The last time I gave a talk, I directed it mostly to the residents. So this one, I'd like to try to be a bit more global. But I think it's essentially the same talk. I think I might turn into one of those geezers who just keeps giving the same talk over and over again. I would be okay with that. So continuous practice, it so happens... Dogen wrote a fascicle called Continuous Practice in the Shova Genzo, his life work. It's translated as Continuous Practice by Kazuhaki Tanahashi and Sojin Mel Weizmann in Enlightenment Unfolds, this book here. And we studied this fascicle in a practice period with our abbot, Paul Haller. Guru Nishijima and Choto Cross, in their translation of Shabu Genso, translate Gyoji as pure conduct and observance of precepts, which works fine as far as I'm concerned.

[01:18]

They do also, they have a footnote in their translation that says, alternatively can be interpreted as maintaining the practice. So, Nishijima Roshi, in his introduction to the fascicle, emphasizes that this fascicle is about action. That Buddha's philosophy is dependent upon action or conduct in this world. And of course, action includes non-action or failing to act. The French playwright Moliere said, It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. The fastball of Gyoji consists of an introduction by Dogen, explaining, laying out his understanding of what's meant by continuous practice, and then

[02:31]

Mostly, it's stories, wonderful stories of Indian and Chinese teachers in the Zen lineage, in the Zen tradition. Great stories, very, very inspiring. Stories that explicate, tell the story of continuous practice. And... While they're incredibly inspiring, also at the same time, when I read them, I sometimes wonder what the heck I'm doing. I'm not the first person to think this by any means. In fact, this fascicle is so long, it's divided into two parts. And the second part, Gyo-ji part deux, is... goes on at some length, talking about the great Chinese child master Furong Daokai, who lived from 1043 to 1118.

[03:35]

It seemed like Dogen was a big fan of Furong, and I am. In fact, this is the third Dharma talk I've managed to slip a reference to them into. In the Gyoji II, Dogen includes an entire sermon by Furong, a sermon that Furong gave to Adama Talk, that Furong gave to his assembly on Mount Furong in China. The sermon is called The Standards of Chedavana. The whole thing is part of Kyrgyi. And in that sermon, Furong says, whenever I speak about examples of ancient sages, I feel there is no place to hide. I am ashamed that we who come later are so soft and weak. He said that sometime in the early 12th century.

[04:38]

Nonetheless, I know exactly how he feels. He was about five generations ahead of Dogen. So I just want to read you the first paragraph of Gyoji. What Dogen has to say. You know, in many, most, I think, of his fascicles, the first paragraph pretty much sums it up. And then he just explicates on from there. 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.

[05:41]

Continuous 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 that your practice affects the entire earth and the entire sky in the ten directions. Although not noticed by others or by yourself, it is self. So what's that supposed to be about? I don't mean for my talk to be a scholarly exposition of this fascicle. Thank goodness. In fact, my teacher, Sojan Roshi says, when I give a Dharma talk, I should just talk about what I'm practicing with. I think that's good advice.

[06:43]

So all of this is by means of introduction to talking about what I'm practicing with. So I like that in California, when you ask someone, how are you doing? As likely as not, you get a straight answer. I'm lousy. Or I have this pain in my lower back that won't go away. Or according to my therapist, I'm making progress. People in California tend not to just, yeah, I'm fine. So, how am I doing? Not okay. August has not been a great month for me. Not too long ago, I was speaking with a dear friend who told me something like, oh, you always have such personality.

[07:54]

positive attitude. You always have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for practice. That was sweet. I appreciated that sentiment. And I thought, that's horse muffins. That's just not true. Nobody does. Nobody does. So, This month I've had a tsurs, big tsurs. You know that word? It's a Yiddish word. It means dukkah. With another person, a friend in Zen Center. Interpersonal misunderstanding. I definitely brought on myself and was very painful. Very, very painful.

[08:56]

I lost a lot of sleep. It's the first time this has ever happened in the history of Zen Center. A friend of mine is dying of cancer. The San Quentin Sangha that I go to every, well, most Sunday nights is probably going to be split up. I have a Sangha, I mean, I practice with this group at San Quentin most Sunday nights and the core of the Sangha consists of guys from North Block. mostly lifers and term lifers who are minimum security risk.

[10:02]

Basically a bunch of sweet guys, but of course convicted felons. Nobody there has got any illusions about why they're there, but they're serving very long sentences, most of them, the ones who come from North Block. And... California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has decided that cell space in North Block is valuable real estate. And so, you know, because they're prisoners and they basically have no rights, they're just going to bust them out to other locations. There's 33 prisons in California prison system, so they have a lot of choice. These guys who are low security risk, they feel can easily be housed in dorm situations and free up those cells, which are two men to a cell for higher security housing.

