Today we have an opportunity to sit together, to sit upright. We have an opportunity to sit upright in the midst of the awareness of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. sitting upright in the awareness of the Buddhas. In the Soto Zen tradition, coming down from the great ancestor Ehe Koso, Dogen Zenji,

[01:15]

We sometimes say that the authentic path of enlightenment is to sit upright in the midst of self-fulfilling samadhi, self-fulfilling awareness. Ji-ju-yu-zam-mai is the way of saying it. in Sino-Japanese. This is the awareness of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas practice in this awareness all the time and sometimes they are sitting in this awareness. This is Bodhisattva sitting meditation.

[02:27]

This is Buddha sitting meditation. In the Lotus Sutra, there is a chapter about a bodhisattva named Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. It doesn't say in the chapter that I know of that

[03:30]

Avalokiteshvara is sitting in meditation. It just describes Avalokiteshvara as contemplating all living beings with eyes of compassion It says that the Bodhisattva observes all sentient beings. It says that eyes of compassion observe all living beings. Eyes of compassion observe all living beings.

[04:37]

Eyes of compassion observe all the experiences of all beings. all the experiences of seeing colors, hearing sounds, thinking thoughts, feeling pain, feeling pleasure, all these experiences of living beings. Eyes of compassion observe. And this compassionate observation creates an ocean of blessing and happiness and virtue and positive energy without measure. I see this as a description of the way bodhisattvas practice.

[05:52]

If a bodhisattva is sitting I imagine her having eyes of compassion. And not only does she have eyes of compassion and does she look at and listen to all living beings, but she contemplates them, she observes them. When she hears a sound, she contemplates the sound. When she hears a cry, she contemplates. Usually when I have heard that expression of eyes of compassion observe sentient beings, I mostly was focusing on the eyes of compassion. I didn't notice

[06:58]

that it said, eyes of compassion are practicing insight. That the eyes of compassion are actually contemplating. They're not just noticing, they are contemplating these living beings. So, noticing this, I feel that the bodhisattva in meditation has eyes of compassion and they are tranquil. These are tranquil eyes, these are relaxed eyes that are contemplating and that there is in the bodhisattva's meditation compassion and wisdom. Compassion and wisdom assemble an ocean of blessing.

[08:00]

Avalokiteshvara means actually contemplating the cries of the world, observing the suffering beings. So I imagine that the bodhisattvas and in particular the bodhisattvas of the lineage coming down to us, that this is their meditation. Compassionately observing everything and everybody with wisdom. Considering everybody together with the true teaching of the nature of all beings. examining, probing, investigating the beings within a compassionate awareness, investigating the relationship between all beings, investigating the relationship between compassion and wisdom.

[09:29]

Eyes of compassion, these are, I would say again, relaxed eyes. And relaxed eyes are calm eyes, are tranquil eyes, are open eyes, but not open too much. Open in a relaxed way. not trying to get anything particular by this gaze. These compassionate eyes are generous eyes. These compassionate eyes are ethical eyes, careful eyes, eyes full of care, cautious eyes, gentle eyes. vigilant eyes, conscientious eyes, patient eyes, enthusiastic, zealous eyes, and calm, relaxed eyes.

[10:52]

This is compassionate eyes. Observing sentient beings, the compassionate eyes generously observe sentient beings and all their experiences. These compassionate eyes don't talk usually, but if they could talk they would say, thank you very much to all sentient beings. They would not worry about the suffering of sentient beings and thereby, without worry or without disturbance, they would become intimate with them. This is an analysis of compassion. This is analysis of the compassionate eyes. Many Western students of the Buddha Dharma who have attempted to practice being relaxed, who have attempted practicing being tranquil and open,

[12:08]

in other words, who have attempted to practice and realize concentration, have had difficulty. They have gone directly to try to practice concentration but have not been instructed or have not followed the instruction to practice generosity ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm as a basis for entering into concentration. In the Asian context of practicing concentration, it is assumed that the practitioners have already been taught and are practicing generosity, ethics, and patience.

[13:19]

If you're in a monastery, the daily life is offering and instructing opportunities for practicing generosity, ethics, and patience. and one is reminded and encouraged to practice these practices and also one is reminded how to generate the enthusiasm for practicing them and practicing tranquility so that then when one is practicing concentration in the zendo or outside one has the basis But many students who come to Zen without actually taking on the first four practices, or the first four practices that I just mentioned, they try to practice tranquility and they have difficulty doing so.

