I vow to taste the truth of the Dhamma through these words. Good morning. Well, this morning is our Young Persons lecture program, and I'm very happy to see the young people in the front, and also the older people in the front and the back. I wanted to talk today with the young people and with the older people about friends, how important it is to have friends. Do some of you have what you would call a best friend? Yeah? And it's pretty important to have a good friend, don't you think? The Buddha actually thought it was really, really important to have a good friend.

[01:00]

So I wanted to read a story, and you probably are familiar with the story, from Winnie the Pooh. Do you all know Winnie the Pooh? Yeah? And Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, they all, they were very good friends. So, let's see, who's this? Piglet. Let's see, Piglet's little enough to sit up there, I think. No? He's going to lie down. And then, who's that? Pooh. And who's this? It's Roo. It's not Kanga's, Roo's mother, but this is Roo, the little one. Pooh. And then, Tigger. Tigger. Can you all see? I'll move this for a sec, I can do it. Okay, so we have Tigger,

[02:04]

and Roo, Piglet, Pooh, and who's that? Eeyore. Does everybody remember Eeyore? And then, Rabbit. So, here they all are, and they're going to listen to a story about themselves, right? And you probably know this story, but we're going to do it again today. So this story is called, in which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in. Do you remember that one? And this game, by the way, you can play at Green Gulch, there's a place where you can play this very same game, which I'll tell you about. By the time it came to the edge of the forest, the stream had grown up so that it was almost a river. And being grown up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly.

[03:08]

For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, there's no hurry, we shall get there someday. But all the little streams higher up in the forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late. There was a broad track, almost as broad as a road, leading from the outland to the forest. But before it could come to the forest, it had to cross this river. So where it crossed, there was a wooden bridge, almost as broad as a road, with wooden rails on each side of it. Christopher Robin could get his chin up to the top rail if he wanted to, but it was more fun to stand on the bottom rail, so that he could lean right over and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him. Pooh could get his chin on to the bottom rail if he wanted to, but it was more fun to lie down and get his head under it and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him.

[04:09]

And this is the only way in which Piglet and Roo could watch the river at all, because they were too small to reach the bottom rail, so they would lie down and watch it, and it slipped away very slowly, being in no hurry to get there. One day, when Pooh was walking towards this bridge, he was trying to make up a piece of poetry about fur cones, because there they were, lying about on each side of him. And he felt sing-y. So he picked a fur cone up and looked at it and said to himself, this is a very good fur cone, and something ought to rhyme to it. But he couldn't think of anything. And then, this came into his head suddenly. Here is a mystery about a little fur tree. Owl says it's his tree, and Kanga says it's her tree. Which doesn't make sense, said Pooh, because Kanga doesn't live in a tree. He had just come to the bridge, and not looking where he was going, he tripped over something, and the fur cone jerked out of his paw into the river.

[05:13]

Bother, said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the bridge, and he went back to get another fur cone, which had a rhyme to it. But then he thought that he would just look at the river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day. So he laid down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath him, and suddenly, there was his fur cone, slipping away too. That's funny, said Pooh. I dropped it on the other side, said Pooh, and it came out on this side. I wonder if it would do it again. And he went back for some more fur cones. It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and leaned over the bridge to see which of them would come out first. And one of them did. But as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time, he dropped one big one and one little one. And the big one came out first, which is what he had said it would do. And the little one came out last, which is what he had said it would do.

[06:18]

So he had won twice. And when he went home for tea, he had won 36 and lost 28. Which meant that he had, well, you take 28 from 36, and that's what it was, instead of the other way around. And that was the beginning of the game called Pooh Sticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and his friends used to play on the edge of the forest. But they played with sticks instead of fur cones, because they were easier to mark. Now one day, Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and Roo were all playing Pooh Sticks together. They had dropped their sticks in when Rabbit said, Go! And then they had hurried across to the other side of the bridge, and now they were all leaning over the edge, waiting to see whose stick would come out first. But it was a long time coming, because the river was very lazy that day, and hardly seemed to mind if it didn't ever get there at all.

