It is conceivably wonderful that we are able to gather here from all over the country to practice together. And it is also inconceivably wonderful that we are able to practice here together. It seems to be wonderful. And it is wonderful. But the way it's wonderful, the way it is wonderful, is inconceivable.

[01:01]

All the Buddhas are not conscious of it and fully realize it. I saw an advertisement, there seems to be an advertisement for this Sashin, calling it the Buddha's Enlightenment Sashin. I agree, it is Buddha's Enlightenment Sashin. which is the enlightenment of all beings and the practice of all beings." Sashin. We are coming to the last week or so of a practice period.

[02:09]

and I thought it might be good to review the teachings of the practice period and introduce them to the people who are arriving for Sesshin. During the practice period we have been concentrating on two great vehicle concentrations, which are two names for the Buddha mind, for Buddha awareness. One is called the Precious Mirror Samadhi. Another is called Self Receiving and employing samadhi. We have been contemplating these minds, these minds which are really one mind of Buddha.

[03:26]

These, which also could be called this mind, this awareness of Buddha's, is a mind which is realizing the teaching of suchness. It's the mind which is realizing and is the realization of an intimate transmission of suchness. It is Buddha's and ancestors. And this is what the song of this precious mirror samadhi sings. Teaching of suchness, intimate transmission of Buddhas and ancestors.

[04:55]

And then the song says, now you have it. Take care of it. Take care of the intimate transmission. Protect it. Be mindful of it. In the other song, which we will sing at noon service, The words are, now, now all Buddhas and ancestors who uphold the true Dharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright, practicing,

[06:06]

in the midst of self-fulfilling samadhi. The true path to enlightenment is to sit upright, like you are now, in the midst of this mind, in the midst of this awareness. this precious mirror samadhi, this self-receiving and employing samadhi, to sit upright in the midst of this inconceivable mind, Sitting upright in the midst of this mind is the true path of enlightenment.

[07:20]

Sitting upright in the midst of this mind which you already have, which already completely surrounds us and reaches us completely, and which we reach completely, in reality, that's the true path. The song doesn't say, but I say, that to stand upright in the midst of this awareness, to walk upright in the midst of this awareness, to recline upright in this awareness, to eat meals, to serve meals, to chant scriptures, to bow, to offer incense, to sweep the ground, to wash dishes. The true path of enlightenment is

[08:34]

to live our daily activities, to perform our daily activities in the midst of this samadhi. Also, we will chant at noon service when even for a moment we express the Buddha mind seal, the Buddha mind mudra, by our three actions of body, speech, and mind. When even for a moment we express this samadhi by our actions of body, by our actions of speech and our actions of thinking.

[09:39]

The whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha mind and the entire sky turns into enlightenment. We have the opportunity during this time together to be mindful that every action be remembered as the performance, as the expression of this awareness. And this is not just my mind, my consciousness, or your consciousness remembering it. Because when we remember it and our expression is celebrating it, then the entire phenomenal world becomes it. What I've been talking about so far is also called jazen and also called sitting.

[10:57]

And I have brought up the suggestion that Zen practice or the Bodhisattva practice is cleaning the temple and sitting. Sometimes I have said, clean the temple and then sit. But I'll just say, cleaning the temple and sitting. and cleaning the temple and sitting. Cleaning the temple could be understood as cleaning our karmic consciousness, cleaning our consciousness, cleaning the consciousness where karma has appeared and disappeared.

[12:26]

In this consciousness, where somebody seems to be present, there may have accumulated what we call karmic hindrances, various forms of resistance, can arise in the temple of consciousness. Resistance to offering every action as an expression of the Buddha Mind Seal. In karmic consciousness, it may seem that there's something else to do besides express the Buddha mind seal when we're talking.

[13:54]

Use our talking to express it. So there is a cleaning process that can be done in consciousness so that consciousness is free of any resistance to the true path. of enlightenment. The cleaning process is sometimes described as letting go of all the activities

[15:12]

that are going on in consciousness, letting go of all the thinking that's going on in consciousness, letting go of all the discursive thought that's going on in consciousness. That's a way to talk about cleaning the temple so that we can then have no resistance to sitting upright in the midst of this awareness, no distraction from it. No distraction doesn't mean there's no distraction.

