Yesterday someone said something like, I don't see much or hear much about confession and repentance in this, for example, this interview. And I thought, oh, I thought I'd been talking about confession and repentance too much. So maybe there's a request to talk about confession and repentance.

[01:13]

That's an English translation, Chinese expression, san-ge, two characters. San means basically to confess and ge means to repent. And repent, the English word repent means sorrow about our things we have done, things we regret. And it's a sorrow, it's a particular type of sorrow which encourages us to reform our life. It's an encouragement to reform in a new way to be born again in the family of Buddhas. As you know, we do a formal practice of confession and repentance.

[02:27]

And we do that before we go for refuge, before we chant the refuges and go for refuge in the Triple Treasure. And as you saw in the ceremony of giving and receiving the precepts, before giving and receiving the precepts, there was the practice, the formal practice, of confession and repentance. That formal practice can be in the ritual form of reciting that verse, that ancient verse, but it can also be in the ritual form of either in a group or in private particular shortcomings in our practice and our faith. So people do that.

[03:31]

They reveal shortcomings in their practice and they reveal shortcomings in their faith. Anyway, confusion in their practice and confusion about their faith. This is what might be called formal confession and repentance. But there is also a formless confession and repentance, which is to sit upright and observe the true mark of all phenomena. When we sit upright, we have to contemplate the true marks of whatever phenomena appear in our minds If and when we do, or when there is upright sitting and the true mark of all phenomena, this is called formless repentance.

[04:46]

So, to sit upright and observe the teaching of suchness is repentance. To sit upright and observe the intimacy of living beings and Buddhas, to observe that intimacy, to contemplate that intimacy, to pay homage to that intimacy, to praise that intimacy, to make offerings to that intimacy. This is formless repentance and confession. So, and this is not, we don't say that so much, you maybe not hear that so much in the Zen world, but the Zen world, the practice of this kind of practice

[05:56]

of the intimate transmission of Dharma, in a moment, could be understood as confession and repentance. You could also sit upright and be formally thinking, all my ancient twisted karma. Or you could also be sitting upright and think, oh, that was unkind, what I did there. I'm sorry. And that would be a formal confession of repentance that might occur while you're sitting. And some people have said that while they're sitting, they have shortcomings, some deviation from the path they wish to watch.

[07:06]

They saw it when they were sitting. That's like formal, a formal confession and repentance. And they might also reveal that to someone at I wouldn't say that the formless is more important than the formal. But it is deeper. It goes all the way to the bottom of our life and it is liberation. It isn't like you do that and then you get liberation. It is liberation. And you don't get anything when liberation is alive. You don't get anything. You get freed from... That's what drew me to Zen, is to go someplace where you won't get anything.

[08:11]

In other words, be free of that kind of life. Not that you don't get anything. Well, yeah, you don't get anything, but you are given things. You do receive things. In a sutra called the Golden Light Sutra, there is a teaching, the central teaching of this sutra, the sutra, the core of the sutra is about confession and repentance. And then the sutra kind of grew around that core. It would be nice to discuss that sutra with you sometime. But one of the things about this sutra that's kind of interesting is it tells a story about somebody who had a dream about a great Dharma drum.

[09:15]

And as the sutra goes on, we realize the great Dharma drum is confession and repentance. And it describes in the sutra three kinds of repentance. And in describing these three kinds of repentance, I see that repentance goes on when we practice precepts, when we practice samadhi, and when we practice wisdom. Repentance is actually an all-pervading practice. Repentance is like the Great Way. It's all-pervading. It's an all — it pervades along with the Great Way. And so the three types are — and I'm going to give them in a different order — the three types are repentance of protocols, repentance of apprehending form, and repentance

[10:34]

of no . So the repentance of protocols is like revealing and disclosing our shortcomings according to some protocols. And that kind of repentance kind of corresponds to practice, ethical discipline. Then there's repentance of apprehending forms, which means that when we apprehend the form of the Buddhas, we are, yeah, we are humbled. We are humbled and put in our proper place that this is the way we wish to be. And we haven't yet become that way and we don't really know it that way.

