I saw an advertisement for this session and it said something like, Buddha's Enlightenment Session. The session that is held around the eighth of December is often in a sense, offered or dedicated to the awakening of the Buddha in India, which many people consider to be a very important historical event in the world of history.

[01:03]

And when we have this session now at Zen Center, it is also a time during which we remember and celebrate the passing of the Founder. who passed away on this fourth day of December or on a fourth of December that occurred back in 1971. That session started on the fourth. right after starting the first period of the Sesshin, Suzuki Roshi's wife came into the zendo and gestured to the abbot, Richard Baker,

[02:37]

And he and I left the zendo. I was the attendant to the abbot. So we left the zendo and she told us that he had passed away. So we went up to the room. And then after cleaning his body and putting on his robes, The body was moved to the doksan room and placed on the floor with incense, as I remember, at his feet, incense burner at his feet. And then all the students in the session were invited if they wished to go and offer incense and bow to the teacher.

[03:42]

And other people in the Bay Area were also informed and they came. So at 10 in the morning he was still there and people were still coming. Not too late in the afternoon, no one was coming anymore. Everyone had come. Maybe two or three hundred people came. And his body was, according to his wife, at least, his body was brought away from Zen Center to a mortuary. The next day, I think it was the next day, there was going to be a trip over to the mortuary to make certain decisions.

[05:23]

And again, since I was attendant to the abbot, I went along and... But now it's interesting that I actually didn't particularly want to go. I actually wanted to sit in the zendo. I saw the trip to the mortuary to take care of everybody and make decisions about coffins and things like that. kind of a distraction from sitting Sashin, which I thought he was supporting. But anyway, I went, and I also felt how kind of funny it was that I wanted to sit Sashin in the Zendo, and also I wanted to serve the teacher.

[06:31]

What an interesting conflict it was. Or, I don't know, conflict. mixture of emotions. We could spend many hours now for each of you to say some things you heard Suzuki Roshi say that you thought were wonderful and encouraging. I heard him say in a talk in the city center of San Francisco Zen Center Actually, I heard somebody ask him a question, and the question was, Roshi, yesterday you said that something like, we need to be enlightened in order to help people.

[08:06]

And the woman who I think was Irene Horowitz said, But if that's the case, most of us wouldn't be able to help people. And he responded by saying, Enlightenment has maybe many meanings. And I think he said, for bodhisattvas, enlightenment means to understand that others are our self. And then the thought occurs, well, maybe it would be good for us to be... When we meet others, maybe it would be good to be ready and mindful of the possibility of understanding that others are our self.

[09:38]

And that might make possible really helping. Zen is the key that unlocks, I think he said, that unlocks the treasure of the Buddha Dharma. And when he said that I didn't say, what do you mean by Zen? And now it's hard to ask him

[10:44]

I did ask him a lot of questions and I had a notebook where I had written down questions to ask him, just in case I met him. But I didn't ask him, what do you mean by Zen? He might have said, well, Zen, yeah, that has many meanings. One possible meaning of Zen is samadhi, concentration. That with concentration we can unlock, open the door to the teaching of suchness. With concentration we can open and enter the intimate entrustment of Buddha ancestors.

[11:57]

In Sashin we have the opportunity to clean the temple. And one way of understanding cultivation is cleaning the temple, taking care of consciousness in such a way that the consciousness more and more realizes in a way, the cultivation of samadhi is, embraces all the temple cleaning practices.

[13:11]

It embraces generosity, ethical patience, diligence, and of course And one basic gesture of developing samadhi is basically letting go of discursive thought. Letting go of the thoughts that discursive means wandering back and forth, discourse.

[14:15]

So in consciousness thoughts are wandering. and letting go of the thoughts that are wandering in consciousness, letting them go, letting them go, allowing them, allowing them, letting them be what they are, letting them be what they are. Doing this again and again, moment by moment, letting go of discursive thought, comes to fruit, that effort comes to fruit as samadhi, or also could be called in Sanskrit, shamatha, tranquil abiding. A mind where the discursive thought is to be itself over and over

[15:23]

more and more realizes the qualities of samadhi. Some people in this session are, while sitting, following their breathing. And being mindful of breathing helps some people let go of all other kinds of discursive thought besides the one discursive thought of breath going in. There's other meditation topics which are used to support the basic gesture of training in samadhi, which is, again, to let go of discursive thought.

