This is the fifth day of this September, 20, 24/7 day. Sejen I,
two days remaining, 48 hours. Time passing quickly and
how will you use this precious time?
Do you put the pedal to the metal? Do
how do you apply the right effort without trying too hard, without straining? This is a question that comes up a lot for people, but really to even stop and and ask that question is to go into results seeking mode and separate yourself from your practice, as long as you're doing it, as long as you're doing the practice, returning your attention to it Each time you notice that you've drifted off. That's it. That's the right effort, and it's the only effort that's needed. Forget about right and wrong, and also forget about time you
our effort is kind of like bobbing for apples. You plunge your face into a bucket of water over and over again, you almost sink your teeth into one, and then it slips away. And this can happen over and over again. If you give up, you're not going to taste that apple. Just have to keep trying. But any amount of tensing up or thrashing your head about in the bucket that's not going to help will be a waste of energy unnecessarily. Roshi kapleau said that his teacher, yasutani, Roshi used to say that if you hit the bull's eye on the 100th try. It doesn't mean that it had nothing to do with the 99 previous tries. So those previous 99 tries were not failures. It's just part of the process. But still, it can feel like a really tricky situation. You know, being and this is something I grappled with, being told, don't let up, keep going, but at the same time, don't grasp
and Zen, one of the the words we often use To describe effort is surrender, which kind of sounds nonsensical. How can giving in and giving up the effort? I.
In the tradition of Jewish mysticism, there's actually a story about a rabbi and three disciples that gets at this question of effort
it's from stories of the spirit, stories of the heart.
Two of the disciples were arguing about what is the one true path to God? One said that the path is built on effort and energy. He said you must give yourself totally and fully with all your effort to follow the way of the law, to pray, to pay attention, to live rightly. The second disciple said, it is not effort at all that is only based on ego. It is pure surrender to follow the way of God, to awaken is to let go of all things and live the teaching, not my will, but thine. And since the two couldn't reach an agreement on which one had it right, they went to the rabbi. The rabbi listened to the first disciple praising the path of wholehearted effort when he asked if this was right, the rabbi said, yes, you're right. That's the path. And then the second disciple was bothered by this, and proceeded to praise the path of surrendering and letting go. And he had he asked, Is this not the true path? And the rabbi said, yes, you're right, that's the path. And then, hearing this, a third disciple protested and said, Now, wait a minute. They both can't be right. The rabbi then smiled and said, You're right too.
Really, we just need to do what's called for what's needed, moment by moment. Conditions are constantly changing. There are times when we need to really dig down deep to anchor ourselves, and other times we need to let up and let go. It's not either or. It's but and or both. And
so yesterday, we started reading from Joko Beck's most recent book, published posthumously, ordinary wonder. And we're going to continue with that today, and I'll be reading from a section titled 99.4% of our problems. And she she begins by describing the human condition and the search for happiness. She says, most of us have this one basic question, how can I have a life that makes some sense, that feels good in a certain sense, and is meaningful or satisfactory to me? It's a fine question. But why does it seem so hard to solve? Being Human with the amazing minds that we have, we begin looking for an answer to this question. We're hoping for some magical understanding, some vision of life, and some great experience that's going to do it. A Zen monk once asked the great teacher, dazu huihai, what is great nirvana? In other words, he's asking, what is full enlightenment? What is the ultimate the monk was asking the same question we are all asking, what is the great, wonderful answer? The teacher replied, not to commit oneself to the karma of birth and death is great nirvana. The monk continued, what then is the karma of birth and death? And the teacher answered to desire, the great nirvana is the karma of birth and death. Then she says, Don't get caught on the word karma. Dazu wayhai is just saying to desire this great answer is the great mistake.
