Re... This session continues this morning with a talk by Abbot Tenzin David Zimmerman.

[10:12]

Odasan, whenever you're ready, the sutra opening verse. Man unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kaphas. Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's work. I was muted by the system.

[11:16]

And here I am. So good morning, everyone. Good to be with you all again. And welcome to another day of Rahatsu Sushin, as well as another Dharma talk meant to encourage your practice in some way. Who knows how that might happen, but may it do so in whatever way would be beneficial. And, you know, we're perhaps somewhere in the middle of our Sashin journey, although who's counting days? I'm sure none of you are. And besides, the only place we can be is right where we are. So the journey is just this very moment. So just settle in and relax to being just right here, letting the waves of life move through you. just be the open sky receiving them in whatever way they might be showing up.

[12:22]

So this morning, I want to continue exploring with you the topics of karma and causality as we've been doing this practice period. And particularly yesterday, looking at a well-known Zen teaching story of Baizhang's fox. So I'm going to start again with the case, but this time I'm going to use an extended version. And this version appears in the Mumonkan, the gateless gate, as case two. And the translation I'm going to read is by Khao Sanahashi and John, Dr. Laurie, and it can be found in their collection of Dogen's 300 koans, which is called the Churudharma Ai. And this is case 102 in that particular collection. Master Baijong Huihai taught an old man would always come to hear his Dharma talk. He always left when the assembly did, but one day he didn't leave. Baijong went to him and asked, who is it that stands there?

[13:27]

The old man said, I am not a human being. I was abbot of this monastery at the time of Kashapa Buddha. A student asked me, does an enlightened person fall into cause and effect? I said to him, no, such a person does not. Because I said this, I became a wild fox for 500 lifetimes. Reverend Master, please say a turning word for me. Free me of this wild fox body. Then he asked Bai Zhang, does an enlightened person fall into cause and effect? Bai Zhang said, don't ignore. Another translation of this is, is not blind to cause and effect. Immediately, the old man was greatly enlightened. And this is where we stop yesterday in our story.

[14:29]

However, it continues. He bowed and said to Bai Zhang, I am now liberated from this body of the wild fox. My fox body will be found on the other side of the mountain. Master, please do me a favor and bury it, as you would a deceased monastic. Bai Zhang then asked the head of the monastic's hall to announce to the assembly that they were going to have a funeral for a deceased monastic after their meal. The monastic said to one another, Everyone here is well, and no one in the Nirvana hall is sick. What's going on? After the meal, Bai Zhang led the assembly to the base of a rock behind the mountain. With a stick, he poked out a dead wild fox. Respecting proper procedure, they cremated the body. In the evening, Bai Zhang gave a Dharma talk and told the story of the old man. Then Huang Bo, one of his students, asked, the teacher of old gave a wrong answer, and because...

[15:37]

and became a wild fox for 500 lifetimes. What would have happened if he hadn't given a wrong answer? Bai Zhang said, come closer and I will tell you. Wang Bo went closer and slapped Bai Zhang's face. Bai Zhang clapped his hands in laughter and said, I've heard of barbarians whose beards were red. Here is a red-bearded barbarian. End of Koan. So there's a whole other turning of events following the old man's great realization, which I'm going to spend a little bit more time exploring this morning. And I don't want to take time to recap everything we covered yesterday because it will take a while, but I hope you've had a chance to either watch the talk live or listen to it afterwards. And I'm going to note again, though, that in the Rinzai tradition, this is known as what's called a natto koan. It's difficult to pass through. And from one perspective, this story seems to be clearly about, clearly speaking about causation, about karma.

[16:45]

But there's also another aspect that's about going beyond dualities, including those of mistake or no mistake, relative and ultimate, and how it is that we might find our dharma position in this world, as well as finding joy and liberative healing in the vast interdependent web of life. So the key question here on which this whole koan turns is, does a greatly cultivated person, an enlightened or awakened being, still fall into cause and effect? And Wuman says, if you have eyes, Wuman, this is in his commentary, he says, if you have eyes to see through this falling into causation. That is, if you see with the one eye, the true Dharma eye, that's not blinded by duality.

[17:47]

Therefore, not ignoring, not being blind to causation. He says, then you will know that the former head of the monastery did in fact enjoy his 500 happy, blessed lives as a fox. So if being a fox for finding their lives, as we said yesterday, is not a punishment, and what we're getting a sense of here is that maybe the old man's answer wasn't incorrect, then why did the former abbot fall into a fox body? And if he did give the wrong answer, then how was it wrong? And what was it about Bai Zhang's response that finally freed him? So, A student asked. I lost my case.

