I've been trying to talk about the relationship between the identity of conduct and samadhi in the city and at Green Gulch, and I'd like to try to continue talking about it in the same way. Can you hear in the back? No? Yes? I'm not sure I'll holler, but you know. How to find that peace in the midst of, within our activity.

[01:01]

within the forms without being caught by them. You know, generally in all the initiations in Buddhism, when you get down to what they're really talking about, they're talking about the precepts and conduct. And the precepts usually express what you shouldn't do.

[02:09]

from the point of view of the void. What you are is already enough. You don't have to add anything. So don't steal something. Don't be attached to something. Don't take what is not given. That's the second precept. But all the precepts are. What you always are saying, what you are, is And if you...something more, seeking outside yourself, no. But that way of speaking, based on emptiness, wasn't enough for Mahayana Buddhism, and we developed the six paramitas which are much more positive, more active. Instead of just, do not take what is not given, actively you practice giving. So the six paramitas are giving and conduct and patience and energy and samadhi

[03:39]

wisdom. Perhaps the most fundamental of all is conduct, but you can't say conduct in Buddhism without also saying samadhi. Some collected pure empty activity or state of mind. But before you can have conduct, you have to have generosity of spirit. And so giving is first, just as in the ten bhumis, the first one is joy. But it comes from being able to give, being free of conflicting emotions. And the ultimate gift, committing yourself to the welfare of all beings,

[05:06]

The whole secret of Mahayana Buddhism is, until you make such a commitment, there is no samadhi, true samadhi, possible. So the first bhumi, you know, emphasizes your own personal conduct, and the second boon, the stainless one, emphasizes your social conduct. As the Eightfold Path emphasizes your conduct, right livelihood, right action, right speech, But first, you know, even in the eightfold path comes wisdom, right views, before we talk about conduct. So conduct and wisdom, or samadhi, are one expression

[06:28]

how to actually help others or be concerned for the welfare of other people is a pretty big problem for us, because certainly we're not do-gooders, and we don't make some effort, conscious doing effort to help others. Of course, you may do something obvious, is necessary, but the helping we mean is actually practicing Buddhism. But that sounds rather, you know, like the cat chasing its tail. This was always a a big problem for me. And here at Tassajara, in the first two Mondo question and answer ceremonies with Suzuki Roshi, my questions were on this point, as I related in the city, Green

[08:11]

I think the first statement I made was something like... I expressed something like, in Buddhism we always talk about accepting our troubles, accepting other people's troubles, accepting things as they are. And I felt that this accepting might... maybe it helps us, you know, who practice. Maybe it helps you and those who practice with you. But does it really help anybody else? At that time I wasn't sure, you And I quoted the poem, you know, about the bamboo which moves, you know, back and forth in the wind and sweeps in the shadow of it, sweeping across the stairs and not disturbing the dust of the stairs. Or, and I quoted the poem, you know,

[09:44]

sitting quietly doing nothing. Spring comes, grass grows by itself. Those are wonderful feeling poems. But I said, shouldn't we actually disturb the dust sometimes? Accepting everything, we have to go beyond accepting everything. that some self-satisfaction, you know, I was expressing. And in the next mondo, ceremony, I said, for the big mind, the bridge flows. You know, there's some Zen story, Dogen commented on it too, Usually we say, the river flows and the bridge stays still. In Zen we say, the bridge flows. So I said, for the big mind, the bridge flows. If everything has such independence, how can we find our own responsibility? Hence, as if you actually sat right under your own feet.

[11:11]

But I didn't know at that time that to give everything its own independence is to find your own responsibility, to help others. We need to understand the silent lecture. the one finger zen, the spaces in between. If you're too attached, you know, to the dust on the stairs, you won't understand how the bamboo is helping. just blowing. It's okay. It doesn't mean you shouldn't sweep the stairs. But if you try to help people in the realm of doing only, and not also in the realm of

[12:42]

You won't understand how everything is helping, how you can move with that, or not even move, just not interfere. When not to interfere is so much more important than what to do. How not to interfere? You can practice, you know, that by in small details. You can't practice is in details, not in something big. When you have the desire to say something, and that desire is quite full, right on the tip of your tongue and mind, body, you can just not say anything. Something will be happening. some fullness is there. When you can let everything have its fullness, but not quite express it. An ability to stay with the fullness and quit trying to avoid it by some special practice or expression. Just staying with the fullness is Samadhi.

