This morning, I'd like to talk about the way I do the, my, practice my orioke. And, uh,
I have a certain amount of trouble with the orioke, because I've never been taught how
to do the orioke. So, when, uh, we were giving lessons around here, I never attended the
lessons. So, and I started, though, doing a kind of version of the orioke very early,
because we would eat with Suzuki Roshi in the kitchen at, uh, Sokoji. He always did
strange things, like pour his tea into his soup bowl and slosh it around with a spoon
and drink it. I didn't, so I did the same thing. If he did it, I'd try it. So I did
that a long time, and then I had a pretty good idea what the orioke was about, you know.
Of course, in restaurants it looks funny when you're eating somewhere and you slosh your
coffee around in the bowl, but I didn't do that too often. Um, but anyway, we had lessons
down here at, uh, Asahara, eventually, and began doing some sort of real orioke, pretty
close to what we do now. And some of you may remember, drove a few students out of the
center. And, uh, after a while we got used to it. But, uh, at that time we were just,
uh, I think it, actually at that time I was involved in a rapid, uh, translation, uh,
assistance, assistance, translation of the meal chant we do now. And, uh, still do. I
never, really should have made it better at some point. Anyway, um, so I just, uh, when
I got up here in the altar and I had to eat, and I didn't know how to do it, I just did
what Suzuki Roshi did, you know, sort of watched him the way you do. And, uh, so that was alright.
But, of course, I know Suzuki Roshi's habits and how to do it. And, uh, also you don't
know it exactly because your, the orioke is actually rather complex. I've been doing
it for a lot of time now. And, uh, I keep finding that, um, there's more space in it
than I'm participating in something. So then I went to a heiji and, uh, they assumed I
knew how to do it. So they didn't teach me there either. And, uh, so I just got into
zendo and I started looking. So the way I do the orioke is rather the way Suzuki Roshi
did it, plus the way the monks who sat on each side of me every now and then at a heiji
did it, plus some influence from Rab, and, uh, oh, Angie, Angie criticizes me. She, she
has helped, she's helped me. Oh, you shouldn't do that. Anyway, so, I mean, I don't do it
so badly. It's all right. It's pretty close to being right. Um, but it's interesting because
I, I don't have any verbal, very little anyway, verbal picture of how it should be done. So
I have nothing to, uh, my face, I sort of problem in the orioke. I don't know, this
may sound crazy to face a problem in the orioke, but I face some sort of problem. Now,
do I, do I pick that up, do I chop the chopsticks or, anyway, that kind of thing, which is,
works, you know, you have five fingers and you have these bowls and, but it works. And,
uh, if I had, if I'd ever had a verbal kind of picture, description of what it is, then
I could say, ah, that's what you do, you know, but I don't have any, so I look at the red
to see what he's doing. And, uh, well, I used to, you know, and now I pretty much have it
worked out. Anyway, um, if I also knew exactly how the orioke should be done, well, as much
as it is to be known exactly, and, uh, also did the orioke just like that, you know, just
doing it the way the people around me did it, that would be sort of a, sort of equivalent
to the eighth bhumi, the eighth stage of a bodhisattva, how a bodhisattva practices.
At the, uh, eighth stage, so-called eighth stage, eighth stage doesn't mean you're eight
stages above the first stage, you know, for people who haven't even started, but rather
that, uh, uh, at this stage you can actually begin to practice with other people. So it
means that you have some insight into how other people feel, both in the sense of their,
uh, their problems, say, as ordinary problems and their problems as maybe, say, divine problems,
their higher faculties and lower faculties. So you see both in people, and you see, uh,
how mostly they define everything that happens to them in terms of their lower, not lower
or higher, but some more karmicly involved situations. You, the bodhisattva of the eighth
stage sees both, but responds to the lower, but knows the higher. So if the people around
him are doing such and such, he just does such and such. He even consciously, though he has
a kind of, uh, you might say vision of Buddhism, he has no idea of Buddha anymore, no even
idea of how the yogi perfectly should be done, just does it. But because he sees both sides,
you know, and practices completely with others, the process, uh, you say, purifies. And again,
pure, I don't know what word to use, because the way we use pure in Buddhism has nothing
to do with impure. It means something more like complete. Anyway, he makes more complete, maybe,
or pure, the actions of the people around him. And his own practice is exactly the same as the
practice of the people around him. But yet, as his practice, uh, as the practice of the people
around him get better, you know, his practice gets better. That's, uh, what's called the eighth
stage. One, one, one aspect anyway, the eighth stage, eighth bhumi, sometimes defined as the stage
at which you reach your, uh, permanent abode, where you can't be moved, you can't be disturbed.
