And on my last format, I'll be talking about social media, although I'll be at San Rafael, California's famous website. So probably most of you know, I'm moving to Chicago. I'll be in January, and I'll be full-time taking care of the new web building there in which I'm graduating in the second year. And it looks like I'll be teaching at Loyola University in the first year. And thanks to the board, and all of you. I feel very good about the transition. So starting next month, January, the new teacher here will be Luminous Owl, who lives in Greenville. He'll be doing the next, we'll be sitting, so I'll do some announcements first and then I'll do the other announcements after the talk.

[01:04]

But he'll be doing the next, sitting here, January 27th, as it was last Saturday. And then starting after that, we'll be doing the second, usually the second Saturday, as we have been. Also, starting in February, it's a Thursday night. He's going to be coming and doing a sitting in class Thursday night's here, so a little bit more. And me and Sandra Fell, Steve O'Malley here, who lives in Long Valley, and he's also a priest transmitted by my teacher, Rebecca. Me and Sandra Fell, and Bix Lowe, who also is a priest who lives in Greenville, she'll be at California State. So for this talk, often in December, yesterday, December 8, is the day that is referred to as rahasa in Japanese.

[02:10]

It's the day that is celebrated traditionally in East Asia as the Enlightenment Day of the Buddha, of the historical Buddha. And I've often spoken about enlightenment in December here. But today, I thought for my last talk, I wanted to talk We start from the Soankara Sangha, the Rastak, which is in your chant book, page nine. So I wanted to talk about that today. Partly because thinking about it, I realized, so this is written by, his name is, Chinese is Shito Shichang, he lived in the 8th century, Sekito Kisen in Japanese. He also wrote the, Or, better known, this chapter of Sojozen, Harmony of Difference, the same as Kusandao Kai. He was a few generations before Deng Xiang, the founder of Sojozen in China.

[03:12]

Yes. There is Dale. Can you pass that? Pass that around. That's fine. Can you speak a little louder? Oh, good. Yes. Thank you. Let me know. So partly I realized that my teaching style, compared to most American Soto Zen teachers, is a little more Chinese and less Japanese than most. In Japan, Soto Zen generally developed a certain way, partly because in modern times anyway, the last several centuries, they've needed to train priests to take care of these Japanese, many Japanese temples. It's one of the largest groups in Japan, largest Buddhist schools in Japan.

[04:14]

So there's a kind of training, there is a kind of, we used to call it Macho Zen when it first came to America. And, you know, it was designed to train young Actually, sons of priests become the next priests of the temple. But the Chinese Zodozen style is, I feel, in some ways more appropriate for us. And it's really clear in this particular text. So as I was saying, Shito, who wrote this Song of the Grandson, was a degeneration before the founder of Chinese, so to say, Dong Shan, who wrote the Saga of the Jewel-Bearer Samadhi, which we had chatted and talked about sometimes. Actually, I think I'm going to, the next book I'm going to start next year will be about that. And just another announcement, a shameless plug. My next book is coming out. It's from Oxford University Press in April.

[05:16]

It's Visions of Awakening, Space and Time. I'll probably be back in the Bay Area talking about that much. Anyway, the Song of the Grass Hut. I'm not going to talk about the whole thing, but I want to talk about a few of the lines of it. But just the opening gives a kind of feeling of a different approach to practice than the more Japanese style. So he says, I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value. After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap. When the hut was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it's been lived in, covered by weeds. Well, when he says there's nothing of value, of course, he understands that everything is of value. But there's nothing that he is, you know, this is, one of the Zen traditions is of these kind of,

[06:18]

Hermit poet recluses, Hansha, or Cold Mountain, or Ryokan later in Japan are famous examples. This guy, Shito, actually had a trading monastery. He was trading monks. This character, han, which means hot, literally, or hermitage, is used sometimes now in Japan and in China for very large monasteries. But the image of this grass hut is important. He actually literally built a grass hut on a rock near his monastery where he went and meditated on his own. The rock is still there. But this idea of nothing of value has to do with this basic Buddhist value, all of Buddhism, of non-attachment. I think of generosity, of giving up or giving over.

