December 10th, 1995. And this day also is very dear to my heart because of a thing that happened on this day. Teaching of all Buddhas that was given prior to the appearance on Buddhism in India. Not only is this most wonderful, it is also the mind which meets all events in awe and wonder. The greatest good, which one can get oneself, this greatest good, karma, wisdom, are self-fulfilled Forgetting and self-fulfilling awareness is the true path we all through the ancestors have taken.

[01:17]

By forgetting about self-improvement and personal benefit is not a negative practice. It is simply good. It is for a living being to be a living being. However, it is not easy for a living being to just be a living being with whatever benefits or includes one's situation. What is easy is to be a human being. How does one renounce selfish intentions and just be oneself? accomplished immediately by being unmovingly upright. Being upright is not holding on to anything.

[02:31]

being upright and flexible, one is able to harmonize with the immediate circumstances and thus respond appropriately with no. All that is good, one renounces all gaining ideas for self and others, and is thus empowered. Bodhisattva vows to be constantly attentive to the requests of the world, being devoted entirely to helping others, one is free of self-concern. One remembers others so much that one forgets From such self-forgetting, the bodhisattva evokes the dharma to a fullest, without concern that there are no ways that it is necessary to have the ruthless ability to snap a wooden pillar.

[03:59]

The final non-dual, non-conceptual meditation of the bodhisattva is faith. of the conventional world. By developing skill, that is wholesome relations with all things of the conventional world, we gradually become able to skillfully deal with the mind. of our final settling with ourself. From the perspective of human convention, there is still an other, separate from ourself.

[05:08]

There are objects external to our mind. This is the world Thus, from this perspective, whatever our activities, let them be for the benefit of all other humans. All our actions, our body, our thought, are wholeheartedly dedicated towards the greatest happiness of others. Within this dimension of practice, within this dimension of practicing, we are warming up by practicing with objects. We are warming up by practicing with our body, speech and thought as objects, internal.

[06:18]

external, animate and inanimate, throughout our environment. By gradually developing skillful and wholesome relations with internal and external objects, we can create a relationship for the ultimately liberating, objectless, non-dual process of life. which finally sets all beings free. The primary qualities of working with Paul are kindness, gentleness, compassion, attention to the minute details of things, carefulness, respect, and devotion.

[07:28]

Developing these qualities we warm up to the total range of practicing these precepts. While still or moving in all postures, one tries as much as possible on the welfare of others. In the midst of all one's duties, one vows to be considerate of all animate and inanimate beings. Our actions are performed in such a manner so as all others. Our bodily posture and facial expression are good opportunities to encourage and generate love.

[08:39]

There's a wonderful story which I don't remember the punchline to, but I do remember the practice practice of how to open Japanese doors. Internal to the house, there are shoji doors, shoji screens, which are paper-covered windows. and also solid doors, both of which slide. The solid doors are called kusuno. The Japanese people are not unfamiliar with the concept of convenience.

[09:51]

However, they have unconvenient ways of doing certain things. For example, opening these doors. Instead of just walking over to the door and opening it, the traditional way of practicing with these doors, which is still maintained in tea rooms and Zen temples, some of them even, is to come up to the door and sit down in front of it. And then, If the door is going to be moved open from left to right, you start with your right left hand, and there is, on the futsuma, on the sawdust, there's often a lovely brass finger hole. Place your fingers in the hole with your left hand and move it to the right.

[10:58]

So that the door, the head of the door is now pretty much in front of you. Then you gently, mindfully bring your hand down and raise your right hand and put it into the hole. And then you move further to the right. Then you take your hand out of the hole and slide it down lower on the edge of the door and push it the rest of the way with your right hand all the way to your right. And then something happens. These would be his compassionate teachers. I don't remember how it goes, but you can imagine various possible renditions of that. If you think of something, write it down and give it to me. And I'll use your version. Then there's another set of doors on the outside of the building. They're the storm doors. They're heavy wood doors. They're called Amado.

