A few weeks ago, Red Tenshin Anderson and I were invited to Japan to attend a small conference with the Soto School on how to proceed with translating Japanese Buddhist texts to America by American scholars and practitioners. It was a very good conference, and the Soto School seems to be willing to finance our scholars and practitioners to do translating. One of the things that came out of that was that we want to re-translate all of the liturgy

[01:10]

that we do, all of the chants that we do in America, so that all of the Zen centers will have some common liturgy. So if you go from one Zen center to another, they'll be chanting the same thing, unless they choose not to. There are no Zen police, so people are free to do what they want, but we would like to come to some common translation, and the more we translate, the deeper we get into the meaning of what these chants are. So that's one side of the project. The other side of the project is that the scholars will be financed to translate Zen

[02:15]

master Dogen's Shobo Genzo within a space of five years, and they will produce scholarly translations, which will be an aid to teachers, and common translation, which will be a more thinner volume for the general public. So I'm very optimistic about that, and that's something that we will see how it develops in the future. But one of the things that the Japanese school wanted us to translate, particularly, was something called the Shushogi. Shushogi was put together in 1888 by the abbot of Eheji and the abbot of Sojiji, the two

[03:28]

head temples of the Soto school in Japan, and it lays out in five points, it lays out five points which they feel are the fundamental points of Soto Zen, and they gleaned this material from Zen master Dogen's Shobo Genzo, which is his great work on the meaning of Buddhadharma, which Dogen, if you don't know, was the 13th century founder of our school in Japan, and he's considered a great philosopher in Japan, but philosophy is not what he was doing. The scholars in the world are resurrecting Dogen as a philosopher, and they criticize

[04:38]

the Soto school as being too practice-oriented toward Dogen, but Dogen was a practitioner, and all of whatever he wrote was for practitioners on how to practice, and the meaning of Zen practice, but many scholars in the world see Dogen as a great philosopher. So there's two camps of how he's appreciated, from which he's appreciated. So, bringing together practitioners and scholars to do this translating, I think, is a very good thing, and the scholars will get feedback from the practitioners, and the practitioners will be fed by the scholars.

[05:40]

So it's a kind of mutual coming together, which is very rare, actually, and as the scholars do their translating, they'll have seminars with the Zen students, because Zen students are the reading public. So, anyway, this shishogi, the five points of Soto Zen, is very important for the Soto school in Japan, and it's never been very important for us in America, because the five points don't mention Zazen. When the Japanese teachers came to America 30 years ago or so, 35 years ago, maybe more, to bring Soto Zen to America, their message was Zazen.

[06:50]

The main point was sitting Zazen, and so when you come to a Zen center in America, Zazen is what you're presented with. But in Japan, during the Meiji period, which was during 1888, the government turned the monks out of the monasteries, and this was the beginning of the temple system in Japan, as it is today, where the monks started taking care of family temples, and the monks were made to marry and have families. So it became more family-oriented, and more oriented toward lay people. And in Japan, monks sit Zazen, and lay people do other things.

[07:51]

So the Soto school turned into a kind of church for lay people, and Zazen was minimized. Most of the temples in Japan, small temples, have a little zendo, but people rarely sit in them. So, when the Shushogi was produced, it included many points, five really good points of Dogen's teaching, but didn't include Zazen, because it was meant mainly for lay people, who were not sitting Zazen. So, for a Japanese Zen school, it's very important, but it wasn't so important for

[08:53]

us because the main point of our practice had been Zazen. But I think it is important, and I think it's important for us to know what it is, know these points are, know what the school felt were the five main points of Dogen's teaching. So, I'm going to talk a bit about Shushogi. The first point of Shushogi is that we should clarify the meaning of birth and death. That's the most important fundamental thing for everyone. Birth and death are two inevitable facts for us.

[10:02]

The fact that we can't do anything about our birth, and we can't do anything about our death, apparently. This is the realm of ordinary understanding. But in Buddhadharma, we must understand what birth and death really are, look deeply into the nature of birth and death in order to find our way. The second point, I will come back to these points, I just want to mention the first. The second point is the fact of repentance, that it's very important to acknowledge our shortcomings as practitioners, and to seek the help of all the Buddhas and ancestors.

