At the last one-day sitting, I was asked to be the storyteller, so I told some stories about Zazen. And I thought I would maybe tell some more stories about Zazen tonight. Is that okay? You want that? Yes. And I'm not complaining, but I wrote my sort of summary of the talk there. Do you have any more of these? This one is... I'm weak. Do you have any more of these? You see that the B.S. here? It's kind of not very strong.

[01:02]

B.S. is the acronym for bodhisattva. Bodhi-sattva. So now I'd love it to see the all. and then practices. All bodhisattva practices. Zen. Zen is a word that some of us use as shorthand for all bodhisattva practices. And zazen is an expression that we use, that I use, and I think some other people use, to refer to all bodhisattva practices.

[02:15]

And then there are infinite bodhisattva practices. Do the guest students know the word bodhisattva? No? Yes? Bodhisattva is Sanskrit, and it was first used to refer to the Buddha in the process of evolution to Buddhahood. So before the Buddha realized Buddhahood, the Buddha referred to himself as the Bodhisattva. So bodhisattva is a being, is a process of realizing Buddha. And there's infinite practices involved in this process. But they're summarized sometimes. Sometimes all those practices are summarized by the word Zen.

[03:19]

or the word zazen. So, as I mentioned, when we have like a one-day sitting, or we have a schedule which says, like, 5 o'clock a.m. zazen, but one could also write 5 a.m. Buddha activity. All bodhisattva practices. our practice starting at 5 a.m. and then going to 5.40. Then you do kinin. Kinin is another abbreviation for all bodhisattva practices. Some people at kinin time, as you may have noticed, go out to the toilet. But all bodhisattva practices include going to the toilet.

[04:24]

Infinite practices include infinite activities, and they're summarized by, for example... Oh, sorry to interrupt you, but I think that's a sharpie marker. Oh, no! Uh-oh. Good luck. I'm going to get it off real quick. If you scribble the Expo marker over it, it'll erase. If you just scribble... I could take care of it tomorrow. It'll get it off. Want to try to erase it? Go ahead. Does anyone have a picture? This lesson will live on forever.

[05:40]

This type of practice of infinite, they include Jesus giving something which will ruin the world. You can say thank you again. Another summary of the infinite practices that realize Buddhahood. Sometimes people say lead to Buddhahood, but in a way that's not accurate. Infinite practices which realize it. And so they're also summarized by the word Zen. There's a historical story that there was a school that actually became prominent in China prior to the Zen school.

[06:40]

It was called Tianhai, a great school of Chinese Buddhism. And it was also a school about all the bodhisattva practices, And they summarized all the bodhisattva practices by the word Zen. And the founder was called a Zen master. Later he changed his mind and chose another term to describe all bodhisattva practices, which instead of Zen or Chan, he chose the word jir-guan, which means shamatha, which translates as shamatha vipassana, or calming and contemplating.

[07:57]

he started to use this term to describe all bodhisattva practices. And there's other schools of Mahayana Buddhism that have simple terms to describe an infinite number of practices. In particular, another summary, a little longer summary of bodhisattva practices is the six paramitas, or the six perfections of bodhisattva. So there's giving, Ethical training, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. Zen is all of those practices, Zazen is all of those practices.

[09:01]

That's the story I'm telling. And it is quite frequently people think, therefore I have to say it to counterbalance it, people think that Zen, or Zazen, is number five. One, two, three, four. People think that Zen, or Zazen, is the fifth practice of concentration. Which is correct. But they think that's all there is to it. Which is not the way I would use the word Zen. When we give Zazen instruction to beginners, we show them how to get into the room. We show them how to get onto their seat.

[10:04]

We show them how to take care of their posture. Showing them how to get into the room includes, in this school, all bodhisattva practices. Thank you. We don't usually say that to the beginners, we just show them how to get into the room. And then we show them how to make the posture. And some of the instructors also suggested to them that they follow their breathing. And following the breathing is often considered a concentration practice. It's a way to let go of thinking and to calm down. That fifth practice of concentration in reality includes infinite practices.

