So we'll either begin with an offering, or since the altar is not accessible, maybe just three vows. Yeah. An unsupervised, penetrating, and perfect dharma Is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words

[01:54]

Good morning, everyone. I'm sorry my altar is not accessible. I've tried to make this screen, this kind of funky screen, as a neutral background. So I'd have to get up and sort of crawl around it. Sojin Roshi was scheduled to be the speaker this morning. And I got a call late in the evening yesterday asking me to give the talk because he wasn't feeling well, hadn't been feeling well all day yesterday. So I will give that talk and tell you a bit about what will be going on, what has been going on here at Berkeley Zen Center, and leaving good time for questions and answers. But I thought I would start with a piece of the talk that Suzuki Roshi gave in August of 1971, in late August of 1971.

[03:06]

What is that, 49 years ago? And at that point, he was four months or so, or a little less, three, four months from his passing. And so he was certainly experiencing his illness. But he was also full of life, as you can read in the transcript. I've edited out the places where it says laughs or laughing, but there was a lot of that interjected in the talk. This is one of the lectures on the Sandokai, I believe, but I've just exerted it. Someone falls to earth. Someone falls on the earth, maybe by stumbling over a stone.

[04:19]

Someone who falls on the earth, maybe by stumbling on a stone, will stand up by the same earth. Because of the earth, you stumble and fall. Earth is the problem, you think. Because of the problem, you may get hurt. And because of the earth, you can support yourself again and can stand up. So you complain because you think it is the earth and the stone's fault that you've fallen. Without the earth, you will not fall. And without the earth, you cannot stand up. Falling and standing up are a gift given to you by the earth. So a problem itself is your mother.

[05:26]

Because of mother earth, you can continue your practice. The problems are actually your Zendo or maybe the problems are your Zoom. Uh, problems are actually your Zendo. That is very true. So what is delusion and what is enlightenment? When you are deluded about the earth's true nature, that is delusion. When you're enlightened about the earth, that is enlightenment. When you stand up by the earth, that is enlightenment. When you fall and you blame the earth, that is delusion. So we have a chance to attain a great enlightenment when we have a problem.

[06:37]

Our way is not to get rid of all the stones on earth, which could be stumbling stones for you. It is good to have many stones on the earth, which could be stumbling stones. When you stand up, if you have a big stone there, it may be easier to stand up. It's very good for your practice to have big stones everywhere. No problem, we have plenty of those. Here, for instance, is a stone. I meant to bring a stone, but of course I forgot. If you understand it, that is, you know enlightenment. If you don't understand it, then you could have a painful fall.

[07:43]

So if there are not many stones to help your practice, we may have to bring many stones from Tassajara to the Zendo. Fortunately, we actually don't have to worry about that because we all have, uh, stones in our, in our path. Uh, and, uh, actually what we need to do is to pay attention, you know, look where you're stepping. to be mindful. So this mind of enlightenment in Dogen Zenji's fascicle, Gakudo Yojinshu, he talks about the mind of enlightenment, which is also conventionally in Sanskrit known as bodhicitta.

[08:47]

And Dogen says, the mind of enlightenment is the mind that sees into the nature of impermanence. So we are in a time of impermanence, a time of many stones. And it's really It's just one difficulties, one stone to stumble on after another. And right now I don't have to enumerate them for you because we're all living them. And it's a good thing that we're paying attention because these were, many of them were not stones that we saw coming. You know, so if we're looking, you know, towards the horizon or towards the goal, then probably we're going to stumble.

[09:56]

But really our practice, the practice of Zazen is to instruct us in how to pay attention step by step, stone by stone, breath by breath. So we also, we have many problems, many stones, which are also many opportunities. But these are not all opportunities that we, certainly not opportunities that we asked for or wanted or, uh, greet with joy, perhaps. And I think that one of the situations which we haven't spoken to is really, it's the circumstance of this talk.

[11:03]

You know, it's the circumstance of our teacher's illness, which has been unfolding for Now, 13 months from last September when we were at Tassajara and he was working on Dharma transmissions and had an episode that was diagnosed as beginnings of a bile duct cancer. And so that was fully diagnosed. And they began, they had an intervention, they had began with treatment. And now here we are 13 months later. And it's not entirely clear that the,

[12:07]

The discomfort that Sojourn Roshi is experiencing is an artifact of the treatment or an artifact of the illness. But the fact is that the nature of impermanence is unfolding. And I think all of us are We don't welcome that as a gift. It's actually our practice is to figure out how to include it, how to fold it into our zazen and our life so that it can serve us and serve all sentient beings.

