In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha said that the Buddhas appear in the world for one great cause alone. And this one great cause actually has four parts. which to summarize is to open, to demonstrate, to understand and to enter Buddha's knowledge and insight. The long way is to say that they appear, the Buddhas, the World Honored Ones appear in this world

[01:03]

because they wish to cause beings to hear or open to Buddha's knowledge and insight and thus enable them to gain purity. They appear in the world because they wish to demonstrate the Buddha's knowledge and insight to beings. They appear in the world because they wish to cause beings to understand Buddha's knowledge and insight. And they appear in the world because they wish to cause beings to enter into the path of the Buddha's knowledge and insight. This is the one great cause for which Buddhas appear in this world.

[02:15]

Now all these Buddhas and ancestors who uphold the teachings of the Buddhas have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness. Yesterday I spoke of this self, of sitting upright in this self-fulfilling awareness as the practice of suchness or the training of ourselves thus. Continuing and turning it a little bit, I will quote the Lotus Sutra, which says that those who are upright, actually it says, those who practice all virtues are upright and soft, or upright and flexible, or upright and gentle.

[03:55]

This word... The last word can be gentle, upright, or soft. I mean gentle, soft, or flexible. Those who practice all virtues are upright and flexible will see the Buddha proclaiming the law here. practicing all virtues basically means to be willing to give your life completely to the welfare of others.

[05:00]

This is what Buddhas do. This is what Buddhas are. Practicing all virtues means to enter the mud, in order to help those who are stuck in the mud. It means to get dirty, helping those who are in the dirt. It means to enter the water in order to help those who are drowning. This is what it means to practice all virtues. This is also called Bodhi Mind or the spirit of awakening for the benefit of all beings. But in case I forget, I want to mention right away that entering the mud and getting dirty in order to help those who are stuck in the dirt

[06:15]

does not mean that you reach down and pull them out of the mud. Buddha does not do that. You just enter the mud with them, and in that mud you practice uprightness and flexibility. And the Buddha will be seen there, and the teaching will help the people out of the mud. Yesterday I emphasized the second point, the uprightness. Uprightness means to renounce worldly affairs, basically. It means to renounce dabbling in past and future. It means to renounce playing with something other than thus. It means to renounce your thinking.

[07:20]

It means to renounce all your human cravings, all your human agendas. It means to renounce life. It means to stop trying to get something out of life. It means to just sit upright in the mud The Buddhas appear in the world because they wish to open, to demonstrate, to cause to understand and to cause to enter. They wish, but they have no inclination. They have no bias. They have no agenda. They're just upright in the midst of all beings.

[08:24]

They have renounced everything. So if we also can just be upright in the mud, then we only need one more thing. And what we need in addition to that is this self-fulfilling awareness, which can also be called Right View. right view. So we need these three things. Practice all virtues. In other words, enter the world of all beings. Give up all attainments and come down to the ground with all beings. Join with all beings. Practice all virtues. This is bodhi mind. Next, we must be upright. In order to be upright, we must completely renounce all worldly affairs.

[09:29]

We must renounce all our human equipment. And last, we must have correct view. In other words, we must have this self-fulfilling awareness, which is the same as an awareness of dependent co-arising. We must sit upright in the middle of the awareness of the interconnectedness of everything. and thus realize the voidness of all things. This is the self joyousness awareness. And as I said yesterday, I mostly emphasize this uprightness or just letting the heard be the heard, the seen be the seen.

[10:32]

when the heard is just the heard and the seen is just the seen and the imagined is just the imagined and the thought is just the thought, at that time, in that situation, in that way, worldly affairs are renounced. When things are just what they are and we stop trying to make them into something else and get something out of them, That's called renouncing worldly affairs. That's called dropped-off body and mind. However, if we do that practice without having this spirit of enlightenment, without having this wish to save all beings, then we may do that renunciation, I don't know where, we may do it someplace which avoids the mud.

[11:42]

So we must not be avoiding some situations when we practice this renunciation. So the renunciation has to be put to the test, so to speak, of all sentient beings. Some people can practice renunciation in some small arena, but this renunciation must be taken into the full-scale arena of all sentient beings. And even that isn't enough, because even then we must be flexible. We must not only give up all ideas of what virtue is and what uprightness is and what Buddhism is and what not Buddhism is. We must also give up all ideas and assertions about everything and also understand how things interrelate. We must study and understand dependent co-arising.

