Well, it's very nice to be here at Tassajara, and the practice period feels very good to me. I feel very strong and settled, but actually, there are always problems anyway. I don't have very much time. I have a practice period of my own going on in Berkeley, so I could only spend a few days, take a few days to come down. But there are two things that I want to talk about. One is that I want to talk about, I want to encourage your practice, give a talk to encourage your practice. But I also want to talk about how to pronounce the Japanese syllables when you're chanting the Japanese chants.

[01:03]

So I don't know if I can do both of those in one talk, but I'll try. As far as encouraging your practice, this is the mid-practice period. You just had your mid-practice period skits. And when we start practice period, we're always inspired. It's a new undertaking. We come out of the summer, and we're all ready for the practice period. And then there's a curve, you know, it goes up, or starts up here. And then at some point it starts wobbling, and things, about a month and a half, things start coming apart a little bit. The boundaries start pushing out, and our desires start coming up.

[02:06]

We get tired. We start losing our inspiration. And things start to come apart a little bit. And this is the natural curve for practice period. Things start deteriorating, you get used to it. You get used to practice period. And then things start deteriorating a little bit. And around this time is when you need to pull everything back together again. So I just want to talk a little bit about pulling things back together again. So to get your second wind, and continue the practice period with good effort and good feeling. When I used to give practice periods, which I haven't done for several years,

[03:09]

at the beginning of the practice period I would always talk about the horizontal aspect and the vertical aspect. The vertical aspect is that everyone has a different position. And you don't necessarily choose your position. The staff chooses your position based on their understanding of your practice. And we accept that. We say, okay, I'll be working in the kitchen if you say so. Or I'll be on general labor if you say so. Or whatever, I'll be on the dolanrio if you say so. And we accept that. We trust the staff. And we trust their decision. Even though sometimes we don't like it. But we go along with it. And some positions, there's the abbot, and the tantalo, you know, and so forth. And then down at the bottom it looks like there's general labor. Tangario students. And then on the other hand we have the horizontal aspect, which is everyone is the same.

[04:22]

Everyone does the same practice. And we're all in the same boat. And we all have equal value, which is beyond compare. There's no way you can compare anyone to anyone else in that ultimate sense. And it's very important to recognize that in the ultimate sense, each one of us is totally equal and beyond compare. There's no way to compare your practice with somebody else's or your life or your existence with someone else's existence. And we appreciate each one of us as a unique being. And as a matter of fact, practice should bring out the uniqueness of our character. But bringing out the uniqueness of our character does not mean bringing out our self-centeredness.

[05:32]

We promote the uniqueness and demote the ego. So to bring forth the true person, which is not the true person behind the ego or behind the self-centeredness, which is the person, true personality. We don't try to eliminate your personality, but only what's not true to you. But you can't do that.

[06:35]

You can't cut off your arm, even though I got tried. It's like a snake. At the right point, you shed your skin. But we have the vertical and the horizontal. So on the horizontal level, each one of us is totally equal. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to practice together. And on the vertical level, each one of us is totally different and unique, and we each occupy a different position. The schedule is what drives the practice. So all of us submit ourselves to the schedule. And when we're following the schedule totally and taking responsibility for our position, no matter what that position is,

[07:40]

then each person's position is equal. The dawan's position is equal to the kitchen person's position, which is equal to the general labor position, which is equal to the abbot's position. The abbot sits here and gives the lectures and kind of bobs the people around. But if you really take on your position, you are relating to the whole practice period from your position. And when you're standing there in your position firmly and totally without thinking of it as being higher or lower, you're controlling the whole practice period. You are the boss of yourself and moving the practice period, just as anyone else in their position is doing exactly the same.

[08:50]

Everything we do in the practice period affects everybody else. So no matter what you do, it's affecting. It may be minute, and you may not notice it, but when I come to Tassajara in the middle of the practice period, I can feel what's going on. You can feel it too, but you feel it from inside, and I can see it from outside, so to speak. And when you're inside, you may not notice all the... Just like in your own body, you don't necessarily notice everything that's going on in your own body. But the practice period as a whole is one body with many extensions, limbs. And it's like Avalokiteshvara with many limbs, the thousand arms, but here we have forty-five or fifty-nine arms, fifty-nine hands and arms,

[09:54]

each one holding some unique position, holding some unique means to help beings, to save sentient beings. So when you are totally in your position, totally functioning in your position, you're creating harmony for the whole body, and then the whole body has a feeling of well-being. And when something is off, then the body suffers. So our effort is not just for ourself, but how we keep the whole body healthy and moving and inspired and vital. So we don't do it for ourself, and we don't do it for each other. We just do it for the sake of the whole body.

