the practice period and what we feel that we're doing. We haven't had a practice period in Berkeley Zendo for a number of years. I think the last time we had a practice period there were no priests except myself. And so this practice period We have a head priest, what we call shuso, which is a kind of training position for a priest. And shuso means something like head monk, but actually The priests are not really monks. And it's hard to know what exactly to call us.

[01:07]

But I think we just stick with shuso. And then we don't have to worry about definitions. And the shuso is the abbot's shares the seat with the abbot for the practice period and mostly sets an example and a tone and really helps people to practice. It's not so much an authoritative position It's more, the shuso expresses the heart of practice, and that's the kind of leadership that the shuso presents to us.

[02:24]

As well as having a shuso, we will have a class, four classes, and the classes will be on the oxherding pictures. Most of you are familiar with the oxherding pictures, I think. The oxherding pictures were very popular in China and Japan as especially among laypeople, as a kind of way of talking about practice, a way of looking at and focusing on stages of practice, even though we don't think of our practice as step ladder practice or stage practice. Nevertheless, there are stages, but they're not stages like first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and graduation.

[03:41]

They're just natural stages that occur, and they don't necessarily occur in order. And sometimes we can find ourself in one stage, sometimes we can find ourself in stage six, and then the next day we may find ourself in stage two. So we don't look at them as a step-by-step process, although there is that element. So we will be studying that, and I'll talk about that in a few minutes. So the practice period, is a way of gathering us together and refreshing and renewing our practice, revitalizing our practice.

[04:45]

And given the kinds of lives we each lead, which all of us are a little different, we participate in a way that is possible for each one of us. There are certain things that we should, if you are in the practice period, you should go to the class and come to Saturday morning and decide how much zazen you can do during the week, either at the zendo or at home. And whatever it is you decide, that's what you should try and maintain. So one of the most important factors of practice period in our practice is that the way we practice is based on our decision rather than our feeling or whim.

[05:51]

So we say, I decide to practice, I decide to sit in zazen every Monday morning. And every Monday morning, you sit zazen. It doesn't matter whether you feel good or feel bad or like it or don't like it, but it's based on your decision, not on your feelings. And in order to have any kind of solid, real practice, our practice must be based on our decision, not our feelings. Our feelings are included in practice, But our practice is not based on our feelings. Otherwise, we can never penetrate to our real nature. So that's why it's very important to make a decision.

[07:01]

If you leave your practice open-ended, if you decide something about how to practice and you just leave that open-ended, at some point you will become discouraged because you'll find that your life changes. And as your life changes, the way you practice changes. And if you don't take that into account, then you become very discouraged because you can't keep up with what you wanted to do. You can't continue, so it's confusing. So really, one of the best ways to practice, to find out how to practice, is to decide how you're going to practice within increments of time. You can say, because my life is going this way, I can sit zazen three times a week.

[08:09]

And I'll do that for a month. And at the end of the month, you look at that and say, can I still do that? Yes, I'll continue another month, or three months, or whatever it is. But when you look at it, you may say, no, that's not right. I have to change it. Maybe I can only sit twice a month, or a week. Or maybe I can sit every day. but you have to keep reviewing that way you always know what you can do and you don't do more than you can do and your practice is consciously based on your decision and you're always working your sitting practice together with your daily life practice. So practice period is a way of really focusing in on that.

[09:15]

So when we do a practice period, we make a conscious decision for six weeks. We decide just how often we can sit Zazen and just what our degree of participation is, and we make a commitment to that. And then we keep our commitment. We make a big effort to keep that commitment, whatever it is. And that is the basis of our practice, the basis of a real practice. As you know, our lives are very busy. And we have to give priority to the things that we do. And even though we want to do a lot of things, we can't do them because there's only so much time. And so we really have to give priority to the things of our life.

[10:19]

And if we're going to practice, then practice has to have priority in our life. And we have to give it its place. So we have to be very careful. So anyway, if you haven't signed up for the practice period and want to do that, you can still do it. Somewhere in this place we have sheets of paper that have our schedule and then we write our name and it's a little complicated to figure out what our commitment is and then turn that in. So if you haven't done that, I encourage you to do it. And the reason, you know, there are two kinds of practice periods. One kind is where you have a small group of people who can do everything. And the other kind of practice period is where you open it up so that everybody can participate.

[11:24]

And here in Berkeley, Zendo, I like to open it up so everyone can participate and to make it possible for everyone to participate. rather than just having a small group of people do something together. So I encourage everyone to do that if you can. And if you can't, it's okay. But anyway, we're trying to make it as available as possible so we feel that the Sangha is having a practice period and not just a group of people who have time and availability. And then during the practice period, each one of us can pick some small thing to work on. Like, you know, when we get angry, we can work on anger, we can work on

[12:36]

various things that come up for us that we know is a problem for us. And we pick the one thing to work on. And you can discuss that in dokasan. But it's your personal practice subject. And it can be some kind of limitation. You can say, well, I won't go to movies for six weeks, or something like that. It could also be something like that. Or I won't indulge myself in something for the practice period. That's also quite good. It doesn't have to be something difficult. Actually, it should be something manageable.

[13:39]

When we sometimes, you know, when we make a resolution, we always think of something, or we often think of something quite big and unmanageable. The time we think about it, it looks like we can do it, but when you start to do it, it becomes a mountain. So it's good to think of something really small and manageable so that you really can succeed, have some success. That's important. Because sometimes something small is really something big. Like not taking that last helping of, you know, you really love it. That could be my problem. Seems small, but it's rather big. Also, we thought of having some formal tea, but I'm not sure where we're going to stick that in exactly.

