I vow to taste the truth of the planet Earth first. interfaith groups. Just to give you a little background. Welcome, Lee. Thank you, Peter. Everybody hear me okay? Can you hear me? Yeah? Good. It's nice to be here, back in Berkeley, after all the... I went to UC for a while, and frequented the Berkeley Zen Center.

[01:08]

Did you notice that the Dalai Lama is in town? I was reading the Chronicle this morning, and the picture of him here, I don't know whether you've seen it, but he's receiving yet another honorary degree. And he's very, I mean, he's so pleased. I saw this actually on television, you know, the Dalai Lama is so pleased, you know, and when receiving these things, and he makes everyone else pleased and surprised. I always wondered what the degree was for. Is it like a PhD in what? I think it's a PhD degree. It's an honorary degree. Perhaps we can all, in our own imagination, write what it's for for him. But it says here that his message, and he's on a pilgrimage for peace.

[02:20]

He's going to be in this country for 16 weeks, I guess. And this one is at USF. His message of world peace and individual happiness. through compassion, affection, and discipline. Compassion, affection, and discipline. Pretty good, huh? You gotta think a lot about each one of those things. The affection I can testify to is a wonderfully affectionate person. Yeah. I was reminded of the old Zendo upstairs in the attic, which had a very low roof. Very low roof.

[03:22]

Back in those days, they used to have this stick. Does Mel ever pick it up? Anyway, it's been outlawed. at Zen Center in the city. Anything significant always has differences of opinion surrounding it, of course. But at the Berkley Zen Center, the old Berkley Zen Center, with the low roof, you couldn't lift that stick up because the roof was there. So when you're trained with the stick, you're always down here. You sort of bent over to compensate for the low roof. Anyway, just thinking of that. I've prepared a little talk here I thought I'd share with you this morning. So let's just relax and enjoy the day.

[04:33]

Sun's going to come out today, I saw that in the paper. And just let go of everything. Let go of our agendas and let go of remembering what I say or don't say. And let go of finally knowing something and finally being someone. Just forget all of that for a little while. Anyway, you can pick it up later with your shoes on the way out. take off his watch. I think it was the magician or someone. How long should the lecture be? And they looked kind of confused and said, well, gee, I don't know. I took my watch off a long time ago. Anyway, so what are we looking for in this life?

[05:38]

And how do we find our place? How do we enter the way of fulfillment and liberation, realization? This is the subject of many faith traditions. In fact, perhaps all faith traditions. I meditate with people from a lot of different faith traditions every month. We take on each other's practices, and this is a common theme. And it's a common theme underlying all the Zen koans, you know, these little stories between teacher and student, where there's hundreds of collections and whatever, and the student always shows up, and perhaps you're a student, and you may show up and ask the question. They sort of all boil down ultimately to maybe to, well, how do I conduct my life?

[06:42]

What should I do? And I'll give you an example. This would be Koan 19 in the Gateless Barrier, Mumenkan. Chow Chow asks Nan Chuan, what is the way? And Nan Chuan said, ordinary mind is the way. That wasn't much help, was it? And then Chow Chow asked, should I try to direct myself towards it? You know, okay, we're getting somewhere, let's go. And Nguyen says, if you try to direct yourself, you betray your own practice. Then you're sort of thrown back on your heels again. Chow Chow asks, well how can I know the way if I don't direct myself towards it? Nanchuan says, the way is not subject to knowing or not knowing.

[07:45]

Knowing is delusion, not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine way, you will find that it's vast and boundless as outer space. How could this be discussed at the level of going or coming? Is that a lot of help? So we never seem to get an answer. Yet we keep on asking. We're left standing there with our body and mind and the question of, well, what now? And the Buddha, while dying, said, he said, follow your own light. Observe clearly. Do the work of liberation. Apply yourself. Apply yourself. On the Han, I didn't read your Han, but generally speaking, on the Han, that sounds, you know, the word Han means bored in Chinese.

