Good morning. That's good, everyone's still alive. Or is it good? Thank you for your for your efforts so far. Session is always an opportunity for for real depth. Depth is always available. But it's helpful to set up a container. Session really is about creating creating some heat. It's not the uh easiest activity in some ways. You know, if we compare it to other activities. It's often a a stretch, the first one, the second one, a fiftieth, a hundredth one. Session is always demanding in that way. That's uh for a good good reason. You know, this tradition is has been maintained these many centuries, not as a cultural oddity or you know, or anything like that, but rather because it has proven effective means, effective means for those people entering in to do the real work of uh say spiritual transformation, real work of uh uncovering and realizing satisfaction in this life. This is the reason it continues, the forms are maintained, and that heat is really raising things up and concentrating the energy. That way, anything that needs to really come into the light can come into the light, can be brought up and dealt with, which is often difficult to do in our life of everyday demands and concerns. I wanted to bring up uh a writing by Master Dogun. First though, I wanted to say, remind us of the first line of the Tao De Qing. Now, of course, Taoism is a very large, uh major ingredient in uh what became Chan and Zen tradition, with that merging of uh Indian Buddhism coming to China and meeting the uh the established understandings and practices of the day. This was already old at that time. In the Tao De Qing, it says the Tao or the way, you say the way that can be spoken of is not the constant Tao. So the way that can be spoken of is not the true way. Sometimes it's translated of a constant way. And it's important to apply that. You know, we we have these Dharma talks, and different people take on that responsibility, fulfill that role, and say some things. But the true Tao of a constant Tao that can be spoken of is not the constant Tao. Or as Bodhidharma said at the pivotal statement for the it's ascribed to him for the foundation of Zen. It is an intimate teaching not based on words and letters. So it's not something that is uh somebody finds, possesses, and then deals out. The way is not residing with one person who has ownership of it and then it's dispensed. Everybody, without exception, is already the constant way. And the teachings of the Dharma do not cease from dawn till dusk and all through the night. Its appearances in words and forms, objects, people, but again, with the tradition, it's helpful that we have these uh forms which we refine and use to raise the most essential questions to the surface, so that each one of us has the opportunity to really look deeply for ourselves and to make this life clear for ourselves. When I say make it clear, not so that you know we wander around in some kind of wise clarity all the time, not that kind of clear, but clear when it's confusing, clear when we're fearful, clear whatever the circumstance, the clarity that this is the constant way. This is a great life, the same life as the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, Dogin Zenji, each one of us. Ted brought up at the beginning of Session a couple of lines from Fukan Zazengi. I wanted to bring up part of that text today. Aishu also in his talk brought up a line that appears in here. Roshi often expounds or will bring up lines from his text, a very short text, uh, but one I return to over and over again, I will look at it, uh, really because if I want to learn about something, um it's nice to have it on one page. This is a whole of practice in one page. Really, if you take his way of Zazen and really apply that, really apply that, then you need no further instruction in Zen or in Zha Zen. And it's interesting that he uh gave this uh gave this teaching when he recently returned back from China. Left Japan, made that difficult voyage, and uh went to China, studied, and then returned. So he saw this as the most important thing. The translation we say is the uh universal recommendations rules for Zha Zhen. I might have mistranslated that, but very close. Okay. Anyway, he says the way is basically perfect and all pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma vehicle is free and untrammelled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice? There's a certain irony. What is the use of going off here and there to practice after coming back from three years in China? He had to do that. He said he went with uh Miyosei. Miyosei. Wait, his companion, but he went to China, who didn't uh, you know, died pretty much upon arrival there. It wasn't an easy journey. Dogen Zenji had already finished uh Khan's study and become accomplished in the in the Rinzai School, a transmission in Rinzai School. Although, in his words, he said after those years he learned a little about the Rinzai School. So he felt it necessary to inquire further. Each one of us who comes to a practice such as this has the way-seeking mind. That's established. We say that at the beginning of Sashin and the precautions. Each person that comes, doesn't matter what background, age, or circumstance, unless you know you just screwed up and came to the wrong retreat camp. You thought you were in the next valley. But even then, maybe maybe you're still in the right place. But each one who comes is driven, has that question. There's something there to be resolved. There is uh there is something, there perhaps is uh a gap that needs to be closed. There's even with all of whatever years of practice, often there's a sense of still, you know, there's something here that needs to be refined. You know, we talk about that raising heat in Seshin, you know, uh our method really in these long periods and these days, it's uh it's a slow cooking. It's like a slow cooking, you know, which is difficult. And in this society, you know, as we see, is often not