Good morning. We have fine weather for sitting today. Autumn cool. Cool. quiet of the morning with no birds, no frogs, just, and no bells. This morning we had a memorial service for Keizan, Joe Keen, and Eihei Dogen, and we chanted the verse section of chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra,

[01:11]

the immeasurable lifespan of the Tathagata or the eternal lifespan of the eternal Buddha, translated in different ways. So I wanted to bring that up again, talk about that chapter 16 and our practice and practice of a one-day sitting. I've been sick for the last three or four days, so I still have a little sniffle. Maybe some of you are a little sick as well. Which reminds me of the chapter 16, actually, about sick children, which I'll get to.

[02:14]

This winter, I'm going to be going to Japan for a ceremony. And this ceremony is called, in Japanese, Zuisei. And the ceremony is similar to today's ceremony. It's paying respects, paying homage to Dogen Zenji, Ehei Dogen, Daio Sho, and Keizan Jokin, and their respective temples that they established So I think many of you know a lot about Dogen because we study him, we chant regularly Dogen's teachings and constantly being brought up, but maybe we don't think we know very much about Keisan Jokin. And up in the Founders Hall, up in the Kaisando, up on the second floor, there are three memorial plaques, and the center one is Suzuki Roshi, And then we have Dogen on the right, Keisan on the left, the memorial plaques.

[03:22]

And at Tassahara, Reverend Owl actually painted portraits, traditional kinds of portraits of Dogen and Keisan, which are on the altar in the Kaisando at Tassahara. So Keisan comes as the third memorial generation after Ehei Dōgen So, Ehei Dōgen Dāyō Shō, Kōun Ejō Dāyō Shō, Tetsu Gikai Dāyō Shō, Keizan Jōkin, right? And it's said that Dōgen Zen was really spread and flourished and became one of the most popular sex of Soto Zen under Kezan.

[04:24]

So that which we know about Soto Zen maybe is more through Kezan in some ways than through Dogen actually. He founded several temples Dogen was born in 1200. He was born in 1268. And the temple that he first founded was called Yokoji. And Yokoji in 1312. And that ended up being... It burned and in different wars it was destroyed. And another temple he established, Sokoji, he only was abbot there for two years and then he gave over the... the leadership of that temple went back to Yokoji. But Sojiji became, flourished and lasted and is now with Eheiji, these two main temples of Soto Zen.

[05:33]

So the ceremony in the winter that I'll be going to, we go to Eheiji and we go to Sojiji and as I said, pay our respects. Just a little bit about Kezan. He was very involved with dreams and the spirits of the mountains and a little more, lots of imagination. In fact, he tells about a past life and he says he used to be a tree spirit. during the Buddhist time, kind of like a Jataka tale, and that he was an arhat as this tree spirit and so on. He also was very devoted to Kuan Yin or Kannon Bodhisattva, as was his mother.

[06:37]

And there's lots of stories about her praying to Kuan Yin to help her son in various ways. Well, that's just a little bit about Kezon, just to give you some, just a little more context, because we don't really talk about him. He also put together a book called The Transmission of the Light, which is enlightenment stories, and his poetry and commentary from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way down to, I think it ends, with Eijo. Maybe one more. Anyway, some of you may know that book. It's a wonderful book, wonderful Zen stories. So the chant that we chanted, the verse section of chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra is a very...

[07:50]

important chapter of the Lotus Sutra. And in it there's something that's revealed in a kind of surprise way to all the people who are listening to the Buddha teach the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha. You know, the Lotus Sutra has a very warm-hearted, compassionate spirit, even though it's talking about emptiness and you might say philosophical teachings, but it's done so with a great heart, great warmth, and positive feelings. So in chapter 16, the Buddha reveals that he is ever-present.

[09:01]

We have difficulty with this term, this word eternal. And another translation of eternal would be ever-present. So that the Buddha didn't disappear and... disappear from the earth, but is ever-present and ever-teaching, and that we, not only is the Buddha ever-teaching and ever-present, but we're all included in that, all included in Buddha mind. So this is wonderful news. So we might ask, well, what is Buddha again? I mean, who is Shakyamuni Buddha, and what do you mean ever-present? And I don't get it, and can't we just sit Sazen? I don't want to talk about this anymore. So I thought I'd go through what we chanted this morning, which, you know, if it's the first time you've ever...

[10:12]

recited it, and we recite it kind of fast, we may not understand what's going on there. So the Buddha is saying that for incalculable hundreds of thousands of kalpas, kalpas are these immeasurably long periods of time, he's constantly been voicing the Dharma and teaching millions of living beings so that they'll enter the Buddha's way in order to liberate them. And this harkens back to earlier in the Lotus Sutra when it's defined what a Buddha actually is, what an awakened one is, or how they appear in the world. And what it says in the Lotus Sutra is the one great single cause for Buddhists to appear in the world is their vow, really, and their wanting all beings to be liberated and free.