[16:38]

I was going to suggest that we chant the Fukon Zazengi this morning but we didn't, we had a short service so we didn't, that wasn't going to work. Maybe we can do it later today or tomorrow. In Fukanzazengi is the general or instruct, encouragements for sitting meditation. And today I feel that the first part of the text, not the very first part, the first part is kind of basically suggesting that the way, the Buddha way, is perfect and all-pervading. So if it is, why do we need to practice? Why do we need to practice something that's perfect and all-pervading? And the vehicle of the Dharma is free and untrammeled.

[17:50]

undisturbed. So why? Why do we have to make concentrated effort? Why do we have to practice, for example? And yet, the text says, if there's a slightest discrepancy in brackets in relationship to this all-pervading perfect if there's the slightest discrepancy, it's really like this wonderful way is not realized. So Bodhidharma sat and so how can we not sit? So then it goes on basically, I would say, to give instructions in developing samadhi.

[18:54]

It's the seesaw movements of the conscious mind, the engagement with thoughts and judgments and views. And it kind of sounds like actually to cease the discursive thought, which I accept that that's what it sounds like. But I feel maybe that it's not so much that the discursive thought ceases, although it might, we allow the discursive thought and we realize that the movement of discursive thought is an illusion. So in that sense, discursive thought stops being discursive and it's sitting still. But I see the first part of the text as basically temple cleaning instruction.

[20:07]

And then at the end of this temple cleaning instruction, towards the end, not the very end, it says, settled into a steady, immovable sitting position. So again, that first section of the instruction is in sections about how to realize stillness, how to realize the stillness, the thought which seems to be wandering around So some people actually try to stop it, and maybe it works off the discourse, and in that way be in a steady, immobile sitting. And that understanding, I would let that thought be.

[21:18]

Maybe this is the Zen that unlocks the treasure store of the Buddhadharma, letting go of discursive thought and entering into a state of samadhi, that in that state the treasure store opens of itself. And there's what's in the treasure store? Well, part of what's in the treasure store is words. So then after settling into a steady immobile sitting position, then he says, think not thinking. How do you think? Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazen.

[22:28]

So after settling into this, then we are given some words of Dharma to practice in Samadhi. And there's more words in Dharma to practice with in Samadhi. Once you've settled into a steady, unmoving, stillness, then listen to the true dharma. Then listen to the dharma of suchness. Intimate transmission is in ancestors. Now you have it. Take care of it in samadhi. take care of temple cleaning, take care of samadhi, and in samadhi take care of this, [...] all these Dharma teachings.

[23:48]

In samadhi use every action as a way to celebrate and express the Buddha mind by sitting upright in this samadhi action as an opportunity to show, to indicate the way which is perfect and all-pervading. Practicing directly indicates the Buddha way. Practicing a way that indicates realizes

[24:56]

Use every action and thought to indicate the Buddha way. And being in samadhi is a good place to show it. The thought arises in my mind, I wanted to stay in the Zendo and practice Samadhi. But really I was requested to leave the Zendo and get into an Audi and drive it to the mortuary. Part of the irony of the situation is that giving up Samadhi promotes Samadhi. Allowing Samadhi to be Samadhi promotes Samadhi.

[26:05]

Allowing it to be promotes letting go of it. Allowing discursive thought to be discursive thought promotes Samadhi. Allowing thought to be discursive thought, let's go of discursive thought. Allowing distraction to be distraction, let's go of distraction. Allowing distraction to be is in accord with samadhi. promotes it. And then again, when it comes, it may be coming now. Samadhi may be coming. Let it come. Maybe I shouldn't give you orders like that.

[27:12]

We could let it come. It's coming. And if it comes, you can drink it and then let go of it. Put the cup down and move on to the next coming of Samadhi or not. Again, when Samadhi comes, we have this feeling Whatever's going on, I can practice this way forever. Ding! Give it away. What if it doesn't come back? If we allow the thought, what if it doesn't come back to be?

[28:19]

That promotes its return. Therefore someone may ask, so it looks like samadhi is super important. Yeah, maybe it looks like it's super important. It's sort of the culmination of temple cleaning. Anyway, when someone said that to me, I said, I don't know if it's super important, but I think it's necessary. We need samadhi. In order to have correct understanding, even the understanding, others are me, which is correct and is enlightenment, it's not the real understanding in a state of samadhi.

