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. The last two nights, one is called denkai and the other is called denpo. So there are two ceremonies. One is... And they're both late at night, like around 11 o'clock or midnight. The first one is called Denkai, where we empower the student to carry the precepts and to give the precepts to others. In other words, the person is empowered to ordain and to continue the lineage and to...

[01:00]

have some independence as a teacher and the second ceremony which will be tomorrow actually the first ceremony is tonight after you go to bed and the second ceremony is where basically we give the student the ceremonial paraphernalia that goes along with the transmission. So both of these ceremonies are very important and that completes the transmission ceremonially. That's basically what we're doing here. It's a kind of ceremonious empowerment for the students who already have transmission.

[02:11]

It's verification and empowerment. So students, for me, I've given transmission to a lot of people, none of whom have practiced less than 15 years. usually 20, 25, sometimes 30. It's nice, actually, to have students that are younger. But we had to take care of the old students first over the last 30, 40 years. I think we should... We have a lot of good students now. I think it would be good to start working with them. on Dharma transmission, because I remember when we first started practicing. I started practicing in 1964. And, you know, Zen Center was only going for about six years at that time, five, six years.

[03:18]

And so us new students, after a couple of two or three years, we were the leadership. Now, it takes 10 years for somebody to be part of the leadership, five or 10 years for somebody to be part of the leadership. And we keep looking down at people. Well, they're not ready yet. They're not ready yet. But they are. So I would like to see many more younger people. When younger people have dormant transmission, it attracts more younger people. And if Zen Zen is going to survive, we need more younger people. Everybody's getting older and older, as you can see. So the younger people are very important, and we should take care of them. But, you know, Zen practice is not like some...

[04:23]

Our Zen practice, according to my understanding, is not like some systematic way of doing things. It's not like after so long, you get this, and then after that, a little while, you get that. After five years, you know, you have this level. For me, it's like picking fruit. When the fruit is ripe, you know that it's ripe, and that's when you act and do something. So it's important to know when the fruit is ripe. It's important to know when the student's really ready. If you don't wait long enough, then the fruit is green, not so good. And if you wait too long, it's overripe. So to find that moment, to be sensitive enough to the student to know when they're ready to actually receive some recognition, which helps their practice and inspires other people. So anyway, this is what we're doing.

[05:39]

I want to just say that dharma transmission gives the student a big boost But the problem, the biggest problem that we have with any student is the problem of ego. So the students should be very careful that they don't get some kind of big head about having some recognition. Matter of fact, when you have recognition, it should lower you. You should be more humble. The higher you go, the more humble you have to be. So that actually, by the time you are a sage, you don't even exist. So it's actually, you have to be very careful.

[06:43]

So I want all of you who are practicing here with Greg and Linda to respect them. But at the same time, to let them know if they're getting too big a head or, you know, too big an ego or something. Be careful. They're, you know, I don't want to say too much, but they have great energy, great energy for practice and are really helpful to to people. What's the criteria for dharma transmission? First criteria should be egolessness. Not how much you know, how smart you are. It's how you understand the dharma. And if you understand the dharma and practice the dharma and embody the dharma, that means you are a humble person.

[07:48]

I want to express what I mean by humility. Humility means that you don't think too much of yourself and you don't think too little of yourself. You know exactly who you are. When you know exactly who you are and know exactly what you can do and what you can't do and how to relate to people unselfishly, That's humility. People often think humility means you kind of, you know, grovel or something. That's not being humble. Being humble means knowing exactly who you are. Not too great, not too little, just as you are. And then you see things just as they are. When you are exactly as you are, then you see things exactly as they are without distortion.

[08:55]

That's the most important thing. And then if you're bright and smart and so forth, that's great. But if you have too much head and too little heart, then it's hard to control yourself. And it leads to cunning and anger. The way that we express wisdom is through compassion. As my old teacher said, to be strict with yourself and compassionate to others. That's how you conduct your practice. So you're always looking out for people. You're always serving everybody. So that if you become ordained as a priest, it doesn't mean you're up on a pedestal.

[09:59]

It means that you become a servant of the sangha. A priest is a servant of the sangha, not someone to be idolized. But if they really are, if that person really is a servant of the sangha, everybody will love that person. So there's no problem. If you want to be loved, then you have to serve. You get back what you give. I don't have that kind of problem with these people. As a matter of fact, almost all of the people I've given dharma transmission to, it's really helped them a lot. So when you become a priest, you become a servant of the sangha. And when you have dharma transmission, it's because you already are a servant of the sangha.

[11:02]

So in the lineage, we chant the Indian lineage and then we chant the Chinese lineage. Zen sort of comes more, although the roots of Zen are from the beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha, the development of Zen is in China. China has more of a family orientation. the big families in China and the lineage of family in China is very important. So some of the Buddhist schools in China, the Zen schools, have a great kind of family feeling because it's just common in China. And then when Zen came to Japan, That kind of thing continued. So we have the Soto school, the Rinzai school and all those various schools.

[12:29]

My teacher, Suzuki Roshi, although we are the Soto school and we kind of do things in the Soto manner, he came up to me one day and he said, it's just Buddhism. No special school. It's just Buddhism. And he also said, it's nothing fancy. Just have nothing fancy. Just plain, everyday activity. The plainest, everyday activity is the most enlightened activity. Then we say, oh, shucks. So that's why our teaching is not so academic, although some people are academically oriented, and I love the academic aspect of Zen and practice, but basically it's just everyday activity.

[13:35]

How you work with, how you harmonize with the people around you, how you harmonize with the objects around you, how you harmonize with your situation, moment by moment. And the way to harmonize is to be selfless. When you're selfless, then it's easy to harmonize because you're not standing out in some way demanding or needing something special. Whatever you receive is pretty special, whether you like it or not. We're always going toward what we like, which creates big problems. Not that we shouldn't. like something, but the more ordinary we are, the more wisdom comes through.

[14:39]

So if you see some teacher that's acting like a big guru you should avoid that person. Sometimes the true person is the one that is so ordinary, you don't even see them. So when I come to Tassajara, it's so wonderful to see the harmonious activity that just goes on year after year, practice period after practice period, summer after summer, and how people appreciate coming down, all the people who come down in the summer and appreciate just being here for five days or three days or whatever. It's so special because it's so plain. So,

[15:47]

If you have one or two questions, I would be happy to address them. Yeah, David? I mean, Daniel? It's written, Master, that the teacher transmits the dharma to the student, and the student transmits dharma to the teacher. Can you tell us what this looks like, the dharma that is transmitted by the student to the teacher? Well, nothing's transmitted, actually. That's just a word. Because it's like when you pour two cups into a bowl, which cup is, you know, there's a kind of equality, right? So the equality, there's an aspect of equality. And that's the transmission. It's not that I give you something.

[16:51]

It's more like I recognize that which is mature. And the student usually has already recognized what's mature in the teacher. So the teacher recognizes what's mature in the student. Because whatever the student has, has to come from the student. It doesn't come from the teacher. The teacher can help you, coax you, but you can't give the teacher it. It comes from the student. So we say there's nothing transmitted. No thing is transmitted. It's a meeting of, meeting, we say mind, but not brains exactly.

[17:58]

Meeting of big mind with big mind. Yeah. Which, then mind disappears. Yeah, they would all be the 92nd generation. Yes. So, that's it. 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.

[18:57]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_93.55