This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. I already want to go off script. I just want to take a peek around, please. We have these little short verses in our practice called gattas. And a gatta occurred to me when we were on that final bow. And that is... When I bow to the sangha, that's you.

[01:03]

When I bow to the sangha, I vow with all beings to freshen our intimate connection and enliven the practice we share. I've been saying that one for quite a while now. And it comes to me really naturally. It's so beautiful. And then another one came quickly behind it, which was... When I brush my teeth each day, I vow with all beings to polish those incisors so that I may bite through all afflictions. So I'd like to just start with just a little breathing, for myself only. So... some zazen instruction. Was anyone here for zazen instruction today? So I've been really focusing lately on the upright posture and just how important it is and what brightness it brings.

[02:21]

Upright posture. So we have a stable base in our lotus position or in seated position. And if we're in a chair, we don't lean against the chair, we sit upright away from the chair. And I learned that we do that because then there's no depression on the body so the body can fill fully with air when we inhale. So the primary emphasis is on that upright posture. And we're not holding the body up. The upright posture is upright, and the flesh kind of just hangs off of it. It's not really contracted muscles holding the body.

[03:27]

It's a relaxed posture. And when we breathe, we breathe down in the belly, so we inflate what feels like the lower belly here. It's the lower lung, but it feels like the belly, and that inflates like a balloon. We find the breath creeping up in the chest, but with your mind, bring it back down into the belly. And focus first on the exhale. And then you find that the inhale just is there. It just comes. We don't have to do anything. My old teacher used to say, we're not breathing. The universe is breathing us. Give over to that and just follow the breath, every breath.

[04:30]

And you may say, oh, I can't follow every single breath. But that's what we do in this room. We try to focus on every single breath. And thoughts bubble up. We have these two types of thoughts, intentional thinking and just bubbles. intentional thinking, what am I going to eat today? What did she say to me yesterday? What am I planning to do tomorrow? And then just bubbles, memories that come from out of nowhere that you didn't even remember that you had. So we can kind of control those thoughts that arise. We can say, right now my intention is to do zazen. I'll think about that later. Right now I'm only sitting. But when those bubbles come, it's important not to apply more thinking to them.

[05:40]

We say, let them come and go like a cloud through the empty sky. Like 70,000 thoughts each day. 90% the same thing you thought yesterday? That's why it's nice to read a book once in a while. So thank you for indulging me in the Zazen. our abbot says, it doesn't matter who you are, who I am, where you are or what time it is when we do zazen, when we connect with zazen. So thank you so much for being here today.

[06:46]

Welcome to Green Dragon Temple. Welcome to everybody beyond the realm of Green Dragon Temple. My name is Kika, and I'm This is the first Dharma talk I've given on a Sunday. So it's quite a privilege, and I'm so glad that there are so many people here, so many students I recognize. And thank you for your wonderful support. I'm so glad you're here. Just saw Grace's shoes. She has little red Converse's on. I want to thank Artanto Eli. Brown-Stevenson. He's so supportive in everything he does, and he just carries on with supporting our practice here on a daily basis and is really encouraging for my practice. Thank you, Eli. And thank you, Honorable Abbot Jiryu-san, compassionate dragon. Jiryu, compassionate dragon.

[07:48]

Sometimes we shy away from saying what our Dharma names mean. this Dharma name that we're given when we take certain vows. But it doesn't prevent us from saying what other peoples are. Especially when they're so meaningful to us and support us. Thank you, compassionate dragon. You know, when we say dragon, that means kind of big, heavy, heavy. Big wisdom, big compassionate wisdom. I also have just kind of a flame of gratitude for my two main teachers, Sojan Mel Weitzman, the IOSHO. May he be as content and peaceful and easeful wherever he is now as he was in his earthly life. And for my current teacher, attention, Reb Anderson Roshi.

[08:52]

May his good health continue. And his just great teachings go on forever. I've learned so much from these two. I don't know what I did in this life or in a previous life to be bookended by those two teachers. But I accept it. If you had told me while I was spinning around on the playground that this would be my life, that involved in Zen teaching, a disciple of Buddha, you know, I just... Well, you know, actually, I was so awkward, I would have said, finally, something makes sense. That really makes sense. Finally, someplace where I can feel at home. So Sojin, Mel, passed away in 2021.