[11:02]

And then I'm helped, and you're helped. This is actually the spirit of practice in this situation. I had another point. Yeah, the other point is that the most important aspect of our practice, which keeps us there, is our intention. We start out with inspiration. Inspiration is really wonderful for motivating, but we're not always inspired.

[12:11]

Inspiration comes and goes. Sometimes it's really steady. With some people, inspiration is just continuous. But for most people, inspiration comes and then it goes, and then it comes and then it goes. And when you're inspired, it's easy to practice. And when you're not inspired, you wonder, what am I doing? What is this? And then doubt creeps in, and then you find yourself being sluggish and wondering if this is what you should be doing. So inspiration is great, but it's not foremost. Foremost is your intention. I intend to practice, whether things are good or whether things are bad, whether I feel like it or whether I don't feel like it. I make this vow of practice.

[13:14]

And the vow of practice carries you through all of the ups and downs of your psyche and your feelings and your emotions. It's not that emotions and feelings don't count. They're all very important, but they are not the leader. The leader is your vow or your intention, your deep intention. Feelings are very fickle. So you may feel like practicing for a while, and then you may feel like not practicing. And your feelings will fool you. We bring our feelings up, and the one feeling for a while will say, oh, this is wonderful. And then another feeling will come up and say, what are you talking about? This is really, you know, all of your friends and your parents and your background, they don't do this.

[14:21]

You should be doing something else. You say, yeah, that's right, because my legs hurt too much. It's your intention, your vow. That's the most important thing. It just carries you through everything. It will carry you through the worst feelings, and it will carry you through your delusion of enlightenment. We get some really wonderful feeling, and we think this must be enlightenment. But that's just a delusion. And when we hang on to that kind of delusion, all the other feelings or all the other experiences we have seem like delusion. So that's one of the biggest problems that we have, is when we have some wonderful kind of experience, and we think that this is enlightenment experience. But if you truly have an enlightenment experience, then you realize that every experience that you have in your life from moment to moment is an enlightenment experience.

[15:32]

If you follow vow, deep intention, that's already enlightenment. Staying with your intention, staying with your vow, that's enlightenment. All those other experiences are just experiences. They're also enlightenment, if they're consistent with your vow. Deep depression is also enlightenment, if it's carried with your vow. You just carry along everything with your vow. You just haul it along. Just experience everything through your vow. I didn't used to like to use the word vow. I always used the word intention, but I think vow is actually the correct word.

[16:48]

Vow seems very extreme, but it's really the right word. So as long as you maintain vow or deep intention as the leader in your life, then whatever situation you enter is practice. But if that's not there, then it's not necessarily practice, whatever you do. People say, well, whatever I do is practice. Not so. Whatever you do is practice when the leader is deep intention and vow. And we go through enlightenment and delusion. We leave our way through enlightenment and delusion. To stand up in the midst of delusion is enlightenment.

[17:57]

To stand up with our vow in the midst of delusion is enlightenment. So we don't necessarily, as Dogen says, you may have enlightenment but not realize it. That's the case of most people who practice, because they're looking for something somewhere else. Okay. Now I want to talk about chanting. It's enlightened practice. But do you have a question from what I was talking about? Okay. Can we hand out the sutra books?

[19:05]

I have a question now. What is the vow? What is the vow? That's a good point. The vow is to practice sincerely. And we say it all the time, beings are numberless. I vow to awaken, release, free, save them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to investigate all of them. Delusions are, or desires, are inexhaustible. I vow to cut through them.

[20:22]

And I vow to become the Buddha's way. That's our intention. So if you find... Let's turn to the Buddhas and Ancestors. The names of the Buddhas and Ancestors. I'll try to remember all these rules for pronunciation. I notice in here we don't... Oh yes, we do. Okay. I'll wait until everybody is seated. Here are some of the rules for pronunciation. When you have... The pronunciation is A-E-I-O-U in vowels.

[21:30]

A-E-I-O-U. Right? Just say that. A-E-I-O-U. Okay. And a double consonant gets two beats. A vowel, each vowel is separate and gets one beat. So when you're chanting and it comes across E-I or O-U, it's not O-U, it's O-U. Each one gets a separate pronunciation. Each vowel gets a separate pronunciation. And E-I is A-E. And an N or an M at the end of a word gets two beats. And a diacritical mark over a vowel, that vowel gets a stress.

