Someone asked me how fitting with the hands in the Cosmic Concentration Mudra is compassion. And on one side I will ... I see that one might wonder about how is sitting compassion

[01:16]

And I hesitate, at least right now, to explain how sitting in a particular form, in a particular posture is compassion. But without explaining it, I feel okay about asking some questions. For example, do you intend and do I intend in a given moment or in a given week that sitting in upright posture, participating in the form of this sesshin Do I intend that this would be many acts of compassion?

[02:34]

Do I come to this room and sit with others? Do you come to this room and sit with others as an act of compassion? Rather than explain how it is compassion, I just ask you, do you intend it as compassion? When you look at the floor or at the wall, do you intend this looking to be compassion? When you eat your lunch, when you arrive on time, when you cross your legs, is each act intended as compassion? That seems like something we could each check to see if that is our intention, that every form we enact is compassion or not.

[03:48]

In the midst of our own pain, Do we remember? Do we recall? Do we reiterate our vow to benefit all beings? If we do, we may wonder, what's the relationship between this vow and compassion? But first of all, is the vow alive? That seems something that could be a first order of business. Do you intend this session as a whole? Do you intend this session in each period?

[04:58]

Do you intend this session in each moment to be great compassion? Do you intend it as compassion? Do you intend to practice compassion towards your own feelings, towards your own pain, and towards all beings in this room in a compassionate way? Is that your intention? I thought, when I was asked that, I thought of something, an experience I had, which I told some of you about. I was visiting a museum in Paris called Musée Guimet, and in that museum,

[06:09]

I saw a statue of, you know, it looked like Avalokiteshvara, looked like Kuan Yin, the one who listens to the cries of the world, a being with soft, flowing shape, and a lovely, serene face, sitting cross-legged with her or his hands in the Cosmic Concentration Mudra, sitting in a cave. And this cave had little, next to her or next to him, there was two shelves, little shelves. And on one shelf was a vase and on the other shelf was a flower, a lotus flower probably.

[07:17]

They looked like they had been set there to free her hands to take this form, concentration mudra. It looked like what I usually find the Avalokiteshvara statue. And that's what the museum thought it was too. This was the being of infinite compassion sitting in regular then meditation posture. Was she on a meditation break from her busy life? walking through the world of suffering with her flower and her vase that is a much more common statue that you see her maybe there's a billion of those statues in the world where she's usually standing holding a vase in one hand and a flower in the other in all those chinese shops they call her the goddess of mercy

[08:42]

She's out there being merciful among all beings, but now she has her accoutrements set aside and her hands are in meditation. Is this a break from compassion? Or what? How come she's meditating in that way? How come she crosses her legs and puts her hands in this posture? How does infinite compassion get into this form of cross-legged upright sitting with this mudra? How does that happen? Does the compassion evaporate when this form appears? What's the reason for this form? Why not just be out in the street helping? I have something for you to consider, and that is that maybe we need to put our body into a specific form

[10:06]

in order to understand the Buddhadharma and purify our compassion. I don't know what you think, but I ask you to consider that usually we think that the mind is more fundamental than the body in terms of our life activity. And Buddhism teaches that all physical action originates from the body. But it may be the case that in Zen practice we reverse the usual dominance of mind over body, and put body over mind.

[11:27]

Let the body dominate the mind. Not because the body is better or worse, but simply because we need to reverse our usual approach. Our usual approach is we got the self, we carry the self around, and the self gets the body to do things hopefully appropriately in the world. We carry the self to all events. and the mind dominates in this process. And we kind of need to do that in our daily life.

[12:34]

But it may be necessary to have a special situation practice of sitting where we take a physical form and let that dominate the mind to reverse the usual process of where the self is in charge of what's happening. And let what's happening be in charge of the self. and use the body as an example of something that's happening. And put the self in that form and let that form be strong and the self be weak. supposedly the sixth ancestor of the Zen tradition, said that when the self is strong, or rather, sometimes the self moves or turns the Dharma.

[14:14]

Sometimes the Dharma moves or turns the self. When the self moves the Dharma, the self is weak, and the Dharma, excuse me, when the self moves the Dharma, the self is strong, and the Dharma is weak. When the Dharma moves the self, the self is weak, and the Dharma is strong. Dharma can mean Buddhadharma. Dharma can mean the way things are. Or Dharma can mean Buddha Dharma of the way all things are. I ask you to consider that maybe it's so that usually the self is strong and the self turns the way things are.

[15:21]

and therefore the way things are is weak and we are strong. And that there's another approach where what's happening, the Buddhadharma is strong and the self is weak. The self gets turned by the Buddhadharma. The self is not destroyed, it's just not in charge anymore. What's in charge is the way things are. By taking a simple form like sitting and letting that be in charge, we have a chance to reverse our usual approach and let the Dharma, let the truth take over and guide the self. But this is somewhat difficult for us

[16:27]

because our habit is the other way around. And it's also difficult for us if we have any discomfort in sashi, because there may be the idea that the mind has to figure out what to do with the body. We may be able to, in some sense, forget about our relationships, our ordinary relationships during the sitting, or we may not be able to.

[17:33]

But even if we can, forget about our usual relationships, which means the way we usually use ourself to figure out what to do. But still, we have to figure out what to do with our body. So if you're in pain, should you do something to take care of your body? Well, I would say, yes, take care of your body. How? Well, not indulging in sensual pleasure and not indulging in self-mortification. moment by moment.

[18:43]

And you have put yourself, or the self has been placed, in a form where this issue of what is the middle way it could be seen as right there. What is it to take care of the body? What is neither self-mortification nor being addicted to making yourself comfortable? What's avoiding those two extremes? OF A PARTICULAR FORM THAT THE BODY HAS BEEN PUT INTO. And in this form that the body's in, pain arises, sleepiness arises, and so on.

