Last night, the Sesshin admonitions were read. And I think what was read, something like, be silent and still. Sashin offers an opportunity to discover anew, clarify and actualize our ultimate concern. As I often mention at the beginning of Sashins, the word Sashin is a compound of two Chinese characters.

[01:16]

The first one is this character, which means to embrace and sustain, or to be embraced and sustained. It means to nourish and also to be nourished. It means to care for and to be cared for. It means to receive Buddha's compassion and offer Buddha's compassion. And this character is joined to another character which means mind or heart. So... Yeah. So the seshin is a time to embrace and sustain the heart and to be embraced and sustained by the heart.

[02:23]

And we... we practice this embracing and sustaining in the context of stillness and silence. And in this embracing and sustaining in stillness and silence, there's an opportunity to discover what's the most important thing in life for you. for you to discover what your ultimate concern in this fragile, vulnerable, transient, precious human life. So the statement is being made that this session is an opportunity for us to discover or to discover anew our ultimate concern in life.

[03:46]

And I also offer the question, what is your ultimate concern in living? I could just leave you with that question and say nothing more for the next few days. And if you worked on it and opened to it, I think that would be a wonderful opportunity to discover and clarify and actualize what's most important to you. What's the final and highest meaning of life for you?

[04:55]

However, the session schedule has a Dharma talk So I thought I might say a little bit more than that. I'm not, this is not a sales pitch. I don't mean it as a sales pitch to try to get you to adopt the ultimate concern of what we call bodhisattvas. But it seems that the bodhisattvas ultimate concern is often expressed as the aspiration, the wish to realize awakening for the welfare of all living beings. Some of you may have already discovered this desire to realize awakening for the welfare of all beings, and now you may discover it anew and clarify it.

[06:35]

Some of you know that this is what Bodhisattva's ultimate concern is, but you don't want to just copy that. You want to look and see if it's really yours, too. I think that's good. It's also okay to copy the bodhisattvas and then see if that is actually in accord with your own heart and mind. So we could also say that the ultimate concern for some people is to embrace and sustain enlightenment and to be embraced and sustained by enlightenment for the welfare of all living beings.

[08:23]

It could be words in your heart like, I wish to embrace and sustain supreme awakening for the welfare of all beings. I wish to be embraced and sustained by supreme awakening for the welfare of all beings. In terms of the form of sashin, this could also be restated as, I wish to embrace and sustain stillness. And I wish to be embraced and sustained by stillness. Stillness is not enlightenment. if I may say, but you being still is awakening.

[09:38]

For a sentient being, for a living being to be still, for a living being to be completely embraced and sustained by stillness is awakening. or sentient being to embrace and sustain stillness is enlightenment. This could again be restated as you and I are not enlightenment, but for you to embrace and sustain yourself and to be embraced and sustained by yourself is awakening. For you to be yourself completely and nothing more or less is reality of enlightenment and stillness and silence.

[10:50]

The form of sitting quietly, sitting still in silence, is a form of embracing and sustaining enlightenment. And for bodhisattvas this is practiced for the welfare of all beings. The wish to do this is their ultimate concern, or I should say their ultimate concern is to be this way for all beings, and wishing to do it, aspiring to do it, is called the mind of awakening, the bodhicitta. Bodhicitta, to aspire to completely be yourself in order to benefit all beings. the desire to be still, completely unmoving, in order to benefit all beings.

[12:02]

This is the bodhicitta. And the bodhicitta has, in some sense, two types. One type is the resolution, the commitment, the aspiration to completely be yourself for the welfare of all beings. The aspiration to embrace and sustain awakening is the same thing. The aspiration and commitment to embrace and sustain awakening are the welfare of all beings. This is the bodhicitta. And then the other kind of bodhicitta is the actual endeavor or venturing forth on the path of being yourself. First is the resolution and commitment to be yourself for the welfare of all beings.

[13:07]

And then there's the going forth to realize being yourself for the welfare of all beings. Being still and unmoving for the welfare of all beings. when someone sincerely resolves when someone discovers that they wish to attain to realize enlightenment for the welfare of all beings and then they commit to that this has tremendous fruits in the world of suffering And with the venturing forth and endeavoring to practice this wish, this aspiration, these fruits flow forth uninterruptedly.

[14:20]

Again, this asheen offers an opportunity to take care of your ultimate concern and practice with your ultimate concern the way bodhisattvas do. Practice with being still, the practice of being still. And practice with being still can be carried on when walking and bowing and eating and serving, not just sitting. And with our sitting practice, with our body in the sitting posture, we can practice The bodhisattva deeds to implement this mind of awakening.