[11:25]

This is the single, one great single cause of Buddhists to appear in the world is that they want with all their hearts and minds for all beings to be free and to see awakened mind, their own awakened mind, to be able to demonstrate it, to realize it and to enter the Buddha's way. This is, you might say, a definition of what a Buddha is. How do Buddhas appear in the world? Have you ever thought about it? So this intention for beings to awaken, this intention to live for the benefit of all beings and for all beings without exception to be free, that vow, that deep burning vow is what are the circumstances for Buddhists to appear in the world.

[12:35]

So he says constantly, I wanted this for immeasurable kalpas in order to liberate all beings. And then he says, in a skillful way, I've appeared in different forms. So, you know, in our meal chant, we mentioned the Dharmakaya and the... Sambhogakaya and the Nirmanakaya. These are, kaya is body. These are bodies of Buddha. So the Dharmakaya is the truth body, which is an inconceivable body that's like space. It's formless. But it takes form as, in response to being. So whatever beings need, that Dharmakaya, or truth body of the awakened one, will take a form and meet you there.

[13:44]

And one of the forms it takes is a Nirmanakaya Buddha, or a transitional body. And Shakyamuni Buddha, you could say, was a Nirmanakaya Buddha, born, lived, taught, and died. This is a Nirmanakaya Buddha that comes and goes. Looks like it comes and goes. So, as skillful means, as a skillful way to turn people towards awakening. And this, what the Buddha teaches in chapter 16 is, for a skillful... for skill to help beings, it looks like I died, yet I am truly not, I am not extinct.

[14:47]

And I'm ever dwelling here to voice the Dharma. I forever abide in this world, using my spiritual powers so that confused living beings, though nearby, fail to see me. And all those viewing me as extinct everywhere venerate my relics, meaning there's stupas, there's Buddha figures. These are manifest forms that help us to remember. There's skillful means to help us remember and turn towards our practice. So he's calling this all skillful means. And part of this skillful means is that beings, so that beings will really yearn and long, he says, harbor feelings of yearning and arouse adoring hearts.

[16:01]

And when they become sincerely faithful, honest and upright with gentle intention, wholeheartedly wishing to behold the Buddha, not begrudging their own lives, then I and the assembled sangha appear together on Sacred Vulture Peak. This is where the Lotus Sutra was taught. So when beings long to practice and long to meet the awakened one, not outside themselves, but inside and outside, this longing to practice with all our hearts, this strong innermost desire to practice. When this is aroused and people feel this, then they will see the Lotus Sutra being preached right now, or they'll see all the assembly on Vulture Peak

[17:11]

each thing that we encounter will be Buddha Dharma, will be wisdom, Prajna. So this meets our own longing to practice and come home. And at this time, The Buddha reveals that this body is always there, this body of Buddha is not extinct. So he says, it's very interesting, the points here, I behold the living being sunk within the sea of suffering, and I do not reveal myself, but set them all to yearning, till when their hearts are filled with longing, I then emerge and proclaim the Dharma.

[18:22]

So the Buddha doesn't, we don't hear the Buddha Dharma being taught by all people. things and all beings until we want to, until we yearn and have this longing. So it's a call and response or a spiritual resonance between our own practice life, our own body-mind, and our encounter with awakened mind, of which we are a part. of which we always have been and ever will and shall be apart, but we don't realize it or know it. And in this suffering that when we feel so separated and apart, we begin to long, you know, wish for, want to meet this.

[19:31]

that which feels like we're apart from. So the Lotus Sutra is very fancy, as Suzuki Roshi says, is very fancy. And when a student said to him, that's too fancy, actually, that Lotus Sutra is too fancy with, you know, gardens and groves and pavilions and palaces adorned with every kind of gem. This is this Buddha realm. Students, when Suzuki Roshi taught the Lotus Citra, said, this is too fancy. And Suzuki Roshi said, it's not fancy enough. It doesn't get close. So that really struck me. Because I thought, I don't know what this is about. It doesn't feel like Zen.

[20:35]

I don't like it. But staying with it and him saying it doesn't even get close to this awakened universe or Buddha. When we have, it says here, unskillful actions of body, speech, and mind, it gets harder to, because of all the difficulties we have when we're unskillful or do things that are unwholesome, it gets very hard for us to hear the teaching, because we're filled with troubles and anxiety and distress.

[21:45]

And when we practice skillfully and make our efforts to practice wholeheartedly and wholesomely, then the Buddha says in this, and when we are gentle and upright and sincere, then the Buddha, to those who are ready, he describes this immeasurable lifespan that's always there. One thing that he references in this verse is in the chapter itself, which is a story which I would like to tell. It's the parable of the physician and the children, which I'll use the text but not read it word for word.

