as it said somewhere, where I read. And this weekend, as most of you probably know, Gay Pride weekend, where we acknowledge and celebrate lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, transsexual, queer questioning. I hope I don't have to do that again. So, And all of its many forms. So we, sooner or later this weekend, we'll dress up in our finery, in our outfits that fully express ourselves. And we'll go express ourselves. So, and even in Zen Center, this... It's the first time Zen Center has been fully involved in this weekend.

[01:02]

So that's pretty terrific, being a Zen Center. So we... Isn't this neat? These are the official Zen Center... Sorry, I was trying to think of the letters. Oh, sure. Good enough. On the back, it says San Francisco's end center. We celebrate diversity and unity. And something else on the bottom, www.sfzc.org, whatever that is. Harmony of difference and equality. That's a big deal in Buddhism. The trouble we have with it, you wouldn't know that it's such a big deal in Buddhism.

[02:08]

May I set this here? This kind of weekend is where we make true or show the truth of Suzuki Roshi, one of his famous ingenious statements of each of you are perfect just the way you are. Perfect just the way you are. and can use a little improvement. So, brilliant. So what I wanted to do first was tell you a story from the Blue Clip record, which is a bunch of, what, 100 koans, Zen stories, and have some visual aids so that you will be able to understand the story with crystal clarity. So we have two Zen people.

[03:13]

This is the Zen master, whose name is Juliet. I hesitate using Zen mistress for some reason, but Zen master, for lack of a better way to say it. And this is the student, monk Jacob. So this is a story about two enlightened people meeting. That usually doesn't happen much in Zen storage. Usually one is the teacher who is holding all the cards and the other is a student who is usually stupid. But in this story, two enlightened beings meet. Of course, this is from my point of view too. So Zen student Jacob comes up to Zen Master Juliet and Zen Master Juliet says, who are you?

[04:19]

Student Jacob says, I am Juliet. Zen Master Juliet says, my name is Juliet. And he says, then my name is Jacob. Juliet laughed heartily. Thank you very much. I'll come back to that in a minute, just in case it wasn't clear. So what I want to talk about this morning is... this notion of unity and diversity. Diversity is kind of like a technical word. I prefer its simpler version, difference. Difference is bad enough. So I want to talk about the many, the one, the merging of the many of the one, and then complete perfect enlightenment that happens after that.

[05:30]

So in terms of the many, Those are the individuals, each one of us, each pebble outside, each truck, each car, each wall, all the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many things that appear to be things. The inner and outer, you know, we're pretty clear about what's out there. or what seems to be out there, many, many, many things, each going their own way, each changing all the time, each completely unmanageable. In fact, we call, maybe other places do this too, but we call crowd management herding cats, especially when a ceremony is going on or trying to get from one place to another. Being in charge of how people do it in an orderly fashion, we call Herding cats. Have you ever tried to herd cats?

[06:32]

Or even get one to go where you want it to go. So each of these individuals has the impression that it is separate, that its will matters above all else, and it deserves to get, or doesn't deserve to get, just exactly what it wants. It likes to see itself as above the law, in a good way. So the outer reality is obvious. The inner reality, I would say, is that we have just as many different parts inside as outside. Each of us has so many different faces, so many different parts of ourselves that seem to have their own personality, their own demands, their own aspirations, their own goals. And oftentimes these different parts of ourselves actually war with each other. Like the good part over here and the bad part over here.

[07:40]

Oftentimes they get in a fight and it's really hard to know who's going to win until push comes to shove. And each of them, each of these parts of ourselves, of our egos, thinks that it's separate. And right. We're wrong. But separate, nonetheless. The powerhouse that fuels this kind of false position, really, is what we call discriminating mind, which is about this big. And it floats in our true mind as if it's in charge. And so in Zen practice, we try not to cultivate or make stronger the discriminating mind. It's already pretty strong. Pretty strong.

