Welcome to this great assembly. And welcome to those of you who have come from the surrounding regions to gather here to practice the Buddha Way. This is an occasion to be celebrated that we come together to listen to the Dharma, to practice the Dharma. I hope you all feel welcome, and I hope you're comfortable here today. I personally welcome you. We all welcome you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for sitting upright. Thank you for walking upright and acting upright all day long.

[01:08]

Such a blessing we have received. And I wanted an introduction to the teachings of this practice period and a review for those who have been here for a month contemplating Great compassion. The theme of this period, the theme of the Dharma talk, is great compassion. But we could also say that the theme of the practice period is sitting meditation of Buddha. Buddha's sitting meditation is great compassion. Sit. The founder of this school in China, Bodhidharma, we have a statue on this altar.

[02:23]

The big statue in the middle is the holy sattva of great wisdom, and the statue To the left side is a statue of Bodhidharma, the founder of this school. Person is the bodhisattva of great compassion. Our sitting is exemplified by this person who sat and great compassion for all the people of China and the whole world. So, that's the emphasis here is great compassion. Our sitting practice is great compassion. This great compassion, this sitting,

[03:27]

is a communion. It's a communion between each person and all beings. The Buddha's Siddha is a communion between each of us and all beings. This is the Buddha's Siddha through us. The Buddha sitting is how we support all beings and how all beings support us. Contemplating that communion is sitting. And our individual practice while we're sitting and walking and standing and reclining Our individual practice is in communion with that communion.

[04:38]

That's a presentation of reality. In reality, our human effort, moment by moment, supports all beings. And it is supported by all beings. That's the reality of life, not just human life. That is the reality of life. In other words, the reality of life is great compassion. And when we sit, We are involved in individual, limited human agency. But right now, each of us is acting by making a physical posture of sitting upright.

[05:47]

Each of us is speaking in our own way. Each of us is thinking in our own way. more by more human actions. And these human actions are an intimate communion by individual human action. communion with all of yours, with each of yours and all of yours. And your action right now, the nodding of your head, the adjusting of your robe, the erection of your palm, the tilting of your head, Your action is intimate communion with all beings.

[06:49]

That's Buddha's mind. That's Buddha's compassion. And that intimacy, that communion, frees beings from being entrapped in their own human activity. This compassion does not eliminate individual, limited action. It embraces and illuminates it. And it also shows how it embraces and illuminates all beings. When we sit, we have an opportunity to practice the way Buddhas practice. How do Buddhas practice?

[07:52]

They practice exactly like we're practicing. This is our practice. So when your practice is our practice, you're practicing like a Buddha. When other people's practice is your practice, you're practicing like a boy, or you're practicing as a boy. When I practice my way and do not open to the practice of all beings, then I'm practicing like an individual human actor who is close. to Buddha's practice, to close to great compassion. But even though I may say, I want great compassion, I'm just going to do my own compassion the way I want to, and I don't want to have anything to do with other people's compassion, and I'm not going to give all of it.

[09:00]

Even if I talk like that, still Grace Compassion is listening to me and supporting me, and I'm supporting it. We cannot not support Grace Compassion. We can only think that we don't, or that we don't want to. After we completely open and realize what is compassion, we will realize that we've always been part of it and upheld by it and contributing to it. Now, however, We may feel some resistance to supporting all beings and receiving support from all beings. We may feel some resistance. I've heard from some people that that's just a bit much, or way too much, overwhelmingly too much, to the mind of Buddha.

[10:04]

which is the mind of great compassion. This mind does not have objects. It's too intimate with things to have them be objects of awareness. It is an awareness of intimacy. It's not an awareness of intimacy. It is an awareness which is intimacy. It is an intimacy which is a mind. This is the Buddha mind. It is not the awareness of the... It is a communion which is an awareness. The Buddha mind is a communion which is a mind. It's not an individual human mind. Individual human minds have objects. Now, I have an individual human mind, and I guess you do too. And in my individual mind, I see each of you, and my individual human mind is aware of each of you as an object.