[23:00]

So in trying to describe how it is about this, the immeasurable lifespan of the Buddha, how it came to be that this way of teaching he felt was good, was helpful, is described in this parable of the physician and his children. So there once was a very notable physician And he had many children. In fact, he had 10, 20, 30, 100 children. And he was wise and skillful in healing of all sorts of diseases. And, oh, I brought my glasses, because I realized the last time I tried to read in the Zendo, I couldn't see a thing.

[24:14]

So this particular physician goes off to another country, goes abroad, has to do some traveling, and these children get into his tinctures and medicines and end up taking something that is like poison for them. And it sends them into kind of a delirium, and it says here they're lying on the floor rolling around. They've lost their senses. And right about this time, I can't see you and the book, right about this time, the father comes home from being abroad and he sees his children in all this distress, in great difficulty and pain, and he realizes that they drank this medicine, this poison. Some of them drank more than others, so some of them are not quite as...

[25:20]

out of their senses as others, but some of them are really having big problems. But they see him coming, and they realize it's their father coming from the distance, and they're very happy, and they salute him, saying, how good it is that you are returned in safety. We, in our foolishness, have mistakenly dosed ourselves with poison. We beg that you will heal us and give us back our lives. So the father who sees them in all this distress makes up these potions of medicine with herbs that have good color and scent and fine flavor and he pounds it and sips it and stirs it and gives it to them. And the children, some of them say this is excellent medicine with good color and fine flavor

[26:20]

and will take it at once. He says that to them. It will rid you of your distress so that you will have no more suffering. And those amongst the sons who hadn't taken as much of this poison, seeing that it was excellent medicine, they took it immediately and they were completely delivered from this malady that they had. And the others who had completely lost their senses, even though they saluted their father and asked him to heal them, when it came time for him to offer the medicine, they were unwilling to take it. They were that confused and that they had lost their senses. They couldn't think clearly anymore. So they were unwilling to take it. The poison had entered deeply.

[27:21]

And even though it was good medicine, they couldn't realize that and wouldn't take it. The father then reflects, alas, for these children afflicted by this poison and their minds are all unbalanced. Though they're glad to see me and asked to be healed, they are unwilling to take such excellent medicines. Now I must arrange an expedient plan so that they will take the medicine. So he says to his children, I'm old and worn out and really, really getting tired and I actually have to go to another country and I'm going to be going on another trip. The excellent medicine, I leave you here. You may take it and have no fear of not being better. I'm leaving you this medicine, but I've got to go away. I have to go on this trip again.

[28:25]

And then after he says this, he leaves. And after he's gone for a while, he sends word back to his children that he's died. This is what he cooked up. and someone, a messenger comes and says, your father is dead. Now when those sons hear that their father is dead, their minds are greatly distressed, and they thus reflect. So these are the ones who didn't take the medicine, and now they get this news, and it sobers them. They're greatly distressed, and they say, if our father were alive, He would have pity on us, and we should be saved and preserved. But now he has left us and died in a distant country. Now we feel we are orphans and have no one to rely on. Continuous grief brings them to their senses, and they recognize the color, scent, and excellent flavor of the medicine, and thereupon take it, their poisoning being entirely relieved.

[29:39]

Then the father gets word that they took it, you know. And then the father returns. And once he hears that they're recovered, he returns. This was his expedient means. This is what he hatched, you know, this plan. Because they wouldn't take the medicine, right? And they were in big trouble. So after the world-honored one, Chakyamuni Buddha, telling this to his assembly, he says, are there any who could say that this good physician had committed the sin of falsehood? And they say, no, world-honored one. So this is an instance of where, out of compassion, out of skillful, out of trying to get through in the only way that he felt would really get through to help, he told this tale, right?

[30:51]

He told something that wasn't literally true. And this is in our precepts. All the precepts are literally true. And then sometimes there are situations where We don't observe the literal meaning of the precepts out of compassion, where compassion trumps the literal meaning at times. But we have to be extremely careful about this. Out of compassion, sometimes we take what is not given. But we have to be completely clear. of our motivation. So his motivation was, how am I gonna get through to these beings? How am I going to display, demonstrate and show, demonstrate, have them realize and enter Buddha's way?

[32:01]

I'm gonna try this. So in the chapter 16, this story is then we can say, we are those children. And the Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, had all this good medicine. Shakyamuni Buddha is called the physician. All this good medicine, good, wonderful teachings of how to live our lives upright and gentle and sincere, living for the benefit of others. How do we do that? There's many, many teachings that have been left, but it's not enough to have the medicine there with beautiful scent and fine color on the shelves. We actually have to take it up, take it in. We have to take up the teachings. And sometimes...

