Opinions and “The Way”

0:00 This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. It Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:23 takes a long time, that whole process. Report an error in the passage at 0:23 Highlight the passage at 0:23

0:31 It's a feature, not a bug. My name is Jiryu. I live here at Green Gulch Farm and serve as the abbot currently. Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:52 I'll be giving the dharma talk this morning, most likely, and Report an error in the passage at 0:52 Highlight the passage at 0:52

1:01 I'm grateful to see you all here on kind of a gross and cold day. I've been studying my opinions, and I've got lots of them about all kinds of stuff. Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:18 I am, at this point at least, we'll see how things go, but I'm currently very pro you all, and kind of against this. This kind of gross cold, gray thing that's happening at Greenwich today. Feel free to ask me about other opinions. I have one on pretty much everything, every moment, awake or asleep. Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:56 So maybe there's time I'll say a little bit about how I aspire to practice with that fire hose of opinions that Report an error in the passage at 1:56 Highlight the passage at 1:56

2:14 feel so welcome and invited. To be in my mind all the time. They have like a lifetime subscription to just come in anytime and tell me what's happening and if we like it or not and what we should do about it. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:40 And I'm not sure when it started. Report an error in the passage at 2:40 Highlight the passage at 2:40

2:49 But I think that I've occasionally had an opinion that has felt important, like morally important or psychologically important. And so then the door kind of got cracked open, like, opinions are wholesome and good. And then all Report an error in the passage at 2:49 Highlight the passage at 2:49

3:10 kinds of them came in through that little invitation. A lot of hangers-on hopped on the train. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:21 What to think of ungraspable miracle that there's anything. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:31 I like it. I don't like it. Report an error in the passage at 3:31 Highlight the passage at 3:31

3:36 Anyway, you're having opinions too already. I hope they're good, which is a funny thing. But really, mostly, let's all just, like, not care too much, you know? And just be here with them, but below them in the embodied feeling of aliveness together that we can't get a handle on and Report an error in the passage at 3:36 Highlight the passage at 3:36

4:07 that we didn't create and that's new every moment and that's intimate together with everything. Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:29 So... Today is December 7th, and this is an important season for us in the Zen community. It's the time when we celebrate the kind of foundational moment or foundational myth of our teaching, which is the Buddha's awakening. Report an error in the passage at 4:29 Highlight the passage at 4:29

4:49 Traditionally, we observe that on what we call rohatsu in Japanese, the eighth day of the twelfth month. And so tonight, to celebrate that, community, we Report an error in the passage at 4:49 Highlight the passage at 4:49

5:03 At that moment, at that time of the Buddha's awakening, we're beginning a seven-day meditation retreat that sort of celebrates or reenacts, you could say, honors the Buddha's path to awakening. Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:20 The basic idea is the Buddha just sat, and so we'll just sit. The Buddha sat for a while, so we'll sit for a while. And, you Report an error in the passage at 5:20 Highlight the passage at 5:20

5:36 know, we maybe like to think about what the Buddha got out of it, but the main thing is the Buddha just sat down for a while. Report an error in the passage at 5:36 Highlight the passage at 5:36

5:49 He quit. He was a real seeker, you know, the Buddha. And at some point he quit his seeking and just sat down. Report an error in the passage at 5:49 Highlight the passage at 5:49

6:06 I don't know if the sūtra says this, but I think the meaning or the feeling is, I've had it. I've had it. I'm just, I'm done. I'm just going to sit down. Report an error in the passage at 6:06 Highlight the passage at 6:06

6:26 First, you know, he kind of had it with the palace life. That had everything he needed, everything he could have wanted, but still he was not satisfied. So he just had it, you know. And then he went on this kind of spiritual adventure and had all kinds of like amazing mystical experiences and learned all kinds of cool descriptions of reality and said, well, that didn't really help either. Report an error in the passage at 6:26 Highlight the passage at 6:26

6:56 I'm still not satisfied. I've had it. So then he found a nice tree and just sat down. I quit. Suzuki Roshi, our San Francisco Zen Center founder, says something like, you can retire from the world of suffering. It's kind of the, I've had it. I quit. And I'm just going to sit down and be myself. Just going to sit down as myself. Report an error in the passage at 6:56 Highlight the passage at 6:56