[14:14]

Lou Welch has a new book out, which I don't think any of you have down here yet. It just came out. Maybe so, but only in the last week or something, called Ring of Bones. and didn't ring a bong. Lou, by the way, when I first came to California, took me to the beach, at Muir Beach. I'd never seen the Pacific Ocean before, and he brought me there, and we sat on what he he said was the rock that used to wobble that he wrote Wobbly Rock poem about. He began to talk about wanting to marry two rocks with a rope in a Japanese style, and

[15:47]

began asking how you did it in some detail, and he said, if I had my shippe here, I had to beat you. And that's the first I heard of that side of Zen practice, and I thought it was quite interesting. So, it's interesting now, we are located, you know, at the Mirror Beach with Green 13 or 14 years later. Anyway, Liu has a poem in the back of the book, I think page 165, called Invention Against Invention. And at Greenbelt, I read most of the poem, but I'll let you read it. He takes in this poem what he calls a poet's walk. He walks along Market Street. And he is quite open, maybe completely open,

[17:18]

what people are doing and their suffering. And he becomes more and more disturbed by it, by the inventions of people therein. And he cries out, you know, in the poem, for any form, any shape beyond invention And he has some vision or reference in the poem several times to a deer leaping out of the brush suddenly. As being a shape or form beyond invention,

[18:18]

He finally sought that shape himself, going off into the brush in the Sierra land where he wanted to build a house, and where the Shobo Arm is now being built, and where Gary is calling his Zendo, Ring of Bone Zendo. Sukhyoji talked about saying everything is an echo of our own mind. But to stand that kind of poet's walk, which is unavoidable in your life, actually, if you try to avoid it, you'll destroy yourself. You won't really be alive. But if you open yourself up to it, it will consume you.

[20:10]

And so we need Samadhi, steadfastness. The eighth Bhumi is steadfastness. Steadfastness. When you're no longer disturbed by cause or lack of cause, when you find the world, you pervade the world with friendliness, That kind of strength comes from zazen. Zazen is a seeking for a form beyond invention, like the deer or like the bamboo, some form where we're not caught by our own forms. some fullness, some fullness of every form that's there before activity. And if we can say that, it means it is activity, but not some invented activity.

[21:48]

So giving, the first paramita, means not just to be open, as in a poet's walk, to other people's suffering, but giving yourself completely to their suffering. Being willing to be them, willing to sacrifice your body and mind, actually it means that. To see yourself as just another person, to see yourself as actually equal to other people, without any reservation of, I'm going to practice and They're good, but I'll practice and make it first. I'll practice and then I'll help others." If you find any such ideas in yourself, you should

[23:13]

find some way to deepen your practice. And only through, almost only through zazen or through meditation or samadhi, certainly only through samadhi can we recognize the absolute equality, you know, so that you can actually accept the suffering of others. And, you know, we have in Buddhism the same kind of idea as in Christianity, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat others as you would treat yourself. But also in Buddhism we say, do unto others as they wish to be done unto. Treat others as they want to be treated, you know, as

[24:23]

example I used was, if a person wants to be a robber, treat them as a robber. It's actually rather amusing to do so. Robbers don't like to be treated like robbers. But you can help people. by being able to enter completely into their situation without some reservation or fear for yourself, fear of loss of your own identity or balance. So, the second Bhumi again is conduct, or the stainless one. That presence, that can't be contaminated, can't be.

[25:32]

no longer passes on, you know, the great psychosomatic illness of anger and colds, etc. reversing that snowball. Giving up your own

[26:41]

preferences, even lifetime preferences, for just some small way, just now, to help someone. That secret, that opportunity, that ability, is the same as entering into the practice of our teachers. of Suzuki Yoshi, of his teachers, and of Buddha, to share in the merit, to enter into the merit of all those who have practiced the Buddhas and patriarchs. If you can't enter without disturbance the suffering of others, you can't enter the way of

[28:19]

Okay. are what we cultivate, what we plow in Buddhism, are the Buddha fields, which means our recognition of each other as Buddha. It's not enough to

[29:26]

recognize us each as some human being. There's something left out. We are Buddha and ordinary individual person. When you see that, you see the fullness of each person. And entering into their difficulty is no problem. It was interesting to see carpenters at work, Japanese, especially this one carpenter who's so good. Maybe he's one of the three or four best carpenters in Japan, so one of the best carpenters in the world. I was watching him work and he was

[30:42]

making from his head, these complicated joints for a window. Finished each piece, each cut, he would bevel the edges and then plane it smooth. Then he'd cut off what he just beveled and plane smooth. Then he'd bevel and plane smooth and then cut off In other words, each step he completed, and he went to the next. And I remarked to someone, to an American carpenter who was there watching, how calm each step is, something like that I said. And he said, the American watching, Yes, how calm the carpenter is, you know, something like that. But the carpenter was, it wasn't the carpenter who was calm, it was the conduct which was calm. Each step was calm. You can't say the carpenter was calm. He was calm because he completed each step.

[32:13]

And then he went to the next step. And that rhythm and process produced this window, which then he just went snap, snap, fit together, and it fit right in the hole in the wall. And he hadn't made any measurements. And it fit just perfectly. The wood just went, you know, play even. But it was so interesting to see, because for him, conduct and calmness were the same. Calmness came from the conduct, and the conduct came from the calmness. No space there at all. So you have to be able to give yourself up to the situation with no trace of self or other, and then your conduct can begin to be samadhi.

