Today is the second day of this February 2024 two-day sesshin. And we will today continue exploring Chan master Sheng Yen's advice on sesshin practice. Both the helps and hindrances from his book, Faith in Mind: A Commentary on Seng Ts'an's Classic. Again, this is Sheng Yen's commentary on Affirming Faith in Mind, the chant that we did this morning. And his talks were done during the sesshin. So there's lots of practical advice about sesshin. We'll start today with a hindrance. So, hindrance to sesshin practice expecting a sheen to solve personal problems. Here's a story. A woman dreamed she walked into a brand new shop in the marketplace. And to her surprise, found God behind the counter. What do you sell here? She asked. everything your heart desires, said God. Hardly daring to believe what she was hearing, the woman decided to ask for the best things a human being could wish for. I want peace of mind, and love and happiness and wisdom and freedom from fear. She said, then as an afterthought she added not not just for me, for everyone on earth. God smiled. I think you've got me wrong, my dear. He said, We don't sell fruits here, only seeds. That's S E. E. D. S seeds
and then we're going to turn to John master Sheng yen. And just as yesterday, I will be skipping around. He says, When you first set out to practice, you will definitely have a goal in mind. You may be frustrated with your present condition and aim either to change yourself or to improve your circumstances. Certainly, there's something you hope to achieve by practicing, you cannot just practice aimlessly. So practice itself implies some intention or desire. Some people will approach so she and I see it's true with our term intensives too. They're wanting to fix everything that they see about themselves as broken. It's like hoping to transform oneself from a dumpy Caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Just by going to a machine.
This wanting can appear, raise its head and so Shane and become an obstacle to practice. This is what he says. To fulfill your original intentions, you must constantly keep your mind on the method of practice. But as you focus on the method, you should not be thinking of what you want to accomplish, what level you want to reach or what problems you want to get rid of. Instead, your mind should be exclusively applied to the method itself, free from all other motives. There is a saying that is useful for practitioners. Here's the same put down the Marriott thoughts. Take up the practice. And that's the end of the same. The Marriot thoughts are scattered random extraneous concerns. The practice is your method of cultivation. When your mind wanders To extraneous concerns, put them down as soon as they appear
when our minds regardless of what it is that we're wanting, wanders to what problems we want fixed. What solutions we want to come up with? It's actually a good time to remember what sesshin is for
that, remember yesterday. He said, The sole purpose of a Chan retreat or Zen retreat is to meditate. Not to fix ourselves
but as in our story when we focus on our practice we acquire seeds
and then Sheng yen speaks about what can happen when we forget. What's the Sheena's for. And we realize how much momentum there is behind some of our obstructive tendencies. When we realize how sticky they can be, and how much effort it's going to take to work through them. This is what he says. I have known many people who were extremely diligent and took their practice very seriously in the beginning, but gave up too soon. It is just as if when one side senses it is losing the battle, suddenly all resistance is gone. And they are defeated very quickly. As long as everything is going well, they continue normally. But as soon as something goes wrong, everything simply collapses. So it is with certain practitioners who have been working hard and then suddenly stop completely. They feel that practice is basically useless. They think it is a great deception, because they have put a lot of energy into overcoming their problems and have not eliminated them at all. In fact, their efforts have only increased their mental vexations and have created physical ones as well. And then, later, he says, It is good to have a diligent and objective attitude towards practice. But to be attached to the idea of overcoming your problems will only lead to further trouble.
Anthony de Mello Johnson says favorite person said Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed. After enlightenment, I continue to be depressed. So we thought alignment won't solve our problems. Let's not expect such sheen to do that either. It's a sort of a magical thinking. I think that that's just what we humans have that our troubles are just gonna poof, disappear. That fictional character, Uncle Remus said, can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far.
