Good evening. Welcome everyone. Can you hear me? Can the people on the Zoom hear me? Great. So this week, traditionally, we celebrate Shakyamuni Buddha's Great Awakening. Traditionally, there's a week of sashimi. We don't have the facilities to do that now. I will continue the celebration of this that started yesterday. So, 2,500 years ago, more or less, on Wednesday, the 8th, the great Buddha Shakyamuni awakened. and became liberated and freed himself from all of his ancient, twisted karma, realized great freedom.

[01:07]

And that experience we all celebrate this week and we invoke it through our zazen. So in our zazen we have a chance to partake of what Buddha Shakyamuni realized. And part of that was a sense of great wonder, deep illumination, a deep interconnectedness. He saw how wondrous and awesome reality is. He saw the ultimate, the universal, the reality of suchness. And he said that when he awakened the whole world, all beings, all people, earth, grass, and trees, mountains, rivers, everything was awakened.

[02:25]

So this great experience we can get a taste of in our zazen as children of Buddha. So I want to invoke Shakyamuni's awakening through the words of one of his great descendants, one of our ancestors, Hongshuo Zhongshui. He was a 12th century Chinese Soto Saodong, a Chinese teacher, a great-uncle of Edo Gen, who recites him often, the founder of Japanese Soto Zen. So I'm going to read one of his practice discussions, instructions, from this book, Cultivating the Empty Field. This one's called, Return to the Source and Serve the Ancestors.

[03:42]

So this is a way of invoking Shakyamuni Buddha's Great Awakening. So he said, those who produce descendants are called ancestors. Where the source emerges is called I'm sorry, where the stream emerges is called the source. After beholding the source and recognizing the ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, be steadfast and do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. So this return to the source, he says, where the stream emerges, It's called the Source. This is a way of talking about full, deep awakening. This is a way of talking about non-separation.

[04:51]

So, part of what Shakyamuni Buddha, and all Buddhas, realize when awakening arises from the source is this experience of, well, there's various words, but they don't touch it, but the ultimate, the universal, suchness. And Zen is sometimes called the source. This is not the source like some creator deity. This is the source that is always right now. And Shakyamuni returned to the source, where the streams flow forth. And part of that is to see that, to see this non-separation, to see that we are all deeply, deeply, all of we beings, are deeply interconnected,

[05:58]

we all flow forth from the source into the ocean of all being. So the Buddha saw this. And it was wonderful. And it is wonderful. So he says, after beholding the source and recognizing The ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, be steadfast and do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. So when we turn around to see, to turn the light within and illuminate ourselves, this is here, this great source. So Hong Cho continues, If you do not succumb, then all beings will show the whole picture.

[07:07]

All beings. Wake up and in turn the ground, the roots, and the dust are clearly cast off. All of our distractions, all of the attachments, all of our aversions, all of our fears, Let go. Although empty of desires, with deliberation, cut off transcendent... cut off transcendent comprehension. Although all of these desires and deliberations are cut off, transcendent comprehension is not all sealed up. It's not locked away. Perfect, bright understanding is carefree amid the thousand images and cannot be confused.

[08:13]

So our practice is not to shut ourselves off and hang out in the middle of what is wondrous, this wondrous awakening, but to allow it to spring forth. Within each Desmo is vast abundance. So we will chant later, Dharma gates are boundless, we've got to enter them. Each bit of dust contains a hole. This interconnectedness is something that we have learned more deeply in the last two years with this pandemic that affects all of us, the virus that is everywhere, that maybe We'll continue to be here in various ways. We can be vaccinated to protect ourselves from it, but also through our inter-sangha activities, through our Zoom practice.

[09:18]

Can they all still hear me on Zoom? Great. So we have people who join our sangha from many different states and different countries. We all can connect in this way. within each dust moat is vast abundance, within each box on the zoom window is vast abundance. In a hundred thousand samadhis, all gates are majestic, all dharmas are fulfilled. Still, Manjusha says, you must gather them together and bring them within. So how do we see How do we bring ourselves to the mountains and rivers, to all beings in Africa and Asia and Australia and California and even Michigan?

