Good morning everybody, happy anniversary, congratulations. So, it's a public occasion and today my job is to speak to that occasion, 25 years practicing dharma at Green Gulch. 25 years ago, this place, this room that we're sitting in now, was a pretty funky cow barn. And Green Gulch was a one-family ranch with a muddy road in, lots

[01:05]

of potholes in it, and some ramshackle buildings here and there. I remember the first time I came, it seemed lonely and very damp. But we were all young and very excited to take it on and try to see what we could do. What would it be like? What would it become? How would we practice here? Now, last night we had a gathering of many of the, excuse me, many of the people who were here as residents in those early days, and I was reminded of how many, many experiments we made. Most of them failed. But of course, even a failed experiment is a successful experiment. And today, Green Gulch

[02:10]

is a pretty well-known and well-established place, and nobody would ever say that Green Gulch is lonely. Usually there's about 45 or 50 long-term students and residents here, and on any given day, there's somewhere between 10 or 20 and 50 or 100 guests and guest students. There's a very well established and well-developed tradition of gardening and farming, and a well-developed local tradition of formal Zen practice. And there are many, many programs, including the Sunday program for people to come and access the Zen life that we offer here at Green Gulch. We have a jewel of a Japanese tea house, such as one seldom sees in the West, sitting out there on the lawn, and an ongoing

[03:17]

program of tea classes and tea events. In fact, there's so much going on, and it is so unlonely, that sometimes it's a little overwhelming and confusing, hard to understand sometimes, all the things going on, how they all work together. But it's interesting, I was thinking about it, you know, that the vision, the underlying and unifying vision of Green Gulch, through all these years and all these experiments, hasn't actually changed much at all. And that vision is expressed clearly and simply in a poem that Richard Baker Roshi, our second abbot, wrote and had cast into the Japanese bell that's out here, behind the zendo. In 1975, that bell arrived, and you can go and read the poem on the bell. It goes like this,

[04:26]

Awakened by this Japanese bell, the sky-headed, sea-tailed Green Gulch dragon stirs the fine mists and rains of right dharma for east and west. Farming and greeting guests, the pre-voice of this old bell is not hindered by the wind. In 25 years of living here, we've done a tremendous amount of physical work on the place, planting thousands of trees, building good soil, fencing the fields, renovating old buildings and building a number of new buildings. Although, as any resident will tell you, most of us still live

[05:34]

in the same ramshackle old buildings that we inherited from George Wheelwright. And one thing we have to do in the next 25 years, and I hope much sooner than that, is replace some of those buildings, otherwise it'll be hard to keep going. And that's our next big project, so that we can survive into the next generation. Not because survival is a necessity, but because there's still a lot more work to do, to develop practice in the West and to help repair our world. There's no end to the job of caretaking a place like Green Gulch. I mean, really, there's no end to it. And it's good that there's no end, because the journey and the effort is its own reward.

[06:35]

And we all learn a lot every day, and we all develop in our understanding of the path and of ourselves through the work we do to help Green Gulch to survive and flourish. And I hope it works out, that we can continue to do this for a little while longer. The next 25 years seems like a long time. And in a way, as I say, so very much has happened. And I don't know how many thousands and thousands of people in 25 years have been to Green Gulch, maybe for one day or one Dharma talk, maybe for 10 years or more. Thousands and thousands of people who, in each in his or her own way, has given his life or her life to help Green Gulch go on. Many, many people whom we've forgotten, and many, many people whom we will never forget.

[07:42]

But in another way, 25 years is a pretty short time. You blink your eyes a couple of times, turn around, and 25 years is gone. Used to be, living in this valley, were woolly mammoths. We have a tooth of one, and we found on the altar. It's been there for a long time. And there were ancient people who lived there. People who came here to go to the beach and enjoy the stream. To those mammoths and those peoples, 25 years is a really short time. Before that, a short while ago, Green Gulch was part of the Pacific Ocean, wasn't known as the Pacific Ocean at the time. Imagine if someone came into this room on a Sunday 30 years from now or 60 years from now.

