Dina, do you need a seat, a chair? Yes, I'm just going to get one. Let's see. Did she sit up there with you? I could probably not. I could be there. You can sit right here. Would you rather be on the floor? Let's just sit here. Do you need a mic? Sorry, he's playing. I would like a mic, thank you. Thank you. Maybe you would like me to use a mic, too. Yes. The poetic image offered for this this study event here of something like flowers blooming in a withered tree.

[01:04]

And did you hear that? So one understanding of that would be that the flower is a flower of great wisdom. which could also be called the flower of non-discriminating wisdom. The withered tree could be understood as the withering of our clinging to discrimination. or freedom from discrimination. In the withering of our addiction and clinging to discriminations, the wisdom blooms.

[02:07]

So in a sense, one of the main things I'd like to work on is how to let go of discriminations, of discriminating. But I'm not into eliminating discrimination. Does this make a difference? Is it good? Yes. And I often quote Suzuki Rishi. I think I heard him say it in person, but maybe I read it.

[03:14]

Non-discrimination does not mean not discriminating. It means to study everything. Because of discriminating thought, if we sink into the discriminating thought, if we get caught up in discriminating thought, we might think that some things are not really worthy of being studied, like we might discriminate. Oh, that person is that way, or I'm this way. Those are discriminations. But we might not think that it's necessary to study that discrimination about that person because it just happens to be true.

[04:19]

So that's getting caught up in discrimination. That's not studying them. To think that you don't have to study them is another one that needs to be studied. So I'd like us to start studying our discriminations, which, for now, I just don't see any end to them. I think we're going to keep discriminating unless we have some kind of, like, tragic brain injury. where our body and mind can't make discriminations anymore. Which would be a relief in one sense, but we wouldn't have a chance to study then. And if we can't study, we can't let go. And then we can't have wisdom. So part of the study is to carefully, thoroughly, compassionately study

[05:26]

discriminations which are going on, as far as I know, in all of us, from little children to people on the last legs of life, it's going on. Now, one of the main places where it would be great if we let go of our discriminations is the discrimination between our present situation and, let's say, unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment. Now most people, most of you perhaps, see some possibility to discriminate between your present situation, especially if you're really depressed, or really feeling grumpy, or irritable, or self-righteous, thinking you're better than other people, thinking that you're worse than other people, feeling bad anyway,

[06:48]

most of us, when we're feeling really bad, we would think, well, this does seem different than the unhindered bliss of great compassion and wisdom. It does seem, yeah, it seems like even I felt better than this. Actually, the way I feel now is different than the way I felt other times. Not to mention the difference the way I really want to be. Not even feel. The way I would like to be, I would like to be able to always give a compassionate, helpful response to whatever comes my way. And it seems like I don't always do that. Sometimes I am not appreciative of what people offer me. And I even maybe, yeah, don't respond kindly or not appreciating it enough.

[07:51]

Anyway, yeah, sometimes I don't feel like I'm acting like a supremely awakened, compassionate being. But I would like to learn how to be that way. And if it's possible that there is such a state, I'm up for it. And I hope for it, I actually hope for it for everybody. However, the way I am now, and the way some other people are now, there seems to be a discrimination between that and that, or this and that. But aside from the discrimination, besides that, there is no difference between the two. We can discriminate between things that are not different, like Buddhas and deluded beings.

[08:55]

They're not different, but we can easily discriminate between them. And I'm not talking about stopping the discrimination, Here's an unskillful action. Here's a skillful action. I'm not talking about getting rid of the discrimination. I'm talking about not getting sunken. The discrimination between delusion and enlightenment. Between our life right now, our sitting in this room, and whatever we want most for the world. Another discrimination which you've heard about is between samsara and nirvana. Birth and death and freedom — you could say freedom from or with birth and death — and peace and ease.

[10:03]

Those two, you can discriminate between them. And some people who discriminate themselves as Buddhists over the history of the tradition have made that discrimination and sunk into it. Again, some of those people are us. So yeah, that's the basic project here for now and for the foreseeable future is becoming free of discrimination, which is a non-discriminating wisdom. I also wanted to mention how many people were not here during the Dharma talk on Sunday? So, during the Dharma talk I brought up ten vows and ten practices and ten cakes.

