Today I'm torn between trying to keep what I'm saying practical and simple and also feeling I want to talk about a knowledge of the body. I think if practice is presented in too simple a way, it becomes a kind of sometimes therapy, but it's not an inexhaustible treasure.

[01:01]

But I would like to say a couple fairly simple things. which are the main thing if I would ask you to do for yourself and for others is to establish a continuity of mindfulness really if I stopped talking right now that would be enough because you can find your own way to do it or you can use the best vehicles your breath and your intention But to know that it's possible and to have faith in it and to take it as a goal above all others, practical goal, at least above all others, not much else has to be said, actually. Everything is changing and

[02:06]

Each thing is impermanent and has no inbred predictable function or inherency. And yet a mind can be continuous. It's not graspable. You can't say it's permanent, but it can be continuous. And this mind is the deepest level what we mean by wisdom. Staying a bit with Wei Kei, or Wei Ko. Wei Ko, Texas. Wei... Maybe we'll call him Wei Kei. He's called both, I don't know quite why. The disciple of the... of Bodhidharma.

[03:19]

He said to Bodhidharma at some point, I'm no longer caught by things. I'm no longer involved in things. And this is a point you come to in practice. I mean, I think at some point you suddenly realize you feel good all the time. You're not... I mean, you may be happy and unhappy sometimes and have certain moods, but underneath that or in the midst of that, actually you feel good all the time. It's also maybe when you recognize that pain is not suffering. Pain is pain. You want to suffer with it, that's up to you.

[04:21]

But pain is just a sensation. You can interpret it as you like. But we are so pushed around by our body that we don't, as the Dasa Bhoomika Sutra says, we don't obtain the production of knowledge about the body because we're too pushed around by eating, sleeping, And so forth. So anyway, Hui Kei said to Bodhidharma, I'm no longer caught by things. And Bodhidharma said, isn't that nihilism? It's an ordinary conversation between two guys. You know, I can remember saying something like that to Sakyurashi.

[05:27]

It's just two guys, you know, shooting the, no, sitting in a coffee shop or something. I'm no longer caught by things. Isn't that nihilism? No. Show me or prove it. And he says, the way Kay said, I'm always clear and aware and it cannot be reached by words. And Bodhidharma says, this is the essence of mind realized by all the Buddhists. No longer have doubts. Isn't that great? Can I have another cup of coffee, please? Double latte, please. What did you say? Okay. Yes, that's the essence of mind realized by all the Buddhas.

[06:37]

No longer have any doubts. This essence of mind is your mind, is this situation. We can't grasp it with thinking. no longer reached by words, but you can have faith. It must be so, you know, it must be so. We can have faith in that. Problem with faith is we don't really believe it. We, as it says, we hear much but we believe little. We don't really believe it because we don't want to believe it, because we're still attached We don't want, we actually don't want such, we think we do, you know. We're in a bad mood, things aren't going right, we like the idea, but things are going okay.

[07:41]

Shit, I don't... Who wants that kind of mind? I am no longer caught by things. Isn't that nihilism? No. Show me. Prove. How would you prove that? How would you say that? Say it again. I am always clear and aware and it cannot be reached by words. So this practice, this realization is rooted in the development of continuity of mindfulness. Now I say a continuity of mindfulness because I'm talking about it from the point of view of practice, effort. But it's also, we can say, just a continuity of mind or presence of mind.

[08:51]

So first, if you're practicing, if you really want to practice, you have the knowledge and faith that this continuity of mind is always available. It's not in the sutras, it's not in the past. It's right now in whatever situation you are or anyone is in. And given that faith, that knowledge, you Return your attention to your breath. You return your body to your breath. You return your mind to your breath. You return your breath to itself. This is the most basic, you know, easiest way.

[09:59]

You're also establishing a background mind. or you use some phrase. Now a phrase is more like a sword. You touch, you know, as I've mentioned to some of you, you touch each situation with this phrase. And you find the energy to bring this phrase, to bring your mind into this phrase, to bring your hopes, desires, whatever, into this phrase. And you have to have the bazazz or chutzpah or, what's the English word? Knuckles?

[11:03]

Knuckles? There's some word I can't remember. It's a funny word, slang word. To work with such a phrase I mean maybe just to give yourself something to do but you bring such a phrase and you can always work with such a phrase and such a phrase can be your koan. It can also be a genjo koan phrase, meaning it rises from your immediate situation. What's happening to you these two weeks or these two months or these days of the Sashin? You find something, what, as I said last night, aches in you.

[12:05]

So that's the second basic practice. A third in zazen is to just notice each thought as it arises. This is also a process of creating a non-attached background mind. And it's the seed mind of a mind that words can't reach. And a practice related to that is to follow every zazen or every now and then in zazen, to follow a thought to its source or an emotion or mood to its source. Just as an exercise to do this now and then. gives you a deep satisfaction of participating in your own mind, of seeing, of not being subject to or a passive recipient of your mind.

[13:28]

You don't exactly learn much, but a deep satisfaction arises just from this exercise. And you actually do learn often. quite a lot, and you move yourself more truly into the present, not in the tailings left over, but you move into the actual present when your mind arises, when your headache arises, or when your mood changes. And I think fourth or fifth would be... Now I'm getting into it, maybe a little more complicated.