So we were talking before about suffering and how, you know, what, what, uh, the famous phrase is,
what's a hair on the hand of one person, you know, for a sage or a bodhisattva, is the same as a hair
in the eye. The same situation that most people are able to, to, uh, to ignore, the bodhisattva sees
the suffering in it. So what we talked about was how do you become strong enough, how is your practice
ready to see the suffering and accept the suffering of everyone? Anyway, at this stage, because you can do it,
you have an insight into people. So again, last time we talked about maybe how if you're, say, a rich person,
rich man, you can't, if you don't have any idea that you're rich, just live quite contentedly, you know,
on your pile, uh, there's no way in which you can be free of being rich. You have to know the situation of being rich
and poor before you can be free of your situation. And so we have to know our own karmic situation,
quite neutrally, what qualities we have in the usual sense, and what problems go with them and how they can benefit others.
But when you see that and you begin to see how you, uh, can, uh, practice requires a kind of, uh, minutely alive consciousness
that can almost weave between these obstructions, or begin to see more and more space between the obstructions,
so actually you perceive the space and not the obstruction. Anyway, at this point you have the problem, as some of you noticed already,
of, uh, the relative and the absolute, or the pure and the impure. You can see how impure, maybe, or how karmically conditioned you are,
so then you have the idea of, ah yes, now I've sensed that, uh, now I can see, you know, that space, that, that great being which can't be stained.
Uh, at this point, uh, you know, it's useful. You have to be able, as doing the orioke in my way, you know, not knowing what you're doing,
it's good to be able to practice that way, just doing it as the situation is. But it also would be useful if I knew exactly more about how the orioke was to be done, but was free from that, those ideas.
And likewise, much of Buddhism is that way, so how can, uh, we talk about something like Tozan's five ranks in that way, free from such a description as the five ranks,
but at the same time, uh, ready to use it when it's necessary to, uh, give us a sense of movement in our practice, some sense of, uh, some sense that doesn't allow us to be so complacent.
You know, one of the difficulties is our, our great feeling of isolation, uh, not only from our, what Tsukuyoshi says, calls our innermost request or our deeper self or something like that, but also from our society.
And, uh, our just ordinary everyday society. And, uh, the opportunity for each of you to perhaps be president of the United States doesn't decrease that isolation much, nor the fact that you have one vote doesn't decrease that isolation much.
And we don't, we really, it's amazing how, how, how primitive the current ideas we have of participation in our society are. Actually, our participation in our society is much more sophisticated than that.
But, uh, our ideas about how we participate in our society are pretty primitive.
Partly because we think of us doing it, us voting, me voting, me being president, having some influence.
But our real way of, uh, participating in our society is just, um, exactly like doing the Oryoki, just like the people around you.
And it sounds maybe a little funny, because that means in whatever situation you are, you do it just like the people around you, and so nothing gets improved, if we're interested in improvement.
But, uh, you have to have some way to not just depend on yourself. If you depend on yourself, you can't do anything. You have to depend on everybody. How do you enter into work with everybody?
And, uh, the other side is true, too. If you don't have some feeling, some real feeling of, uh, being an effective part of your society, it's pretty hard to practice Buddhism.
It's pretty hard to live your life. It's very crippling to feel the society is sick and there's nothing I can do about it.
And it's true, maybe it's sick, but there is a lot you can do about it. And you don't see how really completely and amazingly effective you are.
If you're in a muddle, of course, you know, you're in a muddle. If you're practicing with everyone, like the eight lunas, that's not being in a muddle. That's very clearly practicing with everybody.