[11:10]

I know that one time somebody, several times, somebody has come to me and said, you know, I thought this Zen was something different, but it's just like the Catholic Church. Sorry. In some ways, it is. I think repentance is, I'll come back to that. The third point is the importance of following precepts, taking the precepts, the 16 precepts, and following the precepts as a way of life, and acknowledging or realizing our affinity

[12:14]

with all the Buddhas and ancestors. This is a very important point, the point of connecting. And the fourth is the vow to save all sentient beings. In Buddhadharma, saving all sentient beings means to help everyone to realize their own nature, to bring everyone to enlightenment, before even we're enlightened ourself. It's important to be the doorman, to open the door, to let others pass through, and then when everybody's passed through, you come through. And the fifth point is constant practice and gratitude.

[13:23]

Constant practice, meaning there's no such thing, if you're a student, a Zen student, there's no such thing as a time when you're not practicing. And if you really understand what practice is, then you have a heart of gratitude. And gratitude actually is a sign of enlightenment, to feel gratitude for all the people that have come before you, and for your present situation, no matter what it is. There's another point, and that is the point of, this very mind is Buddha. To realize this very mind is Buddha.

[14:27]

To understand the meaning of birth and death, and to realize this very mind is Buddha, are the two main points. The first is to understand who you are, and what you are, and what your possibilities are. This mind is Buddha means that you have the same mind as Shakyamuni Buddha. And when you have enlightenment, you are Shakyamuni Buddha. So I'm going to go back to the first point, clarifying, clarifying, clarifying the meaning

[15:35]

of birth and death. I think we have to define our terms in what we mean by birth, and what we mean by death. By birth, if you say something is born in Buddhadharma, it means something comes from nothing. And when you say death, it means that from nothing, from something, you come to nothing. So in Buddhadharma, we say no birth and no death. Within birth and death, Dogen says, is a Buddha. Buddha means, in this sense, means no birth, no death. It's just continuous process of life itself.

[16:40]

Birth and death are continuous with each other. It's like the foot before and the foot behind in walking. We take one step into death, the next step is into birth, the next step is into death. Like this. Birth and death are like two sides of a line, which is continually moving. So, something doesn't come from nothing. Something comes from something. This is fundamental Buddhist understanding. Something comes from something. Everything has a cause.

[17:44]

That's the simple understanding of Buddhism. Everything comes from something. So, we say, basically, there is no self. No self doesn't mean that there's not something existing. Of course, there's something existing. We're all here as something, as somebody. But this somebody is also not somebody. This somebody is a process, which has been going on forever. And will continue forever, even though forever, don't take it literally. So, we say, no birth and no death.

[18:47]

But there is a process, and the process is determined by our actions. And those actions are called our karma. And whatever we do produces the conditions for the next moment, or for the next lifetime, or for the next whatever. Everything is the result of something else. So, all of us sitting here are the result of something. The result of all the karma of our ancestors. We are our ancestors. We've always been here. We didn't just appear now.

[19:53]

Although, yes, we did just appear now. But even though we just appeared now, we've always been here. We've always been here in our parents, in our grandparents, in all the ancestors. We are our ancestors, and we are our future. We'd better be careful. So, people say, well, if Buddhists don't have a deity, what about morality? Well, there's no greater cause for morality than the law of karma. So, life is continually becoming, continually transforming.

[20:59]

And there is no separate and eternal life. I am an entity called myself. I just depend on everything. What I call myself is, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, I am made up of all the things that I am not. Because of all the things that I think I'm not, I am. I am the sunshine, the water, the air, the earth. You know, this body is not mine, even though I call it my body. I say, I'm breathing, but actually, breathing, I am being breathed. It's not something that I do.

[22:02]

It's just something that happens. If you try holding your breath for a while, then you'll see what I mean. The blood runs through the veins. It has nothing to do with you. And each one of us is breathing the same air. Just contemplate that for a moment. We're all feeding on the same subsistence. Subsistence. We're all subsisting on the same air. It's very delicate. We eat our way through the world and leave a trail behind us, like earthworms. But it's not something we do volitionally.

