Lost Coin Notes November 25, 2008

The singularity institute:  www.singinst.org

Is interested in talking with Sensei because they understand that on some level, Artificial Intelligence and scientific advancement is about consciousness.  A way of looking at it is that consciousness itself is the 4 th dimension.

PUT REAL EFFORT INTO THE PRACTICE

Returned to topic of sticking with the class, sitting, and committing to the practice.  When you do not come to class, you start to fantasize about things- move out of reality.  This increases your dissatisfaction with life and with yourself.  Hard to dismiss negative thoughts and let go to see the thoughts as mechanical thoughts and fears.

Minimum effort is asked, just attend class on Tuesday, sit as a group on Thursday.  Sit at home.  You cannot expect results if you don't make effort. If you need to work together to sit, do so.  Sensei went to Kung Fu practice because he had a friend that would encourage Sensei to go when he didn't feel like it and visa versa.  It helps.  When he first wanted to martial arts he started in Karate, then went to Aikido.  He didn't feel that the students were working hard enough to transform themselves.  He was told that there was a Kung Fu class in which one of the students died during the exercise drills.  THIS was working hard and even though he did not think he wanted to do Kung Fu, he went to the class.  They were so hard-working and serious that he went for years.   The same was true when he went to the Monastery.  When Sensei went, he realized this was the hardest he'd ever seen people work to see deeply.

Just do it- the effort is minimal to what you'll get in return.  Don't think overmuch about it.  Just build a new habit, be repetitive in getting up and sitting, in coming to class.  It will just become part of who you are.

You must look for a way to seriously inconvenience yourself.  Consistency IS the practice.  Convenience in the practice is the opposite of what the practice is about- it's about effort in the face of inconvenience.

Sports are a good example and it makes the point more obviously.  In sports you absolutely MUST push, work, sweat, and be uncomfortable and inconvenienced; All of this in sports is the ONLY way.  Our practice is the same.  You can't just do what "everyone else is doing."

For example, Sensei is going to Ameland in the Netherlands.  It costs money to travel, it is difficult to be gone from everyday life for 14 days, it's 16 hours of travel, it's cold and the weather is usually bad.  Sensei always gets sick every year that he goes, BUT he always goes because it is what HIS teacher asks of him.  Always sick but the effort is always worth it.

NONE OF US IS SO TALENTED OR UNIQUE THAT EFFORT IS NOT THE WAY- IT IS ALWAYS THE WAY!

Be put out.  Be real.  Be embarrassed.  Be intimate.  Reveal yourself.  All of these are hard to do and these are what the practice is all about.

Sensei remembers first seeking Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery.  Daido Roshi is an Eisenhower Military era guy (Catholic Italian).  Sensei was a musician from the 60s, a Jewish man from New York.  Sensei remembers Daido Loori's demeanor and Daido saying, "The most important part of this practice is your commitment."  Sensei said that at the time he thought, "What a bunch of shit.  He just wants us to commit so that we do what he wants us to do." Sensei says he was wrong about that.   Daido's statement was true.  Commit on the level of ONE DAY at a time.  Do that today- don't come up with theories about why, when, how.  Just each day- get up, sit, come to class, work on your Koan, clear your mind, remember yourself, watch your mechanical behavior.

You're are not going to get more out of things that you put into them.   Put practice first and everything will fall into place.  Daido also told Sensei that and he didn't believe it but it was always true and stays true for us even outside of the monastery.

It is freeing just to commit to the practice.  Just trust yourself and let go into the practice.  Sensei was watching another Bob Dillon video clip and he was talking about that sometimes he's warmer to fans and other times not so.   Sometimes it's harder to be rude than polite and sometimes the opposite.  The interviewer asked him how he knows which to do when?  Dillon said, "You trust yourself."

If you can see that this practice is in your interest, then do it- trust yourself.  We are all looking for something to trust- how about your own feelings, your own energy?  Life is short, not understandable, "cosmic" in its mystery.  You don't need life to be any stranger than it is- JUST BE REAL.  Trust your self and be real.

WHY DO WE DO KOANS

Thing is mechanical.  You don't choose what you think.  And it is even worse that 65% of what you think is fear-based.  We are largely scared and anxious all day long.  Didn't DECIDE to be anxious all day- you just are.  Then someone discovered that you do not have to think- you can choose not to think or to slow your thinking.  You will perceive things differently if not thinking.  Fear and anxiety is from thinking.  Daido said, "we don't even think about the fact that we think because we do it unconsciously.  We don't decide what to think when."

Pink Fish:  There is other thing besides the ocean.

Purple Fish:  What Ocean?  What is other thing?

Pink Fish:  There is more than Swim.

Purple Fish:  What Swim?

Pink Fish grabs Purple fish and leaps out of the water and Purple fish can see the ocean!

This is meditation for the fish.  Spend some time out of the Ocean for a while.  Everything we do is because we are used to being in the Ocean.

Koan study is a way to force people to get out of the ocean.  What is Mu?  What is Self?  Each time, it forces you out of the thinking you do mechanically. Sensei did Koans for 25 years.  He didn't say to himself, "I'm going to do Koans for 25 years."  He said, "I'm going to finish the Koan system no matter what."  The heart to just do the Koans each one and WANT to finish it just because you do. PERIOD.

Suzuki spent 10 years on Mu but when he got Mu- he got the entire Koan system and was done.  Getting through Koans is somewhat up to the teacher.  The teacher can push you or hold you depending on what you need.  He is balancing letting the student struggle and encouraging the student at the same time.  Koans are about throwing  you into a world where you see the thoughtless thought.

Joshu's Oak Tree in the Garden:

If you THINK about that Oak Tree, this is not it.  You must let ALL ELSE go to the point of being the Oak Tree.  Practice to the deepest nature- to see the deepest reality, not to pass the Koan.  Take this to heart.  You must have fuel to get to the moon.

Encourage each other.  You are a good group.  Help each other practice.