Good morning, happy new year. So as we begin a new year of sitting here at St. Aidan's, I want to talk today about our sponsor, which is Zazen. So again, I'm going to talk about Zazen, or sitting meditation. So in the Soto tradition and in the style of Suzuki Roshi, our meditation is kind of gentle, settling in meditation, just sitting, pretty gentle. We try and find a way of sitting and a way of practice that is sustainable. So just to find, not exactly comfortable, but kind of restful and compassionate space

[01:08]

in which to sit, and which we can sustain, because the point is to connect with this, to have some sense of connecting with this every day. This is the point of our sitting. So I don't go around and hit people with a stick if you're sleeping. And there are some branches of Zen where Zazen is sitting on the edge of your seat and just this kind of looking for some answer to tell the Roshi or something like that. But our sitting is just gentle, just sitting. But at the same time, our sitting shouldn't be, even though we emphasize not getting anything from it, it shouldn't be kind of dull and listless. It's not just kind of passing time. So what I want to talk about today is Zazen as question, Zazen as inquiry.

[02:10]

So even though we're sitting quietly, gently, at the core of our sitting is a question, or maybe not a question, but just questioning. So what are we doing here? All of you here have some question that is somewhere back there, was behind your wanting to do this Buddhist meditation, coming and facing the wall or the chairs or whatever and looking into what is this. So Dogen in many of his teachings says, he will present something and say, do you completely understand this? Please study this completely. Please thoroughly penetrate this question. There's a question that we have to look into. So the point of this practice of questioning, though, is not to get an answer.

[03:19]

We practice, we sit upright, centered, if not comfortable, at least in some space of ease and restfulness, and yet there's some problem or some question or something we're looking into. There are cushions up here, chairs. So how to practice with question is what I want to talk about today. And it's not that there's one way to do that, because we each have our own version of this question, but just to recognize that there is a question, how do we live this life? How do we take care of this world? How to face the problems that we each have in our life or the problems that we share together?

[04:21]

There are various questions and part of this practice of sitting is facing the question and learning about questioning and deepening our question and allowing questions to come up. And again, it's not about getting some answer. So I wanted to give a few examples of this. I've mentioned this Bob Dylan quote before here, but he says, a question in your nerves is lit, yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy and assure you not to quit, to keep it in your mind and not forget that it is not he or she or them or it that you belong to. So this, but just this first part, a question in your nerves is lit, just the fact that you're here, that you are willing to engage in facing yourself in upright sitting. There's a question that's beyond the questions that maybe you are conscious of.

[05:25]

There's a question that's in your nerves, there's a question that's in your bones, there's a question that's in your mouth and it doesn't mean that we have to be agitated and upset about I have to get the answer to that question. The point is how can we stay with questioning? So Dylan says, you know there is no answer fit. It's not about the answer, it's about being willing to be upright and present in this body and mind, just as yourself, it's not about being somebody else, just to be in this world with all its problems, in this life with all its problems and be willing to face that question. And then it's not that we get answers necessarily, although in our sitting of course there's powerful insights and they arise at times, so we do have insights and that's part of the questioning process. But it's not that you get some answer that you can write down and put on a wall and that's it.

[06:29]

It's that we learn to connect with this place, it's in our nerves, it's lit, it's on fire, that, you know, it's not going to satisfy you, but you can keep it in your mind and not forget. There's a way of relating and dancing around the question that this practice is about. So this may sound like koan study and in fact that's one aspect of it in the Zen tradition. So in Zen there is a formal practice of working with a particular story or a particular saying and sometimes with some of you I've given you these traditional stories or I've talked about them here, and then how do you stay present with that question? Hi Sylvia, there's a couple of places up here, good to see you.

[07:32]

So, talking about how to practice with question, how to do this Zazen of being present with the questions, there's these traditional stories, you know, there's these traditional Zen dialogues that we sometimes sit with and Doug and myself, please thoroughly penetrate this, please completely study this. But there's also the questions that arise in our own hearts, in our own body and mind and the world around us, the questions that come up with family relations and the people around us, the questions that come up out of our own struggle to find our own center and our own problems with being this person in this body and mind. We call this Genjo Koan, the Koan as it manifests in our life. Just what is this in front of me? And as we sit, of course, thoughts, feelings, our whole world appears before us, not just

