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So good morning everyone. 
Today I wanted to talk about 

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Zazen. 
We had a meditation practicum 

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retreat a couple of weeks ago 
and since they Dennis had 

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suggested that a theme for this 
year be Why we do what We do, 

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looking specifically at zazen 
and the other meditation 

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practices that we teach. 
So the order of pragmatic 

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Buddhists, well you make Sensei 
or Abbott classified meditation 

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techniques into two groups, 
primary and secondary. 

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And the primary, there were six 
meditation techniques, Zazon 

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bell flame walking, mantra or 
chanting and dynamic breath and 

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dynamic breaths is secondary. 
Is it wanted to say The Walking 

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is the secondary. 
The Walking might be a 

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secondary. 
OK, So it's either 5 or 6. 

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And then the secondary 
techniques primarily are 

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visualization or body movement 
meditations during the retreat. 

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Since the Joe said that he 
thinks of them slightly 

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differently. 
He thinks of them as one primary

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technique, zazen, four or five 
secondary techniques, bell 

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flame, mantra, etcetera, and 
then the rest as tertiary 

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techniques. 
And I actually like that 

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arrangement. 
I may have to suggest it to you 

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make so and so. 
And the reason I do is that 

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Zazan really is our primary 
technique is what we do every 

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Sunday is what we teach as the 
thing to do. 

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So what is Zazan in the order? 
We also call it open awareness 

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meditation because that's what 
it is. 

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It's opening your awareness to 
the present moment. 

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It is not trying to blank your 
mind or regulate your breathing 

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or calm down or any of those 
things. 

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It is simply the open awareness 
of the present moment. 

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Sounds easy, doesn't it? 
Oh, we just sit here. 

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Sit here. 
Well, that's exactly what you're

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doing. 
Except that it's not easy. 

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Because what we end up doing, 
what our mind ends up doing, our

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mind's a tricky little bastard. 
It doesn't like concentrating on

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one thing. 
It likes flitting around. 

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In Buddhist teaching, we refer 
to the mind as the monkey mind, 

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and it's like the active little 
monkey running from one thing to

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another to another to another. 
But to be totally aware of the 

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present Mama, you need to still 
that monkey mind. 

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You need to have it concentrate 
on the present Loma. 

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This is the heart of mindfulness
meditation, whether it's taught 

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in a secular circumstance or 
within Buddhist teaching or even

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I know some Christian churches 
are teaching mindfulness in a 

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Christian context now. 
Why when the Buddha was talking 

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about mindfulness, he used the 
term sati. 

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And sati is a Sanskrit term that
means remembrance of the present

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moment, which I think is really 
indicative of what it actually 

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is, because to remember the 
present moment you have to 

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experience it first and then 
call that experience to mind. 

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So you're doing all of that in 
one site 1 continuous cycle. 

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You're experiencing the present 
moment, calling it to mind and 

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experiencing the present moment 
and calling it to mind because 

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the present moment obviously 
keeps moving as well. 

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Zazen is the practice of being 
aware of this present moment and

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focusing all of our being on 
this present moment, not getting

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lost in worries about the future
or the trap of falling into the 

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past. 
And oh, this happened in the I'm

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still carrying around this hurt.
Zazen frees us from all of that 

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and allows us to experience only
the present moment. 

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Now, that being said, it doesn't
mean that the present moment is 

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a peaceful, wonderful place to 
be, because sometimes the 

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present moment isn't, but we're 
still called to experience it 

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fully. 
And it doesn't mean that it's 

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not influenced by the traumas 
and hurts of the past. 

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It very well may be. 
And if it is, we need to be 

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aware of that too. 
So I'm not saying that zazen 

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should be this totally peaceful,
sitting in a quiet Meadow and 

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retreating from the world. 
That's not it at all. 

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Zazen is participating fully in 
the world while you sit because 

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you have to be fully aware of 
the world as it is, not as you 

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want it to be. 
Those who are new may have 

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noticed that the recording that 
runs during our meditation, it 

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starts with the bells and then 
runs through the silent 

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meditation and ends with another
bill. 

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There are noises in the 
background, there's traffic 

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noise, there's wind. 
All these things are going on 

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because that's real life. 
We don't live in a secluded 

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glade cut off from everyone 
else. 

