Buddha's disciple, the great teacher, Heihei Dogen, considered the proper practice to have two aspects. One aspect he called just sitting, and the other he called going to the teacher and asking about the teaching. In Japanese, one aspect was called shikantaza, and the other was called sanchimompo, just sitting and going to the teacher to ask about

[01:12]

the teaching, the Dharma. In terms of the image that I've been using for this training period, the cauldron, just sitting is like the contents and care of the cauldron, and going to see the teacher is like the wood under the cauldron that's on fire, that cooks the cauldron and the contents. The contemporary Zen teacher said that the two aspects are, first of all, to put on Buddha's

[02:41]

robe and sit, and the other is to put on Buddha's robe and go see the teacher about the teaching. And he further said that just sitting is what sometimes is called Zen, and going to see the teacher is what is called precepts and rules of conduct. If you apply his teaching to the image that I just presented, then Zen meditation is like the cauldron and the contents, and the precepts are like the wood underneath the container. For Dogen Zenji and for the founder

[03:58]

of the Rinzai branch of Zen in Japan, Yosai Zenji, previously known as Eisai Zenji, for both of them the foundation of successful bodhisattva path was the precepts. The first thing in the practice of Zen, according to Yosai Zenji, the first thing is the precepts and the rules of conduct. Dogen Zenji said that if you don't receive the precepts, you are not a disciple

[05:05]

of Buddha. And in the positive direction, when a living being does receive the precepts, then truly this living being is a child of Buddha. So for these two founders of the two main lineages of Zen practice in Japan, for both of them the one great causal condition for the practice of Zen was the precepts, the foundation. However, strictly speaking, the practice is not the precept practice, the practice is the sitting.

[06:10]

But without the precept practice at the base, the just sitting is deadly. Or, as I mentioned earlier, the precept practice can also be called going to the teacher and asking about the teaching. Without going to the teacher and asking about the teaching, the sitting practice is also dead. Originally, some people feel that going to see the teacher, the doksan or sanzen, was confession, was the confessional practice. This is a little bit maybe unusual thing to say or to hear, and that is that the practice

[07:23]

of the precepts is just another way to say going to the teacher and asking about dharma. And similarly, going to the teacher and asking about the dharma is another way to say precept practice. And this activity, from these two different points of view, is the wood that catches on fire and heats the cauldron and keeps the contents from going rotten, keeps them cooking, keeps them changing, prevents us from sinking into dead, complacent sitting. Now, the sitting practice

[08:33]

is not seen as the cause of enlightenment. It is based on enlightenment. The sitting practice occurs when buddhahood causes a living being to sit. When buddhahood causes a living being to sit, that's what we call just sitting. So the buddhahood and the sitting are the same thing. However, without the precepts at the base, without the going and asking about dharma at the base,

[09:47]

then the sitting is not buddhahood causing the person to sit. Following the precepts, the going to ask about dharma are ways to practice selflessly. The precepts guide us in selflessness. When we selflessly sit, then buddhahood can cause the person to sit. So

[10:56]

without the precepts, without the going to the teacher and asking about the dharma, a person might think that they could practice zazen. I might think I can practice zazen. So this practice that I can do is called the practice of delusion. That practice I can do is called delusion. To practice and confirm our life while carrying myself, this is delusion. But when all things advance forward and confirm themselves, then there's sitting, which is a buddha sitting. This is not something that I can do.

[12:03]

So the absorption in the oneness of all life can also be called the mind of the great sage of India. It can also be called think of the unthinking. So someone asked the other day, how can I practice the absorption in the oneness of all life? I don't understand it in terms of my own experience.

[13:56]

Well, we don't understand necessarily how to do the practice called think of the unthinking in terms of our own experience either. This practice is not done from the point of view of my own experience. However, it is from my own experience that I practice it. So moment by moment I have experiences, and from that place, from that time, the practice of thinking of the unthinking, it comes from that place, from that time. But it's not understood from that place in that time. It's understood from the whole universe, or by the whole universe.