[08:59]

Probably not a single one of us would be here. You can close your eyes and imagine. Sunday at Green Gulch, 30 years from now or 60 years from now. These same seats filled with people. All different people, probably most of them not yet born. This all happens very quickly, like a flash of lightning, like a spark from a flintstone, like a dream. Truly, time is very strange. But it's an old human habit to measure and mark time. And so that's what we're doing today, having an anniversary.

[10:03]

Human beings make anniversaries. And what's good about anniversaries is it gives us a chance to reflect on where we are now. And that reflection always reminds us that the present depends on and has come out of the past. And whenever you reflect in that way, you see the depth and the profundity of the present. And seeing that, it's very natural to have a strong feeling of gratitude. So on behalf of all of us, I would like to express a little bit of that gratitude. Gratitude for 25 long or short years in this beautiful valley. Except for some of the animals and even fewer of the plants, all of us are visitors here.

[11:06]

And we're lucky that we've been able to stay here so long. So first of all, gratitude to all the natives for tolerating us interlopers. Gratitude to the land itself for supporting our activity, and to the sky and water for sustaining it. Gratitude to George Wheelwright, for helping us to get green gulch, and for loving it enough to want us to get it so that we would preserve it in something like the way he had it. Gratitude to our early teachers and students, like our neighbor down the road, Yvonne Rand, and Richard Baker, and Huey Johnson from Mill Valley, and maybe others that I don't know about, who were instrumental in

[12:10]

securing green gulch for us in the days when we might have gotten it, or it might have been developed somehow. Lots of gratitude to our teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, who gave us a pretty good teaching, so that we would be inspired to be here as we are, and that we would have a way of life that was clear enough so that we could continue to live here. And to Suzuki Roshi, our founding abbot and teacher, who came here from Japan and transmitted Buddhist teaching to us in a way that we could really hear it and really appreciate it. And gratitude to all our succeeding teachers and abbots, and to all the students and helpers whose daily labor and support and loving practice created the human habitat that keeps us going

[13:15]

still here. And to all the students of the present who continue the daily tradition here. And to all of you for coming and supporting, week after week, year after year, what we're doing. Though we have a lot more work to do, and though every day it's a little difficult sometimes, still, I think all of us feel this gratitude. And the good fortune that we have to be able to come to Green Gulch and experience it as a place on the earth, a place where dharma has come to be practiced. So I want to reflect with you a little bit on 25 years, what we've learned, some of the things I think, anyway, that we've learned hanging around here practicing day by day. First, I think we've learned something very important about Buddha Dharma.

[14:23]

We've learned that it's not a foreign doctrine or a set of exotic spiritual exercises, that it's not something outside of us, something other, but rather that it's a true and simple vision of the human mind and heart, a way of life that really does lead to increased happiness and ease and kindness. And it took us a while to kind of figure that out. It took us a while to realize that the dharma was not something outside of us, not a wish, not an ideal. It took us a while to see that dharma is actually nothing other than we ourselves, as we most truly and most profoundly are. It took us a while to see that while practice does take work and serious effort,

[15:31]

and that maybe sometimes we have to restrict ourselves in various ways or do things that we do not initially prefer, practice doesn't need to be grim and joyless. There are many, many pleasant things in this life, but perhaps nothing is more pleasant. deeply satisfying than the happiness that comes with settling into the quiet truth of what our lives really are. So we've learned something about dharma, I think. And although we didn't set out to learn it, I think we've also learned something about power. It's interesting that we learned about power, but we had to. First of all, to learn that there is such a thing as power, even in a religious community where we think we got rid of it.

[16:34]

There's such a thing as the exercise of power, and that the responsible and compassionate exercise of power is a difficult necessity. Many of us came here to get away from that. So it wasn't easy for us to learn about it. But now we know that wherever there are people, some activity of power is present, and that power has to be shared in appropriate ways. Ways not based on selfishness or ideology, but on a careful and subtle consideration of what will really work to develop the wisdom and compassion of every member of the community. This sharing of power takes carefully considered and often revised rules and structures, but more importantly, it also takes courage and a lot of heart.