[11:25]

So in the way that concentration includes all the practices, It's zazen. But the way giving includes all practices is zazen. And the way ethical discipline includes all practices is zazen. And the way patience includes all practices is zazen. So if you're sitting in the zendo at your place and you're practicing patience with your thoughts, your discomforts, your opinions about other people, if you're practicing patience, and that patience, in the way that that patience includes all bodhisattva practices, that is the practice of zazen. If you're practicing concentration, in reality it includes all the other perfections, but if you think that it by itself

[12:34]

is anything, not to mention that it's zazen, I would say you don't understand what zazen means in the bodhisattva practice. In bodhisattva practice, no practice exists by itself. And you can practice concentration with the understanding that you're doing Buddha activity, which is that you're following your breathing, and this following the breathing you're doing with commitment to the activity of Buddhas. And with the commitment that this is giving, this is ethical training, this is patience, This is enthusiasm, as in being full of God or full of your bodhisattva vows.

[13:36]

Practicing following your breathing and you're full of the bodhisattva vows. You're not doing this just for yourself. You're not doing it just by yourself. You're doing it to express your commitment that this following the breathing you're doing is testifying to the practice which is all bodhisattva practices and which is the practice which you are practicing together with everybody. So no matter what you're doing, when you do it with that understanding, it is zazen. It is Buddha activity. And I could almost say, use the word, of course, or you might not be surprised to hear me say, that when a Buddha practices, a Buddha does all Buddha practices.

[14:38]

Buddhas don't do part of their practice when they practice, they do their whole practice. And their whole practice is the practice of all beings. It is all the bodhisattva practices in everything they do. When the Buddhists drink water, they practice giving. They don't take the water. When the Buddhists drink water, they practice ethical discipline. When the Buddhists drink water, they practice patience. They practice enthusiasm for this practice. They're practicing concentration. They're practicing wisdom, of course. Right? When you practice in that same way, you practice like a Buddha. And that's zazen. So zazen includes concentration practice. It includes concentration practice, and it includes concentration practice. But it's not just concentration practice. It's also patience, enthusiasm, wisdom.

[15:47]

And the attitude that what I'm doing here, I'm doing by myself, is not in accord with zazen. And the attitude that what's being done here, not by myself, but together with everybody, that attitude is the attitude of zazen. But the attitude that I'm not practicing together with everybody, I'm all by myself, that is not what we mean by zazen. That's what we mean by ordinary people's deluded thinking. However, if deluded thinking is going on, at that very moment, if you realize you who are involved in deluded thinking are practicing together with all beings, so you have the thought you're practicing all by yourself, that deluded thought, and while you're having that thought, to have another thought, which is, that's a deluded thought, And I, the deluded one, am practicing together with all beings who might also have some delusions, but even though they do, I'm practicing with them.

[16:54]

And they're practicing with me. And all the Buddhists are not the slightest bit different from us. But they've realized that. And I am trying to remember that and devote myself, give my life to that practice. So that might be, I don't know, is that clear to the guest students? Yes? Can you just explain the mechanism by which, like I totally understand how in Zazen you're also practicing patience and wisdom, but the mechanism by which you're eating lots of water, it's also practicing ethical disciplines. How in that act are they able to practice? Like if you're drinking water? Yeah, like drinking water and using that action to drink water to practice that.

[17:58]

Could I do another example before I do the water example? Yeah. Could I do putting the hearing aid in? Yeah. When a Buddha picks up a hearing aid, they do so in an ethical way. So how would that be? For example, they wouldn't be taking a wife when they put the hearing aid in. They would be aware that putting the hearing aid in was an opportunity to practice not killing. Also, this hearing aid is not taken. They receive it. And they're not denying that they're doing that. And they're not looking down on this fact that this is like putting hearing aids in and we have more advanced, more wonderful practices. That would be unethical. to downgrade some human activity, and look down on it, and speak of it in a way, or think of it in a way, that didn't encourage people to respect this particular act, which the Buddha is doing.