[11:17]

the ten vows of the great archetypal bodhisattva, Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is like the bodhisattva of great activity or great work. The bodhisattva works really energetically. It's like the bodhisattva of enthusiasm. He or she is the bodhisattva of vows and practices, vows to practice the practices. And then he has ten vows or ten practices. And in the question and answer, I think Nina asked a question about like the ten vows, and the six paramitas. What was your question? Do you want to say it again? I think I was asking basically what's the difference and how to know which set of practices or vows to turn to if you want to focus on one specifically for where you are.

[12:43]

That's where the question is tonight, anyway. So one of the things I thought afterwards was, we have the six perfections, and the fourth perfection is often called enthusiasm or vigor or energy, effort. And I thought particularly those ten vows of Samantabhadra would all go into that fourth parameetha. So those ten vows are kind of like a great expansion of that simple idea of enthusiasm. So vowing is very much the heart of enthusiasm.

[13:50]

The enthusiasm is based on vows, and vows are based on aspirations. So vows are commitments to an aspiration, and aspiration is based on what you think is really great. what you think is most important in life. And you may not feel that Samantabhadra's ten vows are really your ten vows.

[15:17]

But I think if you had those ten vows, you might be full of enthusiasm for doing all kinds of all kinds of good practices. So the ten vows are, again, ten vows to practice, ten practices. And the first vow is to practice paying homage to great enlightenment, to pay homage to, for example, to pay homage to non-discriminating wisdom, to pay homage to all Buddhas. All Buddhas are non-discriminating wisdom. Non-discriminating wisdom is all Buddhas.

[16:29]

To pay homage to that. is a practice. And so to vow to do that practice, and to vow to do that practice the way Samantabhadra does it, which is to vow to do that practice every moment. So no matter what you're doing, The practice could be done every moment. Whenever the practice is done, it's done in a moment. If any of us ever did vow to pay homage to non-discriminating wisdom, we would do it in a moment.

[17:32]

So Samantabhadra is vowing to do it in a moment and also vowing to do it in every moment without ceasing. It doesn't mean we can't do it yet. It doesn't even mean that Samantabhadra could do it. Samantabhadra didn't say in the text, he didn't say, I vow to pay homage to all Buddhas in every moment and by the way, I actually do I never heard Samantabhadra say that. However, some onlooker who can read minds watching Samantabhadra may say, and you know what? Not only does she vow to do it every moment, she actually does pay homage every moment, no matter what she's doing. But whether or not

[18:33]

we are able to pay homage to Buddhas moment after moment, we could still, even so, even if we weren't able to, we could vow to do it. We could aspire to and commit to learning how to do that. there's a text, and again, people say, what text are we going to study? So I tell you text, but we're not going to bring whatever number of people here, we're not going to bring that number of copies of the Shobo Genzo to read in class, or even half that number.

[19:39]

So I'll tell you that what I'm saying is coming from an essay written by the Zen teacher, the Buddhist teacher, Dogen. And the name of the essay is Dharani. And that text is, in a way, the main thing about the text is paying homage to a good teacher. Maybe the central point of the essay is, in order to realize the Buddha way, it depends on the power, the function of paying respect to a good teacher. Of course, the Buddha is a pretty good teacher.

[20:42]

But you could also pay respects to somebody who wasn't quite a Buddha. But somebody who was a pretty good teacher, to pay respects to them might be something that you aspire to do in a moment. And some people might make it easier to remember to do that than others. I travel around the world and I go places where people do not have a teacher. They don't have a sangha. And they sort of say, I need a teacher, I want a teacher, what can I do? And I say, I don't know exactly, but what's important is that you want a teacher. And tonight I'm saying, if you want a teacher, good. And then if you ever see a teacher or can even think of a teacher, pay homage to the teacher you think of.

[21:46]

You can pay homage to a teacher who you can't... You can pay homage to a teacher who's over these mountains and is in Palo Alto. You can like, you know... in this room or go outside and bow down on the ground in the direction of the teacher and do a prostration as a gesture of paying homage. So in the fascicle it says that. One way the fascicle is translated is you can pay... I think it says pay homage to the good teacher, to the good friend, to the Buddha. regardless of time and space, time and place." So, one translation says, pay homage while lying down, pay homage while going to the toilet, pay homage while walking down the hall, pay homage while eating meals.

