We have this thing called triple treasure, which you're familiar with, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And some people might say, there's really only one treasure. But since people don't understand that the one treasure of Buddha includes the Dharma and Sangha, we say Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Buddha is no different from the truth or the teaching of the truth. And Buddha is no different from the great assembly of all beings. But again, since people think, oh, Buddha is that one particular being, that one great thing, and that people are something else, we say, Buddha dhammasam. kind of reinforces that view, but that gives me a chance to say, the Sangha is the Buddha. So you recognize the Buddha when you recognize each other.

[01:02]

On Sunday I made some suggestions, which may have surprised somebody, or it surprised me at certain points in history, to suggest that zazen is great compassion. When I first started practicing zazen, I didn't think, I didn't hear, And I didn't think, well, when I'm sitting with people in Zendo, sitting with our teacher in Zendo, I didn't think, oh, this is great compassion. I didn't think that. It didn't occur to me. So again, Now it does. And before it's too late, I want to tell you that zazen is Buddhist compassion. And Buddhist compassion includes all other kinds of compassion. All other kinds of compassion are Buddhist compassion in those forms.

[02:13]

But the compassion of, like, I'm compassionate to you, that's included in the way of compassion. Or, I'm me, I'm separate from you, and I'm kind to you. Or, you're separate from me, and you're kind to me. That view is a type of compassion, there's a type of view of compassion. And Buddha's compassion embraces that fear. And Buddha's compassion is not that fear. Buddha's compassion is the way we all together are Buddha, and the way we care for each other, and are devoted to each other, and others are devoted to us. That's Buddha's compassion. And that's what really liberates. Other types are included in that, but we have to get over them. Because they have problems. They are stressful, etc.

[03:22]

Similarly, when I first started practicing zazen, I thought, I kind of had this view, I must admit, I sit in Zen dog, and I pay attention to my posture. Yeah, and I did pay attention to my posture, and I pay attention to my breathing, and sometimes I'm really uncomfortable. I'm so uncomfortable, I can't pay attention to my breathing. That whole situation of me trying to pay attention to my body and breath and my mind, I thought that me doing that was... Now I understand that me thinking that is including zazen, but zazen includes that and treats that and relates to that.

[04:42]

Zazen is the way compassion relates to my ideas of zazen, and my ideas of my life, and my ideas of other people's lives. I didn't think zazen was interactive when I first started sitting. I thought it was something I did kind of by myself with other people who were also doing zazen with me. I didn't think that the zazen was the way we were interacting with each other. I didn't think it was interactive. I didn't think that The zazen that I was involving with was a calling out. I didn't see the zazen I was doing as a request. Now, when I look back, I see it was a request.

[05:45]

But at the time, I didn't think, oh, sitting here is a request for great compassion. That didn't occur to me. Even though I knew that me sitting in the zendo, the teacher wouldn't notice me, and I was available for the teacher to give me help and guidance if the teacher felt like it. Because I was sitting there, you know, I'm here. If you need to give me any teaching, if you need me to help you with anything, guess where I am? I'm right here. And I did this practice when I was... In the first, maybe, year of my practice, the temple was at Sokoji Temple, which was down the street a few blocks from where Zen Center in San Francisco is now. That's where we practiced. And the Zen door was on the second floor, and so we walked up the stairs to the Zen door, and then down the stairs to leave.

[06:53]

At the bottom of the stairs, there was a post with a kind of little knob on top. Yeah. And I think many people, and maybe Susan Gershey, when he went down the stairs and turned the corner, he put his hand on that knob to go into his loser's offices. And I thought, I'm going to be like that post. I'm going to be like a piece of furniture in his life that he'll just walk by, and he'll realize I'm there if he wants to put his hand on my head. Because I didn't kind of get, I'm asking him to put his hand on my head. But I was. And he didn't. He didn't. Because I was there offering myself and saying, please, put your hand on my head if you think that might be helpful. Once again, I did not understand zazen as a communion.

