Bringing up again the metaphor, the headline metaphor, flowers blooming in a withered tree. So I was interpreting withered tree as the withering of attachment to discriminations. Thank you. The flower blooms, or the flower is blooming, and it blooms in this withered tree. And the flower is practice, realization. or a practice which is realization, and it's also realization practice, realization in practice.

[01:09]

That's the flower, and it's blooming in the midst of all things, where the attachment to discrimination among all things has Dropped away. It drops away, the attachment drops away in the middle of fierce flames, which is in the middle of all living beings, in the middle of all suffering, and in the middle of wholehearted practice. The attachment to discrimination melts, if you use the expression, in the furnace of wholehearted practice.

[02:14]

And I think I brought up here last time, following a talk which also talked about the ten vows of Samantabhadra, ten vows to engage in ten practices. But Eno asked me for a title of that talk, and I said, how about Ten Vows, Ten Practices, and Ten Kicks. I told a story about one of the Zen ancestors who came from a family of cake makers. And he delivered pancakes to the Zen teacher over and over. Yes? Many, many years ago, I bought a little calligraphy of this withering tree. and a flower blooms.

[03:23]

And at the time, I was going through a great deal of suffering in my life, and I felt like a withered tree. And then when I saw this, a flower bloomed from this withered tree, I felt that there is hope. that there is a possibility that this withered tree and the bloom might come out of it, and then more branches and leaves would grow from it. Flowers can lead to more trees. So I guess that's how you look at it. Is the calligraphy mounted? Yeah, it's like a little cluster. It's not very big? No. I got it at the city center store. Oh, she got it at the city center store. Many, many years ago.

[04:28]

There's another expression which is the dragon howls in a withered tree. Kind of the same thing. The dragon howl is another expression for the flowering of practice realization. So again, I brought up these ten vows, and I've been contemplating them. for a while now. And so, for example, this morning, I went to the Zendo. Well, actually, before I went to the Zendo, I went to the Founders Hall over in Cloud Hall. There's a little Founders Hall inside of it.

[05:33]

And I went up there with and he gave me some incense and I put the incense in front of the picture of the founder and then I paid homage to the founder. I paid my respects to the founder by offering incense and bowing. Then I went and Valerian came with me and gave me incense and I offered it outside in front of the bath and I paid homage to the Bodhisattva and his friends who protect the bath. I paid homage to the bath protector who's protecting the practitioners when they take a bath. Then I went to the kitchen and I paid homage to

[06:35]

Dogen Zenji, because the kitchen has a picture of Dogen in the office there. You can see Dogen as a protector, Dharma protector of the kitchen practice, because he taught us how important kitchen practice was. But he also, that was transmitted to him. When he went to China, he... He thought kitchen practice was for somebody else, not him. He thought it was for I don't know who. But anyway, he didn't think kitchen practice was for venerable monks. And he met some venerable monks who were kitchen workers. And it was a great awakening for him that you can practice Buddhism in the kitchen. And then I went to the zendo, and I offered incense to the bodhisattvas, and again I did prostration.

[07:44]

So I formally paid homage at several places, if you excuse me for saying so, on your behalf. I did that. So while you were sitting in the zendo, I was paying my respects to various bodhisattvas, for you. And again, while I was paying some respect, my respects, while I was paying homage, I could have been aware that I was paying homage. I could have been conscious, oh, I'm paying homage. Or I might not have been conscious of paying homage, even though I was paying homage. Either way, I could do both. And actually I did do both. I was conscious of the possibility of paying homage, I was paying homage, and I was conscious that I was paying homage. And then I went and sat down on the tongue with you, and as I was sitting I continued to pay homage.

[08:58]

in the sitting posture. I wasn't bowing down to the ground anymore. I was sitting up. And I was paying homage, sitting up. The sitting was the form of my paying homage, was the physical posture of my paying homage. And I don't know why I come to be so fortunate to let my sitting be sitting, but also let my sitting be paying homage to all Buddhas. But that's what happened this morning. Now, again, as I said, I don't know how that happened, but one of the associated conditions around it was that I thought about Samantabhadra.