[15:40]

We can practice giving, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. we can practice being still as giving. And this giving is to help our practice of stillness, which we hope and want it to be for the welfare of all beings, to make that a gift, both a gift which we give to all beings and realize that we are being given the opportunity to practice being still.

[16:47]

To give the practice of being yourself to all beings and to realize that it is a gift that all beings are giving to you to support you to be yourself completely. All beings are supporting you to support them. They're giving you the opportunity to be yourself for their benefit. That may not be clear, but this is an opportunity to meditate on that possibility. that you are giving your life, that you're giving the practice of being yourself to all beings and that they're supporting you to do this practice. You're also practicing vigilant awareness of ethics while practicing stillness.

[18:18]

I should say you can practice the bodhisattva precepts while being in this sashi. And most people who have experience with Sashin know it is a great opportunity, very simply, to practice patience. Practicing patience is a wonderful practice for embracing and sustaining enlightenment. And enthusiasm or heroic effort

[19:26]

This is another bodhisattva deed which can be applied to the practice of sitting still, to the practice of engaging in these seshin forms. And then comes concentration, and to be concentrated now, now, now, on being still. be concentrated now on being yourself. To be mindful and one-pointed about being yourself, about not moving from being what you are. And then the last bodhisattva deed to be applied to the practice of sitting still.

[20:34]

The last bodhisattva deed to be applied to the practice of being yourself is the bodhisattva deed of wisdom, perfect wisdom. This is a seven-day sesshin, so it would be possible to give one day to each of these bodhisattva deeds. And once again, these bodhisattva deeds are a way to remember and clarify the bodhi mind, to protect it and not lose it. Or if lose it, find it again. And what is the Bodhi Mind? It is the commitment and endeavor to realize awakening for the sake of all beings' welfare.

[21:49]

Once again, practicing giving is simple. Just consider... It's simple but hard to practice it consistently. Consistently means every moment. It's simple practice is just make this moment a gift. to the welfare of all beings for the sake of benefiting all beings with no expectation that it will be beneficial. Just offer this moment to the welfare of all beings. And some ancestors would say, if you offer this moment to the welfare of all beings with no expectation that it will be beneficial, If you offer this for the benefit of all beings with no expectation that it will be beneficial, and you really offer it, it will be beneficial.

[23:11]

If you offer each moment of body, mind, each moment of sitting for the welfare of all beings with no expectation of reward, For you or all beings, it will be beneficial. And it will protect and promote this embracing and sustaining of enlightenment. Simple, seems to me, but not easy to remember every moment. This is a gift which I give. This is a gift which I receive. Being in the sesshin is a gift which I receive and which I give. Being what I am is a gift I receive and being what I am is a gift I give. And what I am this week is a person sitting with other people who are sitting.

[24:20]

I don't know if they're all doing the practice of giving, but maybe they are. But whether they're doing the practice of giving or not they are doing the practice of giving because they are all giving me my life. They may not think they're giving me my life. They may not remember that they're giving me my life. But I right now remember that all of you are giving me this opportunity. And right now I remember that I am giving you this opportunity. I may forget in the next moment, but now I remember. and you hear me, and maybe you agree with me, and if you agree with me and you wish to make this moment a gift to all beings, then we're doing the same practice now. In some sense, the thought of enlightenment, the mind of enlightenment, isn't an action.

[25:33]

In another sense, it is. But the giving, precepts, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom, these are bodhisattva activities which we can practice this week while we're following the forms of this session. And hopefully, I hope that after the session is over, we would continue to do these practices in the other forms we find ourselves in, which are not just sitting together here. So in a sense, giving is the bodhisattva's first practice.

[26:45]

The first practice of bodhisattvas is giving. And when we really embrace and sustain giving, and when we're really embraced and sustained by giving, we are freed of fear. At the same time, when we first start practicing giving, especially giving ourselves, especially giving our expression, that giving often helps us become aware that we're afraid.

[27:46]

Being aware that we're afraid and practicing giving is the path to fearlessness. Very few non-Buddhas are not afraid. But many non-Buddhas are unaware that they're afraid. if you open to giving yourself, you may notice some fear. So you are welcome at this time to give yourself. you're also welcome to give Zafus and microphones

[29:28]

Are you a gift? I don't know. You don't know? I don't know. Would you like to be? I would love to be, yes. The question that returns to my mind over and over again, when you talk of... Can you hear her in the back? A little louder, please. The question that comes to my mind over and over again when you talk of being yourself and giving yourself is, what does that mean? I don't know what myself is. I know what my... Well, you just said, I don't know what myself is. Do you wish that statement to be a gift? If it will lead to some understanding of what myself is.