[11:16]

Probably seems like a real good idea from administration's point of view, but For the guys, it's hell. It's going to be like, as one guy put it to me, being dropped in the middle of a desert, just having a whole other situation to get used to. It's really lousy. And they've been talking about the buses. The buses are going to take... 30 guys this way and 30 guys that way, Chowchilla, Soldad, Solano, whatever. People have some ideas. Don't even really know for sure if it's going to happen or not, but it seems like it's going to happen. And that's the core of our Sangha. And last Sunday I said, you know, I'm going to go to Tassajara. I want to see you for two more weeks.

[12:21]

this might be the last time I talk to some of you. So that was really, really painful. So that was Sunday night. The only reason I made it into the Zen, though, on Monday morning is I'm being ill. I'm very grateful for that. What a support for my practice to be, you know. I swear I found myself in my seat and I thought, how did that happen? It was a small miracle. I feel like life at City Center is a continuous series of small miracles.

[13:27]

A continuous series of small miracles which forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. And that's what sustains us. Even if we're having a totally crappy time. In the midst of everything being totally not okay, there's a foundation of okayness, which arises from our intimate connection, our experience of our intimate connection with all creation. This is what Master Jungman was talking about when he said, Every day is a good day. He wasn't talking about a good day as opposed to a crappy day.

[14:30]

Because that, folks, is just more grasping and averting. He was talking about every day. Every day. Every day. Every day. This is what City Center is offering to people. Every day. And I think where we're really successful in upholding Suzuki Roshi's vision for offerings and practice in a way that's not exactly priest practice, not exactly lay practice, accessible, sincere practice is working out. I don't know. Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I feel like it's working out.

[15:35]

Good job. Good job, boss. You put it right through the goalposts. As far as I'm concerned, A good example of this that's happening currently is EPP. I'm very proud to have been involved in that for two years. It continues to go on. I think it's been a wild success. EPP stands for Establishing the Path of Practice. And it's a program, a year-long program geared towards people who don't generally live, well, definitely don't live here and maybe don't even come here very often who want to establish practice in their home, in their everyday life. And it works.

[16:43]

It works. I still meet with people who were in EPP three years ago. There's small groups from EPP three years ago who are still meeting together. This is all in support of daily practice. Daily practice. In my opinion, it's better to sit down for half an hour a day than to sit a seven-day sashimi once a year or even maybe a one-month sushim once a year. Really, to have the basis, the foundation of practice, just a simple practice every day, that's the spirit of Zen as far as I'm concerned. This is also my friend, Brad Warner. He says this all the time.

[17:48]

And I totally agree. I invited Brad down to Tazahara, and he came during interim, during the interim break between the two practice periods. And, like, the form, the form, so to speak, of interim at Tazahara is everyone avoids the Zendo like the plague. I mean, probably anybody goes to the Zendo. Some people do. And Brad was like, why aren't these people going to the sendo? He was so confused. My Dharma brother, Eric Green, when he first came to Tassajara, it was during work period. And work period, we don't oblige the people. If you're not a continuing student, they're not obliged to go to the sendo. And Eric was just like, why are all these people in the sendo?

[18:52]

that spirit so it's going to be interim here real soon and interim at the city center is kind of a different feeling as far as I'm concerned the last interim I actually came to this endo because I figured out amino might as well see what's going on And I was surprised. I was surprised at the number of people who were sitting during the interim. I think, you know, you have to figure out. Now, okay, just parenthetically, this is mostly for the residents. You have to figure out what is your practice for interim. It's not like, it's not like, you know, there's a break from practice. That's delusion. So, what is the practice of Indron?

[20:04]

Yeah. That's a good koan. It's just a different set of circumstances, like Sachin is a different set of circumstances. So, you can figure that out. If anybody has any interesting responses, I'd like to hear them. Continuous practice is unstained. Not forced by you or others. Now that's an interesting statement. Because I agree with Nishijima Roshi that the fascicle is about action. It's about what you do. How you practice in this world. Dogen says, it's unstained. It's not forced by you or others.

[21:07]

As you know, I'm not forcing you to go to the Zendo. And maybe you feel like you have to force yourself. But it can be subtler than that. It can be subtler than that. Or it might just be a case of you find yourself on your seat in the Zendo and you wonder, how did that happen? Forty years ago, almost to the date, August 7th, 1969, Suzuki Roshi gave a talk here. Um... an edited transcript. So I could even put laughs, laughs, laughs. Or Dogen Zenji says, we should be like a boatman.

[22:17]

A boatman is on the boat, you know. But actually, a boatman is carried by the boat. A boatman is on the boat You know, but actually, Biltman is carried by Bilt. But actually, Biltman is handling the boat. And he laughs. This is how we live in this world. You know how, now, if I explain in this way, you feel as if you understood how, laughs, you live in this difficult world. But actually... even though you understand how, you know, like boatman, but it does not mean you are able to do it. Laps. To do it is very difficult. That is actually why you practice Zazen. To do it is very difficult.

