practice of being oneself that has been transmitted to us and the practice of a sentient being who just has karmic consciousness boundless and unclear with no fundamental to rely on, being a sentient being. And a sentient being being a sentient being is enlightenment. And a sentient being being a sentient being is stillness.

[01:01]

Not moving from our self, not moving from being a karmic consciousness requires intimacy with karmic consciousness. A karmic consciousness intimate with karmic consciousness is the stillness of the Buddha way. I pray that we receive this transmission, practice it, and transmit it by practicing being ourselves completely, which is to be still completely. Sometimes the practice of the school is described as having two parts.

[02:22]

One part called Shikantaza, the other part called Sanchi Mumpo. Today I would speak of Shikantaza, which we translate as just sitting. Just sitting means, again, for a sentient being not to move. to be a resolute mountain of yourself to be intimate with yourself completely is just sitting. And then there's a side of going to the teacher going and meeting a teacher and asking about the dharma or listening to the dharma. Mompo means listening to dharma or asking about dharma, questioning dharma.

[03:31]

In the context of what we've been talking about, I would also say it's to go and meet the teacher and listen to silence and stillness. Go and meet the teacher and question stillness. Bring your stillness, transmit your stillness, receive stillness together with the teacher, together with the student, and mutually receive and transmit the practice of being still together, the practice of being ourselves together. Practice resolute stillness in the meeting.

[04:47]

be a karmic consciousness, and receive and transmit the stillness of the Buddha way. I offer that the great teachers, the Buddhas, are always sitting still. There's a story that once the great teacher, Yue Shan, was sitting. How about always the great teacher, Yueshan, is sitting still.

[06:03]

And a monk asked him, in this state, of complete stillness. What are you thinking? What are you thinking in this immovable state? And the great teacher says, I'm thinking through not thinking. And the monk says, how do you think through not thinking? And the teacher says, non-thinking.

[07:11]

Non-thinking. Maybe the monk and the great teacher were sitting together, both practicing stillness. And then the student went to the teacher, brought her stillness to the teacher, presented her stillness, and from the stillness, questioned the stillness, questioned the teacher's stillness. Is there thinking in this stillness? And what kind is it? How are you doing it? And Yashan said, I'm thinking through not thinking.

[08:23]

I propose that Buddhas Great teachers are always thinking and are always not thinking. They're always thinking and they're always thinking, not thinking. And the way they are always thinking, and always thinking which is a not thinking, is... the way they do that is called non-thinking. The Buddhas are always still being themselves,

[10:27]

and working with the dynamic relationship between thinking and not thinking. The relationship between thinking, which we usually do, which if we're a Buddha we're always doing, and a thinking which is not thinking. And that dynamic, the way to work with that dynamic, the teacher said, is non-thinking. And here's a dynamic focus. One way to translate the teacher's response to the question, how are you thinking in the stillness?

[11:41]

One way to say it is thinking of not thinking, and the other is thinking of that which doesn't think. Thinking of not thinking and thinking of that which doesn't think. Most of the translations say thinking of not thinking, but I think it's helpful to... The more literal Chinese reading is thinking of that which does not think. And I'm proposing that not thinking is not that which doesn't think, is not that which does not think, but thinking which is not thinking.

[13:04]

So in the dynamic relationship, The kind of thinking that's going on for the great teacher is a thinking which is not thinking and a not thinking which is thinking. It might be good to mention too that, as I did before, that karmic consciousness includes more than just thinking. Thinking is the definition of karmic consciousness. And within karmic consciousness there's other kinds of, yeah, there's subdivisions

[14:09]

within karmic consciousness. And the defining subdivision, in a sense, is thinking. But there's also sensation, and there's also feeling, and there's also intuition. And sensation and intuition are non-rational. and feeling and thinking are rational. So within karmic consciousness there's rational and non-rational. So I propose to lovingly attend to karmic consciousness which has rational elements like thinking and feeling and non-rational, like sensation and intuition. But there's another part of karmic consciousness is irrational dharmas, like greed and hate and delusion.

[15:29]

They're in there too. And they arise through incomplete care of the rational and irrational. So all these things are working together dynamically, and they all need to be cared for. And the overall care is the Buddha's always thinking and always not thinking, which is non-thinking. So if you ask what kind of thinking is going on, the answer might be thinking of not thinking. There's thinking and there's also a kind of thinking which is thinks of not thinking. And there's always non-thinking in the Buddha.