[23:10]

We do get hungry, and we choose our food. So there's some choice. There is choice. And so we are these beings that have choice. Feelings, perceptions, thoughts, mental formations, consciousness, and form. That's what we are. And without any one of those five, we don't really exist. But we do have some choice, and some way to direct this mass of... this stream, these five streams of what we call myself. So this transformation is constantly going on. And for a Buddhist practitioner, we should be careful not to waste our time,

[24:17]

but to really make big effort to understand what we are, who we are, where we're going, and how to take care of our life and the life around us. Then Dogen talks about release through repentance. All of us, without exception, are making mistakes, putting our foot in where it shouldn't go, getting off the track. Repentance means...actually, I looked up the root of repentance, it means pain. If you look it up in an etymological dictionary, it comes from the root pain. And it means to feel bad about pain,

[25:18]

feel remorse about pain, and to do something about it. One has a painful feeling because of not living up to ourself, and that's painful, and we feel remorseful, and so we express that and ask for help from the universe. The universe actually supports us, and we ask for help from the universe by acknowledging our faults, and then we can turn around and become whole again. So in Buddhism, when we talk about, not so much about sin, but about ignorance, ignorance, but through ignorance we do the wrong things.

[26:32]

So, turning around and letting go of ignorance, and getting back on the path. So, we're always falling off the path. If you've ever sat zazen, you know you're supposed to sit with a good posture, and breathe, and not think too much. Not do any volitional thinking, although thoughts are always there. But, you know, no matter how hard you try, you're always drifting off. But then, when you catch yourself, you come back. That's repentance. Zazen is a kind of repentance, kind of returning to wholeness. After you split off, you return to wholeness. So, continually letting go and returning to wholeness. So, repentance could be something that you do sometimes when you do something bad,

[27:40]

but it's also continually, a continuous process of letting go. and returning to wholeness. So, Dogen has a little formula here, which I'll read. He says, the essence of repentance is as follows. Even though the accumulation of our past bad karma is so great that it forms an obstacle to practicing the way, we beseech the various enlightened and compassionate Buddhas and ancestors to help free us from karmic retribution, eliminate all obstacles in the practice of the way, and share with us their compassion, for it is through this compassion that their merit in teaching

[28:43]

fills the entire universe. In the past, Buddhas and ancestors were originally just like us. In the future, we shall become like them. All our past evil deeds were the result of beginningless greed, anger, and ignorance, products of our body, speech, and mind. All of these we now repent. So, that's pretty simple. So, you know, when we don't acknowledge, then everything that we don't acknowledge becomes an impediment or a weight that holds us down, keeps us back. So, when we can do that, then we have pure practice. Which helps ourselves, and which also helps others.

[29:45]

The third point is precepts and enlightenment. If you follow a Buddhist path, to connect with Buddha's path, we say Buddha is the perfect teacher, Dharma is the perfect teaching, and Sangha is the perfect life. Those are the first three. They're not exactly precepts, but they're refuges. In other words, we say, I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. There's another way to say that. I return to Buddha. I return to Dharma. I return to Sangha. Which means to come back to ourself.

[31:00]

Or another way to say it is, I am one with Buddha. I am one with Dharma. I am one with Sangha. Refuge is okay. It's like a safe place. So any of those three ways, I think, are okay. And then the three pure precepts, vowing to do what is good, and to avoid what is evil, and to devote your life to helping all beings. Those are three pure precepts, which are more general. And then the ten prohibitory precepts, not to kill, steal, and so forth. So living by these precepts is very important.

[32:07]

This gives us a touchstone for our life. Precepts are not commandments, but a touchstone for how to behave, how to review our life. Not to practice literally always, precepts are very deep, and there are many ways to understand precepts. So just to understand precepts as rules is not enough. We have to be able to understand precepts in a way that is deeper than rules and allows us to make decisions based on the way things actually are.

[33:09]

The first precept says, don't kill, don't take life unnecessarily. But the nature of life is that it's always being taken by everything. Everything is feeding on everything else. Buddha described it as the law of the fishes. The big fish eat the little fish, which eat the littler fish, and so forth. At this very moment, we are killing something, so to speak. And something is killing us, so to speak, in the process of transformation. So what does it mean not to kill? It means in a moral sense to cherish life,

[34:13]

not to kill over greed or over anger or through delusion. At Tassajara, in past years, there are many flies in Tassajara during the summer. It's a certain season when the flies are really thick. And so we used to set out fly traps that lured the flies into a gallon jug and then be full of these buzzing flies. And then we'd take them and burn them. But before we burned them, we'd chant the Heart Sutra, acknowledging that we have to do something that we don't really like doing or want doing. And we acknowledge

[35:20]

the right of the flies to be flies, but we can't tolerate them in such concentrated numbers. So it's not something we want to do or like doing, but we have to do it. But when we do it, we do it acknowledging life, acknowledging something. So precepts have many sides, and not just literal meaning. Literal meaning is one aspect, but fundamental meaning is much deeper. And every act that we do, moment by moment, is based on precepts, but it's based on how do I act in this moment? And what is the precept?

