How to do Nothing

Doing nothing can be surprisingly difficult.

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Good morning. So of course we're in the uh final session of the fall training period 2020 in a remarkable year, I'm sure. At least a remarkable up to now. I could assume that 2020 is a year that will live long in the memory, but it it may it may be eclipsed by 21 and 22 or or or who knows. But it's been it's been, we can all agree, an un very unusual and atypical year. It's been that way here at Yokoji, of course. Some ways it's a very different place to ride out a pandemic, in that the day-to-day hasn't changed very much for those that that live here. And in some ways, it's been more focused and sequestered than usual because we haven't had those uh the guest groups, you know, where we'd usually have all of that, and more more the business side of things that help support the place that that hasn't uh that hasn't been in effect this year. Uh but it's been a time where just uh a few people have uh maintained the maintained the schedule. And so we find ourselves uh almost at the end of fall training before we move into what I personally hope, although you know what I hope doesn't have any real bearing on it. Uh what I what I hope will be a fairly mild a mild winter. I was uh I was a little shocked and demoralized to go from 90 degree summer to five inches of snow in a week and and kind of skip fall. But right now we have this uh you know wonderful, wonderful weather with uh cool but not too cold mornings and evenings and uh warm but not too hot days and all of this uh time to to sit and to to formally practice the schedule of session for for at least several days. And I thought I would you know begin with uh bringing up a Koan from the Book of Equanimity. I very much like the the book of equanimity. Uh I think the I think many people, I wouldn't be the first person to make this point, but many people would agree that uh perhaps the the real meat of of Koan study is in the in the Blue Cliff and the Book of Equanimity. It's like the really the the middle of it, and complementary collections of Koans uh share a lot of Koans between them, and but the verses uh are of course different, and there's a different emphasis and uh a different common thread that goes through both collections. And when I when I returned to to Yokoji after being um away mostly in LA for four or five years, uh when I when I came back to practice, uh I finished I was finishing up at Blue Cliff at that point, Blue Cliff record, and then the book of equanimity. So I I I went on to that next and I I remember it well. And I my my attitude had um I think my attitude had changed in those intervening years, and I took it uh more seriously, so the cases feel feel much more familiar. And uh this this case harkens back to as the like I guess all of them do, pretty pretty much. I mean it's to a certain era in China, although several of the cases are talking about earlier sutras from India too. But this is uh uh case seven, Yaksan takes the the high seat. Uh preface to the assembly to the assembly. Eyes, ears, nose and tongue are each unique. The eyebrows are above the eyes. In soldering, farming, crafts and trades each performs a service. Such a one is always at ease. How does a true Zen teacher proceed? In the main case, attention. For a long time Yakusan had not ascended the high seat. The administrator monk spoke to him, saying, The monks have been wondering about some guidance for a long time. Your reverence, for the sake of the assembly, will you please give us a talk? Yakusan had the gong struck, and the monks then assembled. Yakisan ascended the high seat, remained silent for a while, then got down and went back to his quarters. Later on the administrator monk said to him, Master, a little while ago you agreed to give us a talk on behalf of the assembly. Why didn't you give us even a single word? Yakisan replied There are Sutra teachers for the Sutras and instructors for the commentaries. Why do you come and bother this old monk? An appreciatory verse Catering to an idiot's whim with bogus bills. Ryoshi and Suithu both look back at the whip's shadow. A cloud sweeps the endless sky, a crane nests in the moon. Pure cold penetrates the bones. He sleeps no more. A case from this uh golden age of Chan of Zen Buddhism in in China. Yakisan was a um a Damara of Sekito Kisan. So in the in the in the lineage that comes down to us here, Yakisan Egan figures there, coming down from Seki Tokisan. At the time where the lineages were separating somewhat or distilling into styles and uh the different houses of Zen. So we had Sekito Kison, who was uh Dama teacher and contemporary of great master Master Baso, Umatsu. And these lineages would later distill into uh Soto and Rinzai lineages. And apparently uh people would pass from uh Master Kisen, Sekito Kisen to Master Baso, maybe go back and forth. We have that tradition at that time in China of uh students, uh practitioners being sent from uh temple to temple in the uh in the in the Dharma Tog that uh Kisen gave for the the Shuso Hosen Koan, uh Master Ryuge was in that place of traveling and and going from teacher to teacher, uh somewhat around the same, somewhat around the same era. Sakito Keisen, uh very fond of uh the poem of the Song of the Grassroofed Hermitage, which if you if you haven't looked at it, uh is well worth worth reading and and studying. A practitioner and a personality of someone who is uh well content with their with their lot and well content with their their life, and someone who, at