And so this summer, because of COVID and a lot of other things that just required us to not do a guest season. And for a couple of years now, we haven't been open for guests. But this summer, we tried this sangha week. So every week on Tuesday, sanghas would come in from all over the country, actually. While we were there, there were two groups, fairly this size groups, one from Houston and one from Austin. So we had a lot of Texans down there with us, which was quite sweet. And so then next week after we left, we left on Sunday, then the next group was going to come in on Tuesday. So the crew of folks down there at Tasahara have a few days to rest and then also get ready for the next group that arrives. But the basic feeling of being together there when it's all sangha is everyone in the valley was practicing the Dharma, was practicing most parts Zen, but Of course, other kinds of Buddhism are common among our sanghas.

[01:11]

So we had a half-day sitting, and everyone was in the half-day sitting. Everyone worked in the morning and then had time in the afternoon for relaxing and also meeting with their groups, with their group leaders. And then in the evening, we all sat zazen again. So it was a really gentle practice period feeling. With everyone doing the same thing together, which is one of the nice things about practice period, is you're like a little shawl of fish. You all kind of, you hear the sounds and you go to the zendo, you hear the sounds, you go to the dining room. So you pretty much know where to go based on the soundscape at Tassajara. So that was what was happening this last week, that we could basically follow the schedule. And it was a soft schedule, gentle schedule. And I think from what I heard from everybody, they had a really, really good time. So that's my report on Sangha Week. We had a couple of folks that joined us who might be able to come.

[02:16]

Here, we're hoping, James, I haven't seen James yet, but Guy is James. Did you see James' name on the window yet? So, James from Modesto and Maria Elena, who is still at Tassajara, so we probably won't see her. But if they do come, we'll introduce them to you and welcome them to our gathering. So, I don't know, I thought maybe Guy, maybe you'd like to see you and, is Dean here? Okay, so maybe, Guy, if you would like to say a few things about Sangha Week, I think it would be really nice to hear how it was for you. Would you be willing to say a few things? Sure, I would. Yeah, it's very hard to describe, but it was a real sense of refuge, I would say, was what was wonderful to come together and to have that feeling of community and... know the discussions and the care and and really it was [...] really unbelievable and having nature to support all of that as well and and studying the dharma and and seeing how that all you really felt a connection with these ancestors right with these words and everything that we study that was it was really really something wonderful something special and uh i feel like

[03:40]

It's somewhere you can go to really make some wonderful friends and get a really close feeling of connection, like I said, and community. So I highly recommend it. And I really hope that they'll continue doing it every summer because I want to make it a yearly thing for sure. It was truly wonderful. So thank you so much to you, Fu, and to Zen Center for organizing all of this. So it was great. Yeah, it was. It was great. And it still lingers in its greatness. Well, the most difficult part is returning to the real world because you have a sort of like, you know, what am I doing? What's going on now, right, when you're out there? And having the ability to work I thought was so wonderful because you have the experience of what mindful work can really be. which is really great, right? Especially if you're doing work that's really in your head or really sort of takes you somewhere else and to be able to really be one with whatever you're doing, if it's compost.

[04:51]

I'll tell you what, the smell of compost really brings you back to the moment. You can't really be in your head when you're doing that. But so does the smell of lavender. So that's the beautiful part. You experience all of it. So it's, yeah. Yeah. It really does linger, and now how do we see that there's no wall there, right? The real world, that is the real world, and this is the world. It's just our maybe holding on a little too tightly. One side or the other. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And my mom used to say to me when I was living in Tassajara, she said, when are you coming back to the real world? And I just thought, mom, you know, I'm standing next to a tree on the phone. Exactly. Oh, you know, but of course I understood what she was saying. And you know, and I know that it does seem to be a different intention and what's going on down there. And it's, it's very, it's very connecting.

[05:52]

I feel really connected with each and every person in such a lovely way. So that's what the Dharma does. It kind of glues this together. One big Sangha, you know. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I actually got to meet Gi. I mean, exciting things. We've been talking in these little squares for all these years. He actually was at Green Gulch, and I went down to the sewing room, and it was so exciting. I felt kind of shy. I was like, oh, my God, the real person. And it was just a dear thing to have him at Green Gulch and sewing on his Raksu as we were getting ready to find a time and a date when we might be able to do the precept ceremony with some of you who have been coming to the precept class as well. So that's my report on this last week. And then just today at noon, I did service for the last part of our four-day sashing that I was leading.

[06:56]

So I had four lectures, one lecture each day. That was a little daunting, as those things are. And then I thought about... coming this evening, and I thought, well, maybe I'll just tell you all I just didn't have time to think about the Genjo Koan. Please forgive me. And why don't we just chat about something? And then I thought, well, that's not really true. So at about 3.40, I started to look at Boksan's teaching and at the Genjo Koan, and I just got, you know, as it happens, you just enter. The Dharma is so lovely and so compelling. So I did come up with some things to say, and I'm going to share those with you all now. So, yeah. And here it is. Here's my short, my shot at it. I'm going to take a shot at it. Here's my shot for this evening. So I think it was August 6th, the last time I talked about the Genjo Kon. And we were looking at the section that has to do with firewood and ash, if you remember that.

[08:01]

Firewood does not become, ash does not become firewood again after it is, you know, burned and birth does not exist. come after death, does not become birth, and that sort of thing. So he's kind of talking about time and sequence and how things really occupy their own dharma position, one way of thinking of that. And they're cut off, even though past and future are included in terms of the causal nexus, like everything causes everything in each and every moment. But you don't go back to the past and you don't go ahead to the future. You know, they're, as he says, they're cut off. And so we do have this truth of living in the present. And reminding ourselves every now and then that that's the only place we ever are, is part of Dharma study. It's like, oh yeah, I'm here. Where are you? I'm here. And there's no other possibility. So that's part of what Dogen's doing over and over again, is coming back to right here, right now, is where our life is. And how we practice is right in that.

[09:05]

And knowing that is already itself is practice. So each of the things that Dogen has said about ashes and firewood is basically that they are complete in this moment. Ash is complete in this moment. Firewood is complete in this moment. Birth is complete in this moment. Death is complete in this moment. And death does not turn into birth after death, as I said. And again, he says that each is complete this moment and each includes its own future and past, as with winter and spring. You know, they're both interdependent on future and past, and they're also independent of future and past. So that's the cutoff. Interdependent and independent at the same time. You know, for us, the way we think, it seems like those are mutually exclusive. You can't have interdependent and independent. You know, you can't have right and wrong. It's like pick one or the other is how we've been trained to think. But this is what the Buddha Dharma keeps doing to us is saying, you can have both. I think there's a term in philosophy called dialethism, where two opposite things can both be true, which is kind of against the rules of Western logic.

