good morning i'm delighted to be here and thank you all for in
appreciate an audience
and i don't know if any of you got any of your little friends but i brought one of my little friends because my little friend also so appreciative audience so i'm going to introduce him to his name his binky
and binging is actually a swami ji know it as swami is strongly as a spiritual master
so has his full name is swami vivekananda
some people call him swam and beyond and nanda
swami thinking beyond the nanda
but we we just don't call them being pinky
and if you have any questions you know
you can say hey bank where do you think
and then being he will talk
i sometimes but then you'll need an interpreter you know and then i can tell you what he says
said it didn't you bring any that of friends with you know i you to grown up for the little friends
i guess i sort of miss stemming the dangers of growing up he knows
so you know these people are still in my life that people i call me there critters or stuffies
so anyway bank is going to sit here
and then binky you know is i'm actually not so young himself anymore
binky is something over twenty now and binky has been from a lot of adventures and your binky has been to india and back into europe and big it got lost in l a one time and
what ship tom and
one time you know i went to an event and seven francisco to came back to my car and minky instead of sitting in the car and would sit in the windshield outside of the car and i don't know how he got there but we found him you know i feel very fortunate that big concern of my life and then and then make it disappeared for the longest time and finally when i clean
my room
he think he was under the bed and think it got you covered with dust dinner under the bed and so he needed goods in the washer machine
and and then actually him he came out squeaking better
sometimes they intend to when you when your washer is stephens and critters and screening then namely there's greeks sometimes but anyway banking still know
then he makes different kinds of sounds too because it can also do

are you can be that's that's kind of sad and plant and sound you know
and then this
the israeli side and sometimes anyway
and then
anyway he he's also very good at sitting quietly if it comes to that you know if he asked to
so he sometimes says you know men's a cherry trees
no i'm not around he'll sit and then see like we could just have to sit here and face the altar and the
please a very you know his even though he's astronomy even though is a spiritual master and still ready to learn more
so anyway
excuse me

so let's mourn and i wanted to talk with you
you know a little bit about zen and important about zen buddhism that we don't usually talk about so much bread
i find it very interesting and one other piece of information for you isn't it i'm now in a movie
and it's called how to cook your life and it's gonna be showing this afternoon at the mill valley film festival boats in mill valley and in central fl and then it's going to be in theaters later this month and if you're lucky your folks would take you one of these days to see my movie and an inner next spring and beyond dvd so you know it could be
all over the place in as a you'll see me you know in the movies so
i want to show sandwich and reno are sold outstanding
whether yeah with the russia
i'm i'm already petition shine as you couldn't get a ticket oh well
ah coming to a theater near you
anyway i find this very interesting to suddenly been a movie and it just completely accidental but part of what this is about his and know it's about cooking so i wanted to tell you a little bit about when i was a little boy
and you know it might be interesting for you to know that you know has are growing up
there are things to do that you know that are very can be helpful later in your life
and so it turned out you know when i was when i was little like seven eight nine and ten i started helping my mom i would help my mom make cookies and cakes my mom did dinner sometimes
and then you know when we finished making the cookies and cakes we we get to scrape the bowl and make the dough and the batter and a cookie dough can the frosting and things so it was a lot of fun and i had such a good time
and then when i was ten years old i went to visit my hand and ten years of my aunt was making homemade bread
she lived near washington d c and the bandit shimane was so delicious it was so good and i was ten years old and i i think this is so good why don't we get to eat like this more often and it turns out if you want to eat like that you need to make the bread yourself
so it turns out if you can you know do something like cooking and if you take an interest in cooking and you start to make cookies and cakes and different things than later on you will have good food in your life
so this is actually and are buddhist tradition in situation which emphasizes finding out how to do things with your body not just thinking about things and you know
i'm playing with no games and in her toys and things with your mind and just your hands been doing things that cooking and also when i was growing up you know my parents said you need to help clean around the house
and you know it's contours
and my dad said year part of this families so you need to do part of the work
so every saturday morning in my family we used to clean around the house and the my job is the bathroom so i cleaned the bathroom i clean the tub and i cleaned the time that we had a scrub brush for the toilet and we had sponges and clause and i clean that
the sink and bathtub and the toilet that was sunday morning and then after i did all my cleaning and then we didn't have television and that is to oh well
do i love you have television or do some of the your parents are enlightened or would
so anyway then and then we and we went outside and played a lot you know so when i was your i now by also played a lot of sports do play any sports baseball and soccer and so you get to run and
and kick and throw and different things it's really great to do things anyway with your body
so i'm when i'm encouraging new day to remember to do this and also to ask your parents and you can help them do things around the house because if my daughter i thought i'd take care of these things for us as she can play and then natives to tell me why didn't you let me help you
so it's okay to ask them as you can help
you know my daughter by the way you know i'm remembering how i was ten years old and younger and helping in the kitchen and learning how to make things and to eat or is so good and we had such a good time with that and then
i'm also remembering my daughter when she was little
and my daughter is now thirty four
when she was your age i used to say to her
you're so wonderful now you are so the wonderful now
they just the size you are and just the shape you are and been so much fun and you know and you're such a delight you're not going to you don't want to grow up to you
yeah i didn't want to change to you you're just wonderful the way you are and then she would always say no i wouldn't grow i'm not going to stay like this
so i wish to well as this drying that business
i'm thinking wishes should well
i'm going i wanna say one one of it's a couple of things about this one is and when i was ten years old and i and i had this very delicious bread at my aunt's house i thought why are we like this and i thought when i grow up i'm gonna learn to make bread and i will teach other people how to make bread i was ten
years old
so you may if you know you may if something interests you when you're young this can help you all the rest of your life and you decide i'm going to learn how to make bread i'm going to teach people how to make bread and then you know that meant i'm i wrote a book about how to make bread i taught people how to make bread
now i'm in a movie teaching the bad and make bread and started when i was ten years old
so this is pretty amazing that and how important it is to when you're young to look for things in your life since you really inspire you and you want to do these things you want to cook you want to claims you want a garden you want to is so you build things with your hands in a carpenter
three and when i was there ways to play with blocks and leave my brother and i made towers and and then of course we knock them down
so there are many things like this and i wish you well finding something in your life that is a really interest to you can engaging that you can do with your body you know and make something build something can create something with your hands
and then this so you may find other things of interest but this is pretty straight if you can find something like this so thank you and binky things to me
see you next month
hi

