So this morning, I don't usually talk at the beginning, but this morning I did. Today I want to emphasize with you silence. So I talked about silence right away. Silence and stillness. So it's a little bit difficult to talk about silence and stillness because you start making sounds and move when you do it. And yet, part of what can be said is that even while we're talking, silence and stillness are not disturbed. And that's part of what I'm saying to you is that Right now we are in a state of silence and stillness.

[01:06]

And this silence and stillness sponsors this message. And furthermore, I propose to you on many occasions that the silent, unmoving, bond among all of us beings in this room and throughout the universe is what we call Buddha. And this silent, unmoving relationship without moving anything has tremendous activity. So the Buddha is with us, or the Buddha is with us means this relationship among us is with us.

[02:11]

And this relationship is silent and still. And this silent, still relationship, without moving anything around, benefits us, heals us, heals us and all beings. But the actual work of Buddha is carried out in stillness and silence. And can use movement, the illusion of movement and sound and whatever else, these all can be used within the stillness to carry out the great teaching of the Buddhas. Therefore that was the reason I wanted to say this to you is because now today you can immediately start or continue to appreciate silence and stillness.

[03:22]

When I'm talking you and I can still appreciate silence. Especially when I say silence, it may be easy. But sometimes if I say something else, you may get distracted from the silence. Like if I say, I love you, you might get distracted from the silence. Or if I say, I hate you, you might get distracted from the silence. But just know maybe you didn't. This state, this state of silence and stillness is, I would say, our Buddha home, our home as Buddha. Yesterday I went to the dentist, dentist office, and had my teeth cleaned.

[04:34]

And in the waiting room before, I saw, I think, U.S. News and World Reports magazine, and it said on the front cover, The Return of Ritual. And the subtitle was, Jews, Christians, and I don't know what else, mentioning different religions, are returning to traditional forms of practice. I didn't read the article. I just saw the cover. And I'm going to call the dentist and ask them if they would give me that magazine when they're done as a gift. So I've been emphasizing for quite a while now that what we do here... in sitting, we actually have our bodies, and our bodies kind of are sitting still and quiet.

[05:39]

And this putting our bodies on the earth with other people, together with the earth and all people, to do that is a ritual. It's a ritual enactment of this actual stillness and silence. Sometimes when we sit we may hear noise in our head or even noise in the environment and we may feel our body moving but basically we're doing a ritual a ritual enactment, in other words, we're ritually having our body be still, even though it's not actually still, it's offered to that stillness. Our stillness is an offering to the stillness. Our silence is a gift, is an offering to the, the silence, the silence

[06:44]

among all beings, the quiet way we are all helping each other. Some Zen students, I did it myself, actually tried to not move at all. When I was, after being Zen student for two or three years, I heard about a practice of sitting with a bowl on your head with a marble in it, or marbles in it. And if you move even a little bit, the marbles go... I mean, the bowl can fall off your head, of course, and the marbles... But even with the bowl staying on your head, bouncing on your head, still a little bit of... unless you have like real sticky marbles, if you have a ceramic bowl and, you know, glass marbles, they roll very easily and they make a little sound when they roll.

[07:51]

So me and some of my friends used to go in the zendo before the other people and sit there with our bowls in our head because you know, we were making some noise. It was hard to hold them really still. So this is what little boys and students sometimes do. There were no girls doing that with us, but they could have joined us, but they weren't interested. Trying to be bolder than that. What? Trying to be bolder than that. Yes. So anyway, that was our attempt to sit still. And, of course, also we had trouble staying awake in those days, so there was really... Of course, you couldn't do this if you were asleep. So part of the ritual is to be awake to the celebration, the celebration of this stillness. Now, there is a celebration of this ritual and a celebration of what the ritual is celebrating.

[09:07]

The ritual is celebrating Buddha. It's trying to enact, put Buddha in action. But I just wanted to talk a little bit about the actual Buddha today for you to, you know, for you to hear about. And so the proposal is that the wonder-working activity of enlightenment, wherein more or less full possibilities, full beneficial and healing possibilities of enlightenment are functioning, that they function in stillness and quiet. There can be talking, you know, while this benefiting activity is going on, like the talking could be, would you please sit still and receive this medicine? Would you please be quiet? and receive this medicine? Would you please open up to this medicine?