[22:53]

That's one translation. The other translation is, pay homage while the teacher's lying down. Pay homage while the teacher's going to the toilet. Pay homage while the teacher's eating. Satsikarishi had two main teachers. One was his Dharma transmission teacher, a very strict person named Jokarjun Sohn, Daioh Shou, And after his teacher died, his teacher died quite young, I think Susie Kuroshi was maybe 30 or 32 when his teacher died. And then from then until, from that time on he studied with another teacher named Kishizawa Iyan. And he studied with that teacher until that teacher died. And that four years after that teacher died in 1955, he came to the US, to San Francisco.

[23:54]

But he studied with that teacher from the time he was, yeah, I think like 32 to 55. And that teacher studied with another teacher who, I don't know, you could say maybe he was a pretty good teacher. But anyway, Kishizawa studied with Nishihara Bokusan. And Nishihara Bokusan said to this student, who was a pretty sincere student, he's one of Sisakurashi's main teachers, and his teacher said to him, you're not my disciple. You're not my disciple. And he said, well, why? Why do you say that? And he said, because when I'm lying down, you don't bow to me. When I'm going to the bathroom, you don't bow to me. And of course it's understandable, you know, if somebody's going to the bathroom, bow.

[25:06]

Anyway, Samantabhadra says, I will do it when they're going to the bathroom, when they're going in, when they're going out. No matter what they're doing, there's going to be no pause in the homage. So I'll do it all the time. No matter what they're doing. And what about if they're not even around? What about if they're on the other side of a mountain and say, if they're on the other side of the mountain, if they're in another room, if they're behind a screen. So our Zen ancestors, kind of near Zen ancestors, and ancient Indian bodhisattvas had this practice of paying homage to the Buddhas. And you could say they're successors, they're disciples. So I said, you know, that in order to realize perfect wisdom, we have to give up discrimination.

[26:17]

I think so. But again, giving up discrimination doesn't mean eliminating it. It means working with it. And one of the main ways, one of the main opportunities for us... It's just awesome that I think about it. One of the main opportunities for giving up discrimination is paying homage, is paying respect. Paying respect sometimes is not that difficult. I didn't have any problem paying respect to Suzuki Roshi. I said to him once, how come I don't have any problems with you? How come I don't have any problems appreciating you and respecting you? I didn't. Like occasionally he gave me some pointers. I never thought, who are you to tell me what?

[27:22]

I never had any. I was like, thank you. But why don't I have any problems? And he said, you will. But then he died. Not too long after that. Before I might discriminate and say, you know, this is an occasion where I'm going to pass on the homage. This is a case where I'm not really going to respect this teacher because he's a little bit misled or misleading or whatever. One time he was walking around. Before Zen Center was at 300 Pei Street, it was located on 1881 Bush. He was walking around the temple, which is called Sokoji, and he walked into a closet. He thought it was a bathroom, but he went in the closet. And his wife said, You're a Zen master. You should pay attention to where you're going.

[28:23]

Laughter And then he had this kind of defensive remark. He said, I have more important things to think about. And I heard that and thought, hmm. But that was okay with me that he, I could still pay homage to him even though he kind of like was a little defensive on that occasion. Not very often, but seemed really defensive. Also, I think maybe the first talk I heard him give, which you've heard the story before, he said, I'm not enlightened. And I thought, oh. I was a little disappointed. But I thought, he's still the best teacher I ever met.

[29:29]

I'm still going to pay my respects to him, even if he's not enlightened. I don't care. I just say I don't care. He's still good. I'm going to still hang in there with him, even though he tells me what he just told me. He told some other people, too. The next talk he said, I am Buddha. And I thought, yeah, that's more like it. Again, but that didn't make me feel like, well, now I'm not going to pay homage to him. Now I'm not going to be respectful to him because he said he's Buddha. I don't know, I was really lucky that the whole time I knew him I was like, respect, respect, respect. However, there still might have been a little discrimination between him, this really nice teacher, and me, a young monk who had some stuff to work on, someone might say, to say the least.

