is that you are a simple commoner of true practice, but of the true mind of faith, of the true body of faith. I wanted to let you know that we're planning to have bodhisattva initiation ceremony on Saturday night, which is a couple of nights from now.

[01:30]

So I want you to, I want to help you get ready for this. The people who will be receiving the Bodhisattva precepts are Cat Moon and Landau and a woman named Zoe or Tulsi, Green Gulch, and continues to come here, and she's good friends with Valerian. And also, I think she asked if she could have a couple of guests, and I believe the guests have been approved to come. Three or four? Some guests will be coming, and they will go through the acceptable protocols of health and safety. Saturday night.

[02:39]

We'll have dinner early. I guess we'll have dinner early tomorrow night. Right? Is that right? And then we'll have dinner early the next night, too, so that we can have the ceremony not so late. So evening zazen will be at 5.30. People are continuing to respond to my call, my question of what is your deepest or utmost concern or wish in life. One person said recently that it seemed that this deep concern... Oh, by the way, I also wanted to mention, Suzuki Roshi used the term, inmost request.

[03:58]

Have you heard that expression? Inmost request. I think it's another nice language for this... Yeah, it's a phenomenon. It's a wish. It's a concern in life. It's kind of requesting something of us. It's asking us, what is it? That's the question. So this one person said, like that, that ultimate concern is non-verbal. And I said, well, another way to put it is that it's silent. Or maybe it's better to say it's silence. And it can talk.

[05:06]

So the person was, I think, saying it's kind of difficult to say what's pre-verbal. It's also, you might think it's difficult to say, silence. But like we say, although it's not fabricated, it's not without speech. Remember that line? Is that what it still says? So what is it? was it could be called the precious mirror samadhi, or it could be called intimate transmission. But intimate transmission is not something we construct. We don't construct intimate transmission between ourselves.

[06:08]

However, it does co-arise with all of us. Right now, it's co-arising. Not all of us. None of us are constructing it. Even the Buddhas can't construct it. It's not something that's constructed. Some phenomena are not constructed. And also in the Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi it's mentioned that all this wondrous Buddha activity occurs within unconstructedness and stillness. So we're talking about the place where the practice is fully alive and it's an unconstructed realm.

[07:11]

It's beyond another translation, which is really a free translation, but a nice one. Instead of unconstructedness, it's beyond human agency. So all of our human consciousnesses have agency. And the intimate communication between human agency is not human agency beyond it. But it's not separate from it because it is. The human agency needs this transmission in order to realize the Dharma. But the transmission is not constructed by human agency. So again, the person said, well, you know, how can we talk? Well, we don't talk, we don't say it, but it requests that we let it be said.

[08:19]

You don't hear it, don't hinder that which does. Let it out. But part of the way you let it out is saying, hello, are anybody home? Hello, it must request. Anything you want to tell us today? Although this inmost request is not fabricated, it is not without speech. No words reach it. Words are constructed, they don't reach it. They, you could say, fade out. but the light can talk. And I appreciate that in this intensive have been contemplating what

[09:27]

that silence has to say. And when it speaks, what it says is something to listen to and perhaps be guided. Not that it tells you exactly what to do, but it tells you what you want to do, not what you should. So another person gave me a response to this issue, that they thought that this deepest wish, most important thing, was teamwork. I thought, yeah, right. Intimate transmission is teamwork. And then he said that somehow something deep that was even more at the heart of it, which was peace.

[10:46]

And I thought, yeah. The big teamwork is peace. Little team works are good too. Peace is teamwork. And teamwork is hard. And also individual work is hard, too. They're both hard. Human agency is hard, and beyond human agency is hard. It's just that human agency by itself, not in the midst of... teamwork, human agency is just ongoing and ongoing suffering. Hard doesn't mean suffering necessarily, because we have a practice of patience to deal with how hard it is. So the hard of practicing by oneself only, that just is ongoing suffering.

[11:59]

But the hard path of teamwork is freedom for the whole team. And then this person who, and also this person who said that when peace came up as the big thing, and he might have used the word big, he thought that was such a big wish he got kind of scared. So, you know, what would the implications be of this wish for this human? And then the person said, the human person said, by human action, human agency, you know, what is Zionism?

[13:00]

And I said, teamwork. and peace. Zazen doesn't make teamwork. Peace doesn't make teamwork. Peace is teamwork. And teamwork doesn't make anything either. Teamwork is unconstructed. Zazen is unconstructed. Peace is unconstructed. All these things are to be discovered, because they're already here. We don't make them, we discover them. The laws of the Dharma, that Buddha discovered them. They were always there. Somehow, he practiced in such a way that he discovered them. And then he told us about the way he practiced, so we can discover. Satsang.

[14:02]

Teamwork, intimate transmission, great compassion. They're all here all the time. We can discover them. Did some of you receive a little document called the Ten Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra? Did anybody not receive it? So some of you don't. Good for you. If you ever do again, if you have a device and you start using it again, you might find on your device an email from Sanya, which is offering you a document, which is a simple version of this teaching from the Abhatam Saga Sutra, the end of the sutra.

