Shikantaza - Calm Mind

00:00
00:00
Audio loading...

Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.

This talk will not appear in the main Search results:
Unlisted
Serial: 
SF-03497
Description: 

Sesshin Lecture

Photos: 
Auto-Generated Transcript

days the drew the dodgers where's your morning
the gel loud enough
in the back everywhere or everywhere everywhere oh that sounds good
i don't know where you do this
lena
no okay it's or

today i'm going to start with
the first talk in this
not are we so
suzuki roshi for a talk
and
this code named
we called it calmness of mind
calmness of mind is one of the things that actually zero she emphasized over and over again maybe more than any almost as much as anything else
so in this talk he says he talks about what is she can't gaza
he starts right out when talking about what she can cause that is
you know when we had our last class i said that dumb silent illumination
but she contessa or she contends is where it was called
in china silent illumination
so he says she can taza
our as in is just to be ourselves
ah where we had our class the other night
jeremy asked what does our practice what does the purpose of our practice
and i said just to be ourselves just to be yourself
now which is not my i didn't invent that back from suzuki roshi says she contends is just to be yourself so the purpose of our practices just to be ever so you know if you ask a question
you get some kind of response but you may ask the same question the next day you get a different response
so when you say what is the purpose of our practice at that moment that's the correct response but tomorrow it may be a different response so don't hang onto a response as the answer
hmm
when we do not expect anything we can be ourselves
that is our way
i'm to live fully in each moment of time
and this practice continues forever
so to live in each moment of time to live on each moment of time actually is she can't answer to thoroughly live each moment of time
so this is why she's a girl she's always saying just be one with your activity
when you are one with your activity than you are living completely on each moment of time
so in some sense it doesn't make any difference what your activity is
it doesn't it doesn't
you know there's the old saying it doesn't matter what you do about it the way you do it
but i changed that to it matters what you do and it matters the way you do it both are important but the way that what you do how you do something is the most important point
so for us in our practice the most important point is how you do something
how you will how you cut the carrots how you chop the wood how you carry the water
how you sit on him how you step i noticed
ah i had a row a kind of revelation this morning i realized that when i walk
my feet out to the side
what kind of like this
but actually in order to
strengthen your knees and keep your knees and shape you should walk like this
keep your knees your feet straight ahead over so that your knees it right over your feet and then you don't have it eliminates knee problems
and i tried doing that i did some kin hidden in my room with my feet straight to hit and it really felt wonderful for my knees
so this is like prep really paying attention to your step paying attention to every step in each moment
paying attention to how you do something at each moment
i'm
you know suzuki roshi said
she can't answer or practice is just living your life little by little
just each moment of time to live completely on each moment of time
i and to approach each moment in a fresh way
so that's why the less thinking you have the easier it is to do that
because when we get caught up in a mental constructions
it's hard to focus on what's actually happening
hmm so
to live fully in each moment of time
do we have to understand what what is it
huh
huh
huh
huh
huh
huh
huh
nobody eleven for it sounds good thank you
eleven forty but actually it's just now
the past present and future are all now
anytime we say where are you a or when is this was a now course
but then we also add the other of it's two o'clock
so how to be timeless
is to be always involved in now
the essence of time is timelessness and the essence of timelessness his time
just now
so how we live my life mobile by moment is in now
and to be aware of now
as over a period of time each day and discontinuous period of time each decade
just try to sit and she contends it without moving and without expecting anything but this expectation is the problem is a big problem
as if you are in your last moment
moment after moment your feel your last moment your last instant in each exhalation and each inhalation there are countless instance of time and your intention is to live on each instance
so if you're living on each instant than nothing is next
you just don't expect anything the way to sit session is to not expect anything sometimes people say or note the new student for sale
how do i prepare for says sheen
and i we say there's no preparation physician it's just that when scenic sixteen arrived in the morning just get up and good engender as if
you are not expecting anything
if you expect seven days a painful legs
yeah big problem
this just this moment this moment this moment so we think in consecutive moments but actually just this moment
consecutive instance of this moment
the been renewed
when
consecutive instance of this moment is samadi
what is she can it
so ah
he says to just die on this moment
but although you die and this moment you read you are reborn in this moment
so unless you die and this moment you can't be reborn on his moment
the in venice called something like the great death
how do we die the great death so that we can be born
huh this is also bound up with
rebirth
in buddhism there's all kinds of theories about reincarnation and him
rebirth rebirth is not reincarnation
rebirth is more like
hum
actually no birth of no death
but
and when one thing
let's go another thing appears
something it and something cannot appear unless something is like on
and when we know how do they go
we know how to come back to life