[19:07]

This is a Buddha act, but Buddhas do Buddha acts, and Buddha acts are not to be disparaged. not to be looked down upon, not to be lied upon, not to be attached to, so the Buddha's practiced in putting the hearing aid in without being attached to the hearing aid insertion process. This is what normally the lay Buddha would put hearing aids in. by in accord with ethical discipline. And the Buddha had practiced ethical discipline so that when putting hearing aids in, it's in accord with that. Also patience, like what if the hearing aid doesn't work, or if the attendant broke it. Patience. Or what about enthusiasm? The Buddha, and advanced Bodhisattvas, are full of joy at the prospect not so much of putting hearing aids in as to use the opportunity of putting hearing aids in to express ethical discipline and to practice patience if they don't go in properly or don't work.

[20:23]

They also are practicing enthusiasm while they're putting hearing aids in. Also about concentration. They naturally let their thoughts that are going on be and let go of them, and therefore they're not distracted by their thoughts. So they're concentrated in the process of hearing aid adjustments and assertions. And about wisdom. Of course, they understand what hearing aids are, and what hearing aids are, and what they are, and what everybody else is, so that they actually see wisdom while they put hearing aids in. Bodhisattvas are trained to practice that way. So, the same with water, drinking water. You give yourself. You make drinking water an act of generosity. You receive it as an act of generosity.

[21:28]

You drink it as an act of generosity. You give yourself to it and you don't take anything. You practice ethics when you drink water. You practice patience when you drink water. You practice enthusiasm. You practice concentration. There's a... In the bathroom... Have you heard of Cloud Hall? Have you heard of the Cloud Hall bathrooms? Have you heard of the Cloud Hall bathroom altars? Altars? there's an altar there outside the bath. Did you see it? Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's an altar there. And it's got a picture of 16 bodhisattvas. They look like male bodhisattvas or a pair of topless female bodhisattvas. And it refers to a story of 16 bodhisattvas who went to take a bath.

[22:33]

And then they were asked, and they were enlightened when they touched the water When they enter the bath, they touch the water, and as they touch the water, they practice generosity. Ethical patience. Ethical patience. They did that when they touched the water, and they realized enlightenment in that way of taking a bath. So the Buddha, of course, takes baths that way. Bodhisattvas are learning to take baths in such a way that when they encounter, when they touch the water, it's satsang. It's all those practices. And there's no, yeah, there's nothing, there's not an opportunity to bring Buddha activity to it. So even all the suffering of the world is an opportunity to practise generosity, ethics, patience.

[23:47]

Another statement which we often repeat is, when you practise like that, when you go to the bathroom, And you're making the gestures of opening the bathroom door and so on. When all your physical actions of going to the bathroom, which include often being quiet, and what you're thinking when you're going to the bathroom, all those physical karmas and mental karmas which you're doing, each one of them is an opportunity to express ourselves in. to express these practices. And when you do that, it isn't just that you get to be doing this Buddha activity, but everybody's included in it. So it's not a selfish Buddha bliss. It's a Buddha bliss that includes everybody. That's Zazen. Zazen is not my practice by myself.

[24:49]

It's not your practice by yourself. It's the same practice as you and me. That's satsang. These bodhisattva practices are the same practice as you and other beings. So it's great if you engage in these practices and also everybody's included. If they're not included, that's not what I would mean by satsang. I would mean by that human delusion. But again, human delusion is just human thought. And when you have human delusion, that could be the opportunity to do these practices, which will wake you up to that you're not doing these practices alone. I have the impression that the Buddha, prior to complete enlightenment, thought he was practicing by himself.

[25:58]

He woke up to the practice that we're doing together. And then he taught it. But if people weren't ready for that perspective, he would let them think that they were doing it by themselves for quite a while. And then they would wake up to that they weren't doing it by themselves. They would wake up to that it was a delusion that they themselves, by themselves, were doing the practice. But usually people start that way. Yes? Would you say something about the relationship between our sitting meditation practice, as we often think of it, and realizing Buddha activity in this complete way that you're talking about?

[27:08]

Well, again, what I mean by our sitting meditation practice, what I mean by that is that when you sit, you are, like I said this morning, you are maintaining the essential working of Buddhas, which is practice, which is enlightenment. When you do our practice, the practice you're doing, sitting at your place, is the practice of enlightenment. Your practice is the realization of enlightenment. I think what I'm getting at is there's something particular about sitting still together in the zendo that We do, and though I can be drinking water or putting hearing aids in and doing all the myriad other things that exist to be done, there's this particular activity that we commit to doing, and I imagine that there's some insight into that being somehow conducive to realizing that activity.