[15:05]

It's understood by all sentient beings, not by this sentient being. So so there's a number of interchangeable names then for this just sitting. So in many religious traditions they have sometimes a recitation of the names of God, and in Buddhism sometimes we have the recitation of the names of perfect wisdom,

[16:13]

or the names of Buddha. Dharmakaya Bhairavachana Buddha, the great sage of India. Think of the unthinking. Concentrate on the oneness of all life. The merging of difference and unity. These are names of Buddha. So someone said, if you are in a car and you're about to have a crash, maybe you're in a car traveling very fast and you're about to have a crash, just about perhaps to die, what would you say? Would you say, oh shit,

[17:26]

or something like that? How many people die with oh shit on their lips? And then someone says, maybe you should die not saying oh shit, but die saying, oh God, oh Lord, oh Buddha, oh Dharma, oh Shikantaza. So actually some people practice saying the name of Buddha or the name of God over and over so that when they do come to that last moment, they won't say, oh shit. They'll say, oh Shakti, or oh Shiva, or something. I was talking about this with my wife and she said, well maybe in Zen, oh shit is the name of God.

[18:38]

And I think that's more our style. Not to try to have some special word on our lips, but let the word on our lips be the word. So we always recite the name of God or we always recite the name of Buddha by saying, Shakti, Suzanne, Taiyo, Alan, Shit, Gomashio, Tenzo, Red Shirt. We're always saying, constantly saying the name of the Great Enlightenment. Every word, it's not, it's always a special word, but it must be any word.

[19:50]

I myself, coming close to death, I don't think, sometimes I said shit, but lots of times I said something more cozy than that, like, kind of like, well, howdy-do, or, well, here it comes, or, well, I'll be darned. Anyways, here it is, folks, the one we've been waiting for all this time, the big one, that big moment, that big crunch. This one practice samadhi is very cozy. It's cozy like meeting your own death, like meeting your own life, but in a really kind of, you know, not under your control way, kind of like when it's time to die.

[20:52]

The, part of the reason why I separate the practice of sitting from the preset practice is because I feel like when working with the cauldron, it's not so much working with right and wrong, or proper and improper, but more dealing with a kind of ground where people who do practice precepts and people who don't practice precepts stand equal. Now, I myself will not be successful in studying this absorption in the oneness of all life unless I practice the precepts. I will not be successful at it. My meditation practice will go bad.

[22:10]

However, the thing I'm looking at is a realm where those who are successful and unsuccessful are very intimate. Take away very, just intimate, where the good and the bad people are intimate. Where those who go see the teacher and those who don't go to see the teacher are equal. But if I don't take care of my ethical conduct, I won't be able to do that meditation, even though the meditation is on a realm beyond or free of good and bad. I must pay homage, sincere and diligent, daily, momentary homage to the realm of good and

[23:16]

bad in order to look at and be absorbed in the realm which is far beyond good and bad. The realm of the one life, where the evil help the good, where evil beings support the way of Buddha. The way of Buddha depends on innumerable sentient beings, some of which are very evil. Good and evil people all together make possible your practice. Not just the good people, all people, not just the good trees, all the trees, not just

[24:19]

the nice rats, all the rats are helping you do just sitting. Because the mind of the great sage of India, the true sitting, is simply the mind of all sentient beings. But again, how can I understand the mind of all sentient beings from my own experience? Well, you can't. However, the place you put your foot as you step off into the meditation of the oneness of all life, you put your foot on your experience. You step forth from your experience into this realm where you do not know what to do.

[25:22]

So most meditation instructions in Buddhism have two parts. One part is based on your experience, like put your left foot down right there and take one step six inches forward right there. That's one part. The other part is, and sniff Buddha's left ear, or think of the unthinking, or give ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah. Give the dharmakaya a big hug. So how can you understand such instruction from the point of view of your experience? It's not from the point of view of your experience, but before you give the dharmakaya a big hug,

[26:30]

first of all, take a hold of this piece of incense, or stand on your head, or cross your legs, and don't move. And then jump into the ocean of light. One part you can do, sort of. The other part is not done by you. But your Buddhahood, or Buddhahood, makes it possible for you to do the practice called absorption in the oneness of all life, or thinking of the unthinking. Buddhahood makes it possible for you to do that practice.

[27:33]

But I don't understand it. You don't understand it. I can't do it. You can't do it. What you can do is, you can try to practice the precepts, you can try to sit. Even the precepts, however, and even the sitting, however, even that I can't do. The precepts, as I mentioned before, are not descriptive of Buddhists. The precepts do not describe the activities of Buddhists, of Buddhist disciples, Buddhist students. If they were descriptive of our behavior, they would be anthropological utterances. If you want to describe our behavior, it would be more like, some of them gather in remote mountains, some of them gather in dangerous cities. They eat a lot of sugar.