7:38 You feel what that would be like to just say, you know what? Forget it. I'm just going to sit here as myself. I'm Report an error in the passage at 7:38 Highlight the passage at 7:38

7:55 just going to be this. I'm going to try to get out of something. I'm not going to try to get something. Report an error in the passage at 7:55 Highlight the passage at 7:55

8:08 I'm just going to sit down and stop. And so it's interesting, you know, we think of, and Zenju Osho's recent teachings have really brought this to the fore for me. We can think of the Buddha's path, you know, as kind of heroic, sometimes cast as this kind of heroic epic, right, where he accomplishes this difficult thing. Report an error in the passage at 8:08 Highlight the passage at 8:08

8:29 But it's more like he just... It's more like he let something go, he quit something. He just surrendered to being himself in the language of Suzuki Roshi. So I want to read a little bit about how Suzuki Roshi put that, how he tells the story of the Buddha's awakening. Report an error in the passage at 8:29 Highlight the passage at 8:29

9:05 Before attaining enlightenment, Buddha practiced under many teachers, studying many things and becoming caught up. In various philosophies or religions, when he realized he was caught by this, he lost interest in such things. Report an error in the passage at 9:05 Highlight the passage at 9:05

9:32 All these things he was doing were supposed to help him to get free of his clinging and his suffering and his confusion, but it was just giving him more to hold on to. Report an error in the passage at 9:32 Highlight the passage at 9:32

9:44 He realized he was just caught by all this spiritual seeking he was doing, and he lost interest in such things. He got tired of that kind of effort. Report an error in the passage at 9:44 Highlight the passage at 9:44

9:56 And he gave up everything. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:08 Giving up everything, obviously, hopefully obviously, giving up everything was Report an error in the passage at 10:08 Highlight the passage at 10:08

10:17 just him being himself. Report an error in the passage at 10:17 Highlight the passage at 10:17

10:22 You giving up everything might feel like you just being yourself, you know? It's not giving up yourself. Giving yourself is like what's left. Give everything up. Does that make sense? Enough. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:41 He didn't stop being what he was. He just allowed himself to be what he was. Fully, totally. Report an error in the passage at 10:41 Highlight the passage at 10:41

10:52 So then Suzuki Roshi says, finally, he sat under the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment. We say he attained enlightenment, but it may be better to say he completely forgot everything. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:10 He Report an error in the passage at 11:10 Highlight the passage at 11:10

11:18 had nothing in his mind at that moment when he saw the morning star rising up from the east. Maybe many of you know the story. So the Buddha was sitting there and then saw the morning star. Report an error in the passage at 11:18 Highlight the passage at 11:18

11:35 When he saw the morning star rising up from the east, it was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind. That is why he had such joy at the sight of the morning star. Report an error in the passage at 11:35 Highlight the passage at 11:35

11:50 In other words, he shared his feeling with the morning star's feeling. It is difficult to analyze whether it was Buddha's feeling or the morning star's feeling. Anyway, he shared his feeling with the morning star. That was his enlightenment. Just being himself. Not trying to be anything else, letting go of everything. He could just be totally intimate with the thing that was here, which is the morning star. Report an error in the passage at 11:50 Highlight the passage at 11:50

12:39 So in our tradition of Soto Zen practice, we don't emphasize so much the enlightenment that the Buddha got as much as the practice that the Buddha did. That's kind of the character of our style of teaching. Report an error in the passage at 12:39 Highlight the passage at 12:39

13:03 To not be so concerned about enlightenment, but to be really interested in the practice. And we say actually that the practice is the enlightenment, or the practice and the enlightenment are not two things. Report an error in the passage at 13:03 Highlight the passage at 13:03

13:30 The understanding, and I just want to say a little bit about this because it's an important point for our teaching, and it's an important way to understand, those of us doing the seven-day meditation retreat, that we're not doing it to get something. You don't get the thing at the end. The point is there's something in our heart. This is the teaching. Report an error in the passage at 13:30 Highlight the passage at 13:30

13:51 There's something in our nature that already knows that we are profoundly intimate with everything that's here, that we don't need to be confused by anything that's here, and that we actually can just and long to love every single thing that's here. That's what our heart already is. Report an error in the passage at 13:51 Highlight the passage at 13:51

