Good morning, everyone. Welcome. This week I've been speaking about Zazen in terms of some of Doge's teachings, many of his teachings inspired by the Lotus Sutra, one of the great Bodhisattva Mahayana texts, probably the most important scripture in East Asia, and Dogen talks about it a lot. So this has to do, well, there's so much to say, but this has to do with the background of this Zen practice as a Bodhisattva practice. Bodhisattva is dedicated to universal liberation. The Lotus Sutra says in Chapter 2 on Skillful Means, one of the various

[01:03]

parts of it that Dogen talks about a lot, that the single great cause for Buddhas appearing in the world is to help suffering beings and help them into the path of awakening. That's the point of this practice. That's why Buddhas appeared. So there are many colorful stories and parables in the Lotus Sutra. One central story that I'm going to focus on, and actually the context of this for me is that, well, this is material from a book I did, Visions of Awakening Space and Time, Dogen and the Lotus Sutra, and I've been asked to do a couple, a few-day seminar on this for European Bodhisattva teachers in France in November. So I've been thinking about this again and working on this, and I'm also giving a class, my annual seminary graduate school class in the spring on

[02:10]

the Lotus Sutra and Zen aspects of that. There's this central story in the middle of the Sutra that has always been, felt really important to me, and I've been talking about in the first half of the Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who lived in Northeast Asia 2,500 years ago, more or less, is asking his great assembly of disciples and Bodhisattvas, and including Bodhisattvas who've come from different world systems, which I don't know if that means they came from, you know, it turns from different solar systems or galaxies or different strength theories, dimensions, whatever, anyway. So he keeps saying, who will come back in the distant future evil age and keep this teaching alive? And the Lotus Sutra is one of the couple of Sutras that he gave right at the end of his life.

[03:21]

So he keeps asking this, and finally, a group of Bodhisattvas who've come from one of these distant world systems or solar systems or whatever, say, okay, we'll come back in the future evil age and keep this teaching. And when I first read this, I kind of identified with this distant future evil age, with our time of climate damage and nuclear waste and nuclear bombs and injustice and mass incarceration and racism and all of the problems we have in our society and equality. But actually, historically, it turns out that throughout history, people devoted to the Lotus Sutra have always identified themselves as being in the future evil age. Nichiren, who is a contemporary of Dogen and founded a major branch of Japanese Buddhism, saw himself as connected to this. Anyway, at some point, these Bodhisattvas offer to come back,

[04:26]

and the Buddha says, no, actually, you don't need to do that, don't worry about it. And then suddenly the earth splits open, and from the open space under the ground, thousands and millions of ancient, wise Bodhisattvas spring forth from the earth. So I love that image, that from the space under our seats, from the earth itself, there are these Bodhisattvas who can come forth in time of need and help bring sanity and kindness to the world. That story leads to another part that's kind of the key to the Lotus Sutra, that the regular disciples of the Buddha, the historical ones, and other Bodhisattvas say, who are those guys? Where did they come from? We never saw them before. Who taught them? And Buddha says, oh, I'm their teacher. And they say, wait a second, you know, we know these guys, these people from under the ground are ancient, well, obviously, venerable, wise, kind Bodhisattvas, and we know that it's

[05:29]

only 40 years since he left the palace and got enlightened, 40, 45 years, and now, you know, your life is coming towards an end. How could you be their teacher? And then the Buddha reveals, key revelation of the Lotus Sutra, that actually, since the time he became a Buddha, and before that, when he was doing Bodhisattva practice, it's been a very, very, very long time, many, many ages, maybe several big bangs ago, and he will continue into the future twice that long. So, okay, so that's the story. I've been telling the story for the last couple of days or so. But what I want to talk about is how Dogen uses that story to talk about our practice. So this idea of this inconceivable lifespan,

[06:29]

Dogen talks about in terms of time, and there's a famous writing by Dogen called Being Time, where he talks about time moving in multiple dimensions, and the fullness of time right now, and this has to do with our presence as we sit, period after period, because some of us have been sitting here for three days, as we take the next inhale and exhale, as we get up and do walking meditation. This isn't, this is not these vast ages of the future and past, or part of this time, and Dogen uses this story and other things to talk about the quality of our experience as we sit, as we're present, as we're upright, as we take another breath, and then as that gets expressed in our everyday activity, as we go out from formal meditation into our everyday life. So, okay, I want to just tell you about some ways in which Dogen talks about this. So there's one of his essays

