I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Morning. You know, oftentimes, when the servers bring the food, and they put down the pot, and then they, we, start serving the food off of the top.

[01:03]

And then I'm moved to say, please go down to the bottom, or please stir it up. And this is a kind of practical consideration. It doesn't take long for the heavy particles to go to the bottom, and then the lighter stuff is on top. So if we serve from the top, then half the people get the water and the other half get the substance. And then in the end, most of the wonderful ingredients are never even served. That's a practical consideration, but it has a deeper meaning.

[02:10]

Deeper meaning is whatever we do, we should go to the bottom. Whatever our activity is should come from the bottom, come from the basis. That's exactly what tsazen is about. that we can practice as in for 20 years and still take the scoop off the top. If we learn nothing else, we should learn this. This is really that the whole essence of practice is right there. Whatever you do, your activity should come from the bottom of your being. We say in the Sandokai, trunk in essence, not return, sometimes return to,

[03:31]

Trunk and essence. Branches, well, yeah. Trunk, but different ways to say it. Trunk and branches. Share the essence. That's the newest translation. Share the essence. Return to the essence or You know, whatever we, in Dharma, in Zen practice, it's traditional that people are seeking enlightenment. And so, people look for enlightenment

[04:38]

in various ways. And we say, if you seek it, you stumble past it. And if you don't seek it, nothing comes of it. to let go and just be with, totally, with what is happening is enlightened practice. You can find enlightenment at the bottom of the soup pot That's where it is.

[05:45]

It's at the bottom of the salad bowl. It's right in front of us all the time. But we're looking for something called enlightenment. Do you remember this little card? It's a nice little Christmas, New Year's card. This is Rebecca's Jizo out in the back. Very nice. And then the poem, this wonderful poem by Master Zui Du says, one, seven, three, five. The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean.

[06:50]

The dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next. 1735, it's like. Things are not exactly the way you think they are, in the order you think they are. There are various interpretations as to what that means. The truth you search for cannot be grasped. You can't look for truth and find something called a truth. If you seek something called a truth, just like if you seek happiness, you won't find happiness. Happiness is the result of something. When things go a certain way, happiness appears, but happiness is just your own feeling.

[08:05]

There's no such thing as a happiness. Truth is reality, but we don't always want to look at reality, so it's hard to experience truth until the moment of. Oh, that's it. Nope. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. Night is, It's a beautiful image. Now this poem is not literally translated. The literal translation is not nearly as good. The original poem is not nearly as good as this free translation. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. Night advancing is like in the dark all things are one.

[09:13]

This is like the signless. The three doors of liberation are emptiness, the signless, and the wishless or the aimlessness, right? Signless is like, Everything has a characteristic or a sign and a name assigned to it. So we create an image in our mind of a glass of water. This is a glass of water. But actually, in reality, it's just water. In reality, it is Buddha nature.

[10:18]

So we discriminate things and then believe in them. It's okay to discriminate between things, but we have to be careful how we believe in them. Fundamentally, everything is Buddha nature. And when we treat everything as Buddha nature, we enter the Dharma door of signlessness, non-discrimination. At the same time, we discriminate between things. That's also true. But if we only discriminate between things, then we never enter the darkness where all things are one. Where everything is fundamentally Buddha nature.

[11:28]

There's only one thing. And it's at the bottom of the pot. we talk about in Zen, the black lacquer bucket. The black lacquer bucket is this, you know, essence of different kind of darkness. This is the darkness of not being able to see anything clearly. And then when enlightenment appears, the bottom of the bucket drops out, and then everything is very clear. So there's the phrase, the bottom of the black lacquer bucket has fallen off, and everything's very clear. So the black lacquer bucket is our ignorance.

[12:37]

But darkness is where all things are one. Everything is simply Buddha nature. So as night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. Bright moon is enlightenment. When we have this realization of enlightenment, Within the darkness, the whole ocean is illuminated. And then the dragon's jewels are found in every wave. The dragon's jewels are that most precious thing, which is understanding, realization, in every wave.

