This morning I offer you my speech, my posture, and my thought in the spirit of you're just sitting. I offer my thoughts, words and posture to your sitting. In sitting this way, we align ourselves with all the Buddha ancestors who have also sat thus.

[02:05]

sitting here this morning in our places, dedicating ourselves completely to this present effort. to this present posture and this present breath. We may join all our great ancestors and allow them to join us.

[03:42]

by simply sitting here, still and quiet, breathing in and breathing out. we naturally accept and become great compassion. Sitting this way, we may train ourselves by thusness.

[07:14]

We may train ourselves by simply what is happening. Train ourselves by how it is happening. Train ourselves by where it is happening. And train ourselves by when it is happening.

[08:50]

Practicing this way is called the practice of oneness. Speaking this way to you, I speak as a disciple of the practice of oneness. I aspire to be a disciple of the teaching of oneness, to always be practicing just one thing.

[11:09]

To always practice thus. To trust thusness. as the gate to Buddha's compassion. As we sit in this world, infinite, unbounded, rapidly changing realms of body and mind appear and disappear, swirling about us constantly.

[13:50]

Myriad forms dance before our senses offering themselves for us to grasp, to be entangled, to become confused, to believe in and disbelieve in, to accept and reject offer us a chance to forget what is the most important thing to us. How can we remember, in the midst of such a wild and untamed world, how can we remember our ultimate concern?

[15:22]

How can we walk straight ahead on the path of the Buddha through the full-fledged wildness of our life? through the untamed mountains of our death. How can we walk this path with full concentration, complete dedication, steadfastness, gentleness, flexibility, fearlessness and determination.

[17:06]

How can we remember the simple straight path in the midst of infinite complexity? All the Buddhas and ancestors are sitting and gently beckoning us to constantly return to this middle way. When you hear the sound of a bird's feet tapping on the ceiling of the meditation hall, does that take you away from your ultimate concern or remind you of it?

[19:46]

Without turning away from the sound and without touching it. Without denying it or indulging in it. Just let the sound be the sound. The Buddha has taught that when the sound of the bird is just the sound of the bird, that will be the end of suffering.

[22:04]

When the sound of a cough is just the sound of a cough, that will be the end of coughing. But we may think we need something more than the teaching of thusness and the practice of thusness. And although it may appear this way, there really is just one practice.

[23:12]

There is just one scripture and just one person and just one life. But the one life appears as infinite life, and the one person appears as infinite persons. The one scripture appears as infinite scriptures, as an ocean of scriptures.

[24:28]

So after offering our great ancestor lunch, the Indian king asked Prajnatara, why don't you read scriptures? And Prajnatara said, this poor wayfarer It doesn't dwell in the realms of body-mind when breathing in. And I don't get entangled in the myriad things when breathing out.

[25:54]

I just breathe in and breathe out. This is the scripture I always recite. One thousand. One million scrolls. Unrolling the scroll of the breath. rolling up the scroll of the breath, unrolling the scroll of breath, rolling up the scroll of breath, always reciting this scripture.

[27:27]

Our ancestors say, have no other pursuit This was Bodhidharma teacher's way of expressing the practice of oneness.

[28:50]

This practice of oneness is the context in which all the great meditation teachers in the Buddhist tradition have taught myriad practices. This is the context in which the Chinese master, Jiri, offered the practice of the six subtle Dharma gates. This is the context of the practice of counting the breath. Of the subtle dharma gate of counting the breath.

[31:08]

Of the subtle dharma gate of following the breath. Of the subtle dharma gate of stopping the breath. of the subtle dharma gate of contemplating the breath, of the subtle dharma gate of contemplating the breath, and the subtle dharma gate of returning the breath. and the subtle Dharmagate of the purity of the breath. These six methods of studying and learning about breathing

[32:35]

are just six aspects of one practice. Each aspect in its completeness causes and is caused by all the other aspects. Each of these practices in its totality leads to and comes from the others. Each of them includes and is included by the others.

[33:49]

And with this context, all of the articulated teachings of the Buddhist tradition can be understood. That every articulation in the Buddha's mind includes all other articulations and is included by them. so that the study of yourself includes the study of every living being. And the study of every living being includes yourself.

[35:21]

So we may give ourselves completely to the study of our self and thereby study all beings and each being. And we may give ourselves completely to the study of each being and include our self study. We may study each breath We may study each bird. We may study each seed. We may study each word, each cough, each hair, but not forgetting, not forgetting the one practice, samadhi.

[36:36]

And not holding on to the one practice, samadhi, we are able to study all things But it's difficult. It's difficult. This practice is simple, is one, but it's difficult. Because we don't get anything out of it but thusness.

[37:52]

While I'm talking about it, it's not so difficult for me to remember it. While I know I'm talking about it, it's not so difficult for me to remember it. But when I say certain things and think certain things, I think I'm talking about something else, and it's hard for me to remember it. So I understand that it's difficult for all of us. So I offer you these words this morning as a context for the detailed study of these six practices of breathing.

[40:09]

I refer you to this conversation, to this talk this morning. to remember this as we enter into the complexities of the different ways of studying our breath over the rest of this practice period. I will try to remind us at the beginning of each talk of this context of oneness and then see if we can enter into the subtleties and not forget this just one thing. Again, I respectfully have offered these words

[41:26]

to your just sitting, to the greatness of one person sitting zazen, the merit of which all the Buddhas could not measure.

[41:50]

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