Our seven-day Sashin. We read the and we heard the admonitions for Sashin last night and part of the admonition is that Sashin offers an opportunity to discover and or to discover anew to discover again and to clarify and realize our ultimate concern in life. So during this week, whether you are in this room or outside this room, there's an opportunity to look inward and question what is the ultimate concern of this life?

[01:11]

What is most essential and vital in life? For ourself and for all beings. Let's start with ourself. I return to this question again and again. It is a question leading me to my basic orientation, my central orientation in life. And all the activities of life are coordinated by the ultimate concern. I don't wish to tell you what your ultimate concern is or should be, but I just mention what the ultimate concern of a Buddha is.

[02:38]

The ultimate concern of a Buddha is to help all living beings enter the unsurpassed authentic path and quickly attain, quickly realize. Buddha offers herself, her body and speech and mind to help people enter the unsurpassable authentic path and quickly realize Buddhahood for the welfare Our first ancestor in Japan, as we say during morning service, Ehe Dogen Daisho, for him, I think he had a similar ultimate concern as the Buddhas.

[03:59]

And at the beginning of Sesshin, here, we often in the first morning service we recite the Pukan Zazengi which he wrote and I translate that as the ceremony or the universal encouragement for the ceremony of sitting meditation. It's a teaching which is recited in Soto Zen monasteries during practice period anyway, every night. So it's recited by the monks, but it's called the universal encouragement for the ceremony of sitting meditation. It's not just for the monks, it's for the non-monastics also.

[05:05]

Some people even say it's really for the non-monastics, not for the monks. But the monks during practice period or sesshin, they recite it every day. and there's quite a bit of instruction given there, but I just wanted to go to the center of it, where he says, once you've settled into a steady, immobile sitting position, still and settled in body and mind, in a sitting position, think not thinking.

[06:11]

How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen. This Zazen I speak of, or this Zazen I teach, is not just learning concentration. The Zazen I teach is conducted in Zazen, within concentration. Once you've settled into a steady, immobile sitting position, then think of not thinking. And the way you think of not thinking is by kind of thinking called non-thinking and this way of thinking is the way of thinking of the Buddhas which is the essential art of sitting meditation for Buddhas so this is not just concentration although it lives in concentration it flourishes

[07:30]

and grows within concentration. So yes, we would be in accord with the Buddhas by caring for and developing a mind that is serene and bright and flexible. And then within this tranquil, alert mind, we practice non-thinking, And this is not just concentration, it is the practice of totally culminated enlightenment. In this session I will probably emphasize this practice. The sitting practice of totally culminated enlightenment.

[08:35]

The sitting practice of the Buddhas. The practice of sitting Buddha. The practice of sitting compassionate wisdom. practice of sitting for the welfare of all beings. And if we're sitting for the welfare of all beings, it is good to be aware what's most important in our life. Because if you found out that what was most important in your life was the welfare of all beings, then you might feel more enthusiastic about doing a practice of all beings.

[09:41]

But most of us also have other intentions or other concerns. So it doesn't mean we have no other concerns from this ultimate concern. It's just that this concern is ultimate and the others are to be coordinated with it. Sometimes we have a concern to eat or clean the temple. If the eating and cleaning the temple are in accord with the ultimate concern, it's not so important whether we eat right now or not. And if we do eat, it's important that it is in accord with the ultimate concern. If you eat before you clean the temple or clean the temple before you eat, it's not a problem.

[10:52]

They're both opportunities to promote the ultimate concern. Perhaps during this session you will discover and cultivate it. Looking at the central instruction of thinking of not thinking How do you do that? Non-thinking. Again, I just wanted to mention that in the context of tranquility, we do a practice called non-thinking.

