This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Welcome, honored followers of Zen. Although it's been said many times, many ways, Wisdom is all-pervading.

[01:02]

There's no place it doesn't reach. And yet, if we don't practice, it's not realized. This morning I want to talk about celebration. On Tuesday night I was about to enter a class which is devoted to studying consciousness, which is devoted to studying self-consciousness. And there was a man outside the class who said,

[02:08]

that he had gone to this meditation hall and done an introductory sitting. And then he said to me, don't you get to a point in the practice of sitting where you don't have to do it anymore? When you reach the goal of sitting, can you stop? Do you have to do it forever? He didn't say it quite with that tone. He wasn't so perky. Anyway, I said, well, that's a good question. It's a big question. So I've been talking about it since. A lot of people say Zen doesn't have a goal. Well, you could say Zen doesn't have anything. But it also doesn't not have anything.

[03:10]

There is a goal of Zen. The goal of Zen is to liberate all beings from delusion and the suffering that delusion sponsors. It's to liberate people from attachment to the appearances in their consciousness and to bring peace and happiness. to the entire world of life it's the goal and part of the practice is to be devoted to the goal without abiding in it without abiding in the practice or the goal because the goal of freedom entails not abiding in anything even the most important things or you could say especially the most important things one of our bodhisattva precepts is not possessive of anything even the truth because if you attach to the truth it's hindered in realization it's still there but the grasping of it fixing on it hurts its feelings slanders it because the truth cannot be grasped in a fixed way

[04:40]

So we train to learn how to not grasp with a mind that's built to grasp, with a consciousness that's really good at grasping, so skillful. If the consciousness doesn't know how to grasp, normal human development doesn't occur. So we've got the grasping consciousness. Now we practice with it so that wisdom can live fully in it. We're not trying to get rid of grasping self-consciousness. We're trying to learn it and become free of it without tampering with it in any way. But just bringing compassion and the teaching of the liberated ones into the self-conscious clinging realm.

[05:43]

So I'd like to talk about celebration of the practice which is liberating all beings. The word celebration is, for me, for the way I wish to live, it's a really helpful word. Its root is to frequent or frequented and honored or famous. And some definitions of it are, it's a verb, it's an action. You could even almost say it's an emotion. And one definition is that it's to publicly acknowledge. Another definition, to publicly perform, to perform publicly.

[06:59]

Often to perform a, watch out for the word, religious ceremony, especially as an officiant. I hope to come back to that point a minute later. And another point is to honor and praise publicly. So, the practice is not so much the practice to wisdom or to perfect compassion. It's the practice of wisdom. It's the practice of enlightenment. It's the practice which is the way to be free and awake. It doesn't exclude the trip to the place like that, but it's really the way to be awakened and free and so on.

[08:16]

So I, well, I'm happy to praise the practice of enlightenment I'm happy to acknowledge the practice of enlightenment. I'm happy to perform the practice of enlightenment and to do all this publicly. I am right now publicly praising the practice of enlightenment. I'm just starting now. And I'm publicly performing the practice of enlightenment right now. as an officiant. And I invite you to be an officiant in the practice of enlightenment right now. You do not have to be a priest to perform the practice of enlightenment. Although priests in the Zen school may be professionally committed to the performance of the practice of the Buddhas,

[09:24]

All beings are invited to perform, to celebrate the practice of freedom. You are invited to do so. You are invited to train and learn how to practice the practice of the Buddhas. And celebrating the practice which I'm trying to learn is part of the practice because celebrating it is to praise the practice i wish to learn it is to admit and acknowledge this is the practice i would i wish to learn i wish to be devoted to and it is to perform it it isn't just i want to be enlightened it's i'm practicing it i i'm an officiant because i'm performing it And I wish to continue to perform it.

[10:28]

And if we got to a place where many beings were free, we would perform that. And we would praise that. And we would celebrate that. And we would continue the celebration. Because the celebration is the performance of the practice. And the practice is the performance of the practice. So there's no end to celebration. And there's no beginning either, really. Another definition is to observe with ceremonial respect. Felicity and rejoicing. To observe. with ceremonial respect, felicity, and rejoicing.

