We will now begin today's Dharma Talk offered by senior Dharma teacher, Agent Linda Ruth Cutts. We will now chant the opening verse, which should appear on your screen now. An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million Kalpas. Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Well, so welcome everyone. I wanted to just note that this program will be using closed captioning. This feature is automatic and isn't perfect, but we hope it will be of benefit.

[14:41]

To enable closed captioning, click on the CC icon at the bottom of your Zoom window. If the subtitles are distracting, you can click on the CC icon to disable them. Thank you. Kogetsu, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Green Gulch Sunday talk. I've been having a little trouble with my microphone, so if there's any problem, please let Kogetsu know, Jenny knows, so that we can take care of that. I wanted to say that I was scrolling through the gallery while I was listening to the bell, and it was very nice to be able to see so many people.

[15:47]

And I realized there's someone mentioned to me how parched they feel, parched with not having contact with people. family and friends for so long. And that word really resonated with me. But we have this technology and this is the way we come together. Yesterday, I was at the no abode talk that Tenshin Roshi gave, and he bowed to each person and said their name, which is a practice. And it took a long time. There were a lot of people there. However, I know when my name was said and I bowed to Tenshin Roshi, I felt so welcomed and that just part of things and that I belonged at this event.

[16:54]

So I want you all to feel that way, welcomed, that you belong, that we're here together. The other day, actually, last week, I gave two different lectures. And the technology was a little different than this. I think it was Zoom and Facebook. They showed it on Facebook. And there was no gallery. There was no people. It was just me and my picture. And I couldn't tell if anybody was there, actually. And it was very odd, very strange. I heard people did show, but I didn't get to see anyone. So I'm very glad to see you. Today is a major holiday in the Christian religion, Easter. It's also the end of Passover, which is a major holiday of the Jewish religion.

[17:58]

And it's also this coming week, April 8th. is the traditional day for Buddha's birthday to be celebrated. So springtime, you know, for millennia, for probably as long as human beings have gathered some celebration, noting some marking of this time of year, in the northern hemisphere, this springtime, this renewal, birth, coming forth of new life. And of course, it's always birth and death. It's always the great matter of birth and death. We don't have one without the other. It's also...

[19:00]

The myth of Demeter and Persephone is the springtime where Persephone comes out from the underworld where she's been for six months and is reunited with her mother, Demeter, with great rejoicing, great happiness, and this feeling of the moistening of this parched life without connection, without contact, being separated. is part of that old myth and the ceremonies that are probably lost now that came with that myth. So I wanted to say a little bit about Buddha's birth, the story of Buddha's birth. And some of you may know this story. However, my sense is that the telling and retelling of these stories in the liturgical calendar of the year is this cyclical looking again at these stories I find important and necessary, really.

[20:19]

And we see, you know, our first take of this story of the Buddha's birth or Buddha's enlightenment or whatever the story might be, And then the next year or the next year when we're different and we've changed, the story changes. And our feeling about the story, the meaning of the story, the significance of it in our life. So many of you may know this story of Buddha's birth, but I will tell not a long, long story, but the main points of the story. Now, just a while ago, I brought up, you know, this renewal and springtime and rejoicing and birth and regeneration. And I just want to say, just as I had said, birth and death always come up together. Just to note. This spring, we have.

[21:24]

Many sad. events, mass shootings, several, many mass shootings, what's going on in Burma, the George Floyd murder trial and the re-traumatizing as we go through what we need to go through to find justice. And yet the pain and the grieving and the reopening of these wounds for for many people, many, many people around the world. And this is necessary. This is our life. So I don't want to forget that in the midst of these stories of delight and celebration. Also, the violence against Asian

[22:28]

people of Asian descent, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, which has grown exponentially in the United States and probably around the world. To note that the horror of that unfolding that we're seeing and the ignorance that surrounds all of these actions that I've mentioned and these So I don't forget that. And we can't forget that. And we're not being asked to forget that, but we hold it all. Can we hold our life with everything that it brings? So in the story of the Buddha's birth, It starts with the conception, actually.