[09:55]

And I'd spent nine years as his student. And that was a good long time to be with a teacher. But I still feel like maybe we were in the fifth inning when he died. So I became a student of tension roshis after Mel passed. And he's been kind of batting cleanup ever since. He's helping me clear the bases. such a power hitter. So I kind of like to think of it, you know, it's hard to hold like two teachers that are so meaningful for you, but I like to think of Mel just showed me what to do. Sit, basically. And then, and Tenshin Roshi just shows me what I'm doing. Because it's easy to do what Mel told me to do.

[11:03]

He would just encourage, just jump right in, even if you don't know what you're doing, especially if you don't know what you're doing. Just jump right in. I went for it. Because that was kind of my own informal training in my conditioning. I was pushed into a lot of activity, so I was used to it. I don't advise it, but I was used to it. You know, when you jump right in, you... can't see for a while, you can't breathe, your top comes out, your pants come down, you know. You flail. So I flailed. But I found my stability. So today I want to talk about a little bit of the past. I really like talking about my teachers. Tenshin Roshi said, just talk about what you like to talk about. So I want to tell you a little bit about my path to practice coming in through the gate at Berkley Zen Center and talk about my teachers a little bit.

[12:06]

And then talk about my role here at Green Gulch, which is the guest student manager and work leader. It's kind of a fancy way of saying the head dishwasher. And many of you knew me as the Eno, right? I was the Eno for a few years. And somebody said, is that a demotion? Well, we don't really have demotion, but maybe it's a promotion, I think, to engage in that ordinary activity and find our way to awakening through ordinary activity. So I'm going to talk about some things about that. You know, first I kind of want to address that, you know, with our current state of democracy and with my mom's recent death, my practice has become kind of that, even in our last breath, we shouldn't allow our grief over the states of things.

[13:31]

or our own self-centered concerns. I kind of dim our brightness for our aspiration. So I'm kind of in this posture and brightness focus, trying to maintain my posture and brightness through all activities. It's not easy. But we practice and we fail and we reach our aspiration again and we fail and we keep practicing. And there's a cultivation of faith that develops in that cycle. You know, sometimes we don't want to come down to the zendo because we're tired. So we express it in our posture. The posture really reveals the state of the mind. And not only does it kind of... reveal it and inform it, it can change it too.

[14:33]

So if I don't feel so good, I just bring my posture to the fore. And it changes the mind. It brightens the mind. The mind can be so heavy that it kind of impacts the posture. So, you know, I see a lot of students and they come here for the two-week stay and then they'll leave and say, well, how can I take this incredible practice with me without having so much support, right? It's a very supportive environment here. And the primary thing is your body and your posture. We kind of want something else. We always want something more. But the way is really found in the ordinary, in the posture, in our breathing.

[15:36]

A few weeks ago, I asked Norman Fisher about, you know, giving talks, can you help me? I said, I'd rather just be like the monk sweeping in the corner. He said, there's no difference. There's no difference between the monk sweeping in the corner and the person who's giving the talk. You just do what's next for you. You just do respond to conditions as they arise and meet them with uprightness and presence. That was encouraging. I did want to say this part. I kind of lost the thread on my notes. But, you know, sometimes there's also the question of just sitting here doing nothing.

[16:57]

What are we going to do about the state of the world? And, you know, that phrase, think globally, act locally. But just shine locally and shine globally. That's kind of the Buddha way. Understanding that if we take care of our ordinary activity, that does touch everything. Everything. The way Reb puts it is that if you take some trash out of the ocean, you're actually helping the whole ocean. So I want to get into talking about these two teachers, Sojin Mel and Tenshin Rev. They were the first of students of Suzuki Roshi when Suzuki Roshi came to the States in the 60s, in 59.

[18:04]

I forget when it was. I have it written here, hang on. Does everybody know about Suzuki Roshi? Can you see hands of who knows specifically about Suzuki Roshi? A few weeks ago, Abbot Jirio gave a talk, and he started it by saying something about Suzuki Roshi, and then he remembered that somebody said to him or suggested to him, can't you find another muse? We're always talking about Suzuki Roshi. His son. Oh. Oh, your son said that? What a rascal. What a rascal. Yeah, that's funny. You know, Mel always said, don't stray too far from Suzuki Roshi's teaching. So I don't think Jiryu has found another muse, as a matter of fact.