[10:03]

And Samantabhadra, according to the story of the great Avatamsaka Sutra, in the sutra, it says that he said, or she said, I vow to pay homage to all Buddhas. Buddha is without end. And also, I vow to do it without end, and I vow to do it every moment, without ceasing. So then again, taking this literally, for starters, I don't imagine Samantabhadra's, just his one body, if he has one body, I don't imagine his one body is just bowing non-stop. What I imagine is that no matter what his body's doing, no matter where his body is, he vows that his body and his mind and his speech will be paying homage to all Buddhas.

[11:13]

Now, he also could say, and he does talk like this, I will have innumerable bodies. So I could have one body that's bowing, one body that's sitting, one body that's walking. Anyway, no matter what, this paying homage will be nonstop. That's the vow. We do not know if he succeeded in that vow. I don't know if he was able to actually attain that amazing practice. But I imagine, and I've heard stories, and again stories are things I've just heard in my imagined mind, I've heard stories that if we do pay homage non-stop, that practice has the the power to melt away attachment to our discriminations.

[12:20]

And also, as I've mentioned, there's a bowing verse which says, the bowing, or the paying homage and the one bowed to or the one receiving the homage, their nature is empty and peaceful. The same nature. And the one bowing and the one bowed to, the one paying homage and the one receiving the homage, their bodies are not two. They are one and the same body. You can't have... There's not really two bodies when you have penance. The discrimination, again, melts as the practice becomes more wholehearted. So, without any special analytic intellectual training, over and above being able to

[13:43]

hear the intention and commit to paying homage all the time. But the discrimination between practice and realization, not that just discriminations are no longer held to. So again, the practice of paying homage, it's a practice, right? Can you imagine that it's a practice? That practice is realization. Buddha's realization is paying homage. But again, when I first start practicing homage, I might think, well, I'm practicing homage to Buddha, and Buddha's different from my homage. But By this practice it's possible that that sense of separation will not be adhered to.

[14:51]

And the teaching is that the practice of paying homage is realization. Now another thing that happens when you wholeheartedly do, for example, paying homage, another thing that happens in the process is you might notice if you were by any chance paying homage to get something, like Buddha's approval, or Buddha's stamp of approval, or Buddha's appreciation, or get Buddha to like you. If I'm bowing to Buddha all the time, maybe Buddha will like me. And it's true. If you're bowing all the time, maybe Buddha will like you. But for sure, if you're bowing all the time, Buddha will have great compassion with you.

[16:00]

Also, if you never bow, Buddha will have great compassion for you. So you have nothing to gain by this prostration business. The more you do it, the more you're going to realize that you're not getting anything out of it. And the more you realize that you're trying to get something out of it, the more you're going to be ready to give up trying to get something out of it. And see how lovely it is to do something without trying to get anything by doing it. And I also told a story which not all of you heard. And it's a story about one of the... I don't want to say great. I don't want to say highest, best, favorite. Anyway, one of the Zen masters named Wang Bo and one of his main teachings was

[17:05]

Basically, the practice is non-seeking. That's really the practice. And then you do that while you're sitting, while you're farming, while you're cooking, while you're walking. You're really practicing non-seeking. Because again, non-seeking goes with your practice is the realization, so seeking it creates a separation. And, yeah. So, non-seeking, he really put that up in front as a main criterion. A main thing that you do, no matter what you're doing, you watch out for seeking. And so, the story I told was about He's in a monastery and he's the head monk in the monastery.

[18:09]

Not the abbot, but the head monk. He's in training to be the abbot. And in some venue he's probably saying, non-seeking is where it's at, guys. And so it just happened that there was a, in that monastery there was an emperor, no, not emperor, a soon-to-be emperor was in the monastery. He was the uncle of the current emperor. He was the uncle of actually three emperors. And he was hiding out in the monastery because the current emperor didn't like him. And he he heard Wang Bo's teaching, and then Wang Bo was paying homage to the Buddhas in the form of, you know, the formal way of bowing and bowing and bowing to the Buddhas.

[19:16]

And he was bowing in the direction of a Buddhist statue. So the clever future emperor says to Wang Bo, if you don't seek if you don't seek from Buddha, and you don't seek from Dharma, and you don't seek from Sangha, why are you paying homage to Buddha? And Wong Bo said, I do not seek from Buddha. I do not seek from Dharma. I do not seek from Sangha. I always pay homage like that. If you don't seek from Buddha, that's a really good way to pay homage to Buddha. And he also bows while he's not seeking anything, in this particular case.