[23:30]

Buddha's parents were Queen Maya and Shudodhana. I probably do not pronounce that correctly. His father, the king of the Shakya clan. And they were together and had not had any children. And after many years, 20 years, I think, Queen Maya... one night had a very profound, numinous dream. And the dream was that she was greeted by a six-tusked elephant carrying a lotus flower in his trunk. A white elephant with six tusks came to her, gave her the lotus flower. and then entered her right side. That was the dream.

[24:31]

And when she woke up, she felt it was an auspicious omen. And lo and behold, about a month later, she knew she was with child. And she carried this child for 10 lunar months. And as was the custom, She wanted to return to her own home to give birth. And she was walking with her retinue and while, you know, she was soon to give birth. And she stopped at the Lumbini Grove, a beautiful park. This is near Kapilavastu, Kapilavastu. in Nepal, southern Nepal. And she stopped at this beautiful Lumbini Grove, and the sal tree bent down to give her support as she was walking.

[25:36]

And she gave birth while standing there holding on to the sal tree. She gave birth to Siddhartha, Siddhartha Gautama. Now, There were many auspicious things that happened next. For one, the baby Buddha was able to walk immediately. And he took seven steps, seven steps. And then he pointed up with his right hand and he pointed down with his left hand to the heaven and the earth. And he spoke. The little baby Siddhartha Gautama said, above the heavens and below the heavens and earth, I alone am the world honored one.

[26:41]

So picture this little baby saying that after walking, taking these seven steps. And there were many auspicious omens. The world shook in many ways. Flowers rained down on the mother and child and the whole retinue. And then water, both warm and cool water, flowed from the sky to purify and wash the baby, the baby Buddha. So these were... These were the elements of this wonderful, wonderful birth, this really auspicious birth. And in our ceremony, in the ceremony for Buddha's birthday, one of the main things we do is have a pagoda covered with flowers, a small little pagoda covered with flowers.

[27:46]

and a little figure of the baby Buddha standing there with his hands. And then we bathed the baby Buddha with sweet tea. This is reenacting all these things that happened at the time of the Buddha's birth. And in the Japanese ceremony, Hanamatsuri, Hanamatsuri means festival of flowers. Flowers is one of the main parts, the main offering, lots and lots of flowers. So you might wonder, just like any story, any myth, there's layers of meaning, layers of meaning for a child and for an adult. What does this story mean? What does this mean to us? What does the Buddha's birth, coming into this world of the Buddha, how is this a meaningful thing for us to mark and remember?

[29:00]

And what do you think about what the baby Buddha said? I alone am the world honored one. that, what does that mean? I alone am the world honored one. So aside from just a spring celebration of new birth, the elements of this story resonate in different ways for me. Both in the Buddha's birth story And in the Buddha's enlightenment story, which is another kind of birth, you could say, the Buddha says, the Buddha awakens or is born with all beings and the great earth. And when the Buddha says, I alone am the world honored one, this I alone,

[30:07]

The world honored one is our own Buddha nature, our own awakened mind, which is one, where there's nothing inside or outside of it. There's nothing subjective or objective about it. It's just one. So this I alone and the world honored one is also talking about our true nature is one. One suchness that cannot be divided. And at the exact same time, at the exact same time of this limitless oneness, there is the limits of our life and the myriad appearances of this oneness. Out of this oneness comes myriad appearances, 10,000 things.

[31:13]

Each of us, everything we see, smell, taste, think, our appearances arising from this one mind, this one oneness. So all beings, when Buddha is born, It's also saying all beings are born together. Just like when Buddha awakened, all beings awakened along with Buddha. Because Buddha and all beings are non-dual. And as the Lotus Sutra says, only a Buddha and a Buddha can fathom the reality of our existence. So we are all together with Buddha, our Buddha nature. These seven steps that the baby Buddha took really means the entire universe. Some commentaries say he went in four directions with these steps.