14:22 Who's heart are you talking about? Report an error in the passage at 14:22 Highlight the passage at 14:22

14:27 The path is not to get something you don't have, get this intimacy, get this love that you don't have. It's to just let that love and intimacy express itself through a practice. The enlightenment is the thing that's doing the practice. The heart that already intuitively is one with things and loves things is the thing that's getting you to practice loving and being intimate with things. Report an error in the passage at 14:27 Highlight the passage at 14:27

14:59 There's no gap. There's nothing to get. It's about enacting or expressing or being true to what we already are. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:16 So this practice period we've been for the last couple of months in a practice period here and this... This is sort of the closing week of the practice period, but don't worry, it'll be a long week. So we don't get too excited, folks who are staying on. Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:38 We've been practicing enacting this nature through Suzuki Roshi's teachings and through a kind of framework Report an error in the passage at 15:38 Highlight the passage at 15:38

15:50 that I've been offering for understanding Suzuki Roshi's teachings, which doesn't really have a framework, but there's some themes. So there's some themes of Suzuki Roshi's teaching that we've been emphasizing and I... I just want to name them today to orient those of us who are sitting and also to invite all of those of you, wherever you are, to also do this practice together, whether you're sitting or walking or standing or lying down. Report an error in the passage at 15:50 Highlight the passage at 15:50

16:24 This is a practice that is the enactment of the nature we already have, and it's a practice that we do together because Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:37 it's a practice of intimacy. You can't really do it by yourself. Fortunately, you never can be by yourself. Because it's so intimate, you actually can't get away from it. You drive all the way to Green Gulch and there's just a room full of people. Everywhere you go, we're Report an error in the passage at 16:37 Highlight the passage at 16:37

16:59 intimate with what's here. And we're practicing together with it. So some of us will be practicing sitting and others will be practicing in other ways. But maybe these five points that I want to name, you can take them up as invitations and see if you would want to orient your own posture of... The expression of yourself, the expression of your life along these same lines. So these five are to care for our physical posture and Report an error in the passage at 16:59 Highlight the passage at 16:59

17:41 to care for our breathing. No surprises yet. Care for our physical posture and care for our breathing. Report an error in the passage at 17:41 Highlight the passage at 17:41

18:00 Again and again, invite and refresh the warm heart, our warm heart, and Report an error in the passage at 18:00 Highlight the passage at 18:00

18:16 to empty Report an error in the passage at 18:16 Highlight the passage at 18:16

18:22 our mind. That's maybe a complicated one. Sounds complicated when our mind is empty. So to clear our mind, to let go of whatever we can let go of that's in our mind, and to open our eyes and ears and hearts and body and being and allow the intimacy with our surroundings and with each other. To be upright and breathing and warm and empty and open. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

19:00 And intimate with what's here. Report an error in the passage at 19:00 Highlight the passage at 19:00

19:05 Why not? Doesn't that sound nice? Is anything in the way? My calendar. My calendar's in the way. Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:18 All the piled up dishes are in the way. My friends are in the way. Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:30 So the physical posture we've been studying and maybe for most of this practice period we've been studying the physical posture of being upright. And this is most important. Well, it's very important in our sitting, but also in all of our activity. We can become more present when we're caring for the posture, our physical posture. Report an error in the passage at 19:30 Highlight the passage at 19:30

20:02 We've been studying this low belly center, so grounding that posture in, and you can find it right now if you're not already abiding there. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:18 You can just feel, you know, especially maybe when you breathe out and breathe out a little bit beyond the end of the exhalation. You just feel your low belly. Report an error in the passage at 20:18 Highlight the passage at 20:18

20:31 And just let that feeling of the low belly be more and more like the center of what you are, where you are, who you are. Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

20:41 So that low belly center, wonderful capacity and strength and ground in that low belly. So we've been enjoying that together, feeling that low belly and trying to move from the low belly and express ourselves from the low belly. Report an error in the passage at 20:41 Highlight the passage at 20:41

21:02 And then not just the belly, but the whole inside of the body. Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:08 As a part of what our posture is. So we have our posture and we try to sit upright. Our friend David France was here recently in the practice period and was helping us to try to appreciate that you can sit upright not just using the outside of the body but also using the inside of your body. The inside of your body can also help you to be upright. So you could feel into that. You feel the inside of your body. Report an error in the passage at 21:08 Highlight the passage at 21:08

