Yesterday I brought up the simple phrase, the way of meditation does not require cultivation. Just don't defile it. And I traced back from today up through Dogen Zenji where he says, practice realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward, in the practice is a matter of everydayness.

[01:02]

And then I went back from him to the great teacher, teacher who he venerated so much, Baijian Waihai. And Baijian said, what I just said, The way of meditation does not require cultivation. Just don't defile it. And then one step back further to Matsu, Master Ma, who said, The way does not require cultivation. Just don't stain it. Just don't defile it. Today I want to take one step back further to Matsu's teacher, to Master Ma's teacher, Na Yue Huai Rong.

[02:11]

And one more step back to the sixth ancestor of Zen, Huai Nong. Huai Hai was traveling. By the way, wai hai means, huai means in Chinese robes, in Japanese robes, there's this little place in here. Down here in your robes. And this place in your robe is called huai. It also means to cherish. You put something in here, and in this part you wrote something that you cherish. Something like your lineage paper, or your ratsu, or a love letter, or a sutra.

[03:19]

So his name is To Cherish, and Hai means the ocean. Why Hai? Cherishes the ocean, keeps the ocean in here. Wai Hai was traveling, and he went to visit the great ancestor that we call the sixth ancestor, Hoi Nung. Dajian Hoi Nung. Dajian means great mirror. Hoi Nung means capable in wisdom. He went to see the sixth ancestor, and the ancestor said, where do you come from? Excuse me, I got the name wrong. This isn't Wai Hai. This is Wai Rong. Wai Hai is Wai Zhang, Wai Hai. Let's mix the names up. So this is Wai Rong.

[04:21]

Nan Yue Wai Rong. Wai Rong. Wai Rong went to visit Wai Nung. Wai Nung said, where do you come from? And he said, I come from Sum Shan. And the ancestor said, what is it, excuse me, what is this that thus comes? And Huay Rang said, even if I say it's this, I still miss the mark completely. Sixth ancestor said, well then should we engage in practice and realization?

[05:30]

Wai Rong said, I don't say there's no practice or realization. I just say that it cannot be defiled. And the ancestors said, just this non-defilement or just this non-defiling is what all the Buddhas keep in mind. You are thus, I am too. So this practice of non-defilement is what all Buddhists keep in mind. It's transmitted, you see, from the sixth ancestor to Huairong, to Matsu, to Huaihai, Baizhang Huaihai, and from Baizhang Huaihai to Yunyan, and from Yunyan over to Dongshan.

[06:56]

and now. To do again, and hopefully it reaches us. This non-defilement that all Buddhists are keeping in mind. So would you please, I'd like you to say this story so that you have it a little bit. Okay? So Phyron went to visit the sixth ancestor, and the sixth ancestor said, where do you come from? Where do you come from? Bhai Ram said, .

[08:05]

Bhai Ram said, . The ancestors said, what is this that thus comes? The ancestors said, . Bhai Ram said, even if I say this, Misses the mark. Complete. What I once said, even if I say this, it misses the mark completely. The ancestor said, then should we engage in practice and realization? The ancestor said, then should we engage in our practice and realization? Poyron said, I don't say there's no practice in realization, just that it cannot be defiled.

[09:08]

The ancestors said, just this non-defiling is what all the Buddhas keep in mind. The Ancestor said it, just as the sun on the other day gives his love to all the universe. You are thus, I am thus too. You are thus, I am thus too. Now you have it, so keep it well. So there's this one teacher called the Sixth Ancestor, and he had two big disciples, two main disciples. And because he had two, that was the end of the ancestors in terms of one, two, three, four, five, six.

[10:18]

Because after six, there were two sevens. Actually, three. There was another one. who were allowed to say, one's name is Ching Su, and the other one's name is, no, one's name is Ching Yiran, say again, Kyoshi, and the other one's name is Nan Yirei Wailong, and the other one's name is Shun Hui. Shunhui was the disciple who was so smart and such a great debater that the debate in the capital defeated all the other contestants for the Sixth Patriarchy. So he's important historically, but his line died out soon.