have a good morning
thanks for coming

having

so there's a lot of sense that parent front and anthony of you are strong enough to take them
i learned something new yesterday from we had a little one is sitting here and the yoga teacher everybody was she was up here and then everybody was that can fit back in the room and she said come on solid
you're welcome to come on forward
i use to same people i guess i'm really scary andrae and then they go yeah you are
the morning

so you just send the kids off and then wanted to stay home

are you able to hear me okay now

so i'm in are they the one thing i didn't mention in my lecture my talk i visit with the younger generation here is a line from upon by rumi so now i can share that with you
but it has to do you know with
you know how do we what happens to us in our lives
ah as we grow up and mature and age
and it's a line from one of roomies bombs
if i if memorize the pound then you can to change it and then maybe it's just a different translation
and most of you want to know the problem by hard so i can tell you it's roomy
so now it's even better than roomy
but anyway it's the line
what was said to the rose that made it bloom has been spoken here in my heart now
what was said to the rose that made in bloom as being spoken here in your heart now
superior as she called this as sincere practice
he said listen carefully
to your inner voice
it's the voice of your heart and as you listen carefully to your inner voice this is what is spoken to the rose maybe a plan and will help you plan
category where she said similarly lead to flower of your life force alone
again this is you know to nature life and take shape and form and to help do appear from the world
to help bring what is inside out into the world to express herself to listen and receive and to express
dogan century said are you know that things calm and abide can your heart let your heart respond beds your heart go out and biden things
this again is also as i was talking with the kids you know to actually relate to the things of the world
and steady had to and lead them into your life and connect with them and respond to them
so it's not so much to know having an idea of what my lives and look like i went to results to be read by attending leaving your attention to things that in things come to you
we all have the capacity than to respond and are individually unique way to the things in the world
it's one of the wonderful things of course about zen center
you know some of this it turned out and it turns out have a good for as i apparently have good for cooking
ah and something of a gift for teaching i'm not sure how much of a gift that it's what i do mostly time or have the gift for not i say i'm not sure because if you see the movie i see me they have been in temperamental chefs i'm afraid
and doris during the director that maybe said that's why you're in the movie edward if you are not temperamental we wouldn't want to be so this is sort of the good news and the bad news
you're in a movie because people get to see how in the tour
you are and you're in a movie because people get to see how mature you are
and she said we didn't want to make a movie been ticking on on or the dalai lama
there are two spiritual