[08:58]

That summons you to Zazen. It calls the monks, and it's written on the Han usually, don't waste time, practice diligently. But I don't have time. I'm overbooked. But actually, you know, practice doesn't take any time or space. It's a neat thing about practice. No time or space. Just let go and do your life. Step up, you're at bat. Stay relaxed, be alert, in simple awareness. Now, well, how do you do that? How do you do that? Just do it.

[10:08]

And you are doing it. Oh, I can't. I can't do it. Too much is going on. I'm too busy running back and forth. Well, I have a suggestion for us. Well, let's simplify our life. Do some of the things I've been putting off and then go take a walk outside. You know, I have a number of grandchildren, and some of them are like toddlers. And you know how they're always going. And sometimes you try this, and you try that, and then this toy isn't working anymore, and whatever. And then they start squiggling, and that's the time you give it back to the mother. But actually, it seems to work if you take them outside. They come right down and outside is a wonderful place for babies and people.

[11:17]

It's said that simple awareness is the fullness of life. And what do you find on that path of simple awareness? Here it is. Simple awareness. Is it simple? Don't answer that. You just complain. I'm making things complicated. Well, simple awareness. Well, the next breath, maybe? Or maybe this breath? Are you halfway through your breath? Let's let go of the complex stuff. Just let go of all the complex stuff. Be naive and don't anticipate too much. Very, very simple, our practice, but very, very hard to do, if not impossible.

[12:24]

We seem to need help. We seem to need help to be, to be. Odd, isn't it? And what is the help? Well, sometimes it's these forms, these practices, maybe, to help us recollect our existence. Some of us come to religion looking for what's missing. Sensing something may be close, something with no name, something without a form, but present, some possibility. It's said that the word religion, and I'll read this because I looked it up, points to that area of human experience, one way or another, where we come upon the mystery as a summons to pilgrimage, where we sense beyond and beneath what we think of

[13:55]

as realities of everyday life, a reality no less real because it can only be hinted at in myths and rituals where we glimpse a destination that we can never fully know until it reaches us or is it already here. If we would only Is it something that might complete us? Something that we're missing? As Chau Chu asked Nan Chuan, what is the way? Now, some people look for the way at the top of the spiritual mountain, the holy mountain. Take your pilgrimage up there.

[14:58]

Mount Tamalpais, have you been to Mount Tamalpais? Ever climb up there or go up to the top of Mount Tamalpais? That's our East Bay spiritual mountain. The Dalai Lama, when he was around a number of years ago, went to various spiritual mountains, Mount Shasta, Mount Tamalpais. I don't know where, did he go to Grizzly Peak? I'm not sure. He made a tour of the various spiritual mountains, sacred mountains, and what might you find at the top if you were to go at the top of the sacred mountain? What's up there? What's on top of Mount Tamalpais? A what? A fire lookout. A fire lookout. An observatory. So you've been there, huh?

[16:05]

You know, when I bowed before the altar, I was looking for Manjushri. Is Manjushri on the altar? Where? Is that Manjushri with the, what? Yeah? Manjushri. The little one in the front, yeah. Usually Manjushri, usually, I don't know, is it usually? A green gulch, Manjushri is this really big statue, and Shakyamuni Buddha is this smaller statue, and I think generally speaking in Zen, Zen does, or maybe, or there's Manjushri is predominant, Bodhisattva of wisdom. So what you find is Manjushri, who is the mountain on top of the earth. And Manjushri is practicing, taking no time or space to do it, panoramic, calm, abiding, non-judgmental, awake.

[17:24]

That's Manjushri practicing there. So, Stephen Mitchell's book, Parables and Portraits, is a story about Mount Sinai. Has anybody been to the top of Mount Sinai? You have? Wow. Well, thank you. I looked it up on the web and I saw pictures and everything. I read about Mount Sinai and it's in the Sinai Peninsula, as you may know, just south of Israel, and it's pretty high. There's a series of peaks there and I won't get too technical about it, but let's call it 7,000 feet high. There's a short story about what happened at the top of Mount Sinai I'd like to share with you since we wonder what happens at the top of the spiritual mountain.

