It's a great honor to be speaking to you in the practice hall at Zen Heart Monastery. I hope this isn't going to be one of those frustrating Zen talks. Might be. I was reflecting that there's a of body mind that's made of cricket voices in order to this body-mind and its emergence, sometimes a certain kind of cultivation is not exactly necessary but helpful.

[01:32]

No, I don't think we can say it's necessary, but it's sometimes helpful to cultivate or practice in a way that Courage is our natural silence. It actually, as some of you may have noticed, takes quite a bit of energy to maintain a person. And particularly in retreat circumstances, the opportunities for maintaining the person are artificially reduced. So what could be an impossible burden like sitting still for a week?

[02:44]

This is something people who are institutionalized do. That becomes actually a, well, possible and extremely energizing. Because the energy committed to the person is slowly withdrawn. Not deliberately, it just happens. We stop feeding our little friend. So a little friend gets kind of skinny and weak. And much that is extraneous falls away. And then we see there is a kind of inherent silence.

[03:53]

Or maybe stillness is a better word. Not artificially imposed or constructed, but allowed to blossom. You don't have to be on retreat to do this. You don't have to be a Zen student, even. It's just that some people have found some ways that are helpful. allow this blossoming to happen from the outside though sometimes it looks not very attractive people can get well they look kind of dead sitting there Going to the zendo, you know, everybody's like... Nobody's moving.

[05:00]

They could be dead. You'd hardly know until they finally fell over. So they call a zen hall. Sometimes it's called the dead tree hall. There's a bunch of dead trees sitting there. I talked about this last week at my home temple. And I generally don't like to talk about the same thing twice. But meanwhile, I was looking at Dogen's beautiful essay, The Dragon Song. Some of you have seen that. It's quite beautiful. And the place where the dragon's song is heard is a dead tree. There's that old saying, in a dead tree, there's a dragon singing.

[06:13]

And Dogen says, now, if the tree's not dead, there's no dragon song. And he says a little bit about what it means by dead. He said, In olden times, some non-Buddhists didn't understand this. And what non-Buddhists meant by a dead tree was, well, a dead tree. That is, a tree for which there is no spring. And Dogen says, this is not at all what the Buddha ancestors mean by a dead tree. The dead tree is the body-mind of cricket voices. That's all. So I just want to caution you if some of you are already thinking, well, I can't do that.

[07:22]

What's he talking about? It's like, no, you're already, the arrow's gone past Korea, as they say. Yeah, you're right. You can't do that because it's not something you do. You know, get in there and kill the tree. Kill it. That's not how it works. Somebody asked an old Zen guy about, or maybe it was an old Zen gal about, maybe it was a young Zen gal, about this, you know, what's the Buddha way? One of those questions. And the young Zen gal said, in a dead tree, a dragon is singing.

[08:29]

And the old Zen monk who asked the question said, don't get it so the young Zen gal said in a dried skull an eyeball so this is not you know your conventional view of body mind There's nothing to pursue here. There's nothing to fix. There's nothing to escape from or to. That is a dead tree but one for which there are limitless springs.

[09:39]

Dogen says, ah, but those springs do not change the mind. So by that he means, there's none of this, oh, goody, goody, goody, it's spring, yes, yes, rah. It's like, no, then the tree is not dead. Does that mean there's no joy? No, it doesn't mean that. It means that even joy does not change the mind. Somebody asked Dongshan, OK, who hears this dragon song?

[11:24]

Typically enough, Dongshan said, there's no one on earth who doesn't hear it. And then the questioner said, does this song have you know, words. And Dongshan says, I don't know what they are. So these seemingly, maybe, enigmatic, poetic teachings of the ancestors are inviting us to Dead tree heaven. Pardon me, I'm slightly ill this evening.

[12:43]

So it would be perhaps tempting for me to think that because I'm slightly ill, The dead tree is out of reach. Well, that's true. The dead tree is out of reach. And it's a good thing. So ancestor Dogen tells us, oh sorry, Dongshan, Dongshan by way of Dogen, tells us, none of you, none of us, do not hear the dragon song.

[13:50]

I think that's pretty encouraging, myself. might legitimately ask, well, do you hear it, Reverend? I can't make out the words either. The tree may look dead but there's a song within. The skull may have no flesh on it but it's alive.

[14:51]

This is the splendid paradox of practice, the liberating paradox practice. Anybody hear the dragon song? Nobody? If you listen very carefully, you'll hear crickets.

[16:09]

All I ask is that you don't make the mistake of thinking that, oh, he's talking about his life. He's not talking about mine. Don't go down that road, please. It's kind of all I had to share tonight. So if you have some questions, please ask or otherwise we'll hit the hay.

[17:30]

Is there something that makes the leaves wither and fall? Well, autumn will cause the leaves to wither and fall. You could say we're waiting for autumn, but autumn will come whether we wait for it or not. There are seasons to practice. Yes.

[19:12]

Yes. Thomas Cleary says, it's the dragon's howl. You are. Okay, now you aren't anymore. Wasn't that fun? Yeah. Nobody owns the dragon. Would you compare that to a head of flesh?

[20:23]

Would you compare that tree of the sock to a tree in full bloom? Would I? No. But you just did. So... Were you asking me if I would elaborate? Not exactly. If we were to say, yeah, it does, then practice turns into like a lever. And if you just womp on it enough, something interesting will happen. And as we're taught, that's a mercenary and defeating way of relating to practice.

[21:28]

So Dogen is apt to say things like the tree is dead. The skull is without flesh. So let's practice. And then he comes around and says but don't think This tree has no spring. Well, that's the frustrating Zen talk. Oh, yes, go ahead. What are the guiding rules? Well, there's quite a few. You put your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh.

[22:41]

That's really only one. That's one way to talk about it. Another guiding rule is no one on earth doesn't hear a song. Another guiding rule is, you're the Han, go to the Zendo. But I like your expression, guiding rules. autumn sure well maybe that's kind of getting towards harvest any

[24:16]

But it doesn't mean there's only one harvest. Next year, there'll be another. Yes. No. Yes. Could you say it for me a little louder, please? There's nothing to fix. Thank you. And because there's nothing to fix, we have to be a little careful with our effort. Once that fix-it mind sets in, it can be a little hard to shake.

[25:32]

Still, as Suzuki Roshi said, if you don't practice, you don't feel good about your life. And practice in the broad sense, not go to Tatsahara. Practice means live in a way that respects this human phenomenon and studies it for all it's worth. It really is very straightforward. I know it may not sound like it.

[26:38]

It really is. Thank you very much.

[26:53]

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