[08:39]

the wall or the floor or the chairs, but when being present, uprightly, aware, gently, in a way that you can stay with, in a posture that you can settle into, then we can look at what is this, what is this that thus comes, how is it that this, just this, is here in front of me? What is it? How do I deal with it? What do I do with it? And again, it's not about fixing it, it's not about getting a solution, it's not about getting an answer, but it's about being in total presence in relationship to that question or the questions that come up from questions. And our way of then responding and actually working with, dancing with, these questions again is not an answer, but something may come up, and it's not based on our limited

[09:44]

human consciousness, it's something that comes from this deeper place that we are connected with when we're sitting upright, when we're willing to settle into this space and find our own way of sustaining this space every day. So again, I emphasize sitting, doing this practice every day, even just ten minutes, to connect to this space where you are willing to be there with the question. And out of that comes a way of facing our life that is deeper than our ideas about who we are, deeper than our ideas and our limited human consciousness about what the world is. So one traditional Buddhist teaching about this is, in the Tendai school, is that in each moment there are 3,000 worlds. Or sometimes they say that in each thought, in one thought, are 3,000 worlds. So I think that's part of this approach to question that is our zazen.

[10:52]

3,000 worlds in one thought. So every thought we have, if we thought about that thought, if we tried to track that thought, it's connected to so many things in our life, and so many things that we don't even know in our life, that actually it's true. If you think about it, in each moment, in each thought, there are 3,000 worlds. Of course, 3,000 means 300,000 or 300 million. It's fine. Sure, there's a seat right up here. It's fine. Hi. Are there other times back there, Liz? Maybe you can set up another. There's... Or you could use the chair. Liz, maybe you could set up a couple of Zabotons back there if other people come in. So one of the questions we sometimes face doing these sittings in Balinas is how to

[12:04]

fit everybody in. There's always some question, though. And there's some way to be with that question. So even when the Dharma talk is over, and after the walking meditation, there'll be some way for each of you to be here and meditate. We'll figure it out. It'll come up. So again, I'm talking about Zazen as questions, Zazen as inquiry. In each moment, in each thought, are 3,000 worlds. And each of those worlds is a question. How can we face and include those 3,000 worlds? So one teaching about questions that came to me yesterday is a poem by Wallace Stevens, an American poet. He has a poem called Questions Are Remarks. So I'll read it all the way through, but then I'll talk about a couple parts of it.

[13:08]

In the reed of summer comes this green sprout. Why? The sun aches and ails and then returns. Howe'er you upon the horizon amid adult enfantillages, its fire fails to pierce the vision that beholds it, fails to destroy the antique acceptances, except that the grandson sees it as it is. Peter de Voya, who says, Mother, what is that? The object that rises with so much rhetoric, but not for him, his question is complete. It is the question of what he is capable. It is the extreme, the expert, etat 2, that means the expert of being about at age 2. He will never ride the red horse she describes. His question is complete because it contains his utmost statement. It is his own array, his own pageant and procession and display.

[14:13]

As far as nothingness permits, hear him. He does not say, Mother, my mother, who are you? The way the drowsy infant old men do. So questions are remarks. In the reed of summer comes this green sprout. Why? In the middle of the heat of our life, this green sprout, why? Questions arise, moment by moment. The sun aches and ails and then returns. Its fire fails to pierce the vision that beholds it, fails to destroy the antique acceptances, except that the grandson sees it as it is. So there is a spirit of questioning, the questioning that is our Zazen, that is like the questioning of a 2-year-old, or a 4-year-old, or a 6-year-old sometimes.

[15:17]

It is this elemental questioning. It comes from this place deeper than our ideas of who we are. This green sprout, why? So as we sit, moment after moment, such questioning is at the core of our sitting. And we don't necessarily have to think those questions. There are spaces in the middle of our sitting when there may not be so many thoughts, when there is just this calm, this settling. And that's fine, that's good. We need that to sustain our questioning. But even in the middle of the absence of questioning, there is this question in our nerves. And sometimes the world brings the questioning to us very intently. Someone gets sick. We lose a loved one. Our house burns down. War is declared. And yet there is this basic question,

[16:19]

even before the sun arises, just this green sprout. Why? So he says about his grandson, Peter de Voyer, who sees the sun, says, Mother, what is that? The object that rises with so much rhetoric, but not for him. His question is complete. So you don't need to get an answer to your question to be present completely in the middle of a question. It's complete. So I think what brings me back to Zazen myself every day is this possibility, this sense, this taste of wholeness. It's okay for things to be the way they are. And that sense of completeness, of wholeness,

[17:20]

of it's okay to be this person, it's okay to be in this world, has to do with this question, this complete question, this green sprout. Why? Wallace Stevens goes on, it is the question of what he is capable. It is the extreme, the expert at age two. He will never ride the red horse she describes. So there's a passage by William Blake about the sun where he talks about, is the sun just this golden disc in the sky or is the sun Hosannas of angels crying with exultation? All of life comes from the sun. And on this cloudy day we may wish for some sun. That's right. So if you try and stand on the sun, it's going to burn you up. So, so it's a question.