Now he says here
he says they think it is a great deception because they have put a lot of energy into overcoming their problems and have not eliminated them at all. In fact, their efforts have only increased their mental vexations. What many of you have rediscovered or maybe discovered for the first time is sesshin practices like spring cleaning When we do our thorough cleaning, we have to move furniture, take things off of shelves, there's dust flying everywhere the place is a hot mess. And some of you have experienced that hot mess. Dust is flying everywhere. Because of your efforts. Keep going, the dust will settle, the furniture will be moved back. And the place will be cleaner than it was when you started eventually
what happens though, is when that eventually doesn't happen as quickly as we'd like, or what's happening in our practice right now doesn't look like we want it to look doesn't match our shoulds. And we all have a list of what practice should look like. Then the tendency is to try to make something happened, which is our next hindrance, trying to control the results of our practice. And here's the story. A modern master described how the Buddha had encouraged his monks by stating that those who had practiced diligently would surely be enlightened in seven days, or, if not in seven days than in seven months or seven years. A young American monk heard this and asked if it was still true. The master Arjun Cha promised that if the young monk was continuously mindful, without break for only seven days, he would be enlightened. excitedly, the young monk started as seven days, only to be lost in forgetfulness. 10 minutes later, coming back to himself, he again started as seven days, only to become lost once more and mindless thought, perhaps about what he would do after his enlightenment. Again, and again, he began his seven days. And again and again, he lost his continuity of mindful of mindfulness. A week later, he was not enlightened, but had become very much aware of his habitual fantasies and wandering of mind, a most instructive way to begin his practice on the path to real awakening.
So maybe our minds are not as peaceful as we would like it to be or is settled. Or maybe disturbing images or thoughts have surfaced.
What do we do with that?
How did it happen? We do our practice. That's how it happened. And how do we get through it? Through our practice, but for some, that's not fast enough. We try to control how our practice unfolds. And it's understandable why we would because in most aspects of life, trying harder works. If if we are a student, and we're not doing so well in a class, we study harder and it can make a difference
But trying harder, really doesn't work with practice bearing down, gritting our teeth stiffening up.
shinian gives a metaphor for what it looks like when we try harder. This is what he says he says originally, your mind may be in a relatively stable state. But when you realize that your mind is not completely unmoving, you may try to make it even calmer. However, the effort to steal your mind will cause it to become more active. The mind that makes no distinctions is unmoving. There are no ups and downs. If you try to eliminate the ups and downs, it would be like observing a pan of water. There are gentle ripples on its surface, but you want the surface to be completely still. So you blow on the water to flatten it out. This creates more ripples, then you press the water with your hands to stop it from moving, the outcome is even more agitation. Now, this is nonsense. But this is what we do with our practice. Is says, If you were to leave the water alone, the ripples would eventually subside, and the surface would be still common sense tells us that we cannot force the water to become calm. When it comes to practice. However, it is difficult for us to apply the same principle.
There's been folks have been feeling a lot of the ups and downs during the sheen, of mood of ability to concentrate to be absorbed in their practice. But just as he said the mind that makes no distinctions is unmoving. There are no ups and downs.
If we focus on the ups and downs there we will have ups and downs.
He says, When practicing, it is sufficient to just keep your mind on the method. It is unnecessary to reflect upon how well you are doing, or to compare whether you are in a better state now than you were half an hour ago. And he says during the evening talk, and this is for him. I guess it's their turn for for jokes on or private instruction. In our case. He says I may ask you How are you doing today? At this time you're allowed to express your feelings. When you are practicing, you should definitely not investigate your mental state and judge your practice.
He continues, someone said to me shuffle, which is like Roshi shuffle, I feel very ashamed. I come to retreat time and again, and yet I never make any progress. I said the very fact that you are still coming to retreat and practicing is proof that you are making progress
there are people who lament that they have been practicing for years or even decades without having a breakthrough experience or whatever it is that they're looking for.
Please don't concern yourself with time. The more time or effort or energy that we spend practicing before awakening. The more we are refining our personality and character and building this solid base This base on which to serve
that development has to happen. It can happen before awakening or can happen after. It's rare of the spiritual genius that doesn't have to do that work at all. If it even if there is even such a thing it's assumed in Buddhism that when we encounter as a genius of one kind or another spiritual included, that they've done that work in previous lifetimes regardless, let's not let thoughts of what we want to happen. pull us away from this moment. What's happening right now?
We cannot control the results of our practice. All we can influence all we have control over is where we place our attention. And our efforts
Bowden Roshi said we don't have to get anything. We don't have to possess extraordinary talents or intelligence. We simply have to persevere with vigor and diligence. This is not an idealistic or optimistic perspective. It's realistic. This is reality. This is our nature, our fundamentally enlightened mind.
