Episode Transcript
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[00:00:16] It's really wonderful to just flow right into Sachin this morning.
[00:00:22] I want to thank everyone for going along with this program, which is a little switch for us.
[00:00:30] So we're beginning this eight weeks of spring intensive committed for all you commitment folks. We're in this committed practice period and or commitment files. We're, we're all in this together and the theme is Buddhist practices for caring for all beings without exception.
[00:00:58] And this theme, caring for all beings. I think that we're all, somehow we have this homing device that brings us to Zen practice to come home to this place that we know in our hearts is our deepest wish and that is to care for this world.
[00:01:21] This is our essential nature, this caring awareness.
[00:01:26] Somehow we also understand. And if we don't understand it too well, the more we sit, the more clear it becomes that underneath this swirl of worries, doubts, fears, general neuroses, I would say limited dualistic thinking, you know, normal human mind, let's say the mind that we often live in. But underlying that surrounding all that swirl is this basic caring, boundless awareness, this deep wish for the well being of all.
[00:02:04] Because actually so far I have no data otherwise to contradict this great Buddhist teaching that we're all interconnected, that no one and no thing can be left out at any time despite appearances.
[00:02:21] So meditation Saen teaches us, you know, how to really show up for life to the reality of the communality with all being even. So this great teaching of zazen, it can be easy to mistake the appearance of zazen, you know, sitting upright, facing the wall, muted colors, wearing muted colors, silence, stillness as some kind of escape or turning away from reality.
[00:02:55] It can, it can seem like it's just like a navel gazing, you know, self involved endeavor.
[00:03:02] But you know, we notice like when we're like, I don't like that person, I don't like this thing, my cushion's too hard. You know, we, we, we notice this really clearly in Zazen, even though we're just sitting with it going, okay, I'll be open, I'll try to be open. Then it's like, I can't stand it anymore. I'm gonna go take a break, okay?
[00:03:20] Ah, but my sincere wish during this practice commitment period in particular is that we explore the abundant Buddhist teachings that are refreshing, caring and promote this flourishing for ourselves and Others.
[00:03:37] So we'll begin. We'll kick off this practice period looking at Zazen, focusing on Zazen as a caring practice. You know, when your knees are hurting, sometimes it's what this is, caring?
[00:03:51] No, it's a great question.
[00:03:54] And then over the rest of the eight weeks, we'll check out some other Buddhist practices that offer models of how to care for each moment in each arising situation wholeheartedly.
[00:04:08] So I will say that some years ago, I cracked open this book called Minding Mind Course in Basic Meditation.
[00:04:22] The picture looks like kind of like a little outdated or something. You know, it's got this kind of monk that looks in a flowery robe and giant earlobes, an ET chin.
[00:04:37] So the COVID wasn't that appealing. But Thomas Cleary translated this. And I was, you know, looking into Fukanza Zengi, and I thought, oh, I think I'll read this, because Fukanza zengi, as many of you know, and is in our chant book and chanted frequently. Here are Dogen's meditation instructions, let's say.
[00:04:58] But this book covers that and also some other things.
[00:05:03] So one of the things it says is that Dogen's instructions for meditation were sort of riffing on, you could say, almost copying parts of or literally copying parts of a previous meditation instruction by a teacher named Chong Lu.
[00:05:24] So I want to talk about. And I'm actually going to read and go through, and we're going to chant during morning service.
[00:05:31] Chong Lu's. This precursor to Dogen dogen was the 13th century. This was about, you know, 100 years or so prior in China, Tonglu wrote some meditation instructions which are only, I think, something like less than 800 characters in Chinese and just a few pages. We can even chant it in English. And unless somebody gets their hook out and pulls me off the seat, I'm going to try to go through those instructions, so you'll bear with me.
[00:06:07] But these are this text that are basically translated as, let's say, Qianlu's model for sitting meditation. For Zazen.
[00:06:20] In Chinese, it's something like Zochan I.
[00:06:27] So it's just basically, that's zazen.