[18:56]

There it is. So a student asked me. does an enlightened person fall into cause and effect? And I said to him, no, such a person does not. And one of the added sayings to the case remarks that a fitting statement is a stake to tie a donkey to for 10,000 years. So regardless of how correct the answer is, if we become attached to it, It's as if we were bound for 10,000 years. And the pointer at the beginning of the case, as it's presented in the Book of Serenity, makes a similar argument. It says, if you keep so much as the letter A in your mind, you'll go to hell like an arrow shot.

[19:58]

If you keep so much as the letter A in your mind, you'll go to hell like an arrow shot. So in other words, to hold a single thing, a single thought in the mind, even a notion of good and bad, right or wrong, and to truly fix ourselves to it, to maintain a rigid line, it creates a fabricated division between them. So in Buddhism, this is considered a deluded way of seeing things. Our views, even if considered innocent or naive, all the same lead to very concrete actions, which when done by those, for example, with power and authority, such as an abbot or a teacher, can have catastrophic effects. We must be careful.

[20:59]

of the divisions we create in our minds, such as good and evil, right and wrong, particularly if we are rigid and fundamentalist about them. Nothing, nothing is black and white. Life is a swirl of grays, which we need to use our careful discernment to determine how to appropriately proceed in any moment. So circumstances require us to think, to ask questions, to deeply consider, to consider various sides, and to be willing not to know. As my dear friend, dear departed friend, Lee Lipp, used to say, you know, whenever puzzled or irritated by the views or behaviors of others that she didn't particularly disagree with, right?

[22:08]

She said, there must be something beyond my realm of understanding, something I'm not seeing here. So what am I not seeing by binding myself to a particular view, idea, or moral action, if you will? Even the Buddhist precepts, they're not meant to be rigid laws, but guidelines. You can think of them as helpful rudders guiding us in a particular overall direction. But the direction in the course isn't fixed. It's a responsive, alive course, alive to the moment. And so right and wrong, good and evil are relative to circumstances. They have no fixed form. And once we act on our views, it's too late to undo the karma that we've set in motion.

[23:10]

We can just wait it out. In some cases, perhaps for 30 years or more. Because I said this, I became a wild fox for 500 lifetimes. Another translation has the old man saying, for this answer, evidence of clinging to the absolute, I became a fox for 500 rebirths, including this one. So here we get another glimpse of the old man's error, clinging to the absolute, clinging to the sight of emptiness, denying the relative. denying that even an awakened being lives on the razor's edge where relative and absolute or ultimate meet. Fully awakened beings are free of causation and karma because they see emptiness of causation and karma.

[24:13]

Therefore, they respect causation and karma. Treat it with respect, knowing that we are already free as relative beings, but only free in our relativity when it's expressing our ultimate being, right? So fall on one side or the other, however, and we become entangled. So the old man asks for a turning word, a liberating pointer, and Bai Zhang tells him, Don't ignore cause and effect. And other translations have this. They are not blind to cause and effect. And I particularly prefer this one because I like the implication of clear seeing, not being blind, being able to see clearly. Other ones are they are not deluded about cause and effect. An enlightened person is one with the law of causation. And they do not evade the law of cause and effect.

[25:17]

And with these turning words, the old man realizes the nature of his error in his previous response. Experiences great realization, has clear seeing, and is finally liberated. We're assuming never to be born again in a fox body. So in this extended version case, after the old man is enlightened through the assistant of Bai Zhang's wisdom, He bows to Bai Zhang and says, I am now liberated from the body of a wild fox. My wild fox body will be found on the other side of the mountain. Master, please do me a favor and bury it as you would a deceased monastic. So the old man is freed of his fox body. He asks that his fox body be properly buried as befitting an ordained practitioner, a monk or priest. And in another version, the old man asked Bai Zhang to bury the fox body, saying, I will stay in the mountain behind the monastery.

[26:25]

Okay. I find it interesting that the old man, once he's released from the fox body, says that he will stay close to the monastery. And one way to interpret this is that even when freed of the bonds of delusion, even once we've been liberated, it's important that we stay close to our place of practice. Practice is itself the true place of freedom. So once fully awakened, we never leave our temple. Because our Buddha mind, our true temple, our true home, the place of refuge, is always our place of practice. alive or dead or always, are also each a practice position. This week is the 50th anniversary of Suzuki Roshi's passing.