[10:13]

Would you please receive this? Would you please welcome the workings of enlightenment? There could be talk like that. To help us like enter the ritual by which we open to it. But it's coming to us all the time. And sometimes it helps to have a little movement. Hey, come here. To get us to settle down and open to it. But the proposal that I'm giving you is that in stillness and silence, mind and objects like other people, our body, our feelings, all the objects which we can experience, all the things we can know, pain, pleasure, warm, cold, blue, yellow, green, red, loud, soft, rough, smooth, all these objects, good, bad, helpful, unhelpful, all these objects

[11:28]

and the minds which live with them, okay, in this stillness, they merge into realization. They merge into this enlightenment. And then they go beyond it. In this stillness and silence, all of our experiences of mind and body Merge into enlightenment and go beyond enlightenment. Merge into enlightenment and go beyond enlightenment. Merge into enlightenment and don't stick there. Merge into enlightenment with all beings and move beyond that. And without moving, a particle of dust or disturbing the quality of the situation of anything the incomparable work of Buddha is being performed, is being realized and accomplished.

[12:41]

And there is an although and the kind of because in this, you know. Although in stillness, although we're in stillness and silence, mind and objects enter. Although we're in stillness, mind and object enter together into the state of enlightenment. Although we're in stillness, we have a kind of entering. Usually we think, well, if you enter, there's a movement. But no. There's an entering in stillness by being still. Together. Although in stillness and silence, mind and object enter together into the state and also pass out together It isn't that the world passes out ahead of us or we pass out ahead of the world.

[14:00]

And actually meditators get frightened sometimes when they start circulating in this stillness and silence. They're afraid that the world will go out of here before them and leave them behind. Or that they'll go out ahead of the world and leave the world behind. And they'll be out there by themselves without a world. Or that they'll enter ahead of the world Yikes, I entered and the world didn't come with me. That's not so, but they may be afraid that's happened, or they may think, I think the world didn't come with me, or the world went ahead and left me out. Anyway, this kind of thing comes up for people as they start to celebrate the stillness and the silence. But I propose to you, you won't go ahead of the world and the world won't go ahead of you into or out of enlightenment. It won't go into the stillness ahead of you and it won't come out ahead of you and you, vice versa, will not get ahead or behind it.

[15:04]

Without moving anything or disturbing anything, we can join the work of the Buddha. We can receive it and give it. So there's this kind of like although and then a kind of because. Because all of this happens in stillness, it can happen without disturbing anything. So it is really inconceivably amazing and wonderful that the Buddha's work can be carried on in stillness. But that's what the Buddha is. The Buddha is stillness, is a kind of stillness and a kind of quiet. It's the stillness and quiet of how we're helping each other. And everything in the world of movement and sound occurs in this place, enters and leaves it all the time.

[16:18]

So I just wanted to start the day with this so you can now, if you wish, spend or give the rest of the day, give yourself to the rest of the day. Give yourself to silence and stillness for the rest of your life. Give yourself to enlightenment for your life. Enjoy the silence and stillness, no matter what happens today. And use your body to enjoy it. Like when you're sitting or standing, offer your body to this silence. Particularly offer your hands, because there's so many nerves, so many neurons in your hands. Offer these neurons to the silence. Just like I can remember Janice, your neurons in your hand can remember the silence. They can feel it.

[17:21]

And your feet too. Offer your hands and feet up too. We do that in our practice, one of our rituals. I notice they do that in other religions too. They go like this. They take their hands, their palms, and they open their hands and they expose their palms to the heavens. But really they're exposing their palms to silence and stillness, to let the neurons register, to know, to know Buddha through the hands. But we in Zen, not to say we're better, but we offer our hands and feet. See how my feet are, have my feet now up exposed to receive the silence and stillness and also to emanate from my feet, to give back the silence and stillness from my feet. Feel it in your feet. Now if you're sitting on the chair and you have your feet on the ground, then send it from your feet into the ground and receive it from the ground. Receive the silence and stillness through your feet.

[18:22]

You are doing it anyway. Receive it up through your feet. Feel the stillness coming into your feet and your hands. Open your hands if you can and receive the silence and stillness into your hands. And they'll remember. if you help them. Okay, you guys, receive it. And say, oh yeah. And then even if your cerebral cortex forgets, your hands will remember. You know, you open a door and you grab the doorknob and your hands will say, not moving. Oh yeah, thank you. So train your body, offer your body to this today, please. Expose your body to receive this wonderful Buddha Dharma working in you. Receive it in your body and let it come back out of your body.

[19:25]

Enter it and leave it together with all beings in silence and stillness. So I'd like to now go back to sitting, to doing the ritual of silence and stillness to exercise this wonderful working for, until we have another time to discuss. Okay? May our intention equally extend to every

[20:11]

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