[33:04]

We are so upset and have so much anguish that we don't know which way to turn. And even though the teachings, we're surrounded by the teachings, or we've been exposed to them, it's hard to take them up. So when we, for expedient means, the Buddha, you know, left is this early teaching that he died. When the Buddha was there and with the Sangha and with all the Sanghas, the laity and the monks and nuns, the laymen, laywomen, the four-part Sangha, he would guide and was there to ask questions and to have one-on-one conversations with or hear the Dharma in Dharma talks.

[34:14]

And things went not completely smoothly, but there was always someone there. But when he left, when he died, the teachings were left and what it says, he says, like the good physician who with skillful means in order to cure his deranged children, though truly alive, spread word he is dead, yet cannot be charged with falsehood, I too, as parent of the world, savior of all suffering and afflicted, for the sake of confused worldly people, though truly living, am said to be extinct. If due to always seeing me, their hearts become selfish and arrogant, dissolute, and set on the five desires. They fall into evil destinies. So, the, you know our own, how it is when you have someone around that you take for granted and you don't, maybe you're not so

[35:35]

polite anymore or careful with your speech because they're always there. You can always count on them. They're there. So in that same way with our relationships, when something happens, we know the preciousness of this person and this relationship and we... we want to, when we feel we're going to lose them, or that they are lost to us forever, then we remember how good they were to us, or how much gratitude, grief and gratitude, we have for them. And maybe we want to live by their, what they left us, their legacy. This may happen with parents or teachers. So now though, the Buddha That was what he offered at first, this kind of teaching.

[36:39]

And then in chapter 16 he says, but actually I am always present, ever-present, eternal. And in accord with what beings, what their salvation requires, in accord with what each of us needs, I give voice to the various teachings. And then this is the last part that's maybe the most important part of this chapter 16. Ever making this my thought, how can I cause the living beings to gain entry into the unsurpassed way and promptly get body Buddha? Ever making this my thought, these last lines, how can I cause living beings to gain entry or to enter into the unsurpassed way, into liberation, and promptly embody themselves' awakenedness?

[37:49]

This is the Buddha's constant, ever-present thought, and that is the eternal Buddha, that very thought itself. How can I... liberate all beings. So if we think of the Lotus Sutra, if we think of these stories as that there's some Shakyamuni Buddha being that somehow is beyond that won't live and die that doesn't arise and vanish or isn't a composed thing that arises and vanishes, that's somewhere lurking around in a phantasmic way. I think that's not exactly what the Lotus Sutra is saying. It's pointing to the eternal Buddha being this thought, this voicing this thought

[38:55]

how can I help all living beings become Buddha, embody Buddha? That's how Buddhas appear in the world, and that's how they continue ever presently in the world. So... This 16th chapter is recited daily in Zen monasteries in Japan, along with another chapter verse from the Lotus Sutra, chapter 25. So this, we don't actually chant it all that regularly, although I think Tenchanoshi is chanting it, reciting it at times, at one-day sittings at no abode and for these memorial services. the devotional quality of it or these stories or what it's getting at, it may not resonate with us strongly.

[40:06]

So I wanted to come back to our practice today for this one day sitting and how it relates to this chapter 16. So promptly embody Buddha to gain entry into the unsurpassed way and promptly embody the awakened one. This teaching is given to all beings. All beings are part of this teaching. And each one of us is unique and in our own Dharma position, our own... in our life, in our practice. Some of you, this is your first one-day sitting. Some of you have sat countless one-day sittings and are returning to your practice. Others of you are, this is very new and very strange perhaps.

[41:10]

So each one of us occupies completely our Dharma position and the Dharma position is the sum total, you might say, all the causes and conditions, all the circumstances of our life, everything completely right now is our Dharma position. So, in this present moment, each of us has our own particular uniqueness and our own... trials and tribulations, our own challenges that we're facing, each of us has, it can't be exchanged and it's non-repeatable and each of us has to, as Dogen says, exert fully our Dharma position, completely occupy our Dharma position.

[42:14]

occupy our Dharma position, we don't have to be smart, we don't have to be, you know, in our admonitions for zazen universal, between the sharp and the dull-witted, there's no distinction. Each person is occupying a Dharma position, a particular unique position, and at the same time that position is a Dharma position. It's empty of an abiding self, it's impermanent, and it is enveloped, you might say, in the imagery of the Lotus Sutra, we are enveloped in Buddha's heart, in the awakened heart, as Buddha's children, as the awakened one's children. We come from that lineage. We are that lineage. That is our birthright and our blood vein. Even though we think of ourselves as confused and don't know which end is up, and still we're here today practicing in this zendo, Buddha Hall zendo, and have a chance to embody, by fully exerting our Dharma position, embodying fully,

[43:55]

