This morning I brought up the expression of Manjushri Bodhisattva, where he said, clearly observe the teaching of the Buddha. The teaching of the Buddha is thus. And so one way to hear that is, the teaching of the Buddha is, Thus, another way to understand it, the teaching of the Buddha is to let things be thus. And Tathagata, one of the first stories I brought up was a teaching which I brought up here a number of times, which is the Buddha met... A yogi came to see the Buddha.

[01:17]

he felt he needed teaching from the Buddha. His name, this monk, this yogi's name was Bahiya. Bahiya. B-A-H-I-Y-A. And so there's a scripture called Bahiya Sutta. So I'm going to just tell you the central part. I'm going to start with the central part of the scripture, which is, the Buddha says, train yourself thus. Which could also, again, be said, train yourself in thusness. Buddha said, in the scene, that's C-E-E-N, there would just be the C-E-E-N.

[02:29]

In the herd, there would just be the herd. And then in the text it actually says, in the, I think, sensed, which includes the other three sense, which would be in the touched, there would be just the touched, in the tasted, just the tasted, and in the smelled, there would be just the smelled. And in the mental objects of awareness, there would be just the mental object. So train yourself thus. And then the Buddha says, when for you, it's like that, when for you, in the scene, there's just a scene, and in the herd, there's just a herd,

[03:32]

And in the tasted, just the tasted. And in the smelled, just the smelled. And in the touched, just the touched. And in the mental cognitions, just the mental cognitions. then you will not be with it. You will not be in it. You will not locate yourself in it. You will not identify with it. And then there will be no here or there or in between, and this will be the end of suffering. I would expand that slightly to say when in the scene, there's just a scene, then you will not be with it, but also you will not be not with it either.

[04:55]

You won't be in it or not in it. things will just be thus, and you won't be in addition or with the way things are. And this is the end of suffering. In this case, the end of suffering is when you completely let things be. The end of suffering comes when in the suffering, there's just the suffering. When in the suffering, there's just the suffering. In the seeing, there is suffering in seeing things. In hearing things, suffering is included there. And when you let the seen just be the seen, you also let the suffering be just the suffering.

[06:04]

And that letting the suffering and letting the seen just be thus is the end of suffering. It is also realizing the teaching of thusness. It is also the Buddha getting up in the seat, and the Buddha is just sitting on the seat. The Buddha isn't with sitting on the seat, or in sitting on the seat. The Buddha is just sitting on the seat, and not even telling you that the Buddha is just sitting on the seat. the Buddha is just completely sitting on the seat and just completely accepting all suffering, sitting on the seat in the middle of all beings suffering.

[07:13]

And that's the end of suffering. the Buddha is sitting on the seat so completely that the Buddha is not abiding in the seat or the sitting. So this place is called no abode, gesturing towards wherever you are, just being wherever you are, You're not abiding in wherever you are. You're not with where you are or in where you are, and there's no here or there or in between, and that's the end of suffering. And, you know, we gather here, and I think you do kind of like just sit where you're sitting, and it's the end of suffering, so that's why you come back here, because you like the end of suffering. But you don't abide in it, right? You don't abide in the end of suffering.

[08:19]

Huh? Apparently not. No, you just accept suffering, and you accept the end of suffering, along with accepting suffering. And you don't abide in suffering, in the suffering there's just a suffering. Is there a difference between pain and suffering? Yeah, there is a difference, but not in terms of the practice. Well, yeah, I think, kind of adding a story, so you got the pain, and then you add the story of yourself, that there's a pain in me, or it's my pain or not my pain. So there's not just in the pain, there's not just the pain, there's me in the pain.