[07:55]

It's not me sitting by myself with other people. It's me sitting myself with other people in communion with other people. and with all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and with the trees, and the land, and the sky, and the ocean. That's how I understand Zazen now. And that is great compassion, the way we're all sitting and practicing together. That's what Zazen really is. And also, in terms of the... phenomenal expression of satsang, like my body sitting on the seat next to the she-soul, this body sitting, which is in communion with all beings, which is satsang, this body is also an opportunity to do a ritual. which is to understand that this sitting, what it really is, is inconceivable.

[09:05]

I can't see or can really conceive of how this body is in communion with all beings, and how this body is calling out to all beings for compassion, and how all beings are listening to me and responding. I can't see that. I can't think of it. What I'm talking about, I'm not just thinking about it. I'm talking about actions. That's us. So I'm thinking about it and I'm talking to you about it, but then there's the reality. The reality is we are in communion with each other. And that reality is zazen. And that communion is zazen, great compassion. If you are sitting, or if I'm sitting, I do make an effort to take care of my posture. I do. It's in my responsibility to take care of it. You can take care of it, too. But I also am responsible for taking care of this posture, and I make a great effort to take care of it.

[10:11]

I kind of need to. Also, I take care of my breathing. But me taking care of my breathing is not the extent of zazen training. Me taking care of my breathing in communing with other people who are or are not taking care of their breathing. That relationship is zazen. So I can sit and take care of my posture and my breathing, and I understand that this is a ritual I'm doing. And in this ritual I'm saying, this sitting here and this taking care of this body, is offered as homage to Zazen. This sitting, this character, this body, this observing, this mind observing the breath, is homage to all Buddhas, is homage to compassion.

[11:22]

this makes the taking care of the posture a ritual of interaction, a ritual of communion. The actual communion is beyond my human consciousness. But I can, in human consciousness, pay homage to Buddha, for example, by sinning. And I wish to do that. And also, I can pay homage to Buddha by bowing. And I can pay homage to Buddha by talking to you right now. I'm talking about Zazen Rinpoche. If I make my talking to you homage to Buddha, then my speaking to you is a ritual. I can see my talking, and you can hear my talking, and you can see me talking. You can do that. Literature. Yeah, liturgy.

[12:28]

Liturgy. My intention is that this speaking is paying homage to Buddhists, that my speaking is not just speaking to you, it's also a ritual, an act and embodiment through my mouth, through my voice. It's an embodiment of the inconceivable great compassion of Buddhists. And again, whatever you're doing on your seat, you can make that, you can donate that, you can give that, you can make that an offering to Buddhas. And that kind of practice of making all these things all through exterior compassion helps us actually realize the reality of ourselves. One other interactive thing that just comes to my mind is that you're in this class now,

[13:37]

It's a song from that childhood because, from before my childhood, it's like, you've been behind me now, you're not behind again. you're in this class now, you're not behind the plow, you're not in the kitchen, you're in this class, and if you're in this class and you're going to miss the class, please send word to me so I know that you know that you not being here is important to us. So please let me know if you're sick or whatever. That's part of the ritual. It's probably just, tell me. Now, please tell me, because I want to know. But it's also a ritual of great compassion for you to tell me what's going on with you, where in a situation where I thought you were going to show up and you didn't. So tell me so that I know. That's a ritual enactment of that compassion. That's a ritual enactment of satsang. Can you go a little longer?

[14:48]

So part of our liturgy is two of the poems we've been chanting so far. One's called, we say, How the Harmony of Difference and Equality, and how does it start? One, two, three. From the mind of the great saint of India, listening to the new extract, The mind of the great sage, it isn't just something I do. It's transmitted to me. It's given to me. This mind is given to us. It's transmitted to us intimately. And the intimacy is so intimate, you can't even get a hold of it. It's so close. It's the mind of the great sage being there. Do you think that might possibly be the mind of great compassion?

