This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. As we enter these final couple days of session, I wanted to encourage us all to not end the session early, to keep the forms of session, the admonitions, the silence, the practice around I had mentioned guarding the eyes, or eyes cast down is the way we usually say it.

[01:11]

And Beata told me in Catholic comments or monastic, it's called custody of the eyes. Keep having custody of the eyes. It's not controlling, but aware of it. we're using that sense organ. So the sejin ends tomorrow, and in the evening, this is another scheduled thing, instead of the last evening periods after dinner, we will have Shosan ceremony. Shosan ceremony is questions from the Hisanga, from the Assemblies, to the Abbas, the leader of the practice period. So that, you know, we'll talk more about the form.

[02:15]

Many of you have done Shosan ceremonies, but for those of you for whom it's a new practice, he'll be talking with you about that. So that will be tomorrow night. So tonight, I think it's the last night for Yasa, sitting after. the scheduled periods of Zazen. Right, today's the eighth day, right? Yeah, so tonight's the last. So let's finish the session thoroughly and all together and not have it kind of end with a raggedy feeling up until that last. to recite or read one of my favorite poems by Jane Hirschild.

[03:24]

Many of you know it, probably could recite it with me. It's called, I don't know why it's called this, but it's called A Cedary Fragrance. Cedary, I think, is like cedar trees, kind of. Or maybe it's a cedar closet or something, but Cedary Fragrance. Aunt Jane Hirschfeld was a student. She's a renowned poet, and she was a student here in the 70s, and we practiced together maybe into the 80s, early 80s. I can't remember the dates. But here's the poem. Even now, decades later, I wash my face in cold water. Not for discipline or memory, nor the icy awakening slap, but to practice choosing, wanting the unwanted.

[04:40]

Even now, decades later I wash my face with cold water not for discipline or memory nor the icy awakening slap but to practice choosing wanting the unwanted but to practice choosing to make the unwanted wanted I think all of us have cold water in our rooms and I see awakening slap or the slap of our feet on the cold floor or just getting out of our bed to practice choosing to make the unwanted wanted and the unwanted you know in our five skandhas the

[05:55]

Vedana, feeling skanda, form, perception, feeling, Vedana, form, feeling, perception, Vedana, is simply pleasurable, pleasure, not pleasurable, and neutral. So there's many things throughout the day that are not pleasant, pleasant, pleasing to us, and yet... life we can't just have the pleasant there's no such thing so our practice making it a practice choosing to practice wanting to live our life fully wanting to plunge in and make the unwanted wanted in James words And then pleasure or not pleasure, pleasant or unpleasant, that's not ruling the day, you know, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.

[07:16]

There's something more intimate, more fundamental, more alive than going for what's pleasant. I've been very young inspired by your practice during these days and sincerity. And that's not for you to say, oh, I'm so sincere, and my practice has been so wonderful and inspiring. That's for somebody else to say, so I'll say it for you. When we look at our own practice, we always see how much left there is to bring to our every moment of our sincerity.

[08:22]

So that's for when we look at our own practice. But looking and hearing you hearing your voices, seeing your faces. I feel very inspired and teary, actually, kind of teary. What would that be? Touched, emotionally touched. Yesterday, I brought up slander, kind of looking at what slander is and how that crops up in our life and in the life of the community and the life of our verbal actions. And I don't feel quite finished with that and harmony in the community, so I wanted to continue with that a bit.

[09:34]

about words, you know, the words that we choose to say, you know, the words that we speak to one another. Wow. And, you know, as I've been studying upright and complete speech, what I've been noticing is in so many Zen stories, in so many koans, When the Shuso gave this last talk about speech and silence, she mentioned what Dogen says, and this person mentions, and here's a poem. But wherever you look, there's something about expression, full expression, speech, speaking, fully expressing yourself. It almost feels like the main thing that's being brought up over and over across the centuries by all these different teachers. I had never noticed really how prevalent that is in our teaching stories.

[10:57]

So in the community, verbal action is extraordinarily important for harmony, bringing the sangha, taking refuge in sangha, bringing harmony to everyone. And there's teaching about six harmonies within the sangha, within the community, and those six, I think, have to do with the order of monks and nuns, probably, but it's very easily a way, a lens, a way to look at our community of tasahara, which forms for a practice period and then shifts. You know, it's a moving, it's not a set group. Probably the sanghas never have been set, but probably some are more stable over time. So within this sangha, this sangha that we've created of people practicing together,

[12:15]

even though some will leave, some will stay. I think we can talk about these harmonies for this community very easily. The six harmonies are harmony, harmonious physicality, or physically being harmonious physically with one another, harmonious verbally, being in harmony mentally, being in harmony with our precepts practice and with us, our views, right, views. And the sixth is in how we share the requisites of the community or receive, you know, the welfare that comes to us or comes to the Sangha. How is there harmony in that? So I wanted to two of these, I think, verbally harmonizing and harmony verbally, and then the last one about the requisites.