[13:45]

But every wave means every moment's act, activity. Means in everything you do, the dragon's jewels are revealed. We can't ignore anything. I remember when in my, when LSD and peyote and those things were first coming out and I remember eating peyote and I remember eating morning glory seeds. I ate this spoonful of morning glory seed and it was pretty unbelievable. I'm not advocating that you should do this You've probably already done it, but I was sitting in this room and going from one end of the room to the other was like going from one end of the world to the other.

[14:59]

The experience was of simply breathing, walking, seeing, taking a step was just like a totally inclusive act If you take these psychedelics, they call them, sometime, they can reveal to you something, but you can't sustain a practice on this kind of inducement, it doesn't work. But it can open your eyes to bring your attention to reality.

[15:59]

I remember walking across the room was a whole adventure that took endless time. I remember writing something down about that. The glory of the morning is in the morning glory. But what that brought to mind was like every act, every movement, you know, is where reality is where the fundamental thing is. You don't have to look for it anyplace else. People look for truth and reality and so forth, but it's right there under our nose.

[17:11]

While we're moving around scratching our head, scratching our head is it. While we're walking around in confusion, confusion is it. And the walking is it. Looking for the moon, It is right here in every way, but we have to go to the bottom to realize it. It can't stay in the branches. The branches and leaves are integral with the whole tree. The roots, the trunk, the branches and the leaves are all parts of the hierarchy of the tree.

[18:20]

And no one is any more important than the other. But, if you are simply playing in the branches and ignoring the roots, you get lost. And if you're only concerned about the roots, you get lost. So the roots is like zazen. Our legs are like the roots of a tree. And our body is like the trunk. And our limbs are limbs. and they're the leaves, just like a tree. And a tree is rooted, when we sit zazen, the tree is rooted in the ground.

[19:28]

And the tree has a form, but the tree doesn't walk around. This thing about trees, you know, they just stay where they are and take it whenever it comes. They can't just, they just, Don't try to escape. But they sway in the breeze. They're flexible. The flexible trees stay up longer. The rigid trees fall over when the big wind comes. And the rooted trees stay up longer. So zazen is to stay with the roots. to go deeply, to dig deep and plumb the essence.

[20:31]

And the whole, the trunk and the branches are sustained and nourished by that. But in turn, the leaves nourish the tree, the trunk and the roots. So the whole thing is, the whole process works together. So our zazen and our activity are one thing. They're not two things. When you go out of the zendo, You don't take something special with you. What's with you is always with you, whether you're in the zendo or not in the zendo. It doesn't matter. It's not like you do something special. But no matter what our activity is, we're always embracing the fundamental.

[21:50]

We never leave the fundamental, always acting from the bottom of the pot. And when we move, you know, this is the center of the tree, of our tree. It's called the crown in a tree. It's where the roots and the ground meet, it's called the crown, and here it's called the hara, and a little bit up here is the solar plexus. Solar plexus means the sunspot. And the sun is the center of the universe, our universe, our little universe, and all of the planets are revolving around it. And we are a, microcosm of the universe.

[22:54]

Our body and mind is a microcosm of the universe. And we have a center, a sunspot, and all of the parts of our body are rotating around that. So when we move, we move from that center. Everything is extended. All of our parts are extended from that center. and should be relating to the center. When we relate to other centers, this is a kind of controversial thing, you know, in Hinduism and other forms of practice, people talk about different centers, the hearts, the chakras, right? This chakra and that chakra. To me, those are sub-centers. In our practice, we don't, you know, pay much attention to those. I don't say that that's not good, or good, or that other centers are not thinking in that way.

[23:58]

It's a different way of thinking, but it's just something that hasn't developed in our practice. But I don't say that that's wrong, to think that way. It's just not part of my own thinking. we pay attention to the one center and all of our activity rotates around that. We say, well, where does love come from? We have the head and the heart and the hara or somewhere between the solar plexus and the hara and other centers as well. And this is the vital center. The head, or the intellect, takes its, should harmonize with the vital center.

