Earlier this morning there was another prayer expressed. Did you hear it? Do you remember it? The prayer was Did you say, listen, listen? Yeah. The prayer was that the Great Assembly would listen with ears of compassion to the cries of the world. And I think there might have also been a suggestion that by listening to the cries of the world, we may be able to hear the true Dharma.

[01:24]

By wholeheartedly listening to the cries of the world, we may hear the true Dharma. this can be an ongoing moment-by-moment practice. The listening to the cries of the world, to all the cries of the world. Also this morning we chanted the enmei-juku-kanon-gyo, the ten-phrased scripture of Kan-ze-an. And Kan-ze-an is the regardor of the cries of the world, the listener of the cries of the world. And in that chant it says, moment after moment, thought after thought, kanze on.

[02:35]

So that chant is suggesting to remember to listen, moment by moment, to the cries of the world. It seems that when someone is crying, when someone is listening, and the someone could be the person who's crying, and or a friend, that the person who's crying when listened to and when experienced is listened to, feels some great or small benefit. One benefit among the various benefits is that while listening to the cries, we also hear the true Dharma.

[03:49]

Listening to the cries can be soothing and encouraging, healing, but the listening, when it's really total, can also hear, at the same time as the cry, it can hear the true Dharma. There's a smile appearing on the face. Something funny is coming. Yesterday, my friend, my 16-year-old, who calls me granddaddy, went off to art school, boarding school, away from his mother for many months, for the first time to be away from home.

[04:55]

When that was about three and a half, he went away from his mother for about four days he was going to be away. He came to the monastery called Tassajara to be with me. I brought him with me. And he was going to stay for four days. But after four days or two days, he said, I want my mom. [...] And I said, okay. And then the next day we're going to leave. And he said, remember yesterday when I was saying, I want my mom, I want my mom, I want my mom? And I said, mm-hmm. He said, wasn't that silly? He was listening to himself.

[05:59]

And he heard the true Dharma. Often when people are sitting in zendos, particularly the zendos, they often say, what's this got to do with helping people? I think it's, what I'm saying today may not be so well publicized. What is it that I'm saying? I'm saying that the sitting practice in the zendos of our school, sitting and listening with eyes, with ears of compassion. It's sitting and listening. Many of you are listening, I know. You hear the birds, don't you? You hear the bells. You hear the wind. You hear your friends. You hear your cries of suffering in your own heart.

[07:06]

And if those ears that are listening are ears of compassion, this is what we call the zazen of the school. Zazen is listening to the cries and then hearing, listening to the cries. The cries are easy to hear. May not be easy to listen to, but you do hear them. And then the question is, are you going to listen? You heard that, didn't you? with ears of compassion. And if you listen, then you hear. Sitting in a Zen meditation hall is hearing the true Dharma. But if we don't listen to the cries of suffering, if our ears are compassionate and a little bit constricted or very constricted, ears of compassion open up all the way to the cries. They don't say, oh, I hear you, that's enough.

[08:10]

That's enough is another cry. That's enough. I had it. That's enough. I hear you. I'm listening to you. Tell me suffering. Okay. I hear that. This is too much. This is not enough. I need more suffering. Whatever. Those are cries. Listening to them totally, then you hear the true Dharma. And there's a pivot again. In the cry, In the cry of pain or the cry of fear, the cry of anger, in these cries there's a pivot. That cry pivots with not that cry. That cry pivots with the true Dharma. The pivoting of that cry is there. And there the true Dharma is being, is illuminating. So there's simultaneously many practices going on.

[09:35]

Remembering stillness and receiving stillness sets up the listening to the cries. If we're running around too much, it's hard to listen to the cries. They're trying to reach us but we're moving so fast they can't reach us. Many people, when they actually sit down, the cries catch up to them and then they feel the grief and the fear because they're accepting the stillness. And in the stillness we can hear and we can relieve the suffering of the world by that hearing in stillness. In this retreat, some of us are being introduced to a Chinese poem, a poem that was written, that is written in China.

[10:59]

It was written by a Zen priest in China around eleven forty. And we have now an English translation of it which we have been reciting. This Zen priest was one of those who listened to the cries of the world. And then he sang the song of his teaching. This poem is one of his songs. The Japanese pronunciation of the title of the song is . Now, in Chinese it might be pronounced . That's how it is in Chinese.