[36:23]

If you take it literally, you may actually be transgressing the precept. Whereas if you do it with some circumspection, it will help you. This is the problem with fundamental religion. We get so fundamental that we think that every word that was written down is the literal word of the Lord to be followed, which is a big mistake. And the fourth one is to save all beings before we enter nirvana, the bodhisattva vow. You know, the four fundamental truths of Buddhism

[37:30]

are beings are subject to suffering. This life is a life of ill ease or suffering, as we know. And the reason is, the biggest reason for our suffering is craving, frustration through craving, wanting too much life, wanting too much of something, of anything, or expecting something to be a certain way, and it doesn't work out that way. And that there is a way, the third one is that there is a way out of that, a way to be free from our suffering. Not free from pain, free from suffering. And the fourth is to follow the path of Buddha.

[38:32]

Those are the four noble truths. And the bodhisattva vows are the vow, the first vow is a response to the first truth. I vow to save all beings from suffering and confusion. That's the first bodhisattva vow. The second one is, I vow to let go of craving or delusion, which is really difficult. Even though it's difficult, we make the effort anyway. So making the effort is the most important part. Not a matter of failure or success, it's a matter of making the effort, because in the effort you will realize your true life.

[39:37]

And the third is to study the self, study the way. And the fourth is the fourth is to practice the Dharma. So the first one, though, to help save or awaken with all sentient beings is the main bodhisattva vow. It means that you put everyone else before yourself, but you don't forget yourself. You also include yourself. So we have two sides of practice. One side is we practice to develop our self, to understand our self.

[40:42]

And the second is we practice to help everyone else. And actually those two are the same, but they're two different aspects of the same thing. So enlightenment is lack of selfishness. So helping all beings to enlightenment is really a bodhisattva's practice. So we say bodhisattva vows to save all beings before entering nirvana, but that's already enlightenment. That's the vow of enlightenment, excuse me, of an enlightened person, even though you don't know your own enlightenment. If you truly have this vow

[41:44]

and make that effort, you are expressing enlightened understanding. And sometimes we don't know our own enlightenment. It's like standing in the middle of a pond and saying, where's the water? Enlightenment is not so difficult. Continuous practice, that's difficult. To have pure practice, that's difficult. So no need to really, it's important to raise the thought of enlightenment and to have that in front of us. But what we actually work on is our practice. If you spend too much time worrying about enlightenment, you get further and further into delusion.

[42:44]

So the best thing is just to do the work, never mind the result. If you do the work, the enlightenment is right there. The meaning of shushogi is practice is enlightenment, and enlightenment is practice. But if you go out to try and catch the enlightenment, you can't do it, it won't work. You can only do the practice. Dig the holes, clean the toilets, do the grunt work. That's the practice, never mind the result. While you're doing that, the enlightenment is right there. But if you try to recognize it or catch it,

[43:47]

it's not there. And the fifth one is constant practice and gratitude. Continuous practice means not just sitting zazen on the cushion, but in everything we do, we carry... You're washing the dishes. How is this practice? How do I practice in this situation? Just wash the dishes. If you just sit zazen, just wash the dishes, you just walk from one place to another. Without expectations, you just do what you have to do. Without thinking about reward or result, you just practice with the precepts.

[44:50]

You just practice non-duality. One of the... In our vow, you know, when we make a vow of... Bodhisattva's vow, there... Dogen names four practices that we should pay attention to. One is making offerings or giving or generosity to give material things, to give spiritual things, and to give yourself. To give yourself is... enlightened practice. Continuous giving

[45:54]

without the thought of reward. And... The second one is loving words, giving encouragement to people, speaking in a way that is not offensive, and... When he mentions an example, it's good to talk in a nice way about a person when they're not there. Often when we talk about people, and they're not there, it's usually to say something that they wouldn't like to hear. So when we do talk about people and they're not there, how do we do that? And benevolence

[47:03]

means to be kind to people, no matter who they are, even your enemies. Very hard to do. And the fourth one is identification. Identification means to realize that you and others are not different, even though we see the differences, even though you are you and I am me. Still, we are the same. To see that... Basically, we have the same characteristics and the same human nature.

