all these people over here. And the creek doesn't help. But anyway, I'll try to make myself... Anyway, I want to welcome all of you, all the people who've come down to help with the interim, helping to put the guest season together. If you haven't been welcomed before, then welcome. And if you have been welcomed before, welcome. There are several kinds of practice periods at Tassajara. This kind of practice is, I don't know, you wouldn't call this a practice period, but we call it a period of practice.

[01:08]

Very informal. And we invite all kinds of people to come down and enjoy Tathagata and help us work and work with us. And in a kind of enjoyable atmosphere, rainy atmosphere. And everyone gets something out of this. And it's quite wonderful. And you can come to Zazen if you want. You can not come to Zazen if you want. But it's wonderful to have everyone here in this kind of informal work period. And then we have the summer practice period. And the summer practice period is, some people think it's just work, but it's actually a practice period where the emphasis is on work.

[02:18]

And in the morning there's zazen, and in the evening there's zazen. And in between is not just work practice, but practice of taking care of people. Very vital, important practice of how we take care of people. And these people, some of these people we call guests, and some of these people we call students. So, And in the fall and the winter and spring, we have a formal practice period where we sit seven or eight periods of zazen every day, and we sit during meals, and there's work, but not so much work.

[03:21]

So during the practice period, we emphasize more zazen. During the summer practice period, we emphasize more work, not as much zazen. And these are two sides of our practice. Both are very important. So during practice period we have very strict kind of practice and in order to attend the practice period one has to have some experience and be accepted on the basis of your ability to be deprived of your usual sensory input. The last practice period was a kind of interesting experiment

[04:30]

the abbot of the last practice period said, if you don't want to come to Zazen, it's okay. Whatever you want to do is okay. Which is very different from our usual winter-spring practice period because usually everyone is committed to sitting Zazen every day and following the schedule, the rigorous schedule every day. So he said, if you don't want to follow the schedule, it's okay. Do whatever you want. And it was kind of a wonderful experiment. A lot of people thought, this is crazy. But actually, people got to, the students got to look into their, got a chance to look at what they were doing and look into their own motivation. And each person had to look very clearly into their own motivation and their own sense of practice, and find out why they were there, and did they really want to be there?

[05:38]

Why were they doing this? So it's kind of a wonderful thing. Each one of us should be challenged in this way. What are you doing? What am I doing? But usually, practice period, winter, spring, and fall practice period, the main thing is to follow the schedule. So one commits themselves to this strict kind of practice, which includes many periods of Zazen every day, and work practice, and getting up very early in the morning, starting your day at four o'clock, And day after day, repeating the same practice over and over until you get sick of it.

[06:41]

And then when you're sick of it, you have to decide, what am I doing? So at one time, in the mid 80s, Before Zen Center had a kind of crisis, a student would have to wait a year and a half, be a student at a practice place within Zen Center for a year and a half, and test their practice before they ever came to Tassajara as a student for a practice period. And then after since then I had a crisis in the mid-80s, we let people come who had just done the summer. And so we kind of lowered our standards in a way.

[07:45]

And it made it very difficult for a lot of people because they didn't have the experience. to really be able to sustain what they thought they were doing. And we've continued this practice. And now we're thinking more of when people come for the summer who haven't had much experience, that we want them to practice during the summer very strictly. if they want to attend the practice period. So that they understand what it is to do a strict practice period, where you can't say, I don't feel like getting up in the morning, or I don't feel like going to Zazen, or I don't want to blah, blah, blah. You know? So for those people who are here for the summer and are planning

[08:54]

or would like to go to the practice period, I want to say that you should show your sincerity by following the summer schedule very strictly. Because in the summer, people work very hard. Working is the main thrust of the practice. And so people get tired. And what happens is they don't want to go to Zazen in the morning or they don't want to go to Zazen in the evening. But to maintain a really strict practice, one should sit Zazen in the morning and in the evening, whether you're tired or not, or whether you feel like it or not. The thing about a practice period is that you commit yourself to doing something and the only way you can do that is to go beyond the way you feel about it.

