Wang Bo teach? Mind is Buddha. He teaches, yeah, he teaches mind is Buddha, and he teaches that everything, all of us and all the Buddhas are one mind, he teaches that. What else does he teach? What? He teaches non-thinking. He teaches, you people, you beginners, this is what he teaches to beginners. What does he teach to beginners? Just don't grasp anything or seek anything. And you, if you want to attain supreme enlightenment, just don't grasp or seek anything. That's what he taught beginners. Later, we'll get into what he taught to advanced people. This is Wang Bo's teaching, non-seeking

[25:37]

and non-grasping, very strongly encourage that. Wonderful teaching of non-thinking. Don't seek anything from Buddha. Don't seek anything from Buddha. Don't seek anything from Dharma. Don't seek anything from Sangha. Do you know what Sangha means? Don't seek anything from the community of practitioners. Don't seek anything from the truth or from the teaching. Don't seek anything from the enlightened ones, okay? That's what he taught. So there he is one day, bowing to, like, an image or a concept or a picture of a Buddha. And the future emperor says, �I thought you don't seek anything from Buddha, Dharma

[26:38]

or Sangha. So what are you seeking, bowing here?� Wang Bo said, �I don't seek anything from Buddha. I don't seek anything from Dharma. I don't seek anything from Sangha. This is the way I pay my respects to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, by bowing and not seeking anything.� And then he slapped him. And then the future emperor said, �Too coarse.� And Wang Bo said, �What does talk of coarse and fine have to do with it?� And slapped him again. And then, when he became emperor, he gave Wang Bo a title. The title was �Coarse Acting

[27:50]

Yogi.� And then later, when one of Wang Bo's students became prime minister, he talked the emperor into changing his name to �Boundless Zen Master.� Don't seek anything from the temple treasure. Don't expect anything, just bow. Bow without seeking anything. You don't have to bow, but when you're bowing, don't seek anything. You don't have to follow your breathing, but if you want to follow your breathing, when you're following your breathing, don't seek anything. You don't have to follow the schedule of the sesshin, but if you are following the schedule of sesshin, don't seek anything. This is the way to pay your respects to the Buddhas. Don't seek anything from them. Just do what you want to do without

[28:56]

grasping or seeking. And this is a very nice thing to do for Buddha. Buddha really likes it when you serve meals, when you eat meals, when you talk to your friends, when you look at somebody, when you breathe, whatever you're doing, don't grasp or seek. And this is very respectful of the Buddha Dharma. Now, it's somewhat respectful to follow the schedule, to follow your breathing. You know, some people are like, �Okay, I'm supposed to follow my breathing, so I'll really try because I want to be good.� You know, that's somewhat respectful. You know, you're trying to be a good Zen student, follow your breathing, follow your breathing, follow the schedule, hit that bell, tote that barge, lift that bale. That's somewhat respectful. It's pretty good. You know, you're trying, but the problem is Buddha is like, you're pushing Buddha away, because you think Buddha is like, you know, your straw boss. No. The

[30:03]

really respectful thing is to live your life moment to moment beyond thinking. This is a way to really make Buddha come close, not come close, but realize how close Buddha is in your non-seeking, Buddha is right there with you in your non-grasping. You're being very respectful, very kind to all beings and to yourself. You're following your breathing in a very kind, warm way when you have no idea of how, when you're grasping, no idea of how to follow your breathing. Just enjoying it. You know, when you're not following your breathing, just enjoy not following your breathing, which as you know is quite easy. Even this woman, you know, who's really just a beginner, she's already able to not follow her breathing. But can she enjoy it? Can she not follow her breathing and enjoy it? In other words, not

[31:06]

seek to be a more advanced student. And by the way, this woman, if I may say, she came to becoming the sitting group for a pretty long time, and when she first came, she was like moving 30 or 40 times during a period, and also she wore a leather jacket and noisy pants, so it's really a big racket. But in the sitting group, you know, it's very kind of like open, so we let really noisy people into the sitting group. It's nice. It's not so, you know, fascist as ordinary Zen center events. So here she is moving all the time, but you know, little by little, without me saying a word to her, she's calmed down. You know, she moves, you know, like now she moves once or twice during a period. She's really settled down. Just by period after period of facing what it's like to be wiggling, she's

[32:10]

settled down. Well, let's see, what time is it? It's getting late. Okay, so I just wanted to mention also that I was going to give a talk about bowing, and I actually thought that maybe in the August Seishin, maybe that would be something to go into some detail, the practice of bowing, but I just want to say that to bow with some idea of what bowing is, or to bow and seek something in the bowing practice, it's kind of okay, but it's not really, it's a kind of resistance to the practice. So one way to resist is to not do it at all. Another

[33:14]

way to do it is to try to get something, and another way to do it is to do it but kind of like, you know, not want to sort of like feel like, I don't like to do this, this is really, this is like idol worship or whatever. Anyway, there's various ways to resist bowing, and again, to bow and to seek some merit, or to seek some state of mind or something like that, that way of bowing is resisting the actual bowing practice. But to bow with no expectation is to really be ready for the bow, and to not resist it. And in that way bowing is exactly the same as enlightenment. To practice the way of enlightenment with no expectation is being ready for awakening. But if we do things throughout our day with