[28:35]

They sometimes are nice to each other and sometimes they hate each other. They wash their clothes around the middle of the day before a work meeting. They have fancy dinners on days that have fours and nines in them. This is descriptive of our behavior. However, these things I just mentioned are not exactly our goals. These are not our aspirations. Our aspirations are these precepts, but this is not what we do. As a matter of fact, the precepts are built in such a way that it would be very difficult to do them. For example, if I could do the precepts fairly well, then I would be violating one of them, which is to insult myself or praise myself at the expense of others, because other people

[29:43]

can't practice them very well. So, in fact, if you look at the precepts, the Bodhisattva precepts, you cannot practice them well until everybody can practice them well. Otherwise, you're not practicing them well. In fact, the other people who are trying to practice them do not want us to get ahead of them. They do not appreciate that. Sometimes, on an occasional basis, once in a while, we can get a little ahead of some of them. But basically, they don't want us to get ahead. Getting ahead is praising yourself at the expense of others, and it's also, well, for example, taking what's not given, call it a position, taking the position of first of the precept practicers. It's perhaps even abusing the three treasures, abusing the Sangha treasure, because you're making other people feel miserable by doing better at the precepts than them. And anyway, it's also not being honest, because you're not doing it better than other people

[30:50]

because you can't do it better than other people. And it's also kind of like slandering somebody, maybe even yourself. So even the precepts are not what we do. We do not practice these precepts. We try. This is our goal. This is our intention. Or maybe I shouldn't say we don't practice these precepts, but these precepts are not in any way descriptive of what we do. We try to practice them, and in the process of practicing them, we do various things. But if you talk about what we do, you wouldn't say they don't kill, they don't steal, they don't lie. You wouldn't say that about us. But you could say about us, I think perhaps almost to everyone in this room, perhaps, just about, you could say that all the people here want to practice the precepts, are trying

[31:51]

to practice the precepts, are intending to practice the precepts, think it's a good idea to try, and want other people to try. Or at least most of us would like to practice most of them. Maybe some of you have a few exceptions, but generally speaking, I think my guess is most of you, most of us, would like to practice most of the precepts. And even, I think probably most of us would like the other people to be able to also, so that we could. And the same with sitting, trying to sit still. None of us can sit still. We can try. We can sit more still than we did a few minutes ago, or more still than we will a few minutes from now, but basically no one can really sit still. Everybody moves, except Buddha.

[32:57]

Buddha can sit still. But if I don't try to sit still, and if I don't try to practice the precepts, then all of you, and all the Buddhas, can't help me. My effort is to practice the precepts. It does not make the sitting still happen. My effort does not make the precepts realized. But without my effort, they don't get realized. All sentient beings, including me, make possible my practice. All sentient beings, including you, make possible just sitting, make possible a precept practice. Thank you.

[35:11]

So I can't sit, and be absorbed into the oneness of all life. I can't do that. I can sit and absorb myself into this, my own life. I can cherish my own life. I can protect my own life. And I can cherish your lives. And I can cherish the lives of the trees around here. And I can try to cherish and protect the lives of my own, and all the lives here. I can try. And I do. This is my attempt, the best I can do at practicing the One Practice Samadhi. But really, the actual practice is going on all the time,

[36:33]

and is sponsoring this little tiny practice that I'm doing. And it's sponsoring the real practice, the actual practice of the One Practice Samadhi. So although I'm down here in this little tiny stage here, playing this little tiny game called, with my own brain, and my own feelings, and my own etc., I'm trying to figure out, and I'm trying to cherish life. While I'm munching on celery, and disturbing many world systems. Anyway, I'm trying to do it. Meantime, the whole cosmos is also doing the same thing. And my effort, my little tiny puny little effort,

[37:34]

to practice true Buddha's mind, is inseparable, and has the same effect as the whole cosmos trying to do the same thing. The real practice, and this puny little version of it, are one. And that, again, that awareness, or that kind of thinking, is again something that I can do. I can think that way. This is called thinking of unthinking. This is what I can do. This is the way I can think. This is the way you can think. Another example is,

[38:35]

form is not different from emptiness. This is the way I can think. This is thinking of the unthinking. And because of Buddha, and because of all sentient beings, you and I get to think of something like, form is inseparable from emptiness. You can think that. You can talk like that. But because of Buddha, but everybody's helping you do that. All living beings are helping you think that thought. You couldn't do it on your own. You can think that way too. And again, all sentient beings help you think that way.