[12:10]

In English we say, acupuncture needle of Zazen. It's a needle, but it's not a sewing needle. It's not a sewing needle, it's an acupuncture needle. It's a medicinal needle. This poem is about the medicinal penetrating point. Apropos practice. Apropos means to the point. The apropos practice of sitting meditation. The practice of sitting which is apropos to the point of Buddha's activity. Seated meditation can be a practice of tranquility. It can be a practice of generosity. It can be a practice of compassion. It can be all those things. And it's also a practice of wisdom.

[13:21]

Homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy. The perfection of wisdom brings light. The perfection of wisdom is light. The perfection of wisdom is the source of light. this seated meditation brings light. It is light. It is the Buddha's activity. Now we have it and we can receive it and practice it instead of listening to the cries of the world. When I first saw an English translation of this poem, the translation which I saw and read was something like this.

[14:54]

It started out with the essential function of all Buddhas. The functioning essence of all ancestors. And that's a perfectly reasonable translation of the original. Character that's translated as essential, in Chinese it's pronounced Yao, that character does mean essential. It does mean necessary. pivot. So I'm choosing to emphasize the translation of pivot.

[15:55]

And I would say that this is an essential pivoting of Buddha's. Our practice is the necessary, essential, pivotal activity of Buddhas. It's what's needed to liberate beings. Every event is necessarily that event. Every event is that event. But every event is also a pivot. Every event is pivoting on itself and not itself.

[16:58]

And not a self. you are pivoting with always. With you and not you. You are pivoting always with you and me. Me and you. You can't get away from me, I can't get away from you. As a matter of fact, that necessary relationship is pivoting always. That is the reality of Buddha's activity. The question of hearing the teaching and opening to that teaching. The more I am me, the more not me I become.

[18:36]

The more I am me, the more you I become. Half-hearted me is half-hearted you. If I'm half-hearted me, I'm half-heartedly you. If I'm wholeheartedly me, I'm half-heartedly you. That is my non-dwelling reality. I'm not dwelling in me. If I'm half-heartedly me, it may seem like me and not you. In other words, like I'm really here being this and only this. But if I really am completely here being this and only this, I become not this and only this. I realize reality of myself and thereby of you and everything.

[19:48]

She says, and I'm saying it differently right now. This is a different way to say it. Do you hear me saying this? Isn't that different? Do you see that what I'm saying is different? Yeah. This, what I'm saying, is not what I said before. She asked, didn't she ask for something different? Oh, say the same thing in a different way. Yes, I am saying the same thing in a different way. And you seem to be kind of getting that I'm saying it in a different way. Everybody else is anyway. I'm saying the same thing in a different way. That thing, whatever it was, I'm saying it in a different way. You're almost ready to pivot. And when you guys laughed, you pivoted. If you want me to say the same thing in the same way, that I cannot do.

[21:27]

And I can never say the same thing in the same way. But I can easily and will always be saying the same thing in a different way. Because that thing, being whatever it was or is, when it's really that, what you say about it is not it. And you can't say anything about it. And anything you say is an equally good explanation of it. Because all the things you say are not it. not you, all the things that are not you are equally good explanations of you. Robin is not you, and she is an explanation of you.

[22:37]

Oscar is not you, he's an explanation of you. They're equally good not you's to explain you. Are you happy with that? Now you do. Now you don't. Now you do. Now you do. Let's see if you can switch to not. Now you don't. Once again. Your stories of you. Stories of you. Yeah, stories of you. you could have a story of being holy me. I could have a story of being holy me, yes. And to the extent that that story of me, or maybe we should say, to the extent that any story of you becomes fully the story of you, to that same extent, it becomes not

[23:57]

And that's Buddha's activity, right there. That's where you get liberated from your story. As in, the way your story is, is in itself. But if you half-heartedly work or practice with your story, then you're half-heartedly becoming liberated from the story, which is not liberation. But if you should become totally not liberation, then you realize liberation. And there seems to be plenty of not liberation, so we we've got plenty of that to work with, is be totally, not liberation, and we'll realize liberation.

[25:06]

By that, totally not liberated. And then, if now we have liberation, this teaching does not in liberation, so then you get to be total liberation. And then that pivots with Not liberation. Which some people might say, I don't need any not liberation. No thank you. Some people don't need it because they got it already. Everybody needs is to not abide in whatever they've got. If you've got liberation, fine. Don't abide in it. If you've got not liberation, fine. Don't abide in it. But the way to not abide in it is to be totally it. It's totally it is not abiding in it. The way it's totally it is that it's not it.

[26:10]

That's the pivotal activity of the Buddhas. In a way, the thought has arisen that these first two lines, the first two lines being the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the active pivot of all ancestors, that's maybe enough of a poem, but it goes on. It goes on to discuss this pivotal activity, to reveal more about this pivotal activity. Want to hear more about the pivotal activity?