[07:27]

There's a story about Rio Kahn, who literally had a little rest. I put a few books and a sitting cushion and a little straw bed and a blanket, and that's about it. and a beefcake one night while he was meditating. And there was nothing to give him, so he gave him his blanket. And then he wrote a poem about how he wished he'd been given the moon. So I've talked about this before as of this whole poem, this teaching poem, as a teaching about developing our space of meditation, our space of practice.

[08:30]

So he's really talking various ways through this about how to support spiritual practice, how to develop our space of practice, and I think it applies and also to the Sangha and how we build the Sangha. But also, there are many levels to this. So it's also just about this self, this body of mind that we have constructed with the help of parents and teachers and books and movies and cultural forms of course, friends and family. So, how do we live in a particular way to take care of this body and space of meditation, where we can relax. Where weeds appear, and eventually we're covered in these.

[09:39]

And of course, sometimes it blooms. How do we take care of the space of practice, whether it's in some institution or the space that's out here. So he says, the person in the hut lives here calmly, not stuck to inside, outside, or in between. Can you hear me in the back? So not stuck. He says, the person in the hut lives here calmly, not stuck to inside, outside, or in between. How, so the most important thing with this value is non-attachment. This is what emptiness teaching is about. Letting go of the things that we, all the many things that we quibble onto. Now, this non-attachment also means taking care of all of the things in our life.

[10:39]

It doesn't mean that you have to, you know, give up your houses and go live in a hut somewhere. But how do we have this attitude not holding on, not grasping, not trying to make the parts of our life into something special, but just being able to relax and enjoy that. So this is the basic attitude to practice the Vipassana. It's different from, you know, if you go into Japanese monasteries, there's some Americans that train in temples where everybody's a minister. Anyway, the point of our practice is not to become a zeptom. But to actually bring our life to life. How do we support this openness in our life? This is the point of our practice. Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.

[11:41]

Being able to enjoy our inhale, and our exhale, the spaces in between, and everything. Just enjoying our life as it is. Again, this doesn't mean there's a problem with this, that this can be understood. I've been talking about this this year in terms of precepts. This can be understood as, well, whatever, man, everything's OK. It's going to flow, and it's all moving. And that's one side, partly because we're not attached the inside outsider in between. We can take care of these things very well and recognize how it fits together. So that's also part of this teaching. So part of it, I'm skipping, I'm going to skip down a little. He says, will this unperishable perish or not? Perishable or not, the original master is present, dwelling south and northeast to west.

[12:47]

So the point of our practice is not to hold on to this particular practice situation, this particular form, this particular, our idea even of this particular body and mind, but to realize that the original master is present within each of us, within each of us. There is this fundamental, what to call it, sometimes it's called the host. There's this fundamental possibility of integrity and dignity and seeing what's in front of us and meeting it directly and clearly and openly without holding on to any part of it, without trying to manipulate it. Responding when there's some need to respond to some problem, but just meeting what's in front of us.

[13:51]

This original master is present. So he says in Mahayana Bodhisattva, trust without doubt. This practice and the everydayness of this practice and just finding our seat and being upright. as a regular part of our schedule, of our day-to-day life, of our week-to-week life, develops in us this trust or this sense. And to talk about it's almost too much. You don't have, whether or not you recognize that all of you have some sense of this, of this original master. I know that just because you're here. We wouldn't have showed up today if that wasn't the case. This is what I believe. And I'm quite confident about it. And that confidence develops as we are willing to actually be present and meet this possibility of the original master.