[16:14]

It means that if a distraction ever arose, it would be released. It would be treated with compassion, and in that way it is released and is no longer a distraction. If a resistance arises, it's treated with compassion and released. The song of the Precious Mir Samadhi says, Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire an inconceivable living fire, which if we touch, it's a mistake.

[17:27]

If we turn away, it's not being upright. This fire is part of our life. and we can take care of it by letting it be. Getting excited about it, we fall into a pit. Hesitating to be present with it we get lost in regret and second thinking.

[18:34]

Confessing and repenting that we were excited or hesitated, that we touched or turned away, melts away the root of such resistance. It's not that we clean the temple once and then sit upright in the midst of this awareness. Well, it is that we do it once, we do it once in this moment, and then the next moment there's cleaning again. Every moment there needs to be cleaning the temple. And when the temple's clean, there can be this receiving of this samadhi and using of this samadhi.

[19:56]

I heard a story about a tea master, a master of the art of tea. Probably the story was from Japan. And the tea master taught in a tea house. And the tea house also was surrounded by a tea garden, a garden for the tea house. And the tea teacher had a student, and the student was asked to clean the garden. And the student cleaned the garden very thoroughly, raking and sweeping. many cleaning activities were performed and the teacher came out and looked at the garden and said, not yet.

[21:21]

And maybe the teacher said, try again. And so the student did try again and I think maybe a third time the teacher, a second time the teacher said, not yet. And the student tried a third time and the teacher came out and said, not yet. And the teacher took a hold of the branch of a tree and shook the tree and a few leaves fell down on the ground. We can over-clean the consciousness. We can under-clean the consciousness.

[22:35]

We can overwork. We can completely eliminate all resistance to the Buddha's samadhi. That's too much. We can hold back and hold on to something. That's too little. So we, again and again, moment by moment, try to practice great compassion towards whatever's happening so that the temple is being cleaned. But In one sense, the temple will never be cleaned because it's already clean. But if we don't clean it, we don't realize it's clean.

[23:40]

That's the kind of temple it is. It's a consciousness that calls for compassion, And then the compassion comes and we need to train with that compassion. To let it be and to let everything it relates to be. Then, if we're sitting, we can sit in the midst of this awareness.

[24:45]

the talk that's going on now is temple cleaning. I don't know how the temple cleaning is really going, but this is offered as a way to let go of what's being offered. Most of what people talk to me about is temple cleaning. Practices of attention to develop concentration are temple cleaning. practices of ethics, practices of generosity, practices of patience, practices of diligence.

[26:39]

These are temple cleaning. All the while, these temple cleaning activities are occurring in the Samadhi of the Buddhas. All the while they are readying us to let the temple cleaning, to let the actions of temple cleaning be the expression of the Samadhi. If I, when I tell a story, when I speak the words of a story, it's possible to be mindful during the storytelling that the words

[28:53]

that the vocalizations of the words are expressions of the Buddha mind. It's also possible to forget that the words are offered as the expression or an expression of the Buddha mind seal. Another story is offering itself in consciousness now. But can this story be told without hesitating or being excited?

[30:27]

Look. small female who lives in San Francisco. And she's learning to sound out words. For example, to sound out words by sounding the letters of the words. So the word G is sounded out by going, grr, or guh. And the letter R is sounded out by going, er, and O by oh, and S by ss. she was offered something that she didn't like.

[32:01]

And she said, it is gross. Cleaning the temple now is like cleaning eyes of compassion. Cleaning eyes of compassion.

[33:07]

Observe sentient beings Observing sentient beings means observing the temple, observing karmic consciousness. Cleaning eyes of compassion, observing karmic consciousness. moment after moment, observing the karmic consciousness with eyes of compassion, cleans the temple. And this cleaning activity assembles an ocean of blessing beyond measure. And this blessing

[34:13]

allows the realization of this samadhi. Eyes of compassion observing whatever is going on in the temple of karmic consciousness with compassion so that all hindrance to the samadhi drops away. And then whole life is offered to this samadhi. And everything that's going on in consciousness is offered as an expression of the samadhi. But for all things that are going on to be offered as expressions, all things must be attended to with compassion and then given as expressions.

[35:43]

Not held on to, not trying to, not getting rid of them, but carefully offer every event in karmic consciousness as an expression of the Buddha Mind Seal. And the rest is taken care of by the realization of the Samadhi. May I bring this Dharma talk to a conclusion now?

[37:04]

May our intention...

[37:20]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_92.79