[27:29]

I heard some a-yup and a mm-hmm. I said, do you want to hear more about this pivotal activity? And when I said that, that was more of the pivotal activity. And when you responded, that was more of the pivotal activity. This poem is pivoting with the text in which it appears. There's a text written by our first ancestor in Japan, Ehei Dogen Daisho, our first ancestor in Japan of this temple.

[28:51]

So he wrote a An essay. And the name of the essay was, in Japanese, Zazen Shin. Acupuncture Needle of Zazen. I'm saying more about the pivotal activity now. It's so wonderful. Wondrous that I'm talking about this thing now. And I'm chuckling because I imagine that some of you don't know what I'm talking about. That's why I told you what I'm talking about. Because you might not know that this is what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the pivotal activity right now. This is an explanation of it. And you can also explain it by saying whatever you want to say right now. Because the pivotal activity is pivoting with you.

[29:56]

with what you think and what you say, smile on your face. So this essay, which is called Zazen Shin, I think might have been, I haven't heard Dogen Zenji say, the thing that inspired me to write this essay was this poem by this ancient master, Tiantong Hongzhi, the Chinese master who wrote the poem. I don't know if he said, I'm writing this essay inspired by this poem. But anyway, this poem appears at the end of the essay. At the beginning of the essay, there's a story. And the story is about one of our ancestors, who we call Yakusan Igen Daisho. He's the 36th ancestor in our lineage of the Buddha.

[31:01]

yakusan i gen dai yo shou. I think maybe it's yaoshan wei yin in Chinese. So yakusan i gen, this is the story of the classical Zazen-shin. Yakusan i gen was sitting in meditation. He was sitting upright. kind of a familiar thing for people in this lineage to practice. And a monk came up to him and said, sitting in this immovable presence, what kind of thinking is going on? That's what the monk asked Yashan, and Yashan said, thinking, not thinking.

[32:09]

He could have gone on. He could have said, thinking, not thinking. Thinking, not thinking. Thinking, not thinking. Thinking, not thinking. Whenever there's thinking, there's not thinking. There's thinking. What kind of thinking are you doing? Thinking, not thinking, thinking. This is the ancestral way. This is the ancestral pivotal activity. The sitting meditation is thinking. So some Zen students, I've heard, come to meditation halls and sit, and they think they're not supposed to be thinking, but they do it anyway.

[33:14]

See what I see? They come to the meditation hall, they think they're not supposed to think, and then they think. You see the pivot? They come thinking they're supposed to not think, and then they do think. What they don't realize yet is when they come to the meditation hall intending to not think and then they do think, what they don't realize is when they do think, they not think. It's not that they don't think, they not think. They're looking for the not thinking. They think that's Zazen, which is not correct. They think thinking's not Zazen, which is correct. Thinking is not Zazen. But many people think, which is not Zazen, that not thinking is Zazen, which is not correct.

[34:22]

Do you understand that now? Got it? I'll do it one million more times. Thinking is not zazen. Okay? Not thinking is not zazen. People think thinking is not zazen, and people think that not thinking is zazen. Did you know that? Some people think that not thinking is zazen. Some people think that thinking is not zazen and not thinking is not zazen. Okay? What is zazen? Zazen is thinking, not thinking, thinking, not thinking. But really it's thinking and not thinking pivoting on each other.

[35:24]

Zazen is the pivotal activity of the Buddhas which, when there's thinking, The pivotal activity of thinking is not thinking. Zazen is the pivotal activity of thinking and not thinking. He demonstrates thinking, not thinking, and that's an abbreviation for ever. Thinking, not thinking, not thinking, thinking. So then the monk says, well, how do you think not thinking? Not thinking, thinking, not thinking. How do you, how do you that? How do you that? How dare you that? How could you? How could you sit there and pivot like that? And he says, non-thinking. So there's the story. Zanji thinks that's like the best story about our practice. Of all the stories of Zazen, he said, this is the best.

[36:27]

Zazen is not thinking. Zazen is not not thinking. Zazen is thinking, not thinking, thinking, not thinking. Zazen is beyond thinking and beyond not thinking. Sometimes called non-thinking. But now I would say Zazen is the pivotal activity of thinking. and the pivotal activity of not thinking, and also how not thinking and thinking, how they're pivoting, that is zazen. The way thinking and not thinking are pivoting, that is the liberating activity of Buddhas. And it's right here. Whenever we think, we not think. But the thinking is in the foreground and the not thinking is in the background.