[07:21]

I can see mine, cried Roo. No I can't, it's something else. Can you see yours, Piglet? I thought I could see mine, but I couldn't. There it is. No it isn't. Can you see yours, Pooh? No, said Pooh. I expect my stick's stuck, said Roo. Rabbit, my stick's stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet? They always take longer than you think, said Rabbit. How long do you think they'll take, asked Roo. I can see yours, Piglet. I can see yours, Piglet, said Pooh suddenly. Mine's a sort of grayish one, said Piglet, not daring to lean too far over in case he fell in. Yes, that's what I can see. It's coming over onto my side. Rabbit leaned over further than ever, looking for his, and Roo wriggled up and down, calling out, Come on, stick! Stick! Stick! Stick! And Piglet got very excited, because his was the only one which had been seen,

[08:22]

and that meant that he was winning. It's coming, said Pooh. Are you sure it's mine, squeaked Piglet excitedly. Yes, because it's gray, a big gray one. Here it comes, a very big gray. Oh no, it isn't. It's Eeyore. And out floated Eeyore. Eeyore, cried everybody. Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge. It's Eeyore, cried Roo, terribly excited. Is that so, said Eeyore, getting caught up by little Eddie and turning slowly around three times. I wondered. I didn't know you were playing, said Roo. I'm not, said Eeyore. Eeyore, what are you doing there, said Rabbit.

[09:24]

I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground, wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree, wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river, right. Give Rabbit time and he'll always get the answer. But Eeyore, said Pooh in distress. What can we, I mean, how shall we, do you think if we... Yes, said Eeyore, one of those would be just the thing. Thank you, Pooh. He's going round and round, said Roo, much impressed. And why not, said Eeyore, coldly. I can swim too, said Roo proudly. Not round and round, said Eeyore. It's much more difficult. I didn't want to come swimming at all today, he went on revolving slowly. But if, when in, I decide to practice a slight circular movement from right to left, or perhaps I should say, he added, as he got into another eddy, from left to right,

[10:28]

just as it happens to occur to me, it's nobody's business but my own. There was a moment's silence while everybody thought. I've got a sort of idea, said Pooh at last, but I don't suppose it's a very good one. I don't suppose it is either, said Eeyore. Go on, Pooh, said Rabbit, let's have it. Well, if we all threw stones and things into the river on one side of Eeyore, the stones would make waves and the waves would wash them to the other side. That's a very good idea, said Rabbit, and Pooh looked happy again. Very, said Eeyore. When I want to be washed, Pooh, I'll let you know. Supposing we hit him by mistake, said Piglet anxiously. Or supposing you missed him by mistake, said Eeyore. Think of all the possibilities, Piglet, before you settle down to enjoy yourselves. But Pooh had got the biggest stone he could carry and was leaning over the bridge, holding it in his paws.

[11:30]

I'm not throwing it, I'm dropping it, Eeyore, he explained. And then I can't miss. I mean, I can't hit you. Could you stop turning around for a moment, because it muddles me rather. No, said Eeyore, I like turning around. Rabbit began to feel that it was time he took command. Now, Pooh, he said, when I say now, you can drop it. Eeyore, when I say now, Pooh will drop his stone. Thank you very much, Rabbit, but I expect I shall know. Are you ready, Pooh? I'm going to give Pooh a little more room. Get back there, little roo. Are you ready? No, said Eeyore. Now, said Rabbit. Pooh dropped his stone. There was a loud splash, and Eeyore disappeared. It was an anxious moment for the watchers on the bridge. They looked and looked, and even the sight of Piglet's stick coming out a little in front of Rabbit's

[12:32]

didn't cheer them up as much as you would have expected. And then just as Pooh was beginning to think that he must have chosen the wrong stone or the wrong river or the wrong day for his idea, something gray showed for a moment by the riverbank, and it got slowly bigger and bigger, and at last it was Eeyore coming out. With a shout, they rushed off the bridge and pushed and pulled at him, and soon he was standing among them again on dry land. Oh, Eeyore, you are wet, said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time. Well done, Pooh, said Rabbit kindly. That was a good idea of yours, of ours. What was, asked Eeyore, hushing you to the bank like that? Hushing me, said Eeyore in surprise. Hushing me? You didn't think I was hush, did you?