[11:40]

But this is the mind that puts us in our place. This kind of repentance corresponds to practicing concentration. And the third type is repentance of realizing no-self nature, and that corresponds to wisdom. So in our little family, repentance is sort of the third type. We practice the other two, especially the first one, we do the protocols, but there's more emphasis on the wisdom side. of understanding that the true and evil have no self-nature.

[12:42]

Good and evil have no self-nature. We still practice the protocols, but we also sit upright and realize the repentance of having an empty mind towards good and evil. We recognize them, and sometimes we confess and repent them formally, but we also contemplate them with an empty mind. We realize that they have no self-nature. That's their true mark. And this third type includes, and I would say now must include the previous two, the repentance of acknowledging and repenting transgressions sincerely, and opening to the Buddhas,

[13:59]

in relationship with them. And then this third type includes those two. Empty mind with regard to good and evil. Going beyond them, but also not jumping over them. Honoring them becoming free of them by contemplating their true mark. And one of our teachers referred this practice of to the fifth case of the Book of Serenity.

[15:06]

In the introduction to this case, oh, by the way, the name of this case is Sagan's Price of Rice. And the introduction says, in part, Just wait till the end of the year. As of early spring is cold. And then the case. A monk asks Sengen Gyoshi, Daisho, what is the true essential import meaning of the Buddha Dharma. And the Sengen Gyoshi said, what is the price of rice in Lu Ling?

[16:18]

In our family, this is an expression of confession and repentance. What is the price of rice in Lu Ling? This is how people would respond to what is repentance in our school. And again, Just wait until the end of the year. Practice, practice confession and repentance until the end of the year. And as of old, early spring is cold. Have you noticed? Right here, as of old, early spring is cold.

[17:29]

And we're practicing. We're practicing, and we're practicing with our daily life of eating rice and wondering what the price of it is. Thank you to the kitchen for feeding us so we can wonder what's the price of this rice. This question is confession and repentance in our family. And we practice and practice with the question to the end. And we don't get anything. But even though we don't get anything. Early spring, as of old, is cold.

[18:37]

We also say in this school, before the donkey leaves, the horse arrives. Some of you may have noticed some donkeys. And we should practice compassion with all donkeys. And if we do, we will notice, we will see, the horse has arrived. We won't see the horse has arrived unless we're thoroughly practicing with the donkey. To confess and repent the donkey. So that we can feel awestruck by the horse.

[19:44]

And to regard the donkey with an empty mind regarding contemplating its true mark. We don't try to get rid of donkeys. We don't hold on to donkeys. We just are given donkeys to take care of and realize the horse has arrived. before the kitchen has left. If there's any offerings you care to make, they are welcome. Donkeys unite. By the way, may I ask a question?

[20:58]

Yes. Have I been speaking well? Are you hearing me well? A little louder? Okay, thank you. How about this? Is this okay? Okay. My question is thank you. Your question is thank you. My question is thank you. Question. No, my question is about confessing or maybe more about repenting. Can one repent on behalf of everybody else? Yes. Yes. particularly people who are deceased and can't talk. So sometimes when we do a funeral ceremony, the abducting confesses and repents for the person.

[22:07]

And so we say, all your ancient, tristic karma, from beginningless greed, hate, and delay, born through body, speech, and thought, fully resolved by this practice. So yes, we can do it for others and we will be able to do it well if we do it with ourselves. To do it for others and not do it myself is really hypocritical service to whoever I'm doing it for. So I should do it myself. I should practice myself before I start performing that service for someone else. So if you're with a dying person or a deceased person, before you do the ceremony, do it with yourself. You can also do the formal confession of repentance for the sake of someone else, after doing it yourself.

[23:11]

But you can also do the formless. So when we practice the formless repentance, self-confession, that good and evil have no self-nature, that we do, the bodhisattvas do that for the welfare of all beings, not just themselves. So yes, we can do this practice on behalf of others and in their true nature, but also in terms of their particular karmic history. That's the formal part. So we can do both formal and formless I say we can, I would say we do. Bodhisattvas do both types of repentance on behalf of, for the sake of, all beings. Can I ask one more question?