[10:14]

So we're actually working in a whole different field where two opposite things can both be true. And so that interdependence and independence are both true of... the future, and the past, and of ash, and of firewood, and of birth, and of death, and so on. So it just kind of keeps us moving, you know, the kind of well-oiled way of thinking, rather than more like, oh, I know the answer to that kind of thinking that we've been trained to do. It's like, I'm not so sure I know the answer to that, you know? If one side's illuminated, then the other side's dark, but it's still there. And then that turn, and then you've got this other side's illuminated, and that side is dark. So, you know, basically, one of the primary exercises for those of us studying the Dharma is to keep on pivoting, you know, keep on moving, you know, like the great earth itself. You know, we keep moving from one point of view to another. I just finished this session I was teaching on the 10 oxygen pictures, which are

[11:14]

amazing tools for studying dharma and if you have a chance they'll probably all be posted so if you're interested in learning more about the ten oxygen pictures i found them extremely helpful and looking at these same things that dogan is doing and everybody's doing this is what she was doing of showing us the various perspectives on reality and the ten oxygen pictures there are ten perspectives you know and i'm i was using the example of our guest house at green gulch which has I think it only has eight sides. But anyway, if it were a ten-sided building, then each of those windows, as you walk around the building, would be looking at the valley, the whole of the valley, but from a different perspective. So that window, you just see those trees, and that window you see that road, and so on and so forth. But they're all looking at the entire valley. It's just our point of view is what's limited. And again, going on with what I've been also looking at from Anishiro Bokusan, who you might remember as the teacher of Kishisao Ian, who was Suzuki Roshi's teacher.

[12:24]

So we have this nice little scholastic link to Suzuki Roshi and his understanding, how he explained the Dharma, is very much dependent and interdependent on these two really wonderfully well-regarded... Zen masters of his era. So this Nishira Bokusan and Kishizawa Ion. So we're getting more and more familiar with them by various translations, English translations that are going on of their work. they say again and again that each and everything is just this one time and just this one person at this one time. And therefore, we should experience each day all the way to the bottom. So each day has a vastness to it. Each moment has a vastness. We're rooted in eternity, in the vastness. And here we are as limited. So the finite and the infinite are basically conjoined in our very lives.

[13:24]

So we come from the infinite. We come from the cosmos, from the universe, of the vastness, which, as we're seeing from these photographs from the Webb Telescope, is getting vaster by the minute. Every time they publish some new photographs, it's like, oh, my God. I was looking at one of those photographs the other day with a nod to Millicent, again, from my beautiful weaving, which I've showed you, of the Tarantula Nebula. There was this other shot that just looked like there was... you know, like a million stars. There was just like, just a vast, just like sprinkles of stars way, way back before the earth was even created. The light from those stars started coming this way. So way back at the beginnings of the universe or what we call the universe, you know, the... big bang, but much as we can understand, there's some big bang happened. And then from the big bang, there's this just spray of light shooting out in all directions.

[14:26]

And now we're beginning to get images of that very, very early birth of the universe. And I just had this feeling of being kind of relaxed. I thought, oh, what's the big deal? I mean, there are just billions of stars and planets, and I would not doubt life forms floating around out there. So, you know, I don't think we need to be so concerned about our own position or our own life in a certain way. It was kind of an unusual thought I was having about like, oh, it's fine. Everything's fine. You know, there's just so much of it. And we're in it. You know, we're part of this vastness, this infinite, you know, and finite truth that is each of our lives. So engaging wholeheartedly in each and every step along the way is the instruction. That's how you practice, you know, with the facts of life, the limitations of life. I've got two legs, not 12. I walk on my two flat feet.

[15:27]

There's no other way for me to get around. And at the same time, knowing that that vastness is what I'm walking on. You know, the student and I were standing together and we're going like... how are we managing to hold on to this round ball that's spinning through space? I mean, we don't think of it too often, but we're kind of like, you know, this is kind of strange. I mean, here we are talking away, and everybody on this ball is somehow, you know... kind of have their feet attached to this sphere and are just very nonchalant about that. It's like, oh, you know, and then, you know, and then speaking of Millicent, she's on the other side of the ball. She's fine. And her leg, good job. Her feet are hanging onto the ball and my feet are hanging onto the ball. And it's like, and our heads are facing in a different direction. So it's all kind of, it's all kind of extraordinary. It's like, it shouldn't be happening. The odds are vastly against there being this thing happening, and here it is.

[16:30]

So I think I've been talking a lot these last few days about if you're not in awe, you're distracted. You know, you kind of miss the ride if you don't think this is just incredible what's going on. Nishi Arboksan says that he uses, again, I'm reminding you of our last conversation, which was two weeks ago, he talks about beans and tofu, which I thought was a really fun way of explaining how beans and tofu, even though we think tofu is made from beans, he says beans and tofu do not oppose one another. They don't interfere with one another. From the point of view of the tofu maker, beans... are used to make tofu. So that seems reasonable to us. But from the point of view of tofu, that is utter nonsense. The tofu said, how could my soft, tasty body have been a pile of hard beans? That makes no sense at all. It's like us trying to imagine being an egg in a sperm. That makes no sense at all from the point of view of these adults that we have grown into.

[17:32]

So he says that tofu can never meet The beans. And the beans can never meet the tofu. The beans are beans and tofu is tofu. And each of them is undivided activity of the present moment. So in this way, beans and tofu and birth and death never oppose one another. They don't interfere with each other. They don't get in each other's way. And so even though before and after are included in the beans and the tofu, and in birth and death, and in firewood and ash, before and after are cut off. So each moment from the beginning of time, of each thing, from the beginning of a tree to becoming a log, to becoming firewood and burning, and then to become ash, is the entirety of time. Each one is the entirety of time. have arisen all together with the universe of that time, just like right now. This is the entire universe producing this moment when I'm talking, as in you're listening or whatever else you're doing.

[18:37]

This is it. This is what we've got. And it's being made by everything. All together we come up. And then the next one, all together we come up. And yet time doesn't have before and after, and time is never stuck in being something that we humans call hours and days and minutes. We made that up. That's our thing. So this is just human thought. To view a moment or to view a thousand years are just illusions of a human being. There is just time. And just this time, and if we are enlivened in each moment of time, then we are what he calls an iron person of no rank. And time is the great iron person holding up the sky. With our feet on the ground and our heads are holding up the sky. So this is a kind of Zen way of talking about the miracle, the miraculousness of existence.