[48:08]

But usually we're divided by superficialities and ideologies. So maybe the hardest thing, you know, is identification, but very important. If nothing else in this world, you should work on identification with others. Maybe the most important thing. We get split off through religious beliefs, economic beliefs, ideologies, and then we want to kill each other. That's what Dogen calls delusion.

[49:13]

We live in a world of delusion. We don't know how to reconcile. So, constant practice and gratitude. I remember when I was first learning practice back in the 60s and how difficult Zazen was. I'd come to Zazen and my legs hurt. And my back hurt. And I didn't know how I was going to get through so many periods of Zazen. And my teacher just kept insisting, don't move. Don't move. If you don't move, you will understand.

[50:15]

If you don't try to escape, you will understand. So, I just did what he told me, even though it was really painful. But then at some point, I just broke through. And I was so appreciative. I just wanted to... I remember walking down the street and wanting to run back to the temple and bow down before him. So, that's a feeling of gratitude not just for my teacher, but for all the ancestors, all the people who went before, who handed down this, helped us to have this practice. We wouldn't be here. None of us would be here today if it wasn't for the practice of everyone that went before us. So, when we bow to our cushion, we bow to everyone that went before us.

[51:21]

And then, when we turn around to bow, we bow to everyone existing. So, gratitude is very important and ties us together with continuous practice. One last thing is this very mind is Buddha. At the end of this, Dogen said, he puts in, Dogen, this very mind is Buddha. It means we have the same ability as Buddha. The ancestors were just like us. We have Buddha mind. If we only allow ourself to let it manifest, Buddha mind will manifest

[52:25]

if we just allow it to. It's already there. So, practice, Buddhist practice, Zen practice, is the practice of letting go of the hindrances It's not a matter of accumulating anything. It's not a matter of gaining something or developing something. It's mostly letting go of hindrances, letting go of greed, ill will, and delusion or ignorance, which are like a cloud over the sun. When the cloud moves, the sun shines forth. It's just always there, but we don't see it. But this Buddha mind

[53:30]

is always there. Waiting for our discovery. Taking off the cover. So these five points are actually very important. Very important points for our practice, plus Satsang. Thank you very much.

[54:31]

My question, when you started to talk about the Soto School in Japan and America, was there some reason that you felt we didn't have what we needed? Your question is, why is it that the Soto School in Japan wants us to do the translating? It's not just the Soto School that wants us to do the translating. We want to do the translating. Because when you translate into your own language, then people understand you. But when you're translating into someone else's language, even though you get it right, it's not the same. It's important for Americans

[55:45]

to be able to translate into English for American public, American readers. Because translating is also interpreting. There's no way that you can translate without interpreting. So when the Japanese scholars translate, they interpret. The language is such that it's frustrating. We can interpret and we know what we mean when we speak, right? Well, there are several translations, but none of them are really that good. They're all noble attempts. But my feeling has always been that

[56:47]

there are many translations and there should be. Because there's no definitive translation of something. It's impossible, actually, to have a definitive translation of something. So each one adds something to the body of translations. So I'm happy in that way. But the scholars want to do a scholarly translation which is like a backbone translation for other people to work off of, which I think is a very good idea. So that when you teach or if you want to do a translation, your own translation, you have this backbone. And so the Zen teachers

[57:48]

always translate, are very free with their language when they teach. And so a scholar cringes when they hear the Zen master's interpretation, right? Because the Zen master will translate very freely. But if we have the scholarly translation which is kind of backbone and annotations and various references and different ways of expressing the same thing, then you can be very... With that as a touchstone, you can have some assurance that what you're saying, even though it's deviating, is the same thing. So expression is really important. Literalness is important, but expression is...