[00:06:31] Instruction, instructions, rules, regulations. Maybe one thing I will say about this Chan Master, you know, those of you, all these names can seem a lot, you know, kind of like reading War and Peace or something, where everybody's got multiple names for one person. You're like, who's Sasha, Sashenka, Alexander, you know what? But it's like this with a lot of Zen masters. Some of them were named for the places they had place names for the mountain they lived on or the place, the area they lived in. So Tonglu actually lived in Tong Lu. That's where that name comes from and is known by other names.
[00:07:13] So Chonglu was kind of a mountain name, even though I don't think it was in a mountain.
[00:07:19] But it was at Chong Lu Monastery where he lived and was abbot.
[00:07:24] And I'll just say that another name given to Chong Lu later in life, because sometimes people got multiple names, you know, over their lifetime. Like you get dharma names, you know, sometimes like other people bestow names.
[00:07:37] He had this great name, Chan Master Ser Ju, Compassionate Awakening. So this is Zen Master Compassionate Awakening.
[00:07:48] And he also.
[00:07:49] He was Chan Master in the school of Yunmen, who many of you know, but also practice Pure Land Buddhism, chanting Namomida Butsu. So this is a combo, somebody with this devotional practice of chanting Amidobutsu's name.
[00:08:06] They didn't even have to sit zazen, right? They could just chant Amidobutsu. This is still done today.
[00:08:12] And we have plenty of Pure Land influenced temples in Chicago, at least in the area.
[00:08:19] And he ran a temple and sat zazen and gave us instructions. Some of the earliest instructions.
[00:08:29] In addition to this, Tong Lu, Compassionate Awakening, Great Teacher Compassionate Awakening also wrote rules. Is there something?
[00:08:41] Is everything okay, Alan?
[00:08:44] We had a little sound blurp.
[00:08:47] Chong Lu also wrote.
[00:08:49] So not only did Dogen sort of riff off of these zazen instructions in Fukanza zengi, but in Dogen's instructions, regulations, let's say, for his temple organization, the rules for a temple organization called as Ehei Shingi were also riffed off of similar ones, maybe even more elaborate, that Chonglu, or Great Teacher Compassionate Awakening, the Shingi, as a matter of fact, his are said to be the most the.
[00:09:19] So these are written, you know, late 10th, early 1100s, the oldest existing written monastic organizational rules, you might say. So they had things in it like an Eno, like other temple officers know if a Tonto was in there. But they had various offices that ran the temple and an organization. And this actually, this kind of organizational structure supported practice, and to this day maybe supports practice if we don't choke on it.
[00:09:58] So this is just a little bit about Sir Zhao Cheng Liu.
[00:10:04] So much is written, but very little is known.
[00:10:07] I also heard that he wrote poetic verses when he wrote in his Pureland writings.
[00:10:15] And that sounds really wonderful. I hope to delve into those someday. But right now we'll get on with Tong Lu's rules for zazen models. For zazen right out of the gate.
[00:10:30] These rules are addressed to the Bodhisattva who studies prajna wisdom.
[00:10:36] And Right out of the gate defines zazen as a bodhisattva practice with that.
[00:10:42] You know, these instructions begin by emphasizing that zazen should be cultivated for the benefit not just of a practitioner, but for all living beings.
[00:10:52] And I think this was left out at the beginning of Fukanza Zengi.
[00:10:57] But then you'll hear a lot of things that are familiar goes on with, you know, setting up some preliminary conditions for meditation, for seated meditation, for zazen, such as kind of simplifying your life a little bit, not indulging, not depriving yourself, having a quiet quarters like our little zendo or like your home, sitting spaces or semi quiet. You know, this is what's called renouncing worldly affairs on some level. But it's also a middle way teaching. It's not like, you know, starve yourself or go off into some spaced out practice.
[00:11:41] It says it's middle way. Don't go to these extremes and consider how you arrange your life and your sitting space and your robes and your body to support awakening already. This is a very caring practice actually.
[00:12:00] So I'll read through and comment on this.
[00:12:06] So this starts out and I'll use mostly Clery's translation. There are several translations which we don't need to go into too much, although they're very interesting and I might comment from some of those as well. But it starts off right out the gate. Those who aspire to awakening and who would learn wisdom should first arouse an attitude of great compassion and make an all encompassing vow. This is our Bodhisattva vow to master Samadhi concentration Zazen promising to. Promising to liberate other people.