[28:19]

Yeah, I think that makes sense that you might feel that way. Because it does say sitting, right? Sitting Zen. And again, sitting, Buddha activity. So you're saying, well, how come the sitting? Why say sitting? Why don't you just say Buddha activity or Zen? So there's, you know, I could say that there could be quite a few theories about how come they came up with this, with the sitting. One theory would be, well, Buddha was sitting under the Bodhi tree. So maybe that's part of the reason why we say sitting. But the sitting is, I would say, is to help us become free of sitting. But you might say, why not use standing to become free of standing?

[29:23]

And I don't know. And then some people say, well, sitting's... Everything good I might say about sitting is just more opportunities to not get attached to the sitting. So sitting is chosen as the form that we don't attach to, rather than putting hearing aids in as the form we don't attach to. Thinking there's something to do, some relationship with the sitting and the shamatha, that maybe not all other activities are so conducive to for beginners. Well, I would say maybe, but type of walking is also conducive to Samatha. What inspires people to go to the Zendo? Buddha. Buddha inspires people to go to the Zendo.

[30:26]

If sitting and all other activities are equal, as they may ultimately be understood to be, I would say that people feel inspired... I felt inspired to go to Zendo's when I found out that the people I most appreciated went to Zendo's. That's what inspired me. Do you follow that? So I wasn't interested in going to Zendo's, and then I... and then I found... but I was interested in being like some people, and then I found out those people go to Zendo's. that that's part of their training. So now today, I would say, they got trained, and they probably also went to Zen Dos because somebody that they really appreciated also went to the Zen Do. And they were inspired by that person to go. As I often say, Csikszentmihalyi said to me, the job of the Zen priest is to encourage people to practice Zazen.

[31:32]

So part of that might be encourage them to go to a Zen Do. But in a way, the more good things you say about the sitting posture, and you could say a lot of good things about it, the more you say that, the better the chance to help people become free of it. Because the more good things you say about it, the more likely they are to attach to it. And when you have something that people really attach to, it's a great opportunity to become free. So we set this thing up as the best thing to do so that people won't attach to it. But usually before they don't attach to it, they're attached to many things, so we, in a way, offer an opportunity to get really attached so they can realize not attachment. And we not only say good things about it, which some people do, they say really good things about it, but they don't go sit in a zendo.

[32:37]

And people say, what they say Zazen is good, but they don't go. Somebody else doesn't even say anything, but they go, and they say, wow. And then they watch the way the people who go a lot, how they behave, and they also watch how they attach to the practice. And if I saw that people were practicing sitting in zendos and were attached to it, I wouldn't have come to Zen. What I heard was stories of people who practiced and weren't attached to it, but went a lot. So it's easy not to be attached to Zazen if you don't practice it. A lot of people are not attached to Zazen who don't practice it. But to go, day after day, year after year, and be not attached to it. That is what attracted me to Zen. People who are totally devoted to something that they weren't attached to. Like totally devoted to being a meditator, totally devoted to being a bodhisattva, and not attached to it.

[33:45]

And you can go up to them and say, you are like a total phony bodhisattva. And they say, ooh. and you're the best bodhisattva there ever was. And they go, who? And how did they get to be like that? Well, by going to the Zendo and probably being attached to Zazen for a few minutes or a few years or a few decades. And finally they stopped being attached to this practice which they were devoted to and became the kind of person that attracts people to whatever training they did. Because the training they did made them a great bodhisattva. But in the process of training, they became free of the training which they wholeheartedly practiced. In other words, when we practice wholeheartedly, we aren't attached to the thing we're practicing. As we approach it, we might be attached to the practice.

[34:46]

And speaking of the virtues of these practices helps us get engaged helps us to get more and more wholeheartedly engaged, and in the process, while we're doing this really good thing, we might attach to it. Usually that would happen. And then as the practice becomes more wholehearted, we continue it without being attached to it. And not being attached to it, actually, we could continue it better. You know, again, forever. because we're not draining ourselves by being attached to this really good thing. So, everything's a good opportunity for non-attachment. But if you don't care about a thing, you may not even notice that you're attached to it. When you really care about it, you can feel, like, holding on to it. Okay, this is good. We're getting close to realizing Buddhahood by this practice. So again, I work on my practice.