[19:39]

Iron person holding up the sky. Arousing the way, seeking mind, practice, and body are nothing but the actualization of each moment of time. To be aware of this, just this moment, and to practice thoroughly is the practice of just this day, of just this moment as time. So again and again, we hear both in Suzuki Roshi and in Boksan and in Dogen, this wholehearted engagement in the present, like not leaving anything out as if we could. I think sometimes we imagine, oh, I'm not really in it, or I'm just too tired to do something in the vacuum or whatever. But actually, being too tired to vacuum is the whole of your life. And not being in it is the whole of your life. So that is your expression at that moment. So there's this little choice point we have about how much of ourselves are we willing to jump in? Can we energetically jump forward into what's happening and give it our best shot?

[20:40]

You know, it's kind of like I was just watching this special that Karina, my partner, is really fond of bicycle racing, like the Tour de France, which I must confess I find kind of boring. But anyway, she's trying to get me to understand what is it about these folks who are putting every ounce of their being into racing up these... mountains the alps you know which as they were saying is absolute torture it's total pain and the only way they can win is if they can stand the pain and they can actually keep going no matter what they're feeling or what they're thinking and so watching them was really kind of interesting you know i i i can't quite get the point exactly except that it's amazing what these human beings have learned about how to fully exert their body and mind, you know. And they get very excited, you know, especially when they win.

[21:40]

The ones who lose and that's so much. So Suzuki Roshi said about this very same section that our Zazen practice as we concentrate on each breath includes everything, is absolute independent being. Each breath is independent being. And therefore, one breath after another, we obtain absolute freedom when we practice. It's only when we compare one breath to another or compare before and after or birth and death that we get confused. well, that was a nice breath and that one wasn't so good. Or, you know, that was something good that I said, but not this thing I'm saying isn't so good. So it's our comparing mind that is causing us so much friction and trouble, you know, as if we could actually put two moments side by side and say that one's better than this one, you know. But we do that, we try to do that. And I think that's a lot of where our suffering comes in, is comparing, particularly when we do it inside of ourselves, when we're judging ourselves, oh, that wasn't smart, what I just did, or I'm

[22:44]

so embarrassed I'm sure everyone thought that was terrible you know we do a lot of that kind of internal dialogue against ourselves and that's just what's called delusion it's just delusional to be thinking that way of comparing ourselves to anyone else you know each of us is completely this completely like this each of my breaths is complete my inhalation is complete my exhalation is complete they don't interfere with one another And they don't interfere with me. I don't even have to think about it. And I breathe. I'm breathing all along there. It's kind of amazing. My whole body is taking care of itself in the way it does without me having to tell it what to do. And if I did, I probably wouldn't live very long because it's a very busy, very busy organism that we've got here that we're walking around in. And when you think about that for a while, it's a little bit like thinking about the vastness of the universe. you know, the vastness of this being that we are. There was a program done some years ago by the Eames.

[23:46]

I forget their names. The Eames, their couple, called The Power of Ten. I don't know if any of you saw it, but you can look it up easily. It's kind of a YouTube. And it was an early animation using... They used photographs, but they also did some kind of... early digital animation of the universe. And the power of 10 was basically doing this very thing of looking at the very, very big sense of the universe and then looking at the very, very tiny aspect of our very same existence. So they started with a couple laying on a blanket in the park in New York. And then they go, the power of 10, then they shot the same scene from 10 times further away. I don't know the math exactly well, but I know it's 10 times further away. So now you have this little tiny blanket you can see, and then you're, I guess, 10 feet up in the air, and then you're 100 feet up in the air.

[24:50]

So they keep moving higher and higher away from this couple on the beach until pretty soon you're seeing... New York, and then you're seeing the Western Hemisphere, and then you're seeing the planet Earth, and then you've got the solar system, and it keeps going like that very quickly, and when you're doing 10 times. And so after a while, you're way out there before the light of the Big Bang. And so that's that extension, power of 10 going that direction. And then they come back in, and they do the power of 10, minus 10, by going into the couple, going into, very close into their face, and then going in through a pore, and then going into the cell, and then into the structures in the cell, and going again with these minus 10, minus 10, minus 10, until they finally get to this very same conclusion or result that we got going that way, which is nothing at all, space, vastness. And all the way in, nothing at all, just a lot of space.

[25:54]

a lot of vastness. So it's sort of this fascinating way of kind of giving renewed inspiration or awesomeness to this kind of everyday, you know, average person walking around, you know, getting through what they need to get through. And then each of us is that, is this vast extension in both directions to the very, very tiniest particles of existence and the vastness of the universe itself. So I recommend that if you have a chance to look at the powers of 10. I think you might enjoy that. So life, this is Bokasan. He says it's a conditional expression of our unconditionality. We are conditioned. We are the products of conditions, causes and conditions. And those products are unconditioned. They don't depend. We don't know how the universe, what it depends on for its existence or how it came into being.

[26:58]

We can't get that far in our thinking, and maybe we never can. So we have to say something like, in Zen, don't know. And not knowing is nearest. And kind of conceding that vastness basically is not available to our human thinking, to our conditioned thinking. We can't actually think of that which is unconditioned. So life and death are the same. They are both conditional expressions of unconditionality. And then he says, no matter what we think about the future and the past, for example, in the future, I am going to be Buddha. It doesn't matter at all because you're a Buddha anyway. There's nothing you can do about it and you can't escape from it. So might as well relax with the fact of your awakening, of your luminosity, that your awareness is awareness of of this great and amazing life that we have, that we share. So as we move on to the next section of the Genjo Koan, the metaphors are changing from firewood and ash from winter and spring to the reflection of the moon in the water and to the movement of a boat that's traveling on the water and then to the life of a fish that's dependent on the water and then he adds in the life of the bird that's dependent on the air.

[28:19]

so these are the uh the poetic uh elements of the next section of the genja koan so i wanted to read that and i i have to go get my book i'll be right back um okay so the section that we're looking at now which is quite wonderful um Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dew drops on the grass. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dew drops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as the drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.