[27:32]

And while we hold a regular monthly memorial service for our founder, we also observe a special extended annual memorial service in December. as he died on the morning of December 4th, 1971. And essentially, it was right before the first period of Zazen that began what was, at that time, the very first day of Vahatsui Zashin for that year. So the timing is quite powerful. And part of the annual ceremony that we do includes a number of the assembly speaking to Suzuki Roshi, sharing words of appreciation and gratitude, perhaps seeing how his teachings and his practice have nourished our own practice. And as the abbot of Beginners of my temple, each morning I perform a traditional circumambulation to the temple altars throughout the building, including to the Kaisanda, the Founders Hall. And I greet Suzuki Roshi there with three prostrations after offering fragrance.

[28:38]

And then I suddenly ask him, Are you still practicing? Great master, are you still practicing? Does a Zen master or a Zen practitioner stop practicing once they are enlightened or once they have passed? Buddhism sees one's life as a continuous occurrence of birth and death moment by moment. And Dogen spoke of the circle of practice enlightenment, which is never cut off. It tells us that the practice of all awakened ones actualizes the practice of each one of us. And the practice of each one of us actualizes the practice of all awakened ones. Because awakened ones understand this,

[29:39]

they are always engaging in practice because it's the Buddha way. It's the way to manifest thusness and reality as it is now. So it moves me deeply to realize that because Suzuki Roshi practiced, we practice, we practice, still practice this because we are practicing now. The result of Suzuki Roshi's practice is our practice. Cause and effect from beginningless and endless time. Because of the practice of the moon and stars, the mountains and the great earth, we are able to practice.

[30:41]

Because we practice, they are able to practice. And as long as they practice, we will be able to practice. Once they are gone and are no longer practicing, then what will our practice be? And then what will we be? The old man said to Bai Zhang, I dare to ask a favor of you. Would you please bury the fox body as you would a monk? Sir, rather, unusual request, but all the same, Bai Zhang says he will. And after the old man left, who knows where he went? Bai Zhang calls the Sangha together and tells them, prepare for a funeral after the new meal.

[31:50]

And as the story goes, everyone's confused because as far as they know, well, everyone's healthy and no one's been sick in the sick ward and thus, you know, unlikely that anyone has recently died. So the monks are like, what's going on? Who's funeral is it? Bai Zhang doesn't say, he just leads the Sangha out to the other side of the mountain to a large rock where he pokes around with his staff and comes up with a dead body of a fox. And so then they all proceed to bury the fox body and offer it the liturgy for a deceased monk. And this no doubt created a stir within Sangha. Even Dogen criticizes this part of the story saying that it was improper for Bai Zhang to give the fox funeral rites that are traditionally reserved for monks, as they entail giving the deceased the precepts, which are really a matter of human conduct. And then later that night in the Dharma Hall, Bai Zhang tells the story of what happened.

[32:56]

And some commentaries summarize that the whole story is apocryphal, that Bai Zhang had found the dead fox body earlier, you know, the day before, early in the morning. And then he made up the whole story as a teaching device. And then had the assembly go through the motions of performing a funyo as though for a fellow monk. Shouldn't we treat all deceased beings with such regard? And after telling the story, Bai Zhang's main disciple, Huangbo, says, I have a question. The old man failed to give the correct turning word and was made to live 500 years as a fox. But if he had answered correctly, what would have happened? Okay. So just a brief aside about Huangbo. He's also known in Japanese as Obaku Kuin.

[33:57]

And he was an influential master of Chan Zen during the Tang Dynasty. There's no birth date given for him, but I suppose that he died around 850. And Huangbo was a disciple of Bajang, as we see here. And he became the teacher of Linji Yijuan, who's also known in Japanese as Rinzai, who is the founder of Rinzai Zen, which uses formal Cohen study as a primary insight technique. So you see the connection coming together here in this case. And while there isn't much known about Wang Bo's life, there's a footnote in the Mumankan that describes him as being seven feet tall and having a powerful voice, right? So this is a big person, right? So Wang Bo asked Bai Zhang, what have happened to the old man had the old man answered correctly?