[18:33]

And it's the mountain that Moses climbed to receive God's commandments and from which I'm told Mohammed ascended into heaven. Did you know that? So let's climb up that 7,000 foot mountain. that Moses climbed, in Mohabbat, I guess, and see and hear what happened up there. The monks of St. Catherine's Monastery, which is at the bottom, more or less, of the mountain, carved in 4,000 steps. Probably started at the 3,000 foot level. They carved them in, all the way up. And we should bring some water with us. because I think Moses must have brought some water with him. So let me read you this parable of Mount Sinai. This is Stephen Mitchell.

[19:37]

Okay. Everyone knows what happened at the bottom of Mount Sinai. I'm not sure. I was going to look it up. I think I know what happened at the bottom of Mount Sinai. But no one mentions what happened at the top. In a way, this is unavoidable. The eye can't see itself. The equation can't prove itself. Nonetheless, a few of our sages have spoken about what happened at the top. In order to say anything, they had to be there. So here's what they said. There's a series of sages. Rabbi Levi said, on the top of Mount Sinai, Moses was given the choice of receiving the commandments or seeing God face to face.

[20:43]

He knew that he could not see God without first dying. It was like looking into a mirror with no reflection inside. Rabbi Ezra said, Moses did receive a commandment, but only one commandment, only the first. All the others blended into silence as all colors blend into white. The next rabbi said, Moses received only the first phrase of the first commandment. I am the unnameable. Rabbi Elanan said, Moses saw on Sinai what he had heard from the burning bush. There was just one message, I am. Rabbi Samuel said, not even that. The only word the unnameable whispered was I. And Rabbi Yoshi said, in the Holy Tongue, it is Anokhi, Alpha, Nun, Kalf, Yod.

[22:01]

What Moses received from God was the first letter of I. But Aleph is a silent letter. Rabbi Yoshi said, just so. So now we know what happened. So he's up there. You are up there. Thanks for climbing. And he stood there in silence. And in an immense silence. It's nice to be silent in the Zen, though. One person said that it's so large when you're silent with people. He said, in this immense silence, receiving the truth of everything.

[23:03]

The silence penetrating and supporting all things. Acknowledging all things. Hearing, seeing, tasting all things. A simple awareness of all things forever. The silence that includes all truth, which is an expression of unconditional love. Unconditional love. One may be reminded of The first koan of the Book of Serenity. The world honored one ascends the seat. One day the world honored one ascended the seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and said, clearly observe the dharma of the king of dharma.

[24:17]

The king of dharma is thus. The world honored one, then got down from the seat. And just like in your zendo and our zendo, maybe they're both our zendo, mind you, Sri, that mountain is sitting on top of that altar, acknowledging you. without an agenda. And that simple awareness, as you may know, is healing. It's a healing thing. Silence, awareness, acknowledgement, without, non-judgmental rather, without judgment, it's a healing thing. Listening just to someone,

[25:20]

with an open heart, without an agenda. That's a transforming act. Simple awareness is a transforming act. And that's our challenge, our mission, is to somehow reside in simple awareness. Out of simple, we might worry, oh my gosh, aren't there a lot of things to do? Well, you can do them in simple awareness. Well, Buddha was no stranger to sacred mountains.

[26:23]

The Prajnaparamita Sutra, mother of the Buddhas, begins this way. Thus I once heard, this must be Ananda talking, the Lord dwelt on Vulture Peak with a large gathering. He sat cross-legged on his lion throne and entered the king of Samadhi. The Samadhi which contains and encompasses combines all Samadhis. I wonder if that's simple awareness. His whole body became radiant. All the beings lit up and illuminated by these dazzling light rays became focused upon the unexcelled true and perfect enlightenment. Hells were abolished and became empty. The blind saw, the hungry were fed, The insane became sane.

