Commmentary on "Respect for Things" (from Not Always So)

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Faith is Synonymous for Enlightenment, Saturday Lecture

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#not-always-so

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okay
a beautiful
the missing leakage

very is really good morning

well we're getting close to the end of the year this is my last talk of the year
next saturday i'm going to pass a hero for the day
so ah
peterson will be packing
so
i'm going to comment on a taco suzuki roshi is

which is entitled for the book respect for things which is a good title for the stock
i subtitled the faith in our life
oh so she's saluki as she says in as in practice we stop our thinking and we are free from our emotional activity
emotional activity but were free from it we don't say we have no thinking but it our life activity is not limited to our thinking mind
in short we can say that we trust ourselves completely without thinking without feeling without discriminating between good and bad right and wrong and because we respect ourselves because we put faith in our life we said so this is a practice
so ah there's a lot going on in this paragraph
and when we sit in that in
will they go thinking let go of emotional activities and will lead to a good and bad right and wrong and dualistic discriminative thinking which doesn't mean that these elements are not there
we should be done
they're not the main subject of love him
so all of these qualities are important in our life
but ah
they're not important for awesome
so
the terms such as
cut off the root of thinking but that doesn't mean that there's no thinking
she kind of strong statement he actually simply as we know we simply lead the thoughts come and go we let life run its course we let our emotional life express itself with it are thinking life express itself will it our
discriminated mind express itself
until we realized that all is not necessary for them
not only is it not necessary but if we worry about it it becomes a hindrance
so it simply
what me worry
it's a big george bush now
when
it
so because we're not
depending on these were not in and we don't depend on our thinking mind and we don't depend on our emotional activity and we don't depend on undiscriminating thinking so we can just simply depend with on our nature if it got resuming our original nature
it's called also lot depending on anything
in particular
doesn't mean that there's we don't depend on something is just that we don't depend on anything in particular you can't say i depend on this or on that
because there's really nothing in this
ah
hum
ah