[20:25]

But the main thing is, the way he really honors the Buddhists. The way he really pays his respects is by letting go of trying to get something out of life. And then the future emperor says, well then, what's the point of paying homage? And he slapped him. And then the future emperor says, you're too coarse. Or in modern language, how gross. And Wang Bo said, what's it got to do with gross or subtle? And then maybe he slept in one more time. I don't know. So that's the story of Wang Bo. And if I try to remember to pay homage all day long, maybe I will all day long.

[21:27]

Or maybe I'll forget occasionally and then remember. But I have been remembering somewhat, and I have been paying homage throughout the day somewhat. And then there's the next nine practices, which can also be done all day long. And each one, Samantapada says he'll do all these non-stop. But once you're able to, once we're able to, once I'm able to pay homage, no matter what I'm doing, or turn it around, no matter what I'm doing, pay homage, once I'm able to do that, it actually, there's no parking problem involved in also praising the Buddhas while I'm doing whatever.

[22:30]

They actually can be in the same place. Homage and praising simultaneously in the same place. And then make offerings. So again, when we're sitting, our sitting can be homage, and our sitting can be praise. Your sitting is praise of the Buddha's sitting. It's your sitting, yeah, but it also just happens to be an expression of praise. And it's also an expression, it's an offering. It's an offering to all Buddhas. And of course, if it's an offering to all Buddhas, it's an offering to all beings. So I'm sitting in the zendo, I'm making an effort to sit up, I'm working on my posture.

[23:37]

And this is the offering to all Buddhas. Someone might say, maybe you'll say, but I'll say it for you, does that make it easier? And I wouldn't say exactly it makes it easier, Not exactly easier, but somehow it lifts it up, it like, it buoys it up. It's not like it's easier, it's pretty much the same as it was, but it's just got a lot of support, which is... that it's an offering. So it's not like something I have to do myself, it's something I'm giving. So in a way, it's not exactly easier, it's just more alive, and it's not really so much of a burden, because I'm not doing it when I'm making it an offering, and so on. So these first three vows, well, I didn't say them, but homage, praise, and offering, to make your sitting practice

[24:47]

or make those three, which you're doing non-stop, live while you're sitting, it makes your sitting kind of like Samantabhadra's sitting. It's like Samantabhadra's sitting at your zafu. And... Yeah. I don't know if you feel like you don't want to share your seat with Samantabhadra, but in fact, we do share our seat with Samantabhadra, whether we want to or not. And we also share our seat with the Buddhas and Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara. We do not own these seats by ourselves. We're sharing our seats. Like, Sukershi had these glasses. I don't even know if he used them, but he was holding them up one time at morning tea and he said, These glasses are not my glasses. They're your glasses. I'm borrowing them for a while.

[25:52]

The place we sit doesn't really belong to us, it belongs to everybody, but we get to use it. And everybody's supporting us to practice where we're sitting. So, that is that. So this is bringing Samantabhadra's vows and practices into this discussion, is to bring this energy, this enthusiasm of the Bodhisattva into our practice. And as somebody said recently, no pressure,

[26:58]

You don't have to do this. It's more like you allow it. This way of practice is available unceasingly. And if anybody feels like it's not available or has any resistance to Samantabhadra's vows, Your resistance could be an act of homage. I pay homage to Buddha in the form of resisting Buddha and resisting homage to Buddha. That's my homage today. And if I was resisting Buddha, resisting paying homage to Buddha, Buddha would not want me to be any different than I am at that moment in order to pay homage to Buddha.

[28:05]

I'll just stop right there and see if anybody, by any chance, has any questions about what I just said. Yes? I don't know if this is about what you just said, but it's here. Well then, wait a minute. I want to know if anybody has any questions about that kind of outrageous statement. Did you get what I just said? That if you're resisting Buddha, you might think, well, I'd have to stop resisting before I could pay homage. And you might think that. And I'm not saying don't think that. I'm saying Buddha would not want you to be different, and after you're different, then pay homage. You can pay homage in the form you are right now, which could be resisting. Now, if you shift from being resistant to thinking, I can't practice homage, then that's the situation in which that thought is, at that moment, the place where you're practicing the homage.