[10:11]

You have to get beyond your feelings and follow your commitment. This is what makes for a real practice during a practice period, a very strong practice. is to commit yourself to following the schedule completely. And then you have to deal with your feelings. You have to deal with how you feel about this and that. But you don't let your feelings interfere with your intention. And so this is where we always run up against problems. In ordinary life, we follow our feelings a lot. There's nothing wrong with feelings, and there's nothing wrong with following feelings. But, when you're doing something difficult, you have to have a very strong intention.

[11:19]

And you can't let your feelings sway you from your intention. So, this is how one creates a strong practice. Otherwise, it's very difficult to, without having a background of practice, to enter the practice period. So I just wanted to say that. It's a kind of new policy that we're starting this summer in our summer practice period. For people who want to do the practice period after the summer, that they should maintain a strong summer practice as if it was the practice period.

[12:21]

I know people like to relax a bit, you know. One thing that we, it's important to realize is that sometimes The older students don't sit as much zazen as the newer students are expected to sit. And the newer students say, well, why aren't they sitting so much zazen? Why do I have to sit so much zazen when the older students are not sitting so much zazen? But the older students have to take responsibility. The older students have much more responsibility. And also, they need sometimes a little break. in their practice. But younger students should really try very hard and not compare their practice to the practice of the older students in the sense of how much they sit. For a new student, it's good to sit as much as possible during the summer. Then they are prepared for the practice period.

[13:25]

And then we know whether or not we can give us a feeling about whether or not we think you should go to the practice period. So one thing you don't want to do is go to the practice period and then feel like you want to go home in the middle. Not so good. So practice period, if you say it's difficult, that's true and not true. If you say it's not difficult, that's true and not true. But the only way that you can do that kind of practice is to completely give yourself over. Then it's quite enjoyable. The biggest problem is our resistance. What happens is that people say, I want to do this.

[14:47]

I really want to do this. And I want to make a commitment. And then in the middle they say, why are you making me do this? Why are you forcing me to do this? So we just want to help people to do what they want to do. This is the main thing. The reason, you know, we have teachers and practice leaders, we just want to help people to do what they want to do. So if you want to come to practice period, it's because you want to do it, not because someone's making you do something. And the thing about a practice period is that everyone in the practice period, if you have If you have 25 people in a practice period, then the 25 people create one person with 25 faces.

[15:51]

If you have 40 people in the practice period, it's one person with 40 faces. And whatever you do, whatever each individual does, affects all the rest. So you really begin to see how your actions affect the world, and especially affect the immediate world around you. So if everyone is really practicing sincerely and completely, then there's a wonderful harmonious feeling. And when we lose that feeling, it makes it very difficult. And so we'd like to make sure that everybody's willing to make that harmonious, create that kind of harmony for the situation.

[17:00]

And the summer is the same thing. Summer practice period is people, a lot of people who are less experienced And so, since there's not so much zazen, it's a good introduction, in a way, to practice for a lot of people. But each one of us has to have a feeling of wanting to give up your own your own desire in order to put yourself into the situation and create a harmonious feeling. Taking care of the guests is like public service or service to the public.

[18:03]

Although people pay, you know, the guests pay and What the guests really get out of Tassajara is something that's very valuable and unique. And it seems like the guests come down for their vacations to spend time in this kind of peaceful valley, but the relationship with the students and the feeling that's created by the practice here is what people really hold as most valuable. And this, what they take away with them into the world, influences the world. I think Tassajara practice has had an influence on the world that is much stronger than we can ever understand.

[19:13]

not only in California, but the whole country, and various parts of the world. People come here and go to all parts of the world, and what they take with them influences them wherever they are, as you know, as it influences all of us. I think that some people may disagree with me, but I think that Tassajara guest season is a kind of social action, a very valuable kind of social action to allow people to experience the feeling of our practice, whether they actually sit Zazen or not, to come into contact and are influenced by it in all kinds of ways. I think the most, a very valuable kind of social action is the influence that people go away with from this practice.