[29:25]

The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dew drop and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky. So that's, again, going from that, the smallest functional elements of our world, of our understanding of reality, to the vastness, which we don't understand, which we can't access so much. But both of them are happening together and reflecting. The moon is reflected in these tiny little drops of water. I don't know if you've looked lately on the dew drops in the morning on the grass. Because we get up and while it's still dark, it's kind of one of the wonderful things about walking. down to the zendu in the dark is that oftentimes there's the full moon or some portion of the moon is shining and then there's dew. We have a lot of fog at Green Gulch. And so oftentimes it's just this glittering on the grasses, just this glittering of the moonlight on each little blade of grass.

[30:31]

There's the moon. Like also when you go to the ocean and if you've been in the evening when the moon is shining, all of the waves, how this moon is reflected in each wave of water as well. And then he says, when dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing. For example, when you sail out in a boat to the midst of an ocean where no land is in sight, And you view the four directions. So imagine that. You're in a boat out on the lake or out on the ocean. And you don't see anything, no reference on the horizon. You just see this circle of water. So you set sail in a boat to the midst of an ocean where no land is in sight and view the four directions. The ocean looks circular and it does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither...

[31:36]

Round, it's neither circular, no, excuse me. But the ocean is neither round nor square. Its features are infinite in variety. It's like a palace. It's like a jewel. It only looks circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this. Though there are so many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. You only see within the circle of water of your actual experience. You know, we can't see into the ocean. We know it goes down deep and we know there's a lot of stuff going on down there. You know, we have seen the pictures anyway. If we haven't gone deep diving, I certainly haven't. But I only see a circle of water, you know, and right now I just see it. kind of a square of the room that I'm in and a nice view out the window, but that's the limitations of my experience are within whatever my senses are able to perceive in any moment. So though there are many features in the dusty world, that's this world, dusty world, and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach.

[32:47]

In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, The other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety. Whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet or in a drop of water. This is kind of Dogen as a mystic. He's basically taking the facts of life, which I was also describing in terms of the web telescope and the powers of 10. These are just, they're not making up. These aren't facts. fairy tales, you know, and when they look in the electron microscopes, they're actually seeing the details of these extraordinary, you know, things that were used like a leaf. And all of a sudden it's like, oh my God, look at that. And it goes on and on and on, the detail of all the cells and all the things inside the cells and so on. And the same thing when looking outward. So, you know, I think maybe the mystics were kind of limited to their own imaginations in terms of

[33:52]

mystical visions and so on, which are great, those are great too. And I love reading the mystics, their poetry, their visions and so on. And this is a little different because this is more like the feeling of being a mystic is like scientists are beginning to sound more and more like mystics. The more time they spend looking at the astrophysicists and the nuclear physicists, they're beginning to sound very strange. And I think I mentioned to you that one of our friends that comes to Green Gulch, who's a nuclear physicist, was saying that some of his students are just saying, well, that's just not possible. I mean, you can't be telling us that things at a distance are communicating and changing things at a great distance, and it just doesn't make any sense. And he said to one of his students, well, I think you may be in the wrong department. If you don't understand that this is beyond our comprehension, and yet this is what we're seeing. This is how the science is working out, is with these incredible, you know...

[34:52]

flying elements that are just passing through very quickly. And then that's kind of what we're made out of. It's just little zippy things that are gone before you can even see them or measure them. So if you can't hold to that is actually what's showing, that's what's being proven, then it's probably you're in the wrong field. You want to go into something maybe a little more solid that you can feel makes more sense to you. So I think Dogen and all of these and the mystics and the scientists are all beginning to congeal with one sense and again of awe. It's pretty awesome what we're learning and maybe use it for the benefit of this beautiful world because there's also the awful side of things which we don't need to dwell on but it's pretty clear and all these sad things that have happened. in this last week too, along with teaching Dharma. And being at Tazahara, there was this terrible tragedy in Hawaii that we all heard about.

[35:55]

So, you know, we can't really get away from both of the sides of awe, the awful and the awesome. And each of them wakes us up, you know, to how precious our life is and the life of all beings. And that's what we want to do, is support that as best we can. So Bokasan says that this next session, where enlightenment is like the moon reflected in the water, shows this principle of the non-interference between a person and the Dharma. When the Dharma enters a person, the person enters the Dharma. It's mutual. It's not like one and the other. And in this way, they do not have separate bodies. So the Dharma is the person, and the person... you know, is the body and so on. They're one, they are one, dharma and the person. The dharma is not outside of our self. It becomes our self, like what we eat becomes our self. And then he uses the example of the familiar beginning of the Heart Sutra, which says that avalokitesvara bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajnaparamita, wisdom beyond wisdom, means that the whole body

[37:09]

of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, is the deep dharma. Practicing dharma is the deep dharma. The body becomes the deep dharma as you practice. So you become that which you do. And I think we know that because we also become the consequences of what we do. And so the total of the deep prajna, the total of this practicing deeply, is what Avalokiteshvara is. So meaning that the person in the Dharma or the Buddha in the Dharma are just one body, not two bodies. And if we say the person attains enlightenment, then we create a gap. You know, as though the enlightenment's one thing and the person's another thing. And the person, you know, kind of like Pac-Man, is getting enlightened. And that's not the teaching. The teaching is already together, already one. One body awake. So just like the moon reflected in the water, the entire moon of enlightenment is reflected even in a tiny drop of water.

[38:13]

And just as the entire wisdom of the Buddha is reflected in each and every one of us. And then he says, and yet the wisdom of the Buddha isn't crushed inside of our tiny bodies. If you imagine the entirety of the Buddha Dharma is inside your tiny body, you might think that might be very... Difficult for the Buddhadharma, but it's not crushed inside our tiny bodies, even though our entire body is the Buddhadharma. And this is what Bulkasan is calling intimacy. The intimacy of each of us, or of the moon and the water. They're absolutely arising together as one body. The moon stays the moon, and the water stays the water, and neither one of them is broken. by their intimate connection to one another. And what's more, you know, this tiny five-foot-eight-inch body actualizes enlightenment of the entire Dharmadhatu. So this is this way that these teachers, Boksan, Suzuki Roshi, and Dogen, are basically teaching the ultimate truth, you know, the vastness.

[39:22]

They're continuously pointing at the vastness. You know, they're not... It's not so much about the relative truth, about G. This is really... big re, you know, and they keep inviting that kind of expansiveness of our minds and our perspective. Like, well, look at this, you know, well, look at this. And even though it's hard to do, I feel like my limitations of the circle of water feel very confining sometimes. I don't get it, you know. That's just a little too hard for me. I'm too little. I can't understand. But still, they're still inviting us to look really deeply and to be... be the big thing that we are, to be all-inclusive of the entirety of the universe. So that's the mysticism, right? So even though this tiny person actualizes the enlightenment of the entire datu, the entire body of the universe, in other words, while this is so, neither the body, this five-foot-eight body, or the dharma turn away or touch each other.