[14:48]

But it's... But you need some freedom to study, to see yourself, to know yourself. Hui kei. Hui kei. After Bodhidharma died and he'd received transmission from Bodhidharma and then later Bodhidharma died and then he... And transmission, by the way, is a point, a time when you move ahead in the teaching where in a way you can only move with faith. And at the same time, when you actually get down to real practical matters, exactly how these things work and relate to each other. So after receiving transmission and then teaching with Bodhidharma and then Bodhidharma died and then then he gave transmitted to his disciple and then he left and

[16:24]

went to the city of Ye, it was called, and he lived for a long time, many years, just wandering in the city, changing his disguise, living, practicing secretly. It says, talking in the wine shops, in the butcher shops, and things like that. A bad Buddhist. Anyway... He did those things. And he gathered, and many people entered the way through his living in the city and in his own way. And someone criticized him and said, why are you doing this? Why don't you teach in a more traditional way? And he said, I tune my own mind Nothing else matters.

[17:26]

I tune my own mind, nothing else matters. This is also wisdom. Wisdom means, one of the things wisdom means is this essence of mind which words cannot reach. But it also means that you... How can I put it? That you allow everything to teach you without comparison to other forms of knowledge. And I've tried to suggest that by saying Zazen experience is ordinary experience.

[18:33]

So you begin to be able to hear, as the Dasa Bhumika Sutra again says, to establish yourself in the production of knowledge through the body. Now the basis of this in Vairochana, poor Vairochana's off there on the left, in front of, oh he's got Manjushri as a background mind. Could be worse. Five forms of Manjushri. We're going to have so many Buddhas around here because we're being sent a big Thai Buddha. by Lawrence Rockefeller. It's about four feet tall. Gold and, not solid gold, but, you know.

[19:36]

You know, gold leaf or something. And another figure, I told you already, a little Shinto priest about this high, 22 inches. And I don't know where we're going to put all this. We're going to have more Buddhas than residents here. So we'll have to figure out if Kanseon is going to stay here. We have to think out how to do it. Anyway, Vairachana Buddha, it's interesting, is the most cosmic Buddha, most identified with the Dharmakaya. and most the quintessential manifestation of wisdom. So Virochana's in this room. When you're walking on the floor, you feel yourself walking in Virochana's mind.

[20:44]

But Vyarachanis also is rooted in precepts. And we're going to do, some people are going to take the precepts on Buddha's birthday, the day after the Sashin on the 8th. But the precepts, the basic precepts are what could we call them? The precepts of basic humanity. They're not really Buddhist. I mean, everyone says you shouldn't kill things. You shouldn't steal. Do not take what is not given. So forth. But the precepts are the roots of wisdom because it allows you to anchor yourself in the ordinary world of people.

[21:58]

And as I've said, you don't really know what the precepts mean till you take them. And they're a kind of talisman. Do you know what a talisman is? Like a rabbit's foot. Do they carry rabbit's foots in Germany? No, just in America. In Mexico, do you have rabbit's feet? Oh, lots of... Everyone has a rabbit's foot in Mexico. When I was a kid, it was quite common. People would have a rabbit's foot as a key ring and things like that. Well, in Buddhism, everything is a rabbit's foot. Tail of a rabbit. Oh, you have the tail of a rabbit. I say, we get four out of one rabbit. You get one... America's a poor country. We put the tail on her hat.

[23:03]

I will refuse to answer that question. So this kanseon is a talisman. A talisman, the word means something to touch a completion or to complete a cycle, to complete a circle. So the precepts are a kind of talisman, mental talisman, that allows you to feel anchored in the ordinary world and gives you the... and through that anchor allows you to discover...

[24:21]

Knowledge unique to yourself through practice. And through the state of mind established through the continuity of mindfulness, and through the state of mind established through the precepts, this knowledge known only through yourself, I tune my mind to myself, has coherence and integrity. There's not just some fantasy. So you begin to know the maturation of situations, of acts, through a kind of mental clarity or light or deep satisfaction. Now I often talk about living in such a way or discovering how to be with things in a way that's nourishing.

[25:33]

But deeper than or more developed than this nourishment is this feeling of deep satisfaction or clarity that accompanies your acts. And this is called, in the Tassa Bhumika Sutra, knowledge which is produced through the body. And it's not knowledge that is reached by words or thinking. So I'm saying these things not to be too complex or complicated or confuse you, but rather to give you confidence when you sit to allow yourself to open up to the subtle breath and the subtle body that arises in meditation and to be able to recognize it or allow it.

[26:43]

And I said yesterday that, you know, sandokai means three, one, shake hands, many, one whole being. Not just one mind or some experience of oneness, but many things in one whole being, as one whole being. But also it means to see one whole being on each thing. And to see one whole being on each thing is also a definition of wisdom. And I think sometimes you may have an intimation of this, taste of this. And phrases that you can work with, like, just now is enough, Everything I need is right here, some phrases like that.

[28:26]

These phrases touch our gates to the mind that sees one whole being on each thing. And this is also the manifestation or expression of this mind that Bodhidharma points out. Acknowledges in huike. This is the essence of mind which all the Buddhists realize, have no more doubts. While I'm talking here, a spider's been wandering around the platform.

[29:34]

What world is the spider in? It doesn't. It interpenetrates perfectly with our world. What world are you in? May our intention equally penetrate every being and place.

[30:17]

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