Good morning. It feels like a very unusual day, last couple days, weather-wise. Yesterday morning, at Green Gulch, there was a warm wind in the morning. It was cool, but then there would be a warm breeze. It felt like the tropics or some other place. And someone said it was like a kiss, that weather. It was so sweet. And then it got hotter and hotter and it changed.

[01:00]

And this morning, when we got up, it was so hot. You know, we had the doors open, all the windows open. It's unusual. And after breakfast, someone said the weather made them afraid something was going to happen, fire, or this warm wind was drying out the garden and the fields. And the conditions, somehow the conditions are just right for a gazillion moths to have hatched. And there were so many moths last night when I came home, clustered around the outside light of the little house that I live in, that I could barely get in the door. It was like, there were so many, and they, because the house has a lot of cracks in it,

[02:08]

they had gotten in, so they were all inside, like I flipped on the bathroom light, there's all these moths, they're all over, just infested. There's something about the conditions are just right for these. Last year, I don't remember these moths hatching like this. So, conditions are just right. And the conditions are just right for you all to have come to this one day sitting today. And I know for some of you, it's your absolute first time, maybe even doing two periods of zazen in a row. And for other people, you've been doing one day sittings pretty regularly for a while. So, I'd like everyone to settle in to their posture now,

[03:24]

and feel what the cushions are doing for you. What the cushion feels like under you. What the zabaton feels like on your legs. What the weight of your body feels like. And settle in to yourself. And just let whatever I say be as it is. You don't have to understand it or search after what I'm trying to get at. Just stay with your body, your posture and your breath. I have a friend who doesn't feel she can sit zazen because every time she sits,

[04:33]

her mind begins to tell her how terrible she is, and how she can't sit, and never will learn how, and look at all these other people, and they know what they're doing, and she doesn't know what she's doing. But the other day she was describing how it is to be waiting for lecture. Waiting for lecture, and then the lecturer comes in, usually on Sunday it's like this, and they do their bows, and then everyone's seated, and the person takes their place, and everyone has their own way of getting on to the cushion, and then they fold up their legs and tuck their robes in a certain way, and she really enjoys just sitting there and letting this happen. And there's no voice inside that says, you can't do that, you don't know how to sit. So I think zazen for her is more sitting quietly, waiting for lecture,

[05:39]

and just letting whatever's happening happen. And somehow she's not able to do that in what's called the period of zazen. But if it says lecture on the schedule, somehow there's no problem. The conditions are such that her mind gets activated in a certain way when it's supposed to be zazen time. So we're trying to work with, what mind do you bring to sitting there waiting quietly for lecture? Can you bring that to other times? And it is nice to watch someone take their place and fold their legs up and do their little, you know, getting settled movements.

[06:44]

You know, if you go to lecture a lot, you get used to certain people, how they take their place. It's very familiar. So each one of you has gotten to this one-day sitting somehow through some causes and conditions, and it may be rather mysterious. You may feel, what am I doing here anyway? You know, where am I? Who are all these people? And each one of these persons is a mysterious and marvelous world, and you don't know who they are. We don't know. There's a koan from the Book of Serenity

[07:59]

called Yunyan Sweeping the Ground, and Yunyan was a Zen master who was the teacher of Tozan, who is the To and Soto is Tozan. So Yunyan, it goes like this, the case. Yunyan was sweeping the ground, and Dawu said, as Yunyan was sweeping the ground, Dawu said, too busy. And Yunyan said, you should know that there is one who isn't busy. Dawu said, if so, then there's a second moon.