21:40 And let the whole thing be upright and open. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

21:48 One of the things that Zen tradition points out about our posture is that it's called ears over the shoulders or the chin a little bit in. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:00 And there's this strange and pretty consistent principle that when the chin goes out, the mind starts running. It's a funny thing. Somebody maybe understands why or has some stories about why, but it just seems like you can test it out. Bring your chin in, your ears over your shoulders, and the mind can quiet. And when your chin comes out, usually your back slumps and you start remembering all your opinions about stuff. Report an error in the passage at 22:00 Highlight the passage at 22:00

22:26 And asking them, you know, what to do. Instead of asking your belly, you know, and your heart what to do. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:39 So upright in the physical posture is so fundamental because it's a completely, how would I say this? It's not asking anything. of our experience. It's just the way that we're meeting whatever our experience is. And this is a really, maybe the most important point for understanding what Zen practice is, which is not about getting a certain kind of experience, but is about having a way with which we're going to meet whatever experience comes. Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

23:12 And that's kind of a big difference. So the posture is not to get some experience. The posture is to be ready and open to what's coming. Report an error in the passage at 23:12 Highlight the passage at 23:12

23:45 So next we practice our breathing or Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

23:52 connect with our breathing. And the foundation of our awakening, you could say, or just of our waking up in our life is connecting also with the breath. Report an error in the passage at 23:52 Highlight the passage at 23:52

24:10 So when we're sitting in meditation, in zazen, the mind is with the breathing. Report an error in the passage at 24:10 Highlight the passage at 24:10

24:19 The breath can go all the way into the lower belly and come all the way out from the lower belly. Report an error in the passage at 24:19 Highlight the passage at 24:19

24:30 And when we connect with the breath, like right now, you might connect with the breath, notice what it's doing, and Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:41 remind it that it can be deep and calm and smooth. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

25:00 As we've been practicing breathing, we've especially emphasized the exhalation. Inhalation is pretty good. It's like being alive, you know. Wow, it's kind of a miracle. Report an error in the passage at 25:00 Highlight the passage at 25:00

25:18 And in that inhalation, you know, brings all of this freshness and we can feel like we're born new, fresh in with this inhalation, bringing in freshness and light and sound and coming to life in the inhalation. Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:37 But as I was, you know, as I was feeling, was reflecting on the Buddhas, just the Buddhas quitting everything. And it feels like an exhalation, right? Just like, ah. I'm just going to sit here and be myself. I'm going to stop trying to be anything else or get anything else. That feels more like an exhalation. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

26:09 Relief, right? Do you inhale with relief? When you inhale, you inhale maybe when you're shocked. Report an error in the passage at 26:09 Highlight the passage at 26:09

26:24 You don't have to be or do or know anything. So that exhalation. The letting go is the special emphasis in our breathing. Suzuki Roshi says that calmness of our mind, that peace, is just past the end of the exhalation. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:49 Just let yourself let go completely in the posture with the exhalation. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:06 So then the next point of this kind of overall posture or being of Zen practice is this warm heart. Report an error in the passage at 27:06 Highlight the passage at 27:06

27:23 It's, you know, just like when we care for the posture and the breathing, we, you know, you're totally invited to do it in as rigid a way possible. But also, there's a way to invite our body into the upright posture that's natural and that's kind of like a relief. It's sort of how the body wants to sit. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

27:46 It's not forcing the body to be upright. It's reminding the body that it thrives and comes to life in upright posture. It's kind of its nature to be upright. And the same with our heart. So it's not like, warm your heart. Report an error in the passage at 27:46 Highlight the passage at 27:46

28:08 You should have a warm heart. I love everyone. Report an error in the passage at 28:08 Highlight the passage at 28:08

28:26 Noticing the posture that our heart is in. So our body is in a posture and our heart is in a posture. All the time. And a lot of the time we don't notice it. It's a little bit subtle. It's kind of like... could think of it as kind of the filter Report an error in the passage at 28:26 Highlight the passage at 28:26