[32:20]

And so the entire universe comes together for this to occur, and not only for the baby Buddha to appear, but for each of us and each moment. That is the entire universe coming together, being born in this moment. So the way we are together, our true form is this completely interdependent and independent. This oneness is independent. You can't compare it to anything. And at the exact same time, Interdependent with all things. Appearing and disappearing. And this bathing, you know, in the story, the heavenly beings poured down these warm and cool water.

[33:25]

And in the ceremony, we take ladles of sweet tea poured over the Buddha's head. And this kind of anointing or purifying is because things are already pure just the way they are. With all beings I wash body and mind free from dust. Pure and shining within and without. This bathing is pure. We bathe the baby Buddha because already the Buddha is pure. We're not making the Buddha pure. It's more celebrating this way that the Buddha is and our own Buddha nature is. So this is a kind of rejoicing. And the way we rejoice when babies are born, when babies come into the world,

[34:29]

there's often enormous great joy and delight. And over and over and over again, we find delight in this rebirth, new birth. Now, the Buddha came into the world because of vow. This is part of what we understand how it is that Buddhas come into the world. They don't come by kind of karmic conscious retribution or fruit of karmic actions. Buddhas come into the world out of vow. And the vow is to awaken all beings, to open Buddha's truth, to all beings, to demonstrate, display and show sentient beings the Buddha Dharma, to realize with others and to help others to realize their true nature and to enter Buddha's way.

[35:50]

That is from the Lotus Sutra, what I just mentioned. this vow to awaken with all beings and to help all beings, that is the only purpose of the Buddha to come into the world. So the rejoicing and the celebration, that's for us too, not just for baby Buddha to appear, but this vow that allowed Buddha to come into the world is to open, demonstrate, and display, have us realize and enter the Buddha way to relieve suffering and the causes of suffering. So I wanted to bring up a Zen story that has been turning for me. There's one particular part of the story that

[36:56]

when I hear it, I often, I have a visceral response to it. And I just thought I would, it came up in a class the other day, and I just thought there's something there for me right now to look at. And so I took some time with this case. Now, this case is called Feng Shui's Single Adam, which maybe doesn't sound very interesting. And it is in the Book of Serenity, as well as the Blue Cliff Record. And Dogen Zenji also collected koans. He has a collection of over 301, I think, koans that he didn't comment on, but he collected. put them together.

[37:57]

And it's part of this koan is in that collection as well. And Suzuki Roshi lectures on this. So the story is Feng Shui, who, by the way, was a teacher. He was a teacher in the Rinzai or Linji lineage, and his teacher was Nan Nuran, a great teacher in the Linji lineage. And there's slightly different versions, so I'm going to kind of put them together, but Feng Shui was giving a Dharma talk, sitting up on the dais, up on the altar, and he said, if you set up a single atom, and it's also translated as a single speck of dust, the nation flourishes.

[39:07]

If you do not set up a single atom of dust, the nation perishes. The nation perishes. This is what he said in the lecture. And then later on, Shway Do, who makes, who comments on koans and has verses of koans and is in the Blue Cliff Record, said he held up his staff. This is a teaching staff, walking staff, but teaching staff and said, Are there any patched robe monks who will live together and die together? That was Shui Do. So I'm going to say the koan again.

[40:11]

Feng Shui got up to give a Dharma talk, was on the altar, on his seat, and said, if you set up one stone, of dust, one atom of dust. If you raise it up, the nation will flourish. If you do not raise up a speck of dust, the nation will perish. And Shweido or Secho in Japanese raised his staff and said, are there any patrobe Monks who will live together and die together. So the part of the case that that last line from Shweido, this question, are there any? We're carrying his staff.

