I said, Gyoji. He said, why? I said, because that's what's happening. Continuous practice, I think, is the flavor of this school. In Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, there's a chapter called Constancy. And there's a chapter called Repetition. I recommend them both to you. My teacher, Sojourn Roshi, Mel Weitzman, when he started practicing at Dwight Way in Berkeley, he was often by himself. And he just said, you know, I'm just going to sit here and you can join me or not, but I'm just going to sit and I'm sitting every day. That was his practice. He just sat every day. He practiced every day. He sat zazen, and he had services, and eventually people joined him.

[01:07]

I think that's the amazing story from Gyoji that maybe, for me, is missing. It's the story of the man or woman who just sits a half hour of shikantaza every day for their entire lives. Because that's pretty... inspiring story too. So maybe I'll just, just so the book wasn't a prop or something for the cheat code to carry, you know. I'll just read a little bit of it, just a little. First paragraph, Classical One, Continuous Practice, Part One. On the great road of Buddha ancestors, there is always unsurpassable practice continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment's gap.

[02:10]

Continuing practice is the circle of the way. This being so, continuous practice is unstained, not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your practice affects the entire earth and the entire sky in the ten directions. Although not noticed by others or by yourself, it is so. So that's a lot. And I'm not going to try to unpack that all right now. But, you know... Between aspiration, practice and enlightenment and nirvana, there's not a moment's gap. Continuous practice is the circle of the way. This is the essence of Dogen's teaching, his ministry of a lifetime. His basic dharma is practice and enlightenment arise together.

[03:17]

Practice and enlightenment are not separate, they arise together. There's no practice without enlightenment. There's no enlightenment without practice. But the sentence that I've really been sort of grooving on, pardon the expression, lately, is the next sentence. This being so, continuous practice is unstained, not forced by you or others. Now he's presenting that as a statement of fact. It's not forced by you or others. That's an interesting statement. I think, for my own part, it certainly feels forced sometimes. And maybe you've had that feeling too, coming to Tazahara. I mean, you probably knew the deal, but there might be some mornings when you hear the wake-up bell being run, and...

[04:20]

I don't know, it's just possible that maybe it's just me. You might have the thought, wake up the hell. Why are they doing that? Why are they doing that? Or what might be even more likely is, I have to get out of bed now. And it feels like you're forcing yourself. He said, it's unstained, not forced by self or others. How interesting. So, you know, that really caught me. How? How is it not forced? How is it not forced by self or others? So... basically gave this talk a couple weeks ago at City Center.

[05:26]

And at that time, I said, you know, maybe I'm going to become one of these geezers who just gives the same talk over and over again. That could happen. I could think of worse things. At that time, I said, you know, I found one of Suzuki Roshi's old talks where he says, he's saying, you know, Doga Zenshi says, it's like a boatman in a boat. The boatman is carried by the boat. But the boatman handles the boat. Boatman is carried by the boat, but the boatman handles the boat. Practice carries you and you drive practice. Both are happening.

[06:29]

It's what we call dependent go arising. You could also call it a dance. You could also call it, I call it, a celebration of life. Practice is a celebration of life. That's certainly been my experience of this workshop we just finished. I felt like we were all practicing art and celebrating life. So, that's good. You got the boat man, the boat woman, you know, handling the boat gracefully, dancing gracefully. But what's the mind that enables that? What is the mind that enables and sustains that? So when I gave this talk a couple weeks ago, I came to the conclusion that it was gratitude and appreciation and joy.

[07:43]

So I would now like to look at the other side of the coin and suggest that The other side of the same coin is generosity, the mind of generosity. So if you've ever read any of the Mahayana Sutras, like the Lotus Sutra or the Avatamsaka Sutra and others, Quite often, they're always talking about making offerings. Making offerings, many offerings, offerings, offerings, offerings. This Bodhisattva made many offerings to many myriads of Koti Nayuttas, of Buddhas, in this Buddha realm, for this many Kalpas, and then in the next lifetime, this Bodhisattva made offerings to many, many Buddhas.

[08:47]

Does this sound familiar to anybody? I mean, that's... Just check them out. It goes on like there's a lot of them, talking about offerings, making offerings to many Buddhas in many different realms, in many lifetimes, for many kalpas, over and over again, always making offerings, all kinds of offerings. And I've wondered, what is that about? Why are they always talking about making offerings? At breakfast and lunch, somebody comes up to the zendo before the students eat and offers Buddha's tray and puts it on the altar before the students eat. And if you ever get the chance to watch that person, whoever it is that's doing it, they're doing it with a great deal of attention and focus and care, putting it down carefully.

[09:58]

Making offerings creates that space where we can put our intention and our presence and our generous heart. That's the difference between an offering and an obligation. And in the context of what I've been talking about, that's the way it's not forced by you or others. Last night I dreamed I was helping the guest cook serve up guest dinner. In this retreat I've been eating the whole time in the dining room. So I've been thinking about guest cooks and dining room crew a lot. My first guest season I was on dining room crew and I loved it.

[11:02]

So this is the most time I've spent in the dining room since 2000, since I was on dining room crew. But with the rich food and spending so much time in the dining room, I had this dream that I was helping the guest cooks serve up guest dinner. But it wasn't a normal serve-up. It was kind of a little bit like unloading the town trip truck because everybody came in the kitchen and everybody was given one thing to carry to the dining room. Everybody's plated up and carried to the dining room one thing. Everybody in Tassahara. And they're carrying it with two hands at heart height. Everyone just came in the kitchen, a neat orderly progression in a line, got the one thing and carried it over the dining room.

