This is the fourth day of this July 2024 seven day sesshin. And we'll return to the teachings of Muso Koshi, the Japanese Zen master of the 13th and 14th century national teacher at the time t shirt that is Teacher of the Emperor. And we're reading from a book called Green conversations on Buddhism and Zen translated by Thomas Cleary.
He says, There is a vast potential latent within human beings that remains undiscovered because of the limitations placed on consciousness by habitual preoccupations. The recommendation that all cravings be relinquished does not mean that detachment itself is a goal. It is a means of breaking through self imposed restrictions, and opening up this inexhaustible treasury of potential.
Comment on that. So, the idea that we need to give up something with respect to diet or some pleasure is not the same. It's not because of its own substantially bad, but because it takes a toll on our consciousness. And we have less bandwidth less energy available for things that will truly open us up. He uses the term habitual preoccupations think of our preoccupations with getting what we want, and avoiding what we don't want. That's that's the biggest probably, our likes and dislikes. Our preferences, we hear this in songs on Sangha suns, forming faith in mind. How much we can try to structure our lives around our likes and dislikes. It's natural that we have likes and dislikes but to what extent do we go to what When do they become real attachments? These likes and dislikes and they start to rule our daily lives
habitual preoccupations such as being preoccupied with what others think of us
habitual preoccupations being preoccupied with how I compare to others that's it that's a big one it's a sheen it was for me it's a sheen after all, is just a slice of life whatever we whatever we're, we're we do out there outside so she we bring in with us saying it's our mind our habit energy, our our Well, habitual preoccupations how we might be comparing how we might compare to others performance and so Shane, oh, it's such a such a waste of mental energy to be concerned with that. And it's out and is itself an impediment. While we're thinking how we compare to others, it that's that's reducing our effect. missin sesshin
and then it's hard to compare in terms of in terms of habitual preoccupations with the preoccupations with the past. Memories. What what has happened, what we've said, what others have said to us past in the future, what we're going to do, what we hope to do what we're going to say to others, what they might say to us rehearsing working over our scripts these are some of the ones that I hear most about, and, and have had plenty of experience in the past with those
people with obsessive compulsive tendencies have their own specialized forms of habitual preoccupations, terms of just their daily functioning. Food being preoccupied with food in sesshin, outside sesshin
is a means of breaking through self imposed restrictions and opening up this treasury of potential
I used to, to never miss a meal. And so shame when I was working on Mo, I would eat very, very little, my whole my whole meal, say would say dinner or would be about half a plate or sometimes less. But I would always go to a meal and not going to miss a meal. And then Roshi Kapleau made some little talk about how it's good. Sometimes just try to break up your routines, your rhythms just try something different. Just to see what that might be effect that might have so I was desperate enough to actually continue sitting in the Zendo during dinner. This was on the this the last dinner of sesshin Friday dinner of sesshin and I was passed on Mu that night. Now causation or just correlation? Who's to say it it's a way of getting out of your comfort zone. And having the the if not courage, at least the interest or curiosity to see or what if I change this I wish I had one other conducted one other experiment in those days, which was to try getting a full night's sleep because I was completely obsessed with getting as little sleep as possible. Who knows I might have been through Mu sooner if I'd gotten a one decent night's sleep or at least a night's sleep of more than three hours. So this is an encouragement to tinker a bit try something see what happens.
He says just as greed for worldly things is inhibiting and self defeating. So also craving for other worldly things prevents the opening of the mind. So it doesn't have to be materialistic things or that we crave but craving peak experiences in such sheen. Something special, magical, something we can tell others about afterward or write about something exciting
craving for you Some kind of psychic powers. I don't hear much about that. But that's a possibility I suppose. But the biggest, the biggest one and arguably the biggest impediment is the craving for enlightenment. Wait here I hear someone saying, wait, wait a minute, what's wrong with having the aspiration to come to awakening for the sake of all beings while nothing. It's wonderful to have that aspiration, but not as something we're holding in the mind as a goal that we're grasping at. It's it's the, the ultimate irony that people who have this aspiration it's the most the most exalted aspiration a human being can have, I would suggest that if it's held in the mind as a thought, an image of that enlightenment experience out there in the future, then we are blocking ourselves. So how do you if you have this genuine, longing to awaken? How do you not have it hanging in the mind? Well, you put more of your mind put all of your mind into the koan. You're working on the breath, whatever your practice is. When you're when you're really absorbed, in the koan Mu for example, if you if you the more, the more thoroughly you get absorbed in it, the more you squeeze out of the mind and a thought about enlightenment. You don't want that find in there. Same with any koan, or the breath, get it out of there. Actually, you don't have to get it out. You're not to expel it, you just become so one with the practice, there's no room left it just, it just sort of evaporates, it's disappears, goes off the margins disappears from our screen
and requires such such an intense commitment to the koan.