[00:12:44] Not seeking liberation for yourself alone doesn't say exclude yourself, but it is saying before you even do this, bring forth this wish as you touch your cushion, you know, as you touch your bench.
[00:13:03] I want to liberate others.
[00:13:05] This is my project, not just self help. Although if we think of ourselves in a broad way it is, but it says then and only then should you let go of all objects which we have this objectless meditation and rest all concerns, so that the body and mind are one suchness and there is no gap between movement and stillness.
[00:13:32] Is that a beautiful line?
[00:13:34] Emil is like, what is suchness?
[00:13:37] What a great question.
[00:13:39] This is what we're realizing, our one yet in its various forms, this wholeness.
[00:13:48] But before you do that, before you go there, don't forget other people. Don't forget the world.
[00:13:55] Check your intention.
[00:13:57] And then it says the familiar things about not of taking care of your life in a moderate way to support your meditation practice says moderate your food and drink. Neither take too much or too little.
[00:14:16] Regulate your sleep, neither restricting it too much nor indulging in it too much.
[00:14:22] This might mean, you know, don't sleep with devices in your room today when you're going to sit in meditation, right? Doesn't this sound like fukanza zangi? Any of you fukanza zangi lovers? When you're going to sit in meditation, spread a thick sitting mat in a quiet, uncluttered place.
[00:14:43] Wear your clothing loosely, but maintain uniform order in your posture and carriage. Then sit in the lotus position.
[00:14:53] First placing the right foot on the left thigh, then placing the left foot on the right thigh. The half lotus posture will also do.
[00:15:01] Just put your left foot on your right leg.
[00:15:05] That is all.
[00:15:06] Next, place the right hand on the left ankle. Place the left hand palm up on top of it on the palm of the right hand. Have the thumb tips of both hands brace each other up.
[00:15:19] This is something that is also in Dogen Fukanzo Senki Dogen's instructions, but also one that I notice we also forget about once in a while. Here.
[00:15:30] And then it says, you know, raise your body slowly forward and then rock left to right.
[00:15:40] Do you ever try that when you sit down? Just give yourself a little bit of time to position yourself and then sit straight.
[00:15:49] Do not lean left or right. Now, for some bodies, if I'm crooked, just that's the way my body is. This might not be leaning left or right. This is also an internal posture of our body awareness.
[00:16:03] Ah, but how detailed and careful and caring these instructions are.
[00:16:10] Don't tilt forward or backward. Align the joints of your hips, your spine and the base of the skull so that they support each other.
[00:16:20] Your form is like a stupa.
[00:16:23] Know what a stupa is? It's a Buddhist monument, kind of like a little tower. It has differences, but it's where Buddha's relics are placed. I've seen them where they put jewels on top of these stupas like in Myanmar.
[00:16:40] But there's a sacred geography is and a sacred geometry to stupas.
[00:16:47] So you actually are creating this vessel with your body.
[00:16:55] Vessel that Buddha or suchness is poured into. Manifest gets such a nice image.
[00:17:03] You know, the stupas have bases and then something on top of it, something on top of that, and they're all those.
[00:17:11] I'm not going to Go into the detail. But all those pieces and many other things have sort of geomantic meaning, have some kind of almost magical meaning. And also, people circumambulate around stupas as a practice, energetic practice.
[00:17:31] So you can do that in your sasa.
[00:17:35] Then it says, yet you should not make your body too extremely erect. So don't force anything.
[00:17:41] For that kind of erectness can constrict the breathing and make it uncomfortable.
[00:17:47] Takes a long time actually to find your seat in zazen so that it's almost effortless and that your body is just supported.
[00:17:57] The ears should be aligned with the shoulders, the nose with the navel. Tongue rests on the upper palate. The lips and teeth are touching, not grinding, touching.
[00:18:11] The eyes should be slightly open to avoid bringing on oblivion and drowsiness.
[00:18:19] I'm going into oblivion, Drowsy, you know, this is.
[00:18:24] Clearly these people knew about sitting, right? Because have you ever experienced any of this in your Azazen, Right? It's like we're like, I think I'll just close my eyes and visualize an ocean instead of being right here. Oops.
