Everyday Mind

Zen Master Dogen’s skillful words point directly at the true reality of self.

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Good morning. Good morning.

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It is technically still morning, but uh we might feel like we've been up a long time already. Thank you for your your efforts so far. I realize it's much of this is very different than I would imagine it's very different than your everyday activity for most people. And it can feel a little awkward to uh not really know what you're doing. But that's fine. That's part of the practice too, you know, is to um really not know what you're doing, but to uh have have uh present attention to what what's going on and to be able to pick pick the things up that are being transmitted there and to to follow along. And we can learn a lot from not getting things right. And for those who are more familiar with the way that we do things, there's constant refinement. It's not that you you get it down and then it's all good, but rather it's constant refinement. And if you do get it all down, then you know then we change it. So it's all so it's it changes for all of us. So the forms are not a um well, it sometimes can be taken as a as a block or or off-putting, but these these forms that we use in in here, the bows, the way that we do things, is uh that's maintained because it's been proven effective over many years, centuries, uh, as being uh beneficial and uh efficient in helping people to realize themselves. Whatever we come to meditation or a practice uh like Zen to do, to really maybe to have a deeper look at this one that we are, to really have a deeper look at that. It is uh obviously a Buddhist tradition, yeah. So we have the image there of uh Shakimuni Buddha and um a lot of mention of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We should know that the word Buddha means awakened one. So we're in the business of uh awakening, awakening from um from many things, you know, from the constructions or the ideas or beliefs about life which may not be in accord with reality as it is. So the Buddhist tradition and it contains all those wonderful ingredients, but Zen stands somewhat apart, although completely Buddhist, it's also a different emphasis. Now the founder or who's attributed to be the founder of Zen Buddhism was um an Indian monk called uh Bodhidharma. So it'd be many generations after the original Buddha in India, um Bodhidharma from a southern Indian monk travelled to China. And him and also several, you know, many other people, some we don't know about, lost to history, you know, and maybe he's become somewhat of an archetype as well, and several characters mixed in there. But Buddhism came to China, and then uh the culture of the time there, Taoist, Confucian, you know, it takes on its own then unique quality, something that's not strictly Indian. And well, Buddhism was taught there, sutras and uh other um precepts, things that are written down. When Bodhidharma said something when asked to define Zen, he said it is an intimate teaching. I've also read the translation, an older translation was a secret teaching, but that sounds like something you might find if you go digging in the basement. And that's metaphorically that might be so, but um, an intimate is probably closer, an intimate teaching, not dependent on words and letters, not dependent on scriptures, pointing directly at the mind or at mind, realizing Buddha, realizing the awakened way. So in this sense, it is not a belief structure, Zen. It is not a religion, really, although it has obviously you know religious aspects. We can use that, but to really get the core of it, it is not reliant on words and letters, not reliant on any belief system, not reliant on a scheme, not reliant on a method, not reliant on something that's handed down or explained, something that's missing, something that's been found, but rather pointing directly at mind. Alive now. Pointing at mind is this pointing at mind, this expression, this living expression now. Realizing Buddha, realizing really what that word means, realizing what it is to awaken. Not as like flipping a switch, although sometimes it can happen in that kind of way, but this realization is a uh continual evolving. And it is inclusive of all, all people, all things, all phenomena, seen and unseen, everything, all together, the interconnectedness, the fact of interconnectedness, not the explanation of interconnectedness, but that living interconnectedness, the letting go of a seeing through of all the ways that we construct separation in our mind. The haves and have-nots, the people who are in the club, the people who are not. We see, of course, as playing out on the all across the globe, the way we define ourselves and say, we are right, they are wrong. But rather we transcend or realize before the appearance of dualistic notion. That this is one thing, this is right, and this is wrong. We think that way. We understand that way, but it is limiting. Long time after Bodhidharma, after several generations and Zen starting to gain its particular flavor in China, then um an itinerant woodcutter from southern China, person of no rank and no social status, uh, the sixth patriarch, becomes the t of a lineage the lineage master. An example of doesn't matter where you where you're from, how much money you got or don't have, what what country, what gender, any of those ways open to all. Zen in China became uh a dominant um religion or way, continued for many centuries, still does to this day. Eventually Japanese monks traveled to China to study with Chinese teachers. So it is again fast-forwarding. I'm just trying to give some context for this place with this. Japanese teachers, 13th century, 12th century, traveling to China, um, practicing and