[30:37]

I don't know if he was a Zen master, but anyway, he was pretty good. And I really appreciated him. I did. Could I have appreciated him more? Maybe. But I was really happy to be with him. I felt so fortunate I got to hang out with him. And I didn't follow him around the building. But I was right nearby all the time. If he needed me, which he sometimes did, I was right there. So I did have a great opportunity to be with him. I'm so fortunate. But there was still some discrimination between, in my mind, between us. By practicing paying homage to the teacher, to the Buddhas, that practice will melt the discrimination between us and Buddha without getting rid of it.

[31:55]

That's one practice. And you don't have to think about the teacher, but you can. But when you sit zazen, you can make your sitting — that's sitting practice — you can make that an act of homage to all Buddhas. And many of our ancestors, that's the way they sat. They sat as an act of of alignment and appreciation of all Buddhas. And I would suggest to you that if you sit that way, you'll start to feel the enthusiasm of the bodhisattvas. No matter what quality of sitting you have, each of us has our own stuff, If you're sitting, this kind of sitting is offered as homage to Buddhas.

[33:09]

This kind of sitting, like this person's really concentrated, this one's a little bit concentrated, this one's pretty distracted. All three of those zazens can be homage to the Buddhas and an opportunity, without getting super-concentrated and super-starved at concentration. Whatever you are, you can offer that as homage to Buddhas, and that can melt away. Before you get to be a good meditator, while you're still not a very good meditator, that discrimination between not too good meditator and the best meditator can drop away. You can get not stuck in it. And they always have not been separate. So the practice can realize the Buddha's awakening. And then the other nine practices.

[34:16]

Praise the Buddhas. Buddhas sit in meditation. I praise the Buddhas so much, I'm going to praise the Buddhas by doing what they did. Make offerings to Buddha. I'm going to sit now, a period of sitting. I don't know what's going to happen, but this sitting is offered to all the Buddhas. no matter what the quality of my sitting, it's not just my sitting, it's a gift to the Buddhas. There's other things to give to Buddhas, too. You can give flowers, candlelight, various kinds of incense. perfumes, jewels, food, recitation of teachings, they're all good too. But, for example, when you're sitting, your sitting can be an offering to Buddhists.

[35:20]

You don't have to stop sitting and go over to the altar and put something on the altar. You sitting at your seat, you can make that a gift to the Buddhas. And all those practices will be conducive to melting away, clinging to the discrimination between the world of suffering and the world of bliss and freedom. And then there's seven more, but maybe I won't go into them tonight. But they all, if we practice them, they all generate enthusiasm for enlightenment, which means enthusiasm for giving up the distinction between our ordinary human mind and the Buddha mind. It doesn't mean our ordinary human mind is going to be gotten rid of

[36:24]

Everybody here's got an ordinary human mind. And the ordinary human mind can make a distinction between itself and other ordinary human minds. This person really likes to travel. This person likes to make money. This person likes to study. Human minds can make those distinctions among people. That's going to go on. Right? Or even I'm not as great as her. I'm not as enlightened as the Buddha. Fine. How about letting go of that? This is suffering, and therefore I can discriminate between that and bliss and freedom. Yes? Right. And again, letting the discrimination drop away doesn't mean getting rid of it, it also doesn't mean trying to get rid of it, and it doesn't mean thinking badly of it.

[37:43]

It actually means to study it, to pay attention to it, and paying attention to it as an act of homage also. Would you hold that, please? To tell you the truth, there's a human mind, and I won't say who lives there, what the name of the person who lives there is, but there's a human mind that sometimes thinks, oh, another period of meditation. This may or may not be interesting, what's coming up. should I do something to make it interesting? Like memorize a poem? Then if I did that, even if I didn't really memorize a poem, at least I'd get some progress in memorizing it.

[38:50]

So the period wouldn't be a total waste of time. Plus I'd be somewhat concentrated if I was actually able to memorize it. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Or maybe I'll recite one of the scriptures I've memorized. That would be kind of fun. Or maybe I'll just listen to silence. Or maybe I'll listen to the cries of the world. And maybe I'll make this sitting here an act of paying homage to all Buddhas. And I could do that even if I was doing those other things. And so I'm not going to tell you what the Zen rhetoric is, to say that you're not going to tell people.