[15:54]

Could it be? I think so. I think Buddha's mind is great compassion. And by the way, sometimes we say, when we dedicate the merit of chanting, the Dai Hi Shin Dharani, we say, we have chanted the Dharani of Great Compassion. Dai Hi Great... Dai Great He Compassion. Dharani. But it doesn't quite say that. It says, Dai Hi Shin Dharani. So the name of the Dharani actually is the mind of Great Compassion. So we might think of changing the way we say that. It's the mind, it's the Buddha mind. That's what that chant's about, it's about praising the mind of Great Compassion, which is praising the mind of the sage.

[17:01]

But it's also praising the mind of Sazen, because Sazen is the mind of Great Compassion. And this mind is transmitted to us from India to China to Japan to Korea to the Western world. It's transmitted. It has been given to us, and it keeps being given to us, and we're receiving it, and we're trying to train our body and mind to understand that we're receiving this great compassion, moment by moment, and our sitting practice is one of the rituals we do to assert, to assert, to uphold great compassion. We uphold great compassion by going to that world and sitting together.

[18:04]

And that upholding and the thing we're upholding That upholding and what we're upholding have been given to us. Upholding has been given to us. The next chant, the Precious Mirror Samadhi, the teaching of suchness has been intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Again, the teaching of suchness, the dharma, is Buddha-mind. This Buddha-mind is sadhana. We could have another chant. You could write another poem, which is, Zazen is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. And if I just briefly imagine, yet a Chinese character doesn't have by in that sentence. So we say transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors.

[19:06]

What it says is, teaching of suchness, intimate transmission of Buddhas and ancestors. Buddhas and ancestors are intimate transmission. Buddhas and ancestors are a teaching of perception. We chant that. But this is also a teaching of zazen, is intimate. Communion is intimate relationship, is Buddhism and ancestors. In the way that we are in communion with all beings, that is Buddhism and ancestors. And when we're sitting there, we can make our human sitting an offering, an act of homage, a praising of this mind of great compassion. I've got my watch on again, and I have lots more to talk about, but I'm not going to talk about all the things I have to talk about, so you can go to bed someday.

[20:20]

One more thing I would mention. Two more things. One is, what I'm saying to you, do you feel some confidence in what I'm saying? I'm confidently saying this to you, but I'm not saying to you that what I say is true. This is just what I trust. This is my understanding tonight. And I'm giving you my understanding with confidence that this is what I want to give you. This is what I'm interested in. But I'm not telling you that it's true. And you can receive what I'm offering to you as something to think about. You don't have to believe what I say, but you could just consider, he did say that. I like the other one. So I'm offering this to you as a sincere expression of what I think, but also I'm offering this for you to contemplate as a thought experiment.

[21:25]

And the other thing is, and I want to be careful about this, are termed all things. That's the definition of delusion. I do the practice and the realization. Or here's the practice of realization, and I'm doing it. This is the definition of delusion. And by the way, I think in the Japanese version, it's in quotes. I'm not really saying that is another version, but that's what we call it. And then he said, basically, but all feelings, practicing and confirming them, and there's a self that's enlightened. And that's true. The truth is, all things come forward and affirm you and me each moment. All things are practicing as you and me.

[22:32]

All things are practicing as all beings each moment. That's called enlightenment. But zazen is not the enlightenment or the delusion. It's the communion between them. There's a self in both delusion and enlightenment. There's a self. In one case, it's a dependent colonizing. In the other case, it's imagining there's something separate from the practice which does the practice. But that delusion of self and that enlightenment of self, those two, they're in communion. They're interacting. They mutually give rise to each other. And they're encouraged to appreciate that communion. And that communion is where that's the center of gravity. It's a communion between delusion and truth.