least from reading about him, was not really uh seeking student, students or a big audience. You know, in in quite different the Master Matsu Baso, who was uh must have been much more uh gregarious as he had um I'm not sure how many successes, a lot, 50 or 60 or something, I think. So must have seen a lot more people. And Yakusanigen became a successor of uh of Sakito Kisen, and perhaps had something of uh uh well I'm sure something of the same style. And this is the lineage that runs through uh to Tozan, through Ryuge, through all of the uh what would become the Kaodong and Soto school in in China, which was characterized sometimes a Soto school as the school where uh uh you understand even before a word is raised. That's one way of it at a Soto school, an understanding that is before uh before even a word or a phrase comes forward. That's a real in-your-bones understanding, where even words are to speak about things is is extra. You could perhaps contrast that with uh the what would become the the Rinzai school at that point, where the uh device of provoking or catalyzing awakening was often uh a sticker, a shout. Something that was used as a catalyst to help uh awaken, to help force uh practitioners beyond discursive knowing, step step into direct experience. You know, for us here, in some ways it's quite unusual again to come up and give a Dharma talk when there's eight people, including including me in the room. Yeah, although with a talk that's recorded, maybe some other people listen to it and it goes out in that way. But you know, when I look around the room as I did at the beginning of uh session, where I of course you may have noticed I uh uh completely forgot to read the session precautions. So session never officially began. You know, so it may never officially end either. But afterwards, so when it struck me, I'm like, ah, oh well, what you know, really the for the people who are gathered here in this room, do we do we need to to go over those again? Of course, in some ways you could say yes. I mean, every session begins anew, particularly with it being Rohatsu session, to to raise that up and and to recommit. But there's also on the other side um there's long, long experience here. It felt good to to collect a uh a list of participants of people who have really uh shown up over the years and been very very very involved to come together and say, yeah, we'll we'll do this this quiet private uh week together. So then the talk is can perhaps is going to be different, right? Because this is not something where uh often on the first day we talk about how to approach session and to go over some of those basics about how to uh set thinking aside, how to organize uh posture and and mind and how to approach. Because again, for for us here, that has been that has been said many times. And and the training wheels uh long off the bike, and everybody is uh is sailing their own ship here. That's terrible mixed metaphor of bike and ship. And so it seems fitting to raise up uh a coal on like this with Master Master Yakson. In Master Dogen's writings or in Shobogenzo, where he talks about uh how to approach Zazen, he says, uh think not thinking. How do you think non-thinking? Non-thinking. This also appears, and perhaps that's where it was taken from uh something that um Master Yakusan Egan said the practice of how to approach uh thinking mind or what is the relationship to thinking mind when you sit zarzed non-thinking. Sit non-thinking. Uh for myself and my my experience of uh these uh sessions and these years of training and of practice and uh exploration of of meditation and of Zar Zen, that really is the is the the great shift and the great heart of Zar Zen. Is what is the relationship to constructing thinking identified mind. If that is really that relationship is a good one, if that is brought into uh a proper alignment, then Zazen is really then a straightforward activity. A straightforward activity of sitting as as uh no less than a Buddha, sitting next to a Buddha. I said that and um Shi Wick, who put this book together, brings up uh an interaction between Yakis-an and his teacher Sekito earlier. When Yaku-san met Sekito, Yakisan was sitting in meditation, and Sekito asked him, What are you doing? Yakis-an said, I'm doing nothing at all. Sekito said, Then you're sitting idly. Yakisan said, If I were sitting idly, then I would be doing something. Checking him further, Sekito said, You say you're doing nothing, and what is it you're not doing? Yakisen said, even thousands of old Buddhas do not know. It's a wonderful interaction and uh attesting of the quality of uh of Zazen that that Sekito does. Again, in a in a very everyday and precise manner. You see, like the flavor of the school. There's no shouts, there's no one's no one's getting smacked in this one, right? But this rather just uh a plain and everyday interaction. What are you what are you doing? A good question for each of us when we sit. I mean, are we ready to respond at any point? If uh you know, we're sitting here, if say Roshi just turned to you and said and called you by name and asked you what what are you doing? You know, how would how would we respond? Are you ready to respond with with with confidence and with with freedom there? Is it as plain as the the nose on our face, what it is that we're actually doing in the practice of of in this case meditation or zarzen sitting? When asked this Yakerson said, I'm I'm doing I'm doing nothing at all. Um especially with these the interplay of Zen testing, sometimes difficult to discern with the