[11:23]

It served a function to establish the school, but somehow he was too busy establishing it. in court and didn't have time to practice. So the other two schools, the one set up by Seigen and Nangaku or Qingyuan and Nanyue, those two schools are the schools from which all the living Zen schools come from. And these two people were a little bit different type of people. Nanyue established a very dynamic an active style. And Chingyuan style, Seigen style was more moderate and stable. So after Nanjiri comes Master Ma and Baizhang and

[12:29]

Hyakujo or Wong Bo and Rinzai. And Master Ma was a very big guy. That's part of the reason why they called him Horse Master or Cow Master, because he had a very long tongue and he was seven feet tall. And he started a practice of, for example, he screamed at Bai Zhan one time and deafened him. Another time he kicked one of his students and broke their leg. So he started using extreme physical measures in order to disequilibrate his students into realization. The other school was more modest and stable. However, I'm trying to point out here that these two branches of the school, in a sense, were reunited through Yun-Yen, because Jun-Yen studied with the Nanyue, Matsu, Yakujo, Bajang line.

[13:39]

He studied there, and then he came over and joined the Seigan line. So they both are, in fact, joined through this one ancestor of our lineage, Yun-Yen Tangshan. And from him, we have this lineage. which still tended to be a little bit more on the modest and stable side. And through the history of that school, if people got very active and dramatic, usually the other people turned up their nose a little bit at the person. But there are these two styles. that Zen uses sometimes. So what is this non-defilement that the Buddhas keep in mind?

[14:40]

Again Master Ma said, the way is everyday mind. So it's not to be involved in correct or incorrect. Certainly don't meditate incorrectly. Okay? Don't do that. But also don't meditate correctly. If you're going to choose between one of those two, well, then choose the correct way. But even this misses the point. What you should do is step back one more time, take another step backwards to the place before correct and incorrect were separated. That place before correct and incorrect are separated, that's the place that Buddhists keep it on.

[15:53]

This place is called emptiness, or the ultimate, the absolute, and so on. Sometimes it's called unity, where correct and incorrect, birth and death, have not yet been separated. The way of meditation does not require cultivation but take that backward step before the arising of right and wrong and don't defile it. This place is right up near our noses all the time. When a little child walks up to you and you reach out and pat the head, before you think, oh, this is a nice thing to do.

[17:04]

Or before you think, oh, this is perverted. The action before it's judged, before it's just a simple, basic, ordinary action of patting a child on the head, is naturally undefiled. To practice meditation in this way, leaves it alone, leaves its natural undefiledness just as it is. So you may think you're doing well or not well, I don't know. There are such opinions that can arise, and they aren't just that. But no matter what you think, you all completed one practice before you split it up into any judgments.

[18:14]

So that's unity, and we think of that unity We use our differentiating equipment and we turn it towards that undefiled place, which we call many names, unity, non-thinking, your face before your parents were born, and so on. This non-defiling, which the Buddhas always keep in mind, is also called the body of truth, the body of truth of Buddha, the Dharmakaya Buddha.

[19:28]

And to keep it in mind is called the bliss body, Sambhogakaya Buddha. In the life of one who keeps it in mind, body and voice and thought of one who keeps this in mind is called the transformation body, the Nirmanakaya Buddha. So I don't know if you have a feeling for this non-defiling.

[20:35]

Because again, it's so close to us that it's very difficult for us to be aware of it as an object. It's already happening all the time. There's no, there's never a break and it's non-defiling. It's very, it's able to slip into every situation. It reaches into every phenomenon. Nothing can stop it. So our problem is how can we hear it? How can we see it? How can we go with it? How can we enjoy it? How can we celebrate it? Well, that's what we're doing by sitting. But it's very subtle.

[21:49]

Again, if you reach for it, you lose it. If you go away from it, you lose it. We cannot actually do this. It is being done already through everything that we are. But somehow if we can, if we can totally dedicate ourselves to one thing, this thing that's always going on, and is totally unobstructed, can be revealed to us, which is an important part of the story. You can't attain this, but yet something has to happen in order to put an end to this hypocrisy. We need some occasion in which to celebrate this thread of non-defilement that's running through all things.

[23:03]

That occasion arises if we make ourselves vulnerable to it, and the way we make ourselves vulnerable to it is by total dedication to some object of awareness. Posture, breathing. Make three kinds of action. Total absorption in these actions. Then you let down your defenses and the threat can spring. Yesterday, I was a little surprised and a little bit happy and a little bit sad because towards the end of the day, I started to get a lot of pain in my knees.