[18:24]

But he says it is the question of what he is capable. His question is complete because it contains his utmost statement. So particularly in Zen koan work, often a statement is a question and a question is a statement. And these phrases that we study in these old Zen stories are, we sometimes say utterances, they are expressions of this complete questioning, this completeness that is a question that is an utmost statement. Then there's this wonderful line and a half actually, Wallace Stevens says about his grandson. It is his own array, his own pageant and procession and display. So I've talked sometimes about Zazen as expression, as performance art. And that too is the question. How do we express our question, the question in our life, the question in our world? Through our Zazen, and of course that doesn't mean just when we're here, sitting, waiting for the bell to ring,

[19:25]

finding a balance. So when we have this space of upright questioning, it does permeate and reach into the rest of our life. It does that. It is his own array, his own pageant and procession and display, as far as nothingness permits. Hear him. So I'm talking again, talking today about Zazen as question and inquiry. Part of it, and part of the settling in is to find the space where we are willing to be present with this question. And of course each question is 10,000 questions. And a good question will give you more questions. So don't worry about the answers. Answers come sometimes too, but they bring more questions as well.

[20:26]

Can we live in the middle of impermanence? Can we live in the middle of uncertainty? Can we live in the middle of a life that is a question? And as much as we build up our life and try and stabilize things and take care of things and do our best to make it all work, and that's our job as human beings, but still we don't know what's going to happen. It's a question. And when a friend of ours has bridge down, we see, yes, it's all. And maybe, you know, if we lived in Iraq, maybe the bombs would start dropping next month. We don't know. So, it's all a question. The question is complete. It is his own array. And it's okay to live in a life of impermanence. In fact, it better be, because that's what we've got. So, I'm...

[21:38]

I did want to go a little further with this, and this is almost another Dharma talk, so I, you know, I do this, I have this problem of wanting to do too much and covering too much. And so, if you want to just kind of tune out the rest of what I say and just sit with what I've said so far, that's okay. But I am going to say a little more about Zazen. And this has to do with an old story about two old Chinese monks, Mazu, the horse ancestor, as his name means, and Nanyue. And Mazu was a great, great Zen teacher. He had 139 enlightened disciples later on. But this story happens when he was just a young monk and he was sitting Zazen and his teacher Nanyue says, what are you doing sitting there? So I'm going to just talk about one little piece of Dogen's commentary, but I'll tell you the whole story first. Dogen, his Nanyue, his teacher says to Mazu who's sitting Zazen, what are you doing sitting,

[22:39]

what are you trying to do sitting in meditation? And Mazu said, I'm trying to make a Buddha. Or you could say, I am aiming at becoming Buddha. So his teacher Nanyue hears that and he goes and he picks up a tile and he sits nearby and he starts polishing it. And finally, Mazu is sitting and he notices this and he says, oh teacher, what are you doing? And he said, I'm polishing this tile to make it into a mirror. And this student Mazu says, well, how could you make a mirror from polishing a tile? And Nanyue said, how can you make a Buddha from sitting Zazen? So this story is usually told, actually Alan Ross used to tell this story as an excuse for not for not needing to sit Zazen. And it's been understood that way sometimes. But Duncan has a different spin on it. He says, yes, you should polish a tile

[23:41]

to make a mirror and yes, you should you should you should sit Zazen aiming to become Buddha. He also, in the, sometimes we have chanted the Fukunza Zengyu and he says, have no desires of becoming Buddha in that one. But he turns the story around so I just want to read a little bit of this because it has to do with what is our question of Zazen? So I've been talking about the 3,000 questions in each question. 3,000 words in each thought in each moment. But Duncan here talks a little bit about this basic question. What is Buddha? Which maybe just means how do I live this life? How can I be awake? How can I be wise and compassionate and kind? How can I get beyond all of my human pettiness and greed, hate and delusion? So there is this question