[14:57]

And of course, we all have patterns and habits of mind and so forth that get in the way of our trusting that. So a lot of our practice is just to study that and become familiar with that and not be caught by that. To see that our ideas of who we are are not things of value that we have to hold on to. And as we are intimate with ourselves, we can more and more fully trust this original master. Going a little further, he says, just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest. Thus, this mountain monk doesn't understand at all. Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest. So this practice is really about radically resting from all of the scheming of the world.

[16:05]

And the image of head covered has to do with Bodhidharma, who was supposed to be a doctor then in China. He went up into a cave in North China and sat in the snow. And there are pictures of him with his belt over his head. You may have seen the old set of pictures. And so it's a reference to that. But just sitting with head covered doesn't mean we have to wear hats or hair. But just to not be a category Roshi, so to speak, Don't poke your head into it. It doesn't mean we should get rid of our thinking. We can use our thinking. So I'm not advocating a lot of consent. But just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest. Thus, this mountain monk doesn't understand at all. So I should tell him to say, I don't understand. And I'm not concerned about understanding. So I know some of you, many of you, worry about or think about, or try to figure out, or understand Buddhism or some spiritual teaching.

[17:14]

That's OK. If you like your mind to do that, that's fine. But that's not the point. So Shunzo could say, I don't understand at all. He didn't care. He wasn't concerned for people. Even if people knew that he didn't understand, he didn't care. When I studied in Japan, the last teacher studied with most Tanaka Shinkai Roshis, is now Abbott, a monastery area agent in northern Japan. The last talk I had with him, he said, understanding is not important. Understanding is easy. The point is just to continue. So how do we continue paying attention paying attention to our intention, giving up our ideas of how things should be, but still responding when we see things that shouldn't be.

[18:20]

Not understanding it all. So he says, so there's a few lines. I'm just coming to some of the juicy lines that I want to say something more about. One line in here, which includes all of Buddha's meditation practice, he says, turn around the light to shine within, then just return. So one of the basic meditation instructions in Zen is to turn the light to shine within. In Japanese, go-henshin. Go-henshin is one of his writings. You can sometimes take the backward step and turn the light inwardly to illuminate yourself. This is the same thing. Turn the light to shine you in. So when we sit facing the wall or, say, Nathan's facing the chairs, we're focusing on, we sit with our eyes open and our ears open.

[19:27]

We hear the sounds of the leanness around us. We see the floor or the wall or the chairs in front of us. But in some way, we're turning the light to shine it in. Our attention is not on trying to figure it well. Of course, part of the thoughts that pass around in our mind, just like the cars going by, may involve trying to figure out something about some situation or problem you're in the middle of. But our attention is in this body, in this posture, in our breathing. what's going on in our pushing. We might be waiting for the, you know, wondering when the bell's going to ring or something. But still, this instruction is to turn the light to shine within. So the point isn't to turn the light to shine within and have some great realization of who you are or something like that. It's just this continually turn the light to shine within.

[20:29]

Pay attention to what's important to you. Pay attention to your own effort and relaxation. But then he says, no one would be incomplete if he didn't also say, then just return. So the point of our practice is not, the point of meditation in Zen is not to reach some great state of, you know, some altered state or some higher state of being or some higher consciousness. If that stuff happens, it's fine. But the point of it is to just return. How do we bring it back into our life, into our everyday activity, into the world? So the world needs it. So the point of our practice is to include everyone. He says in the line of previously, though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.

[21:35]

Each of you sitting, turning a light within on your cushion or chair, the entire world is there. Everybody you've ever known, or will know, or somebody you met at a party 10 years ago. It's part of who you are. The entire world allows you to be here. I can share a question right now. So we turn the light to shine within and then we get up from our question and do off meditation or go out back out into our lives and engage with friends, family, people, people we see during a period of time. So this rhythm You know, there are some people who do things like going to live in places like Greenville for a while or Casa Jara.