Sometimes, we've got we're pretty much almost entirely absorbed in the in the koan, but but if you look closely in the back of the mind, just sort of skittering around in the back of the mind or just floating there is still that idea of Kensho. Okay, you're not absorbed enough in the koan?
The, the the genius of questioning is that, to the degree that we're questioning, we won't be holding on to anything. You can't hold on to a thought such as enlightenment, you can't hold on and question at the same time, right as if you're really fully questioning. Questioning is the absence of holding on attaching clinging?
When people are unsympathetic to you, and the world does not go as you wish. This should be a help to detachment of feelings from the repetitive cycle of becoming and decay, gaining and losing.
The world does not go as you wish. So you experience a loss, loss of financial or loss of a job opportunity or loss of someone close to you. breakup of relationship, there's the opportunity to to have the the presence of mind to realize that this is loss is a the result of gaining anything. So how do how can we just get past gain and loss?
That's why one way to enlist And why the the the first of the Four Noble Truths is suffering. That's how we get started. That's what turns us in the direction of a path that will lead to the transcendence of worldly concerns
they will little unchained us from this, this chain of causation
gaining and losing becoming in decay
remember, quite close Dharma brother back in the 1970s, who came, who, when his when his girlfriend broke up with them, that's what spurred him to, to commit to practice in a way he didn't have never had before. That's using pain in the best possible way.
The withholding of divine aid from those who would become presumptuous, more attached, more indulgent and more shameless, if their wishes were fulfilled, is itself divine a to such people in a corrupt age, when prayers are not answered, that itself is the answer.
How much? How much are we really helped by managing to get everything we want?
What kind of condition is that? For real inquiry or aspiration to get everything we want
I don't know about this. I've never collected any real data but I suspect that among very wealthy, very wealthy people, there aren't as many who get serious about spiritual practice as those of lesser means. Your full I suppose that kind of wealth
or is it instead maybe the grasping for wealth the the prioritizing of materialistic things what from the very beginning gets in the way of searching for something beyond that?
Or if not, if not, wealth is such other kinds of favor favorable karma let's call it beauty, great beauty. Fame price search for something else. When you quote have it all.
Boys wondered about the whole matter of of prayer. That is a petitionary prayer. Please give me this. Please do this for me. It's very difficult. As to to pray for the sake of others, I suppose
not to mention who it is you're praying to anyway
someone said what, what most people are really asking for when they pray to God is that too and to not make for
then he switches to this, the pity the great sages have for ordinary people, is not necessarily because of the wretchedness of the human condition in itself. But more because of the great potential humanity has and does not use, the highest state from which humanity has fallen. Potential to see what what students could realize could do, could become
I would, I don't know the word pity is, I think is not very good word. Compassion, the better. The ache of the ache of seeing every single person is endowed with this enlightened nature and not having realized it and, and not doing the things that would enable them to realize it and doing things that block them from doing it.
The central benefit of Zen in the context of the ordinary ups and downs of life is not in preventing the minus and promoting the plus button directing people to the fundamental reality that is not under the sway of ups and downs.
This is what we what we grow into. Through an officer sheens is realizing that, yeah, we can't stop the ups and downs and can't stop the waves, the periods of hardship and ease that happened in session, but we can get to the point where we, we realize that they're not permanent, they're nothing to make a lot out of when they're happening. That gradually become too to become familiar with the changeless that is behind all these changes
the blue sky that is behind the clouds, shifting clouds.
