This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Given the current circumstances, maybe turn it down a little. Given the current circumstances, It seems like I should talk about the mountain seat ceremony. Since it's looming large. I think of a ceremony as theater. And I don't mean that to diminish it. Because in a way... theater enacts an expression of being that goes beyond just words and ideas.

[01:12]

It engages. I often think of the exchange between the potential shuso and the practice-beerish leader. Part of it's scripted. Sometimes the whole thing's scripted, but something comes alive in the midst of it. So that kind of theater, something comes alive. And then in particular, Zen is the interplay between what we might call conventional or karma, reality or expression of existence, and a Buddha Dharma expression of existence. So what I'd like to do this evening would be just outline that since we're having a mountain seat ceremony.

[02:14]

Actually, we're having two mountain seat ceremonies. One stepping over, stepping across or something. I'm not sure what we're calling it. And then two... Descending the mountain. So the Abba to be, or Abbas to be in this case, will come in the door, go to the various, what we might call Dharma centers. of our mandala, the mandala of the Buddha body of the temple, the practice center. We'll go to each one of them and make a statement, a brief statement that they've written.

[03:17]

And they will go to the front gate, the front door, and the front gate. as a particular reference in a temple. And then they'll come into the Buddha hall. And then we'll all be sitting here and they'll leave. Sometimes we have an audio that goes with them and we get to hear the audio of what's happening. Or sometimes we just sit knowing something is happening somewhere. in the building. Maybe it reminds us of not, there is a significant part of our practice that's beyond our cognition. Like when we sit zazen, there's what we think is happening, and then there's all sorts of things happening that are beyond our cognition.

[04:26]

And in some ways, the theater of the ceremony is trying to connect us to that. So they'll come in, make a statement at the gate, make a statement in the Buddha hall, make a statement in the zendo, make a statement in the kaisando, go to... The hojo, as Heather was saying this morning, you can call the abbot the hojo. As far as I know, that means eight tatami room. And part of the Zen tradition in Japan, I'm not sure if it's similar in China, very well might be. the person who occupies the room, what we call the doko-san room, and literally it means the eight tatami room, the person who occupies it is called hojo-san.

[05:46]

Similar in China, when a teacher, and somewhat in Japan, When a teacher had resided on a certain mountain for a particularly long time, they took the name of the mountain, Dongshan. Took the name of the mountain that way. So when you're the abiding abbot, you take the name of the dog syndrome. Yeah. In a way, it's quite different from, you know, the word abbot comes from abba, and abba means father. And then the abbot is like the father, but the hojo sign,

[06:56]

becomes the place. Their presence and the place sort of merge. I think of it as a different sensibility. But I have heard that Roshi is a term of endearment, closer to grandpa. then father, but also with a kind of, almost like a sweetness or a softness to it. So that kind of shift. Then, you know, the ascending the mountain, Usually, monasteries, I remember, made me think of being in Europe.

[08:08]

And in some parts of Europe that were particularly Catholic, there's kind of like a church or a monastery on the hilltops. It's like the bottom land is good for growing crops. So you don't want your monastery down there. You want it up on the hill where it's not so good to grow crops. And then also, that's a little removed from the busyness of the bottomland. So this symbolism, the incoming abbot, will go to the mountain and take that as their residence. And they will become that. I think for our culture, which is so individual, the God-given right to be me,

[09:23]

Maybe it's a little hard for us to just take in, to become the place where you are. I think of writers like... Just jumped out of my head. But there's a writer who writes, Wendell Berry, who writes about... living in a place and becoming intimate with the place. And some poets also write that way. So the enactment, the person comes in through the gate, goes and acknowledges each of the places of the temple.

[10:33]

And actually, when they go up to the Hojo, there's a representative of the board and a representative of the Sangha, and they show the incoming abbot, the temple seal. The abbot's like checking them out. Is this really a temple? Just like a bona fide place? Show me the seal. And the seal represents is the seal of the temple. And then, of course, seal is in Buddhist terms. The Buddhist seal is the... the expression of Buddha Dharma that everything is. So the whole temple is expressing the Buddha seal. So this interplay between the mundane, I have heard it said that Suzuki Roshi joined his teacher when he was 14.