[13:25]

So, one of the things I wanted to bring up, which has to do with slander and right speech and harsh speech, is what can happen in community pretty easily is saying things that can hurt another person, speaking about someone's faults, and we talked about this yesterday, not necessarily bringing it to the person, but speaking about it to someone else, and also spending a lot of energy in fault-finding in various ways. Sometimes when people realize that they're judging and evaluating and fault-finding, ongoingly, lots and lots of energy going into seeing faults and judging others and then sometimes blaming.

[14:32]

So this is something to notice about oneself and to be for harmony. Harmony doesn't mean all the feelings are kind of suppressed and kept and then we act as if there's conflict and there's skillful ways to work on conflict I think I'm looking at disharmonious ways that when things come up they're handled and looking out at others rather than looking and studying their own practice yesterday I mentioned verbal daggers having a sharp tongue, verbal daggers. I can't remember if I mentioned sarcasm, which the etymology of the word sarcasm means to bite flesh. That's what sarcasm means. And sometimes sarcasm has a lot of wit and kind of intelligent, and it can be funny, and often it's at the expense of someone else.

[15:46]

and yet we can get a good laugh out of it, or... Yeah, we can get something from it. It serves us in a way. And yet, is that how we intimately want to interact with one another? So, noticing that tendency, if you have it, Also, blaming others. This also can be a tendency to look at, to blame someone else. That's covering our own shortcomings or mistakes or something we didn't take care of. And then we frame it as somebody else's fault. Maybe we're not even that aware of that. sowing disharmony.

[16:49]

I did mention, you know, yesterday, not speaking to the person and speaking to others about them, speaking behind someone's back, lowering, by speaking that way, lowering the opinion. And I can feel people, you know, making that effort to not do that. You know, I can feel something will have come up and people very consciously don't say the name of who did what. They say, you know, this, and as studying one's own reaction and how you try to practice with something and not making it about the other person and their practice, but, so I feel like that is, seems to be a pretty widely shared practice of, and often people say, sorry, I mentioned the name, you know. Or maybe we want to, we really want to say the name.

[18:01]

We want to say who it was who did or didn't do this. And it would be a struggle to refrain. And I feel that very strongly as trying to speak in a harmonious way. And about one's own practice rather than what other people are doing. So talking about someone and not bringing it directly to them can sow the seeds of disharmony and break the fellowship, you know. Also, scapegoating is another way of talking about this where we assign blame to those people. It's their fault and there may be some people who sadly receive a lot of that, you know, scapegoating.

[19:08]

These are all these different ways that we break up harmony verbally. And any kind of careless speech, I remember my mother used to say that sometimes words would leap out of her mouth like frogs. You know, just like, before you know it, it's out, you said it. And there's a rather long piece in the Pali Canon of the Buddha talking to Rahula, his son, about the practices of speech. And before you speak, before the frogs come jumping, think about what you're about to say. And then, you know, and if it's, you know, applying, is it beneficial? Is it affectionate? Is it true? These five keys that we've been talking about, is it coming from a, you know, what's the intention in saying that?

[20:15]

So the Buddha says to Rahul, look, Do this reflection before you speak. Now, often, I know I feel I don't have time to stop. You know, I'm already in the swim. We're just talking. And then before I know it, something leaps out. And the Buddha acknowledges that to Rahula and says, if you're not able to reflect on what you're about to say, then while you're saying it, reflect on it. oh, it's already out, and he said to his son, and you can stop mid-sentence. You don't have to, just because you started it doesn't mean you have to follow through with an unskillful thing. You can stop right there, just stop. It may impede the flow, or hey, what happened? You're in the mid-sentence. You can...