[22:39]

But then they also have to come out. So this rhythm is the rhythm of our practice. If you come for a talk or to sit all day at Bolinas and say hey, then you get up and go out. This rhythm is in our everyday practice, too. And it's the integration of this that is the point of our practice and continuing from this. So it's enough if you just remember this line. Turn around the light to shine a bit and then just return. One of the times I did lay ordination, I wrote that line on the back of the boxes. But he keeps going from there. He says, the vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from. Part of what happens when we turn around the light to shine within is that we start to have some relationship with, or some familiarity with, or just this sense of, out of the corner of our eyes, so to speak, out of the corner of our mind, we have some sense with something, some connection with something that no word can encompass.

[23:54]

Here he calls it the vast, inconceivable source. It can't be conceived of. there is this possibility of wholeness. Sometimes we call it Buddha nature. And this is what we are. It's not that it's only on your cushion and not out in the world either. It's in every breath. But when we stop, And notice our breathing and feel how it is to be in this body and mind. We can start to have more of a sense of it. So we can't get a hold of it. We can't grab it. We can't really get face to face with it. But we can't turn away from it either. So each of you, just because you're here, I know that you have some sense of this. And you can't ignore it. And yet, you can't get a hold of it either.

[25:00]

And that's fine. How do we breathe into it? How do we start to recognize it? You know, especially in the times that we're difficult to recognize. When, you know, we're in some situation that allows us to feel our own anger, or frustration, or grasping, or confusion. The practice is that we start to have this familiarity with something that we can't completely face, and we can't turn away from. And it's vast. It's like space in the sky. And it's inconceivable. We can't, our conceptual mind can't get our head around it. It's just impossible. It's beyond ordinary human perceptual faculties. And in Zen, it's sometimes called the source.

[26:03]

So that's kind of controversial. But this idea of the source is actually my main Taigean ultimate source. But there's different characters for source, too. I think it's a different one here. But in my name, it's the source of the spring and the mountain. This sense of the source is, it's not the same as like the creator deity in the Western religions. Not that I'm putting down the Western religions, but it's different. It's the source of everything right now. It's like the whole universe. It's not being created in seven days, it's being created in each breath. In the beginning of each thought. in each feeling as it arises, there is something that is giving birth.

[27:07]

So this is maybe in some ways an example of how Taoism influences Zen Buddhism, because this relates to Chinese Taoist kind of language about spirituality in Chinese Taoism. kind of great other as a source. But anyway, this is used in Zen poetry a lot. And it's, it's not in conflict with basic Buddhism. It's not that there's something that's called a source. It's that in each, again, in each situation, maybe we could say there are innumerable sources. And yet we can turn back towards, again, I can't talk about it because you can see the And it's fast. It's not a single point. It's everywhere. And yet, in each moment, here we are.

[28:08]

So that may be a little more philosophical than practical. But anyway, this is what he says, it can't be faced or turned away from. So we can't ignore it, and yet, by trying to talk about it, to express it to you. I miss it. So I said a little bit anyway. Then he says, meet the ancestral teachers. Be familiar with their instruction. Find grasses to build upon and don't give up. Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. And Liz pointed out last month or the month before that these Two phrases, don't give up and let go, are right next to each other. And that's really wonderful. So in some important way, our practice is just about letting go. Not trying to hold on to anything.

[29:14]

Not trying to grab. But also, to save time as you let go. Don't give up. pay attention to the situation of this life, the situation of our world, all the problems of our world. So when he says, meet the ancestral teachers and be familiar with their instruction, I don't You know, we could talk about that in terms of the Zen ancestors, and that's part of what he means, but I think it's deeper than that. So each of us has various lineages. Just thought, I'm thinking of the discussion we had about art, and you were mentioning some of the influences on your art, so the artists here, but in whatever activity you're doing, there are many ancestral teachers. Some of our ancestral teachers are the future, too, but all of them are,

[30:18]

giving us assistance in how to express this, this vast and inseparable source, this quality of letting go completely and not giving up, this quality of the possibility of brightness and integrity and dignity in this life. So I think it's important to appreciate many, many different levels of ancestral teachers. Those of us who are political activists to appreciate those who have gone before trying to bring peace and justice in the world. For example, musicians to appreciate people who inspired you. And also just to appreciate, you know, teachers, parents, just the ordinary people about this virus.