[09:25]

So me being with the pain is suffering. But also pleasure, me with the pleasure, is suffering too. So the practice with pain and pleasure is the same. In the pain, there'll be just the pain. In the pleasure, there will be just the pleasure. And when in the pleasure, there's just the pleasure, because you have to train yourself, because when you first start, if you try to apply the teaching of, in the pleasure there's just a pleasure, at the beginning it's probably like, I'm doing the practice of, in the pleasure there's just a pleasure. Or, I'm trying to let there just be pleasure in the pleasure, but I seem to be there with the pleasure still. I heard about in the pleasure there's just the pleasure, but there seems to be the pleasure and me, and I'm with it. So at that point I haven't really, if I really completely let the pleasure be pleasure, there's no me in addition to the pleasure.

[10:34]

And that's the end of suffering with pleasure. Same with pain, and if you can't tell whether it's pleasurable or unpleasurable, it's called, sometimes, neutral. So in the neutral sensation, sensations, again, these pain, pleasure, neutral, are not like colors and stuff, those are mental dharmas. So, yeah, and the same with fear. And of course, same with greed and hatred, same with any story. In the story, there will be just the story. But you have to train at that. So at the end of this verse we just said, we pray that all beings will reach maturity in Buddha's wisdom. We have to train. We have to practice these trainings in order to be mature so that in the suffering there's just suffering. There's no me with it or not with it.

[11:36]

There's no me in it or not in it. And then I'm not abiding in it or out of it. This is the end of suffering. Of course, we want freedom from suffering, but we're not trying to get freedom from suffering. We're just trying to let things be thus. And so that's our training. And this training is going on in the middle of fierce flames of all the beings who do not know how to let pain and pleasure be thus, who do not know how to let gain be thus and loss be thus. So all these flames are around us. and we're sitting in the middle trying to let everything be thus, trying to hear the teaching that the Buddha's teaching is thus, which is the Buddha's teaching is let things be thus, because they are. But again, we have habits of not letting things be thus, so we have to train.

[12:37]

And we can train at letting things be thus. We can do it. And we can do it so wholeheartedly that we're not doing it. It's just the way things are. So we enter the way things are by this instruction. just a temporary leap to Bodhidharma's practice. There's Bodhidharma up there. He said, with a mind like a wall, you enter the way. Walls let things be. They're upright, and they have faces, and they face everything and let everything be thus. If you can be like that, you enter Bodhidharma's wall club. By the way, in the early days of Green's Restaurant, when Zen students were mostly working there, they had various Zen names for the various dishes, so one of the dishes

[13:47]

was called, it was a dessert, and it was called a bodhidharma. And it was a walnut cake. Because bodhidharma is a walnut. Dharma is also a walnut. But bodhidharma is a walnut. He has been for quite a while, and he still is. And you could be a walnut, too, if you train in thusness. When you were saying, the pleasure is just the pleasure, or the pain is just the pain, but when the pleasure is just the pleasure, it's not pleasure, right? When you let the pleasure just be pleasure, then you realize And by letting it completely be pleasure, you realize that pleasure is not pleasure. And the same with pain.

[14:55]

In other words, you realize the pivotal activity of the mind, which doesn't abide in anything. And then you can incorporate the patterns of now into the practice. You can work with the pain. you can use the pain as a creative opportunity. Like, you can go, Ow! It hurts! But not to try to manipulate anything, but just show people a crying Buddha. A whining Buddha, maybe. Anyway. I thought the way you explained it was like the pleasure, like if you really go into the whole pleasure, then there is no there's no separate pleasure from you. You become it, and it becomes you. No. No. Well, you don't become it, you already are it.

[15:59]

But you are not with it anymore. But you don't exactly become it, because you already are it. You already are, but you have to let it be to realize that you are. Before you let it be, it's you with it. And that's suffering. To be with what we are is painful. Because then we're alienated from what we are. But we start that way. So we hear the instruction, and we're alienated from what we are, which is the whole world. So let the world be the world, just the world, and then you will become free of alienation and suffering. But if you try to get it, you're not practicing suchness. You're practicing, basically, delusion. You're trying to get freedom from suffering.

