Well, this is about the fifth day. Or, exactly the fifth day. Somewhere in the middle. And you've never been in better health. Well, most of you. A little sleepy. But as soon as the schedule gets easier, your health will deteriorate. Probably. People have been coming to me in Doksan like a jury and there's been a people been coming to me defending society. You've been slandering society. I'm very pleased that people want to defend society. Good work. It needs a little help. And people have said to me, there's some good people out there, you know. There's even a few here.

[01:23]

I don't think there's much question that everything changes. It's a fact. Next, that everything is interrelated or everything exists, includes everything. I think this is probably demonstrable as a fact, but it's a little more intuitive. But the idea of samsara is an idea, it's not necessarily fact. And one of the things I've been talking about is that from the point of view of Buddhism, this idea of samsara samsara means it's always a mess, and that the agency of God or the institutions of man won't change it much. But of course it's not completely true that it doesn't improve. Kyoto was, for 300 years, I think I told you once, Kyoto didn't have any capital punishment

[02:59]

or any major crime that is recorded. But of course, the social cohesion enforced by each person must have been almost unbearable, or at least, you know, very, very strong. Some of you, I read the first part of the first chapter of that book Woman Warrior. That first chapter is a pretty good example of social cohesion. and how it's enforced. When you have that kind of enforcement of everyone expecting something of everyone else, you can have quite a peaceful society. I see Murayama Sensei, he's so cheerful, such a marvelous person, but also I know how he was brought up, what went into making him so easy and cheerful. kind of structure and stricture that we don't have any taste of at all. You know, I'm someone who myself tried to escape from the little bit that was given me. I wouldn't even wear a tie

[04:31]

in high school, so I'm not in the high school yearbook. And I almost got thrown out of college because I wouldn't wear a tie. In the dining rooms you couldn't eat unless you had a tie on. And I wouldn't, finally they compromised, I would wear a scarf. But look at me now, all tied, one great big tie. Yes, oh sure, now I'll wear anything. And I used to be so against fancy things. I spent most of my life, it seems, in diners and cafeterias and things like that. But now, I don't know. Nyojo Zenji. Dogen's teacher. He never, supposedly never wore any fancy or expensive robes, just black robe, old cotton robe. And yet in the funeral ceremony of Chris, Kagiroshi, and myself, and Murayama Sensei, we looked like three peacocks.

[05:59]

I had these robes Zakusha gave me on, big hat, brocade hat, this great thick brocade okesa, and bright yellow kuroma with multicolored strips in the sleeve. It's hot inside that hat. I don't know. Is it right or wrong? That robe, a kesan hat alone probably cost about half now of this zendo, whole zendo, in materials, materials of this. Anyway, it was given to me, but still, is it worth it? It cost a hundred volumes of one sutra I have.

[07:03]

I don't know. But I think the intensity of it for the funeral, I think there's some value to things like that. Anyway, it's hard to answer these questions. to ways and compare them and say this is right and this is wrong. Someone asked, Sugriva she said, people used to always ask him, what is Zen morality? He said, if I tell you it's the ten precepts, I'm already telling a lie, because the first precept is not to kill. And I had an egg today, so I killed embryonic chicken. Second precept is not to steal, and I stole the egg from the chicken. Already I'm in trouble. It's pretty difficult. This is also a different attitude of Buddhism. Hinduism too. You know, you'll find a Hindu teacher talking about Buddhism. May not really

[08:30]

But, you know, it's sort of the way you might have a gulf station talking about an Esso station. Good gulf or happy motoring with Esso, you know. It's not, you know, a matter of you'll be damned. With one... What Buddhist do you tell them these things? With a Hindu, you tell them that. Saul Mendlowitz, who's head of Institute of World Order, I told you, called me. I met him once at a Linda Spine meeting and he came quite, you know, not predisposed to like Buddhism or meditation or all those things. He thought it just took you out of the political arena, didn't solve world problems. Actually, Zazen itself, he was won over. He's come to Zen Center quite a few times. He wants to send his kids to Zen Center, things like that. But he was one over it, too. Zazen's okay. Zazen can help you be a political activist, actually. But the idea of samsara isn't okay, from his point of view. Because, again, this idea of samsara is that it's not really improvable, but

[09:57]