[37:31]

And when you wholeheartedly think, you don't see the background. But then when you wholeheartedly think the foreground and don't see the background, they pivot and you see the background and not the foreground. That's the story at the beginning of the fascicle where this poem appears. We, I don't know how many Zen students have spent how many hours or years trying to stop their thinking, because they think that that's practice of the bodhisattva, to stop the thinking.

[38:38]

Probably quite a bit of time has been spent trying to stop thinking. There's a little but also kind of big. What's it called? Observation. Which is that when there's thinking, if you try to stop it, that is . Just guess. Louder? Yeah, exactly. Trying to stop thinking is more of the same. Like thinking a bad thought and then trying to stop it is more thinking.

[39:44]

However, the trying to stop the bad thought might not seem as bad as the bad thought, so you might say, okay, fine. Now, I'm being a little oppressive here, but that's not as bad as what I was thinking. I might say, yeah, that's right. What you were thinking is, like, really bad, and trying to stop it is not quite as bad. But they're both thinking. But some people are, in meditation halls, are not thinking real bad thoughts. They're just, like, daydreaming, right? Daydreaming. And, you know, a lot of people have a, they think daydreaming is kind of bad. And daydreaming is thinking, and thinking that daydreaming is bad is thinking too. Some people actually kind of like daydreaming, and they don't feel so bad about it. And some other people think they should. Zazen is not bad. Many people say, or other people say, I'm so ashamed I do so much daydreaming.

[40:44]

I'm really a lousy Zen student. I just sit there and daydream. Any of you heard about this? Don't just sit there and daydream. Daydreaming is thinking. Trying to stop daydreaming is thinking. Trying to stop daydreaming is thinking. However, if you let go of daydreaming, if you let go of whatever is, that will help that thinking become totally that thinking. When a daydream is completely a daydream it realizes not which is not another daydream except it then pivots to be that very daydream itself again.

[41:49]

Daydreaming? The story could have been, go up to the Zen teacher and say, what kind of daydreaming are you doing? And Yashan might have said, daydreaming, not daydreaming. So the very frightening thing to say in a Zen meditation hall is, yeah, daydreaming is... No, it's not so frightening. Daydreaming is not Zazen. And not daydreaming is also not Zazen. The pivoting of daydreaming and not daydreaming, that's Zazen. That's the Buddha's activity. And only by listening to the daydreams with ears of compassion

[42:53]

I'm laughing because when I put my hands behind my ears, it sounds nice. Ears of compassion, with huge ears of compassion. Listen to the daydreams. And then you will hear the Dharma in the daydreams. Push the daydreams away. That's not ... Listen to them with your whole being and you will hear the Dharma, which is daydream, not daydream, daydream. You open to the pivotal activity by listening to your daydreams the way a great bodhisattva listens to your daydreams. They don't listen to your daydreams and say, when is this daydream going to be over? Would you please get a different daydream? Would you please not repeat this over and over? Just listen with their whole beings and guess what happens when they listen with their own beings.

[44:06]

Just guess. Huh? Yeah, not daydream or what else? They hear the Dharma. So you might say, how can those bodhisattvas stand to listen to all these people's daydreams? How can they stand to listen to these stories which these people do not yet realize are not these stories? How can they stand the suffering and how boring the place is? Same thing over and over. How can they stand it? Because they listen to it wholeheartedly is how they can stand it. That's how they stand it. That's how they sit it. They sit it wholeheartedly, and then they get to listen to the Dharma channel at the same time. So these people are like going, wah, [...] and then you can just like, vroom, vroom. Oh, Dharma. Would you tell that story again?

[45:08]

Vroom, vroom. People are not a pain in the ear to bodhisattvas. People have opportunities to hear the true Dharma. That's the only way they can hear it is through all the suffering beings because that's what they're listening to. That's their only channel is the suffering beings channel. And they hear the Dharma through the same channel. But if they don't listen wholeheartedly, or if I don't listen wholeheartedly, then I can kind of like, well, I just hear the suffering. Where is the Dharma? The Dharma's right there. But if you resist this channel, channel T-W-I-S-T, If you resist this channel, then you close the door on what is really nice to hear, which is the song of the pivotal activity of all Buddhas.

[46:16]

Understand? Not understand? Understand? Not understand? Understand? Okay. Could you open it up? Yeah. On your way, please pivot. Okay. Linda, you came. I did. Do you have something you want to say? Yes. Could you explain a little more about how you're using the word pivot? You asked me if I could come and pivot.