[08:42]

One thing that struck me as kind of brilliant was... when I heard the difference between a Western notion of the mind and an Eastern notion of the mind, that actually in both, that it doesn't just exist inside the skull, right? It's not just the brain. That the Western idea of the mind is like a big room that's full of stuff, full of boxes and boxes and boxes and notions and ideas about what's good and what's bad, what's true and what's false. all these parts of ourselves, all of our conditioning, the way we were trained to see ourselves as little kids, which never, ever leaves us. So, in other words, the Western mind, from that perspective, is very, very full, and we're lucky if we can fit anything else in it. It's full of our prejudice, which is very hard to dislodge.

[09:47]

Well, the Eastern mind, from what I heard, was just the opposite. that it's not even a big room. It's a gigantic, vast, empty space, like the sky, through which everything passes. Very different. So what we do in Zen is try to cultivate the awareness of that spaciousness. That spaciousness is calm, vast, and accommodates absolutely everything. has no prejudice. It has no desire. Everything is perfect just as it is. I have three stories. Sorry, this is one of those three. So some of you have heard it before. When I first came to Zen Center some time ago, I found after a while that I really couldn't stand anybody that

[10:54]

was bald. Which, I mean, didn't bother me. I just didn't like them. But after a while, it became kind of a problem because I would stay away and avoid these people. And I don't know why somehow I saw that I was doing that. And after a while of sitting with that, I realized that when I was a little boy, somebody, a family, friend of a friend of a friend in Peru, Indiana, was bald, and he was mean to me. We were at a bowling alley, which you don't know the gory details, and he was mean to me. And I don't know, I didn't understand it, but I hated him and his kind forever. That has softened over the years.

[12:01]

So this sense of self that we have, ego, the sense of ourselves being separate to the point of being alien, actually alien, it's fed by habit energy, which is... almost irresistible, as many of you may know. Another word for habit is addiction. And I think that's the best word, because you know and I know how difficult it is to deal with addiction, any addiction, sugar, on and on and on and on. Why sugar? Why did that come up? Yeah, so... prejudices are addictions some of them we know about some of them are really unconscious we don't have a clue until we live in a community like this where we're too close to each other much much too close so that either we start to recognize what's going on inside or we have to leave by choice often so

[13:21]

So in terms of the many, in terms of the many individuals, in terms of the many, many different individuals where no two are the same, actually not the same, the ego sees, if it identifies with that end of things, the many as opposed to the one, then there's too much to do, too many things that need to be fixed. Any of you who have been like supervisors of people or in the helping professions, that's even better. You know how many, many people need to be fixed by me, by oneself. So when you have that, it's almost like the addiction to presumably help people. But from that point of view, it's no help, obviously.

[14:26]

I mean, because we're not really broken, are we? Really. We don't really need to be fixed. Just loved. So... Also, in the realm of the individual, that's where we get into things of survival of the fittest. mob rule or tyranny where the strong prevail rightly and the weak are crushed rightly. And the weak are expendable. Obviously a very unpleasant nasty space unless you are one of the strong ones. The from this point of view where each of us are separate individuals everybody else and everything else is part of the others or we sometimes call them them them as opposed to me or as opposed to us or you as opposed to me the center of the universe and that is not a comfortable position to be in

[15:48]

Because then, so often, the other is seen as somebody to be fixed, to be controlled, or to be feared. And with the other, from the ego's point of view, comes fear of the unknown, which of course is a false position. What is known? Nothing is really known. So continual fear. And not only fear of the unknown, fear of death, and even worse than that, fear of the void, where we actually might find out that we're nobody. Or worse, that we're somebody, depending on our conditioning. I was just in India. I am going to mention India. Just in India for three months. Anybody been to India?

[16:49]

Was it wonderful? Excellent. Well, it wasn't for me. It was exactly what I wanted, exactly what I needed. Nothing that I expected. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my whole life. You fill in the blank if you've been there. Oh, that's not the point. My hardship in travel is not the point. Other than to say that I was there two months, mostly traveling, often with a friend who was an Indian from Kerala in the south. And I mostly traveled in... not wilderness, rural, rural, rural areas, staying at ashrams and these little places.