[15:07]

The last chapter at the end, Samantabhadra, the great bodhisattva of activity, says, I'm going to make a vow. And so he lists ten practices and he vows to do these ten practices. Now, these ten practices, which Samantabhadra vows to practice, these are ways to take care of These are ways to take care of, you know, teamwork. These are ways to take care of Buddha. So the way Samantabhadra puts it is, these are, yeah, I can take care of Buddhas, and these are ways to take care of sentient beings. in such a way as to discover reality.

[16:14]

So the first one is, again, I'm going to say it once, but the first one is to pay homage to all Buddhas. It's a practice which we formally do here, particularly in the Zen-do, we do prostrations And we offer these prostrations to the Buddhas who are on the altar and the bodhisattvas who are on the altar. So we have Buddhas and bodhisattvas on the altar. We have Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, Bodhidharma, and we have the Buddha. we align ourselves with the Buddha by the physical action of prostration. And then we also praise the Buddha.

[17:17]

We also make offerings to Buddha. Now, this is also a way to relate to teamwork. This is a way to relate to the issue of teamwork. It's a way to relate to the issue, whatever it is, of Buddha. Buddha is not a thing. Buddha is a transmission process. Buddha is intimacy. by itself. So these practices are ways to relate to Zaza. Ways to relate to the teamwork we're doing sitting at our place. And one way to pay homage to it is by sitting.

[18:26]

Your sitting can be homage to Buddhas. Your sitting can be homage to zazen. My sitting is not really zazen, but my sitting for me to pay homage to zazen. By paying homage to zazen, zazen is realized. My sitting is a way to praise zazen. My sitting is an offering to zazen. So once again, when I go in that room and I see you there, I see you engaged in teamwork. You're working as a team. It's an amazing team. What a group. What an assembly of teammates. And that teamwork you're doing is something. You can't really see teamwork, but you kind of get it, don't you?

[19:28]

So that's the wonderful thing about this intensive is we've got this huge team engaged in Buddha activity together. And you're sitting is homage, praise and offering. The teamwork just wants you to offer yourself to the teamwork and wants you to align yourself with the teamwork. So we're doing that. And I pray that we continue for another week or so. So again, like... Part of the way you pay homage to a teacher, and part of the way you honor the teacher, is you do what the teacher does. That's, to some extent, how I practiced with Sukhriya. I kind of did what he did. I wanted to do what he did before I met him, but then doing what he did before I met him, it was supported to continue to do it.

[20:44]

Some of you know this story. One time I went to the zendo for evening zazen. And this is in Japan town on Bush Street at a temple called Sokoji. And I went to evening zazen. I think it was like at 5.30 or something. And I went in the zendo and there was only one person in the zendo. Suzuki-ro. And I don't know if I asked him right away or if I just sat, but I did ask him maybe after sitting, where is everybody? I mean, I was happy to sit with him, but I wondered where everybody else was. He said, well, they went to a rally against the war. But I did what the teacher did. Not to say that what the other people were doing was less good.

[21:54]

I'm kind of simple-minded. I pay homage to the teacher by praying what the teacher did. And the next practice, after those first three big ones, which are kind of all positive, although people have resistance to them, these three just straightforward positive ways of relating to zazen, by sitting zazen, I should say by sitting, and then the third one is revealing and disclosing your lack of faith in practice. It's to confess and regret or confess and be embarrassed that you have not been paying homage to the Buddhas.

[22:55]

You have not been paying wholehearted homage to the Zatva. Or you have not been making offerings to Zazen. Or you have not been, you know, praising Zazen. You forgot. You just forgot. I just forgot to do that with Zazen. I forgot to pay homage to teamwork. That's the third, fourth practice. And that is that fourth practice of acknowledging the shortcomings in our practice. Dogen says, is the pure and simple color of true practice. So proof is to confess and repent the shortcomings in our practice. That starts with, there it is, this great bodhisattva is going to do this practice. This great bodhisattva, the great bodhisattva of the Mahayana practice. flower, adornment, scripture, is going to... You might say, well, how could such a great bodhisattva have any shortcomings?

[24:05]

Right? Samantabhadra has shortcomings? Well, apparently, he didn't say. There's the practice of revealing and disclosing a lack of practice. And you people should do it. He said, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do this practice. What's he got to confess? Well, apparently even that great bodhisattva has some shortcomings. So if that bodhisattva has shortcomings, maybe you do. Or maybe not. Anyway, that's the fourth practice. The fifth practice is to rejoice in the merits and to rejoice in merits of Buddhas and Sanjana-gita. To rejoice in the merits of zazen. And the next one is to request the Buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma.

[25:14]

And again, zazen requests to turn the wheel of dharma. When you sit, If you want to realize how great Zazen is, then you can understand. Your sitting has been requesting Buddhas to turn away the Dharma. Even if you didn't mean you're sitting to be requesting the Buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma, it does. So it would be okay if you noticed that. I'm sitting here and this is a request for the dharma wheel to be turned. Next, you're sitting is asking the Buddhas to stay in the world. Next, your sitting is to do all the practices that Buddhists have done. Generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm, concentration and wisdom, zazen,

[26:33]

teamwork, intimate transmission, does all those practices. First in a training mode, then in a spontaneous mode. And then next comes to accommodate to living beings. So, again, I see everybody in Zendo accommodating to everybody else in Zendo. When you're sitting, when you're walking, during service, during talks, during meals, everybody has the opportunity and accord with. And, you know, chant the scriptures together so that we can mature together. I think that was number one.

