Last night there was an announcement that Sashin starts now. I'm a little bit surprised then to find myself talking about the word Sashin. The word sesshin, it's a Chinese compound, two characters. One character is, the Japanese way of pronouncing it is and the other character is shin. And to put them together it's sesshin. Setsu is a wonderful character. It's made of three characters and one radical.

[01:14]

The three characters that compose the one character are the character for ear or listening. So there's three listenings, three ears, and then another radical, not the full character, which means hand. So it's both listening and, in some sense, holding. The compound together we often translate here as embrace and sustain. Further possible translations of the character would be to gather, to assemble, to nurture, to bring up, to guide.

[02:19]

So all those meanings of that character, setsu, I think are relevant to the practice. So we're gathering, embracing and sustaining, nurturing, mind or heart. That character, second character, shin, means mind and heart. So we're, the sashin is an opportunity to embrace and sustain, nurture, care for, and gather mind. And another meaning of this character is Buddha's compassion. is to receive Buddha's compassion. So it has the side of being cared for and it has the side of being cared for.

[03:24]

So sesshin is to care for the mind, to embrace and sustain it, and to be embraced and sustained by the mind. Now, when I say be embraced and sustained, then I think, oh, maybe the mind that's embracing and sustaining me is the Buddha mind. And I would say, mm-hmm. Sashin's a time to be embraced and sustained by the mind. To be gathered, to be gathered by the mind. the Buddha mind, to be nurtured by the Buddha mind. But it's not just to be nurtured, it's also to nurture. But when we nurture the mind, we're doing Buddha's work, because Buddha's work is to nurture our mind.

[04:27]

It's in both directions. So we see that that character is very resonant with face-to-face transmission. or I see that. Do you see that now? That character is about receiving Buddha's face and giving Buddha's face. We give Buddha's face to our body and Buddha's face is given to our mind and body. So if you look at the characters that are usually written for sesshin, the second character is the character for mind. However, and in addition, the character is also pronounced shin. But when you say shin for mind and then shin for body, usually in Japanese you go shin-jin.

[05:33]

But the character by themselves are both shin. So sesshin is, of course, no, of course, for me sesshin is to embrace and sustain the body also. So sesshin in a way, although it's kind of clunky, could be called sesshinjin, sustain mind-body, to nurture mind and body. Sashin is for the mind to receive Buddha's compassion. Sashin is to be gathered and concentrated. It's to be gathered and concentrated by Buddha mind.

[06:36]

But actually, it's to be gathered and concentrated by everything. So we have this setup, we have this schedule, and we have the other people and we have schedules written on paper, on bulletin boards, and we... all this... all this nurtures us, nurtures our body and mind. And we also do the same. It's actually actuality. This way of practice is actually the way things are. So we're actually enacting reality by receiving, nurturing of all things, and also by nurturing all things.

[07:44]

That's the way things are. We're enacting it here. And that word, sesshin, or now sesshinjin, that's what it's about. So now we have this opportunity, which of course we always have, but just want to say now too, we have the opportunity to care for our body and mind. The opportunity? Yeah. And we also, I would say, have the responsibility to care for, to embrace and sustain our mind and our body. The moment our body is calling for care and we have the responsibility, we have the ability to respond to the call for care from our body.

[08:51]

We can respond, and it is our responsibility. We are being called for our mind for care. And we can respond accordingly. This is our opportunity, this is our responsibility. And the whole situation is set up to help us. It's our responsibility, but we cannot, I cannot, take care of my body and mind by myself. With the support of all you, of you, and much more than you, I can exercise my responsibility. I can do my part with your support. My part is somewhat challenging.

[09:58]

I can fulfill or at least try to fulfill my responsibility to my body and mind. And the more I get into thinking about this, the more joyful I become about the opportunity and also how everything's helping me. It's really inconceivably, indescribably wonderful. Even though I said that, those words don't reach it. And then there's the other side. I'm responsible to care for your bodies and your minds. And maybe you're not surprised to hear that, or maybe you are. it is my responsibility during a session to look after you.

