This is the purest symbol color of true practice of the true mind of faith of the true body of faith. Again. Can you hear me okay in the back? No. Again. Is that good? In the back?

[01:00]

You can't hear so well? How's that? Is that good? Again, this morning, we... That's a little too much. Again, this morning, we recited a song written by our great ancestor, Sakito Gisen, Dayosha, called The Harmony of Difference and Equality. Yeah. the harmony of difference and sameness. And in the beginning it says, the mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from east to west. Is it east to west? West to east. Anyway, This mind of the great sage of India and this intimate transmission, I would suggest, are the same thing.

[02:16]

So the Buddha mind is intimately transmitted, but also the Buddha mind is intimate transmission. And this intimate transmission is great compassion. And the mind of the great sage of India is great compassion. But also, great compassion is intimate transmission. Great compassion is intimate communion And there's also a teaching about three kinds of compassion.

[03:21]

One kind is compassion which views, which sees living beings and suffering and compassion as something substantial, something that exists on its own. And all of us probably have had some experience with this type of compassion, which sees living beings as independently existing, and sees their suffering as substantial, and sees the compassion towards them as something substantial and graspable. This is a type of compassion The second type of compassion is compassion which sees living beings as non-substantial, which sees suffering as non-substantial and ungraspable, and sees compassion also as not an independent thing,

[04:45]

but a dependent thing, a non-substantial thing. That's the second type of compassion. The first type of compassion is also called sentimental compassion, in the sense that our customary way of seeing is to see things as appearing and agreeing that they exist substantially. This is the normal way that we learn compassion. and see it. Then with the teaching we develop the second type of compassion. The first type of compassion has various problems. Because of this substantialist view, in our efforts to practice compassion within the substantialist view, we get stressed and we experience various kinds of enervation and burnout in trying to take care of things that we think are substantial.

[05:59]

Things do not go along with our substantialist views, and so there's lots of stress and frustration with trying to benefit beings when we don't see them in a true way. So much so that people who are very devoted to this first type of compassion sometimes feel like the beings that they're devoted to are robbing them of their life, are burning them out. It's not the beings that are robbing us of our life. It's the way we see things that rob us of our life. The second type of compassion doesn't see things that way, and in that way the second type of compassion still cares for beings. It cares for insubstantial, ungraspable beings. It cares for insubstantial, ungraspable, dreamlike compassion.

[07:08]

It cares for, deeply cares for, insubstantial suffering. and it doesn't experience burnout, and it frees us from the first type of compassion, which has lots of emotional sticking points. However, the second type of compassion still has the problem. Its limitation is that it holds the view of insubstantiality or non-substantiality. And holding that view, even though that view liberates us from the first view of substantiality, holding the view still hinders great compassion, which doesn't hold any views of substantial beings or non-substantial beings. Great compassion embraces all beings and all views

[08:11]

in an intimate transmission, in an intimate communion. So the great compassion is what really liberates people. The great compassion is the intimate transmission of Buddha's mind. That's what actually frees people. Not this person or that person, But this person and that person, in intimate communion, the intimate communion of great compassion liberates beings and opens them to awakening once liberated. And now I'd like to also relate this great compassion to, or I already did relate it to, the mind of the great sage of India.

[09:24]

It is the mind of the great sage of India. The mind of the great sage of India isn't like something that belongs to the great sage of India. The mind of the great sage of India is the mind of intimate transmission. It's the mind of intimate transmission of the great sage and all beings. That transmission is the mind of the great sage. That transmission doesn't belong to the great sage, but the great sage is here in the transmission, and so are we. we together attain the Buddha way of great compassion. Now that also relates to another term called, in English we say, just sitting. In Japanese it's shikantaza.

[10:26]

So Suzuki Roshi sometimes said, Our practice is just to sit. Or we say our practice is just to sit. Probably some of you heard that. But then he usually said after that, he said, but that may be rather difficult to understand. Our practice is just to sit. And part of the reason, I would say now, that it's hard to understand what the practice of just sitting is, is because when we hear the words just sit, just like when we hear the word suffering, or we hear the word compassion, we naturally, sentimentally, customarily, think that just sitting is a substantial thing.