[10:23]

How do we see this deep connectedness? All dharmas are fulfilled. Still you must gather them together. and bring them within. To reach the time honored, return to the source and serve the ancestors, join together into unity, scrutinize yourself, and go on. So we continue. We see this great wondrousness and suchness of illumination. but then we carry that out into our activity with all beings. So along with seeing, feeling, tasting this resplendent illumination, this is responsive.

[11:26]

So he talks about serving the ancestors. The ancestors are, you know, the lineage of ancestors from Shakyamuni Buddha through Sixth Ancestor and Bodhidharma and down to Hongzhe and Dogen and Tsuki Roshi and all of us. And it's also the ancestors of the future. How do we take care of the future ancestors? This is our job. To carry on this practice, to convey it, so that future ancestors will also awaken and see this wonder. part of this is caring for the suffering of the world. In the Bodhisattva way, we see this deep interconnectedness, this deep wonder. But then, how do we express it? How do we share it? How do we let it flow into the ocean of all beings? How do we each, in our own way, do that? So I want to talk about something from

[12:31]

a great Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, who was one of the originators of Buddhist-Christian dialogue. So he was talking about not just all beings, but especially marginalized beings. And he says this in terms of monks, how monks are, what home leavers are. But for us, practicing here in Chicago or wherever all the Zoom people are, we take care of this in the world around us. So Thomas Merton said that for monks, and I think for us we can say committed practitioners, take care of the marginalized because we are marginalized.

[13:35]

He says the monastic or the practitioner is the committed marginal person outside the mundane world of society but concerned for the ultimate spiritual state of all beings. So let me take this backward step when we settle into this ongoing practice of sasana and awareness, something happens. We go beyond the fame and gain of the consumer's commercial world around us. So practitioners are concerned for the ultimate spiritual state of all beings. Merton talks about monks as marginal persons who withdraw deliberately to the margin of society, thereby seeking to deepen the essence of human experience in themselves and for all people.

[14:46]

So, we don't seek after fame and gain. We realize that we are marginal persons. the marginal person, the displaced person, the prisoner. All these people live in the presence of death, which calls into question the meaning of life. These are the words of Thomas Merton. The work of the marginal person, the meditative person, the poet, is to go beyond death. this life, to go beyond the dichotomy of life and death, and to be a witness to life. Merton's practitioner is marginal, on the fringes, outside and irrelevant to the common stream of official goals and conventions of ordinary consumerist fame and gain.

[15:53]

So he says a monk's job, and again I'm equating that with dedicated practitioners. So this is something that... It's easier in a monastery in a way. All the forms are set up and one can follow the schedule and one really can... doesn't have to decide what to do. One just sees oneself and all the karmic entanglements arising. But this is something that as committed lay people in the world, we can also do for the benefit of the world and ourselves. So he talks about this true practitioner is on the fringes, outside and irrelevant to the common stream of social goals and conventions. Such a practitioner's job is to stand witness to all life and death

[16:56]

from a place that transcends the boundaries, remaining clear and observant of the fundamental meaning of whatever may be experienced in each thing, in each desmo, in each situation. What is fundamental? Where is the stream that is coming from the source? So this is another way of talking about Shakyamuni Buddha's Great Awakening. Not caught up by our usual ideas and calculations about how we take care of our life and so forth. It's not that we don't take care of our life. It's not that we shouldn't also take care of ourselves and all the people around us, of course. But we're not caught by it. And of course we do get caught by it. So practically speaking, this is the pivot, the turning point.

[18:04]

How do we be fully in our life but not be caught by it? This idea of Buddha as being dedicated to all the so-called marginal beings, I think is very useful in seeing the nature of awakening that we celebrate. We celebrate Buddha's great awakening today. Another way of expressing Buddha's freedom, and metta for all beings, metta for all marginalized beings, for all oppressed beings, love and kindness, is expressed in the words of an early song by Bob Dylan, He talks about the chimes of freedom, the gazes on the chimes of freedom flashing. Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight.

[19:08]

Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight. So we're living in a world where there are many refugees fleeing dictators, fleeing climate damage, trying to find a way, trying to find a place where they can enter. It says, for each and every underdog soldier in the night, we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing. And talking about seeing the chimes, Dong Shan and other great Zen ancestors talked about seeing sounds, hearing sights. When we're sitting Zazen, all of the senses are involved. So we can hear the wall in front of us. We can see the sounds of the radiators. All of our awareness is unified.