[41:12]

I think not to forget, he held up his staff. Are there any patch road monks who will live together and die together? So there's various commentary verses on this koan. And there's some in the commentary and also in another rendition of this koan, when Feng Shui says, if you raise up a speck of dust, the nation flourishes. And then there's an interspersed kind of comment. It says, the peasants, the old peasants will furrow their brows. If you don't raise up a speck of destination will perish and the peasants will rest in peace and shout hallelujah. So what is that all about?

[42:14]

So I'm and how come this is speaking to me? In the commentary, and Suzuki Roshi as well in his lecture, talks about this raising up of a speck, doing something, picking up something and trying to do something. How can we pick up a speck, even a speck of dust in oneness? How can you pull anything from whence? From where would you pull a speck if you're totally one? If the nature of reality is just one, where are there specks even? Who can pull a speck away? Who would be pulling it? So this is a kind of, you know, we can turn and look at the teachings of the absolute and suchness and

[43:23]

non-duality and there's it doesn't make sense that you can pick up a piece of dust even from where and who would pick it up in oneness however this is this is the limitless world of the absolute you know maybe the first principle however buddha nature is not just Sort of merging with that. Buddha nature is the limitless and the limited. And the limited are the 10,000 things. Each thing, which is an appearance of this oneness in that form. And if you look carefully at the limited, completely carefully, you will see that it is empty of separate self. It is completely interconnected.

[44:26]

Still, in our limited way, in our conventional life together, in our world of birth and death, we do things. Not to forget that we can't, that our doing, what is our doing? What is the true doing that we're doing? So this picking up a speck of dust, in the commentary before it, it talks about raising the banner of the teaching. This was when a teacher sometimes would come to a town who was going to be giving a talk. They would hoist up a kind of flag or banner saying, you know, the Dharma is going to be spoken here. So when you raise up a banner and say the Dharma is going to be spoken here, one must be very clear about what's happening because when you do anything, even for good purpose, for good reason, establishing a teaching, establishing, and Suzuki Roshi in this talk was from 1971, July.

[45:50]

It's the last year of his life, actually. He just had... five months or so before he died, was at Tassajara talking about the establishment of Tassajara practice and this monastery, making this monastery for Zen training. This is picking up an atom of dust. When you pick up this atom of dust, the nation flourishes and But the peasants have these furrowed brows. And Suzuki Roshi did pick up lots of pieces of dust, you know. One of the old peasants, I remember when we got 300 Page Street, I came to visit in 1970. We had gotten it in 69. And there was an older, probably wasn't all that old. He was older than me.

[46:51]

who had been a student for many years of Suzuki Roshi's and at Bush Street at Sokoji. And he moved to 300 Page Street, as did almost all the students who lived in the flats in Japantown on Bush Street and Pine Street. And this particular student, who's no longer alive, took the name Ananda. And he didn't like that we got 300-page street. It was too big. There was too many people. You didn't get to be close enough with Suzuki Sensei. He called him Suzuki Sensei. And, you know, too many rules, too many regulations. He liked it back in the day when it was just us folks practicing together with Suzuki Roshi. He would have liked not to pick up that piece of dust.

[47:52]

Then he would have been in peace. And, you know, hallelujah, it's just going along the way it's always going along. But that is not what happened, you know. And not to forget that when we pick up a piece of dust, when we try and do something, even for the best reasons, even with great intentions, even with as much wisdom as far as our practice eye can see, still the peasants may frown, and still there may be unintended consequences. There may be, even with the most sincereness, sincerity of our practice, things happen that people are not happy about. So right now, there's a lot of work being done during, you know, all three temples of San Francisco Zen Center have been closed during COVID for quarantine and with very strict protocols.

[49:10]

And now with the vaccinations and these change, there's changes. And Tassajara is closed again for a second summer. And we're discussing, there's a lot of discussion going on. What kind of Zen center are we just going to go back exactly to how things were? Was that the most beneficial for beings? For our great intention to practice meditation and study the Buddha Dharma and carry on Suzuki Roshi's way for all beings is the form of, is the speck of dust that's been raised. Maybe we need to raise up some other speck of dust or set down one speck and raise up another.