[21:16]

that's hard to do too, you know. And then the Buddha says to Rahula, afterward, if you can't do that while you're speaking, reflecting on, then afterwards, you know, can you reflect on your words? So this kind of speaks to careless speech. Careless speech is not really considered, or considerate probably, but considered in terms of worthy of saying it at all under the frivolous talk and idle chatter it says are your words a treasure you know are they words to be treasured and if not one might reflect is it necessary so careless is either I couldn't care less or I'm not enough care

[22:19]

was brought to bear. And these kinds of practices may seem like that's not possible in the middle of conversation. However, this is what's offered ways to practice with this. And it might be just slowing down or breathing. And I think we've all heard, you know, Count to ten, you know, if you're angry or something, count to ten before. You know, it's that kind of simple reflection on our speech that we're not unfamiliar with. I think we've heard this before in different contexts. Another thing about harmony in the Sangha, verbally creating harmony, upholding harmony, is to learn to say I'm sorry, learn to be able to apologize.

[23:25]

That's also very simple. It's one of those early teachings that we received or maybe it was skipped in our life. Say you're sorry to Aunt Susan for stepping on her foot. Pretty early on, we're taught about acknowledging that we may have hurt someone or that we are sorry for having said that. And that it hurt your feelings and it was unthinking. So to be familiar with what a real apology is, someone recently wrote me about their speech in the Sangha and they just felt they had been really off what's the word? Out of alignment, I guess, just in the way they've been speaking to people in their sangha, people they're working with, and this person wanted to just apologize kind of to the whole world, but, you know, just in a wide, wide way.

[24:43]

And I thought, well, maybe so. But maybe it's more to the point to talk with the people that you felt you did hurt, or you weren't skillful, or you didn't listen, rather than kind of a broad blanket, sorry everybody for being so, whatever. But to have that, and it's intimate, it's intense, the one-on-one with someone to acknowledge So when we learn, we can learn. Sometimes it's like a muscle we haven't used, kind of atrophy. Also, learning to ask for help. I think it helps to create harmony. It's a verbal practice, asking for help when we need it. Many of us are loath to ask for help.

[25:44]

It means many, many things to ask for help. It might mean I'm weak. I'm not good enough. I'm not independent. I'm not mature. I'm not an adult. All these things that come along with what it might mean to ask for help. But asking for help, or some shoulds, I should be able to do it without help. I'll figure it out. I'll find a way. I don't need I don't need anybody. I don't need help. That, I mean, there's various consequences from that. So that's another atrophy muscle, maybe, to ask for help. As peer-to-peer, you know, sangha member to sangha member, or human being to human being, it doesn't mean that the baggage around it, who knows? Where does that come from? Is that true?

[26:47]

That it means you're weak. It just means you need help. I think in the same way as apology is acknowledging our mistakes, which may necessitate an apology or not, but just acknowledging, admitting, which is really hard. It's really hard, I think, for me and others. It's hard. And it's also hard to be admonished, you know. I think we're more interested or maybe enjoy pointing out to others where they need to pay more attention or they weren't doing it right. That may become easier. Maybe not. Maybe that's hard to... But to be able to hear that from others is hard, especially when we're sensitive, when we're suffering, when we're having a hard time and then we have someone pointing something out.

[28:02]

So it, you know, this is a skill to give these corrections or point something out and a skill to receive it, to be open, to not be on the defensive or blame or get angry. This is community life, and these are verbal practices that we all participate in. This admonishment, you know, we have a situation with those who are newer to the practice and those who are more senior, And to be in a situation where we can be mentored and learn, you know, side by side with people who've gone before us, who've walked the path, this is a great benefit, it's a great gift.

[29:05]

And there's many sanghas where there isn't a wide range of practice experience. And so we're fortunate to have this wide range and to benefit from each other, benefit from, and some of us have lots of experience outside of, you know, professional experience of various kinds, and that also we can benefit from. This is what a, practicing mentoring is. So all these things that I've mentioned I think are practices, are skills, are maybe ways that we train ourselves to over and over again

[30:11]

practice choosing, wanting the unwanted, like knowing this is sculpting me, forging me in the crucible sometimes, you know, mixing my metaphors there, but the heat of the crucible, you know, what does it do? It burns away the extra, you know, to get the, the gold, you know, the gold of our practice, which is, the crucible's hot, you know, it's, there's, and there's seeing the faults of others rather than seeing their sincere efforts, you know, which is, can't be separated from mistakes and it's all, it's not one or the other, it's one fullness of our practice each of us and to be able to see see the sincere practice that's there even though someone may there may not be that the chemistry may not be so great or the affinity we see these faults what else is there there's a story many of you probably know about when Ed Brown he tells it and I'll tell it my version of it

[31:44]

I've heard him tell it, when he was tenso, and he was, you know, working hard and putting out meals, and probably the kitchen wasn't as set up. I think it was pre-cut sheets, you know, cut sheets came along later. It used to be, go to the tenso, what's next, how many, nothing was, you couldn't just go to the board and say, okay, now two gallons of onion, small chop. It was, you know, A little different system. Anyway, it was hard work. And he went to Suzuki Roshi to say how the kitchen crew was, they weren't working hard enough. They were taking big, long bathroom breaks. They weren't coming to work on time. He was asking them to do things. They weren't doing it right. They were taking food from the fridge and the walk-in. And it was terrible. They were just... They weren't practicing. They were not practicing Suzuki Roshi.