[12:46]

This understanding of dependent co-arising is a self-fulfilling awareness. In one sense I'm sorry to bother you because I know a number of you are perhaps all of you are enjoying the challenge of your sitting practice and nearly totally occupied with that.

[14:07]

So in some sense I don't want to bother you with the responsibility of being a Buddha. And yet, I do want to bother you with the responsibility of being a Buddha. Because while you're occupied dealing with this dirty work, this muddy work of having a body in a sesshin schedule, it's a good opportunity actually to hear about a teaching which is appropriate for such a situation. So one of Buddha's disciples was named Prajnatara. He was called Jewel of Insight, Jewel of Buddha's Insight. He lived in India.

[15:12]

a king invited him to lunch. After lunch, the king said, why don't you read scriptures, master? Prajnatara said, this poor wayfarer, while breathing in, does not dwell in body, mind. When breathing out, does not become entangled in myriad circumstances. Such a scripture, I reiterate, one hundred, one thousand, one million scrolls. Breathing in, breathing out happens in the realm of body-mind. breathing in without dwelling in the breath.

[16:23]

This is an opportunity to practice all virtues. The breath, the breathing, and the body breathing is the mud of the world. Also breathing in, not dwelling in body-mind, means to be upright. Breathing in, not dwelling in body-mind, means to study dependent co-arising. Or it could mean that. No, it does mean that. Breathing in, not dwelling in body-mind means to study dependent core rising. To breathe in and dwell in body and mind means to deny the study of dependent core rising.

[17:32]

It means you don't believe that it's worthy of study. So what you're going to do is you're going to study the reality, the substantial reality of body and mind. In other words, you're going to suffer. And not only that, but deny the suffering and try to distract yourself from it, which is called dwelling in body and mind while breathing in. Breathing out and not getting entangled in myriad circumstances. Myriad circumstances is the mud. Breathing out and not getting entangled in myriad circumstances means to enter this mud not to get dirty just for the sensual pleasure of getting dirty, but to get dirty in order to help all beings.

[18:33]

Entering this myriad circumstances and not getting entangled is to be upright in myriad circumstances. Exhaling and not getting entangled in myriad circumstances is uprightness. While breathing out, not getting entangled in myriad circumstances is right view, is studying dependent co-arising. is the self-receiving and self-employing awareness

[19:45]

I recently saw two movies about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I mean, they were the stars of these movies. And these movies had a kind of plot, both of them did, and it was the same plot. But for me, the magic of the movies was demonstrated most openly when they danced. And in both movies, what I saw was there was two people there, and for a while, They were both proud, and anyway, they had their agendas.

[21:59]

And then one of them, Mr. Astaire, started to make some moves, but Miss Rogers What is it? She was pouting and sort of faced the wall and wouldn't look back. And finally she started to notice what Fred was doing and so she did something too. And then he did something and she did something. And then he did something and she did something. And what each one of them was doing was pretty good. I mean, pretty impressive what they did, each individually.

[23:07]

And then the moment came when they started to do the same thing, mirroring each other. They weren't dancing together in the sense of embracing each other. They were actually doing exactly the same moves at the same time. And for some reason or other, I got goosebumps at that time. They were so together. through their individuality. And then they embraced and danced. But then they weren't doing the same thing anymore.

[24:10]

Then they were doing different things, but it was one thing. So first they were doing, first they were just like two proud people and there was just pain. Then they started to notice each other and one did one thing, one did another thing. Beautiful in their own right. Then they did the same thing. Well then they did the same thing individually together. They were together doing the same thing. Then they were together in one thing and they were doing different things, but it was one thing. If I think about it, and I guess I'd have to watch more of their movies to see if it would be possible for them to go from each of them doing their own thing

[25:14]

fully, for them to go from that to suddenly be dancing in an embraced oneness. I don't know if that would work. It seems kind of harsh, or it would be... I don't know if that would happen. Think about it. Maybe it's possible. But the transition of going from two people fairly fully doing their own thing to two people doing exactly the same thing to two people doing different things as one, that was quite smooth. So this is an example of they entered the mud. They were together, the two of them. having human problems. Actually, somewhat, some suspicion and fear was there.

[26:17]

Then, there were two people who were doing their thing quite fully. Now, this is... This is entering the mud, and this is being upright. Do your thing quite fully. Doing your thing quite fully, the quite fully part is not doing something. The quite fully part is just simply to renounce everything else. But what's happening? What's happening? That's the practicing thusness, which is something you can do before you think of doing something. It's what you do before preparing to do something.