[58:49]

You know, it's like a jazz musician. You know, there's the tune and then you take off on the tune and express it in your own way, but it's the same tune. So I think that's important. I may be misremembering. I think it was when you were discussing the third point that you alluded to dualism as something to avoid or come away from, and I wonder if you'd be willing to talk about that a little bit. Well, you know, duality is where we live. This is the world of duality. And the world of duality is the world of discrimination. And discrimination means to divide. To discriminate means to separate one thing from another. So we live in the world of separation, but the world of separation

[59:51]

is also the world of oneness. The parts are parts of something. So in our usual way of seeing things, we see everything in a dualistic way. Good and bad, right and wrong, you and me, this and that. But actually, all those divisions are divisions of one whole piece of something. And we don't see the whole. And we don't always realize the oneness or wholeness of our life. And so we tend to become infatuated or fooled by the divisions. And so we say, instead of seeing myself as the universe, I see myself as isolated from the universe. So duality is a way of, by seeing only the dualistic aspect of things,

[60:54]

we isolate ourselves. So, the word alone has two opposite meanings. Seemingly opposite meanings. Fundamentally, alone means at one. But our usual way of discerning the meaning of alone is isolated. Are there some scriptures that talk about different energy, like Qi, Kundalini? No, Buddhist literature is not so much interested in Kundalini, or Qi, of course. Yeah, Qi is Chinese and Japanese.

[61:57]

And so we talk about the Hara as being the center of our energy. And there are some books, but not sutras, mostly commentary. There's a book called Hara that came out a long time ago, and that book talks a lot about our Hara, especially Japanese, and not so much about Chinese, but relate to Hara as the center of energy. Of course, in meditation, we talk about Qi, and about when you breathe, you breathe from the Qi,

[63:00]

from the Hara. Qi actually means breath, also. And so breath and breathing, and the rising and falling of the lower abdomen is the central point. And the whole body centers around that, and all of our movements center around this point just below the navel. So when you sit Zazen, you sit with that energy focused, attention focused, on this Qi spot. And when you move, you move with that as the center. But we don't have so much literature talking directly about that. But it's an important aspect. Qi, we say Qi. This is called the Sea of Qi.

[64:03]

The place where you should be always centered. Yeah. To direct your attention there. When you sit, the mudra is here. And you pay attention to your breathing as the rising and lowering of your abdomen. So when you inhale, your lower abdomen expands. And when you exhale, it contracts. And your mudra is also here. So all of the attention is really here. And this is the base of your spine. So when you hold your back straight, the other side of the abdomen is your main support, your foundation. So that's the center point between your legs and your upper body. How does prana fit into that? Prana? Life force. Life force.

[65:15]

How do you mean, fit in? Well, I mean, just whatever you want to call it. When we sit in zazen, then prana is balanced and completely open. We're completely open to life force. And so we're completely and fully alive. And hopefully without hindrances. Zazen is called total exertion. It looks like rest. And it is. It's total ease within total exertion. So when we sit, we're completely, we should be, ideally,

[66:16]

totally sitting. So that there's nothing, no part left out. And with total exertion. So sitting up straight, you know, and balancing, keeping our head on top of the spine so that there's complete balance. And effort to hold you up straight. But just enough. The more you can balance, and the more you're open, the more life prana, life force, fills your being. And it is completely unhindered. So that's what makes you feel good. Even though you have pain in your legs, you feel good. Because you're completely open. And there's no hindrance. Of course, there's still hindrances. But it's possible to go beyond the hindrances. You know, hindrance of fear or hindrance of dualistic thinking.

[67:26]

Dualistic thinking is the biggest hindrance in Zazen. Because we set up what we like against what we don't like. For instance, painfulness. We don't like the painfulness, and so we set up a hindrance. And as long as we don't like it, or like it, we can't be completely open. So to be completely open is to just accept everything exactly the way it is. And that's the elimination of suffering. Suffering is largely caused by not accepting what is happening. By not being able to accept the painfulness of our life. Actually, life is painful. That's, you know. And if we can't accept the painfulness of our life,

[68:29]

then we become suffering. So it's important to be able to accept... This is one of the biggest lessons of Zazen, is to be able to accept the painfulness of life without discriminating it, without saying, I like it or I don't like it. Of course, in our life, you know, we have likes and dislikes. Actually, that's the dualistic aspect of our life, which we have to live with. But we can also... It's also possible to go beyond the duality of our life and accept the painfulness of our life, and the pleasure, without discriminating it. And so within pain, there's pleasure, and within pleasure, there's pain. I'm not saying that we should be masochistic. That's something else. But normally, within pleasure, there's pain, and within pain, there's pleasure. So there's always constant transformation.