Actually, we can't help but embody fully. But are we wholeheartedly, sincerely, exerting fully? Are we turning the flower of the Dharma, the lotus Dharma blossom, are we turning it by fully exerting our life? The Dharma flower is turning us because we are in the Dharma world. So we're being turned by the Dharma flower and are we turning the Dharma flower ourselves? So Dogen emphasized and Zen, Suzuki Roshi and Zen Center emphasizes or the teaching at this Zen place emphasizes doing each thing completely, being present,

[45:01]

that the everyday activities of our life, of work and eating together and walking and walking meditation together and our break time and our getting a cup of tea and our resting and our zazen are all Buddha Dharma activities and all chances to completely exert your Dharma position. So we sometimes get notions of it couldn't be that, it's got to be something other than that. And we have many notions about our practice of this will improve me and make me healthier and stronger and better looking and gain more friends and influence people and fame and... all sorts of ideas about what will come of our practice, which will, I think, actually become obstacles for us.

[46:14]

So to fully exert our downward position, to fully engage in each activity of the day, not in order to get smarter or or to be the best Zen student that ever, you know, landed at Green Gulch. But because, or not even because, but this is our birthright to fully live out our life in each moment. and there isn't a better moment down the road of peace. So a one day sitting gives us a chance to, with very few entertainments and very few big complicated work projects and a lot of intellectual thinking, working things out, focusing in that way, we have a chance to embody, come into our bodies

[47:32]

and fully be present in each action all day long, in silence, pretty much silence. In this present, in our present time together, which is the everlasting, ever-present body of the Buddha, the eternal lifespan of the Buddha, is this, is all of us living out our life like this. So the kitchen is going off to work.

[48:35]

So I have various notes here about... Dogen's understanding of this lifespan, the inconceivable lifespan of the Buddha is exactly our intention to help beings completely and this intention to live out completely our life in each moment as Buddha's life. This is the lifespan of the Buddha that goes on and on. And it's ever as each new practitioner arrives and takes up the practice and each new generation hears the teaching or sees the teaching or reflects on the teaching and takes it up

[50:07]

This is renewing over and over again this eternal, eternal Buddha. So we all play a part in this. This Lotus Sutra that was composed and spoken orally and written down so long ago, 2,000 years ago or so, they were... all the compilers of it were talking to us. We live out this lifespan, eternal lifespan, through our wholehearted, sincere love. minded devoted practice it's not some story it's our story so

[51:34]

I got a call just the other day, Reb Tensioner, she was at the airport, and he said, it was just a message, he said, I just heard that somebody on the radio maybe said that the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who, if everyone lived by that book, then the world would be okay or we'd all be saved or something. That was this message I got. So I just happened to have a copy of Horton Hears a Who. Just happened to. This is the party edition. I guess it's because it's all kind of fluorescent or something. Do you know this book, Horton Hears a Who? Do some of you not know this book? You know of it? Sabine, you don't know it? Who else doesn't know it? What time is it?

[52:44]

Five after 11. Would you like to hear Horton Hears a Who? Or some of it? You know, recently I was at Tassar and somebody who was in a practice period with me a number of years ago said, I didn't really like your teaching. All you did was read children's books all the time. And I remembered that practice period. I read another Horton story. It was Horton Hatch is an Egg. Please make yourself comfortable It's maybe a little bit long, but how can you skip it? How can you skip parts of this? Are you, do you really want to, who's, yes, yes, I should do this, okay. On the 15th of May in the jungle of Newell, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing, enjoying the jungle's great joys when Horton the elephant heard a small noise. So Horton stopped splashing and he looked toward the sound. That's a funny thought, Horton.

[53:44]

There's no one around. Then he heard it again, just a very faint yelp, as if some tiny person were calling for help. I'll help you, said Horton, but who are you? Where? He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there but a small speck of dust blowing past through the air. It's a little tiny dust. You can't see the pictures here. I say, murmured Horton, I've never heard tell of a small speck of dust that is able to yell. So you know what I think why? I think that there must be someone on top of that small speck of dust, some sort of a creature of very small size, too small to be seen by an elephant's eyes. Some poor little person who's shaking with fear that he'll blow in the pool. He has no way to steer. I'll just have to save him because after all, a person's a person no matter how small. So gently and using the greatest of care, the elephant stretched his great trunk through the air and he lifted the dust back and carried it over and placed it down safe on a very soft clover.

[54:51]

Humph, humph, the voice, twas a sour kangaroo. And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, Humph, too. Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin. A person on that, why, there never has been. Believe me, said Horton, I tell you sincerely, my ears are quite keen, and I heard him quite clearly. I know there's a person down there, and what's more, quite likely there's two, even three, even four, quite likely, family for all that we know, a family with children just starting to grow. So please, Horton said, as a favor to me, try not to disturb them. Just please let them be. I think you're a fool, laughed the sour kangaroo, and the young kangaroo in her pout said, me too. You're the biggest blamed fool in the jungle of Newell, and the kangaroos plunged in the cool of the pool. What terrible splashing, the elephant frowned. I can't let my very small persons get drowned. I've got to protect them. I'm bigger than they." So he plucked up the clover and hustled away.