[07:41]

in his Shogogenzo, one of his two long works, that I've talked about actually quite a bit before, it's called The Awesome Presence of Active Buddhas, or Gyobutsu Iki, and he's talking about the quality of awakening and its endurance through time. So he says that know that Buddhas in the Buddha way do not wait for awakening. Active Buddhas simply fully experience the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. So Buddha remaining in the world does not wait passively for some future experience of Buddha. So I talked about this yesterday, too, in terms of Dogen talking about our practice being about enactment, about actually expressing Buddha. We don't sit zazen for the sake of something else that's going to happen in the future. We don't practice

[08:47]

for something else. It's just this next breath, or this breath. So Buddhas in the world don't wait passively for some future experience of Buddha, but engage in awakening as an active process. This Buddha going beyond Buddha is an expression that Dogen uses very often to describe the vitality of ongoing awakening. So we don't look back at some past experience of understanding. We don't look forward to some other understanding or dramatic experience that maybe we think might happen in the future if we sit long enough to go to enough sashings or whatever. It's about right here, now, this morning. So right after this Dogen quotes Shakyamuni Buddha in Chapter 16. We'll, for our midday chant, we've been chanting a part of that chapter. But the Buddha said, In the past I practiced the Bodhisattva way and so have attained this

[09:53]

long lifespan, still now unexhausted, covering vast numbers of years. And Dogen says about this, You should know that it is not that the lifespan of the Bodhisattva has continued without end only until now. And it's not that the lifespan of the Buddha has prevailed only in the past. But what is called vast numbers, in terms of vast numbers of years, is a total inclusive attainment. What is called still now is the total lifespan. Even if in the past I practiced, which the Buddha said is one solid piece of iron 10,000 miles long, it hurls away hundreds of years vertically and horizontally. This being so, practice realization, this practice realization we are sitting in the middle of, each of us, is neither existence nor beyond existence. Practice realization is not defiled. There

[10:56]

may be hundreds, thousands, and myriad of practice realizations in a place where there is no Buddha and no person. Practice realization does not defile active Buddhas. So Dogen is using the story of the long lifespan of the Buddhas as support. What he often expresses is that this practice realization is imminent, it's here, and it's a kind of pure unity. So I want to talk about that, too. The inconceivable lifespan becomes a symbol for Dogen of our ongoing present being time. This time is not just some external container, like the time on my watch. Time is actually our presence, our activity, our thinking and deeds. Right now, we are being time. Time is how we see our activity and awareness. It's not an abstract time frame

[12:08]

belonging to some esoteric realm of Buddhas, but a way of explaining Dogen's view of time as the actuality of non-dual awakening and active practice in this concrete present context. So this vast lifespan is right now. There's a lot of interesting things in that essay. It's long, and I've talked about it other times, too. He says, what is attentively maintained by active Buddhas, Buddhas who are actually practicing, and is thoroughly mastered by active Buddhas, is like this. And then he says this thing, although the everyday activities of active Buddhas invariably allow the Buddhas to practice. So we've talked a little bit about the forms of the Zen dojo, and the sashimi, and the zafus, and the new zafu cabinet, and the floorboards, and the

[13:09]

candle, and the incense, and the bowls we take our meals in at lunchtime, all of it. All of the everyday activities allow us to practice. But also, he says, active Buddhas allow everyday activities to practice. So this is not how we usually think about our experience. This is to abandon your body for Dharma, to abandon Dharma for your body. This is to give up holding back your life, and to hold on fully to your life. So to actually allow our everyday activities to be practicing, to allow the bowls and utensils as we're eating lunch to practice. They are practicing with us. When we are doing walking meditation, and we take another step in faith and trust that the floor will meet our foot,

[14:13]

we're allowing the floor to practice. It's a really strange way of thinking in terms of our usual ideas of reality. But anyway, this is what Dogen says. So for Dogen, the enduring life of Shakyamuni is realized by those who fully give their vitality to everyday activities of Buddhist practice. So in the forms of the Zen dojo. And then, in subtle ways that often we don't realize, in how we are in the world with the people in our lives, when we go out from our spiritual space. And this is not... He talks about this entire United States as vast, as vast, as vast, beyond, as going beyond. He says that which allows one corner of a Buddha's awesome presence is the entire universe, the entire earth, as well as the entirety of birth and death,