understanding Zen, and then being empowered to share that with others, returning to Japan. And then maintained and refined over many centuries, and then in this century, well, actually last century now, isn't it? Last century, I'm getting old. Um 60s, 70s, many teachers from the uh you know, so-called Eastern countries come to America bringing this unusual way, Zen and Buddhism. One of those teachers, a Japanese uh master, Mizumi Roshi, was the founder of this particular temple and training center. And he uh taught all comers, all people. Uh many made many monks, many people had jukai, which take on the Buddhist precepts, and then for those who were driven to um practice very deeply, Otto Steva course, uh, then became successors of him. And the abbot here, Tenshin Roshi was in this morning, was one of Mizumi Roshi's successors. So he had twelve successors, men and women. So this place is a continuation of the lineage that goes back to Shakyamuni Buddha and around the globe, which is quite cool, if nothing else. I think it's uh an amazing thing that we still have this. All to drive home this very one point that Bodhidharma brought up at the start. The intimate teaching, pointing directly, not dependent on words and letters. When we are in here, you know, we sit. So last night we we came in, had the the necessary kind of orientation, so we're not all just you know colliding with one another in here. Once we had that, and then things finally the bells are hit, and you sit there, then we are then we experience the fact and the content of mind. Everyone in their own unique expression, you know, the collected karma, the collected condition of a life sitting, the mind raising and fall, the rising and falling of thought. We are then faced with the um the choice and what to do with that, to look at what why are we interested in meditation? What is it that we want to learn, gain from a Zen retreat? The heart of it, the fundamental heart is Zarzen, this practice of present awareness. Walk is walking zen. Eat is eating zen. Now we cherish sitting zen, a zar zen, because that is where our nature, the original nature, as we say in the practice, is most apparent. But also most intimate. We go back to those words of Bodhidharma, it is an intimate teaching. So close you can't see it. So close it feels perhaps a little out of reach, so close that the mind is confused, our thinking mind, about what it is we're doing here, or whether I'm doing it right, whether it's a good period of Zarzen or a bad period of Zarzen, and where I stand on the scale of awake or asleep, deluded or enlightened. But all that is really required is to do or be this one thing that we are completely. So in this sitting, when we are in this sitting, to sit, to just sit, to arrange for body, arrange for breathing, to settle down, and to allow all things to be as they are, without preference. Ah, the tricky part. Without picking and choosing, without finding fault. That is what it is to sit, Zarzen. To sit, to be straight and still, to find or not to make fault with whatever that content is, but to allow things as they are to be as they are, inside and out. Whether the mind is confused, sleepy, busy, or quiet. We may find with retreats that the mind quietens down, and that's nice, a nice thing. Perhaps we're in a very busy circumstances, and that's a good reason to come on retreat. But we don't practice to achieve a quiet mind. And we may find that the mind is actually, as we sit, is really churned up with all kinds of things rising for attention. But we don't sit in order to work those things out. We sit to sit, we walk to walk, to correspond naturally and directly to this living expression as it is, because we are so adept at denigrating it or cherishing it. As human beings, we have attachment and aversion, as the Buddha identified. You know, we sit and we realize quite quickly that we'd rather be doing something else. Or we're doing something else and realize, you know, we want to keep doing that endlessly. But there is a time and a place for each expression. The practice of Zen is to accord with that, accord with this, this life. Now, the only place where we ever are, the only place that is ever really experienced. If we can realize the freedom or realize freedom here, then you realize freedom. And you are a person who is free. You awaken now here, then you are awake, and you're an awakened person. It may seem that it's somewhere in the future. We may look back and wish for the past, but life is always now, and life is always this. So some centuries later, after Bodhidharma, uh Master Dogan, Zen teacher in the 13th century, and a great writer and one of the key masters in the tradition of our lineage. I'm going to bring up a couple of paragraphs from him. This is from Body and Mind Study of the Way. Master Dogen says, Everyday mind means to maintain an everyday mind in this world or in any world. Yesterday goes forth from this moment, and today comes forth from this place. With going, the boundless sky goes. With coming forward, the entire earth comes forward. This is everyday mind. Everyday mind opens the gate of the inner chamber. Because thousands of gates and myriads of doors open and close all at once, it is everyday mind. Now, this boundless sky and an entire earth are like unrecognized words, a voice from the deep. Words are all inclusive, mind all inclusive, things are all inclusive. Although there is birth and death in each moment of this life of birth and death, the body after the final body is never known. Even though you do not know it, if you arise the thought of enlightenment, you will move forward on the way of enlightenment. The moment is already here. Do not doubt it in the least. Even if you should doubt it, this is nothing but everyday mind. So of course, not the easiest passage, you know. And