Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Yesterday, after I finished lecturing, I thought, spring cleaning. Maybe we should call it Spring Cleaning Festival, or the Spring Cleaning Amusement Park,

[01:05]

because there's all these great rides that you can go on. In the middle of house cleaning, you can go on the nostalgia trip. I agree. The Tunnel of Love.

[02:23]

The Tunnel of Love. It is kind of like a tunnel, don't you think? It's all nice. It's all nice and cozy in there. And you know, whatever's out there, you don't have to bother with. The Mountain. The Volcanic Anger. The High Dive. The High Dive of Fear. Anyway, there's all these great amusement rides, and you don't even have to pay.

[03:30]

They just come and take you away. Plenty of food and drink. And then, every so often, you know, we have to go back to the house cleaning. It's amazing how much is inherent with each breath, or with some particular thought, or picking up a particular feeling, or how much is behind it.

[04:42]

Or underneath it. Once we take the cover off, all the things that are there. I also thought that yesterday, we talked about the sixteen bodhisattvas who took a bath. And it said, what about when nothing is attained in bathing, or washing, or maybe watered? Is this subtle feeling reveals illumination or not?

[05:47]

Here, if you see directly, then this is subtle feeling reveals illumination. And so we have this question of something to practice, how to see directly. And I thought I would try to talk a little more about that. And I'd like to mention, to talk about it, I'd like to mention a couple passages.

[06:58]

The first is from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. This is from the Dunhuang version, translated by Philip Yampolsky. And it says, the samadhi of oneness. This is a one practice samadhi. The samadhi of oneness is straightforward mind at all times. Walking, standing, sitting or lying. Other characters for a straightforward, that he's translated straightforward, are true, true.

[08:14]

The samadhi of oneness is straightforward mind at all times. Walking, standing, sitting and lying. In the Vimalakirti Sutra it says, a straightforward mind is the place of practice. Straightforward mind is the pure land. Only practicing, only practicing straightforward mind at all times. Only practicing straightforward mind and having no attachments or whatsoever. This is the samadhi of oneness. A deluded person, a deluded person clings to the characteristics of things. Adheres to the samadhi of oneness.

[09:25]

Thinks that straightforward mind is sitting without moving. And casting aside all delusions without letting anything arise in the mind. This is considered to be the samadhi of oneness. But this kind of practice is the same as insentiency and is an obstruction to the way. The way circulates freely. The way must circulate freely. Why should it be impeded? If the mind abides in things, then the way is obstructed.

[10:36]

If the mind does not abide in things, then the way circulates freely. Does it make sense? So the samadhi of oneness, this is similar to one practice actually, not oneness, but one practice samadhi. Similar to where Dogen says, when you see forms and hear sounds, fully engaging your body and mind,

[11:51]

you grasp things directly. So this samadhi of oneness is this one practice, just this moment's practice, just this moment's breath, sound, sight. Taste. And nothing outside of that. I'm not stepping outside of that to view that and say how wonderful it is or how terrible it is. I'm not stepping outside of that to think about other practices, activities you could be doing.

[13:00]

Undivided, just one practice. Just giving full light to one practice at this moment. So this samadhi of oneness is straightforward mind. Dogen said one time in a talk, his disciple Gikai had some awakening experience when Dogen said this. Dogen said, the truth abides in the state of objective reality. It's very curious, all this we say and we hear so often, don't cling to the characteristics of things, the mind does not abide in things,

[14:24]

and yet at the same time we have the truth abides in the state of objective reality. In that, then Dogen said, in the spring scenery the hundred flowers are red, doves are crying in the willows. That's straightforward, it's on the one hand very ordinary.

[15:30]

You have to of course step outside to describe it, and if you step outside as it were for a moment and you look at what about this objective reality or straightforward mind, then we often say, oh how ordinary, it's just my breath, it's just the birds, and so on. And so we have difficulty realizing that the truth abides in the state of objective reality.

[16:37]

We want a truth to be something transcendent, that goes beyond that. But what about the truth which abides in the state of objective reality? The hundred flowers red and the doves crying in the willows, or you yourself being distracted, or on one of those amusement rides. Isn't that also objective reality, where the truth resides?

[17:40]

Isn't that like doves crying in the willows? So the Sixth Patriarch says, only practicing straightforward mind and having no attachments whatsoever, this is the Samadhi of Oneness. Just each moment, straightforward mind. How is it right now? And then he says, but the deluded person clings to the characteristics of things. He thinks that the Samadhi adheres to the Samadhi of Oneness.