[11:47]

Actually, he joined when he was 12 and his parents asked him to come back home until he was older. So when he was 14 or 15, he joined him. And then they went, and his teacher became a teacher in a particular temple. And then there was some sort of disagreement with the board and the sangha of that temple, and they were asked to leave. And in his teenage years, when he was just starting his practice, there was quite a bit of turmoil. Nothing terrible, but just that kind of displacement. I've often thought, that's why he was such a resourceful and adaptable person. You know, if you think about it, Suzuki Roshi came from a small rural temple and arrived in California in the 60s, in the throes of the hippie revolution.

[12:55]

when people were, I forget the saying, drop out and drop acid. Was that it? Tune in, turn on, drop out. Thank you. And yet undaunted, he, He started a Zen center. And here we are carrying it on. And so the abbot-to-be or abbess-to-be pauses at each of those places and expresses this interplay between the conventional,

[13:58]

in the buddhadharma of that place. When you enter the gate, the dharma gate, when you enter the temple, when you enter the practice, when you enter any space, there is a potential waiting there to be affirmed. waiting there to be engaged. And all the more so when you have the audacity to enter that space as a person of rank. And this notion, we could say, this is the conventional notion. The abbess is a somebody. But from the perspective of Buddhadharma, the abbess is a nobody.

[15:05]

The abbess is simply becoming the person who abides in the room, the hojo, the person who abides on the mountain, becomes the mountain. So at each place, The abbess speaks to the conventional and speaks to the Buddha Dharma of that place. They come into the Buddha Hall. They meet the Buddha face to face. They meet the Buddha face to face in every member of the congregation.

[16:07]

They meet the historical Buddha face to face. They meet the Buddha beyond any particular form and the Buddha of every particular form. Will they take their place at that moment with that imperative before them? How will they meet it? What will they say? And we'll get to see in a couple of days. And then they carry with them a staff. In a way, we could say our whole life is a journey, is a pilgrimage from birth to death.

[17:14]

But in particular, our practice life. Each of us subject to causes and conditions. coming from a particular culture, a particular background, a particular family setting. And we go on a journey. And the staff represents the one who is on a journey, the support for your journey. And that journey goes through the building, goes through the temple, and ends up at the mountain.

[18:17]

And in a way, we all go on such a journey. The journey we go on is a spiritual journey. And in that spiritual journey, we meet the challenges of the journey. You know, in Greek mythology and somewhat in Roman mythology too, the spiritual seeker goes on the journey and runs into challenges. And... Those challenges come kind of life and death situation. And often in the epic tales of Greek mythology, they're right on the border of succumbing to the danger or the challenge. And then they reach deeper into themselves, overcome the challenge.

[19:31]

And something profound has been learned from that. So in a way, walking with the staff. And then there's one detail that before they start on the epic journey to the temple, they pause nearby and have some tea. And so I think this will happen at 3.08. They will pause. And then they will come and enact their journey here. And then they go from the Buddha Hall to the Zendo. Something's initiated.

[20:33]

Meeting Buddha face to face. Something in us is sparked. And we are enchanted by the idea of spiritual practice. And it's so interesting. Often... especially for those of us who shifted from maybe the spiritual tradition, they were born into Buddhism, which most of us were not born into. And so what is it that sparks within us that invites us and encourages us to take up this form of spirituality? that we haven't really explored yet, but we enter through that gate and we take up that journey.

[21:41]

So the Abbas is enacting that on behalf of all of us. And then what is it to meet Buddha face to face? what circumstances in your life. There's a Tibetan blessing that says, may you have just enough difficulties to spark your practice. But indeed, may you have the challenges and the difficulties that enliven it and spark it. And then the Abyss goes to the Zendo. You know, once when I was leading a practice spirit at Tassahara, I said, somewhat I thought I was kidding.

[23:02]

I said, when you go to the Zendo, here's the thing. Nobody gets out of life. I had that quoted back to me several times. The process of zazen is we undo the self. We undo the way we... are utterly bonded to it, as if this is an essential part of being alive, is to enact the notion that this is a separate being, separate from all others, and that the center of the world and what's most important happens to this one.