[32:46]

And Suzuki Roshi said, you have to have a calm mind to see virtue. That was his response to it. And Suzuki Roshi doesn't understand what's going on, what I'm facing. He kind of increased Suzuki Roshi back to his canopy. And I think later he understood, you know, what was going on, what was going on for him. So we have to have a calm mind to see virtue in others, which is unhidden. You know, it's not concealed. As Lauren said, you know, from the Gospel according to Don't hide your light under a bushel barrel. Each person's light and practice virtues are right there.

[33:54]

They're right in front of our eyes. And to be able to rejoice in those virtues, rejoice in people's practice, that's our practice. We have to be calm enough to see the sincerity that's there. And rejoice in the good qualities of others. This is sympathetic joy. This is one of the Brahma Viharas, one of the heavenly abodes, because you're feeling the joy. You're rejoicing. You feel the joy of each person's efforts and virtues and their practice, their good qualities, you can rejoice in that yourself. That's it. Your psychophysical stream joy arises upon seeing others.

[35:02]

Sympathetic joy. You know, the four Brahma Viharas were introduced, my understanding, because the monks and nuns were doing these practices where they'd be in these states of great calm and the laity, there was some sense that they were a little removed, maybe, or aloof from the townspeople. You know, they were... seemed to not be bothered or much affected by the slings and arrows of life through their strong concentration and practices and states of mind. So these practices of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity, as practices to take up were introduced.

[36:12]

for more relational, including more relational practices, including others in different ways. So I found that an interesting point. And I think rejoicing in each other's good fortune, in each other's joys, each other's virtues, each other's good qualities, as a practice, brings harmony. If that's what we're seeing, rather than all the shortcomings and defects and annoying habits and all that stuff, if that's all we're seeing, I think we might walk around being pretty uncomfortable. And it's not that there's only one and not the other, but how do we acknowledge and practice with what isn't wanted and then practice with choosing to practice with wanting the unwanted, wanting to be with others and see more than just the irritations.

[37:32]

So you have to be calm to see virtue. pretty helpful for me too. So I wanted to skip to the sixth harmony, which is the harmony of requisites or the welfare that comes to the sangha. And before I do, I wanted to read Dogen's, this passage from Shoji, Birth and Death, which find it wonderful and inspiring, it goes like this. There's a simple way to become a Buddha. When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate towards all such you beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything,

[38:45]

With no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a Buddha. Do not seek anything else. This is in Shoji, Birth and Death. So there's a simple way to become a Buddha. Simple. Refrain from unwholesome actions. That's what we've been talking about, you know, with... working with right speech and other precepts. Our ethical, spiritual life is one thing. Refrain from unwholesome. And not be attached to birth and death. And compassionate towards all, said she beings, all. Excluding nobody, you know, excluding nothing. And then this line, respectful to seniors, and kind to juniors is very, very, it's a detail there.

[39:51]

It is very particular to where we always find ourselves. There's always someone senior to us. There's always someone junior, whether at work or in a family or in the Sangha. I think this is, you know, this was delivered to the monks. I'm not sure which temple he was at, but this, practice. This is how you become a Buddha. This is how you become awakened, you know, respectful. And then one might say, but I don't respect them. Or I don't feel kindness towards this person because there's so many faults there. And then it's back to calm mind, see version. So don't get mentions this. And then not excluding or desiring anything. You know, this is also one of the great awakenings, one of the eight great awakenings of beings, of great beings, is not to seek anything.

[40:54]

Bodhidharma also. Do not seek anything. No gaining mind. So here it is again. Not excluding or desiring anything with no designing thoughts or worries. You will be called Buddha. People will call you a Buddha. There goes a blue. Do not seek anything else. So this very succinct little paragraph here. So this juniors and seniors, I wanted to read that before I brought up this sixth harmony about the requisites. So in old sangha, I think, you gave everything away, you know, all your possessions, and you received the requisites, what you required for your practice. This is the order of monks and dons I'm thinking of. You received a certain number of robes, three robes probably, and some medicine, and I think there was a bag, kind of a little carrying bag to carry medicine, and a needle.