[11:58]

And non-thinking is a kind of thinking which is also called in the Buddhist path right thinking. So in the Eightfold Noble Path there is right thought, right understanding is number one, and right thinking. So this right thinking is a thinking that follows from right understanding in the context of tranquility. Right thinking deals with all of our ordinary thinking, and it deals with it in such a way that we realize the true nature of all of our ordinary thinking. So there is ordinary thinking, there is its true nature, and there's a thinking about ordinary thinking in such a way that you realize

[13:08]

that thinking is, for example, its ultimate character is that it's not thinking. In the end, thinking is not thinking. Non-thinking deals with your thinking so thoroughly that you realize the true nature of all of your thinking. And then also you deal with not thinking in such a way as to realize the ultimate nature of not thinking is that not thinking is not not thinking. In other words, not thinking is actually thinking. This non-thinking, in other words, is a way of thinking which realizes perfect wisdom. And this is the essential art of sitting meditation of the Buddhas. This is taught from 800 years ago by our ancestor Dogen, and he received that teaching

[14:26]

from about 400 years before him, from our ancestor, Yakusan Igen Daisho. When he was practicing Zazen, a monk asked him, what kind of thinking was he doing when he was sitting? And he didn't say, I'm not thinking while I'm sitting. I'm just concentrated and there's no thinking going on. He didn't say that. The monk asked him what kind of thinking and he said, I'm thinking of not thinking. In other words, I'm thinking in a way that is the ultimate truth of thinking. And how do you do that? By non-thinking. So most of us will be thinking to the rest of this session and beyond There's an instruction here to take care of your thinking, to be thorough, to be fully engaged in your thinking.

[15:36]

And by being thoroughly engaged in your thinking, you can realize the ultimate truth of your thinking. This thorough engagement with whatever kind of thinking is going on is non-thinking. This is the essential art of satsang. This thorough engagement with thinking authenticates thinking. It gives thinking the Buddha seal. Dogen Zenji brings up this story from ancient times and quotes it in his universal encouragements for the ceremony of Zazen. And he also brings his story up in other places in his works.

[16:39]

One of the places he brings it up is in a fascicle, an essay called The Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, Zazen Shin. And he wrote this fascicle. The title of this fascicle is taken from the title of a poem written by one of his ancestors in Chinese. And that poem is called Zazen Shen. And then Dogen Zenji wrote a parallel poem to that poem, representing that poem during this session. So in this essay, which concludes with the ancestor's poem and Dogen's poem, the beginning of this essay starts with a discussion of the story of the monk asking Yaksan, what are you thinking when you're sitting still?

[17:48]

And Yaksan's saying, I'm thinking of not thinking. and so on. Dogen Zenji discusses that story and in accord with Dogen Zenji, I have discussed the story with you too and I might discuss it with you more later. Then he goes on, Dogen Zenji goes on to discuss another story and this is a story about sitting Buddha, about the practice of sitting Buddha, or you could say the practice of a sitting Buddha. Maybe we'll chant that today. The story goes like this. By the way, this story is about...

[18:50]

two ancestors who are the ancestors of what we call Rinzai line or the Linji line. So these ancestors are, the first ancestor in the story is Huairang, Nanyue Huairang, and he's one of the main disciples of the sixth ancestor of Zen. The other main disciple is shinsa, seigen, yoshi. So, Nanyue Huayran, teacher of another, of a wonderful teacher named Matsu, Matsu Daoyi. But in what we're chanting, They're referred to by their sort of, yeah, horrific titles.

[20:01]

So it starts out, the story starts out with when Chan master, when Zen master, Tachi of Changshi, that's Matsu, When Matsu was studying with Chan master Pahue of Nanyue, after intimately receiving the mind seal of the Buddhas, he always in meditation. Once his teacher Nanyue went to Tachi Matsu and said, worthy one, what is your sitting there in meditation? And Changshi said, I'm intending to make a Buddha.

[21:13]

At this point, Nanyue took up and began to rub it on a stone. At length, Tachi asked, Master, what are you doing? Nanyue said, I'm polishing this tile to make a mirror. Tachi said, teacher, how can you produce a tile by polishing it? Excuse me, how can you produce a mirror by polishing it? Nanue replied, how can you make a Buddha by sitting meditation? Then the student said, Master Tachi said, then what is right?