[19:05]

Maybe for a moment he thought he should or could, but then he just went on talking about Suzuki Roshi. I never become weary about hearing Suzuki Roshi stories. I could hear them over and over again. I mean, that's how I learned everything that I picked up initially. So I think that's kind of a mistake to think that we should go somewhere beyond Suzuki Roshi. Yeah, oh, okay, he arrived here in 1959. He was 55 years old at that time. and he lived here until he died in 1971. And he did have designs about bringing Zen to America, but his initial assignment was to lead the Japanese-American people who were going to Sokoji in San Francisco.

[20:07]

So he became their pastor. And Sokoji is still operating today. Shogaku Shinryu, that's... Suzuki Roshi's name, Shogaku Shunryu, another dragon. Shogaku, auspicious mountain. Shunryu, spring dragon. He was born in May, spring dragon. And through the stories I've heard, it sounds like through word of mouth, local people started to talk about this Zen master who was at, who was arrived in San Francisco. And a lot of people would go and check him out. And Sojin was one of those, Sojin Mel. Well, there's another dragon, Hakuryu Sojin. I'm surrounded by these wisdom dragons. It's so amazing to me when I think about them. White dragon, genuine principle, is Sojin's name.

[21:10]

And so the first time he went to Sukhoji, he went there with a friend, and they sat a period of zazen. And Mel sat through a lot of pain in his legs. And after they got up from sitting, the bell rang, and they sat again. And he said, we're going to do this again? And that was the start of his practice. It was like a dog with a bone ever since with him. I really appreciate that story. And there was not a single time in the nine years that I listened to Mel that he didn't mention Suzuki Roshi when he was on the tongue, on the speaking platform. I think the same is true for Tenshin Roshi as well. It just seemed like every single touch of Suzuki Roshi had significance. And to have that, those two teachers bring that teaching directly to me, I feel very fortunate to have that Suzuki Roshi as my grandfather, my grand teacher.

[22:19]

And there's even a story by Liz, Mel's wife. She was sitting in the Zendo at Tassajara, and Suzuki Roshi passed by and tugged on her mini skirt. She had a mini skirt on in the Zendo, as if to say this is not appropriate for clothing for the Zendo in which she speaks about it. You can see how she was touched by this person, this unusual person. I do want to read from, this is Mel's autobiography. And just give you a little taste of... this period of his life. I can't see that. These little splashes of color are all my mother.

[23:25]

This ring and these glasses, these purple glasses. I got them from my mom after she passed. So this is from seeing one thing through the Zen life and teachings of Sojin Mel Weitzman. This is called Suzuki Roshi at Sakoji Zen Do. I'll just read pieces of this. There was this bare room with tatamis around the edges, along the walls and on the altar on the side. We went in and sat down and faced the wall. Somebody came up behind me and adjusted my posture and showed me how to hold my hands, not saying a word, just all feeling and touch. It was Suzuki Roshi, of course. I was sitting there, and it was just wonderful. I thought, here I am, just sitting here all by myself with nothing else to do, this seat and this place. I felt like I had come home. Right there. That was my first time at Sakoji. Although Suzuki Roshi had been asked to leave the Japanese-American congregation whose temple it was, he had been discovered by Westerners who began to sit with him.

[24:35]

We were the congregation's guests. In those days, he sat with the students in the pews in a room at the top of the stairs. There were still pews in the building. In time, the pews were moved out and replaced with tatami mats and zafus. The Japanese-American congregation did not sit zazen at Sukoji. Their practice was more like Sunday Protestant service. So Suzuki Roshi took care of their needs as a pastor or a priest, while at the same time practicing with his own students in an entirely different way as a Zen master. When someone would call him inquiring about Zen practice, he would tell them that he sat in the morning at five and that they were welcome to join him. As I got to know Suzuki Roshi, I came to like him quite a lot. After I had sat at Sagoji for a little while, I had a certain kind of feeling that I can't describe. But I thought, oh, this is samadhi. He says it's an aspect of Buddhist concentration.

[25:41]

It was just my idea, he says. Suzuki Roshi talked about samadhi a lot, but that's what I thought. That's what I thought it was. And I just thought, I'm going to come back and keep doing this. This was in 1964. I started coming to Zazen every day. I would come to the Zendo in the morning, and I'd come to the Zendo in the evening. I was very regular. And I realized that this was the most important part of my life. I was 35. I said to myself, I know that this is exactly what I've been looking for. And I don't know, don't do this now. And if I don't do this now, It'll just pass me by and I'll be lost again. I devoted myself to sitting. Suzuki Roshi seemed to like me, and his way of teaching was very subtle. Every day he would adjust posture. He would never let anyone sit slumped in the zendo. He would adjust your posture over and over and over again.