so he says
first very starts talking about breathing
he says for practice smoothly exhaling than inhaling
calmness of mind is beyond the end of your exhalation
if you exhale smoothly without even trying to exhale you are entering into the complete perfect calmness of your mind you did not exist anymore
i'm
when you exhale completely this is called in any talks about this called letting go
it's called
taking up
so
inhaling is coming to life exhaling is letting go of everything so he should exhaling is the most important
our usual effort is to stay alive
but he said is more important to let go
the putting emphasis on more important
but actually they both equal
you know edge
when you bow you put your palms together and then you go like this and the actual bow takes place at the bottom when you stop
this is coming to bow and this is the bell and when you stop and when you stop everything stops
is the letting go of everything this is
when you stop and you bow it's like there's nothing left there's nothing more to do
but then you stand back up again
and the world starts again
but when you bet you let go of everything and when you bow together
you both enter emptiness
when you're not holding onto anything
this is perfect communication
when we do service
i time my bow during the chanting so that when i come to the bottom of the bow that's when i would like to build a ring
bom bom
bob
wait for the belgrade wait for the end
bomb
so that we come together in that instant
it feels like feels good feels right
and when we bow to each other same thing if
is that like
rebel fighter because we bounce so much it becomes perfunctory
so in a sense i don't like the bow so much you know because when you do something too much
you just get used to it
and then it you can of not present in it
that's that's one of the problems encountered with ballet
so in order to really be present in bowing with have to make some effort
so dumb
i want to look at my note to
he when you exhale in this way that naturally your inhalation will start from there
all that fresh blood bringing nourishment from outside will pervade your body you i completely refreshed then you start to exhale to extend that fresh feeling into emptiness so a moment after moment without trying to do anything you continue she can't data
so one breath and is one lifecycle
inhaling is inspire inspiration and exhaling exploration
and it and it's one lifecycle
ah so
you you live your life moment by moment
i'm one breath
after the next
and this is how you study birth death
it's right there every moment when your breath you know how to study
your breath you be studying birth death
the end of one thing is the beginning of another
so we don't know what the next beginning will be one of the problems were dying for his big is that we don't know what the next beginning is gonna be and were afraid of losing something
i'm afraid of losing consciousness
what we think of his consciousness
so it's a great mystery
and we have to be able to just let go
didn't have great faith there is nothing you can do about it except have great faith
in nothing
you can think of all kinds of wonderful things that will happen
and that's very comforting
i will be reborn as a what does whatever raja maybe next time
a farm and will go to heaven or
i would be sitting on the right hand of the lord or something that we have all these
wonderful ideas that are comforting
but to just let go
ah into the mystery
without knowing anything
she can tell her
so she can't have it is the basis of our life in reality it's not just some some
exercise
the meaning of our lodges she can't either
just doing just being one with their activity
just been totally connected to the cycle of birth and death
dogan has a a wonderful fans go cold
birth or death
showed you
there is a buddha within birth and death there is no buddha within birth and death they should just go on
just living our life within birth and death his enlightenment
because if we live our life completely within birth and death there is no birth and death
emptiness
is another ah
term meaning no birth no death
within birth and death
so moment after moment without trying to do anything you continue she can't answer
complete she contends that may be difficult because of the pain in your legs
when you are sitting cross legged but even though you have painted your legs you can do it
even though you
feel that your practice is not good enough you can do it
you're breathing will gradually vanish and you will gradually you will gradually vanish trading into emptiness is talking about when you're sitting there then
little by little the breathing will become more subtle and you will become more subtle
you are gradually vantage fading into emptiness inhaling without effort you naturally come back to yourself with some color or form
color and form is a kind of technical term
which means existence
huh
exhaling you gradually fade into emptiness like an empty sheet of white paper
exhaling you gradually fade into emptiness empty white paper that is she does d'azur the important point is your exhalation instead of trying to feel yourself as you inhale fade into emptiness as you exhale
i shouldn't very pretty radical way of speaking it seems nihilistic