[27:25]

It's what's already happening. And this practice of suchness, which is done without delay, which is done without a medium, Immediately. That practice is not difficult. It is actually quite difficult for us to do what we're doing. That's quite difficult. If you try to do what you're doing, try it sometime. It's pretty difficult. But it's not difficult for you to be the way you are. What's hard is to renounce everything else but that. That practice of uprightness, of just sitting, is not difficult because everything is helping you right now.

[28:26]

As a matter of fact, everything is causing this, is coming forward to support you and sustain you in the way you are. and actually you have no possibility of being the slightest bit different. We must be this way. The doing this fully means to renounce your doubt in the teaching of dependent co-arising and appreciate that this is this appearance what is appearing now is completely just dependent co-arising. It's not difficult to do such a practice. But it's difficult to understand such a practice. It's difficult to explain such a practice. I'm trying to explain such a practice.

[29:33]

Already such a practice is happening. And you're not having difficulty with such a practice. You're not having difficulty with the practice of suchness. The teaching about this practice of suchness has been transmitted and you have it now. All Buddha ancestors have been born from the vow to enter the world, to appear in the world in order to help beings. They've made the vow to enter into all the difficult, painful, confusing complications of human thought.

[30:40]

They sit upright in that situation. They sit upright in that realm of contradiction and confusion. Undisturbed, unwavering in this vow to enter this world in order to help people hear, in order to demonstrate to people, in order to help people understand, and in order to help people enter the practice which they're doing, in order to help people open to the possibility, see how it's done, understand it, and enter the practice of entering the mud, being upright, and being very flexible, and having no assertions about existence or non-existence. Having no assertions about existence or non-existence is possible through this self-fulfilling awareness.

[32:00]

It's possible if we make every endeavor to understand dependent co-arising. Recently a mother came to me and told me about a new understanding that she has about how to study existence and non-existence. If we study existence and non-existence, and if we study our assertions of existence and non-existence, we can become free of our assertions of existence and non-existence. Assertions of existence dependently co-arise. Assertions of non-existence dependently co-arise.

[33:05]

By studying these assertions by studying the appearance of existence and the appearance of non-existence this awareness, this self-fulfilling awareness develops, is born, lives. The right view, the flexible, gentle mind comes alive. The way she put it was that for the first now maybe year or so that she's been a mother, in a sense she's been non-existent. Everything has been for this baby and she hasn't been anything. Her whole life was turned over. Her whole self was turned over to this baby. And in a sense she hasn't had a self. Now she's starting a little bit to try to find herself again.

[34:21]

to be somebody, to exist again in relationship to this child. So I can't remember exactly, you know, who's who in this story, whether it's me or her or the baby or what. But anyway, my feeling is also that the baby was non-existent too. during this time, and the baby is now struggling to be existent. So in one sense the mother has had enough of it and wants to find a self again, but that's inseparable from the fact that the baby needs to develop a sense of self. They both need to separate themselves from the other now. They need to get out of this oneness.

[35:42]

And for the baby, the first time recently to experience separation, and for the mother, a return to something she felt before being a mother. But I was impressed to see this rather philosophical study being done in the situation of a mother-daughter relationship. But such a study is again, if you're basically, if you're putting your energy into studying it rather than manipulating it, rather than trying to get it to go a certain way, the effort the view to understand this process without even trying to figure it out. If you try to figure it out then you've given up your uprightness.

[36:49]

We must be upright in these relationships without even having an agenda to figure it out. Not to mention not having the agenda to you know, make it go one way or another. Meantime, being in the mud, which we are, there are these agendas to get things to go a certain way, flying all around us all the time. But those agendas to get the mother-daughter relationship to go this way or to get the dance to go that way they're just agendas flying around us, sitting in the trees, chirping. However, we don't just be upright with them, we also clearly observe them.

[37:54]

We watch how they work. We watch how they're born and how they die. We watch how they're formed. We watch how they affect the self. We watch how if there is no other, there is no self. We watch how when there is an other, there is a self. We watch how when there is no not me, there is no me. We clearly observe how when there is a not me, when there is a death of me, then there's a me. How I am born from not me. We watch that.

[38:55]

We clearly observe that. If you want to understand dependent co-arising, if you want to be gentle and flexible and have a right view, this is what we need to watch. In the process of watching this, existence may appear and non-existence may appear. Assertions about existence and non-existence may appear too, but the spirit of the study is to, again, watch how the assertions appear, how the appearances appear, how assertions about them appear, to study this and to watch how it happens between self and other. Watch how that happens. and again be upright and just watch it.