[13:33]

I dived. Pooh dropped a large stone on me, and so as not to be struck heavily on the chest, I dived and swam to the bank. You didn't really, whispered Piglet to Pooh, so as to comfort him. I didn't think I did, said Pooh anxiously. It's just Eeyore, said Piglet. I thought your idea was a very good idea. Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable because when you are a bear of very little brain and you think of things, you find sometimes that a thing, which seemed very thingish, inside is quite different when it gets out in the open and has other people looking at it. And anyhow, Eeyore was in the river, and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done any harm. How did you fall in, Eeyore asked Rabbit, as he dried him with Piglet's handkerchief. I didn't, said Eeyore. But how? I was bounced, said Eeyore. Oh, said Roo excitedly. Did somebody push you?

[14:34]

Somebody bounced me. I was just thinking by the side of the river, thinking, if any of you know what that means, when I received a loud bounce. Oh, Eeyore, said everybody. Are you sure you didn't slip, asked Rabbit wisely. Of course I slipped. You're standing on the slippery bank of a river, and somebody bounces you loudly from behind. You slip? What did you think I did? Who did it, asked Roo. Eeyore didn't answer. I expect it was Tigger, said Piglet nervously. But Eeyore said, Pooh, was it a joke or an accident? I mean, I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river, I didn't stop to say to myself, is this a hearty joke, or is it the merest accident? I just floated to the surface and said to myself, it's wet, if you know what I mean. And where was Tigger, asked Rabbit. Before Eeyore could answer,

[15:38]

there was a loud noise behind them, and through the hedge came Tigger himself. Rabbit became very important suddenly. Tigger, he said solemnly, what happened just now? Just went, said Tigger a little uncomfortably. When you bounced Eeyore into the river. I didn't bounce him. You bounced me, said Eeyore gruffly. I didn't really. I had a cough, and I happened to be behind Eeyore, and I said, why, said Rabbit, helping Piglet up and dusting him. It's all right, Piglet. Took me by surprise, said Piglet nervously. That's what I call bouncing, said Eeyore, taking people by surprise, very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Tigger being in the forest, he went on, come into my little corner of it, and bounce here. It isn't as if there was anything very wonderful about my little corner. Of course, for people who like

[16:39]

cold, wet, ugly bits, it is something rather special. But otherwise, it's just a corner, and if anybody feels bouncy, I didn't bounce, I coughed, said Tigger crossly. Bouncy or coffee, it's all the same at the bottom of the river. Well, said Rabbit, all I can say is, Christopher Robin came down from the forest to the bridge feeling all sunny and careless, and just as if twice 19 didn't matter a bit, and it didn't on such a happy afternoon. And he thought that if he stood on the bottom rail of the bridge and leaned over and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath him, then he would suddenly know everything that there was to be known, and he would be able to tell Pooh, who wasn't quite sure about some of it. But when he got to the bridge it wasn't that kind of afternoon, but the other kind, when you wanted to do something. It's like this, Christopher Robin began Rabbit, Tigger, no, I didn't, said Tigger.

[17:39]

Well, anyhow, there I was, said Eeyore. But I don't think he meant to, said Pooh. He just is bouncy, said Piglet, and he can't help it. Try bouncing me, Tigger, said Rue eagerly. Eeyore, Tigger's going to try me. Piglet, do you think? Yes, yes, said Rabbit, what does Christopher Robin think about it? All I did was I coughed, said Tigger. He bounced, said Eeyore. Well, I sort of boffed, said Tigger. Hush, said Rabbit, holding up his paw. What does Christopher Robin think about it all? That's the point. Well, said Christopher Robin, not quite sure what it was all about. I think, yes, said everybody, I think we ought to play Pooh sticks. So they did. And Eeyore, who had never played it before, won more times than anybody else. And Rue fell in twice, the first time by accident and the second time on purpose because he suddenly saw Kanga

[18:40]

coming from the forest and he knew he'd have to go to bed anyhow. So then Rabbit said he'd go with them and Tigger and Eeyore went off together because Eeyore wanted to tell Tigger how to win at Pooh sticks, which you do by letting your stick drop in a twitchy sort of way, and Pooh and Piglet were left on the bridge by themselves. For a long time they looked at the river beneath them saying nothing, and the river said nothing too for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon. Tigger is all right, really, said Piglet lazily. Of course he is, said Christopher Robin. Everybody is, really, said Pooh. That's what I think, said Pooh, but I don't suppose I'm right, but of course you are, said Christopher Robin. So that's the end of the story about Pooh inventing a game and Eeyore joining in.