[24:41]

which is in there. Somewhere in the bottom of all the questions all the 3,000 questions. So I just want to read a little bit about Duncan's commentary just at the beginning of this story. So when the teacher Nanyue says to Mazu what is it you're aiming at in practicing Zazen? What is it you're figuring to do in aiming Zazen? Duncan says we should quietly ponder and penetrate this question. You should know what you're about when you're sitting upright. What is it you're up to? Is there an aim which might be superior to Zazen? Is there a way we should aim at beyond the framework of Zazen that has not yet been accomplished? Or should we not aim at anything at all? That's another possibility. That might be the way to be Buddha. So these are real questions each one of them. He has a whole series of them. Then he says just in the moment of sitting Zazen what kind of aim

[25:42]

what kind of design or intention is being actualized? We should diligently inquire in detail. So again this is this sitting as questioning closely looking and part of that might be thinking about and questioning in a usual way of trying to figure something out but it's deeper than that. It's this question that is in your nerves this question that's lit in your nerves this question that is not about answers. He says do not get stuck in loving a carved dragon. We should go forward and love the real dragon. Do you know that story? There's a story about a man in China who loved carvings and paintings of dragons and his whole house was filled with these paintings of dragons and dragon little dragon carvings. Do any of you like dragons? Oh Melinda raised her hand right away. Yes there's a dragon there I see it. So anyway the story goes that one time

[26:42]

a dragon was flying overhead and he heard about this guy who really liked dragons and he said oh I'm going to visit him I'll be very happy. So he went he flew down and stuck his head in the window and the guy was just ahhh another dragon. Anyway so Dogen says don't get stuck in loving carved dragons go forward and love the real dragon. So when you sit in the middle of a question you never know what's going to come up you never know who's going to stick their head in your window. So this is another way of talking about this Buddha that Dogen recommends we aim at. We should study that both the carved dragon and the real dragon have the power of forming clouds and rain. So the carved dragon has a great power too. You may think that your Zazen is not real Zazen it's just a picture of Zazen I can't do this and that's not you may think you may have those kinds of thoughts. I've had people who actually think that their practice

[27:43]

is not very good. This happens. But even that carved dragon has tremendous power. Neither value the remote nor disparage what is remote. Be accustomed and intimate with the remote. Neither disparage what is close nor value the close. Be accustomed and intimate with the close. So whether we are far away or close to whatever our idea of Buddha is look at it look at it and be intimate with its closeness and be intimate with its remoteness. This is this way of questioning this way of looking this way of seeing this way of inquiry that is our sitting. Do not take the eyes lightly nor attach too much weight to the eyes. Do not put too much weight to the ears nor take the ears too lightly. Make both the ears and eyes sharp and clear. So we sit with eyes open. We look at the wall or the floor or the chairs.

[28:43]

We sit with ears open. We're willing to hear the sounds of the suffering of the world and of the people wandering by in the street and bullying us and of our own questioning and uncertainty. I'll go a little bit further. Master said I'm aiming at becoming Buddha. So this was his answer to his teacher when he said what are you aiming at when he said Zazen. So I'm not going to go past that question in terms of the story but I want to say a little bit about what Dogen says about just that statement. We should clarify and penetrate these words. What does becoming Buddha mean? Does becoming Buddha mean that we are enabled to become Buddha by Buddha? Does becoming Buddha mean that we make Buddha into a Buddha? Does becoming Buddha mean the manifestation of one face or two faces of Buddha? Is aiming at becoming

[29:45]

Buddha dropping off body and mind or is it aiming at becoming Buddha dropped off? So each of these questions you could spend a lifetime on or you could take all three thousand of them and they're all there in your sitting actually. All of these questions are somewhere in some way in some fashion in the question you have about your own life. When Moses says aiming at becoming Buddha does he mean that even though there are ten thousand methods or dominates to becoming Buddha becoming Buddha continues to be entangled with this aiming. So he goes on maybe that's enough. Even though there are ten thousand ways in which each of us is this green sprout why this green sprout Buddha it continues to be entangled with our aiming and designing. where are we going

[30:45]

to sit in relationship to the question? How are we going to be present in the middle of just looking at what is this? What is the situation? How do I live with this? How am I going to respond to this particular problem? In each thought in each question there are three thousand questions there are three thousand worlds and when we are willing to be here completely and sit in wholeness and wonder what is it that I'm up to we cannot avoid those three thousand worlds we cannot avoid this green sprout why? And yet going back to Wallace Stevens the question is complete because it contains our utmost statement it is our own array our own pageant and procession and display So this questioning