[34:59]

And Bai Zhang replies, come a little closer and I'll tell you, right? So you're already like, uh-oh. So Wang Ba goes up to his teacher as instructed, and before Bai Zhang can get his response, Wang Ba reaches out and slaps him. The text in some translations has to say, he boxes his ears, right? And of course, you know, this idea of, anyhow, Bai Zhang laughs, you know, he laughs heartily, clapping his hands. You know, he's delighted. You know, I just got boxed in the ears by my students. And I wonder how many of your teachers would be delighted if you boxed them in the ear. I'm not sure you should try that on me, though. But anyhow, he claps, he dances, and he says, I thought the foreigner's beard was red, but I see it is a foreigner with a red beard. So sometimes foreigner here is translated as barbarian. So I see the barbarian's beard is red. And another translation of the line, the same line goes, I knew fox's beards were red.

[36:04]

Here's another red-bearded fox. So in mentioning a foreigner with a red beard, Bai Zhang is referencing Bodhidharma, who is considered the founder of Zen in China. And he's known in Zen lore as the red-bearded barbarian, due to being from, he was from India, and apparently, for whatever reason, had supposedly a reddish beard. And at the same time, Wang Bo here, If you think about it, he kind of becomes the red-bearded trickster fox himself, right? Shapeshifting from disciple to teacher by virtue of his clever response. And just another little background to this is that the Chinese in those days thought of China as the cultural center of the world, kind of like Americans think the U.S. is the cultural center of the world, right? However, both Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhidharma, who the Chinese revered, they were both foreigners and thus barbarians in that sense.

[37:12]

So hence the term barbarian or foreigner acquires a new meaning. The other, in this case, is the one to be revered, to be respected. because they bring new ways of seeing and responding that break us out of our old habit patterns. I think if we could just apply this to our culture today and how we see each other in the myriad forms and cultures that we show up in, that would be a blessing. How much we could learn from each other if we didn't see each other as other. Okay, so this is... A very wild story all around. I imagine you might agree. But as we got a glimpse yesterday, as we unpack the facts of the first half, there's a lot going on here that's important. It has very good pointers for us in terms of practice. What's to be understood is that according to Buddhist teaching, the old man answered correctly the first time when he responded to the student, an enlightened being does not fall into causation.

[38:25]

Because according to Buddha, when a fully awakened one is released, when one fully awakens, they're released from the endless cycle of birth and death, and thus freed of all karma. So if the former abbot gave the right answer, why then was he made to live 500 years as a fox? In the Guardian it says, all phenomena are dependently arising. Thus all phenomena are empty. So nothing in the entire universe arises on its own. Everything appears as a consequence of a complex web of interdependence. Nothing exists inherently. Therefore, everything is empty. So Wang Bo asked the question and Bai Zhang tells him to come forward and her answer. Now, Wang Bo is no foe. He knows, well, the wily ways of Zen teachers.

[39:28]

No spoken answer will do. Words are just words. And they never capture the essence. So one needs to answer the koan, the koan of life, with your whole being. in a direct and immediate way. So Wang Bo turns the tables on Bai Zhang, acting physically, boxing his teacher's ears. Don't listen to what I have to say. Nothing I say will reach it. And the ringing of his ears, in his ears, I imagine, ripples throughout all time and space. And what good is... hearing words anyway, as they just trick us. They're just fabrications. They're all made up.

[40:30]

Only whole being engagement is the correct answer. And furthermore, we see the law of causation play out in real time in this case. Ask a question, there's immediate response. Call and response. cause and effect, when this, then that. No need to explain further because any explanation will always be one step, one thought, one then, removed. take another look at this fox come old man who happens to disappear once he's enlightened to Bai Zhang's turning word. So we have one interpretation of the fox as a former incarnation of Bai Zhang.

[41:36]

And of course, the fox is also you and me and every other deluded karmic being who's cycling through our 500 plus lives and seeking liberation. And then Suzuki Roshi, he gives us another interpretation of Fox. And this following excerpt I'm gonna read is from a Dharma talk he gave at Tassajara on August 13th, 1971. So this is basically four months before he died. And Suzuki Roshi begins his talk by, he's speaking about difference and equality, what he calls specialty, difference and equality. In Japanese it's, Seibatsu Soku Byodo. This is basically another way of talking about form and emptiness. And he discusses that since everything is dependently co-arisen and impermanent, we can't say that something really exists.

