Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me? So first of all, Happy Valentine's Day. I want to tell a story about love. Actually, all of Zen is about love. Sometimes I talk on this day about Martin Luther King's wonderful discussion of the varieties of love, but of course, love includes romantic love, love of all beings or love of the universe and the world and our environment. and also what we might call brotherly love or sibling love. So I want to tell a story about brotherly love this evening. It's one of the most important stories in our family style. I'll get to talk yesterday morning, give a wonderful talk about our family style of just sitting. And today I want to talk about one of the most important stories in our tradition. A couple of you may have heard it many times, but I never get tired of it.

[01:04]

So this is case 21 in the Book of Serenity koan collection. And maybe I should introduce the cast of characters first. The two main characters in the story, the two characters in the story are named Yun-Yan and Dao-Wu. Yun-Yan is an important ancestor in our lineage. He was the teacher of Dongshan, who wrote the Song of the Jewel Mare Samadhi, and was the founder of, formerly of, Shaodong or Shoto Zen in China. And Dao-Wu, Dogo in Japanese, was his brother, brother monk, and also his biological brother. And as siblings sometimes do, they kind of gave each other a hard time. to help each other. So those are two characters in the story, but I also want to mention two other characters. Hongzhe Zhongzhui, who I'll be talking about more next Saturday, wrote the, selected the cases and wrote verse comments for the Book of Serenity.

[02:12]

And then another great teacher, Wansong, is very interesting, did a long commentary. So I'll be referring to both of their, of their teaching. So the story, here's the story, the whole story. As Yun Yan was sweeping the ground, Da Wu said, too busy. Yun Yan said, you should know there's one who isn't busy. Da Wu said, if so, then there's a second Mu. Yun Yan held up his broom and said, which moon is this? So that's the whole story. And it's wonderful. And there's a lot so much that can be said about it. Or, you know, maybe there's nothing to be said. But in any event, I'm going to talk about it. So the story, you know, it's, as I say, a key story in our family style and our lineage.

[03:13]

And it's also, to me, a very relevant story for our modern practice, our practice as in a non-residential center as lay practitioners, Yun Yan and Dao Wu were in a monastery, and in the monastery, there's a lot of time spent cleaning the monastery. And Yun Yan was sleeping. So at our old temple way back, we had on Irving Park Road, we did, after Sunday dharma talk, we did temple cleaning. But in monasteries, there are periods of temple cleaning every day. So that's what Yun Yan was doing. He was sweeping the ground, he was sweeping the temple, cleaning the temple. And Da Wu was passing by and he said, too busy. So this is also, you know, something that we can relate to.

[04:18]

Even in our pandemic, there's multitasking, there's some of us get very busy. How do we practice when we feel busy? This is a story I have to keep telling myself. Dawu said, too busy. And Yunyan said, you should know there's one who's not busy. He didn't say he wasn't busy, but he said, you should know there's one who's not busy. So right in the middle of his busyness, he knew the one who is not busy is not caught by all the fuss and troubles of the world and of our lives and of our busy schedules and all of that. There's one who's not busy. This is very important. to know there's one who's not busy. In fact, Yun-Yan, actually he was two generations after Shoto or Sekito who wrote the Harmony of Difference and Sameness, which ends with, it can be translated as don't waste time.

[05:35]

Once somebody asked my teacher, Tenshin Anderson, what does it mean not to waste time? And he just said, forgetting the one who's not busy. So this story, I actually, you know, I'm very fond of. I used it as my case for the shuso ceremony when I was shuso or head monk at Tassajara in 1990. There's a ceremony where everybody asks the head monk of the practice period questions, and they usually offer a case, often about bodhidharma, but I used this story. So this one is not busy. How do we realize there's one who's not busy? What does that mean? Who is it that's not busy? Who is it that's not caught up in all of the fussing and the schedules and the busyness of the world? Can you know that one even in your busyness? This is an important touchstone for us. But Dao said, if so, then there's a second moon.