[29:42]

Even though the understanding is literally the same, I understand, or others are myself. Others are myself. It needs to be in samadhi for it to be. Even though it's correct, when we see it again in samadhi, it looks different. We see it from more aspects. We're open to it not being what we thought it was, which it isn't. So insights that are not accompanied by samadhi are not the Buddha's insights. And the other side is, which is kind of difficult, is samadhi without the insight is not the full story. The culmination of temple cleaning sets up Buddha's wisdom.

[30:46]

And some people think that the samadhi itself, where you can turn off discursive thought at will, that attainment is nirvana. And many people look at the early teachings of Buddha and it looks like that's what it's saying in many places. like attaining the state of where you can turn off discursive thought at will, actually stop it whenever you want to, that that attainment is Buddha's nirvana. And I want to welcome that view and honor it because literally it does look like the Buddha is saying that in many early discourses. There's also the teaching that and also in samadhi there kind of is the understanding

[32:09]

that subject and object are not separate, that they're one point. So even more, that sounds good, like enlightenment. I'm surprised to see that I have more respect for the condition of Buddha's nirvana right now than I did before.

[33:24]

I'm surprised that I'm opening to that version. And I'm thinking, now can that version of the attainment of Buddhahood, the ability the attainment of being able to stop discursive thought at will, can that be aligned with the path of the bodhisattva who is really wholeheartedly engaged sometimes in discursive thought? who has maybe the ability to give up or stop discursive thought and the tranquility and openness that comes with that ability and then enters the realm of discursive thought and joins the discourse

[34:39]

And in joining the discourse of thinking, uses the thinking as an opportunity to perform, to express, to realize the mind of Buddha. Having the ability to stop and then being in discursive thought, using this discursive thought right now to realize the Buddha way. Having it and not stop it.

[35:44]

having the ability to stop it and entering it and demonstrating the ability to stop it by being with it and using it to create a path. Someone said to me recently, I want to thank you for some instruction you gave me on joining the palms and bowing. Ga-sho, word for ga means meeting and sho means palms.

[36:47]

So gashom is meeting or agreeing of the palms. Some people think gashom is joining the palms and bowing, but it actually just means joining the palms. And then there's a bow. There can be a bow. You can join the palms and you've just successfully performed the mudra, the shape, one of the shapes of the Buddha way. And then you can bow. And the instruction I offered to this person was, after you join your palms, when you bow, when you reach the bottom of the bowel stopped. And then finished up, come back up.

[37:58]

And she said, that really helped me find a way to take care of the bowel that stopped. bow and in some sense give up discursive thought at the bottom of the bow. And then re-engage discursive thought by straightening up. We go down to the lower part of the bow. We have reached the end. Okay, stop discursive thought. And then from this stop, we enter discursive thought. Throughout this process, and in particular at the end, at the stop of the bow, there is an opportunity

[39:09]

There's plenty of time there. On the way down, you may feel like, well, I've got to get this over with. People are waiting for me. You know, I don't want to hold things up. Somebody might be in front of you, you know, and they hesitate to walk on if you don't finish this pretty soon. Give that up and just go down there. And when you see how long you can stay, Well, since I'm here at the end of this bow and discursive thought has stopped and I am worried about the people around me but I'm going to let go of that. They may really think I'm being down here so long I'm really inconveniencing them and I don't want to but I accept that and I'm going to let that be and let go of those thoughts and here I am

[40:14]

in samadhi. So what should I do here? Let this bow express the Buddha mind seal. It is a mudra, so maybe I could use this mudra, which is now down, lowered a little bit, I could use this mudra to not just be nice and respectful, but express the Buddha mind seal right now. This is offered in homage to the Buddha mind mudra. Okay, well that's enough I think. So now I think I'll straighten up and release all beings by this straightening up. Wow. People may be angry at me, but I did my job.

[41:22]

I performed the Buddha mind mudra by performing my little human mudra. I can't see the Buddha mind mudra, but the mudra that I made, I offered to the Buddha mind mudra in hopes that samadhi will soon be here. And then, in hopes that the Buddha mind seal will be realized. And someone said, well, do you have to use this traditional Buddhist mudra to do it? It's an opportunity. You don't have to use it, though. And we have other opportunities, like I mentioned, you can carry trays with gomasio. Same thing.