that popular. You know, we prefer two minutes in the microwave for many reasons because they're so busy. But it's a slow cooking. Why go off here and there to practice? We go where we need to go and do what we need to do in order to to realize. Tenshin Roshi came from England. There were no teachers of you know uh you needed a a strong teacher. Came to LA, 10,000 miles. I came here to study with him. Many of you are from all over this you know, different countries, or come from all over the states. Come to this one place in order to practice. Why do we go off here and there? And in this next line, Dogan says, So, what is the use of going off here and there? It's never apart from one, right where one is, and yet if there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. That is the kicker. If there is the slightest discrepancy, a lot of the years of the practice, the process of practice is resolving that discrepancy, that ever-elusive discrepancy. The ways that we're uh able to conjure our own difficulties. Conjure our own difficulties. He goes on, if the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion, the source of our difficulties, our human conditioned approach. We are well practiced at approaching things in a dualistic context, and we bring it to a practice such as this one and continue to try often and continue to try and apply it. So not aware of any other tools, these are the ones we have, and we keep pound trying to pound that square peg in. If a least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Zarzen offers the opportunity to see into this picking and choosing. We have that again a very old instruction that says the great white way, constant Tao, the way of Zen, is not difficult, it dislikes picking and choosing or is averse to picking and choosing. We are adept functionally at picking and choosing. We do it all day. It isn't the enemy, but when we apply that picking and choosing to the practice of Zazen, then that is sitting on the ground picking and choosing, and perhaps waiting for something to happen. You should cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns the light inward to illuminate yourself. These lines are gold. You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding. Each one of us understands that beyond an intellectual, we understand it intellectually. You know, I I read a I read a thing recently talking about the birth of a universe. It's a contemporary of Stephen Hawking, a collaborator with him, and how they think they may have found some evidence for the previous universe to this one. It's a mathematical model that predicts when the old universe collapses and reborn in a big bang, it leaves these little uh markers, little points in the cosmic background radiation. And they found these points. So there's some support for this cyclic Kalpa. How very interesting that we pick up these old texts and find these dudes in China a few thousand years ago talking about the same thing. This constant way. Now maybe it's so, maybe it isn't, as you know, made me laugh at what Ted brought up about the uh dark matter, antimatter doesn't matter. In one sense, it doesn't matter. A universe before this one, a universe to come. In one sense, it doesn't matter. But yeah, is it not extraordinary? Is this life not extraordinary? Often we're so consumed with our conditioned circumstances that that wonder of this constant appearance is obscured and demeaned. We have our practice for Zazen often. Perhaps we're following our breath or doing koan or just sitting, she can taza, and we'll go to Dok San or a Daisan interview. We'll bring up okay, so I'm doing this for my breath. Okay, so there's that. Now this is what's really going on for me. And we move from the practice to what is most important in the present condition, in our condition, in whatever's going on. We focus, we go to the story of the problems that are going on in our life. There will always be problems in our life, and then we die. And that is not the constant doubt. That is not the way to approach. The Zahn, we're given the instruction in the way to approach. You take even that example of uh following the breath. Is it enough? To do Zazen and follow the breath. Said that Ananda asked the Buddha many years into his teaching career, the the monks are asking what you do when you meditate. What do you do? Twenty years in. And the Buddha said, I sit with awareness of breath. You can imagine the disappointment from some people. Oh, really? That's what he's doing? Well, it was enough for Shakyamuni Buddha and his great awakening to then sit with awareness of breathing. The extraordinary miracle of breath. But it doesn't have to be, if we are fortunate, it doesn't have to be conjured up or work done. It is so. Breathing occurs. And we breathe. Is that enough? Because often we go right over the top of that and then bring everything else in that is difficult. And our picking and choosing begins. As he says, you know, refrain from intellectual understanding, pursuing words. I was appreciating the Jukai ceremonies that we have. It says, now no longer follow dualistic teachers. You have to go beyond that right and wrong. Go beyond the worldview of the descriptions and make a leap beyond that. And as Master Dogan asks us or implores, learn the backward step that turns the light inward to illuminate yourself. The practice of Zazen. Now this Zazen is not just only confined to the Buddha hall, right? Or sitting here. But this vehicle, the way that we set this up, Zazen, the posture of the body enjoys. It may complain, but it enjoys, the body mind enjoys the act and the expression of sitting. When you really allow it, then you understand the half smile on the Buddha image that you see. The half smile that is the basis of contented zarzen, the sitting. You cease pursuing words or following after speech. That occurs between the ears. Cease pursuing words or following after speech. Your own our own voice that we're so enamoured of. own