[14:29]

And then often in their difficulty they experience frustration and disappointment So then maybe it becomes apparent that what they need is something to help them deal with their frustration which is a practice of patience which should have already been operating and also the practice of enthusiasm to deal with disappointment. So I'm suggesting to you that when you're practicing concentration wherever you're practicing it that before you try to practice concentration you check out these four bodhisattva practices before you attempt to practice the bodhisattva concentration you do four foundation practices for that concentration and you continue to do them while you develop concentration

[15:33]

Coming back now to the concentration of the bodhisattva, based on these other practices, I'm suggesting that the eyes of the bodhisattva in meditation are open, contemplating all living beings with relaxed eyes. And the eyes, these relaxed eyes, are all over the body of the bodhisattva. In other words, the entire body, the surface of the body, the whole body, all through the body, are relaxed eyes of compassion. The whole body is eyes of compassion. And the whole body is also hands of compassion, that this relaxed body is a hand extended into the world.

[16:45]

This hand is connected to four arms, you could say, and arms and whole body, but the whole body is a hand reaching out into the world. This whole body is a gift And this gift, this whole body which is given, is an eye, or is many eyes of compassion. And they are relaxed. They are calm. They are open. If the bodhisattva notices that they're not relaxed, and not calm and not open then the bodhisattva is encouraged to check out whether the bodhisattva is patient with not having eyes that aren't calm and relaxed and open and the bodhisattva is encouraged to see if there's generosity towards these eyes and towards these beings and again by considering the foundation practices and

[18:02]

learning to steadily moment by moment cultivate them to support the concentration one can have these eyes of compassion of the bodhisattva And then one can contemplate what one is practicing compassion towards and with. Also I use the word concentration, not meditation. I find that frequently in the West people use the word

[19:05]

meditation for concentration, which is fine, but also practicing generosity and practicing ethical discipline and practicing patience and practicing heroic effort and enthusiasm, those are contemplations also, those are meditations. We're meditating on the practice and the teaching, the teaching and the practice. The teaching of generosity is a meditation which one contemplates and perhaps practices. Contemplating ethical discipline is meditation. One type of meditation is meditation which comes to fruit as contemplation. relaxation and ease and the ability to concentrate on things and openness and flexibility.

[20:15]

That's one type of meditation and often people use the word meditation just for that one. Again I'm proposing that Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva who of course has eyes of compassion is observing all living beings which it means that she's looking into them she's analyzing them her eyes are examining and probing all sentient beings that her eyes her compassionate eyes are also wisdom eyes And when compassionate eyes observe all sentient beings with wisdom, or when compassionate and wise eyes observe all sentient beings, an ocean of blessing is assembled.

[21:24]

In the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteshvara is contemplating all living beings. It doesn't say in the Heart Sutra that Avalokiteshvara's eyes of compassion are observing all sentient beings. What does it say? It says Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is practicing Prajnaparamita deeply. Did you recite that this morning in English or Japanese? Japanese, so maybe you didn't know. Avalokiteshvara is deeply practicing prajnaparamita. And what does she see? She sees that all five aggregates are empty. And seeing that all five aggregates are empty relieves all suffering and distress.

[22:29]

The Heart Citra says that seeing all five aggregates as empty relieves all suffering and distress assembles an ocean of blessing beyond measure. Avalokiteshvara is watching everything, watching everybody, watching each living being, and in the watching of each living being, Avalokiteshvara's mind analyzes them into five aggregates. Avalokiteshvara looks at herself and sees feelings, forms, conceptions, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. When she looks at other beings, she sees their form, their feelings, their perceptions. Her mind naturally analyzes beings intimately, examines and investigates all that make beings up in miraculous detail.

[23:40]

And in this compassionate approach, study and investigation of all beings she realizes that all these phenomena are bottomless are empty of own being cannot be grasped and this realization of this compassionate vision relieves all suffering and assembles all blessing and happiness This is a description of a bodhisattva's meditation. There's a larger, a longer version of the Heart Sutra which tells us that the Buddha is now sitting cross-legged upright and has entered into a tranquil state of concentration.

[24:45]

The Buddha is sitting with eyes of compassion observing all sentient beings. With the Buddha is Avalokiteshvara who is sitting with the Buddha following her teacher's example and both of them are sitting tranquilly, compassionately, sitting with tranquil compassion observing all sentient beings. And then Avalokiteshvara comes out of the silence of his sitting and speaks. In the silence of her sitting she sees that all five aggregates are empty and have no inherent existence, have no self.

