Good morning. So I'm here today to talk about a book that I translated in Japan, which was just published by State University of New York Press called Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community. And I want to talk about the teaching in this book and give a little background, talk about some of the things I talk about in the introduction here, and do some reading from the text. So in terms of background, first let me ask, how many are at Zen Center for the first time this morning? Great. And how many have never heard a Buddhist talk before? And I know a lot of you have lived here or at Green Gulch or Temple on Morin or at Tassahara

[01:00]

Monastery in the mountains in Monterey, or have done Sesshin, intensive meditation periods here or at other places. So for those of you who don't know who Dogen is, first of all, he's the founder of the branch of Zen which we do here. He's the founder in Japan of that branch of Zen, which Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese Soto Zen priest brought to America in the 60s and lived here until he died in 1971. So Dogen was a remarkable man. He lived in the 13th century and was a monk who went to China to study and brought back the tradition of what's called in Japanese Soto Zen to Japan and founded a temple there and is now considered the founder of this branch of Zen Buddhism, although he didn't

[02:04]

like the word Zen, much less Soto Zen. He said he was just doing Buddhism. Anyway, he also wrote a tremendous amount of, maybe more than any other Zen master. He wrote very prolifically and it's very powerful writing from that place of Zen awareness and awakening, Buddhist awareness and awakening. And a lot of his writings we're familiar with that are more philosophical. So his writings actually were almost unknown until this century, even though he lived in the 13th century, 1200 to 1253. Only a few Soto Zen priests knew about his writings until this century, but now he's very well respected, not just by Buddhists, but by philosophers and Japanese, people interested in Japanese literature. Anyway, this particular book is his book about practice in the community.

[03:05]

So this book is about what we call Sangha. In Buddhism, there's the Buddha, which is the awakened one or the possibility of awakening in all of us. And there's the Dharma, which is the teaching or just the reality of awakening and the teaching about how to align ourselves with that. And then Sangha is the community. And we can see that very widely. We can see the community of all beings. So we are actually, in a way, practicing with everything in the whole world. Everybody we've ever known or will know is right here in this room with us. But there's also a narrower way to talk about Sangha, which is the community of practitioners. And traditionally, in this tradition in China and Japan, that was kept alive in monasteries. There were also lay people who practiced. But the monastic standards and the monastic procedures were very important in keeping alive this teaching. So this book is about Sangha on all those levels.

[04:12]

So, actually, when he first came back from China in his late 20s, Dogen just wrote about Zazen, about the meditation we do here, and how that helps us to awaken with all beings, how that is an expression of that basic awakening. Then later on in his career, he left the area of the capital of Kyoto and went to the north way up in the mountains. It was quite remote, still is, but then even more so, and founded the temple Eiheiji, which is still one of the two main headquarters temples for the Soto branch of Zen. And a lot of his later writings are more addressed to the monks at that temple and talk about the monastic practice and the procedures for how we practice together in community. So that's what this book is from, those later writings. So, there are several different essays in here.

[05:19]

The first is, some of you may have read the Tenzo Kyokan, the instructions for the Tenzo, who is the head cook, the chief cook, in the temple or monastery. And it's a very important position in Zen, considered as important as the abbot, really. It sets the tone for everything we do in the temple, practicing together. So, Dogen paid a lot of attention to the particular positions, responsible positions of the people who are taking care of the temple. So, the first essay is about the head cook. The last essay, which is almost half the book, is the standards for the temple administrators. And he talks about many different positions, the director, the ino, the head of the meditation hall, as well as the head cook, and also the work leader. And then he also tells stories about some of the other positions, the rice, the person in charge of the rice, and the mill manager, and the garden manager.

[06:21]

So, he talks about all of the different positions of people living and practicing together in the community. So, this is interesting for us because how Dogen brought this tradition from China to Japan, and now we are embodying it and trying to, every day, bring it to life in our lives here in America. So, it's another big transition for us. So, Dogen is very relevant to us. He was working with a transition, and we're working with even a bigger transition. So, some of the things that Dogen talks about maybe don't apply exactly to us in some ways. It's actually an issue in the book, and it's an issue for Dogen, too. So, the middle several sections talk about the monastic forms. The second essay is about the procedures in the monk's hall.