[20:09]

Dylan continues, tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts, all down and taken for granted situations. So caring for marginal beings. for people who are in difficulty. Tolling for the deaf and blind, tolling for the mute, tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute. For the misdemeanor outlaw chased and cheated, if by pursuit he gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing. For each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail. And he adds more. Our legacy from our great ancestor Shakyamuni Buddha and from all the other ancestors is to care for the world.

[21:12]

We see how the world is not separate, not objectified. We are all the subject. But then, practically speaking, we see this treatment and we try to respond. We respond as we can. Right now, this month, in the Supreme Court and everywhere, we see how women are being persecuted. The class war party is insisting that pregnant women need to give birth and then give their babies away, even if they're victims of rape, whatever. So, this is part of seeing the reality of the 10,000 things. And so we take care of each thing in the light of Buddha's awareness of suchness.

[22:22]

of the great source from which the streams are flowing right now in each situation. So I'll read again what Hongchua says about this. Those who produce descendants are called ancestors. When the stream emerges is called the source, where the stream emerges. There's a wonderful poem about following the stream back to its source. This is something one can do. I tried to follow one of the side streams in Tassajara. Back to its source. I didn't get all the way back. I did find a source of a stream when I was camping out in the mountains.

[23:24]

Colorado, near Boulder, a place where water started coming in. I don't know, it formed a big stream, but anyway. But then also, as we sit, our thoughts, our thought stream arises. Why don't we follow that stream back to the source? It's great suchness. It's great wonder. So Hong Cho says where the stream emerges is called the source. After beholding the source and recognizing the ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, be steadfast. Do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. We don't need to get caught by that stuff. We have to see it. We have to face it. It's not that we should expunge all of our history. We have to know. the history of ourselves and our country.

[24:26]

We don't have to be caught by it. If you do not succumb, Huncher says, then all beings will show the whole picture. Wake up. And in turn, the ground, the roots, the dusts are clearly cast off. All of the different elements. I clearly cast off, he doesn't mean to destroy them, just you don't get caught by them. Although empty of desires with deliberations cut off transcendent, I'm sorry, I keep getting stuck on the sentence. Although empty of desires with deliberations cut off, transcendent comprehension is not all sealed up, we share our awareness and our awakening with all beings.

[25:28]

Perfect, bright understanding is carefree amid its thousand images and cannot be confused. So, practically speaking, we have to be sort of playful. and try new things, and not turn this into some rigid dogma or something like that, because it's not. It's just the source streaming out into all beings. Within each Desmo, Humcha says, is vast abundance. In a hundred thousand samadhis, all gates are majestic, all dharmas are fulfilled. Still, you must gather them together, bring them within. So, all the difficulties of our life are right here, on your seat, right now. To reach the time honored, return to the source, serve the ancestors, join together into unity, scrutinize yourself, and then go on.

[26:40]

So, this is... an invocation of Shakyamuni Buddha's Great Awakening, which has caused trouble for 2,500 years. Here we are. So, comments or questions or responses from anyone here in Indonesia, or you can let Alex know if you have questions. Yes, I... One thing that led me to practice and I continue to struggle with is the tension between caring, not simply separating and trying to bury my head in the sand, but also not being consumed with

[27:53]

anger and judgment and this this terrible deluded person is these deluded people are causing so much suffering and then I just Get in, you know into the spiral of hatred and then I try to separate from that but still being still paying attention without getting caught as you said that's I haven't yet figured out how to cast off the dust. Yes. Thank you. Yes, we haven't figured out yet how to cast off the dust. That's right. It's not something we can figure out actually. And yes, it's easy to feel angry at some of the things that are happening in our world and some of the institutions and so forth, but You know, hatred cannot end by hatred, somebody said.

[29:00]

So our Zazen practice is about following the stream back to the source, settling, being able to be steady and resilient. And somewhere Hongshu talks about the 10,000 years to see the long view. Even when we see urgent situations, that are causing horrible damage right now. To respond not from some sense of hatred or anger or, you know, being frantic, but actually to find how to... What would Buddha do? What would Dogen do? What would Sugiroshi do? How do we find our balanced way to be resilient? It's not about turning away from the world and hiding, as you said.