[25:04]

Because the vital center is the most important. It's the principle. And the intellectual center is secondary, actually, to the vital center. So when the intellect center supersedes or ignores the vital center, then we get out of balance. And as you can see, the world is out of balance, the human world is out of balance because of the overdevelopment of the intellect and the underdevelopment of the intuitive faculty or the vital center, which is the Hara. So we say, when we move, when we, through all of our activity, we should be seated here. Seated here. So that all of our activity comes from this place.

[26:11]

It's rooted in this place. That's us in. And when we do that, we don't get off in a superficial place. We're always rooted in our vital center. And then when we relate, when we move, when we do something, that vital center is, and our activity merge. And then our movement and the way we relate to things becomes very deep and not just superficial.

[27:19]

So in every day, that makes all of our activity sacred activity. There's no special place. We don't have to go to church to have our spiritual practice. This formal practice is very helpful because it really focuses us on what practice is. But our real practice, not real practice, but our, the other side of the practice is the informality, the informal practice that takes up most of your time. So it's not like we bring something special out from the zendo to the world, so to speak.

[28:54]

We extend the zendo to wherever we are. That's why we don't bow when we leave the zendo, because we're not leaving the zendo. is extended to wherever you are. And then you find all those activities that you enter into as forms of practice. Everything you do is a form of practice. And you have to be able to turn or recognize what you're doing as an extension of the zendo, of the practice in the zendo. But the forms are all different.

[29:59]

The forms are all different. If you only think that this form is the only form, then you get stuck in formality. So formality only works if you know how to act informally or practice informally. Because practicing informally is what we're doing most of the time. And when you practice formal practice in the Zen Do, and it becomes second nature to you, then it's just informal practice. To me, this is just informal practice, this is not formal practice to me. It's just a kind of wonderful way of doing things. But when I meet the forms, the various forms in other circumstances, those become the form of practice.

[31:14]

is a form of practice, mindfully driving. Most people are driving in a fog. I don't want to talk about driving because people will criticize my driving habits, but I never have an accident. What? Only in 50 years. I don't say that, I'll never have one. But people tend to form packs and then safety, like schools of fish. But safe driving is driving with awareness. Safe driving is driving with awareness, not with building up big

[32:17]

forms around yourself to protect yourself. It's engaging, actually, and driving with alertness and awareness. If you form a big pack, you don't have to be so alert or so aware. You just, you know, and you become accident-prone. So how we engage with people, how we engage with our work, how we engage with sweeping. Sweeping is one of the fundamental practices. I remember when Suzuki Roshi was sick, he was up in his room at Page Street, which faces the street, and he said, I just really love to hear the sound of the brooms.

[33:27]

You know, people outside sweeping their mind. Sweeping the ground is like sweeping your mind. Cleaning my mind. Cleaning out the dust from my mind. That kind of simple activity. So that's why Zen practice is a kind of simple activity. It allows you to really Do something as something. You know, aimlessness, I realized, the Dharma door of aimlessness is shikantaza. Same thing as shikantaza. It means just doing. That's what aimlessness means. It's without having a gaining idea. without trying to get rid of something or gain something, but simply being with what's there totally and in all of its completeness.

[34:42]

So to do each thing completely with attention Every act is a separate act. This spoonful is that spoonful. That's one total act. It's not like there was one before and there's one coming. This is the whole of life right here. This is complete. Your life is totally complete in this act. and one holds out the bowl, and my life is totally complete in that act. There's nothing else has to happen. But something does. So then that's complete. This just as it is. Just this. Nothing else to worry about.

[35:47]

When a problem comes up, then worry about it. And again, saying, don't worry about where the next meal's coming from. Just do your practice. And if you do your practice totally and completely, the next meal will come. Everything is provided. This is kind of, sounds like fatalism. There's so many meals that are apportioned to you in your life. And every one of them will come. Don't worry. But only if your practice and virtue deserve it. That's what it says in the meal chant. We hope that our practice, virtue and practice deserve this meal. That's where that comes from. It's a monastic understanding.