[69:32]

So to be completely open to our life, and to accept the suffering of our life also. But most suffering is caused by not being able to deal with our pain. Not accepting, not wanting our pain. Of course, we don't want our pain. Who wants pain, right? But we have to accept it, because it's there. And the more you try to get rid of it, the more you suffer. It's kind of unfortunate for us. Yes? What does it mean to save a sentient being? Well, that's a good point. You know, there's one sentient being to save that you can deal with, and that's this one. You know. So, salvation in Buddhism

[70:39]

means to get beyond, to understand the meaning of birth and death, so that you're not caught by birth and death. You know, Dogen says, within birth and death, there's a Buddha within birth and death. There's also no Buddha within birth and death. But I want to keep it simple. Birth and death is a synonym for delusion. We have the appearance of birth and death. And our dualistic mind tends to believe in birth and death. Of course, we appear and we disappear, right?

[71:40]

But we think that our birth is the beginning and our death is the end, because we can't see what came before our birth, and we can't see what's coming after our death. So we tend to think that there is such a thing as birth and death. But birth and death happen on each moment. Each moment is a moment of birth and death. This particular moment is ungraspable, because it's a moment of birth and death. There's no middle ground. There's no place to grasp it, because as I'm speaking, I'm dying. I'm already dead. That person who was speaking a moment ago was already dead. And this person that is speaking now is being born. But it's all happening at the same time. So it's just, there's no grasping birth or death. The parents, you know,

[72:47]

you may feel that I was born at a certain time. But that's just a certain demarcation. You know, your parents came together, and both of them had some portion of you. And when they got together, what you call yourself appeared. But even before you appeared, you were still there. You've always been here. We've always been here. But this particular manifestation seems to have just appeared. You know, the one with this nose. But the problem is, you know, one of the big problems is that we think this is the best of all possible existences. That's one of our delusions. Or maybe it's our insight.

[73:49]

This is the best of all possible existences. That's true. This is the best of all possible. But at the same time, the next existence that you have, you will say the same thing. And I'm not talking about reincarnation. I'm talking about the energy that each one of us manifests becomes some other kind of energy. Whatever that is. Maybe a person. Maybe a bird. Maybe... I don't know. Who knows? But energy continues to create forms. So we just happen to feel that this is the greatest form that there is. That's our arrogance. So to save beings is to help people to realize that what we take at face value is not necessarily the way things are. And when we no longer are clinging to this life

[74:53]

and not wishing for the next life, but just being where we are and accepting that fully and totally as the best of all possible existences at this moment, that's some realization. Nothing to crave for. And each one of us is dealt a certain hand. And that hand that each one of us is dealt with is the situation that helps us to bring our life to life. How we respond to the situation that's dealt to us is what we have to work with. So some people are born wealthy. Some people are born poor. Some people are born in terrible circumstances. Other people are born in heavenly circumstances. But whatever, you suffer. I don't care where you're born.

[75:56]

The princess suffers. Right? We've always been here, but what exactly is it that's always been here? That's a good question. Right. We say our Buddha nature. Buddha nature is the ground of being. So the person that was born is not born wealthy. The personal is gone. There's only the person that's here. Although there's some memory, some resemblance, right? That the child has turned into the man. Right? So there's some transformative process of the child turning into the man. But the child is the child.

[76:58]

And the man is the man. And, you know, we say a steer is an animal. But then the steer is killed and skinned and chopped up and gone into the meat market. And then it's meat. Right? It's no longer a steer. That is not a steer. That is meat. We call it meat. You know, I don't know what it is. And, you know, soybeans are turned into tofu. But if you said to the tofu, Do you know that you were once soybeans? The tofu would laugh at you and say, How could that possibly be? I don't look anything like soybeans. So sort of like presence or something?

[78:03]

There's only this presence. And there's infinite becomings. You were once a child. You know? Now you are a man. But before you were a child, there was also something. And before that, there was something that you were. But you can't identify with it because we identify with ourself as a self. That's the biggest problem. We say, I am, which is arrogance, according to Buddhism. To say, I am, is true according to existence. But it's not true according to the fundamental reality of life. So it doesn't mean we don't exist. But we don't exist in the way we think we exist. It's a constant sort of thing. Yeah, everything exists in this moment

[79:06]

because of the configuration of everything else in this moment. You know, we think that we feel independent because we can move around. But we're just moving flowers, you know? Flowers are stuck in the ground and they can't move. And so they live their life in one spot. And according to the way the wind blows and the sun shines and the rain comes, they respond to their life. And we do the same thing, but we can move around. And think. And, you know. The acceptance of suffering. We're dealing with craving and grasping. We all have different kinds of suffering. And my question is, is it incorrect to seek to change your level of suffering?

