Before I came here this morning, I was thinking of something to talk to you about. And I had this idea that you're going to be sitting here for several more days, and that you have been sitting here for a couple of weeks or so, and then most of you will continue to sit for the rest of the week. And I thought, well, for me to come and talk to these people about sitting still is what we call in English, I don't exactly want to preach to the choir.

[01:07]

More what I want to do is sing the songs of our school to the choir so that the choir is in their hearts and that these songs will be resonating in your hearts for the rest of your life. the songs of sitting still. Songs honoring and worshiping the practice of sitting still. Songs that live in the hearts who are sitting still. So each of us, in a sense, needs to be a singer, a choir member doing our part to keep the songs of the school alive.

[02:19]

Again, you've heard this maybe hundreds of times, that the overall character of this school or of this source is simply devoted to sitting. is being simply devoted to sitting, totally engaged in a mobile sitting. Just working on sitting, remaining in an unmoving state, moment by moment. And I would often add, it's simply devotion to the ceremony of sitting. This is something which we, as karma, perform.

[03:41]

We perform the ceremony of sitting because we are sentient beings. And when we perform this ceremony as sentient beings, we are doing Buddha's work. simply devoted to sitting. The founder of Zen Center, our compassionate ancestor, Shogaku Shinryu, said, our practice is just to be ourselves. The practice to just be yourself is the practice of just sitting still. that may seem sometimes restrictive, restrictive, confining. We are restricted, constricted, confined beings.

[04:53]

And we had trouble feeling that. We had trouble being limited, bound by time and space. Just to be ourselves is to be limited without adding anything or subtracting anything, without being bigger or smaller than we are. And this is difficult for us to accept, just to be ourselves, just to sit still. And in this limitedness of our being, and in this being still with this, in being still with where we are, in this stillness, which we aren't adding anything, which we're not making, something's going on.

[06:07]

a life, a great life is happening in the stillness. There is receiving and transmitting of the stillness in the stillness. there is a great grace, a great gift is coming, is being given and received in the stillness. And also it is being transmitted and given We're sitting together and receiving this gift of sitting still and transmitting it. You are, when you sit still, you are transmitting the stillness of the Buddhas.

[07:14]

You are receiving the stillness of the Buddhas. It's been given to you, it's been given to me, and we transmit it. This is the stillness that is transmitted in the Buddha way. In this stillness there is a radiant, dynamic, blissful, liberating activity. A boundless activity in this restricted situation. If we are still. If we move away, we miss it. If we try to get it, we miss it. But as most of us know, it's difficult not to have a little bit of wiggling away here.

[08:21]

So we're here to train. in total devotion to sitting perfectly still. There's a song about the Buddhas. The song is, They Sit Still. There's a song about the Buddha that the Buddha sat under the bow tree and didn't move. There's a song about the ancestor, Yakusan Igen, Yaoshan, that he sat still. So there's a suggestion to us. Ehe Dogen Dayosho.

[09:24]

The suggestion is to realize the state of the Buddhas, to realize the state of Yaoshan, the state of the ancestors. We need to learn to receive and participate in resolute stillness. We need to receive authentic transmission of resolute stillness. And we need to investigate it. And this is the investigation of the stillness which is transmitted in the Buddha way.

[10:31]

And walking over the bridge, over the little creek up there, I thought of realizing the state of the Buddha. And as a human being, I think, oh, realize the state of the Buddha? How? By receiving the stillness transmitted by the Buddhas and transmitting the stillness. That's how to realize the state of the Buddhas. But then, now that's realized, the human being thinks, well, that's that. Now I can do some other stuff. But it occurs to me Well, yeah, that does realize it, but then what about realizing it again? And again, step by step, realize, realize the state of the Buddhas, step by step through life.

[11:42]

Like Lily Armstrong says, I see friends shaking hands, saying, how do you do? What they're really saying is, I love you. I see friends shaking hands, saying, how do you do? What they're really doing is being still together and transmitting this Buddha to each other. That's really what's happening. moment by moment. And that's the same as, I love you. I think some of you have already realized that when we sit still, when we really surrender to being where we are, being still, we do discover a tremendous vitality.