[36:54]

It really applies to monks, but it also applies to us. We do have to be concerned, you know, but the reason why we have to be concerned so much is because we have so much. Most of our concerns come because we have so much, or we think we need so much. When you don't have a job, of course, you feel anxiety. But even then, you're still eating. But our standard of living becomes so overextended, so bloated, that we really think that we need all the things that we think we need.

[37:56]

We think the necessities of life, the necessities of life become more and more, you know, exaggerated. Can you imagine a monk living with nothing? And every day you go out and your whole morning is devoted to getting some, asking people for something to eat. And that's your food for the day, one meal. And you have no money, you have three robes and a bowl and a sewing kit or something like that, water jar. And you live in a warm country. And that's the way Big Muck is called. Daibu Bigmug lives. So that's an example that it's possible.

[39:03]

And everything else is extra. And I have all kinds of extra things. I'm not saying I'm like that. But when I go to the monastery, when I go to Tassajara, I never think about all the things I have. I don't even think about Berkeley, to tell you the truth. Just totally out of my mind. I don't think about Berkeley, I don't think about my family, sorry. I don't want to say that. But I just don't, I'm there. And that's my life. I eat three meals a day, some snacks, you know. But it's just practice. and not a lot of things to worry about. So there's that practice, and there's this practice, and there's no practice.

[40:08]

And to find the spirit of practice is the main thing, not whether you're a monk with no positions or a lay person with lots of wealth or whatever. That's not the point. The point is, what's the spirit of practice? How do you really find the fundamental and stay with it and relate to everything as Buddha nature? How do we treat each other as Buddha nature? How do we see the Buddha nature in each thing and in each one of us? relate to you, you know, I have to relate to you. I may see you as Jack or Joan, but I have to see you as Buddha, relate to you as Buddha nature.

[41:12]

And the only way I can do that is to find my own Buddha nature. We relate to people as who we are, you know, that's all we can do. We can't do it through an idea, we just have to relate to, each other as who we are, and we do, but when we discover our own Buddha nature then that's how we relate to people and to our surroundings and things around and our possessions, so to speak, even though we don't own anything. You know, the dragon's jewels are found in every wave. We can practice as if we understand that we have Mother Nature. People say, well, when will I ever get enlightened?

[42:13]

You can practice as if you're enlightened. That's the thing about the formal practice. The formal practice is, enlightened practice. When you step into Zen Do, you go through all the, you follow the enlightened practice, and you enter into the forms which allow you to experience enlightened practice. The forms themselves aren't enlightenment, but it's like following Buddha's footsteps. If you're an apprentice, you follow your master and learn the trade by doing all the stuff.

[43:18]

And the forms of practice, you know, the teacher doesn't have to be at you all the time. You just do the forms, just because the forms contain the teaching. Bowing to your cushion and bowing away is all you need to know. If you really knew that, it'd be enough. If you really understood what a bow is, that's all you need to know. Did you have a question, Dee? Three. Oh. Now, I notice that most of us, when we go out this door, we do a little bow. Yeah, that's okay. Okay, but that's different than bow? Well, it doesn't matter whether you bow or not. Okay, just checking. I wanted to check out the form. You know, it doesn't matter whether you bow or not.

[44:23]

It's just that We don't make a big issue of going out as separating from. What's the second question? Well, thinking itself becomes a problem. That's the desire mind, that's what we mean by desire. When we say desires are inexhaustible or desires are, what do we say? Delusion, but it really refers to desires. It means desire which is like that, the desire mind. I need to eat or, you know, there are ordinate desires which we all have and we need, and then there are inordinate desires which we don't need, but which tie us up, captivate us.

[45:49]

We become captivated by, not by the objects around us, but by our own mind. And what was the third one? The line right before, when night approaches, the moon illuminates. So what is night approaching? That isn't the lacquer bucket thing. No, that's different. What night approaches is like, it's a kind of dramatic picture. You know, when night approaches, you see the moon, right? So you could say that night approaching is like, you don't see any boundaries and everything becomes one.