well
but then it's been interesting over the years you know it sounds and are some of us
we have an interest or in cooking and syllabus
you know peter and wendy and others have been
fascinated and have an interest in gardening and plants and the weather in the earth and zoya so many people come here because of that and we want to make an opportunity than for people to who have that kind of interest and it often starts from were various mar
oh and we create them along with you know as zazen as sitting meditation we create we want to have opportunities for people to use your body use your heart you know to manifest things in the world food gardening
can we have you know people who are interested in sewing and so we so in robes and cloth and fabric
carpentry
and yeah you know up until fairly recently the students sir when vowed the buildings and in the t has
pop disco and joe for learned j seminar and bird brother and michael scheuer and cancer
and we built the t has and we built the were right center and we built the guesthouse
and there's something you know when you work with your body
can do things with your hands it's very it's one of the most satisfying feeling things that you can do and then as its emphasis on using your body using your hands and the very practice of zazen and that were doing the meditation is with your body said with your body and
dogan xinjiang know
hey mr durbin says or when you're sitting study what is sitting is it a mind sitting is it a body sitting
is it like an acrobat flying through the air is like a fish darting in the wire
is it the body mind sitting
is it a body that has a mind is it in mind and as a party i is say
and when we're involved in our activity whether it's sitting or in our cooking gardening carpentry plumbing cleaning
oh you know we have this chance to
feel the wholesome wholesome quality in their lives
and and we began to sense in a physically as much as mentally in our connection with things are the world
our thick with staff you know
and that things are not just things you know things are you yourself things are buddha
everything is also spirit
and so we have spirit in our life partly me know and zan certainly because we related things
and of course it's is really interesting at times and others in kind garage and suzuki roshi i'm the japanese teachers always used to say no we don't clean and order to clean
the japanese ideas if every day you go and you know you touch the floor and that floors at aig
i like wooden glass it's from eight hundred years
or whatever it is and seven eight hundred years of taking a damn cause and wiping a word
every day
so for the people doing then it must be at times tedious but when you look at that floor it's like wooden glass and you can see your inflection it's stunning and that's that's people's hands mines and then they say it's not about going
yeah it's not about creating when mirrors but it's about you know that you actually spend some time relating to something if you touch the word every day now you're in connection with the word your friends your intimate and now you belong here you have a place the world is yours big
cause you did something with it
can we all know you know similarly the food we ate you know
years ago i had
i met a yoga teacher from ghana coffee his teaching now in santa cruz i haven't seen in years but he came to dinner at my house when time
and he said how do you americans eat anonymous food
when i grew up in ghana we always knew whose food at rise which shall sign it came from what valley and you eat anonymous food i didn't do that
but clearly it's a different world here but you know when you know where the food comes from and if you have food you know that you know is from gringotts and you've seen it in the fields and you helped to picket and you eat it and then you just feel it's a different kind of july and and it helps to know it's a similar you get to know people
the farmers market and you get food and pretty soon and especially if you visit any of these prices and then pretty soon you feel so happy
you're connected because you do the work about connecting with your awareness with your heart to the food to the people to the place and now you're part of things
so it's actually are no intention in our effort you know this kind of work of know taking sending and taking care of it whether it's to clean it or shape it for cook it
you know what to do with it
and it's curious of course then
in our world you know work like this has gotten such a bad name
that's for poor people
i think it's a little bit better now but you know for lot of years why is it that you know when i was ten years old and nineteen fifty five there wasn't any bread
in the united states hardly
there was puffing white bread and cardboard he got a whole wheat bread
you know that who knows how long it had been there packages are on the shelf in the grocery store because now long as buying it and everybody of school had puffy white bread sandwiches except for me
and of course nobody was asking for
a bite of my whole wheat sandwich
but that's changed now you know now there's actually bred ah here and there's actually people working and there's actually much more interesting than people you know i'm doing things with your hands and your body
and there's so much anyway again so much satisfaction and fulfillment and nourishment that comes from know doing things with your body during things with your hands and you feel good
so now instead of doing that instead of that girl that's good jogging that's going to the gym
now we have to create exercise programs because we don't do anything for their hands
it's very strange so this is my encouragement to their in a possible interest to you know reminder
and of course we also have been know i've had people over the years that sends and are you know people who are interested in sitting
i mean really interested i've made frankly if i may say i've kind of lost interest in saying
i mean i still do it i don't have the sort of rag and this is interesting i don't have the same sort of passion for it where you can go and spend three months of your life doing nicely saying
for seven years in your life for twenty years of your life to us and saying that seems to come and gone
and you know sometimes i think it's in as a in a sport
since its for ago you know and we do sitting and then we do bowing yeah and we do walking and you know couple of years ago and tends to hey i've got a bow and like my knees and nine queen queen creek creek and like cried and then i don't know if i can get down and get been it from the
bowing and then when i sit my needs hurting my say concerning like how do you do his stuff and then you know it came time for service and i couldn't read this sutra cards anymore
the currency know what happened is i mean i had all that sutras memorized
but then people who are really interested in getting it right get together and change all the translations and they think and they say we should have the same translations all across america don't you know that small is beautiful and you know that you could have been a little groups of people sharing one way or another and to
card when you go to somebody else that's true what's the problem but now i know none of that sutures by hard anymore and i always have to read it you know
thank you
the of america you know so i get a suture card and then i can't read it
so then i started bringing my reading glasses and to the zendo and i still couldn't read because the lights are bright and now
can i can't even i can't see the page even with my glasses so i'm starting to think i started thinking like online and zen zen as a young person sport
i did a lot of sports and that was a little even though i was a little known for being that all night i played a lot of basketball myself you know which
i got very good at playing basketball by myself
it didn't translate when i turn to you know a group back to me
and i i i i didn't play very much football you know couple of afternoons and tackle football was enough
you know we'd run up and down the field and tackle each other it was a drink high the field and drink and because i live right next to it
played baseball cause baseball's kind of boring you know you stand around the line waiting for something to happen
and your turn
strange sport for kids and then i played a lot of tenants tennis as beer can chicken in and around and
i played a lot of tennis of my friend who is my height and we were the to serve as boys and sixth grade
tennis together
so anyway i took up this sport concerned and nice physical thing to do so it was engaging for me