[15:16]

coming and going, of innumerable lands, and innumerable lotus blossoms, growing out of the muck and mud of the mind. So he says a lot of interesting things about this. I won't get to all of them, but one of the things that Dogen says is, know that it is equally difficult to listen to and accept this sutra. That sounding and listening are not a matter of superior or inferior. All Buddhas of the three times remain and listen to the Dharma. That's a kind of reference to something in that chapter in the sutra. As the fruit of Buddhahood is already present, they do not listen to Dharma to achieve Buddhahood in the future, but are already Buddhas. So Buddhas who are listening to the Dharma also do not wait for awakening. So, you know, I'm sitting up here giving this talk,

[16:16]

but you're also giving this talk. Buddhists sit and listen to the Dharma, and they also speak the Dharma. It's not that if you listen to this, to my talk, or some other talk, or read something, that you will get some understanding, and then later on you will become a Buddha. No. It's not the practice. So all of you, each in your own way, as an enactment of this Buddha mind that we connect with in tsa-tsang, is listening to the Dharma the way Buddhas do. So, he quotes the sixth ancestor, who he names, that the essential point of the sutra concerns the causes and conditions for Buddhas appearing in the world. This goes back to the saying from the Lotus Sutra, for the sake of suffering beings.

[17:17]

That may include the suffering beings on your cushion or chair right now. But, you know, it's not separate. We practice facing the wall in our own seat, allowing everything to arise. Remorse, regret, fear, confusion, greed or craving, all this human stuff arises and we face it. And these are the causes and conditions for Buddhas appearing in the world. This is the mud that the Lotus Sutra is about. So, Dogen uses these stories and this teaching from the Lotus Sutra in various ways to encourage us to practice. So, in our tradition, particularly, we do tsa-tsang, we do forms of the

[18:31]

temple, and we also study. And some do more than others, and that's fine. I mean, the most important thing is tsa-tsang, because it's out of tsa-tsang that this awareness, this creative expression somehow grows. But we also, you know, listen to these stories of the ancient masters, and we read these sutras from the Bodhisattva tradition, and all of the Buddhist tradition, and we read Dogen and other ancient masters, and we chant sometimes some of these, as we will day to day. The point of all that is not to read something to learn so we'll have some understanding in the future. So, like tsa-tsang, study is radically different than our usual sense of learning or knowledge or study. Dogen uses the Japanese word, gaku, which means to study like kids study in

[19:44]

school. But he's talking about that in terms of the study we do in tsa-tsang, as we sit, as we take the next breath and study the self, as he says, see the stuff that comes up. And we also, you know, hear about sutras and teaching stories as ways to encourage our practice. So, you know, I don't care if you learn about the Lotus Sutra, you know, we're not studying this as some historical artifact, and the same with the koans and all the teaching stories. This is about you, your practice, each of us. So how do we use this? Dogen is giving an example of this in the way he talks about the Lotus Sutra, but also when we study Dogen, who's, you know, very difficult to understand in terms of our usual linear way of thinking, but that's not the point. It's like, probably many of you have read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, or some of you have,

[20:50]

by Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher. It's a wonderful book that you can keep going back to again and again and again. We have a Thursday night discussion group talking about some of it. People who first read that and have never practiced their satsang, sometimes anyway, say, what is this? It just seems like really obtuse and, you know, opaque and whatever. But when you're sitting, when you have a regular practice of just sitting down, facing the wall, facing yourself, taking another breath, somehow, then reading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, it comes alive and you have some feeling about what it's about. Okay, so this is how Dogen is using this material, these stories from the Lotus Sutra. And, you know, Zen is a tradition of stories, storytelling, of using these stories,

[21:53]

not to get some understanding so that in the future we'll have some understanding, but as expressions, enactments, to show us and help us enjoy our own enactment and expression of this teaching right now. So, there's one, another one of Dogen's essays is called Neuralization. The Tathagata's whole body, Tathagata is just another word for Buddha, he's the one who comes and goes in sections as such. And he talks about the Lotus Sutra a lot in that essay. And he says the Sutra is the whole body of the Tathagata. The mark of reality of all things is this present time, oh, I'm sorry, the mark of reality of all things in the present time is the Sutra. So, the Sutra in the whole of reality itself,

[22:54]

Dogen relates to this long-lived Shakyamuni Buddha, whose lifespan resulting from the merits of original bodhisattva practices is not limited to size, but even such things as the size of the universe, Dogen says, that transcends this limit, it is limitless. This is the whole body of the Buddha, and it is the Sutra. So, I'm going to read a little bit from Dogen. So, you know, Dogen says, and I'll say even now, the Buddha's practice continues through his current followers, that includes all of you, just by being here you are children of Buddha, you are part of the Buddha family. And, you know, Dogen tries to encourage us, because sometimes we need encouragement.