[23:20]

It's unstained, not forced by you or others. But to do it is very difficult. Recently, we had a guest student here from Moscow named Ilya. I enjoyed him a lot. I asked Ilya, how's the Zen practice in Moscow? He said, oh, I have a lot of friends who like to talk about Zen. Kyoji is about Suzuki Roshi says, that is actually why you practice Zazen. I recommend Zazen. Suzuki Roshi recommended Zazen. Sozin Roshi recommends Zazen. Dogen Zenji recommended Zazen.

[24:27]

But how to do it? How is it that it is unstained, not forced by you or others? What is the mind of the boatman, the boatwoman? At the end of our summer intensive, which is another set of circumstances for practicing, summer intensive, summer intro. At the end of summer intensive, we had a Shosan ceremony with the Abbot Paul. It was a lovely, intimate, concentrated ceremony. And I had an interesting interchange with Paul. But I said,

[25:33]

I said, you know, I think it's part of my job, a big part of my job, to encourage people in their practice. And right away he said, what encourages you? And I just blurted out gratitude. So, that, I think, you know, it's just me talking over here. In my opinion, the mind of the boatman, the mind of the boatwoman, is the mind of gratitude and appreciation. So here's Suzuki Roshi again from that same talk 40 years and 12 days ago. So by practice, so what we acquire is ourselves.

[26:35]

To become ourselves, completely ourselves, we practice zazen, that is shikantaza. We have everything. We are fully satisfied with ourselves. And there's nothing to gain or nothing to attain. This is maybe very verbal, laughs, interpretation of true practice. Anyway, this kind of gratitude or joyful mind we must have in our practice. We have everything. We have everything. The entire universe is yours.

[27:40]

Seems natural under the cirques to feel some gratitude. So the person I had a difficult conversation with we're Closer now than ever before, of course. And the guys in North Block heading out in the 10 directions. As tough as that's going to be. One of them I was talking to, he said, you know, I had to get rid of most of my books. I let go of volume 3 and 4 of the Shogo Genzo, but I kept volume 1 and 2. Because, you know, these are, we're about to celebrate, he said with a bitter laugh, the 10th anniversary of this Sangha.

[29:03]

And, you know, there may not be much to celebrate. And some of these guys have been practicing for 10 years. Really seasoned Zen people. And so if they go out in the 10 directions in the prison system, Solano, Chachala, I think practice will continue. Continuous practice. That's what this talk is about. That might be really an amazing thing. Maybe I'll follow some of them. Who knows? I'd like to finish with a poem, as so many teachers do.

[30:14]

This poem is written by some famous poet. This poem was written by my friend Sarah Emerson. She wrote it when she lived at Tassajara, speaking of things to be grateful for, which is where I'm headed tomorrow morning. She wrote it and performed it in Tazaha. And I have to say, I'll merely be reading the poem. It's actually meant to be recited by four women who each do different parts and then come together on other parts. And it really, it's tight. But I couldn't get that together, so I'm just gonna read the poem.

[31:17]

in the four directions and the three times. Past. Gratitude for ancestors, for the ages of invention, cumulative intentions of beneficence, of wisdom, carried through eons on winds of this same clear blue sky, same sun, same moon, swaying dreams of riotous freedom, revolutionary possibilities of love that breathe deep this treasured air, this treasured water, this treasured fire, this treasured earth, bearing wisdom down to today and every day. Present. Gratitude. Latitude for the accumulation of living and non-living beings collected in and among this creek bed.

[32:32]

Corridor of water, bloodline of this valley wherein all delusions and confusions are washed and swallowed down whole into the fastness of green mountains walking of oceans and rivers of clear blue sky wide enough and deep enough to dissipate all illusions and confusions. down to the sound of foot crunching gravel, and the body breathing in, breathing out, breathing, breathe into this and every good day, every day. Future. Gratitude. gratitude for babies beautiful breast milk rounding beings here to solidify love lives and eyes wide open as the clear blue sky cherished possibility potential of a new reality beginning with ten perfect fingers ten perfect tiny toes and a light in the eyes to see clearly breathe clearly breathe clearly fresh air into this

[33:53]

settled dust every day perfection gratitude is the perfection of which is a heart melted the perfection of which is a mind released the perfection of which is a clear blue sky the perfection of which is in breathing out Breathing. Breathe. Every day. Please hear my prayer. Grant me the wisdom of compassion, the soulful interaction of heart-melting, mind-releasing, patience, love, and gratitude. Every day. Every day. Every day. every day, every single day.

[35:00]

Thanks.

[35:00]

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