[13:09]

And I know that this is what, first of all, this is what Sojin Roshi is trying to do for himself. And it is what he wants for us. And I know that he wants it wholeheartedly. There's nothing that would be more important to him than to sense that we are really embodying that lesson. Now, it's also true that, you know, I think quite a few of you were at the public dokasan on Thursday. I wasn't there, but I gather that he was wonderful and alive and vibrant.

[14:14]

And this is what the Dharma serves for him. It really, in those moments, he gathers everything that is best, that we truly love about him. But that's not necessarily an energy that he could sustain through all of the days. So we are entering this period and it's hard. If it's a gift, it's a gift nobody asked for. And it's a gift that we can't give away. So a difficult gift. And that difficult gift may be very valuable.

[15:14]

So many stones, and there are many stones ahead we have to watch very carefully. So some of you, probably maybe a lot of you actually, received a notification this morning in the email that on the 24th of October, which is two weeks from today, there will be a ceremony in which Sojin Roshi will step down as the abbot of Berkeley Sun Center. And he will also, he has expressed his willingness to accept a new position, which will be given to him at the same time as he steps down, the position of,

[16:25]

founding Dharma teacher. And we hope that you can attend that. I'm gonna put all of the, I'm gonna give you a bunch of dates and I'm gonna put all of them in the chat after I finish speaking. This is a remarkable moment, a difficult moment. a moment for celebration and for grief simultaneously. How do we hold those two things at once? This is at the heart of our practice. At the heart of our practice is to be able to hold in our hearts and minds two things that are seemingly contradictory. at one time, to hold ambiguity, to hold ambivalence, to hold yes and no, to hold like and dislike at the same time as part of one reality.

[17:47]

And not and somehow not to let one side interfere with the other not to let the grief interfere with our gratitude and celebration and in our gratitude and celebration not to pretend that grief is absent So we will celebrate that on the on the 24th. However, and by the way, there will be no session that day. We've we've rescheduled everything because. We believe in impermanence, so. It seems like this was important to do.

[18:51]

We really wanted Sojourner Roshi to be. uh to be able to enter that ceremony wholeheartedly and and and physically uh and he was fine totally agreed to that next week um so that's the 17th uh We will celebrate the occasion of Sojin Roshi offering priest ordination to Kika Susan Hillain. uh who has been his close student for quite a while and uh this is something that all of us really wanted to uh see him to able to do and so that will take place also at three o'clock on uh next saturday we will have a regular saturday program so that's the 17th and the 24th

[19:56]

And then at some point in the future, tentatively it's scheduled for I think the 28th of December, and it might get changed. We'll send out a notice about that. At some point, there will be a mountain seat ceremony that presumably would invite me to go forward as the abbot of Berkeley's Ancestor. And that's been, that was Sojan's choice. It's been recently affirmed by the community in a, electoral process as such, and I don't want to say a lot about that now, because I'm still trying to get my head around it.

[21:01]

But we will let you know about that. There are a few other things that I would like to just tell you about, just so we lay out the full schedule for the next couple months. On November 3rd, Election Day, we'll have an open Zendo from 7.30 until about 5 p.m., maybe later, depending on what the need is. And it's just a place of refuge for people of, I would say, people of any and all political stripes. Just, you're welcome to, we encourage you to vote, really important. And you're welcome to come and sit, just show up at any point in the day. We'll have alternating periods of zazen and walking meditation and a couple of periods for a kind of open discussion. But please join us if, you know, it's certainly this election, again, no matter what side you're on has been, in the midst of the pandemic has been,

[22:18]

a source of anxiety for many people. So take the refuge. Step into Zazen once you've cast your vote, and you're welcome to do that. I'll just say we're having an abbreviated Rohatsu this year, which will take place from the 19th to the 21st of December. roughly well seven o'clock in the morning until uh seven until about five in the evening and then we'll have our new year's eve program so that's the rest of the year in in short Also, just to say, I've been scheduling some Tuesday evening teas, and if you want to participate in that, please contact Hannah, and all this stuff will be in the chat at the end.