so i wanna tell you
share with you also then upon i've been using lately and i find quite a wonderful expression
i think it's is so interesting the you know that and then isn't about and buddhism isn't really about and i'm becoming a certain kind of the person
i mean many people and we mentioned this oftentimes bed
you know since you're curious you said wednesday and is and you are you to didn't say when you get to be zen enough to send yours in mean it's like when you make yourself over to become as a person now you've got it
since somewhere you know this is about a practice about becoming ourselves and how would we know that and or this is mysterious and again curious and said this is sincere practice sit quietly and practice and said depends really not so much on teaching
where the teacher but on the character and the effort of the student character and effort and doomed and he said said listen carefully listen to the quiet inner voice and it's pretty difficult if you've tried in at all
and for any of us and our lives which is that quiet inner voice which one is that
yeah which is the inner voice that is the one ned you know is the voice that helps are you know the and what was said to the rounds out did which is the one that the voice that's helping us to blow in our life
so this is a poem by william stafford god the the way it is
it's an ebook of his poems got the way it is which is a collection from several of his books
william stafford it turns out it was grew up in kansas
and during the second world war he was actually a conscientious objector
nowadays i think you know about the conscience as objectors have a little more but within vietnam war and the korean war and the war in rag conscience objectors are probably have a little more credibility
a m
and interestingly enough a corset in the second world war in you know there's this long special now with ken burns i know on television which is pretty interesting
and in some ways of course it was obvious and then in a pan
we should be fighting this war the second world war
come bedrooms tampering was a conscious objector
and interestingly enough am i don't know some of you probably saw recently in the new york magazine there was an article about the partition of pakistan and india and nineteen forty eight
i am it described what a racist or instant search it was and how demeaning and insulting he was to the indians
and how they were a bunch of whatever he called them
and then they should never have independence and they needed the wonderful for largely british to rule over them and to help them with their poor ignorant lives
winston churchill and apparently to franklin roosevelt in a would send him letters and cause and cables and pasting same lighten up to
fighting for freedom and
but you know it's one thing you know for to fight for your on him but then you know when you ruined it over others you wouldn't want to give them freedom apparently so
but term so i hadn't realized this about winston churchill i'm more in the school and you know when when a lady astor said to winston churchill if you are my husband i'd give you poison and he said lady if i was her husband i'd take it

anyway back to him stanford and the way it is
and the thread and
so this is the way the bomb goes there is a thread that you follow
it goes among things that change but it doesn't change
people wonder about what you're pursuing you have to tell them about the thread
as long as you hold onto it you can't get lost
tragedies happen
people get hurt and die
do you suffer
and grow abode
nothing you do can stop times unfolding
you don't ever let go of the thread

there's a thread you follow it goes among things that change but it doesn't change
people wonder about what you're pursuing you have to tell them about the thread
tragedies happen as long as you hold it you can get lost in is happen people get hurt and i do suffer and grow old nothing you do can stop times unfolding you don't ever go
whoa have the thread

again practice since a girl she said depends on the character and effort at the student
this name
censoring the thread and your life and it will carry you through out
i'm i guess you know obviously the surrounding foods effect and we get lost
that kind of thread runs and number of their lives that story sen sanders
so this is very mysterious
what is the thread of your life what is and other threads and senior heart
how are you
how will you live what do you want to do with yourself hour you spend your time
what you know is important finally
again you know my daughter i used to think my daughter was younger and she was thirty four now and
cheyenne your boyfriend just move back into my house and their pay me rent
richards helpful here and the marine county real estate
the may say so
am and it's a delight to have her in a shiny house with me again but it turns out you know when she was young i used to think i will cook for her and i'll making food and then years later yeah she said dad
he weren't there
and she said right in to let me help you cook i'd actually didn't like me
and i thought i was doing something and to benefit or by cooking for her
and that in her play or do something that she enjoyed i thought i was in a benefiting her and then she says
i felt like you didn't i thought you didn't like me guess you never asked me to help you cook
isn't such an irony you know
right anyway we talked about all these things and now we cook together
and it's a lot of fatal
her enjoyable

what been sent to the rose that made it bloom has been spoken here in your heart and how thank you