[24:34]

Sometimes on the first day, it doesn't come. But yesterday... Big wah-wah started developing in the right knee. It seemed to swell up. And when I was adjusting posture last night, I was really happy also with your sitting. You're doing very well. Really sitting. Still, I guess it's pretty hard. And the strange thing is, and sometimes when I adjust posture I feel, this person's having a hard time, and if I adjust their posture they may think, and I sometimes feel the person's thinking, oh, don't ask that of me too.

[25:42]

Isn't it good enough that I'm just here still? So I feel, yes, it's really good that you're still here so that I can ask you to do more. But I also have the experience that when I'm having a hard time, sometimes taking on a little bit more shows me Gives me some perspective. And it becomes a relief from that kind of hard time and gets me into another kind of hard time. Maybe temporarily harder, but also a relief. So when I see someone having a hard time and they're sort of wilting or crumbling under the difficulty, I know if I try to lift them up a little bit, temporarily it seems scary and too much perhaps.

[26:52]

But my experience is that it's better afterwards. For example, a couple points are that when we're in a lot of pain, it's quite natural to try to curl up in a ball. or in a way to collapse in discouragement, kind of like something like this in some direction. And so to sit up straight seems to be not so pleasant because you can even feel the pain more than perhaps. Plus the effort of trying to sit up under the circumstances of it. But it actually usually works better. And the way I'm suggesting to try to sit up is basically, well, to be as tall as you can. So sometimes I adjust posture and the person gets quite a bit taller.

[27:54]

In other words, they are bending over and their spine is not lengthened as much as it can. But even when you're sitting by yourself, I find it useful and a relief to feel as though somebody's got a hole in the top of my skull. And some big, soft hands that can hold it firmly and that could easily lift my spine up. So I'm practically hanging from here. And I actually had the light feeling. Because I actually feel this upward motion and the clearing. of the spine. You can even, once you have this feeling of being lifted by the top of the head, of feeling your head lifted and your spine being lengthened, if you can do that you perhaps can feel the lightness going up through the spine and also a strength.

[29:00]

And many things are possible then, partly because you've just, well, just made that effort. So I won't make any promises, but anyway, that's a kind of thing which I sometimes adjust people and just lift them up that way to lengthen their spine. But it feels even better when you do it yourself. And then once you sort of lift yourself up like that or take the top of your head and lift it a couple inches higher, then just let the rest of the body, in some sense, relax and hang down from there. And another point, which I made earlier and now I want to make again, is to hold your mudra against your abdomen.

[30:21]

And if you sit cross-legged and your foot's up on your thigh, it puts your hand on the heel. So you have the heel and the abdomen to locate your hand. And yesterday, in the later part of the day, I worked with this, and I immediately felt how hard this is. So there is some tendency, which I know about quite well, that it's basically for the hands to slide forward down into the lap. And this is temporarily quite nice, and it's easier on your shoulders in some ways. However, in the long run, it pulls you forward. Now, if you put your hands back here, you may have the experience of entering a much more difficult space or time.

[31:29]

That was my experience. This was much harder for me. However, a number of things happen. For example, if you try to keep your arms away from your body, if you pull your hand up to get your abdomen like that, naturally the arms come away from the body. Can you feel that? You don't have to worry about keeping them away. And the range of, you bring your shoulders, it's easier to bring your shoulders back then too. So what I feel about this is that this is a higher energy way to sit. And because of that, when you first enter it, you may become aware of lots of little problems.

[32:38]

So I know from experience that when I'm having problems, to enter that space accentuates them temporarily. And when I'm not having problems, it uncovers problems in the posture. Problems means areas that are not quite in the best place, positions that are not quite optimal, but I can't ignore them anymore. But because of that, the chances of finding the proper posture are much greater. Pat told me that she tried this a few years ago and kept her awake for a couple years. Just this difference, this little thing. So what I'm saying to you is I know this is difficult to make this change in your posture, but I really think it brings us into a

[33:55]

into it, into it, you know. I recommend that place to work. But I understand why it might be difficult to do it. Again, particularly people who have shoulder problems, neck, shoulder pains and tensions, if you pull your hands up like this, temporarily you may feel they're worse. But I'm suggesting that this is the best way to solve the problem of the shoulder pain. Because actually, this way of holding them is much easier on your shoulders. But it's the transition into this space that's scary and difficult. But it's bringing it here that you will find the way of doing it. So just look and see the difference in my arms down here. And then naturally, what they want to do is they want to fall to the side like this. And then they want to go like this.