[17:58]

And it seemed okay to me because there was so much else to suffer from, traveling, buses and trains and never really knowing where I was or who I was, which is bad enough. But one night, I woke up in a sweat, having a really, really, really bad dream. I don't usually get really, really bad dreams. And I don't even remember the content of it. All I knew was that it was really awful. And there was one message that the dream was giving me, and it is, you don't belong here. And... what I realized was that in most of the places that I went to, I was the only person of color. I don't recommend that to anybody because that's really awful, being the only one.

[19:04]

And so I was ready to call my student, Rick, who was going to join me and say, uh, Can you turn your ticket? How's that? Don't bother. Watch the movie instead. But didn't do that. I decided not to pack my 32 bags and leave. But instead, I decided that no, no, I will stay. I was awake by this point. I said, no, I think I'll stay. I think I'll stay. Much against my better judgment. Then, of course, later I realized that... that you don't belong here, that wasn't new. It wasn't a one-shot realization. I realized that since I could remember. I felt like I didn't belong. Didn't belong. I often hear people talk about, they think they actually came here from another planet, figuratively speaking, and got the wrong parents.

[20:08]

Well, that happened to me, of course. And so I never really felt... that I really belonged. The thing I found out about this, though, being the only one, was that once I started seeing it, that I actually noticed, yes, they are all staring at me. Each and every one. And I don't mind this kind of attention. Because I'm pretty much maybe in control of what you all think and see. I'm sorry. I'll re-examine that later. But what I found, what I found was that the little kids were great. They just, you know how we're taught, they don't stare at people.

[21:10]

Or is that just me, just my family? But we don't stare at people. We'll go like that. But the instant they look at us, we're turning away. Well, there, everybody stared. They just stared and stared and stared. Especially the kids. But with the kids, if you looked at them and smiled, they would just be with brilliant radiance. The smiles. Just beautiful. The adults are not so much. So what I found happened was that any insecurity that I ever had started coming up. I know why they're staring at me. They can see that I'm skinny. They can see that I'm gay. They can see that I'm pink. And they don't like it. Of course...

[22:12]

who knows who knows what anybody thinks sometimes it felt like they they had that they weren't too pleased to have somebody so different and so clumsy and so totally clueless I think probably some people thought it was a joke but some some especially in the country get the look of which hurts of course So those are the individuals. That's what it's like to be separate. So on the other hand is the one, what's called the one. And we all know this. We've always known this. If you've ever had any money, because one of the motto, I don't know if it's the motto of the country or the motto of the mint or what it is, but eat cloribus. How many times have you seen that?

[23:14]

It means from the many, the one. One nation, many states. One group, many subgroups. But any institution, having said that, any institution has to be really, really careful of the one. Because an institution tends to see itself as populated by people who are all the same. can't seem to avoid it. In fact, with institutions that I've known, church, Zen Center, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other, well, we'll go there. Instead, I'll say that they, in fact, they tend to not like diversity or difference. that if you're different, there's a problem here.

[24:15]

We have in our Zen training, which is along those lines of having everybody do the same thing. Thankfully, at Zen Center, it's a healthy, wholesome place to go through this kind of madness of where everybody does the same thing. We all try to dress the same. We all try to wake up the same time. We all try to walk in line. We all try to do all of the crazy mini forms that we have, usually in the beginning at the same way. We also have this expression that it's the nail that sticks up that gets the hammer. Not much humor in that line. But any group enforces it. Can't help it. Once a group has a norm, everybody either goes along with it or they get punished in ways that only we can do.

