I don't chase the truth of others' words. Morning. Last week, I was at Tassajara. And it was nice to be at Tassajara again. I spent a lot of time talking to the students. Tassajara runs itself as usual. The summertime is always very difficult. because the guest season is so demanding and because there never seems to be enough energy all the time to do all the work that's necessary.

[01:17]

So it's a big load on everybody. And also people come and go. So that's a difficulty that everyone has at Tassajara. And if everything's going, if they have some confidence, it's pretty good. But it seems to work okay. But right now, because there's some uncertainty about their teacher, People feel kind of strange, like they don't quite know where their authority is coming from. So there's a lot of uncertainty among the students.

[02:18]

So I... I tried to give them some feeling of confidence in themselves. I think that they have a wonderful opportunity to find their practice, find themselves within their practice. But for so long, they've had the kind of luxury of being told what to do, that when that authority is no longer there, they're groping around and haven't yet found the authority within themselves. The purpose of our practice is to help us to find the authority within ourselves.

[03:37]

And if we're not training toward that end, then our training is not correct. Zen training, should be aimed at making us independent, each one of us independent, so that we find true authority within ourself. That doesn't mean that we just, when we find the true authority within ourselves, that we just go off and do whatever we want. We have that freedom. But that kind of freedom or authority or independence means that we have the motivation to practice within ourself.

[04:41]

That we don't need to be motivated from outside or by someone else. It's generated from ourself. And it's authentic because we authorize it. So the point is to find the authentic dharma within ourself. All the students have it, but they just don't know it. They're not used to it. When you have the authentic dharma within yourself, it means that you're self-motivated to practice. You may not understand what Buddhism is thoroughly, but you understand that practice is realization.

[05:57]

And you understand that you practice because you feel it's correct living, correct life, right livelihood. and you don't have to be convinced. So in our practice, what we appreciate is when we can understand our practice to the point where We don't need someone to constantly lead us around.

[07:03]

And we don't wait for someone to do something with us, but we engage from our own place. Students at Tassajara are quite capable of practicing. And they're very good students, actually. They've been practicing a long time. But they've been kind of kept from making their own decisions. working together in a way that brings the wisdom of the Sangha out.

[08:06]

So I tried to help them to work together and feel some confidence in there that they could do things themselves without depending so much on authority. They already have authority. They've been practicing for a long time and they know what practice is and they have that authority. There was one process with the officers where they were trying to decide how to treat a certain case that came up with somebody that was very delicate. And ordinarily they would have come to an impasse and called the teacher in San Francisco or someplace to make the decision for them.

[09:11]

But they went ahead and very skillfully came to some conclusion about this situation and realized that their authority or their ability to make decisions together and work together was right there in their midst. And that's just one indication of how they can work together to continue their practice. There are many other ways where the practice is kind of dying. Practice is just kind of dying because nobody felt the authority to pick it up. If someone doesn't feel

[10:18]

the spirit or authority to pick up the practice, it will just die. That's why each one of us has to come to the point where we have, feel that authority. It's not the authority to take over or to call yourself a teacher or something, but it's just the authority to add your spirit to practice and to have it constant and to realize that unless you do it, it's not there. I talk about this sometimes a lot, that it's not somebody else that runs the practice. There is no somebody else. There's only us. There's only you.

[11:20]

And practice works and functions only in as much as you make it work. Sometimes we feel, well, there's the zendo, and there are the people that run the zendo, and then there are people who go there, and I can go there too. But that's a kind of objective way of looking at our practice. The true way of looking at our practice subjectively is I and everyone else are making the practice work. I, along with everyone else, makes the practice work. If I don't make it work, it doesn't work as well. That's true.

[12:27]

If every one of us doesn't make it work, it doesn't work so well. There's not just some handful of people that makes it work. It looks like it sometimes. It does look that way sometimes. Everyone's practice is important, is just as important as everyone else's. Each person's practice. And together we make... The dharma comes out of our practice. Together we make, we create a situation where the dharma appears in our midst. Buddha appears in our midst. And if we really have a sincere practice, our common knowledge, our common wisdom will guide our practice.

[13:54]

And when we can depend on that, it's a very wonderful thing to know that we can depend on our common wisdom to guide us, not just one person's authority or the authority of some small group of people, but the wisdom of the Sangha together. So we should be practicing in such a way that if suddenly I were to disappear, you would be able to continue your practice without falling down, without wondering what is practice. That should be the goal of our practice, is for each one of us to be able to stand up independently and understand how to practice, understand how to continue.