[31:27]

So we could study with them. And this is how we build a hut. This is how we develop our, from all of the stray grasses, from all of the sources of our awareness and care. This is how we build a self. This is how we, a self that we don't hold on to. This is how we build a practice base that we're willing to leave and use and turn out in some ways. So don't give up and let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. So, uh, uh, It's not how most people think of Buddhism or say Buddhism, but really our practice is just the maximum. It's funny to think of relaxing when you see people sitting in this funny posturing.

[32:50]

But actually, it's about just completely relaxing, completely, radically relaxing. Letting go of all of the places we're holding on. So I mentioned this Japanese Zen master I saw. I still remember it. 2006. So it's 25 years ago at least. And I remember he was a visiting teacher. Taichi Konoroshi was his name. He was a visiting Rinzai Zet teacher. And he was at Bakerish. He was giving a talk at Greenville. And Taichi Konoroshi was sitting there. And somehow he was between me and Bakerish. And I could just see that in some way I had never seen before, and maybe not since. He was sitting in the same posture, but he was relaxed. There was not, you know, looking around and I'm sitting facing out and you're all facing, oh, I can see, you know, little bits of tension in your back.

[33:54]

We all are alive and so are these guys. Not a muscle holding on. So this is possible. And of course, maybe it's endless practice. Maybe he was just having a good day, I don't know. But go hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands and walk innocent. This character that means walk also means to practice. Just a new sense of innocence in our practice. Again, it doesn't mean that we ignore the problems of the world. It doesn't mean that we don't respond to difficulties of our friends or family members, or of our country, or of justice, and all that. Can we just meet each thing open-heartedly? That's what this means. And then he says, if you want to know the undying person in the hut, don't separate from this skin bag here and now.

[35:07]

So skin bag is a kind of unexact slang for this body and mind. This skin bag. And of course, in some ways, that's what we are, this skin bag. A bunch of liquids and bones and stuff. Of course, it's not talking just about the body. If we think about it, what is the limit of this? We each have our own boundaries. We each have our own integral bodies. But can you still hear me in the back? So if you hear me in the back, there's some sound. Now, is that sound in my vocal cords? Is it in your lips? Is it in the air between you and me? Is it in your ears? Is it in your brain, making it into sense? Where is the boundary of our skid bag? Where some of you are wearing coats because it's cold today.

[36:15]

So we have different, our skid bags have different senses of temperature. But is that temperature in your skid bag or is that in the air or is that in the wind? Northwest or the barometric pressure. Anyway, even in terms of the skin bag, we're all connected. But still, he says, don't separate from the skin bag here and now. So some people come to spiritual practice thinking they have to become some other person. And the point of our practice is not to run away from yourself. So please don't do that. Please don't try and run away from yourself. Please enjoy yourself. With whatever shortcomings and, you know, self-defined flaws and old age and sickness and whatever, whatever problems you have, don't separate from the skin bag here and now.

[37:23]

Don't run away from yourself. So I'll let that be my last teaching. I'd like to have some discussion, but I'll make some announcements first. So today, partly because of it's damp out, we'll skip the work period. We'll just start sitting at 1.30, partly in honor of Rojas, who is usually more intensive sitting. We're not doing that much, but we'll have an extra half hour or so. For noon service, we'll have a memorial service for Rick Clays, who was whose voice we've heard often out here, who is one of the street people of Bolivia, so he passed away this morning. Other announcements. Tomorrow is Human Rights Day. It's the anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter of Human Rights or something like that, and there's gonna be, for anyone interested, there's a gathering at one o'clock

[38:25]