[29:15]

You can't pay homage at that moment. Pardon? You can't access paying homage at that moment. Yeah, if you felt like, I can't... Not even resisting, it's just you can't even find it. Yeah, so can I pay homage if I can't find paying homage? One might ask. Are you kind of asking that? I'm kind of asking that, yeah. So I'm saying, okay, I heard about paying homage, but I can't find any, so can I go right ahead and do it? And I would say, of course, yes. You can pay homage, not being able to find paying homage. Is that like pretending? Pretending? I'm not saying it's not like pretending, but I'm just saying, if it was pretending, while you're pretending, you can make your pretending an homage.

[30:15]

If you say, Buddha, I'm pretending, and this is what I offer you as an act of homage. And Buddha wouldn't say, give me something different. I want a different person from you to pay homage. Well, and Buddha does, but doesn't want you to be a different person. Like all the other different people, they should pay homage, but you, the one has to be you. And if you're whatever, that's what you have to offer as homage. Yes, yes? So I'd say my current understanding would be that I become aware and notice of where I am, that I'm resisting, and that in noticing that, and then the next activity would be offering that. Is that what you're saying? So there's actually an awareness? Yeah, except we don't have to make it next. You can notice.

[31:19]

Yeah, that I don't know about. When you get into paying homage, you're no longer knowing how to pay homage. I mean, you no longer think, I know how to pay homage. Oh, I don't know how. I just feel like there's a conscious... In my life, I notice that, oh my God, I don't... I don't want to do that. And then if I go... Okay, I opened that. That to me is maybe what I would call paying homage. Oh, I accept that and offer that. Is that what you're saying? I won't say no, that's not paying homage, but I would say that you may not have noticed that you have the opportunity when you say, oh, I opened to it, and that's paying homage. Yeah. You think that. Yeah. You may not have noticed that you can now offer that you think it's paying homage.

[32:22]

Oh, yeah, I get that, too. But you don't have to think it's homage to use it. You can use the resistance before you open to it. That's sort of what I was saying. Does anybody have any problems with that? I do. I have resistance to it. Pardon? I said I have resistance to it. Yeah. And I'm saying the resistance you have to what I just said, that, I'm saying, is your current opportunity to pay homage. You don't have to not resist what I say in order to pay homage. Pardon? I get that. So I can say, I'm not going to, of course, and maybe I won't, I could say some pretty obnoxious things, you know, and some of you might resist me being obnoxious. That might happen, right? Is that possible?

[33:25]

If I get obnoxious enough, if he's a little obnoxious, I can accept that, but when he gets really obnoxious, I notice I start resisting him. I'm saying, it's not like when you resist me a little or not at all, but then you can pay homage. If you resist me, that's who you are at that time, that's what is the appropriate person to be paying homage. That person who's resisting me being kind of like whatever. And if by chance there was a Buddha in the room, and anybody was resisting the Buddha, which has happened according to the history of this tradition, people have resisted the historical Buddha. In his last incarnation, they resisted him. And they also resisted him in earlier incarnations. maybe I'll go into more detail about this later, but I just can't stop myself from mentioning there's a chapter in the Lotus Sutra called Never Disparaging about this bodhisattva that went around to people and this bodhisattva was pretty much, what's the word, free of discrimination among people.

[34:52]

and treated everybody basically the same. He said, you know, I don't disparage you. You will become Buddha. And then some people really found that very irritating and let him know that they did. And some people maybe found it irritating, but they took refuge in Buddha and everything was really cool. But some people found him obnoxious, irritating, and they were mean to him. And then when they were mean to him, he'd say, I did not disparage you, you will become Buddha. And then someone would say, oh yeah? And then again, he would say that. And this Bodhisattva became Shakyamuni Buddha. Yes? I don't understand offering homage, no matter what condition I'm in,

[35:55]

But the notion of Buddha, a lot of my friends that meditate, I just think of Buddha as maybe like the optimally mentally healthy human being. And which is kind of like, yeah, like kind of good role model. But it seems like there's like an awe and like kind of imagining into what Buddha is that just kind of like tenderizes the heart. And it's like a different kind of homage than like, oh, that's a really good life coach. It goes beyond that. And I guess my question is, is there something about maybe reading Mahayana scriptures or something that imagining into what Buddha is that takes you out of a normal framework? that kind of inspires a different kind of homage that is transformed with it?