So this monk was looking for guidance. Tell me what it is, so I can get it. But any answer that comes from someone else won't do needs to come from within, and that we think there's an answer in the first place, is not looking within, it's looking on the outside. It's like losing something, like losing your wallet, looking around everywhere for it, under the couch, in the desk drawer, the glove compartment of your car, the driveway
along the route that you went for a walk On, only to discover that it's been in your pocket all along. It's not lost, it's not missing, it's right here you
JOCO says we all desire a great answer. So what are we going to do? Our life doesn't quite suit us. We want an answer. And the master is saying that just wanting the answer itself is your mistake. Where does that leave us? More annoyed than ever
again, it's that that wanting a resolution, wanting someone to pacify your mind, wanting the payoff for all your efforts, and thinking that once I have it, once I have the answer, then everything's going to be perfect, everything's going to come together. And this mindset is actually a rejection of life as it is right now. It's forward thinking.
She continues. I have. An old book that I used to pour over many years ago. It's so old, it was photocopied and is hardly holding together. It's by an English philosopher who called himself way wu wei for whatever reason. So this, this philosopher's name, Wei Woo. Wei is based on a Chinese term, Wu Wei, which translates to mean effortless action, action that's no action effort. That's no effort doing that is no doing. Another way to put it, is simply flowing, freely, flowing freely with changing conditions, and that's the kind of effort that we're honing seated as we are relaxed in our seat,
not to the point of passivity or dullness, but really engaged with our practice and about this philosopher named Wei Wu Wei Joko then says he wrote that 99.4% of Our problems come from a concern for the self. Now 99.4% of our problems come from a concern for from come from a concern for the self. And there isn't any self
that sounds about right, doesn't it? To put this in perspective, that means that point 6% of of the time we're dealing with actual problems at actual problems, like a clogged toilet, your car breaking down,
baking a cake, and then discovering that you ran out of sugar,
losing a computer file.
These are all problems that need fixing, and we can fix them. But then there's the rest the 99.4% which is duality, clinging to self, problems that are no problem.
There are lots, lots of examples,
reactivity, falling back on our go to reactions like defensiveness or blaming others, anxiety about what other people think of you
spreading rumors and gossip about others. Self promotion, attention seeking behavior, fear of failure,
and also fear, fear of relationships, not not being willing to trust others. I. And also making assumptions about others,
putting everyone into tiny little boxes according to the narrative that you created about them, and of course, at the same time, then you're putting yourself into a tiny Little Box, walling yourself off with your self narrative. Go and then there's also holding on to feelings, grief, jealousy, pride and anger. Anger is a big one,
not being willing to forgive others, nor to forgive yourself and and all of this adds up to not Seeing this, just this, not looking at the person who's standing before you right now.
99.4% and not a problem. Joko says another way of saying this is that all our problems are versions of myself. Is disturbed by what other selves are doing, and yet there aren't any other selves. There isn't a separate self, because there's nothing in the universe that's truly separate from the absolute point of view, there's nothing that's separate.
On the level that we live though, there's nothing but problems and us. That is why it is a great error to be attached to finding the truth of life and the source of all happiness. If we think I have to understand everything This in itself, is a great error, because there is no eye to understand anything. There's no eye, no eye to understand anything. No eye that's going to gain something. Just says there's no eye that's washing dishes or folding the laundry or preparing a meal, eating an apple, drinking coffee. There's no eye there.
There's no eye in this Zendo. We we breathe, we inhale and we exhale. But is there anyone there doing that?
Our heart beats, our nose smells, our ears here, where is? Where is this self that's supposedly in control and.
In the mumonkan, there is a case number 23 with the following verse. You describe it in vain. You picture it to no avail. You can never praise it fully. Stop all your groping and maneuvering. There is nowhere to hide your true self. When the universe is annihilated, it remains indestructible.
All there is is this.
It has no borders or edges to it. It's boundless and and it is perfect, just as it is.
Nothing contains it. Nothing defines it.
That's not how we ordinarily ordinarily operate. Instead, we're conditioned to see ourselves as separate, not just from other people, but all beings and also all things and
Joko says there's always myself confronting yourself if I were to look at our selves closely enough, if I were to get a big enough microscope, I could see that we're made of molecules, but suppose we look With a much more high powered instrument than that. If we could have a great enough magnification, we'd see that for the most part, we're just light and energy. It makes scientific sense that we're all the same thing.