[31:54]

is again a very gentle questioning it's the kind of questioning that the Colorado River asks the Grand Canyon over centuries and centuries it's gentle but persistent Can we stop a war in Iraq? Well that's one question but there are so many other questions behind that How do we live together with peace and justice? How do we take care of just the world of our own family and relations and work place and all of that with peace and justice? How do we sit side-by-side with peace and justice our own body and mind? All of those questions are present in each of them and it's not that there's one right answer it's not that there's even one right answer for each of us certainly you know

[32:55]

it's not even about getting answers but it is about how do we express the question and my way of expressing it in vows and tariffs are all going to be different and they're going to change tomorrow but if we're present in the middle of this question then it's okay and we can proceed and if we're afraid that's okay that's another question so I want to hear your questions and your inquiries and your processions and displays and arrays maybe usually I make announcements at the end but I'll make two announcements now and then we'll have questions first is that next month the sitting will be not the second week but the third week

[33:56]

February 15th and in March our Bolinas sitting is not going to be in Bolinas but at the Yurt at Green Gulch so we're having a three day sitting like we did last year in the Yurt separate from the Green Gulch community but we'll have meals with them and it's a beautiful round space and last year we did it later in the year so the whole three days were filled with bird song and Melissa said there would be some birds in March but anyway there's a flyer there for it and people are welcome to come for any one of the three days or two or three of the days so we'll do that in March instead of the sitting here and there's some spaces to stay over in the Yurt or you can commute so anyway there's a flyer about that so that's the first announcement the second announcement is about next week there's also a sitting opportunity so next week January 18th there will be large demonstrations large I hope in New York and San Francisco and many other places in the world to try and bring some sense

[34:57]

to the situation and stop a war from happening in Iraq and I've been working with Buddhist Peace Fellowship to have a Buddhist component to this a meditative component to this so there's a there are a few copies of a information sheet on the table there maybe share them and those of you who have an email list you have it on your email if you haven't looked yet but there'll be a first meeting at the Embarcadero at 11 a.m. and just to the south of the Northern Embarcadero they'll be sitting so Buddhist Peace Fellowship is organizing that there's many Sanghas from the Bay Area will be there so you can come bring your own Zafu and if you want something to sit on or if it's you know it might be wet we don't know the weather yet people are coming from all over yes even from Sacramento great so they'll be sitting at 11 a.m. and then there's going to be

[35:57]

a march from Embarcadero down Market Street to Civic Center in a rally there at 1 p.m. and they'll be sitting somewhere on the Callister Street at Civic Center and for people who can't get to the Embarcadero there'll be somebody sitting starting around noon so I'm going to probably not be at the Embarcadero myself but get the sitting started at Civic Center and there should be a couple of we think there'll be a couple of Buddhist speakers as part of the variety of all different kinds of speakers who will be there I might be I probably will be one of them so anyway that's another meditation opportunity next week and you can come and do just milling around meditation too if you want so those are the two announcements I wanted to make so does anybody have any questions that you wanted to express and they might be statements but we of course we know they're questions just a brief before you go back to the question this Terry painted this car and he's going to

[36:58]

say thank you oh so True and Terry was now in Hawaii had their house burned down just before our last sitting here and Terry could you there's so there's could you read both of these this is Terry's a painter a lot of her paintings were burned down in her house but she had this wonderful attitude about those and I don't have to worry about those and I'll go on and paint some more and here this is one of Terry's paintings this is this is specifically for our so okay so from Terry thank you very much for your kind and loving help at the time of our conflagration and transforming helplessness love Terry could a Tibetan deity of passion carry a flower tipped arrow questioning the ego beneath her foot that's and the other message

[37:59]

says thanks for your compassion and generosity with gratitude and love true thank you true could you pass this down and leave it on the table there for people to see thank you it was a wonderful question are there questions or announcements or Janine so it's so it's in the in the garden here good

[39:08]

not quite there but what we do here once a month at St. Amy's has as much energy and more people than what happens on Sundays at St. Amy's so we should consider that this is our space just as much as it is the Episcopal space on Sundays and I don't know like I said I'm sort of I'm trying to develop this idea but I guess I'm sharing it now because this garden is as much our space as it is the church's and the Episcopal and for those who are new we always after our lunch break from 1.30 to 2 we have a short work period including working in the garden and cleaning up the church and Liz do you want to talk about the project that you're starting to think about? Well the Marin

[40:19]

Community Foundation apparently has a lot of money to give away to spiritual slash community projects and what you're saying is sort of if we can write something up we could actually work out something with the foundation to get some help from a choir leader or someone to oversee the use of the space by a pastor or speaker activity which is spiritually directed also today at one o'clock there's a peace club on the beach I don't know if people would be interested in doing that. Down here on the beach? Yeah. Pam do you think that's open to anybody or just residents? Oh no. And I don't know I also don't know if it's the schedule and why does that mean you won't take a picture until two? No.