[11:30]

But the word observe also has nuances. So this morning, some of the people who are here were sitting here. I was sitting there. Abbas Ajan was sitting there. Abbot-elect Furyu was sitting over there. Shokuchi was sitting there. We were sitting here this morning. I was sitting here this morning, and I was quiet, and I was still, and I was sitting upright. I was trying to be quiet, still, and sit upright in the early morning darkness. And I was rejoicing. And I was rejoicing. There was felicity here. I was having a festival on my seat. In silence and stillness, there was rejoicing.

[12:39]

About what? About the practice of the Buddhas. Not that I own it, but I wish to perform it. was observing the practice of the Buddhas. And the word observing once has different synonyms or dimensions. One of the dimensions I want to mention first is the dimension of solemnity. Or the verb observe can also be the verb solemnize. So it is to perform the ceremony with dignity and respect and gravity. Someone, one of our longtime members, aspired to be a priest.

[13:44]

And she saw, and she wanted to be a priest in this tradition because she said, Priests in this tradition have a gravitas. She was attracted to the gravitas. They also have a joyfulness and a perkiness and a cheerfulness, but it has gravity in it. It has solemnity. In the performance of the ceremony, which is to... perform with joyfulness and felicity, there is a gravity. There is also in the observation or performance of this practice, there is a commemoration or a remembering.

[14:46]

The sitting we do commemorates the sitting of 2,500 years of practitioners. Not just the first founder, founding teacher, but definitely the first founding teacher. We sit and commemorate the founding teacher's meditation practice. But we also commemorate and remember the practice of 2,500 years of descendants of the founder. And as... and leading up to the people we have met in our life who have maybe now passed away. And our remembering brings us joy and gratitude that we met these people for a while, that we had some time with them to see the way they celebrated the practice.

[15:50]

The practice of what? the practice of the Buddhas, the practice of enlightenment, the practice of devotion to perfect wisdom, the practice of freedom, the practice of helping others and realizing that they are ourself, the practice of peace. These are synonyms for the Buddha way. The Buddha way is the practice of the Buddha way And it includes, when done fully, when we learn how to do it, it naturally includes remembering the teachers who have practiced the same practice. And by them practicing the practice, it has been transmitted. And by us practicing it, by you practicing it, it will be transmitted to the future generations. And if they practice it, they will remember you.

[16:53]

They will commemorate you. They will commemorate you as a practitioner. They might also remember you as a whatever. As a man or a woman. But in their practice, when they're practicing, when they're performing and celebrating the practice, they commemorate. the practice of the people. And also another dimension of observe is the word keep. To take care of it. To not let it be lost. To protect it. This precious practice of freedom. To take care of it properly. Which means to take care of it without... being uptight about it or self-righteous about it. So if we reach the goal of peace, we reach it by celebrating the practice of peace.

[18:04]

And when we reach the goal of peace, we celebrate it. And by celebrating it, we perform it. And by performing it, we let go of it. And then when we let go of it, we realize the goal again. And the celebration is renewed. So if you come into a Zen center, you see the people sitting quietly, you may not look like they're rejoicing and they're celebrating and they're having a festival at their seat. And they may not realize it either. they may be tired they may be weary and barely able to stay awake so it may be hard for them to realize oh yeah what am I even where the celebration what is it again but even though they don't know they actually are celebrating when you sit there you're actually like it or not you're celebrating in practice

[19:20]

You can't get away from it. You're celebrating it right now. It's just a matter of kind of like getting with the program of enlightenment. It's right here. It's all pervading. So just get with the celebration, please. The room is not crowded. The place of practice can expand to include all beings. And then a difficult point that comes up when you use the word public is, like now, this is pretty public, right? We could have more people here, but this is quite public. And this morning there weren't this many people here, but it was still public. We were publicly acknowledging the practice by performing it. We were performing it and we were, you know... We were acknowledging.