[22:26]

Nanyue replied, when a person is driving a cart, if the cart doesn't go, or beat the ox. Matsu Tachi did not reply. Nanyue went on. Studying seated meditation is studying seated Buddha. If you are studying seated meditation, Seated meditation is not sitting or reclining. If you are studying seated Buddha, Buddha is or has no fixed form.

[23:37]

In the non-abiding Dharma, there should be no grasping or rejecting If you are studying seated Buddha, this is killing Buddha. If you grasp the form, you're not reaching its principles. with the aid of the ancestors during the Sesshin, we may be able to look at this story in detail. Today, I'm just introducing it to you to let it sink in so that it can teach you while you're sitting.

[24:50]

It may seem as though some of you have not received the Buddha mind seal from an authentic master of the tradition coming from Shakyamuni Buddha. But those who have this intimate transmission are always sitting in meditation. ...of the Buddhas. If you sit in the meditation of Buddhas, you're just like those who have received this transmission. They did not just practice this way until they received transmission.

[26:19]

They practiced it before, during and after. Now that you've heard a little bit about the essential art of totally culminated enlightenment and the practice of sitting Buddha, if there's any questions or comments you care to offer, you may do so.

[28:10]

You are invited and welcome to do so. Hold it horizontally.

[29:34]

I was struck by your teaching. Thank you very much. I was struck by your teaching. Can you hear me? That to grasp the form of sitting is to kill the Buddha, I think you said. What I read was, are studying seated Buddha? This is killing Buddha. If you grasp the form of sitting, this is not reaching the essence of the sitting.

[30:42]

Yes, this is not reaching the essence of the sitting. And I was struck by it because I noticed this morning during breakfast, I really wasn't practicing orioke. doing something else similar. I was pretending, actually, to be eating in Orioki style. I wasn't wholehearted about it. You weren't wholeheartedly eating breakfast in the style of Oryoki? Yeah, I was concerned with the form of it. It's the first time I've done karaoke in a little while, and I was a little unsure. And that was what was... And so I was sort of grasping onto that.

[31:46]

And that's not a rare state of mind for me. So my question is how to practice with that. Practice with... Not being wholehearted when you're performing a ceremony of eating? For example, and other instances in which often in ceremonial context I notice I'm not wholehearted. Performing the ceremony of sitting upright, you might notice that there's not wholeheartedness about it? Yes. And how do you practice with that? What do you think I'm going to say? I think you're going to say to notice it wholeheartedly.

[32:47]

Yeah, notice it wholeheartedly. And how do you notice it wholeheartedly? Be generous with it. Be generous with the lack of wholeheartedness. Be generous with the lack of wholeheartedness. totally let the lack of wholeheartedness be just the lack of wholeheartedness that we have here at the moment. And that's part of being wholehearted even while somebody's half-hearted. And another part of being wholehearted when there is someone being wholehearted is to be careful of this lack of wholeheartedness.

[33:49]

Because lack of wholeheartedness can be a condition for harm. The servers too who are practicing the ceremony with the receivers of the food, they could also be perhaps half-hearted in their serving. But if they notice that they're half-hearted and are careful with it, they might not spill hot water on our hands. or they might not actually fall down and slip on the floor. Being gentle and vigilant and conscientious is also part of being wholehearted with half-heartedness.

[34:52]

So Buddhas, of course, are wholehearted, but they're engaged with beings who are learning to be wholehearted but have not yet, in some cases, learned it. So the Buddhas are very kind to the half-hearted living beings who they embrace and sustain. And they start by being generous with the half-hearted ones and they're careful with the half-hearted ones And then they're also patient with the half-hearted ones. And the Buddhas, of course, have been translating karmic cause and effect for a very long time. So they understand how good it is to be patient and generous and careful, ethical, with half-heartedness.