[25:50]

She emerges from this vision which saves all beings and she says, Shariputra. She speaks to Shariputra and she says, all dharmas are marked by this emptiness. All phenomena are ungraspable. All living beings are vast and bottomless. And in this vision, there's nothing to grasp. And where there's nothing to grasp, there's no suffering. This is a description of the Bodhisattva meditation, of the Buddha meditation. This is expression from that meditation. There is a story that there once was a person named Bodhidharma, Bodhidharma Daisho.

[26:55]

And that that person was born in India and traveled to China. And he was told, he was predicted by his teacher, his teacher said, you will go to China. And he did go to China, according to this story. And he said, when you go to China, stay away from the powerful and famous people, like the emperor. Now, if you happen to meet the emperor anyway, don't say too much. So he did go to China and somehow he had a meeting with the Emperor of China, the Emperor of the Liang Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Liang. They had a meeting and he didn't say too much. And as a result of the meeting, he decided to go and sit and practice the Bodhisattva sitting.

[28:06]

up north of China. After he left, the imperial Buddhist teacher said to the emperor, Your Reverence, Your Majesty, do you know who that person was who just came and didn't say much? And the emperor said, No, who was that? And the the teacher of the emperor said, that was Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. That was the great, compassionate, wise Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. For me, I find it helpful to remember that statement and to remember that Bodhidharma is Avalokiteshvara and Bodhidharma sitting facing the wall is observing all living beings with eyes of compassion and wisdom.

[29:17]

And Bodhidharma sitting observing all living beings with eyes of compassion and wisdom or I should say, those eyes of compassion and wisdom observing all sentient beings. That assembles an ocean of virtue beyond measure that also sees all five aggregates of all living beings as empty and relieves all suffering. He's sitting there relieving suffering, facing the wall. Then there's a story that Bodhisattva had students, had a great student, we call the second ancestor, Tai So Eka Daioh Sho.

[30:24]

And he had a student, Kan Chi So San Daioh Sho. And he had a student, Dai Do Shin Daioh Sho. And he had a student, Da Man Ko Nin Daioh Sho. And he had a student, Dai Kan E No Daioh Sho. And he had a student, Seigen Gyoshi Daioh Sho. And he had a student, Yaku San Igen Daioh Sho. We have a story like that. Did you chant that story this morning? That's the story of our bodhisattva ancestors. These are said to be bodhisattvas who meditated. I'm giving you a description of their meditation practice. I stopped at Yakusan Igen Dayosho because We have a story about him meditating. So here's this person named Yakusan Igen Daiyusho, and he's sitting still and upright.

[31:28]

And a monk comes and asks the bodhisattva who's meditating with eyes of compassion and wisdom, he says, what kind of thinking is going on with you there? And Yakusan Igen Daiyusho says, Thinking not thinking. And the monk says, how do you think not thinking? And he says, non-thinking. And this morning you chanted, I think, a text which says, think not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of zazen. Did you chant that this morning? Okay. Do you? Yeah, so you chanted part of that story. What kind of thinking is going on for the bodhisattva?

[32:33]

Their thinking, not thinking. Their thinking is a thinking which is not thinking. Their not thinking is a not thinking which is thinking. That's what kind of thinking is going on with these strange, compassionate creatures. And how do you practice that way? How do you get into such a thinking department? How do you get into the reality realm of the bodhisattva? By non-thinking. What's non-thinking? Well, it is to observe all sentient beings with eyes of compassion. That's what non-thinking is. And when you observe all beings with eyes of compassion, you realize that there's no beings to be found. It means that you observe the thinking of all living beings and you realize that there's no thinking. And you observe the thinking of all beings and you realize there's no not thinking, there's only thinking.

[33:35]

You observe this, and this observation, this compassionate, penetrating vision of all phenomena saves all beings and assembles oceans and oceans and oceans of happiness. This practice includes deep relaxation and openness and calm, but it also includes generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm, and penetrating investigation of each experience to the point of opening up to the abysmal nature of all phenomena. By doing these compassion practices of non-thinking, you open to the emptiness of all phenomena, which most sentient beings are addicted to cover up with their experience.

[34:49]

Now by engaging our experience with total immersed compassion, we dare to open to their true ungraspable nature. And in that realm is where the bodhisattvas are relieving all suffering. In the bodhisattva meditation, there is thinking going on, which is not thinking. In the bodhisattva meditation, there is not thinking going on. We got a whole lot of not thinking going on in Bodhisattva meditation. It's intense living not thinking. It's happening there. And also thinking. And also non-thinking. Which is to compassionately observe the relationship between thinking and not thinking.

