This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. We have just recited some verses which are traditionally recited upon opening scriptures. of Buddha Dharma. We have paid our respects to the teachings of Buddha Dharma. And in a sense, we have now invoked the presence of these teachings, of these words of the Tathagata, the words of the Buddha Tathagata, The one comes from thus.

[01:03]

In this intensive, we have been looking at one particle, one small particle of the unlimited teachings of the Buddhadharma. And that particle is the teaching, the words, that the teaching of The Buddha are thus. In the Avatamsaka scripture, in the Flower Adornment scripture, it says, clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharma.

[02:22]

The Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus. We have been now for two weeks contemplating The teaching of thus. In Japanese. This teaching, that the teaching is thus, also comes into our family scriptures. So that the precious mirror samadhi, the song of the precious mirror samadhi by the ancestor Tozan Ryoka starts with the teaching of thus. And we also say the teaching of thus-ness.

[03:26]

This one particle of teaching, and even part of the particle of teaching, just the word thus, that particle, according to the flower adornment scripture, that flower, that particle contains scriptures. The word thus contains scriptures. as extensive as the entire universe. Perhaps we have had some experience of that, of how extensive this teaching of dust is. And we will probably never come to the end of how vast this particle of dust is. opens onto.

[04:38]

And another particle of dust, after this first particle of dust, the first particle is the teaching of thus. The next particle is intimate transmission. So this thus is this particle. of thus, this teaching of thus, is opened up by our great ancestor Toza. He opens it up and tells us that this suchness is an intimate communication. It's an intimate conversation. And we have been contemplating both thus, And the conversation, which is thus, and the thus, which is conversation, we have been contemplating that. Now, I offer another particle of dust, which is a prayer.

[05:57]

I have a little particle of dust, which is a prayer. And the prayer is... I pray that all the people in this temple, in this little valley, all of us, receive silence and stillness. And remember silence and stillness. And practice silence. sitting upright in the midst of silence and stillness, which we have received, and which my prayer is asking for. My prayer is asking for us to receive it. And we are receiving it. And we are practicing in the midst of it.

[06:57]

And I also pray that we transmit it, that we receive it and give it. And in this silence and stillness, I further pray that we receive this teaching of thus. And we remember the teaching. And practice in the midst of this teaching. The teaching, receiving, and practicing it. And we also have received and have been contemplating teachings from, for example, our ancestor Tozan, teachings about how to take care of this gift of thus.

[08:18]

We are told that it has been given and we have received it. We have it now with us. And then it says, please take care of it. And then Hozan tells us, how did it take care of thus? He says, he says, this thus, this teaching of thus, is like a massive fire. And he says, turning away from this thus, or touching it, are both off. And turning away often could occur in the form of forgetting to take care of it. It's in the midst,

[09:24]

of all the impulsive activity of human consciousness and all the impulsive activity of the consciousnesses of other living beings in this dynamic world of twirling and swirling worlds of impulses, it is possible to remember thus. but it is also possible to forget it and be distracted from it while, for example, talking. I pray that we can remember thus, remember the Buddhist teaching while we wish to speak. while we wish to speak.

[10:30]

And then, as we speak, to remember the teaching of thusness. And when we feel impulse to move, like to extend our arm, I pray that we remember the teaching as we extend our arm. And as we bring the arm back, we remember that and practice it in the midst of the teaching of thus. My own experience is that to learn to do this, it does sometimes help to remember it, and then when we do feel an impulse to move or speak, that we move slowly and carefully. To see if we can remember thus as we move. Our arms, our legs, and our mouth, our jaw, our tongue.

[11:40]

To remember being completely here with this teaching in the midst of many, many impulses. After encouraging us, the song goes on to tell us that embracing this teaching, if you actually are embraced, if we're actually with it and remembering it and caring for what has been given to us, that embrace cures all ills. It cures all ills. It frees us from suffering if we can take care of this teaching. I recently read about the death of an amazing bodhisattva named Hakuin.

[12:55]

Three months before he died, He had a physical examination from a physician, and the physician says, after examining everything okay, and then later he said, that physician doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm going to die in three months. And then when the time came, his disciples asked him to offer some words or some calligraphy. So he wrote, I think a really big character, and the character could be translated as in the midst, in the middle. It's a character for middle, but also means in the middle. For him to be in the middle of all this tremendous activity of life, to be in the midst of it and remember the teaching. remember the bodhisattva vows, and remember that they come down to thus.