[20:31]

It's as valuable as feeding people. And if, you know, we can affect some kind of change, social change, at the upper end of society. It doesn't have to be so much a problem at the lower end of society. Because if the upper end of society doesn't change, then people at the bottom are going to have to change it. So, for the regular Zen students, we give up a lot of our sitting practice in order to take care, for these five months, in order to take care of whoever it is that appears in this valley.

[21:41]

We don't discriminate who it is, but we just take care of everybody. And the students work really hard to do it. And then the rest of the year, is retreat. So, this is our practice. Retreating into the mountains and then coming out of the mountains and serving people. And back and forth, back and forth. So, often times people misunderstand and they think, well, summer practice is just working. They just try to get us here and get us to work for them, the gym center. But it's not so. And more and more, we're developing our summer program to include more education for the students.

[22:45]

It's always a struggle, you know. The beginning of summer period, you don't know who's going to be here. And we start this whole summer period. We think that there'll be a number of people, but you never know. And two weeks before the interim, maybe 16 people. And the director's tearing her hair out. She doesn't have any more, but she's tearing her hair out, wondering how How are we going to do guest periods? But then, miraculously, people show up. So right now we have 90, somewhere between 93 and 105 people that are here. And the kitchen is miraculously feeding wonderful dishes every meal.

[23:55]

And this is the beginning of that guest season. Guest season hasn't, you know, will open in next month. And this kind of preparation is so necessary. The transition between the practice period and the summer. And I can't tell you how much Tassajara appreciates the help of everyone. We couldn't do it without all of you people here. So your contribution is really a great boon for everyone. So during the practice periods, the last two practice periods, in the practice period we often have a theme. We have something that we study.

[24:57]

And the theme for the last two practice periods was from Dogen's Genjo Koan, where Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. And to study the self is to forget the self. And to forget the self is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things. So, dealing with this question, how do you study the self? And how do you forget the self? And what is the self that we study? And what does it mean to study? So this kind of question where it has been underlying the two practice periods.

[26:02]

So, then, these two questions are actually the basis of our Zen practice. And to carry this through the summer, with this question. To study the Buddhadharma is to study the Self. How does that, what does that mean? And to study the Self is to forget the Self. What does that mean? So one aspect of self is this body and mind of five skandhas, this form, this formal body, the feelings, the perceptions, the mental formations,

[27:29]

and consciousness to study these five aspects of our existence. This is like internal mindfulness. And the other aspect is to study my surroundings. to study myself is to study my surroundings. When I walk, to study the ground. When I cut carrots, to study cutting and carrots. When I talk to someone, to study talking and this person.

[28:31]

In other words, myself extends to everything I encounter. And this is also called letting go of body and mind. But study isn't like scrutinizing so much. It's like doing something over and over again. To study zazen means to just do zazen over and over and over again. To study extending myself means to just practice extending myself over and over again. To study compassion means to just act compassionately over and over and over again. To study goodwill or loving kindness means to just practice loving kindness and goodwill over and over again.

[29:47]

It includes analysis and thinking. But Zen practice is just doing something over and over and over again until it becomes you and you become it. So myself, this body and mind of five skandhas, and whatever I encounter is myself. So I can study myself either three to five skandhas, or I can study myself as interacting with you, or I can study it as the wall, or I can study it as the trees. So, in zazen, we say, how do we extend our practice from zazen?

[30:54]

The true practice is Genjo Koan is extending our life from Zazen into our daily life. And in Zazen, there's no gap between myself and whatever I encounter. So that whatever I encounter is myself, the extension of myself. When we have this kind of practice, that's real practice. Just to practice to benefit ourself is not real practice. Just to do something to improve ourselves is not real practice. real practice is to close the gap between myself and myself.

[32:03]

And sometimes it's very difficult. And sometimes it's hard to do when we're very tired. And sometimes it's hard to remember when we get angry or when somebody pisses us off. It's hard to remember that the person who gives us a hard time is really our teacher. So, summer practice for a Zen student is to always keep a calm mind and a good equilibrium and be thankful for whatever happens. It's hard to be thankful for whatever happens, you know.