[06:39]

So does that mean there's two realities? There's a busy reality of the world, samsara maybe, and then there's the world where you're not busy, where everything is just totally at peace. Are there two moons? Are there two realities? Are there two worlds? Do we fall into dualism if we talk like this? And Yun Yan did this wonderful thing. He held out his broom and he said, which moon is this? So he didn't say it's this or that or the other. He just asked the question, which moon is this? As I sweep the ground. So, so many things to say. In his commentary, Wong Tsung says, and he's talking to monks in a monastery, but this applies to us, as you eat, boil tea, sow or sweep, you should recognize the one not busy.

[07:46]

Then you will realize the union of mundane reality and awakened reality. In the Dongshan tradition, so it does in family style, this is called simultaneous inclusion, naturally not wasting any time. So we think of these, you know, we could talk about them as sameness and differences. Like in the chant we just did, the difference of all the things in the world that you have to take care of, all the schedules and busyness of your life that you have to take care of. Of course, we have to take care of those things. But then there's also something that goes beyond. This way in which we are all totally connected. And the style of our family style is about the mutual inclusion of this, the harmony of this, the integration of something that we start to recognize in our Zazen practice.

[08:51]

And over time, as we sit and as we bring Zazen into not just sitting, but every aspect of our activity, we have this sense I don't know if it's a six cents or a 27 to 10 cents or whatever, but it's, or 50 cents. Anyway, it's this awareness of something that goes beyond all our busyness. But that doesn't mean that you should go off, you know, and hide in your room and not take care of all the things of the world. So how do they interact? This is the issue here. Are these two separate things or is this one? Of course, there's the issue again of being not busy. And there's so many things to say about this. This applies to right livelihood. How do we find a livelihood where we can remember this? There's one not busy, where we are taking care of all things. But also we can find our calm and steadiness and flexibility.

[09:55]

So, one song says further about this. He mentions one of the great, one of the Mahayana Sutras, the Shurangama Samadhi Sutra, that he says, he quotes it, like the second moon, who will say it is the moon? Who will deny it? For Manjushri, only one moon is real. In between, there is naturally nothing that is or is not the moon. So, another character, Manjushree, the Bodhisattva of Insider Wisdom, who sits in the middle of meditation halls, sometimes holds a sword to cut through all delusions, sometimes just holds a teaching scroll, usually the Prajnaparamita, the teaching of perfection of wisdom, of great emptiness.

[10:59]

Which moon is this? Which moon is this? This is a real question. How do we see in the middle of our busyness the one who's not busy? So there's another story. This is in the commentary of case 37 of the Book of Serenity. So I'm going to talk about these and then, you know, hopefully we'll have some discussion about this, about the one not busy. And how do we see that in our busy life? So when Eunyeon says, which moon is this? You know, we could see that the moon is one, of course. On this planet, we only have one moon. There are planets where there are many moons or a few moons.

[12:02]

But in, there's a, Hongzhe's verse comment to case 37, I won't, don't need to mention the case, but he has this line. Do you know the self or not? Vaguely, like the moon through ivy, a crescent at that. So when they talk about the moon, in Zen stories, in East Asia, generally, they're talking about the round whole moon, the full moon. And this full moon, because of its roundness, represents wholeness, fullness, the wholeness of our life, the wholeness of our practice. That wholeness that we can get a sense of when we just sit and settle and are aware of thoughts and feelings and finally not become so intimate with our thoughts and feelings that we don't need to get caught by them.

[13:06]

They still are thoughts and feelings. So the full moon is the moon that represents fullness, wholeness, realization, awakening, if you will. So there's a story that's in the commentary that Wansong tells. Just to say a little bit about Wansong, because I'm going to be talking a lot about Hongzhe, who picked the cases and wrote the verses next Saturday from my book Cultivating the Empty Field, Translations of Hongzhe. But Wansong was also very interesting. He lived in Beijing. He had some interesting disciples, including one who became abbot at Shaolin and sort of founded the martial arts tradition at Shaolin. Not because he was a martial artist himself, but he brought together martial arts experts from all of China. That was a time when there was a lot of difficulty and tension and violence.

