This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I always remind myself when I'm sitting here that I am fortunate to be surrounded by a sea of great beings, the great Buddhas, and that we are together are bringing forth the Dharma, bringing forth our lives, bringing forth each other in a wonderful way. So thank you for supporting each other in this way as great beings. Those of you who may not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I serve as the head of practice here at City Center. And I want to welcome everyone. I see a few new faces tonight, and I'm just kind of curious of those in the assembly here.

[01:04]

How many are here for the first time? Wonderful. Great. Well, if you're here for the first time, or the hundredth time, or too many times to even bother counting, you are welcomed. Thank you again for showing up for your life, basically. This is what Zen is about, showing up for your life. We, as those who have been practicing here for the last number of weeks, know we're in the middle of a nine-week practice period, which is an intensive period of study together. And I am fortunate to be co-leading with my Dharma sisters, Tova Green and Wendy Lewis. And together we've been studying what's called the six perfections, or six paramitas. And these are essentially virtues that we can cultivate as a way to help us to be great beings and also awaken together. And if you're not familiar with them, they are generosity, ethical behavior, patience, sometimes called tolerance, diligent effort or energy, concentration, sometimes translated as meditation, and wisdom.

[02:20]

During this particular practice period, we have a noon service, and for the practice period, we've been chanting a particular fascicle that is by the founder of our particular school of Zen, Soto Zen in Japan, Ehi Dogen. And the fascicle is called Hachi Dai Nengaku, which translates as The Eight Awakenings of Great Beings. And this is fascicle 95 and a collection of teachings by Dogen called the Shogur Genzo, which is the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. And alternative translations for this particular title, this fascicle, are the Eight Awarenesses of Great Beings, the Eight Realizations of Great Beings, the Eight Truths of Great Human Beings, and the Eight Means to Enlightenment. And Wendy, Tova, and I chose this particular fascicle because we thought that a lot of the components in it have parallels to our study of the six paramitas.

[03:31]

And I thought it'd be wonderful to take an opportunity this evening to walk through this particular fascicle with you. I myself haven't studied it before, so this was kind of fun for me to launch into this and get to be more familiar with it. How many people are familiar with it already? Great, okay, so a handful. This fascicle Dogen drew from the last section of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, and this particular sutra gives the account of the last days of Buddha's life. It's the Mahayana account of the last days of Buddha's life. There's also a Theravada, an early Buddhist account, which is a different sutra, and there's variations between them. But on each of these actually contains the Buddha's last teachings before he died. And it's interesting that Dogen's fascicle was written just a few months before he died.

[04:37]

He died in January of 1253. And so this was considered his last piece of writing. And so we have the Buddha's last teaching, and essentially Dogen's last teaching coming together in this particular fascicle. And I understand that this text is often read in Japan at occasions called Last Rites. And this is chanted when someone is either immediately after someone has died, or technically you should be chanting it while they're actually dying. So these are the last words that they hear. And the thing is, we need to recognize that this teaching is not pointed to death. It's pointed to living. So it's interesting that both the last teachings of the Buddha and the last teachings of Dogen point us to how to live this precious life.

[05:38]

So the eight awakenings or eight awarenesses of great beings are as follows. First, to have few desires. Second, to know how much is enough. The third is to enjoy serenity. The fourth, to make diligent effort. The next is not to neglect mindfulness. The sixth is to practice meditation. The seventh, to cultivate wisdom. And finally, the eighth, not to be engaged in hollow discussions. An interesting one to end on there. I'll talk a little bit more about that. So we cultivate these eight aspects as a way to help us to live a harmonious and useful lives. And these are things that lead to a life of peace and contentment, or what is often known in Buddhism as a life of nirvana.

[06:47]

I want to take a moment to kind of walk us through the title of Dogen's version of the fascicle, Hachi Dainengaku. Hachi in Japanese means eight, and gaku in this case means intuitive reflection or truth. Intuitive reflection or truth. And sometimes it actually, it's kind of pointing to a truth... or an intuitive feeling, or an awareness that is the object of a Buddhist meditation. The word dainan means great beings. So great beings are Buddhists, are awakened beings. Dainan itself literally means big person. And the Chinese character for great beings happens to be the exact character in Japanese for the word Atama, which means adult. Trungyum Trungpa said that a bodhisattva is nothing more than an adult, a true adult.