[25:21]

Group pressure, for example, is a great thing for molding character, whether you like it or not. So for the group, for the one, from an ego's point of view, Everything has to be the same. And I don't know if we noticed this, but from my ego point of view, I want everything to be the same, meaning like me. Like me. I mean, that's a fair deal. I'm a nice guy. I know what's right. I know what's wrong. I know who's good, who's naughty, who's nice. I am Santa Claus. Because when everything is in the one, then there are no problems. Everything is just the way it should be. Everything is perfect. There's no need for all this fuss about helping the poor. I mean, they have their place just like everybody else.

[26:25]

Or minorities. Really? Really? What's the problem? Because we're all actually fundamentally one. Do you see anything wrong with that logic? It's like in this country, we have the Constitution, which apparently is quite an achievement for establishing and preserving the unity, the one, where national unity and understanding and customs and norms are all under law. It's not just the individual who tells the who tells you what's right and what's wrong, we all participate in governing ourselves by law. That's the theory. But that can't be all there is, because everybody isn't the same. And so we have something, I don't know who thought of this, but it's rather ingenious, Bill of Rights.

[27:32]

Who does the Bill of Rights protect? You and me. the minorities, the different people. So, and when the one gets threatened, what do you suppose is the first thing to start going? Protection for the few. When you think of how already the Bill of Rights is being attacked and softened, always a big mistake. So, So things like the Bill of Rights protects difference, protects diversity. It protects people like you and me. Should we ever stray from the one? Okay, so then, we've got the many, we've got the one. And then we have this strange Buddhist notion that somehow, even though many and one, we're all intimately connected.

[28:38]

We're all connected. There's one story, one... What's it called? Analogy? Metaphor. It talks about Indra's net. And very briefly, Indra, king of the gods, constructs this net of being. A net. And at every place where the cords join, there's a jewel. So not only are all the... The jewels join together with every other jewel, but each one reflects every other jewel. So not only are we all connected, but we reflect each other. I'll say more about that in a second because that's very important. In Thich Nhat Hanh, you probably all know, he has a poem that he wrote about the boat people, which is entitled Please Call Me By My True Names. in which after he gets done ranting and railing about how mistreated and abused the boat people are by pirates as they're trying to leave Vietnam, he finally awakens and he sees that, oh dear, I am the girl that was raped.

[30:00]

I am the pirate who raped her. I am the ocean. I'm the mayfly. He realizes, he awakens and sees who he really is, that he is the other. Not just connected, but is the other. And this is a really hard point. I've been trying to think for two weeks, how do I get across something that's not from here, it's not a rational, discriminative mind thing, but actually it's the kind of awareness that comes from hardship. I think it comes from hardship. So in a way, suffering really isn't our enemy. I think it's part of the grist of the mill. But without suffering, I don't think there's any need to awaken. So the notion of we are the other, that the other isn't a threat, though threatening, but we actually are the other. And that doesn't just mean people. It doesn't just mean Americans.

[31:04]

It means rocks and trees and pebbles and walls, the whole business. Everything is us. And when you think about it, logically, that's the only way it actually can be. Because if you were going to describe yourself, you would use as adjectives and nouns things that weren't you. That couldn't stand alone as you. But actually were a composite of all those things that are other. Like, I am... I don't know. Here's where it doesn't... I don't want probably any help on this, but it's that kind of awareness where you realize that the boundaries between us, they're not solid, but semi-permeable. Does everybody know that word? I learned that in biology in high school, and actually I've never used it since, so I'm very grateful for it this morning. But it means that It means that things can go through, back and forth, through the boundary.

[32:10]

Because in a way, we are separate. I mean, that's obvious, isn't it? If I walk, if the door is closed and I walk into it, it's going to hurt. So in a way, we are separate, or so it seems, but that's close enough. But in a bigger way, like, what was that little thing, the Matrix? Did everybody see that? When I left that movie, I knew without a doubt that I could walk through that telephone pole. Did you feel that way? Wasn't it clear? Thankfully, though, I remembered the cohesion property of atoms so that they don't really give way so easily. So I decided not to test it. And I did not walk through the telephone pole, but I knew I could.