[14:10]

A difficult time, my gosh. Anyway, Wansong was a great, great teacher. In his commentary in this case, referring back to this line from Hongxue in his verse, like the moon through ivy, a present at that, you know, this is, goes back to the actual moon viewing that is a ceremony in most of East Asia. People actually go out and sit and look at the moon when it's full. Still, they go out and just watch the moon, moon gazers, and especially on the full moon. But this line, like the moon through Ivy, a crescent at that. A lot of times in discussing the moon, the fullness of the moon, the fullness of our lives, poets talk about the moon covered by clouds, or in the song of the Jewel Mara Samadhi, a heron hidden in the moon, a heron flying across the full moon, a white heron, like the white moon.

[15:16]

So there's an issue here about about awakening and wholeness. And it's talked about here in terms of the full moon and the crescent moon. So these old stories, there are these old dialogues between different teachers and, let's see, This one song starts with a story about two other teachers, Yang Shan and Shan Dao. And they were out walking, gazing at the moon. And Yang Shan asked, when the moon is a crescent, where does the round shape go? And when it is full, where does the crescent shape go? Chanda said, when it's a crescent, the round shape is concealed.

[16:20]

When it's full, the crescent shape remains. So they're talking about the moon, but they're also talking about awakening and delusion. Dogen says to be awake through awakening and deluded through delusion. So the full moon, the round shaped moon, is an image of awakening, of wholeness, of fullness. The crescent moon is partial. So Yangshan again asks, when the moon is a crescent, where does the round shape go? And when the moon is full, where does the crescent shape go? Of course, when there's a crescent moon, we can see the outline of the full moon actually. But when we're in awakening, where does delusion go? When we're in delusion, where does awakening go? Shandao said, when it's a crescent, the round shape is concealed. There's no fullness, no wholeness in delusion.

[17:25]

When it's full, the crescent shape remains. So even in awakening, we don't ignore delusion. We don't ignore cause and effect. We don't ignore karma. Okay, so that's the first story. But then there's a story, again, about Yunyan and Dawu. Again, the two brothers, Yunyan was sweeping the ground and Dao was said too busy. But there's this later dialogue between them. They heard about this story about Yangshan and Shandao. Yunyan said, when it is a crescent, the round shape remains. When it's full, the crescent shape does not exist. So when it's a crescent, the round shape is still there. Even in our delusion, wholeness, fullness is still there. When it's full, the crescent shape does not exist.

[18:29]

So that was Yunyan's position, and he is the ancestor, the founder of our family style. Dao said, when it's a crescent, yet it's not a crescent. When it's full, it's still not round. So he's pointing at emptiness. We can't get a hold of either the crescent or the full moon. So these are poetic images, but they're a way of talking about something about our practice. So Dogen has some comments on this later. I'll find it in just a second. So one of the things about

[19:40]

about our family style and this teaching tradition and these teaching stories, these koans, is that they refer back to each other. So Zen is supposedly a tradition of pointing directly to the heart on Valentine's Day or any other day. beyond words and letters. That doesn't mean we don't have words and letters. In fact, we have huge libraries full of commentaries on these stories and commentaries on those commentaries, and then further commentaries on adding to it. But the point is not to be caught by any particular way of talking, by any particular formulation. So, in his extensive record at Hikoroku. Dogen talks, actually talks many times, refers to the story. in one of his, well, in his Shobo Genso essay called Tsuki, or The Moon, he says, the moon is not one moon or two moons, not thousands of moons or myriads of moons.

[20:55]

Even if the moon itself holds the view of one moon or two moons, that is merely the moon's view. So how many moons, which moon is this? How many moons do we have? On our planet, we think we have one moon, but if we look at the phases of the moon, it becomes more complicated. So in the last, Dogen's last talk in 1252 for the mid-autumn full moon, the October full moon, which in East Asia is considered the most beautiful, final full moon in some ways. He talks about the moon having power, whether it's full or present, agreeing with Junghyun. He said, Dogen says, the moon is neither round nor lacking.