[26:41]

Such a wonderful... a book to read and to collect those writings with my experience with Mel. The first time I went to Berkeley Zen Center, I did feel something on my back. And then a voice said, lengthen the line from here to here with a little tap, kind of a heavy tap. And so I did, and that felt like, oh, that's such intimate attention. And then later I asked, there was a person sitting next to me, and I said, was that you who came over and gave me that? No, that was Mel. Oh, I said, you mean that gentleman over there? And even then it felt funny to call him a gentleman. It's like he's a Zen master, you know, but I still had this kind of like worldly way. You mean that gentleman over here? Mm-hmm. sneaky, sneaky fellow over there.

[27:50]

So by the time that I wandered into Berkeley Zen Center, it was 2009, and I had just moved to Berkeley, and I was living about 10 minutes from what is now Berkeley Zen Center, and I picked a book off the shelf of the boyfriend that I was living with, and it was this book. And I didn't open the book for a while, I just looked at the face, because at that time I was not very happy or aligned. And when I saw this face, I realized, well, this person is very happy. Even just these black and white pixels conveyed something that I knew I wanted or didn't have.

[28:51]

It just had such meaning for me. So I propped it up on my nightstand for a few days before I even cracked it. And I just thought seriously about changing, just a change in my life. So finally I opened it and I said, I'm just going to do whatever this guy did. And I did. And I opened the book to a chapter called Single-Minded Way. And I'll read a little bit of it. Yeah, it has such meaning for me. If you want to express yourself, and like I said, I was kind of buried under information, content, depression, and not feeling like I was, I felt like I was past my expiration date at my job.

[30:02]

And I didn't really see a way, any other way of living in San Francisco. If you want to express yourself fully, your true nature, There should be some natural and appropriate way of expression. I knew it. I knew it. Even swaying right and left as you sit down or get up from zazen is an expression of yourself. It's not preparation for practice or relaxation after practice. It's part of the practice. So we should not do it as if it's preparing for something else. This should be true in your everyday life. To cook or to fix food is not preparation. According to Dogen, our founder in Japan, it is practice. To cook is to not just prepare food for someone or for yourself. It's to express your sincerity. Sometimes teachers say, you know, we know what Zen is already.

[31:06]

We just read books to verify what we already know. Because it's just ordinary practice, human way. Buddha nature is human nature. And I really felt that here. It's just like, finally, somebody's speaking my language. So from the playground to here, it's like, yes. So when you cook, you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time. You should work on it with nothing in your mind and without expecting anything. You should just cook. That is also an expression of sincerity, a part of our practice. It is necessary to sit in zazen in this way, but sitting is not our only way. Whatever you do, it should be an expression of this same deep activity. We should appreciate what we are doing. There's no preparation for something else. So at this time in my life, I was... As soon as I woke up, I was late.

[32:09]

for what I had to do for my work. And as soon as I'm done with this, I have to do that. And as soon as I'm done with that, I've got to go over here and do this. So I was never with my activity. The corner of the sheet was always coming off the bed. And so he used this cooking as an activity. So I went out and got a cutting board and a knife. I thought, I'm going to start with this one activity. And so that became a practice for me. And then I Googled Suzuki Roshi and I found that one of his disciples had a Zen center 10 minutes from where I was living. So I walked down there. When I found that out, I walked down to Berkeley Zen Center immediately. And I walked through the gate of what I now know to be the resident homes. And there were lights on and kind of food, cooking.

[33:13]

It was really inviting and warm. And I sat down on the Zendo steps and just kind of cried my eyes out. And I went there the next day and I heard Mel speak. And I have a little bit of that talk here, I think. What's funny about this talk is that on the way there, my boyfriend came with me at the time, we passed by an elementary school, and for one reason or another, Andrew stepped on a little construction paper ghost and stuck to his foot. And he became flabbergasted because he couldn't shake it off, you know. So Mel's talk begins. So this morning, you know, everybody knows what a ghost is, right?

[34:21]

And then someone tells him that his mic isn't on, and he yells it, a ghost, G-H-O-S-T. But in Zen practice, according to our Zen understanding, the Buddhist understanding, a ghost is a disembodied spirit. So a disembodied spirit is like someone who doesn't have the reference point so they can land somewhere. It was a small zendo, you know, and a stranger walking in, he would surely notice. So I feel these words were directly to me. At first I just wondered, how is he getting that so right? But now I think I know. So he says, they're always wandering around disembodied. They can't find their true body. So you may feel like that sometimes. And he says, we're born into this world, so to speak, and then little by little we find our reference points and we begin to build a scenario, a kind of a stage.