words whether that's something uh modest and hidden, hiding out, or it's something literal to say I'm doing nothing at all. That could be the response of somebody who's never practiced, that could be a response of somebody who just sat down for the first time. I'm doing nothing at all. And Sakito prods and says, then you're just you're doing nothing. Then you you're just wasting time, then you're just sitting idly. And it's a good check for us in our practice, particularly in Sashin, where so many hours are devoted to to Zazen. How is that time being expressed? How is it being actualized? Or is there a time there where we're just uh sitting idly? We all know what that sitting idly is, I think. If we're engaged in in sitting, we come in perhaps for three periods, and one and a half of them are somewhat uh a focus, and the other the other one and a half periods are thinking about what's going to go on with Thanksgiving and where we might you know go and who's gotta come and what have I got to do, and then start to uh allow ourselves to drift into that kind of macination and a planning, then of course that's no longer that's no longer sitting, that's sitting idly, that's um or just sitting thinking about musing about things. So that's always and there's no one inside our head that's checking that. There's no teacher, there's no uh there's no authority there that is watching that. So every one of us is independent and has to take uh responsibility for our actualization in every certain period. Not just in every certain period, of course, you know, as soon as we're off the cushion or involved in other activity, the same criteria apply. How are we engaged and how are we aligned with the totality of our experience of life? Because as soon as we separate, as soon as we stand apart from the present appearance because it doesn't match our scheme of preference on whatever level, then we're off to the side, and that's when separation uh takes root and becomes apparent. And it can start by being um uh it doesn't seem like much of a problem, you know, to just sit idly and no no no real great hurt taking place, it may seem, in that kind of activity. But I would say that uh we have to be very careful uh because as though those weeds, once they start to grow, are difficult to pull out. You know, as if we construct and continue to identify and fix and place and scheme when we're sitting, then for sure that same mechanism runs uninterrupted through the rest of our experience. And it's not that we're trying to become something different than being human. We have that uh way that we navigate life and we plot and we scheme, but it has nothing to do with Zarzen. That's that. You know, as Yakassan says in retort, after being prodded when you're sitting idly, he says if I were sitting idly, I would be doing something. Wonderful answer. That's doing something. Sitting and thinking about things is doing something. Sitting and resisting the conditions of our present reality is doing something. Rejecting uh some internal or external phenomena is doing something, is still doing something. Trying to get somewhere else, doing something, trying to rid ourselves of. Is still doing something. Za zen really is doing nothing but sitting. You know, hence Za zen. Za sit zen. Sit zen. Walk zen. Carry zen. All this activity of being thus, we hone that with the sitting practice, and so much time is given to the sit and practice in to really let that penetrate deeply. All it needs to be mastered and actualized or realized is this doing nothing revealed in sitting, where it is most obvious, but then later expressed and brought to life in the great activity of doing nothing all day. As we get on with doing all kinds of things. Of course, that difference is really disappearing and practicing intimately with all things so that that non-separation is something much more than a word. It becomes the reality of who and what we are and how we live. Becomes very obvious who and what we are. And not sitting idly, but I'd be doing something. And this meticulous checking from, you know, he could have let him off at that point. Oh, alright, good one. Aha. I wouldn't. No, but he goes on, checking him further. You know, and again, this is for um a teacher of real depth, recognizes depth or recognises ability, and wants to see just how much depth there is there. Instead of leaving it at that point, checks him further. You're saying you're doing nothing. What is it you're not doing? Yeah. Very good, another wonderful retort. Like a kind of like the you know, like the US Open final. The amazing backhand goes over the net, he's never gonna reach this, and then you know, back it comes. You know, playing at a very high level. What is it you're not doing? And he answers, even thousands of Buddhas do not know. And that ends there. And that that's our practice of Zazen, that's our practice of Seshin. Even a thousand Buddhas do not know. It's not a matter of arrival at a destination where it is, it is known to be something, and we get mixed up in enlightenment, a delusion, or or an attainment. What is it that we're doing when we're sitting? When we really look, when we really become become revealed as that, then what is that? Anything that we can say then about it really only lives in the realm of a pointer, lives in the realm of a comment or or a capping phrase on our experience. Because we understand that the word of a description or however it can be encapsulated is a snapshot of reality that has no uh enduring nature. It's just a comment. What are you doing? And what could you say