[20:23]

We knew who else was in the room and they knew we were here. We're very sensitive to that, aren't we? We do acknowledge publicly that we're practicing together. We do acknowledge that we're here together today by being here. Being here is an acknowledgement that we're here and other people are too. We're built for acknowledgement. We've got to... You know, just an amazing mind that can acknowledge a lot every moment. And publicly. So if you practice and there's no other people around, how do you do that publicly? So if I can't see any other people, I still want to celebrate this If I'm walking in the mountains or sitting in the mountains or sitting in a place where I don't see any other human beings, I want to celebrate the practice at that place.

[21:28]

I do. And there's many stories of actually Zen students who become well-trained and then leave their teacher and climb a solitary peak and build a grass hut. And there they sit. And they celebrate the practice of the Buddhas on a solitary peak, joyfully rejoicing in the wonderful practice of peace. They're sitting there publicly doing it. No people see them. But they're totally public. They are acknowledging and sharing their practice with the whole world, even though they can't see anybody else, maybe, and no one can see them. But the spirit is. They are sitting on that solitary peak. making themselves available they left their teacher now they're going to someplace else and sitting in the grass hut and then the story goes on and the people come to join the practice which they are performing for all beings if I'm in this room if you're in this room you can be here and do the practice

[22:47]

for everybody in this room when you leave the room you can do the practice for everybody in the world and you can celebrate that practice by performing it by praising it by doing it coming getting up early in the morning sitting down late at night, remembering in the middle of the day, remembering the practice, and remembering the ancient adepts. All times in the day is possible. And we know about forgetting too. Forgetting happens in karmic consciousness. Forgetting happens in self-conscious space.

[23:48]

So, now a little bit more detail on the practice of enlightenment. Starting with not very detailed. The practice is to settle self-consciousness and self-consciousness. To settle the space of consciousness where you're aware of self and others. To settle that self-conscious space onto that self-conscious space. Or a simpler version is, settle the self on the self. Settle the self on the self. And when the self is settled on the self, forget the self. That's a simple version of the practice. We will go on about that, but that's simply it. But settling the self on the self is a... Self-consciousness, within self-consciousness, within the consciousness where there's language and self and other, where there's self and a world, in the consciousness where there's a world and a self, the situation is described as vast.

[25:07]

We have a consciousness that is vast, even though it's actually a limited version of our life, It's vast, and it's unclear, and it's giddy. And I imagine that some of you do not know the usual definition of giddy. So what does giddy mean? Something you can just say. What does it mean? What? Giddy up, yeah. Giddy up, which is actually not a very good instruction. But anyway, what else does giddy mean? Lightheaded. Lightheaded. Lightheaded. It means to be excited to the point of disorientation or distraction. So we have karmic consciousness and in karmic consciousness it's challenging to not be distracted because every moment there is an appearance of a world and the world says, giddy up.

[26:12]

And it looks like it really is a good idea. And the world says, the world that appears in your mind says, this world is not in your mind. The inner world appears in your consciousness. And it looks like an outer world. And it says, come to visit me. Do this, do that. And it's very exciting. And it's hard to remember what? Celebration of the Buddha way. celebration of settling down here. So the practice is to settle down, but settling down is really a very wonderfully challenging job. Because there's, you know, so many pleasant things appear there, and so many frightening things appear there, and so many horrible things appear there.

[27:18]

that it looks like a lot of this stuff is an exception to patience. We should not be patient with this and that. We should not be generous to this and that. We should not be careful of this and that. And so it's hard to be patient and careful and generous with this and that, and this and that, and this and that. It's challenging. But we can learn it. And as we learn it, the self starts settling on the self. And then everything changes and we have a new moment. A new opportunity for distraction. And again, if we practice the bodhisattva virtues with this... It isn't exactly chaotic, but anyway, very exciting and turbulent and... spinning world, if we practice the bodhisattva virtues of the situation, the consciousness does settle down.