My muddle is the same as his muddle. It's only different in that. Zen Center, from one point of view, isn't a Buddhist community that we've inherited from Japan, China, partly from India.
It's, uh, just the simple extension of one man's selflessness.
You know, Suzukiroshi is just one man. He just came here and lived in a Kafka-esque tower on Bush Street.
And if you ever passed Sokoji before you knew Zen Center was there, this funny building with these knobby towers, you know, like that, and rusty, sort of, half-painted, no windows.
Who would have thought a Zen Master was living up there? I don't know, I've been here a couple of times with his wife and everything. He lived there a lot of years.
I don't know, eight years or so. Nine years. Anyway, he just lived there.
And the same will happen to you, you know, if you actually know how to practice Buddhism, how to live exactly like everyone else but yet live with all of you existing.
Not just your karmic personality.
Then wherever you go, some situation like this will actually occur around you.
You're a dentist and you're a barber, you know, sort of like, instead of having a monk shave your head, you let your barber shave your head.
And wherever you go, even if you don't have a Zen Dojo or someplace to practice, your people will have some feeling.
In that space that your practice is, the whole country can fit in.
Anyway, you have a very real part of your society when you practice like this.
Even if you just stay in Tassara forever, you don't have to think about, now I'm affecting my society.
You don't have to think that way.
So, when we come to this point of seeing our karmic prior patch,
the idea of the pure, the relative and the absolute comes up.
So when that comes up, you know, then you need an antidote for that problem.
We don't mean relative or absolute or pure and impure.
So, I think Tozan's five ranks are useful.
Tozan, you know, he's the To of Soto, the founder of Soto school in China, more or less.
And he put together this five ranks, which is kind of a Zen version of Huayen and Tendai philosophy.
And Dogen, you know, he studied at Mount Hiei, and his way of understanding Buddhism is very Tendai.
And his practice is Zen.
It's a pretty good combination, actually, because Tendai tried, as Rev pointed out,
talked the other day, tried to put together all of the teachings of Buddhism.
Anyway, so the five ranks are half koan and half philosophy,
so a little bit slippery and confusing, actually, but still rather useful.
I won't go through all of them, but the first one is you see emptiness,
or you see, I guess, it's generally translated something like the real within the apparent.
And they have a circle, and you can't remember what's in the circle.
I have lots of drawings, because Suzuki actually talked about this particular thing a lot in 1961.
And I have lots of notebooks full of drawings and circles.
You really should get them mixed up too.
He'd draw them on the blackboard, and then he'd go look in his book,
and shade it in or erase it, and the reason his hand was covered with chalk.
And then he'd look for the eraser, and then he'd drop it.
It was wonderful.
And I used to get so confused, you know,
that I didn't know what he was talking about and why his hand was all covered with chalk.
Finally, I would ask, after the lecture was over, I'd ask that the blackboard be saved,
and I'd ask Virginia to go down and copy it.
So she'd sometimes go and she'd copy it all.
I mean...
On those notes, I have scribbled on the side something where I wrote,
Why go from master to master when there's no place to go?
The grass blown by the wind points in only two ways.
I don't know what I meant, why I wrote it.
The grass blown by the wind points in only two ways, right?
I don't know, anyway.
I have that scribbled beside these circles.
Well, um...
The first, anyway, is...
You, uh...
See the actual face in our life.
But that's some problem, because then when you...
You can't make sense of why...
We have...
Why this world is such a mess, you know?
Why it's so difficult to live in the city, live in more complicated situations.
And that rather undoes you.
So the second stage is the second rank.
And...
The seeing of form is emptiness.
Like, uh...
Maybe in the first stage you...
You look in the mirror and you...
Only see your ordinary face and you don't recognize it.
But in the second stage you recognize it.
As emptiness.
In this stage you should be ready to stop practicing Buddhism.
Give up Zen.
You know, Dogen says that...
This is where Dogen's phrase,
Cast away mind and body,
applies.
Drop away mind and body.
In the first stage you recognize emptiness.
In the second stage you recognize...
Everything is emptiness.
Form is emptiness.
You recognize your staining...
