This morning, so many familiar faces that I haven't seen for some time. It's amazing that today we're going to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the Berkeley Zen Do along with Buddha's birthday. So a double birthday party. February, the end of February actually that we moved into the Zen Do at Dwight Way. But during the afternoon, some of the people who were instrumental in the development of the Zen Do from the beginning will say a little something and give us some history.

[01:10]

On Buddha's birthday we have the custom of having just a kids' talk. So, hi kids! Hi kids! I just want to ask the kids. Did you ever hear Buddha's talk? Did you ever hear Buddha speak? Do you know that Buddha talks? Well... He does. She does. Did you ever hear the rain on the roof at night? That's Buddha's voice.

[02:16]

You hear Buddha's voice when you hear the rain. Did you ever hear your mom tell you a bedtime story? That's Buddha's voice too. Did you ever hear the ocean? Did you ever been to the ocean? Yeah, when you hear the waves pounding the ocean, that's Buddha's voice too. And did you ever hear a bird go peep peep? That's Buddha speaking. So you can hear Buddha speaking all the time, if you want. Just listen carefully. Oh, that's Buddha, speaking. You know, also, did you ever hear the sound of the bell, the temple bell?

[03:20]

That's Buddha speaking. Buddha's voice. Do you know the bell has a voice and it sings? Can you bring me that little bell? Not the big one. No, no, just bring me the bell. Bring. Thank you. Bring it over. Not ring me the bell. Bring me the bell. That was nice though. I'll tell you a story about Bell. One time in old Japan, there was a little boy and his father had a hard time taking care of him, so he brought the boy to the temple.

[04:37]

and he asked the priest to take care of him. And one of the things that the students have to do when they come to the temple is ring the bell. So, his father told him that he should work hard and when they have him ring the bell, that he should do the best he can to ring the bell. And so one day he was ringing the bell and the abbot heard the bell and he said, who was that that rang that bell? Bring him over here. So his attendant brought the little boy over and the abbot saw that it was just a little boy Because he made such a wonderful sound on the bell.

[05:41]

And the abbot said, well, how did you do that? And the little boy said, well, my father said that when I ring the bell, they'll ask me to ring the bell, and when I ring the bell, he said, every time you ring the bell, you produce the voice of the Buddha. So he was trying hard to produce the voice of the Buddha. So, the bell is Buddha's voice, and it sings. So, if you ring the bell too hard, the bell goes, ouch! And if you ring it too soft, it says, come on, do something.

[06:46]

So if you hit it, you don't hit it. If you ring it just right, it produces a nice voice of the bell. So would you like to bring out the voice of the bell? You can start. Not too hard, not too soft. Good. Very good. You know why it's so good? Because they're innocent. Because all they do is this. You're next. Come on. Oh, come on. Bring him up here. Oh boy. Come on.

[07:47]

Hold on here. That's it. One more time. One more time. Good. Now, one more time. A little harder. Who's next? Did we miss anybody? Okay. Anybody else want to try it?

[08:51]

Very good. So we all made the bell sing. And for Buddha's birthday, we brought out the voice of the Buddha. Thank you very much. So it's possible to listen to the voice of the Buddha. You know, there's an old saying, rocks, streams, walls and tiles are all chanting the name of Buddha constantly, all preaching the Dharma continuously.

[09:59]

All we have to do is pay attention. Thank you very much.

[10:05]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