[41:19]

No. People have been pretty open to it for a long time and they had a what it many many much to say. It was done actually in Taipei after that. It would attract attention, you know, to the peace movement. And so they got Rodney, who's quite a good photographer, to make this beautiful. Very fast, all organized in two or three days, and then they got into trouble. So then they took another one, which is even more beautiful, and that didn't get into trouble, but I don't really have a sense about where it's all going, maybe why. I guess it's a way of getting community together.

[42:33]

So these are pictures of people in the shape of the word peace. But it's true, it's a way, especially in small communities, for people to get together. Yeah, it's a good mark to it a little bit. Any of you who want to go down to the beach at one, you're welcome to. I just wanted to share one more thing. Sure. When these cabinets were built, the main consideration was how to house the zen thing. And they were built for that, and I just wanted to share that. Thank you. So please give our thanks and appreciation to the regular St. Helens congregation as well. So that's two weeks from today.

[43:46]

True. Good. Good. Good. To what does the green growth address this question? I agree. Good questions. Any other good questions? Completely displayed. Wonderful. I was thinking of this in terms of emptiness and form, because I thought the way you started the question, that there's no emptiness, that that's the emptiness. And the display is the form, but we can't have one on the other.

[44:56]

So you're saying the question is the emptiness? Well, the question always comes back to question when you said there's no answer. And that's, you know, a question has opened. I was thinking about this, I might be getting to that. It's always open. Yes. So that even when you have the display, that there is still that openness. The question is part of it. In terms of the speaker's point, the question is part of it. The display is part of the question. And question it. That's correct, yes. I think the answer is that it's part of the dance of form and emptiness,

[46:00]

which of course are not separate at all. Emptiness is just the way form is. So question is the way answer is. Dan. Yes. Good book. Yes. One definition of faith that I heard years ago, which was very simply the resistance to receive that which one wants to receive. Say it again. Removal of resistance to receive that which one wants to receive. So somehow showing up mainly in touch with not only facing the question,

[47:07]

but also facing my own resistance to that question. I would say beyond that though, it's not necessarily just the removal of the resistance, but first it's just recognizing the resistance. So I think, yes, questioning is faith. There's no faith without questioning. Faith that is allergic to questioning is just dogma. But faith questioning is how we sit upright. But it's not necessarily about removing the reluctance. It's about being right there in the middle of the reluctance too. So that's the question. Our reluctance is this question about, can I be here in this question? Can I be willing to be the question I am, to really let that dream sprout, come forth? Yes. Thank you.

[48:09]

I didn't mean to cut you off. So faith to doubt, faith to question, means being willing to be a question. So sometimes the people who are most weird or odd, or who are walking questions, may be the most inspiring, because those people in our lives allow us the opportunity to see our own reluctance to question. And facing that reluctance, that's the practice of questioning, upright questioning. I have a question.

[49:26]

In the faith, the Christian religion offers Christ as a comforter, friend, companion, big brother, you know, all of it. And I guess that extends to God. Can you just comment on that? Well, I'll just say that what Buddhism offers, in the face of that is, you know, maybe not different, but it's Buddhism, Bodhisattvas, and the possibility of kindness, possibility of caring and listening, possibility of seeing clearly, clearly observing. This practice of being upright, sitting on a cushion, being present, being willing to face question. So, yeah, I think it's important that we see the... I won't say comfort, I'll say the consolation, you know.

[50:31]

It's not easy to be a question. But there are ways that we can find our seat, that we can find how to be the person we are in the middle of the questions we are, and express that clearly, in the middle of confusion. So I don't know if that was a whole bunch of stuff, and I don't know if that works as well as Jesus and God, but anyway, that's what we've got. Are you saying that the strength comes from inside, not outside? No, I didn't say that. Just sitting with the question, rather than having God hold you. It's not inside or outside. It's from under your cushion. It's from the sound of the birds. It's from the waves on the beach. So thank you all for being the question you are.

[51:42]

We'll close with the Bodhisattva Vows on page 8.

[51:47]

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