that would like wrap it up neatly? If it were so, if it could be understood or gathered or fixed in that way. Well, thank gosh that it can't, because somebody would have monetized it by now. So we see here, even at the beginning, Master Yakassan was very, you know, knew what Zarzen is, and that was only the beginning of his study there. So here we meet him many years later. You know, in the preface, which always of course points at our main case eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are each unique. Eyebrows are above the eyes. You know, we can certainly say that in that relative way, all of these things that we have, and each one of us appearing in a different shape, a different size. You're over there, you're over here, I'm over here. We all appear uniquely and differently, but everything is just in its right place. Everyone is in exactly the right seat. Right now. Everything is exactly just so. This one here, that one there, the empty seat. The Buddha on the altar, the rock wall outside, the sky, the weather, just as it is, everything appearing exactly just as is. So we see from this standpoint, from this place of realization, that all things are just so. And when that is understood, when that's really understood in the heart and bones, then that is consistent with the Buddha's right view. See things, to see things as they are. Not difficult in that sense, or not hidden. In soldering, farming, crafts and trades, each performs a service. I'm not sure of a translation there, I'm not sure if they were soldering back in those days. In those days or welding or something, maybe maybe they were. Soldering and each performs a service. You know, we're all in this uh comedy troupe together. Right? Each one of us. Some of us uh not sure anyone here is a farmer, but there are teachers and there are, you know, mechanics and artists and accountants and um real estate agents, all kinds of people, each performing a service, everybody taking on a role, everybody fulfilling a role. Such a one is always at ease. So, how does a Zen teacher proceed? What is there that's uh special then about being a Zen teacher? You know, for I was very certainly hugely intrigued to discover what a Zen teacher was. You know, my early uh inquiries into this practice, you know, I really wanted to know uh reading the the accounts, like these accounts from this, uh I still find it extraordinary that all these years ago in distant lands, thousands of years ago, uh people inquired into and came to understand their place in life and in reality. And that that that of course, in some way, in hindsight, well duh. You know, well why not? You know, and some of that may be like the the arrogance of civilization that we would somehow understand, understand more. But people knew and understood what a what a human life was, and then these sayings and these koans would uh leap off the page and and intrigue me to really to inquire into. So they have some understanding that I that I lack, you know what what could that possibly be? And that was uh, you know, Carl brought me brought me a long way and thousands of miles to like to really to look into that, and and perhaps to separate a farmer, a solderer, a you know, what whatever other crafts are here, and then so how does a Zen teacher, what's the difference there? You know, of course we we can't help but um particularly in early practice, put a teacher uh on a pedestal, whether one that's uh alive or one that's long dead, you know, have a spiritual guide that we um idolize or feel can um is somewhere uh more advanced than we may be, and that's a temporary and necessary expedient in our training. You know, it's a long training, of course. You look at the the history of tradition of Zen in a day and age where most people want to sort of be done in six months or whatever with any kind of training in the spiritual realm, that's of course laughable in the tradition of uh of Zen Buddhism. It's always been, always will be, a lifelong practice of inquiry and refinement, and a lifelong practice of hard work and selfless effort in order to really uh realize the depths of it. And we all stand shoulder to shoulder with all of these uh teachers and practitioners of the past in this great unbroken chain of thousands of years, but it also extends forward, backward and forward, back to distant China and India, forward through whatever is to come well beyond 2020. But right now we're in the sea, we're holding the space, it's our responsibility to faithfully transmit it. You know, the administrator comes to Yakasan. I resonate with I'm like the administrator monk here, so that would be me. Like Tension didn't show up for a few Sundays on Zoom, you know, it's like people are emailing and wondering what's going on, and etc. So I might, you know, I'd probably ask him if he didn't show up, like what's going on that's uh something happened, you know. And um Soviet administrator monk chases up Yakasan, and maybe he's he's tired, of course, of uh giving talks or teaching, something maybe upsetting. Who knows? Yeah, as we uh as we may see from time to time, Zen teachers are not uh uh above becoming upset, right? Uh or tired of teaching. Yeah, but what is the role of a Zen teacher? In a formal context, they teach. That's the day job. Yeah, at the beginning of the session, we come up and like in the morning, we we come up and we put on our robes. We don't the rackisu for service. We bow as we enter the room. Every one of us. You know, and there are many spheres out in the world living uh living our life, performing our duties, taking