[50:12]

And there will be much furrowed brows, I think. I won't even tell you some of the things I've heard about some of the changes. That would be premature. However, if we don't pick up a speck of dust, the nation perishes. If we didn't take up our online Zoom events, all these things relationships and caring for the Sangha members and being together during this unusual time of separation, you know, it would wane. It would have waned. And who knows, you know, the damage done by not coming forth. But I think some people are not happy with all of this online stuff.

[51:14]

They want face-to-face. They want real contact. That makes sense. So there's furrowed brows and frowning. This is a piece of dust that we have raised up. And so many people have not just San Francisco Zen Center. All the groups all over the world are doing their best to continue to offer the Dharma as best we can. And of course, so many other groups and churches and temples and synagogues and non-profits of all shapes and sizes doing their best. and making that change. Or if they didn't pick that speck of dust up, the nation would perish.

[52:20]

Yeah. So this picking up dust, there's always positive and negative. There's always good and bad, beneficial and not beneficial. There's no way, you know, we wish, often we wish, can't I go somewhere, you know, where there's no, one of the koan says, where there's no hot and cold, you know, where it's just peace, you know. And that peace is, it's not that it is not found, a peace, a tranquility. a deep serenity in our life, but it is in the midst of birth and death and good and bad and Buddhist and sentient beings and mistakes. And this is the muddy water.

[53:23]

This is lotus and muddy water. There is no place we can go in our limited life, in our life of a sentient being. that is somehow outside of that. And in this, in this koan, it says that Shwedow, when he raised up his staff and said, are there any patch rope monks who will live together and die together? He And in the commentary, it says he was dripping mud and water when he said that. So he got, Shuedo got kind of right in the middle of raising up something and flourishing and not raising up something and perishing and who's happy about it, who's not happy, who is it good for, who is it bad for.

[54:29]

And he just cuts through with his staff, you know, raising this staff. Whoa! Are there any patch robe monks, meaning practitioners, really? You know, the raksu is made of patches. The okesa is made of patches. In the old traditional way of sewing Buddha's robe, that's the form. But it is a field far beyond form. It is a formless field. And in that formless field of between good and bad, leaping clear, he asks, are there any patchwork monks who will live together and die together? And that's, for me, the turning phrase for this story. This whole story, really.

[55:32]

Are we going to live together and die together? We are in the same boat with all beings. We can't get out of the boat and swim to some lovely island where we're going to be safe. Our safety is right here. in the middle practicing with all beings. And the joy, the endless joy of practicing together, the bliss body really, this is the bliss body of the Buddha, the Sambhogakaya is the practice body that's endlessly practicing in both joy and sorrow. There is, as you probably well know, to practice with someone who's in sorrow or to be practicing with our own sorrow, there is a deep, almost unnameable joy that comes there as well.

[56:42]

So in the Buddha's enlightenment story, you know, he realized his true nature saying... Marvelous, marvelous. All beings, without exception, are completely and thoroughly awakened, except they don't realize it. All beings and the great earth, nothing left out. How could it be left out of what it is? It just, it is. And he, for a while there, thought, I don't need to teach. Because all beings without exception are already awakened. Except they don't realize it, but they are. And then there was a request, you know, it says in the story from Brahma. You know, there are beings who would benefit, who have, you know, who are very close to really understanding your teaching. Please teach.

[57:47]

And the Buddha came down from the mountain. is the image and he picked up a speck of dust and the nation flourished. His coming down from the mountain to teach and to walk the earth, Roseapple Island and teach was throwing his lot in with all sentient beings who are not separate from Buddha. Only a Buddha and a Buddha together realize the true form of existence. So down from the mountain he came, picked up a speck of dust, and we've been listening and practicing and taking to heart and vowing to practice in the same way since then.