[27:41]

And the tenth is to dedicate the merit of all these practices, all these ways of relating to of using your sitting as a way to relate to this great teamwork of all Buddhas is to dedicate all the goodness that comes up with those practices to the enlightenment and peace and freedom of all beings. I just want to say this style of practice, style of transmission of the Dharma, which has been sort of viewed under the umbrella of Zen.

[28:57]

People who I'm telling you about didn't really use the word Zen much. So somebody said, you know, and again many people say this, that, well the Zen people don't really like, they don't really I don't know what the word is, something like they don't really X the sutras. It could be like, don't attach to the sutras. They're not... Somebody might even say they don't love the sutras. They don't need the sutras. They don't like the sutras. And some Zen people maybe don't like the sutras. But a lot of Zen people love the sutras. And some other people, some people who don't necessarily love them, they kind of have a love relationship with them because they chant them a lot.

[30:05]

So anyway, there's this thing about the special transmission separate from the scriptures. And again, what I'm interpreting as, it's a special transmission that doesn't use the scriptures and doesn't necessarily use the scripture language in the process of this great teamwork. So, once upon a time there was this and his family made tea cakes and he was the delivery boy for his family. So he took tea cakes around to many customers, and also he took tea cakes as a donation to a Buddhist priest, who now is considered a Zen priest, but anyway, he was a Buddhist priest who lived near a temple called Nang Hua,

[31:13]

No, Tian Wang was the name of the monastery, Tian Wang. The monk is called Tian Wang because he lived near the monastery. Apparently he was not the abbot, but he became noted, and so they named after that place. So this young person, a boy, delivered cakes, pancakes every day, I guess, to the monk. And these cakes are like the cakes that you find at Dim Sun, you know. They're not just sugar cakes. They're also many kinds of savory cakes. So he would deliver ten. And after doing that for quite a while, he gave him one of the cakes back.

[32:24]

And the boy said, wow. I delivered a thousand cakes. Why do you give me one back? And the teacher said, Well, since you delivered a thousand cakes, why don't you give me one back? And the boy went, Hmm. Maybe some of you went, Hmm. What's this guy up to? Anyway, the boy, this sunk into him, this communication with Buddha. And the thought of enlightenment arose in him. And he asked his parents if he could leave home and go study the Dharma with this teacher. And I didn't hear that they had a big problem with it, even though they lost their delivery boy. So he went and lived with Tian Huang.

[33:27]

And then Thich Nhat Hanh gave him a Buddhist name, which is, I think, respect. He said, I'm giving you this name because you have faith in the practice and you have respect for it. And so after he was, and he served this teacher as an attendant, and after he was there for quite a while, he said, you haven't really taught me anything about the essence of mind. Maybe he didn't even talk about the sutras. They're just, you know, they're together, but the boys didn't see any teaching that occurred. And the teacher said, I've done nothing but teach you the essence of mind. I maybe didn't say it, but I've done nothing but teach you the essence of mind.

[34:35]

Young monk said, Well, how? And he said, well, when you brought me tea, I received it. When you brought me food, I received it and ate it. When you bowed to me, I lowered my head. This is nothing but the essence of mind. And the boy understood. in this relationship which he was devoted to. It was revealed to him. He woke up. And then later he became the abbot of a monastery called Dragon Pond. Again, no mention of sutras, just living together using these interactions as the way of teaching the Avatamsaka Sutra, without mentioning it, probably.

[35:49]

Maybe they chanted it together, I don't know. Anyway... And then there was another monk, a very energetic person, who really loved the sutras, and he gave his life to them, and he was an expert, particularly on the diamond sutra. His name was Zhou, Chinese name Zhou. And because he was an expert on the Diamond Sutra and loved it so much and gave lots of Diamond Talks on it, Diamond Joe. And Diamond Joe heard about these Zen people. And he heard that they did this teaching of, you know, a special training.

[37:00]

went sort of beyond the scriptures or didn't necessarily use the scriptures. And he thought, that's really bad. And then see your nature and become Buddha. He thought, this is heresy. Because again, this way of teaching that people were doing, how do you do it? Somebody offers you tea, you receive the tea. That's how you do it. Teamwork. you may or may not receive the tea and say, Diamond Sutra. You may or may not receive the tea when nothing to attain of bodhisattva. But anyway, with or without saying anything about the sutras, this is the way of living of some people who love the sutras and want to transmit the sutras in every daily life action. so that we don't have to wait to talk about the sutras.

[38:05]

We can study the sutras in every action. So anyway, he didn't like this style, and he said, I'm going to go and... I don't know what he's going to do. Harsh. I don't remember how he put it. I'm going to go and be harsh to these Zen devils. And sometimes when they tell that story, the commenter says, you can kind of get a feeling for what kind of person he was. Very intense. And even to protect the Dharma. So he's on his way to the Zen land with lots of Zen people. And he's going through a mountain pass or something and he runs into a tea shop Now, it doesn't say in the text, but I get the feeling like this shop was, the proprietor of this shop was a woman, and I have a hunch that she might be to Dragon Pond, who is also from a tea cake family.

