Good morning. Nice to sit with everyone today. This morning, maybe it's because I didn't sleep too much last night, but this morning was a very peaceful morning. Very, very calm and peaceful Zazen this morning. Maybe you found it that way as well. And the world is spinning and our lives are spinning, so what a luxury to let it all go. Just throw it all away and sit down for one day.

[01:05]

Even though our life may peep its head in once in a while while we're sitting there, still really what's happening is throwing it all away and just sitting in the palm of the Buddha's hand peacefully all day long. Recently I was down at Tassajara and I gave a retreat there and it just so happened that it was rather a small retreat and it so happened that every person in the retreat was a teacher. Some were elementary teachers and some were high school or adult education teachers, but

[02:10]

every one of the participants in the retreat was a teacher. And I gave a talk every day and at the end, the last day, one of the teachers said to me, would you mind talking for your last talk about teaching, about what qualities you think are necessary in teaching? So I thought that was a good topic and it got me to think about it and I spoke to them a little bit about my feelings on this issue. And I would like to share my thoughts with you today. Of course, I'm talking specifically about teaching dharma, but actually teaching anything

[03:15]

is not so different from teaching dharma. And when we establish our life in the practice, our activity is always teaching dharma. Whatever it is we give ourselves to in our life with full sincerity and full attention is a way of teaching dharma. So, in a way, my remarks about teaching, I think of them in this widest possible application. Teaching, of any kind, means to be in contact with others and to pass on to others our spirit and whatever knowledge we may have. And this is how human civilization is passed on, generation by generation.

[04:25]

I often say, if somebody handed you a shirt and you never saw one before, and they said, do something with this, it would take you a long time to figure out that it's a shirt and how to put it on. But we learn from each other how to do things. And maybe nowadays we need to appreciate this process of teaching and learning and passing on from one generation to the next more than we ever did. So, I want to talk this morning a little bit about some qualities I think are important in teaching, and of course, these are qualities that I aspire to myself, so I'm really talking about my own aspirations. And always, there's a gap between our aspiration and the reality of what we're doing.

[05:44]

And sometimes I think being able to hold in our mind, on the one hand, our aspiration, and on the other hand, being realistic about where we're really at and not giving up our aspiration because we're not there, or beating ourselves up because we're not there. Holding an aspiration, affirming it, cultivating it, moving toward it, and having some honest look at where we're really at, I think, to hold these two things, to me, is the essence of any kind of spiritual practice. In our world, we sometimes are given to extremes. We pretend that we ourselves or people we admire really do embody these aspirations,

[06:53]

and when it turns out that we don't or they don't, we become cynical and we let go of the aspiration, thinking it's not real, and then we're left with a shadow of a life. So, to be honest about where we really are, and not be fooled, but at the same time, affirm our aspiration. To me, this is what it means to be human, to be able to imagine a beautiful life and to walk step by step in that direction with full confidence. I think we need a practice like that.

[08:00]

So I'm talking today about my aspirations, my effort. So I thought of five qualities I'd like to discuss with you briefly that a teacher should have and should cultivate—honesty, faithfulness, holding the vision with flexibility, seeing the student as the Buddha, and being willing to be present. These are the five qualities I want to discuss today—honesty, faithfulness, holding the vision with flexibility, seeing the student as the Buddha, and being willing to be present. First of all, honesty.

[09:04]

I think honesty is a key quality in teaching. There should be no posturing, no role-playing, no self-protecting, just being willing to be the person that you are, being comfortable with that person, and presenting that person in all circumstances honestly. None of us is always right, and none of us knows everything. To be honest is to know that there will come times, maybe a lot, when someone else will be right and we will be wrong, someone else will know and we won't know, and we need to always be ready for that and live as if that were always the case or always could be the case. So in this sense, a teacher is also a student, always willing to be corrected and to learn