[09:02]

And Yunyan held up his broom and said, which moon is this? And Yunyan held up his broom and said, which moon is this? So Yunyan, just a little background about Yunyan. Yunyan practiced for 20 years with Baijian, Kyaku-jo. 20 years he practiced with them in his community, and Kyaku-jo had many enlightened disciples, but Yunyan, he finally left and went to find another teacher because he didn't understand, and the conditions were not right for him to understand. It wasn't that Kyaku-jo was not an enlightened teacher with many students, but somehow the conditions were not right for Yunyan and Baijian

[10:09]

to understand each other. So he left and went to practice with another teacher who was very prominent at the same time, Yaoshan, Yakusan Igen. And he asked him, what did Baijian have to teach? You know, you were with him for 20 years. What did he have to teach? And Yunyan just repeated some things that he said. He said one day he came into the assembly like this, people had come for lecture, and he chased everybody out with his staff, and they were all running out the back door of the zendo, and right when they were getting toward the exit, he said, hey everybody, and they turned around, and he said, what is it? And Yaoshan, when he heard this, said,

[11:17]

oh, I finally understand what Brother Baijian's teaching was through you. And at that moment Yunyan understood and had a realization. So even though he was with Baijian for 20 years, he couldn't understand. And so Yaoshan is his teacher. On the list of the lineage we say, Yakusan Igen Daiyosho, Ungo Dohyo Daiyosho, Tozan Yokai, that goes like that. Even though he was with this other teacher for 20 years, and the conditions were not ripe. So I want to try and talk a little bit about too busy,

[12:20]

and you should know that there is one who isn't busy. So Yunyan is like doing soji, like we did this morning. Some of you maybe had to do sweeping, raking, a little dusting, and what if somebody came up to you and said, too busy? What are they looking at? What do they see? But Yunyan pointed to something. He said, you should know, he said to Dawi, you should know that there is someone who isn't busy. So this is right at the same moment, someone is busily sweeping away, and yet, right at the same moment, there is someone who isn't busy, who is not screwing around.

[13:25]

And Dawu says, if so, if that's so, if you're saying there's someone who isn't busy, as if there's someone else here, then there's a second moon, so then we've got two things going here. And at which point he raised that broom, held it up and said, which moon is this? So, so, you know, we talk about emptiness, and if this makes you sick to hear about emptiness, just sit, Zazen, you don't have to listen. We talk about emptiness as being the lack of inherent existence, meaning that whatever forms arise,

[14:36]

books and tables and lights and chairs and sounds and smells, all of these forms come together, they're not by themselves alone, separately, but they come together through causes and conditions, dependently, they are dependently co-arisen, they arise through the dependence on all sorts of things, all sorts of things brought you here today. It's impossible for you to just, in a vacuum, say, I'm going to do this one-day sitting. It has to do with all sorts of things. A friend of yours did it and they said it was groovy, you're supposed to do it because you live here and every other month you have to do one. There's just many, many, many things, plus you feel healthy today and your body is, you know, you're not sick, so you can do it,

[15:40]

and millions and gazillions of moths and causes and conditions brought you here, and this is emptiness, the lack of being separate. So you've got this person sweeping away and is this person just sweeping the path? Is that all that's going on? It's a person sweeping and somebody says, oh, you're too busy, you're, you know, I don't know what he was implying, you don't look very mindful, you're not practicing, you're distracted looking, you're not focused. These two guys were kind of brothers in the Dharma, they were like siblings,

[16:41]

they practiced together closely, Dao Wu and Yun Yan, so they're having this conversation together, it's not like it was his teacher coming up to him, they're kind of like Dharma buddies, and right away Yun Yan says, you should know that there's someone who isn't busy, so it may look one way or another, it may look very, it may look any way, but form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, so whatever this activity is that you see, it completely permeates the entire universe, and there's no difference, there's no realization somewhere else, and then this sweeping and everyday mundane activity

[17:46]

going on over here, separate, they are inseparable, but when he said that, when he said, you should know there's someone who isn't busy, Dao Wu immediately said, if so, then there's a second moon, then you're saying there's, you're talking dualistically, you're saying there's some other being somewhere who's fully realized, apart from this sweeper person, but that's not what Yun Yan was saying, he's saying form is emptiness, he's saying right in this same activity, it's not separable, which moon is this? Are you telling me that, you know,

[18:48]

that I'm talking about somebody else? I'm talking about me right here. So it's very easy, our mind works, and the way our sensory capacities are sort of set up, that it looks like, you know, subject and object, the seeing and the object that we see, and yet, over and over the teaching points to this, that this is an apparent, this is an apparent split, and you can't actually split, you can't actually break those two apart. So for our sitting today,

[19:54]

we want so much to realize, you know, we want to be able to hold up our broom and say, which moon is this? And know, without any shadow of a doubt, that as we swim on the top of the ocean, our feet touch the bottom, always. And I feel that we long for this, we want to know about this, and we seek to understand this. I seek to understand this. And yet, that somehow takes us further away, this kind of striving after some understanding of this. So, what does someone do?