[23:59]

This practice is totally simple. I think I could just sit down and face the wall and keep reading. But it's also, you know, it's difficult to sustain awareness and attention of greatness. So we need some encouragement, and that's what these teachings are for. He says, the long eons of difficult and painful practices are the activity of the womb of Buddha. So this gets into another kind of background teaching to Tathagatagarbha, this womb of Buddha's, which I talked Friday about, Buddhas create a space when they become awakened. They create a Buddha land. So we're living in Shakyamuni Buddha's Buddha land for the last twenty-five hundred years. But this womb of Buddha's, this idea of the space that the Buddha's created, is a womb for embryos of Buddha, Buddha embryos, like us, to arise and grow, like the lotus growing out of the buddha's eyes.

[25:08]

And also, each of us is a womb of Buddha's in that we can support others to be Buddha, which we're doing just by being here right now, and support the land to be awakened. So this gets to the aspect of our practice that's also taking care of the land and our world and our society and our environment. Anyway, so Dogen says, when it is said that these practices have not ceased even for a second, it means that even though Buddha is perfectly enlightened, he still practices vigorously, and he continues forever, even though he converts the whole universe. This activity is the whole body of the Buddha. So there's this idea of, well, first of all, it's just the reality that Buddha continued to practice. When he became the Buddha, when he had his great awakening under the Bodhi tree,

[26:13]

that wasn't the end of his practice, that wasn't the end of his awakening. So this idea of Buddha going beyond Buddha, Buddha continued to sit every day, Buddha continued to awaken. And our practice is ongoing. It's not about, you know, we are sick for the sake of some fancy experience or understanding we might have in the future. That's just, that's an illusion. We are expressing it and acting it right now, in our postures, in our awareness, in our efforts at kindness and insight. So for Dogen, the significance of this enduring Shakyamuni is not merely that Buddha is present in the world, but that his vigorous, inspiring practice continues and converts the whole universe. So all of this is a kind of description of reality from the point of view of Zazen and Dogen and Buddha and the Lotus Sutra and all of that. But it's also a prescription. It's, we have a responsibility as followers of Buddha and as students of the Buddha way and as

[27:24]

followers of Dogen and Hiroshi and so forth, we have a responsibility to take care of this. This is not some passive thing happening out there. Each of us, in our practice, allows Buddha's lifespan to continue. So this is why it's important. It's not enough to just, you know, this isn't just a self-help practice. It's not enough to just have some understanding of Buddha's psychology. And there's all these wonderful teachings and so forth. And, you know, it's okay to understand them. It's possible, actually. But the point is, how do we express this in our Zazen, in our minds, in our everyday activity? So another, so this is, and this gets to, you know, the precepts and ethics and our responsibility as children of Buddha to keep Buddha alive. It's not just that Buddha's off somewhere on some mountaintop, still having this long lifespan. It's right here.

[28:30]

So another one of Dogen's essays, Awakenings of Bodhidharma, he discusses this bodhicitta, which has come up this weekend, this first thought of awakening. And what is it that first inspires us to care about the quality of our life, to care about the quality of the world? And again, it's not just about taking care of our life, or the life of our fellow Sangha, but how do we take care of all the, how do we respond? It's not that we can fix all of the political corruption in the media and politics and the economy that's dedicated to billionaires now. How do we, how do we respond and be helpful in our world? This is also part of our responsibility. So this bodhicitta, you know, is mysterious. Where does this come from? In some sense, just that first thought of awakening is considered to be equivalent to

[29:39]

all of Buddha's enlightenment. And yet, of course, it unfolds, just like lotus blossoms unfold. It develops, you know. So Buddha is not static. Buddha is alive. We are not static, dead, dead objects sitting on, even though sometimes when we sit still and hug our cushions and chairs, it might look like we're a bunch of tree stumps. Actually, we're alive. We're alive. How do we give life to this life? And so, don't ever force Buddha's statement at the end of Chapter 16 on the lifespan, that we will be chanting later. I have always given thought to how I could cause all creatures to enter the highest supreme way and quickly become Buddhists. And Dogen says that this statement is the Buddha's lifetime itself. Buddha's establishment of the mind, training and experience of the effect of all his practice are