[23:24]

I want to thank, there's been, this week has been really busy. As I said, it's really, it's hard to be, it's hard to figure out what is appropriate. You know, so fortunately, we've been in very, really good, conversations with Sojin Roshi, kind of looking with him, looking at his energy. And right now, I think that what he really wants to get done. And he's been working really hard with, he's been working several days a week, particularly with Ron and Kika.

[24:28]

uh editing a book of talks he's got three books that are three in the works and these are extremely important this is what he wants to do now and i really want to support him to do that and to clear the decks to whatever extent he wants to and feels it's appropriate so he's working on he's been working for a long time on a new book of suzuki roshi's talks, which he's working on with his student Jiriu at Green Gulch. He's been working with Ron and Kika and others on a collection of Berkeley Zen Center talks and an anthology of them, and I think that's That's pretty much along the way. And maybe Ron or Kika can tell you about that in the Q&A. And he's also been working on a memoir.

[25:31]

And to me, these are all books that we need. And so I really want to support him as a first priority in doing that right now. But meanwhile, we've had to evaluate what we think the need of the Sangha is, what his needs are, what his energy is, and that's how we moved up these ceremonies. Originally, we were thinking of the stepping down ceremony as paired with the mountain seat, but it just seems too long to wait. So I want to thank, particularly, because a whole bunch of people are working on the technology for this, which is The technical logistics for the, particularly for the mountain seat and the, for the stepping down the mountain seat are more complex than anything we've done because they're going to have to be digital.

[26:35]

But Steve Weintraub from Zen Center, who's one of Sojin's disciples, has been coordinating the the activities of these two large ceremonies, and we're very grateful to him. He's a very even, calm person, and is just kind of the right, and he's also has a fair amount of, he has a lot of experience with these ceremonies through Zen Center, so he's the right person to help out, and it's a pleasure to work with him. The mind of enlightenment is the mind that sees into the nature of impermanence. That's really the point to hold in mind.

[27:42]

I think that's a place to stop and I'm happy to take your questions about any of this, the dharmic aspects, the practical aspects, and may Sojourn be well, may we all be well, and we hope that you'll be able to participate. All these ceremonies, by the way, are going to be at this link, the link that you're at right now. They'll all be in the Zendo. So with that, do I give it back to Blake to call on people? So I've opened up the chat so that everybody can chat or you can type a question in the chat. Please precede it with a question mark or the word question, but you can type a question to everybody in the chat. or you can raise your blue hand as one participant, one Sangha member has done, and I'll call on you.

[28:52]

And if, of course, Hosan, if you'd like to call on somebody, you may do that as well. Sure. So first, I invite Ross Blum to lower his hand, unmute yourself, and ask a question. Blake, and thank you, Hosan. for a lovely talk on such short notice and an apt topic drawing on Suzuki Roshi's teaching. May it go well. Thank you. May we all go well. I also invite Ben to unmute yourself and lower your hand and ask a question. Hi, Hozon, can you hear me? I can. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your talk. I just felt compelled to share. I was sort of feeling a lot of sorrow and concern this morning and actually felt it before I found out that Sojin would not be speaking and you were giving our talk.

[29:58]

And I guess two things come up for me. Recently, I've had some feeling or noticed some possible connection between non-acceptance of impermanence and greed. Greed? Greed, yes. Not that that's not understandable, but I see sort of me enjoying some food and wanting more of it even when I'm full seems to be not altogether different from me really enjoying a person or an experience and not wanting it to go away. And part of impermanence is that it's easy to forget that it's there sometimes and take for granted what's around. And the other thing I'm feeling right now is real, some sorrow around not being able to gather in person during times like these.

[31:07]

And for not being able to have practice side by side with you and Sojin over the past few months, which would have been possible without the pandemic. So that's what I wanted to share. And thank you so much for your leadership and your care. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Well, I certainly think that that tie between not accepting impermanence and greed makes complete sense. I think that the analogy between eating food that you like and then eating more even when you're not hungry is maybe a little different than missing people that you can't see.

[32:13]

I think that if you eat more, you're gonna get sick now. Actually, if you get too much of somebody that you like, that may not work either. But that's not really the problem. I think impermanence is really subtle. And it's, to me, So impermanence is one of the three marks of existence, traditionally. Three marks of existence are impermanence, non-self, and suffering. So to me, impermanence and non-self go very closely together. Non-self means that everything is constructed of other things. Does that make sense? So nothing, there's no essence, there's no, like, Ben is constructed of many non-Ben elements.