[35:31]

And we use whatever furniture is around us. Everything around us is the furniture for our drama. And we use this furniture and we build our life around it. Our house, our parents, our friends, our work, our interests, and so forth. We build our life on this and we create a drama. And we respond to others' dramas and we recreate and co-create drama. And that's what we call life. So how do we find a true reference point that is most satisfying for us, that makes all the other reference points work? He says, Shakyamuni Buddha said, life is somewhat unsatisfactory when we don't know how to find our true reference point. It's kind of a paraphrase, right? No matter what we do, there's something unsatisfactory about it. No matter how wealthy we are, no matter how much material goods we have, or how successful our business are, our children, there's still something that isn't completely satisfying.

[36:37]

So our mind is captivated by these emotions and these feelings. We become prisoners of our thoughts, and this is the ghost. So he introduced to me Zazen as a reference point. daily zazen as a reference point. So I'm just going to skip over to You know, the first time that I encountered Reb Anderson. I was at Tassajara. He led the 100th practice period at Tassajara. And that first talk by Reb was so illuminating, you know.

[37:43]

I was really kind of a one teacher person and just really grokked Mel. And when I encountered Reb, it kind of opened up this other side of Zen because the way that he delivered the teaching was so immediate. He was at one point early on in this talk talking about the call and response of a teacher to a disciple and are you ready for it? And at some point he yelled out, Kika! And he pointed at me. I was shocked. And there was a delay. But I said, oh, yes. Yes. I just liked him immediately. And I've had many, many great, wonderful teachings from Tenshin Roshi. Not too long ago, I was in Dokusan with him and kind of complaining, you know.

[38:45]

He was just sitting there quietly listening to me. The stokasan is a one-on-one that we have with our teachers. And usually at Green Gulch, we have this once a month. And I was just saying how I kind of wasn't in control of my emotions at this time, and I leaked all over this person and this and that, and I went on and on. And he was just very patient. And he said, were you coming from samadhi? And I bowed to him, and then I got up and left because I wasn't coming from samadhi. I was nowhere near samadhi, and I'm trying to function in this world. So samadhi is our concentration that we have when we're sitting zazen. We train in this focused concentration without thought interrupting, without...

[39:47]

discriminative thinking or dualistic thinking. And so that has become kind of a touch point for me, a reference point for me. It has helped me so deeply, just that one word. And samadhi is what... is what we bring to our everyday activity. So when we enter into Zen practice, we think that samadhi lives here or zazen lives here. And then we go out and do our life and our world and interactions. But every activity is an extension of the activity that we train here. So like I said, my work here is the guest student manager, the head dishwasher.

[40:49]

So when students enter, I train them in the forms in the zendo. And then our work is so-called menial work. We do dishes, sweep floor, mop, rake, make beds. We're kind of the backbone of the temple, actually. Breakfast and lunch dishes. Thank you, kitchen. I see one of the guest students back there. Current guest students are going to serve you tea later today. And it's an excellent group of bodhisattvas. They have named themselves. This is the first time I've encountered a guest student crew naming themselves. What's that name again? Dishmongers. Go dishmongers. Going to have T-shirts made maybe. So we train in dishes.

[41:55]

The outgoing head dishwasher, Joe Shinsan, after he trained me on the various tasks, I asked him, you know, do you have any parting words for me? And he said, dishes is wisdom. And I learn that every day. It's just, it touches all of our practice points. Patience. is a big one. Patience with a pile of dishes that is the size of a great dragon. Generosity in working with each other. Complete devotion to the dishwater, as if it's offering incense in the zendo. There's no difference. It doesn't matter what we do. It matters how we do it, how we bring it. You know, in our practice, we say follow the schedule completely.

[42:59]

And it's a limited schedule. It's a limited activity. And it's a great teacher for just flowing into what's next without discriminatory mind, without... thinking, oh, I don't like to do that, and I do like to do this. I like to work on the farm, but I don't like to do the dishes. Well, just go to the next activity, no matter what, and keep your posture, keep your brightness, and devote yourself to that activity. When we do that, it has real meaning. One of the guest students said that when they were working in a, what do you call that, minimum wage job, as a food server. And the boss maybe didn't care. This is a quote, whether they live or die. And they're just to do that work, you know. And so that can be a tough situation, right? That's not a Zen temple where you're getting this great support.