[20:15]

Many emotions arise when the body's in this form. Bye.

[27:01]

This kind of practice is called body and mind dropping away. Compassion is the context in which this dropping away will be allowed.

[29:14]

in which the reversal from the self-mind being strong and the truth of Buddha being weak to letting the Buddhadharma be strong and the self be moved by it. But if we hold on to our usual control position, we stay strong. and the truth of what we are is diminished and covered over. Would it be a very kind and compassionate way for us to let go of our usual approach and find this new way of opening ourselves to the Dharma.

[30:47]

right in the middle of all of our pain and difficulty. Each of us has some ideas, probably, about what practice is. Can you just let them drop away and let the practice of upright sitting, the practice of the mudra, We don't know what the Buddhadharma is.

[32:37]

We'd like to. But the body comes forth in the study of the Buddha way. A body is coming forth. A body is coming forth. Each minute, each moment, you get a body. This body that's coming to you is not what you are in control of. let go of control and let the body teach you. And having a form to work with, you see the difference of what the body teaches you from where you think you tell the body what to do.

[33:38]

Then you're telling the body what to do, you're strong, and the Dharma that's coming to you through the body is weak. Let go of your control and let the Dharma that's coming to you as your body appears, let it come and teach you. Let it realize you. And the forms are a way to do that. You don't have to decide what to do with the body. Once it's in the form, nobody has to control it anymore, and it starts giving you stuff. And then the dharma starts turning you.

[34:52]

Turns the self. The body comes forth and turns the self. If you think you have to do something, you're welcome to come to Dosan. And we'll see if you really have to do anything other than be turned, be turned, be turned all day long, be turned by the Buddha Dharma. rather than you, poor, overworked you, trying to turn the Buddhadharma all day long. Very tiring to be so strong. Very tiring.

[36:11]

But you weaken the Buddhadharma by being so strong. The self doesn't need to be so strong. It's strong enough. What needs to be stronger in our life is the truth. We have to let the truth take over. Let the truth be in charge. Let the truth turn you Someone told me about an instruction she heard about, which some lady told some friend of hers, called, Thank you very much. I have no complaints. So now, in various ways, things are coming at us from all hundred directions that warns

[37:25]

We are afflicted. And when it's like that, what do you do?" And all Buddha said, don't try to control it. When you let yourself be turned by what's happening, everything that comes is the Buddha Dharma. not just some things that you decide to look at because you think they're Buddhadharma. Like, I'll listen to this Zen teacher, but not that one. I'll listen to this Christian teacher, but not that Jewish one. I'll listen to this, I'll listen to that, but I won't listen to this. This is called the self is strong, the dharma is weak. But thank you very much. I have no complaint. Whatever comes is the Buddhadharma. The Buddhadharma is strong.

[38:28]

There's this vow we say sometimes here. It's something like, delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Is that what it says? Something like that? That word delusion, more literal translation is afflictions. Afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. And the Chinese character means, it looks like a little hatchet. It means to cut, but also to end. But yesterday I was thinking, It's not so much that I vow to end them, but more like I vow to see their end, to see how they end, to see where they end. Where do they end?

[39:39]

Because, you know, they don't exactly end like annihilated. Not like they end like they're annihilated, like a stream, you know. At the end of a stream, there's still a stream. It's just that a stream has an end. If you follow a stream back to its source, it ends there. Or you could also say it ends at the ocean. It has these ends, but the stream's still there. Afflictions are there, appearing and disappearing, but they have an end. Where is the end of the affliction? And I thought... The end of affliction is the cosmic concentration mudra. At that mudra there is no affliction. There's affliction all around it. There's chaos all around that mudra. There's suffering all around that mudra. But at that mudra there's no affliction.

[40:41]

They end there. There's no self there. There's just the hands. There's just the body. And the mind that's trying to control these afflictions is just someplace else, having a hard time. And maybe always will. So there's no end of compassion. But there is a place where the afflictions end. And they end in the body that is delivered, that comes forth in the study of the way. Everything that comes forward in the study of the way is the true human body. The true human body is being delivered to us every moment

[41:47]

No exceptions. Where is it? It's coming to us right now if we will simply let it be strong and let the self be turned by this true human body. It's right under our nose, so we can't move around someplace else and find it. There's just, you know, some clinging to our old ways that's interfering. Just a little bit or a lot of holding on to the self in control. That's all. So this truth, this true human body is weak. We have trouble realizing it because we won't let go of our old that we control.

[42:51]

I shouldn't say we won't. We have trouble letting go of it. Because for a long time we've been trusting the self rather than the Buddha Dharma. Anyway, in this hand, just being this hand, in its hand being this mudra, in that being that way. No afflictions. They end there. But this hand, this hand, this body lives in the middle of a world of suffering.

[44:05]

So we're having trouble learning how to find this body. which is coming forth from the study of the way. But we're all sharing in this pretty well. As far as I can tell, we're all struggling together to find this body, to let the body teach us. not to ask for a different body, but to be taught by this one. And we have trouble understanding what the lesson is, how to accept the lesson.

[45:14]

In one sense, I feel like I have said it already. In another sense, I feel like I can say this over and over again because what I'm saying is so unusual. It's such a reversal. So in one sense, I've said it. In another sense, I wouldn't be surprised if none of us understand what I said because it's so strange to trust what's happening. Trust what's coming rather than make what's coming. Work with what's coming rather than make things go the way we think they should. So I would say, please let the body that comes forth from the study of the middle way show you the way to study the middle way.

[48:45]

Please let these lessons come to you. Let yourself be guided by your body that comes to you as you search for the mental way. Thank you.

[49:21]

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