[12:10]

Not just everybody in Tassajara, everybody in Zen Center, including some people that aren't even in Zen Center anymore, but have practiced in Zen Center, and including a couple of people who are dead. Everybody just carrying, nobody was talking. Everybody was smiling. Nobody got in anybody else's way. And just put down everything where it needed to go and turned around. I did my thing. I came back and just like, you know, with the town trip truck, it was like, that's it. There's no more. I was like, wow, that's the easiest serve up ever. So I mentioned I've been sewing a lot on breaks this week, sewing this thing, okesa.

[13:33]

This okesa is seven years old, seven plus years old. And a few years ago, it sort of achieved this steady state where it was falling apart at the same rate that I was mending it. So, speaking of continuous practice, you think if you ordain, you sew on a queso and that's it? No way. Actually, I have a store-bought one, too. It was given to me as a Christmas present, so I haven't even been wearing this one the whole time. Now the store-bought one is falling apart. So I thought, well, you know, I really want to. keep this one going, keep it in good nick. And I like that sewing is a big part of our religion, which it is.

[14:37]

It's a big part of our religion, our style of Zen, the unique breeze of this temple, because I'm not very good at it and I don't like it much. And so that's a good opportunity for me to practice, not forced by you or others. So I've been sewing, as I said, with Kalen, with Patricia, and sometimes by myself. I was by myself in the dining room, and I had a piece where a couple of the panels had come apart like 18 inches long. I hadn't even noticed. I was like, wow, how about that? That's another metaphor for practice, if you think about it. So I pinned it together with straight pins, and I'm just sewing away diligently.

[15:41]

And I started saying, well, okay, when I get to this pin here, I'm going to get up, stretch my legs, and have a drink of water. As soon as I said that, the stitches started talking to me. Yes. Because Tazahara is a magical place where the stitches might start talking to you. And what they were saying was, what are we, chopped liver? We don't count? We're just something to get past so you can... Stretch your legs and get a glass of water? I felt bad. I felt bad for those little stitches. So I brought my intention back to it.

[16:43]

There's a... There's a great story about one of our ancestors, actually kind of cornerstone of this school of Zen, the Soto school Dungshan in China, in Tang Dynasty China, could be called one of the founders of this school. Dungshan had a Dharma, well, not a Dharma brother. They called him a spiritual uncle, Dharma uncle. Maybe he was older than Dung Shan. Uncle Mi of Shen Shan. They called him Shen Shan. He was a master too. Apparently, they hung out together a lot. And one day, Dung Shan saw Shen Shan picking up needle and thread.

[17:52]

And he said, what are you doing? And Shen Shan is like, mending? And Deng Shan says, how do you mend? And Shen Shan says, well, one stitch is pretty much like the next one. And Deng Shan says, We've been traveling together 20 years, and that's all you can come up with? Isn't there something else coming into it? And Shenshan says, What do you say, Acharya? And Dungshan says, It's like the whole world bursts into flames. Like the whole world burst into flames. This stitch right here, nuclear Armageddon, there's no other stitch.

[19:10]

There's no other life. There's no other moment. I mean, Chen Shan's understanding was okay. One stitch is pretty much like the next stitch. Your eighth guest breakfast is pretty much like your 88th guest breakfast. But, but, there's only this moment. There's only this chance to bring your intention, your presence, and your generous heart forward. Thank goodness.

[20:17]

I guess I say, when it's guest season, guest season is best season. When it's work period, work period is best. When it's practice period, practice period is best. When I'm practicing at Tassajara, Tassajara is best. When I'm practicing at City Center, City Center is best. Catch my drift? And I think that's pretty much all I had to say. I guess there's time for a question or two. We can all go to bed. I beg your pardon?

[21:27]

Yes? It's from the record of And that's in our library. Oh, I wanted to say, speaking of the Lotus Sutra, which I was, you know we have a copy of the Lotus Sutra in the library that's 100 years old? It's not even in the reserve section. It's just hanging out on the shelf. It's the first English translation... the first complete English translation by H. Kern. It's in the Oxford University Wisdom of the East series. It's not a first edition or anything. It just happens, the title page says, 1909. It's 100 years old. I meant to mention that. Did somebody tell Kokyo when he comes back?

[22:30]

Because I think... he'll want to venerate it. It's pretty venerable, and he's probably going to want to venerate it. In fact, he might even want to make offerings to it. Yes? it's not the middle ground it's the intersection it's the intersection of absolute boulevard and relative way you know right there that's where practice enlightenment occurs it's where we bring the absolute into the present moment stitch by stitch the whole earth bursts into flames

[23:59]

That's a radical thing to say isn't it? But it can be like that. I don't know if I met you or not. I don't know if I met you or not. Good old Dogen.

[25:02]

He says, even if you might try to ignore it in order to hide a crooked intention and escape from it, this ignoring would also be continuous practice. What a sly bugger. You can chew on that one for a while. I have been. Well, it's not cold. I'm a little damp. Let's call it a night, shall we? Thank you very much.

[25:58]

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