[55:58]

Through the high jungle treetops, the news quickly spread. He talks to a dust speck. He's out of his head. Just look at him walk with that speck on that flower. And Horton walked, worrying almost an hour. Should I put this speck down? Horton thought with alarm. If I do, these small persons may come to great harm. I can't put it down, and I won't. After all, a person's a person, no matter how small. Then Horton stopped walking. The speck voice was talking. The voice was so faint he could just barely hear it. Speak up, please, said Horton. He put his ear near it. My friend, came the voice. You're a very fine friend. You've helped all us folks on this death speck no end. You've saved all our houses, our ceilings and floors. You've saved all our churches and grocery stores. You mean, Horton gasped, you have buildings there too? Oh, yes, piped the voice, we most certainly do. I know, called the voice, I'm too small to be seen, but I'm mayor of a town that is friendly and clean.

[57:04]

Our buildings to you would seem terribly small, but to us, who aren't big, they are wonderfully tall. My town is called... Whoville, for I am a who, and we who's are all thankful and grateful to you. And Horton called back to the mayor of the town, you're safe now, don't worry, I won't let you down. But just as he spoke to the mayor of the speck, three big jungle monkeys climbed up Horton's neck. The Wickersham brothers came shouting, what rot, this elephant's talking to who's who are not. There aren't any who's, and they don't have a mayor, and we're going to stop all this nonsense, so there. They snapped Horton's clover. They carried it off to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff, a mighty strong eagle, a very swift wing, and they said, will you kindly get rid of this thing? And before the poor elfin even could speak, that eagle flew off with the flower in its beak.

[58:10]

All that late afternoon and far into the night, that black-bottomed bird flapped his wings in fast flight, while Horton chased after with groans over stones that tattered his toenails and battered his bones and begged, please don't harm all my little folks who have as much right to live as us bigger folks do. But far, far beyond and that eagle kept flapping and over his shoulder called back, quit your yapping. I'll fly the night through. I'm a bird. I don't mind it. And I'll hide this tomorrow where you'll never find it. And at 6.56 the next morning he did it. It sure was a terrible place that he hid it. He let that small clover drop somewhere inside of a great patch of clovers a hundred miles wide. Find that, sneered the bird, but I think you will fail. And he left with a flip of his black-bottomed tail. I'll find it, cried Horton.

[59:21]

I'll find it or bust. I shelf on my friends on my small speck of dust, and clover by clover by clover with care he picked up and searched them and called, Are you there? But clover by clover by clover he found that the one that he sought for was just not around, and by noon poor old Horton, more dead than alive, had picked, searched, and piled up 9,005. Then on through the afternoon, hour after hour, till he found them at last on the three millionth flower. My friends, cried the elephant, tell me, do tell. Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well? From down on the speck came the voice of the mayor. We really had trouble much more than our share when that black-bottomed birdie let go and we dropped. We landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped. Our teapots are broken, our rocking chairs smashed, and our bicycle tires all blew up when we crashed.

[60:24]

So Horton, please, pleaded that voice of the mayors, will you stick by us hooves while we're making repairs? Of course, Horton answered, of course I will stick. I'll stick by you small folks through thin and through thick. Hump, humped a voice. For almost two days you've run wild and insisted on chatting with persons who've never existed. Such carings on in our peaceable jungle. We've had quite enough of your bellowing bungle. And I'm here to state, snapped the big kangaroo, that your silly, nonsensical game is all through. And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, me too. With the help of the Wickersham brothers and dozens of Wickersham uncles and Wickersham cousins and Wickersham in-laws whose help I've engaged, you're going to be roped and you're going to be caged. And as for your dust speck, ha, that we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of basil nut oil. Boil it, gasped Horton.

[61:26]

Oh, that you can't do. It's all full of persons. They'll prove it to you. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, Horton called. Mr. Mayor, you've got to prove now that you really are there. So call a big meeting, get everybody... Make everyone out. Make every who holler. Make every who shout. Make every who scream. If you don't, every who is going to end up in a basil nut stew. And down on the dust back, the scared little mayor quick called a big meeting in Whoville Town Square. And as people cried loudly, they cried out in fear, we are here, we are here, we are here, we are here. The elephant smiled, that was clear as a pillow. You kangaroo surely heard that very well. All I heard, snapped the big kangaroo, was the breeze and the faint sound of wind through the far distant trees. I heard no small voices and you didn't either. And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, me neither.