[14:07]

So, one of the main ways that we might turn away from this teaching is simply, as we move, we might forget it. Leave it behind, rather than bring it along with us as we move. Come on, come on along now, thus, let's take a walk. And every step, we can lose it or remember it. And again, as we think of speaking, as we think of speaking, in that thought, Receive and remember thus as we think of speaking. And observe the teaching as you speak.

[15:14]

The sutra says, the flower adornment says, clearly observe this teaching of the Buddha. It doesn't say in the midst of all this activity. But that's what I'm bringing up now. That's what Hockman thought was most important. Not just remember this teaching when you're sitting in a quiet Zenido in stillness. Of course then too. But then as you get up from sitting, as you start walking, and as you return to your seat in each thought, in each movement, Receive this samadhi of suchness. I recently, like an hour ago, had an impulse to reach out and get a hold of some car keys.

[16:30]

And I tried to think of getting the car keys and then finally to reach for and grasp the car keys while remembering the teaching. Remembering the teaching which can't be grasped as I grasp car keys or as I put on the robes. And it's really quite challenging to be the person we are in each moment completely. That also is a teaching of us. I thought I might fall over. Thank you. This teacher, Hakuin, is important for me because a story about him drew me to the Zen teaching of the us.

[18:10]

A story about him in the midst of being criticized and being praised. He seemed in the story to be able to remember us. when insulted, when falsely accused, when reviled, he seemed to remember thus. And he kind of said it in response to his accusers. He said kind of like, oh, is that so? Is this so? Right? While remembering the teaching. And when people found out He was not guilty of the crimes they accused him of. They came and praised him. And again, in the midst of all that praise, he seemed to remember. Thus.

[19:15]

Thus. He trained his monks to remember thus, even while he was yelling at them. He yelled at them to see if they could remember the teaching while they were hearing him. When we sit in this samadhi of thus, this precious mirror samadhi of thus, people are calling to us. We are surrounded by calls and cries. And two, open to them. And remember the teaching as we open to them. So I wish to invoke also the samadhi.

[20:27]

The samadhi which remembers this intimate communion between ourselves and others which is thus. Everybody we meet it's right there. Everybody we meet is an opportunity for this intimate conversation which is the teaching of thus. And not only are we surrounded by the cries of the world and all of our own intentions, we also are surrounded by occasions where we forget the teaching. We reach for the car keys and leave the teaching behind. We don't reach while taking care of us.

[21:30]

We forget. And in addition to all this going on, now we have the opportunity for more to be going on, which is to note this. I forgot. I slipped off. I stopped contemplating the teaching. And I'm a little bit sorry. I don't have time to be really too sorry because I've got to come back to do the job of remembering thus, contemplating thus. And noticing that I forget it and saying, silly boy, actually helps me return to the work of the Bodhisattva. Listening to the cries of the world with the aid of the Dharma of Thus. And another thing about Hakuin is he said,

[22:32]

He was 65 years old before he could get through the whole day and not forget. Not forget the teaching of thus. Finally, after all those years of practicing and teaching, he was able to not get distracted even when things are really tremendously active. and impulsive. He used to take his monks, his temples not too far from what used to be called Edo, it's now called Tokyo. He used to take his monks on horseback into the capital of Japan and ride through the marketplace to see if they could remember the teaching while they were riding through the fabulous Tokyo marketplace.

[23:34]

Even our wonderful founder, Shogaku Shinryu Dayo-sho, I think, is able to confess to us that he forgot the teaching. Occasionally. I don't think he told us all the times he forgot, but there's a few times he forgot, and he said, I forgot. One of those times, which I've told you about many times, is that he was at a monastery, which he's the founder of, called Tassahara. And he went with the students. to a place on the Tassajara Creek called the Narrows, which has a beautiful little swimming hole, which is quite deep when the water is high.

[24:42]

And the students were jumping into the water. And apparently, Suzuki Roshi forgot the teachings of thus. And left it behind on the rocks. And jumped into the water. Not remembering. That he didn't know how to swim. I guess he got. Excited. And he turned away from the teaching. Just takes a moment. To die. And you know. But. And he's a Zen master right. And so his students noticed. He jumped in. their dearest teacher, and then they noticed he was down there a long time. And maybe they thought, well, he's a Zen master, he can probably stay there for weeks. But after a while, they thought, no.