[10:14]

more. To be honestly aware of our shortcomings is not the same thing as being obsessed with our shortcomings or splattering them all over the place. So we don't have to constantly refer to our shortcomings or blurt out everything that's on our mind, whatever we're feeling, all the time. We don't have to be confessional to teach. I think we can be honest and still maintain a sense of restraint because a teacher needs to be a teacher, needs to occupy that role for the benefit of the student, out of respect for the effort of a student, a teacher needs to be a teacher. And so I think teachers don't need to remind the students all the time of their failings,

[11:22]

they're obvious. But the teacher should know, clearly, the limitation of the teacher without any feeling of concealing the limitations, and the limitations can be revealed freely when it is time to do so, when it is important to do so, when it is a benefit for the student to do so. So this kind of honesty, it seems to me, is the number one quality for a teacher to have, and as I say, in a wider sense, a number one quality for us, all of us, in our practice and in our work, or whatever it is that we're doing. Secondly, a teacher should have a strong spirit of faithfulness, dedication to the Dharma, loving the Dharma, interested in the Dharma all the time.

[12:30]

And also faithfulness to the students, interested in the students, loving the students all the time, wholeheartedly. Not up and down, you know, today I like the Dharma, tomorrow I don't like it, today the students are okay, tomorrow they're really dumb. This is really bad, you know. And this example of faithfulness and constancy, I think, is one of the greatest ways of teaching. Just having someone like that around, you have faith yourself to continue. You have inspiration. Maybe you had a job once where it was difficult, but there was somebody on the job who every day had a good attitude, every day was just willing to roll up their sleeves and plunge

[13:36]

in. Not judging others for not being that way, but just doing it, just plunging in. Then everybody can find their own faithfulness when they see that and plunge in. I think it's really important for a teacher to have this kind of faithfulness and constancy. The third quality is holding the vision with flexibility. And there are two parts to this one, you know, the holding the vision part and the holding it with flexibility part. It's really necessary for a teacher to have a true vision of the Dharma. And lately I've been thinking of it this way, as a vision.

[14:41]

And it says, you know, in the Metta Sutta, having a clear vision. I must have gotten it from there, you know, I don't know, I didn't remember that, but today when we were chanting the Metta Sutta I was struck by that phrase, having a clear vision. And it reminds me of, you know, the vision quest that was so much a part of the tradition of the people who always lived here, seeking a vision as a sign of, and as a necessity for maturity. In Buddhadharma, and in any tradition, the vision we seek is a vision of reality, how

[15:43]

the world really is, how life really is, and how we, as an individual, as human beings fit into that life. We all seek such a vision. We all need to understand the actual point of the Dharma, the actual essential point of the Dharma. So we go on our vision quest, in our little rectangular spot on the tan, in our little black cushion, is our place of vision. And really our method is not so different from the method of the native peoples who lived here, and probably walked through this valley with its meandering stream to find

[16:48]

fish in Redwood Creek 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. We find a place alone, and all of us are alone on our cushions, even though there are others present. And we empty ourselves. We let go of our life. We let go of our obsessions and our worries and our problems, and shed everything and just empty ourself until we're simply present. And in being simply present, we wait. We sit and wait for the vision. I say, wait for the vision, but really the way we wait for the vision is to wait without

[17:56]

waiting for anything, to wait without expecting anything. To sit in the present moment, ready, alert, attentive, but not feeling we need something or we're going to get something to complete ourselves. That projection of needing to get or needing to complete or needing to find is the imperfection of our self-emptying. We have to empty ourself of that also in order to wait with a feeling of readiness for the vision. So a teacher needs to have a vision, a real vision of the Dharma, of the point of the Buddhist teaching. It doesn't matter really if this vision is some huge revelation, a profound thing.

[18:59]

We read in the tradition of profound experiences and quiet experiences, experiences that are almost not even noticeable. So it doesn't need to be dramatic, and sometimes people who have very dramatic visions of the Dharma are imbalanced in other qualities and so become confused. But nevertheless, in balance with other qualities, we need to have a true vision of the Dharma, a true vision of life, of existence, and of our own life, to see the real point of the teaching and to really appreciate the tremendous difficulty of being alive. I think many of us underestimate this. We think it's our problem, there's something wrong with us.