Civic Center at UF Plaza and Civic Center in San Francisco, talking about human rights and the war and so forth. And I'm only one of the speakers. So I'm pretty much the only speaker. But I mentioned that. Also, Tuesday, one of the things I've been doing this year is organized a teach-in at Vigil at UC Berkeley. I teach at Graduate Theological Union, which is associated with it. And one of the law school professors, his name's John Yu, one of the initiators of the post-torture program, and his psychostatements, and what it's called, decidership, is a unilateral presidency. So anyway, we've been having a teach-in, and there, this semester, I mean, Tuesday, 12.30 to 1.30, next semester, I believe it will continue without me, Wednesday, noon to one, at, G-Day present for a bit. The rest of you, I don't expect anyone to show up.

[39:26]

But anyway, I'll just mention it. It's that Bancroft ad near the end of college. And I'm going to be their feature speaker this Tuesday. But also, there's going to be a group of people of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, who are going to come and speak also. So that's this Tuesday. Other announcements? Anybody else have announcements? Liz, don't speak loudly, but maybe somebody could ask for you about this. Are you still doing this in English? Not while I'm recording this. Oh, OK. So never mind. But next year, we'll announce that. OK, so other announcements. This afternoon, usually at the T-Talks, we have a software talk, but I thought we'd have more discussion. So there'll be more time to talk then. But does anybody have any comments or questions or responses or anything to say about any of this?

[40:27]

Gina? One thought I had about the last line, don't separate from the skin back here now, was just there was an instruction really for not even meditation, but just mindfulness. I don't know about other people, but my mind tends to wander a lot and go off to other places and do other things while my body's in one place and my mind's just really far away. So to me, that speaks to that. Yeah. So just to come back to this situation. Yes? I have this painting in my studio, and I often look at it, and I'm often, always confused by the last line. And the two last lines, in that it says, if you want to know the undying person in the hut, don't separate from the skin back here and now.

[41:39]

The undying person. Another way to translate that. But I think it's referring to the person who's beyond. Yeah, it literally is not death person, but it's the person beyond birth and death, beyond all of the struggles. And birth and death also means things coming and going, beyond all of the... The person who is not... What's that? We don't talk about it that way in Buddhism. There's no soul, ultimately. But it's that which is not caught up in loss and gain and all of that. It's that which goes beyond. It doesn't mean that we go beyond, literally, birth and old age and death. But it's the one who is not trapped in that, or confused by that, or upset by that.

[42:42]

So that's all that's... The one who doesn't suffer because of it? Yeah, who's not afflicted by birth and death. So all of that's implied by the undying person. Okay. I'm not sure if that's the point of your question. It is, but often when you would read, don't separate from the skin back here and now, that would mean, the way I was interpreting that, is that that would be death itself, when you separate from your skin back. But that's not what it meant. No. Well, that's interesting. But even when you die, you know, just to be there when you die, is what's recommended in Buddhism. Right. But it also could imply that after you die, you can't, you've lost your opportunity to know the undying person. Well, that's the whole, so rebirth is a whole large, complicated topic. We have some Tibetan practitioners here, we can get into a long discussion. You know, I think it applies there, too, that from the point of view, so it's, of course, in the bardo, we are separated from the skin bag, but the spirit of this is just to be present.

[43:57]

And even in that situation, we don't know what's gonna happen, or, you know, Buddhist ideas is that things continue. Not that Janine continues, but that something about your spiritual energetics is present in the world. So all of those ancestors, whether it's in religious traditions or art or music or activist traditions or whatever, they are still here in us. I mean, there's many ways to see that. But that's not what this is about. This is about just turning away from each other. If you stay present, there's less suffering than if you go off somewhere else and imagine horrible scenarios of what might happen. Sure. You know, while you were talking, I was thinking about the name of our song, Mountain Source. Kind of all of a sudden it hit me that the word source, I always pictured a mountain, and then I realized that it wasn't a mountain, it was a source.