[33:31]

And when we have some difficulty, it's hard to bow and say, thank you very much. But eventually we have to be able to do that. We have to have gratitude for whatever happens to us. We say, I really would like to be enlightened. But when we get enlightened, we don't really like it. We don't want to have to do what it takes to get enlightened. But we want to get enlightened, we think. But I'm not sure, actually. I think what we would like is to be very powerful and in control of the world and smart. But I don't think we really, even though we think that enlightenment is something wonderful that we'd like to have, I don't think that most of us really, most people really want to be enlightened.

[34:45]

I mean, are we really ready to be grateful for whatever happens to us? So it's difficult. Difficult. Difficult to have pure practice. Pure practice which includes good and bad, and right and wrong, and to be able to accept everything equally.

[35:46]

This is why I say, if we're only pulled around by our feelings, we never give ourselves a chance to experience our great equality. Because we're always changing before we have to swallow the truth. We always step aside before we have to swallow reality. So we're always avoiding our opportunity. That's why during practice period, the student has to be able to follow their intention. That means that you have to face everything that you meet through your intention.

[37:06]

So when we come to a difficult place, we forget all about our intention and we say, oh, I don't want to go there. I'd rather go this way. And so we sidestep the thing that we have to deal with. And as long as we do that, we just fall into picking and choosing. Picking what we like and getting rid of what we don't like. And it's nice, you know. That's what most people like to do. But we avoid the thing that we really have to deal with. And then there comes a time when there's one thing that we all have to deal with and we cannot avoid it. And how will you deal with it? You can't say, oh, I don't want to do that. So sometimes people say, well, if

[38:20]

You're just following your intention. You're ignoring your feelings. We have such loyalty to our feelings. Feelings are wonderful, and we should pay attention to them. But they're very fickle. And they don't lead to enlightenment. They lead to comfortable states. And what most of us are trying to do in the world is to get comfortable. Isn't that so? What most people's activity is aimed at is trying to be comfortable. And the more comfortable we try to get, the more uncomfortable we are. And then we try to get more comfortable, and we get less comfortable.

[39:22]

And you may get real comfortable at some point, but then you have to change because you start getting uncomfortable. So, to find true comfort is okay. Everybody's looking for comfort. So, okay, where is it? Where is true comfort? How can you get really comfortable? The only way you can get really comfortable is to accept everything equally, which is not so easy. But the only way that you can practice Vajrayana, and it's the only way you can see through, the duality of our life.

[40:26]

And if we want to have some realization, we have to be able to see through the duality of our life, and not just be tossed around by the two sides. pulled this way and then pulled that way. Yes. Yes. And then I think it's essential for me to talk to them about my own feelings. What I'm noticing is I have as much dread now going into the summer than I had before my 31st practice period.

[41:47]

I didn't know what I was going to do with it. And now my last practice period, I'm just really nervous about how to practice in the summer. I don't even know anymore what it means, the word practice. Right. That's a good point. So how does a student, you know, who has been through the practice periods and been kind of isolated from the public in a way, and go into the practice period where you have all kinds of influence, all kinds of worldly influence coming into Tharpa Hara, actually. The test of what you've accomplished during practice period is to be able to

[43:04]

Go into the world and maintain this practice, regardless of what the influences are around you. This is a graduate student, right? We've been talking about graduate students of Zen Center lately. Graduate student, you know, should be able to go into the world and do the practice. And without, you know, with nobody else around, you just, you know what your practice is, And you just do that in the world. And there are all kinds of influences around you, and you get pulled around a little bit, you know, but you always maintain your practice. And that's the most valuable thing you have, is to be able to maintain your strict practice in the midst of all the turmoil of the world. Then you really influence your surroundings. So rather than be pulled around by the world, You pull the world around.

[44:08]

In other words, you know, you have to have enough confidence to be able to change the world. Not by trying to change the world, but by keeping your strict practice in the world. That has an enormous effect around you. So, it's just time that you maintain your own practice. When you can maintain your own practice, that's called maturity. When you can maintain your practice without having to be told what to do. That's mature practice. Then you can you're actually teaching without teaching, without trying to. So, a student should be able to come out of practice period and go into the world without any problem, without any transition.