[40:00]

I'm not going to tell you that if you pay homage to all Buddhas, I mean, you actually do feel respect for them and you actually remember that and feel that and kind of say it. If you do that, you will be filled with joy. I'm not going to say that. And that joy will melt away your clinging to your discriminations. I'm not going to say that. And also, but I am going to say a poem, which I said on Sunday, which is a poem which I recited when I was bowing before the Dharma talk, which is, the one who's bowing, the one who's bowed to, their nature, empty, peaceful,

[41:05]

and full of compassion. The one bowing, the one bowed, they have the same nature. I have the same nature as the Buddhists. My nature is also that way. I have the same nature, you have the same nature as Buddhists. Your nature is vast emptiness filled with compassion. That's your nature. Of course the one we're bowing to has realized that. My body other bodies, my body and Bodhisattva's body, my body and Buddha's body, are not two. We can discriminate them as two, but they're not. The bowing verse says not. So while we're bowing, we can do that verse. Again, that verse is saying, please consider giving up the discrimination between your body and Buddha's body.

[42:16]

Buddha's body is by definition completely is your body the way it really is. And the next line is giving rise to the unsurpassed aspiration or intention. And the next line is return to where you never left. the realm of ultimate truth. I did say that. When there's bowing, when there's paying respect in the world, there's Buddha Dharma in the world.

[43:34]

When there's not paying respect in the world, there's no Buddha Dharma in the world. That's an essay. So if anybody here wants to make sure the Buddha Dharma is alive in the world, prostration to Buddha and the Buddha Dharma is alive. Now if you skip doing it, if you miss a moment, probably somebody else is, so it's okay. So now we have a little bit more time for anybody who wishes to Yeah, wishes to say anything about discrimination or wishes to share any discriminations? Yes? I was wondering how this practice might help between discrimination and non-discrimination and at a point in time that seems so politically divided as we go into a presidential election.

[44:50]

Maybe you might have some words that would be helpful for all of us. Well, before I give you my truckload of words that would be helpful, is there anything you have that would be helpful? No, the reason I'm asking is... You think I have something that's helpful and you don't? The reason I would like to ask the question is so that for those of us, when we leave the valley, how might we serve all beings with gift bestowing hands? That sounds good to me. That question sounds good. So if anybody ever goes up that road, Did you hear his question? Say your question again.

[45:53]

We're going over the road. What's the question? So some of us are going to be leaving this valley. No, no, let's say you're leaving the valley. You're driving out now, and you say to yourself, How do I serve all sentient beings with gift of stirring hands? At a period of time, that's the... You don't have to add that second part. We know about that. Just say the first part. How can I do that? That's a really good thing to do as you're driving out. And also when you come back, it's good to do it too. How can I serve all beings with gifts, throwing hands as I go back into Green Gulch where they have their issues? So I just heard a, I think it was a podcast, it's called, it's about the man who wrote Stamped from the Beginnings. and he wrote a new book, and the new book is about anti-racism. He says most, a lot of people think they're not racist.

[46:55]

So he's not so much into not racist, because a lot of people think they're not racist. He's into anti-racist. So how can we work to oppose racism rather than say we don't have it? So how can we work with our discriminations rather than say we don't have them? So we have discriminations, and people are helping us have discriminations in various ways about many things, and if we fall into our discriminations, that will just be more suffering for us, and we'll be showing other people how to suffer, which is not entirely useless. But it would be nice if we could also learn how not to fall into our discriminations.

[48:03]

Yeah, I was just looking at these, what do you call it, the democratic politicians. and they're being so mean to each other. It just seems so sad that these really kind of pretty upstanding people are acting so disrespectful to each other. They don't seem to be taking homage in each other. Maybe if they had a sense, I'm about to be eliminated, I'm going to spend the next few days of my campaign paying homage to the other people. Because I think you can see a lot of... One of Samantabhadra's vows is, I vow to be joyful at the merit and virtues of others. I probably won't get elected if I were to express my joy at the merit and virtues of all the people who are running for office, that probably nobody would vote for me.