[23:36]

It's not going over to the truth and holding the truth and getting rid of delusion. And of course, it's not resting in delusion. It's a communion. another version of that one. And then you could also say that delusion is ordinary sentient beings. I hear this, I hear that. Okay. And just sentient beings who are deluded, you say, well, that's not zazen. Right? But then there's also Buddhists who don't think that way. But people might think, well, that's not the way of Buddhism. the way Buddhas are, is that they're not separate from the way sentient beings are. So again, the community between ordinary sentient beings who have these thought patterns in their mind, like I do this and I do that, those sentient beings are a legitimate community with Buddha, non-self. And those who do not fall into that way of thinking, are not separate from that way of thinking.

[24:45]

The communion is great compassion. So now I think that's enough of me giving down stuff. And I invite you now to... I'm going down slowly. You don't want to hurt anybody. Is it on the camera? Yeah, wow. Yes. What was the verse that you said that's already almost totally escaped me, but the verse in Chinese? Intimate. Intimate.

[25:49]

Oh, oh. The Chinese is teaching of suchness. Teaching of suchness. which in Chinese is nyōho zei. Nyōho is such-and-such, inclusive of dharma. Nyōho zei. No, nyōho. And then next is intimately transmitting. And next is Buddha-ancestor. That's the first line of the Precious Mir Samadhi, which we'll share tomorrow. Thank you. And again, it's usually translated, a teaching of such-and-such is intended to be transmitted by. But another way to translate it, which is not very ordinary in English, is teaching of such-and-such, the teaching of the way things are, into the translation, the way of the answer. That would solve what is and by.

[26:57]

I don't disagree with guess and by, but I don't want to mess up too. The first learning is telling us what voges and innocence juice are. They're an intimate truth mission, and they are a teaching of such and such, and also telling us what intimate truth mission it is. It is the true government. That's where the genre really is, is in this communion, which you don't usually say because you have to resolve an obstruction. And I started by mentioning to you that in the spring of the summer of 1970, But here, before I go there dating that son, I was at Telta Harbor. My responsibility to give Zaza instruction every day. And I instructed people how to get into the San Diego, how to step over the threshold, how to walk, how to walk in your seat, how to posture in the beginning.

[28:02]

I did all this stuff, and I was great. I did it. I did all this stuff, and I fought that way, and it was great. And then now I wake up to what was really going on there. Okay, yes. My question has to do with the unruly nature of my mind, which has violence in it, it has unsettledness, and then I'm in communion with all beings. There's lots in and out of it, and I... And I know we chant a formless field of merit, so I guess what's the relationship between a raw communion with what's arising and with the generation of a formless field of merit? Is that just stillness with violence? So I heard you say something about an unruly lady.

[29:06]

That's so true. Mind, body. Mind, body, yeah. That's the first thing you told us about. What's the next thing you want to talk about? We've got a gut and a really body and mind, right? That itself, a really body and mind. And the self's in there, yeah. Right. And then you say there's a conversation, a communion, with all the sangha, or all the beings in the world, probably. Yep. And that gets very scary, because I'm only scared of my own mind. When the scary comes up, that's included in the unruly mind. That's just another one. So if you've got an unruly mind full of fear and etc., that mind is in communion with all beings. That's great compassion. That's truth. Great compassion is truth And so my unruly mind is a communion with your calm, free, relaxed mind.

[30:11]

And anybody who's got a unruly mind, it's a little different from mine, but we are an intimate communion. An intimate communion between us and Zaza. And there's maybe some people who are called who don't have minds like that. who have minds which are just all things coming forth and realizing themselves. Because most people may think that way, but they completely understand that they're not the slightest bit different from the people who have these unruly minds and who think that they're separate from each other. In a sense, one of the main conditions for an unruly mind is thinking that things are separate from us. But even if we do think these are separate, and our mind's full of fear because of that, there's a teaching which is saying, remember that that mind is calling out the compassion, and all other minds are calling out the compassion. Remember great compassion.

[31:13]

How do you remember? By paying homage to it. By remembering that you're a servant of it. It's like, what's my job? My job is to be a servant of great compassion. Well, yeah, right. I was in the middle of a very messy body of moon, but my fellow students were saying, yeah, my mind by chance became hazy, kind of cold,

[31:34]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_81.69