Welcome everyone on this auspicious occasion. People here in the Lincoln Square Zendo, and for me, it's over there, but I don't know how to look directly at you there. Okay, anyway, all of you coming to us online also, thank you very much. Wonderful. This is a lovely, wonderful new Zenda. We've been in it a month, but we're still just finding how to be in it. And it's wonderful. This is part of our process of sangha renewal. Some of you were at similar day-long sitting sessions at Irving Park Avenue, Irving Park Road, Zendo, where we were for a long time.

[01:21]

This feels a little different in some ways, and it also feels homey in similar ways. And through the waves of pandemic and all of the other difficulties in our world, here we are still, this wonderful song done. So I want to express appreciation to Ebenezer Lutheran Church where we worked most of this past year. Gave us a chance to sit together, some of us to sit together in person. But this Lincoln Square Zendo, easier for many of us to get here. More facilities, there's a kitchen, dopes on room, practice discussion room, another bathroom here and upstairs, another kitchen upstairs.

[02:34]

So thank you to Hokusai for helping us to find this place. So, you know, you can sit sasan anywhere. Some of you I can see are, hi Jan, I see you. Anyway, it's nice to see all of you sitting at home. And it's nice to be sitting here together in this center. So, you know, in India and still in South Asia, most Buddhist monks sit alone. Sometimes there are assemblies and they get together. But meditation is done pretty much alone. When Buddhism moved to China, they started having zentos.

[03:37]

They wanted to sit together. And the training and talent of Zen teachers and Zen priests is to find a way to make zentos. to make places where sangha can sit together. And this is lovely. So thank you to everybody who helped make this sendo possible. Many people. And, you know, we're also today and this week celebrating the great awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha in what's now northeast India in about 2500 centuries ago, more or less.

[04:43]

The place where Buddha awakened under the Bodhi tree in India is called a Bodhimandala, a place of awakening, a site of awakening. And in Chinese, or in Sino-Japanese pronunciation, that was translated into dojo. Dojo means a place of the way, a place of, arriving at the way of expressing the way. So now we think of that as a term for martial arts studios. But actually, it's also a technical term for zentos. This is a place of the way. So this world is difficult and fragile.

[05:53]

Many, many people passed away because of the pandemic. We're still in, so I'm speaking without my mask, but people here are all masked. We're trying to honor the reality of our situation and still practice the way of Buddha. One of the chants we do, which we'll do, at the end of the morning. It's called the Song of the Grass Hut. And it's about the space of zenders. So a grass hut may seem particularly fragile. But as we know from our wanderings, as a song Even though the song says, it includes the entire world in 10 feet square, which was the space of a habit.

[07:06]

So we can't help wondering, will this thought perish or not? How do we take care of this? wonderful, auspicious situation of having a lovely, wonderful place to practice. And for all the people we could not fit in today, there will be more times to come when you can find a space. So in one of the great texts of our There's a story, many stories, a hundred stories, and actually many more stories in the commentaries to those stories, which is how Zen literature got to be so profuse.

[08:12]

But anyway, the world-honored one, Shakyamuni, who we're honoring today, was out walking with his assembly. So they went on walks together back then. Walking meditation may be more informal than the walking meditation we do. Anyway, the World Honored One was walking with the assembly and he pointed to the ground and he said, this would be a great place to build a temple. And Indra, the creator deity in the Indian religious system, who was part of the assembly, listening to the Buddha, he took a blade of grass and he stuck it in the ground there.

[09:25]

And they said, the temple is built. And the world honored one Buddha. Yes. Our great ancestor Hongzhe, who picked the cases for the Book of Serenity and wrote first comments, says, in part, in his verse, able to be mastered in the dusts of the world. From outside creation, a guest shows up. Everywhere, life is sufficient in its way. From outside creation, from beyond our usual way of thinking of the world, a guest shows up, or many guests. Each one of us, a guest shows up.

[10:42]

Sometimes the guest is a pandemic. Sometimes the guest is a change in the laws to help people. Sometimes a change in the laws to hurt people. A guest shows up, something new. And as we're sitting zazen, as many of us are doing all day today, it might happen that as you are sitting, paying attention to thoughts and feelings and physical sensations, maybe the smell of incense, there's some discomfort in your knees, whatever. At some point, from outside, a guest may show up.

[11:50]

Our practice is to welcome guests. Something new may appear. You might not even know it. During a day of sitting, during three days of sitting, which we will be doing again. During a period of zazen, sometimes, somehow, it might be that a guest shows up, someone we haven't known before, some aspect of our own body-mind that we had not been familiar with before. A guest showing up is an opportunity for new intimacy. Sometimes the guest may be a news anchor. Everywhere life is sufficient in its own way.

[13:03]

How do we appreciate this life, this fullness, this, yet again, another opportunity to sit satsang, another opportunity to be present in this dusty world just as it is. So you might notice sometime today when that guest shows up, please welcome all the guests, all the beings are part of this wholeness that we, is each of us. So Shito, Sekito, our great ancestor in the 700s in China, said, he said, the middling are lowly, but that's all of us, you know.

[14:24]

Can't help wondering, will the sun perish or not? And our sangha continues to work to look for a long-term, full-time Bigger space for Ancient Dragon Zen Games, new temple in Chicago. But in the meantime, we have this wonderful Lincoln Square Zen Dome. It's wonderful. Thank you all for enjoying it, for bringing it to life on this day and other days. Will this hut perish or not? You know, it does happen that San Francisco went away. The great Nalanda University, the great complex of monasteries in northeastern India was destroyed in the 11th century. It's not there anymore.

