I've heard that all Buddha ancestors who uphold Buddha Dharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness. I feel that we could also say the true practice of enlightenment is to be upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness.

[01:05]

of how we are receiving and acting upon this life that is received. The awareness, acting from the awareness of how we are receiving life Letting go of the point of view that we take life. Enter the awareness of how we are receiving life and act from such an awareness. This awareness of how we are receiving help, living life, and acting upon this awareness is called self-fulfilling awareness.

[02:51]

our self is fulfilled, and in particular our self is fulfilled as practitioners of the true path of awakening. Now you are all sitting upright. I invite you to consider how you are receiving help. How am I receiving help right now? I offer these words to suggest a point of entry into the self-fulfilling awareness, which is the context of practicing.

[04:17]

How am I receiving help right now? This is also called the self-fulfilling samadhi, in the sense that we are not just aware, contemplating how we are receiving our life, breath by breath, but we are also one-pointed about this.

[05:36]

We try to learn how to be one-pointed and consistently mindful of this. And also one-pointed in the sense of awareness of this, receiving help, where the awareness and the receiving are one point. So that we realize that the awareness of receiving, the awareness and the fulfilling are not two things as it appears to an ordinary person. They are one point. The person and the receiving help are one life.

[06:43]

In that sense, the awareness is a samadhi. It realizes the non-duality of the person and all the things that help the person. The ancestor Wang Bo said, all living beings and all Buddhas are just one mind.

[07:52]

Buddhas are those who understand that all Buddhas and all living beings are just one mind. Sentient beings are those who do not yet understand that all Buddhas and all sentient beings are just one mind. that all living beings and all Buddhas are one mind. And that's all there is, really. But even though they don't believe it, and even though they don't understand it, they are one mind with all Buddhas. Even if we reject our non-duality with all Buddhas, the Buddhas say, we are not separate from you.

[09:16]

That is their message. They don't say, we are separate from you. They only say, we are devoted to you and practice with you every moment. That's all they say. And we are not separate. That's all they say. That's all they mean. Joining the non-separation, joining the devotion to all beings, even those who adamantly say they're separate from us, is joining.

[10:19]

Juan Lo Alto says that the silent bond, that enlightenment is just the silent bond, that's all. Enlightenment is just the silent bond between all beings and all Buddhas. It's just a question of waking up to it and expressing it. Expressing it, expressed means to declare, to say, to manifest.

[11:21]

When we sit upright, when we stand upright, when we walk upright, when we speak upright, fully present, in the midst of the awareness that We and all the Buddhas are just one mind. We are just receiving help. And Buddhas are just receiving help. In the midst of that awareness, we are in the midst of enlightenment.

[12:39]

all the postures and all the practices of the tradition are ways to and enact, manifest such a practice, such a practice which is a true path to awakening. So, for example, There are practices of giving. There are practices of precepts. There are practices of patience. Lots of opportunities for practicing giving. Lots of opportunities to practice patience. Lots of uncomfortable experiences. Lots of unfortunate things happening in this world. that are very uncomfortable to hear about and to see.

[13:57]

So there we have to practice patience. And practicing diligence. Many opportunities to practice diligence, to be diligent. And to practice concentration, to develop serenity. develop a flexible and awake and calm body and mind. Today, this one day sitting is a good day particularly to practice patience, concentration and diligence about practicing patience and concentration. and a good day to practice precepts and a good day to practice giving. If I were to look at the practice of tranquility, the practice of expressing tranquility, which again means, I mean, to show it, to declare it,

[15:17]

You're valuing it by practicing it and to express it by manifesting it. This is a practice we can do today. We can do... Today is nicely set up so that we don't have to talk much. It's easier for most of us to develop tranquility when we don't have to talk. So it's a good day to develop tranquility, to train the mind in such a way as to realize tranquility. A good day for training the mind to realize tranquility. Of course, any day is a good day, but some days are easier.

