welcome. You are welcome. We are welcome. You are welcome. Since you're welcoming, we all came to meet you. Thank you for welcoming us. This morning a prayer was offered.

[01:11]

Did you hear it? Do you remember the prayer? Does anybody remember? Yes? I think I remember the prayer. What do you remember, the prayer? I remember that when we saw this prayer, that all, that this great assembly should... Did you say should? Would... Bodhisattvas pray that this assembly is remembering or remembers stillness.

[02:15]

Yeah. It was a prayer for stillness. It was a prayer for remembering stillness. Is it coming back to you now? It was a prayer for receiving stillness. It was a prayer for practicing and caring for stillness. It was a prayer for transmitting stillness in all actions of speech, posture, and thought. That prayer arose in this hall earlier today, and now it's arising again. It could be said, I could say, I pray for them too.

[03:21]

I do have this prayer arising in me. do you pray that stillness will be remembered and so on and transmitted in all actions you could say in all your actions and you could also pray for it in actions of all living beings that this stillness would be transmitted, that stillness would be transmitted. I heard somebody say last night something like, session is a time

[04:26]

for silence and stillness. I accept responsibility for the words said last night, but I think they go something like, be silent and still. I don't know if I might. or my voice said that, but I accept that that is being said. But today I have a comment on that. I'm careful now, I don't say anymore, be silent. I don't want to give the impression that somebody's telling you to be silent. the thing about be silent has a slight possibility there that you think you have to do something.

[05:39]

Like you're not silent now or you're not still now, so do something to be still. So rather than say be still like you have to be still, more like remember stillness. So I would bring up today are already still. We are still. That is our nature. Our nature is stillness. It's not something we do. And if you try to do it, it might be you're not going to destroy your stillness, but you might distract yourself from it, because it's right here. Stillness is here, it's not over there. in the stillness which you do. It's this present moment is stillness. So please hear the prayer. It's already here.

[06:42]

Stillness has already your nature. And from the realization of this stillness comes the activities of awakening. From the realization of stillness the activities of liberation of all beings. The stillness is where Buddha's activity is functioning. The word Sesshin is made of two Chinese characters. One is a character in Japanese which is pronounced Setsu.

[07:47]

In Chinese it's pronounced something like Shi. How do you say it? Shi. Is that approximately? Yeah. Shi. S-H-E. It means, it has many meanings. One meaning is to gather, assemble, care for, nurture, bring up, embrace, and sustain. Those are some of the meanings of the word setsu or shi. The next is mind or heart. Put them together, you get setsu shin or se-shin, which can be translated embrace and sustain mind, gather mind, collect mind,

[09:01]

nurture mind, all those. So now today I bring up, what mind is it that's being gathered? And there are some different possibilities, like about two. one possibility for mind is like your mind, or your neighbor's mind, or my mind. In other words, one mind we might be talking about is individual living beings' consciousness. That's one possible mind that might be referred to in the gathering. the embracing and sustaining a mind, embracing and sustaining your mind, nurturing your mind.

[10:09]

So that's one understanding of the name of this event we're practicing today. But another possibility is the mind of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The session could be a time for gathering, for embracing and sustaining the mind of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. ...and make a choice about which type of mind we're going to gather because the mind of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is not separate from the mind of all living beings.

[11:18]

embracing and sustaining an individual consciousness, for example mine, can also and is also embracing and sustaining... Some of you don't know me very well, so I wanted to tell you that I have a I have a, what do you call it, a behavior. It's that, like just now, I've been talking to you about Buddhas. Did you hear me? And living beings. And then I was going to say something now about Buddhas. And as I was going to say, I laughed because I thought it was kind of funny. And now I'm going to tell you what I thought was kind of funny. So you may see me either talking or just about to talk, and then I laugh when the next thought comes in my mind.

[12:35]

But I laugh before I tell you what it is. So now here's what it is. Buddhas are just like living beings, but more so. I thought that was funny. Some of you just... A little bit funny? Buddhas are just like you. Buddhas are just like you. But more so. Buddhas are more like you than you are. Buddhas are more like me than I am. They're just like me except they really are like me. They're totally like me. They're not the least bit holding back being me or you.