[21:59]

How could it wax or wane? So he's in some ways agreeing with Dawu. The moon is neither full nor, nor crescent. But then he says, he has a verse, because of Buddha's majestic power, the palace is bright, 1000 glorious rays appear at once. Even if humans love the moon in mid autumn, the brightness of the half moon is boundless in the heavens. So right in the middle of our delusion, right in the middle of viewing the crescent moon right in the middle of incompleteness, partiality, we can see something that's full, something that's full. This is sometimes referred to as Buddha nature. So there's this possibility of wholeness always. So again, going back to the story,

[23:06]

Daowu saw his brother Yunyan sweeping, and he said, too busy. And maybe all of us at times may feel too busy. But Yunyan said, you should know there's one who's not busy. This is one of the great slogans of our family style, of our teaching style. The tradition of Dongshan, Yunyan and Dongshan, and Dogen who brought it to Japan, and Suzuki Roshi who brought this tradition to California in the 60s. You should know this one was not busy. How do we get to know this calmness, this equanimity, this kindness, this deep love of the one who, for the one who is, Not caught up in busyness, even in the middle of busyness.

[24:13]

And they're not too. So, many phases of the wounds. So, there's so much more to say about this, and I could keep babbling, but maybe that's enough to say. How do you know the one who's not busy? How do you not get caught in thinking there's busyness and there's not busyness? How do we integrate? This is the central point of our family style. How do we integrate this sense of the one who's not busy with all the activities of the world and of our life and of our practice? How do we bring this not busyness into all of our activity without separating them.

[25:16]

So in the Bodhisattva way, in the way of universal liberation, we say that nirvana is right in samsara. So this is also a story that we can say about nirvana and samsara. Nirvana in early Buddhism, in Sanskrit it means cessation. It's about leaving the world, about not being reborn into this world of difficulties, of busyness, of struggles, of seeing some beings as other and separate. But right in the middle of that, as we act to bring peace, to bring love to the world. Nirvana is there. So you should know there's one who's not busy. Questions, comments, Mike, maybe you can help me call on people.

[26:20]

So I could add something about koans for people who don't know about those. This is a story in this koan collection, the Book of Serenity, by Dogen's great-great-uncle, started by Dogen's great-great-uncle Hongzhe. These teaching stories are sometimes misunderstood as riddles or something that you have to figure out an answer to or a response to or whatever. These are stories about our own practice. That's why we've been studying them. So I meant to say in the beginning, Yun Yan was living in the 700s and 800s around then. So this story has been around for a long time. How do we see this question of being too busy and knowing the one who's not busy? and knowing that those are not separate, right in the middle of our lives.

[27:39]

Questions or comments, please feel free. Matt, Thank you for your talk, Tegan. I wasn't planning on talking tonight, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling. So as you know, I have two young kids. Just tonight, I shipped them to piano lessons, choir, and then wrestling. And so I'm always driving them around. Too busy. Yeah, I know, exactly. But while you were talking, I was listening, actually, in the car as I was going to pick up Tony from wrestling. I don't even know what busy is. Like, if I wasn't busy driving them around, I'd be busy, I don't know, reading a book or watching TV, you know? So what is busy? It's just a label. Like, that's what I would ask, you know, Yanyan and Daou is like, what is busy?

[28:49]

I love the holding up the broom. I love the story. I like the one who's not busy, but like we're always busy or we're always not busy like if we're not busy driving people around we're busy sleeping or something you know so I don't know I just I I've heard that you know going a few times but um while you were talking that thought just kind of came to my mind so thank you. So Matt when you're sleeping um how are you in what way are you busy during your sleep? I'm doing something. You know, I don't know if other parents feel this way. You kind of get in this routine like, oh, it's the night that, you know, Calvin has piano and the boys have choir and you just do it and you stop fighting it. You know, there is something about not fighting it. You know, like with Zazen, you know, you can argue about yourself like, I don't want to get up and do Zazen. And eventually, you know, some of us reach that point where we stop fighting and we just do it. And I kind of feel that that's where I'm at. I'm at that stage of my life where I have young kids and being a dad in the year 2022, a single dad means you're driving your kids around.