again where there's no possession there's the the ghost in the shell what that is who knows you know we if we take it do it we we treat it as a a fixed entity that is all then we we know we our tradition informs us over and over again inherently dissatisfactory search for to assuage our present desire that is the condition that is how we're wired the human being is wired that way in order to get the most food procreate die on we go it's that evolutionary drive the czarzen though when we sit it's arranged so that we have the ideal gate as Master Dogen called it the front gate zarzen is the front gate there's nothing going on that needs to really be done an original self is manifest in all directions inside outside up down in every way nothing to do and then when the bell is struck then the practice is engage intimately and wholeheartedly with the practice of Zaza whatever that instruction is whatever our practice is don't demean it and like I'm doing this while I look for something else or something better. If you exhaust your practice then you Roshi will give you something else to work on but the Buddha didn't exhaust breath awareness in his career. So it really doesn't matter the shift that difference is take the backward step that illumines self and cease picking and choosing so you know as we we have plenty of opportunity to to see how this functions in our sitting we sit the bell stroke breathing zazen begins and what is that the mind or the brain continues to produce secrete thoughts thoughts and perhaps some of those are just random things firings and neurons memories from 30 years ago thinking about two weeks hence going it's extraordinary it's extraordinary ten minutes in you could be walking down a street in your town where you grew up you know or whatever occurs but if we reach in and do something with that find some value in that or raise that up as being any more important than the feeling in our feet then that's picking and choosing that's reaching in and toying with this constant doubt far better to allow what is occurring to welcome the present expression as it is and to continue to resolutely sit. The body is arranged the mind thoughts are produced it's of no consequence it's a busy mind. That's irrelevant it's a quiet mind it doesn't matter now we may reach in there intellectually and say well so what what's so good about that? That's still picking and choosing it's not enough to watch it unfold either it's not enough like I'm in my I'm gonna watch this movie of me. I'm gonna watch a thinking come and go I'm gonna see the room and the people and look I'm in and watch it then you're just watching a boring movie that is a position to be dissolved the place of the witness there that's nice you can establish a place of a witness and counter that with some practice then go beyond that go beyond that in Zaza let that dissolve let that fall off disappear disappear disappear when you sit so there's nothing left it's doing nothing it's not nothing it's doing nothing there's some doing there's some effort that's what you there's effort in Zazen effort in in in Zen in this practice often we just come in we sit once we've learned the ropes and we come in and we just knock it in neutral and then just drift around the ocean nothing's much happening today that's okay you know that's fine Monday to Tuesday Wednesday for oh session's finished tomorrow so we arranged all this time the money the cost and everything so now is the time to really to be sure to really go to the depths to stretch to see to see you know is it really is there something here is this satisfactory is the breath enough is this life understood do I I know this one intimately that backward step turn the light inward he says then body and mind of themselves will drop away that is indeed fortunate nothing to do body and mind of itself will fall away but you have to put yourself the effort in to be in the place of body and mind falling away otherwise you're always walking around the perimeter you know you have to create the heat in Session otherwise nothing really gets cooked but we do that we put ourselves in that place of not picking and choosing of being intimate with this then body and mind of themselves drop away and your original face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness you should practice suchness without delay she reaches back again older in the tradition to use the line here that was already old when he quoted this if you wish to be a person of suchness practice it without delay perhaps we're not it's not time for Tsar Zen. Then how do I practice without delay? But when Tsar Zen the Bell is struck to conclude the period what occurs unwinding of the legs standing being intimate with standing walking it's not just another period of kinhi it is the expression of the constant Tao in appearance the miracle of raising a foot the mystery of exhalation of breathing one foot raises up one foot pushes down when you really look that's enough and you walk and then we walk faster practising suchness without delay when we leave practising the suchness of retrieving the shoes and heading for lunch the great gift of the schedule being repeated day after day is to you know take a strip away the what's next the entertainment or oh what's coming up now you know what's coming up now you know what's next it's embodied you know what's next you don't need any more announcements after the first day it's lunch thank god you know so but then being intimate with that the next thing over and and over so at one's roots really you one's roots are deep in this place of awakening this is the abode present awareness is one's home one's true home and you live there and the more and as you live there you the diversions the escapes the what ifs the the blame the whys those things you see them for what they are you see our conditioned reflex our reaction that's okay human being same as everybody else but you don't confuse it for the gr you don't confuse it you're