[39:27]

Anyway, there she was running her show, her store. And this monk comes along, diamond sutras and commentaries on the sutra on his back, heading to destroy the Zen devils. But he still eats. So he stops by the stand and says, I'd like to have some cakes, if I may. And she says, what's that on your back? And he says, it's the Diamond Sutra. I have commentaries on the Diamond Sutra. I'm an expert on the Diamond Sutra. And she said, oh, I don't know if she said this part, but, oh, I know a little bit about the Diamond Sutra. But she did say, the Diamond Sutra says, past mind cannot be got at, future mind cannot be got at, present mind cannot be got at.

[40:37]

She's quoting the sutra. She loved it. Don't you love the sutra? Isn't that a lovely teaching? In other words, past zazen cannot be got at, future zazen cannot be got at, present zazen cannot be got at. But it doesn't say it in the sutra. This is something that I'm saying now. It's been said before for all I know. Probably has, but have you heard it before? Maybe it's like something original. As a priest, I can say stuff that's never been said before. Maybe. Except, of course, according to others, it's been said before for eons in innumerable world systems by innumerable beings. But anyway, back here, I'm just saying, that's what she said. And then she said, with what mind are you going to eat these cakes?

[41:39]

It's new. It's coming from somebody who loves the Diamond Sutra and wants to share it with this person. But before she gives him the cakes, she says, Oh, no, excuse me. Before she asks, she says, I'm going to ask you a question now, and if you can answer it, I'll give you the cakes. If not, you're not getting any cakes. So then she's close to diamond sutra and asks this question. With what mind are you going to eat it? With what zazen are you going to eat it? Lunch. And he can't say anything. And he is this powerfully educated and gifted person. He is somewhat humbled. Actually, he seems like quite humbled. And then she can maybe see it.

[42:42]

And she says, you know, it might be good if you went and visited this monk who lives not too far from here. His name is Dragon Pond. He's my brother. I corral Bodhisattva's friend. But she's also teaching Zen, right? He didn't tell her She probably the first time an expert in the Dhamma Sutra came to her shop. Nobody told her what to do when some people like that came. So she did very well. She initiated him into the Zen school and humbled him so he could get ready. Part of the initiation is humbling. Like in the ceremony that we're going to do on Saturday, part of the ceremony is humbling down to receive the Zen teaching, the precepts.

[43:44]

And so she said, go see Dragon Pond. And he went, and he went to see Dragon Pond. And, yeah. This is a person who loves the Diamond Sutra as much as some of you do, maybe more. But he definitely is devoted to this great scripture. And a lot of other Zen people are devoted to this great scripture. The sixth ancestor was selling firewood in a marketplace in China. And he walked by a fortune-teller stall And he heard the Diamond Sutra, Section 10C, and he had a great awakening. And then he said to the person in the stall, What was that?

[44:48]

And the person said, Oh, that was the Diamond Sutra. He said, Wow, where can I learn more about that? He said, Well, there's a great teacher who lives up north. They call him the fifth ancestor of Zen. And he teaches it in the Zen way. But anyway, so he traveled long way to meet the teacher who taught the Diamond Sutra. And that teacher taught him the Diamond Sutra. And he wrote a commentary on the Diamond Sutra. So the love of the Diamond Sutra is strong. And because we're so devoted to it, we teach it in an appropriate way, which may be not to mention it. But the six ancestors did mention it. But Lungtan is not going to mention it.

[45:52]

So he comes to Lungtan, which means dragon pond, and he goes into the temple, enters some hall, And as he enters, Dragon Palm sees him coming and hides behind a foldier screen. And so this monk, I'll give you his name now, his name is Virtue Mountain, Deshan. He comes into the hall looking around, where's Mr. Dragon Palm? Dragonpant saw it coming, hides behind the screen so he can't see. And so Darshan says, Diamond Joe says, Well, I've come to Dragonpant, but now that I'm here, I don't see a dragon, and I don't see a dragon.

[47:00]

And then Dragon Pond steps out and says, that's how you see Dragon Pond. And then they hang out. And there's nothing mentioned about the diamond suture to the expert. And they hang out into the night. And it gets dark. In China, at night it gets dark. And so the teacher says, you probably should leave. And Deshan says, okay, thank you so much for hanging out with me. And he goes to the door and steps outside and says, it's so dark. And then Dragon Pond says, oh, here's a lantern.

[48:06]

And he gives him one of those lanterns that have paper around the light. He says, here's a lantern to guide you away. And as he's handing it to Dush, he takes it out. And Deschamps wakes up to the meaning of the Diamond Sutra, which he knew already, right? But he didn't know it this way. The Zen people might express how much they love the Diamond Sutra by giving light and blowing it out. Or you could say, giving an explanation and blowing that out. Giving an illumination and blowing it out. But that's perfectly in accord with the Diamond Sutra. It's the Diamond Sutra. Blowing out illuminations.

[49:07]

Got an illumination, had to give it back. So I'm just trying to show you how love of the sutra is something teaching them in a way that's not in the sutras, and nobody else has ever taught the sutras that way. And that's lots of Zen stories about bringing out the heart of the sutra, in a way that any reference to the sutra, perhaps, or by turning the sutra from what it traditionally says. Dogen very much turns traditional teachings in unusual ways, which some scholars would say are wrong. You can't do that. Okay, so that's, I think that's, I could go on, but it looks like you have enough of that.