[33:14]

So this kind of semi-permeable nature of our being is it makes for us to see the truth, which is that everything is included, even you and even me. When I have a, I don't know if I am, I doubt the orthodoxy of what I'm about to say, but the only way I've been able to understand the whole Buddha business. Is that truck coming here to pick up anybody? No? All right. So the Buddha business was that whenever I see the word Buddha, I substitute the word reality. that we are to realize our Buddha nature, which is the same thing as realize who we really are, who we truly are. And it means we are individuals and we are the other.

[34:23]

We are the many. We are the one. So I asked my... When I was first trying to understand this, I asked my teacher, who is the kind of person that really does include everybody? I mean, like... And she's very strict, so she likes to scold. But that doesn't mean she kicks you out. She includes everybody. Pretty much anything, actually, when push comes to shove. So I asked her, you know, how do you do that? How do you become inclusive of everything? And she said, you just don't exclude anyone. Yeah, yeah, whatever. That seems so easy then. So we have this practice in Zen Buddhism where we practice cultivating, paying attention to the nature of our awareness, with our awareness.

[35:33]

Awareness isn't consciousness. Consciousness is conditioned... It has many shapes and many forms, like good mood, bad mood. It's kind of colored by prejudice, colored by whatever glasses prescription we put on. Awareness is always there, always there, always. And it's not an it, obviously. We practice cultivating just awareness, just sitting still, which is bad enough, and just being aware. of thoughts, of sensations, of feelings. And what we notice is that, especially with the thought realm, is that between thoughts there's a little space. It doesn't seem like that when the mind is racing, but if you sit long enough and keep bringing yourself back into your body, which is the breath, and back into your mind, which is the awareness, then you start to notice that there are little gaps between the thoughts.

[36:39]

And in those gaps is the reality that holds everything else. That's the mind. But it's not just the mind. The Chinese character for... It looks like... There's one up there, but it's too small to see. But what it looks like is a smiley face with a smile and two eyes and a dimple over here. And that character means heart and mind. So heart and mind aren't separate. They're slightly different, but they're not separate. They're two sides of the same coin. So that when we're cultivating, paying attention to our awareness, we're noticing the vastness of our mind in those little spaces between the thoughts, and we're also, just by doing that, our heart starts to open, which is good news or bad news. depending on your point of view.

[37:42]

One of the things I did in India was to visit pretty much the only Zen center in India. It was in the south, up on top of a mountain, thankfully, because it was cool, instead of 100,000 degrees centigrade everywhere else. And it was a beautiful place, just beautiful. Although they did say there were snakes in the garden. So there was no need for me to go to the garden. But inside, it was a quadrangle and there was a just made Japanese garden that was very, very nice. Very nice. No snakes, no spiders, no bugs, no nothing. It was pure and spotless. And contained none of those evil others. So... which was not my point. My point is that the guy who ran the show there was 72 years old, native, Indian, Jesuit, Zen master.

[38:51]

He had no problem whatsoever calling himself a Zen master. In fact, he and I went for a walk one day, and he was talking about something, something, and, you know, well, we're not this, we're Zen masters, and blah, blah, blah, blah. What? Just so you all know. I'm now confirmed as a Zen master. But please keep it to yourself, okay? So... Let me just close my point once. His name is Amasami. Father, Master, Amasami. He was, I don't know why, but there was some kind of connection between us where I could feel over the few days my heart was opening, almost like doors were opening.

[39:57]

It was that obvious, that dramatic. And that hasn't happened in a long, long, long time. And it was just being around the guy. And it seemed like pretty much... Everything he said came from the heart place, the heart place. He, in talking about the other, and he made a big point of we are the other. He had this way of speaking, which was Indian and possibly something else, I'm not sure. But he would say there, you have to open your heart. You have to open your heart. Love each other. It was really great. It was really great. So the interesting point he made was that you all know that the Buddha woke up, right?