Practically speaking, we know there are periods of time when governments are better or worse, families which are more happy than other families and so forth. The Dalai Lama, almost the thing he said most of the time was, we all want to be happy. But, any case, although practically speaking we know that things are better or worse, samsara, the emphasis in Buddhism, emphasis in samsara, is that things actually only change through you, through the individual. I think a historian looking at Russia, for instance, will find not too much difference between

[11:00]

Tsarist Russia and Communist Russia, in terms of ideas of leadership and the way people are treated. So you can, you know, unless the people are different, the system doesn't make so much difference, is the idea in Buddhism. And this is the point I've been trying to make. Not that it's all hopeless, but hope is, the arrow is always pointing at you. And there's also, you know, the idea of Pratyekabuddha. Pratyekabuddha means anyone who's enlightened by chance, by circumstances. And there are Pratyekabuddhas around and they help people, you know, but they can't teach you how to become enlightened. So emphasis in Mahayana is how to. teach how to have disciples, how to include others in enlightenment. So Buddhism is a great study. It's sort of like a, if you choose it, if you choose this vehicle, it's like, in some ways, it's like choosing to be a mathematician or something, if you really want to get into it.

[12:30]

It's a life study, you know. You can spend your whole life studying many things. And useful things. Things which... A kind of mathematics which makes sense to the road crew and to Denny's. Denny's and Salinas I've gotten quite a part of. Generally I don't like Denny's too much because of all the plastic food and non-dairy, which is a kind of antifreeze. Really, chemically, it's an antifreeze. Some doctor we know went into Marin General Hospital. That's his hospital. And he was sat down in the cafeteria and they and served him non-dairy in the hospital cafeteria. And there was a tray nearby of all these little non-dairies on it, you know? And he took the whole tray and began throwing them all over the restaurant. Shouting, Andy freeze! Andy freeze! All over the cafeteria. People were running about. Anyway, but that den is owned by an English couple.

[13:59]

And they hire a lot of English people and import young English girls from England who work at low wages or something. But the atmosphere is quite nice. Twenty-four hours a day, the atmosphere is quite nice. I'm in there at various times. And their phone is very useful. I call James Burke and say, Keith? Their atmosphere is quite good. And it makes me appreciate, you know, I appreciate real business like Denise or some bakery that has to pay real wages. I don't know how they do it. Very impressive. So, you know, somebody went to see Guichon and he said to him, I'm not asking about the twelve branches, the twelve branches of something or other, or the three vehicles, but why did Bodhidharma come from the West? And Guichon held up his fist.

[15:33]

He said, do you understand? The guy said, no. He said, you don't even know what a fist is? This great scholar, you don't know what a fist is? But if he'd said, ah, it's a fist, then Guichang might have said, or if Guichang knew he would say it's a fist, he might then say, not calling it a fist, what do you say? So this is also mu. This koan in the Shoya Roku begins, the introduction says, a gourd floating in water, try to grab it and it turns, or push it and it turns in the water. A jewel in the sunlight has no definite shape. A jewel in the sunlight has no definite shape.

[16:36]

This cannot be attained by mindlessness, nor can it be known by mindfulness. It cannot be attained by mindlessness, nor can it be known by mindfulness. Even great beings are tossed and turned in the sea of words, tossed and turned in the stream of words. I remember when I was in high school, I found... I had to write these little essays once a day. It was the English teacher's way of doing it. And I found what I did is I just would take something and describe it, something like that.

[17:40]

And in the process of describing it, I found I would suddenly jump into this very clear, stopped space. It was great. So I figured out how to do it. But I had no way, you know, there was no way for me to... no way available in my society to know what to do with this kind of experience or how to follow up on it or develop it or what it meant. If I knew about zazen, I could have followed up on it. So Buddhism is that kind of You may be Pratyekabuddha, but here is a vehicle. No best or middling or what, but a vehicle. To my own experience, it's the least best man-made vehicle.

[19:03]

for realizing diamond has no shape in sunlight. Tsukiyoshi, talking about a morality, you know, Zen morality again, he said, you know, a tree, the grain of a tree or circles, the grain of wood or the circles of a tree, The circles aren't there before the tree grows. It doesn't have these circles. But circles come from succession of seasons, winter and summer, slow growth and fast growth, and by that it gets some grain. So, Socrates said, you know, morality, Zen morality, is like this grain. We don't... Before precepts comes your sincere attitude. He said, all of Buddhism, he said, comes down to be faithful to yourself and to everything, to just what is in front of you. We should not slight anything. He said, just what's in front of you. Don't slight what's in front of you. But, you know, we also mustn't be caught by it.

