Earlier this morning I heard the words, enlightenment is living in stillness. Buddha is living in the stillness of samadhi. The samadhi where Buddhas are living has been talked about in many ways, has been named many names, and it has also been said that it is unnameable.

[01:24]

One of the names for the samadhi in which Buddhas live is the self-receiving and employing samadhi. This name is the name particularly that describes the Buddha sitting under the Tree of Enlightenment. This is a name for the body and mind of the Buddha sitting under the Tree of Enlightenment in India, where the Buddha is receiving the Buddha and employing the Buddha in Samadhi. This samadhi is the samadhi of complete perfect enlightenment. Another name for the samadhi of the Buddhas is the precious mirror samadhi.

[02:52]

The samadhi of the teaching of suchness. The samadhi of intimate transmission of the samadhi. The samadhi of the intimate transmission of the samadhi. It's a samadhi that transmits itself to all beings. Although this samadhi is not fabricated, it's unproduced, unmade, and no words reach it, it is not without words. This samadhi expresses itself and we can hear it in words that don't reach it. The nature of our human life is our words do not reach this samadhi.

[04:11]

And yet we must use words not to reach it, because they don't, but to realize it. So the samadhi talks to humans so that humans can realize the samadhi. We use words to reach, to realize what cannot be reached by words, what is beyond words. We use thinking to realize what thinking cannot reach. And human beings would like to, maybe would like to avoid using words since they don't really reach, but we do need them in order to realize. this samadhi.

[05:14]

There may be other samadhis, perhaps, I don't know. There may be some samadhis that words reach, and those too you might need words to reach them, to realize them, and maybe you can reach that samadhi. But the samadhi which is the Buddha mind and body, that samadhi is not reached by our words. There are endless dimensions and aspects of the Buddha's samadhi, of the ancestor samadhi. Unlimited, unbeginning, unending songs celebrating the Buddha mind, which is a samadhi. the beginning we give a beginning instruction at Zen Center people come to what's called Zazen instruction and we give them instruction at the beginning of this instruction for beginning instruction we give them instruction which is like the instruction given by Indian ancestors and Chinese ancestors and Japanese ancestors

[07:03]

The instruction is on how to take care of the body, how to take care of the sitting posture. That's how the instruction, at least when I do it, that's how I start. I start by giving instruction about how to take care of the body, how to sit on the cushion, how to take care of the torso and the arms and the hands and the neck and the head and the eyes and the forehead and the mouth, instructions about these things. After giving the instructions about the posture, I could say, now you have received instructions about the posture.

[08:21]

Now you are in a good position. where you are, and you may receive, you may receive the Buddha mind. Now that you're here, you may receive the Buddha mind and you may live it, employ it. become it and transmit it. I have never said that at the beginning of Zazen instruction, but that could be done. If we give instruction about

[09:38]

how to take care of the body posture, and we just stop there, the people who are listening, they might say thank you and practice. Or they might say, isn't there something I can do? Or what do I do with my mind, they might say. And there may be many responses to that, but one response might be, let it go. It would depend on the circumstances what the response would be.

[10:43]

You could also say, Take care of it. Take care of your posture and take care of the mind. Or you could say, take care of the mind by taking care of the posture. Just take care of the posture and that will take care of the mind. And then the people might say, well, how do you do that? You might say, no one knows how to take care of it. The ancestors have told us that they took care of their posture. And the way they took care of their posture is kind of like the way we say.

[11:47]

And they took care of their mind when they were taking care of their posture. And when asked how they take care of their posture and how they take care of their mind, they said by doing nothing at all. And then again, how do you do nothing at all? Even the 10,000 sages don't know how the mind is cared for in the Ancestor Samadhi. In the Ancestor Samadhi, in the Buddha Samadhi, body and mind are cared for they're nurtured, they're loved, and they're released. And if you want to know how, well, someone might tell you how, and then you might say, well, how do you do that?

[12:59]

And they might tell you how to do that, but no matter what they tell you, you'll never know, and neither will I know how the ancestors take care of not doing anything at all. Bodhidharma said, calm the mind with no contrivance. Samadhi-fy the mind with no contrivance. with no technique, with no strategy, with no trick, with no plan. Calming the mind in the Ancestry Samadhi is not a conscious endeavor.

[14:08]

But many people cannot stand that instruction, so they are sometimes given tricks, stratagems, plans, schemes. I just recently learned the etymology of the word maneuver. They're given many maneuvers or many moves, many moves that they can make. Got the posture. Don't move. I can't stand it. Tell me some way to move. Okay, here's a way to move. The word maneuver is kind of like man, ovra. It's the handwork, some way to get your hands on your mind. How do you take care of the mind?