[29:54]

So, um, I mean, I could fight it. It's not helping if I fight it. So, well, I think part of the story is, do you know this one who's not busy and what does that mean? So we could talk about all the different aspects of busyness. And we could get very busy just delineating all the busynesses that there might be. But what is this one who's not busy? What is this? So this is also a story about sasen. You know, in the middle of our sitting, we may be, our monkey mind may be rolling around with thoughts and feelings and, you know, what am I going to do tomorrow? And what happened earlier today or whatever. Um, But do we also have some sense, some awareness? So do you know, it's not about knowing one who's not busy in the sense of completely defining it, but do we have some sense of some awareness of one who's not caught up in the busyness?

[31:05]

This is, you know, in a period as us, and we might have both, we might be very busy. And then there might be some space where we just settle into our posture, our physical, just sitting, our awareness of sound and smell and so forth. So all of this is, These are all questions. How do we, and it may be different for each one of us. Maybe the one who's not busy is different in each of these Zoom boxes. Yes, David Ray. Thank you, Taigen, for your talk and for talking about this story.

[32:07]

Tonight, that opening question, too busy. just seems like a very strange thing to say to someone sweeping in a temple. And I'm thinking about what kind of, like how to take the tone. It can be incredibly snarky. It can be intimately teasing. It can be a kind of challenge. Yeah, just that. And maybe the thing I'm tying it with tonight is I was talking with you about the way that I'm noticing that I'm more aware of, especially at the end of Zazen, particularly in Zoom, at the end of Zazen, I hear the host unmuting. And I know that means the bell is coming, and my mind immediately has thoughts of evaluating, ah, so how was that sit?

[33:11]

And it's interesting just to say, oh, there's that thought. But that almost feels like the annoying thought, like the little brother that says, too busy. I like what you said at first about the tone, you know? I mean, I read the story as him, you know, chastising the other, you know, two brothers teasing, the brother teasing his, I think, younger brother. Oh, you're too busy. But you know, it could, it might be read as kind of sad. Oh, too busy. You know, what is going on between these two brothers? This story is also about Sangha and spiritual friends. But also, these two brother monks were also siblings. So, yeah, I think there's different ways to, and with every koan, with every teaching story, you know, we can read it in different ways.

[34:17]

So I appreciated your saying that. And, you know, it feels to me, at least initially, as a challenge. I mean, there's two moons, but, you know, there's different ways that might be read. We do tend to set up dualities. You were just talking about it. The end of a period of Zazen, you say, oh, is that a good period or a bad period? You make judgments. This is how our mind works. And it's in our language, subject, verb, object. We see things out there or people out there, and we make assessments or judgments. And how do we see through that? to one who's not making judgments. Or if you make judgments, not worry about that, just to not judge that. So there's a lot that we can play with in this story. And I think that's part of the point of these stories.

[35:19]

How do we see them in different ways? How do we see how they are related to our own story, our own practice, just the way you just expressed in terms of at the end of a period of Zazen. Was there one who's not busy there? Was I too busy in that period of Zazen? Then we can do those things. Our mind does those kinds of things. So the question which, do you mean there's two moons, is a real practice questions. Do we split our reality into right, wrong, good, bad, left, right, whatever? Do we see The full mode, where it's all whole and full and unified. Ogesu, did you have a comment? I do. I was thinking about this, that our practice is

[36:25]

offering and receiving the Dharma in some kind of conversation. And that this, that these discussions in these stories are, even though it looks sometimes like there's, you know, the older brother and the younger brother, and they're like, in some little razzing relationship that there's, they're actually bringing forth the Dharma together and verifying mutually each other's Buddha nature. And that shifts the tone of it a little. I also thought this not busyness kind of along what Matt was saying is, I think you were kind of saying that you're just driving your boys to their situation without trying to, you know, you say resistance, but it's like not trying to get something from it. You know, maybe you want to get your son from here to there, but there's a different just taking care of them. No. just taking care of them and not trying to, you know, are you getting something?