[58:49]

And our vow to keep practice that way practicing that way forever, is the Buddha body right now, right here, right now. That is the never-ending, everlasting, endless Buddha body. We are creating that together endlessly with our own practice. So, you know, the... But that is not to say that there are not the nation parishes as well. There are, you know, reading about a Buddhist country that is gunning down their children and citizenry and is heart-rending. And yet we know Buddhist countries who have

[59:50]

gone to war, who have used the Buddha Dharma in various ways that are not how it was intended, not for the benefit of beings. So when you pick up a speck of dust, the nation flourishes. And yet it doesn't mean that there's just one thing happens. And yet each thing that happens is Buddha Dharma. You know, just like in the Genjo Koan, you know, as all things are Buddha Dharma, there is birth and death, Buddhist and sentient beings, practice, realization, birth and death. There's all these things. They're all Buddha Dharma. As all things are Buddha Dharma, there's the 10,000 things. good and bad.

[60:51]

And as each of these myriad things, this is Gencho Koan, is without an abiding self, there's no Buddhists, no sentient beings, no birth, no death, no realization, no delusion. Are there any or who are the patchrobed monks who will live and die together? Are there any? May there be, may there be many, may there be endless numbers who are willing knowingly and willing, this is the Bodhisattva, knowingly and willingly pick up a speck of dust, knowing that it is not separate from our Buddha nature, but also knowing that it is not, that we cannot be outside of the truth of suffering still.

[62:21]

We have to. We have to practice for the benefit of beings. So Suzuki Roshi in this lecture at the end says it's good, of course, to establish Zen center. This was when it was. Before it was San Francisco Zen Center, it was just Zen Center. Now there's so many Zen Centers of all places all over in the United States. And of course, all over the world, there has been for millennia. Suzuki Roshi says it's good, of course, to establish Zen Center. But if you are involved in small, selfish idea, then you cannot see Buddha's face. You cannot see Buddha's face again. It is not visible.

[63:23]

We study Buddhism to have enough courage to do something with it, with people. Big mind, you know, this big mind is limitless, but we are limited. We establish our practice in the middle of our delusion. This fusion of big mind and small mind is Buddha nature. You can't have one without the other. And big mind, as Suzuki Roshi says, accepts... can accept anything, can accept things as it is. So thank you very much for your coming today and your attention.

[64:31]

And I felt the benefit of talking with you. Just your attention was beneficial for me as I turned this story with you. Thank you very much. Let us chant the closing verse. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless.

[65:35]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to be coming. I want to thank everyone for coming today. We are having our spring fundraising campaign. It's known as the Zenathon. I'll be posting a link in the chat window to the Zenathon website. I encourage you to visit the website to read stories from your friends, teachers, and fellow practitioners about the heartbeat of their practice and contribute to the Zenathon on their page. You can also make your own page and become a fundraiser too. Your generous support allows San Francisco Zen Center to keep on providing opportunities to practice together and share transformational teachings with thousands of people worldwide through our online programming and residential training. The link should show in your chat window now. We will also be taking a five minute break.

[66:40]

before returning for Q&A. If anybody needs to sign off right now and would like to unmute yourself, you can do so now. Thank you very much, Linda. You're welcome. Thank you, Emila. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Agent Roshi. Thank you, Linda. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Linda. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Linda. You're welcome. Thank you for coming. Everyone will return at 11.15.

[67:48]

Welcome back, everyone. We'll be beginning Q&A right now. If you would like to offer something or ask a question, feel free to raise your virtual hand. If you don't know where that hand is, if you look at the bottom of your Zoom toolbar, there's a reactions button. It has a smiley face on it and a plus button. If you can click on that, there's a raise hand button there. You can also send me a direct chat as well if you would like me to pose your question. And I will also look through the video feeds to see if anybody's waving their actual hand. And we'll go ahead and start. Looks like we have something in the chat that, oh, maybe. Is there a hand raise from Pamela? Yes, there is. OK. I'm so grateful that you are Zooming to us and, you know, to have this connection with you all.