If you don't believe what the Buddha taught, believe science, fundamentally, we're a light and energy. That's what we're made up of.
It's the building block of all matter and
so the same energy that comprises our body encased by the skin is the same energy that makes up everyone else's body, but not just that, also the furniture, the altar, the trees, the.
The water flowing in the creek.
Pumpkins, toothpaste, so
everything pure energy, even the things that look like they're static.
Atoms are bouncing off each other, non stop.
We share the same atoms. We
Joko goes on, our problems come because at the level on which we live the material plane, as we call it, we are distributed into little packages that look like a you, a me, the guy I like and the guy I don't like. So we have all these packages now, it's not so hard to rattle through thinking like that and to see that we're all the same thing. When somebody insults you. It doesn't make any difference at all, that on some ultimate level, they are no different than you. On the level of the everyday and on the level of the body, it still hurts. That's the problem with trying to attack the human problem from the standpoint of philosophy or physics, you can understand anything intellectually, but it doesn't affect your life. I can say to myself, she's just a bundle of light and I'm just a bundle of light, but if she doesn't like the way I cooked lunch, well, I'm still annoyed. The great oneness of everything may be the ultimate reality, but we don't usually notice it very much in our everyday lives. We
it can be difficult. It is difficult in our everyday lives to really put our faith into the true nature that everyone and everything equally shares we're all dealing with the same conditioning, the same 99.4% of our problems, no matter what we look like where we're from, no matter our background, our life experiences, we're all. We're all working on seeing through duality and striving to become whole and
and having a daily sitting practice in our everyday life is is critical to us being able to see the bundle of light that's in. In everyone. We do stand a chance, but you can't, you can't even compare that to the potential that comes from sasheen. We
conditions are perfect for our practice to ripen during session. During this session and
we're free from the responsibilities and distractions of our everyday lives, and we're free, for the most part, if we allow ourselves to be we're free from making choices. We're free from picking and choosing,
what to do, when what to eat, what to wear, when to rest.
We're free to really, really, really give ourselves to our practice. We
and to flowing with life,
and at this stage in sashing, can really feel that in A concrete way.
And as for that 99.4% of our problems, which sounds very daunting, but actually it's, it's really not. It's, it's just a wedge, like a wedge in a door. It's true that a door can't fling open if there's a wedge stuck in it, but fortunately, the wedge isn't fixed. It's not permanent. All we need to do is kick it out. Kick it out from beneath the door.
And the way to do that is to pour our attention into Our practice.
Pour our attention into this, into moon and
just you.
I'm now going to skip ahead and read an excerpt from the last section of joco's book. It has the same heading as the book's title, ordinary wonder.
She says, a lot of people who practice begin to feel a little freedom. This is probably the best way to describe a life that is less and less caught by self centered attachments. It's free. It's a. Flexible, it's kind and it's fun. We forget about fun. A life without fun is miserable. You know instinctively when you meet a person who has a little bit of freedom, there's just something different about them. You
we forget to have fun.
We take ourselves too seriously.
We take other selves too personally,
and we can treat our practice And seine like it's a really grim, harsh endeavor. And
and we forget, not just about fun, but about freedom of simply. I being here, being alive, being in a body,
it's wonderful. You
to be able to move through the world and live this life and
a there's a story that speaks to the simple joy of practice and life, they're not too after all, and it comes from the recorded sayings of layman Pang who, along with his wife and daughter, are a great inspiration to any householder or lay practitioner, which Most of us are.
Here's the story, layman Pang was sitting in his thatched cottage one day studying the sutras. Difficult, difficult, difficult. He suddenly exclaimed, like trying to store 10 bushels of sesame in the top of a tree. Easy, easy, easy. His wife lay woman. Pang answered. It's like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed.
Neither difficult nor easy, said their daughter, Ling Xiao. It's like the teachings of the ancestors shining on the 100 grass tips and.
The teachings of the ancestors shine everywhere, not just on every tip of every blade of grass And