[30:45]

like this. This lifespan is exactly the intention to help all beings awaken. And this mysteriously creates the ongoing life of the Buddha. Another one of Dogen's essays is called Kenputsu, meaning seeing Buddha or meeting Buddha. And again, he refers to this long lifespan in appearing to be born, awaken and pass away as merely a skillful means, as we'll chant about later. And Dogen says that when beings with unified or undivided mind desire to meet Buddha without attachment to their own body and life, at that time, Buddha appears at the assembly of Vulture Puke and expounds on the secret. Dogen says when each present individual secretly arouses the desire to meet Buddha, we are desiring to meet Buddha through the concentration of the Vulture Puke mind.

[31:50]

So he talks about this undivided mind. How could the undivided body not appear together with this mind? So this is also kind of a Zazen instruction, this wholehearted single-minded practice. Now, how do we meet and express this undivided mind? So this is a primary question for our practice, Zazen and all of our practice, bowing or chanting or serving lunch or eating lunch. What is this undivided mind and undivided body? Because they're not separate. How do we just give ourselves to being fully present?

[32:57]

And there's a phrase that Dogen uses, Sokushin [...] Buddha. This very mind is Buddha. But it's this presence. Now this doesn't mean that if you're, all of you have experienced when you sit Zazen, thoughts happen. Maybe not all the time, but often there's this chatter going on. That's part of your body. Our stomach continues to secrete digestive juices, our brain continues to secrete thoughts. We don't have to, you know, don't believe everything you think. So there's all this, you know, mental stuff and chatter and sensations going on. That's fine. That doesn't interfere with what he's talking about here, this undivided mind. Being fully present. Part of that is just to sit like Buddha. Whether we're sitting cross-legged or kneeling

[34:12]

or sitting in a chair, to just be present and upright and enjoy our breathing and be present is the undivided mind. But we have to give ourselves to that. We have to actually perform that. Zazen is kind of a performance art. How do we actually do this? So again, this isn't about attaining some future acquisition of awakening or understanding, but the practice of enlightenment is already present in the continuing presence of living Buddha. This practice of establishment of awakening in this very body and mind is kind of a description of the enduring Shakyamuni as reality itself. So this idea of Buddha nature that under this kind of underground, you know,

[35:15]

this underground bodhisattva is ready to spring forth. So our practice is to kind of perform or enact, we do it through rituals sometimes, through the ritual of Zazen, through the ritual of bowing or chanting. But this is a performance or enactment of this underlying reality that those bodhisattvas down there are hanging out, ready to share with us if we can. And it has to do with a kind of act of faith in this awakened reality as already and continually being expressed and present in the conditional world. So we hear that this is the nature of the reality of our world. And yet it's not enough to just hear that, like some information about something that's happening, you know, down the loop or something. It's actually right here. And we have, it's up to us. And, you know, sometimes,

[36:19]

some periods of Zazen, you might feel sleepy or groggy. Sometimes your mind might be very active or you might be worrying about or thinking about some situation or something. Still, just to be present and express Buddha's body-mind is this undivided self. So, Dogen also says in the Dhamma, when one person just sits and displays Buddha mudra with their whole body and mind, all of space awakens. And he talks about earth, grass and trees, and even tiles and pebbles and fences and walls being part of this awakening field. This is like this Buddha field. So this is not how we usually think about reality or our practice. People come to do meditation as some technique to, you know, to become more mindful or more calm. But

[37:24]

this underlying reality is what Dogen is pointing to and what Zazen is about. So, again, just know that Buddhas in the Buddha way do not wait for awakening. Active Buddhas just fully experience this vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. And like Shakyamuni, even though he is now a Buddha, he still practices diligently. When it is said that these practices have not ceased even for a second, it means that even though Buddha is perfectly enlightened, he still practices vigorously and he continues forever, even though he converts the whole universe. So this Bodhisattva teaching is a very deep underpinning of our Zen practice, of the Zazen and all these Zen stories. It's just to encourage you to

[38:29]

be present and express Buddha in whatever way you can. We each have our own way of being Buddha. I can't tell you how to be Buddha. This is something we discover for ourselves when we settle enough and have this rhythm of settling in our lives so that we can feel and hear these underground Bodhisattvas arising in us. So I've been closing each day with another thing that Dogen says, which I think is lovely. He says, the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors is to first arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy. Only this family style is inexhaustibly bright and clear. So that's what we're doing here. This tradition, this lineage, this family of Buddhas is about removing suffering. So like the Bodhisattva of Compassion,