[35:57]

Whenever I sit, I work on my practice. I mean, I work on my posture. I work on my posture. Moment after moment, I work on my posture. Not every moment, but many, many moments in each sitting, I work on my posture. And I see working on my posture as an opportunity to maintain the essential activity of all Buddhas. I mean to do that. I mean my care for my posture. I donate it to the Buddha Way. But it isn't that taking care of my posture exactly is the Buddha way. I mean, it is, but I have to say so. And I do.

[36:58]

And I say it to you too. Can you say a little bit more about what you mean by taking care of your posture? Do you mean keeping everything kind of aligned or kind of keeping up on your work? Yep, keeping everything in alignment, addressing all my pains, practicing patience with my pain, being ethical with my pain, being generous with my pain, being enthusiastic not about my pain exactly, but being enthusiastic about practicing with my pain in those ways, and being enthusiastic about using this postural activity that I'm doing as an opportunity for Buddha activity.

[38:05]

Because the teaching is that the earth, grass, posture adjustments, all dharmas are engaged in Buddha activity. So I'm joining that dharma teaching through, for example, whatever I'm doing. And one of the things I spend quite a bit of time on is working on posture. And not just in the Zendo, but when I'm walking around, And I actually, yeah, so far I haven't felt like I ever am working too much on my posture. I feel like I work less on my posture than... I sometimes don't use all the wonderful opportunities. I occasionally, or maybe more than occasionally, forget about standing upright. And I'm sorry about that.

[39:10]

But I'm not sorry that I want to pay attention to my posture. And I'm not sorry that paying attention to my posture is engaged in Buddha activity. I'm not sorry about that. I'm very happy about that. I just wondered, like, when you say that you're practicing the Paramita, you say that you're kind of practicing Buddha activity, it almost sounds like it'd be easy to understand that as you kind of consciously raising to mind the teaching that this is Buddha activity, and while you're doing something, saying, I am doing that Buddha activity, or I am going to practice patience right now, but I wonder... Well, I don't so much say, I don't actually say, I'm practicing Buddha activity, I say, this is Buddha activity. But do you say it? I say it. Is that the practice, to say it? No, no, no. I mean, yes, when I say it, when I say it, it's the practice.

[40:13]

And when I say it, that's the realization. When I say, this is Buddha activity, or this is being used to express Buddha activity, when I say that, that speech, that talk, I'm saying that as Buddha activity, yes. And then I'm referring to, for example, my posture or my speaking. Is there something underneath that that's going on? There's nothing underneath. It's just, there's nothing underneath. And the enlightenment isn't underneath it, or on top of it, or next to it. It is it. It is practice enlightenment. It is practice realization. And I remind the world by saying, this is practice realization. This practice is realization. And that thought occurs in a consciousness where I live.

[41:17]

And speaking that, occurs in a consciousness where there's an I. And also there's some teachings which go along with that the I is not the one that's saying that, but the I lives in the place where that statement is said. So the I that's in this consciousness gets to be around that kind of talk, And so there's the I, there's this is practice realization, or this practice of talking this way is realization, or this talking is practice and realization. And then there's also some joy there, but the I doesn't own the joy or own the statement or do the joy or do the statement, even though there might be a thought, I'm doing the practice realization. But there's also the thought, that is nonsense. And that also is included.

[42:22]

And right now what I'm saying is in consciousness. And what I'm saying is engaged in Buddha activity. And are we waking up to that right now? And I say, yes, we are. We are in the process of waking up to this teaching. Yes. My mind wants to jump from, like, forgetting about posture as delusion, and then the moment of remembering posture as enlightenment, and then there's a thought of, like, well, that seems delusional to even make that delineation. Where's the enlightenment in these thoughts and discernments? Yeah, so what I heard just now was a story about the way your mind's working,

[43:28]

And it was the activity of your mind. You gave us a picture of your mental karma. And that mental karma could be used to express Buddha mind. But I didn't hear you say that. Did you say that? I miss it? You created this, you conveyed this scenario of your mind, how your mind works. That way that you described, that could be used in that moment as practice realization. There's like a, how can I tell?

