And when he was seven days old, he took seven steps and said, I alone am the world-honored one. And of course, we should all take that literally to laugh. We are born as Buddha. Because we say we're all Buddha. We all have the potentiality for Buddhahood. Therefore, each one of us is born as a Buddha. But at the same time, without practice, we don't actualize our inheritance. Inheritance is that we are the children of the Buddha.

[01:07]

So in order to, there's a question of, well, if we are Buddha, why do we have to do anything? That was Dogen's question. When Dogen went, he went to China with that question of well if we already are born as buddha if we already have the buddha nature why do we have to do anything uh and so this was dogen's koan when he went to china um and what he discovered was that yes we are all uh we all have the buddha nature but unless we do something unless we turn the wheel Descartes doesn't move. Unless we practice, our enlightenment doesn't manifest. Our realization does not manifest. Our good nature does not manifest, even though it's there.

[02:12]

So this is just the way things work in the world, isn't it? We, you know, unless we do, we all have the potentialities, but unless we, do something to animate our potentiality, it doesn't manifest. So we call that practice. So this is kind of a natural process, I think. A natural process of how we become, how we manifest our realization or enlightenment of our good nature we are born so to speak you know we don't really we say yes we are born and we die but it's simply a process of continuation with certain highlights one of them is called birth and the other is called death the high light and the low light

[03:21]

So we're born, and we need to do something. So we look around the world and say, well, yeah, I'll do this, or I can do that, or we're put into a position where we don't have a choice, actually. It's nice to have a choice, but sometimes it's good not to have a choice, because not everybody knows how to choose. And we get caught in various... difficult situations in our lives because we don't have a direction. So Buddha gives us a direction. And the direction that he gives us is that if you follow this path, which I have discovered and found to be valid for realizing the meaning of a birth and death, Then it's called salvation.

[04:27]

That word salvation is usually used in Christianity, but it's also Buddhist. And also in Buddhism, there's something called rebirth. So although we are born into the world, our rebirth is our discovery of practice. discovery of what is actually the meaning of our life. So we're buddhists, the meaning of our life is to practice in an enlightened way. These are focused on Patrick said something which I will quote to you. He said, think well, there is birth and death. for those who keep on saying birth and death is terrible. However, there is no birth and death for those who see birth and death as the life of Buddha.

[05:39]

The matter of birth and death becomes a problem for those who ignore birth and death and are panicked by death. I'm sorry. The matter of birth and death becomes a problem for those who ignore birth and are panicked by death. But there is no birth and death for those who welcome birth and death and are settled in death. I'm sorry. But there is no birth and death for those who welcome birth and are settled in death. So this is an enlightened master's. understanding, which of course is basically Buddhism in the heart of Zen. So it's not a question of is a Buddha

[06:48]

born or made. We're both born and made. We're born with all the potentiality of a Buddha. And through our practice, a Buddha is manifested, unaware. If you try to manifest it, it doesn't work. And if you don't try to manifest it, it doesn't work. So we just live our life as practice. That's the fact that we still live our life as practice. Everything we do can be practice. Suzuki Roshi sometimes says, everything you do is practice, but that's because his language is not so good. I had to correct him. I am a presence. editing his talks for a book.

[07:51]

And he often says, everything you do is practice. But it's more like practice can be everything you do if it's practice. When it's actually practice, then everything you do is practice. But it's not practice if everything you do is if you're not practicing. Birth is out of our hands and death is out of our hands. It just happens. But in between is our work. Why is the Buddha born? Why am I born? Why are you born? Why is anybody born? That's a good question. I'm not going to answer it for you. But I can say that

[08:55]

If you follow the path of realization, you will know why you're born in a way. You die. And you realize that our attitude is everything. So then there's a question of how do we deal with the present? situation that everyone, everyone universally is involved with. You know, we're in the age, the 21st century of epidemics. Not only do we have the virus, the 19 virus, In Africa, they also have locusts to add to their problem.

[10:03]

The locusts, there's a locust infestation. When the locusts pass through any territory, it's devastated. That happened last year. Now, there's another pestilence of locusts that is twice as much. if it's happening in Africa right now. So these are biblical times revisited. The pestilence of locusts and the viruses. And then we have Trump. The virus of Trump. So these are tough times, really tough times. How does the Buddha deal with tough times of this magnitude? So that's our problem.

[11:05]

You don't have to say how as a Buddhist, but just how do we? And because we have the Buddhist understanding, it's a real test of our practice. Sometimes I'm a big test of our practice. So what occurred to me this morning was very simple. Just deal with what's in front of us. If we worry about how long this is going to last or when it's going to be over, it's just like sitting down there with pain in your legs. When it's going to be over. How long is this going to last? If you start thinking that way, you increase your difficulty. Just how can I take care of this, what I'm doing moment by moment? And how do I make my isolation relevant?

[12:16]

How do I turn my isolation into something positive instead of something negative. Isolation, fear, anxiety, disconnection, etc. All those qualities, difficult qualities we have to deal with. I'm very busy, actually. My day is very busy. I do a lot of editing, which, you know, you can only do that for so long. And then sometimes I play music, and there's so much to read. When I look around, I have 10 million records, so there's so many books I could be reading.