not confused in the same way there's just picking and choosing and preferences cast aside all involvements cease all affairs and this is medicine strong medicine can we do that cast aside involvements and cease all affairs do not think of good or bad do not administer pro and con cease all movements of a constant mind of a conscious mind and the gauging of thoughts and views and have no designs on becoming a Buddha cease all movements of a conscious mind this was points right at this principle don't move be intimate with what is occurring and we stand outside it you pick one thing up and run with it or you add to it then you continue to construct constructing an identity particularly in Zazen that it's a time to dissolve the identity the person who we think we are and let that let that again let that dissolve cease movement of a conscious mind when you really stop cease movement then you realize what this line is a wave it can be spoken of is not a constant way. You see the one thing it doesn't move the one thing that doesn't change and how it is expressed in flesh and rock he says you have gained the pivotal opportunity of a human form you talk about how lucky it is to be human and sometimes and I'm like I don't know sure it's a pivotal opportunity you know sometimes we have like in the six worlds of Buddhism who puts us one step over on from the animals I'm like not sure about that might want to switch that around sometimes it's very problematic we have this opportunity whether it's pivotal or not we have this opportunity of a human form like the great blessing of this present expression or even this circumstance now if we cover that up or obscure or demean that yeah but these are my problems this morning when I was walking down home and I saw something in the road and I looked down and there was a a king snake a baby kingsnake who was dead I thought it was alive at first it didn't look dead and it was tiny and I know it can't and I'm like I'm gonna prod it oh no it's dead okay so then I picked it up and this king snake's about beautiful colours right about five inches long dead where's the meaning in that you know coming and going you see you know inherent flimsiness shaky investment in the world of in the appearance of form in forms as you know from a core of our tradition or even if you never encountered Buddhism you know he says the universal recommendation it's not just for people on earth this universal Zazen is universal present awareness is is universal but we have the opportunity of human form we have the opportunity of a tradition replete with teachings and a a skillful method in order to really to resolve whatever questions we may have do not use your time in vain you are maintaining the essential working of a Buddha way you please honoured followers of Zen long accustomed to groping for the elephant do not be suspicious of a true dragon but you know we could say elephant in the room what's an elephant and everyone's got their I don't know if that was an old story then but that's how I I take it you know but don't be suspicious of the true dragon there was that looks back at an old story where um there's somebody who loved dragons paintings of dragons and had tattoos of dragons and the house was decorated with dragons and then one day the true dragon showed up and they screamed and ran off. Session this is a true dragon devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute devote your energies to a way that directly indicates this constant way Roshi will bring up how some Mizumi Roshi would said that somebody said he always talked about emptiness and this absolute principle. And he said yeah that's so it's uh excuse people don't uh people don't see it that's why people don't see this intrinsic principle it's all on the perimeter still on the outside this vehicle of Zen is never about walking the perimeter although being on the outside looking in and whatever its appearance whatever this appearance is but rather being fully involved being fully involved with whatever this expression is and whatever this expression is whether it be one pointed breathing or walking or whether it's being on the phone with another call on hold while you're trying to eat a piece of toast or whatever it might be twenty things going on at once it's not a it's not a matter of that it's finding the place where you are as he says over and over in various places find where you are practice then practice realization occurs actualizing the fundamental point you know we let go of the condition like the way the barriers we cook up or create between the ears and the way where we understand and misunderstand things you know we see go beyond that or take the backward step with that you find that it is always the right place it's always the right expression it's always the right time the function of this moment is always apparent and then the way this life flows functions and you face to face we're face to face and it's like mystery as it is yeah you don't have to it has have to be worked out it has to be thoroughly intimately lived this one as you are as I am how could it be any other anything else and as he says you know at the end there don't be suspicious of the true dragon it's not about looking at this how it is based on picking and choosing and looking for something else it's don't be suspicious of the true dragon this one and it's important to enjoy it you know it can sound kind of funny with Sesshin or you know we have some with pain and difficulty and we go through all kinds of things but we do it in a supportive environment and whatever happens you know somebody's been through that before we have this container where everybody is welcome you know but it's important they say to enjoy this is our life so it's time that we have left the the day enjoy enjoy it enjoy every period here enjoy gin enjoy eating enjoy going to bed whatever it is you know really become intimate with this and thank you for listening well we'll finish