I guess half the week, half the day, a bunch of us were sitting together downstairs in the window, celebrating, commemorating. Actually, Shakyamuni Buddha's original enlightenment, which we say 2,500 years ago. If my voice fades, please let me know that. I'll talk to you. 2,500 years ago, and two days ago, we had a ceremony delegating I recommend everybody in this room.

[01:02]

Shakyamuni Buddha passed over discriminating consciousness, our ordinary, everyday consciousness, to non-discriminating learning, unconditioned learning. The mind that is one with everything in the world. The mind that doesn't separate through the discrimination of consciousness, with the judgment and the criticism and the contempt. So for seven days, about 60 of us made the effort to do this ancient practice.

[02:18]

And the word ancient practice leaked out that movie during this week. This is not a modern practice. This is not a take a pill, and do this thing really hard, and next week everything will be okay. Let's set ourselves in the right way and put 30 seconds heat up. None of the modern conveniences of technological development can help us. If I were to do that, it doesn't help us. This practice is the ancient road that leads inward through this body and realm.

[03:21]

We take everything away. There's no TV downstairs. There's no flashing lights. and we're sitting facing, hopefully, a white wall. And we're looking at that which is doing the looking. What we are searching for is that which is doing the searching. We are looking for some What we are looking for is evolving beyond doing. What we are looking for is what we are already doing all the time.

[04:27]

But somehow we don't know it. And somehow it's not enough for us. So we add. Add to it. And everything we add, everything we decorate, actually takes something away. What we're studying in this ancient practice of turning the mind inward to look at itself, to look at this body of mind, is not the fantasies and projections and drains of our romantic consciousness. All of the romances

[05:36]

the mythologies we can create about our lives. But the actual here and now, moment by moment, breath. And that's it. So, hey, that's it. I don't know if... And it's enormously rewarding, because it's a world we don't know. We know the world of our mind. What's becoming my favorite description of this practice is, this is the practice we do with the mind. It's not practice we do with our mind that will

[06:40]

therefore it's not an idealistic practice it's not a practice we can cook up and imagine a wonderful posture a wonderful realization a wonderful story it's actually something we do with this part This knee that's not quite right. This groin that's not open. These hips that are tight. These shoulders. This is my . I don't need it to be somebody else's. We had to work with his body. I studied. investigate, hang out with this body.

[07:43]

Our faith, our trust is that this body, this limited body, is quite enough. It's very much enough. And as soon as we take this practice into the body, of course, we immediately run into all the limitations of our human condition. Everything that's not quite how we'd like it. And this is the stuff we don't want to see. It's like imagining a painting that you could paint. Imagine a sunset or a landscape or a figurative work. You could put that. But to actually find yourself in a room with a certain kind of light, your collection brushes, the paints that you could acquire, the palette that you could work, and the canvas that you could

[08:51]

And what comes up? What's your state of mind? What's happening? What just happened an hour ago to discourage or to encourage? What's arising the moment that you actually start to think? And how close does that first brush stroke or the second have to do with what your mind wants to see? So to actually do it, it's the faith to actually confront and to accept what we are, what this mind and body actually can do. And if you're nervous, and if you're anxious, and if you're shaking when you're doing this, that's what can do. If that's who you are, and yet not the person that's sitting calmly on the throne surveying all of this, doing an immaculate work of art. So when we come to the Vendo and do this practice, we look at this body, that's shaking, that's nervous, that's doubting, that's hurting.

[10:05]

And this is the Dharma gate, the entryway, for our liberation, for our deep, deep understanding. Doug who brought the teaching of this school from China to Japan. He lived in the 13th century, 1200, 1253. He said in one of his writings, to study the Buddha way, there are two approaches. One is to study with the mind. One is to study with the body. To study with the mind is to study with all the elements of the mind, consciousness, intellect, feeling.

[11:08]

It's to study with bits and pieces of everyday life. Bits and pieces meaning moment by moment arising of the mind, all the changes, all the conditions and states of mind that arise every moment. And to study with the body is to study with your own body, is to study with this lump of red flesh, this lump of red flesh. When we study, oh, and he said, the body comes forth from the study of the dead. When we study our body, our body comes forth. In Sashin, during this concentrated second day

[12:12]

forced drill that we voluntarily entered. We experience this body, we experience this skin, not as an organ that separates us from the environment and that contains our flesh, our blood, our organ. But we experience this skill as an organ of reception and transmission, receptor cells. You can feel the cells in your skin actually reaching out and receiving the air, the light, the color, the sound, the smell, every taste.

[13:23]

Your skin is, you can feel your skin quivering in response to the vibration, to the movement, to the energy around you. You feel the skin so alive. And it is simultaneously transmitting back out to the environment, to the other side, using that dualistic language. What's inside? The movement, the circulation of the blood, the lymph system, the nerves, the rhythms of our own biological process. It's given to you very, very much. And other organs and other experiences happened.

[14:25]

That happened to be something that arose for me. Everyone had their own experience, their own taste, their own touch. of this reality, but beyond what the conscious mind, what conceptual mind, knows. Elsewhere, I think I wanted to use the teaching, I want to bring it into an open thinking, that if you want to know Here we're quoting the Nirvana Sutra. If you want to know the Buddha nature's meaning, you should watch for the arrival of temporal conditions. If the time arrives, the Buddha nature will benefit.