[24:19]

Speak it loudly. That was not loud enough. That was not enough volume, more volume. Regarding the donkey and the horse, so we're in awe of the horse, and we're viewing the donkey with an empty mind. Can we also view the donkey with awe and the horse with an empty mind? The horse, yes, you should regard the horse with an empty mind. The horse has no self-nature either, but it is a horse. And the donkey doesn't have a self-nature. So, in awe of the horse, I'm humbled, so I'm willing to take care of donkeys. And I take... Acknowledging their behavior, its behavior, and being kind to it, and contemplating its true marks.

[25:33]

Contemplating its true marks will reveal the horse is already there. So we take care of the donkey for the welfare of others, We contemplate the true marks of donkeys for the welfare of all. And we discover the horse, and we practice the same way with the horse. By contemplating the true marks of a horse, then it's a donkey. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank the ancestors. I'm just passing some stuff along. Thank you ancestors. Yes, and yes, and yes,

[26:37]

So I have a question about this case. Number four? Five? Five. Four is not bad either. Actually, four is quite closely related. Number five. Maybe I also have a confession, but I feel there's something to get in that story that I don't get. So, when you have this question about the price of rice, I have no idea what it has to do with repentance. What's the price of our rice? You know, the rice we eat. What goes into the rice we eat? How much unskillful behavior gave rise to us having... We could say, what's the price of this land? So now people are aware that we're living on land which was stolen from Native Americans.

[27:49]

What's the price of this land? It was stolen. That's a big price. That's our karmic debt is this land. And the rice maybe was grown also on stolen land. This is part of the repentance to consider what's the real cost of the fortune of life we live when we have the opportunity and the leisure to look at these practices. The price of this good fortune, and this grounds us in repentance and confession. Does that make sense? It makes much more sense. Not to mention, previously, I was at a... I guess it was a protest and a demonstration at the nuclear test sites in Nevada, and I talked about this case.

[28:51]

What's the price of nuclear power? What's the price of gas in America? How come our gas is so cheap? Anyway, This is our confession and repentance. What is the price of rice? What is the price of our life, our good life? I also want to thank you.

[29:56]

Thank you for this talk. It helps me understand what I just did for three days at the Ecological Farming Conference. that you supported me to go to, that everyone supported me to go to. Before I left, I told everybody that it's like the January intensive for farmers. And now what I understand we were doing together is confession and repentance. Yeah, great. That we actually... The fact that 95% of the farmland in this country is owned by white people. And I saw how that farming practice community is repenting. Is what?

[30:56]

Repenting. Is repenting. Is calling and supporting black farmers and indigenous farmers and Latino farmers to... be connected with life, to be empowered to restore their wholeness. This may be one of the most accessible ways to have reparation. This will not hurt the white people to do this. And every workshop the soil you know for the last couple of years i've been confessing and repenting how i have been treating the soil and the methods that i use that we use here of tillage and what it does to the life in the soil and as we're confessing and repenting the same thing and sharing how they're trying to transform their relationship into a more upright

[32:10]

relationship and i'll say one more thing i learned you know the the sacramento delta the sacramento river that runs from the sierras down to the to the delta to the bay basically the whole sacramento valley is one big floodplain you can see it on satellite maps the footprint of what used to be and floodplain and now it's all farmland and that water is kept in that channel and it moves so fast that it's starving the fish and now that these farmers are confessing these practices they're allowing the floodwaters onto the farmland to grow bugs and the bugs are making the fish fat and then the fish are going out into ocean and maybe they'll come back so it was so encouraging to be in community to be in farming sangha and see you know not exactly these same practices but

[33:32]

but confession and repentance. Yeah, thank you. And to understand my whole, you know, this practice. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much, Ruth. What is the price of rice in California? I want to also just mention that it would be wonderful if the farmers somehow start practicing contemplating the true marks that will help them in their work. Do you see that again? I think what Sarah was showing us is the farmers, they're starting to do, I think the first two, they're confessing and repenting their shortcomings and the shortcomings of our ancestors. That's great. But then there's also the apprehending how in this situation, and then also to contemplate the true marks of the situation, the true marks of harming the land, and the true marks of helping the land.