[35:50]

Between form and emptiness. This is the essential art of zazen. This is the essential art of bodhisattva practice. What is it again? Generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom, all supporting each other, all developing each other together. And the bodhisattva sits in the awareness of these practices. And if she forgets them, gets distracted, she practices those six practices in relationship to her forgetfulness and her distraction. The eyes of the bodhisattva are relaxed and they observe all sentient beings.

[37:10]

And these relaxed eyes pervade the whole body. The whole body is relaxed eyes observing sentient beings. This relaxed observation of observing all sentient beings is what called non-thinking. This relaxed, compassionate, wise, insightful observation of all phenomena is the essential art of zazen. There's a woman who lives in Los Angeles and her name is Kaya Anderson.

[38:50]

Now she's 35 years old and a little more than 35 years ago on October 27th, 35 years ago, in the building next to the Zendo here where the Eno lives, she was born. I was there and watched her come out of her mother's body. I watched this head come out and it was calm and it looked a lot like the face of Manjushri or the Buddha. I was amazed. Now, last night, a girl baby came out of her body in Los Angeles, California.

[40:03]

When she was born next to the Zendo here, people wondered if I would go to Zazen that morning. And I didn't. I miss Zazen. And I was in the room, and I got to see her come out of her mother. I got to see her come out of her mother. But her mother couldn't see her come out. This time, her mother could see the baby come out. And when her mother described the experience to me, she kept saying over and over, over and over, unbelievable, [...] unbelievable. And I said, is it really unbelievable? And she said, awesome, awesome, miraculous,

[41:15]

Birth is miraculous. Death is miraculous. Delusion is miraculous. Confusion is miraculous. It's miraculous that sentient beings are born and miraculous that they're deluded and miraculous that there's a teaching for them. which if they practice wholeheartedly, they will be assembling an ocean of blessing and virtue and happiness beyond measure. It's miraculous. We are so grateful for this opportunity to live and practice with each other, to practice compassion towards each other, to practice compassion towards each other and to practice wisdom with each other.

[42:24]

When we're inside of our mother, we're living in a liquid medium and we're not breathing through our mouth and nose. Then we come out of our mother and we're still, as we come out, we're still receiving oxygen through the blood. And somehow, for a little while there, we're still receiving our breath from our mother's blood. And then something happens And never before, but now for the first time, we open our mouth and breathe through our mouth and nose, and it works. When we're coming through the birth canal, our mouth and nose are kind of squashed.

[43:32]

We're not breathing through them usually. It's good if we don't. Then we come out, and the breathing happens, and then they cut us off from our mother's blood. And we had this new relationship. So if someone might say, unbelievable, how could this happen? How did this get worked out? Thank you, Charles Darwin. How did this get worked out, this miraculous thing called birth of a human being? A human being who can look at something and say, awesome, miraculous, eyes of compassion, wisely observe all sentient beings, wishing to learn how to do this all day long, wishing how to meet every sentient being with eyes of compassion and wisely observe them.

[44:44]

Bodhisattvas sit and wish to practice this way and endeavor to practice this way and promise to practice this way and endeavor to practice this way. And they do it when they're sitting in zendos. They do it when they're sitting in caves. They promise to do it all the time and teach others how to do it. And Dogen Zenji says, this is the essential art of Zazen. This is sitting upright in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness. Jiju Yuzanmai. Before I go, I wanted to say I pray that you all take care of this practice of the Bodhisattva.

[45:54]

I pray that you all practice the Buddha's meditation. Practice Avalokiteshvara's meditation. Practice Bodhidharma's meditation. Practice Yakusan Igen's meditation. I pray that you do. You have the opportunity to do this. You have the potential to do this. I pray that you do. I pray that you take care of this practice." Dogen Zenji says, you will, you will become Buddhas. You will. Actually, in the original, we changed his original text. In the original text, he says, I vow from this life on throughout countless lives. Would you wait one second, kitchen, please? Please wait just one second.

[46:56]

I vow to hear the true Dharma. He said, I. And he says, I will become Buddha. But we change it to, we will become Buddha, which means you will become Buddha. I hope that wasn't rude to say, you will become Buddha. You will become a bodhisattva. We will become Buddha. Those who in past lives have not been enlightened will now be enlightened. Those who have not been Buddhas will become Buddhas. We will. We will. And this is the practice. And thanks for cooking lunch. May our intention equally stand to it.

[47:44]

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