Today is the second day of this October, November, 20, 24/7 day. Seshin going to continue to read from the book faith in mind a commentary on sung Sun's classic by chan master, Sheng yen. Sheng yen,
going to pick up where we left off yesterday. The last thing he said was, should you treat the method in the same way as a wandering thought, putting it down as soon as it appears? No, from moment to moment, put down extraneous thoughts and return your mind to the method of practice. Pretty simple, pretty basic. Do we do it? Of course, before you can put down an extraneous thought, you have to recognize it. You have to notice
there are thoughts that just get a pass. We don't. They're just sort of the water we swim in. But as you, as you go on in your practice, start to stand out a little more, and we have a better chance. All we need to do is bring our full powers to whatever our practice is, to the koan to the breath, to just sitting.
Sheng yen says one time I asked a student, are you having many extraneous thoughts? You replied, not too many. I said, I bet I know one of them. You're thinking of your girlfriend all the time, aren't you nosy teacher, he retorted, how can you say that? After the retreat, he said, originally, I wasn't thinking of my girlfriend at all. But after Shifu mentioned her, by the way, Shifu is the Chinese honorific just means old, Venerable teacher, just as Roshi does in Japanese, after Shifu mentioned her, I couldn't stop thinking of her. I told him that he hadn't seen through his problem. Yet he may have thought that his mind was not on his girlfriend, but His concern was still there. Perhaps you try to put down extraneous concerns, but find that you just can't. Every time you put one down, it comes back again. This upsets you. You keep telling yourself, put it down. Put it down. Actually, it doesn't matter if you can't put it down. If you eventually get to the point where you say to yourself, it doesn't matter if I can't put it down, then you will be putting it down
when they no longer have their hooks in you.
Then the thoughts come into the mind and they pass right through. Of course, I would define passing right through as putting it down. He says you should not fear failure, neither should you embrace it. You may conclude that the retreat is just not going well for you. Your body is uncomfortable, your mind is in tumult. You are unable to control yourself. You haven't made the proper preparations. So you think, why not forget this one and leave tomorrow? Or more frequently, people forget this one and just ride it out. Maybe I'll try again next time. But don't succumb to this defeatist attitude. Chinese proverb says 100 birds in a tree are not worth one bird in the palm. If you let go of that one bird to go after the 100, you'll end up with nothing, even though you feel unprepared and doomed to failure. Being here still presents a wonderful opportunity to practice. I
as we said yesterday, the practice operates outside of our awareness. Changes that come. We don't know how they happen. It's. Find ourselves Freer knowing how it happens. Sometimes the most difficult seshin can be liberating. It's just another area to let go of our preferences way we want things to be, the only thing in our control is to turn the mind to the practice that much we can do, even if it doesn't stay there, turn it again and again. Nothing that we do or fail to do knocks us out of the game, it's important to understand that
there's an author named Agnes Martin who said, We will all get there someday, however, and do the work we are supposed to do. Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous delays and the wanderings off the track. I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistakes, and that all that seems like error is not error, and it all has to be done. That's what that which seems like a false step, is just the next step.
Path of practice is full of ups and downs and is quite familiar with ups and downs, especially downs,
but when we, when we rail against it, when we, when we spend too much of our too much mind share on how things aren't the way we want them, we just compound the problem. We make it that much tougher. So much of our difficulty is self inflicted. Just to wake up to that fact is really a great advance. You realization, I'm the problem.
I'm the tyrant who isn't getting his way. Decided to take it out on himself. I
even though you feel unprepared and doomed to failure, being here still represents a wonderful opportunity to practice. I
is Sheng yen goes on to the next lines of the poem. In our version, it's if you, if you would clearly see the truth, discard opinions pro and con to founder and dislike and like, it's nothing but the mind's disease. The way Sheng yen translated, translates it, if you want the way to appear be neither for nor against, for and against opposing each other, this is the mind's disease you if you want the Buddha way to manifest before your eyes, it is a mistake to harbor any preferences or aversions. This includes anything you hope to acquire, keep, discard or avoid when sitting seems to be going particularly well. The idea may pop into your mind that you are about to be enlightened. Begin to wait for this enlightenment experience. With this expectation, the mind has already abandoned its single mindedness. It has become confused and scattered. You will not be able to maintain your previous state of concentration on a prior retreat. One student was progressing so well that there were notable changes in his mental state. At that point, he became frightened. He thought, I'm happy with the way I am right now. I don't really want any doubt. Drastic changes. One of my friends don't recognize me, did not sit as well for the rest of the retreat.