[45:36]

You're just facing everything that comes at you without any idea about it. And you just know what your practice is in the face of life. That's what I would hope all of the Tathagata students would be able to do. For then your practice has authority. Authority means you are offering your practice. It's coming from your own motivation. Nobody has to tell you to do it. This is what we call the difference between an engine and a boxcar. A boxcar is just something that gets pulled along, whereas an engine pulls the boxcars along. So, people sometimes say, how come I never get any authority?

[46:44]

How come I never get any position? You know, how come I'm always, everybody always looks at me? That's because you're still a boxcar. When you show authority, you naturally have it. No one can take it away from you. Do you have any other questions? Or does that answer your question? Sort of? You're doing very well. You're doing very well.

[47:44]

Very well. You're welcome. Actually, we have lots and lots of good students. It really is great that we have so many good students. A lot of students have had a lot of difficulty. A practice period is not easy for people. Everybody has... benefits the most from practice. Earlier you said something and I thought you maybe didn't quite mean what you said.

[48:50]

Maybe. But you said you were referring to the practice period as people coming together to create a harmonious feeling. And I don't think you meant to use the word feeling. Oh. I guess I meant, you know, I meant practice. I didn't want to use the word too many times. So I guess I said feeling. But feeling is included. Yeah. you know, a situation. How's that? Harmonious situation. What is harmony? Well, it means that you chop vegetables in the kitchen and I ring the bells and someone else cleans the zendo, someone else is gathering firewood and we all come into the zendo when the time comes and sit zazen. while someone else is cooking dinner.

[49:52]

Each one of us has something to do that contributes to making this little city work. It's like a little town, actually. It's like a little, miniature country. Because there's nothing outside to sustain us. We do get food from the market, and fuel, and we have our dependencies, but basically we make it work through our harmonious action. It could be a very different kind of community, but if it was it wouldn't have lasted this long. I remember in the 60s and the 70s when there were lots of communes commune was very popular, and communities of people getting together to do something.

[50:56]

And very few of them ever lasted very long. Some of them are still going, but only the ones that had a strong structure and didn't emphasize doing their own thing. And Zen Center was a kind of community and considered within the realm of those communes. But Zen Center had a very different purpose and very different structure. And a lot of the people, as Zen Center became more monastic, the people who thought that Zen Center was a commune left. And the people that wanted to practice Zen stayed. So practice is strict, but there also has to be some ease within the practice.

[52:07]

So within the strict practice, we also have to learn how to practice ease. And ease goes with strictness. We all want to have some ease, you know. So, often what people do is work very hard and then they relax. Then they work very hard and then they relax. Within Zen Center community, the Zen practice period activity, you have to learn how to have ease within your activity. So that even though we practice in a very strict way, following a schedule and working and sitting and so forth, within that activity is where we have to find our ease, to be able to let go of tenseness, so that everything we do, we're living our life moment by moment, completely.

[53:14]

That's the purpose of practice. The purpose of strict practice is to be aware that we're living our life, moment by moment, in every small activity. This is the purpose of practice period, is to give us the opportunity to do this in a situation that is conducive to the kind of awareness It's not that we don't do anything. We just do simple kinds of activity that allow us to be aware and mindful. You know, genjo koan. Genjo means manifesting in the present. And the ko of koan means level, completely equality.

[54:14]

And on means the position of each thing, everything's momentary dharma position. So our dharma, the position of each thing in emptiness, manifesting in the present, to have this kind of awareness moment by moment in our activity, is to be living a life of reality, moment by moment, without being separate from a big mind. So to have this kind of work and to really appreciate whatever happens on each moment without discriminating is to find a true joy in life without trying to add something joyful to it, not trying to stick something interesting onto life to make it joyful.

[55:42]

just appreciating our life, moment by moment, whatever is happening. And making some effort to live in a way that is not harmful and is open. and helps not only human beings, but whatever we encounter. So maybe that's enough for tonight. Thank you very much.

[56:52]

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