[20:01]

But actually there's a tremendous difficulty in being alive, and we need to see this and appreciate this as a part of our vision. It doesn't mean we're an expert on all the sutras of the vast Buddhist canon, it doesn't mean we're scholars, but we have the basic point, we understand the basic point. This is key and very, very important for all of us. But having this vision, we have to hold it with flexibility, because when we see this basic and fundamental point, we see that the Dharma itself, the vision itself, is a vision is medicine for our sickness, and the medicine is received to suit the illness. The Dharma is not a fixed external thing, and the purpose of the Dharma is to bring

[21:09]

each individual being to his or her fulfillment, to his or her fruition. This is the point of the Dharma. The sutras say this, almost in a kind of throwaway line, the sutra says, Bodhisattvas mature sentient beings, meaning like a fruit, it matures, it becomes ripe and sweet and beautiful. So, this vision, this Dharma is to bring us all to this point of fruition as our life goes on. And this is the purpose of our practice. This is the purpose of our establishment here at the Zen Center, our buildings and our farm and garden and our restaurant and our monastery is all established.

[22:15]

Not so that we can become famous or establish Buddhism, but so that we can facilitate the ripening of individuals, and we take a tremendous joy in seeing individuals slowly and naturally ripen in the Dharma and in their lives. So when you appreciate this, you see that it will never do to protect the organization at the expense of someone's ripening, to protect one's own teaching at the expense of someone's ripening, or even to protect the Dharma itself at the expense of someone's ripening. Our precept that we repeat on each full moon and in each important ceremony that we do,

[23:26]

we say, a disciple of Buddha is not possessive of anything, not even the Dharma. Not even the truth. So we let our vision go, we give it up. In other words, we hold it lightly and with flexibility, and only in letting it go and only in being flexible in this way, and seeing the real point, is our vision a true vision. If we hold our vision tightly, it's not a true vision. It hasn't gone yet far enough. Once the Zen student, Dozi, in ancient China, asked the teacher, what is the principle of

[24:34]

Buddhahood, Master Sui Wei said, Buddhahood is not a principle. Buddhahood is not a principle. Dozi said, doesn't that fall into emptiness? Sui Wei said, real emptiness is not empty. Now the fourth quality I want to discuss is seeing the student as the Buddha. This is part of the vision that we have. Seeing each individual being as the whole of the Buddha's life. And I always think of Suzuki Roshi in this regard, although I didn't know him myself.

[25:42]

I have spoken to many, many people who knew him, either knew him well or just met him once or twice. And they all say the same thing. They say, how wonderful I felt being with him, how nice it was. It seemed as if he actually could see who I was. And he didn't mind. He didn't seem to either mistake me for someone else or see who I was and think that I should be somehow different. It was an amazing experience, they say, as if he really saw me and saw that it was all right just to be the way I was. And this made me feel so relaxed and so free. It was very pleasant and enjoyable and I was happy to be around him.

[26:47]

That's what people say. People who met him, you know, just once and cherish that memory for the rest of their lives. Because he seemed to, I guess, really see them as Buddha, realistically, as they were, as Buddha. So this is our aspiration as teachers, as human beings, right? To see everything as Buddha. The teacher has nothing that the student needs. The student is complete already, doesn't need anything from the teacher.

[27:49]

The teacher benefits from knowing each and every student and learns from each and every student. Seeing everyone this way, we are often in a state of amazement at the variety and depth of human beings and other beings in our world. It's really astonishing. And we feel a tremendous sense of humility. This is the source of our humility, seeing all beings as the Buddha. I mention sometimes one of my favorite Zen teachers, Ryokan, who would wander around in feudal Japan and when he came to a person working in the fields, he would pull out his

[29:02]

brush and make a little image of the person and make a stone altar and bow. So grateful was he, and so impressed was he by each farmer in the fields. This is the source of a true humility. And humility, of course, is a key quality in a teacher. So we can have all these qualities. We can be quite honest and we can be very faithful and we can have a vision and hold it with flexibility and we can see everyone as Buddha, but without the fifth quality, the willingness to be present, to come forward and meet the student, we can't really teach. So the fifth is the kind of cap on the bottle, to be willing to be present with the student, to be willing to step into that very tender and mutually vulnerable space with the student,

[30:10]

is important, is crucial. Being present doesn't necessarily mean that we are with the student all the time. It's a quality of being, the willingness to be present, so that when we are with the students, we are with them in that willing way. And when we're not with them, we're ready and willing even then. And we are always willing to communicate and to give of ourselves. Our tradition speaks about this communication in an interesting way. Basically it says there are two kinds of communication, communication and non-communication, though it uses terms like the granting way and the grasping way, communicating and not communicating.