[24:06]

We undo that. So on our behalf, the abbess goes to the zendo and meets Manjushri, the embodiment of cutting through the entanglement of the self, the discovery of having cut through and meeting letting the world come forth and display awakening. And then the abbess goes upstairs to the Kaisando. Remember the gift that our finder gave us.

[25:15]

Being here 11 short years and dying young, 67. How did he do it? How did he set it in motion? an expression of dharma that's rippled across the world. So we bow in gratitude. We bow in amazement. We bow in a vow to continue that way. And then after all that wonderful Buddha Dharma, the abbess goes in and says, okay, show me the temple seal.

[26:21]

Let's see what you got. And as I said, this is the temple seal and this is Buddha seal. This is the suchness of all beings. This is the Mahabudra, the mandala of all beings. This is the Mahabudra, the mandala of the temple. How could it exist as a temple if it was otherwise? So in asking to see The temple seal, the abbess is asking that we all join together and display and embody and enact the practice of the temple.

[27:27]

I think that's what we're here for. If we don't have that, we're wasting our time. We're wasting each other's time. And then having affirmed that, the abbess returns to the my good and takes the final steps. Maybe the final steps the steep steps to the last part of the mountain tell us something about the steep challenges of releasing our bondage to self.

[28:35]

And then the Abbas ascends the mountain. And from the mountain top, you have a clear view. You can see a long distance. You see the big picture. In Zen, called big mind. Big mind is very similar to what Suzuki Roshi called beginner's mind. Big mind, in the awakening of Shakyamuni, when he went into the deep meditation, and then he come out of it, he could see the big picture. Oh, and then we cling, and then we suffer, and then we cling some more, and then we suffer some more. And it doesn't have to be that way.

[29:42]

From the mountain top, we see the big picture. And then from the mountain top, on behalf of us all, the Abbas expresses gratitude and thanks for the different aspects of practice and circumstances and people that allowed all this to happen. We can thank Suzuki Roshi and say, thank you for giving up your little tempo in Yazoo. and coming to the hippie revolution in the Lower Haight. Or I guess, maybe more particularly, Haight Ashbury.

[30:52]

Thank you to the benefactors who put together this temple. I once heard that of all the students Suzuki Roshi had, that ragtag bunch, only one of them had a real job. That was Della Gertz, and she was a schoolteacher. And so Della's salary was what they all kind of existed on for a while. And then they got the idea. that we'd buy Tassahara. Got the idea to buy Tassahara and then thought, okay, to buy something, you need to have money. And indeed, the money came.

[31:58]

The putting together of a temple is a kind of magic. It's not a matter of saying, well, we need a really good business plan. And we'll have to have someone do marketing and someone do advertising. Something is sparked. And we give thanks. The generosity is returned. Giver, receiver, and gift, they all embellish and support each other. So Jefferson Airplane did a big concert in the Golden Gate Park, a Zenifed.

[33:10]

created the down payment for Tassara. Anyway, that's how the story goes. I think some of it's true. But you know how stories are. They get better with time. So this magic, the particulars of this magic, the workings of this magic, the the delegirts of this magic, they're acknowledged. All of those are acknowledged. I think it's either five or seven offerings. I can't remember which. And then the abbess, Oh, I missed a piece.

[34:18]

What's called the real bond, which is the collection of the officers and members of the board. And they come in and they express their support. And because it's theater, they don't say, we support you. They enact it. They line up and then they bow and then they do some fancy move. and bow again, and then they go back to their seats. Then the expression of thanks, the offerings, and then the mondo. This marvelous way we can elicit from each other the Dharma expression, the Buddha Dharma expression. that we can sort of turn that magic that creates a practice place, that we can turn it into an exchange of expression.

[35:33]

That we can say something that has a meaning and something about it in this saying goes beyond the meaning and the words. But then, you know, each ceremony, it initiates a sacred space. Something happens within that sacred space. And then that, whatever happened, whatever merit is dedicated to all beings. And then we close the sacred space. And then usually we go have some tea or whatever the occasion presents. So then congratulations, dedication, and then the mountain disappears and

[36:50]

We act as if, well, that happens every day. Mountains appear and disappear. Mountains come and they go. They walk in and they walk out. And then we go back to our daily practice. Thank you. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[37:48]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.99