what about
our active life
so at this point he's emphasizing a trailing he'd say because we cling so much to life
he's emphasizing the other side are presenting the other side
so when you practice this in your last moment you will have nothing to be afraid of
you are actually aiming at emptiness you become one with everything after you completely exhale with this feeling
the live naturally you will inhale again
oh i'm still alive fortunately or unfortunately
then you start to exhale and failed again into emptiness maybe you don't know that kind of feeling it is but some of you know it by some chance you must have had the feeling that kind of feeling
so
when you complete me that go then you can completely come to life come back again if you only half let go you only have come back
so to live your life completely
is to let go completely and then come back completely
the swaying this way determines what pursuing this way will be
so if we only live halfheartedly we can only die heartedly
ha
and then how to live out our dying
had to be wish are dying or extermination so to speak
or a breath
long outbreak because each one of us has to experience this
so an event learning how to live is learning how to die and learning how to die is learning how to live
so what you do when you do this practice you cannot easily become angry
when you are more interested in inhaling than in exhaling you easily become quite angry
you are always trying to be alive
the other day my friend had a heart attack and all he could do with exhale he couldn't inhale
that was a terrible feeling he said at that moment if he could have practiced exhaling as we do aiming for emptiness that i think he would not have felt so bad
and the great joy for us is exhaling rather then inhaling
maybe
when my friend kept trying to inhale he thought he couldn't inhale anymore
if he could have exhaled smoothly and completely then i think another inhaling inhalation would have come more easily
to take care of the exhalation is very important to die is more important than trying to be alive
when we always try to be alive we have trouble
rather than trying to be alive or active if we can become and die or fade away into emptiness the naturally we we all right buddha will take care of us
because we have lost our mother's bosom we do not feel like her child anymore
yeah trading away into emptiness can feel like being at her mother's bosom and we will feel as though she will take care of us moment after moment did not lose this practice of she can't answer so question is what is this mother's bosom
all religions
are based on this
god will take care of us good it would they gave us
whatever you know the people are all people are looking for where will i find this comfort
after mother
and so where where's the big matter
wow
heaven
jesus god buddha
ah buddha nature
hum
category roshi used to talk about religious security
they should where everyone is looking for religious security
where do we find our security where do we find our
true comfort are true feeling of belonging and are true feeling of where we can actually rest
good question because that's what everyone is looking for
so he says various kinds of religious practice are included in this point when people say namo amida buddha i'm a bigger boot zoo they want to be a major buddhist children
that is why they practice repeating a be a buddhist name the same is true with our zzzz and practice if we know how to practice she cantata and if they know how to repeat a meta buddhist name it cannot be different you know and
japan and in china this is called self power and other power
the down shinseki in japan their practices to chant amida buddha's name in order to be born in the pure land in some
they don't have to do anything else
that's called appealing to other power
and then and usually sometimes help self power stand up on your own tree
find your own salvation which is good as original
a plan his original
teaching
but actually it's not sell power or other power other power is cell tower fell power is other power
so we have enjoyment and we are free
we feel free to express themselves because we are ready to fade into emptiness
when we are trying to be active in special and to accomplish something we cannot express ourselves
small self will be expressed but big self will not appear from emptiness
we can easily express their small martha we talk about expression expressing ourselves but we think about is expressing my personality or expressing my ego doing what i want that's not what he calls expressing yourself expressing yourself mean letting go of
ego so that
big mind will be expressed
so from emptiness only great self appears that is she contains a okay it's not so difficult if you really try
how so
ha my comment here is when we know when when we know i have faith in the ground
then we have freedom to play out our lives
in the sky
we do live in the sky
we have our feet on the ground and and we live in the sky
so to know where the ground is
all the time
ha
that we have some freedom
because we're not attached to
birth and will not attached to death
and we can live out our life
with some freedom
you have some question
yeah

