Nature’s Bias Toward Laziness

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome back to another bonus track. We are lazy. We are lazy by nature. And by nature, I mean we are lazy by the nature's proclivity to be economic with expenditure of its energies. Right? That's nature. It does everything it can to not spend any extra energy. And so by that law of our life, we are lazy.

The Danger Of Clutching Words

SPEAKER_01 1:14

And so when something is said, and this is this is uh everybody, um, when something is said, even more problematically, see, this is the conundrum, right? If the words are are taken uh as valuable by the listener, right, then they're they're they're clutched onto.

unknown 1:42

Ah.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

And then sometimes you get sinn, you said, right? And and and the person then opens their clutched fist and shows this dead bird that they've strangled to death out of existence, right? Just choked the daylights out of it. So you said, yeah, when I said it was alive, right? Meaning whatever is said, is said with with as much possible intention as can be for that who is asking, when are they asking, those two big question, big elements, right?

Who Asks Changes The Answer

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Who is asking? The answer for one person and the answer for another person is not going to be the same exactly. When if it and if it's the same person, when they asked and the answer was given, the answer was given for that time. For that time, hopefully appropriate for that time. That time could mean one minute, one hour, one year, right? Sometimes one lifetime. That thing could mean one practice, right? One kind of su heng, one one application of the teachings, one any kind. So so it really is we have to remember some sense of freshness in in our practice. The attempts to shatter those those kind of things. Um at some so there's like we could say stages of growth, stages of spiritual journey, whatever you want to call it. And and the Sometimes within a person are are rather drastic, and particularly in Zen tradition. Right. Um don't worry about it, nobody's getting punched, but one could one is very very easily susceptible to receiving a punch to break open some kind of a fixed thing.

The Koan That Shatters Piety

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Uh you know, things like a monk comes to the Zen master, and this is important, the monk, right? Monk comes to the Zen master and and and you know, prostrates deeply and says, you know, uh consinu, what is buddha? And and every so before I go on, every story has layers and multitude of layers and levels of understanding and levels of teaching in a single story. But so the monk comes and prostrates deeply, ah, what is buddha? And the Zen master says, Now, before I tell you what that means, a monk, right? Pious, religious, kind of rigor mortis headset in, let's call it that, right? The religiosity um stagnation has come. It's very pious, very respectful, but ah, holy Buddha. And so he comes and he says asks this and Master, Master, what is really what is the Buddha? So there's some question, but it's built on this foundation of a uh a pious religious person. And the answer means dried shit stick. You know, like latrines where you have to stir up all the things. I don't know, no one's eating, right? Um if you if you've ever been to a porter potty, right, or or a latrine, right? There's a mountain, Mount Everest is growing, right, of certain things. And so so it doesn't peek through the I hope no one's skippish, right? You have to you when you mix it, you flatten, you flatten the pulp, right? Make room. Um and so that stick used to in old retrines, used to mix that up, right? Is modern Tong Maktegi means dried shed stick. Like I said, there are levels and and and multitude meanings here, and and but one of the one of the purposes of such a statement is this monk who had come and standing on this pristine ground of uh a religious adherent, right? In the holiness of thing and and the piety of thing, and and you know, his standing on this well-maintained ground. Marung Tong Maktegi is sort of the the stick that breaks that ground, as if they were standing on ice, and the whole foundation on which they are standing is shattered. Because, you know, bowing over there, lighting incense, making offering, ah, buddhas, you know, holy Buddha, whatever they've they've made in their mind, you know, that they've stagnated, like I said, in something. They've stagnated in actually reaching and and I'm wanting to understand what truly is meant by that. What is not the symbol, not the thing. The transcending continuous journey to know it experientially has stopped. And so Marung Tongmaktagi, you know, uh on a way out, they need, you know, they need some kind of uh medication because it just shatters completely the foundation uh that he that that particular monk was standing on. So you think that that answer forced him to think differently of the the the impact of the shock of that? I mean, that's you know uh the filth in juxtaposition to the the holiness and the purity kind of thing, you know. Like that's you know, in in in in in like purely religious context, that's a beheading statement kind of thing, you know. That's yeah, that's blasphemy. But to say Maruntong, you know, that poor monk's whole world got turned upside down on its head, right? And the impact of that statement, one thing, it arrests the thinking to the point of paralysis, right? Second thing, or or the other thing, of course, the shock of it, right? So that statement is never forgotten. And if they go and incubate that statement in their um genuine pursuit to understand what in the hell just happened, why in the world would the Zen master say that Buddha is dried shit, like if they could incubate that in a in a um in the kind of incubator of our practice, that's a seed of enlightenment for them. And of course the Zen master knew so that that's the particular uh uh technique or whatever you want to call it is uh uh employed.