[14:56]

You can only do so much, and people only have time to do so much, but we will do that. And we also have a shosan ceremony, which is a formal question and answer with me. And at the very end of the practice period, we have a shuso ceremony in which all the members question the shuso's understanding in a formal ceremony. That's the final testing of the shuso. The ox herding pictures have 10 stages. I'm not sure if I want to get into that, but the first stage is looking for the ox.

[16:00]

The ox, of course, stands for our true nature, Buddha nature. And the second And of course these pictures, usually the picture is a young boy, a youth, who is doing the search. And there's the boy and the ox. And the pictures are surrounded by a circle. The circle is the border. Sometimes a square, sometimes a square and a circle, The circle is important. And there are many different versions of the Oxfording Pictures and different commentaries. I think that we should do our own commentary, which concerns our own practice.

[17:02]

So when we study the Oxfording Pictures, we should study them from the point of view of our own practice, so that it becomes vital to us. as a way of looking at ourselves, kind of mirror of our practice. So the first stage is the boy is looking for the ox. The ox is also, you can say, water buffalo. Ox has a kind of sex distinction, but water buffalo is more inclusive. You can just say buffalo. And the second picture is seeing the traces or the footsteps, footprints of the ox. The boy sees the footprints and he starts looking. He's getting interested, excited. And then he sees the traces of the ox. Usually in the picture you see the ox's behind and the tail, but you don't see the rest of the body.

[18:09]

And the boy has a rope to tie the ox with and he has a stick. to keep the ox in line. And in the fourth picture, he's got the ox with the rope, and he's caught the ox. And then in the fifth picture, he's taming the ox or training the ox. And in the sixth picture, He's tamed the ox and he's riding home on the ox, playing his flute. It's like an accomplishment. And then the seventh picture, there's no ox.

[19:11]

There's just the boy, very serene and contented. And the eighth picture, there's no boy and no ox, just a circle. And then in the ninth picture, there's landscape and no boy and no ox. And the landscape is called returning to the source. Dogen didn't like this picture very much, but I'll talk about that later. And in the 10th picture, is usually depicts a kind of roly poly stout gentleman with a bag on his back returning to the world with gifts for the world.

[20:12]

And he mixes with everyone. He drinks with people. There's no trace of anything about him, no trace of realization about him, but he's always benefiting everyone. So this is the picture of the final accomplishment. The first six pictures, where it's the boy and the ox, is the seeking and finding and training and realization. And then the second four pictures are more like after realization, stages after realization. So each one of these pictures has a circle.

[21:35]

The circle is important because, especially from our point of view, in which we don't practice step-by-step in stages, as I said, in order to start from delusion and get to enlightenment. But each stage is enclosed by the circle, and the circle is realization, or it's, we can say the circle is realization, and each activity within that circle is practice. So even the first circle, which is the activity of searching for the ox, is itself within the circle of realization. So, you know, as Dogen says, practice is realization and realization is practice.

[22:39]

So the first stage of our practice is also within realization. And each stage of practice is within realization. So the way is also the goal. When we first sit zazen, even though we don't know anything, that our sitting or our very, very first beginning is within realization. It's practice realization. That's why it's always so important to retain beginner's mind, to always renew beginner's mind, because the last stage is the same as the first stage, but on a different level. And the ox, of course,

[23:52]

stands for our buddha nature and the rope is the means by which we, I don't want to say attached, but connect, right? The rope is the means by which we connect with the nature and so the rope symbolizes faith faith in Buddha nature, faith in our way. So in the fourth picture, where the boy has the ox by the rope, means that faith is really strong. And so it means that there's really a way to practice because of that. The boy has the ox by the rope, but the ox has the boy by the rope as well.

[25:01]

So it's a real connection. And then the stick is to keep the ox in line. When the ox strays, the boy whacks him a little bit with the stick, you know, keeps him in line. That's the stage of training. stage of training is to always keep going and keep the ox in line. But the ox is ourself. There's really no difference between the ox and the boy, but the ox and the boy come together more and more until there's no ox, no boy. This afternoon, the sasheen, today's sitting, will end at 5.30.

[26:11]

And then we'll have, at the end, at 5.30, if you're not in the practice period, you can leave. And the people that are in the practice period will have a opening ceremony for the practice period. You can stay if you want, even if you're not in it, but you're free to go. We'll have a combination opening ceremony and entering ceremony for the shuso. And in the opening ceremony, we'll go to all the altars, the public altars, and offer incense. And then we'll come back in the zendo and have the entering ceremony for the shuso. And I don't want to explain the ceremony now, but I'll explain it a little later, how we do it.

[27:18]

It's not complicated, except for the people that are in it. A little complicated for the people that are in it. The rest, for everyone else, it's very, no problem. Do you have any questions? Yes? I was too confused when I saw the sheet about the post-date because I didn't have the dates. Oh, you didn't have the dates? I see. Well, the dates are from the 5th today till this... Oh, I see. Yeah, because we had a calendar, and the calendar had all the dates. Okay, well, we should post a calendar.

[28:21]

We'll do that. Do you have any other questions? Yes. No, it doesn't. The square is just that the person who drew the pictures didn't put them in a circle. Yes.

[29:28]

We do, yes. Well, I have a bibliography, and I'll give you a copy. So. Yes. Yeah, we always do. Fourth of the month. Fourth of December. I can't hear you because of the airplane. Why the ox? Yeah, well, there are various symbols, but the ox is very popular symbol for Buddha nature in the East. Sorry. Okay.

[30:55]

Bees are nobulous.

[31:04]

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