[15:28]

I talked to somebody, a Japanese person who was living there, who visited the site of Nalanda. so we can look at the relics of old zendo. As it happens, one time in the 1970s, at Tassahara Monastery, where some of you have been for a few years, back in the 70s, the zendo burnt down. student dining area. So they needed to build a new zendu for the next practice period. And Paul Disko, one of our friends here, great temple architect,

[16:36]

got together the students and quickly organized and built a temporary zendoh at Tasselhorn. Very lovely temporary zendoh. In fact, that is still the zendoh at Tasselhorn. So some of you have seen it. It was called a temporary center. It's in pretty good shape. And Paul Disko is now helping us. We'll consider other spaces in Chicago and helping with financing that so that we can have here although we will also have soon available.

[17:44]

But in the meantime and for as long as we need before that happens we are wonderfully blessed. So those of you who couldn't be here today please come when you can. to this new, wonderful, wonderful temporary center. Temporary Lincoln Square Center. I'm very fortunate to be here. So, Yes, to dedicate this space and our practice here, our practice together, and how Sangha continues.

[19:00]

So congratulations, everyone. It's wonderful. So we have a little bit of time if anybody wants to and comment, respond in some ways, please feel free. Wade, you can help me call on the people online. Maybe I'll see if anybody here raises their hand. So going back to India 2,500 years ago, people have been doing this practice.

[20:07]

Nicklas online has his hand up. Hi Nicklas, are you joining us from Indiana today? I am indeed. I'm so grateful to be here on this auspicious occasion, and I've been thinking a lot about the ceremony when we left the Zendo, and Aishan carried the, I think it was the Buddha, out of the room. And it's just, it was a great, powerful moment. And I can't even remember if we were live or On zoom but anyway, so I'm glad I'm here for the return as well and You know that just the whole ideas of the guest was I really needed to hear that because I've had a number of challenging guests that have shown up, you know as hurricane destruction and blood clots and nursing homes and automobile accidents and challenging

[21:11]

But because I've had a practice for a long time, I can embrace it all without picking and choosing and just try to really show up for myself. and for others without, you know, having to give in to my crazy mind. So it was just very helpful to hear that. And I think I heard it right. I don't know if that applies to all kinds of things, but anyway, thank you. Grateful to be here. And, you know, hopefully, you know, I will be in person, you know, there in person one day soon. So thank you. Thank you, Nicholas. Yes, please come and sit here with us. It's really lovely. So, Nicholas is joining us from Indiana.

[22:17]

I see Ko is here from Ohio. I saw Nathan here from Michigan. I saw Mark here from New Mexico. Other comments, responses, reflections? Oh, Kathy, hi. Hi, Tengen. Thank you for your talk. I was just thinking about how we all have shifted. And I was thinking there's something organic about shifting from one place to another. Sometimes not having any place to be online.

[23:24]

And it made me think of sometimes when I'm out walking in natural settings, I like to sit and watch fish and geese and ducks. And they, as a flock, sometimes shift position, you know, or fish, like one or two will go to a new area, and then they all gradually go there. And birds do that too. And it feels like we've kind of done that organically. Yes. That's the guess. We can't predict it. We can't control it. We don't know where the next temporary center will be. But here we are. So that's really cool. Mission.

[24:28]

Tuggin, your talk and Kathy's comment just now reminded me of the very first Dharma talk that Nyozan gave at the Senate Bill when he talked about sanctuary and building a sanctuary and related it to, I think, but I think he was also talking about taking refuge. And one of the questions that he was sort of entertaining was the idea of what makes what makes it a sanctuary. What makes it a sanctuary is that it has things that animals and birds need or want or flock to. And we could rope off a parking lot and call it a sanctuary, but it wouldn't really be a sanctuary because it doesn't have anything to attract anyone but cars. So maybe it's a car sanctuary. But here we are in our sanctuary, taking refuge.

[25:29]

and being joined by those who are taking refuge online in our sanctuary. And I think that that speaks to the need that all of us as beings have for something that we find. And I won't, you know, what that is, it's maybe different for each individual and maybe ineffable. Well, I would just say it's Buddha. We're here because of Buddha. And Buddha's not some being who lived in some other time or some other place. Buddha's right here. And we arrange temporary centers, sanctuaries to foster that. So thank you.

[26:34]

Yes. I just want to express my gratitude and I think the whole sound is gratitude to Huketsu for allowing us to have this place where we can meet, to have this place that is a sanctuary for us. After being adrift for so long, the last year during COVID to now have a place. So very, very deep bows. Thank you very much for offering us this venue for us to meet, to be with one another again. Amen. Thank you, David and everyone. You know, this has been our home for a long time. You know, many of you have spent hours upstairs stitching your robes, socializing, folding cranes, doing little art projects for the Dharma.

[27:40]

So I think this is, you all brought this to fruition through that. So this is an old home, this is an old home for us in some ways, temporary as it is. Thank you, Liz. And that old grass hut that Sekito, Shuto sat in in the 700s, that's also our old home. We find our seat together in Sango, in all kinds of wonderful temporary spaces. Some of them, like Baltisco's temporary zen, they were Tosahara for the last 150 years, and it's in pretty good shape. Thank you. And everybody do.

[28:36]

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