[31:23]

Or sometimes they say giving life and taking life, these are drastic forms of expression, maybe slightly unfortunate. This expression is very rough and extreme and ironic. But this is what it means, two ways to communicate, to communicate and not to communicate, because you can't explain everything, right? Sometimes explaining and talking is counterproductive. Sometimes you keep your mouth shut, so you have to know when. But either way, you're present. Either way, you're communicating. Either way, you're in relation. It's not that you withdraw. The grasping way is not a matter of withdrawing.

[32:25]

It's a matter of being present in a particular way, skillfully. And either way, inside there always is warmth and concern. How do we know the difference? How do we know whether to communicate by communicating or non-communicating? Well, we guess. By feel, by intuition. I think teaching is very intuitive. It's very improvisational. There aren't steps and stages. There aren't rule books. There are guidelines and indications, but when it really comes down to it, in any intimate, personal relationship,

[33:29]

we just do what we feel is right. Sometimes it's the right thing, sometimes it's not. Sometimes we make big mistakes with each other. Sometimes those mistakes are terrible, sometimes those mistakes are exactly what's needed. Sometimes teachers who make a lot of mistakes are very effective, because the mistakes help. Sometimes not. It depends on each person. Some teachers are very good with some kinds of students and not good with others. That's why in the old days in China, they would say to someone, go over there, you should go study with so-and-so, because they would see intuitively that the person would not be able to benefit

[34:34]

from their teaching. So this brings to mind what I think is the most important point of all to understand, and this is that the teacher is not in the teacher. The teacher isn't in the teacher. In the Dharma there's only one teacher. That's the Buddha. And the Buddha appears in between us, in the place between you and I, in the place between the teacher and student, in the big open and warm place that is created by the sincerity of teacher and student and by the thoroughness of the effort of teacher and student.

[35:36]

And in that place between them is where the Buddha stands, where the teacher stands. Dogen says the Dharma is not transmitted by a Buddha. He says only a Buddha and a Buddha transmit the Dharma. Only a Buddha and a Buddha transmit the Dharma. So this is the teacher, a Buddha and a Buddha. This is the real teacher, not inside the teacher, not inside the student, in the space between. And this is really necessary. It really isn't possible for us to fulfill our study alone. We need, one way or the other, the alchemy, the magic of this relationship. Now there are many, many stories in the tradition about this.

[36:42]

Sometimes a student stays with a teacher for ten years or twenty years or forty years. But the truth is this is a little rare. Sometimes it's one meeting. There are many stories of this too. Once they met. In Dogen's case, he traveled all over and met his teacher and immediately on meeting they completed their study together. Immediately on meeting their study was complete and Dogen hung around for a few years and left and never saw his teacher again. So it's different in different cases. But that magic, that alchemy is absolutely necessary and Dogen risked his life and spent years trying to complete

[37:46]

and find that connection that was so important to him. So it's a magic, an alchemy that happens between us. And people sometimes mistake it and think it's in the teacher. Years ago I used to be amazed when people would say, teachers would do stupid things and just sort of sometimes terrible things or stupid things or trivial things. And students would go, oh what a teaching that was. They did that because of this very profound teaching. And I used to think, can they really believe this? The guy screwed up or he just tripped over his robe. It just happened. I haven't heard this for a while.