[37:28]

Maybe you're too busy. If you're getting something, you're looking to really extract something from that sweeping. And if you've ever swept monastery steps, it's amazing how the minute you sweep it, there's more leaves go right on the sidewalk and then the bell rings, the work period's over. So there's some, there's some teaching in that beautiful sweeping thing. So that's still, those are just images I have, but especially of this, conversation that we're always in. And this is just, these stories are just kind of telling us we're always in that kind of relationship, dharmic relationship. So thank you, Taigan. Thank you, Hogesu. Yes. As you were saying about Sazen yesterday, in our so-called busyness, you know, our busyness is when we're trying to get something out of it. You know, we're not, we're too busy to notice the our hands on the broom handle and the texture of the broom sweeping the ground.

[38:31]

And, you know, just the reality of just this experience. And we get very busy trying to get something out of it or trying to, you know, think we can get rid of all the leaves, sweep all the dust away as if it's not going to come back or as if it's not going to be more. Anyway, yeah, thank you. The conversation also, the broom is sweeping me. Yes. So there's this is the conversation, you know, like Matt's driving the boys to wrestling, but actually Is wrestling driving you? And it's not like there's one or the other, but this is the kind of softer conversation that I think is so beautiful in practice and in these stories in our lives. So thank you. Yes, yes. Thank you. Yes. So these are stories about the texture of our practice, of being present in this dharma position, in this situation.

[39:39]

And also being pulled away by, you know, all the response, our responses to all of the myriad things, all of the stuff of the world, all the, you know, the green light or the red light at the next intersection as you're going, as wrestling is drawing your car forward, you know. So it's not that we ignore the dust or the leaves or the traffic lights. It's how do we do that without making it into something. But then we do that. That's what David Ray was saying. We do think, oh, that was a good period of Zazen. Oh, that was a crummy period of Zazen. How can we just, okay, I just made that judgment, forget about it, let go of it. These are conversations between our great ancestors and they're conversations that we also have with ourselves and with each other.

[40:45]

Yes, Alex. I think you're muted, Alex. How about now? Can you hear me? Okay. Sorry about that. Taigan, I spoke to you about this talk some weeks ago, and you mentioned that you were giving it on Valentine's Day, and that it had something to do with love, or that it might. Could you talk a little more explicitly about what this Koran has to do with love? Well, all of our practice has to do with love. All of our practice has to do with we take care of ourselves and the world and everything in the world. And there's that aspect of love, which Zen is about.

[41:51]

But in this story, there's this brotherly love or sibling love, you know, as Togetsu was referring to these two characters who were, you know, We don't know if the story happened exactly this way historically, but these were two people who really lived back then, Yun-Yun and Da-Wu, and they were brothers. And they were, you know, whatever tone Da-Wu had when he said, too busy, they're trying, they're supporting each other to, develop their practice, their spiritual friends, as well as brothers. And they may be teasing each other, and they may be giving each other a hard time at times, but they're doing this to help each other fully awaken. So this is also a model for Sangha. You know, how do we, you know, sometimes challenge each other, but help each other to realize who we are and how we are.

[43:01]

So I think that model of sibling love, whether it's brothers or sisters or whatever, is about sangha too. How do we encourage each other or challenge each other to more fully express our deepest awareness to go further. And there's actually many stories about these two characters, Yunyan and Daowu. So there's a whole chapter about Yunyan in my book, Just This Is It, about Dongshan and the practice of Sesshinessen. Yunyan is sort of, I won't go into all the, I don't have time to go into all the stories about this, but there are stories about Yunyan being a complete Zen failure. He studied with two of the greatest teachers, three of the greatest teachers in Zen history. And the record says that he didn't get it for years and years and years.