[11:07]

To look after your bodies is, you know, quite, I don't know what, is quite present. I see you and I'm looking after you, your bodies. Did you already know that? Did you know that? Loka? Lakota? Yeah, I'm looking after you I'm looking after you. I'm looking after you. I'm looking after all these bodies. Does it surprise you? Yeah. That's my job, is to look after your bodies, right? To see if you're here or not, and to see if you're sitting upright or not, and to see if you're okay or not okay, or suffering or not suffering. That's my job, right? My job is to embrace and sustain this body and mind.

[12:10]

That's kind of my home base. But I also am doing the same thing with you. Just like, if you'll excuse me, Buddha takes care of her body and mind and takes care of our body and mind. Buddha is responsible for her own body and mind and for everybody else's. That's sashing. And I think many of you also do feel some responsibility to take care, at least some of the other people, to take care of their bodies and their minds. It's an opportunity to expand the embrace and sustaining Embrace and sustain all beings and to be embraced and sustained by all beings. It's an opportunity to accept this responsibility.

[13:15]

And again, this is a responsibility. It just happens to coincide with reality. It's a responsibility to accept reality is that you are looking after everybody. That's what your life really is. And everybody's doing that for us. And the more we are mindful of this, the more we see the truth of it. And so by the end of Sashin, people kind of get it. Or not get it, they realize it. Now another turn of the teaching is something I talk quite a bit about at Tassajara and during this intensive, is that being responsible, being fully responsible, goes with giving up trying to control, which goes against what people often think.

[14:32]

People often think, if you're in control, you're responsible. And if you're not in control, you're not responsible. Well, that is commonly thought. And I'm offering another version of life, which is, we are responsible and we're not in control. We are responsible for every living being, and we're not in control of every living being. We're not even in control of one living being. But we can care for one or more living beings. So I'm proposing to you now that we have this expression body-mind dropping off.

[15:37]

Shin-jin, which is shin-shin, shin-jin, datsu-raku, body-mind dropping off. This is the definition of zazen of the Buddhas. The zazen of Buddhas is body and mind dropping off. And so now, which maybe you can feel it coming, is that by wholeheartedly embracing and sustaining body and mind of self and other in that wholehearted caring for that becomes body and mind dropping off. Sesshinjin is Shinjin Datsuraku. I've never seen that particular lineup of characters, but... And I'm also saying that in order to wholeheartedly care for this body and mind, I need to give this body and mind

[16:57]

wholehearted care without trying to control it. If I try to take care of this body and mind and try to control this body and mind, that controlling impulse cuts into, erodes the wholeheartedness. It makes a dent in the wholeheartedness. Trying to control is caring too much for the body or too little. When we give ourselves completely to caring for the body, there's no room for trying to control it. We simply, totally plunge into it and give our whole being to it. And that means that just like Buddha's compassion,

[18:02]

There's no room. Buddha is not trying to control us. Maybe a long time ago the Buddhas tried and then they saw, oh, it's impossible, let's give it up. I don't think so. No, yeah, I think so. I think Buddhas tried to control themselves and they saw this is not the way. Shakyamuni Buddha actually tried to control himself and he got really good at it, even better than, for example, me. And he saw, this is not what I'm here for. And he gave up trying and started to embrace and sustain himself. And became, went from being not totally wholehearted, although really intense, to being wholehearted. And in that wholeheartedness, Gautama became Buddha. Gautama, Gautama body and mind dropped off. by not — he saw the harm in trying to control himself and gave it up.

[19:12]

He couldn't control himself into Buddhahood. And we can't either, but we can love ourselves and others into Buddhahood. we can be loved into Buddhahood. We can be loved into wholeheartedness, and we can love other beings into wholeheartedness. And then in that wholeheartedness, body and mind drop off.

[20:18]

And the body and mind of others drops off. It may not be necessary for me to since I've said it so many times already, but maybe I'll say it again even though it may not be necessary.

[21:28]

This embracing and sustaining of body and mind is living the wholehearted embracing and sustaining a body-mind is living in stillness. Dropping off body and mind is living in stillness. So praying over and over again that this great assembly will remember stillness is praying that we'll remember where wholehearted, responsible, caring for body and mind is living. And stillness means here.

[22:31]

Not going someplace else for it. It's right here in stillness. And remembering stillness, we will this whole-hearted, se-shin-jin. Se-shin-jin. And we'll discover shin-jin-datsu-raku in stillness. So part of our responsibility is to remember stillness. If I want to care for and look after myself, and others remembering stillness auspicious. So I can remember to care for this body and mind moment by moment, and then also remember stillness, or I can remember stillness and in the same time remember se shi yin jin.