[16:22]

Today will be easier. Because, again, most of us do not have to talk much. The main way of training the mind to realize tranquility, the main way I would describe it, kind of a technical way to describe it, is to train the attention, to pay attention, to give attention to letting go of discursive thought. That's basically the mental attention which comes to fruit as tranquility. You notice trains of thought arising in your awareness.

[17:32]

Trains of thought arising in awareness. Just let the trains go. You can get off the train and let it go by. You can stand on the station platform and calmly watch it go by. A train of thought. You can even ride the train of thought And just sit in first class and relax. Even though you're on the train of thought, you're really not going with it anywhere. You're just calmly attending to letting the train of thought run its course. Traffic jams of thought?

[18:34]

Just let them be. Oh, there's a traffic jam of thought here in this meditation hall. Just let it be a traffic jam of thought. Wandering thoughts, just let them wander. Just relax in the field of wandering thoughts. Don't enjoy the wandering thoughts too much or too little. Discursive means to run back and forth or wander. So just let those running back and forth, wandering thoughts run back and forth. Don't try to suppress them. Don't try to control them. Trying to suppress them and trying to control them.

[19:38]

Discursive. So don't be discursive about the discursive. Just try to completely relax. in the middle of whatever mental functioning. And you can be diligent about this, and you can be generous about it. In other words, generously give your energy, generously devote your energy to develop And be patient with whatever, however this tranquility is developing. If it's developing slowly, be patient with the slowness of the development. And be patient with, again, all the other

[20:48]

possible discomforts that might arise throughout the day, throughout the moment. And with the discomforts of mental activity helps to relax with the discursive thought about what to do about the discomfort. Some people count their breathing. Some people follow their breathing. But I stress that it's the giving up discursive thought in the process of following the breathing that is actually what comes to fruit as tranquility. At the beginning

[21:51]

when you're following your breathing, or counting your breathing, you're actually being somewhat, you're actually involved in discursive thought. Actually moving with the breath. It seems that way. Not really that way, but it feels like that. And the more you can give up wandering in relationship to the breath, then the only wandering that's happening in a sense may be the breath, and then finally you can let go of the awareness of the breath and just be a non-wandering, upright sitter. And being non-wandering for a while will come to fruit and strength for the team. is the result of the training in tranquility. Once you're tranquil, you do not have to train giving up discursive thought. You actually can start thinking again once you're training, once you're tranquil.

[22:57]

And you can be correctly training in tranquility but not be tranquil. That is possible. And you can be deeply tranquil but not training in tranquility because you already are tranquil. And you can let go even of the activity of the mind to give up discursive thought. So to achieve tranquility, we have to relax with and let go of our wandering thoughts. And by consistently relaxing with letting go of our wandering thoughts, we become calm. We enter the realm of the leaping body, the living body, the calm, awake body. And then, even letting go of the effort to let go of discursive thought, we become calmer.

[24:10]

And then one can re-enter discursive thought and practice wisdom. But today, perhaps, many of us would just like to practice tranquility, training in tranquility. It's a wonderful, beneficial practice. But whether you practice tranquility or not, the main thing that we emphasize in Zen is that if you practice tranquility, if you train in tranquility, or if you've attained tranquility, that you be upright in your training in tranquility, and you be upright in the midst of what you've attained, in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness.

[25:28]

The main thing is that you're upright in the midst of the self-fulfilling awareness, whether you're practicing tranquility or patience, precepts or diligence or wisdom, that you always remember where you are. You are living in the midst of the Buddha mind. You are living in the middle of one mind which you never leave by forgetting. So if you choose today to practice tranquility, please remember while you're practicing tranquility that your practice, your advanced practice of tranquility, however you're practicing tranquility, whatever quality your practice of tranquility is,

[26:32]

is what it is, of course. But remember that that practice is just one mind with all Buddhas. And if you're working in the kitchen today, being generous to offer your energy to make food, being mindful, being patient, being diligent in your work, that's good. If you're not being diligent, I wouldn't say it's good. But anyway, whatever you're doing, however you're practicing, please remember to practice in the midst of this self-fulfilling awareness. If we remember this, then whatever we do is the true path of awakening. even if we become involved, even if we seem to become unskillful practitioners.