[16:33]

Stillness. In the chapter on arousing the bodhi mind, written by Dogen Zenji, he says that the arousing of the bodhi mind, the arousing of the mind of enlightenment, always occurs through or relying on thinking. The bodhi mind arises in karmic consciousness, always. It needs, it relies on karmic consciousness.

[17:38]

It relies, it arises in the mind of a sentient being. This arousing of the bodhi mind and the establishment of the bodhi mind means to think. For a karmic consciousness to think and to, you know, vow, to really commit to the wish to take all living beings across to safety and peace before myself. That karmic thought, that thinking, is necessary for the arising of the bodhi mind.

[18:48]

In that kind of thinking, this bodhi mind is born and established for a moment. So, a negative way to put it is, without the thinking mind, without the karmic consciousness, the mind of enlightenment cannot be aroused. However, we do not say that this thinking mind is the thought of enlightenment itself, but that the thought of enlightenment arises through the thinking mind. So something which is not the thinking mind arouses when the thinking mind thinks.

[20:10]

I vow to live for the welfare of all beings and to carry them to peace before myself. And Dogen Zenji even goes further, and other Mahayana teachers go further to say that this mind that arises, that bodhi mind that arises with this thought, or can arise with this thought. It doesn't mean every time somebody thinks that it arises, okay? It's just that when it arises it needs that kind of thinking. But that thinking does not necessarily mean that it arises. But when it arises with thinking of that kind, and of course it can be in various languages, you can think of this way of living in many ways

[21:27]

And depending on that kind of thinking, this mind can arise. And when it arises, in comparison to what it can become eventually, in comparison to what this mind can lead to through being cared for for a long time, namely the mind of the Buddha, it's a comparison between a firefly and a galactic firestorm. However, if this mind is really for the welfare of others before oneself, if one is actually able to have that intention, even though there's this difference, they're exactly the same. And he also goes further to suggest that

[22:29]

that this mind arouses, this bodhi mind arises depending on karmic consciousness of this type, but the actuality of the establishment occurs in the communion between this mind, this karmic consciousness, and what? The body-mind. The body-mind which is present in this world can respond to our thinking. So it can happen that we think, I wish to carry all beings to the state of nirvana before myself.

[23:36]

And that thought, that offering, can be responded to by the actual bodhicitta, by the actual thought of enlightenment. And in that response, the establishment occurs. The thinking doesn't make it happen, although it relies on the thinking. The bodhi mind doesn't make it happen, although it arises dependent on the bodhi mind too. It's the communion between the two that gives rise to this bodhi mind. Karmic consciousness thinking is the request. Not all karmic consciousness is the request of bodhicitta for the arousal of the bodhi mind. But I wish to live for the welfare of all beings and take them all to peace before myself.

[24:40]

That thought is the offering to bodhicitta. And again, when bodhicitta responds to that, in the response to that, the bodhi mind arises. And then the question is how to take care of it. And the way of taking care of it in this school is by being still and thinking which is not thinking. And thinking which is thinking. And thinking which is thinking which interacts with thinking which is not thinking. Thinking. I wish to live for the welfare of this, of that, of all beings and carry them to nirvana before myself.

[25:46]

Thinking that way and also not thinking, thinking another way, which is not thinking, and realizing the not thinking is the thinking and vice versa. This protects this bodhicitta and helps it not be lost and helps it grow. Apparently, we may have the ability, we seem to have the ability to think, I vow to save all beings before myself.

[27:02]

We seem to have that ability to think like that, and we have the ability to think other ways, of course. We seem to have the ability to think many ways. But in addition to that, we may have the ability to think through not thinking, to do a thinking which is not thinking. We have that ability too, and then we have an additional ability to, I don't know what, ride? surf, dance, with this dynamic. So there's two partners in the care for bodhicitta. One of the partners is thinking, which the arousing of bodhicitta depends on. The other character, the other partner, is the thinking which is not thinking.

[28:06]

and the other character is non-thinking. Non-thinking is a little different from thinking and thinking which is not thinking. It's the kind of the It's the dance. It represents the realization of the dynamic between the two. So it seems like we need stillness, which is a big job for finding, the stillness of being ourselves, of receiving that teaching to be ourselves, to take care of our karmic consciousness so fully that we don't cling to it. And then in that place we're now getting instruction that there's thinking going on.

[29:14]

As far as I know, unlimited variety. Rational thinking, non-rational not thinking, and irrational thinking or irrational behavior from not taking care of what's going on. And all that dance is dancing together. And that whole dance is non-thinking. And where Suzuki Roshi used to live, at 300 Page Street, towards the end of his life, over the door to his room there was, and I think still is, a piece of calligraphy by a priest named Kumazawa Roshi.