Incubating Insight With Attention

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Because we this is what we we are to do. We we we are an incubator of things, right? And what things you put into incubator, incubated by what? By the warmth of your attention, by the warmth of your mindfulness, wakefulness, spit that up, right? By the warmth of our presence of mind and attention to and tending to is our incubator. So on one on one level, nothing I said, like I said, is heard, right, because of defenses, because of likes and preferences, whatever. But some things, depending on how tightly wound the filter is, is it just thing just plops, falls, and dies right there in front of the person. But if if their mind or if they are able to kind of stretch out the the netting, right, more things comes, and then the the impact of those things, if they're allowed to truly enter, they then can be kept in this incubator of the mind, and and and by tending to it, right? Meaning by going beyond then just the initial stage of just receiving that thing, oh, okay, it is like that, right? It is just the very, very first thing. And we are to continue to discover and incubate the thing. Through incubation, the thing changes into something else. An egg in an incubator changes into a say a chick, right? And so this idea that through incubation, the seed that was received can become something else. And and we know this by the questions people ask. We know this by how people move. We know this by we know this by how people roll up the yoga mats after the retreat. We know how people roll up the yoga mats in the by the retreat and put them in the box. We don't have to ask. They don't have to ask. The expression of of the body um doesn't lie.

How The Body Reveals Truth

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So a person will say, I'm interested, and and they they're interested in the in the intellectual sense, right? Or I'm gonna do, right? And there's a disconnect between the mind and the activity. So we have a saying like our understanding is like a strike of lightning, very quick, very easy. I got it.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

But our action is like a kombengi, grub.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Grubs are always moving, not going anywhere, right? But they're always wiggling, doing lots of doing, lots of doing, but not going anywhere. Very, very busy, right? So our aha moments and our understandings, like, ah, yeah, okay, I have to do that, and then you know, but not actually implementing the thing. This is that's why Zen education technically, this kind of things traditionally are not told. Uh but I sort of peel the curtain back a little bit at times because it's we are not expected to know that. We we we don't it's a different time, different culture, different everything. So um the way that the way that you put the cushions away aft at the end of the class. Right? The way that you park your shoes or your slippers, all those kind of things, they're all they're all saying things from the soul. Our mind and our mouth can say one thing, and our soul uh yells out another thing. And this is normal. This isn't this isn't to say, you know, uh this is not a criticism, but it is meaning what we're striving to do is align the mind and the doing, right? Uh the intention. We have the intention, but how far and how deeply the intention has sunk from the from the brain into the expression, you know, into sweat in a sense.

Toilet Cleaning As Training

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Um this is why, in like in traditional uh Zen context, opportunities for labor are given. Sometimes here we don't have uh land to sweep and we don't have uh you know floors and toilets to to, I mean, we do, but you know, the opportunities sometimes the time the jobs are assigned. Go clean the toilet, right? And the person's like, clean the toilet. Or people say, Yes, I will clean the toilet, right? And when cleaning the toilet, what are they thinking? Right? Well, watch what they're thinking, right? Are they mumbling and grumbling? Sometimes auditory is like what what what what bear is caught in the bathroom, right? Don't go in there, there's a bear in there, mumbling and grumbling, right? Or sometimes just internally they're mumbling and grumbling. Sometimes internally, they cleaning the thing and they thinking dirty.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