[18:56]

He thinks that it can only be straightforward mind if it's sitting without moving and casting aside all delusions, without letting anything arise in the mind. But this kind of practice is the same as insensitivity. Why would you want to make your mind like a rock? Why would you want to impede your mind? Why would you want to tie it up like that? Knot it? This is an obstruction to the way. When the mind does not abide in things, the way must circulate freely.

[20:11]

So this Samadhi of Oneness doesn't have to do with producing a certain state or a certain experience or a certain mind. This Samadhi of Oneness which meets the proper characteristics of what you'd like or what you expect or what we'd like to see, it's just giving rise moment after moment to experience. So again, it's like in the Genjo Koan, Devin says that if you, as you know, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is realization.

[21:46]

Those who are greatly realized, who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas and those who are deluded about realization are sentient beings. And further there are those who realize beyond realization, who are deluded throughout delusion. Akasa and I, when we worked on this translation, he liked, he wanted to make the last sentence, he said, it's the same thing to realize beyond realization or to be deluded throughout delusion. Exactly the same. Those who are realized beyond realization, when they're in the midst of delusion, it's just thoroughly delusion. It's so thoroughly delusion, you know, that you can't, you don't point it out as being delusion. It's so thoroughly what it is that, and you're so thoroughly immersed in it and one with it, you can't name it any longer delusion.

[23:10]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[24:43]

The full moon shines day and night. Is it more real if the wreath flowers aren't covered with snow? Is it more the truth to try to get rid of the snow and to have a wreath flower in the sunlight? Or is also the snow on the wreath flower the truth? How is it that the full moon shines day and night?

[25:57]

So as the story, the case yesterday said, we must be thoroughgoing and we must be straightforward. To realize suchness, we must practice suchness. Kathagiri Rishi, when I talked with him, I think I've told some of you, I told him about some practices I was doing in satsang, in which we've talked about breathing practices. I think we talked about them a little bit when I gave that lecture at a one-day sitting. So I talked about this, and then Kathagiri Rishi said, he didn't say much about that, but he said,

[27:16]

For years, I tried to do the right Sazen, correct Sazen, and I tried to find out what was the right Sazen, the Sazen of Dogen, and I wanted to do it right. I wanted to know Dogen's Sazen, but I could never figure it out. It bothered me for years. Now I've finally given up. He said, if you read Dogen, you can't find out anything about Sazen. He won't tell you what is, how to follow your breath. He doesn't say anything about your mind should be in your heart, two inches below the navel, or in your chest, or you should do it like this or like that.

[28:19]

He doesn't say really anything. He says, put your body in this posture and think non-thinking. So the field of Sazen is pretty wide. And we don't have to limit ourselves to any particular way of doing Sazen, any particular mind, or even any particular posture. As I said before when I talked about posture, it's quite different if you position yourself and then start breathing, or if you breathe to position yourself, you position yourself by your breathing.

[29:25]

And it's different if you breathe in your back as well as in your front, as well as in your, you breathe in your back as well as in your stomach, and you breathe in your shoulders as well as in your stomach. And you can even breathe in your legs, or you can breathe throughout your body. And we don't even know if the breath is going up or down. You know that practice that Thich Nhat Hanh has suggested, on the inhale, let your chest fill with compassion, and as you exhale, pour it over your head.

[30:29]

If you do that, then as you're exhaling, the feeling though is your breath going down, as you're pouring it over your head, and the feeling is of the compassion, warmth, and tenderness seeping down through your body. As you exhale, which is supposedly the air going up, so it doesn't matter so much, you know, this doesn't, to follow your breath doesn't follow any particular rules. Okay. [...]

[31:49]

Okay. Okay. Okay.

[32:59]

Okay. [...]

[34:06]

Okay. [...] So this is how we manage to, keep our feelings and emotions from coming up, it's how we manage to not have our anger come up and our fear come up. So as we sit and let go of our breathing, then of course many things come up. which, when our breath was controlled, we didn't experience, we didn't have to experience. We could control our experience by controlling our breath. So in Sushumna we have a chance to let go of that control of our breath and let go of control of our experience in that same way.

[35:09]

And we have then the, instead of the continuity of our self or our state of mind or who we are and so on, instead of that control, we have this practice of a straightforward mind. Just practice straightforward mind. Just practice grasping things directly. Just practice the samadhi of oneness. Just give rise to this moment. And we have, instead of relying on a control, we rely on practice. And we can depend on this practice of giving rise to each moment vividly.