[22:40]

Which I guess you could say is two beats or... You could say that. So, I'll just chant the first line of this. And all the rest of the sounds are just... They don't get an extra stress. So, B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E. D-I-E-O-SH-O. D-I-E. So we stress the D, right? Because it's two vowels. And it has a stress mark over it, just to tell you that. Okay. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. Now, the O at the end is really one beat. D-I-E-O-SH-O. But we usually give it a rest, or a one beat interval, before going on to the next name. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O.

[23:43]

But you don't have to. You can do it. Just start. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. I like that better, because then there's no... You're not separating the names so much. It's one continuous chant. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. [...] Now, that O has a diacritical mark. And when it has, you give it another beat. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. B-I-P-A-S-H-I-B-U-T-S-U-D-I-E-O-SH-O. Now, here you have... In Gone Moony, you have a diacritical mark over the O, and you have an N and an M together. You put the diacritical mark over the O because the N was there. Because what?

[24:46]

Because the N was there. The N of what? It's not the letter N. It's a diacritical mark where it's double O, N, and N. The convention we followed was to put the diacritical mark there wherever... Okay. Okay. Okay. Kuna-Gone Moony. They're discussing it back there. Huh? Oh, there was? Oh. This week. I was just asked to do this. I didn't know they had a discussion. Kuna-Gone... But that's the way we usually say it. We say Kuna-Gone Moony, right? I don't think it needs to be extended beyond that.

[25:47]

Kuna-Gone Moony, Butsu-Dai-O-Sho, Ka-Sho-Butsu... Now, that has a diacritical mark because the Ka-Sho is two beats. The O is two beats. Ka-Sho-Butsu-Dai-O-Sho, Sha-Ka-Moony-Butsu-Dai-O-Sho, Ma-Ka-Ka-Sho... That has two diacritical marks, so that's two beats. Ma-Ka-Ka-Sho-Dai-O-Sho, An-Nan-Da-Dai-O-Sho, Sho-Na-Wa-Shu-Dai-O-Sho, U-Pa-Ki-Ku-Ta-Dai-O-Sho, Dai-Ta-Ka-I-O-Sho, Mi-Sha-Ka-Dai-O-Sho, Wa-Shu-Mi-Tsu-Dai-O-Sho, Butsu-Da-Nan-Dai... That's really nice, isn't it? Butsu-Da-Nan-Dai-Dai-O-Sho... It really swings. That's good. And, you know, when we do the Dai-Hi-Shin-De-Ra-Ni, the Dai-Hi-Shin-De-Ra-Ni has really nice places where it really swings, you know?

[26:52]

And if you get into it when you're doing the Waku-Gyo, and kind of feel that out, then there's a lot of power in it. But if you're just kind of doing... You don't need to keep time that way, you know? It's not just keeping time. It's like feeling the subtlety of the chant, of the syllables. And here it's important to feel the subtlety of the syllables. And in the Dai-Hi-Shin-De-Ra-Ni, it's really important for the person who's keeping the time in the Miku-Gyo to feel the subtleties and then to, you know, emphasize that. But it's subtle. And you have to kind of learn how to do it. Now here you have two...

[28:11]

I see, you put the diacritical mark over the vowel before the two consonants in order to let people know that there's a stress on the two consonants. Okay. But anyway, when you come to two consonants together, it's two beats. And, you know, if you hold the T, there's no sound. Right? Which is okay with me, but... So we put the diacritical mark over the I, so you say, Right? But I actually prefer And just... Yeah, leave the space. But somehow it's... Right. It's accommodating. Yeah, it's accommodating. So there's the double consonant again.

[29:13]

And there you have two vowels together in You don't need the diacritical mark, but it's there to help you out. Kan-chi-so-san And that's Kan-chi-so-san Dai-yo-sho Dai-i Now, this I, the I, which is E, gets its own beat. Dai-yo-sho Dai-kan Ei-no Dai-yo-sho Sei-gen Gyo-shi Dai-yo-sho Seki-to Ki-sen Dai-yo-sho Yaku-san I-gen

[30:19]

Dai-sho Un-gan Don-jo Dai-yo-sho To-zan Yo-kai Dai-yo-sho Un-go Do-yo Dai-yo-sho Do-an Do-hi Dai-yo-sho Now, the Do-hi Do-an Do-hi is only one syllable, but we tend to want to extend it because of the rhythm. But it's Dai-i Do-hi Dai-yo-sho We want to say Dai-i Do-an Dai-i Dai-i Kind of prolong it. Do-an Do-hi Dai-yo-sho Do-an Kan-shi Dai-yo-sho Ryo Ryo-zan Ryo-zan Ryo Ryo-zan Ryo-zan That's a tricky word. Is that a short O? Long O, so there's a Dai critical mark missing there.