[19:40]

So the place where you play Pooh sticks if you want to play is if you go all the way down to where the ocean is, there's a bridge that goes over a river and you can stand on one side and drop in your sticks and run to the other side and watch them come out. And I think, as you noticed, at the end when they're all kind of fighting together and kind of bickering and Christopher Robin had a great idea which is let's just play. Let's forget it all and just play. Not worry about it. I think that's a pretty good way to get along. So thank you very much for listening. Oh, by the way, there's a Winnie the Pooh play that's being at the Tamalpais High School if any of you want to see Winnie the Pooh this next weekend and I think today too. All right, so you're going to go off with Nancy and Foo and other people for your program, okay? So gather up your stuff

[20:45]

and out you go. If anybody wants to come up closer you can. So I've been thinking a lot

[21:50]

about one of the Buddha's disciples, whose name was Ananda, and Ananda and the Buddha were very, they were teacher and disciple and very close and Ananda once asked the Buddha what is essential to live happily in the order of monks and the Buddha said if one is virtuous oneself but does not blame others for lack of virtue, if one watches oneself but not others, if one does not worry about lack of fame, if one can obtain the four meditative absorptions without difficulty and finally become an arhat. So to me the important ones for us I think about how to live happily in not necessarily a Buddhist order

[22:51]

but in any situation of human endeavor. How to live happy includes not blaming others for lack of virtue or looking at other people's faults and criticizing and not blaming others and then looking to one's own practice or one's own activity and not watching other people and what they are doing but looking to oneself. And then along with that is not being worried about having a lack of fame. So I think in this story of Winnie the Pooh their characters are so out there and revealed, each one of their personalities, and they often get caught the way we do which is why we think it's so funny and one of the reasons we think it's so funny

[23:52]

is we get caught in blaming others and finding blame and then realizing they have some, they're contributing in some way and back and forth. And at the end there Christopher Robin just cuts through everything and says, it's like the Zen koan where the Master is talking with the monks and then he says, we've talked about this enough, let's go have tea. So Christopher Robin says and they're actually able to let it go. So this can be a problem in community living or in family living when we have a tendency to look for faults outside, to look and to blame rather than turning the light this way and looking at what's going on in our practice, looking to one's own practice. And this can be very divisive in a family, it can be very divisive in a workplace

[24:52]

and in a community finding faults. Now, and it is one of the precepts, a disciple of the Buddha sometimes translated does not slander or does not speak of the faults of others, which is not to say we don't, for the benefit of someone, bring something up, bring it to a person's attention, bringing something serious, pointing something out to someone in a serious way for their benefit. But that's different than just talking about someone's faults because there's a lot of energy around that kind of speaking. So Ananda, it turned out, people did not speak about Ananda's faults very much at all. He was very, very well loved. He was a joy or happiness and people were very happy to see Ananda

[25:53]

from... just for his whole life he was a joy to be around. So I want to tell some stories about the Buddha and Ananda, and then also there's actually... there's the stories of Ananda that come from the Theravada texts of the words of the Buddha, and then there's also the Zen literature about Ananda where Ananda falls in terms of the Zen ancestors. So Ananda partakes of both worlds. So... So Ananda was born, there's two traditions, one says the day that the Buddha was born, and the other tradition says the day of the Buddha's enlightenment. But in any event, they were very closely linked and they were actual cousins, their fathers were brothers. And... so...

[26:58]

Ananda joined the order of monks a little bit late, he joined when he was 37, and he loved living as a monk, he loved the... discipline and daily schedule, you might say, the daily activities, and living in this way peacefully and calmly. The word discipline comes from... the root of it means to learn, so a disciple is one who learns from a teacher, and Ananda was quite drawn to this kind of discipline, he didn't have very much resistance to it. One day when the Buddha was about 55, and Ananda, depending on which way you're counting, was either a younger man or 55 as well, the Buddha drew the order of monks together and said, I need an attendant,