[36:19]

In this way, as I said yesterday, in this way, each moment, in each place, in each activity, is the gateway for Avalokiteshvara to enter the truth. In this way, we enter the truth. And it depends on practice. It depends on this practice of every moment, samadhi, straightforward mind, a vivid ordinary reality, vivid objective reality. And so as you breathe, you let go of your breath.

[37:42]

It's kind of, it may be kind of scary because you don't know what will happen. So you have to feel out, how is my breath going to go now? With some subtlety, with some softness. And of course, then if you start to be too soft and subtle, then you fall asleep. It's so relaxing to let your breath go. And so you also need some energy and presence. The other day, we were talking about, with the donants, we were talking about Junko,

[38:53]

Junko practice, and some people were saying, maybe we should be stricter, and what's the point of having the Junko if everybody just, you tap them on the shoulder and everybody turns it down. Why not just let people sleep if they're just going to sleep? And so on. And I said, well, at least we won't have experiences like when I was in Seshen and I grabbed the Kyosaku away from the Junko. And they said, oh, that would be really exciting. We should have more Junkos then. Maybe that would happen. Nobody has that opportunity anymore to grab the stick away from the Junko. I got very tired of having somebody tap me on the shoulder and hit me. So the next time I was waiting, maybe sleeping a little bit, maybe just kind of nodding a

[40:10]

little bit to attract the Junko. I'm not sure. Anyway, sure enough, the Junko came, and fortunately there was, I don't know about fortunately, but anyway, it was convenient that there was nobody sitting next to me. So I grabbed the Kyosaku very quickly off of my shoulder. The Junko let go of it, and I slammed it down on the cushion next to me. And then you want to say, I'm not sure you're hitting anybody. Or do you know who you're messing with? Anyway, after that, people didn't hit me much for a while. You can get a reputation very quickly.

[41:10]

And Paul proceeded to tell a story about Bob Halfling. Dan Welch hit Bob Halfling one time really hard. And Bob leaned back and grabbed, pulled him down and said, if you hit me that hard again, you're going to break the stick. And then he gave him his other shoulder, and Dan hit him just as hard or harder. And sure enough, the end of the stick went flying over the chair. It landed in front of Bob, and he threw it back over the chair. Anyway, there...

[42:19]

At some point... But you may find that you get sick and tired, finally so completely sick and tired of your life or your sasa or how things go that you awaken some resolve, a different level of resolve or presence, energy. Something like that is necessary at some point. You know, Shakyamuni Buddha practiced austerities for six years or something, and finally he

[43:41]

sat down and he said, I'm not, I'm going to sit here until I'm enlightened, I won't move from here. Anyway, you know this, only practicing straightforward mind or without any attachments, or what about this without any attachments? You know, if attachments could be dropped so easily, we wouldn't call them attachments. We call them attachments because they stick and we stick and we're stuck. And if that's all right with you, then you'll go on being stuck.

[44:47]

You know, you kind of don't like it, but it's all right, I mean, at least you're familiar with it and at least you know yourself and, well, this is who I am and I guess that's okay and, you know. So if that's all right with you, finally, then you'll go on, when it's all right, we go on being stuck. But something else happens when you say, I've really had enough of this. I'm not putting up with this anymore, I'm going to do something about this. I'm sick and tired of being so hung up in my thinking and my feeling and it's a kind of fierceness. That's why, you know, usually the Ascendos have Manjushri, and Manjushri has a sword

[45:52]

and Manjushri is often times depicted as a Fudo Myo, there's a fierceness to Manjushri. So when we talk about being through-going or straightforward mind, this is not something so-so or lackadaisical, you know, soft, warm, you also, it also requires some fierceness. Or you slip back into your attachments.

[46:58]

So now I've kind of, I've talked about two sides. I've talked in one way saying, oh it's okay, you know, whatever comes up is a straightforward mind, but is it? Is it a straightforward mind or not? And is it through-going or not? Is it truth abiding in the state of objective reality or not? Is there a nothing outside this vastness? The vastness of this one practice, this one practice, this one moment, is there nothing outside this vastness or is there something outside this vastness that you attach to?

[48:48]

So to make this practice real, it requires some energy and fierceness as well as, and this must, of course, then it needs concentration, some focus. And so, so.

[50:30]

I hope we can continue to energize our practice in this way, this practice of being through-going and solidifying our breath moment after moment. Please continue. Thank you.

[51:54]

Thank you.

[52:01]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