[13:40]

We have to train at that. And so Sashin is a time to embrace and sustain being ourselves, which is to embrace and sustain Buddha mind. Grace and sustained stillness. I in stillness is just like me, but more so. I'm looking someplace else for Zen or stillness. Well, I'm just like me, but I'm not really, I'm kind of a little bit distracted. I'm looking for someplace else for complete perfect enlightenment from being me completely, like a Buddha is me.

[14:43]

A Buddha is me completely. Me completely is Buddha. Me completely is embracing and sustaining me. Completely. And embracing and sustaining me completely is embracing and sustaining Buddha mind. I heard our late Suzuki Roshi, I heard him say one day, the job of a Zen priest is to encourage zazen.

[16:21]

Today I could say, paraphrase him and say, the job of a Zen priest is to encourage sesshin, is to encourage embracing and sustaining mind. And that includes embracing and sustaining an individual mind, then is to encourage living beings to embrace and sustain their own consciousness. At the same time, the job of a Zen priest is to encourage living beings to embrace and sustain Buddha mind. They are the same. except one's the same more so. If this is the job of a Zen priest and I'm a Zen priest, then this is my job.

[17:51]

However, anybody here who's not a Zen priest you're invited to. You could say, could that be my job too? And I would say, do you want it to be? And if you say yes, I would say, you're welcome to join the work. This is the work of Buddhas. What's the work of Buddhas? To encourage the Zen to encourage sesshin, to encourage embracing and sustaining mind. this retreat, this five days together, is an opportunity and sustain mind.

[20:24]

And you can also say, or I can also say, an opportunity to embrace and sustain all minds. This five days, this one day right now is an opportunity to embrace and sustain all minds. Buddhas embrace and sustain all minds. We have a Bodhisattva precept which says, I vow to embrace and sustain all beings. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings, body and mind.

[21:28]

the embracing and sustaining of all beings is, can be called, Zazen. So we have the opportunity to embrace and sustain what we might call our consciousness. I got a consciousness, you got a consciousness, everybody's got a consciousness. Now there's an opportunity to embrace our own consciousness, which many people are working at, opening it up and saying it's also a time to embrace and sustain all consciousnesses, everybody's consciousness. And I'm suggesting to you that this is Buddha activity.

[22:39]

One consciousness, which is somewhat familiar to you. And at the same time, embrace and sustain all consciousnesses. this morning during service and we'll do it again and again. We chanted a text called The Lancet of Seated Meditation. The word lancet is a translation of a Chinese character which means a needle, as in an acupuncture needle. It's another translation of seated meditation.

[23:43]

And the first line says, the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the needle of zazen, the needle of zazen is the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. Buddhas are a pivotal activity. It's the pivotal activity of caring for your consciousness as all consciousnesses. It's caring for all consciousnesses as your consciousness. It's that pivotal activity. It's caring for your mind as a way to care for all minds. It's caring for all minds as a way to care for your mind.

[24:44]

This is the pivotal activity of Buddhas, which is the point of seated meditation. The ancestor Dogen commenting on that word, point, of seated meditation. He says the meaning of point is the magnificent, mysterious, inconceivable function of seated meditation. So I'm sitting here taking care of this consciousness. This is a conceivable meaning of what I'm doing. And this conceivable activity is pivoting with an inconceivable activity of caring for all minds and all bodies.

[25:49]

And they work together, they're pivoting on each other. So we can't take care of everybody unless of this mind. because caring for everybody is pivoting with caring for somebody. The part that's surprising is that we can't fully take care of this person unless we are also taking care of all persons. How we're taking care of all persons is mysterious and subtle, wondrous, inconceivable. And it's pivoting with a conceivable way of taking care of an individual consciousness. This is the point. This is the magnificence. The pivotal activity of Buddhas is the magnificence of seated meditation.

[26:57]

And this pivotal activity, which is total activity, this pivotal activity, which is the whole works, that pivotal activity is Zazen of the Buddhas. And if I'm doing, yeah, and so when I do my Zazen, my Zazen with everybody's Zazen. My Zazen is not Buddha's Zazen, except Buddha's Zazen is just like my Zazen, but more so. So my Zazen is Buddha Zazen, and Buddha Zazen is my Zazen, and that is Buddha activity.