[27:47]

It's not that being an unskillful practitioner is the true path to enlightenment. It's being an unskillful practitioner and knowing it, as we just chanted. if you know that you're unskillful and you reveal and disclose your unskillfulness, where, how? In the presence of the Buddhas. If you're unskillful, if you're impatient, undisciplined, if you're not diligent, and so on, and you reveal and disclose this in the context of all the Buddhas, you're on the path. If you're doing quite well, if you're quite skillful, if you're being skillful, good. Nothing to confess, really. But again, if you practice that alone, by yourself, you're not on the path of enlightenment.

[28:51]

You're on the path of self-centered suffering. Though being skillful is generally speaking more comfortable than being unskillful, still, if I'm being skillful, if I am skillful, and I think I'm all by myself, not practicing with all of you, not practicing with all the Buddhas, not living in the middle of one mind, this is a path of cyclic suffering. When the same practice is being conducted together with everyone, the awareness that it's being conducted with everyone, all beings and all Buddhas, then this mind, this awareness, is the true path.

[29:52]

My experience talking to people who are practicing tranquility, I've talked to a lot of people trying to practice tranquility, who are trying to realize tranquility, who are training their attention in such a way as to achieve tranquility. My experience from the early days that I was at Zen Center was that a lot of people who are trying to practice tranquility feel unsuccessful. Basically, they think, I'm trying to practice tranquility, but I'm not being successful. I'm not getting tranquil. I'm not doing the practice which will come to fruit as tranquility. I'm actually just... being really unskillful, on my cushion, and I feel really bad about what a bad meditator I am. And I'm really uncomfortable with what a bad meditator I am.

[31:02]

I'm really uncomfortable with how unskillfully I do the practice. I've heard stories like that. Even recently I've heard stories like that. And when I hear stories like that now, I think, it sounds like this person is thinking that she's practicing tranquility all by herself. It sounds like she thinks, I'm doing the practice and I'm not being successful and I'm really upset about that. And I think or I say, but you're not doing this practice of tranquility all by yourself. All Buddhas and all sentient beings are helping you. You're not very good at practicing tranquility. It's true you're not very tranquil.

[32:07]

It's true you're not in a state of deep, deep samadhi. I agree. But all of us and all the Buddhas are going to be kind of like slightly below average in meditation on tranquility. And you do not have to continue this practice of tranquility all by yourself. As a matter of fact, you're not... practicing tranquility all by yourself. You just think you are. And I notice that you who think you are is miserable. Or that you, thinking you are, practicing tranquility all by yourself, you are an unhappy camper. I notice that. But I can feel that if you just, if the perspective that you have about this

[33:12]

so-so meditation practice you're doing, so-so tranquility practice you're doing, I know that you feel if the perspective would change and you would enjoy, also this samadhi is also called self-enjoyment samadhi, if you would enjoy that this mediocre or even way below average meditation practice that's happening in Korea If you would enjoy that that practice is occurring with the support of all beings and all Buddhas, no mistake, Buddhas are not mistaken, this is the practice they're supporting you to do. They can see, given the causes and conditions of this practitioner, meditation, the tranquility meditation is in the 15th percentile. They can see. That's what it is. And we support this person, this low-level concentrator.