[07:24]

So, we have a meditation hall downstairs, which is similar to what he talks about in some ways as the monk's hall, but in the monastery, the monks, as well as sitting and eating at their place in the meditation hall, as well as we do during some intensive practice periods or week-long sittings. They also slept in the meditation hall. So, at Tassajara, our monastery in the mountains, we don't sleep in the meditation hall. Everybody has cabins. And part of this, which I'll talk about more later when we get into some of the stories, has to do with the inspiration that feminism has given to American Buddhism. So, we have men and women practicing together. In fact, maybe there are more women than men practicing Buddhism. Some of the small groups I go to talk to, they're 80% women. So, sleeping together in the meditation hall doesn't quite work. Although one of the monasteries I practiced at in Japan, they divided it up. This was a monastery that Kategiri Roshi, some of you know, helped found in Japan

[08:28]

for Japanese and American monks to practice together. So, the American women practitioners who came slept on one side of the meditation hall and slept on the other. But that was kind of a big innovation for the Japanese. So, this instructions for the meditation hall talks about great detail about how to be in the meditation hall, how to get up off the sitting platform, what direction to turn, which hand to use when you're picking up your meal bowls. And then the second essay after that talks about the eating practice. So, we do a modified version of what Dogen talks about, the eating practice. We have a system of bowls called oryoki wrapped in cloth and that we set out in front of us as we're sitting in the meditation hall and some of us serve the others and we eat together in this very, very formal way. And Dogen's essay talks about this in great detail. And these parts of Dogen's writings, I know some students who think of this as kind of obsessive compulsive

[09:36]

or anal retentive or he's very fussy. But there's a deep reason for these forms. So, it's not a matter of doing the forms right or wrong. It's a matter of taking on some structure to help us see ourselves. So, Ed Brown, one of the forwards in this, points out that Westerners have this feeling of wanting to be free as freedom from forms and freedom from structures, freedom to be neurotic, freedom to be disordered, freedom to not have any order. Whereas in Buddhism, we think of freedom as freedom to be ourselves, to be awake as ourselves in the middle of structures, in the middle of forms. And actually, we're always living in structures and forms. Having no structures and having no forms is just another kind of structure, right? So, all of these practices for the monastic community were mindfulness tools.

[10:36]

How do we move together in a zendo? How do we eat together quietly, efficiently, to nourish ourselves, to practice Buddha's way together? So, all of these forms are tools to make us more aware of ourselves and to kind of harmonize together. So, we follow some of those forms, the ceremonies that you see here, how we bow and when we bow. Ceremonies here all come out of this kind of tradition of monastic forms, and we have to adapt them somehow. And Dogen talks about this too. We use chopsticks, because the Japanese and Chinese used chopsticks. And maybe some people now in America are using forks. But Dogen talks about how in India, Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who lived 2,500 years ago in northern India, they used their fingers. They didn't have chopsticks in India.

[11:40]

And Dogen says, well, maybe we would like to use our fingers the way Buddha did, but we don't know how to do it properly. So, we use chopsticks. So, in the same way, maybe someday Americans and students will use forks in the meditation hall. There's other kinds of transformations which are deeper in a way than that. The Indian Buddhist monks were not allowed to do agriculture. Because they had this feeling of the sanctity of life, and if you are plowing, you will kill worms and bugs and so forth. So, the Indian monks did not do any agriculture. And Dogen quotes one of the Indian procedures, one of the Indian rules about this, several pages after he talks about the Chinese form of the garden manager and talks about how wonderful a practice that is. So, in China, they started doing agriculture. They started farming, as we do now at Green Gulch, to help sustain themselves.

[12:43]

And as practice, as a way of enacting Buddha's way in our daily lives. So, maybe we can talk more about this side of the forms, a little more in the discussion. Oh, one other thing I was going to say is that one of the forms that Dogen talks about is in the morning, in the monastery, washing your face and brushing your teeth. And he actually made a major contribution to all of Japanese culture by introducing morning face washing and teeth brushing. People didn't brush their teeth, I guess, before Dogen, or not much. And he made it into a daily ritual, and it's a very formal ritual, and you say a certain thing beforehand. And on my first morning in one of these sodos, one of these meditation halls where you sleep and sit at your place, the teacher had another monk show me how to wash my face first thing in the morning.