[36:02]

So they're very enthusiastic about it. They really want to, because they think about how good it is to take care of half-heartedness. And they're also calm with half-heartedness. In this way, they are wholeheartedly present and devoted to any half-hearted beings that come. So we, you know, we as a practicing being, we as the practice, or we could say our practice or the practice, meets half-heartedness in this way, with generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, and tranquility. That's how it meets. And when half-heartedness is met in this way, there is wholeheartedness with the half-heartedness.

[37:11]

We don't have to get rid of the half-heartedness before there's wholeheartedness there. Wholeheartedness grows on half-heartedness. And wholeheartedness grows on wholeheartedness too. So if you ever have any wholeheartedness showing up, it's met with the same wholeheartedness that half-heartedness is. When half-heartedness is met with wholeheartedness, it makes Buddhas. When wholeheartedness is met with wholeheartedness, It kills Buddhists. It goes beyond Buddhists. That's why Buddhists have no problem embracing half-heartedness. They don't hold on to Buddhahood. They let go of Buddhahood and give it to half-heartedness wholeheartedly.

[38:16]

Plenty of us notice plenty of half-heartedness in the vicinity of our sitting place. All these half-hearted phenomena are opportunities for wholehearted engagement. The horse arrives before the donkey leaves. The lotus grows in the muddy water. Isn't it as the lotus grows and the water gets not muddy? Thank you for these reminders. You're welcome. The bodhisattva's purity grows in messiness.

[39:33]

Some people, which is great, but they are a little shy of impurity, which is too bad. because their purity would grow more if they could embrace the impure mess. I have to confess I've forgotten the form because it's been so long since I've come up here and asked a question.

[41:27]

And actually... You did fine. And... I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to ask you. As you were talking, many questions arose, and I've now found that I've completely forgotten them. And I am often really afraid to come up here and ask a question because I'm afraid I'll look silly and stupid and forgetful and expose my understanding. And now in saying this, I don't feel so scared at all. And I don't understand a lot of what you say, but when you say it, it sounds really good. And it seems so impossible to think that out. my ultimate concern, when I really look in my heart, it's often not to help all beings.

[42:30]

And the best I seem to do is to maybe aspire that someday that would be true. Do you sometimes see an aspiration to... to wish to live for the welfare of all beings? Do you sometimes see that aspiration? Sometimes I think, oh, that would be great, but when I look in my heart, that's not there. But when you think it's great, it is there. At that moment, there's the thought, that would be great. Buddhists also think that would be great. Yeah, but it seems like I have not... realize that aspiration that there's still something that's not quite pure about that intention because my intentions seem to be complex.

[43:35]

Yeah. That's normal that there's more than more than one aspiration and more than one intention is normal. That's why it's helpful to look to see what's the most important because once that becomes clear, which are more or less not in accord with that, it's clearer what to do with them. And those that are in accord with it, it's not such a big problem about which one among the various things you would do. Because none of them are the ultimate. So again, you could say, well, I'd like to give some food to this person and I'd like to give some assistance to that person. Which one should I do?

[44:36]

Some people... between which of two good things to do. But when you realize that neither one of them are really the ultimate point, then you can relax and just do one of them and then do the other one or reverse them. It's not a big deal. But when you don't have your central orientation, people sometimes have what they call approach-approach conflict or avoidance-avoidance conflict. Now, which of these two things should I avoid? But when you're ultimate concern is clear, you're not too worried about which of two bad things to avoid first. Avoid this one and then I'll avoid that one. I'll drop this and I'll drop that. And also when your ultimate concern becomes clear, you're not worried about making the best decision. Just a good one's sufficient. Because these aren't the ultimate

[45:36]

These are just things to exercise in the context of your most important thing in your life. And if you're not clear about what's most important, that's similar to what Oscar just brought up, and that is if you're kind to what's not important, this kindness will grow even before you're clear. And it may turn out that this kindness is the thing you're not clear about. Sometimes what's kind, I'm not even clear on that. Yeah, I'm often not clear about what's kind either, but I am clear that I actually would like to do the kind thing. I never change my mind about that, actually. I never think I would like to do something cruel.