[33:23]

However, the third mark, I think, is a large question for us, particularly in Mahayana Buddhism. To my mind, Suffering is completely contingent on our attitude towards non-self and impermanence. If we can include it, if we can accept it, if we can fold it in, then rather than dukkha, we have nirvana. which is exactly what Dogen is saying. The mind of enlightenment is the mind that sees into the nature of impermanence. Nirvana is recognizing the fundamental nature of impermanence. And when we reject it, it's suffering.

[34:31]

And that suffering can take the form of greed, hate, delusion, or any mix of the three. So thank you, and I wish that we were practicing face-to-face together, but I also really feel, you know, I feel the presence and relationship of so many of us, and actually, so this is one of the, this is a stone that we can stumble over, or what we can recognize is actually how have our relationships, what, binding energy has actually intensified among all of us over the last nine months. And I really believe that. I feel it in my heart. I feel like I know people better and closer. We have more opportunities for a kind of fluid interaction.

[35:34]

And So there's a gift in there, even though there's a loss as well. Thank you. Thank you, Hosan. Is there a moment for me to share one quick additional thing? I'll be quick. I was listening to a Sojin lecture, I think from Rahatsu 2018, which I was not able to attend a couple of days ago, and I found this little passage in his talk that I wanted to share. Yes, just be totally sorrowful. When it's sorrow, just be totally sorrowful, so that there's nothing outside of your sorrow. Then, because there's nothing outside of your sorrow, it's no longer sorrow. It's only sorrow when its opposite is there. I wish that it wasn't like this. That just creates more and more sorrow. The more you want to escape from your sorrow, the more sorrowful you get. That's the way it works. Just go completely into your sorrow, and then there's no sorrow. Yeah.

[36:36]

Thank you. I invite Raghav to unmute himself and, uh, ask a question. Thank you. Wait. Hi Osan. Um, thanks for, uh, bringing up the topic. Um, on the one side, um, while we, um, you know, work on accepting the impermanence aspect of it. On the other side, um, is there any one little thing that, um, we can do, um, for Sojan? And, um, we may not have an answer now, but maybe it's, um, an open question for, um, I don't know if you have an answer, but maybe otherwise it's an open question.

[37:40]

I have an answer. All he wants is for you to practice. That's it. You know that. Right? Yeah. That's all he wants. Guess what? There's nothing that he wants for himself. There's nothing that's lacking in his life or his household. He just, all he wants is for us to practice, for you to practice. And I was going to say that. I know I was going to say that. That's what he's going to say, right? Yeah. But still, I wonder, still, if there's something I don't know, maybe it's a question I have to keep asking myself, but. I think that's fine. And also I think to the extent that there's anything practical or material to do, you know, we'll put the word out. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for that offer. I invite Linda Hess to unmute herself and ask her question.

[38:50]

Thank you. Good morning. Hozon, thank you first for your sensitive and wise words this morning. Thank you. I enjoyed listening to you. The question that I'm asking has to do with what you began with, you know, Tsukiroshi's teaching using stones. So, ever since I read St. Augustine's Confessions in college, I always remember this one line that he said, the thing which I would not do, he's asking God, you know, why God, what, help me. The thing that I would not do, that I do. And the thing that I would do, or would want to do, that I do not do. So, it's easier to understand not blaming stones, you know, because the stones, it's kind of crazy.

[39:54]

If the stone is our own addictive and harmful patterns, it's harder to just appreciate how they bring us down and they bring us up. They're not just innocent stones. we have some responsibility, you know, all of that language. So could you clarify that for me? Well, I think what he's saying, and I think this is, this is, this is what Laurie and I have, you know, for over the course of the pandemic, we've been reading about, we've been reading the Lankavatara Sutra. which is basically one of the core Zen texts. It was Bodhidharma's core text, and it was also, well, it's a core Zen text that actually is talking about the nature of mind and related to the mind-only school of the Yogacara school.

[41:02]

And basically, I think that the argument is that those things are like stones, that if you can regard them as stones, Just as Stone said, you can use them to stand up by. And in fact, if you didn't have these difficulties, you probably wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be in this conversation. You wouldn't be at the Zendo. So I would say they are innocent. They're not guilty. And you have to figure out how to use the problem. Each of us has to figure out how to use the problems that we have, because they're what we've been given to work with. And, you know, the problem I think that you're pointing to, which I... Uh-oh, I'm going to let that ring.