[45:08]

And then we started talking about source, and that really hit me. And I wanted to thank you for being a source, for being an embodied source, for all these years. This is great. Thank you, Gary. Yes, so the name for this sangha comes from my name. It all came together when you said that. came from my teacher, Red Henderson.

[46:12]

Again, she's on the alternate source, smooth mountain or polished mountains. But I thought of when we, this was probably there, probably Patty, when we started thinking about names. And I don't know how, I don't remember what the process was exactly, but mountains also refers to straws and practitioners. So, This will continue being a source of mountains I have. So maybe the name will shift with Luminous L. And I forget Christina and Rick's names. One of Rick's names is something like, darn it, something like Gentle Tiger or something. Anyway, thank you. I've always associated mountain sores with the mountains around there.

[47:18]

People I've never met before. Yesterday I was working in a shop, so I got to meet with strangers, and they were all so inspired by my inspiration. And that's something that sort of helped me with getting older and not being so... I'm here, but I'm not concerned about it. Yeah. Good. That's... Otherwise known as relaxing. This is the heart of our practice in a way, just to see everyone as Buddha. Or, you know, we can also look at people who are doing terrible things, but to see that there's some Buddha there somewhere. Sometimes it's very much covered up, but it helps to see that.

[48:26]

And of course, so I remember when I worked at Tassara Bakery, Marianne Dinklage's store, just everybody that comes in is an opportunity. So when you work behind the counter somewhere, it's like each meeting, there's somebody there who's in some way your teacher. I'm not going to space all of the interview in the store. Who walks in the door very much reflects where I am, or where the other person is in the store. And I think it's glad to have that many practices, you know, that can actually resonate with that. And actually, I'm very proud of the support, and I certainly prefer to be space-able. Yes? Well, one of the basic principles in Buddhism is anattama, non-self.

[49:40]

And Buddha took that as a main principle partly because his Indian or Hindu, it's called now, religious context was very much about Atman or some essential soul that each day and each being has inside. And so there are modern Japanese scholars who say that East Asian Buddhism isn't Buddhist because this idea of Buddha nature sounds like a soul. That's a misunderstanding, in my opinion. This idea of non-self is complicated in Buddhism. It doesn't mean that you don't have a self. It doesn't mean that you get rid of your ego. It means that we don't hold on to it. That what is our self is so interconnected with everything else that there's no fundamental. So you may believe in the Christian idea of a soul, and that's fine. But in Buddhism, the idea is that

[50:43]

what you are fundamentally is so totally interrelated with everything else, everybody else, and all the people who are important in your life, and, you know, all the, all the, everything, in the whole world, so that there's no, so no self is, it's kind of a technical term, it means there's no fundamental, substantial, inherent self. Conventionally, of course, we have a skin bag here, and we need to take care of it and pay attention to it. So that's, I could say more, but do you have a follow-up question? You have a cell phone, so all of us do have particular personal histories. Can everyone here recite your social security number? We don't do it, but, you know.

[51:46]

But all of you, you know, we all have things that we identify as a self, and it's necessary to take care of that. But the point is that, you know, ultimately, they're all just numbers. And ultimately, we are, as I said, interconnected with everything. So that's what this idea of no-self means. That's the sense in which we, in Buddhism, Buddhism says there's no soul, as in some intrinsic, fundamental, eternal, ultimate soul. What was karmic? Karmic? Enjoyable. Karmic? Oh, well, I mean, within that, that's a Japanese thing. I know that's like the jewel.

[52:48]

I'm not sure which word you're referring to. Well, you know, in the sense of like, She's got soul, you know, or Motown or something. Yeah, sure. So I like the word soulful in that, certainly. But the idea of soul as some really eternal fundamental thing, that's not, Buddhism contradicts that. Buddhism, it doesn't teach that. But traditionally, of course, yeah, we all got soul. Yes, sir. Yeah, it sort of brings to mind there was a report on the Chinese Zen master who had just recently been arrested in China. And they quoted him, and I don't know if this is a translation of it, but they said that he said he was taking care of people's souls.