[73:50]

And so my question is just, you know, when are you going to allow us to come back and have tea and wear masks? Like, I know you guys have to be so careful about your safety, but... I wondered, you know, since the research shows that outdoors with masks on can be safe, when is that going to be possible? Thank you for your question. And I can feel the parched, you know, like missing the, missing the grounds and the gardens and yes, we are, we have a health and safety committee, which has the directors of the three temples and to doctors who have been advising us all along. And we've had very strict protocols for us as well. We have silent meals masked. We have had all year, even though people are pretty much quarantined here.

[74:56]

Because of congregant housing, we've been very strict because there's shared bathrooms and showers. as the vaccinations roll out, there will be changes. I mean, we can see it, you know, it's like really down. I can't give you an actual date, but there will be these changes. It's partially, you know, we have thousands of visitors who come in and use the facilities, which in terms of bathroom facilities and sometimes wandering in places. So we have been you know, the protocols were very strict and no one has gotten sick. You know, this entire year in all three temples and surrounding housing situations, no one has gotten sick. So it's, and the fear was someone would get sick and then the entire community would get sick. So I appreciate how much people have been, you and others have missed coming out.

[76:02]

And I feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I can't give you a date though, but we're talking about having less strict protocols for us, which also has been very difficult for people living here. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We have another from Miriam. Hi, Linda. Thank you so much. I was so touched by your talk. It just was just incredible. And I was listening by writing a lot. So to just make a connection with you, it seems that the number seven seems to come across all religion. the Sabbath, Buddha, which I didn't realize that the seven steps to become a Buddha.

[77:10]

And so I was wondering if you have something to say, because even esoteric like Gurdjieff work, which I've also been involved in for many years, you know, really talks about the number seven. And so I'm interested in that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Miriam. Yes, that is this resonance between various traditions with that number and also number nine, different numbers. Buddhism, I don't know, I should say very much about seven, you know, there's There's a whole sutra of the numbers where there's one of this, two of that, three of that, four of that. And they were used as mnemonics because it was an oral tradition for hundreds of years.

[78:11]

So to remember the Buddha's teaching, there'd be the four noble truths and the eightfold path and the 12 chain of causation. And you can find all these numbers. But seven, I think you're right. I think it has a kind of numinous... quality to it, but I don't know more about it than that. Yeah. But the Buddha, we used to do a pageant every year with masks and there was an elephant of papier-mâché. And when the Buddha, the baby Buddha was born in the pageant, we had these big cardboard silver feet and we... set them down, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, as the baby Buddha stepped onto them, and there was a drum roll. It was quite exciting, actually. But there's probably more about number seven, but that's all I can say. Yeah, thank you. You said you appreciated the talk.

[79:15]

What was it that met you, do you think, in what was brought up? You know, it's sort of, I know I'm not going to say I'm a Buddha, but it's one Buddha meeting another Buddha and Buddha nature. And what is it in me that gets awakened? And it's not everything. I mean, I think that there is... the ordinary world brings us enough circumstances to awaken. And for me, I've been involved in spiritual practice for many years. I was also lay ordained by Taika many years ago. But for me, it was the loss of my husband over a year ago. And I think that what happens is something in you begins... organically to ask questions that before.

[80:19]

And I think it is this thing that impermanence comes up very strong. So I think that's what awakened in me. And it becomes more of a question. And, you know, and then we say compassion. And for most people, oh, yeah, I heard that compassion, compassion, but what it really means. So that's been my practice. So I was led through sort of a life bomb to force to awaken something in me. Yes. Yes. If that makes sense. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you. I'm going to scan the video feeds to see if there might be. Somebody else would like to ask a question. Not seeing anybody yet.

[81:43]

We have an offering from Marianne and Phil. Hello, Linda. Hi. I just want to say that I will endeavor to remember we practice. You might have to say it again. We do our practice in we establish our practice. in the middle of our delusion. When I heard that, I thought I should embroider that and make it into something and put it up in my kitchen. Is that it? We establish our practice in the middle of our delusion and it speaks to me like that. Thank you. That would be a beautiful embroidery at cross stitch. I can just see it.