[42:40]

So whatever we see is only a temporary appearance, a temporary wave of the ocean of reality. And yet, A wave is still a wave. A person is still a person. A wave is still a wave. It exists, but in a temporary fluid form appearance of a wave. And he also says it's generally easier for us to understand emptiness than it is to understand specialty, what he calls specialty relative form, as being equal yet different. I have a, in the footer of my email signature, I have a quote by Katagiri Roshi that says, we have to see everything in equality, but that doesn't mean there is no difference. We have to see equality, but not in the realm of equality. We have to see equality in the realm of differentiation.

[43:45]

Differentiation must be formed not in differentiation, about equality. I'll read that again. We have to see everything in equality, oneness, emptiness. But that doesn't mean there is no difference. There is no relative expression of our being. We have to see equality, emptiness, but not in the realm of emptiness, equality. We have to see equality, emptiness, in the realm of differentiation, in the realm of relative differentiation, must be formed not in differentiation with the relative, must be formed not in the realm of the relative, but in equality, in emptiness. So the first part of Suzuki Roshi's talk is very interesting. It goes on to talk about understanding of freedom. and saying that true freedom is a matter of emptiness rather than in form.

[44:47]

Because most of the time we look for freedom in form. I want to be free from something. I want to be free to do whatever I want to do kind of freedom. And he's saying that's not true freedom. You know, you're still bound to your preferences and your likes and dislikes, to the world, the conditioned world being a certain way. You're never going to be free in that way because the conditioned world is never going to show up and... the way you want it to. And even if it does just for a moment, it won't last. So your true freedom is not in the relative in that sense. However, given the limit of time, I'm just going to focus on what he has to say about the fox. He says, what do we mean by a fox? Fox is not a fox. It is actually emptiness or absolute or source of all being. or forms and colors is the old fox. So it, the fox, appears when people appear.

[45:48]

When you have, you know, an idea of emptiness or absolute in our mind, it is trouble because we are already, our mind is already sticking to the idea of an old fox or an idea of emptiness. This is trouble, already trouble. And then further on, he says, Because you stick to the idea of, you know, form, or the absolute, there is trouble. And the question and answer here they made back and forth, meeting between the former abbot and the student, or the old man, Vaijama, causes a fall. To fall into the law of karma means to stick to the, you know, law of karma, to cause an effect, to lose freedom from the law of karma. So that is, you know, to fall into the idea of karma. To fall into the idea of karma. Not to fall into the idea of karma or law of karma means not to stick to it and not to fall.

[46:55]

The idea, the concept of karma is to ignore the law of karma. You cannot ignore the law of karma. and says, we cannot, shouldn't stick to the law of karma. And he goes on, sometimes even though you follow the teaching of karma, it does not mean you lose your freedom from the law of karma. Do you, ha ha ha, he laughs, understand? So when at first, when he, meaning the soon-to-be old man Fox, said so, because he thought he understood equality of various beings, he said, wise man will not. you know, stick to the idea of karma. But when he does not stick, he does not stick to the idea of karma meant for him, you know. There is no such, you know, thing like laws of karma. Because each being does not exist, and then he laughs again, originally, you know. We are empty because we are changing.

[47:57]

So I, when I don't exist, I don't exist. when everything doesn't exist in its strict sense, how is it possible to live? For everything to follow the law of karma, that was what, how he understood, meaning the old man. Because of this, his one-sided understanding of the truth, he became a fox. And then Suzuki Rushdie says something I think is particularly important. He says that As long as an enlightened person is a human being, has a physical body, it is not possible for him to be, not to follow the law of karma. That is, to be human, to be alive means to be a karmic being. So he could understand the reality he felt from both sides. So in other words, the old man was finally able to see both the relative and the absolute or the emptiness side of his life. He could see both the relative karma and the emptiness of karma.

[49:01]

and he was no longer sticking to one side or the other. This is why the old fox could vanish from the zendo. That kind of fox shouldn't exist in the zendo. In zendo, there must be, you know, only student or teacher and student. Teacher or student is each being, you know, in the realm of specialty, meaning again, in the realm of relativity only. When you have real understanding of reality, old fox, does it exist? Again, in the zendo, this idea of emptiness doesn't exist because in the zendo, we don't entertain ideas or concepts in our minds. So my interpretation of Suzuki Roshi's commentary is that when you have a real understanding of emptiness, When you see that emptiness itself is empty, then you see emptiness itself is empty.