[50:09]

So now I'd just like to mention something about the Bodhisattva precepts. After he told me that teamwork is what's number one, but really peace is, he didn't say, what are the Bodhisattva precepts? But if he had, I would have said, they're teamwork. Bodhisattva precepts are peace. At least that's what I say. So, yeah. So the ceremony will give people bodhisattva precepts, which are precepts, which, what they actually are is teamwork. They say they're precepts of teamwork. But oftentimes we say they're Buddha nature precepts. And so these bodhisattva precepts are given to us to help us realize our Buddha-niji, to help us discover our Buddha-niji, to help us realize intimate transmission.

[51:34]

So in this way they are And one of the sutras which we are most influenced by, which is called Brahmanet scripture, in that scripture it says, these precepts are for all sentient beings. They're not just for men, they're not just for women, they're not just for monks and nuns, they're not just for lay people. They're for all sentient beings who have Buddha nature. So it's Buddha nature precepts for people who have this nature of Buddha nature. And it's given to them to help them realize the Buddha nature. But some of them are phrased ...a way of not killing, not stealing, not lying, and so on.

[52:50]

So these teachings, these Buddha-natured teachings are phrased that way, so a lot of people think the precepts are saying, don't do this, But the interpretation I'm offering, which is called the Zen precepts, Zen precepts is the same precepts as the Bodhisattva precepts of the scripture. The usual way of understanding not killing, not stealing, and so on, is don't do it. Zen precept is not saying interpretation of the precepts. For example, it's an interpretation of the precept of not killing. The precept of not killing is a precept of our true nature.

[53:55]

Our true nature is a precept. The precept is our true nature. Not killing. It's not telling us what to do, it's showing us what we are. It's showing us our inmost request. Our inmost request is not killing. But usually most Mahayana Buddhists They understand the precept of not killing, and the character does not say, don't kill. The character says, not killing, not don't kill. They still understand that character as telling people not to kill. So it's a different interpretation, which we should be respectful of and be aware of, and maybe even try that way, the way of don't do it. You can try that practice. we're offering, in the Zen interpretation, a little bit different take on them, which is, this is showing us who we really are.

[55:04]

This is our inmost request. Most deep in us is not killing. Don't kill is more in the realm of human agency. Human agents can, like, not kill. I can do that maybe. Now some people say, I can't even do that. But they can try. This is not saying what you can and cannot do. It actually is saying what you cannot do. You cannot do these precepts. They're beyond human agency. How you work together with all beings, by practicing together with me, practicing not killing together. We're practicing not killing together. We're practicing not killing together. In this way, we awaken to our true nature. And so I think I'm going to wait now to go more into the precepts, but I just want to say, I have one more class before the precept.

[56:11]

I just want to say, before I stop presenting this, that Practicing them would also be done in that same way of remembering them and practicing them as homage to them, as praising them, as making offerings to them. Same as with zazen. In that way, the Zen precepts are the understanding of the bodhisattva precepts as something that human beings do, that's different from zazen. So then that kind of understanding, the precepts are not zazen. All that, but we can go over it again. I just want to say one more thing about the precepts, is that in the sutra, It says that these precepts are the source of all the Buddhas and the origin of all the bodhisattvas.

[57:16]

People might often think the Buddha was the Buddha and then the Buddha said these precepts. That's one historical story. This is saying the Buddhas come from the realization of the precepts. These precepts. And then it also says, when a living being receives these precepts, they enter the rank or the standing of all Buddhas. When a living being receives these precepts, they enter the same status, the same rank as all Buddhas. which means the same status as Great Awakening. And this person is really an offspring of Buddha. So I think I'm going to try to stop there and maybe bring up more in a couple of days.

[58:30]

All right? Thank you for listening to this. Is there anything else before we stop? Two people in the back, I see, and one person in the front. So I see, I see Brooks, I see Vanessa, and I see Mandel, and I see Chloe, and I see, what's his name, Tim. So in our last class you, you spoke to how the Chinese ancestors were doing something new with them, going away from the sutra ways of the Indians into a way of describing things that were more based on everyday objects or everyday imagery. And when I hear both Indian sutras and Chinese remembrance, such as the stories that you just told, they all, maybe not all, but many of them really emphasize enlightenment as something special, or an event that happens, or a great realization.

[59:55]

And in this the emphasis on that. Did you say in your school? Yes. Which school are you talking about? the San Francisco Zen Center or Zodiacal Zen Center, that… The emphasis on… On enlightenment is special. We say that Zazen is the Buddha, is enlightenment. We say that taking or receiving the precepts is entering the ranks of the Buddha. And so I'm wondering if that is also something new, something that happened between the time of the Chinese ancestors and now, that is a more appropriate way to train? Okay, so just one little twist there is, without saying that great awakening is, do you say special?

[61:07]

Without saying that, anyway, I just quoted it saying that receiving these precepts is the same as Great Awakening. There is some appreciation of Great Awakening. We pay homage to Great Awakening, we praise it in that statement, so we deeply appreciate Great Awakening. But I don't think we want to make it special. I think we want to make it non-dual with what we're doing. For example, we received the precepts, and that is the same as Great Awakening. And when people are treating or awakening as special, there's quite a few Zen stories about I'm not saying Buddha is not special or not saying Buddha is special.