[17:01]

But we're going to give that up, and we're going to practice suchness. We're going to let things be, and then that will be the end of suffering. And in the meantime, we can let it be that we're still kind of a little bit with things, that we're trying to let them be, but we're still a little bit with them, and we can let that be. and accept that the maturity doesn't seem to have come yet. We're still a little bit with something, or in something. So, the time between now and maturity, you can enjoy the maturation process. You don't have to mature instantly and miss out on the maturation. You can mature for quite a while and then enjoy how joyful it is to slowly mature.

[18:09]

rather than just, boom, a ripe persimmon, it's like gradually turning orange. Like now at Tathagata they have persimmons, they're green. And they'll probably get orange, and then they'll either be taken off the tree or they'll fall off. But usually they take them off, because if they fall off, then they go splat in the dirt. So you usually take them off a little ahead of time and let them mature off the vine and they get really soft and you can make persimmon pudding with them. Or if you like slimy fruit, you can eat it all slimy. Tathagatara also has the Asian persimmons, which you eat them while they're still crunchy. It's a different experience. We have different instruction for that one. Anything else today?

[19:16]

Matt and Michel. Okay, so let's say you're captured by a bodhisattva and they put you in a room and they say, you have to choose between pen and pleasure. Okay? You have to choose. Okay. And then the instruction is, in the choice there will be just the choice. Now, hopefully they don't make you choose before you've become mature in letting this choice just be this choice. So you can really let the choice just be the choice.

[20:17]

And then you'll be free of suffering, and then they'll come back and they'll say, Which did you choose? And then you, from freedom from suffering, can entertain the bodhisattvas with your interesting answer. Why would you choose? I don't know. I'm not in charge of why you choose what you choose. I'm just a messenger from the Buddhas telling you how to deal with your choices. But I don't know why you choose what you choose. I don't even know why you would listen to the instructions. But I think you are listening to it, and I don't know why you're listening to it, and I don't know why I'm telling you, but I'm very happy to tell you, and when I heard about it, I was happy to listen to it, but I don't know why you choose, I don't know why I choose to come here, but I've never regretted it. So, you can say, that's why you come is because you never regret it.

[21:22]

Well, maybe, you might be right, who knows? But I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing. Like I also mentioned, I don't know why I got to hang out with Suzuki Roshi. Why did I get to spend time with him? I know a lot of people who are a lot more virtuous than I am, but they didn't get to hang out with him. How come I got to hang out with him? Even some of my friends, I said, he loves you, why don't you hang out with him? They were busy doing other things. You're missing out! And I didn't do that too much because I didn't particularly, you know, want to share. So anyway, I said that I don't know why I was so fortunate to meet him and be able to spend time with him. And after I said that, his wife came up to me and said, I know why. And I didn't ask her what she knew, because I don't think she knew either. we don't know why we're so fortunate.

[22:26]

There's many stories you can tell of why we're so fortunate to hear this teaching, which is like meeting Suzuki Roshi or Buddha. To hear these teachings is like meeting these people face-to-face. And if you do these teachings, if you practice these teachings, and you become mature in them, you will realize, Oh my god, I'm meeting them. These teachings take you to a face-to-face meeting with the Buddha. which seems kind of far out right now. Meet Buddha face-to-face? Well, there's many scriptures which say, when you do these practices, you will see Buddha right in your face, given you the teaching. But again, how do you get so lucky as to hear the teaching and practice it? I don't know. But if you do, you will become mature and you will meet the Buddha. But I don't know how that all works. Well, who knows how it all works? the meeting with Buddha knows how it all works. The meeting knows how it works, not the people.

[23:29]

The people don't know how Buddhism works, but the practice is the knowing how it works. If you knew how it worked, you'd practice. If you practiced, then you know how it works. Your practicing is knowing how it works. to know how compassion works is practicing compassion. That's how it works. That's how you know it. You know it by practicing it. Not like, oh, I know how... The compassion working is how the compassion works. We still have a lot of time left. Oh, Michel! He's still here. Hey, Michel! Did you have something you want to tell us?