[50:05]

There is no substance thing called emptiness. You can't grab onto emptiness, although you can grab onto emptiness. So emptiness is basically just an adjective describing the nature of reality. And as such, it's just a concept, a thought in our minds. So to stick to either side, to either side of the relative or the side of the absolute, to form or to emptiness, is to be reborn over and over. And while the former abbots answer that an awakened being does not fall into causation is accurate on one level, it's also partial insofar as he fell into the emptiness side of the equation. and thus had to live five new lives as a fox. And his fox body, in this instance, becomes representative of his succumbing to what is known in Zen as emptiness sickness.

[51:08]

Sometimes it's called Zen sickness, falling into emptiness, or it's even known as a meditation sickness. In Tibetan, interestingly enough, it's known as leilong, which can be translated as the blowing of karma. So for the most part, Zen sickness or empty neck sickness refers to an attachment to a particular state of consciousness or awareness. And often this is kind of an attachment to emptiness, freedom from a sense of having a separate self and the great freedom that comes with that, which is a wonderful feeling, right? But people with emptiness, sickness, can't function so well in the world. They lose touch with reality because all they're really looking at and engaging with is the ultimate form. And for some people, the promise of enlightenment kind of pushes them, right?

[52:11]

When they get into that state, they begin to forsake people around them. They begin to kind of disconnect from their lives. And in the process, they begin to risk their lives and their sanity. In some cases, people have been known to do self-harm, you know, as a process of that. So in Zen sickness, one is not truly free of the sense of a separate self. Even though there may be that knowing, the knowing hasn't been integrated. So their understanding is still incomplete. It hasn't been embodied in a relative way, right? And when the inside into emptiness side, however, has been integrated, there's no more attachment to anything, including emptiness, because there's no one to be attached to. And yet, this one is still alive and breathing and engaged in this world.

[53:12]

So you can just be you. Life can just be life. There's just this continuous flow of life. just popping along. And any attachment to any state of being, any mindset, any consciousness, any insight that you might have, including a relative and ultimate, it's an obstacle that blocks the way to further awakening. So any insight you have is dead unless you live it. Don't put it up on your shelf, your mantle, like some prize and go, hey, I had this great insight, right? It's worthless at that point. You have to live the insight. You have to embody it. You have to breathe it, right? It's only then that it really makes a difference. You have to actualize the insights. Otherwise, you might as well not even have it.

[54:18]

It's pointless. So live your insights. Don't make them precious. Live them. And likewise, karma is a concept. It's just a way of describing the process of causation, of cause and effect. Karma is empty, as we've seen. It has no ultimate reality. And though karma has no intrinsic reality, it's real on another level because we experience it. So it's real on the relative. But because of its relative nature, karma can be transcended. We can go beyond karma. And furthermore, one who sees an emptiness of emptiness, they no longer need to be limited to the zendo or to the monastery, right? Because they have gone beyond traditional Zen training. They have gone beyond, if you will, Zen.

[55:19]

The world itself now becomes their ground of practice. Boundless reality is now their ground of practice. So Suzuki Roshi has a lot more wonderful things to say in this lecture, and I can't touch on all these today, and hopefully maybe another point I'll be able to return to that particular talk. I want to kind of wrap up by saying so much about practice and Zen training is about exhausting karma, about allowing the initial impulse and energy of karma, of our relational, you know, the volition behind it, our action, to burn itself out so that we are freedom. The... ripples of our karmic activity in the pond of our life, when they're not agitated or reified further, they eventually lose their power and they resolve themselves.

[56:25]

The pond, the mind, returns to its original stillness. Its mirror nature able to clearly and accurately reflect the world as it fundamentally is, whole, complete, at peace. So a pond flies overhead of the pond, but its temporary appearance in the pond doesn't agitate the water. We don't grab onto the plane because we know it's just an appearance arising due to interdependent and empty causes and conditions. This is the same in our Zaza. A thought appears, a sound appears, a sensation appears, an emotion appears. We don't grab onto it. We know that it's empty. It's a independently risen phenomenon. If you really look into it, into the thought, into the sensation, into the sound, you will find nothing there.