[28:24]

And when it completely settles, there's a revelation that it is not actually something other than mind. It is just mind. What the mind is, is just the mind. It's based on the whole universe. But what the mind's looking at, what the mind's conscious of there, is mental construction. And in that realization, there's freedom from this self. And there's freedom from everything. And there's peace. And there's fearlessness. And there's unhindered life. And the compassion... which was brought into this karmic world, this karmic consciousness, this self-conscious space, the compassion is now released from this understanding and now functions even more fully, more peacefully, more fearlessly, more creatively, more wisely.

[29:41]

And then this is celebrated. So first we celebrate the Buddha way by settling down, by embracing intimately our self-consciousness, intimately embracing the giddy world until there is serenity in the giddy world, until there is imperturbable presence and openness and relaxation and then there's wisdom and liberation and peace and then we continue celebrating in that wisdom and peace by continuing the practices of settling demonstrating them now just as before but now from the point of having settled the demonstration is even more complete

[30:44]

The celebration is even more thorough. The rejoicing is more total. In karmic consciousness, there is now the emotion. There's an emotion which is a kind of action program of a question. I have the emotion of wanting to offer a question. And I'm aware of that emotion to ask a question.

[31:50]

And I have a feeling that it might be okay. But I'm... I have a feeling of unsureness because it's kind of a personal question. And if I publicly acknowledge it and give it to you, it may be too intimate. But may I ask you an intimate question? I heard one yes. There may be some no's. Are there any no's? I'm sensitive to no's. My question is, do you wish to celebrate the path of peace? Do you wish to celebrate? Do you wish to acknowledge and praise the life of peace and freedom? Do you wish to celebrate that? Do you wish to celebrate it often? Me too.

[32:55]

I wish to celebrate it not just once a day. I wish to celebrate it continuously. But it's hard for me to celebrate it continuously because I want to celebrate it in karmic consciousness. And karmic consciousness is so turbulent. But still, I would like to celebrate it in karmic consciousness. I would like to celebrate freedom from karmic consciousness, which is peace in karmic consciousness. For example, I would like to celebrate freedom from karmic consciousness in the karmic consciousness of this room. And I would like to do it continuously. I wish to praise the path of helping others with perfect wisdom. I wish to joyfully acknowledge and praise the path of perfect wisdom.

[34:04]

I wish to perform the path of perfect wisdom. Do you wish to perform the path of perfect wisdom? And part of the path of perfect wisdom is to be kind when you forget to celebrate the path of wisdom. If you're devoting your life to the practice of perfect wisdom and you get distracted by the turbulence of self-consciousness, being kind to that distraction, admitting it, regretting it, and going back to work is part of settling back down into the celebration of wisdom. That's part of the settling the self on the self, which leads to letting go of the self. So that's this kind of simple thing.

[35:08]

You're celebrating, and if you're celebrating, that's the job. If you're celebrating, you're performing the practice of the Buddhas. You're acknowledging, praising. solemnizing, remembering the practice of the awakened ones. That's the job. You're doing your job as a practitioner of the way of peace. There's that, and then there's forgetting. And when we forget, it's kind of like we forgot. And then there's a practice for forgetting, which is, I forgot. And I'm sorry. But I'm not so sorry that I don't want to try again and I'm so glad that this path never rejects me when I forget it welcomes me back is the womb which welcomes all beings rejecting none so

[36:25]

Let us rejoice. Let us celebrate the path of helping others, the path of peace, the path of non-attachment for the welfare of all beings. Shall we celebrate it forever? Let us do so. May we do so. This is our vow when we're practicing, right? If you have any questions, let me know. There'll be a question and answer session which will go on alongside celebrating forever. trying to be dignified about this you know but i'm really i'm really joyful about being able to celebrate such a practice and i'm so happy for you that you have the chance to it's great thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the san francisco zen center our programs are made possible by the donations we receive

[37:53]

please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[38:14]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.29