[44:09]

He just didn't get it. He's a famous Zen failure. And yet he did this to me, he did this wonderful thing. He said, you should know this one who's not busy. So even if he was a Zen failure, eventually he became a teacher of Dongshan who founded Soto Zen in China. So our family style comes from a Zen failure. But all these teaching stories, whether it's brothers or teachers and students or teachers and teachers, are about helping each other to awaken, or to more fully express awakening, to see through the places where we're caught by delusions, or caught by awakening. So, thank you. So, any other comments or questions?

[45:10]

We have time for one more, one or two more. Hey, thank you, Tegan. You're welcome. I just wanted to share that it brings up for me. Recently, a teacher pointed out boredom, and it was as though I had been introduced to somebody I'd never met because I had really been keeping boredom at bay. And as soon as that was shown to me, I thought, oh, my God, where the heck am I? So were you at that point, were you bored or were you avoiding boredom? At that very moment, I wasn't bored, but I'm still not good at really being bored. I think I was maybe 20 years ago, and I just don't even know how to touch it sometimes.

[46:12]

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question. And it reminds me of a saying from one of my older Dharma brothers. Practicing in a Zen monastery or temple or residential center, there's lots of repetitive activity, sweeping the ground, chopping carrots, arranging cushions, monastic life is about repetitive routine activity. It's not about something dramatic and exciting. Some of these old teachings always make you think that the point is to have some dramatic experience or understanding, and that's not the point. So one of the senior monks at San Francisco Zen Center when I was there, and who I knew after when he became abbot of...

[47:15]

the Hartford Street Zendo and the Castro in San Francisco was Philip Whelan, who was a great beat poet. He was friends with Gary Snyder and Ferlin Getty and Kerouac and all those people. And he's very, very erudite, very literary poems, but really a great poet. Anyway, he had this kind of gruff, kind of quality. But one thing he used to say, if it's not boring, it's not Zen. So I could tell a few Philip Whelan stories, but anyway, he just to, so I appreciated your, is it Robert? I can't see very well. Oh, Miles, yes. Yeah, hi. Yeah. Part of our practice is about embracing boredom.

[48:25]

You know, sitting zazen is the same thing all the time, right? Or it's different each time. Either way. We go and bow to our cushion and we sit down and face the wall. And our life is like that too. driving the kids to wrestling again. So how do we appreciate in the middle of that? And okay, question, is boredom busy, being too busy? Is there one not busy in the middle of boredom? Anyway, yeah, I appreciate the question. And yes, it's a good question for us to, for each of us to look at. So is it time to stop? Should I tell one more Philip Waylon story?

[49:29]

That says yes. So, Later on, he was he was Abbot of Hisanji, the Hartford Street Zen Center, and I was living in San Francisco in 1989. There was a big earthquake. Some of you may have heard part of the Bay Bridge fell down and everything was sort of transportation was messed up. And anyway, and I was living, I was working in San Francisco. I'll make the story short. I was working in San Francisco, but I was living in Oakland at the time. And so I, about a week after this big earthquake, when there were big fires down in San Francisco. Anyway, about a week afterwards, it was my first time back in San Francisco. Somehow, I was visiting a friend who lived near

[50:32]

the Hartford Street Zendo, and I went to sit Zazen, the afternoon Zazen, and Philip was there, of course, and in the middle of our sitting in his basement Zendo, there was suddenly a big jolt, an aftershock of the earthquake, and Philip just said, and everything settled down. So anyway, he was not busy in the middle of an earthquake. Anyway, so these stories are, you know, family jewels that we can go to again and again. I've talked about this story many times. Nuggets has probably heard me talk about it more than once. But, you know, each time we talk about it, we can see something different. So this story does have something to do with boredom. So thank you for that.

[51:33]

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