care of our responsibilities. Is it really is it really enough? You know, or are we still pursuing perhaps something more, something different? I don't know. I don't know if that's true for anyone, anyone here. But his en teacher still has to perform the role of his end teacher, of course, and Yakusan is shows up and uh sends the the high seat. So I think a little differently in those days was a literally, you know, a chair or raised up so that the assembly could you could be seen by the assembly. Sends a high seat and um I don't know why I'm looking it up, I pretty clear what he does. Um remained silent for a while, then got down and went back to his quarters. But remained silent for a while. Didn't sit down immediately, like get up and leave. But left a good long pregnant pause and took the seat and gave the Dharma talk of silence for fulfilling the role and sitting. Later on, perhaps in here or maybe it's in the blue cliff, there's a similar case with uh the Buddha in one of the in one of the heavens, similar thing. Stands up, sits down. Or the Buddha, when questioned by the philosopher about the way, just remained silent. And the questioner bowed and thanked him profusely and left. Or after Maitreya expounding on non-duality, when asked for his comment, Dimala Kurti gave a thunderous silence. So we have many examples of this expression, what it all comes down to. Master Yakasan returns to his quarters and when questioned, you know, when asked what you know what's going on. Is that it? Are we are we are we are we disbanding? Are we dissolving the membership? He says there are sutra teachers for sutras and instructors for the commentaries. Why do you come and bother this old monk? That is certainly so. I mean, in these days of uh, you know, well, in those days, perhaps if uh we didn't feel an affinity with a teacher, you take the long and arduous journey and cross over to the next mountain range, beaten back bandits and fording rivers, and go to see another teacher. Here you can just hop on YouTube or these days, or wherever, and there's a thousand teachers out there, many of them very good. So if we wish to study, then we can study. We listen to wish to learn, then we can learn. There's no, of course, there's no barrier there, and there's no stinginess in the Dharma. It's wide open, freely available. If we wish to uh drink, then there's plenty of water for us. That's so for Session, that's all for us here for this week of practice that we have together. As I you know mentioned at the beginning. Long experience and know the ropes at this point. So it's a good time to look in with this opportunity that we have, a rare one in this uh strange year, to see what is there there? Is there something to be, is there's something still to be done? Is there a gap to be closed? Is there some attachment to be dissolved? Is there some sticking point to be let go of? Or is there something that's not really clear, which we're efforting to clarify? Then when that is found, when it if that is really seen, then we can really now concisely and with focus get on with that. The necessary doing amidst the doing nothing. If there is something to be done, now's the time to take care of that. You know, as my Dharma brother Roshi's first successor, uh Kaigen Roshi, I heard uh Tenshin Roshi told me that he uh and say to people, if you can, you know, boil things down, bring things down, distill it down to one question and focus on that. If there's if there's something there, and that's a tough one because that could be nebulous, be like, oh, if I could find it and bring it down to one question, but that's the work of session, that's a work of practice. We all have to uh work that unique process for each one of us. There's no comparison needed to somebody else, it's not a matter of 10 years of experience, 30 years, 50 years, a hundred years. It's not a matter of becoming or turning into something or becoming accomplished or reaching a conclusion. Just like the solderer, the farmer, the crafter, the teacher, every one of us is arranged just so, and all it's required is to live this life for one that we already are, without a shadow, without a gap. And to let that then unfold and take us to each new destination that we find ourselves. The activity of a destination is always the same. It's always this just as is, and aligning with that as well as possible. You know, to really go beyond is to align with that so that you can't insert a hair in the gap. So that is my intention for uh Rohatsu session, or for this session, is to check myself in my practice, and particularly in here in the practice of Zazen, to see, to ask, am I sitting idly? Or am I truthfully and really engaged in do nothing, in just sitting? And is that really being brought to life? Because we don't, as we know, we practice together. So that though it may feel like our practice, my practice, your practice, that's illusory. You know, but in the role of Yakasan here, in the role of uh Zen teacher, you know, the the the real irony of becoming accomplished, you know, to um pick up your own trash, then you realize that now you're gonna be picking up everyone's trash for the rest of your life. But if it's like there's no difference there between my trash and your trash, then we can really share the load and take care and take care of things with you know with with real um attention and heart to clean, to clean up, to raise up, to bring the value, to bring the meaning. Great respect for everybody here and uh I appreciate your practicing alongside you. And let's let's please continue.