[27:29]

The distracted became concentrated. And so on. What credible healing power? Oh, silence has, simple awareness. Arjun Amaro, I guess, He was Bhikkhu Amaro back then, came to Green Gulch and gave us a teaching. He's a Theravadan monk and he said that when the Buddha entered the room, if you're in a room and the Buddha entered the room, everybody's neurotic machinery would grind to a halt. It was like impossible to activate your stuff, you know. in the presence of the Buddha. I don't think he was holding a stick either, but he might.

[28:34]

He takes that form occasionally. Yeah. Babies are like that. I noticed when a baby visited us, one of our granddaughters from the East, Everybody came over and it was like inside, outside, the doors were open, it was a nice day. And every now and then it might be your turn to be with the baby and the baby would be on the floor on a blanket like this. And when, there's a lot of orbits, you know, further and further away from the baby, conversations and things happening. But as you get close to the baby, everything calms down. And now you're there with the baby. And all of a sudden, all the, you know, it's all gone. All your neurotic machine, all your agendas, they're not there anymore. It's just you and the baby. And then as you move further and further away from the baby, you think, so I crank it up again, you know. Yeah, things seem to gain perspective when you're in the presence of Buddha.

[29:48]

perspective. My wife Martha was recently visited by suffering of a number of friends and then by the death of close friend Peter, many years, very old friend. And it was almost too much, you know, those things can happen. And early the next morning, we're living at Muir Beach and we can look out the window see the ocean and the hill. She looked out that window early in the morning, she looked up at the hill and she announced, I'm going to climb that hill. It's the one that touches the ocean at the end of Green Gulp. The sky was overcast, it's on the ocean. She invited me to go along, but I thought, well, maybe she wanted to be alone.

[30:50]

And she was gone for a while, and a while later she came back, entered the house, took off her coat, and gazed back up that hill. She was a little sweaty and open-eyed and flush. She observed that all her concerns seemed to settle into a perspective in the presence of the vastness on the side of that hill. Everything came into perspective. Peter's spirit seemed to have spread out and permeated the world on the side of that hill, outside. Nothing changed, but everything was different. I mean, that seems like a great perspective. It takes some effort to sit and open to it all, climb that mountain.

[32:06]

Or maybe we're always climbing. How many times have I arrived at the cushion and was surprised at recollecting something? I'm back. It's like a surprise. Beyond words, you can't articulate it. You don't know what it is. Something I had forgotten, but now I remember. But I can't articulate it. Sometimes when I sit, I feel like a mountain. You ever feel like a mountain? Just like a mountain.

[33:10]

There's a retreat at Tassajara called Sit Like a Mountain. Let the river flow. And let the wind blow. Let the volcano erupt. Let the birds sing. I think there's some trees in bloom even now. I saw some wildflowers left. I remember climbing the ridges around Green Gulch. You can climb up on these ridges. Normally you're down in this valley ridges. You go up on top of these ridges there and you're on top, out there, in it all. It is a kind of joy, I think, and a question, like, why don't I do this more often?

[34:23]

Whatever it is. That's about all I have to say. I thought I'd read you this dedication we do at San Quentin after each sitting. You're going to feel a solidarity with the guys and women. We say, we extend clear and magnanimous mind throughout space and time for the benefit of all sentient beings. We dedicate the merit of our recitation of the Heart Sutra, which we usually chant, but today, just our presence here, to our great teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, our great founders, Zen Master A.H.

[35:39]

Dogen and Zen Master K.Zan Jokan, and we further dedicate this recitation and our meeting here today to all teachers of truth throughout the worlds, to heads of state, may they lead us in wisdom, to all those who are suffering, to all those who have died in great travail, and to those who have died unborn. Let us now hold these in our hearts. This is the practice of all the Buddhas.