[34:56]

That will... That's what we're trying to do here, right? Yeah, right. Could you hear that conversation? Yeah. I'll talk loudly. Yes, please. I'll try to. I was really taken by your discussion from yesterday about Samatha and Vipassana. And the reason being that for the past 15 years I've been doing Zazen, and every time I have thoughts that come up, I assume I'm to put them aside. Yet I find myself dealing with that are truly heartfelt, creating tears, relationships, my shortcomings, and my own stuff.

[36:13]

And I wonder, and all along I've been thinking that not contemplation or insight. And so I'd like to talk a little bit or understand what the difference is between thinking and contemplation and insight. Well, the contemplation that's offered by Dogen, the actual thing to contemplate as a contemplation practice is You want to know what kind of thinking is going on? Okay, let's look at the thinking. And then contemplate how the thinking is not them. So that's the initial line of the contemplation. However, before that contemplation is offered, he recommends that you just kind of let go of your thinking. So you have these memories and many other

[37:19]

blossom blooming in your mind, and you treat them with respect, gentleness, and you let them be, and you let them go. And that practice comes to maturity as being calm, relaxed, buoyant, flexible, and collect it. Then, if you look at some teaching like, what is thinking? What kind of thinking? Thinking, not thinking. Then that's consciousness. If you just look at these stories without being calm, strictly speaking, we would say, that's just thinking about the stories. But if I'm inquiring about... And if you're inquiring about the stories and you're not in tranquility, it's just more thinking.

[38:22]

And that's fine. But that kind of thinking, which you do with the stories prior to realizing tranquility, that's all thinking. And that thinking has the consequence of you being able to perhaps... And what you were thinking was teachings. And you were inquiring into these teachings. Fine. That's fine. And that's part of the environment for this practice. The practice of tranquility is offered to people who are studying and listening to the Dharma. So we listen to the teachings, and we listen to teachings about how to practice tranquility. And we might practice those teachings and become calm. Once we're calm and tranquil, then when we turn to the teachings, or any The teachings are kind of like donkeys, actually.

[39:25]

We turn to the teachings, and now it's contemplation. It's not just more thinking. It's a new situation called contemplation. Or you could say, higher thinking. And then we discover the actual import of the thinking. I guess my question then is, what about calm abiding? Calm abiding is the calm. Right. So is calm abiding accompanied by thinking about a personal situation where I'm working through something, an important relationship? Often. Often calm abiding is accompanied by everything. Right. Okay. And that could be the inquiry or the contemplation. Not yet. So, when you're not calmly abiding, before you actually have rested, relaxed, opened, and become present and undistracted, before that, you're...

[40:39]

that state of not concentration, that state of not comabiding, that's accompanied by everything too. However, the way we are with that material is that we're not relaxed and open to it. We're caught in entanglements. So if we try to contemplate, we will have trouble. by relating to these entanglements, every aspect of our life, in the way of being kind, patient, careful, and being ready to let it go, we become more and more calm. Now we're calm and all the stuff is still there. But now when we look at the stuff Contemplating it.

[41:41]

And now when we inquire, we're actually doing real inquiry, rather than just thinking about inquiring and trying to get something. Is that getting clearer? Clearly. So, study what's going on, and also study how to let go of what's going on, study the teachings, and study how to let go of your study of the teachings, and you become calm. But the effect of studying the teachings is that they'll come back to you. Even without you trying, they'll come up. Just like you don't have to try, it'll come up. So the teachings will come up if you study them. And the initial study, before you realize calm abiding, it's thinking. It's karmic activity. But it's wholesome. So the possibility of practicing tranquility, practicing calm.

[42:45]

Once you're calm, you don't have to work on letting go of the ideas anymore. Now you can look at them and see their true marks. Now, in the details of the practice, if, as you start to contemplate, you start to, you know, not be so respectful and try to get something, then you become agitated again, so then I would recommend we stop the inquiry, stop the observation, and calm down again. So some people start contemplation, but then they start holding on to the contemplation process, become agitated, and they should stop. and let go again, and calm down again. At a certain point, as the contemplation becomes deeper, it also lets go more. So sometimes we can let go of our thinking, take care of our thinking, and in a way that lets go of it.