[17:37]

It takes a lot of patience, a lot of communication, and a deep ability to listen. Where there is a real appreciation of the words of the Heart Sutra, form is no other than emptiness. Emptiness is no other than form. There must be a tremendous flexibility and a tremendous strength. So over the years, we have had many controversies, in our community, and we have tried to settle them with as much wisdom and fairness as we could, and usually we were not that successful, because we were not wise enough. But we have certainly reflected on our experiences and learned from them, and are, I hope and I believe, wiser now in understanding how to be in disagreement and conflict without losing our ability to listen and negotiate and solve problems.

[18:42]

We have also learned a lot about how we as Westerners can most successfully practice the Dharma. We have learned, mostly by trial and error, with lots of error, that as Western people we are in many important ways really different from our Asian ancestors. And so we must find our way skillfully in the practice without distorting the Dharma in the process. We need, at all points, to find out how to honor what really arises in us without ever overriding it in the name of the teaching. Even though we may be full of delusion and selfishness, we have to honor even that as a way of working through it. And we have to pay attention to our character and history.

[19:52]

As Westerners, we have to pay attention to the fact that the elements of Western culture, especially psychology and philosophy, including our Judeo-Christian heritage, are not abstractions that we can easily set aside, but are in fact living aspects of our minds and hearts as we honestly find them. And they need to be considered and worked with along the way of our path toward liberation. And all of this is something that we meditate on and think about every day and make an effort to try to understand, because it's not always so clear. I think that to practice the way truly is to become free, really free, within. Our cultural preconceptions. Because really, I think we're fooling ourselves to think that

[20:53]

there's a way of casting those preconceptions entirely overboard. And being free within our cultural preconceptions is neither eliminating them nor assuming them. So every day we have this question, you know, what do we do now? The dharma is actually quite clear, and there's no confusion about that. But how is it going to manifest for us today? Community and appreciation of community is another thing we've learned over the years. We've learned that Sangha, the Sangha jewel, isn't the least of the three jewels. It is equally important with Buddha and dharma.

[21:54]

And the three jewels are mutually supportive and interconnected. They're inseparable, one from the other. So we've learned again, through trial and error over time, how important it is for us all to be honestly and truly friends. Toward this end, we've studied carefully the Buddhist teachings about compassion and love, and taking joy in others' joy, and staying balanced in intimate relationships. We've learned to actively emphasize and contemplate the Ten Grave Precepts, to meditate on them as the true basis for our community life, seeing them as koans, processes of understanding, rather than as rules imposed by authority. So we ask, you know, what does it really mean not to be possessive?

[23:02]

What would that really be? What does it really mean not to speak ill of others? What does it really mean not to lie, not to intoxicate self or others? And working with all these ways to live has helped us to be more thoughtful and careful in our living together over time. And we've learned that community is never perfect, maybe it's not even ever close. And we've learned how incredibly disappointing this can be, to recognize that. And we've learned that this disappointment is a necessity, and overcoming it is the key. Recognizing it and overcoming it is a part of being a mature person, and that we can go beyond our disappointment.

[24:05]

We've learned that where there are people together, there are going to be problems. But that the problems can be workable if people are willing to be courageous and let go, and if there is a agreed-on principle of how to live together. Another thing we've learned about is, again, something that we didn't exactly plan on, but we've learned about faith and commitment. We've learned to appreciate how very much in our lives militates against faith and commitment, how difficult it is to have a sense of faith and commitment. But that faith and commitment are absolutely necessary for a life of dharma or for any good life. And that the absence of or the presence of these qualities needs to be known.

[25:15]

Noted with honesty. And we've learned that faith and commitment do not appear from the sky by chance. That they can be cultivated and encouraged with patience over time, as a fruit of our effort and practice. We've struggled and we've learned a lot also about spiritual teachers, and we're still working on it. About how necessary and subtle the relationships with students and teachers are. That it's necessary to trust and to surrender, and to harmonize, but that we can never ignore our own views and our own attitudes.