[42:07]

This is very important to mantend, your outfit, because that's all you had, you know. So for mending right from the start, caring for things, mending. So medicine, mending in your bowl to be able to do your alms round. So those are the requisites. And, you know, the people could donate dana to the Order of Moms and Nuns and give medicine, give food, give needles probably, and give material for making robes. So it was pretty simple, you know, and then eventually land might have been given to build Viharas or land for Anango. So fast forward, you know, to our Sangha life here, and the requisites, there are requisites, you know, to living in Tashara, bowls and robes, right?

[43:13]

And then the food is, you know, provided. And then, you know, there's harmony around the requisites. There's actually some differences. And in terms of harmony in Sankal Life, I just wanted to say this because maybe we don't say it enough, or we don't feel comfortable saying it, but there are differences, right? So in housing, for example, nowadays there's, I think back in the day, I don't think the Abbott's cabin had a stove, maybe one other cabin, and then the dorms, One room in the dorm, there was a fire, a wood-burning stove in the dining room, and the chimney went up through the dorm, through this one room, and they had a little chimney, kind of snugly, cozy spot.

[44:25]

It was just a chimney. It wasn't a wood-burning stove, but I had that once. And parenthetically, right before guest season in the spring, when it was not cold out at all, I had lent, leaned my broom. I had just moving into that room. Ooh, how exciting. I get the room for the next winter, which will have the stove pipe, and I leaned my broom on the pipe. Meanwhile, down in the dining room, they were getting ready for guest season, and they waxed the floor, and they thought, let's dry it by building a big old fire in the stove, and then it'll dry the wax or whatever the, I don't know what the, varnish or something and I yeah went off to work I was tensile and there was a fire in the room the room caught fire and the whole room caught fire and the fire crew came in and sprayed everything with that white dust whatever that was and water and then they came to the kitchen and said your room has caught fire and

[45:39]

I remember thinking, I was picturing the shelves and the books and everything, and I thought, I wonder if my rogues burned up, you know, my ocasa. And then I opened the door, and it was just, it was a mess, but my ocasa didn't burn. But almost all my clothes did, and all these books. But I had to get back to the kitchen, so I can't even remember how it got cleaned up or anything. That's paratheticalness over there. So we have rooms now. Some rooms have stoves. Some rooms have hot water, heat. Some rooms, you know, geothermal, not geothermal. Is it called geothermal? Yeah. And then others don't. And how does that feel? I think when pretty much everybody's room was cold, that was Tassajara. Right now, and then it was the 50 and above, if you were 50, you got a room with the stove who want courtyard rooms when they were built.

[46:47]

So anyway, I'm just saying, I think we all are aware, but some people are working with the cold in a different way. So in terms of harmony of requisites, there is... a difference. And I know some people feel, yes, I've got a room that's warmer with the stove, but I'm not going to light my stove because for various reasons, I want to work with the cold maybe, or I don't feel comfortable lighting it when other people don't. So there's a, I just want to mention, there's a kind of, what is that? Do we feel it or not? Or is it, ah, that's fine. Or are we feeling that? So In reading about this harmony of the requisites, I wanted to mention that, and being aware if there are any feelings about that. Other requisites, around harmony of requisites, are some people have friends and family who send them things.

[47:53]

Now, I think in the old sangha, that wasn't your personal thing. If a donation came, somebody who knew that was shared equally. But we might get a care package and there's really not enough cookies to share with everybody unless it was just crumbs. Everybody could have a spoonful of crumbs. But no, we have a team maybe or maybe we don't invite anybody. But some people get a care package or actually the whole summer got a care package. Right, those little... deliciousness things that came from Sagan, right? So that was a gift to the whole Sangha. But maybe we get something for our birthday here. So, but then some people are here and nobody even knows they're here. Or they don't have friends and family who even know what tasara is to send them. So they're these, it's not all completely the same.