[39:58]

This is called breathing in and not dwelling in body and mind. This is called breathing out and not getting entangled in myriad circumstances. I always reiterate such a scripture, says the ancestor. This is the only way, this is the only thing that the Buddhas do. They enter the breathing process of body and mind with all beings. They sit upright there and they breathe. And they don't dwell on the body and mind, and they don't dwell on this myriad circumstances. they breathe just like everybody else, they have all the problems of all beings, but they don't get entangled. And they don't not just get entangled, they're always clearly observing the process that they're not getting entangled in.

[41:10]

They're clearly observing the process that gives them birth, that gives them death. That's all they do. They renounced everything else in this because it is the Buddha's teaching that this is all the Buddhas do. And they do what the Buddhas do. And this is nothing at all. I think you people are very close. We're all very close to this practice. We're in the mud Got that down. You've made your vows to enter where you are. Got that?

[42:12]

That's set? Being upright, I don't know about that part. I don't know if you've all really given up every human consideration, every human thought, And as for understanding dependent core rising, that's one that's very difficult for us, and it's going to take us some time. But I don't think that's a problem. I mean, that's part of the joy of being in the situation of Buddha's work, is to study this teaching. But what I feel is really close at hand is the mud, is the body, the breath, the entanglements, the confusions, the pain. All that's close. And that's the stuff of dependent co-arising.

[43:14]

So you've got all the material to study this self-fulfilling awareness. It's all right there. And another thing that's quite close is being upright. You're all close to it. But as I've mentioned before and as it says, over and over, a hair's breadth deviation makes a big difference. A little bit of holding on makes a big difference. We must be thorough about this. Sashin is a good time to be thorough. This is only a five-day sesshin, but fortunately you people have gotten to the fourth day already. You've gotten as concentrated as people usually get in four days.

[44:14]

You've achieved in two. So I think you have enough time to be very thorough and be very present I think it may be just simply unrealistic, and I probably shouldn't even be talking about such things, but I just think that we have a lot of work to do on understanding this self-receiving and self-employing awareness. So I don't think we're going to exhaust the study of that this week. But I think it might be possible for us to really start studying it, to actually really start studying and really start practicing Zazen.

[45:21]

It feels so close and I want to be close to it. But it's very subtle because I want to be so close that I'm not even close. As it says, this closeness is heart-rending war or fighting. But it may seem that way, that kind of feistiness as we try to settle into You and the universe doing exactly the same thing together.

[46:55]

Can you see that? Can you see that you're doing one thing and the universe is doing the same thing with you? that the universe is your mirror image. You are not it, it actually is you. You are not it.

[47:59]

Existence appears. It's actually you. Non-existence appears. So, when you're sitting, some people tilt their pelvis forward or backwards.

[50:06]

And I... I would recommend that you hold your pelvis basically vertically. I don't know my anatomy very well, or your anatomy very well, but I have this idea that the pelvis is made of two bones, is that right, that are connected? It's two sides like this, and they have a little kind of like a little place where this little, this thing called the sacrum sits in the pelvis. The sacrum, by the way, comes from the word sacred. It's because they used to use that, it's somewhat of a triangular-shaped bone. They used to use it to make sacrifices. So that triangular-shaped bone sits in the pelvis.

[51:13]

It's kind of like it has little knobs that set in the two sides of the pelvis. This is not triangular, but it's kind of like this. The pelvis is like this, and the sacrum sits in the pelvis. And then down below here, the femur comes out from the lower part of the pelvis, right? so this triangular thing sitting in there and if you hold your pelvis vertically this sacrum this triangular bone can sit in various ways in the pelvis. But the way I'd recommend that you try to have it be is that the sacrum is slightly tilted so that the tailbone actually curves, the coccyx tailbone curves around towards the front of you, towards your front, right? But to move it so that the pelvis tilts so that the coccyx goes back a little bit

[52:19]

So the pelvis tilts forward a little bit, which causes a slight curve in your lower spine and also makes your tail go back and up a little bit. Some people say that the image that some people say is it's like your anus is peeking out the back. But what a lot of people do in order to get that effect is they tilt their pelvis forward, which I think is actually not so good in the long run. And this is very subtle too. Now a lot of people also sit with their pelvis back and then that's not so good either. Vertically, approximately vertically, I would suggest is best. And then tilt the sacrum a little bit forward. And then the spine will go a little bit forward from there and go up in a natural curve up.