Chan yen goes on. This contradictory mentality often afflicts the practitioner. He wants to enter the door of enlightenment, but at the same time, is really afraid of entering you come to a retreat with the desire to transform yourself. Indeed, practice can make you more mature, calm and stable. It will certainly not change you into something less human or ghost like since ancient times, all the all the numerous practitioners who have gotten deeply enlightened remain human. The only difference was that afterward, they were more stable and filled with wisdom. There's no reason to fear changing that way in
we have all sorts of weird ideas about what a deeply enlightened person would be like, like something that a Tibetan teacher, Dilgo Kensei Rinpoche said. He said the supreme sign of great practitioners is not that they sprout halos have extraordinarily auspicious dreams, experience bliss continuously, or can foresee our miserable futures. The supreme sign is they no longer have any interest in material gain, fame, respect of others or being the center of attention. I
or we could say they have no preferences, and for them, the great way is easy. You
going back to this matter of people being afraid of change. Sheng yen says this contradictory state of mind is common among ordinary people. When I left home as a young boy, I was very excited about becoming a monk, but on the other hand, I had never been to a monastery and had some apprehension. I just did not know what would happen. There many people who believe in heaven had similar fears about what it will be like after death. Of course, the saying everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die. Sheng yen went to the monastery when he was quite young, trying to remember, might have been even less than 10, anyway, very, very young boy when he went, he
says these contradictions point to an inherent weakness, to inherit weaknesses in our personality, of which we are usually unaware. It is only in the context of practice that these weaknesses are exposed. Once we discover and understand our weaknesses, we can prevent them from further obstructing our practice. You
though for and against are opposites. They are also very much related. If there's something that you like, there must be something else that you dislike, and if you cannot get what you like, you may change your mind and dislike, it to be caught in this conflict between like and dislike is a serious disease of the mind. It is a barrier to practice. Practice is a process by which we recognize and treat the disease of our minds. When the disease completely disappears, the ultimate way is revealed.
Of course, it starts with seeing, seeing what we're doing and it, knowing how we're feeling, knowing what the body is doing,
turning towards that, making that our refuge, our awareness of conditions, our awareness. The mind and the body.
Sheng, yen goes on to the next line of the poem. In our version, it's not to see the ways deep truth disturbs the mind's essential peace. And in Sheng yen version, without recognizing the mysterious principle, it is useless to practice quietude. He says, If we you do not grasp the deep truth in the previous lines, no matter how hard you practice, your efforts will be futile. This is because there is a struggle within your mind. The previous thought is continually at war with the following thought. Under these circumstances, is almost impossible to attain a peaceful state of mind.
This is the truth of the minds disease for and against, good and bad.
In order to practice, we need a solid foundation that requires some degree of acceptance. Need to grow in our ability to take things as they come, to accept our hardship.
Sheng yen says, even if you do manage to overcome your scattered thoughts and reach a peaceful state, it would still be useless. You will be so happy to have entered this state that you will grasp it and not let it go. In the end, you will not achieve a concentrated mind, but an attached mind. Nevertheless, a peaceful state of mind is at least better than one involved in a constant internal struggle. As long as you live alone, you may be able to maintain it, but if you have to interact with people, things may start bothering you. You may be disturbed by the noise of children, visits of friends, or stress at work. Eventually, you will seek to avoid these things and meditate alone in a room. This is not the goal of practice. Clearly,
he says, someone here has a habit of sometimes falling backwards while sitting today, I cautioned her that if she does it hard enough, the shock may cause her to lose consciousness or even her ability to think rationally. She remarked, that's not such a bad idea, after all. Now I have to struggle with all the problems in my mind. If I get such a shock, my problems will disappear. I said, that may be the case, but who will feed you and take care of you and who will take care of your children? A shock to your nervous system is not the same as enlightenment. Rather, it is a disease. Just because a person does not have any scattered thoughts does not mean that all his problems are resolved. If all you are interested in is a thoughtless state, just ask someone to hit you hard on the back of your head. There are too many people who cannot distinguish between true wisdom and a mere state of peacefulness. If you do not understand this distinction, even if you practice hard at best, you're being foolish. The goal of practice, clearly, is not simply to sedate ourselves. Not
to
become a dead stump. I
i can also people settle for a watered down mindfulness
without really becoming one with their conditions, they can sort of name them, and that's that's a start. It's a good place to start, but it's not enough. Again, in order to open, in order to open. Thoroughly, we really have to make a radical surrender. Going to be okay with things as they are, and then we fail. We try again. You
it's not a problem to fail. It's a problem to fail and give up, and it's a problem to settle for too little to kid ourselves. It's a joy and just working, letting the results come as they will. It's really, is really resigning as head of The Universe and
says heart humble and grateful and
again. Sheng yen says you should not remain passively in peacefulness. Don't be afraid of difficulties. If your mind cannot settle down, you should not feel any resentment. Cultivate non aversion to the unpleasant and non attachment to the pleasant, taking a pleasurable state for enlightenment will get you into trouble. Enlightenment is not something we have to guard fiercely, not letting it go. In fact, if you don't let go of an experience, then it's an obstacle. You
if a pleasant state arises, don't get stuck on it, just continue to practice on a past retreat. One person sat through 430 minute periods without stirring, seeing that his condition was too good. I struck him with the incense board. It's the Chinese word for the kiosaki. Thereupon, he grabbed the board and hit me, saying I was in such a blissful state, and now I have lost Samadhi. Aside from the fact that practitioners should not have any attachments, it is not the purpose of chan to remain in Samadhi. It is not necessarily good for the mind to settle down too quickly. Chan is a lively practice. It is not difficult to maintain a calm mind in a stationary situation, but in Chan, one should be able to retain mental calmness even in a mobile state. Importance of walking meditation, of keenheim, of chanting and of work,
bringing the mind of stabilized awareness into all of our activities. I think we tend to give this lip service, but a lot of people sort of abandon their vigilance when they leave this endo
dead master hauen says sometimes that practice in activity is at least 1000 times greater than practice on the mat because it's harder, because it holds up. It's not dependent on special conditions. We do need special conditions. That's the reason why we do seshin makes it easier.