[20:59]

What does someone do in a case like that? Well, when it's time to do Soji, we sweep. It's time to sweep. We sweep knowing, and knowing that this activity is not separate from the one who isn't busy, that there isn't some one who isn't busy that's sort of sleeping somewhere in a hammock, you know. The one who isn't busy is right there with the one who's sweeping. So, the emptiness of the form is there with the form itself. It's not existing somewhere all by itself, floating off in the horizon. And like table, the word table doesn't come anywhere near,

[22:03]

you know, just this table that you hear me saying. It doesn't come anywhere near what a table actually is. But we say table because we have to be able to ask someone to move it or put his abaton on it or something. So we have this name for it. But the emptiness of table exists right with table. The table and its emptiness come up completely together. The emptiness of the table does not exist somewhere else. It exists as long as table exists. Emptiness of table exists. And the same is true of us. The same is true of everything. So, when we're busy, there is one who is busy.

[23:04]

So, you know, often we want to know what the secret is, you know. Come on, out with it. What is the secret of this practice? So I thought I'd read you a couple Zen masters telling what the secret of this practice is, because we're sitting all day today and it's nice to have helpful hints. So this is an instruction by a Zen master named Shoitsu. And he says, if you want some real help, now, don't we? I do. If you want some real help, it's just that not minding is the way. Meaning, I don't mind. Not minding is the way. Yet it's not the same as wood or stone. So it's not indifference or numbness.

[24:18]

But it's not minding. So, always aware and knowing perfectly, distinctly, clear seeing and hearing are normal. There are no further details. So for today, we have a schedule to follow. It looks very busy. We have different things happening all day up until dinner time. And you may like it and enjoy it. You may not like it and not enjoy it. And if you can find the mind that doesn't mind, doesn't mind whether you like it or not, that notices very clearly and very distinctly, I don't like that. I didn't like that suit. I like this. I don't like that.

[25:21]

But doesn't mind. This is the way. So he says, if you want some real help, it's just that not minding is the way. It's not that you don't have these feelings arise, these causes and conditions will arise and you'll have pain in your knees and you'll feel restless and bored and how did I ever get here and I want to go home or this is, oh, I'm so glad I'm here, whatever it is. It doesn't matter. Don't look there. Notice that very clearly and very distinctly and stay with just not minding that. Clear seeing and hearing are normal.

[26:26]

I love this. It's normal. This is Bajang yelling at those guys right as they're going out and saying, and everybody just completely turning their heads, not thinking, not hesitating. When somebody says, hey, you, someone says, hey, everybody, and you stop and you turn around. That's clear, distinct. That's normal. That's our full functioning Buddha nature. Someone says, hey, and you turn. What's that? So, hearing, seeing, clear seeing and hearing are normal. There are no further details. There's nothing more to add. It sounds pretty simple. Now, this is Suzuki Roshi saying his kind of secret.