[11:14]

I'm here, you're there, I'm aware of you. You look aware of me. This is my individual human consciousness, where I live and think, Or where I think, I think. And I'm confined by this. I cannot get into your individual human consciousness. You can't get in. And here, my consciousness has objects. The light, the sound, the room, the people, they're objects. constructed by this body and mind with the support of all yours, but still constructed in a limited way. In that mind there is human agency, human action. The way this individual human body and mind is embraced by all yours and embraces all yours, that has no object.

[12:18]

Compassion does not have objects. It is just everything being mutually including each other and mutually supporting each other, and it's not an object of awareness. It's not an object of awareness. It is called great compassion. At noon service, we'll chant something which describes how things work in this great compassion. And it says, after describing this amazing intimacy and mutual support, which is imperceptible, the wondrous activity of great compassion does not appear as a perception. It's not a perception. It's the way all perceptions work together and support each other. And in this way, beings are awakened.

[13:21]

So I wish to wholeheartedly act as an individual person and offer all my acts, make them offerings Make them communion offerings. Make all my gestures, all my thoughts, communion offerings. And the more wholeheartedly I offer my limited human actions to them, the more communion becomes actuality in this life with these people. It is already actuality, but if I don't practice it, I don't realize it. The way it's known is by practicing it.

[14:26]

So again, I wish to make an offering to this chameleon of every action of my body, speech, And the chant at noon service will also say, when even for one woman, you know, you, one person, express the Buddha mind seal in your body, speech, and mind, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha mind seal. The Buddha mind seal is great compassion. The shape, the seal, is how all beings are working together. Bodhidharma, we said, went to China to transmit this Buddha mind seal, this Buddha mind mudra to the people of China, which is to transmit great compassion,

[15:42]

by offering every action to express the Buddha mind of great compassion. So I just saw one person. He just pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms around them. It's fine, that's a human action. He did that. Some other people did a human action with chocolate just now. That's a human action. For us to avail ourselves of the communion of all beings whenever we act. With my right hand, with the left hand, every action is an opportunity. to offer this action to the communion of Buddha's practice, of Buddha's compassion.

[16:49]

Pulling your knees up, stretching your knees out, every action. Sitting down, walking. But it's hard for us to learn to be consistently mindful of Buddha's practice. And if we forget, if we're not mindful to make our life Buddha's life, if we're not mindful to make our life everybody's life, if we're not mindful to make everybody's life our life, We might notice that. And when we notice that, we can reveal and disclose, I wasn't mindful. In the chant we just did, we said something like, by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice.

[17:56]

By revealing and disclosing, I forgot to make my life a gift to all beings. I'm sorry. By doing that in the presence of all Buddhas, we melt away the root of transgression. The root of transgression means transgressing, offering ourselves to the great compassion, communion. And then, after confessing and regretting, go back to work, go back to play this great Buddha practice game. So when we're sitting, some of us, all of us, are making the human activity of positioning our body. Every moment, we make a body posture. So when we're sitting, we're making body posture, making body posture, making... It's an individual effort.

[19:03]

Everybody's supporting us. Everybody's supporting you to sit up straight. But also, you're sitting up straight. You're making that effort. And also, you might be judging yourself about how your effort is. That's another mental effort. And again, you're being quiet today, mostly. But if you do speak, you have a chance to make your speak, make your speaking an offering. You might be taking care of your breath in addition to taking care of your body. Taking care of your breath is your individual action. We all support you to take care of your posture, take care of your body. We all wish to support you to take care of your breathing.

