Today is the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good evening. My name is Greg Fane. I come from San Francisco Zen Center, City Center, our practice center in the city. I used to live here from 2000 through 2006. I was a monk here. Better part of six years. Six guest seasons and 11 practice periods. had many different practice positions.

[01:01]

It was my great good fortune to be the head monk, Shuso, here in 2005 when my teacher, Sojin Mal Weissman, was leading the practice period, the winter practice period that year. He says the last practice period he led in Tazahara. that was really a wonderful time and this is the first time I've spoken in this zendo since then so I'm just super pleased to be here to see all your faces and a lot of folks I know and quite a few folks I don't know but anyway welcome I just finished co-leading a workshop with Patricia Sullivan Sensei, called Meeting the Moment Fully, a Zen and Yoga Workshop.

[02:07]

So that's the reason I'm so relaxed. I almost fell asleep before I was supposed to come down here and give this talk. Yeah, it was... wonderful experience for me you know I thought after 11 practice periods I was pretty intimate with the interior of this zendo but you know there I was splayed out like this you know doing this on my back in shorts doing this pose that I insist on calling the Bada Kundalakesa. That's one of our female ancestors. It's a different perspective.

[03:11]

Staring at the ceiling for about 10 minutes. That's a new perspective on this endo. two things I want to say first the only the only agenda I ever have for giving a Dharma talk is just to encourage you in your practice that's that's all I ever hope for from giving a Dharma talk and I would like to sort of channel or quote my friend My friend and Dharma brother, Ingen Breen, says, you know, if what I'm saying doesn't really connect with you or it's not making sense to you, this is a fine opportunity for you to just practice Zazen, to sit upright, practice Zazen, you know, just let the words wash over you.

[04:14]

It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. And the second thing is I want to express my... my gratitude and appreciation for my teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman Roshi, the abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. Sojin Roshi just celebrated his 80th birthday. And we had a massive blowout. This is last July. His birthday was July 9th. We had a party on July 5th. It was like 150 people. Yeah, it was quite the birthday party, I've got to say. Really something. You know, they had these books that Michael Wenger and Max Ersteen put together this book. And there's another book that Susan Moon and Mel had put together.

[05:15]

So those books came out on the occasion. And then they were giving out these bumper stickers... at the party, the bumper sticker said, what would Mel do? I think Alan Sanaki, the vice abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, probably has some extra ones if you want one. You could ask him for one. It's a picture of Mel sitting Zazen with a question mark, and it says, what would Mel do? So what would Mel do? I recall my first guest season here in 2000. Mel came down here twice that guest season, and he kind of bookended it. He came down in May, and he came down around this time, late August. And both the talks he gave were primarily for the students. And the first one was exhorting them to practice guest season, approach it as practice.

[06:15]

And the second one, towards the end of guest season, was like, you know, hang in there. Don't give up the ship. Style of thing. I've been practicing with you, leading the workshop, but I've been here now. Tomorrow will be 10 days. And actually, I've got to say, I don't think... You guys need that kind of encouragement. It seems to me the practice here is very strong, actually. I was sewing in the dining room with Michaela around about 11 a.m. one morning. I'm doing a lot of sewing on my breaks during the workshop. Sewing with Michaela, sewing with Patricia, sewing by myself.

[07:17]

Anyway, Michaela and I were in the back of the dining room, and it was like around 11 a.m., well after breakfast time, and I wanted to let somebody know that the lights were still on in the front of the dining room. I was a physical plan manager for two years, so that's a lot of electricity. It's hard to let go of that. I asked Michaela, because I'm terrible with names, I said, who's that young man? A real serious practitioner. And Michaela says, you're not giving me a lot to go on here, Greg. And I thought, well, that's true. Because everyone's really a serious practitioner. Everyone, yeah. Who could I have been talking about? Half the people. Young man, so that could have been half the population of Zen Center. I always used to say, guest season is best season.

[08:23]

I still say it. I just said it. Guest season is best season. The thing that I always loved about guest season so much was you just sit tight, you just practice here in this valley, and this cavalcade of teachers comes through. You don't have to go anywhere. They all come here. Of course, everybody wants to come to Tassahara. All these teachers, all these guests. Of course, they're all teachers, but I mean, this past week we had Huizu Suzuki Roshi and Ajahn Amaru in the same day. My gosh. It's amazing. So a lot of people ask me, what am I going to talk about tonight? And I told them, I'm going to talk about continuous practice. I want to talk about Gyoji. This is one of Dogenzenji's fascicles in the Shobo Genzo, his life work.

[09:28]

Dogenzenji being our founder in Japan in the 13th century, beginning of the 13th century. Gyoji, as translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Mel Weitzman in Enlightenment Unfolds, they translate the title as Continuous Practice. Continuous Practice. It's the longest of the fascicles in the Shobha Genso. In fact, it's so long it's divided into two parts. Patuan and Patu. Gyoji Patu. And it consists... Primarily, there's a short introduction, Dogen's introduction about how he understands continuous practice, and then all these amazing stories. It's great to read. Our ancestry, our heritage, all these great Zen stories.

[10:26]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.76