[07:58]

What Buddhism is doing is cultivating adults. Pretty amazing, huh? So I remember once walking to a gift shop and seeing a plaque that said, an adult is someone who takes responsibility for their actions. So all Buddhas and all great beings are adults. So I think this is very important for us to keep in mind as a means of how we go about trying to live an ethical, compassionate life, one that is of service to all beings. So how do we spend our whole lives taking up this particular responsibility? This is a great responsibility. to be adults in practice, to be adults in our lives, to take care of others as if they were our own children in some way, if you will.

[09:01]

So one way of thinking about this teaching is as the eight awarenesses of adults, what adults keep in mind at all time, what they keep in their awareness at all time. I find this a very useful framing for me, so I've been carrying it around in that way since I've started studying this. And these particular practices for being an adult are very similar to a number of other practices that we find in Buddhism and which you probably have heard of. There's many overlaps and parallels to particular practices or teachings such as the Eightfold Path. I already mentioned the Six Perfections or Paramitas and the Seven Factors of Awakening. And so each of these is a set of instructions for how to live our life. So we've been blessed to receive all these ways that we can take up a practice to help us live this amazing and very difficult and challenging life.

[10:04]

What's interesting is that it's said that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, this is the way they naturally live. This is the way they naturally act. This is the virtues that they naturally just exude by virtue of who? who they have become and how they are in the world. So they just naturally have few desires, meditate every day, don't engage in hollow talk, and so on. And for those of us who are not yet realizing our inherent true nature, that we are already naturally awake, these can serve as practices, ways for us to help cultivate our life into awakening in some way And this is also said about the six perfections as well, so wonderful how they kind of parallel in this way. So what I want to do is walk through each of these, and the structure that is done in Dogen's essay is such that he names the awareness, then he gives a brief observation, which he kind of frames in brackets and parentheses,

[11:19]

And then he quotes from the Buddha's last Admonition Sutra. So I'm going to be kind of offering you a little bit of the Buddha's, Dogen's commentary, the Buddha's teaching, and then my own additional commentary on it. So here's the first one. The first awakening is to have few desires. And Dogen's commentary on this is to refrain from widely coveting the objects of the five desires is called few desires. And then he quotes the Buddha. Monks, know that people who have many desires intensely seek for fame and gain. Therefore, they suffer a great deal. Those who have few desires do not seek for them, so they are without these troubles. Notice this teaching is about having few desires. It's not about having no desires. And I think that's a misperception that oftentimes we might have when we first come to Buddhism.

[12:22]

The actual direct translation is to have small desires, which I find kind of interesting. Just little desires, not too big. You know, so they don't become overwhelming, you know, or too, you know, kind of... unweldy and tilt us in one direction, you know, particularly the direction of suffering. And it's not so much that suffering is caused by desire, but that attachment to a particular desire is what causes us suffering. So it's a very big difference. You can desire ice cream. It's fine. But if you're attached to getting ice cream at a certain time and all the time, and you start suffering because you're not getting the kind of ice cream you want, that's suffering. I have that. I've been in Jerry's Jerry Garcia ice cream. If I don't get that on a weekend, I begin to suffer.

[13:26]

So I'd actually say that kind of clarity about non-attaching desires is really what the first noble truth is about. And so we can understand this in the context of wholesome and unwholesome desires, and how we might choose wholesome desires, particularly the desire that all beings be free of suffering, and try to let go of unwholesome desires, things that give rise to greed, hate, and delusion in some way. So this is a suggestion for how to live, how not to be pulled around by our five sense desires, and also not to be pulled around by our grasping mind, or the mind that thinks, if I only had X, then I would be happy, and fill in the blank. In another fascicle, Dogen talks of the same principle. He says that not to be greedy or excessive is not to crave, and to crave in worldly expression means to flatter.

[14:31]

I think this is an interesting term. to flatter, because it kind of completes the cycle, the circle, between this first awakening and then the last one, which is not to engage in hollow speech. Because Dogen's saying that to have few desires is not to flatter people, not to try to shape your relationships with others in some way to get them to like you or to get something from them in some way. but to really just allow them to offer you their full presence. And this is for those who know the precepts related to the precept of not taking what is not given. How is it that we relate to each other in a way that we don't try to get others' attention? We don't try to steal it in some way. We simply respect each other's presence and meet from that place. So the second awakening is to know how much is enough.