[11:29]

And that's not the correct understanding. That's a sentimental understanding of just sit. Just sit is something I do. Or you do. So that approach will make it difficult to understand what this just sitting is. So what I'm suggesting is that just sitting involves understanding that sitting and sitter are not substantially existing independent things. And the just sitting is an interdependent, ungraspable reality that has no inherent existence.

[12:37]

And yet, this just sitting is the mind of the great sage of India. The just sitting is a communion between the person sitting and all beings. The just sitting is the wholeness of practice and the wholeness of awakening. The just sitting is the same practice as the person sitting and all beings. That's the just sitting. And that's difficult to understand. Also in the harmony of difference and equality, after saying that

[13:52]

this mind of the great sage is intimately transmitted, it also says, in the way there are no northern or southern ancestors. So there are northern and southern ancestors in the world, but in the way they are all practicing together intimately. They're all an intimate communion. All the different schools, our one school. And we don't ignore or wash away the difference. We open to the harmony of the difference and equality. I think you heard me.

[15:18]

I didn't say much this morning, but it seems to me, even though I didn't say much, I did make a couple points. One is that Siddhikaraji suggested our practice is just to sit. And I'm suggesting, yes, I agree. And what I understand just sitting to be the mind of the sage of India, what I understand just sitting to be is great compassion and also great love and kindness. Since that was so brief and simple, maybe I could say one more thing, kind of a major thing.

[16:24]

Can you handle something more today? So, also, Sri Guruji said, along with, our practice is just to sit, he also said, among other things, Our practice is just to be ourselves completely in each moment. And that also may be rather difficult to understand. But now, in this context, I would understand that what it means to be ourselves completely in each moment is to be in communion with all beings. I am not completely myself by myself. I am completely myself in intimate transmission with all beings.

[17:35]

I am completely myself in that all beings are intimately transmitting with me. That's being completely myself. In the moment. In the moment kind of emphasizes we're talking about right here and right now, not in general. So this particular time and place, this particular communion with all beings, is being myself completely. And that's what I'm saying. And if someone said, did Suzuki Roshi agree with you? I don't know. But this is my ongoing practice of contemplating his teaching that our practice is to be completely ourselves in each moment.

[18:50]

And then that also resonates with Dogen Zenji's saying, when we find our place right where we are, the practice occurs, realizing the fundamental truth. So, we have this opportunity to realize the finding of our place. Not even the finding, realize the place right where we are. That's our responsibility to be here and that's where we realize and meet the intimate transmission. So we have that responsibility moment by moment of taking care of this body and finding our place in taking care of this body, taking care of this mind, and finding our place there.

[19:58]

And in that finding and being there, this practice occurs and realizes reality. the current manifestation of it in our current intimate communion. Was she passing me that book? That Citra book? Thank you. Internet borrowing of Citra books.

[21:04]

Everything's like that. Everything we do is actually intimate. And so we provide a context, a container like this, where we can appreciate the intimacy of all of our relations. And in this intimacy, There's no excess and no deficiency. There's no adding to it or subtracting from it. And in this intimacy, nothing can be brought in because everything is already included. We often do not understand everything's included, so we are at risk of trying to bring something in. where nothing can be brought in, everything is inviolable, undisturbed, imperturbable.

[22:32]

And this is exactly the great brightness of the intimate transmission. This is also the commentary on the precept of not using intoxicants. where nothing can be brought in. That's the great brightness of great compassion. Perhaps that's enough from this mouth this morning.

[23:40]

Perhaps the Great Assembly understands. Perhaps the great assembly is ready for this intimate transmission of the great sage's mind of great compassion. Does the Great Assembly support the conclusion of this morning talk? Yes. OK. Thanks for the support. May our attention be

[24:54]

to every high place where they should be allowed to live.

[24:59]

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