[37:08]

May we and everyone realize the way of perfect compassion and understanding. Should I ask if anyone wants to ask anything? Yeah? Yeah? There's a passage in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind alluding to ... I think it says something to the effect, when you go to Yosemite, what you'll see are these mountains.

[39:24]

Some to that effect. And my teacher in New York would say that while many people feel that Ganges is the holy river, the Hudson, too, is a holy river. And when I think about that with your talk in mind, I think, boy, is there anything more to those teachings than mountains are just mountains and rivers are just rivers? We shouldn't be attached to these special places. And at the same time, when we do go to certain places, world, there's a feeling that is evoked. Can you talk a little bit about that? Well, the special place is special to us, right? Not to everyone. Not everyone who goes there feels like perhaps it's a special place, but it seems to be a Dharmagate or a symbol or a help. to recollection.

[40:35]

It's like this room, this altar, Shakyamuni Buddha's image on the altar. What's that saying? It would burn in a fire. It would melt. It's nothing special, except insofar as all things are very special. And that image reminds us that everything is very special, but it itself has no inherent specialness. It just participates in universal specialness. We're not dependent on it. If we were dependent on it, that would be idolatry. being dependent upon or having a fixed view of an idea.

[41:41]

I remember Mel, your teacher, Sergeant Weitzman, was in the high seat at a shuso ceremony, I think, a ceremony where the teacher is questioned by the congregation. The student came, this is, you know, each one of you now has to think of a question, step forward in front of everyone and deliver it to the teacher who will then respond and then you get to, you know, if there's a confrontation that occurs, very highly charged, it can be. And the student came up to Sogen all full of, you know, ideas of, paradoxes and contradictions and delivered, said something to Sojin, who said, said something, and the students said, well, how can you say that?

[42:45]

You're the abbot. How can you say that? You're a Buddhist. And Mel said, no, I'm not. The student said, but you're Abbott. And Mel said, it wasn't a condition of my being Abbott that I be a Buddhist. I took care of that idolatry, that viewpoint. So things are shifting. Everything is defining everything else. Nothing really stands still, a little bit, a little bit for like, maybe the altar's standing still, this room, maybe, I don't know. We make it stand still with our ideas about it, right? But actually there's a lot happening here. Yeah, it's all how we think of it, how we treat it, how we treat each other.

[43:55]

I like the, Can I go on? This idea of interdependence and therefore the lack of substantiality of special places. When you have a word and you look it up in a dictionary, what do you find? More words. And then you can look up each one of those words and what do you find? More words in each one of those words. And you can go on. It isn't long before you're actually getting back to the word, defining something that you thought was defining it. And there's no, you reach in there and pull a word out. What is this thing? It's like, it has meaning only because of its relationship to all these other words which are defining it and all the other definitions.

[44:59]

The whole thing's floating, a meaning space floating there, and each thing, when you pull it out, isn't anything. It's like, it's nothing. Without pulling forward all the other things, then it's something. So, the magic mountain functions exactly like that. Any other questions? Yeah? As a social activist, I sometimes wonder if my practice really does help anyone else. I know it helps me. And I just wanted to say I'm so touched by the dedication that you read from Sam Quinton because it never really occurred to me that a group of people in Sam Quinton would be practicing with that kind of dedication in mind. And I had four miscarriages. who died before they were born deeply touches me.

[46:01]

And so I'd like to say thank you to you, and I'd like for them to know that it really helps me. I'll share that with them. Thank you. Yeah, they think a lot about how to help. people in Sacramento do. It's not easy to help. Maybe that's one of the hardest things about being in penitentiary. The whole world is going on and you sort of Some people really want to do something and be helpful. And they're forced to, there's a lot to do in a penitentiary.

[47:14]

A penitentiary is like a village, actually. A lot of other people there, a lot of suffering. There's a lot to do there. But then there's the whole world, and you're sort of cut off from it. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Are we going to do an after the lecture chant? Good.

[48:11]

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