[42:08]

The problem that... Hang on a second, I'm sorry. Can't talk. That was not a problem. That was my sister. What you're alluding to, I think, is that these problems can cause harm for other people. I'm going to mute myself. Just one second. I wanted to say, while Hozon is muted and the phone goes on, that Kika mentioned in response to the line of questioning, if Sojin wants anything of us, it's presence, lots of presence.

[43:10]

How do you spell that? You spell it with a C, E, not with a D, right? No. So what I was saying is I think that what you're alluding to, Linda, and because I know we've talked about this a lot, is that we can do harm to people. Yes. And we will not stop doing harm to people until we actually really see This is what Suzuki, so, you know, he talks about this, I think he says. When you're deluded about the Earth's true nature, that is delusion. When you're enlightened about the Earth, that is enlightenment. When you stand up by the Earth, that is enlightenment. When you fall and blame the Earth, that is delusion. The same thing is true of our, the distortions of our personality and actions.

[44:21]

Maybe I should leave it there, if that's okay. But thank you. Thank you for getting up again and again. It's a really powerful example. It's inspiring. I invite Susan Marvin to unmute herself and lower her blue hand. Good morning, Alan. Morning. Thank you so much for this lovely time and your words and your presence. What comes to mind, you know, just a few days before my father died, he was 95. He looked me in the eyes and he said, are you going to fall apart when I die? And I said, absolutely not. I'm going to grieve and I'm going to miss you terribly, but I'm not gonna fall apart. And he was so relieved. There was a kind of lightness that emerged.

[45:28]

And I think that Sojin, he sees how we're not falling apart, how the practice has become, so strong during this time of the pandemic, how the strength of our practice is so alive and so present. And look how many of us are here online day in, day out. And I imagine that's a great relief to him that he can see that strength and he knows that we'll grieve, but that we'll Berkeley Zen Center is in good shape. I just wanted to share that. Thank you. Well, first of all, when we were talking with him this week, what I felt, I did not feel any sense of resignation.

[46:37]

What I felt was that he trusted what was going on. And he trusted the Sangha to be able to hold it. So that was really encouraging. The other thing is that, referring to what Ben quoted, we may have moments of falling apart. That's okay. Uh, you know, we fall apart. This is the nature. To me, it's nature. The practice is falling apart and coming together. You know, it's dying and coming back to life and dying and coming back to life in each moment. And so when we sorrow, we should really sorrow completely. And not just, it won't just be one time.

[47:39]

You know, tears come. And when they come, let them flow. And they'll stop and something else will happen and you'll cry again. That's okay. That sorrow, it's not like one blip and it's over. It's just whatever, actually whatever it is that we're doing to enter it completely. And that's, I think, what we learned from our practice. That's what we learned from Sojin. That's what he learned from Suzuki Roshi. And I think many of us are really, really grateful for that. So thank you. I invite Deb Self to unmute herself. Good morning, Sarge.

[48:43]

I can't close the laptop. No, no, no. Can you hear me all right? My internet is unstable. It's okay. It's a little funky, but I can hear you. Go ahead. I'm so interested that stumbling blocks might be a concept in other scriptures I was raised, as I said in comments before, with some of the Christian scriptures, which admonish us not to be our brother's stumbling block. And that is one of the teachings that I think that I've lost my internet, but I'll just finish this. Okay, I'll finish this thought, which is, it's never occurred to me the opposite of that might be being a stone there for my brother and sister to get up.

[49:47]

And also the people who seem like my stumbling blocks may be my getting up stones. And I'm interested to learn more about any Buddhist tradition around stumbling blocks. I'd have to look further. But I mean, one of the things I think that's sort of goes across the board to me for spiritual religious teachings is that every teaching is a remedy for your suffering. So it's not that the Christian teaching is in contradiction to the Buddhist teaching because those teachings are not absolutes. You know, some other place, you know, the Buddha might say, yes, mindfully remove all the stones from the pathway. You know, I could imagine that he says something like that.

[50:53]

And I can certainly imagine Christ, who was, you know, given to seemingly paradoxical statements, talking about using the stone to get up from. That would seem completely in character with those teachings, too. So, you use what's useful. You use the teaching in a way that's useful. If it's not useful at this moment, then forget about it. And if it comes around and proves, oh yeah, that's useful, great. But I'll look for that for you and we can talk about it. I see, let's just take these next three and probably that's it. Peter Overton. Oh, how's it going?