28:42 or the lean, you know, that is sort of coloring everything that we experience. You know, when your heart is kind of closed and cold, then Report an error in the passage at 28:42 Highlight the passage at 28:42

28:56 everything is a little worse. You know, and when your heart is warm and open then everything is a little better. hopefully you notice that it's worth noticing because I think this kind of attitude we have in our heart is like maybe the main thing Report an error in the passage at 28:56 Highlight the passage at 28:56

29:14 Determining how our day goes, but we're not really noticing it. How is your heart? So we sort of, just like we check in with our belly and our chin and our breathing, we're checking in with your heart. Report an error in the passage at 29:14 Highlight the passage at 29:14

29:27 Again, not telling it what to do, but just like, hey, heart, I'm in here. Thanks for looking. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:42 So coming into the heart, you know, feeling the kind of posture of our heart or our attitude towards the being alive. Report an error in the passage at 29:42 Highlight the passage at 29:42

29:55 If our heart is protected, you know, hurt, maybe hurt and protected and slumped and cold. Report an error in the passage at 29:55 Highlight the passage at 29:55

30:05 So we can just tend to that. We can notice that and it'll warm right up. Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:15 It's always happy to have our attention. Report an error in the passage at 30:15 Highlight the passage at 30:15

30:28 This warm heart is, I think, part of what has made Suzuki Roshi's teaching so lasting and important in the transmission of Zen to the West. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

30:45 So I want to read a little bit about what he says about this warm heart. Even though you sit, Trying to have the right posture and counting your breath, it may still be lifeless zazen because you are just following instructions. Report an error in the passage at 30:45 Highlight the passage at 30:45

31:04 You are not kind enough with yourself. You think that if you follow the instructions given by some teacher, then you'll have good zazen. Report an error in the passage at 31:04 Highlight the passage at 31:04

31:21 But the purpose of instruction is to encourage you to be kind with yourself, to not count your breath just to avoid your thinking mind, but to take the best care of your breathing. Report an error in the passage at 31:21 Highlight the passage at 31:21

31:37 If you are very kind with your breathing, one breath after another, you will have a refreshed, warm feeling in your zazen. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

31:50 When you have a warm feeling for your body and your breath, then you can take care of your practice and you will be fully satisfied. When you are very kind with yourself, naturally you will feel like this. Report an error in the passage at 31:50 Highlight the passage at 31:50

32:04 A mother will take care of her child even though she may have no idea how to make her baby happy. Similarly, when you take care of your posture and your breathing, there is a warm feeling in it. Report an error in the passage at 32:04 Highlight the passage at 32:04

32:19 when you have a warm feeling in your practice, that is a good example of the great mercy of Buddha. It's a strange, wonderful comment. Report an error in the passage at 32:19 Highlight the passage at 32:19

32:32 When you have a warm feeling about your breath and your posture, when there's a warmth in your heart, The Buddha is Report an error in the passage at 32:32 Highlight the passage at 32:32

32:52 the intimacy of everything. That intimacy of everything manifests as this warmth, this warm heart. So the warm heart you have now in your own practice is like what the Buddha's compassion is. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:10 It's this warmth that's in the posture. It's the warmth that's welcoming whatever's here with an attitude of... So, you know, Report an error in the passage at 33:10 Highlight the passage at 33:10

33:34 sorry this is not such an exciting talk. Report an error in the passage at 33:34 Highlight the passage at 33:34

33:44 It feels important now and then to just remind ourselves about the way to be a human being in a way that's whole and beneficial and not crazy and harmful. And so to me these points are like the beautiful expression of that basic way that we each have available to be a human being. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:15 Aligned with how our nature, our heart, our inmost request actually longs to be. But it's not as exciting as like getting enlightenment or something. Report an error in the passage at 34:15 Highlight the passage at 34:15

34:30 So he says, so we put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:40 The study of this warmth, again, study your coldness. Notice your coldness. Driving your car, can you be warm? Warm heart, walking. Warm heart, typing. It's the same day. That you have to get through. Why not get through it with a warm heart? We put emphasis on warm heart, warm zazen. The warm feeling we have in our practice is enlightenment or Buddha's compassion, Buddha's mind. Report an error in the passage at 34:40 Highlight the passage at 34:40