[57:35]

And when you find there's nothing there, you can let go of that experience. Let it pass. Just let it pass through the sky of awareness. So in Zazen, we're trying to free ourselves of our karma, our tendency to grab onto things, and our delusions, of our tendency to aggressively bifurcate the world into this and that. good sound, bad sound, good zazen, bad zazen. Instead, we gather our hearts and our minds and sit upright and in accord with things as it is. We resolve ourselves to reality as it is. By sitting with our karma, we allow it to exhaust itself.

[58:40]

However, when we then get off our cushions and go about our daily activities, it doesn't do any good to just simply fall back into creating that negative karma again and doing harmful activities. And in doing so, leaving a wake of misery and suffering for others and ourselves. And this is why the precepts are so important. We have to see into our streams of causation and bring our actions into accord with what is true and wise and compassionate. Of course, that doesn't mean that we still don't fall into creating karma in the midst of our daily practice. The karma that we create when we do it from a place of wholesomeness, it won't be habit-forming.

[59:50]

It will be non-habit-forming karma because it won't be revolving around and trying to maintain a sense of a separate self. Only karma that reifies the self, that's spinning around that empty concept conceit of a self, This habit for me. And that's our worst habit. All your bad habits, they basically are, you know, stem from that one bad habit revolving around a sense of a separate self. You can look for the roots of all your bad habits, and they're always about a separate self. So the whirlpools of our ancient twisted karma may continue to spin even when we stop energizing them. Because it takes a long time for karma to exhaust itself. But in the meantime, what you and I and the old man and the fox do is significant.

[60:56]

It matters what we do. It matters how we live our lives. how we engage in the world. Every action matters. And whether we live out the spinning of 500 years as a fox or a human, whatever expression we are, it matters because it's because of how the old man lived as a fox that he was able to actually ask the question in the end of Bajan to turn to turn it through his own sincere and wholehearted practice efforts and finally be released. And it's because of how we live and practice that we too can be eventually unbound from karma. So this world, it's a complicated place, and yet we can't abandon it. We can't turn away from all the suffering and the difficulties and the turmoil. Instead, we're taught

[62:03]

in Buddhism, to embrace the world, to enter into it. As one commentary on the koan says, to enter into the nest of complications. There is injustice and suffering in the world. It's irresponsible of us to ignore it or turn away or deny that it exists. Our own karma, both personal and collective, has contributed to injustice and suffering in some form. Therefore, we have a responsibility to do something. So we're left with the question, how do we navigate the immense complexities of the world, let alone our own complex internal world system? Well, by realizing that we and the world are the same system of interbeing.

[63:09]

There's only one universe, only one body. It takes different forms, but it's one body. The Buddha body of the universe. Many waves, one ocean. But to really see the ocean, you need to see each other. and every way for what it is, what it truly is. Likewise, to understand karma as a non-do reality is to experience and meet the real world in real time, on real terms. Not your personal terms, how you want it to be, but the way that the world actually is. To meet each person just as they are. To see them. To see their deepest need. their deepest request, even if they're not doing a very good job of making the request. Maybe they're just screaming and yelling and doing all kinds of crazy things. But you can see that they're in distress.

[64:14]

And their deepest request may be, I don't want to be in distress anymore. So how can we meet them in that place rather than in their appearance of yelling and screaming? And when we drop away the attachment to or the belief in a separate self, then all the reality dances. All the reality dances freely and harmoniously. It's manifesting Buddha fields within Buddha fields. So resolving karma, resolving conflicts, both in ourselves, among ourselves, in the world, begins with us. We can only begin with our own hearts and minds. When our heart minds are no longer in conflict, then we are at peace. When our heart minds are at peace, then the world is at peace. When the mind is in turmoil, the world's in turmoil.

[65:18]

The world that we see when we look around is the world that we see when we look inside. There's no difference. That's why the Buddha, he encouraged us. He said, sit. Turn the light inward. Turn inside. See what's going on in there. Ask essential questions. Inquire deeply. Do the work of self-liberation. When you liberate yourself, you liberate the world. And this, then, is how we understand to live in the world. That's how we, like the old man, can live 500, as it says in the commentary, happy, blessed lives, even as a fox. And as Nagarajan reminds us, because all phenomena, all things are of the nature of emptiness, everything is possible.

[66:22]

Everything is possible. The future is open. So let's sit some more now in that place of joyful, boundless possibility. Thank you very much for your kind and patient intention. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[67:27]

Thank you all. So after a 15-minute open-kind period, the saazen will begin at 11.28. Thank you.

[67:43]

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