[28:03]

And that activity is what liberates beings. If I practice Zazen by myself, if I sit upright and take care of this body and mind, and close off to how this care is caring for all beings, I miss what is actually going on. What's actually going on is still going on. It's that I'm closing the door on it by saying, I'm only doing this. I'm not also doing the work of Buddhas. But even though I say that, in fact, I am doing the work of Buddhas. In the text we call Fukan Zazengi, it says at one point, you are maintaining the pivotal activity of all Buddhas.

[29:11]

You are. And the translation we use says, you are maintaining working. The word essential also means pivotal. you and I are maintaining the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. And I'm trying to encourage us to remember that. And stillness. It's already going on. You are pervading the entire universe. The entire universe is pervading you. Right now. Stillness is where we remember stillness and where we remember being all pervaded and being all pervaded.

[30:22]

This is already going on. This is our nature. And because I am all-pervading, because this sitting is all-pervading, and this sitting is because of that, there is no abiding in this sitting. And when there's no abiding in this sitting, then I open to being completely pervaded and being completely pervading. I open to the activity of all Buddhas, which is this pivot of being all-pervading and all-pervaded. The pivot of completely being you and completely being not you.

[31:33]

and this is the activity of Buddhas, and the activity of non-abiding, and this is the activity of liberating beings. Buddhas' pivotal activity is the activity of liberating beings. The activity of liberating beings is the pivotal activity of Buddhas. It's right here. It is impossible to evade it. It's unavailable. You can't get a hold of it. So great you can't get over it, so whatever, you can't get under it. Everything we are, each moment, is pivoting with the pivoting.

[32:47]

And so the chant we did this morning says, speaking of this pivotal activity, which is called Zazen, the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the active pivot of all ancestors. Speaking of this, it says that this activity is inherently subtle. And it's so subtle that you can't move towards it or away from it. You can't grasp it. It's inherently mysterious. It's inherently wondrous. It does seem like I can grasp the way I'm sitting here. which is, and that's not prohibited, it's just that the way I am here in this defined, determined, coherent way, that this is in a pivotal relationship with an undefined, incoherent,

[34:41]

universe which is pivoting with this coherent, determined self. But the way this determinant is pivoting with the indeterminate, that is mysterious, that is subtle, that is wondrous, that is intimate. And because of being inconceivable, mysterious and subtle, it allows for the wondrous, inconceivable process of liberating beings without moving.

[35:58]

The wondrous function of embracing and sustaining the reality of our life. the reality of our life is living in stillness, and if we remember stillness, we realize the reality of our life. And the stillness of our life is given to us, and we have opportunity to receive it, and maybe say thank you. to take care of it. Moment by moment.

[37:10]

This is called Zazen, Zazen. This is called the pivotal activity of all Buddhas liberating all beings. I pray that you remember this pivotal activity of all Buddhas, which is the same as remember to be yourself, to be like you, completely like a Buddha. Don't be like Buddha. be like you, which is to be like you completely.

[38:16]

And then, I'm sorry, you'll be like a Buddha. And you will be doing Buddha's work. And you are being told by ancestors that you are doing Buddha's work, and wake up to it. We're already doing Buddha's work. And Buddha's work is to tell us that we're doing it. And now we've been told, I pray, they pray, we pray that we remember this. This is remembering stillness of being ourself completely. So we're circling around this point, this ancient point of Zazen.

[39:35]

We're circling around this pivot of all Buddhas. We're circling around Zazen. And Zazen is circling around us. We are supporting the whole universe and the whole universe is supporting us to support the whole universe. We are supporting every living being and every single living being is supporting us to support every single living being. And we don't have to move to receive this support We're already receiving it.

[40:38]

And we don't have to move to give this support. We're already giving it. We just need to be mindful of it, to remember it. And that's a challenge for living beings. This teaching is for living beings, for ordinary living beings who have great hearts, who have a heart great enough to receive this teaching and remember it and believe it and practice it. May Tantra...

[41:41]

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