world of transformations to depend on because everything is insubstantial
but we do have faith in our practice
we have faith in our nature even though our natures intangible
we have to have faith in our nature faith is the most of the most is the foundation of our practice
faith is enlightenment faith and enlightenment are synonymous
so
ah
i'm
enlightenment comes first
and then comes practice enlightenment is what leads us to practice with a buddha six buddha
not like my ego six buddha ego is a kind of or self is a kind of 'em
vehicle
for enlightenment but enlightenment is our nature
our good an ancient it is enlightened enlightened nature so this enlightened nature is seeking his realization
so what we could easily what we call an enlightening experience is usually is rather a realization experience we realize our enlightened mind we realize our enlightened be
so we can say yes we're all enlightened but that doesn't mean they were are realized
realization is ah we get an experience ah but not necessarily
i'm so enlightenment is what leads us to practice and faith is the foundation for enlightenment
he will always don't feel that we have faith were searching for something or you know don't know what to believe in i don't believe in anything hagar i'm not religious so you know stuff like that nevertheless there's something that's bigger than that includes everything
is something that includes everything and we call it good in nature diamond nature regarded by various names
the term god is not used in buddhism
you know some people like historians will talk about the gods of buddhism but is a manjushri and so forth these are not really god's the characteristics of our nature
two but am
ah
faith is like confidence
confidence is an aspect of faith
you know we didn't have confidence in many different things
and usually those things i did end because they don't if we can't really depend on them
so the big question in really is widow i depend on
so you can go through the litany litany of
thanks to depend on and with math is when that this map is until you get down to bottom
that's actually practice to eliminate all of the heat until you down at the bottom
and you can't get down to the bottom by searching are thinking
he don't pay
practice
not thinking is not included not than her emotional life is not included
but hum
what we depend on his aunt actually right in front of us all the time but we don't see it
so we say
ah
each one of us is buddha
so dishes would suit us is gonna talk about
so he says
in ourselves in practice we stop are thinking he didn't really mean that he means although he said that is we that job was thinking or we we don't attached to our thinking mind
and we are free from our emotional activity we don't say there is no emotional activity but were free from it we don't say we have no thinking but our life activity is not limited by your thinking mind seven short we can say that we trust ourselves completely so without the thinking mind with
that without attaching to think he might without attaching to emotional activity
we trust herself or is it that we trust
if we identify with thinking as myself if we identify with our emotions as myself and we're not depending on is what do we do to interest
so in short we can say that we trust ourselves completely without thinking when i'm depending on thinking without depending on really without discriminating between good and bad and right and wrong because we and we respect ourselves because we put faith in our life we sit that my brackish
though when our life is based on respect and complete trust it will be completely peaceful
a relationship with nature should also be like dish we should respect everything and we can practice respecting things in the way we we we relate to them so it's very interesting is essay by respecting everything around us be taking the form of things by respecting
each other and so forth and are the material things that we
ah work with
why should that be
why should that ah
arouse our faith
when there's no self everything is ourself and will retreat everything was respect we're actually treating yourself of respect tesco self respect
for self respect doesn't come from isolating ourselves but from sharing yourself by realizing that whatever it is it i mean is an aspect of myself
a form of myself
ah be and because i had i have no special form every form is part of myself we have to this is called understanding it has got realization
so this morning when we were valley and then visited but he's giving this this talk at page street
vendo in san francisco patient zendo in san francisco when we moved into that building
because the kitchen is upstairs
because the kitchen was upstairs they put the zendo in this big room which was compared convenient under the kitchen under the dining room actually kitchen and dining room usually
if you haven't building xander will be
above the working spaces
but the minutes kind of logical know put the
am
the spiritual placed in the lower position
but doesn't matter in a way for world and all the same rate my spiritual material on the same
but not exactly
even though it's even though it's all the sam everything has its place according to how it related everything else
shea don't put the toilet in the middle of the dining room
even though everything's in some ways same everything is different so we respect the differences and and it's a place for everything which is correct so
so people sitting in the zendo
that down below and people is the dining room or scraping their chairs that across the floor
and if
showing another time right
last time but occasionally so this is the setting for what he saying he said this morning when we were bowing in agenda we heard a big noise overhead because upstairs with the dining room people were pushing chairs across the tile floor
without picking them up this is not the way to treat chairs not only because it may disturb the people who are bowing an agenda and are nice but also because fundamentally this is another respectful way to treat things
so he always thought us when you move a charity pick up a chair and move to you want to put it
but you know we just kind of drag it across the floor and it's not that it makes a noise so much but it was disrespectful in other words we just don't notice how he disrespected
and we treat things for our own use when without thinking about how when it isn't even using
take things for granted
we take our surrounding for granted
in a very interesting when we think about
our society and how has been built up and how it works and so forth and would i mostly we just kind of find our way into it and pick up
on how to use it but
we just take it for granted really take mostly for granted
so he says to push the chairs across the floor is very convenient but it will give us a lazy feeling
of course this kind of laziness as part of our culture
and it eventually causes us to fight with each other
instead of respecting things we want to use them for herself
and if it is difficult to use them we want to conquer them
this kind of i did as not accord with the spirit of practice this sounds like a familiar somehow to like war
who says we don't respect other cultures and we don't respect people
we move great masses of people are used great message for own purpose instead of respect to each person said of respecting each citizen or each iraqi citizen we just use people for our own purposes we use materials
for our own purposes the imagine a waste that come
is so prevalent
just a really is a heart rending to see all the waste
ah wasting our money wasting our theory of
wasting people
so in the same way my teacher teaches our ian did not allow us to put away the amado more than one at a time amado is a a box that in a japanese temple warehouse
the sliding doors the shoji screen and then on the outside and invisible a walkway gaitan around and then is a box where in the summer time you put the heavy doors that are on the the economy outside for the winter the sliding
doors and as called the amado i believe and you take the doors out and you store them in the amateur so he said my teacher teaches our did not allow us to put away the amado more than one of the time
do you know the amado their the wooden doors outside her shoji screens which i put up to protect the show g from stones at the end of the building is a big box restoring the amado she's they are sliding doors when preached can easily push five or six doors and another priests can put them in the box that's convenient
but my teacher didn't like this he told us to move them one by one so we would fly in each store and put it in the box one door and time it's not convenient way to do something but it's a way to be aware of what you're doing
we have this tendency to carry a lot of things at one time
you know are going on these things because it's so convenient with pile emma
no minify often office though
the for exaggeration but we do that
you know
there's a way
to do to when we're carrying things
how to carry something and how to put it down
and had when we come in the zendo for instance and were carrying something
and then we work in the know and we don't quite know what to do about bounty because our hands are full and usually a by we've put our hands together
so what he do with this thing that you're charity
so this it becomes an inconvenience for us this day to jump this object becomes an inconvenience so we want to we don't know what to do with it so how do we include this object and were carrying with respect
how do we continue to carry it respectfully and still bow
so we hold it respectfully and bow when trying to juggle things and value of one hand or something like that which typically include everything in our bow for they were we approach our sheet
we put it down first carefully respectfully and bow
so
you know there's a way of doing things that respect for it's not like there's a rule about how you do things
it's not the rule is like finding if you really are pay respect to things you find out how to do it that's much better actually than following rule
you how do i do this how do i treat everything respectfully how do i treat what i'm carrying respectfully and how do i treat when an approaching especially
and if we keep that in mind but no to do or at least we keep searching for what to do which is called practice just following the rules is not practice but finding out how do i do this how can i do it keeping an enema that's living practice
although there are rules and we do respect them
there's just ah
it doesn't come up to finding out how to do something