[13:20]

You know, there's no reason to get to wonder what to do. And then we have to eat. We have to put on our masks. And then there are the questions that are totally unresolved. But if we worry, we give ourselves over to too much worry, which doesn't mean concern. Concern and worry are two different things. Concern is, you know, yes, we can ignore what's going on. to deal with it and figure it out. But worry is when we waste our emotional time. And too much of that blocks our clear thinking. So how can we get some clarity, clear thinking for the moment? and um i really appreciate the way that we have been taking care of uh each other remotely and trying to figure this out remotely and um how we can actually take care of

[14:46]

We don't know what's going on with each other so that we can actually respond when there's something that's really necessary to respond to. Anyway, these are all, this is a test, right? So why does the Buddha come into the world? And how do we manifest our Buddha nature in the world to pick some, keep the ship upright? So if you have any questions... Would it be easy to give people where they can find that Nishiari Bokasan quote? Or is it too obscure? It's not obscure. Someone asked in a little chat window about how we can... Is there a reference for that Nishiari Bokasan quote? There might be. Why don't you just look up Nishiari Bokasan on the computer and see if you can find it. Okay. That's the best way, I think. It's probably in the three commentaries.

[15:54]

On the Genjo Koan. I'm sure that's probably where it sits. So it's B-O-K-U-S-A-N. Boku-san. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Thank you, Sojin Roshi. We have about 10 minutes or so for question and answer. Unmute yourself, or I will unmute you. But I'd like to ask Judy just very quickly to tell you how you can electronically raise your hand so we can track who has questions. And I suspect we're not going to be able to get to them all. But Judy? Good morning, everyone. So how we can raise our little blue hands is, which are digital hands, is if you look on the, for many of you, there might be variations. In the lower part of your screen, there is something called participants.

[17:01]

And you can go ahead and click on that. And it will open a window that gives a list of names. And you'll see yours at the top. And to the right of your name, if you mouse over, you will see in that box, raise hand. I believe actually it's at the bottom of your participants window. And you could just click that to raise your hand. Okay. If for some reason you're not able to do that or you can't find it, what you can do is in your chat window, you can just say that you raise hand.

[18:10]

Just type that, raise hand. Thank you, Judy. So I see a hand, is it Jared? Yes, you got it. Thank you so much for putting this together. Thank you very much for taking the time to explain all of that. I am brand new to Buddhism. I have never looked into it ever. This is my first introduction to Buddhism that I've ever experienced. I'm very grateful for the introduction. I just... Without this happening, I wasn't really thinking about solitude until it started entering my life like this, and it kind of entered my mind that Buddhism would probably be a great place to look if I wanted to turn the solitude into something positive. So here I am on the internet, and I just have no idea where to start with Buddhism. I've never learned anything other than reading a little bit of Siddhartha in high school.

[19:14]

If anybody has any suggestions on where to begin to start practicing Buddhism and seeking more about solitude, that would be excellent. Sojin Roshi? Our practice really is based on our body, our physicality, and our Our physicality, our emotionality, and our thinking. And when we're isolated like this, our emotionality and our thinking kind of take over because we cannot do stuff together physically. But, you know, my suggestion is this. If you use your computer and tune in on Zen meditation, it's all laid out for you.

[20:28]

And how does it actually do Zen meditation? And that would be a good beginning for you because it will cover a whole lot of practice. And then when, if the sickness is over, if it's ever over, then you can actually, you know, participate in the practice with other people. That's my kind of suggestion. You can actually learn how to sit. with the illustrations that you get from the information on the internet. You can find it in various places. So to do that and just follow the instructions.

[21:30]

That will be a good way to enter. And then when people can get together again, you can easily join us. Great. Thank you so much. I very much appreciate that. You're welcome. Not sure which John this is. This is Hiko with a hand raised. It might be another John. John, you're muted. Okay, all right. So, Jan Roshi, can you speak of Buddha's birthday in terms of this life, my life, everyone's this present day?

[22:33]

I know you did, but can you address how we are born or if there's something about that for us to look into? Yeah. I qualify born, right? Yes. Well, in Buddhist understanding, there are two births and deaths. One is what we are the usual way we think about birth and death. And the other is that birth to death is a continuous process. And our whole life is a continuous process. And the process doesn't begin or end with birth. or death. But the birth and death of this present situation are like markers. They mark a certain episode in the continuous life of each one of us.

[23:36]

Thank you. Thank you. Maybe one more question. Sure. My question for you is in the process of birth and particularly death, how do we deal with grief and loss? You talked about the process of being in our bodies, emotionality and thought. So how do we use those three to deal with grief and loss? No, we don't let them use us. We don't let emotionality, grief, and I can't remember the- Loss? Loss to take over our life.

[24:39]

So when you grieve, just grieve 100%. When you have loss, just miss the last one totally. So if you do whatever you do totally, then you can become free from it without feeling guilty. You know, it's all based on doing something thoroughly. then you become one with it when you become one with it there's nothing outstanding to interfere and then you become free from it without losing the value of it

[25:28]

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