[46:53]

That's like the dharmakaya, everything is one. And then the moon coming out is enlightenment. And it shines on the waves. And shining on the waves is like, you know, the ocean is very calm, but when it has waves, see, we tend to think of enlightenment as the calm ocean. That's half the truth. The other half is that the ocean is very choppy and full of waves. But when the moon shines on the ocean, you see it in every wave. You see it in every sparkle. So in other words, the enlightened mind can respond and see reality in every single sparkle. That's called, in Irish, glee.

[48:02]

The sparkle of the dancing sparkles on the waves or something like that. It's called glee. And then when you sing, it's called the glee club. It's true. I always wonder, what's the glee club? But then I found that out. Glee, that's what glee means, the sparkle of the, as the moon or the sun hits the waves, the sparkling dance. You know, a couple of weeks ago or something, you said in a lecture something like, enlightenment is being grateful for everything you meet.

[49:06]

And also, this is a difficult question, but there's a saying, you know, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, emptiness is emptiness. Form is form. Yeah, form is form. Well, it seems to me that, I don't want to say I, but there was this experience where I just experienced emptiness. For me, it was kind of scary, because something was missing. But then afterwards, I was really thankful for form just being form. Because without form, there's really nothing to relate to. That's right. So in order to see emptiness with your bare eyes, you have to see it as form. That's right. So if you want to see emptiness, there's a piece of emptiness right here. So if you want to see its nature, the true nature of this, it's emptiness. Why? Because everything that's not this is made this.

[50:11]

It's empty, it doesn't have, just call it a stick, you know, just a name. We're very grateful for form and we're very grateful for emptiness. And they're both ... form is emptiness and emptiness is form. But form is form and emptiness is emptiness. It's all very mysterious. importance of the right attitude in moment-to-moment activity. And you said you could practice Zazen for 20 years and never really reach the bottom. I think most of us here try to have an attitude when we practice of mindfulness and giving our attention to what we're doing, which I think is correct.

[51:25]

But I was wondering, what is the danger? What is it we could be doing that would wasting our time for 20 years. What should we be careful of? Well, you know, that was just a kind of not being thorough. You know, none of us is perfect. And None of us does practice completely and perfectly. But it's possible to practice a long time and miss something important. But we all have a long time, and little by little, we will get it.

[52:30]

But everyone has their pace. Everyone is timed and clocked differently. And we each have our own pace. Some people are slow, some people are fast. This reminds me of the four horses. The fast horse charges off when he sees the shadow of the whip. The next horse charges off when he feels the whip on his skin. The third horse charges off when the skin, when the whip really penetrates through his flesh. And the fourth horse just takes all kinds of beating before he can really, you know. And we're all fourth horses, you know. I'm the fourth horse. I don't know about you. We have to have compassion for each other as the fourth horse or whatever we are.

[53:39]

Please have compassion for me. So we can practice for a long time and be the fourth horse. But that's not bad. But it's possible. Suzuki Roshi said, well, you can see how Buddha must have great compassion for the fourth horse. And actually, when the fourth horse gets it, the fourth horse goes up to the top. Those people have the hardest time, but persevere usually. have a very high understanding.

[54:47]

So, having a difficult time but really continuing the effort is best way to practice actually. Someone who's very talented and doesn't have such a hard time doesn't necessarily get to the bottom. It's really good to really get to the bottom and then you find the essence. And you have to find your way out, you have to find you have to really struggle. And that takes you deeper and deeper. And the deeper you go, the more powerful your experience.

[55:58]

So we don't criticize people who have a hard time. We actually value that. Sometimes people say, you know, when I come to the Zen Center, I see all these people that they don't look enlightened to me. I hear that a lot, you know. This one is like this and that one's like that. But that's really good. They don't understand what's going on. It's not just a bunch of enlightened people floating in the clouds. We have lots of big problems down here on the earth.

[56:48]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