But the purpose is not to close ourselves off from life. The final of the 10 ox hurting pictures, not the final, yeah, the final is returning to the marketplace with open arms, coming back into the world,
finding our connection with the world. What is there outside us? What do we lack? Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes and.
Sheng yen goes on with the poem, The way is perfect, like great space without lack, without excess because of grasping and rejecting, you cannot attain it. And Sheng says great space does not refer to a nothingness, but rather to a totality, though it includes everything. There is no individual existence, there's no separation. There is only the total universal existence, even before attaining the way, practitioners should train themselves in the proper attitudes of one who is already enlightened. That is, they should discard the mentality of liking and disliking, so long as you practice diligently, that practice is the totality. After all, what you dislike and what you like are not separate from one another. There was a landowner who hired many helping hands to work his fields. They were very good workers, but they had large appetites. On the one hand, he was pleased with their work, but on the other he was annoyed that they ate so much. In the owner's mind, this was a grave defect to him. It would be ideal if they would just do their job and not have to eat. Thus there is no need to rejoice when you think you have gotten what you like. It will bring with it things you dislike and vice versa. And of course, we're extremely poor predictors of what will make us happy and what will not, so many things that we long for, and when we get them, the results are paradoxical. Lose our edge, perhaps our spirit subsides, addiction arises. Our happiness doesn't depend on circumstances. If it does, it's an unstable happiness.
Sheng yen gives an example a couple may spend a lot of time and energy courting each other. Eventually they are married and are very happy together. But along with the happiness, there are also some restrictions. They feel stuck in the daily routine and lack the freedom to do whatever they want. They reflect that there is a certain merit to remaining single, but at this point is already too late. When we think we have gotten something, we have not really gotten it, and we think we have lost something, we've not really lost it. This is because in the real, reality of totality, there is no gain and no loss. There's nothing outside of your mind. It's because you choose and reject that you are not free. It is for this reason that you have an excess or a lack. You have an excess of what you want to be rid of, and a lack of what you want to acquire. It is only when there is no grasping or rejecting that there will be neither excess nor lack. You
we have such an opportunity to deal with likes and dislikes and sesshin, many people have anxiety that comes up aversion and
but when we begin to open up, just say, Okay, I know it's seshin, it's tough, it's ups and downs, there's disappointment, there's discouragement, but that is not the problem. It's letting it throw you. After a while, you realize how many times you run through the same stupid routine. Oh no, I lost the practice. I'll never get it back.
No you will keep going. You.
There's a saying in AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, slow growth is good growth. We of course, want everything at once, but that's not, that's not the best way. Mastery takes time, changing the mind, changing our patterns, takes time, takes repetition and
one of the things that happens as practice matures is that we can find a sense of contentment just dealing with what comes up, not so invested in the ups and downs. It's a sense of spaciousness, so faith. How we use the mind determines the nature of our life.
Can't do everything at once. We can do a tremendous amount.
Can't see everything at once, but we can see so much foreign.
A going on in the poem. The next lines in our version are both striving for the outer world as well as for the inner void condemn us to entangled lives. And Sheng Yen has do not pursue conditioned existence, do not abide in acceptance of emptiness.