[62:28]

Grab him, they shouted, and cage the big dope. Lasso his stomach with ten miles of rope. Tie the nut's tight so he'll never shake loose. Then dunk that dumb speck in the beazelnut juice. Horton fought back with great vigor and vim, but the Wickersham gang was too many for him. They beat him, they mauled him, they started to haul him into his cage, but he managed to call to the mayor, don't give up, I believe in you all. Person's a person no matter how small. And you very small persons will not have to die if you make yourselves heard. So come on now and try. The mayor grabbed a tom-tom. He started to smack it. And all over Whoville they whooped up a racket. They rattled tin kettles. They beat on brass pans, on garbage pail tops, and old cranberry cans. They blew on bazookas and blasted great toots, on clarinets, oompas and bumpas and flutes. Great gusts of loud racket rang high through the air. They rattled and shook the whole sky, and the mayor called up to the howling mad hullabaloo, "'Hey, Horton, how's this?

[63:37]

Is our sound coming through?' And Horton called back, "'I can hear you just fine, but the kangaroo's ears aren't as strong quite as mine. They don't hear a thing. Are you sure all your boys are doing their best? Are they all making noise? Are you sure every who down in Whoville is working quick? Look through your town. Is there anyone shirking?' Through the town rushed the mayor from the east to the west, but everyone seemed to be doing his or her best. Everyone seemed to be yapping or yipping. Everyone seemed to be beeping or beeping, but it wasn't enough. All this ruckus and roar, he had to find someone to help him make more. He raced through each building. He searched floor to floor. And just as he felt he was getting nowhere and almost about to give up in despair, he suddenly burst through a door and that mayor discovered one shirker quite hidden away in the Fairfax apartments, apartment 12J. A very small, very small shirker named Jojo was standing, just standing and bouncing a yo-yo, not making a sound, not a yip, not a chirp.

[64:42]

And the mayor rushed inside and he grabbed the young twerp and he climbed with the lad up the Eifelburg Tower. This, cried the mayor, is your town's darkest hour, the time for all whose who have blood that is red to come to the aid of their country, he said. We've got to make noises in greater amounts, so open your mouth, lad, for every voice counts. Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top, the lad cleared his throat, and he shouted out, Yap! And that yop, that one small extra yop, put it over. Finally, at last, from that speck on that clover, their voices were heard. They rang out clear and clean. And the elephant smiled. Do you see what I mean? They proved they are persons no matter how small. And their whole world was saved by the smallest of all. How true. Yes, how true, said the big kangaroo. And from now on, you know what I'm planning to do?

[65:44]

From now on, I'm going to protect them with you and the young kangaroo in her pouch said me too from sun in the summer from rain when it's fallish I'm going to protect them no matter how smallish so Would anybody like to ask a clarifying question of sorts? Yes, Jane? Yes, I bet it does. Did you hear what Jane said? Does who mean world honored one? The world honored one, all the who's down in Whoville.

[66:48]

It reminded me of politics and voting. One more vote. Yes. Did you hear what Jackie said? It reminds me of politics and voting. So if it matters to you, if things matter to you, then we, in Whoville, we have to... have our voices be heard. And if it matters to you enough, then, you know, you get other people to make a big ruckus, you know. Gather people. Yes, Jacob. Yeah. Yeah.

[68:16]

So they're very manipulative and controlling. This is our jungle and we don't like people like you who seem to be not like us acting that way. And so we're going to stop you rather than there wasn't much of a learning conversation going on, curiosity. What's... What is it? What's going on? It was that strange. I don't like it. It's not what I'm used to. And we're going to take it into our own hands. You know, we're going to... This happens to Horton. You know, he's very... Horton in his other story also is very, very sincere, big heart. And he doesn't get involved with what... You know, he makes a promise or he says, I'll protect you. I'll help you. It's like bodhisattva vow. I'll protect you. And then as soon as you say that, as soon as you make a vow of that magnitude, it almost constellates sometimes a testing of it.

[69:23]

So he didn't give up, even though they mauled him and hauled him away. And that... impossible task of finding the clover in the 100 miles of clover. He was not going to give up. You know, this is the inconceivable, you know, this is a kind of what vows feel like, you know, in a children's story anyway. Yeah. And how often do we disregard someone or try to change them? Even in our political discussions, we might feel someone is has lost their senses or something, you know, but how do we, what is it, where did that decision come from? Is there fear? Are they afraid? What's going on that they would be thinking and talking that way, you know? Do we get, do we come together with them? Are we able to or do we just, you know, write them off?

[70:29]

exhibited the importance of listening. Yeah. Yeah, he heard something and trusted himself and continued to listen. Yeah. And for us, this practice of listening and listening deeper than what the words are saying, you know, listening for the meaning behind the words. Sometimes people say something, but what you really hear, even though the words are saying something else, the words are saying one thing, but what you hear is, I'm afraid, I'm angry, I'm desperate, or something else. Fu mentioned this in her lecture yesterday when she got angry at Sabrina, And then Sabrina, who was listening, I think, said, this is not about me, this is about grace.