[31:22]

Yeah, it should be long. That's how it sounds, Ryo-zan. Yeah. Ryo-zan En-kan Dai-yo-sho Tai-yo Kyo-gen Dai-yo-sho To-su To-su So the U gets one beat, but not more. To-su-ki-se To-su-ki-se Dai-yo-sho Fu-yo Fu-yo That's very tricky in there. To-su-ki-se Dai-yo-sho Fu-yo Do-kai Dai-yo-sho Tan-ka-shi-jun Dai-yo-sho Cho-ro-se Ryo Dai-yo-sho Ten-do So-gaku Dai-yo-sho Set-cho Chi-kan Dai-yo-sho Ten-do Nyo-jo Dai-yo-sho It's not Ten-do Nyo-jo according to this. Is it Nyo-jo? Or Nyo-jo? Nyo-jo Nyo-jo, yeah. Ten-do

[32:24]

Nyo-jo Dai-yo-sho Ei-hei Now, in Dogen, we usually tend to shorten it, but it's Ei-hei Do-gen And we give it its full complement because it's all of those vowels. Where is it? Ei-hei Ei-hei Do-gen Dai-yo-sho Ko And it's not Ko-an-o-jo I mean, Ko-an-e-jo Ko-un Ko-un-e-jo Ko-un-e-jo Ko-an is something else. Ko-un-e-jo Everybody likes Ko-an because it's Zen. But Ko-un-e-jo Ko-un-e-jo Dai-yo-sho Te-tsu-gi-kai

[33:25]

Dai-yo-sho Kei-zan Jo-kin Dai-yo-sho Ga-san Jo-suki Dai-yo-sho Tai-gen So-shin Dai-yo-sho Bai-zan Mon-pon Dai-yo-sho Jo-chu Ten-gin Dai-yo-sho Shin-gan Do-ku Dai-yo-sho Sen-so Ei-sai Dai-yo-sho I-yo-ku That's a tricky one. I-yo-ku Cho-yu There's no stresses there. It's just I-yo-ku. Sen-so Ei-sai Ei Short The one before that. Sen-so Ei-sai Each one of those. The E is short. Sen-so Ei-sai Ei-sai Sen-so Sen-so Ei Sen-so Ei-sai Dai-yo-sho I-yo-ku Cho-yu It's a bit tricky. I-yo-ku I-yo-ku Cho-yu

[34:26]

Dai-yo-sho Mu-kai Mu-kai Mu-kai Kei-gon Dai-yo-sho Nen-shitsu Nen-shitsu Yo-ka-ku Nen-shitsu Yo-ka-ku Yo-ka-ku That seems to me... I think that's an O. It should be a long O. Yo-ka-ku Yo-ka-ku Nen-shitsu Yo-ka-ku It just feels better to say Yo-ka-ku than Yo-ka-ku. Dai-yo-sho Ses-so Ho-seki Dai-yo-sho Tai-ei Se-shi Tai-ei Ze-sho Dai-yo-sho Nan-po Gen-taku Dai-yo-sho Zo-den Yu-ko Dai-yo-sho Ten-ryu So-en Dai-yo-sho Ken-an Jun-sa Dai-yo-sho Cho-ku-ku Ho-en

[35:26]

Dai-yo-sho Sen-ju Dai-yo-sho Don-ko Dai-yo-sho Fu-den Gen-toku Den-totsu Fu-den Gen-totsu So there you have the stress on the last of Fu-den and then the beginning of Gen-totsu. Fu-den Gen-totsu Dai-yo-sho Dai-shun Kan-yu Dai-yo-sho Ten-rin Kan-chu Dai-yo-sho Ses-san Tutsu-zen Dai-yo-sho Fu-zan Shun-ki Dai-yo-sho Ji-san Moku-in Dai-yo-sho Sen-gan Bon-ryu Dai-yo-sho Tai-ki Kyo-kan Dai-yo-sho En-cho Ki-kan Dai-yo-sho Sho-un Ho-zu-i Dai-yo-sho Shi-zan Toku-chu Dai-yo-sho Nan-zo Shin-chu Dai-yo-sho Kan-kai Toku-on Dai-yo-sho Ko-sen Bai-do Dai-yo-sho Kyaku-su

[36:27]

Kyaku-shitsu So-jun Kyaku-shitsu So-jun Dai-yo-sho Butsu-mon So-gaku Dai-yo-sho Kyoku-jun So-on So it's So So-on Huh? I don't know. I don't know. A couple of those we can ask Ahoy Tsuroshi when he's here because this is his lineage. Yeah. Yeah. Kyaku-shitsu So-kon So-gun Toku-chan Tsupu-ki-yoku So-ha So-gun We say so-on that seems easier. Dai-yo-sho So So Sho-gaku Sho-gaku Sho-gaku Shun-ryu Shun-ryu Sho-gaku Shun-ryu Dai-yo-sho So So that's pretty much most of I also want to kind of go through Dai-shin Durani a little bit because it's different. Daishin-irani in Japanese, which I don't know how often you chant it, but... Every day. Next to the last page.