[30:16]

Kumazawa means bear swamp. And Kumazawa Roshi was the I think the Godo at Eheiji when Suzuki Roshi was a student there. And I said to Suzuki Roshi one time, what does that say, the calligraphy? And he said, cloud farmer. Or, you know, cloud, like plowing the clouds. Going through the clouds with a plow. Plowing the cloud or cloud farming. Maybe it's better than cloud farmer. Cloud farming. Cloud farming. And then it had Kumasaroshi's name with his seal. But then the subtitle was non-thinking. Non-thinking is like cloud farming.

[31:21]

The dynamic cloud of thinking, which hopefully includes vowing to save all beings, dancing with thinking which is not thinking, in this overall mind of Buddha. All this occurring in the stillness of taking care of ourself moment by moment. that big job of being here and being kind to what we're experiencing. And although the bodhicitta arises a first time, it can also be lost. So it can arise a first time again if you lose it. And then if you lose it, it can arise a first time again.

[32:28]

But once it's arisen, it's possible to take care of it and not lose it for a while. And then it can grow. And our practice is to help this great mind grow. One framing of the story I told you is, again, monk and teacher both practicing being themselves, meeting in stillness of being themselves, and then the monk questioning what is going on, what goes on, what activity is there in stillness.

[33:31]

and in the stillness the teacher responds to the request and they go back and forth realizing the activity in stillness. Many Many Zen students practice sitting still and following their breathing. And one way to take care of yourself, one of the things you can take care of is your breathing. Another thing you can take care of is your posture. Taking care of your breathing is taking care of your karmic consciousness. taking care of your body is taking care of your karmic consciousness.

[34:38]

These are ways of being yourself, a breathing, posturing creature. These are ways, caring for the body and the posture and the breathing, are ways of being ourself, more and more fully until we're completely ourself. And the same with all mental phenomena that are going on. Same generous, open kindness towards all mental phenomena. So mind, breath, and body, we care for guiding ourselves to be ourself. Guiding ourself to the stillness of the Buddha way. And then opening up the dance of enlightenment and delusion. Opening up to the

[35:57]

dance between our offering, our karmic offering, and the Buddha's response. I'm a karmic consciousness. I offer it. I'm taking care of it. I've wrapped it up nicely. I put it in a lovely tray. I offer it. and I try to be still when I offer it so that I'm here for the response. As soon as we offer it, there is a response. But if we're not still with our offering, we may miss it. We may think the response is going to come a little bit later. As we say in the hokkyo zamai, in the Jyulmer Samadhi, inquiry and response come up together.

[37:07]

But the inquirer needs to be completely still with their inquiry. If there's a little bit of vibration, you may look somewhere else than you're offering for the response. And miss it. Even a little bit, you can miss it. So every period of zazen, every moment of zazen, is our karmic consciousness offering. This one. And in doing it with complete wholehearted stillness, or the stillness of wholeheartedness, or the wholeheartedness of stillness, we're really there. The response is there. And either the bodhicitta arises or it grows because it's arisen from previous offerings. Moment after moment, from now until all beings are free, we keep taking care of this bodhicitta with our thinking and our stillness with our thinking.

[38:21]

So it isn't just, you know, we're walking by the Buddha and just happen to say, here. Hi Buddha, here's my vow. No, we stop right there and be present. Here's my vow. Here's my vow. Here's my offering of me being me. Here's my offering of my attempt to not get distracted from being me, by me, or by being me. And being me is often that I think I'm supposed to be doing something other than be me. That's the kind of me I am. I think the world's saying, you have better things to do than be yourself. You should come over here and look at this. That's the kind of me I am sometimes.

[39:28]

So how can I not be distracted from being me when I seem to be being asked to not be me and look at something, or not to not be me, but to look at something else? It's very difficult. But on the occasion of feeling present with yourself and wishing to offer that presence and wishing to offer your vow, please offer it in stillness. Stop and make the offering from stillness. It doesn't mean literally you have to stop. You know, like, look like you stopped. You could be running by someone. you could be running by someone and at a certain point you meet them and in that moment you're still with them and you give them a gift and you seem to keep running.

[40:34]

But for most of us, it might be good to practice actually stopping, literally, to get the hang of it. And then we can offer flowers to everyone as we walk by. And in each moment, we're completely still with each person and each flower. May our intention

[41:55]

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