Your impure activity as emptiness.
As also pure.
You know, we can say this and you can understand what I mean.
But how many of you actually can cast away mind and body?
Free from your karma.
Anyway, the third stage then is...
Bodhisattva...
Then doesn't shy away from the world of the six senses.
He enters completely into it.
Then all those...
Koans.
About...
The dust of the world and...
You know, all that stuff.
That's...
This koan pertains to this kind of situation.
These five ranks are also...
Used by both Rinzai and Sota.
I guess...
Rinzai they're...
They're called Goi koans.
And...
Anyway, I don't know exactly the Rinzai system but...
But sometimes they're considered the highest of the series of koans.
Okay.
Anyway, both Sota and Rinzai use...
These five ranks.
Anyway, in the third you...
I think it's generally translated something like...
The coming...
From within the real.
Anyway...
Just enter into your situation.
This stage is...
Same as the eighth...
Bumi.
More or less.
Just do it.
And...
The...
The fourth stage...
You know, there's complete effortlessness.
Samsara and Nirvana are the same thing.
There's just...
Exactly where you are is the fusion...
Of everything.
And...
There's no doubt.
No question in your activity.
Everything is in.
This...
This stage maybe emphasizes the most perfect being.
The fullness of what it is to...
To...
Be alive.
Free from the idea of being and non-being.
In this stage you still have...
Skill and means, you know.
You still...
Employ, maybe, strategic...
Brain, we talked about yesterday.
But it's not different from...
Ultimate.
Indeterminate.
Undetermined.
Mind.
People around you...
In this stage you're really...
Participating in your society completely.
There's no difference between what you want to do and other people want to do.
And...
You seem to be doing what other people want...
You to do.
And they seem to do everything you want to do.
There's no effort.
It's just...
The...
Wheel of the Dharma is getting turned.
I think...
Generally the...
This...
Phrases like...
Snow in a silver bowl.
White bird in the snow is...
Applied to this stage.
Favorite expressions of Suzuki.
And...
The last stage is...
No longer even a strategic brain, you know...
You...
Completely...
You're based on emptiness.
And everybody around you...
No longer even acts through...
They also share...
The same...
Unity.
And that...
Seems being in...
It's not...
Maybe this stage is more rests on non-being...
But actually beyond being a non-being.
This is how I...
The last...
Particularly the last...
Three or four years of Suzuki's life...
Saw Suzuki.
Very close to what we mean by entering Nirvana.
Being dead or alive or...
Active or inactive are exactly the same.
And...
Everything turns by itself.
This...
This kind of...
Through this kind of practice...
You can actually participate...
With...
Not you...
You are able to...
Enter into the...
Great...
Being that's happening.
In a particular sense...
It's a...
Real way to...
Participate in our...
Society.
Suzuki Roshi used to say...
To make our society more human.
Human.
But it looks like...
When you're starting out...
From where we talked yesterday...
That you're trying to get free of your karma.
That's first.
You do have to see what your karma...
Actually is.
And then how to understand...
The world...
And how your processes work...
Five skandhas...
Etc.
If you don't use...
The dharmas...
That's...
Samsara.
The dharmas use you.
Nirvana.
So, as I said yesterday...
Man, when he asked why...
If the air is everywhere...
He just kept fanning himself.
So...
Suzuki Roshi was asked by a...
Great scholar...
Of Buddhism...
One time...
I can't remember...
Exactly...
Complicated...
I was rather amused...
By it...
It was so complicated...
Something like...
If...
I used to think...
The scholar said...
That...
It was...
Being nor...
And non-being...
But also...
Not non-being...
You know...
Something like that...
And then...
Not not non-being...
But now I realize...
It's also not not...
Not not non-being...
Something like that...
He did some trip like that...
And he said to Suzuki Roshi...
What do you think?
And Suzuki Roshi...
Just went on eating...
I don't know what...
The scholar thought about it...
I don't know...
Are there...
Some questions...
You could talk about?
Yeah...
Yeah...
Yeah...
The latter is better...
There's some kind of strategy involved...
Of course...
In...
In...
Conceiving of the five skandhas...