[41:10]

that he was enlightened. We call it enlightened. But he awakened. And when... It's interesting what the traditions, how they describe that. Not so much... Let's see. But what woke up? What did he awaken to? What did he find out? Well, as it turns out, the earliest sutras... Where is it? Yeah. The Theravadan translation of what the Buddha said when he woke up was, it is liberated. It is liberated. Isn't that exciting? Maybe not. Then there's the, that came along later, the Mahayana rendition of that. where the Buddha is said to have said, wonderful, wonderful, all living beings possess the wisdom and are Buddhas, but they don't realize this because of their attachment to desires and illusions.

[42:26]

So the point of that, to me, is that what he realized was that there's no separation between any of us. He woke up, we woke up. He was always awake. We were always awake. So, I mean, the thing about awareness is that it's always there. It's always awake. The only thing that causes us are the three poisons or three fires, greed, hate, and delusion. So anytime I insert myself in between what's going on, then that's greed, hate, and delusion. And I go to sleep. Sherry Huber, who is a contemporary Zen teacher, maybe master, said that anything other than compassion is ego. So that's kind of a good litmus test, I think, for looking at our actions. If I have something I want, something I don't want, or if I'd rather just fall asleep right now, that's ego.

[43:36]

That's me, fueled by self-interest. I want it my way, which makes us useless, pretty useless to each other and to ourselves. Not completely useless, of course. So, in that fundamental way then, usually the veil gets removed from our eyes if we undergo a lot of suffering. And I suppose any of you can attest to that. You have to go through something that you didn't want to go through. or that it's a surprise, that it's just dreadful. And what happens is that your heart breaks open. If you stick with it, if you don't run and hide, then the heart actually opens up. And the mind as well, since they're the same. So, suffering gives a big rap. I think it's the primary tool for freedom, for liberation.

[44:39]

So, There's one more thing on that. I just finished a mystery novel by a guy named Edmund Crispin, who wrote The Forties. And he had a... He was having a terrible night. Terrible night. I couldn't sleep. He was worried. He was anxious. He was fearful. And he said... The character said this. He said, daylight. Daylight. Daylight, he reflected, restores us to sanity or at least to that blinkered and oblivious condition which we call sanity. Isn't that interesting? If we put the blinkers on or are totally oblivious to what's going on, we call that sanity. That's being like everybody else. So we come to places like this to work on that because it hurts too much. to be blinkered and oblivious.

[45:41]

Okay. So, the many, the one, they find out they're actually the same thing. But that's not the end of the story. This is the fourth point. And the story that goes, one story that goes along with us is called the Holy Foot Pole. And it's where probably Juliet and Jacob, they meet and And Juliet says, you're awake, Jacob, you're awake. And then he says, yes, I am, yes, I am. What do I have to do now? And she says, see that hundred-foot pole over there? Climb to the top of it. Okay, okay. And so he did. And so he climbed up, and it was very arduous, very, very arduous. And he finally gets up there, and he says, and he spins, and he says, okay, okay, what do I do next? What do I do next? And she says, proceed.

[46:44]

So it's not just awakening that's the big deal. It's what comes after it. It's how we, it's not just realizing, it's actualizing. It's how do you enact being awake in the world. with people like us and things the way they are. So, as I said, some of us come to places like this where we have things like precepts that try to bring into our awareness of how to live a less harmful life, a more supportive life. We have a practice that opens the heart and the mind. And this, being at the top of the 100-foot pole and proceeding, is being able to skate easily between the many and the one. Between the many and the one. This is the master in each of us.

[47:51]

In each of us. The awakened enlightened master who can live in the world of separation and easily skate into the world of the one when it's appropriate. And how do we know it's appropriate? When I'm not involved. when my self-interest isn't driving me. Whether my desire, my greed, or my hate, or my wanting to go back to sleep. When that's not the fuel, then probably the appropriate response is right there. What time is it, please? 10 past 11. 10 past 11, okay. Five minutes. Thank you very much for your patience. I usually don't think anybody deserves a talk more than 45 minutes. So, yeah, I do want to say this. Amasani, Father Master Amasani, he said something that caught my attention, especially considering where I was when I heard it.