[40:26]

And what an amazing thing that is. And yet the Dharma transcends notions of too big or too small or too wide or too narrow. Just as in this last section, the Dharma transcends human notions of before and after, of existence and non-existence, of beings making tofu. So part of what's happening here is what's being kind of stretched, you know, kind of like taffy, is our ability to think about things in a more expansive way, less of a limited notion that, well, I know what that word means, and I don't like it when you try to make it mean something else. Or I know how things work, you know, but what do you mean? What are you doing? You're kind of messing with me. And I think this is exactly what they're doing. They're messing with language. and our way of being logical and reasonable and have a train of thought that doesn't run off the tracks. And so these teachers are continuously, you know, running the train off the tracks and leaving us kind of hanging there, you know.

[41:31]

And miraculously, we're not getting hurt. It's not really hurting us to have our minds disrupted by this kind of teaching. Boksan then says that in this way, the Dharma of the entire world abides in each of us, and that each of us contains the Dharma of all the Buddhas. And yet, just as the moon does not drill holes in the water, the Dharma does not crush the person. So the moon reflected in the water is not making a big hole by being in the water. The water is just fine. There's no problem, you know. So that's like us. We can contain this vastness without crushing us by the vastness of the idea we're having. These are ideas that they're throwing at us. Can you catch this one? Can you hold this one? Well, of course you can. We're doing it right now, and it's okay. Holes are not being drilled in our brains because of these really radical ideas that Dogen and Boksan are throwing our way.

[42:37]

So this is, again, he says, true intimacy. And not the intimacy of two separate things coming together because these things are all exactly the same. There's one whole person, one whole universe, and there is no difference. The size of the person and the size of the Dharma are the same. It's we humans that make them different. And so, therefore, in our daily activities... In each moment, the measure of the power of our practice is expressed completely. So whether the duration of the light of the moon on the water is long or short, it isn't the entirety of time. So how we express our life is the entirety of our understanding. And sometimes our understanding is small, sometimes it's big and exciting, and either way, it's the entirety of time. No difference. If the water is the size of a drop, the reflection of the moon is the size of a drop.

[43:39]

If the water is the size of the ocean, then the reflection of the moon is also the size of the ocean. And yet the moon itself does not change its size. So when time, a length of time, is the snap of a finger, that is complete. Time is complete in that snap. or when time takes 100,000 million kapas, then it is complete within 100,000 million kapas. And he says then, Bukhsan says, after all, long or short, large or small, all are the genjo koan. So as I was reading these teachings and thinking about them and being kind of amazed, you know, I'm like, this stuff is amazing. And I became aware of how difficult in a certain way of looking they are. And I thought, what's that difficult?

[44:41]

Why does it seem difficult, you know? And at the same time that I was thinking it was difficult, I was also feeling like it was all just perfect, you know, just right. Like these words were not breaking the water. They weren't putting holes in my brain. Rather, they were creating a kind of, you know, a kind of Wow, affection? Some kind of very sweet affection. Like, wow, you know, how could they be doing this? How do they get all of this stuff to come out of their little heads and their little brains? So my understanding or not understanding was not getting in the way of these teachings, which seem to be kind of to the point that they're saying, whether I understand them or not doesn't interfere with the teaching. And the teaching doesn't interfere with my understanding. which reminded me a little bit of listening to music or walking in the redwoods. I don't understand what I'm hearing or what I'm seeing, but somehow it's just right.

[45:45]

It's just hearing and just seeing or just not understanding. And there's no problem in that. Where's the problem? And I think we know how to make problems, but if we look closely, where's the problem? How are we doing that? How are we causing ourselves to suffer? So there are a few more paragraphs to go before we finish with this teaching of the Genjo Koan. The next lines are the ones that begin with, when Dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it's already sufficient. When Dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing. So I think it's best if we just let the words of the Genjo Kwan simply pass through us, you know, as we read them or as you hear them, without worrying very much about what they mean. I mean, I think that's one place where we get sticky. So we try to, well, I don't understand that.

[46:46]

Well, that's okay. Nobody understands. I'm not sure they understood it as they were producing these thoughts. They don't know how they did that. I don't know how I come up with Dharma talks. I have no idea. You know, I just sort of sit down and trust that something's going to happen. If I, you know, if I sit there long enough, something's going to happen and something will start to come. And it does so far. Anyway, I've had some renewed confidence these last four days and something's going to say, I'm going to say something because I got to go down there at 10 o'clock and offer a Dharma talk. So there's a stimulus response. It gets built in. So too with Dogen and Bogusan and Suzuki Roshi, they just sat down and began to allow what they had brought in, their study of the Dharma, their own inspiration in reading the Dharma, began to become something that they could then weave their own kind of, their own style of understanding that they could offer.

[47:47]

And each one's different. All of us are different. So then... Karina, my partner and I were pondering on this story that I told during this session that I'll tell you now about this teacher whose name is Yaoshan. And before Yaoshan was awakened, he had some troubles because he had been such a devout student. He studied the scriptures. He left home at age... He became a monk. He was very scrupulous about practicing the vinya, the rules of monastic practice, and so on. But at the same time, by the time he was in his 20s, he was feeling really frustrated. So he went and he met with this teacher by the name of Shirto. Shirto is the monk or the teacher who wrote the Sandokai, Emerging of Difference and Equality, which, as we've been told, was Suzuki Roshi's favorite. favorite poem. So he goes to meet with Shurto and he says to Shurto, a true person ought to purify themselves apart from the laws.

[48:52]

You know, who would believe that it's simply a matter of being scrupulous about trifling details? You know, kind of like a good boy scout or a good girl scout. Who would imagine that that's going to be the pathway to awakening? So he's kind of feeling a little frustrated with the whole process. So wanting to see the essence directly. And to realize Buddhahood, Yashan first goes to see Master Shurto, who says to him, being just so won't do. And not being just so won't do either. And being just so and not being just so won't do at all. How about you? And to which Yashan was at a complete loss. He had no idea what this teacher was talking about. So his lack of understanding was getting in his way. So Shurto then sends him to Master Matsu's place. He says, maybe you go see Matsu. Maybe he can help you out. So to this very same question about seeing the essence directly and realizing Buddhahood, Matsu replies to Yasum, sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink.