Reducing...
Our experience...
To irreducibles...
And...
There's some...
Strategy in...
In...
The five...
Realms...
I said...
In which we could...
Practice the thought of enlightenment...
But the third realm was emptiness...
And if our strategy is always based on emptiness...
Then you can...
Use some strategy...
So...
We all too have to...
At this particular...
Stage in...
Zen Center's life...
Have to use some strategy...
To ensure its survival...
If we're going to have a place to practice...
But...
If we're attached to Zen Center's survival...
Then...
We...
We might as well not be practicing Zen...
Our strategy...
To save...
Even Buddhism...
Or to turn the wheel of the Dharma...
Has to be based on emptiness...
So, it shouldn't make a whit of difference...
Whether we...
Lose Tassajara...
Or lose Green Geltra...
Whatever...
But...
Still, we should make some effort...
To...
Create a place where we can practice...
Which requires some strategy...
But if the strategy is based completely...
Really...
Doesn't make any difference...
Whether you have Green Geltra or not...
Then you can use some strategy...
And also...
And also...
It's a...
It turns out to be some advantage...
When you wouldn't expect it...
Because...
The people you're being strategic with...
Can't really believe you really don't care...
So...
They feel sorry for you, you know...
And they start trying to help you...
Instead of fighting with you...
That's just a by-product...
Yeah...
The same way you're making a baby...
I don't know, but...
I bet...
I bet your baby starts getting new teeth...
When it's about six years old...
Um...
She...
Said that...
I said...
At some point...
That our problems...
Can benefit others...
And how...
How can we see that our problems benefit others?
It's interesting to me to have...
What I say repeated back...
Because I say...
Oh, did I say that?
And actually I'm quite sure sometimes I didn't say it...
But...
You know...
I...
You know, I sometimes implied it...
Always in the back of my mind...
Like a muse...
Of what I'm saying...
Often I don't say what I'm...
Thinking...
You know, just some...
Muse for it...
But sometimes you hear the muse...
Rather than what I'm saying...
It comes back...
Oh...
So...
I think you just trust your problems, that's all...
Okay?
Yeah?
Lately...
When I'm sitting...
When I'm...
Chatting with you...
You know...
It's...
I...
So when I see you...
Watch your eyes...
I talk to you...
And...
You know, it's a pleasure...
And...
And...
So it's good to...
I don't know who you're fighting with...
Maybe...
Maybe somebody...
Yeah?
Yes, say that again please.
Between what and what?
I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear
you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't
hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I can
hear you walking tonight I hear you walking is the only way I want to know Oh I won't dance at the ball tonight I won't sing at the pub ultimately The votes are in everybody's favour
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Who's supporting you?
Where's Zen Center getting its money from?
If you want to test this idea fully, you know,
go to Los Angeles,
and just start living in Los Angeles somewhere,
and don't work.
And don't do anything with practice Zazen in a room.
And after one month, send us a letter,
and ask us for,
tell us what you need.
Some potatoes, or
some, uh,
should we change, you know, what we're doing.
Tsukuroshi, you know, lived in a
town,
where everybody knew him.
He was practically the leader of the town.
And, uh,
if he didn't, uh, no one in the town
was going to let him starve to death no matter what he did.
That's just practically true.
Both sides, you know, are true.
You can't have one side without the other.
We also have to take into consideration
who is supporting us, and the effect of that.
What you say is, by the way, about
the ups and downs of, uh, support,
is, uh, pretty true.
That, uh,
when Buddhism is supported too much
is when it's, uh,
often been in its worst state.
And when it's, uh, being purged,
or its financial base has been taken away from it,
is when it's been in its best state.
So, uh,
Zen Center, uh,
Tsukuroshi wanted Zen Center to focus on practice,
and not, uh,
get into the situation of being too supported
by society,
or to be quite in the situation of being purged or
not purged. His idea,
ideal, was the, uh,
monks in China,
during, uh,
I don't remember exactly, maybe,
what dynasty it was, but, uh,
there was a great persecution of Buddhism,
and they retreated to the mountains.