[62:12]

Out of respect and devotion to Buddha, there's many stories of people who are devoted to awakening. They're devoted to awakening, and when somebody treats awakening special, they kind of give them some feedback. So, for example, Somebody says to Linji, what Buddha? And he says, no, no, Yanmen, what Buddha? And Yanmen says, a piece of shit. And somebody else says, you know, says to his admiral, you're acting in a way that is not in accord with Buddha. You're not acting like a Buddha. He said, I don't want to be a Buddha, and Buddha doesn't want to be me. And somebody else said, what Buddha? And the teacher said, it's a Sanskrit word.

[63:15]

We don't necessarily go unless somebody is like... grasping this wonderful thing called awakening as special or separate or whatever. Then they get some kind of turning or feedback. There's many Zen stories about that. Or another one is one of the ancestors sold and used Buddhist statues for fire. And then he has a picture of him warming his butt on the fire. So the thing is, Zen people are very much interested in don't be possessive of Don't hold on to Buddha, don't make Buddha into something substantial. So in that sense we don't make it special, but we do make it sort of the point of our practice, because we are determined to realize this so we can help people.

[64:19]

To realize this great thing, don't make it special, antithetical to realization. Praising something doesn't mean you have to make it special. You can praise every ordinary person. That's in accord with praising Buddha. So I don't know if I addressed your question, did I? Okay, thank you. Well, maybe just the part of when did it become... Has it always been like that? Or is this... It's always been like that. It's always been like that. When the historical Buddha was alive and people were attached to some idea of an awakening, the historical Buddha helped them to not be attached to it. So like, again, Yun Men, the one who said... Was he devoted to Buddha?

[65:22]

Nobody was more devoted to Buddha than him. So one time, I think, I can't remember now, he often asked questions and answered them, but I can't remember if he asked the question or Mung asked the question. The question was asked, what is the whole life of Buddha? Or what was the teaching of Buddha for the whole life? And he said, three characters, which is, meeting one, or meeting each teaching. So when the Buddha meets each person, the Buddha teaches according to the circumstances. And that often is nicely translated as the Buddha's whole teaching was an appropriate response. That's all there is to the Buddha. that teaching and that just responding to people.

[66:26]

So people who are holding on to Buddha, the Buddha teaches this way. People who are devoted to Buddha and cling to Buddha, the Buddha teaches that way. People who are not attached to Buddha, or devoted to Buddha, the Buddha teaches another way. But that was the case, according to the young men, of the historical Buddha. That's the way the historical Buddha taught. If people came up to him and tried to get something from him, he would teach them one way. The people came up to him and offered themselves without trying to get anything through the teaching of Buddha. Some people, this teaching would not work. They're not trying to get something from the Buddha. This person is totally there, not trying to get anything, so they get a different teaching. But everybody is going to get the teaching they need at the moment, and then that leads to their ongoing evolution to Buddhahood. In my view, and some other people's view, that's always the way the Buddhists are. They're walking around doing what's appropriate and not making anything special out of it.

[67:32]

It's an insubstantial phenomenon. So totally flexible and hopefully appropriate to the person's maturity. Let's see, Vanessa. I have a question about not killing. Yeah. And this is around where Russell and I live is in Alaska. And to survive there, we have to eat a lot of fish. And when we've gone fishing, has been really hard for us. And so then this year we bought a bunch of fish from our friends because we didn't want to kill the fish. But then that felt, to me, I don't know if it felt like this to me, it felt less intimate with the fish.

[68:42]

And I feel like in one sense there's this way where I can kill the fish and not kill the fish, so not be killing the fish. And also I do that. And I wonder if you can help me. So one way to approach this issue is to try to relate to fish in a way that's intimate.

[69:55]

Try to find a way to relate to fish that's intimate. trust intimacy first and then see how you're guided to relate to fish. Is it possible that intimacy has been realized and a fish dies in relationship to you. Is that possible? We'll see. But I think, first of all, are you willing to put intimacy with the fish, harmony with the fish, first, and let that guide you about how to relate to fish. And what also came up while you were talking is that that famous story from then an art of archery,

[70:58]

where the teacher is teaching to pull the bowstring back with the arrow in the notch, with the notched arrow, and just hold it until the arrow is released. So that's first. The releasing of the arrow is second. And it's not supposed to happen unless it is released without you letting go of the string. He said, when the string is released, it will be like it goes through your fingers. And he tried to figure out a way to do it. And he figured out a way to do it that he thought wasn't really letting go, but he figured it out. And it was human agency. Some teachers say, hold it back until something that's beyond human agency releases the arrow, the string.

[72:08]

And when he figured out that way, he was kicked out of the out of the dojo, which means kicked out of the place of awakening. And he begged for years to get back, and he was allowed to come back, and then he was allowed to come back and hold the string. Rather than figure out how to get rid of the string, he just followed the instructions of holding. So this is a way to be with the fish. Just hold the string. which is maybe a little harder than to hold the knife or hold the hook. But just hold it and let that be the practice. You might say, what about eating in the meantime? Well, I don't know. This is the practice. It's this great circle of possibility. The ebola, the string, that kind of circle.

[73:11]

And then see what life is like when you tune into that dimension of a practice that's beyond human agency, the practice of not killing. And if you feel like you do things where you're not being intimate, or you forgot to be intimate, and you say, I'm sorry, I was not intimate at that moment. I put something else maybe as a higher priority, or I got distracted. And I wasn't intimate with the moment. And again, intimate isn't something... I pay homage to it and I remember. I don't do silence. I pay homage to it and I remember it. So that's one kind of life. And maybe that can lead to people killing fish or eating fish or a relationship where the fish dies.