Turning a couple pages here, he says, one may enter into the sphere of influence of demons as a result of spiritual exercises and experiences. Again, for people who weren't hearing this yesterday demons is just a 14th century reference way of talking about states of mind. This may be likened to the case of a warrior who is rewarded for achievement in battle, then develops an exaggerated sense of self importance as a result of that reward. When a person this is more to the point here, when a person takes pride in spiritual practices, or experiences, that individual is certain to fall into the sphere of influence of demons. This is not the fault of the practice itself, but of the attitude of the practitioner. Those who undertake spiritual practices with wrong it yours are developed wrong ideas in the course of practice. And those who become conceited and oppose the doctrines or methods of others, enter states of mind and modes of being that may be referred to as hell.
A man wants came to Zen master Hakuin and say, Is there really a heaven and hell and Hacohen flash sized up this, he, this is a samurai sorry, he sized up the samurai. And he said, Well, who's asking Who are you, you look like the lowest form of humanity a beggar nothing I should bother. And now the samurais face flushed, and he reached for his sword. And he said, that is hell. And then the samurai understood his meaning. And so he shifts his sword and bowed to Hacohen and Hakuin said, and that is heaven.
We don't have to imagine some places underground or up in the heaven. It's all here. We consign ourselves, to hell or to heaven, based on our, our reactivity in the world, emotional states we get into, and then beyond that also some terrible circumstances we can fall into. Many people, many millions of people live in hellish conditions
and then he builds on this further, but the how we can fall under the spell of demons as a result of spiritual exercises and experiences. He takes up the six paramitas, the six paramitas are the qualities that we develop through spiritual practice is a big, big category in Buddhist philosophy, the six paramitas and we'll get to them as we, as he speaks here, a sutra, called obstacles of pure action, explains how religious practices can in fact obstruct the path of enlightenment. Okay, what does he mean he says this occurs, and first he takes up the first paramita paramita of giving generosity. This occurs when those who practice ALMS giving charity, despise the selfish. And he looks at morality, the second of the paramita when those who observe moral precepts are critical of those who do not. And he takes up the paramita of forbearance or patience, when those who practice forbearance be little, the impatient and then the next paramita vigor when those who practice vigorous diligence, look down on the lazy. And then the next is concentration, the fifth paramita when those who practice meditation, reject the distracted and then knowledge in this case, probably it's prajna. But in this case, it's he's defining it as knowledge rather than wisdom. And when those with knowledge make light of the ignorant so this, this devilish, let's call it devilish. Part of our mind is always always ready to appropriate for itself. What it can, even when we are practicing what seemed to be virtuous acts
This is kind of self evident, but I'll read it. It's talking about ordinary insights that we have in the course of say sesshin. A primary aim of Zen is the uncovering of what is known as inherent wisdom. This is not the kind of knowledge that is produced by thinking based on conditioned consciousness. It is said that the ignorant are obstructed by ignorance, while intellectuals are obstructed by intellectual knowledge. One way of getting past these obstacles and approaching inherent wisdom is to let go of whatever comes to mind. There it is, that's a shame, let go, let go discard, discard, discard whatever it is discarded. discard it. Wonderful insight you have about whatever your parents, your parents or your spouse or your children discarded No wonder so few people are really cut out for this work, instead of just savoring it. Maybe writing about it, telling other people about it discard out this is how we keep moving, how we keep pushing progressing.
demands a lot of us as human beings, we don't want to let these things go that are that are confirming.
But just a little bit more about that, the effect it it's not wasted. We're not expelling it. It's that once we've had the insight, whatever it may be, that's part of us. What I'm talking about when I say discard because discard the thought of it, the memory of it. It's already part of us when we've experienced it. We don't have to, to cling to it in the mind.