[15:06]

If people practice, if someone wants a teacher, If they are sincere and practice, a teacher will appear. If people in Zen Center practice sincerely and hard, a teacher will appear. I have no doubt. If people practice really sincerely, many teachers will appear. The main thing is to have enough confidence in your practice so that you can stand up on your own two feet.

[16:23]

And if everything is taken away, no matter everything, you can still stand up on your own two feet. And if there are a lot of people who can do that, who know how to practice, then the saga will be very, very strong. One thing that a lot of people wondered about at Tassajara was Dharma transmission.

[17:26]

We talked about that a little bit. Suzuki Roshi gave his Dharma transmission to the Sangha. That's all he ever did. That was his main purpose, was to transmit the Dharma to the Sangha. And the Dharma has been transmitted to the Sangha for years. People don't know, they wonder what it is. They think it's some person walking around in a brown robe, but the Dharma Suzuki Roshi's teaching, what he was teaching us was Dharma transmission. If you want to know what Dharma transmission is, what he was teaching us, just read Zen Mind Beginner's Mind.

[18:38]

It's all about Dharma transmission. if you can understand what he's saying. It's about transmitting Dharma. And he transmitted Dharma to us. And if we understand and know how to practice Suzuki Roshin's way through his understanding of Dharma, then the Sangha has Dharma transmission. And some people are asked to embody or to represent that transmission and to pass it on. But the reason why they have Dharma transmission is because they already have Dharma transmission.

[19:46]

Dharma transmission isn't something that you give to somebody. Nobody can give you anything. Why some person gets dharma transmission is because they already have dharma transmission. There's nothing to transmit. When you realize that nobody can give you anything, then you can begin to see what it is. I appreciate Suzuki Roshi because he trained me to be independent. He didn't train me to lean on him. Every time I tried to lean on him, he'd give me something more difficult to deal with. So I learned not to lean on him.

[20:49]

But that doesn't mean I didn't have a relationship with him. But I appreciated the things that he gave me to deal with. And the things that he gave me to deal with, I took up and trained with. I didn't forget what he told me. I wasn't a very good student, I'll admit that. And I did forget a lot of things. And I did ignore a lot of things. But I remembered enough and dealt with enough things so that I had my hands full. And the most important thing was that I always knew that whatever I was doing, I was practicing with it.

[21:55]

So I was constantly aware of my connection, of my relationship with him. I didn't forget it and go do something else, get lost down some other track. And it was hard to always remember that I had a problem to deal with. But I knew that someday Suzuki Roshi wouldn't be here. We both knew that the most important thing was to find out how to stand up and create practice.

[23:35]

Make it work. Not waiting for something. Not expecting something. and not depending on anybody. If you really want to practice and there's nothing to depend on, then you have to deal with it every moment. And if you can deal with it every moment in that way, then you will create practice and practice will create you. So if you have a teacher, it's good to follow the teacher's example and to ask questions and to try and be self-motivated.

[25:01]

What the teacher appreciates most is your self-motivation to practice. The teacher doesn't want to drag you along. If you give the same kind of energy to the teacher as the teacher gives to you, then it's pretty easy. But if you're always dragging your feet, or forgetting, then it becomes too burdensome. And there's only so much one can do. So you tend to work more with people who are easy to work with and less with people who are difficult to work with.

[26:09]

But I always have a very soft spot for people who are difficult to work with. Maybe because I'm so difficult to work with myself. It's okay. Actually, I always appreciate people who are difficult to work with. And I always seem to be drawn toward them, drawn to people that are difficult to work with. So I kind of I'm not worried too much. I don't have too much expectation of anything. But it makes it easier for all of us if we can just plunge into practice and find our own way.

[27:23]

as much as possible, find our own way. So that wherever you are, you don't have to look around for something. No matter where you are, you should have your own way. You shouldn't feel lost anywhere. No matter what's taken away from you, you shouldn't feel lost. If you can do that, then you have some real sense of practice, some real independence. Sometimes, you know, a student needs to be tucked under your arm Pat it on the head. Sometimes a student needs to be pushed out, pushed into the ocean, and just made to swim.

[28:37]

Just thrash around until you can swim. Sometimes that's necessary. And sometimes it's both. Sometimes pat on the head, throw you away. Sometimes back and forth and back and forth. But the hope is that eventually you can stand on your own feet, no matter what the situation is. And if you can't do that, then your mind is the same as the teacher's mind. No difference. Then you have dharma transmission automatically.

[29:40]

No ceremony, unceremoniously. Okay. This afternoon, we're going to complete our Sashin in the park.

[30:45]

We'll have lunch. to the field where we're going to have the peace celebration. So let's all be peaceful, carry our peacefulness with us.

[31:13]

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