[13:45]

And there's a particular ritual way to do it in a kind of towel that wraps up your robe sleeves, and there's a particular way to do it, and it was quite wonderful. So that's one side of what this book talks about, but then there's also the deeper level of what is the purpose of spiritual community. So that side applies to us even if we are just sitting at home or coming occasionally and sitting or hearing a talk at a meditation hall, at a meditation temple, whether or not we're residents in such a place as this, which we may do for some short period. But this deeper meaning of what is our purpose as Sangha is really Dogen's main interest in this book. So a lot of the procedural things he quotes verbatim from his Chinese sources, from the Chinese manuals about what the monks should do. He just quotes them verbatim, and sometimes he adds some things. But my feeling is that his main interest is what is the psychology, what is the kind of spiritual purpose and meaning of practicing together.

[14:56]

So one way of talking about this is that when Buddha awakened, he saw that all beings are Buddha nature. All beings have this possibility of opening, but of course we know in our world today and in the world for the last 2500 years that there is a lot of cruelty and horrors and difficulties and that we don't realize that we're all awakened. Many people don't think in terms of helping each other, sharing together. People think about how to get more for myself and do unto the others before they do unto you and that kind of thing. But all through the history of the last 2500 years in Asia, there has been this Buddhist community, and it's been a kind of counterculture, a kind of contrast to the usual way things are. So this is what we are too here. We're an alternative, another way of being, another way of living.

[15:59]

So this is the tradition we're continuing. How do we express Buddha's awareness in our everyday activity? It's not about becoming somebody else or going to some other country or wearing funny clothes, but how do we just meet ourselves fully in our daily life, and how do we help each other to do that? So in the last section, the Standards for the Temple Administrators, Dogen gives a series of koans or stories, teaching stories about some of the old Zen masters and particularly about people he thought of as great examples of the head cook or the director or various other positions. And then he gives instructions for each of those positions. So it's also important to see that that actually applies to all of us, the attitudes he's talking about.

[17:03]

In the very beginning of the instructions for the tenzo, for the head cook, he says, from the beginning in Buddha's family there have been six temple administrators. They are all Buddhist children, and together they carry out Buddha's work. So there's a particular one of the systems of one of the ranks of administrators, there's six people, the director, the assistant director, the treasurer, and those used to be one, just the director, then the head cook, the ino, the head of the meditation hall, and the work leader. But what he's saying is that they are Buddhist children, they are all Buddhist children, and together they carry out Buddha's work. So that actually applies to all of us. So when we take on Buddhist practice, when we take on trying to really be ourselves, when we take on trying to express, not trying to, when we just do it, when we express our possibility of opening our Buddha nature in our everyday activity,

[18:07]

we are Buddhist children. So I want to read some of what Dogen says about the attitude towards this, and then I'll read some of these stories. So this is from the instructions to the head cook. He says, choose and take care of the ingredients for the soup greens. Do not comment on the quantity or make judgments about the quality of the ingredients you obtain from the director. Just sincerely prepare them. Definitely avoid emotional disputes about the quantity of the ingredients. All day and all night, things come to mind and the mind attends to them. At one with them all, diligently carry on the way. So that's great instruction for just everything in our life. All day and all night, things come to mind and the mind attends to them. At one with them all, diligently carry on the way. He says, even when you are making a broth of coarse greens, do not arouse an attitude of distaste or dismissal.

[19:13]

Even when you are making a high quality cream soup, do not arouse an attitude of rapture or dancing for joy. If you already have no attachments, how could you have any disgust? Therefore, although you may encounter inferior ingredients, do not be at all negligent. Although you may come across delicacies, be all the more diligent. Never alter your state of mind based on materials. People who change their mind according to ingredients or adjust their speech to the status of whoever they are talking to are not people of the way. A little further on, he says, sort of on the same topic, cooking so-called rich, creamy food is not necessarily superior. Cooking plain vegetable soup is not necessarily inferior. When you are given plain vegetables to prepare, you must treat them the same as rich, creamy food with straightforward mind, sincere mind, and pure mind. The reason is that when they converge in the pure, great ocean assembly of Buddhadharma, the Buddhist teaching,