[15:30]

That's a quote from the Nirvana Sutra. reinterpret that in its usual non-dualistic way. Not that there is some point in time when something will happen that's not already here. He said, the time, every hour of the 24 hours is the right time. Every hour, every moment, the Buddha nature is manifesting itself. There is no time that is not the right time. And he says, if you want to know, mean, if you want to practice, if you want to realize, if you want to preach, if you want to forget, Four aspects of knowing. For Dogen, practicing this body, studying this mind, is not different from realizing this body or realizing this mind.

[16:46]

Practicing is simultaneously bringing forth, simultaneously realizing. We are only completely manifesting ourselves, but 100%. Even if we think we're holding back, we're not all there. We're 100% manifesting what we are right now. And it's only that thought that half of us is someplace else that creates the perspective. If we know and accept that feeling, that doubt, that self-criticism, that we're partly elsewhere, we bring that into that we're completely being present.

[17:50]

So we're, at every moment, whatever we're doing, we're manifesting ourselves, our Buddha nature. And to practice doesn't mean to practice in a linear sense. That's our traditional feeling about the word practice. But Dogen uses it. But to practice is to bring it forth completely in each moment. Each moment we are completely being, doing ourselves wholeheartedly, wholemindedly, wholebodily, wholespiritually. And when we practice and realize ourselves completely, we are simultaneously preaching ourselves.

[19:15]

The preaching isn't done with words, that's usually not the most effective preaching. I think it's what this body is doing, not in words, how we're moving, Have it breathing. When we are doing one thing completely, when we are doing what we are doing completely, which is all we're ever doing, one thing completely, We are simultaneously realizing ourselves in that activity. There is no separation between self and activity. We are simultaneously preaching, sharing, teaching, expounding.

[20:21]

And we are simultaneously projecting. And the gift of doing something consistent is that our body totally digests it. There's nothing left over to be cleaned up the next day. And we say, no trace remains. There's nothing left over. Because what we have done has become completely a part of us. And that moment, the next moment, we're manifesting that mind and body, which includes what we just felt through, what we just experienced, what we just did.

[21:28]

So to know something is to practice, to realize, to preach, and to forget. So there's nothing left. The new manifestation has no... There's nothing left over from the past, committed or obstructed or tainted. It's ready. This mind and body is ready to meet whatever arises, whatever is in front of us. When we talk about this practice, It's a practice of stopping and singing. We say stabilization or samadhi or cessation, and we stay inside. I like the word stopping and singing.

[22:38]

We can stop what we're doing, where we work for 40 minutes, Then we just sleep. Stop and we sleep. And sometimes we find we can't stop the mind. Some people can. We've had testimonials of people who can actually achieve high states of concentration in this very room. My mind likes to run around a lot. And it likes to keep busy, even with the seven days of sitting in one costume. It's got a lot of stuff to do. And it keeps getting completely bored with that money. It's completely obsessing. And you're so deprived of a single thing before you

[23:43]

Finally say, I'm going to put this mind someplace. Someplace where it will stay. I'm going to pack it there and cover it up. And you might find that place on the tip of your nose, in the nostril. You might find it in the abdomen. You might find it in your mudra, in the palm of your hand. Someplace. Please find some place. with the line, we'll take a break. And through that, that well, there's going to be more. Wait a minute, I'll put that in because I love it. I think I'm a writer, so watch out. You know when you're a writer, you find yourself saying things that mean?

[24:46]

You find yourself forced to the language or the vision or the... I don't know, it's just to be dull and try to... I have to be careful. What I want to say is that Whether you can achieve a deep state of concentration, or a medium state of concentration, or a mid one state, or a beginning state isn't entirely the point. It helps a lot. But the effort to bring the mind back, the effort to cross our legs repeatedly, shows us the activity, the rhythm, the habitual energy of our body. We can see that in the midst of all the confusion, the running around, trying not to be cornered, and one doesn't want to be cornered.

[25:58]

In the midst of doing all that, we can see the habitual energy of the mind. And that's an enormous help to understanding what the kingdom life is about, is to see just how this mind and body interact, interface, move together, partner together. When we watch the tendencies of the mind, we're simultaneously watching the tendencies of the body. And I noticed that when we turned out, we faced out, We face in, we face the wall, we claim, and other times we face out. I was facing out because that was my job and my position, possession. I was facing out. I noticed that the people that were sitting in front of me, I tended to watch, I tended to come to rest on one person more than the other.

[27:12]

And I watched. Why did my mind prefer One person rather than the other. And I wanted to know what discrimination was going on, why I was kicking, chipping, having some breakfast. And I realized that it wasn't that one posture was necessarily better, but that one person was more agitated. And one person seemed less agitated. And a little bit later, when I studied the education, just thinking that was really helpful in a lot of discriminating education and wellness of what appeared to be good. In studying the educated body,

[28:15]

I found my heart open for this person who was making such a strong effort to control a body. A profound, complicated, sincere, wholeheart effort to control a body that wanted to move. So even though we go away from the world, we actually re-enter the world. Through this acquaintance and intimacy, this complete intimacy with our own line of thought, we absolutely identical with. We experience what the learned about others by feeling them do and are.

[29:23]

We feel with more sensitivity the life of the plants in the garden, the life of animals, the life of the tatami. So this ancient way, please don't be afraid. We are afraid, but it takes some time to trust this effort, to have confidence in the mind and body, the smarter body, to do this work, to do this work, and to trust that we will die on the cushion, we won't die on the cushion.

[30:41]

If we want to die on the cushion, we're terrified of dying on the cushion. To find some way to work with being tempted that would bridge forth the same unconditioned truth, reality, that Chakyamuni Buddha reigned. If we taste it just for a moment, it will change our mind.

[31:32]

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