[51:58]

Really great to see you. You too. Thank you so much for your words this morning. I just had a couple of impressions from what you said, the topic of your talk, having to do with, it seemed like we were talking a lot about a moment of challenge when it comes to holding both celebration and grief and accepting the the help of the Earth to take the next step. And it seems to me, while there is in fact, of course, a moment of challenge, or many moments of challenge in that practice, it seems that the moment of acceptance, or being able to hold those two things that seem contradictory, has a kind of awesome beauty to it that arises. And the moment you turn to stand up, something happens.

[53:04]

And I think it's sometimes useful to remember that, that there's a positive characteristic or attribute. Right. I think that's right. And I think that to be... honest, I feel like I was trained in, in kind of another pattern. So, you know, I just think about it as like you trip over the stone and you fall down and you know, then you're rolling around on the ground and say, you know, I'm I'm hurt, I'm hurt, I'm getting dirty, I'm hurt. And you can roll around and wallow in that, you know, instead of just, instead of getting up.

[54:06]

You know, it reminds me of the scene in The Producers where, what's his name? Not the Zero Most Stale Character, what's the other actor's name? Oh, I can't remember. Anyway, someone still throws a glass of water and he's, I'm wet, I'm wet. I'm hysterical and I'm wet. You know. Eventually you have to get up. Right, you have to get up, you have to get up. So why not get up when you can, you know, and not wallow not make more of your suffering than is necessary. It's not that you're not suffering, but just don't make, don't get stuck in it. Actually, before I go to Kabir, I wonder if Ron or Kika wants to say something about the progress of the books?

[55:10]

Kika, you wanna go ahead? I can just say what we have been doing and then Ron can add maybe what I forget. But Ron and Sojin and I meet once a week and then recently the last two weeks going forward, three or four times a week, three times a week to go over talks that were first gone over by another group of people, Susan Marvin, Carol Paul, Karen Sondheim, Andrea Thatch. Lots of people contributed to going through Sojin's talks and essays. And we got 35 chapters or so. So Sojin has gone through each chapter at least once, if not twice. So we have some pretty clean, beautiful chapters. So now we're just seeing, did we miss any good gems?

[56:17]

You know, he continues to give talks that are really good, and we want to include those as well. So it's kind of, where do we stop? And do we do a volume two? I'll let Ron pick up from there. But it's such rewarding work. It's such a nice way to be close with Ron and Sojin, and also to just read and reread Sojin's autobiography and his lectures. It's a really good way to, uh, learn, learn Sojin's teaching. Um, can you, okay. So we're working on his autobiography right now because we've, we've gone over the first pass of the lectures. We'll go back some more. Um, but now we're working on his autobiography, which he's been working on for quite a while, as well as four talks he gave at Tassajara, wayseeking mind talks about his life. And, uh, You know, I'd rather just tell you how I feel about his attitude rather than the details of the books that I just want you to know we're working really hard on it.

[57:26]

And he is very sharp when he's working with us and he's reading. He picks up things instantly in language that I would never even think about. And he's very thorough. But he's also very sensitive, especially going back over his life. and also very matter-of-fact. And those two qualities teach me, and I think Kika, too, something about how he is taking care of what he's doing right now. It's a combination of matter-of-factness and real sensitivity. So that's what it feels like, and I'm learning from that. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you for that work. And just to say, I've always felt that Sojin Roshi was an excellent editor, excellent editor of his own work and excellent editor of Suzuki Roshi's work, really just tears it down to the essence.

[58:31]

And I've learned a lot from just observing how he does that. So thank you. Before I take the last two, I just want to say that Matt Glazer posted the clip from the producers that I was unskillfully enacting, and it's worth seeing, but not right now. We'll wait till first Friday after the talk. Kabir? Good morning. Thank you, Hozen. Thank you for a great talk, as always, and wishing Sojan fast recovery. Definitely. I'm worried, but that's human nature. In regards to the stones on the path, I sort of see it, I kind of look at it as acknowledgement and also taking responsibility. And the quote that comes to mind is from Shantideva. And actually I have experienced that myself with my sandals.

[59:32]

So when I'm walking with my, Oh, you're frozen. Uh-oh. He gives that analogy as if you want to protect the bottom of your feet, you can cover the entire world with leather or simply one on a pair of shoes. Right. You know, the stones are always going to be there. We just got to do our part. and continue to get back up. Thank you. Well, it's also interesting that one tiny, tiny stone in your sandal can be very uncomfortable. Yes, you can barely see it. And if your job is to be a road builder, You want to make a smooth pathway because that's your job.