35:18 So there may be somebody here who wants to be enlightened. I know of at least one who has my compassion. Report an error in the passage at 35:18 Highlight the passage at 35:18

35:31 If you wish to be awakened to what our life is, Rather than looking for some cool thing that you're going to get if you squeeze the right spiritual muscle, how about look to the warmth that you feel towards your own breath? Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:50 Suzuki Roshi, our great teacher, is saying that is the enlightenment. The warmth that you have towards what's here is like the functioning of that wisdom of intimacy. It's worth studying. It's a deep point. Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:12 So then the last two points of this teaching are to have the mind empty so that there's intimacy with the ungraspable reality that is what's here. Report an error in the passage at 36:12 Highlight the passage at 36:12

36:36 So again, from the passage I opened with about the Buddha's awakening, remember he says, the Buddha forgot, completely forgot everything. Report an error in the passage at 36:36 Highlight the passage at 36:36

36:50 He had nothing in his mind at that moment. When he saw the morning star rising up from the east, it was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind. So somehow, again and again, in the Zen tradition, there's this understanding that to be intimate with or one with or Report an error in the passage at 36:50 Highlight the passage at 36:50

37:13 totally open to our surroundings, it's helpful to have the mind be empty. Report an error in the passage at 37:13 Highlight the passage at 37:13

37:30 So then because there was nothing in his mind, the morning star came up and the morning star was the only thing. And so he was intimate. He shared his feeling and the morning star shared its feeling. Report an error in the passage at 37:30 Highlight the passage at 37:30

37:49 So the point, as I say again and again, the point of emptying the mind is not that the thoughts are bad. It's that there's reality here asking for us to be intimate with it. There's light and sound and each other. There's something happening here that's interesting and that's asking. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:17 For you. And if your mind is full about something else, it's going to be hard to really give yourself to that. Report an error in the passage at 38:17 Highlight the passage at 38:17

38:36 So he says, because we have so much useless rubbish in our mind, it is hard to share our feeling or share our being with people, with things, with trees or with mountains. Report an error in the passage at 38:36 Highlight the passage at 38:36

38:49 Even though we are right in the middle of the woods, it is hard to appreciate the feeling of being in the woods because our mind is full of other stuff. He talks about like the sail, you know. Report an error in the passage at 38:49 Highlight the passage at 38:49

39:15 in your mind. It's just, if you're walking down the path at Green Gulch, thinking about the sail, you're probably not as alive with the trees and the sound of the earth and the feeling of the air, that intimacy with your actual life, with what's here. Report an error in the passage at 39:15 Highlight the passage at 39:15

39:42 Emptying the mind and being intimate with what's in front of us are in this kind of dynamic. And we can practice quieting the mind, letting go of anything that's extra in the mind, and then we become more intimate with the space that we're in. Report an error in the passage at 39:42 Highlight the passage at 39:42

39:59 Like right now, you could try it. If there's something in your mind, you could let it go, and then you become a little bit more connected and intimate with the feeling of being alive in this space. Report an error in the passage at 39:59 Highlight the passage at 39:59

40:19 Or you can just feel yourself drawn into the intimacy, like when you're talking with someone that you care about, you're not trying to empty your mind, you're just interested in what they're saying, right? So your mind kind of empties of other things. You know, there's this image of like the chick pecking from inside the egg and the hen pecking from outside the egg. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:40 It's kind of like that. You could work on emptying your mind to get, you know, to get through the shell. And into the intimacy. Or you could just listen for the intimacy and let that quiet your mind. Report an error in the passage at 40:40 Highlight the passage at 40:40

40:57 So this is our practice of whenever we can, just letting go of whatever extra thing is in the mind so that we can, as Azuki Roshi says, resume our actual self that includes everything. Report an error in the passage at 40:57 Highlight the passage at 40:57

41:13 The being alive that you are has everything included. It's everything included. Report an error in the passage at 41:13 Highlight the passage at 41:13

41:28 So this quieting the mind, Emptying the mind in order to be open to the miracle that's happening here has Report an error in the passage at 41:28 Highlight the passage at 41:28

41:45 this kind of top layer of if you're thinking about something else, you're probably not so present for what's happening in front of you, right? Report an error in the passage at 41:45 Highlight the passage at 41:45