[53:53]

So it jolted me. What was he arrested for? What that means, what that's referring to, that goes back to the idea of rebirth, that there is this sense, so this is not logically completely coherent, and it's not supposed to be. And I don't understand it all. But there is this sense that that which continues. So there are practices of burial and taking care of very extensive rituals about taking care of the spirits of the dead. And for 49 days. So there is this sense of rebirth. And actually, Japanese Buddhism and Tibetan

[54:57]

on this 49-day period. But since we're asking about this, in Japan, part of it is that what happens to someone after they die is where they go is there's a multiplicity. Some part of the person is in the ashes, which may be in the cemetery, and some of them on the household altar. There's a picture of them on the altar, and they're sort of there. And there's a memorial plaque that goes in the, there's a room behind the main altar in most Japanese Buddhist temples where they have plaques of all the, of many different people and temple supporters. And also in, you know, in the cemetery. And also, after 1,400 days or less, it varies, they're reborn as someone else. So all of the above at the same time. And also, they completely are passed away and they become a Buddha.

[56:03]

So all dead people are referred to in Japan as Hottokukei, which means Buddha. So when we die, we automatically become a Buddha. And then the idea of rebirth, again, we might think of it as some soul. In fact, a Tibetan Buddhist asked me once, Buddha's not asking, well, how come we didn't appoint at Zen Center the reincarnated body, the reincarnated person, Suzuki Roshi? So the Japanese understanding is not that literal. So all of that happens. So I don't understand. That way of talking about it, though, gets us unstuck from some particular linear limited idea. The teaching, this isn't from a Buddhist teacher, but my favorite teaching about rebirth is that your past lives in your next life may be different from your past lives in this life.

[57:10]

So I find that very helpful. There were a few hands. Um, I think it's not so different from the Japanese. Well, you know, even in Tibetan Buddhism, like the Kinshi Rinpoche said, you know, there is the 13th Dalai Lama, the 14th Dalai Lama, and so forth. The present Dalai Lama said he doesn't remember, you know, anything from, you know, when he was the previous Dalai Lama. But there have been cases where a great Tibetan Lama is reincarnated as five different people. Kintsu Rinpoche. Zenbo Kintsu Rinpoche was one of the great Buddhas of the last century. He was one of five reincarnations from one person. So, you know, our ideas about it are not what it's about. It's inconceivable. Yes? Do you think it was also Buddha's reaction to the Hindus at the time who were doing, like, sacrifices?

[58:18]

It's kind of like what they did in the Middle Ages in the Christian church, where they they were trying to buy their way into heaven. And the Hindus were having all these sacrifices and killings. And in order to kind of think that they were going to go to heaven, they didn't know that they were going to clear their karma. Yeah, very much so. I think that a lot of the early Buddhist teaching was in reaction to Parts of the Indian worldview that Buddha disagreed with, like the caste system, he included everyone. Everyone could come into his order. So yeah, very much it was affected by that. But you mentioned about sacrifices. One of the things that Juto, who wrote the Song of the Blessed Son, is famous for is that as a young boy, and he was only eight or nine, where he lived, there were these animal sacrifices that were part of the native Chinese religion in that area.

[59:20]

And he would go and disrupt them and save and free the animals. So this is something that he's known for. So we'll have more time for discussion later this afternoon over tea. So thank you all. 3.15. So I've really enjoyed the past 13 years of coming here, and it's good to stay put here. Tammy, you have something? Excuse me. I don't want you to go without saying a couple of things. I have to say two things. I've known you for a long time, and I greatly, greatly appreciate you. In this reading, part of the teaching was to continue. But as much as you know, as much as you see, to continue. And continue to do the practice of mindfulness.

[60:26]

And I would say that for a very long time, people were very difficult to understand. Thank you.

[60:43]

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