[53:39]

Try to relax everything around there. Try to relax the pelvis and the muscles around the pelvis and let this sacrum just kind of flow freely and go. Another feeling is try to have the sacrum go into the body more deeply. So this is an example of a postural suggestion I'm making to you, but I bring this up for primarily not to give you postural suggestions, but to show you an example of something that I personally do, but to also show you my attitude about how I do it. Because no matter what posture you choose, you always choose some posture. Every one of us Whenever we sit, we hold our pelvis in a certain way.

[54:41]

You always do that. You hold your sacrum in a certain way. You always do. It's not by accident. Everything in the universe is coming together to cause the particular way the pelvis is being held. The one-sided understanding of how that happens is called karma. The idea that you make a posture in a certain way, independent of everybody else, that's the definition of karma. And most people, as far as I can tell, consciously or unconsciously think that they're doing their posture. They think, I have this idea of a posture and that's what they're doing.

[55:45]

By becoming aware of the mind, the karmic mind, and how it creates karmic posture or postural karma, body posture, body karma, By watching this process, you're studying dependent co-arising. You're studying dependent co-arising of birth and death. Because the way of thinking that I do postures, that way of thinking is birth and death. And the way I'm caused or I cause myself to think that way is the dependent co-arising of birth and death. Understanding how birth and death are co-produced leads to understanding of dependently co-arisen awakening, or leads to dependently co-arisen awakening, period.

[56:47]

So again, no matter how I sit, I'm always somewhat aware or not very aware at all of how I'm sitting. So I'm not so much telling you about this postural suggestion like you should do this or like it's a better way or something, although I think it is a pretty good idea. That's why I do it that way. I actually have quite a bit of trouble myself being that attentive to my posture. Even though when I'm not attentive, I'm still unconsciously thinking that I'm doing my posture and in fact involved in a posture being assumed. The processes are going on. The question is, are they being observed or not? So the main reason, the two main reasons, well actually one main reason why I suggest, make postural suggestions, and when I adjust your posture, why I adjust your posture, is not that I'm putting you in the right position or something.

[57:52]

So then you can continue the karma of putting yourself in that position. but rather I'm trying to wake you up to whatever extent you're involved in karma. And the same with my own posture. I have postural suggestions I make to myself in order to become aware of how I'm operating as a karmic being. I find that the more instructions I get, especially if certain instructions are more that way than others, the more instructions of a certain kind that I'm aware of and think about, the more I'm aware of how I think about my posture. And in fact, I propose to you for consideration that you do think about your posture, that you never assume any posture without thinking about it. And the The development of right view or the self-fulfilling awareness is the development of understanding of how you are thinking about your posture, about your breathing.

[59:03]

So an instruction about how the pelvis is held, how the muscles, those muscles in there and around your hips, all that's working, instructions which make you aware of that or which can make you aware of that I offered to you to help you develop your awareness of that part of your body and to check out whether there's any karma there or not. And if it's not the karma, if you don't assume the posture that I'm suggesting, what posture is being assumed? And what karma is there instead of that karma? And is there any karma? Or do you understand that actually the whole universe comes forward and creates your pelvis and your sacrum? And in that case, there's no karma. But It is through studying, for most people, it is through studying karma that you understand that there's no karma.

[60:15]

It is through studying the idea that I do things that I realize it's not really that way at all. So moment after moment, there probably in most of us is the thinking that I'm doing this posture and I'm doing that posture. Are you aware of this? Or do you have something else that you'd rather pay attention to? And if so, are you aware of that? You don't have to scurry around keeping track of this stuff. All you need to do is to be upright and have your eyes open, and you'll see it eventually. And the same with this instruction I give over and over again of having your mudra against your abdomen, actually touching your hand to your abdomen.

[61:30]

There's all kinds of advantages to this, but basically what it does for me is that it helps me be aware of the karma of putting my hands somewhere. No matter where my hands are, they're there for some reason. Either they're there because I put them there, or they're there because the universe put them there. If I think I put them there, then I'm involved in karmic thought. If I understand that the whole universe has put them there, then I have freed them from karmic thought. But again, the way to understand that the universe puts these hands here is to be aware that my thought thinks it put them here. Do you have something better to do than to study your karmic activity?

[62:38]

In the non-renunciate state, the answer is, yes, I do have something better to do. But a renunciate has nothing better to do than to watch the karmic show. And by watching the karmic show, you will see that karma is not karma, and you don't do this stuff You got a sacrum. I got a sacrum.

[63:41]

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