[25:48]

Now, Suzuki Roshi, on his side, was under the water, and he says, I was looking at the women's legs splashing when I was down there. Anyway, people pulled him out and we got a few more years out of this wonderful bodhisattva. And then he told us that story. I think he told us that story maybe in about 1970 or 1971. He told us that story. And then when he finished the story about his forgetting the contemplation Of thus. In other words, forgetting Zazen. Zazen is the contemplation of thus. The teaching of thus. He forgot it. I'm not talking about the students.

[26:52]

They had their own problems. They hadn't even heard of the teaching of thusness yet. But here's somebody who is taking care of it and forgot it. because it looks so amazing to jump in that water. So after finishing the story, in a session, he said, after that, I started to practice really hard. And again, at that time, he was about 63, I would say. He was still forgetting. So most of us are also forget. We forget. as we move our hands and our tongue, we forget to take care of us. We forget to take care of this wonderful, liberating conversation. So again, he said, after that, I try harder to practice remembering

[27:57]

the practice of zazen, which contemplates the Buddha's teaching. Each particle, this particular particle, and many other particles. Each one that comes to us is calling for us to remember the teaching as we care for it. And so at dinner that night, I don't know who asked him, but I was at the table with him in the dining room, up above the zendo at the city center. Somebody, it might have been me, said, Roshi, during the talk this morning, you said that after that event, you really started to practice hard. And he said, uh-huh. I said, but weren't you already practicing hard? And he said, uh-huh. But after that, I really started to practice hard. So he had a wonderful practice, which we... We're blessed by, but he was still learning this samadhi, this precious mere samadhi, which takes care of this teaching by not turning away from it, which again, some people actually do turn away from it.

[29:15]

They don't want it. They think it's boring. Can you imagine that? It's too simple, some people might feel. Something more complicated, please. And then if it gets too complicated, it's too complicated. Something more simple. Anyway, the turning away doesn't have to be rebellious. It can just be forgetful. It still counts. And then what about touching? Like, for example, touching, like getting a hold of this thusness, getting a hold of the samadhi. How about that? No, that's not appropriate to this massive fire. So it's really challenging to remember thus as we're listening and speaking and listening and looking and being looked at as we're doing all of our daily actions with others together. It is challenging to remember the teaching. But the Samadhi says, please do remember it.

[30:22]

Please take care of this teaching. It's been given to you. Please take care of it. And it will bring the remedy to our illnesses. It is the remedy. When it's embraced and cared for, it's being said to be very helpful to others. living beings and help them to help others. I'll give myself a B on that one. You know what I mean? That one being the drinking of that water. I did it okay. I kind of remembered. And I enjoyed remembering it. A little bit showing off maybe. You moved it closer.

[31:25]

So we have done two weeks of the intensive. We have come through a very challenging and difficult time with much illness and much rearrangement of our practice so that we could go on together. And as I said earlier, this assembly has really been courageous and careful and patient. and loving to them their own difficulty and to their interactions with others which have been masked which is really hard for me to to be with people and try to you know communicate when i can't see their whole face but we we've been patient with that and i congratulate all of you And I'm so grateful that you made this great effort, and we're still in the intensive, and maybe we'll finish wholeheartedly.

[33:06]

Another example of my practice is when I give a Dharma talk and beforehand make prostrations, I don't have so much trouble remembering the teaching when I'm receiving the incense and putting it in the incense bowl. And usually it can kind of be pretty much there with that one. And when I bow, if I have this what might be called a baton. When I bow, before the talk, I hold the baton upright as a gesture of raising the diamond flag of thusness. I say I do that, and I do sometimes, but I also sometimes, can you believe?

[34:29]

I forget to raise the flag. I bow with this, and then I forget to hold it upright. Bowing, and then upright. I forget. I don't do it... all the time about, just before a Dharma talk, when I'm raising the Dharma flag with you, with your support. I forget. But I invite everybody here in this valley, all around this valley, to make every action raising the Dharma flag for the welfare of the world. And if you forget, I'm in your company.

[35:32]

I was going to say good company, but I'm not saying I'm good company. I would just say, I too sometimes forget to take care of what has been given to me and what I have been asked to take care of. the Buddhist ancestors asked each of you if, you know, if you would please take care of this teaching, this precious, rarely met with Dharma, each particle of which contains scriptures as extensive as the universe. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[36:53]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[36:56]

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