part of that is you know what is the difficulty of the subtlety of what is being expressed, and also the way it's written and the way that it's come down to us. But we have or are this everyday mind. To maintain an everyday mind in this world or any world. It's interesting to maintain this everyday mind in this world or any world. Now this maintaining this everyday mind is apparent. He says, here, now, this is everyday mind. Is it enlightened? Is it deluded? Is it zen or not zen? See those questions or those things are extra. This life that we are now is this everyday mind. If we are satisfied or we realize the satisfaction of being thus, of not seeking something extra, then as he says here, we maintain this mind in this world or any world. This realm or any realm. You know, when we sit, or when but just the way that where we live, we inhabit many different worlds, many different realms in our mind. Yeah, we can be angry, frustrated, tired. Also, you know, joyous, happy. Those things too. Inhabiting these realms. To meet those expressions, this expression, head on, and to inhabit it fully without looking for something else, without having to find fault or move away from it, then perhaps we see that this mind, whether it's this world or any world, it is always like, or it always is this. But irony is we may come to a practice to seek enlightenment or to move away or get beyond where we are at or where we think that we are at. But rather than looking for a breakthrough to somewhere, the activity of Zazen or sitting is to let things break down to this place that we already are. We tend to carry the constructions around in our mind of who and what we are, and who and what everybody else is. And from that construction that hardens and we make beliefs, take positions. This arzen or this practice is to come into accord with this present awareness that we are, which allows picking and choosing belief or non-belief, but to understand the mind in its true context, the true relationship of self. You know, we are all adept at this idea of the self who I am that begins with the name from the parents and is informed by our experiences in society and life. And sometimes our self's doing well, and sometimes it's not. But who are we, or what are we? What is this one before the name? When you take away or you take away that label, and you really look at this, this life. Is it not extraordinary? Is it not mysterious to be this? I you know, or I find it very mysterious to be this. Now we can cover that up and obscure it and turn it into just another day, or well, of course, you know, it's it's this, you know, what else you have. No, when you look at it, really, this life now as it is, is it not an extraordinary thing? And to see the fact that all things are rising and falling, the very truth of impermanence, the fact that drove the Buddha to start the whole Shabang, that there is old age, sickness, death. Everyone in every place is subject to that, all things that appear as form, arise and pass away. To maintain or to realize the everyday mind as that is worth some pain in the legs. Yesterday goes forth from this moment, today comes forth from this moment or from this place. We have this understanding or experience of past. But it's like a ghost in the mind. We remember things, maybe we get a bit confused about what year that was when that happened or who was there. You know, you can't really find it anymore. It's a memory, it doesn't have a lot of weight or substance. But the past is this place. This is where we experience it, but there's no real life there, there's no real power. The future, he says, to or tomorrow, comes forth from this place. So the ingredients for what is going to happen next come forth from this place. We plan, set things up, we have an idea of what we'll do tomorrow, next week, maybe even a year from now. The further we go out, the grayer that becomes. We never really know. But always life is now. This everyday mind opens the gate of the inner chamber. The boundless sky and an entire earth are like unrecognized words or a voice from the deep. Nice expression. Opens the gate of the inner chamber. Again, this we could say that this is Zarzen. When we sit, when we are quiet and still, the gate of the inner chamber opens. It sounds pretty, you know, like something from Harry Potter. The gate of the inner chamber opens. But experientially, maybe we come into a retreat or a session with a lot of chop on the surface, you know. This is what's going on in my life, it's all getting a bit real. This is happening, that's happening. What am I gonna do? You know, what do I do? Do I do this? Do I do that? How do I, you know, and we get very wound up with the conditions of life. We're human. This is everybody's in this position, and we come to the practice of meditation and then the opportunity to sit with that, to not to have to change it, to not to have to fix it or do something with it, but rather with an open presence and an open or an embrace of life to sit and bear witness, to sit and be that. We do that then, that inner chamber, that deeper aspect of this life, the intimate teaching of who we are, comes forward, becomes apparent, is realized. That's why it is necessary, or very helpful at least, for us to sit down, be quiet. And as they say, you know, when you sit down, sit all the way down. Sitting down and carrying on, turning and planning and plotting, we do that, you know, and that's fine. Again, we're human. That's why a lot of the retreats that we do are seven days. Because even by the process of attrition, you know, you have to drop that in here, you have to drop it at some point. But to drop this conditioned thinking and worrying and chewing on nails that we do over and over, then perhaps a wonderful thing happens. As it's dropped, you realize you don't need to