[34:16]

We support this person. Of course, we don't. In this case, we will mention that we support this person as much as we support the people in the top 5% of the meditation class. We support all beings. all day long, at whatever level of whatever practice they're doing. If you're a low-level practitioner of concentration, of generosity, of precepts, of patience, of diligence, of wisdom, if you're low-level and you would open to the awareness, the Buddha's are supporting you to be low level, at whatever practice you're low level at, then you can enjoy that you are on the path of true awakening. If you happen to be really high level at something and you don't enjoy, if you think you're practicing by yourself, I also know some people that are really excellent at something,

[35:28]

And when they tell me about their excellence at something, they're also usually very upset. In some ways, they're more upset. They're so good at something, the other people around them are not as good. And they feel bad noticing how bad the other people are at what they're good at. So if you think you're really good at something, and maybe you are. I mean, people around here are good at some stuff. Some people here are above average at something. There are some people around here who are way above average in certain areas. Like Eva's really good at accounting. She's the treasurer. She's really good. But if she would think that she's practicing the treasury all by herself... I'm not saying she does, but... Whereas I'm not good at accounting. So if I was in the treasurer's office, I wouldn't be good at accounting, at least not for a long time, unless she trained me.

[36:35]

But I say, remember, moment by moment, that while I'm there not doing very well in the accounting office, that me and the good accounters and all the Buddhas are just one mind, then I have the extreme joy of walking the path of enlightenment. So please enjoy practicing tranquility today, if you wish. It would be good if you did. And if you practice skillfully, you will attain tranquility. And that will be good for the world and the people, because then that tranquility will It spreads in the world. It's good. And if you don't, if you aren't good at tranquility, we appreciate you trying. It's good. You have to start sometime, so might as well start today in tranquility.

[37:41]

Don't feel obliged to do so. You can also practice patience or some other practice while you're sitting here. If you're already tranquil, enjoy it and practice wisdom. But I, again, the main thing is no matter what practice you give yourself today, please practice that in the midst of this self-fulfilling samadhi. Please remember that all day long for the rest of your life and all day long in your life, you have always been practicing with all Buddhas and all sentient beings. And it will always be like that. Please remember that. Please enjoy that's what you really are. And then you will not be worried anymore about your level of attainment in tranquility.

[38:44]

And if you are worried about your attainment of tranquility, please check to see if you've just forgotten all the Buddhas supporting you to be the way you are. And I think you'll find you have. You help the Buddhas, the Buddhas help you. You help each other, we help you. This mutual assistance, this mutual beneficence among all of us, this is called the Buddha seal. Remembering this Buddha seal is the self-fulfilling awareness.

[39:53]

I've heard that when even for a moment we express the Buddhist seal with our three actions of body, And thought. When with your body, when you use this, when this body is used to express, this body, see this body? This body expresses what? This body, I use this body to express you're helping me. See this body? It said, I'm being helped by you. I'm receiving help from [...] all Buddhas. That's what this body manifests. That's what this body says. That's what this voice says. That's what this mind says. This mind manifests.

[41:04]

You're helping me, I'm helping you. Buddha's helping me, Buddha's helping you. Me helping Buddhas, my body, my speech and my mind, express it, say it, manifest it. When you say it, even for a moment, then you express the Buddhist seal. And when you are that way, even for a moment, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddhist seal. and the entire sky turns into enlightenment. But just for a moment, now you've got to do it again. Or now it has to happen again. And again, I can't do it. I can't do that you're all helping me and I'm helping all of you. I can't do that all the Buddhas are helping me. Like, when I remember, when I remember, when I feel it manifested in my body, speech and thought,

[42:09]

So although I can't do this practice of being helped, somehow I can forget it or I can remember it. Somehow I can dream of drifting away from it or I can throw my life into it. So even for a moment, we express the Buddha's seal in our three actions of body, speech, and thought. Sitting upright, by being upright in this samadhi, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha's seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment. This practice, this practice manifests the Buddha's So if today you wish to practice developing tranquility, the Buddhas would support you.

[44:22]

Simply, in the midst of all Buddhas and all sentient beings, devote your attention to letting go of discursive thought. Then you'll be training in tranquility in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness. And as this training becomes steady, it will become the self-fulfilling samadhi.

[45:08]

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