[15:38]

Sometimes this is translated as to be satisfied. And Dogen's commentary is, even if you already have something, you set a limit for yourself for using it. So you should know how much is enough. I confess I often have this particular issue when I sit down for a meal. What is too much and what is enough? I'm a greed type, I confess, and I was trained to eat everything on my plates. And can I actually be aware when I can stop, when I have had enough, and not continue acting from a place of habitual habit patterns that keep me going unconsciously, unawake, unaware. The essence of our eating practice in Zen is called oryoki. And oryoki, the words itself, mean just enough. The Japanese word for just enough. And so the three bowls that we eat oryoki with in the zendo, in a very ritualized ceremony, it's quite beautiful, actually are said to hold just enough to nourish us and to support us in practice.

[16:53]

Just the right amount. And so this is how a monk lives. receiving what is offered, not holding anything back, not putting nuts in your sleeve or anything like that for later, but just receiving and then returning the offering through your diligent practice and effort. Again, not holding any energy or effort back. This mutual exchange that happens again and again and again. I think we can draw a correlation between the first perfection, the perfection of generosity, and these first two awarenesses of having few desires and knowing how much is enough. We can only be generous when we recognize we have enough to offer others. And we can recognize when is it that we're coming from a mine of lack,

[17:58]

When is it we meeting each other from a mind of lack? And when are we meeting the world and each other from a mind of abundance and gratitude? You get to choose. That's the part we forget sometimes. You get to choose which mind you're going to meet your life with. Just because it's been habituated in you to act a certain way, I have a mind of lack, therefore I tend to be greedy. I can choose, though, if I'm mindful enough You know, oh, there's that mind again. I find myself kind of going into the contraction state of, oh, there's not enough, what's going to happen? And I pause and I ask myself, is that true? What is it to put on a different lens and see the world as abundant and generous and full and complete? Then my heart kind of opens and I feel this deep sense of satisfaction that arises. But I have to remind myself at times. The Buddha said, if you want to be free of suffering, you should contemplate knowing how much is enough.

[19:06]

So notice he didn't say you should know how much is enough. This much, this much, this much. He said rather you should contemplate, you should investigate how much is enough and how much is too much. The Buddha continues, by knowing it, you are in the place of enjoyment and peacefulness. So he doesn't say that by having just the right amount, you're going to be happy. Or rather, knowing how much that is, then you'll be happy and at ease. Basically, what he's pointing to is that this is enough. What's in front of you right now is enough. How much is enough? This much is enough. Just this. Exactly what is is complete. It's enough. There isn't anything else, by the way. Just this, fullness.

[20:10]

So can we let go of the wanting and just allow ourselves to enter into just this as it is? Can we accept that life itself is manifesting just enough? It's kind of scary for some of us. Is that true? Is that really true? What would it be to sit here right now experiencing the enoughness, the fullness of this life? To know that it's sufficient. Because when you know that and experience that, you will be satisfied. It will be the end of dukkha, the end of dissatisfaction. third awakening is to enjoy serenity.

[21:18]

Dogen says, this is to be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. Thus it is called to enjoy serenity and seclusion. So you might be imagining that Buddha is giving us permission to have just me time, right? To kind of wander off into a cave somewhere and be isolated and secluded and not have anyone around you. It's a little bit of a limited understanding of this. It's not a complete understanding. The Buddha said, monks, if you want to have the joy of serene non-doing, you should be away from the crowds and stay alone in a quiet place. A still place is what Indra and other devas or deities revere. By leaving behind your relations as well as others and by living in a quiet place, you may remove the conditions of So I think we need to be careful here.

[22:21]

And I think it's also safe to say that the one condition of suffering, the only condition of suffering, is attachment. The second noble truth, grasping, attaching to, is the only cause of true suffering. So if we leave behind In this case, leaving behind means taking a step away from the crowds of our attachments and our various entangled relationships in life. And that's not so easy to do, to step away from those attachments and entanglements. We need to develop the capacity to be able to actually step out of our busy lives and find a way to take refuge, maybe finding some room of quiet and stillness, like here at a Zen center, right here, downstairs in the Zendo, and take the time to practice being still and quiet.

[23:31]

And what we find, as we do this over a period of time, that the place of serenity is actually not out there. but it's actually right here. It's always with us. So we turn inward and find that place of quiet tranquility that is actually our natural state of mind and being. So it's the mind of non-activity, non-doing, as the Buddha was saying here. The mind that doesn't move in reactivity to whatever causes and conditions and circumstances arising, it remains steadfast in composure, allowing things to be exactly as they are with no need to change things in any way whatsoever. We can always be in that place of serenity. It doesn't leave us, we leave it.