chew it. You don't we don't need to obsessionally plan and try and fix. It is everyday mind. This boundless sky, an entire earth. Maybe a voice appears as a voice from the deep. You know, we might intellectually understand interconnectedness, scientifically, or you know, but we're all one. The world is all one. There's a sea of particles, you know. But it doesn't do that much for us to understand it in that way. But this voice from the deep is your voice, is our voice, is this voice. This life, which is always this, which we obscure and cover up and drown out with this who I am, what I'm gonna do, the kind of person I am, the kind of person they are, how am I gonna if not only this, maybe one day that. As humans we're very, unless it's just me, but as humans we're very prone to doing that. And as we do that, living always between the ears, always constructing, always building, always deconstructing, then we miss out. You don't hear the voice from the deep, you don't see or feel or embody what it is to truly be the entire earth and the boundless sky. When you go outside, we see the sky. Is it separate? You know, do we fall for the idea that the sky is there? Or do we understand that the sky is here? And one need only look up. But there is not a gap there. There is not a gap anywhere when you really allow that to be realized. All these things that we do in this practice is to reveal this fact, this intimate self, the intimate teaching of who we are, so that it is realized and known. Not known in a way that you can defend your thesis of who you are, but known in that you know, you know, you realize. You realize that you're in the right place, you realise it's the right time, you realise you have everything you need to be who and what you are now. Although there is birth and death in each moment, we see that all you know. I just picked the dead fly off Mazabatan when I came in. There's birth and death in each moment. The body after the final body is never known. Even though you do not know it, if you arise the thought of enlightenment, you move forward on the way of enlightenment. It is a curious thing to have this, to be this life. And yet we see that all things, people, come and go. And we have many ideas for what that might all mean, or what comes next, but no one knows. We don't know it. That is dark, that is a wall. And that doesn't to know it is a wall. And I'm not saying that what it is or what it isn't, what it could be. But that's not this now. You know, now we're here. Now we are alive as this. And Mastodogen down the centuries here encourages us to arouse the thought of enlightenment. Well, that is everyone here. You come to a retreat, you are interested in a spiritual practice or a way of understanding. That is the arousing the thought of enlightenment. You see, wait, you know, no explanation is really cutting it for me. I need to really discover in my heart for myself. Then he says, you do that, you move forward on the way of enlightenment, we practice. Our realization deepens. You don't become better, but perhaps we are more alive or we realize more the aliveness of this moment, whether it is sitting, walking, eating, brushing the teeth. You know, as Ekhart Tole said, you know, this moment is uh not a springboard to the next. But often we take it in that way, trying to get through something in order to get to something else. The moment is already here. Do not doubt it in the least, Togan says. And then he adds, even if you doubt it, this is nothing but everyday mind. So that is the choice. That's the choice in retreat, that's the choice in this uh practice. The practice, Buddhism or Zen, does nothing for you. But you can use the practice of Buddhism and Zen to emancipate yourself from whatever it is that you feel blocks or hinders this life. The moment is already here. This is it. The only game in town. And you say, adds here, even if you doubt that, it's still it. But then we're a person of doubt. It's up to each of us what we bring or how we array ourselves with this life. We can tussle endlessly with it, but we never win to fight against the way things are, life as it is. It's a great um opportunity, but each of us has given ourselves to have a day like this. To sit, whether there's strength and support of a commonly intentioned people, everybody has made that agreement, you know, to get along in order to be in here, you know, to sit together. Everyone holds everybody else up, that's a beautiful thing. You don't practice in isolation. We have this time of quiet and a place of natural beauty with great teachings of sky, mountain, sun, wind, and trees. I really encourage everyone while we are here, while we have this time, to really let that in. To let that penetrate. In the time outside of the hall, you know, if you're tired, take a nap. If you're not tired, take a walk. But be quiet. Let it in. Look at this one that you are. So that as that really penetrates. Look at this life that we are and that we have, its preciousness and its mystery. And allow these perturbances of our daily life, the things that are going on, let those calm, let those things fall away. The only thing that needs to be dealt with, the only expression that needs to be matched and experienced is the one that we are now. So we've made you know strong efforts so far. I appreciate everyone's help and input with the work practice to take care of the place to sit as still as we can sit and to show up. Please let's continue. You know, use this time now to really to drop an anchor into this present awareness. Resist the temptation, the siren's call to think about what comes next or what what we're gonna do. Let that be aside. And as much as possible, let things be, this one be as it is, without the manipulation, without the picking and choosing. Thank you for listening, and we'll finish.