[43:54]

Take care of the donkey. Alexis of Curie, she said, give the donkey a big... take care of it in a way that's not trying to control it. Is that chapter called control? Yeah, the chapter about giving the donkey a big field? It's called control, I think. So we don't try to control it. We're devoted to the donkey. We take care of the donkey. And in taking care of the donkey, we calm down. And in calming down with the donkey, we see the donkey's a horse. And then we see the horse doesn't have a self-nature either. And then we can ride donkey horses or horse donkeys. I don't know who's next, but I see Ethan's hand.

[44:58]

My question is about the confession of repentance we've been talking about today. By the way, your voice, I think your voice is really good. You can hear him well, right? We should all become opera singers. A nice, clear voice. I think I have a slight aversion to confession repentance. Many people do. Especially with the US culture of already putting a lot of blame on ourselves, hating ourselves a lot. I'm just wondering how... Watch out for blame. This is not blame. This is not saying. I did something unskillful, and I'm to blame for it. That looks like unskillfulness. And I'm responsible, but I'm not the only one who's responsible. It's not all on me. So watch out for that.

[46:24]

That's, I would say, a defect in confession and repentance, is to blame yourself. It's kind of arrogant, actually, to blame yourself for the thing. It's enough to say, this was not good and I'm sorry. So watch out for blame. Again, I would say blame is a sign of arrogance. So there's a sorry then without the blame? Sorry, yeah. You can be sorry without blaming. Like, yeah, sorry is good. Really, that's good. I'm not blaming myself. Can you talk about that more? It feels to me that sorry almost implies some sort of fault on your own. We're acknowledging a fault. We're acknowledging responsibility.

[47:24]

Blame is like all the responsibility on one spot. It's a real delusion, this blame thing. Have you ever heard of the I Ching? Well, it's a Chinese book that's quite popular. It's one of the main texts of Taoism. And one of the things it says over and over is, no blame. No blame. Responsibility? Yes. Yes. We are responsible for the consequences of the world. We are responding to it. And one of the ways you respond to it is by saying, that seems unskillful to me, and I'm sorry. But it's arrogant for me to think I could do that by myself. We can't do zazen by ourself. And it's arrogance. But also to think you can do something evil by yourself is arrogance.

[48:26]

So we're not so much into, I did the evil. That seems evil. I was there for it. I'm responsible for it. And I'm sorry. But I don't have to say, I did it all by myself. I did that bad thing all by myself. And also, we don't say that for good things either. So to say I did the good by myself is arrogant. To say I did the evil by myself is arrogant. But to say I'm responsible for the evil, that's just reality. I am responsible. And I respond to the evil by feeling sorry, by feeling sad, by feeling embarrassed, by feeling remorse. The blaming is a flaring distraction from just being right there with how you... I feel sorry about this.

[49:28]

Just be there with that. Feel that. Don't get into this big pat on the back. I'm to blame. Also a big smash in the face. That's a distraction from the process of contemplating this repentance. and being kind to it. Confession and repentance are compassion practices. They are the pure and simple color of true practice. And when blame comes in, that's just a flare-up. And that should be also addressed with kindness and confessed and repented. Blame is an unwholesome activity. And our society has so much blame in it. Trying to affix blame. Put the blame there. That's going on. We don't have to have any more of it. There's enough.

[50:29]

Now we have to try to find peace in a world where there's so much blame game. Rather than together. Donkey. and not blaming anybody, including myself. We're in this together. We're looking the donkey together. Did that give you some encouragement? Yeah, it did. Can I ask about the rising of the Confession of Repentance? Because when I hear it, my initial reaction is to do a raid or FBI raid on all of my feelings and actions to find out... FBI raid on yourself? Yeah, yeah, to, like, dig up some things. Is it just from... I'm not prohibiting... I'm not prohibiting raids. I'm not prohibiting it, okay? I'm also not prohibiting steel walls so nobody can get in.

[51:37]

I'm not prohibiting anything. I'm talking about a practice which will liberate the situation. So you don't have to go try to find more problems. Deal with the ones that come up. Deal with the ones where people ask you, how are you? Anything you want to say? Deal with what comes up then. It's not rating. That's not respectful. So be respectful to what's already coming up. And more will come up. And it may lead to disclosure of information as a raid might get. But really the raid just makes everything kind of confused. It creates more disturbance. So by gently, compassionately looking at what's being given, we will go deeper and deeper and disclose more and more things, more and more donkeys to wake up to.