[37:02]

Well, yes, and right now I feel like before I do that imagination exercise, I tell myself and you that the most awesome thing about Buddha is that Buddha is nothing in and of himself. So Buddha isn't these characteristics. That's not how you see the Buddha. However, once you realize that, you can think of these characteristics and it might be quite helpful. But if you think of these characteristics as the way you're going to see the Buddha, then the Buddha says, no, take two steps back. I don't want you to do that until you remember that you can see me through these characteristics. Once you realize that, then we can really do some creative work together. We can use our imagination. The most awesome thing about Buddha is that Buddha is just like us.

[38:07]

So there's a place for... availing ourselves of various kinds of creative work. But the creative work, it's good if it's coupled with non-attachment. But anyway, I just want to say again, because Elizabeth was having some trouble seeing how whatever state she's in is a good opportunity to pay homage. No, I don't have trouble with that. What did you have trouble with? Understanding if paying homage is an activity, a conscious activity or not, if that's something you're just doing and you don't know you're doing. That's the part that I didn't understand. Yeah. There is a conscious activity of paying homage. But paying homage is not just a conscious activity.

[39:14]

So you could pay homage and not consciously be aware that you're paying homage. That's my question. Yeah, definitely. I also told this story to somebody recently, maybe to you, about this Buddhist woman, or this woman who became a Buddhist. She's German, she went to Japan, she studied Zen, and she didn't become a priest, but she did receive permission to be a Zen teacher from a noted Zen master. Her name was Hermgard Schlegel. I think she went back from Japan to London, and she was one of the teachers of the London Buddhist Society. She also worked translating the record of Linji from Chinese into English. Anyway, she had resistance to pen homage when she was offered Japan. She did it. She was bowing down on the ground.

[40:17]

But she had resistance to it. And she noticed one time that although she was resisting it, somebody was bowing very wholeheartedly. And the one who was bowing very wholeheartedly was not thinking, I don't think I like paying homage. The one who was thinking I like paying homage was not there. The one who said I don't like to pay homage was there. So this woman was saying, I'm not with this program here. I've got problems with doing prostrations, etc. That was the conscious one. But the conscious one also noticed out of the corner of her eye, somebody is really bowing here. That one wasn't thinking, I'm paying homage. That one was like just sweating drops of joy. Now some people are sweating drops of joy while they're prostrating and they're also thinking, this is like totally cool.

[41:27]

I love paying homage. And I am conscious that I love it and I'm doing it. That can be there. But I don't know. Do you guys think that when you're doing homages? Do any of you ever think that? Some of you do. It's possible. Some of you do think, yes, this is pretty cool. But some of you think, I have resistance paying homage especially to certain people. So there are these conscious activities going on while we're paying homage. You don't have to get a lobotomy to pay homage. You can have a nice, smart human mind and think, I like paying homage, I don't like paying homage, I like it a little bit, but I have some resistance, and I hope I get over it, or I hope I have more resistance, or I hope I can prove that this is really stupid and get people to stop it. and abolish, abolish Amitāyus, because it's got all kinds of problems.

[42:31]

This is what goes on in consciousness. And all of that can go on while actually there's this practice going on, which is enlightenment. Was somebody ahead of Julie that I... No? Well then, Julian? You say that Buddha will accept however we are, whoever we are, whatever we are, in any moment? Well, you could say Buddha will accept you, which of course is true, but another way to say it is, Buddha is accepting. So there's two ways to say it. Buddha is accepting the way we are in each moment, But another way to hear that is that accepting the way you are is Buddha. But yes, Buddha is accepting, and accepting the way you are is Buddha.