[38:50]

I think people are sophisticated nowadays. They don't say things like that, but they used to say it. Oh he got drunk and fell down and that was a really deep teaching. He's showing us that we shouldn't be attached to clarity. I mean maybe they learn that from that. Not to say that you don't learn that sometimes from that. But to think that the teacher, he just had a problem with drinking. So he fell down and we learned from it. That's great. But it's going too far to ascribe this omniscience to the teacher. The Buddha is omniscient. But this guy over there just had a drinking problem. So in other words, the teacher is doing what they do to the best of their ability.

[39:59]

If they have a drinking problem, they drink. This is not a profound teaching, it's just they're trying their best to live, just like the rest of us. If we can learn from their mistakes, that's great. The Buddha planned it, not him or her. So the teacher follows his intuition, his karma, or her life or her understanding, and whatever happens from that happens. The chemistry of this relationship does depend, however, absolutely, on respect, deep respect. Respect for each other and respect for the Dharma itself and the possibility of awakening in our life. As I said a moment ago, the teacher has to respect the student as the Buddha.

[41:06]

Every student is a serious student, which means everybody we meet is a serious student. Everybody we meet absolutely has the potential for full Buddhahood already in them. So the teacher must respect the student, but also the other way. If the student doesn't invest the teacher with his or her full respect for the possibility of awakening, the chemistry won't happen. So you have to really respect the teacher, even though you know that the teacher is in between. It's important that you respect the person of the teacher. And the teacher on the other side has to be willing to receive this respect without taking it personally,

[42:10]

without forgetting for a moment that it's not the person who is receiving the respect, but the possibility of awakening that exists in the space between us is the point of this respect. Personally, I find receiving this kind of respect difficult and even unpleasant, to tell you the truth. But I'm trying. There's a wonderful case in the Book of Serenity that I would like to bring up in this connection, Case 53, about the great Zen master Huang Bo and how he came to the realization who was one of the early generations of Chan,

[43:14]

in one of the early generations of Chan masters, who were all really powerful people. There are many stories about Huang Bo. The most notable thing that people say about him is that he was a huge guy. It says in the book, seven feet tall. I don't know, maybe he really was seven feet tall. They also said that he had a big long tongue, and when he stuck his tongue out he could cover his whole nose with his tongue. It sounds less likely. Anyway, he must have been impressive, physically. And he must have been eloquent. Whenever they say that somebody has a big tongue, they mean they're eloquent. Anyway, one day Huang Bo was probably sitting up here, like I am,

[44:15]

speaking to the assembly during a retreat, and he began insulting everybody. He said, you people are nothing but slurpers of dregs. A barrel of rice wine, they pour off the good stuff and then at the bottom there's the dregs, so it's messy and smelly. Beneath anybody to slurp the dregs, you're so hard up if you have to slurp the dregs. It's just really disgusting and you're really nobody if you're a dreg slurper. So you people are nothing but dreg slurpers, he says. If you travel around like this, where will you find today? Travel around like this means, just like maybe some of you travel to come here. So in those days they traveled except on foot, right?

[45:16]

So people would come, maybe they heard about Huang Bo, and they would maybe walk 300 or 500 or 1,000 miles. China's a big country, right? So they walk a long way to come to enroll in the practice period at Huang Bo's monastery. They show up after, you can imagine, six months journey, maybe risk your life. You show up, he says, you people are nothing but a bunch of slurpers of dregs. Why are you wandering around like this going from monastery to monastery? How are you going to find right now if you're wandering all over looking for something? And then he said this famous saying that I have always cherished. Don't you know that in all of China there are no teachers of Chan? Well, the assembly was, I don't know what, depressed, shocked, horrified by this saying. But fortunately there was one brave soul

[46:22]

who decided to voice what probably were the feelings of many people. So he stood up and said, what about all those people who run monasteries and guide students and have practice periods like yourself? What are they doing then? And Huang Bo said, I don't say there's no Chan. I only say there are no teachers of Chan. So there's a wonderful story in the commentary to this case. This case is mentioned actually both in the Book of Serenity and the Blue Cliff Record with different commentaries, but the commentary in the Book of Serenity includes a story that I think really makes this quite clear and easy to understand.