[52:45]

I might, you might, I might see someone who's somewhat aware of some of their shortcomings. And you might be able to tell them that they have more than they're aware of. But I don't do that. If they tell me, if they're ten feet tall and they tell me they're five feet tall, I don't see them as tall. I just might say, Did you just say you're five feet tall? And they might say, Yeah, I did say that. But actually, now that you asked me, I realize I'm ten feet tall. Uh-huh. Thank you. But I'm not trying to do a raid. I'm just asking, What did you just say? And they hear that what they say was not really the truth. So I want to help people fully reveal themselves.

[53:55]

But I don't tell them who they are. They're the revealers, not me. Somebody says, I want to show you my face, and they cover it. I say, hmm. I don't say, that's not your face. I say, how come you're covering your face? Are we complete? Yes, Catherine. I just want to follow up on this about the confession and repentance.

[54:57]

So Catherine's got a mask on. So confessing and repenting in this way, one never fails to receive profound help from all Buddhas and ancestors. Thank you so much. That's what I was looking for, but I couldn't find it. Okay. That's why I thought I'd help you out. By confessing and repenting in this way... fails to receive inconceivable help. Right? Doesn't it say inconceivable? No. Profound. Profound, yeah. Profound, I would say, inconceivable. It's so deep. We don't see how they're helping us. What's your question? So the question is, they. Again, I was taking that line to be like, when you confess and repent, it cleans you out, and then you can kind of see the Dharma more clearly. Yeah, and cleaning out is inconceivable help, right? It's deep help. Right, so it's not like somebody's coming to help you.

[55:59]

Well, it's not like somebody's coming to help you. It's cleaning coming to help you. Buddhas are cleaning agents. But they're not outside you, they're inside you when you're confessing. There's the Buddha. So you can see more clearly. And also you might be doing the confession and repentance, which is Buddha's working in you, and you might be doing it in the presence of the Buddhas, and the Buddhas then maybe say, did you clean all the way? And you go, oh, no. So there is you, and then there's also part of you, there's you in your life, but your life is also otherwise. So there's you and there's Buddhas, but they're not outside, and they're not inside. But they are this process you're talking about.

[57:03]

When we do this process, it is inconceivably helpful. But it's not... So why don't we just say, when we confess and repent, it's inconceivably or profoundly helpful. I think that we don't do it alone. So we can confess and repent, yes, but we're supported to do so by what is not us, which is the big us. I think that's one way to understand that. We are helped by the great tradition of confession and repentance to do our confession and repentance. And how that works is so deep we can't really see it But we're being told this is really a fruitful practice, very fruitful, this confession and repentance. You're going to get a lot of help when you start doing that.

[58:05]

Well, I think that's encouraging because, as people have said, the shame and everything that maybe... If you start looking, well, there could be a lot of benefit from this. So, yeah. There could be a lot of benefit from confessing and repenting. Yeah, there could be. And the full extent of it, we don't see, but this text is saying it really is beneficial even if you don't see much of it. It's really helpful to the world. It would be so helpful if we practiced this more, if more of us humans practiced this. So the story Sarah told us is about the farmers who started to do this. This is great news. What about if the police started doing this? And business started to do this. Wouldn't that... that would be so wonderful.

[59:07]

Well, actually farming is sometimes seen as a business. So all business people should do confession and repentance for the welfare of the world. I don't know who's next, but I see Jeff's hand. I don't know the story of the Buddha and Mara all that well, but... There's a couple of them. Yeah, he puts the hand down and... Yeah, right. I thought it would be instructive just to hear that story in the context of what you've been talking about this week. I thought... Okay, so one, this is, I guess some people would say, some scholars would say, this is a legend.

[60:18]

...have not been able to verify that the story which I'm about to tell was told by the Buddha, or that there were reporters at the Bodhi tree who saw it and wrote it down. But there are stories the Buddha did this and Buddha did that, and also Buddha says, I was there and I did that. This is a legend about the Buddha. The Buddha was pretty well developed and the Buddha said... Oh no, the Buddha had started to eat a little bit and went to the stream and put a bowl in the stream and the bowl went upstream. And he thought, It's time. I'm going to sit. I'm going to sit until I realize the way.