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We live in the midst of society,
and being aware of the present 

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moment sets us firmly in the 
midst of society. 

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Zazen, at its heart, it was 
really defined by Zenostradogan,

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and he said of it that it's not 
a technique, it is simply being 

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the Buddha. 
When you sit zazen, you are a 

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Buddha. 
When you are fully aware and 

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immersed in the present moment, 
that is awakening. 

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That is the awakened state, 
because it is from that state 

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that we can act in the world in 
ways that enhance the betterment

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of all beings. 
It is in that state that we're 

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able to bring our own 
dissatisfaction to an end. 

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Doesn't mean that just because 
you're sitting on the cushion, 

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you're actually practicing. 
So you're in that state of 

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Buddha and that's why we keep 
practicing it because it takes a

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long time to get it right. 
Suzuki Rishi praised a bad 

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practice session, a bad 
meditation session. 

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He said that the best thing in 
the world was to get up from the

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cushion and say, damn, that was 
a bad session. 

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I did not do anything right. 
Because when you have a bad 

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meditation session, it gives you
the pointers for what to let go 

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of next time. 
Without bad experiences, we 

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don't grow. 
If you sit in a quiet locked 

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room all by yourself and you sit
for 15 minutes and you come out 

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of that locked room and you go, 
Oh well. 

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I I set for my 15 minutes and I 
didn't think about anything and 

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I was totally there in that dark
closet. 

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A, you probably weren't and B, 
you're not going to progress in 

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your practice because you think 
you're already there. 

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As long as we acknowledge to 
ourselves, I still have work to 

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do, we're going to get better 
each time. 

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We're going to be more present 
each time. 

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Zazen is also called the 
Japanese shikataza, which means 

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just sitting meditation because 
it is just that. 

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It is simply the act of sitting 
on the cushion or the chair or 

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wherever you sit. 
The zazen to me also takes us 

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off the cushion because the 
purpose of zazen is that we 

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allow it to fill our entire 
lives, so that we move from just

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sitting in our Sunday practice 
to just cooking lunch 

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afterwards, just doing the 
dishes, just cleaning the house.

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But in all of those moments, we 
are simply experiencing that 

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moment as it is, without the 
prison of the past or the 

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concerns of the future. 
We are doing that activity fully

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and wholly. 
We're doing that activity as a 

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Buddha. 
So that that's why for us, in 

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the order of pragmatic 
Buddhists, zazen, open awareness

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meditation is the primary 
technique because it's the one 

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you can take off the push. 
It's the one that can be allowed

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to penetrate your entire life. 
You can't carry bell meditation 

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off the cushion. 
Yeah, you can get an app and you

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can put your headphones in and 
you can listen to a bell ring, 

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but then you're isolating 
yourself from the world. 

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You can't carry flame with you 
to meditate on all the time. 

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You can't chant all the time. 
You can practice zazen all the 

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time. 
All these other techniques feed 

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in and make it easier to 
practice zazen. 

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The reason we start with bell 
meditation is it gives us a way 

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of stilling the mind and coming 
to this present moment by having

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a focus, that sound of the bell 
strike. 

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And then when the bell is over, 
we can simply continue that 

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focus on the present moment. 
So throughout the coming year, 

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I'll be talking more and more 
about the meditation techniques.

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I I always find it interesting 
when we get together as the 

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order and talk about the 
meditation techniques that we 

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teach. 
Yeah. 

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My first thought is, yeah, we 
don't teach any of them. 

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We've we bring the bell 21 times
at the beginning of practice, 

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but do we say anything about it?
Do we tell what anyone what that

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is? 
Do we ever practice flight 

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meditation or mantra meditation?
We do chat the image, you could 

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kind of go, but for how many of 
us is that a meditative practice

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when it should be? 
So throughout the coming year, 

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I'm going to be talking more 
about our meditative techniques,

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what they could do for us. 
Because some of them, even 

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though I say zazen is not for 
anything, zazen is simply the 

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practice of being a Buddha. 
Others of them are for things. 

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Any of the visualization 
techniques are for enhancing A 

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compassionate heart. 
Others are for stowing the flow 

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of stress in the body. 
So we'll be talking about all of

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those things and hopefully each 
of those will deepen your 

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practice of zazen and allow you 
to carry it off the cushion into

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your daily life.