And, uh, they just lived, you know,
raising a few vegetables and
hiding out in the mountains.
And the Zen school survived particularly well
because it was able to do this, because it wasn't
dependent on, uh,
buildings and a lot of ritual equipment,
things like that, which was all,
uh,
a lot of it was burned and destroyed and turned into guns and
ammunition and things.
And all they needed were their,
you know, legs.
So,
our idea is more to be like that.
How do we just
take care of ourselves
and practice?
But in any way you do it,
there are some flaws, of course.
And, uh,
as a form of
advice,
if you're
uh,
at the point at which you,
the kind of
statement you've read there,
and the kind of, and Dogen's similar saying
things,
is particularly important for you when you're at the point of
of, uh,
should I practice
Zen or not?
I'm not, my parents will criticize me.
Uh, I won't have,
be able to support my family.
I won't be able to support myself.
Or what kind of, what will happen? I won't have any insurance or
money for
old age or college.
You know, whatever.
A lot of you are in that situation. You have,
don't have
uh, any money.
And you're not
putting aside a nest egg.
And you don't have any way,
if a calamity happens,
to do something about it.
At this point, you just trust your practice.
Whatever it is, you trust it.
You just do it.
But if people do
help you in your practice,
you're,
you also
recognize and are grateful for that.
And Dogen's full of,
you know, that, be grateful for the people who actually help you in your practice.
And by this kind of help, we don't mean just financial help.
We don't know who will help us.
We practice with each other.
And no one knows who will help us in our practice.
And I don't mean financially, I mean
in every way.
You know, we start out with our good friends.
And
the echo, we say, says
donors.
You know.
So, uh,
in practical terms, Zen Center isn't just a group of priests.
We're a combination of laymen and priests
and a general community.
We're creating a kind of Buddhist community.
More like
Roshi's, everybody in Roshi's
town is Buddhist.
No problems with non-Buddhists.
No such thing as a non-Buddhist patron.
Everybody's Buddhist.
And the community
exists.
Some people are farmers and some people do something else.
And if we have a community like this,
if everyone isn't going to be priests,
some people have to be farmers and some people other things.
Ahem.
By participating in this community.
But if you have some idea that
because I'm a priest, I don't have to work, someone will support me,
it's completely wrong.
I know, but
we have to recognize
the practical side of how we
how we live.
You know, how the people here who don't
who don't pay Zen Center
$105 a month
actually the money comes from those of you who do pay $105 a month.
There's some
some feeling in Zen Center about that.
And how do we
in practical terms, that's a very real
situation in Zen Center.
Some of us do pay and some of us don't pay, and why?
Who decides that you or you or you
should be supported by the others?
I forgot to say that you always win the argument.
I know, that's what makes it important.
But I like to fight with you, Phil.
Actually, when people fight with me, it helps a lot.
I always fight with
with Phil.
I used to fight with people, but I always fought with Suzuki Roshi.
Suzuki Roshi, it's wonderful to have somebody like Suzuki Roshi.
I'm not Suzuki Roshi, but
wonderful to have somebody like Suzuki Roshi who can fight me.
But
when we fight with each other, you know, and fight
with ourselves, you know,
in some bigger context, if you recognize
emptiness, of course, then you recognize
that we're
that we are limited beings, you know.
And
we want to
also be the peculiarities of our
fellow practices.
So, sometimes with those peculiarities we fight,
and sometimes with ourselves we fight.
Actually, it's rather fun, because you can fight.
Somebody else?
Oh, I guess so, sure.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
I have a question.
Yeah.
Yeah, Rev and I talked about that, actually,
that it's
it's
hidden power, you know,
some hidden power doesn't mean
you have some power to hide.
Or hidden practice doesn't mean you have some practice to hide.
It means that you develop
that
that your practice
you don't relate to people
in terms of your practice.
If you do that, it's stifling.
Everybody will hate you.
You just relate to people in terms of
this situation or that situation
or whatever it is.
You know, there it is, so you're in it.
You do it.
Your practice is your own thing.
And that relationship,
that's why dok-san is
is private, you know.
No matter what happens in dok-san,
we don't talk about it.