[12:05]

And they're in track. Sometimes several in a row. And they're stuck in track in such a way that I'd like to push five or ten of them into one of those tents. You can start with the, when you're pushing them in some direction, you can start with the one farthest away from the direction you're pushing, and you can push that one, and it will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it, and that will push the one in front of it. You can move the whole row at once. And the way this has been tracked, when the first one hits the storage box, it automatically derails itself and makes room for the next one, it automatically derails itself and makes room for the next one. So you can just push it right into their storage unit. I don't know who designed them in first place. You can imagine perhaps the warriors might push in this way and immediately open up the side of the building ready for attack.

[13:12]

very efficient way to uncover a plant. Perhaps, we don't know, with no respect for the doors. But, in Suzuki Reshi's training, the monks were not allowed to do this. They had to take each door and put each door in by itself, starting with the one closest to the storage unit. We'll get to next In one sense, this is a mindfulness practice for the monk to bring herself back to where she is and be present with what's happening and see if she's in a hurry to go someplace else and be somebody else. See if she's in a hurry to do something that could improve her situation rather than another door to be spared.

[14:21]

But the other side is that this is a kindness to the door. This is being concerned with the door. This is including the door in your vow. This is taking the limits away from what you love. This is appreciating the service that this wood is. This is appreciating the tree which made the door. This is appreciating the earth which made the tree. This is appreciating the carpenter and the architect. This is conventional and dualistic ways of meaning. This is how Suzuki Roshi was trained, and this is how he trained us.

[15:33]

Shortly after we moved, we then sent it on Facebook to not slide the chairs in the dining room around. Again, there were many reasons for that. One is that our den-do was under the dining room, and if people stood around, particularly for breakfast or dinner, we would often be sitting downstairs, and on the tile floors, moving one chair to be heard in the whole den-do, not to mention moving trains of chairs. We said, this chair is already convenient enough. It's already enough of a convenience that we can sit on these things. But we don't need to go any further. We can pick the chair up and lift it off the ground and set it where we want it. And when we're done, we can lift it up and put it back.

[16:43]

This respects the people in the Zendo. This respects the chair. And in that relationship, Particularly, a place to realize the dependent core rising of the world, of each thing in the world, that's the world, can teach us dependent core rising. If we do it with utmost respect. And especially all the things in the world which we have abandoned, things in the world we have rejected, all the things which we do not think deserve our utmost respect, especially there in which we, the dependently co-arising universe, it's in those places that we go most blind to the truth.

[17:59]

And those places are the best place to give our attention. The best place, the most likely place to discover the secret of Buddha's teaching. Daily activities of caring for our own body. There is an opportunity. There are limitless verses for generating and maintaining our focus, for generating and maintaining our warm heart for the welfare of others. Although we're concerned for the welfare of others first, part of what's good for others and part of what's helpful for others is for us to brush our teeth. Even the dentists appreciate it.

[19:03]

And dental hygienists. If you take good care of your teeth and you go see the dental hygienist, their teeth will be neat and encouraged. They've got job security to go. But they don't like it when you don't take care of them. It kind of disrespects our teeth. They don't like that. They respect us. They disrespect our garments. You take care of your teeth. They are deeply touched and they'll never forget. They say, you made my day. To find one clean mouth, I could keep I know that. But anyway, bodhisattvas, when they go up to have their tea, they present a very clean, fresh mouth with a lot of ideas.

[20:17]

And all these want us to have our own. So they wanted to take care of ourselves, and that's part of our job. Take care of your body. Everybody wants you to. You should do that for us. while taking care of our body. As we wash our face with water, all beings attain pure dharma good and be unstained forever. Holding the toothbrush in our joined palms, we vow with all sentient beings to attain the right dharma and purity spontaneous. While brushing the teeth, and rinsing the mouth, we vow with all sentient beings to turn towards the pure and spotless Dhamgir and completely enter into religion. After brushing the teeth, using the toothbrush every morning, we vow with all beings to retain teeth strong enough to gnaw through all delusions.