[71:43]

You're angry. You know, she heard the meaning. The meaning was not in the words. And I think she responded to what was really going on. So we can do that if we don't get, if we're really listening. Yes. Yes. I think Horton has a very pure spirit.

[72:48]

He doesn't get involved with, well, since you treated me that way, actually, I'm going to take care of it. He has no time for that. It's just caring for this being. If anybody else wants to help, great. Even though they were misguided and deluded, when they're ready, it's... He doesn't get sidetracked from his kind of vow. He's devoted to them too. He says, please don't hurt this. He doesn't say, get your filthy hands off me. He says, watch out, don't do anything. And then doesn't pay back. This is maybe very developed, quite a developed person in that way. almost, you might say, stupid. You might say, well, wait a minute, he should sue.

[73:49]

That was assault and battery there. He could get something out of this, but he's uninterested in that. He's just very related to all beings, even the ones that... It's like the Lotus Sutra. It's like the... Sudhana, I think his name is in the Lotus Sutra, never disparage. And when people throw things at him, he just gets outside of the distance where they can hit him with the pot shards, and just says, I love you, or you're going to be Buddha, you're going to be Buddha, and kind of runs away. He does not get angry. He just says, in time, you'll understand. So I think Horton's like that too. Say that again? That manifestation is needed. Yeah, yeah.

[74:51]

And there's sometimes Buddha takes any form that's needed. Sometimes it's necessary to say, and we need insurance money. It's not like, okay, it's all... That's also... Everything's possible. It's not that you have a formula and you're always... Pollyanna are always one way. You have to be skillful and respond appropriately. But what's the motivation of that response? Where is it coming from? Yes? Yes, the Heart Sutra this morning that we... Say the last part again.

[76:01]

Yes. you were listening very carefully to those two teachings. The etymology of the word attain actually is to touch. So in the Heart Sutra, the thrust of the Heart Sutra and the teaching of the Heart Sutra is about the ungraspability of of things that you can't actually grasp or attain anything and have it. And I don't remember what I read this time, but attain can also mean accomplish or touch something. So I'm not sure exactly. But to attain Buddhahood would be to touch the realization that there is nothing to grasp or that there is nothing to attain really.

[77:12]

So, you know, the words depending on the audience and depending on like what we read this morning, the Heart Sutra came before the Lotus Sutra, actually, so their teaching is one way and then it turns at a different time and words are used expediently, you know, they're used according to the conditions, according to the circumstances. But for you to have picked that up, that something spoke to you there, about attainment or not attainment or your life, if there's attainment issues, you know, in your life or not, or somehow that spoke to you. So that's the most interesting thing to me, actually. Thank you. Yes. Yes, so where does it say attain?

[78:18]

Oh, let go of the attainment. Well, there it is. So it's got, therefore the Zen master Lung Ya said, those who in past lives were not enlightened will now be enlightened? Is it right there? And let go of the attainment. It's, we'll attain it and let go of the attainment. That's like the Buddha... going up to the mountain and then coming down to teach. You don't hold on to it and refer back to these past things. You let go. Did you find it, Jeremy? We're revering Buddhas and ancestors. We are one Buddha and one ancestor, awakening Bodhi mind. We are one Bodhi mind. Because they extend their compassion to us freely and without limit, we are able to attain Buddhapath and let go of the attainment. So... This vow, this what we just read is Dogen Zenji, actually, his vow, the vow of the high priest Dogen.

[79:21]

And it's... He's... It's really Lotus Sutra, actually. It's this eternal life of the Buddha. that we are one Buddha ancestor, revering Buddhas and ancestors, we are also Buddha's body, embodying the Buddha, making these practices of devotional practices, wholehearted exertion of our own Dharma position is touching the Buddha body and not holding onto it and letting go of that. I think that, yeah. So it wasn't Heart Sutra where they talk about attainment as well. A lot of attainment and no attainment, yeah. Maybe one more? Would you consider Dr. Seuss and Bodhisattva?

[80:25]

I think Dr. Seuss devoted, is he alive still? I think he just, he died recently, didn't he? Yeah. Devoted himself to helping helping children and parents open to their own compassionate hearts. And I think all his books, and also against war, and they have a loving heart to them. So I think bodhisattvas take any form, and to be a children's book writer and wonderful versifier and illustrator is... you know, to be a writer and an artist is a form of a bodhisattva, can be, yeah. I heard that, I guess his real name was Theodore or something, that he went to 26 publishers before he found one that was published.

[81:31]

Just like Horton, did you hear that, what James said? He went to 26 publishers before his first book, which was... To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, I think was his first book, and To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which I had as a kid, it's a good one. It's still in print. You can still get it. That's great. That's a great, just like Horton, you didn't give up. Thank you all very much.

[81:59]

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