so when we pick up the chairs one by one carefully without making much sound then we will have the feeling of practice in the dining room
course but also the feeling is quite different when we practice this way we ourselves are buddha and we respect ourselves to care for the chairs means our practice goes beyond agenda
if you think it's easy to practice because we have a beautiful building that's a mistake
actually it may be quite difficult to practice with a strong spirit in this kind of fitting when we have a handsome buddha and offer beautiful flowers to do to decorate our to are buddha hall
but we zen buddhists have a saying that with a blade of grass we create a golden buddha with a sixteen foot with which is sixteen feet high
that is our spirit so we need to practice respect for things
you know we say there's a colon about
ah shakyamuni buddha working with indra
ah somewhere and a retinue of bodhisattva
and
ah
ha
one of the other them says stops as if this is a wonderful place to build a
temple
well done it with
and one hundred picks up a bit of grass she says with a blade of grass put you down and grab
that's the patronage
so i don't mean that we should accumulate many leads or grasses to make a big statue but until we can see a big buddha in a small leaf we need to make much more effort
how much effort i don't know some people may find it quite easy but for someone like me great effort is needed to be very am sofa facing
although seeing a large golden buddha in a golden in a large golden buddha is easier when you see a large buddha and a blade of grass in other words if you can see a buddha and a blade of grass they can really see a buddha and a golden buddha
hmm funny
so
when you see a large boot in the blade of grass your job will be joy will be something special
so we need to practice respect with great effort
i'm
you know we say some bogus higher which is our wisdom is to be able to see diamond kaja which is are essential nature in sambo your care which is our transformation body
in other words to be able to see a good and the blade of grass
so amazon though we can overcome we can come we can come i'm sorry in this vendo everyone can come and practice our way experienced students and also those who don't know anything about jim
one

and both will have difficulties
new students will have difficulties they could never have imagined that's true if they really practice
all students have a double duty to do their own practice and to encourage those who have just come
without telling them you should do this or you shouldn't do that netherlands
the all students should lead the new students so that they can practice are way more easily
i always encourage people the older students to sit in the front seats
and to maybe sit next to somebody who they know is new and to without saying anything to show people what to do who i knew you should be able you know
not just doing your own practice in your own space but recognizing someone next to you doesn't know what to do so you without saying anything you have that person
that's definitely how we should practice the older students should be encouraging the new students
that should be just generally part of our practice
and you don't always have to do it by doing something
but by setting a good example
we set an example of people follow that's why i like to have the owners shouldn't sitting in front
set an example so that people can see how we practice than the
put you in a position
i'm to be aware of how you're practicing because you're setting an example for people who are watching you
hmm
so even though newer students don't know what buddhism is they will naturally have a good feeling when they come to a beautiful buddha hall
this is the ornament of a buddha land but for zen buddhists especially the tree ornament of the buddha hall if the people who are practicing their
so we're all the ornaments of the place like a big christmas tree
whenever we do we are considering how to do it
since there is no are no special rules for how to treat things are how to be friendly with others we keep studying what will help people practiced together
if you don't forget this point you will find out how to treat people how to treat things and how to teach yourself so we always have to keep finding our way even though there are rules
how relevant
relying on rove we rely on
our question which is how to do something how do i do this that you know the fundamental answer to most questions that people ask but i can keep saying that over and over again
how do
how do i do this that people that were how do i do that's what the question after the asking yourself out time that practice people's when i go out of agenda how do i practice i don't know what to do just keep asking that question how do i do this how do i do this but it
situation you're in how is this how do i do this as practice
and that's it you've come on right there
working at all time it's ceaseless icon again joke on his ceaseless
sculptor got a call on a daily life
people say i heard someone say
the other day
them
well you know when i i came to the vendor
it was only as a soto zen temple and they didn't talk much about enlightenment
this is a new kind of because rinzai side expresses enlightenment enlightenment you know all the time pushing people to obtain enlightenment and sort of in doesn't do that so much
because we realize that enlightenment is our nature
we start from enlightenment
practice begins with enlightenment but you don't want that if
so
we emphasize realization of you we actually what we really where we emphasize of practice just practice with practice their as enlightenment
with faith there's practice and with practice there's enlightenment
the three go together faith practice and enlightenment
and
the three the three
legs and practice