41:56 And then more fundamentally, it has this quality. So when the Buddha says, when Suzuki Roshi says the Buddha completely forgot everything, that's a little deeper than just like the Buddha wasn't thinking about the sail, you know, like. That's the sail on chariots or whatever the Buddha was into. It was more like forgot everything. Report an error in the passage at 41:56 Highlight the passage at 41:56

42:23 So Suzuki Roshi says, forget who you are and where you are and how long you've been there. That's a good teaching for deep into a dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 42:23 Highlight the passage at 42:23

42:39 Forget where you are and who you are and how long you've been here. Report an error in the passage at 42:39 Highlight the passage at 42:39

42:50 Long time is a strange idea. You know, breathing out and breathing in, you can't really say anything came before. Report an error in the passage at 42:50 Highlight the passage at 42:50

43:06 This kind of deep forgetting, deep forgetting of everything you know. You know, there's the top layer of what's in our mind, the wandering thoughts, but then there's these more deep views about who we think we are and when we think we are and what we think the world is. And this practice of really opening to the mystery and the miracle of what's here is this. Report an error in the passage at 43:06 Highlight the passage at 43:06

43:28 invitation for us to at least like tiptoe up to, which is, can we just forget everything, everything about what we think? You know, I'm a human being at Gringold's Farm at 11 o 'clock. Forgetting everything is to come into the embodied, ungraspable experience of being alive, which doesn't really have an inside or outside, just everything included and intimate. Report an error in the passage at 43:28 Highlight the passage at 43:28

44:16 So it Report an error in the passage at 44:16 Highlight the passage at 44:16

44:21 takes a while to come to trust that. So we can just try it out little by little. Just let go of like one thought and see, was that okay? And I'm pretty sure it will be. And actually a little better than okay, like a little better. And then maybe you'll get used to it and say, ooh, I want to let go of another one and another one. And then pretty soon you drop even the idea of who you are, where you are, and how long you've been there. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:48 And you just are life itself and find that you can trust that. That you didn't have to give away some important thing about yourself. You just are still yourself, but not so confused. Report an error in the passage at 44:48 Highlight the passage at 44:48

45:05 I want to share one more expression of this kind of principle, of this dynamic, of emptying the mind and being intimate with what is. Report an error in the passage at 45:05 Highlight the passage at 45:05

45:18 And that's this line that Zenju Osho recently pointed out in a dharma talk from the Shinshin Ming, or Song of Trusting Mind. Report an error in the passage at 45:18 Highlight the passage at 45:18

45:30 If you want the way to manifest, I don't know what that is, but I do. The way, the truth of our life, right? If we want this way, this intimacy, this mystery, this full aliveness, this wholeness to manifest, then hold no opinion for or against. Report an error in the passage at 45:30 Highlight the passage at 45:30

45:56 So when I'm having a wandering thought, or when I'm really kind of sure who I am and where I am and what time it is. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:05 I'm not so intimate with the way, with the ungraspable reality of this crazy thing of being alive. And likewise, when I have some opinion about it, how crazy is that to have an opinion about this thing that we fundamentally have no idea what it is and can't grasp hold of it? Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:36 With me? You're like, I know what it is. But, you know, when we practice letting go and touch, oh, this thing is not. We have this famous expression, you know, in our Zen practice, not knowing is most intimate. The not knowing, obviously with a person, not knowing, kind of not being so sure who they are is the most intimate. Report an error in the passage at 46:36 Highlight the passage at 46:36

47:00 With objects, with our surroundings, with ourselves, not knowing is the most intimate. So when we're in this kind of intimacy, what would the opinion be based on, you know? Opinion is a kind of like expression of the knowing. Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:18 And then Zenju said the most wonderful thing. which I've been reflecting on and really grateful for this way of holding the teaching, which is, it was kind of an aside, but you said, it's not that you can't have an opinion. Read the line. Read the sentence. It doesn't say you are not allowed, according to the Buddha, to have an opinion. It says, if you want the way to manifest, then don't have an opinion. Report an error in the passage at 47:18 Highlight the passage at 47:18

47:51 Opinions aren't forbidden. You can have an opinion. Nobody's trying to take away your opinion. You can keep it. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. That's the Buddha way. The Buddha way is not trying to coerce you or demand that you do something or give something up. If your opinion's important, you can have it. It's just, it's hard to have it. You should please study this. I've been studying this in detail and it's been fascinating. Report an error in the passage at 47:51 Highlight the passage at 47:51