[24:30]

Choice is a concept. In the seeing, only the seeing, there is no naming, other than just the seeing. So, there is no naming. There is no concept. Right? When we move, suffering, that's what I was thinking, more suffering, choice, suffering, you said suffering by itself. Suffering by itself, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Let the mental construction be just a mental construction.

[25:31]

you know, train yourself to let the mental construction just be a mental construction. Train yourself that way. Because at first it's hard. At first it's like me and the mental construction, or me and the training. Okay, okay, fine. Let's then confess that there's me and the training. And I'm sorry about the me and the training, And I'm a little distracted from just the training. So you do train yourself, but the training is actually to let things be, which is not you and the things. How are you doing? In the okay? Is it just the okay? Yes, Michelle's friend.

[26:37]

I was wondering where that story is, about with Manjushri and that meeting. Where is it? You never heard before? Isn't that terrific? I never heard of it. It's the first case of the Book of Serenity. Wow, the first one? It's the first one. You were such in a hurry to get to the second one. It's the first one. It's the number one case in the Book of Serenity. Number one. We have a cat arriving. I don't know how you feel about that, but we have a cat here. I think that the cat should leave when we lock the building up. We don't want the cat trapped indoors. I don't mind the cat being here, make sure not, and it looks like she's pregnant, and also the kittens too should go, because we don't want animals trapped in here.

[27:40]

It's a neighborhood cat, and they like to come to Zazen, which is fine, but if they get trapped, it's not good. So make sure the cat's not in the house when you lock it up, please. Anyway, the doors are open. The cats come in, the people come in, but don't lock it up and trap them inside, okay? Cool? Okay. Number one. And it's the main case is Manjushri's talking, right? Buddha's quiet, Manjushri's the talkative one. And then the verse says, and nothing can be done about Manjushri's leaking. It actually says it! Well, it's a translation from the Chinese.

[28:44]

leaking, outflow, defilement, like gain and loss around things is like an outflow. Impurities, like if you believe in something, that's like kind of an outflow of you believing in it. It's kind of an outflow. So the Buddha had these six kinds of wisdoms that came at the time of enlightenment, supposedly. These very supernatural powers like knowledge of past lives, knowledge of the karma of other people, and so on and so forth, knowledge of other's minds. The sixth one is knowledge of the end of these outflows. So Manjushri knows about the end of our flaws, but for our sake, Manjushri points out, look, here's the Buddha, here's the teaching. The Buddha didn't say, hey, look at me, I'm giving you the teaching.

[29:51]

The Buddha just sat there. No other flaws. Manjushri said, I don't think they're gonna get it, look! Yeah. Could Manjushri call attention to what we're seeing without leaking or without outflow? Yeah, he could have. He could have, but he had just been indicted by the poet, the Zen poet, for leaking. For example, the story could have been Manjushri walked by the Buddha and tripped on a cat and fell into Buddha's lap, And everybody noticed, oh look, look at the way the Buddha caught Manjushri. Oh, there's the teaching. And then Manjushri wouldn't have had to point anything out. And yet, his body falling in the Buddha's lap would have drawn people's attention to the Buddha's great compassion.

[30:55]

But then he wouldn't have been accused. But he really did tell us some stuff. And he also gave us some instructions, you know, some verbal instructions, like clearly observe, you know. But how nice, how compassionate that he descended into the realm of defilement for our sake, because that's where we live. The Buddha is like, and we're kind of like, so what? And when Trishti comes in and puts it in a way that we can like, Go, oh, there's a little bit of a problem in it, even though it was wonderful. So Zen people, not just Zen people, but Zen people are often pointed out that they let go of the ultimate and come into the weeds for us. They don't just float in the ultimate. They let go of it and come and talk to us in our terms, like, Hey, look!