Because in a different topic, he says when you are ill. If you think you have to study medical science before getting treatment for your illness, you will get sicker and die before you're ever finished learning medicine. If you go to an expert physician, however, the physician can diagnose your ailment and prescribe accordingly. As a patient, you may not understand the knowledge underlying the doctor's prescription. But if you follow expert advice you will get well. Buddhist practice is also like this. If you try to learn all the doctrines first and then apply them. You might spend a whole lifetime studying the doctrines without learning them all. So many and diverse are they if you never get around to application, learning is ultimately useless. This is very Zen emphasis. Rather than learning we want to do is unlearn. We want enough maybe enough understanding of Zen principles and instructions and practical instructions to do it. But once we've got that once we know how to do it, once we have the the path once we've reached the path, then this is much better to go with the direct experience through meditation. Real teachers therefore give students only as much instruction as they need to apply. Even if the students cannot understand immediately If they keep the directions of a teacher in mind, without trying to fit them into preconceived interpretations, when the appropriate time arrives, the obscurity should dissolve.
once wrote a book called Zen in the Bible, I'd never read I still haven't read the Bible. But I thought, I'll read about it at least. And what what? One thing that the thing is stuck most in mind. The one thing from that book was he was talking about the difference between Westerners and Asians in terms of accepting authority said that, that Westerners have to be convinced, we have to be convinced of why it makes sense before we do it. All right, make your case make a case as to why Why should do prostrations. Make your case as to why we should sit. It's a general tendency course that the range of different ways this plays out, whereas Asians are more likely to just accept it and do it with the faith that it'll it'll work that in the in the doing of it. In the doing, I'd say prostrations. I wasn't the only one who had trouble with that in the beginning, just in doing the prostrations, giving it a chance doing it long enough, that we come to embody the wisdom behind it.
When we plant a tree, as long as the roots take, the branches and leaves will naturally grow and the flowers and fruits will develop. Therefore, when we plant the tree, we are concerned about the roots, not about the branches and leaves. As long as the roots have not taken a firm hold, we prune off the small branches so that the energy will go to the roots. This is a wonderful metaphor, the root it from a Zen point, the root is no mind is the practice of no mind practices zand let's say not just sitting, but in everything we do have of applying that and, and not clinging to anything the branches and, and leaves or something else we'll get to that. And he says that does not mean however that we plant the tree for the sake of the roots alone. We take great care with the roots for the sake of the branches, leaves, flowers and fruits. So there's there's the fundamental the root practice of no mind. I don't want to say sitting because that's just one aspect of this. No mind practice. This practice of concentration and mindfulness. Its practice of discarding, really. That's the root discarding the branches, leaves, flowers and fruits are all of the secondary things. We know from the tradition of Zen, prostrations chanting bows, and even aside from Zen practice itself. Other things that support the brute practice diet, health, reading, some reading that inspires one to sit.
After realizing the essence of Zen, people in ancient times used to spend decades polishing themselves thoroughly in order to free themselves from compulsions of conditioning and habit This is called the work of maturation. The completion of maturation is called the attainment of unification or say it's called integration, a change that to integration. So there's the realization that said the can show the awakening, but then that has to be integrated into all of one's life and, and habits and previous reactivity to things. So it really becomes embodied. So many number of koans, where the the master has this tremendous of deep enlightenment, and it's still kind of a jerk afterward. At first, and then you pick up you know, 100 koans later and they're like pussycats just sweet and refined, kind and gentle. No one more so than the great Joe shoe.
He didn't start teaching till he was 80. They say he had his first awakening at the age of 18. And then what they say was full enlightenment at the age of 56. But still didn't begin teaching till he was 81 of the very distinctive things about Josue in the koans is his gentility softness
in the, in the beginning, when he was still 18, I think this was his initial awakening. He was just all torqued up to get that enlightenment getting connected, I gotta get it, and he goes to non Swan nonsense, and says, How do I get it? And non Swan non Swan says basically Well, the more you try to get it other words what I was saying earlier this hour, the more you've got it, you're grasping at it in your mind the farther away you go from it and then the and then the young Joshi says, What if I don't try? How am I going to do it? And nonsense, who's much older himself at that point he quietly says, it's not a matter of doing or not doing it's more and I'm filling in here it's more becoming this original nature. Its original enlightenment growing into it, how harmonizing with it not as a hate Olympic event to master and then after Joshi whose words are say after nonsense words, Josue came to his first awakening. of times that will stop and recite the Four Vows