[74:22]

We'll have to see. And I intend to... Pardon? When your voice goes down, it's hard to hear you. I'll try to speak louder. Is that better? That's better, thank you. I will talk more about that precept, hopefully, a day after tomorrow. A day after tomorrow. I would like to share with you the Buddha nature message about that person. Carolyn mentioned a quote from Barry Lopez that I remember, which is, Invest not in progress, but in stability.

[75:28]

invest in stability. Not invest in instability. Invest in stability. So progress is like to let go or get the fish into your mouth. That's progress. But how about putting your emphasis, your investment into being stable in your practice? And then even stable when it's time to have lunch. which is not easy. Sometimes we get unstable when it's lunchtime, right? Sometimes we get unstable when it's lunchtime, right? Whether you're a server or a receiver. Landau. Yes, thank you. I wanted to go back to the story between you and Suzuki Roshi, where Suzuki Roshi was sitting in the zendo by himself that morning that you came in, and after you asked him where is everybody, he replied with, they went to a rally.

[76:40]

I was wondering, did you know that the rally was going on? I did not. You did not. So you could ask, where did you have gone? That would be the first question. Don't know. I do not know. But I'm really glad I went to Zazen that night. Because that's like, you know, that's like life doesn't get better than that. That was a great moment in my life to be sitting there in that lovely zendo with him. I mean, rallies, protests, they can be really good. I've been to some that are really good. And I've been to some other ones that are really bad. Where I felt like this is not... I've been to protests against war that were really bad. And I felt like I don't see teamwork here.

[77:46]

I went to another protest, which was, I think, the second time into Iraq. George Bush's war. And that was so loving. The feeling was so good. They had, like, people there offering to dance with you. Tango. It was really... And afterwards, the people cleaned up. And it was... Anyway, I don't know if I would have gone to the protest if I knew about it. Part of my good fortune is I don't know about anything, so I go to Zazen. If I knew, it would be much harder for me to go to Zazen if I didn't know about what's going on. Since I don't, it's not so difficult for me to... Some people say I do not have problems with boring activity.

[78:50]

It reminds me of a quote, I think it was by Gandhi, who said, invest in what you're for and not in what you're... He said, I'm not against British rule in India, I am for Indian peace. And that's what he invested in. He invested in Indian peace. Yes. Yeah. So, I don't hear this in your story because you mentioned that you would like to... emulating the teacher. Suzuki Roshi said, and Zazen, you went and joined. Doing what the teacher does can also be a way to relinquish responsibility and avoiding making your own decisions like the teacher does. Could you speak to that? I think my decision to do what the teacher did... The teacher didn't tell me to do that. That was my decision. I also...

[79:54]

I didn't want to curse his favor and I never did. I didn't want to, but I did feel like I just, you know, I didn't want to get him to teach me, but I thought it would really be good to make myself available and make myself available in a way that he knew I was available. So I made a decision, and in the same temple in Japan town, the zendo was upstairs, and there was a stairway, and the bottom of the stairway was a post. That's probably got a word for it. Ballister. Ballister, the post. And it had a little dome head on it. I said, I'm going to make myself like that post. And when he went up and down the stairs, he put his hand on that post when he turned the corner. I said, I'm just going to make myself like a piece of furniture in his life. If he wants to put his hand on my head, I'll be there. If he wants to sit on me, I'll be there.

[80:58]

That was my decision. He didn't tell me that. It was my responsibility to be there. I wasn't copying him then. He didn't do that. He wasn't like making... But he was making himself available to me. So maybe I was doing what he did, but I didn't think of it that way. I thought, if I want to study with this person, he should know I'm here, and I should be here. And that worked really well. He sort of knew I was there, and if he needed something from me, he knew where I was, and he would ask me. Let me serve him because he knew I wanted to be there to serve him. That was my decision. I didn't see him doing that. I think he was, but I didn't see it. And I'm responsible for that decision. Yeah, so that last thing is... But there's one more thing is that I looked at the way he was and had some interest in being that way.

[82:04]

So, for example, he was a priest. If he wasn't a priest, I wouldn't have got ordained as a priest. But since he was a priest, I thought, well, maybe I'll be a priest too. So in that case, I did sort of copy him. And also, I wanted to be responsible for that. But when I got ordained, I did not know the level and the scope of the responsibility. But it is a big responsibility. And I gradually started to get that. And a lot of people now who are more interested, who know more about what's going on than I do, they're more cautious about getting ordained because they know what a big responsibility it is. But I was so simple-minded, I just thought, I'm just going to be like him. And then I found out, well, there's responsibilities go with that. And I didn't back out because of it, but it's love. You can hurt people in ways that, when you're a priest, that you can't hurt them when you're a layperson.

[83:08]

You can discourage people when you're a priest in some way more profoundly than you can discourage them when you're a layperson. Now, if a layperson does an unwholesome thing, it discourages people, or it bothers them. When a priest does an unwholesome thing, it bothers them more. So part of the responsibility of a priest is to be aware of that and be really careful. I didn't get that. I learned that little by little, and I'm still learning it. Being a priest, you really have a big, big responsibility to be careful. So my decision to be ordained, he ordained me, I asked, he ordained me. And I gradually found out what that was. Okay. Do you have some more point on that? Yes. But I'm trying to sort of detect what the question is.