[27:59]

and I've had many attendants through my years teaching, and each one of them I found after a while it didn't work out that well, they became, what he said, willful. So I'm 55 years old, I'm still teaching, and I really, I need somebody who I can really count on to attend me. And all the monks sort of volunteered, they'd love to be the attendant to the Buddha, but Ananda didn't say anything, he kind of held back. And people then said to Ananda, well, how come you're not volunteering, you would be good? And he said, well, I would love to volunteer, but I'm just leaving it up to the Buddha, he knows who he wants to be his attendant, let him choose. And the Buddha chose Ananda to be his close attendant. And when I say close attendant, I mean very close. For 25 years, they were in this relationship

[29:01]

of teacher and attendant. And the kinds of things that Ananda would do, it was this combination, I say attendant, but it doesn't really bring out all the different things that he did. He was like a personal secretary taking care of appointments and organizational kinds of things. He was also, there was a term called a lady's maid, or a valet, I guess, kind of a, or an aide de champ, somebody who was right there close in terms of dressing and bathing. So the Buddha was attended by Ananda. He would sleep very close to where the Buddha was, he would sweep out his room, he would draw his bath, bathe his feet, massage his back, bring his toothbrush, which is like special wood that they would chew on, special kind of wood,

[30:03]

and bring medicine if he was sick, go with him on his rounds throughout the monastery, and then set up the appointments and then check the room to see if anybody left anything, if they left one of their robes or something, he would check on that and go bring it to him. And he was a go-between between all the disciples who wanted to speak with the Buddha and visitors, so he just had a very full-time job being, you know, it's hard to say what that is. In Japanese, we have the term Jisha, which is an attendant, a personal attendant, but I think in English to say servant or secretary or attendant doesn't quite give you the fullness of what this relationship was. And Ananda was, you might imagine that someone in this position so close to the Buddha

[31:05]

personally might constellate envy for others and you know, or he might become proud, you know, oh look how close I am to the Buddha. But he was just unconcerned with fame and that kind of self-aggrandizement, and so people accepted him and he was well-loved and people were not jealous of him. So this kind of responding to someone, being in this kind of relationship where you respond to their needs, there's a term in Sanskrit called Saindhava, S-A-I-N-D-H-E-V-A, Saindhava, Saindhava. And it's an odd word, it means the products of the Indus Valley and the products of the Indus Valley are salt, a vessel,

[32:06]

a bowl, salt, a vessel, a horse, and water. So that one word, Saindhava, means all four things, salt, a vessel, a horse, and water. And this comes from the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, there's a parable of a world king and his retainer who was so in tune with working with this person that when his master called Saindhava, the retainer would know what he meant, salt, water, horse, or a vessel. Now, you might think, well, that's pretty confusing, but if one is paying attention and this retainer was that kind of a person, if it was in the morning and his master called Saindhava, then he would bring water to wash. If he was at a meal, he would bring, and he called Saindhava, he'd bring salt. If he was getting all dressed and ready to go, he'd bring him

[33:07]

his horse and so forth. So the causes and conditions, whatever was happening around, if you're paying attention, you can see very clearly how to respond. It's not really a mystery, it's revealed right there in the activity, in the relationship. It will be clear what's next if you've dropped clinging to fame and finding fault with others and all sorts of things which get in the way to your responding to someone completely. So Saindhava is a... It means direct communication, completely direct communication without any mistake, appropriate action, which is sometimes called

[34:10]

the secret or the culmination of Zen practice, is an appropriate statement. So this kind of... to completely be ready to respond appropriately in any situation is being a Saindhava person. Now, last Saturday there was a one-day sitting and I was talking about Ananda in that sitting. This happens to be the third lecture I've done this in seven days. I did one also on Wednesday. But after that lecture on Saturday, someone spoke with me and said, it's not just teacher-student or teacher-disciple where there's Saindhava and direct communication like this. And this person is a young mother with a new baby, pretty young baby, and she said, this relationship with my child is completely like that. And not only that, the baby isn't old enough to be able to say words yet. So the baby is perfect.