[21:35]

in the conventional world. Practicing good with speech, with our speech. The Bodhisattva vowed to communicate with others honestly, speaking gently and endearingly If that would be helpful. Seeing others' virtuous deeds, one immediately sings their praises and talks about their good qualities to others. praising those with virtue and expressing deep compassion for those without it.

[22:54]

This is the bodhisattva method of conversion, called kind speech. This means that when we see a living being, We arouse the mind of compassion and offer words of love and care. I'll talk more quietly. There is a convention, both secular and among Zen, of asking after someone's thoughts.

[24:02]

This is not only a kindness and encouragement to oneself and the other, but it is also an opportunity for the dependent for arising of other liberation. And she said, How is your venerable health, my dear? And he said, I'm so sick. You're so sick. And he said, I had a great awakening. When one offers kind speech, little by little, the virtue of all concern will increase. When one practices kindness, you notice that this kind speech already places you in places you never noticed before. People who thought they were nasty sometimes do realize that they're really kind in this region.

[25:15]

That's kind speech. Our Bodhisattva joyfully bowed, practiced kind speech for her entire lifetime. Never given up. Life after life. Those who hear one's kind speech, just like those who see one's clean mouth, will be deeply touched. They will never forget it. Bodhisattvas understand that kind speech arises from heart. And a warm heart is born from the heart of people. A warm heart is born from a heart which heeds the suffering of others. Kind speech is not just craving the virtues of others.

[26:25]

It adds the capacity for us all to always think of what is the condition for the happiness We do not think about the fault of others, but rather confess and examine our own shortcomings. We do not think of our own virtues. but dwell in thought on the virtuous qualities of others and inwardly venerate them as our future. The most developed ways of us still associate with others without thinking of their superiority.

[27:29]

We most sincerely want to help others but we don't go around thinking and saying that we are actually helping them. We want to be most helpful, but we really don't know if we are. People tell us that we are helpful, but that doesn't mean we are helpful. There is a mind, an expression, in the Buddhist mind. It's a jī kīśā mūryoṣiṁ. Jī means He means joy and rejoicing.

[28:38]

Sha means you hear everything. No matter what you do, it's possible to do it. It's selfishness. If you might just open a door, it's possible to do it selfishly or selfishly. But before you do it, you check. we might be able to find the selfish motivation and come from there. Without checking, we might do the same act out of selfish habit and harm self and others. It's important to examine our motivation. If we think something's good, ill, for some especially important large-scale acts of goodness, we might check with others.

[29:43]

We might consult and make sure that we've looked deeply enough. Maybe never being completely certain, but some things deserve more exhaustive study beforehand. Humble words to address the missus of the house. But we called her missus. We called her aunt. When I thought of this story, I realized that this is a story about her being at a banquet. And when I envisioned the story and saw her at this banquet, I saw myself sitting next to her at the banquet table. And, but I wasn't, I didn't go to the banquet with her. She told me this story in her kitchen. But I was there so many times that I was there at the event.

[30:46]

But actually I wasn't. So she was invited to a, what do you call it, a testimonial banquet, a testimonial dinner for certain members of the Japanese congregation. in San Francisco were being honored for great social contributions. And so one man was recognized for his great kindness and energy and the great benefit he brought with support of his family. So his family should be mentioned too. But she didn't just stand up and suggest this to the master of ceremony. She consulted with some people nearby.

[31:47]

Fortunately, she had a range of concepts. She had on one side a rather conservative person, on the other side a liberal. And so she consulted with the liberal person about whether they thought that would be proper decorum to go and suggest this, and also that it would be proper now to now bring up the family of a more liberal-feud woman. But yes, she thought it would be good. And she consulted a more traditional and strict older lady. about properness of self-action. And that lady also felt that way too. So, actually what you did not know, she, Oksana, boldly stood up and joyfully expressed her gratitude and appreciation for the whole family.