so this is what we called the bodhisattva way our practices to help people and to help people to find out how to practice our way and each moment
to stop our thinking and to be free from emotional activity when we shit is not just a matter of concentration this is to rely completely on ourselves to find absolute refuge in our practice so it may take them ah
sixteen precept the first three or take refuge in buddha take refuge in dharma take refuge in saga but each one of us is buddha dharma sangha when we take refuge in take refuge in the buddha of our own
big mind
the dharma of our own being mine in the saga of our on big mind which includes everything
so you should we are just like a baby who is the lap of its mother
you know we save anna
prajna by a meta is the mother of all the buddhas
so
in being in the lap of butler being lamp of my mother is like be the lap of pressure by anita
the professional with them or the actual actualization of wisdom
i think we have a very good spirit here in the syndrome and i am rather amazed at the spirit but the next question is how to expand how to extend that spirit to your everyday life
you do it by respecting change and respecting each other because when you respect things when we respect things here and we will find our true life
when we respect plants we will find their real life the power and beauty of flowers
mrs i you know
japanese culture is if so if very much influenced by zen buddhism
i am
when you seen the flowering of japanese culture is she how that respect for things as permeates the culture even when people don't even realize that that's where the source
ah but that
that's a very important aspect that zen buddhism and brought to the culture of japan
that's why there's so much this can also be kind of 'em
we'd get very fussy would take care of things you know like every leaf has to be in a place for it
but ah were to be careful not to be attached to
i'm
ah order
this a little story about the teacher that as the his disciple to sweep the ground to sweep the leaves off the ground and
the disciples so proud of himself that he got every leaf and the teacher went up to the tree and so shady the journey
falling down around
so that's the other side
we can get very fussy and very attached to order
the regions in his place
a busy person doesn't have time to take care of all the stuff that comes in our life
ah a person who is very busy haven't had big piles of stuff on enough to
no one could possibly take care of so we have to understand that as well
that's my life but doesn't mean we don't make that effort and there were not aware and we don't have that consciousness

they'll love is important if it is separated from respect and sincerity it will not work
with big mind and with pure sincerity and respect love can really be love so let's try hard and find out how to make a blade of grass into a big buddha
so you know love have that's a whole other subject
what is love big subject
and the rhenish levels know base level of in love but basically it has nothing to do with self interest in his highest form has nothing to do a self interest but what we use often call love is various aspects of self interest
hum
and how we fool ourselves
and how we
don't realize of insincere we're going we're talking about or we were involved in captivation or
seduction or whatever
i'm
but ah
in its highest form loveth his has very little to do with self interest and has no respect
and them

ah seeing into the nature
ah things
and being connected with things
and helping people
so
in this all based on
we talk about a by rotana buddha you know who is by shown a buddha is this
buddha who is emanating light
just emanation line
which is love
but which is connection
ah so
i'm
each one of us is an aspect of by regina to when you look at the whole universe and ourselves are all one body called viral jana
so nothing can get lost
and it's i then we let go of everything that we let go of everything and just simply sit in the lap of brush by anita or pyro china
totally one with everything that's over
so and what comes out of that is great respect for everything
which is herself
and as com self respect
so you have any questions
peter you mentioned some things promises
when she mentioned some things
so it not the main subjects something
so it's the main subject
of the main sub menu settings rather than what is the main subject
well the main subject
is
ah to not attached to anything but to be totally aware of
ah
being present the main subject because we say what was the main subject me know
the main subject is buddha
he's that date is buddha letting go of self for the buddha can arise