[26:16]

And we can never imagine that we ourselves are not the only ones ultimately responsible for our practice. We've learned through much trial that teachers can be true teachers, and yet fallible, even flawed. And we want them to be that way, and we need them to be that way. I've been pondering lately a saying of Suzuki Roshi that seems to me very deep on this question. And he said, you continuously go over and over the great path of the Buddha with your teacher, who is always with you. You continuously go over and over the great path of the Buddha with your teacher, who is always with you.

[27:24]

To me, this means that the teacher is another person, and must be another person, not just our own head. But also, that he or she must be understood as not another person. And this is something very deep and hard to understand. How can we really be ourselves as we really are, and at the same time not indulge our confusion and small-mindedness? So, the alchemy and mystery of working with our teachers, who are us and are not us, is the process we need to find the true ground of our living, the firm foundation for lives of heart and love. And of course, I could go on and on.

[28:29]

But one thing that seems to underlie all of this is that in 25 years you get to see that things change, and that each new day calls for really a new way of life. In a way, one has to start entirely over again. But in another way, one builds fresh on what is already there, and there's always something already there. And building fresh, respecting what has gone before, I think, is the best way to build fresh. And the strongest and the calmest way, I think, the way that will last the longest. Anyway, every day is a good day, and there's only one day.

[29:36]

Still, I appreciate the last 25 years, and it's my job to think about the next 25 years. Will Green Gulch be able to survive? Should Green Gulch survive? Is Green Gulch worthy of surviving for the next 25 years? And if it is, and if it does, what will we need to do to survive? I know that for some of you who come here and have come for years, Green Gulch looks like a very strong place, a place that you can rely on. It's going to be here, you know. It's been here forever. But really, Green Gulch is a little baby. And nobody knows how this baby will fare, whether it will survive or not.

[30:44]

And if it does survive, what it's going to look like when it grows up. So this is a good challenge for all of us. I think we need a good challenge, a challenge that's bigger just than our own needs, our own desires, something that we can give ourselves to that benefits many people widely, a challenge that calls forth the best in us. I think we need that. So we're lucky we have that in Green Gulch. And I personally feel very lucky to have been involved in it for a while. And I hope that all of you appreciate how lucky you are, too, to be able to have something like this to chew on. So that's my speech. That's it. And now I'm going to talk about what we're going to do next.

[31:51]

Jordan already told you some of it. But, you know, at the end of the Dharma talk every week, the speaker gets up and walks over there and makes three bows to Buddha. Thank you for getting me through this talk. So we thought that since it's a special anniversary and we're having a a celebration and a ceremony, maybe today when I go to bow to the Buddha, we can all get up and standing at our seats facing the Buddha, when I do three full bows, maybe we can all together do three standing bows, expressing our gratitude to Buddha as the interconnected nexus of all things for this place and our lives.

[32:52]

So we'll start with that. And then after those three bows together, we'll go right out here to the, right beside the Zen Do, and we're going to plant a tree. That's the biggest part of our ceremony, to plant a tree. So we'll begin with, when everybody, so I think a few people put chairs away, but we'll all go out as soon as we can, because we'll start immediately with the ceremony. And we'll begin with, I'll say, a few formal Dharma words, then we'll put incense. This is the way all the ceremonies go, you know. Formal Dharma words and incense, and then we'll do three bows. Then we'll chant a little sutra. Then we'll plant our tree. And after the planting of the tree, as Jordan said, some people will be called on for further words. It's just like the U.S. Senate or something, right? Then when we've had enough words, we'll have more words.

[33:58]

The Eno will chant a final dedication. Then we'll do three more bows, and that'll be our 25th anniversary Buddhist service. You got all that? It'll all work. You don't need to worry about the details. So let's begin with, first of all, we have to chant. You can't leave unless you chant. Otherwise, we'd be sitting here, we would not know what to do. We chant, then we know. It all sort of follows from that. So we'll begin with chanting to end the lecture, and then when I go over there, let's all stand up, okay? Is that it? Cover it all? Okay.

[34:40]

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