[84:12]

I see a clear distinction between imitation and emulation. You don't? I'm up for emulating Buddha and imitating Buddha. And some people say Zen is not imitation, and some other Zen people say Zen is imitation. Does it start as imitation, and then gradually you can find your own way? Exactly. Actually, I thought I was imitating him, and I was worried about it, actually. He said, don't worry, you're not imitating me. Like I said, I think I'm becoming too Japanese. He said, don't worry. Don't worry. I'm becoming too Japanese. But I was, and he asked me to learn Japanese, and he supported me to, you know, he asked them to support me to have a tutor and everything. He wanted me to learn Japanese, and he was not afraid that I would become Japanese.

[85:17]

I didn't. One time I was wearing a robe sitting on the bench over there, and a Japanese person came to visit and said, all that, you know, he's more Japanese than Japanese. But no. Because he doesn't say that about Japanese people. So, yeah. And again, Ten, nine, eight. Eight is emulate the Buddha. Do all the practices Buddha did. Imitation doesn't mean that you wind up being exactly the same. One of the Chinese characters for learn or study that we commonly use, like to study the Buddha way or to learn the Buddha way, that character has the radical for wings in it. And it refers to the way babies imitate, baby birds imitate their parents.

[86:24]

So part of study and part of learning is to imitate something. But when the baby flies, they don't fly like their parents. They fly in a new way, a baby way. So we don't really make an exact copy, but we try, and then we go beyond that. And also, another thing Edward Kongo said is that he observed the American Zen groups, and he noticed that the Chinese Zen Center, which at that time was near San Francisco Zen Center, all the Western people spoke kind of pigeon Chinese-English. They kind of talked the way their teachers spoke English. And at Zen Center, people sort of talked the way Suzuki Rishi spoke English. One of my friends, when she came to Zen Center, she said, I'm really enjoying hearing how Zen Center people speak English.

[87:30]

I hope I don't lose that awareness. But gradually Zen Center people stopped talking like Suzuki Roshi. But for years there, it was kind of silly, but silly the way American Zen monks talked like Suzuki Roshi. Was it heavily redacted when Zen Mind Beginner's Mind came out, or is some of his language still... Heavily. Right? He could say beautifully. Yeah. Well, you can listen to him, right? His English was very good, but if you wrote it down, it wouldn't work very well. He was talking to people, and his English was really good. If you wrote it down, it doesn't necessarily work as a book. But for a study guide, we have all these transcripts, and they're not edited very much.

[88:31]

So it says, his laughter's in there, many, many you knows, things and getting the words wrong. Even though his English was really good, he'd make a lot of mistakes. But it was perfectly, didn't distract from the message. Watching how he dealt with his mistakes was a great teaching. So it's getting kind of late now and there are a couple of questions. So I don't know, shall we go on or should we... Maybe we could bring those questions up later. How do you feel? I'm fine either way. You're fine either way. Anybody else? Are you fine either way? Anybody else fine either way? You can ask the questions on Chloe. Are you fine either way? Yeah, I have just a quick question about the Diamond Sutra, though. Okay. So maybe... That should be easier. Not about the sutra itself.

[89:36]

I think at City Center, that's where we... ...is handed out, and we all chant from different places, and I can see how that could be an enactment of giving the light and turning it out and blowing it out. But I was wondering if you could say a little bit about that practice. of chanting the Diamond Sutra out of unison. My rendition of history is that that practice was started when Richard Baker was abbot, and that he, when he was in Japan, he was in some ceremonies where it sounded to him like he was chanting something from different places. But I think he was mistaken. I don't think so. But they would chant and also, what do you call it, circumambulate at the same time.

[90:41]

And they would actually chant a jirani that they do at Heiji on a regular basis. And as you're walking, it sounds like people are chanting different things. I think that was his experience, and that led him to this. But maybe he knew that they were... Maybe he knew, and he just thought, a way to... would be to have people chant from different places. And we have this sense of you're chanting and you feel like somebody else is chanting something different, but it's actually the same. But if you're not walking and everybody's just reading through, then maybe it sounds the same. And you're reading. It maybe does sound like, or from different places, it just creates a... you know, a wonderful soundscape of cacophony and dissonance and difference and maybe harder to concentrate on what you're saying when you're doing it as you're walking.

[91:42]

That's my sense of how it originated. Good. You're welcome. We are in such an egregious country and place. [...] Another thing I had from experience of that reading the Diamond Sutra that way, you could take where you start or what you read, For me, personally, it had one drawback, was that I tended to go to places that I thought were interesting.

[92:59]

I didn't have to do that, but I knew it somewhat, so I would go read my favorite parts, which is not so good. I find that my favorite parts came when I was not looking for my favorite parts. We're not just reading through. So you read through the landscape. Boring, boring, wow, boring. And then after you go boring, wow, then you go back to wow, back to wow. It's like too rich. That's one drawback of that method that I experienced. But of course I can re-remedy that by starting at the beginning and just going through. And then if you do that, you'll never finish the sutra. You'll see the beginning over and over, which is boring. Are you taking a nap?

[94:02]

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