[15:15]

Can I have a maneuver? Sure, here's a maneuver. But the instruction is, calm the mind without any maneuvers, without moving, without any contrivance. And again, many people just can't stand to just sit here. So they're given something to do. And by taking care of that, they might realize how to take care of the technique without doing anything. They couldn't just take care of the posture without doing anything, so we gave them a technique. Now maybe they learned to take care of the technique without doing anything. Okay, fine. We finally got there. So the beginning instruction is the posture. which is pretty standard across the whole Buddhist world.

[16:21]

This is the posture, sitting upright. And the most advanced instruction is, this is the posture, this is the sitting posture. That's the practice. Just that. Just that sitting posture is the practice. And just the sitting posture is letting go of the sitting posture. This is the sitting posture. Now become free of the sitting posture. How? The sitting posture. How do you become free of the sitting posture? The sitting posture. Would you please explain? The sitting posture? Yes, the sitting posture.

[17:21]

Would you give me some way to maneuver that? Sure, here's a way. The samadhi is beyond all human contrivance, endeavor, maneuver, plans and so on. You have the sitting posture. Take care of it. And feel that you maybe want some way to do that. Take care of that wish to have some way to take care of it and have some way to take care of some way to take care of rather than take care of.

[18:27]

What do I do now? Take care of it. How do I take care of, take care of it? Well, take care of, taking care of it. How do I take care of, taking care of, taking care of it? Well, taking care of it. In the Phukan Zazengi that we chant, it says this sitting has nothing to do with sitting or lying down. This samadhi has nothing to do with sitting or lying down. Another teaching from Dogen is sit upright and become free of sitting and become free of lying down and become free of walking and become free of standing sit and become free of sitting by sitting don't use another thing to become free of sitting but if you do then become free of that.

[19:36]

But one way to become free of it is don't even start. Just stay with the sitting and use the sitting to become free of sitting. This is called sitting. This is called the Buddhist sitting. The Buddhist sitting is sitting and sitting and sitting. That's the Buddhist sitting. And each moment of sitting is simultaneously freedom from sitting. That's how Buddhists sit. This is Buddhist samadhi. a samadhi which is continually free of the samadhi. And if there's a request for a technique to become free of the samadhi, then here's the technique, and now that you have the technique, now the thing is to become free of that technique. We have the opportunity here, now, and always to receive the Buddha Samadhi and to live it.

[21:01]

And to live it every moment, with or as every activity. We don't use our activity as a contrivance to realize the samadhi. We are told not to do that. There are other words.

[24:27]

This posture expresses the Buddha's samadhi. These words express the Buddha's samadhi. These thoughts express the Buddha's samadhi. All these activities, moment by moment, Perform, embody with no contrivance the Buddha Samadhi.

[25:36]

Buddha ancestors are intimately transmitting their samadhis to all of us. Now we have the opportunity to receive it. with this present body and mind? Is there any resistance in this body-mind to receiving this samadhi, these innumerable ancestor samadhi? Is there any resistance in body or mind to receiving the Buddha's transmission, the Buddha Mind Seal Samadhi?

[31:15]

If there is any resistance, is there any resistance to using the resistance to receive the Buddha Mind Seal, Samadhi. Is there an aspiration to receive the transmission of the Buddha's samadhi?

[32:33]

it is being transmitted, are you ready to receive it? Are you now in a position where you feel ready to receive the Buddha Samadhi? The Buddhas are nothing but right now, right here, transmitting the Bodhisattva precepts. All there is to Buddha is right now the Bodhisattva precepts are being offered

[33:54]

ARE YOU READY TO RECEIVE THE BODHISATVA PRECEPTS? The transmission is being offered. Do you aspire to receive the transmission of the Bodhisattva precepts?

[36:23]

Do you aspire, do you wish to receive the transmission of the Bodhisattva Precept Samadhi? If there is the wish, is there now the readiness? Am I now receiving the Buddha's Samadhi?

[38:38]

I don't know. Do I wish to receive the Buddha's Samadhi? Yes, I do. Once this Samadhi is received, do I want it to be transmitted? Yes, I do. Do I sometimes get distracted from this wish to receive the samadhi? Yes, I do.

[39:48]

Do I wish to renounce distraction from receiving this Buddha Mind Seal Samadhi? I wish to renounce distraction from the practice of the Buddhas. Yes, I do. Do I sometimes forget? Yes, I do. Do I wish to let go of forgetting? Yes, I do. Do I sometimes think I have something better to do? Yes, I do. Do I want to let go of any activity that distracts from receiving and transmitting the Buddha Mind Seal?

[41:00]

Yes, I do. The Buddhas are silent and still in samadhi.

[42:22]

In this silence and stillness, they offer the transmission of this silence and stillness. This silence and stillness which is offered to all living beings includes the liberation of all living beings. This is the place, this is the way all beings are liberated in this samadhi. The hand is held out with the gift of samadhi. Are you ready to receive it? Take care of it and transmit it.

[43:37]

This is called the grandmother mind of our house. Are you ready to receive and care for the grandmother mind. May our

[44:15]

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