[39:40]

who we'll also chant about in the midday, we are determined to free all living beings and to remove suffering. So as Bodhisattvas or Buddhas, whatever, it looks like these days we have plenty of job security. There's lots of suffering out there and in here and all around us. So how do we respond? And it's not that we're going to fix everything, but just to be aware. So I talk about these things here sometimes, about inequality and climate damage and injustice. That's part of the suffering that's also on each of our own seeds. So he says that the family style is to, our family style is to first arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing

[40:45]

suffering and providing joy. So when we actually are willing to take on just being present, without our understanding it or even feeling it, we still might be caught up in all of our confusion or concerns or our own personal patterns of habits of grasping and craving and fear and frustration and anger. That's part of our humanity. That's where this comes from. But even so, when we can be present and upright in the middle of that, when we are willing to not try and run away from ourselves and from reality, it's tremendous joy and power in that. It's wonderful that we can do this. Each of us in this room has various problems, and it's okay if that's the case. But to be able to be present

[41:53]

and upright in the middle of that, it's wonderful. It's joyful even. How do we share this joy? He also says, Bodhisattvas studying the way should know how Buddha nature produces the conditions for Buddha nature. So the point of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas appearing in the world is simply just to help others enter into the path of helping others, to enter into the path of helping others. So congratulations on being Buddhas, listening to the teaching of Buddhas. So for those of us who will be here for the whole day, we will have in the afternoon, as we've been doing, tea and a chance for discussion. But for people who joined us this

[42:55]

morning, I do want to take a little time, if you have comments, any of you, if you have comments or questions or responses about any of this or anything else, please feel free. It's kind of really difficult and strange to think that Buddha is right here, right under your cushion and chair. How do we make it so? Is your hand up there? I was just thinking, I don't know if you heard this morning, but I happened to hear something on the radio. It was a discussion on the Jewish tradition of Teshuvah and explaining

[44:09]

that how it works in the high holidays, which are Yom Kippur, which is happening on the days of Yom Kippur. And what struck me was the similarity to Buddhism and how it talks about that Teshuvah really means to stop and turn. And so it is now the chance to stop and turn and go a different direction. And Teshuvah in modern Hebrew means to respond. And that's how it's used in modern Hebrew. And the whole concept of actually Teshuvah was created by this rabbi's tradition. Teshuvah was created before the world was created. Because once time is there, you can't go back and change.

[45:09]

So it had to be this concept of returning. It had to exist before the world existed. It was just interesting because I was thinking about it and lots of different things came to my mind. And the great sense of joy I felt hearing this to be present in similar to what we talked about yesterday, about that when I take refuge, it's not really taking refuge in that Buddha is my savior or something, but that I return, I'm returning back to my original essence. So I have like several responses already to things you've said. So let me respond. Just one little one, just to think about before the world started. That's one difference, I think, between Buddhism and Abrahamic religions. Because in terms of this,

[46:15]

these are all just stories, right? Who knows? Maybe Stephen Hawking knows. I don't know. But in some sense, there's no creator of deity in Buddhism. It's beginningless, it's endless, it's vast in space and time. So these are just stories. But just to say that and yet we also talk about the empty calcet that there are periods of time in this endlessness that Buddhism talks about where there's nothing. So maybe there's in between big bangs, there's anyway, whatever. So I just wanted, that's just a little footnote. But the main thing I wanted to say that, yeah, that thing of responding is really important. And I think it's at the heart of the Konala to heal the world. And I think that Bodhisattva precepts and responsibilities about

[47:17]

that, not that we can fix everything, but that our awakening is about moving in that direction. It says to remove suffering and provide joy. Another way to see that is how do we heal? How do we help to heal? How do we move towards healing of all of the sadness, suffering, and so forth in the world? Thank you for that, David. David, for me, what I was struck by was the amount, the joy that came up. And so you were talking before that in this awareness of all that is, the joyfulness that comes up. Yeah, and part of what's joyful, what brings me back to Zazen, is that we do can connect to the sense of wholeness, that it's okay to be the person on your seat right now, that it's okay to, whatever's happening, that there's some way in which that the ultimate, the universal,