[49:19]

So this may not be a way to get elected, to practice that, to talk about the virtues of these people. Can you imagine talking about the virtues of some people? It seems like kind of a good exercise for a person who's trying to become wise. That might help this world if people were working on becoming free of discrimination. Part of the way to become free of discrimination is to find virtue and merit in people who are acting pretty clearly, immaturely, dishonest, selfishly. You've seen some people like that, right? Samantabhadra did not say, I vow not to be able to see anybody's shortcomings.

[50:25]

Before... before vowing to rejoice in the merit and virtues of others, he vowed to reveal and disclose and reform his own shortcomings. So it would help this world if we were more aware of our shortcomings as an act of realizing Buddhahood, for me to be aware and apologize for my shortcomings, whether I say it out loud or not, will melt away the attachment to the discriminations between myself and others. will bring benefit, it will protect beings in this world where so many beings are harmed, if I would be more attuned to my shortcomings.

[51:35]

And it would make me, and does make me, appreciate other people more. The more I see my shortcomings, the more my eyes open to the virtue of others. And for me to be aware of my shortcomings, I propose, is an act of compassion. It protects beings. For me to be aware of my shortcomings. And I can see them. And for me to be aware of my shortcomings and to joyfully and painfully honestly disclose them to the appropriate listeners, the Buddhas, and anybody, other respected friends. It protects beings.

[52:38]

And it melts adherence to discrimination. And it helps me see virtue in people who are unskillful. unkind, confused, frightened, violent. And if you can see merit and virtue in them, you have the opportunity to show that to them and wake them up. Because people think you're really smart when you appreciate them. I mean, really, really appreciate them. So those two practices are particularly relevant in a really unfortunate circumstances of where I'm unskillful and some other people are too. I concentrate on my shortcomings and then I see their virtues and then we've got something really positive going on and we're also working on becoming free of discrimination.

[53:46]

So this brings benefit now, and it starts to loosen up our adherence to our discrimination. So I still discriminate that I was unskillful, but I don't have to hold that tenaciously. I can just say, I think I was unskillful, that's how it looks to me, and I'm sorry. But I'm not saying I actually know for sure that that was unskillful, because you might say, no, it really helped me. Oh, it did? Oh, it wasn't then. Yes? I was looking for a few graphical tips on distinguishing studying from overthinking. Just one or two. I think what would be good is if you could give an example of where you were studying to somebody else who was interested in studying, and they might say to you, you know, I think you're overthinking. And you might say, how so?

[54:49]

And they say, well, like this. And you say, oh, yeah. They might say, well, you could do it like this, and that would be like thinking about it, but it would be like not overthinking about it. So probably to find, if you're trying to study and you think there's a possibility of overstudying or overthinking, that would be really a good thing to have a conversation about and give somebody an example. Like you might even think, I think I studied and didn't overthink. What do you think of that? Yeah, I think you're right. I think that was just right. You just studied it just thoroughly, but not too much. Thank you. You're welcome. So maybe you can find some people to talk to. I think I have tea with you tomorrow. Okay. Well, I think you get the picture. And can you believe that we have five more meetings to study discrimination and become free of it?

[55:51]

By studying it, by getting to know it better, we'll become more and more free of it. That's the kind of amazing proposal I'm offering. And also, one other thing is that we need to We need to become free of our discriminations. They're going to keep going on, and if we hold on to them, it's going to hurt ourselves and others. I propose that. Does anybody disagree with that? Let me know next week. So we do have discrimination. We're trying to learn how to not be working on typing. And work with them skillfully and creatively and artistically. We can make masterpieces with our discriminations. We can make a culture of wisdom by working with our discriminations.

[56:55]

And we can help each other. We can call each other into question about how or what our... Tell me about that discrimination. And then tell me about whether you're flexible about that. Could you look at it from another... This kind of thing we can help each other with. We had a meeting today. talking about some possible new ways to relate to the zazen schedule here at Green College. And we had this was going on that went quite well. People were pretty kind and respectful about our different discriminations about the schedule. Meantime, thank you so much. Good night. Let our attention equally stand to a healing place.

[57:58]

Let your blood flow this way.

[58:01]

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