[42:23]

Carry the trays, and as you're carrying the trays, stop discursive thought. But that may be more advanced, to be carrying the trays and walking in samadhi. But that's a more advanced practice, I think. So maybe it's easier if you can't walk in samadhi yet, when you get in front of somebody, then walking in samadhi is too advanced now. But when I get to the people, I'm going to stop discursive thought. I'm going to let go of it. And I'm going to bow with the tray. Do I dare bow and stop a little bit there? They want to get this meal over with. So how much can I stop at the end of the bow with the tray?

[43:30]

Kind of hard, right? Too much. And at that point, when I let go of discursive thought offer this bow with the tray as a performance art. Performing and then give that up and stand up straight and let them let the people reach for the gomasio dishes. And the people who are bowing Also, here they come. Here come the servers. I don't know how to make their service the performance of the Buddha way, but just in case, I want to be ready for them and I want to meet them. Oh yeah, I'm going to use this traditional Buddhist mudra. They don't have to.

[44:37]

So far we have not established the traditional way of holding the tray. We're experimenting with it. Like, where do the fingers go and where do the thumbs go on the tray? And it depends on the kind of tray. But now we're going to use the traditional mudra to meet the non-traditional mudra. The servers' arms are like this and our hands are like this. So the tradition meets the unknown. Still, when we bow, we can see how long does the server want to stay down there. We go down with them, and we have a chance, like, be as present as they are. And if they're not going to be present, they're going to go down and not stop. They're just going to go, boom, boom. We'll go, boom, boom. Or maybe, boom, boom. We're not going to push them to stop I'm going to kind of like join them with a little bit of a hint.

[45:50]

Wouldn't you like to stop a little bit and wouldn't you like to stop discursive thought just for a second there and join? Negotiate that space and that intimate communication. There it is. It's not just me performing Buddha Mind Seal. It's us doing it. So all these forms offer a chance to do that. And some of the discursive thought that's going on, like, I've got to serve a lot of people, don't hold me up. This way of serving is starting to feel like religion.

[46:56]

Why do we have to do it this way? all those thoughts come up and again if they're welcomed and allowed to be, again we're using them in the temple cleaning mode and then we can be in samadhi while running around carrying trays, serving people. It's possible. But then as it becomes more and more realized, then one of the challenges that comes up is as serving becomes more and more calm, undistracted, then the thoughts of, this is getting, it's getting really, it's starting to feel awfully religious now to serve salt to people. Yeah, well, that's a temple cleaning opportunity.

[48:09]

Don't say, you shouldn't have problems with this serving of salt. Like a religion. You know, the religion of serving gomasio. you shouldn't have a problem with it. It seems like a religion. No, I don't say that. You can have a problem with with Soto Zen making a religion out of serving Gomassio. That's okay. That's just another discursive thought. This is not good. Too much. And then you and your friends can have an opportunity to be kind to the thought, we're going too far now, making this a holy activity.

[49:18]

So we have also these cleaning devices, which in Japanese are called setsus. And on the end there's a little piece of cloth, which is usually cotton. And it starts out white, right? And then we sew it onto the stick. And it's a lot of work to, you know, over the years, a lot of work goes into sewing the cloth onto the tip and then taking it off when it's dirty and putting another one on. And some people feel like, you know, it's a lot of work unless you use spatulas.

[50:24]

Do you know what a spatula is? It's like a rubber thing that you use to clean bowls. And you don't have to change it every time you use it. You just wash it. And you can use it over and over. So some people are now using spatulas. And then there's some other people who are saying, but the Setsu tip is holy. It's like You know, it's like the salmon of our practice. If we switch from the claw tip to the spatula, the whole thing's going to, the whole system's going to get... We were discussing this a while ago, and Linda Ruth said, we're kind of like the school of utensilism.

[51:31]

it comes down to like sewing this thing on and various thoughts are arising like this is a lot of work, too much work, and it's not very hygienic, and so on. All these thoughts arise when you take care of the setsu, or it's just too late. This is not appropriate to the modern world. Those are thoughts. We allow those thoughts. And allowing those thoughts, and allowing other thoughts, all other thoughts, whatever they are, samadhi is realized. And in samadhi, I don't mean to make it sound too good, but in samadhi there is tremendous energy, calm, more or less endless energy. Wow!