[20:48]

tossed about in sea of circumstances and words and concepts. You've been meditating now somewhere between 12 and 15 hours a day for four and a half days. How much time? That's a lot of hours, you know. That's quite a lot. Maybe some of you have meditated already 10,000 hours. I'll give you a badge. I'm a 10,000 hour person. I've got 15. I have stripes. And what goods it do you? I mean, how? Your legs still hurt. But pain, pain is really the shortcut to the event, to getting over the event horizon. I'm afraid so. Sorry. It is. Thrill test. Can you sit without visceral response in midst of the tremendous discomfort of sitting still? It's pretty hard to do.

[22:03]

But it's a kind of physiological, you know, to not be caught. Here's this word, sokufui. I used to say sokure, but sokure is actually bowing with your zagu spread all the way out, and I forget that word is mixed up. Sokufui. Sokufui means one with, but... Detached but not separate from. It means detached but not separate from. So we don't slight anything but how not to be caught. This is also Mu. And how actually we don't slight anything, how you forget yourself. So anyway, Buddhism is this kind of teaching. In this koan it's called fishing with straight hook. You know, there's no... It looks useless. Not this way, see, that would be usual way of fishing. This is this way of fishing. And it's said it's for the fish who turn away from life.

[23:34]

means for you who are willing to die. Anyway, so in this kind of move on, nothing to grab a hold of, a straight hook. Sukiyoshi, to illustrate this point about morality, he told a rather funny story. He used to have all these funny stories that come from growing up, funny to us, but from a different culture. This story is about this Indian story. Some man is washing his face in the stream. And a falcon or a hawk has caught a rat and drops it and it drops into the stream beside him. So he rescues the rat from the stream and puts it under a tree. And then he goes home, but then he worries about the rat.

[24:55]

And so he thinks it might be carried off again. So he goes back, and he knows his wife won't appreciate it if he brings a rat home. So he changes the rat into a beautiful young girl, child, and brings it home. Brings her home. And when she gets to be 20 years old, he thinks he'd better marry her to somebody. young man, he asks if he wants to marry her. And he, I guess maybe people know she, he said she appeared from the sky or something, I don't know. But anyway, he said, no, she's, I'm not strong enough. Clouds are, she should marry a cloud. They are very strong. So he asked the cloud if he wants to marry this girl. And the cloud says, no, I'm not strong enough. Wind is very strong. He asks the wind, and the wind says, Oh no, I'm not strong enough. The mountain is very strong. So he asks the mountain, and of course the mountain says, Oh, I'm not so strong. A rat is very strong. So he changes her into a rat, of course, and she marries the rat.

[26:20]

This is samsara and interdependence. We must get accustomed to this kind of life. We can't say what's right or wrong or rat or mountain or wind. So anyway, how to, you know, the Guichang's question, how to be ready and yet not prepared or not predictable? This state of mind you want. I think you would like to think, I think Blanche, you know, coming up, Xu Tzu's ceremony,

[27:26]

She'd like to feel, perhaps, I'm not accusing her of this, but I suspect shusos have occasionally felt this. I wish I was a good Zen person and I knew the answers to all these questions. But that's not, you know, the way. We don't know answers. You'd like to be ready, so if Guichang puts his fist up, you know what to say. But if you know what to say, Guichang will say. I'm not calling it a fist. But this scholar was caught with some 12 branches coming from the West. Maybe he could have said Mu. But if Mu, if you're ready with Mu already beforehand, and Mu isn't completely new, then it's ridiculous. So mostly, I would guess that in your 15 or 12 or 15 hours a day of sitting, mostly you are tossed in your thoughts and your images, and you hardly notice the fist of your body. You hardly explore your body.