48:21 I can have an opinion and I have lots of them and I want to have a lot of them. Some of them I really cherish. I think the world needs me to have this opinion. Report an error in the passage at 48:21 Highlight the passage at 48:21

48:31 I actually believe that about some of my opinions. Because I think that actually this opinion is what's making me a good person and what's making me helpful to the world. And if I let go of this opinion, then I wouldn't be, what would my morality be based on? How would I live my life? It's a kind of fundamental delusion that I couldn't just trust my life to my innate, warm, intimate heart. Report an error in the passage at 48:31 Highlight the passage at 48:31

48:57 I need to filter it through my opinions and then look to my opinions. of my warm heart, but now instead of looking to the warm heart for my action, I'm looking to the opinion, just like various levels removed from the. Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:12 the ground of that morality, the ground of that love. Anyway, I... it's hard to do two things at the same time. Report an error in the passage at 49:12 Highlight the passage at 49:12

49:32 think a mature practitioner maybe could have an opinion. And also feel oneness with things. So I've been trying. But it's kind of like each time I have the opinion, it's like, nope. I'm back. I'm over here. It's over there. And I don't like how it is. So maybe you can kind of step back and see that as also just part of the field, you know, of what our life is and not be confused, not be caught by that. Report an error in the passage at 49:32 Highlight the passage at 49:32

49:58 But most of the time, it's like I have the opinion and I'm alienated from my being alive. Suzuki Roshi says, If you have some opinion about something, if you know something about something, where are you standing? You're standing outside of it. You're separate. You're standing outside of the universe. And so you're a ghost. A ghost with an important opinion. So you can be a ghost and have an opinion. Report an error in the passage at 49:58 Highlight the passage at 49:58

50:26 Or you can be right here in the ungraspable intimacy of being alive, but you don't get an opinion. but you're It literally, honestly, is your choice. It sounds like a trick or like there's an agenda there, but it really is your choice. Report an error in the passage at 50:26 Highlight the passage at 50:26

50:42 So I just feel that warm invitation. Then wait, I want the way to manifest. I don't want to feel this alienation and this separation and this distance from what's around me. Report an error in the passage at 50:42 Highlight the passage at 50:42

50:54 I'm going to let go of my opinions, and then that's kind of back. And I don't have to hold to that. I can let go of that. The teachings are very clear. Don't hold on to that oneness. That's almost even worse than holding on to the two-ness. In fact, it's definitively worse. Report an error in the passage at 50:54 Highlight the passage at 50:54

51:12 Better to just hold on a tiny bit to the... Better to hold on a ton to the two-ness than to hold on even a tiny bit to the oneness. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:24 Anyway, Report an error in the passage at 51:24 Highlight the passage at 51:24

51:27 so if you want the way to manifest, if you want to be intimate and be yourself, that includes everything, it might be helpful to let go of your opinion. And your view about what this being alive is. And in that moment, something flowers. And then the next moment happens and you'll have some more thoughts and opinions and you can let them have their life and it's no problem. Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:51 But then if you ever say, I wish the Buddha way would manifest, you know what to do. Take the posture of being upright, find your breath, warm your heart, empty your mind, open your eyes and your sensation, your pores to this intimacy with what's here. Report an error in the passage at 51:51 Highlight the passage at 51:51

52:18 And the teaching is that practicing in that way brings benefit to yourself and to others. And so that's always the spirit of our effort. May this study and practice not just give us a kind of good feeling, but actually radiate and extend some benefit to the world of knowing and suffering and confusion and hatred and greed. Report an error in the passage at 52:18 Highlight the passage at 52:18

52:58 There's time for a comment or two, and then we'll close, if Report an error in the passage at 52:58 Highlight the passage at 52:58

53:04 there are any. Sorry to go on so long. Report an error in the passage at 53:04 Highlight the passage at 53:04

53:20 Opinions. Maybe we'll close before opinions start. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. Report an error in the passage at 53:20 Highlight the passage at 53:20

53:50 For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma. Report an error in the passage at 53:50 Highlight the passage at 53:50