[35:11]

They just say Saindhava, they wah, or some kind of... They let you know that they're calling Saindhava and you have to completely respond appropriately. What is it that they need? Is it a little fresh air to have their diapers changed, burping, food? What's going on? And to be completely clear and ready to respond appropriately. So I think this relationship is mother-child or father-child, it's all our relationships. If you look, it's our partners, it's our brothers and sisters, it's our parents, it's who we work with, it's our friends, to actually be a Saindhava person and be ready to respond. So the Dharma body

[36:14]

or the Dharmakaya, or it's sometimes called the reality body, the reality body, which is like space, manifests in form as a response to human beings. So when there's need or when there's some activity from human beings, the Dharma body or the reality body responds perfectly to human beings or sentient beings. So coming out of this reality body, coming out of, you might say, emptiness, is form. Coming out of emptiness, there's the response to human beings that takes place as form, as actions, as feeding someone,

[37:15]

giving somebody a massage, being with someone who's sick, comforting someone, or yelling at someone, if that's the appropriate response. I think the choice of activity is infinite. It's responding to beings, whatever is needed. So I think we can all practice this kind of response in all of our relationships. What is someone asking for? Sometimes it's hard to tell. And then maybe the response is, I don't know what you need. You know, I want to help you, but I don't know exactly what to do. Which is your response, your Saindhava? I was looking at some notes from a lecture I gave in 1984, and the top of the sheet of paper said,

[38:17]

our practice is babies and backaches. And I couldn't remember what the reference was, what it could possibly be. But in thinking about it for today, I thought, our practice is not kind of lofty, lifted-off-the-ground, special consciousness, special states. It's rooted in our daily activities. It manifests in our daily activities. It's realized in our daily activities. So there's babies, and there's backaches, and whatever is going on in our life that we need to take care of, that's where we bring our Zazen mind, that's where we bring our practice, that's where we bring the precepts, rather than in some abstract way, some idea about them that we're trying to practice. And I think sometimes we can't tell the difference between,

[39:18]

and I can't tell the difference between having an idea of practice and actually practicing. I recently have been, because of a wonderful gift from somebody, I've been doing some body work with an Alexander Technique person, who is a wonderful teacher and was at Tassajara with me years ago, and now he's an Alexander Technique person, Bob Britton, I'll put in a plug for him. And I have a pain that's coming in my back. I've been having this kind of backache that gets adjusted in a chiropractic appointment, and then I kind of redo it somehow, and I don't know exactly what I'm doing. So we've been working on this, and on posture, and how I'm sitting, and having... It's very wonderful to have someone look at your posture with that much consciousness about body and flow of energy and so forth. So what we're finding together is there's a certain place that I'm holding.

[40:22]

I'm like taking the posture and holding it there, which is very connected with my idea of how it's supposed to be, how it's supposed to look, but it's kind of separated from the actual feeling, the actual balance, the actual pressure I'm feeling in various parts of my back and muscle and sides of my body and neck and so forth. And it's a very old, I'm finding, kind of idea of sitting. Now, it's kind of subtle because I didn't think I had an idea about my sitting, it's just this is how I sit. But it's stale, it has a staleness, it's not responding to whatever, change in age and my body and so forth. It's an old view that's kind of abstract. So the process,

[41:24]

it's not like we ever come to a posture and have it, and now I've got it, that's my posture. Posture is always becoming posture, it's always in process. And if we block ourselves or kind of halt the way we are and say, this is it, then various difficulties might happen like back aches and injuries, but also in not only our physical attitude but our mental attitude about our practice. There can be a tendency to have an idea that we're practicing and not have an actual experience of what it feels like to practice. So... So Ananda, speaking of back aches, was one... Ananda, by the way, had a wonderful, wonderful intellect and memory.

[42:29]

Whatever the Buddha said, he remembered everything, every single word. And when he became the Buddha's attendant, he said, I'll only do this, he wanted to do it very much, but he said, I'll only do it if there's eight things that you'll let me have as favors or a boon. And the first four were, if you are given a gift of a robe that you will not pass it on to me, if you're given a gift of special food that's given to you that you do not pass it on to me, if you're given some special shelter that I'm not included in that shelter, and the fourth was, if you're given an invitation to come and speak that includes a meal, don't have me come along. The fifth was... So those were kind of negative. The fifth was, if Ananda was given some special robe or food he wanted to pass it on to the Buddha, if a visitor from a foreign place came,