[23:43]

Either way. You can try both ways, see which way works best. Remember stillness, and then what's going on here? Oh, se-shin-jin, or se-shin-jin, stillness. So I said, I could stop now. Or I could tell stories, but then if I tell the stories, the talk might go on for a really long time. So I don't know what to do. It's possible that what I've said so far is enough and you understand quite well.

[24:58]

And I could just ask you, do you feel ready to embrace and sustain so-called your body and mind? Do you feel ready? look after and take care of the bodies and minds of others. Could you say something about how the forms of Sejin help with... I could, but before I do that, I would... could I say, rather than how they help, more about how they're opportunities. So the forms and ceremonies are like me, and for me, others. Embracing and sustaining the forms and ceremonies is an opportunity for session.

[26:11]

So we have three pure Bodhisattva precepts. to embrace forms and ceremonies, to embrace and sustain all wholesome activities, to embrace and sustain all beings. So I've been talking about sort of like embracing and sustaining beings, not me and you, but there's also the precept of embracing the forms and ceremonies. So the forms and ceremonies are opportunity for the same practice. So we have this schedule. And there was an announcement, follow the schedule. Well, follow the schedule, there's a schedule, and that's a form. And then there's follow, that's a form. So follow the ceremony is a precept, is a form, is a ceremony. Did I say follow the ceremony? Following the schedule, following the ceremonies, you know, follow the schedule, follow the ceremonies of...

[27:15]

the schedule, the ceremonies of meditation, the ceremonies of chanting scriptures, the ceremonies of Dharma talks, the ceremonies of serving, the ceremonies of eating with our bowls. All these ceremonies, each one and all, are opportunities And that practice of embracing and sustaining these forms and ceremonies is the first pure bodhisattva precept. And again, turn it around or let it pivot. These ceremonies, these forms, embrace and sustain us. So we can embrace and sustain them and they embrace and sustain us. In this way, the forms and ceremonies are dropping off body and mind when we do them wholeheartedly.

[28:27]

And again, I'm suggesting when you really care for these forms and ceremonies, you give up trying to control them. ...heartedly give and embracing and sustaining chanting, I give up trying to control you, your chanting. And I give up trying to control the people who are in the room who are trying to control the other people in the room. get these chanders under control, get these servers under control, give these diners under control. There are people in the room like that. We actually invited some people like that to come to the entrance to make it more spicy. So there are a few control freaks placed throughout the room. And

[29:28]

Our three pure precepts is to vow to embrace and sustain the people who are trying to control us in this situation. And I've told you before, there used to be a guy named Reb who tried to control the forms and ceremonies. He tried to control the ceremony of Zazen. And he almost got it under control, but just before he he gave up and realized that's not what he was here for. He's not here to control Zazen or chanting. He's here to embrace and sustain it and give up trying to control it. So these forms and ceremonies are like living beings. You know, they're a little bit different from like a person or a dog. And actually they're number one. They're like warm-ups for people and plants.

[30:41]

They don't get discouraged and they're not traumatized by the way we practice them. They're not traumatized when we try to control them, you know, to try to force you. They kind of go, yeah, use me this way. That's what I'm here for. You'll learn through misusing me. So we start with something that doesn't get hurt. These forms of ceremonies, they don't get damaged by our misuse of them. They're like, try again. I'm here. I'm here for you to try again. No problem. I'm not quitting. I'm here for you. And by learning how to work with them in this wholehearted way, giving ourselves completely to them, so completely that we have no time or space to try to control, then we can turn to other practices and to living beings to do the same thing.

[31:56]

After having maybe made some big with the forms and ceremonies and not hurting them in the least because they're like vast space, really, and you can't hurt them. But you can learn how to practice with them, through them, and to generosity and ethics and patience and so on, and then apply that to people. Thank you for your guidance. Now it's getting really late, so maybe I'll wait till tomorrow to tell you these wonderful stories about this bodhisattva embracing and sustaining. Okay?

[32:58]

Is that enough for today? And remember, some of you said you're ready to go to work now, right? to exercise your responsibility to embrace and sustain your body all day long, right? And everybody else's. So we can go now and do this. Great. Thank you so much.

[33:15]

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