[80:08]

Coming from a very... with my life, from a very negative place, going to the ghetto and working my way up and out of it. The suffering that I deal with now is a lot easier than the suffering I was dealing with then. Right. You know, we can choose our suffering. Whenever I... Whenever someone says, I'd like to get married. I say, well, you know, it's a choice. Because you should... You want to do this because it will give you joy. But it will also give you suffering. And you should think. What we usually think of is what kind of joy we're going to have. Because when we see our lover, we only think of how joyful it will be. And that masks the other side, which is it's going to be also painful, miserable at times.

[81:10]

So which, you know, what kind of pain are you willing to accept? What kind of suffering are you willing to accept? As well as what kind of joy do you want? We always have to see both sides. Because both sides will be there. And sometimes I see people, they want to get married and they do get married. But before that I know it's not going to work. Because they're not going to be able to accept their suffering. The suffering that comes with them being together. But that's hard to do, you know, because love is blind. So to speak. But anyway, your question is more like... I think that, sure, we should make an effort to relieve our suffering. You know, why not? As much as possible. As much as possible. But to think that we're going to get out of suffering

[82:14]

is a kind of delusion. Because the problem we have has its various sides. And so we get into a new situation and love is blind. We don't realize what the problems of that situation are going to be. But it's okay to move from one situation to another as long as you're willing to... as long as you realistically see that that will also cause its suffering. You may be, I'm poor now, you know, and I have all the suffering that goes with being poor. But there may also be some joys that go along with being poor. And if I get wealthy, I'll just have all the joy of being wealthy, but you'll also have the suffering of being wealthy. Or of having a good position, and so forth. Both sides come along with... you know, although some situations are easier than others. They certainly are. They certainly are. So we should always keep working to help other people, you know.

[83:19]

If we keep working to help other people alleviate their suffering, work to alleviate the suffering of other people, then we'll be able to accept whatever happens to us. But if we're only working for our own benefit, no matter how good it is, in the end it won't help us. In that same vein, this seems to be a push for beating about, Buddhism seems to dwell upon the focus on suffering as a starting point. What of an informed, devoted, attentive... hedonism? Hedonism? Yes. Well, I don't know how you define hedonism. It does, you know, Buddhism... It's a focusing of the... On joy, on the pleasure of life. On the pursuit of happiness.

[84:21]

The pursuit of happiness. Right. But Buddhism doesn't dwell on suffering. It only states the problem. And the Four Noble Truths, the first one states the problem. Buddha is the physician. And he diagnoses the problem. You come to the physician because of your suffering. And so Buddha says, I diagnose your problem as craving. Now he could say, I diagnose your problem as craving, so why don't you just fulfill all your cravings? He could say that. Let's just say he did. Let's say, he says, just go out and have a great time. Do whatever you want. You know? Fulfill your desires. Buddha came, Shakyamuni Buddha came from that place. That's where he came from.

[85:23]

He was a prince. He had everything. His father didn't want him to see death. He didn't want him to see sickness. He didn't want him to see old age. And he didn't want him to see suffering. He just wanted him to have pleasure. He wanted him to be hedonistic. So he set him up in a palace with all the pleasures that he could possibly endure. And so he left. You know, he said, I can't stand this anymore. His father would not let him see any of these things that I just mentioned. So he snuck out of the palace and he saw a dead man. He said, what's that? And then he saw a sick man. He said, what's that? And he saw a suffering man. An old man, right. And then he saw... Anyway, those problems that we all have, right? And he said, I didn't know about all this.

[86:25]

So he left because he had to get to the bottom of life. So he gave up his hedonistic existence. And if anybody... I tried hedonism in my twenties. But it was pretty bad. Were you really devoted and attentive to it? Devoted to what? Devoted and attentive to it. Yeah. I craved my marijuana every day. You can really be... Whatever you do creates a habit. If you do something... Sexual activity creates the desire for more sexual activity,

[87:27]

which becomes a habit. Then it has you. The thing about... freedom is... We think that freedom means the freedom to do anything we want. But that's not freedom. That's actually being caught by desire. Looks like freedom, but it's being caught by desire. Otherwise, why not just do whatever you want, right? I mean, from a child's point of view, let's just have fun. Why do we have to do anything that we don't want to do? Because life should just be fun. I had that coming from my child for a long time.

[88:12]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