Welcome.
This talk is not a guided meditation.
Rather,
It's intended to support and encourage Zazen or sitting meditation practice from the Soto Zen perspective.
Sitting in Zazen is first and foremost a physical practice.
We sit with our body in a specific posture and we directly feel whatever we are feeling moment by moment.
For example,
You don't need to ask anyone,
Does my back hurt?
You know if your back is sore or not.
You know if your knee hurts or if there is tension in your neck or shoulders or if your feet or hands are hot or cold.
You certainly know hot and cold.
You really don't have to figure it out.
You just know.
There's nothing to discuss.
The knowing is immediate.
The experience of heat or cold proceeds and the thought follows.
There is no mediation.
I'm reminded of an old dialogue.
Great Master Tozen Gohan is asked by a monk,
When cold or heat come,
How are we to avoid them?
The master says,
Why do you not go to the place without cold and heat?
The monk says,
What is the place without cold and heat?
The master says,
When it is cold,
Kill the acharya with cold.
When it is hot,
Kill the acharya with heat.
Dogen Zenji,
The 13th century founder of the Soto Zen school in Japan,
Comments on this dialogue.
When it is cold,
Kill the acharya with cold.
When it is hot,
Kill the acharya with heat.
These are about the situation just at the moment of having arrived.
Cold is utterly cold,
And heat is utterly hot.
The point here is to directly face reality.
When we sit,
We face what is directly in front of us.
We face our thoughts,
Our memories,
Fantasies,
And concerns just as they are.
We face sounds,
Visual images,
And physical sensations without attachment or aversion.
We just sit.
That's all we do.
Your body in just sitting is the whole universe in the ten directions,
As what Dogen Zenji describes as one bright pearl.
The body sitting is radiant light and mind in totality without hindrance.
In way of summary,
How do we see the world?
How do we understand the world from the vantage point of our actual sitting practice?
How do we keep sitting no matter what?
How do we keep questioning and examining reality as Dogen instructs insistently and repeatedly in so many ways?
For example,
He writes in Zanmai Ozanmai,
The samadhi that is king of samadhis,
That just in the moment of sitting,
Investigate whether the universe is vertical and whether it is horizontal.
Just in the moment of sitting,
What is the sitting itself?
Is it a somersault?
Is it vigorous activity?
Is it thinking?
Is it beyond thinking?
Is it doing something?
Is it not doing anything?
Is it sitting inside of sitting?
Is it sitting inside of the body-mind?
Is it sitting that is free of the inside of sitting,
The inside of the body-mind,
And so on?
There should be investigation of thousands and tens of thousands of points like these.
Sit in the zazen posture with the body.
Sit in the zazen posture with the mind.
Sit in zazen being free of body and mind.
Well,
This is amazing to me.
It's just great.
If we cannot know the wonder and beauty of life intellectually,
How do we understand it?
Do we even bother trying to understand it?
We're constantly adding stories to the moment's reality.
That's the difficulty with realizing ultimate truth.
This moment is emo or suchness,
Being as it is,
Or as I mentioned before,
One bright pearl.
But I believe that bringing this problem to consciousness is worth the effort in order to live,
In order to understand practice.
In order to be a human being in relation to other human beings,
We do use thinking.
But our thinking becomes transformed through the process of practice.
We exert ourselves and generate right thinking.
In practice,
We don't destroy or otherwise annihilate or devalue our life or our capacity to think.
But first,
We have to understand that what we think is happening is probably not reality.
That's why Dogen is insistent,
And he emphasizes this point repeatedly throughout his writing.
The master points to the moon.
The pointers are useful,
But they're not the moon.
The moon view is up to us to realize for ourselves.
The pointers are language and experience and silent sitting practice work together.
There can be obstacles and distractions,
Such as when clouds obscure the view of the moon.
I like to photograph the moon,
And I've noticed that the moon becomes better illuminated in a cloudy sky.
The resulting photos are much more interesting than those of the moon in a cloudless sky.
In the same way,
I would not have as nuanced an understanding of practice if I had not taken the time to listen,
To read,
And to study the teachings of my teachers and of the Buddha ancestors.
So we keep on practicing no matter what,
As if our heads were on fire,
To experience actualization and verification of the Dharma in our daily lives,
To identify and relinquish old habit formations,
To remain open without the obstruction of dogma or preconceived beliefs.
When we just keep practicing no matter what,
With the determination to sit with the intention to raise bodhicitta,
That is,
Being awake to the rise and fall of all experiences without grasping,
Without pushing away,
And especially without judgment,
Practicing shikantaza,
Or just sitting with mushotoku,
No gaining mind,
Realization evolves through our lived experience,
Through practice,
Through study of the texts,
Through guidance from a teacher.
There's no need to believe anything or to take anything on blind faith.
There's only practice.
So sit in a comfortable posture,
Spine erect,
Shoulders relaxed,
Breathing naturally,
Harmonizing body,
Breath,
And mind,
And see for yourself.
And please,
Just keep practicing no matter what.
Thank you.