[24:33]

And this takes us to the fourth awakening, which is diligent effort. Dogen says that diligent effort is to engage ceaselessly in wholesome practices. It is why it is called diligent effort. It is refinement without mixing in other activities. You keep going forward without turning back. So this fourth awareness obviously parallels the fourth perfection, which is virya, or the perfection of diligent effort. And since in this last week or so, we've been hearing a lot about this particular perfection and also awareness through talks by Linda Ruth and Tova and others. I'm not going to go too far into this, but I will quote what the Buddha said. He said, monks, if you make diligent effort, and by the way, when he says monks, Traditionally, he may have been speaking to the monastics that he were around him, but he's speaking to all of us.

[25:41]

So just, when you hear the word monks, it's all of us. If you're here, you're practicing in this moment. That's my interpretation. For this reason, you should practice diligence. It is like the ability of a continuous trickle of water to bore a hole into a rock. If the mind of a practitioner often becomes lazy, or slacks off from practice, it is like when a person is making a fire by twirling a wooden stick and stops before it becomes hot. Although the person wishes to make a fire, it is not possible. This is called diligent effort. So this speaks to the Bodhisattva practice of continuous, the Bodhisattva practice of continuous practice and knowing how to direct our energy. In other words, we want to make diligent efforts to, what Thich Nhat Hanh says, water the wholesome seeds of mindfulness and compassion rather than the unwholesome seeds of greed, hate, and delusion, which only cause us affliction and suffering.

[26:51]

So what do you want to give your energy to? What do you want to give your attention to? This is another key place of practice. your mind takes the shape of whatever you give attention to. So choose very carefully what it is you're giving your attention to. The fifth awakening is not to neglect cultivating mindfulness. Apparently, the direct translation of this title is not to neglect your object of meditation. In Chinese, the characters, the last characters for this phrase, consist of the word nen. And nen means now, or the present, and then second character, mind. So literally, it means the mind of now. And it is this now that can be used as an object in meditation.

[27:55]

And... our practice of zazen, of sitting meditation, is to use the entirety of our experience of now as the object of a meditation. So sometimes it's suggested you focus on a particular object. Initially, as a beginner, we might focus on the breath. Other practices may focus on a mantra or something. But in zazen, we focus directly on our complete experience of the present moment. as it's manifesting in its entirety. Now. Now. Now. Can we be that wide? Can our aperture of awareness expand that boundlessly? Dogen instructs us here to maintain right thoughts and to guard the Dharma so you don't lose it. So our diligent effort in this case is not to forget the now and to guard the Dharma.

[29:03]

Guard the Dharma in this case means to guard the truth of reality, of things as it is, as they're manifesting right now, and not let them be obscured by a fogginess of ignorance or delusion in some way. Dogen then goes on to quote the Buddha. You should always cultivate mindfulness in yourself. When your mindfulness is solid, You will not be harmed even if you go into the midst of the robbers of the five sense desires. It is like wearing armor and going into a battlefield. There is nothing to be afraid of. The mindfulness here that both the Buddha and Dogen is speaking of is right mindfulness. And right mindfulness isn't just having awareness of the present moment and the activity that's happening. because that's just actually one dimension of mindfulness. Many of you who may have studied the early Buddhist teachings, particularly the Satipatthana Sutra, the four foundations of mindfulness, in the Pali word for sati means to remember.

[30:14]

And specifically in this case, to remember the dharmas. And the dharmas here traditionally are both the mental factors that are going on as well as the true nature of phenomenon. Technically, the categorical list that makes up for all phenomenon. But I think the shorthand is true nature of phenomenon, things as it is. So the Buddha says that when we keep mindfulness at hand, it acts as armor to protect us. And it turns away any assault that we may experience by the kind of desires and delusions that arise from our five sense desires, the sense gates. And we can always, if we hold the Buddhist teachings in mind, come back to these teachings again and again, and cover ourselves with them, they can protect us. It's kind of what this is.