[61:23]

And then he sat under a tree. Again, he didn't do this practice by himself. He sat with a tree. A tree helped him. And he sat there. And then various forces came to move off his seat. Because they sensed that if he did realize the way, that might disturb the palaces of Mara. Which are, you know, their business is to keep people disturbed and agitated. That's their work, that's their job. I mean, now, let's say, It's not like the farm next door to the tree or something. This is like a... What's Mara? What's Mara? It's all the forces of distraction, all the forces of doing things that are not conducive to freedom.

[62:25]

All those forces. And if we try to practice tranquility and settle down and contemplate, which the Buddha was intended to do, the Buddha did know how to settle down, but now the Buddha was not just going to settle down, he was going to go back to Mara. Mara tries to disturb that, but Mara's not so worried about people just being concentrated. What Mara's really worried about is them actually seeing the nature of Mara. Mara's actually afraid everybody will see Mara as Buddha. to see that. So the forces of distraction came on strong and the first way they came was as seductive, attractive images. And Buddha practiced loving-kindness towards those attractive images. And the attractive images just went away. He didn't push them away. He just let them go. It reminds me of the story of a Zen teacher

[63:30]

who was walking through a town and through a neighborhood, lots of prostitutes, and one of them yelled out the window at him, hey, so-and-so, hey, priest so-and-so, how are you? And this woman who was calling to him was a girl who grew up in his hometown. She said, hi, how are you? He said, oh, hi, how are you? And... Yeah, and she said, come on up. And he went up and they had tea and reminisced about their childhood together. And he was, you know, she really appreciated him coming to visit her in her business, in her house. And I may begin the story wrong, but let's just say, in order to come in there, in order to come in there, he had to rent.

[64:40]

So he rented the room and they had this conversation. And then she said, well, is there something I can do for you now that you've rented this room? He said, well, you can sleep here and I'll sit here. the way Buddha related to Mara. I'll sit here, you can sleep here. Then Mara sent aggressive, violent images, and Buddha practiced love and kindness. And those also faded away. could sit. And then one more super tempting thing from Mara came, which was, who do you think you are that you can practice and realize the way by yourself? Who do you think you are that you can practice tranquility and insight? that you can practice confession and repentance by yourself.

[65:45]

You're just really arrogant." And the Buddhist kind of said, brackets, good point. If I thought I could do this by myself, I would just be arrogant. But I don't think I'm arrogant by myself. I'm going to sit here with the help of all beings in the Great Earth." And I'm going to check to see if that's so. Will the Great Earth support me? And he touched the ground. And the Great Earth shook and said, You are supported. We are with you. You can sit still. We sit pretty still here. I'm really encouraged by how still you're sitting. It's amazing how this many people can be in a room together and sit still. It's amazing. Mentally, physically, emotionally, you're sitting so still.

[66:46]

But you're not doing it by yourself. And the Buddha didn't do it by himself. So touching the earth was... Does the earth support this practice of upright sitting still? Yes. That's one version of the story. So that he felt the support of all beings. Yes. He felt it and he also, but he also checked. He said, hey, he called himself into question, hey, supporting me to do this. Do you? And the earth said, yes, we support you. We need you to do this. Please do. And he did with their support, not by himself. And then when he woke up, everybody woke up. The whole earth, all beings who supported him to be still, And wise was Zen realized the way with them because he couldn't do it without them.

[67:50]

And didn't do it without them. But again, that's a legend. In Zen, Zen is mostly... And the more untrue the legend is, the less scholars could prove it or disprove it, or even disprove it, the better. Thank you. One time I was reading the Platform Sutra at Tassajara, and the scholar who did a very nice job of making the translation, he also had an introduction, and he pointed out that there's not much evidence that there ever was such a person as Bodhidharma. He seems to be a creative fruit of the Zen school.

[68:54]

And so I went to Kadagiri and I said, yeah, maybe 50 years from now people will say, Kadagiri never existed. Was there anybody else this morning? Is it still morning? Yeah, there's quite a bit left. That's enough for this morning. Are you okay? Are we ready?

[69:24]

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