Lost Coin Notes
May 11, 2010
 
 
Today I will talk about the history and heart of practice, where it all started and what it is all about. 
 
I hope to review 5,000 yrs in 10 minutes.  Way back when people thought there were lots of gods in the ski. When things happened that they thought were bad, the explanation was that the Gods were mad.  So they developed a logical solution, sacrificing a life.  The consequence will be that the bad things will stop happening.  They started with a goat and if that did not work, they did not question the concept but rather figured they had not done enough.  Therefore, they then sacrificed two goats.  When that didn’t work, they sacrificed an old guy and then a young first born virgin - something the goads were supposed to like better.  I do not understand the logic – one virgin didn’t work, so let’s sacrifice four?  If they sacrifced long enough the thunder will stops not because of the sacrifices but because in time thunder stops.
 
In time civilizations moved onto other things because they were not happy.  Many strategies were created to make people feel better.  In the Middle East, some people started to look at real dissatisfaction and eventually people started to have opening or enlightening experiences, which did not make things go away but fundamentally changed who they thought they were.   This enlightening experience was in addition to NOT instead of egos that went through life and died and disappeared.  The experience of alignment showed people, intimately, that they were one with everything.  We are not visitors here - we are whatever is, it is you.  In the same way the earth, clouds, flowers, and rains “are” so are we.  We are one with everything and every moment is enlightenment.
 
We have an identify - one we cannot grasp.  We call this one mind.  This is deeper than the ego experience that is just passing through.  As time went by all sorts of theories and lots of books were developed and written about the enlightenment experience. 
 
Some people really had an opening experience and a group arose that said we don’t want to read about this experience, we/I want to really do it – this describes the historical Buddha.  He found enlightenment by meditation and we will do it the same way.  This thing/path came to be called zen or sitting buddism.
 
I went to study zen not buddism – I did not want a new religion but I wanted zen – I wanted the thing itself, the realization, not the trapping of a cultural trip. I still believe this pretty much. 
 
In my book, I described myself as a zen practitioner, not a buddist.  I don’t want more clubs and I don’t want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.  There is no need for more clubs because all they do is kill each other or molest young boys .....
 
I wonder sometimes - everyone is very mad at the bankers Goldman Sachs because they bet against their own clients.  We always hear what bad boys bankers are - why not talk about those who are molesting young boys?  Why are they not in trouble?  Why?  Because when one sells derivatives they are playing with your retirement money but when one hurts a young boy this does not affect you personally. 
 
As we practice more and more we understand enlightenment, realization, and ordinary human life are not different things.  The deepest way to practice realization is to be one with your life as it is. This does not mean doing what everyone else wants you to do but living the way you wish to live ....
 
The classic four lines in the Dharma to teach are from Dogen Zenge, to study the Buddha way is to study the self, to study the way of realization is to study the self, to study the slef is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things – by everything.
 
This does not encompass the entire practice but it encompasses enlightenment - realization is about forgetting the self.  What does it mean to forget the self?  It is not complicated - the way we understand our self is to know we have ideas.  These ideas are constantly created by thought.  When we think we use associative thought and we are constantly recreating who we are.
 
This was brought home to me once.  I never had a deep interest in politics, but my dad did.   When I was in the hospital in the neurology department, I was paralyzed, every morning someone came in and asked me three questions. I lived in mortal fear because I never knew the answer to the last question - Who was the secretary of state?  By asking this question the hospital could tell if one was psychologically intact.
 
Practice forgetting the ego and everything.  Self space is created by remembering what happens when you forget the self.  There is a Koan that asks you to forget self space by becoming a tree, or a hand, etc?  What is the experience of being one with?  When one says this is a hand, he or she is not one with anything.  When someone is one with a hand it is just this.
 
If one forgets the self he/She can become anything.   We are most interested in becoming this very moment, and this is enlightenment. We use devices like MU, to help. When you become one mind there are no words for it - no words apply, it has no beginning and no end.  It has no size - you are it.  you have experienced it before, this is experiencing it more deeply.
 
Think of everything you really love - you experience that way. When you have sex you do not say do this and then that and then squeeze here etc.  If you think it will work, try having sex that way.  We take it for granted that sex is non-verbal, like eating or swimming.  It is this same space only deeper, it is being one with ....
 
Briefly talk about two things for your practice in terms of applying this topic.
First implication is enlightenment, once you see it, is nothing other than what is right in front of you all the time.  It is not linear and not an accumulation you will not get more chakras over time, you have all your chakras.  Enlightenment is your life, every moment of your life....forget the self and be right here, all of us, right now, is enlightenment.
 
Second, for everyday because the self is completely contrived you are always fee to take any position.  you are completely free and what keeps us stuck is being us.  the idea is - we are us and everything that comes with it/us.  With internal considering, you are not any one, you are completely free to be anything because we are not anyone.  It is not just the realization of this that stops us, it is also that we are afraid.
 