[43:32]

he wanted the privilege of showing that person where the Buddha was. The third was, if he had any question about the Dharma at any time, day or night, that he had permission to go to the Buddha to ask about that. And the fourth was, if he missed any of his Dharma talks that the Buddha would repeat them to Ananda so that he would hear them. And the Buddha agreed to all those. So he was very careful about how this relationship was going to be set up so that he wasn't going to be receiving things because of proximity that would be a benefit to him or cause to ignite greed in him, maybe. And that also he had this ability to really have the Buddha be close with him in his practice and to hear his Dharma talks. So he did hear all the Dharma talks that the Buddha gave and he knew them by heart. So at the end of the Buddha's life,

[44:35]

after the Buddha died, Ananda had not yet become an arhat, which was what the ideal was at that time, to completely have all your outflows or all your delusions put to rest and to not have any rebirth anymore, this ideal of the arhat, and to be completely, to understand yourself and your self-cleaning. So Ananda had not yet had this experience. All the other disciples of the Buddha had. And here was Ananda who was so close to the Buddha, the Buddha trusted him completely. Because he learned all these talks, he was able to speak the Dharma at will and do these long Dharma talks, completely word for word, just like the Buddha. And people would be very joyful to hear. And this one time the Buddha was with Ananda at his own family's house, the Shakya clan, Shakyamuni Buddha,

[45:36]

and was giving a teaching that lasted quite a long time. And in the middle of it, the Buddha said to Ananda, My back really hurts. He probably said, My back is just killing me. He said, My back is aching. Could you please finish the talk for me? I need to stretch. And so Ananda did that, and the Buddha stretched out there, laid down during the Dharma talk. And afterwards the Buddha rose up and said, Ananda had done it just exactly how he would have done it. So here's Ananda completely understanding or being able to speak the words of Dharma to the letter that the Buddha spoke. And yet, he didn't have the actual understanding himself. And this is likened to a poor person counting the treasure of another. You know, busy counting, counting, but none of it belongs to the person counting the treasure of another. So at the end, when the Buddha died,

[46:38]

Ananda was with him, and he bequeathed to him, he said, you know, keep these teachings, keep them safe, you know. And the Buddha, but the Buddha transmitted, he had Dharma transmission with another monk named Makakasho or Makashapya. And Kashapya called a council after the Buddha died to gather together the monks, all the arhats, and let's say what the Buddha taught, and let's kind of codify this a bit and organize ourselves here, because now the Buddha is gone. But it was only for arhats, so Ananda wasn't allowed to be there. And Kashapya said to him, Ananda, it would really be great if you could be there because you know all the Buddha's teachings by heart, and we want you to be there. So Ananda was like, oh my goodness, I've got to really do something about this. So there was this pressure, the council was coming soon,

[47:40]

and he was trying with all his might to understand and to penetrate his ignorance. So the night before the council, everything was all set, and all these monks had arrived, and Ananda still hadn't had this awakening yet. And he practiced all day the four foundations of mindfulness, the mindfulness of walking, sitting, and lying down, and standing, these four, all day long. He was doing his best with might and may, still nothing happened. So finally he just kind of gave up, and he thought, I'm just going to go to bed. So the story has it that when he got on his bed, as he lifted up his feet, before his head hit the pillow, he woke up. You can picture him. So the next day the council happened, and Kashyapa said, if you want to come, and if you want to prove that you've become an arhat,

[48:43]

you must do this by supernormal powers. And so the story says that he went in through the keyhole and arrived. And then Ananda proceeded to speak everything that the Buddha said, and those sutras are the collection called the Digha Nikaya and the Majjhima Nikaya. Those are the long sayings of the Buddha, and the middle-length sayings of the Buddha, and all the other ones. And they all start out the same way, with this little formula, Thus have I heard. The Buddha was staying at, and then it will be the Jeta Grove or Deer Park or wherever, and then the setting is laid forth. And that thus have I heard is Ananda speaking. Ananda is saying, because Ananda was there, thus have I heard. So, even with this great ability to speak the teaching and to say it perfectly, Ananda did not understand thoroughly himself.