[50:00]

Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is all right. And sometimes... Raising the eyebrows and blinking is not all right. How about you? And at these words, Yaoshan was greatly enlightened. So Karina said to me, I don't understand that. And I said, well, I don't understand it. You know, I just thought it was an interesting story. And that's why I shared it. But I don't understand it. That would be going too far. And at the same time that we didn't understand it, for the rest of the day, we kept... raising our eyebrows and blinking at one another. And that was very funny. I mean, it was also very telling of, like, what this was all about. It's about the lived, you know, living this life of engagement with things you don't understand, but that you're willing to, you know, go toward them and you're willing to work with them and you're willing to play with them. I think play is probably the main thing that I felt we were doing and enjoying.

[51:05]

And so... I don't understand how come he woke up about his eyebrows and that sort of thing. But I really like it. I really like it as a story. And that's not so different from the Buddha holding up a flower. You know, the beginning of Zen was the Buddha holds a flower and twirls it and Mahagashapa smiles. And that's it, you know. And nobody else smiled. It was just Mahagashapa. And so then, you know, I think for 2,000 years we've been wondering, what happened, you know, what was that? But for us in the Zen tradition, that's how the Zen tradition began, when Mahakashapa smiled at the Buddha twirling a flower. So there you are. That's what I have to say for this afternoon, and I would love to hear from you and get a chance to see you all. so please uh huh what is there a hand do we have a hand great gi please okay yeah yeah you are hello thank you so much for your talk

[52:31]

It was really, really wonderful. So I wanted to ask, how do you understand or not understand? That's better. Exactly. How do we not understand? Dogen, speaking of ash not becoming firewood, death not becoming birth, yet mentioning that very briefly in his writings that, oh, this is the cause of your past lives. Is it the pivoting and always reminding us that it's all still ideas? Whatever after death or whatever after this moment is still delusion. We can speak to it, but to always remember that death does not become birth. We can create all the illusions, but it's all relative manifestations of ultimate. Yeah, I mean, you can even go get yourself more confused by, you know, what is death anyway? What is birth? What is life? I mean, it's sort of like, hmm, I don't know.

[53:34]

We have lots of words for things that we get very serious about and very confrontational about. But what is it? You know, I think that's kind of what these teachers are doing with this Yaoshan. It's like, well, how about you? What can you do with this? They're saying these kind of seemingly silly things. And Yaoshan suddenly maybe lets go of his sobriety. Hmm. His, you know, like, I'm going to find the way, right? I'm going to get enlightened. And it's kind of like all of a sudden they throw him big somersaults. Dogen's big on somersault. So whatever it is that kind of throws you, you know, kind of throws you off of your balance, gets you off your balance. I don't know if I just said this or I said it to somebody this morning. Maybe it was in the talk this morning that... I once went to Reb after trying to figure this something out. I was working on a teaching and then I didn't get it. And I go in there and he wasn't helping. And I finally, I said, I feel like a seal trying to balance on a wet ball, you know? And he said, oh, that's good.

[54:35]

You got it. So I think that's kind of what we're doing. You know, we're using language and words to try and balance, but it doesn't, we can't, you know? Balancing on a wet ball is going to take everything you've got, right? And good luck. So, you know, here we are in this giant ball trying to balance and live our lives. And I think keeping our perspective, realizing our limitations and what we can see, like the circle of water. Yes. It's really what I see. It looks like a circle of water. And you go, okay, well, that's it. But let me assure you there's more to it than that, you know? exactly that's what's wonderful I think that's what I constantly feel reminded like okay that could be nice but there's always more to it whatever it is that's the formulation it's just your mind being your mind and it isn't that's what I love something's missing never forget it might be you we'll see we'll find out or maybe we won't probably not

[55:43]

Well, that sounds sad. No, no. It's the continuous search, right? Yeah, well, just do the re-version, not the G version. Exactly. Well, you know, when the babies are crying, we'll see. That's right. That's right. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Hi, Lisa. Hello? Hello. Oh, thank you. So I'm going back to the ox herding talk. Oh, you heard it this morning? I heard it this morning. Not the preceding three days, obviously. And I have sort of two questions, two things that struck me. The first, and maybe it's because I'm not

[56:44]

connecting to the metaphors, right? Try it out. What do you got? Okay, so the first one is, the first question is, why there's the duality between the ox and the herder? For a while. And at the end, do they, the duality, well up the picture where, picture number eight or so, is it? Eight. Number eight. There's nothing, just the light. Okay. So that's a perspective. So that's one perspective. And you said not to look at those as linear. Right. So here we sit in the middle of the guest house and we're never quite sure which window we're looking out. Right. Okay. With the lights on. Your lights are on. Otherwise, you wouldn't even be talking about looking out the window because you wouldn't be talking.

[57:44]

Yes, so there's awareness. There's awareness. So you think you are in the guest house looking at all these perspectives. And one of them is there's no you. But. Right? And there's no outside. There's no inside. It's not that you don't see it. You're not like you've gone blind or something. It's just that you're not attaching. Right, there's no feeling of separation. You're not saying, oh, I know what that is or I don't know what that is. You're not involved in trying to language it. You're just kind of like, I like the word awe because it's sort of like that, like, oh, wow. Yeah, the wow always feels like it comes just a microsecond after. No doubt. The sense. I think they've proven that. that you experience what you're going to do before you know you're going to do it? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I mean, we are fooled even by thinking we're not.

[58:47]

But within the realms of our relative experience. Yeah. You actually can testify to. You can testify, and the monks do, to having the experience of non-dual, where the object, you can have... There's a practice called object-only meditation, which is very powerful. And that's when, you know, I think that's a step before the moon. Because the moon is where there's neither subject or object. Yeah. It's just not even a question. It's just light or just luminosity or just awareness. So the step before is that the object and subject are one. And then you go to... None. Well, then the experience of the subject and object being one. Right. And before that, you still have stuff going on. And he's still working with the ox and what's the ox and what am I? And oh, I'm happy. I'm in my bed. I don't need the ox anymore.

[59:48]

So that's still the subject. A little bit of a subject there, right? Okay. And then the next one, the boy's gone too. The ox is gone. Boy is gone. And as I said... There was a point in time when the Zen tradition said, and that's it. Now you're away. Now you're free. That's nirvana. Is that the Zen tradition or is that the arhat? It is arhat, but Zen was doing that too. They were saying that, yeah, that's liberation where you don't have that. You just have the luminosity. One bright pearl. Dogen talks about one bright pearl. Okay. Or the pearl rolling in a silver bowl. You know, the... just rolling in the reality with this awareness, fluid presence within reality. So that kind of thing. But then, you know, at some point, these folks are always working it, right? They're kind of like looking at each other material and go, I don't know. I think you stopped too soon. So then they added the two next pictures of returning.