[37:27]

Next to the last page. There it is. Yeah. Oh. Well, that's pretty easy. I was thinking of the... Sandokai. Sandokai. Back to the third page. Yeah. Chikuto daisen no shin tozai. You have all these stresses, right? Chikuto. Chikuto. Chikuto is just... There's no stresses. Chikuto daisen no shin tozai mitsu ni ai fusu. Fusu. There's no stresses. Nin kon ni riton arito ni nam boku... Now, here you have an M at the end of nam.

[38:29]

So that's... But, of course, the stress is on the A again. Because of the M. So I won't say that anymore. Nam boku no so nashi. Reigen myo ni koketari. Shi an ni ruchu. Suju o shu suru mo. Motekori mayoi ni kano mo. Mata satari ni arezu. Mon mon issai. That used to be one word. No kyo e goto fu e goto e shite sarani. All that little part is without stresses, right? So you have these parts that are not... No stresses. Then you come to the parts that are stressed. And to make the distinction between the stressed parts and the parts that are not stressed is what gives it its rhythm. I can't remember where I left off.

[39:31]

Oh, yeah. Shite sarani. Oh, yeah. E shite sarani ai. Wataru shikarazu rebu. Kurai ni yote juusu. Shikimoto shitsu zo. Okoto ni shisho. Motoraku okoto ni suan. Wa jochu no koto ni kanai. Me wa seidaku no ku o wakatsu. No shou o nozu kara fukusu. Kono sono ha ha oru o ga koto shi wa. It's all that part without any stress. And then you come to... Ne shikaze wa do yo. Mizu wa uru o uchi wa kengo. Mannaka wa iro. Mimi wa onjo. Hana wakashita wa kanzo. Shikimoto. Shika mo ichi ichi no ho ni o te ni. Ne ni yo te ha bun pusu. Houmatsu subu karaku shu ni kesu beshi.

[40:35]

Son pi son no go o mochi yu me chu ni atatte. To double vowel. Double vowel kanji. An ari ansou o mote okoto naka re. So if you just keep in mind the difference between... You just go along without stress. And then when you come to a stress part, you stress it. And really stress it strongly. No, is it a stress or is it just elongated? Well, I say it's the same. When I say stress, I mean it's elongated. Yeah. It's to give it another beat. Yeah. So... Maybe we can just go through a little bit of the Sando Kai together. Okay? And we'll just... I won't announce it. We'll just start. Chikuto daisen no shinto zaimitsu ni kaifusu. Ninkon ni ridona rito ni nanboku no sonashi.

[41:38]

Reigen myo ni kouketa shiha. Aniru chusuchi o shu suru momote. Koro inu ini ni nomo mata satori ni. Arezu monmon issai no kyou e goto. Fu e goto e shite sarai. Ai wataru shikarazu reiba kurai ni. Tejutsu shiki motto shitsu zo. Okoto niji mo motto raku okoto. Wa choujuu no zoto ni kanai. Mei wa seidaku no kuu o wakatsu. Shitai no shou o nozu kara fukusu. Kono sono haa o kuru ga. Kotoshi hi wa neeshi. Kaze wa touyou. Mizu wa furu oichi.

[42:40]

Kengo manaka wa iro mimi. Honjou hata wa kashita wa kanso. Ichi ichi no hou ni oite. Stop a minute, stop a minute. Stop a minute, stop. Stop a minute, stop, stop. This line, shita wa kanso. See that's about, almost halfway through. Shita wa kanso. Shika mo ichi ichi no hou ni oite. We didn't stress so much the hou and the oi. I know it's a little hard. But let's start there again. Shita wa kanso. Ichi ichi no hou ni oite. Bunputsu honmatsu sube kara. Sube shi sonbizu no go mo.

[43:41]

Chu ni tate anari an. Sou omote o koto nakari an. Chu ni tate mei an. Mei sou omote miru koto nakari mei an. Ono ono aita shite hisuru. Nisen go no ayu no goto. Shibamatsu onozu ga. Koi masami yo to shou.

[44:16]

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