[44:00]

So how do you practice with that? And her co-workers were kind of just doing the minimum and griping about it and having the poor posture and then putting all that energy into food that's going to people. And she said, natural bodhisattva, said, I just decided, you know, I'm here. I'm doing this thing. My hands are creating this. I'm going to do the best I can no matter what. That's Zen practice. No wonder she's here. No wonder you're all here. Thank you for being here. I want to read from this little book. This is A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and Mind.

[45:04]

Because when we're cleaning, we're cleaning our mind as well. When we're sweeping, we're sweeping out attachment. If we're really one with the activity, we're taking care of our mind as well as our environment. I've been trying to impress upon the community how important it is to clean, since I see so much of when we do clean and when we don't. And it's been hard to not sound like I'm admonishing anyone. But if we really don't take care of ourself and our environment, it's a disservice to ourselves, you know, and we're missing a great opportunity. You know, when the Eno asks you later to please take the chairs out and put them back in the closet, spoiler alert, if nobody knows that that's what she's going to do, we're not, like, taking advantage of your bodies for the labor.

[46:11]

We are getting something done. But we're inviting you to kind of join our practice, interconnecting with each other in silence, And just devote yourself to that chair. And share the feeling of working with us. We get a real flow going. The group of guest students that's here right now, they've been here for two weeks, so they're a real well-oiled machine. And they're going to go out now and do tea. And they have quite an energetic flow that you can feel. They're totally committed. It's a real pleasure to watch, to be a part of. I just want to read the introduction to this sweet book. This is from a monk who's in the Pure Land tradition, but he does mention Soto Zen, and it does align with our work practice as well.

[47:21]

So he says he's a Buddhist monk from... A monk's day begins with zazen and then cleaning. We honor this tradition as well. As soon as we have zazen in service, we line up in a hall out here for soji or 15 or 20 minutes of temple cleaning. He says sometimes they do 45 minutes of temple cleaning, which I would really love. Monk's day begins with zazen and cleaning. We sweep the temple grounds and gardens and polish the main temple altar. We don't do this because it's dirty or messy. We do it to eliminate the suffering in our hearts. When you visit a temple, you feel a kind of a blissful tension in the tranquil space. The gardens are well tended, he says, without a single leaf on the ground. That's not true here, of course. Inside the main temple, you naturally sit tall and feel alert.

[48:28]

These things serve to calm the mind. The environment serves to calm the mind. Just as this environment serves to calm the mind. We sweep dust to remove our worldly desires. We scrub dirt to free ourselves from attachment. The time we spend carefully cleaning out every nook and cranny of the temple grounds is extremely fulfilling. This is so true. We live simply and take time to contemplate the self, mindfully living each moment. It's not just monks who need to live this way. Everyone in today's busy world needs to do it. Be one of us, one of us, one of us. It's such a nice invitation. If you live carelessly, your mind will be soiled. But if you try to live conscientiously, it will slowly become pure again. Pure often means non-dual in Zen practice. If your heart is pure, the world looks brighter.

[49:30]

It reminds me of if your mind is calm, you see virtue in everything. I think Suzuki Roshi said that. And if your world is brighter, you can be kinder to others. The Zen sect of Buddhism is renowned for the cleaning practices of the students, but cleaning is also greatly valued in Japanese Buddhism in a general way to cultivate the mind. And then he goes on with some sweet drawings and specifics. What is cleaning? What is garbage? Air things out. What to do with insects. Don't put off till tomorrow. There's an expression, zengo saidan, is a Zen expression, meaning that we must put all our efforts into each day so that we have no regrets and that we must not grieve for the past or worry about the future.

[50:41]

In the context of cleaning, Zengo Zaidan means don't put off till tomorrow. And then he goes on to say, like, there's kind of a gloomy feeling that we hold if we leave cleaning overnight, if we leave dishes in the sink overnight, or if we have something that's on our mind that we didn't take care of from the day before. And same with our mind and our reference point of Zazen, clean out everything. the residual thinking of the day. Zazen is a great cleaner and start with a kind of a bright day and a bright posture and a clear mind. I think I'll stop there. That's great. Thank you.

[51:43]

Thank you so much for your wonderful attention and for being here once again. So delightful to speak with you today. We'll have tea and cookies outside, and I'll be happy to talk with anybody further out there. If you have any comments or any questions, or if you want to be a guest student, we can put you right to work. Thank you. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[52:36]

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