Because you want to create that ability
and space in yourself
to have a dialogue within yourself
which is completely private.
You know, the other end of the scale
is somebody who points out everything.
Isn't that beautiful?
Look at that.
Isn't that nice?
We all have a tendency to do that.
We want to share
what we see as beautiful with others.
To do that to some is fine, you know,
but also
you stop your own appreciation
of situations when you do that.
And you
and the other person is maybe
way into it already, you know,
and you stop him.
You just
you trust that the other person is there.
And if you're there,
then there's no problem, you know.
The other person will be there.
So you have some
space in yourself, you know,
for dok-san and for
your own practice.
Yeah, you
it's
there's some problems you talk about.
We don't show our power.
That's really the same.
I'm powerful.
It's another way of saying I'm powerful.
And that's not what Red meant.
But it's a very
subtle
thing to say.
It's a guy waiting to cross the river,
you know.
I spent all day, you know,
looking for that hat Red said
to cross the river on.
It was full of holes.
Still looking.
Actually,
we
the guy who didn't walk on the water
couldn't have walked on the water.
Anyway,
we
our practice means
to be completely ordinary,
to do the orioke just like the next guy.
Only that way,
you know,
can we enter into the real
turning of the wheel of the Dharma.
Not us with some power.
The great activity,
the great power,
the great activity.
I don't like to use that term.
The great activity
is here for all of us
if we can
enter the eighth stage
of Bodhisattva.
You can all do it, actually.
You're all pretty good.
Ken,
your question is interesting,
you know, and I
I think it's a
very difficult one
for a lot of reasons.
One is we're not very clear about
this problem,
and also we're
just
not a Buddhist society.
And I think at various stages
all of you will
maybe
to use the word agonize,
but agonize over this kind of problem.
And there's no one way.
You know, certainly
many people will leave Zen Center
and go somewhere,
and they will live in a community
and the community
will support them.
That's just as good as this way.
And there are teachers
who will go and
criticize every other teacher.
And there are teachers
who won't criticize
any other teacher.
Doesn't mean the man
who criticizes
other teachers
is wrong.
That's one way to practice.
Don't visit
any other teachers.
Only stay with me.
That's one very good way
to practice.
Suzuki Roshi's way
was the other.
Oh, go anywhere you like.
So,
Zen Center choosing
one particular way
doesn't mean
other ways
aren't good.
It's just
for this particular situation
this is how we worked it out.
And it doesn't mean
sometimes we can't
recommend
entirely the other way.
But actually
you can't just
have some idea
that I'm going to
practice
purely
and everything
will happen okay.
The actual
perception that
is in terms
also of the whole
situation.
And if you're one
with the situation
it works.
you do
have to
if
you know
the idea that Buddha
does it.
Buddha brought us
Tassajara.
Many people have that idea.
And it's true
in the largest sense
it's true
when we all enter
into our activity
fully.
But in the idea that
oh, we don't have to do anything
we'll just stay here
and Buddha will do it.
We wouldn't have Tassajara.
Begging is a very
real
way
to
and
begging means
to receive
without asking.
Just
when you beg
you actually
have a hat
to cover your
eyes.
I think
I told some of you
it was very convenient
for me
because I didn't
know the chant
so I pasted the chant
so I would say
you can't see
but
we haven't yet tried
Takahatsu
but I'm having
two or three hats
sent from Japan
without
chanting it yet
and maybe
we'll try
but even in Japan
Takahatsu brings in pennies
You know, nobody, no temple in Japan supports themselves by takahashi.
If you have a lot of monks, they live very cheaply, you don't have to buy the building,
you don't, like Antaiji does pretty well, but Antaiji survives from a combination of
Uchiyama Roshi writing books on origami, which helps, which brings him a lot of income, and
contributions.
He won't accept anything, so a lot of stuff is brought anonymously, snuck in at night,
and the monk's going out for a lot of time, begging, and you can, in Japan, in that kind
of situation, you can sort of make ends meet, but in most situations, they don't, it's just
a token.