[20:20]

you recognize neither rich, creamy tastes nor the taste of plain vegetables, but only the flavor of the one great ocean. Furthermore, in developing the buds of the way and nurturing the womb of sages, rich, cream and simple vegetables are the same, not different. There is an old saying that a monk's mouth is like an oven. So I commend that to you as a wonderful teaching. A monk's mouth is like an oven. Monks are cooking Buddha. We should understand this, reflect that simple vegetables can nurture the womb of sages and develop the buds of the way. Do not see them as lowly or worthless. A guiding teacher of humans and celestial beings benefits them with plain vegetables. One also should not see the assembled monks as good or bad or consider them as elder or younger. Even oneself does not know where the self will settle down. How could others determine where others will settle down? How could it not be a mistake to find others' faults with your own faults?

[21:23]

Although there is a difference between the senior and the junior and the wise and stupid, as members of Sangha they are the same. Moreover, the wrong in the past may be right in the present. So who could distinguish the sage from the common person? So always we are making judgments and discriminations. This is what our mind is. We judge good and bad and right and wrong and left and right and make all these distinctions. And that's the way our mind works and it's okay that it works that way. But Sangha essentially is something deeper than that. When we practice together, we let go of those distinctions. We may see these distinctions, but that's not the point of our practicing together. We're all equally Buddhist children. And this applies in every aspect of our daily lives. So it's very natural for the head cook to feel happy when they have nice ingredients and some very nice dish to serve and make. But sometimes just plain rice, you know, that's also nurturing.

[22:27]

So how do we not get caught by the distinctions that we naturally make with our human mind? How do we equally share together this practice? There's another essay where he talks about the regulations for the study hall, which in the traditional monastic setting was behind the meditation hall, and the monks would go and study there, take a break and rest, or they would read sutras and they would have tea there. But in the beginning of that he says, the whole pure assembly should abide in mindfulness that everyone in the study hall is each other's parent, sibling, relative, teacher, and good friend. With mutual affection, take care of each other sympathetically. And if you harbor some idea that it is very difficult to encounter each other like this, nevertheless display an expression of harmony and accommodation. If there is errant speech, it should be admonished.

[23:29]

If you are given instruction, you should accept it. These are greatly beneficial experiences. Can't this be considered the great advantage of intimate relations? Gratefully, we associate with good friends with abundant, wholesome qualities and are fortunate to take refuge in the three treasures that have been maintained. Isn't this also a great joy? The relations of even worldly siblings are not matched by the relations of people from other families. Siblings in Buddhist family should be closer to each other than with their own selves. So many of us find when we go to a place like Tassajara or live in a place like this, that we are living together with these people, practicing together with people who we may not ordinarily associate with. And problems come up, and all of our attachments come up, and all of our resentments come up, and all of the ways in which we resist each other comes up. And one of the images of this is that people practicing together in community

[24:33]

are like rocks in a tumbler being rolled together and being smoothed out. So we help each other smooth out each other's edges. And it's difficult. It's difficult work sometimes. But it allows us to more fully express our deeper self. So, this way of seeing the people we're practicing with and sharing together and helping is one of the main things that Dogen is talking about. He also has, as I said, a series of koans or teaching stories. You may have heard of koans as riddles. Or you may have heard that koans are only used in the Rinzai branch of Zen, which is the other main branch of Japanese Zen. And koans are not riddles. Koans are not something that you solve and then you're through with them. Koans are teaching stories that we sit with, live with, and keep going back to, and they help us see something about ourselves. So all of these stories are stories about ourselves.

[25:33]

They may be stories about people who lived in the 9th century or the 10th century or the 12th century or a few years ago sometimes. But they're stories that help us see ourselves. And they're studied in all branches of Zen. So I wanted to read a few of them. He has about 20 of them in this text. The first one I wanted to read and look at a little is about a Tenzo, about the head cook. And it's about a head cook that Dogen particularly recommends for, commends for his attitude. And it's an interesting story because it's about a head cook who gets into lots of trouble and even gets expelled from the temple. I'm giving away the plot here. But this guy is very important to us too because he eventually became a master in the Rinzai, the Chinese Linji tradition, which is the other tradition. But he actually saved the Soto lineage.