You know, God forbid.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

You we were in a in a traditional setting and someone was told, told. Like I said, sometimes they're told, sometimes they do it of their own accord. Sometimes people go to clean the toilet. Why? Because they think this is my home. Sometimes go clean the toilet because they're thinking my uh preferences of clean and dirty, right? My revolt, my revulsion towards the thing needs addressing. So they will force themselves into some kind of a su heng. Sometimes they're they're they're moved to do it when they're doing it, and that's why we watch their behavior, we watch their mind, we watch their um they're cleaning the toilet to clean the toilet.

Mopping Floors With Compassion

SPEAKER_01 17:48

When Sue was at the hospital um and I was visiting, a a uh janitor lady came and she was uh uh cleaning, mopping the floor. And I asked her, I said, can I ask you a question? Now, of course, you don't you can't ask anybody, just anybody, right? For her, this was the thing. I asked, can I ask you a question? She's like, Yeah. I'm like, when you're cleaning the floor, what are you thinking about? And she stops and she goes, wait, wait, wait, wait, say that again. Right? Because other people would just, you know, anyway, it was a it was a pointed question at a particular kind of person, you know, does it so she stops, she says, wait, wait, say that again? I'm like, when you're cleaning, when you're mopping the rooms, what are you thinking about? And of course, because she was asked, and because that person asked to answer was splendiferous. She said, I'm thinking about the patient. It is how to clean floors. She's cleaning the floors, not mumbling and grumbling in her mind, not going another, another one, you know, oh, and the nurses are throwing shit on the floor all the time, and they don't pick up the thing, and they just there's a sock, they step over the sock, nobody bends down to pick up a sock, right? So she's not doing any of that as she's cleaning the floor. She's not cleaning the floor. She's making an environment for someone who's suffering or recovering or in pain or in or in whatever, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:31

So the map is an implement of a bodhisattva mind.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

She's painting the floor with kindness and warmth and and and thoughtfulness of another. Um, in her case, too much so, because sometimes she said, when, you know, when when the patients ask me for water, I go get the water from the nurse. I can't do that because, you know, but you know, it is it is that kind of thing. So one could mop the floor or clean the toilet, and as they clean the toilet, you know, mumbling and grumbling. Why? Because they're cleaning a toilet. They're cleaning the dirt from the toilet, nasty dirt from the toilet, other people's nasty dirt from the toilet. Human beings are ridiculous.

Clean Versus Dirty In The Mind

SPEAKER_01 20:33

You know, your fingernails, right? Sometimes you go to get the uh manicure, right? Or pedicure, or what kind of cure? Emotional cure, right? Manicure, pedicure, sometimes an emotional cure, right? And and and think about how much time we you know, we tend to the cuticles or you you tend to your fingernails or whatever, and you tend to your hair. And um when they are cut, right, and they're they're on the floor, whether your fingernails or your toenails or your hairs, what are they? Nasty. That's nasty, right? When it's attached to me, right, I'll pay the money to get it sorted out and make it beautiful. But the second it's detached from me and it's over there, it's nasty. My thing is nasty, right? Inside saliva and urine and fecal matter and tears and pus and and and vomit and bile and right. Inside, we're just like right, but the second anything of that is outside, it's revolting, disgusting. We are ridiculous.

unknown 21:54

Except for saliva.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Except for saliva. You hate saliva, yes. Saliva. Yeah.

Bringing Zen Into Daily Life

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Right, so so the the the Zen education, if you will, the Zen training, the Zen practice is molded and and woven and folded into everything that that is done at the temple. Everything. Hopefully, when the person arrives at understanding through those things, the same goes for the outside world, the same goes for their families, the same goes for their for their partner, the same goes for the stranger, the same goes for themselves, the same goes for all of that, right? The idea is that this is a training ground and the training thing is to be transferred into, transplanted, if you will, into day-to-day living. Any questions?

Closing And Meditation

SPEAKER_01 23:16

All right, let's meditate.