So Roshi tried begging here, you know, and gave up, tried for two weeks, when he first
came, and we've been ready to go begging whenever he said, but every time he's come close to
thinking, we've stopped, but this kind of problem, we have to think of, and the spirit
of it, of course, is what counts, anyway, enough of that, but it's a problem, I think,
for all of us, that we have to think about, and I think we should question what we're
doing here in Zen Center, because I'm not satisfied with what we're doing, but the present
we're doing is the best I know how to work with this group, and of course, you know,
I think now, that Zen Center, we're not doing exactly what I want, mostly, Zen Center is
not exactly the way I would create a Zen group, so, just going, I don't know, I'm amazed,
here it is, talking about going, tomorrow I'm leaving for the city, and, uh,
oh, I'm sorry, partly I have to go anyway, but what I have to do is two things, one is
a wedding, most, I've had some other offers, requests to do weddings, and I've said no,
but this one is rather more complicated, and I've agreed a year or so ago, it's Jack Weller
and Chris, and, uh, we've planned it two or three times, and it's been complicated
because I had to do it with a rabbi, and we have to work out the ceremony, and it's pretty
complicated because it can't occur in San Francisco because of one family, it can't
occur somewhere else because of the other family, her family is Catholic, and, uh, trying
to bring all the elements together, the rabbi and the families and et cetera, we had to
choose a neutral, mountainous location, at a time when it wasn't raining, and, uh, so
I, I'm going to go, it would be too complicated at this point, so I'm sorry I can't do it,
so, I finally, I said alright, I'll do it, and they tried to schedule a time when I was
going to be in the city, and also, um, the reason Ryuho-san's not here is that, uh, Yamada
Ido, Ido Yamada, Yamada Ido, I think his name is, is a close friend of Suzuki Roshi, and,
uh, he's the, uh, equivalent of the president of Zen Center, but he's the president or administrative
head of the Soto sect, and, uh, Soto sects divide up into sort of religious heads and
administrative heads, though they're all priests, and, uh, Yamada is the most important functional
person in the sect, and the other Yamada, who used to be at Los Angeles, who, who I
had my first ordination under, is sort of second head of Eheji, the priest's side of it, you
know, you don't need to know all that, but, you know, Yamada Ido is here in San Francisco
and very much, uh, expects me to come to the city and meet him, I've, uh, supposed to,
should go today, actually, but, uh, I can, if I go tomorrow, I can see him at the airport
before he leaves for Japan, and, uh, I've met him in Japan, the one person Suzuki Roshi
wanted me to see when I went to Japan, and, uh, when the boat was in Yokohama when I first
went, I went over to headquarters in Tokyo, about after 18 taxi rides in confused directions,
and, uh, saw him for about an hour or so, to see him, and also, uh, uh, have to work
some on a couple other things we wouldn't go. Peter Bailey is down here visiting us,
and, uh, thought he'd do some work with me, and with Lou Richmond who came down, and,
uh, Peter's in the back there, sitting in the shadows, looking like some band of napkins
and things. Um, I always exaggerate and say, uh, if it weren't for Peter Bailey, uh, Zen
Center wouldn't, uh, do the, have Tassajara or something like that, and that's a kind
of exaggeration, you know, but, uh, it's very true that Bob Boney's pictures and Peter's
hours and hours and hours of work on the wind bells and the brochures were, uh, really important.
Not only is Peter very good at that kind of work, he's also rare in that, uh, he can allow
other people to work through him. Most people are, who are very good, you know, they have
their way, and they do it their way, and if they're good at designing books of poetry,
their, your wind bell comes out looking like a book of poetry, which is okay. But Peter's
able to be open to, uh, all the elements of the situation, so he's wonderful to work
with, but he, I think he finds me a little difficult to work with. Uh, he claims, I can't
believe it yet, he claims that second brochure, he spent 400 hours working with me. Isn't
that what you're claiming? It's not true. Anyway, he's down here, I don't have anywhere
near even 40 hours anymore, so we're going to try in four hours, maybe, to do something
for the next wind bell and something for green bells. I'll be back, uh, maybe the 7th. I'm
not supposed to tell you. If you don't have any expectation, I'll tell you. Sorry.