Says people can be attached either to existence, the outer world or emptiness, the inner void. Most of us are probably attached to existence, clinging to our thoughts, our body, the environment around us. On the other hand, someone attached to emptiness may think, since there is nothing after death, it is the simplest solution for everything. After I die, I won't have to worry about anything anymore. Another emptiness attitude may be, since the world is illusory, then nothing matters and I can stay detached from everything. Those who are attached to emptiness may have a devil may care attitude. They may refuse to take anything in life seriously, or they may even be susceptible to committing suicide. Attachment to either existence or to emptiness are improper attitudes spoken of the dangers of attachment to existence, grasping what you like and rejecting what you dislike. But to say that there is nothing to grasp and nothing to reject is also incorrect. This would be attaching to emptiness. Of course, Buddhism is known as the Middle Way. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Sheng yen says a person may be meditating with a blank mind, apparently free of all thoughts and concerns. While this may seem to be approaching enlightenment, it is actually quite different. In the enlightened state, a previous thought did not arise, a future thought will not arise, and a present thought does not arise. But someone in the blank state is just sitting there, not thinking about or doing anything. In fact, he is not practicing. Indeed, he does have a thought, which is the previous thought arose, but it does not matter a future thought may arise, but again, it does not matter as to the present thought. Let it be this person may think he has no attachment to his thoughts. But actually this is far from a true state of enlightenment. This kind of state is called stubborn emptiness, as opposed to true emptiness, which is a lively state of mind full of awareness. You.
This is pointed to in the Chinese term for shikantaza, for just sitting. It's called Silent illumination. Silence on the one hand, there's illumination, awareness, vividness on the other side, in balance, it's not stuck or rigid. It's not blank.
It's responsive. Zen such a such a virtue to be responsive. People have probably heard the Japanese word hai. Remember listening to a recording very early on in the history of the center. Yasutani Roshi visited, and he he spoke in Japanese, and Roshi Kapleau translated for him. And every now and then Yasutani would ask Roshi something, and also, hi, it's kind of fun to listen to i
Sheng yen goes on. If you practice to a point where you feel very tranquil, stable and comfortable, that would be a peaceful state of mind. The best you can attain in this peaceful condition is a high Samadhi state in the formless realm called the emptiness Samadhi. But if you become attached to such a state, you would never see your self nature. This would be considered an outer path practice, and there are practices that simply aim for quiescence. It's not Zen. The
poem goes on in oneness and equality. Confusion vanishes of itself, or our version, just calmly see that all is one, and by them, by themselves, false views will go perceiving that all is one means making no distinction between sage and sentient being or between subject and object. This is another way of describing the totality of space. When you experience everything is equal, all distinctions will naturally disappear while remembering to not to abide in either existence or emptiness. You should also know that existence and emptiness are not separate. It is everything really the same. Once I said that the Buddha sees all ascension beings as the same and is aware of every single thought in the universe, okay, someone raised the point that if the Buddha's mind was constantly being bombarded with such a tremendous influx of thoughts, it would not be a very comfortable state. This would mean that the Buddha's mind is like a garbage can, and the thoughts of all sentient beings are being dumped into it. It would be a heavy burden on the Buddha. And
then he gives his analogy. If you take a snapshot with a high quality camera, everything in front of the lens will be imprinted on the film in minute detail. Back in the days of film, you can see the tip of each blade of grass and the outline of every leaf, yet the camera does not think how annoying all this junk is trying to get my attention. No, in one shot, it takes everything without making distinctions between objects, whether they're good or bad, long or short, green or yellow. But just because the camera does not make distinctions does not mean that the images on the film will appear confused or in the wrong order. On the contrary, everything is there clearly and in place. Buds mind is like this. Having an equal mind means there is no conception of relativity. Relativity between things, everything is absolute in the sense that there's no separation between you and others, between past and future you it
because you see everything is equal, you would not choose one thing over another. It as soon as there are no longer any differences, it is as if existence simply disappears. For instance, if everybody were. Male, the labor label men would no longer be meaningful since it only its only purpose is distinct, to distinguish men from women. Everyone being the same, there would be no name. Need for names. If you take an equal attitude towards everything, all differences will disappear, along with existence itself. Again, it's pointing to a middle way.
One of the things that happens when the mind is really settled is that everything shines. Everything
has some sort of extra presence. People shine and it's
not anything that we do or manipulate. It's just there's no screen. The machinery isn't mucked up. There's value and beauty in everything. Remember Roshi Kapleau, after when he first came to this country, wrote an article, I think it was published in the New York Times Magazine, talked about the beauty in an angry face.
It reminds me of what Anthony de Mello says about not missing you when you're gone, when you're with me, there's a beautiful symphony that plays. I enjoy it thoroughly, something you and I make together when you leave another Symphony plays, and I enjoy that when we're not clinging and we're not pushing away everything has the chance to come forth and shine
fruit of practice and
it's the fruit of getting Out of the way,
fruit of bearing what's difficult and giving ourselves completely to whatever we're doing, just the one doing. It's the fruit of dropping our concern with how we're doing, where we're going. Have faith. Have faith. Work hard. Say it comes down to that, okay, our time is up. We'll stop now and recite the four vows, applause.