one was surprised at
healing
have you read said yeah this is a good feeling and i'm kind of surprised about the extent
i remember that
like these american students and how they can have helped project
image that surprised amazed
i'm amazed at how are you know new people doing this yeah that was you know from experience that side of him
we talked about expressing
existed
and she has a suzuki roshi
experienced us is totally naive
baby's nose a baby practice baby baby baby bodhisattvas because we had no history
no baggage you know and that's what he really liked about it he really liked effective we had no baggage no history
no attachments to to you know that kind of life so
we can be a great week at practice in a way that was totally burdened by
japanese culture
he was also surprised that we yeah we were amazed not surprised amazed yeah
ah did you know it's like when you plant something you know and then if a well this is going to let's see what happens and then you get a huge crowd and i'm amazed
yeah because actually it was amazing standing out with a few people in on a little by little and then at some point all his people so feminine to practice
and when pass ohio was a
i started if people started coming to peddle hi and i'm pretty sure that we just got bigger and bigger so and so it was rather amazing actually
and it was all due to figure should integrity he didn't really do anything his stints did everything but he really didn't do anything he just with himself he gave talks to need to know and he practiced with students
zen center
the students did it
and he encouraged them and you know come in and direction and support but he really didn't do it you know
he just was there i mean he was like the center in of the
the whole inspiration for the thing
so best kind of amazing like all his stuff growing up around him right
leaving
nancy
i then
the idea
seeing yourself in everything any personal ah
i understand the don't try to see yourself know what you see is yourself
without your idea of yourself
it don't try to see yourself just try to see the other person and realize that is also myself
doesn't look like me doesn't act like me
don't try to see you that system idea
then he treaded work your idea into this picture which netted just your i did
so and doesn't have much to do
irritating situation that is so
spy by
and watch them behave
yes night this
people who
don't realize their nature
so so we have sympathy for them because they don't realize that nature
if you have sympathy than you can love your enemy
few realize this person just has no understanding of their nature then you have sympathy for you know which rather than just reacting to that you can respond because you know not always easy but you know that is because they don't understand don't have any
understanding of their nature
and so he sympathized with that even though you may have to kill somebody you know
depending know
ha ha ha
but it seems like the wanting to access that sympathy an impact me a lot by
understanding that the questions
but how does real on between the situation now so i might feel frustrated by said
how good want to feel in a situation dense than i can get out sympathy on there
and so is the question answers original question
the question is most important part because i'm that right now and i'm helping to care for my my dad who's night for it actually this mine is pretty good but he's getting
fault and the other dams supposed to taken to a doctor's appointment and i had left a note for him and remind him and when i got there he completely forgotten and it was fine because i only have anything else to do it in we got there late but that was fine i call the doctor had time to sit down i go home and east
said thank you for not getting mad at me
i said i get mad at you and he said people do
yeah yeah i can't say i do that every time that i i i often feel like oh it's the practice that's helping it's not me it's a since it but if this question that as as we're have put it in half susan
well hundred
miller bf in here
but boot it takes over that that's called the practice good it takes over new patients that's cool pay you know you're giving and giving them giving the lead the buddha rarely taking the lead actually the okay he he he take over please and then booted
takes over
it reminds here
sometimes if i'm in a situation that i seized difficult and i know i really need to do it right i say to myself how would i handle this i had a really terrific know
yeah
well in
who shows on some of the essay question about since i'm not something like
since i'm not in a realized persian
how do i be buddha
or something that just pretend that had that just just pretended to verify that's practice
it's like just pretend that you're buddha
make us if your buddha that's practice
and it's not understand than just making it up
although i did want but i found it verified

oh i believe the stage
some that are expecting the people i find that and i know i say is that the unconsciously
no she was taken by still on disrespectful
yes so this and that denote the things that we disrespect
and we can't respect them so isn't that a rule it's an attitude
and to remember the to pointing at something
so if we try to a pie
something to every situation as it was going to fix every situation is not but if he if we have this is our attitude then mostly will be able to do this sometimes we want you know so this respect is also important tell you this
i
i don't respect things that people are doing you know and i will not so
to the same but san antonio about his or theirs said this is a hero she's talking about his
our attitude is is one of respecting things and if we keep that attitude this would this will
we encourage our practice and also helped to change things
but doesn't mean that you have to respect everything
that my by any means
okay

mean