[00:18:41] If you're going to attain this, says kind of awkwardly, meditation, concentration, but let's say samadhi, this meditative awareness that power is supreme.
[00:18:54] In ancient times, there were eminent monks specializing in concentration practice who always kept their eyes open when they sat. So this is like these other people did it, so you should do it too. But I say experiment. What happens if you close your eyes during zazen?
[00:19:12] Notice the difference than having this contact with a soft vision.
[00:19:19] Open ears open, sense gates receptive, but not grabbing onto things, not so easy to do.
[00:19:29] Then it says, tan Master Fayun also scolded people for sitting in meditation with their eyes closed, calling it a ghost cave in a mountain of darkness, right? A trance. This ghost cave is like a trance.
[00:19:44] So some people are like, yeah, I want that trance state and save that for dancing or something.
[00:19:51] So he says, evidently there's some deep meaning in this keeping the eyes open, of which people who are practiced in zazen or meditation know about.
[00:20:01] So once the physical posture is settled, continues.
[00:20:05] Great Teacher. Compassionate awakening. Once the physical posture is settled and the breath is tuned, relax your belly, your lower abdomen, relax.
[00:20:20] Don't think of anything good or bad.
[00:20:23] When a thought arises, notice it.
[00:20:26] When you become aware of it, it disappears. Do you ever notice that Right when you're trying to grab onto your thought, then it goes. Right when you're trying to grab onto a feeling, it goes. If you notice it and don't hold Tightly called opening the hand of thought.
[00:20:41] Eventually you forget mental objects and spontaneously become unified.
[00:20:47] This is some kind of speak Buddhist speak. But this unification, I think we understand when we're congruent internally and externally with how we're showing up in the world on our cushions.
[00:21:01] And then he says these wonderful words that we often hear. This is the essential art of Zazen goes on to say, in spite of the fact that sitting Zen meditation is the Dharma gate of ease and joy, of repose and bliss. Let's say many people do it in a pathological manner that brings on sickness, that curious.
[00:21:28] What could that be?
[00:21:29] It says this is because they do not apply their minds correctly.
[00:21:34] I don't know how you understand this.
[00:21:37] You know, we've heard of Zen sickness. People trying and trying and trying and trying. You know, getting themselves sick, literally. I think Hawkin was famous for that, if I remember.
[00:21:50] But the more you sit, if you want to hold on to anything, I'm just going to drag you down bodhisattvas.
[00:21:59] We'll drag you right into the demon's cave. This is, I think, what they're talking about. I'm going to get better. I'm going to get a better life. I'm going to be a happier person. All those things might really happen the minute you're striving for that at the expense of anything else that you don't even notice.
[00:22:20] Ah, trouble.
[00:22:23] Trouble in mind.
[00:22:25] If you get the true sense, your body will naturally feel light and easy. I know that can be hard to believe in Sasheen. You know, we just started sitting a couple periods, but it's. It's true.
[00:22:41] While your vital spirit.
[00:22:44] So not only will your body feel light, but your spirit, your vitality will be clear and keen.
[00:22:51] True mindfulness is distinctly clear.
[00:22:55] The savor of the Dharma sustains the spirit, and you experience pure bliss in a state of profound serenity.
[00:23:06] Isn't that beautiful? Taste of the Dharma.
[00:23:11] Shohaku Okamura translates this as. It is said that zazen is the Dharma gate of peace and joy. In parentheses, Nirvana.
[00:23:20] However, many people get sick because their ways of using their minds is not correct. I mean, we don't have to say that about Zazen, right? We could, like, look at how the mind can be used in ways that seem not very healthy for this world.
[00:23:40] But when you attain the significance this is going on, retranslating that paragraph or Shohaku's translation of meditation. The four great elements of your body will naturally become light and peaceful.
[00:23:53] Your mind will be refreshed and sharp.
[00:23:56] Your mindfulness will become clear.
[00:23:58] The taste of Dharma will support your mind and make it tranquil, pure and joyful.
[00:24:06] Not numb, not caught in a trance, but bright and vital. And I think this brightness and vitality is sometimes shrouded, maybe in the darkness of the robes we wear. This idea we have about facing the wall.
[00:24:22] But brightness is okay. Vitality is. Is essential in our zazen, so we can notice this.