[20:06]

But we're not doing it for you. You're taking care of your breathing. You're taking care of your feelings. You're taking care of your thoughts. These are your actions, which you're doing all day long. So the samadhi, the concentration of the buddhas, is to remember that and attend to what we're doing. Yes. Yes. And also remember that what we're doing is expressing, is an offering to the Buddha mind. So there is an encouragement to take care of all of our human actions, yes, and also

[21:09]

Make each human action an offering to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. Make every action an offering to everybody in this assembly. Make every action today an offering to all beings throughout the universe. This is an invitation. We are welcome, the Buddhas and ancestors exhort us to offer ourselves to great awakening, great compassion. The other ways that you might be making human effort today are limited. The different ways are unlimited, but each way is limited. Each moment is a limited effort.

[22:14]

So I remember the founder of Zen Center, who we call Suzuki Roshi, sometimes at the beginning of a Dharma talk he would say, how is your zazen? Sometimes he would chuckle after he asked that question. How is your zazen? And that question is a transmission to us. Every time we sit, we can ask ourselves, how is this zazen? He also said... He also said, we say that our practice is just to sit. It would be rather difficult to understand. And then he goes on to explain that just to sit, to include all beings in your sitting, and to offer yourself to all beings is just to sit, when you're sitting.

[23:57]

And again, how is zazen? How is great compassion? How are all sentient beings? Do I wish to extend tender care and generosity to great compassion? Do I wish to take care of it for the welfare of this world? Do I wish to practice Buddha's zazen? Do I wish to care for every living being with gentle, generous respect?

[25:25]

Caring for each person in this way is the same as great compassion. And if I do not care for myself respectfully and kindly, or I do not care for someone else respectfully and kindly, great compassion is embracing me and listening to me and supporting me and wishing for me to open to it. And when I completely open to it, I will not miss the chance to care for every living being in the fullest, most wholehearted way. So I noticed that I'm saying the same thing over and over.

[26:48]

And the other night someone said that, this was a person who is over 80 who said this, he said, you sound like me. My brothers tell me that I'm just repeating, saying the same thing over and over, and they're getting irritated with me. And what is it, Tony? And then she said that she was getting irritated with me saying the same thing. And I told a story about Cyrano de Bergerac, and she really enjoyed it. She thought it was really juicy. In other words, I didn't repeat it over and over. It was something different. She really appreciated that. Great Compassion is really over and over and over.

[27:51]

It doesn't get more entertaining. It deals with every individual. But it's just the same old story. I'm totally here for you. That's it. Over and over and over. And again, people have resistance to that. It can get boring. But when I say it can get boring, I mean part of us is resisting this. And part of the resistance is to get bored with the same ancient story of Buddha's wisdom. And if we get bored, and if we resist it, Another thing to see if we can be generous and welcoming to the resistance to this repetitive story of zazen, zazen, zazen, zazen.

[28:55]

Just sitting, just sitting. Great compassion, great compassion. All the lucky Teshparo. Kanzehan, kanzehan, kanzehan. Boring. Boring. But even though it's boring, great compassion is right there. I hear you. I'm resisting this. I hear you. Thank you for helping me train my body and mind. into actualizing great compassion. Having such a joyful time training my body and mind into great compassion. And I'm actually also having a nice time, great time encouraging you to do the same. And also I understand that this might be really boring.

[29:59]

Yeah, I support you. When you're bored, I support you to be bored. This reminds me of another famous story in the Lotus Sutra about this person called Never-Disparaging Bodhisattva. He said to people, very boring, you know, I will not disparage you. [...] You will become Buddha. But people found that really irritating, over and over, and they gave him... You will become Buddha. You will become Buddha. You will become great compassion. Would you please shut up? Would you stop that, you moron? You will become Buddha. Get out of here. You will become Buddha." So this fool became Shakyamuni Buddha, who just kept reminding people that they will become Buddha, and no matter what they're doing,

[31:17]

I will not disparage them. I will just remember. They will become zazen. They will become pure samadhi. They will become great compassion. All of which are constantly present, and we will realize that together. And we are realizing that together. Okay, well maybe I've repeated that enough. I don't want to make your word too strong. And thank you and welcome you to the rest of this wonderful day together. celebrating this one-day sitting, we're so fortunate to be able to sit together.

[32:19]

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