Which leads us to our final help to sesshin practice following our nature, or, according with what Roshi says, are fundamentally enlightened mind and the story.
A woodcarver called Ching had just finished work on a bell frame. Everyone who saw it marveled for it seem to be the work of spirits. When the Duke of Lucite he asked, what sort of genius is yours, that you could make such a thing? The woodcarver replied, Sire, I am only a simple workman. I am no genius. But there is one thing when I am going to make a bell frame, I meditate for three days to call my mind. When I have meditated for three days, I think no more about rewards or emoluments. When I have meditated for five days, I no longer think of praise or blame skillfulness or awkwardness. When I have meditated for seven days, I suddenly forget my limbs, my body. No, I forget my very self. I lose consciousness of the court and my surroundings, only my skill remains. In that state, I walk into the forest and examine each tree until I find one in which I see the bell frame in all its perfection. Then my hands go to the task. Having set myself aside, nature meets nature in the work that is performed through me. This no doubt is the reason why everyone says that the finished product is the work of spirits.
Now for John Messer Shamian he says the most important thing in practice is to be natural and spontaneous. Being natural does not mean neglecting everything. It requires careful attention and meditation you should sit in a natural posture and use your mind in a natural way. Sitting in a natural posture means sitting just right. If you are comfortable when you first assume the sitting posture, even if pains developing your legs later on, that is still natural. It is unnatural, however, to set bent to sit bent over or leaning to one side or with your head tipped back. A natural posture should follow the demands of your physiology. It is not natural to tighten your stomach muscles or to straighten your back by protruding your chest. To use your mind in a natural way, means to avoid trying to control it. The more you try to control your mind, the more stray thoughts will come up to bother you. In fact, the very fear of stray thoughts is another strange thought. Therefore, if you have many stray thoughts, consider it a natural phenomenon and do not despise them. Our brains secrete thoughts our ears, hear our eyes see, our skin feels our brains think it's natural. It happens. As long as we're alive, we are going to have thoughts. So, we have to make peace with the fact that thoughts will flip through the mind
he continues, he says but on the other hand, if you completely give into a train of wandering thoughts, that is not correct either. What is the best approach, pay close attention to the method. If you do that stray thoughts will be kept to a minimum. It's not that they will not arise. But you will not worry about it. them voting Roshi has something to say to he puts it differently. So we're doing is as in we have a stray thought come into the mind. And once we notice, there's a choice do we stay with the thought and then board the train of thoughts that follow? That's one option and the very popular one. The other is to go back to the breath or colon. And in that moment to moment choosing of how we direct our attention is everything. This is Zen Mind Training, which determines not merely the quality of our sitting, but how consciously and effectively we function in our everyday lives.
skipping some Sheng yen says this, it says but to follow your own nature in this sense, is not the same as following your personal habits or whims as in the expression be natural. Nature here refers to yourself nature or Buddha nature. Underneath all of these layers of thought, this blanket of thought our Buddha nature is always shining, always presence, always functioning. We have no more or less than anybody else, no more or less than the Buddha himself.
Some would, some would argue that the whole point of being human the purpose of our lives is to awaken to this nature and to function out of it. And that process of awakening can happen in some shape or outside of it. These helps and hindrances that we've been exploring over the last couple of days. apply equally to our practice, our daily practice and it should be a daily practice. When we get all tangled up it's helpful to remember what daily practice is for. Just to meditate, just to do zazen not just on the cushion but in all activities, it's helpful to relax the body and mind to not talk to oneself. making comparisons disturbs our peace of mind, both in sesshin and outside of sushi at work.
expecting to be free from our problems, or wanting to attain certain results from our practice, our daily practice will be an obstruction all of this advice from John master Sheng Yen is just for the purpose of freeing ourselves from ourselves so that we can accord with our true nature and get out of the way
some final words from John Mr. Sheng yen. Some people think that one can become a Buddha through meditation. This is wrong. The potential for Buddhahood is already within your own nature. If it were true that Buddha had depended on meditation, then if you stop meditating after becoming a Buddha, you would become a common person again. The objective of practice is to be in accord with the natural way so that your true nature can manifest itself. Just practice according to the methods taught by the Buddha and do not worry about being a success.