[47:28]

Yeah. And that's a good example of... How do I use the word? I'm not sure how you're using that word. Well, observed the way I was using the word? What did you see? I saw several different meanings. So what are the different meanings you saw? Well, pivotal seems to be central. Central, number one, central. Pivot is at the center. at the center. The pivot is central. Yes? Okay? But then you also seem to be saying how we do this with each other and things around each other. And the pivoting is mutual. And it's interchangeable and reciprocal. So there's a reciprocity going on at the center.

[48:29]

between me and you. The pivot is also, here's another pivot. You are all pervading and you are all pervaded. You support me, I support you. That's a pivot. And the place that you're supported is at the center of life. are a center. I am a center. A center of nothing? No, I would say a center of everything as you. A center of everything as you. I am the center of everything as me. And also At the center, I am supported by everything and I support everything.

[49:33]

That's another pivot. Yeah, so pivot is kind of how everything... Seesaw. Yeah. Thinking. Not thinking on a seesaw. Or also called a teeter-totter. A teeter-totter for toddlers. Teeter-totter. The place where the teeter is tottering is called the pivot. It's another meaning of pivot is the activity of the pivot is happening at the fulcrum or the pivot.

[50:52]

The pivotal activity is this wonderful game that we like to do. The more me, the less you. The more you, the less me. And when there's completely you, then there's completely me. When there's completely you, there's completely not you. And to go back and forth there is the Buddha's activity to liberate the playmates from being stuck in their position. They're not stuck in that position. They get to go up. They get to get on and off. So, when you're talking about pivot, it reminded me of sometimes you see illusions, like one version in black and white, one version is a vase, an outline of a vase, but if you see it a different way, it may be two faces looking at each other.

[52:33]

And it's... I don't know if you can see them both at the same time. I don't think so. You cannot. Would that be an example? Yes, it is. So in the example of it looks like a vase and it looks like two faces, looks like a vase and see two faces, when you first, when I shouldn't say first, it's also possible to look at that thing and not see the vase or the two first. You don't see. And when you don't see anything, that's in the background of when you will be able to see something. And when you do see the vases, the faces are in the background. When you see the faces, the vase is in the background. The way it goes back and forth is the pivotal activity. And so you can see if you really wholeheartedly look and see the vase, you see the face. When you're wholeheartedly seeing the faces, you can't keep the faces.

[53:34]

It'll flip to the vase. So mostly people are half-heartedly seeing the vases, the vase, So then they can stay on the vase. But if you wholeheartedly see the vase, you won't be able to see it anymore. You'll see the faces. Or you'll see neither. Not seeing neither, which is another thing which pivots with not neither, which is back to see one of them. Everything is always pivoting on everything else. Everything is always pivoting on everything else. It's opposite? It's negation. It's not itself. Every self is pivoting on not itself. Everything is pivoting on not that thing.

[54:37]

Not on nothing but that thing. Everything is doing that. And in that way, everything has a non-abiding nature. And the only way for there to be suffering is to not realize that non-abiding nature, which we're pretty good at. We're good at suffering. We need to be better at it, which isn't that attractive to some people. But bodhisattvas love it. They want to be really good at suffering in order to realize not suffering. But it's not that they want not suffering. They want to realize the pivot of suffering to not suffering. Because that's what liberates people. Not suffering doesn't liberate people. Suffering doesn't liberate people. It's the non-abiding of either one of them. Because if you have not suffering, some people try to avoid suffering.

[55:41]

And that can be a very sad, very painful situation when people are holding on to not suffering. Of course, holding on to suffering also can be painful. So again, we don't try to get rid of thinking. We let go of it by letting it be. We don't try to get rid of suffering, we let go of it. We let go of it by letting it be. We let go of it by listening to it totally. Listening to it totally lets it go. Listening to thinking totally. That's probably enough for today. We might continue to go through this poem and discuss the revelation, the further teachings about what this pivotal activity, how it is.

[56:45]

But I can just tell you very briefly that you can see that the next two lines point out that this pivotal activity, that this dynamic pivoting between thinking and not thinking, me and you, all these different pivotings of each thing that we are, of each thing we see, of the way colors are pivoting, the way mountains are pivoting with water, the way mountains are pivoting with not walking, with not mountains. Pivoting is a kind of knowing. It is a knowing. And it is an illumination. It's a light. The pivoting is a light, and it's a knowing. So tomorrow, maybe we'll go into how this pivotal is knowing, what kind of knowing that is, and also what kind of light that is.

[57:48]

May our passion equally extend to every being.

[58:05]

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