[48:58]

He said, when you immerse yourself uncritically in the other, a spiritual transformation occurs. Who would have thought that? When you go and immerse yourself in something weird or worse, different, other than what you're used to, then, uncritically, and just completely accept it, then a spiritual transformation occurs. And boy, was that true. I had come to India and tried to join in and fit in. Total failure. But I tried. I did try. And I was very uncritical for a long time. And what I noticed later, after I came back here, wow, what happened? Something had changed. Something had shifted. So just like coming to a place like this, I mean, can you get much weirder than we kind, lovely people are?

[50:03]

And the way we behave and the way we move and what we do and how we talk? The thing is, when you come here to practice, if you're new, if you fully jump in, battling resistance, which is the ego's last stand, and tries to convince you that, yeah, these people are crazy, if you can immerse yourself uncritically with some acceptance, something happens. And that's not a promise, just so you know. It's a hard, hard thing. So what I want to end with is... Somebody, there's a question that some people ask. And it's... Oh, the koan, the koan. I have to say something about the koan. So we have them. So Zen Master Juliet says, Who are you? Jacob says, I am Juliet.

[51:06]

Zen Master Juliet says... my name. Jacob says, then I'm Jacob. And the clincher is, Juliet laughed heartily. Have you ever laughed heartily? I mean, that's a full, open, belly-jiggling, gaffaw kind of thing. I remember doing it once or twice myself. And the thing is, what he's doing is... She asks, who are you? That's a trick question. When anybody asks who are you, if they live in this block, be careful. So she could tell when Jacob said, I am Juliet, she could tell that his heart was completely open, that he saw clearly that That she and he were not separate.

[52:10]

We're not separate, but we're one. We're one in being. But then, because she's no fool, she says, wait a minute, that's my name. Then, he skated over to the other side. Then my name is Jacob. We are separate. We are individuals. So, you have to have both. And the ending of that story is that she laughed heartily, completely, completely broke open together with him. I want to end with just something in the early Buddhist sultras that is attributed to the Buddha. He said, let your love flow, let your love. Incidentally, wisdom is seeing things as they are, the way they truly are. And compassion, which arises with wisdom, is complete acceptance.

[53:13]

Complete acceptance of things the way they are. Being at one with the other. And I think wisdom plus compassion in our parlance is love. I think that is what is meant by true love. So Buddha says, let your love flow outward through the universe. to its height, its depth, its broad extent, a limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie down, as long as you are awake, strive for this with a one-pointed mind. Your life will bring heaven to earth. And a Tibetan teacher said, really wrapped up I think wrapped it up well. He said, kindness toward those, what our job is, is cultivating kindness toward those who have not realized their Buddha nature, devotion to those who have, and a genuine affection toward all beings.

[54:20]

The common denominator is love. And this is the essence of the Buddhist teachings. And the last thing I want to say, is a little poem that yours truly wrote. It's my only poem. And it came from that space between the thoughts. Not necessarily talking about myself, but it's in that space where poetry, art, true love, et cetera, come from, that space. I'm not sure where my little poem came from, but this is it. We're sitting in the zendo, Rohatsu Sashin, which is the one in December that commemorates the Buddha's waking. Yes. That's right, isn't it? Thank you. And so here it is.

[55:21]

Here we are, each of us tiny monks, sitting on our tiny zafus in this tiny building, Nestled in this tiny valley, on the edge of this tiny planet, somewhere in a rather small galaxy, waiting for the morning star, when the whole universe awakens to its own heart in each one of us. Thank you all very much. Put me to the end of the reading and place with the truth of God's way. Make it stop.

[58:14]

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