[48:58]

And it's Are we okay with that? Is that causing any ripples? Also, some people, this is true in the Sangha, just to say it, some people have the wherewithal to take a vacation during interim, and other people don't, or a longer vacation, or to do something special, and other people don't. This is the reality. And I also want to mention this. around our computer use and internet use. We do, after long, long discussions, a couple years worth of discernment, we did get internet for Tassajara. But as you know, those of you who are Tandaya students and coming in or here not on senior staff, we do not use the internet or electronics in that way, but then some people have access to the internet here for their work, which is why in the discernment process there was really a strong request from Tassajara staff to be able to do that rather than

[50:25]

you know, order things by asking for a catalog to be sent and doing the mail orders and, you know, the ease of making an online purchase and so forth. But then this is a requisite, one of the requisites that's not equally shared. And I think around the time of the election, pre-election and the election itself, there was... an unevenness in information access, you know. Some people could go on the internet and read all about it, and other people had to hear what other people said about it, or newspapers hadn't come in, which is another way, that's a shared requisite. The New York Times comes in, or whatever newspapers we get. So there may be, or one may feel, this is not harmonious, and then do some people use that privilege in a way that wasn't met in the discernment process, you know, around having the internet.

[51:36]

So I feel like it's very delicate and also important to just bring it, to aerate it a little bit and to acknowledge I'm one of the people who does have access and All of us, or maybe I shouldn't say all, many, many of us probably wanted to know more and what was going on. And it was so important because it affected us so strongly. We were so affected by these events of our life and our culture, our shared collective life. and to be, because of our tasahara admonitions, but yet some people did, and some people didn't. So I want to clarify that, refine that, and maybe talk more with the practice committee maybe around our practice around this, and what might get set up unintentionally, you know, in terms of harmony in the sangha, around

[52:57]

And, you know, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, there are differences of responsibility for our life here. And each, there's different places, Dharma positions on the mandala, and we move in and out of those positions. And one year you're smacked out in the middle, and other years... You're not, and so kind to juniors, respectful to seniors, there are differences, and how do we carefully tend and care for, carefully care for, skillfully, with full awareness, know these differences and not overstep, you know, stay in our Dharma position.

[54:02]

So this access to the internet, which also means access to family and news and all sorts of things. And some people are able to do that here and other people not. And is that for harmony you know and the importance of for our own practice of practicing in a harmonious place it affects us all so thirdly affects our city our working on crews it affects how we are together so i wanted to mention those things So we're, you know, we say after the meal, you know, in this ephemeral world, this flowing world to practice like a lotus in muddy water, that image.

[55:14]

And, you know, I've brought up maybe lots of muddy water things today. How do we practice like a lotus in the muddy water? We can't lift out of it. and somehow take our practice some other place where it will be only clear sailing, you know, clear, pure waves. The lotus only grows in muddy water, and that lotus in muddy water is the image for bodhisattva vow, you know, bodhisattva life. And there's the Zen master nonsense, So Master Nansen was asked by a monk, where will the master be gone to in a hundred years' time? And Master Nansen said, I'll be a water buffalo. Another version is, I'll be a water buffalo down at the foot of that mountain.

[56:19]

And the monk said, may I follow you, Master Nansen? And nonsense said, if you do, bring a mouthful of grass with you. So the water buffalo is another, water buffalo works really hard. The water buffalo, you know, it pulls the plow or the cart, and the water buffalo with rice, they walk in the mud water You know, rice grows in the mud, and this watery medium, and the water buffalo sloshes through that mud, you know. So the water buffalo is another poetic image for our bodhisattva vow and life. So him saying, the monk saying, where will you be, Master Nhat said, in a hundred years, I'll be a water buffalo, you know, I'll...

[57:26]

which is slogging through the mud, you know, with all beings, not abandoning any beings. But it's hard work here, sloshing through the mud, pulling the load, you know. But choosing, wanting the unwanted or choosing the hard, because that's the vow, really. And then when he said, may I follow you? It's like I brought tears to my eyes, you know, this monk, unnamed monk, wanting to be with his teacher. And, you know, can I come with? Sure. It's wide open. Come. And bring a mouthful of grass with you and help. Because I'm going to get hungry out there doing that work for That's how I understand it. I have no idea what that means, bring a mouthful of grass with you.

[58:30]

But I imagine water buffaloes eat grass. So, you know, yeah, come and bring treats. As we, you know, put the yoke on, you know, and just, you know, you've got your other friend water buffalo next to you, you're yoked. And you just threw the mud, you know. How are you doing? Pretty good. Can I have some of that grass? That looks good. And just keep on keeping up with all our friends, all our buffalo friends. I think that's taking responsibility completely. for a life which is not separate from all beings. So, even though I brought this book, I feel complete with what the talk

[59:50]

turned out to be. Somehow I'm feeling kind of quiet right now. Would it be all right to just head off into the mud? How wonderful the rain is. Do we have more rain coming? I don't know. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge. and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[60:32]

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