[31:17]

This robe is a robe of protection, right? It's literally, you know, if you will, the Buddhist robe. And I've reminded again and again, the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, hand it down to me, protect me from my own ignorance. So, from here we naturally move into concentration, which is the sixth awakening. And I think it's easy to see how this particular awareness collates to the fifth perfection, for those of us who are studying the sixth awakening. Paramitas, six perfections, which is the perfection of concentration, sometimes also meditation. So Dogen says here, to abide in the Dharma without being confused is called stability in meditation. And then he quotes the Buddha. Monks, if you gather your mind, it will abide in stability. Then you will understand the birth and death of all things in the world.

[32:19]

you will continue to endeavor in practicing various aspects of meditation. When you have stability, your mind will not be scattered. So I don't know about you, but I find that there's a lot of things that attempt to pull my mind in various directions, and in doing so scatter my attention. When we come here and we sit down on our cushion, And we are giving ourselves the opportunity to actually draw ourselves together, to draw our minds together and gather ourselves in some way. There's a word for a type of retreat that we do here called sashim, which is usually like a seven-day extended sitting period. And sashim literally means to gather the heart-mind. But we can do sashim in every moment. you know, gathering the heart and mind, and in doing so, making sure that we're not making a distinction between the external world and the internal world, internal experience.

[33:26]

Because there really is no division between this. So we have to be sure to not leave anything out. This is not about being exclusive. The Dharma is radically inclusive. So how do we practice in a way that's radically inclusive? And as we sit, and finer composure in our upright, still posture, we take a stable position in the body to support the mind to take a stable position as well. And so if the body doesn't move, then it's less likely that the mind will move. And in time, as we cultivate this capacity to just be concentrated and still, we touch something much deeper in us that is always a place of stillness and silence and subtleness. It never leaves us. Once again, we leave it. So when we get off our cushion, if we stay in contact with the depth of that subtleness and stillness and concentration, then as we engage into our activities in the world, we meet everything from that place.

[34:40]

knowing that there's no special place we need to be other than right here in touch with our own true nature, which is the same true nature as each of you have. It's no different. Wendy Lewis and Musa Makeda are going to give Dharma Talks in the next week, and they're going to talk more about this particular awakening and also perfection. So I look forward to hearing more. The seventh factor is to cultivate wisdom. Dogen says that this is to listen, contemplate, practice, and have realization. And once again, wisdom is one of the perfections. It's the last perfection. And it's the one that runs through all the others and actually is what makes them perfect or whole or complete in their own way. And so this... wisdom is pointing us to the practice of listening carefully, contemplating our experience, and seeing, through deep listening and deep contemplation, the true nature of reality.

[35:53]

And what we see is that all things are impermanent. Everything's changing, moment by moment. And as we continue to look we see that everything is dependently arisen. Everything arises together, supporting each other to manifest just as it is. No one thing arises alone. You pull up one thread, the whole universe comes up, right? And then the final thing that we see is, well, if everything is dependently arisen, then there's no separate, inherently existing self. Ooh, that's scary. What am I then? Who am I? It's kind of terrifying to think about that. And yet, even with that understanding, even in the face of that frightening truth, a bodhisattva persists, making their best effort to alleviate all beings of suffering, the suffering that comes from not seeing reality as it is.

[37:06]

not seeing how we're deeply, deeply interconnected. We're one life. This is wisdom. The Buddha said, Indeed, wisdom is a reliable vessel to bring you across the ocean of old age, sickness, and death. It is a bright lamp that brings lights into the darkness of ignorance. It is an excellent medicine for all of you who are sick. It is a sharp axe to cut down the tree of delusion. Thus, you can deepen awakening through the wisdom of listening, contemplation, and practice. If you are illuminated by wisdom, even if you use your physical eyes, you will have clear insight. This is called to cultivate wisdom. So I want to remind those of us who are studying the paramitas, that they are often spoken of as vessels that carry us across, caused from the realm of suffering to the realm of nirvana or liberation, if you will.

[38:16]

And often here you might recall that the Buddha is described in many instances as a physician and that his teachings are medicine to alleviate our suffering. And there's a figure, a bodhisattva, known as Manjushri, who sits on our altar downstairs in the Zendo and has a sword in their hand. And Manjushri represents wisdom. And the sword represents cutting through our delusions in some way. And so these are all being made referenced to here. And while the Buddha... describes wisdom as a bright lamp that brings light into the darkness of ignorance, I would suggest that ignorance is the state of having our eyes closed to what is already a bright light. So when we awaken to our true nature, we realize that all of reality is light, and as such, is unfathomably bright.