[60:50]

You know, he returns in picture number nine. Now, instead of just the light in the window, There is spring in the window. One of the traditional photographs, so the first one is the moon, just the light, and then the first one, number nine, is a flowering branch outside the window. So he's gone from internal mind only to what the mind is aware of, so the object only. So that's number nine. Okay. Nice little pivot from awareness itself, luminosity itself, to what luminosity is illuminating yeah and then number 10 it's like oh that was fun this anymore let's just go play with the kids let's go hang out let's go and then some of the poems they're writing about he just goes to the gambling houses and drinks and it helps you know enlighten everybody which i think can be a bit of a mistake you know I've seen people fall in for that.

[61:52]

Not so good. So basically, but the idea of now you just be a regular guy. Forget about that. Go back into the marketplace with this gift that you have been given through your efforts, you know, and be a benefit to the world. I'm not trying to show off or not trying to be someone. Just being there with everybody, doing the dishes and helping out. And so that's the culmination. The highest state is the host within the host. You see, that was my next question, is how does this relate to Dongshan's five ranks? Is it kind of, you know, it doesn't, it's not. It's not a, it's a little bit. Yeah. You know, you can do it, but you have to push. Kind of push it. Yeah, it would be like a thesis you could write or something. No, I did one.

[62:52]

Yeah, you did, yeah. They don't totally paste on together. But it's the same process. Okay. Within the host and the ten oxygen. They're both very good for thinking through what the teachings have been describing. And then as, you know, Dogen didn't like either one of those systems. Ah. Even though he's from the Dongshan lineage, and Dongshan did the five ranks, Dogen said, uh-uh, the systems. And you're going to get caught by systems. He likes systems. And you're going to see, oh, I'm in picture number three. Right. And then you might get stuck there. Or I'm in picture number ten. And you get stuck there. So Dogen was all about don't get stuck in some system. So he didn't use Dongshan's teaching of the five ranks. Although, if you read Dongshan's Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, it's all full of the five thises, the five flavored herb, the diamond thunderbolt is five prongs, and so on.

[63:58]

So he's got the whole, that whole poem is full of the five ranks metaphors. So we can do both. We don't have to just say, well, Dogen said no, so you can't do this. You know, for a long time, it's like, oh, I better not look at that. But it's really wonderful to look at the historic progression of these teachings. Thank you. You're welcome. Hi, Millicent. I called you out, didn't I? You did. And I'm walking on earth with my feet on the ground. We're foot to foot. If they took the earth out of there, we could put our flat feet together. Sue, I put my hand up because I love the image of you and your partner playing with your eyebrows and your blinking. And I had a sense.

[65:03]

When you say that you don't know why What's-His-Name got it when Matsu told him that story, I just have a hunch that maybe it was in the nature of that connection between those two people. Yeah. Which then... took me to, because you followed it up directly with the story of names, when the Buddha held the flower. Mahakashapa. And Mahakashapa smiled. I've always resisted the idea that the Buddha kind of... got hold of the flower and held it up and twirled it around and looked at his audience and said, are you going to get it? I have a sense that, I mean, it was India.

[66:10]

There would have been flowers everywhere. And I just, I always have a sense that the Buddha would just have picked it up. But Mahakashapa saw it in that instant. It wasn't special. It wasn't being held out as a lesson or anything. It was just there. I suppose the point that I'm trying to make is that these insights and experiences and realisations happen, question mark, just in the connection that happens just like that. Which is all the time. Well, not enough. All the flowers. All the flowers. Well, I know. You don't have to know it for it to be true. Outside my experience and understanding, because a very rare experience for me, but I haven't forgotten it, maybe I should, was when I was with my first teacher, and he was a current teacher, and we were pondering,

[67:23]

show me your original face before your parents were born. And he was in a kind of grumpy mood that day. Yeah. And I went in and I had a lot of thoughts about time and space and birth and death and original face and everything. And he got cross and rang his bell and sort of, threw his koan book into his bookcase and said, no, go away, you're thinking too much. And I saw his grumpy face and that was it. That was the original face. Great, great. Did he pass you? Yes, he laughed and said, just let it go. Excellent. But I never have, as you can see. But it does make me wonder if the whole thing is that flash of connection.

[68:30]

What do you reckon? Yeah, well, I think that encourages us. You know, it's like one M&M. You know, I would like a whole bag. It's sort of like that little taste of connection, which is happening all the time, that we don't see. because we're dualistic thinkers, we're separating our ideas, our language has taught us that we're separate, yada, yada, yada. But it's the same with the Buddha seeing the star, the flower, the Buddha seeing the flower, the Buddha seeing the star. He could have saw a garbage can, it's not the star. It was like you, it was like, oh, that's it. And I think it's that that's it. Somehow, right there, you feel that. It's like electric. It's like the subject-object have really connected at the point where they're not separate. They're just really complete unity. And it is always true.

[69:34]

Everything is that. Everything's making you in every moment. But I think it is that little spark. And a lot of the teachers also said they only had four or five of those experiences in his entire career. as a Zen teacher. So it's not like everyone's popping them all the time. That's not what's happening. So I think you're right. It is special to feel the truth of it. And if it doesn't bother the truth of it, that we don't see it. Yes. And certainly in these examples that I've given, the critical thing is that... where subject and object between teacher and student just goes. Yeah. For a flash. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. The ocean fills in really quick. You take a little scoop of water out. But there is that moment of like, yeah.

[70:40]

My teacher was... coming down the stairs yesterday. I kind of always know it's going to be exciting when I run into him. Something fun's going to happen or interesting or challenging or whatever. And so I saw him coming down the path and I was coming and we were going to meet outside the dining room. And he said, is this green dragon temple? That was his pitch, right? And I said, are you the green dragon abbot? And he said, oh no, I said, are you the green dragon? And he said, I used to be. I said, I don't believe that. I think you've left a bunch of eggs around here. So, you know, that was, it was silly. It was silly. And it was lovely because we were, I was, we were that. Yes. Like a spider on the glass, you know. Yes. We were that. And it was lovely. And I knew that would happen. As soon as I get near him, I know that's going to happen. Yes. But it also happened when you and your partner were playing and having fun.