[60:32]

That's your intention. So it's not like, you know, you leave. I mean, I think about places in Berkeley where it's like, why have they left all these ruts there, you know? Anyway, the last one is Helen. Good morning. Morning. I've been reading Francis Weller, who writes a lot about grief and sorrow. And he quoted poet Ghalil Gibran saying, the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. And I've been thinking about that relationship between grief and mourning and sadness, and on the other hand, and also celebration and joy. And I find great comfort in that. And I just wanted to share it with you and everyone and also find out what you think about that idea. I think that suffering can really teach us to experience the joy of not suffering.

[61:50]

you know, and that makes us look even more deeply into the nature of suffering, but also into the nature of joy. I mean, I think that I really relate to these words of Thich Nhat Hanh that suffering is not enough. That one of the problems in the configuration, in the understanding of Buddhism or the way it's taught in a very simplistic way is that life is suffering. And I, the way I think about it is life is marked by suffering. It doesn't boil to say life is suffering means it boils down to suffering, which is pretty unacceptable. But I feel that suffering, it's like as, as you were quoting, I feel that suffering kind of tempers us. Suffering can break you, but it also is like a fire that you go through that allows you to be stronger and more flexible.

[63:02]

If you have the capacity to really, to work with your suffering, then it can be a gift. But I also don't want to simplistically or idealistically romanticize suffering. Somebody once asked me, does suffering bring redemption? because I think in a lot of religious traditions, there's a kind of message. And I said, I don't really think so. But it can, it can be an element of that, but not necessarily.

[64:04]

It's only what, it comes back to what I was saying that we learn in the Lama Fathar Sutra, it comes back to your mind, how you work with it. and that's our practice. So I think this is a good place to stop and I want to thank you all and let's just, let's take care of, let's all take care of each other and let's take care of sojourn and the practice as best we can and have a good weekend. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[65:04]

So that's not the three vows. I'm sorry. Apologies. Shall we begin again or shall we just have the bells? It's complete. It is complete. It's the abbreviated, it's the condensed version. It is the condensed. We'll have the announcements. Okay, thank you very much. So, the announcements for 1010. I tried to place the announcements in the chat, but it hasn't worked for a couple different get-togethers, so please visit our website for all these announcements, and I'm sure they're... You're muted, Dave.

[66:09]

Of course. Yeah, sorry. It's just... It's complete. Thank you, that's what I was saying. So, dues and donations, please visit our website to support Berkeley Zen Center. Monday, this coming Monday is Ajayan Iduki will be giving away Seeking Mind Talk after Zazen. The speaker next Saturday will be Mary Duryea. Hozan is offering a tea, sort of informal tea, beginning October 20th. Please contact Hannah Amira for that. The annual BCC Women's Retreat will be Sunday, October 18th.

[67:15]

And so look forward to that and sign up for that. And Penelope Thompson can be reached via email for that. There were, of course, a few more announcements. Let me turn to the page. Of course, we have, let me just open up my notes. Thank you for your patience. Yes, so Shukei Tokudo pre-sordination will be with Kika Helene next on the 17th. Taito Shikei Soho is the stepping down ceremony and stepping into ceremony will be October 24th. There will be an election day Open Zendo, I presume it's on Zoom on the November 3rd. Rohatsu session will be the 19th to the 21st of December. And other than that, I welcome everybody to unmute themselves and wish everybody a good day.

[68:24]

I want to thank people for their questions and Hozon for his lecture. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Hosan. Hi, everyone. Take care and watch out for those. Rock and roll. Hi, Sarah. Good to see you. Good to see you. So long, everyone. Bye. Please tell Sojan we wish him well from the entire Saturday Sangha. Yes. Yes. We're just a bunch of rolling stones. Goodbye, everybody. Maybe we can march in a circle around the temple grounds with masks on after the ceremony in a couple weeks or something.

[69:26]

Yeah, that sounds great. Absolutely. Bye, everyone. Have a great day. Bye. Bye, Raghav. Bye. Bye. Hi, Katie and Ken. And Mac. Great to see you all. Yeah, it's nice. Thank you. Thank you, Ron. Hey. Congratulations, Kika. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Bye, everyone. Bye. Peace, y'all. That's Sojan there, isn't it?

[70:23]

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