[32:51]

And the whole audience was in conjugal support. So, All the perfections of the bodhisattva can be practiced with this ordinary purest practice. All these practices are primarily in terms of thinking, in terms of thought, are internal. Occasionally they surface into related to the start of the mind. So, in practicing giving, we contemplate how good it is to give and how painful it is to give miserly. We contemplate that and contemplate that together.

[33:56]

Like these other practices of good, not just good and joyful in itself, but also gifts can be transformed for giving, and the receiver can be transformed for giving. A penny can turn into a gift, a treasure, and a feet, a penny feet can turn into a magnificent for one of us. Healing is the first, the first way to transform the world. These qualities help us settle into gradually the suchness of the relationship, starting off dualistically as self and object. Through these qualities of carefulness and patience and devotion, by settling more and more carefully into the process of forgiving, we transcend the duality.

[35:11]

in dealing with objects, in terms of practicing contemplation, in terms of watching carefully our beings, we apply then the same carefulness and attention to detail to our patient. Again, these same qualities gradually help us settle into the relationship between non-duality there too. And so, in all these practices. We start with ordinary conventional minds by using these qualities of practicing good and so thoroughly settle into the duality according to the ordinary conventional world and naturally overflowing. Although other beings have great virtues The good is not outside you.

[36:18]

The good is none other than our pulsing in the universe. We say doing all good, and that word good could also be pulsing. Doing all good, doing all wholesome, it means doing all skillful. Doing all skillfulness, enacting all skillfulness. In other words, it means do all doing. Do all good doing. Do doing. The good we are to practice is just pure doing. It is just performance. It is just devotedly doing it. So, being unconditionally respectful of what is happening.

[37:30]

So we're not just dreaming of doing it. We have the skill to gently, kindly, respectfully, completely just do. Right now, the ultimate good is just being exactly what we are doing. Whatever we are doing. It is the totality of doing. It is the wholeness of what is being done. It is doing leaping off the summit of doing. It is doing funding through the bottom of the ocean of doing.

[38:34]

and I are all doing. Are you on the summit of the doing? If you are, you can leap off. Are you on the bottom of your doing? If you are, you can plunge through. gentle and thorough with the prism, we will get to the summit. We will get to the bottom. Therefore, this doing all that is good does go entirely beyond all doing. Right now, we are all sentient beings. I think You are having sensations, I think.

[39:44]

For you to just be having your sensations the way you're having them is this wisdom. For you, for a sentient being, to be this way is just not to move. This is precisely what is meant by Supreme Enlightenment. That was Supreme Enlightenment. So Supreme, what do we know? It can't be met with our calculations. How do not move? Come all the way.

[40:53]

And once you get there, continue to continue. Your devotion your carefulness continue so that the guest may settle even more unmovingly and thus realize supreme enlightenment. I'm not even talking about that you might get angry toward your guests even before they come in But you might not even want that self to come and visit this body. Or you might not want this body to visit this self. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about after. That's all taken care of. After you actually come home.

[41:57]

Then. That's because. You get home because you've been gracious. You won't come home to this ungracious scene. You're not going to come home to a battering and brutality. You're going to hang out in the suburbs, far away from this place, if you're not kind. But once you trap yourself by kindness and devotion and carefulness and gentleness and respect, once you've got it there, and you put aside these gross emotional reactions, then boredom comes. Boredom is the last thing to come when all the grosser distractions from being here are passed beyond. But not quite getting angry about it. If you start getting angry to get that bad, then boredom can go rest, sit on the sidelines

[43:07]

to dualistic practices of dealing with objects. Now you really need those skills. We've battled our way to a rougher and grosser suffering than this. We've handled worse stuff. This stuff isn't even worth worrying about. It's so tough. Thank you for listening. I'm sorry I talked so long. I didn't mean it to hurt you. I just really wanted you to get started right away.

[43:58]

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