[47:24]

Once upon a time, in the ancient days, there was a lord and a wheelwright. The lord was inside his house reading a book and the wheelwright was outside planing a wheel. The wheelwright peered through the window and saw the lord reading and sort of tapped on the window and said, excuse me, but do you mind if I ask what are you reading? And the lord said, I'm reading a book of the sages. The wheelwright said, are the sages alive? The lord said, no, they're already dead. And the wheelwright said, then what you are reading

[48:27]

is the dregs of the ancients. The lord did not take too kindly to this and he said, when a great lord reads, how can a wheelwright know anything about it? You better have a good explanation for what you have just said, otherwise you die. This is China, right, in the old days, because you could do that. See, if you were the lord, you could, off with their heads, right? Somebody says the wrong thing, you don't like it, you could do that. So this is really, really, really, you know, he's saying, what are you talking about, I don't like that, you better have a good explanation or I'm going to have you beheaded and that's the end of you. So the wheelwright probably thought about this for a moment

[49:29]

and here's what he said. He said, it's just like my own work. When I'm planing a wheel, it has to be exactly right. If I plane it too slowly, it won't be firm enough. If I plane it too quickly, the wheel will be too firm. How do I know how to get it just right? I find it in my hands and then it accords with my mind, but I can't explain it, it can't be explained. I can't show it to my son and my son can't learn it from me. Therefore, I have been planing wheels for 70 years. The people of old and that which they couldn't transmit have died.

[50:36]

Therefore, what you are reading is the dregs of the ancients. That doesn't say whether he died or not, killed or not. I don't know. But you see, he finds it in his own hand. So in the end, there is real practice and there is real transformation. But no one is teaching anyone anything. We are all planing our wheel. Each one of us has to find how to do that just exactly right in our own hand. And we can only keep on doing it for 70 years.

[51:41]

We can't communicate it to anyone. And that's exactly why we keep on doing it. Because we don't complete it and package it and market it and sell it to somebody. If we could do that, we could stop. But that's not how it is. You can only keep doing it just as you can only keep living day by day. So practice is the craft of planing a wheel. You can't plan too fast. You can't plan too slow. Practice is the craft of making our lives lively and wise. And awake and aware. Not too excited, running around in circles, but not dull either. And boring. In making a wheel, there is a lot of trial and error.

[52:51]

And that's how we learn. A lot of false starts. But once we get the feel of it, once we have it in our hand, we know how to do it. And it's never the same from one day to the next. But once we know how to do it, we can make those tiny adjustments depending on whether it's wet or dry outside, how old or fresh the wood is. Everything about the situation requires some adjustments. But when we have the feel of it in our hands, we can make those adjustments day by day. And for each one of us, that hang, that feel, is a little bit different because each one of us has different hands. And each one of us finds it by our own experience.

[53:59]

Each one of us creates the Dharma anew. And the Buddha is amazed at the variety of expression and manifestation of existence. We need each other. We need this vision-seeking practice. We need a lot of respect and devotion and effort. But when we apply all of this, definitely we will learn how to plan our wheel. And really, we can't avoid taking up this job. We may think so.

[55:03]

We may think practicing the way is an option. But actually, it's not an option. It's a necessity. They probably didn't tell you this when you signed up for the one-day sitting. But it's true. And now that you've come this far, there's no turning back. Well, I think I've said enough. Please, for the rest of the day, each and every period, return to your cushion as if it were a rock on the top of a mountain in the wilderness. Empty yourself.

[56:04]

Don't find yourself indulging in whatever thoughts or emotions may arise. I'm not saying ignore them or repress them or get rid of them. But don't indulge them. The process of emptying ourself involves letting what is there be there and then letting it go. Once we let it go and over and over and over again, it stops coming up. It just quiets down. If you take a small stone and throw it up in the air, you don't have to do a thing. It will fall down. If you keep catching it and throwing it up in the air over and over again and say, How come this stone is not falling down? What's going on here? If you get your hand out of the way, it goes, and it's down, and that's it. So that's how you have to practice. Empty yourself in that way

[57:07]

and then wait for nothing. So please practice that way today the best you can, and I'll try to do that too. We'll help each other. Thank you very much for your attention, and please continue.

[57:34]

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