I (doen) had you do an exercise about how we lie to ourselves.  We used to call it the liars club at the Foundation. The reason we do not do what we want or we do not get we want is because we lie to our selves.  No one is stopping you, no husband, no kid, no job.  We do not do what we want because we are stuck in ourselves and we are scared.
 
One rationale of having a group is to work as a group and help each other to not be scared.  We are all going on a trip and we will fortify each other and support each other and be together in not being afraid.
 
Call each other on fear, say, I understand because I am afraid too ... enlightenment does not manifest by figuring things out - don't be zen dummies – don’t be afraid to think or use your mind. Don’t think there there is a way to get around life.  you can think, understand and know things and be intellectual ... first think and then stop thinking, then be committed and take action. One creates cause and effect by action much more so than thoughts.
 
Sit, forget yourself and then practice every day by doing ....
 
I had an opportunity to talk to Ken Wilburs’ group on Integral - they were not zen dummies but they were maybe overly intellectual.  We talked about the possibility of doing a sesshin so they can learn what not thinking is about.  Please do both.
 
The engine of this comes in two ways and this is the hard part and what years of practice have taught me. The engine is in your gut and all the understanding in the world will be beautiful but it will not do it for you. Power is in relationship to each other and to the teacher and to each other.  But we have to transcend it and find extra power, I can transmit the power to a student from my experience – when I do jukai etc. Practice transcends the literal and eating transcends talking about eating, and sex transcends the mechanics of sex.  you have to find the practice, , it’s energy, strength, love and commitment.
 
One of Doen's martial arts teachers wasa practical guy who had studied Fu Jo which was a very practical art highlighting low kicking.  One day a guy came in and talked about why Tai Kwan do was better and than Fu Jo.  They talked and talked and finally the head fighter of the Fu Jo gym asked the guy to fight.  In the end the Fu Jo fighter won, he grabbed the other guys balls, BUT he acted rather than talked. 
 
It isn’t great that the winner grabbed the the opponents balls, but it is better that he had heart, that he wanted to fight rather than talk.  This is the heart of the practice, acting not thinking.
 
Thinking you are a Buddha, thinking you are free, thinking you are not afraid is like thinking you are going to take care of a parent.  A man loved his parent so much he just could not stand to be away from her .. it is this physical, emotional, mental energy that must be given to the practice. 
 
Now we will do an exercise in listening.  Everyone will talk for about 5 minutes and we will all listen but not respond.  Talk about anything you want,our practice is here.  Please come when I come to town, please sit on Thursdays.  Please remember you are here for each other.   What i learned is that you can learn for 40 years and still be a shumck because interpersonal relationships are hard.  The practice is to stop hurting each other and like each other, to be kind, to bonding, and create a big heart. Practice as a group – it takes a nice group of people.  Really listen to who ever is talking.
 
Question – in the five miles from bagbad story can’t you look at it two ways? Is it possible that the people who live 5 miles from bagbad are happy?  Doen  - what do the extra miles give someone?  Not two extra hot dogs.  Try not to think you have never arrived. 
 
Another story:
 
Three guys love a woman and she dies.  One guy says he loved her so much he will take care of her kids, her house, her parents.  Another say he loved her so much he will fight for her ideals.  The third guy goes nuts and pounds on the grave and wails.  In two days she comes back to life.  She chooses the guy who pounds on the grace and wails. This story is not about relationship or love but about practice.  Find the person in you who will give everything to your practice and you will not have a problem.  This person is in your guts, it is your energy, it is you.  you are the realized one, find it, don’t be afraid.
 
Reality is a strong thing, it is powerful.  Look around and realize everyone here will be dead.  That is reality.  You will be dead, we are just passing through.  We live in a little space, in a very big galaxy.  No one knows what is going on here. Welcome to reality.
 
What can we do with this information?  No reason to get bent out of shape?  No reason to be upset about anything, or to be inkind we because we are all going to die.  Life is short.  There is no reason to be petty or unkind.  As we go on the trip down the stream from being alive to dead, this is the only show in town, this is the only stream, have a really nice time.  be one with it, appreciate it.  Nothing changes.  Be travelers and be warriors and be artists and be free, be free, be free, be beautiful.  Take a few minutes to sing a song and be happy. 

In the 1970 there were gurus all over the place and it was difficult to know what they were up to.  Many were very good, others were molesting boys.  During this Mayor Baba decided to go into a cave because he decided he had nothing else to say and he was not going to talk until he had something worth saying.  Seven years later he came out of the cave and said “don’t worry, be happy”.  It takes a lot of courage to do that, to sing your song, to not worry and to be happy.  You can be right or you can do what you want.