[44:36]

And then it seems to be, I can't tell. Well, there's how can I tell? And that sounds like another moment of karmic consciousness. In this case, the karma is in the form of asking a question, how can I tell? Which might include some interest in telling. Some wish to be able to tell. So that's a karmic consciousness where somebody's there, maybe he has a name, And there's a wish to be able to tell what's going on. That quite commonly occurs in karmic consciousness. But we don't have to wait for that wish to be able to tell to go away to do this practice. So if I was trying to be able to tell whether this was practice enlightenment, or whether what, whatever, that would be what I would use in that moment. That would be what is engaged in Buddha activity at that moment.

[45:39]

And if I hesitate or get excited, I will miss that thing which you just told me about. But I'm trying to train so that I don't miss the example you gave, and that you wouldn't miss that example. have to start not you have to stop skipping over you know what you're being offered by the universe as your mind stop skipping over that in order to realize how it is that your mind is doing buddha activity but that doesn't mean get skip over also doesn't mean get rid of what you that's skipping over is a form of get rid of this one and get a better one So the mind which wants to figure out whether or not this is practice realization is the type of mind we use for practice realization. The mind which does not want to figure it out is another one. The mind which has figured it out is another one. These are all ordinary karmic consciousnesses.

[46:46]

But part of karmic consciousness is, skipping over this one, to get one where we would know we're practicing. Because we kind of would like to know that in this particular setting. Some settings people are not at all interested. They want to know whether people like them or not. And that sometimes happens here too. But if you have a consciousness trying to know whether people like you or not, that's your opportunity. Earth, grass, trees... Do people like me or not? are all engaged in Buddha activity. If you don't skip over earth, you realize it. You practice, realize it. You practice, realize it. You practice. You practice with You practice with whatever thoughts in your mind. You practice with whatever opinion. You practice with whatever feeling. I don't like these people. These people don't like me. These people are turkeys. These people are chickens. These people are humans.

[47:51]

These are thoughts that occur in the mind and various feelings about them are occurring in the mind. They're all doing Buddha activity. We have to fully engage each one. We have to learn to fully engage each one in order to wake up to that they are Buddha activity. Buddha activity is a practice which is a realization. How do you fully engage something you're not aware of? Like if there's forgetfulness, there's like a lapse in awareness. I have no idea how to do that. I have plenty of stuff that I'm aware of though, don't you? I have plenty of stuff that I'm aware of which I don't use. And I'm sorry about those. But I have the opportunity to receive this body and mind and not skip over it and use it to practice enlightenment. And my understanding is that the teaching of practice enlightenment is not saying skip over what's going on and skip over to the next moment, which might be a better one to use for the same purpose which you just skipped.

[49:02]

But usually that habit of skipping over this leads you to skip over the next one. Because when you skip over it, it transforms your unconscious process which transforms your body, and your body gives rise to more minds which are passing up on this opportunity of practice. Like practice what? Practice looking at what's going on in my mind and having that be the realization. Practice looking at, being aware of my posture. Practice that I would like to get a hold of what's going on. Practice that I'd like to figure out whether or not I'm practicing. These are very common thoughts that we have in this community. Plus the ones that people have all over the world. basically thoughts of survival. You know, am I okay, am I okay? I heard this rock song, you know, everybody's thinking, am I okay, am I okay? It's pervasive in human life that we're anxious about that.

[50:08]

All those am I okays are anxiety. All those anxieties are opportunity to practice with those practices which again summarize, be zen with them, be with them completely, be wholeheartedly with whatever is going on. Well, I think it's good that there's a number of hands raised, but we usually end these events at 8.30, right? So nobody has to stay up late. So shall we end? So we'll be done at 8.30? Is that okay? No? Yes? Do you support this ending now? Okay? Are we enthusiastic about this? Is this an opportunity for practice realization? Is it?

[51:10]

Okay, here we go. Okay.

[51:12]

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