[49:47]

And he stayed and worked with Makka Kosho, with Kashyapa, after the Buddha died, for another 20 years. So here he was, this close attendant to the Buddha, having incorporated the words of the teaching, and yet he hadn't broken through to penetrate the heart of the teaching himself, until... There are two stories now. So the story of the night before the council, where he had this awakening, is in the old school, the old wisdom school, and then the Zen tradition has that story, where he had this kind of awakening as an arhat, but then the further awakening, the Bodhisattva awakening, you might say, came later, after working with Kashyapa for 20 years. And, you know, Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, they live in what's called the Enchanted Forest,

[50:50]

and enchantment comes from the word, the root, to sing, kantare, to chant, and enchantment is like a charm, and it's also a delight, enchanting is a delight, but also we can get enchanted, we can be under a spell in our Enchanted Forest, and the spell that we're under is the spell, you might say, of ignorance. And in Buddhism, ignorance means to believe in a separate self that has inherent existence, apart from the rest of the world that has a kind of separate existence, and to believe that each thing also is separate, a separate self. This is a kind of basic ignorance, when we talk about ignorance. And there's a kind of enchantment that we're all under,

[51:52]

we all kind of share in this enchantment of, it's very deep, very deep, that things are separate, apart from ourselves. So bearing this in mind, that there's this enchantment, how do we break through this enchantment? And one thing is to be familiar enough with the teachings that say, this is an enchantment, this is ignorance, this is the enchantment of ignorance. Now, thinking in that way will not dispel the enchantment, but it will help you, it will help me to place what I'm saying, what I'm seeing, how I'm thinking about self and other and the things of the world, to remind myself that there's an enchantment here

[52:53]

about the way things are. This is not necessarily based on the truth. So, in the Zen story of Ananda breaking through into the truth, his enlightenment story with Makaka Shou, he had been working with Kashape for 20 years. Is this going on too long? And... It is going on long. So I'll tell you the story. And he had so much intellectual understanding that... And he thought that's kind of all there was. And he thought Kashape had received this robe from the Buddha, but nothing else, that he had received the robe, he had received the transmission, and that was it. But as he worked with Kashape for all these 20 years, it finally kind of came to him,

[53:55]

maybe there was something else that the Buddha transmitted to him. So he said one day to Kashape, Did the Buddha transmit anything else to you besides the golden-sleeved robe? And at that moment, Kashape said, Ananda! And Ananda said, Yes. And Kashape said, Take down the banner pole in the front gate, at which point Ananda realized his true nature. Now that sounds like an enigmatic story, but the flag, the banner pole, has to do with when two people were going to debate and have a kind of debate of the teachings, either from different schools or in the same school, they would plant a banner in front of them, in a village or something, and show that they're ready to debate with someone, and then the person would be planted, and the person who was defeated, or who the other teaching was more succinct or truthful,

[55:02]

if they were defeated, they would take down the banner pole. So Kashape said, Take down the banner pole in the front gate. Now in the commentary on this, it points to that it's not that he was defeated, it's not that Ananda was defeated by Kashape, but that Ananda finally understood that he and Kashape, that they didn't need two banner poles anymore, they just needed one banner pole, because the two of them were completely of one mind. So his understanding was that there was no difference between Kashape's understanding and Ananda's understanding, and there was nothing that Kashape had that he didn't have. So this enchantment about Kashape having something, he doesn't have it, I want to get it, what do I do to get it, all that was dropped. Take down the banner pole. And the two of them were completely one,

[56:11]

in emptiness, in interdependence, rather than separate beings. And when Kashape said Ananda, and Ananda said yes right away, this kind of response is like the reality body, out of the reality body that is emptiness body, beings respond. Coming from the reality body, there is manifestation in form to the needs of beings. So Kashape said Ananda, Ananda said yes, that in itself, that response, just like that, one person says something, other person answers, where is the problem? There is no enchantment there, that's complete understanding, that's saindhava, direct communication. And the enchantment was broken. So, not to get caught in this,

[57:12]

the admonition is not to get caught in this purity of the emptiness, of the equality of all beings in emptiness, but there was this call and response, this call and an echo came back in form. So we don't stay in some pure state, we appear in the world, beings appear in the world to help and respond. And if somebody calls Ananda, you say yes, you say yes. And if someone says saindhava, you say, you bring whatever it is, water, salt, horse, that's direct communication, that's complete, the enchantment is broken. Thank you very much.

[58:20]

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