[30:56]

Or you have conditions on your giving? I guess I do. Would you like your conditions on your giving to be a gift? Or do you have conditions on that too? I'm afraid I have conditions on that too because the first thought that came to mind was that I'd like to wrap it all up together and have something emerge. So, yes, the conditions continue. It sounds like you have a little bit of expectation in your giving. I would like to give only if. I would like to give so that. So we have to learn how to give without trying to get something. We're strongly conditioned to live to get. This is our deep background of getting, getting. Now we're trying to train ourselves in the bodhisattva practice of giving.

[31:59]

So now we're here in the session. We're here at Green Gulch. We're living our lives. How about switching from living our lives to get to living our life as giving? And then when we start to practice giving, we think, okay, I'll practice giving if I can get something. Okay. Fine. You can be that way. You can try to get something. Now would you like to make your acquisitive intentions a gift? And I think you could say, okay. And without trying to get something for that? Maybe so? In other words, here I am. You started off by saying, what does it mean to be myself? Well, you came up here and you expressed yourself and also you showed that you had some conditions. Those conditions you showed us You gave us yourself. You expressed yourself. And now we have a new self.

[33:02]

When you used, just now, when you used the phrase your inquisitive intention as a gift, that altered it. That altered it for me because that was I don't know why it altered it. It was because it was so immediate now. Yes, and in that sense, inquisitive intention I can offer without condition. And it also, suddenly it broke through my other question about, or my other... It's not a question, but the issue of gift giving, because we think of gifts as something that has to be valuable.

[34:06]

And so if I can't see the value in something, it's difficult for me to think of it as a gift. Yeah, that's a difficulty. And in being that way, of having difficulties like that, give that way of being as a gift, even though you think that might not be very worthwhile. So even something which most people would agree is not too worthwhile, when you give it, it becomes a treasure. A diamond, if held, has some value. But when you give it, its value explodes infinitely. A piece of earth, a piece of green, anything given becomes valuable. A person's feelings, a person's attitude,

[35:10]

a person's acquisitiveness, a person's doubt, if you actually make it a gift with no expectation, this doubt, this confusion, this greed becomes a treasure, a dharma treasure. But confusion that's not given is just, you know, just a problem. However, That problem was given to us by all beings for us to receive it and make it into a gift to benefit them all. So whatever you are, offer it. But you have to be aware of what you are in order to offer it so you're enough aware to come and say, I got some problems. But when you say or when I say I've got a problem, there right there is an opportunity. I've got a problem and I just gave you a gift. or I just made a gift to everybody, by disclosing, by being myself, by being aware of myself and giving myself away.

[36:14]

This is the first bodhisattva practice. And this is part of being still. Oh. You're welcome.

[37:32]

I guess I want to offer a fear I have. I heard, or read recently, that there are sentient beings, living beings, who have no hope of ever awakening. I've also heard that beings like that have to realize and accept the fact that they are such beings before they can ever go beyond that. And I have this fear that I am a person who will never awaken, will never... That's the fear. I offer that. You offer the expression of that fear. I do. I gratefully receive your offering. And I hope you see that fear as a gift to you.

[38:41]

Thank you. You're welcome. Oh.

[39:46]

Thank you. I'm trying to think the best way to word this. I have to say I offer the gift of... Could you speak up a little? I offer the gift of when I practice non-clinging to the five skandhas, I get a lot of fear because I feel very ungrounded. Before practicing non-clinging to the five aggregates, the five skandhas, we need to not cling to them, but be grounded in them. We need to be intimate with them. We need to embrace and sustain them. We need to be still with them and quiet with them. If we're not grounded in the five aggregates and then we try to get into not dwelling in them, it's not appropriate.

[41:53]

So I'm not saying cling to them, but if people are grounded in the five aggregates, grounded in their body, grounded in their feelings, they usually do cling, but it's okay if you don't have to cling. Just be grounded. Just take really good care, intimate, gentle, calm, uncontrolling care of your body. Be mindful and attentive to your body. And when you're really grounded then you'll be ready to not cling to it. And you may discover when you take good care of your body that you are clinging to it. That's normal. And then clinging is another aggregate. It's the fourth aggregate. There's clinging in the fourth aggregate. So then you take care of your clinging. So when you're grounded in all your psychophysical conventional experiences,

[43:02]

then you'll be ready to not dwell. But to start practicing non-dwelling before you're well grounded is not appropriate. So I'm glad you discovered that. And your understanding is correct that you shouldn't be practicing non-dwelling before you're grounded in the five aggregates. the five aggregates of body, feelings, conceptions, all kinds of emotions and intentions and consciousness. our intention equally extend to every being and place.

[44:24]

With the true merit of Buddha's way.

[44:33]

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