[39:39]

Each of us are instruments of the entire universe. We, therefore, if we think that way, we can be grateful to everything. Also, each of us, is helping the entire universe by doing that job. Therefore, it's grateful to us. So I've told a story a number of times, a story or the poem about how to paint the portrait of a bird. But today I would call it how to paint the portrait of Dharma.

[40:46]

How to paint the portrait of truth. So what you do is you take a blank canvas and draw on the canvas a pot. Draw a pot or a cauldron or a crucible on the canvas. And then in the crucible, in the cauldron, put something pretty, something simple, something beautiful, something useful for the Dharma. Perhaps a Snickers bar. Put a Snickers bar in the cauldron for the Dharma. What else do you want to put in the cauldron? Do you have any other things that might be good to put in there for the Dharma?

[41:49]

Any suggestions? Anger. Put some anger in there for the Dharma. Something simple like anger. Or how about a little bit of stupidity? That's simple too. How about putting a little... Put your address in there. Put your name in there. Put the universe in there. Put the absolute truth in there. Just everything. Put everything in there that's simple and pretty and beautiful and useful. And then wait for the Dharma to come. And then don't worry about how long it takes for the Dharma to come. That has nothing to do with the quality of the Dharma. It could come right away and be real good Dharma

[42:52]

or it could take years and be really good Dharma. Just take care of the cauldron. Take care of the container and wait for the Dharma to appear. Meantime, keep the fire going underneath by practicing, by trying to practice the precepts even though you can't. But try because if you try all sentient beings can practice the precepts. With the aid of all sentient beings the precepts will be realized. We will realize the precepts all together. One, two, three, realization. And that will cook this pot. These simple, pretty things will be cooked and the Dharma will eventually come forth in this pot. And if you get angry at how long it's taking for the Dharma to come again, take that anger and put it in the pot. Don't let the anger break the pot. Don't let the anger put the fire out of the precepts.

[43:54]

Scoop up all the stuff, put it in the pot. That's the precept practice. That's the cauldron practice. This Dharma responds to the inquiring impulse. It responds to the arrival of energy. The energy of trying to practice the precepts with all sentient beings and putting all life experiences in this one pot. That's your effort. Bring the inquiring impulse. Put that Snickers bar in there. See what happens when you drop it in the pool. Put that anger in there. Put that confusion in there. Everything.

[44:55]

And watch how it responds. It does respond to this energy. There's a discrimination which I'm not sure how well you're able to do it or how well I've conveyed it. And that is the discrimination between the type of concern that we have in the realm of ethical conduct, ethical observation, and in the realm of just sitting. I don't know if that's clear, but these are different types of concerns. They're not really separate, but they're different.

[45:59]

So I kind of would like to know, get feedback from you, about whether you see the difference between those two kinds of concern. And again, I'll summarize. One is a concern, I would say, maybe in terms of your relationship with other living beings, or relationship among living beings. The other, or like between this location, the life in this location, and the life in that location, or the life in this location, and that tape recorder. And how if I take that tape recorder, how that interacts, what effect that might have on other lives. So it's like observation of time-space relationships, or relationships between living beings and time-space.

[47:06]

The other one is more the consideration between this living being, this place, and all living beings, or all places, between this life and all lives. Those are two different types of consideration. Does that make sense? One is the realm of just sitting. The other is the realm of precepts. They're not separate, of course, because the relationship among these living beings, of course, is related also then to all beings. But it's that kind of thing. I don't ask the universe. It's not so much the universe that I ask about whether I can have Snickers. I ask you, individuals. I don't go and ask the sun, and confess to the sun. I confess to a person. So the level of precepts

[48:12]

is different from the level of what's going on in the sitting. Does that make sense? Those are two different types of work. And maybe they're a cycle, but anyway, the precept kind of concern, or the going to discuss your life with some other person, is first. And then comes this vast kind of practice, or the practice of vastness, which we call just sitting. Well, I say the practice of vastness, but also you could call it vastness practice. It's the practice that vastness does through us. It's how the wind is everywhere

[49:16]

and reaches everywhere through our little fanning activities. That's it. So that vast practice, in order for it to be alive and healthy, it has to be supported by this particular practice of relationships with other living beings, which we call precept practice. When that's taken care of, then the particulars are also opportunities for vastness to do its work in this particular, for vastness to come alive in this person, in this thought, in this feeling, in this place, at this time. So does that make sense to everybody?

[50:24]

Well, I have talked for almost one hour and you've been sitting today, so maybe you want to move and cross your legs or something.

[50:56]

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