[43:35]

That's what Buddha is. And Buddha is us being like we are more than we've been able to yet. Did you get that? We're somewhat able to be who we are, all of us. A little bit, or quite a bit, but we haven't quite got to like 100%. That's Buddha. Some of us can do 106. Anyway, to really just completely beat this person, that's also paying homage to Buddha. If I try to beat this person completely just by my own power, I'm not going to make it. But if I'm being myself as a gift, as homage, I will be who I am completely, and that will be Buddha. Well, then, if Buddha ever asks us to change, or does Buddha ever demand us to change?

[44:40]

Buddha is asking us to become more wholehearted. which in a way isn't the change, it's just, in a sense, Buddha is asking us to give up resisting who we are. Because Buddha's given up resisting us being who we are. Well, in a way, Buddha does ask us. But Buddha's not the only one that's asking us. Everybody really wants us to be, even though that would be troublesome. You know, the process would be difficult. And we're asking the other people to do the same thing. Yes. Ms. Gata, we chant regularly at the farm. I wonder if this speaks, for me it speaks to what you're speaking of. Now as we enter our day of activity, fully engaged in helping others,

[45:48]

Let us remember the one who is not busy and be free from suffering. So, when working on the farm, there's some busyness going on, which we're conscious of, and all the while we have this friend with us who's not busy. And you can't really say which one is which. So when we're bowing, there's a prostration which isn't really busy, and then there's the body going up and down, or the whole going back and forth. There's always one that's not busy who's right there too. The one who's not busy, you don't have to be busy to be who you are. So who you really are is not busy. And that allows tremendous activity. Yes? Is one's hesitation, one's hesitant, is that a measurement of their wholeheartedness, or is there a hesitation, a manifestation of where one's heart is?

[47:05]

Hesitation is a manifestation of... Hesitation, as she sees the expression, is a manifestation of the whole works. I don't quite understand the whole works. What do you mean by that? Well, partly I mean my name. That's me. Oh. What? That's my name. That's your whole name? My Buddha's name. It was the whole works. Wow. Okay. So... If there's hesitation, it's a manifestation of the whole works of me. It's a manifestation of me, but it's a manifestation of the entire universe. So the whole works is a really nice translation of it, because the whole works has a dual meaning. One is a colloquial meaning. Colloquial, the whole works means the universe. But the standard English meaning of the whole works is that the whole works And how does the whole work on the occasion you're pointing to?

[48:12]

It works as hesitation. But they always say the student fails. Like the teacher will go, failure. Yeah, failure because you hesitated. However, that failure is the manifestation of the whole works. And you missed it. And that missing it is a manifestation of whole works. So it can be, and the story is, hesitation, you missed it, okay? And then when the teacher says missed it, they don't miss it. We don't miss it, but somebody says we do, and then it's an opportunity not to miss that. Because Hesitation is the whole works. Birth is the whole works. Death is the whole works. Everything is the whole works. There's nothing that isn't. But we have to work wholeheartedly at whatever it is, like you have to wholeheartedly work at hesitating.

[49:15]

If you hesitate and miss, and you're totally there, you realize the whole work. But anyway, even if you miss, it's still a manifestation of the whole works. You could say, in a way, death is missing and life is hidden. But equally, death is no less the manifestation of the whole works than anything else is. Life is no less resistance, hesitation. They're all great opportunities. appreciate it? That's another one. And if anybody doesn't appreciate it, that's another one too. Yes, E.J.? Is there another way to say the whole works? Like another phrase? There's several other ones. The first character... is total or complete, the second character... You're going to see why I laughed at that.

[50:20]

The second character, one of the definite translations of the second character is machine. So another translation would be total machine. Zen means complete or total. Ki means opportunity. It means function. It means dynamic working. It means the total dynamic working of the universe in each person at each moment. That's always the way. Never are you not the complete working of the whole universe. No matter how happy you are, no matter how unhappy, you're the total machine. I think I see... I'm very happy that several people had their hands raised, but I don't want to stop. Is that okay? You're sad about that? Okay. One more person.

[51:21]

If we pay homage or praise to anyone or anything, that would be... praising and giving homage to Buddha, yes? Yep. Just checking. However, some people do it to Buddha, and all Buddhas. But all Buddhas, what Buddhas are, is Buddhas are practicing together with everyone, and they have the same practice as everyone. But we usually say, all Buddhas. So rather than having pictures of the Beatles on the altar... How are you doing now? Good? All right. Thank you.

[52:29]

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