[00:24:32] Don't grab onto the vitality, but don't push away brightness.
[00:24:37] It says for those who have already had an awakening, this can be said to be like a dragon finding the water, like a tiger in the mountains.
[00:24:45] But for those who don't know this, it is still using the wind to blow on the fire. The effort required is not much.
[00:24:53] Just make the mind receptive and you will not be cheated.
[00:24:59] Nevertheless, when the way is lofty, this is interesting. Demons abound all sorts of things. Offend and please.
[00:25:11] As long as you keep true mindfulness present, none of this can hold you back. So we're going to encounter this, the demons, the things that offend. And please, gonna skip ahead a little bit and just say when you want to come out of meditation, slowly rock the body.
[00:25:33] So, you know, sometimes we want to, like, pop up and get going. But this is telling us to carefully avoid haste after coming out of meditation.
[00:25:44] And at all times, use whatever expedient means or skillful means, Upaya to preserve the power of your samadhi, as if you were taking care of a baby.
[00:25:59] So you know, when you get up and you're like, oh, so glad that period's over. I'm running out of the zendo. That's probably not taking care of that baby.
[00:26:09] Our baby samadhi.
[00:26:13] Caring for the baby samadhi.
[00:26:15] It says then when you practice in this way, it'll be easy to practice deeply our meditation, which is the most urgent task.
[00:26:26] If you do not meditate calmly and reflect quietly, you'll be utterly lost.
[00:26:33] So if you're going to look for a pearl, it's best to still the waves.
[00:26:38] It will be hard to find if you stir the water.
[00:26:42] When the water of concentration is clear, the pearl of the mind.
[00:26:47] This jewel reveals itself.
[00:26:51] And there's some other things that get quoted that I'll just. Or that I'll skip over, actually.
[00:26:59] But I'll just read something close to the end, so I know kitchen will want to leave in a minute, so let's just stay for a second. It says if you continue to practice your entire life, you might still be afraid of making mistakes.
[00:27:14] Moreover, if you postpone practice, how can you fight against your karma? Which means the nonsense in our habitual nonsense that we get up to.
[00:27:27] How can you actually be kind in this world and not be caught by your own greed, hate and delusion is what this is.
[00:27:35] Therefore, an ancient worthy said, if you lack the power of Samadhi of Sazen, you will fall down in the gate of death and come back in vain, covering your eyes. You will continue to wander in Samsara. And then he ends.
[00:27:51] I hope that companions in meditation, which is what we all are, will read this tract over and over to help themselves and help others alike attain true awakening. So I want to thank you very much for getting through this entire thing, pretty much this great teaching of compassionate awakening on zazen.
[00:28:18] And I know the kitchen needs to leave, so I think the kitchen is going to leave that's weighed and our people are, I think, Aishin, will you go to the kitchen? And the servers will leave so they can be trained.
[00:28:33] And that's Yana, Nathan, Matthew, Kelly, and Nicole, if I remember.
[00:28:43] So we see how many people it takes to nourish us. Thank you very much.
[00:28:52] Thank you.
[00:28:53] Thank you, Aisha.
[00:28:55] So I'm talking about this piece because I want to encourage our zazen during this practice commitment period as rooted in compassion.
[00:29:10] All these details are to help us learn how to care for the world.
[00:29:16] You know, when Dogen wrote a fascicle on practice period, here's one little verse that it begins with. There's all these details about who sits where and what their positions are, but this little verse begins it, and it says, stacking up bones in an open field.
[00:29:39] This is building the stupa. It's your body with the open field as your zazen, gouging out a cave in an empty sky.
[00:29:48] Break through the barrier of dualism and splash in a bucket of pitch black lacquer. So our zazen is splashing during this practice period. We'll caringly splash in the world as it is pitch black, yet appearing as something you know. We learn to swim caringly, you know, those of you who are swimmers, you know that feeling of your body extending in the water, being one with the water and finding your stride from side to side, one with the bucket.
[00:30:29] We splash in this ocean with compassion and vitality and sometimes even drop right through the ocean all the way to the bottom and come up again and care for this world.
[00:30:44] So thank you very much for this long winded talk and I invite your response, if any.