[71:44]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, Melissa. You hang on. Hi, Kate and or Paul. Okay. Unmute myself. You're good. I hear you. Okay. Well, as you were just relating the eyebrow dancing story, I was thinking the problem, what's going on is we're trying to figure it out. Yes. There's nothing there. It's just a connection. Just dancing eyebrows. Exactly. Woven together. As your eyebrows weave, there's a koan like that where your eyebrows are weaving with Buddhas. Your eyebrows have woven together.

[72:45]

I think that's absolutely right, Paul. We just keep trying to figure it out. And go figure. Just spinning and feeling frustrated. Like something's missing. My understanding is missing. Nothing's missing. That's all there is. dancing eyebrows. That's right. That's right. But the question I wanted to come back to is I find that I get hung up on the discussion of the riding in the boat and the shore moving story that was a little bit earlier in this session and also before that it's actually It feels to me like it's almost sort of overthinking or it's a logical explanation that you're riding in the boat and you watch the shore.

[73:48]

You might assume that the shore is moving, but when you keep your eyes on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. And I don't know about that. I'm not so sure that the shore isn't moving. Well, you're too advanced. that it's sort of, it's this, oh, kind of language, logical conclusion that's trying to make a point. And it goes, I don't know, connects to what you were talking about earlier about contradictions, that this is all a... also feels like an illusion of our mind that things seem like they can be contradictory. Because what the quantum physicists, this is where it's sort of fascinating to listen to their story, that what they find, the assumptions they have to make in order to reflect how we see the world are that things can...

[74:59]

exist and not exist at the same time or be totally contradictory so it's entirely our mind is making the whole thing up in terms of every everything we see everything we conclude the the underlying basis that creates seems to what connect to the reality we see isn't the way we see it And so believing what we see is our challenge and letting go of believing what we see. Yeah. And also, you know, I mean, in terms of not ending up in the mental hospital, one of the things we have to do is work with the conventional understanding that my partner and your wife and everyone we know has about we ran out of milk. You know, what's milk? You know, I mean, we can make ourselves crazy if we aren't willing to succumb to the conventional understanding of the world.

[76:02]

And I think we're very fortunate. No one's telling us not to do that. No one's saying, oh, you should just always be in a kind of I don't know state. It's like, no, no, that's for certain purposes, like quantum physics and Zazen and all these other places where we're kind of specialized in messing with it, you know, kind of deconstructing. our notions of how things are, how they work, and the amazement of it, right? But we also have to live in that world of things are, that it's a dog, that's a cat, that's snow out there, and you better go shovel it. You know, you can't really get away with breaking the law of humanity because they're consequences. And so we do cooperate. with that and very nicely, probably you're well-trained, I'm well-trained to behave myself, you know, but also to play. And also there's certain people I can play with really fun, you know, like Reb is really fun to play with because he's got a very loose understanding of convention, you know, so it's really, it's fun to get on that boat and see what's moving, what's not moving and so on.

[77:17]

But I think one of the things about the boat I found entry for that was more like just noticing my body's the boat. And do I think, if I'm the boat, do I think the shore is moving? I do. You know, it's sort of like, I do think that, I don't think it's me that's moving. I think that somehow things I'm passing by, you know, or like being on a train and like, you know, but I'm just sitting there. And so what's moving? Is the train moving? Is it the scenery that's moving? It's not clear. Wasn't Einstein used the train as an example? I mean, I think that's part of what throws us off is like, in fact, you are moving at a very rapid speed, 80 miles an hour, and you don't feel it at all. So, you know, we have all of these disruptions in our conventional thinking that if we call them out, it's kind of disturbing. You know, it's kind of like, well, I don't get that.

[78:19]

That's not what I see. It's not how it seems to me. Not how it seems. And seems is a very limited aspect of what we are. So it seems. Anyway. It does seem like a strange leap that we're not stationary in our bodies. That when we're walking along, the ground is moving under us. We're stationary. I'm just right here. Right. The earth just moved. That doesn't seem to be a way to work in the world. Yeah, no. People kind of look at that kind of strange. If you say the ground is moving. Unless you're flying or in the airstream or you're in this river and you're in the current where what's moving? You know, because my mind always feels like it's not moving because I'm just

[79:20]

Things are moving around. My mind is stable. My perception of things is not moving. Everything else is, right? But that's not true either. So it is one of those conundrums. Yeah, so we're neither moving nor not moving. Yeah, that's probably better. If you talk about it this way, it's not moving. If you talk about it that way, it's moving. But we're both moving. And we're both moving as we're talking and aging and all kinds of stuff that is, you know, both desirable and undesirable and that it's not in our control. So, yeah. And as long as we're enjoying the explorations, then I think that's the main point. Not getting caught, you know. Enjoying the exploration. Yeah. Yeah. okay okay hi tom hi good afternoon good evening how's everybody good thanks for coming on oh thank you thank you so i i wanted to harken back to what you said earlier um how you opened and said that you appreciate these sunday get together sunday uh sangha meetings and uh

[80:51]

And I appreciate you, Fu, and I appreciate everyone each time when I am able to come. So I wanted to say that for starters. And also, you know, it's very humbling just to hear about the moon and the stars and, you know, microscopic, or I don't even know what you would call that if you're going 10 times, 10 times in. It's, you know... on the lower level or whatnot. Great levels, lower levels, however you want to think about it. But it's very humbling and I always wonder how anyone can have an ego about anything. You know, you can be anyone and everyone and one tree hits your head and you're done. So just as an example. So I was thinking about that today before you even started talking about all these humbling metaphors for for life and knowledge and uh uh you name it so uh but uh yeah so i appreciate the time and uh i hope you all have a good week ahead so i that's all i wanted to say thank you thank you tom nice to hear your voice appreciate it thank you thank you all okay i think i'm gonna check out it's getting close to time and i was lovely and i i'm

[82:16]

I pooped. I had a very, very full week. So as much as I enjoy this immensely, I'm just going to say goodnight and let you all do the same and come on the, come on the, whatever it's called, gallery view. There you all are. How nice to see you. Great, great, great, great, great. Yeah. Dean, you were great, Jisha. She really was. Drag me around. Go over there now and go over there now. It was wonderful. I need that. I'd just like to say she was very, very cooperative. She let me do all that. Yeah, I did. And it was great. All right. Well, good night, everybody. Take care of yourselves. I very, very appreciate, as I said, all of you very much. Thank you, Fu. Good night, everyone. Have a good week. Have a great week.

[83:18]

Bye. Take good care. You too. All of you. Bye.

[83:33]

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