[46:39]

I might do something cruel because of past karma. Some cruel comment might pop out. But I never think, oh yeah, that's what I intended to do. This is what I'm here for, is to be cruel. I never think that. I just do something that's cruel. But then I'm sorry because it doesn't align with the ultimate concern. But it doesn't mean, even when I say something cruel, it doesn't mean I know for sure that it was cruel. It's just that I think it was. And so if I say to you, Connie, I think what I just said was cruel, you might say, no, it wasn't. It was really helpful. And I might say, really? You say, yeah. Wow. But I thought it was, so I'm sorry. If I think it is, I'm sorry that I did it. But if you tell me it was helpful, maybe I was wrong. And you might say, encourage me when you're cruel.

[47:42]

It really encourages me because I know that's not the way you want to be. So it kind of makes me feel like, wow, somebody who really wants to be kind sometimes slips up. That's like me. So that's encouraging that he slips up too. If you knew that I was mean, that probably wouldn't be very encouraging. That would be scary. Yeah. But if you know that I really want to be kind and you see me sometimes slip and see me be sorry, that could be really helpful to you. So I'm not so sure about what's cruel. But I am pretty sure I do want to be cruel and I do want to be kind and I don't want to be cruel. I'm actually pretty sure of that. But I also know that there are cruel impulses from past karma The great dark unconscious storehouse mind.

[48:44]

Because in the past, I look back on my past and I consciously I know there were some cruel things in the past. And they affect my present ability to be kind. Those past cruelties. And there's some I don't even know I did. But I know enough of them to know that there's enough of them to make me, what's the word, at risk of doing something unkind or cruel or disrespectful or rough. I have a lot of roughness in my near past actually, you know. I used to be kind of a rough guy in the boxing ring. But the other people wanted me to be so it worked out okay. But still, it can come out in situations where it's not appropriate. So, you have to be careful.

[49:46]

And when that cruel karma arises... It seems like it takes over and that is my intent and my ultimate concern at that moment. What happened to those other intentions? It's like they've gone away because this other cruel impulse has taken over and it just fills my mind. Well, when you say what happened to the other ones, you've just now returned to contemplating where they are. So it is something when cruelty can take over for a moment. And then it's like, well, where did my intention to be kind to all beings go? But you probably wouldn't ask that question, where did my intention to be kind to all beings go, if you hadn't had that intention for a moment sometime in the past. So your past good intentions also pop up and say, hey, remember us? Oh yeah, where did you go? We didn't go anywhere, but this other thing came up and you got all involved in that for a while.

[50:55]

Do you want to come back and practice kindness again? And maybe you say, yeah. And are you sorry that you slipped? I really am. So should we go back onto the ultimate concern? Yes, let's re-enter the ultimate concern. that's called the process of acceptance, where we notice that we slipped from the path of the true Dharma, the path of the compassionate Buddha, we notice we slipped. And we feel more like that, sometimes very uncomfortable. And then we bring kindness to that. We ask the Buddhas to come and kindly witness our sorrow over our shortcomings. And this process melts away the root of these unkindnesses.

[52:04]

The root of them is our past karma. our past karma gets melted away by the process of confessing the things that arise from it that are not really what we most want to accomplish in the little bit of time we have. We want to accomplish great kindness and great helpfulness, some of us, but we also have our past karma has greatly accumulated in becoming a causing condition, obstructing the path of kindness and wisdom. So that's part of what we have to accept and keep working with over and over enthusiastically and patiently. On this stick that I'm holding in my hands, there's Chinese calligraphy inscribed into it, which says, Cultivate Tranquility.

[54:03]

And then there's a hole down here, and in the hole it says, Think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking?

[54:19]

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