[35:02]

When I put my hands down on my lap, my hands want to go open like this. Does that make sense? My arms want to come down next to my body, and my hands want to come apart. So something like this would be the way it would be. which again, is nice, it's relaxed in a way, which is nice. But I would suggest to you, push a little further, that it is not yet fully entering the world. I'll say that again. To have your hand down here is not yet fully entering the world of having a body. And maybe somebody can do that, but for me anyway, this is a kind of ambivalence. to sit this way. A kind of physical example of ambivalence to enter the world. And so anyway, the arms come next to the body, the hands tend to fall apart.

[36:12]

When you pull your hands up here next to the abdomen, arms more easily don't come next to the body, they almost can't. I mean, I'd have to work to bring them close. Naturally, they're brought away, creating this thing, this space in the armpit where eggs can go. You know about that one? It's naturally created, and also, the shoulders are not brought forward. It's actually difficult then to round your shoulders forward. And it's quite easy, not easy, but you'll soon find that the only way to be comfortable would be to pull your shoulders back in some proper relationship. And it also puts you up straighter. So just look at the difference between my sitting here, see? Here's one. And here's the other. Again, this is temporarily more challenging, requires more effort.

[37:16]

But in the long run, I think if you can do it, you'll see that it's easier, much easier, much more comfortable, much more alert. And I would also suggest to you, it is an example of not being ambivalent about having a body. As again, last night I saw you sitting and I really felt everybody was working really well. And now I'm talking about another step. We had entered the world. We had entered the world and the only way out is through complete entry into the world. If you can completely enter the world, you can completely leave the world. And if you can completely leave the world, you can re-enter the world completely and leave the world again. Sitting in the sesshin is an opportunity to enter the world.

[38:26]

You're already doing it, and the first day and the second day are really the entry, and it's difficult to enter the world, isn't it? It's difficult, it's painful to enter the world. And what I'm talking about is how can you completely, how can we completely immerse ourselves in worldly phenomena, having a body. And if we can do that, I'm suggesting, promising that That's the way transcendence. In other words, it's impossible to transcend. So bodhisattvas let go of the ultimate and join hands with all beings and help them.

[39:36]

So, let go of the ultimate, join hands with all beings. It doesn't mean that the bodhisattvas don't know the ultimate because the ultimate is this non-defiling that you do. One other thing I would suggest, which again makes things harder, but in the long run makes it easier, is to switch your legs. Cross them in alternating directions. Again, most of us are looser on one side than the other, so whatever is the tighter side to go in that direction is harder. It's harder now. But later, it'll be easier. And you won't develop imbalances in your body due to being tighter or looser on one side or the other.

[40:45]

That tendency to avoid going in this unfamiliar direction or this stiffer direction is, again, another, what do you call it? What's the word? Anyway, it's still a little bit sort of being queasy about entering the world of that tighter direction. So, let's try to get over our queasiness about being in this sashin. Okay? We're all a little queasy, we're all a little scary about sitting another period. Maybe not every period, but most of us will experience some craziness about sitting. At least, craziness about sitting in the best possible posture. But our bodhisattva vows are that we will enter every little crevice of this body.

[41:56]

that we won't avoid meeting this body, observing this body in total. So I'm emphasizing those three points as ways to, as modes to develop total immersion in having a human body. Lengthen the spine, feeling it pulled up by the top of the head. Light, open, long spine. Pulling the mudra up so it touches the abdomen, below the navel, and alternate the legs. I wanted to also remind you of the new translation of the .

[43:12]

Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Illusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. What I just were talking about are dharma gates.

[44:17]

These three postural points are dharma gates, gates that you can use to enter truth, the truth of having a body. I also would like to mention that when chanting the refuges, please drop the article the. I take refuge in Buddha, I take refuge in Dhamma, I take refuge in Sangha.

[44:53]

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