[52:38]

What should I do with this energy? Well, you could sew a lot of Setsu tips. And after you sew yours, anybody who needs help, just, anybody need, I got all this energy, the samadhi's like, what should I do with it? Sew Setsu tips. Because some people are really busy and they sold their Setsu Tip and it needs to be changed. So, you can just announce, you know, or have someone announce for you. There's a lot of Samadhi over here which could be used to maintain the tradition of the Setsu Tip. Also, there's a lot of Setsu Tip here too. stop discursive thought, which led to it, and so on. So samadhi is, again, once the temple cleaning comes up and realizes samadhi, now we can really study the Buddha. And even if it's a lot of trouble, it's kind of like, okay, let's discuss it.

[53:46]

rather than, you know, in this modern world we don't have time to deal with this stuff. Yeah? Unless there's then we have time. And these forms are chances to focus on something and watch all that happens around it, watch all the and resistances. Watch the over-enthusiasm and under-enthusiasm. Do you know over-enthusiasm and under-enthusiasm? Watch that and let it be, and then calm down with the form, use the form to realize the Buddha mind. And again, but not the same. And we can use these forms, you know.

[55:01]

We can stay down too long at the end of the gassho bow. We can spend too much time making the setsu tip perfect. Or being judgmental about other people's setsu tips. And, you know, that wasn't a very good setsu tip they made. Again, that thought can arise and then again we can let that thought be and re-enter samadhi, re-enter temple cleaning. And then have lots of energy and enthusiasm for being friends with people who do not take care of their satsutips. Or myself when I don't want to. the expression, we have this expression in English, where the of the car, where the tire meets the road.

[56:04]

At that point, these forms are where the dharma wheel meets the path. Dharma wheel turns on the path at this particular point, which are surrounded by discursive thought. And how can we be at that point in a calm, undistracted, open, joyful, enthusiastic way? That's what keeps getting tested and surrounded by all this discursive thought which is calling us to do other things, teasing us for being so concentrated. And again, we don't fight this stuff. We do fight it, but then we don't fight that.

[57:09]

Eventually we stop fighting. But there is some fight to get down to the place of, for example, spending your whole life making setsu tips. There's some resistance to that. Like, you know, I resisted going to the mortuary to take care of my teacher's body. That's not what I thought Zen practice was. So, but I accepted it and I went and it was great. Great to give up staying in the Zendo. And again the thought arises, yeah, but there's a point where it gets to be too much. Yeah, right, of course.

[58:10]

And let go of that too. There's a point at which it's not enough, and there's a point at which it's too much. But not enough is too much. Both of them, just let go of it and enter Samadhi. Soto Zen has been criticized as putting too much emphasis on freedom from form. Rinzai Zen I don't think even have satsus. They don't have the Oriyoki practice. And they've been criticized as putting too much emphasis on freedom from form. So we do want freedom from form. But we use form as the path to freedom from form in Soto Zen and also Rinzai Zen.

[59:13]

But Soto Zen could lean into the forms. We could. So maybe we will switch to spatulas someday. And I'm open to that horrific thought. I'm open to the horrific thought of more Oriyoki practice, of Soto Zen stripped of Oriyoki practice. Yeah, I'm open to that. That's a frightening thought. Like also Soto Zen, no more gassho. Can't gassho anymore. It takes too much time. Just say, hey man, what's up bro?

[60:19]

That's enough. You don't have to stop to say it either. And then people start doing high fives. And then they start elaborating them. And that gets to be too much. It's on and on. Human life, right? It's a challenge. It's so hard. Some of the stuff in the temple is really hard. So hard to allow to be. To allow the anger and the hatred to allow it to be. It's really hard. But it is. but the anger and the hatred is calling to be listened to. So we have opportunity to listen to the calls with and listening to the calls with ears of compassion.

[61:26]

The ocean of samadhi is realized. Maybe this is the Zen that Suzuki Roshi was referring to when he says, this Zen unlocks the treasury of the Buddhist teaching. The Samadhi is coming. Please take care of it.

[62:31]

May our intention

[62:37]

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