[82:47]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so, we so wish to be out of delusion and be established in ecstasy or something different, you know, but actually right in the middle of delusion, that's where we have to establish. We can't get out of it. So, and I think the struggle with that, you know, is our suffering, actually, is part of our suffering, wanting it to be different than that. Yeah. I find that it gives me great relief to hear that that's how things are. Yes, yes, I know what you mean. Yeah, it's like, oh. I don't have to be running after that goal, you know, because it's right now.

[83:50]

Yeah. This is how things are and it's okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. We have another offering from Chandler. I think you're, are you muted, Jen? Hi, Linda, can you hear me? Yes, I can. So I have a question about the independence between your one's Buddha nature and the speck of dust. I was a little confused how one can be both completely enmeshed in the Buddha nature, the oneness, and then this speck of dust kind of, emerges independently and is distinct from the Buddha nature, I don't quite understand.

[84:52]

Thank you. Thank you for that question. I think you... I can't see you anymore. Your question is the question, really. It's like, how does this... how is this possible? You know, something like that. Because we talk about, you know, the absolute or big mind, let's say, and the relative and the absolute. So the relative is the speck of dust, all the myriad, 10,000 things, everything we conventionally think, do, see, smell, wish for, all of that. is the 10,000 things, birth and death, Buddhas and sentient beings, all the discriminations.

[85:52]

However, those very things, if you look at them thoroughly, you will see, we will see that they are empty of a separate self, empty of an abiding self that separates them. Their nature is actually empty of separateness. which means they are oneness. So it keeps turning. It's like you look at one and it flips over to the other, and it is a turning kind of teaching. We sometimes use the word pivot, where it pivots on itself often. And if you get stuck in one or the other, you're stuck. But it's both. both together, it's like two sides of one coin is one image. It's just one coin, but it has these two sides. So the speck of dust in our conventional life, it's all the stuff we do.

[87:00]

It's getting up, sitting, going to work, going to school. All our relationships, that's all the myriad things of our conventional life. However, those are not separate from the nature of non-abiding self and the impermanence of each of those what looks like separate things. Does that clarify somewhat? It clarifies a little bit. I would love to explore this topic more. Do you have any suggestions to investigate it? Yes. This comes up in Zen all the time in certain images like snow in a silver bowl. Do you know that image? Snow in a silver bowl or a heron in moonlight.

[88:05]

So there's poetic images that try to capture If you looked at a silver bowl that was filled with snow, what's snow and what's the silver? But there is snow and it's in a bowl. So they are two separate things, but they look like one silvery mass. Anyway, I would suggest one way to... It's all over. One book, though, is Suzuki Roshi's book called... Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. And in that book, he takes a poem that was written. I don't know the dates, but, you know, 500, 600 in China. And the poem is all about this. It's called The Harmony of Difference and Equality. That's the name of the poem.

[89:06]

And the harmony between the difference, the 10,000 things, and the equality, the fact that they're all equal in emptiness, in not having separateness, and the harmony between. So this book by Suzuki Roshi, Branching Streams, Flow in the Darkness, he did a series of lectures trying to illuminate this teaching. So that might be something you could look at. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Where are you? Are you in the Bay Area or where are you? I'm in Seattle. You're in Seattle? Yeah. Okay. Thank you for tuning in. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. I'm taking the video feeds again.

[90:16]

Well, maybe We feel complete today. Thank you for your attention and for coming to the Q&A. May you have a peaceful day today. And shall we end Kogetsu? I think that would be good. Okay. Thank you very much. like to unmute yourself to say goodbye. You can do so now. Bye, Linda. Thank you so much. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Linda. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Stay well. Bye, other Linda. Okay, I'm going to sign off.

[91:45]

Thank you, Kogetsu. You're welcome. Bye, everybody. Bye.

[91:50]

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