[30:02]

But skillful means, which is a bodhisattva practice, is something that requires patience. And sometimes there's nothing to be done. But if you're paying attention from a place of settlements, then sometimes you might see something that you can do that would help. And it's not a matter of finding some technique or strategy and there are all kinds of approaches to how to take care of particular problems in the world, but we have to be flexible and see what's going on now and keep paying attention. So yes, thank you. That is the question for us now. And how do we not get caught by the question? Let's keep paying attention, steady, gentle, but attentive and ready to respond when there's something you can do.

[31:09]

And seeing what other people are doing and joining in when you see something that somebody, some group or somebody's doing that you think is helpful. But just yelling at, you know, I mean, I sometimes fall into preaching to the choir and talking about some of these things that are happening. We have to look to see what's helpful. So thank you for your question. Thank you. Sorry, I don't have an answer. Other comments, questions, responses? people on Zoom also. Yes. I believe Ed had a question or comment. Oh, me? I thought I saw you unmute yourself earlier, Ed, sorry. Oh, well, thank you for your talk. And I just, I want to say that I almost think that

[32:11]

Marginalization, or the human expression of being marginal, is the only beautiful thing in the world. We think of it in terms of violent outcomes and oppressed political oppression and so forth, but the human spirit is almost only manifest in its beauty in a marginalized state, whether or not there is a consciousness of it or not. Right now in Chicago, we're sort of the end of the year parties with the different contractors. And I've decided this year I'm not going to go to any Irish contractor parties. I just want something different. And so I went to a Polish contractor party last night. They don't just throw the cabbage on the plate. They actually bother to wrap it around potatoes and meat. So all these years, I was marginalized.

[33:12]

I didn't even realize it. And the traditional, when the Polish people dance in their pre-industrial folk, they dance in circles. In the Irish, we only dance in lines. It's so much more interesting. And so the experience of being marginalized in the world is almost always maybe more unconscious than conscious. So I just want to say that, and thank you for your talk, which brought these thoughts together for me. Thank you, Ed. And yes, I would say that all of us are marginal. We're not in Congress or the White House. How do, and it's our marginalized, it's our marginalization, is that what you said, that brings us to practice. We're not caught by the usual stories. We're not caught by the consumerist priorities of fame and gain.

[34:16]

We see something deeper. what that is that brought you to practice in the first place. That's Buddha. Or bodhichitta, to get technical. But it's the concern for awakening. The concern for fullness. So thank you, Ed. I don't know what time... Do we have to be out of this room at some time? About nine o'clock. Okay, so we have to put things away. We have time for one or two more comments, responses, questions. Yes, Jen. Your talk made me think of that piece of music called The Moldout. There's another name for it. But it starts out with the beginning of the river. Can you hear her on Zoom? Yeah, sort of.

[35:18]

A little louder. OK. smetana's composition, the moldau, and how at the beginning of the composition you hear the beginning of the river or the source. And as other sources join into the river, it begins to be more and more of what we think of as a river rather than just a little trickle. And in the end, the river passes through a great gate into the ocean. And so all of this is depicted in a piece of music. Great. I don't know that much about music, but I think the fugue is also a little bit like that. It starts with a theme and spreads out and then comes back to the source. And then you realize you never really left it. Yes. We never really left the source. That's how we are here. One more comment, response?

[36:22]

Eve, go ahead. Or is there somebody? Yeah, go ahead. Somebody on Zoom? Amina, did you have a comment or question? Hi, Amina. Hi. This is a basic question, but what is this dream? Is it our practice, Zazen, or is it all of life or something else? Yes. All of them? all of the above and everything else that's not included in all of the above. Everything, we bring everything back to just this, suchness. Everything you can think of and everything that you cannot think of and everything that thinks of you and everything that can't think of you all is here. And from that place, I think we can respond more effectively to all of the oppression and suffering of the world.

[37:25]

Because we are marginalized, we can appreciate when people are being marginalized or oppressed. But it's coming from that place where everything is right here. Is that okay, Amina? Definitely. Thank you. You're welcome. So I guess we need to start putting things away, right? Announcements? Yeah, announcements. So Mike, can you chant the four bodhisattva vows, and then we'll have announcements, and then we'll put it all away. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.

[38:27]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Illusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable.

[39:29]

I vow to realize.

[39:32]

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