[34:19]

expectation, then when enlightenment is offered to us, it's hard for us to be ready, because we have the habit of expectation, we have the habit of seeking. So I said, again, somebody said to me just a couple days ago, she said, she came and said, would you please, you know, would you tell me what you want me to do? And I said, it's not what I want you to do, I want to help you do what you want to do. I want to help you be what you want to be. What do you want to be? And she said, I want to be completely enlightened. And I said, okay, I'm happy to support that and help you with that. Then if you want that, I want to help you with that. And so I said to her, are you ready for awakening? And she said, a big resistance is coming up. And I said, that's great that you noticed that. What you really want, you're resisting. And she said, I want to help you

[35:25]

with that. It's wonderful that you see it. So how can we practice to get over our resistance to awakening? In awakening, you don't get anything. Are you ready to not get anything? Well, if you're practicing not grasping and not seeking, you get ready for it. So if you bow and follow the schedule with no resistance, in other words, just do it, or just be it, then you are getting ready to awaken. Resistance to bowing is resistance to awakening. Resistance to lunch is resistance to awakening. And resistance to lunch means you're eating to get something from lunch. Can you have lunch today without any expectation, without seeking anything, or grasping anything? Can you bite the food without grasping it? That's kind of scary,

[36:31]

I know, but you might try it. See if you can chew without grasping the food, without seeking to swallow. And that leads me to my final point, which I know that a lot of people have problems eating beyond thinking. So anyway, if anybody wants to learn how to eat beyond thinking, I'm totally here to support you in that and learn how to do it myself. Eating without grasping or seeking. I went to a restaurant, a very nice restaurant, and I don't plug restaurants during talks, so I'm not going to tell you the name of the restaurant unless you really, you know, beg me. But anyway, at the restaurant, on the menu, it says quite clearly, do not be afraid of your food. I know this person who, you know, is in the healthcare profession, and so, you know, when

[38:00]

you go to those places, you know, in the waiting areas, they have magazines for you to read while you're waiting. So in these healthcare professional places they have lots of magazines about health, you know, and stuff. Ever been to one of those places, saw those magazines? So here's one of those magazines that... I'm having trouble finding the article. Oh, here it is. So anyway, there's various, you know... One of the reasons why people are afraid of food is because they're afraid that they're going to get really big and fat, right? That's one of the reasons why people are afraid of food. And fat's not in, so, you know, they don't want to be out. So try to keep not too fat. And so, there's various, you know, programs about how not to be fat. So one of them is, you know, a one-point program for not being

[39:01]

fat, and a two-point program for not being fat, and a three-point program... So, my program is, you know, no grasping and no seeking. That's my program for not getting fat. Another one is, you know, what are the three main causes for being fat? One is... What is it? One is... Oh, I forgot what it was. One was... Oh, no, forget. What are the three things you need to do not to be fat? One is exercise, right? The other is practice Zen. And the third one is move out of America. Or another possibility is, another way to say it, what are the three causes of being

[40:10]

obese? One is no exercise, two is not practicing Zen, and three is living in America. This is for Americans. So, anyway, here's this magazine, and the name of this magazine is Self. So, you know, I'm looking at this one gentleman over here, he's Chilean, he's going to leave the country soon and go to Chile, where he'll be safe. Anyway, here's some examples of some things that are going on here in the world, just for your... I think this is fun. Oftentimes when I'm on my way to give a talk, my wife has some comment, and that's often quite relevant. So today she wanted to show me this magazine, I was walking out the door. I said, yeah,

[41:10]

this is relevant. So here we are. The name of the article is We Eat More, and so it has the first example is pasta Italian style and pasta American style. Pasta Italian style, the way it's served is 11 ounces, 825 calories. American style, 20 ounces, 1,500. Get this, even at McDonald's in London, okay, the largest serving of French fries that you can get, the largest serving is 5.5 ounces, or 485 calories. The largest serving in America is 7 ounces, 610 calories. And the largest drink you can get at McDonald's in London is 18 ounces, or 172 calories. And the largest one you can get in America is 42 ounces, 410 calories.

[42:13]

Coffee, in Italia, Espresso, 4.5 ounces, excuse me, Cappuccino, 4.5 ounces, 50 calories. Starbucks, the smallest one, 12 ounces, 140 calories. Steak, English style, 8 ounces, 540 calories. American serving size at a Morton's restaurant in New York, 20 ounces, 1,360 calories. And here's one from home. Oh, this is a good one too. The French croissant, the French croissant in Paris, 2 ounces, 213 calories. The American serving at the something bagel shop in New York City, 4 ounces, 430 calories. Chocolate

[43:31]

truffles, they're from France, right? The French serving at La Maison du Chocolat au Pays, 1.25 ounces, 40 calories. San Francisco, Joseph Smith, 1.5 ounces, 240 calories. So, this is America. So, in America, we really have to practice non-grasping, otherwise we're going to be very sick. So, you know, you have to practice Zen everywhere to be healthy. But in America, you really have to. So, please, don't resist enlightenment any longer. Unless you want to, then go right ahead. That wasn't too long, was it?

[44:46]

No. May our intention equally...

[44:56]

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