[33:54]

In this way, we mean when we say the vehicle in, or the real secret is, are the precepts. Samadhi and conduct. The other paramitas are very closely related. Giving comes first, then conduct. But actually you have to have patience and energy. Now you need energy, and over time you need patience, and then samadhi, and then wisdom. Finding ways to practice perfectly in each moment. Whatever your situation is, even some very disturbing thought, finding that

[35:38]

calmness within it. Do you have anything we should talk about, a question? Yeah? What does your question mean?

[36:42]

Sometimes I see consciousness in myself, and sometimes I see it in others. I'd like to know how to avoid it altogether. Avoid it, but see it and be done with it. Your desire to avoid righteousness, your idea of thinking it can be avoided, is some way, actually, of letting righteousness continue. If you want to, badly enough, you'll find some way. So, to just envelop

[38:18]

go on right by it without paying it much heed. We shouldn't let obstacles keep backing us up. Avoiding obstacles just don't give them so much importance. Thank you for having me. I realize that's a confusing thing to say. And the only way to find out is minutely, you know, helping others, working with others, being with other people in their own situations.

[39:49]

You really find there's no alternative. You can't say, oh, don't do it that way. Really, you have no choice but to help them. How are you going to pull your next job? And you can discuss it with them. Oh, that doesn't seem so safe. I'm worried about you. If you do that, you'll get in trouble. I see why you want to do it. Some kind of discussion you can have, accepting his premises, but worrying about him. He wants, if a person is a robber, he wants you to be in conflict with him or he wouldn't be robbing. So, a person who does what we call bad activity or something negative, the whole purpose is he wants to be bad, you know? So, he creates some space. And if you continue that space, that's what he wants, that negative space. But if you join him, he doesn't know what to do. You've taken that negative space away.

[41:15]

Then when you're on his side, why should he steal something? He may still do it, but you'll feel funny. Are you religious? I don't know, but I'm interested in being. Do you have to worry about whether it's a religion or not then? If you're religious, then we'll be religious. If you're not then will be something interesting. Zen isn't apart from you. I can't say it's a religion. It's what you most completely are, and if you include religion or some religious feeling, then it's a religion.

[42:37]

Usually people who are robbers, too, are very concerned with honesty, more concerned than we are. If you're not a robber, that is. Last time I met a robber, quite recently, he seemed very unhappy about the trade. He was asking to meet somebody who would tell him to stop. But doing that left me with a little bit of discomfort and a little bit of creeping. It was okay at the time.

[43:56]

Next time you see him, if you see him again, Maybe if he wants you to tell him to stop, don't. Just say, oh, please. What are you going to rob next? Anyway, you should do something. Don't do just what he expects you to do, to tell him to stop. If you join him greedily, that won't help. But if you obviously are not going to join him, But still, you say, actually, we're all robbers. We're always trying to steal some reputation or convince other people of something. It's not quite so, or hide something. It's a kind of stealing or deception. A little bit afraid they'll see us as we really are.

[45:27]

And so we steal our own opportunity. Everything you do is immediately duplicated a thousand times. Yeah. I'm giving. You mean, is there anything to be given before you've accepted yourself and forgotten yourself? There's not something you can give. I think you know.

[46:59]

the answer. Maybe you can only give by practicing Buddhism. What we want to give is actually like the bamboo. No effect, no trace, and yet some activity, some space. Is it true that life is somehow worthless as a bodhisattva who feels non-attributed support? Is it true that life is somehow worthless?

[48:10]

It's worthless to be a bodhisattva unless you achieve satori? Can you possibly, like the question that came before, if it's the practice of the bodhisattva to help others, and his ability to help is based on samadhi, conduct based on samadhi, what can one do in the world That's a very good question. That's the question I was asking. it's pretty hard to answer your question completely, because samadhi and sattori and bodhisattva are rather complicated words.

[49:48]

until you've just heard them over and over again, you know, used, and spent some years, you know, practicing with them. So, to talk about them, because your question has things in it. But giving in Buddhism is not based on some gain. the gain of satori, or enlightenment, but based on compassion. And compassion is a pretty difficult word, but the practice of giving is, through the practice of giving, you'll come to understand or express compassion. And giving is based on compassion. being open, being willing to be consumed in the poet's walk. That willingness is a bodhisattva's activity. It's not important, gain or samadhi or actually. That willingness, that willingness in its purest form is samadhi. If you're completely willing, that's

[51:15]

So, you can't wait around till I'm completely willing, you just have to start now. And that starting is the Bodhisattva's vow or effort. And the more you make that clear and deep, the more you open that vow up, that's the Bodhisattva's life. And there's no actual alternative. As soon as you, once you've seen that, once you've taken a poet's walk like Lew Welch did. There's no way to ever forget how to do something. How to do something, and every something you try isn't enough. So, how to do formlessness, or emptiness, or some shape beyond invention. So, to do something means some big effort. That big effort is Buddhism. Is the recognition of your actual Buddha nature.

[52:41]

And it's not something distant from you, something I'm talking about or something in Sutras. More than something in Sutras, it's what you actually write now.

[53:08]

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