[48:19]

totality, whatever word you want to use, is this background Buddha nature. So, yeah, so that joy is important, that we can enjoy our practice and our ability to be present and upright and express Buddha and all of it all. So, thank you, David. Anybody else, any other questions, comments, responses? Hi, Brian, welcome back. I'm reminded in this discussion of time and all of the the amount of time that sort of opens up into kind of the eternal time that these ancient Greek words for time, two different ways of looking at it, Kronos and Kairos. Kronos is a chronological sense of time that we normally live with, and I'm here now for a little while, and the people are doing this, and they were all doing that, and it's all marching along. And then Kairos is really without past or future. It's what we sometimes describe as

[49:25]

time stood still. And what is that experience when time stands still? What is it that opens up? And I often thought about how unpredictable that is and how I can't just say, well, okay, now I'm going to slip out of the Kronos into Kairos. I'll do that now. But I think we can maybe prepare the conditions where that might happen. It always seems like a surprise, but yeah, I appreciate that perspective. Thank you. Dogen and Buddhism about time, that's a whole other huge topic and a whole other session here. Maybe I'll get to that next year somehow. But just one thing I want to say, that part of Dogen's idea of time is in the fullness of this present, which in a way is what you're talking about of Kairos, that all time is right here. But also from the point of view of response,

[50:32]

and I'm referring to teachings from Joanna Macy, one of my teachers, that the point is to re-inhabit time, not to escape from time, not to try and run away from the Kronos or the full presence, but to actually take responsibility for past, future, and present in the present. So that's a whole other discussion. But yeah, it's an important and useful discussion, how we, and Dogen says it in time, that we should actually study and think about and look at time and how we think of time. We usually think of wasting time or spending time or various other transactions with time, but Baha'u'llah out front says, life and death is the great matter, don't waste time. So how do we enjoy this time? So thank you for that, Brian. Maybe time for one more comment or question or response. Does anyone know the exact translation of Tikkun?

[51:46]

I think it's something like healing the world. But there's something underneath it. Healing is the implication of it, but I thought it was referencing something about, I think the idea of scattering, like that something has shattered and it's all throughout the world and that the call is for us to, yes, find all the pieces and weave them, bring them together again. Dale, do you know about that? It's about wholeness. It rings a bell. I've heard it discussed that. The world is a part of it, trying to bring the world back together. The angel of history, there's that notion of the world being shattered and the desire to find a way to bring it back. So, yeah. And there's an image that was given for me about it in someone's writings about it,

[52:54]

about weaving it together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds familiar. Yeah. And so it's this kind of organic image of all this multiplicity and then being brought together. I don't know. So that there's darkness and light and there's separation and it's about integration and wholeness. So anyway, for me, that's evocative just as a sort of getting into the particulars of what are we saying when we're talking about healing or what the world or what are we talking about when we're saying we're here for all to support all the bodhisattvas to awaken to their true nature, not just ourselves. I think there's a basic usefulness for me of being reminded that my practice is not just about myself because I can get into a more self-absorbed, obviously, just most of the time I'm self-absorbed. So that's just a reminder.

[53:54]

But then I think what I've come up against is often that tension of, well, really, the self-absorbed tendency is sort of constant. And then I notice, oh, right, at least in the abstract, often my response to others is feeling competitive or worried that they're going to not like me or they'll surpass me and I'll feel bad about myself. So to me, part of what it means to enact the practice that you're talking about is just allowing myself to notice all those tendencies and barriers to being present with others. I think it's easier for me when I'm actually interacting with others, then I naturally feel more compassionate unless they

[54:58]

trigger me in some way and then I feel defended, which that's something to notice too. But I think it's in the abstract often that all these other tendencies arise. So anyway, for me, that's helpful. It's just to think about the practice as a way of being with all that complexity and being really open to it. And I don't know where the Tikkun Olam thing fits in, but somehow I feel something about being with that complexity too of the shattered, broken world and truly being with that. And through that, being with it, a way to weave it together arises, but not just from going out in ignorance to help, help, help. Right, right. Yeah, so I've heard Tikkun Olam translated, I think, as mending the world. Mending in the sense of mending your clothes or stitching things together. So yeah, thank you for adding that because I think the healing the world or mending the world has to do with what Dogen is talking about here in terms of undivided

[56:01]

mind, undivided body, that we're bringing, everything is fragmented. And when we sit, we're bringing it all together, bringing it all back home somehow. Connecting things is part of the activity of mending and healing the suffering of the world. So yeah, thank you very much for that.

[56:22]

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