[39:27]

There is nothing we can see that isn't already brightly apparent. Everything is already glaringly bright and apparent. There was another Zen teacher I heard once say, reality always has the switch turned on. So are your eyes open? Are you awake? Can you see the brightness of the lights? here, and more so here? Can you see your inner lights, which illuminates everything? It's the same lights. The eighth and final awakening is not to be engaged in hollow discussion. Dogen's commentary here, it is to experience realization and be free from discriminatory thinking,

[40:29]

with thorough understanding of the true mark of all things. It is called not to be engaged in hollow discussions. And the Buddha said, monks, if you get into hollow discussions, your mind will be scattered. From what I understand, the direct translation for the characters here for awareness are something along the lines of not to engage in debate or discussion as entertainment. not to engage in debate or discussion as entertainment. So we're being advised to refrain from any kind of discourse that is merely play or entertainment because otherwise we're going to squander our concentrated mental energy. We'll scatter our minds and waste this precious opportunity to be awake. So the use of the word hollow is interesting here. What is it to have a hollow

[41:30]

What is it to have a full and whole conversation? And what kind of conversation would be substantial and therefore nourishing? Some Dharma teachings and even Dharma teachers advocate to only have what's called wholesome conversations and And those are conversations that are strictly about the Dharma. You don't talk about anything else, just the Dharma. That's the only wholesome conversation to have. Everything else is extra. A little radical there, right? So, in that case, what kind of discussion is hollow? Serving only as a shell, or something that is empty of nourishment. I would suggest gossip, complaining, speculation, particularly are hollow and even addictive.

[42:39]

And even more so, most of the conversations we have in our mind are hollow. The ways in which we internally gossip, complain, speculate in some way to entertain ourselves to use them to create and fashion a separate self in some way. Creating a duality. Inner chatter is almost always a form of self-speculation. I would suggest most of your thoughts are about you in some way. Check that out. So, what is it... really like to let go then of this internal, discriminative, speculative thinking, and instead to explore true silence. What is it to abide in true silence, to know true silence, to be filled up by true silence, to be deeply nourished by silence?

[43:48]

That's why so many of us come to practice and sit. It's so nourishing to just be silent and not have to explain ourselves. So we've gone through the eight awarenesses and near the end of his fascicle, Dogen tells us that each of these awakenings contains all eight. They're intertwined and they become very complex and all together they create 64 awakenings. And then when they're practiced, their number is countless. And Dogen finally concludes his fascicle by saying, these are the last words of the great teacher Shakyamuni Buddha who said, listen now monks and nuns, I exhort you, all compounded things are subject to vanish. Everything passes away. Strive with earnestness. So the Buddha's last words are essentially, I'm out of here.

[44:54]

And I'm really concerned about how you're going to live. My life is over, but now how are you going to live your life? Elsewhere, the Buddha said something more, and I'm going to paraphrase this. He said, don't look for me after I'm dead. You should be a light unto yourself because you have the teachings that will help you to thrive and awaken. They are not dependent on some guru or great teacher. We have all we need inside ourselves. Still, these eight awakenings are a set of practices that we can cultivate. We practice to develop our own wisdom, to see our own wisdom, to bring forth our own wisdom, to discover how it is we can be our own teacher. So we can be supported by teachers for a period of time through our practice and rely on them as mentors, but ultimately it's our own wisdom that we must learn to trust most and rely on.

[46:04]

Okay, so I'm going to wrap up. So here again, in a very revised nutshell, courtesy of a Zen teacher known as Karen Mason Miller, is the Buddha's last teachings on what to do here and now. Number one, want little. Suffer less. Two, be satisfied. Enough is enough. Three, avoid crowds. Be alone and quiet. Four, keep going. Don't turn back. Five, pay attention. Guard your mind. Six, meditate. or you are lost. Seven, see for yourself. Cultivate wisdom. And finally, eight, don't talk about it. Do it.

[47:07]

So once more, the Buddha's last words before he passed away, now, all of you, be quiet and do not speak. Time is passing, and I am going to cross over. This is is my last admonition to you. So I'm going to take the Buddha's advice and stop talking now. And since we're out of time and there's no time for you to ask questions, you have been saved from having to say anything yourselves. So together, we can enter into what's called noble silence. So I want to thank you very much for your being the great beings that you are together in stillness and silence. 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.

[48:11]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:24]

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