[32:04]

Look, did you see what's there? So is that an outflow when you're teaching? Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Nothing can be done about it. I'm a bad boy. Sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. Yes. Could you please give a little verbal instruction on when we are sitting, of taking care, being careful? Being careful? When you're sitting? Careful of what? Careful of the sitting, for example? Careful of... Yeah, careful of your body. Your body posture. Yeah. Welcome your body. Say thank you to this body.

[33:06]

Welcome the room. Let it be. And then be careful of it. Be gentle with it and tender with it, because it's fragile. Don't lie about it. Don't try to get something other than what it is. Don't kill it. Don't be angry at it. Or if you're angry, just for a flash and just let the anger be. Don't try to be possessive of it. Don't slander it. Just be careful of it. And be patient with it, because sometimes it's in pain. and be diligent with it, and relax with it, and be open to it. And then you're ready to, like, really let it be, let the sitting just be sitting.

[34:11]

And also realize that you don't do these practices of carefulness by yourself. You do it in relationship with other people. They're calling you to take care of your body. Your body's calling you. You're responding to your body. Your body's asking you to be kind to it. Your mind's asking you to be kind to it. And there's a compassionate response. And everybody else is asking you to be kind to it and asking you to be kind to them. So you're also letting all that conversation go on, so you're practicing it together with all beings. All this is part of taking care of the sitting. Yes? Are you saying that all teaching is outflows?

[35:21]

No, just mine. But the Buddha getting up on the seat and just sitting there, he didn't get indicted. And also, I don't know how long after the Buddha sat there, I don't know how long after that, that Manjushri hit the gavel. It might have been many eons, or just a second. So maybe when the Buddha sits, some bodhisattvas, they see the Buddha sit and they realize, Oh, I'm sitting. Okay, that's it. Don't need Manjushri to say anything to me. And they didn't even try to sit.

[36:23]

They just saw Buddha and they realized that they were just like Buddha. They were sitting too, and they weren't moving to be where they were, just like the Buddha didn't move to be where the Buddha was. They just woke up in the presence of the Buddha without the Buddha indicating anything. But then some other people didn't realize that they were just like Buddha, and Buddha was just like them. So then Manjushri said, Oh, by the way, you know, You mean like in case number one? You mean about the leaking? No problem in thinking of it that way.

[37:26]

No problem at all. As long as thinking about it that way doesn't close the door. on, you know, he may have to leak it for our sake. We shouldn't close out that possibility, that it may be necessary for bodhisattvas to present the teaching in a kind of twisted way to fit our twisted mind. And if that's what we need, As far as I know, they're willing to give us whatever would be helpful. If they have to squish it and twist it to make it work for us, okay. For the people where you don't have to do anything with it, okay. So the Buddha doesn't have a fixed thing, you know? It's like whatever the person needs. So the Buddha gave this teaching for people who could just wake up without any indication, and then when they were all awake, then Manjushri said, for the rest of us, some instruction, some verbal instruction, clearly observed.

[38:37]

Now you can say, it doesn't seem to be that bad a linking. No, it's wonderful. It's not that bad, clearly observed. It's a really wonderful teaching, which has, once Manjushri said it, now it can come up in our minds when we're walking around, or when we're sitting. That teaching can just come up in your mind, and you can like wake up. You don't have to even try to think of it. It just pops up because you heard it, because Manjushri gave it to you. So now it can come to you whenever it would be helpful. But also the image of the Buddha not saying anything could come to you, and you go, Oh my God! Now I see what he was up to! He was sitting there, I saw him sitting there, but I didn't realize he was actually teaching me everything at that moment. Now I see. without pointing towards himself or towards me. But I still appreciate Manjushri hitting that glass, you know, making that noise.

[39:44]

Thank you so much, noisy Zen Manjushri. You're welcome. Thank you for coming to the meeting. Well, it's almost five o'clock and I just want to thank you again for coming to meet me, and I also want to thank me for coming to meet you. Correct. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[40:55]

Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[41:32]

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