[13:06]

sitting still with no completely surrendering to sitting still receiving the transmission of sitting still and giving to all beings giving this great liberating space of stillness to all beings is very vital very alive but if there's an art to sitting still without without confining ourselves any further than we're confined. Just to gently, calmly, generously, patiently accept the limitations of the moment. To learn to do that. we find a place of stillness where our vitality is fully realized.

[14:12]

And I think many of you have entered this realm which is tremendously dynamic, unmoving and dynamic, unmoving and tremendous activity in stillness. We chant from Bendowa, the Jiju Yuzanmai section, the self-receiving and employing section of Bendowa. We recite, and therein is described the activity that occurs in stillness. And when we read it, we often think, really something that this would all be going on in a moment of stillness. It's hard to actually believe it. Could it be that everybody's helping everybody out in the stillness of the Buddhas?

[15:17]

It's what's being proposed. In the next few days I wish into the examination of the activity that occurs in stillness. But to make things simple, today maybe what I've said now is enough for us to see to the stillness. Not make ourselves still, Not push ourselves still. Not hold tight to ourselves. But give ourselves. Donate our life. Donate our karmic consciousness. Give everything to the moment.

[16:21]

Relax into the stillness of the moment. And then maybe we will discover it. And wouldn't that be fine? And we'll see what we find We'll see what we find in the stillness. There's a lot of possibilities. I don't know what we will find in sitting still. I don't know what the ancestors, which will be discovered in this stillness, I don't know what it will be like.

[17:50]

I want to just mention to you that I I'm conflicted about whether I should be in a zendo every period or not. And I have been giving in to leaving the room and going and sitting still in another room. I'm in another room sometimes and I'm giving myself I'm devoting myself to sitting still in the other room. And people come into the room, practice stillness there too. And sometimes they come in because they are not sure that sitting still is right for them.

[18:52]

They think maybe they should not be sitting still. Maybe they need to do something besides being still. They're not sure that they can really sitting still, so they come in and we talk about it, and sometimes when they leave they feel like, okay, I'm ready to sit still. So in a way, I'm in that room sitting still, and other people are in other rooms sitting still, welcoming you to come and get encouraged to sit still. But if nobody needs any encouragement, then I guess nobody will sign up, to go in another room and get encouragement to sit still. And then everybody will be in the room here all the time. So I kind of understand in a way that the meetings we have where we talk about everything under the sun, everything under the moon, everything under the stars, we're really just trying to encourage ourselves to realize the state of stillness of the Buddhas.

[19:56]

And sometimes we have to wait a while before we are ready to be still together. And then we come back in the room with the larger group. Round and round we go. And there are stories of people who were sitting in the room and felt like, this is fine for me. I'm like really fine just sitting here in the room. I don't talk to the teacher. And they do that for years and they're really feeling pretty good about just sitting still in the monastery. And then the head monk comes to them and said, you never went to see the teacher.

[20:59]

And the monk says, yeah, that's right. So we should go see the teacher at least once in all these years, even though you're fine just sitting in the zendo. In the story I'm thinking of, the head monk didn't say, the teacher is sitting there in his room. He needs your help. Go encourage him. Go transmit stillness to him. Help him out. He needs from you. So maybe even if you're completely satisfied sitting, you still might go see a teacher and encourage the teacher to sit still. But you might not do that for... You might wait.

[22:02]

But I just wanted to tell you that I feel... that I want to practice sitting still in the room, the little interview room, the same as here. And there's some difficulty about that for me. And I actually want to practice sitting still in other rooms and on the path and in the kitchen. I want to. And I want to do that in order to realize ancestors and transmit that state. So great choir

[23:12]

who sings the songs of the Buddhadharma. Please sing on, wholeheartedly.

[23:25]

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