when the ground means emptiness
even though there's no ground another about an inch counters defender
we did not an inch of ground to stand on
that's and not relying on that is standing on the ground
he said that you don't like to bow too much because we done routine if if a big know i said i didn't say i don't like about too much i should we should be careful when you bowed too much it becomes
two routine now and then you lose you
yeah i feel that way about bidding
now
you are setting fire to soften have you work with that well you just work until you get so tired of it
it doesn't matter anymore
huh
that's the answer
kim
review is my job
meditation session
how can you like
rapper had a reading
what a way of activity her inactivity
in adaptation
and i i never
yeah meditation as or so that we wanted it
when you mean waived well i'm kind of like know you it just like know you're going down hill
come back up activity and
well by going up and down and felt like following accuracy
yes read and so is moving
i know
we say sit still
but you can't sit still
we can only approximate still live
ah
but within that stillness in what looks like still this is great activity
the activity is always
sometimes you know activity is like
ah a big a
solid ball
with like
hum
the sun
and sometimes it's like you know spread out fire like the sun's activity
so the sun and the middle of the sun it's just stillness and on the on the periphery of leaping flames
so
within
our stillness the the more still we become the greater our dynamism is because it's our concentrated all of our energy is concentrated in this dynamic stillness
and when you're
balanced and relaxed it just feels like light
so and then when you are moving in what looks like activity we get activity activities being disseminated in movement
the core of that movement is dynamic stillness
so within stillness is activity with inactivity of stillness we just look at it from one point of view or another
for the same thing is sometimes called stillness and sometimes called activity
but if the same thing
he's like when you look at the moon when flight is like the other side of dark
but the moon itself
is both light and dark and neither light nor dark
just depends on which side you're looking at
so when we sit that him you know to really make good effort
to sit up straight not lean backward or forward
the ship when you should throw them best way is to give yourself a virgin instruction every time you sit down and throughout the whole period
because your steadily moving body is not it although use looks like you're sitting still the whole body is changing your mergers changing your mouth is changing your shoulders and changing your spine is changing thoroughly and you have to subtly
ah correct
i don't think correct but federally
re establish your posture you have to read keep establish re-establishing your posture all the time
the thing to concentrate on virgin his posture then you can cut and you can pay attention to your breathing
but posture is the most important postures for and so we continually go over and over the posture checking out all the points or posture how is the murderer i was a
spine how the shoulders how was your tenseness
that's a big one tenseness in jasim there's tension which it is what keeps the form maintain the form but tenseness is what's extra you don't need it
so what is it that you don't need it should take care that well i don't need all this tenseness by back and i needed my shoulders coming out to my ears
let go of it how do we let go of it they go feel the tension is draining out of your body
so if somebody comes and move you he just moved like a puppet
but at the same time you have this wonderful tension that's a you straight up and it's all imbalance they are plenty of work to do when you're sitting judge in lots of work to do to maintain this posture all the time
and if you really pay attention to that it takes your attention off of your painfulness because it's not the only thing painful this is not the only thing going on and it took one of those things going on but we tend to
focus on it and it becomes the main subject actually the main subject is posture
and breathing
you pay attention to posture breathing you can deal with the rest because you can let whatever comes pass through the have a good foundation for or whatever it is it's passing through so doesn't is not just being passive
the being active and passive
the active side is sitting up straight and paying attention to pasture keeping your mind busy
now so there's not just wandering around
your my you have the thought of virgin maintaining the thought of version maintaining the thought of pasture and the thought of following breath so you have might have something to do
if it doesn't have something to do it will just fantasize
so you keep bringing if your attention back posture and breathing and let go of the fantasy without blaming yourself that you have a fantasy
could the fantasy at that moment it's urgent
but it's not what your intention is for you bring your attention back to posture breathing
no
i
hi
wow
that
yeah
yes because it means you're always aware
and first question of good
good question i think about it a lot but people seem to have pretty good posture
it's hard to tell a person posture in the winter
because belt wearing his under in a lot of clothes so sometimes it looks like somebody's not to have good posture
but as to the how many how much clothing
but it's a good point and i will pay attention to that
think about it more
and
go on an image of pasture
hi
about other related
for me
at are active
that it a problem
that's a good point
then you know basically you let the breath be
he just let the breathy but it should be down here
letting the bread baier doesn't mean you just let it be a shallow it means that from your horror you you just let the breath come and go
if you're not breathing from here the you should be aware that and allow your breath if your posture is good fighters open than your breath will more easily for them
to here
actually if you want to get your breath than just open up your posture the up your sternum
an open your father and a new pasture and then your breath or easily easily come down to hear but there is a way of breathing when you exhale to put the effort into a sale by silent me that's acceptable
ha
tomorrow i'll talk more about breathing
hey man