[27:34]

Are you ready? And this is for to do all day too. Moment after moment to watch your breathing, to watch your posture is true nature. There is no secret beyond this. Moment after moment to watch your breathing and watch your posture. This is your true nature. There's no secret beyond this. Now, we have a chance all day, and I don't think I can emphasize it strongly, to do just that. Everything's taken care of for you. Food's being cooked. It's all worked out. You have this time today

[28:36]

to take care of your breathing and your posture, and you don't have to worry about anything else. So, clearly and distinctly hearing, seeing, not minding anything, and taking care of your posture and your breathing. And it is possible. This is possible to do this today together. And the causes and conditions are just right. Although it might get a little hot. We'll open the windows. But we're all here. You have this time. Let's not waste the day. And when I mean waste, I mean forgetting about posture and breath

[29:40]

and going off to the dusty realms of other lands, of self-aggrandizement, self-hatred, and beating yourself up. Stay with your posture and your breath. Stay with it. And let that mind, just don't mind it, the mind that is saying how ugly you are and what a terrible person. I mentioned this in the question and answer whenever I gave the last lecture on Sunday, that the Dalai Lama met with this group of therapists and they had a very difficult time describing to him or getting him to understand he's a very, as this person said,

[30:42]

acculturated, sensitive person, you know, very developed person. He could not understand what these therapists were talking about when they talked about self-hatred. It's like he didn't get it. And they tried in all these different ways to describe what is a pretty big problem for a lot of people in America, I think, in the West. And it was very hard. What do you mean, self-hatred? So, this self-hatred is not some inherent existing reality. This is, you can let go of this. You can pay attention to your breath, to your posture and your breath. With your full body and mind, completely throw yourself into paying attention to your posture and your breath.

[31:44]

I also recently heard about, from the same author, this is Anne Klein, talking about the sense of self that Westerners have and the sense of self that East Asian peoples have. And she described a Japanese, a little girl in kindergarten, who had just moved to this country and was going to a kindergarten in America. And the teacher said to the class, What is your favorite color? And she was stymied by this question. She came home and said to her mother, Mother, what is our favorite color? And her mother didn't know either. She called the school to kind of find out about what this was all about. So our sense of preference, and very early on we're taught which shirt do you want, this one or this one?

[32:56]

Which color do you like? Which breakfast cereal do you want? We're really taught very early to make choices and choose and have preferences and that's part of who we are. To know our preferences and to know the kind of person we are. But this isn't sort of universal. I think in other cultures this is not inculcated early, early. What is our favorite color, Mother? That's a great question. So to be very attached to your favorite color and your favorite lunch and our favorite, one's own, whoops, sorry, favorite, anything is, to dip into the mind that doesn't really mind, doesn't mind whether you're having oatmeal or rice cream. It's just paying attention to your posture.

[33:59]

Bring the bowl up as you eat and you are mindful of your posture and your breath. It's very hard to be mindful of your breath while you're eating, but you give it a go, give it a try and stay with that and watch the preferences just bubble along without trying to grab them and make it happen. And then the mysteriousness of the world and the mysteriousness of your neighbors, you know, who are sitting on either side of you, and the mysteriousness of your own body-mind will unfold with no expectations of how you really like it. No expectations. Expect is to look out for. It's like being ahead of yourself, looking out for the way you like it to be, going after it, is having expectations.

[34:59]

So instead of expectations, to just observe, not expecting anything to be any way, to observe what the cause, how it arises. So you should know that, the koan says you should know, you should know there is one who isn't busy and this one who isn't busy wants to be, wants to express itself. And how does it express itself? It expresses itself through arsazen and through sweeping, through oryoki and our practice.

[36:00]

It doesn't express itself, as I was saying, somewhere over there taking it easy on a hammock. It expresses itself through our activity. It is not the one who isn't busy and the one who is sweeping. There is not two moons. There is not a second moon. How do you express this realization? You practice thoroughly with no two ways about it. We practice thoroughly. That's how we... How else are we going to express ourself? We have... We can't get by without expressing ourself through our life, through how we live our life. So this understanding of emptiness, the mind that understands emptiness,

[37:03]

has emptiness as an object. It's very hard to have emptiness as an object, especially as a beginning, beginning your sitting and establishing your practice. To have emptiness as an object is trouble. So don't worry about having emptiness as an object. Just thoroughly take care of your posture and your breath and that will completely express the one who isn't busy. You don't have to worry about expressing it some other way. So... So let's sit today in this warm zento

[38:08]

and stay close. Thank you very much. May your... May your...

[38:33]

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