[28:43]

And you know, some periods of zazen are more fruitful than others. All the periods of zazen are useful. Zazen is equal. One period of zazen is equal to another. But some are more fruitful. So you should make use of the most fruitful ones when you're most awake and clear. And please make use of those periods of zazen. This is also idea of merit again. each period of zazen makes the other period fruitful. So part of practice is to find out how each thing you do is fruitful for everything else. This is also real meaning of mutuality or interdependence. Just as everything is related or ecological, I know how everything is fruitful for everything else, by your activity. If you find this out, you'll be quite happy, quite easy, without much difficulty. And because you are always useful to people, people will see you as powerful. But actually you'll be just a Zen rat,

[30:23]

Does rat have Buddha nature? Should you kill a rat? Should we catch flies? One cold snap and a hundred thousand flies die in these mountains. Really, to not hurt people, how to not slight anything, this is lifetime study. And by your sincere attitude, you will develop grains of Bodhisattva, circles of Bodhisattva. and if you are you know able to get for a moment by move maybe outside your circle stream of thoughts and just find your body find your skin resting very easily where you are you'll find your whole body is so sensitive

[31:47]

going through our... I mean partly you don't do it because you realize how fragile you are and breakable and diable. But we're pretty tough too. Anyway you can feel blood and warmth and breathing and many vibrations. Hands will feel whole rhythm of stomach and great movement and if you want to amuse yourself with a little tantra vision you can TV you can visualize a line between top of your skull or depends whichever area it becomes active for you here or here I'm telling you this to amuse you maybe, but also it does purify you. It does make you realize the visionary nature of life. But if you are able to with move or you're gone, so concentrated that suddenly

[33:14]

no thoughts or thoughts are rather, your mind belongs to you. Then imagine this line from spot you can feel just above your anus or between your anus and your genitals. You can feel a little spot there if you contract your sphincter. And anyway, locating that spot, locate a spot here and then imagine a straight line between And you can imagine the straight line like a little beam of light if you want. Or color. Or energy. And then say, wind your moo around it. And you'll see. Nice picture. Various things appear. Not always, but for some people. And you can look at it. If you do that, it will go away. It sits straight. Very pretty picture, like television. But this tremendous... This is maybe jewel in the sunlight.

[34:45]

We don't know boundaries of the world, rules of the world, grain of the world. But anyway, you found someone here who has the same kind of intention, and we are trying. not anything special, but anyway, we're trying to concentrate ourselves on what we think is most important, trying to be faithful to ourselves, as Zukoshi said, and to forget yourself. That still, something is there. And it's helpful, you know, all of this literature about the nadis and all of this stuff and

[35:46]

various bodhisattvas. It comes from finally dropping thinking and experiencing your body very directly, not in terms of blood vessels and stuff like that, but very directly in images. And you have to be able to sit rather stably to do it. Anyway, there are many, many aspects of Buddhism we don't talk about, I don't talk about, that you'll find out, or you can come talk to me about it. I may not say much, but in this 10,000 hours we are extraordinary beings, and this practice is, you know, maybe not Everyone can do it, but almost anyone can do it, and anyone who wants to do it can do it. So it's not just for special people. It's our human nature, our Buddha nature, even. But, as Luke Hershey said, it comes down to not slighting anything.

[37:14]

84,000 pores and 640 bones and joints. And what kind of mind is the mind in which the activities of the Buddhas and patriarchs arise? What kind of mind is akshobhya, unperturbable, immovable? that can absorb everything, that makes everything fruitful. This is where we come to in Buddhism, when you see, you want to be faithful. Again, as Lukasi said, we want to be faithful to our society, but how to do it? We are stealing chicken eggs. What do you do?

[38:19]

So our practice, you know, we don't try. I think, as number two emphasis maybe, we should try to improve the institutions of society. But the first emphasis in Buddhism is don't slight anything. Be faithful to yourself. And when you try to do that, it leads you right into this whole practice. It's very difficult not to slight anything – rat or mountain. and always we'll do something wrong. And so if you can get out of being tossed and turned in the stream of your images and words, you'll find out great being that we are, and become accustomed to this fruitful life of interdependence.

[39:51]

and I can say you'll find out why we speak about Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and the many Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. This is some direction of human beings, not just you, but human beings. So on the one hand I'm being very pessimistic, but I'm also being very optimistic. This human life, the study of this human life is no way to reach the end of it. And you include all of it in your whole body sutra. You just need a mind that knows how to study it without getting caught. This is Mu. You need a mind that makes every situation useful, every situation fruitful. This is Mu. Anyway, this is the point of this talk, to introduce you to the first principle of Buddhism.

[41:28]

Aum.

[41:39]

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