[26:36]

He, so some of you who chant the ancestors in the morning may know Taiyokyogen Daisho, Tosugisei Daisho. Each morning we chant the names of the lineage in our school from Suzuki Roshi back to Shakyamuni Buddha. But there are these two guys in China, one of whom was born after the other one died. And we chant their names right after each other. And the reason we do that is because of this guy in this story. Because he, the first guy, Taiyokyogen, was about to die and didn't have any successors. But he was good friends with this guy and they recognized each other. They shared each other's hearts and minds and awareness. And this guy was already in the Rinzai school, but he said, I will pass this along to somebody else. And one of his students is who we call Tosugisei. So he, even though you may hear of these two different branches of Zen, they're very, very close. In fact, many of the stories that Dogen talks about here are from the Rinzai school. And one of the ones I'm going to read is about Rinzai himself.

[27:39]

Anyway, this story is about a man named Fushan Fa Yuan. And it goes like this. High priest Sheshan Guisheng was cold and severe, tough and frugal. Petrobe monks respected and feared him. When they were monks in training, when they were young monks, Zen masters Fushan Fa Yuan and Yi Huai of Tianhe Mountain specially came to visit and study with Guisheng. They arrived in the middle of a snowy winter. Guisheng harshly reviled them and tried to chase them away, even pouring water on them in the visitor's room so that their clothing got all wet. So this visitor's room is called Tangario in Japanese. Some of you know that word. We do this when we enter residence in the temple. We sit all day or at Tassajara for five days without any walking meditation, without any breaks except a little bit after meal. It's entering the monastery is considered a commitment and you take that on. So this is the traditional form, right?

[28:43]

So this teacher Guisheng poured water on them, tried to chase them away. The other visiting monks all got angry and left. But Fa Yuan and Xiangyi Wuhai only spread out their zagus, their little bowing mats, adjusted their robes and continued to sit in the visitor's room. Guisheng came and scolded them saying, if you do not leave right now, I will beat you. Yi Huai went before him and said, the two of us have come a thousand miles just to study Zen with you. How could we leave from just one scoop of water dumped on us? Even if you beat us to death, we will not go. Guisheng laughed and said, you two need to practice Zen. Go hang up your belongings. So he admitted them to the temple. So that's kind of the first part of the story. Then later, Fushan Fa Yuan was asked to serve as Tenzo. The assembly suffered from the course and poor quality and quantity of food. So sometimes traditionally in history, monks have lived on a little bit of rice or watery rice and a couple of pickles maybe,

[29:45]

and maybe a little bit of vegetable. Sometimes the food was not so good as it is in the temple. So one time Guisheng went out to the village. Fushan Fa Yuan stole the key to the storehouse and took some wheat flour to prepare five flavored gruel, which was considered a great treat then. Guisheng suddenly returned and went to the hall. After eating, he sat in the outer hall and sent for the Tenzo and Fa Yuan came. Guisheng said, is it true that you stole flour to cook the gruel? Fa Yuan admitted it and implored Guisheng to punish him. Guisheng had him calculate the price of the flour and sell his robes and bowls to repay it. Then Guisheng struck Fa Yuan 30 blows with the staff and expelled him from the temple. So he was thrown out of the temple, made to give up his robes and his eating bowls. Fa Yuan stayed in the city and begged some fellow practitioners to seek forgiveness for him, but Guisheng would not allow it. Then Fa Yuan said that even if he was not permitted to move back,

[30:48]

he wanted only to follow the monks into the room to meet with the teacher. So part of the practice together, which is also part of our practice, is that you talk to someone, you meet with a teacher, you listen to the teaching, you let yourself be guided by Sangha, including the teachers. So Fushan Fa Yuan wanted to come back. He didn't care that he had been kicked out of the temple. Guisheng again did not allow it. One day Guisheng went out to the town and saw Fa Yuan standing alone in front of a lodging house. Guisheng said, this is an apartment building belonging to the temple. During the time you have been staying here, have you paid or not? Then he told Fa Yuan to calculate what was owed and repay it. Fa Yuan was not bothered by this, but carried his bowl through the city and sent the money he received to the temple. So traditionally in China and Japan, monks would carry their bowls and beg for rice or money, and that was how they supported themselves. Another day Guisheng went to the town and saw Fa Yuan holding his bowl. Guisheng returned to the assembly and said, Fa Yuan truly has the determination to study Zen.

[31:50]

Finally he was summoned to return. So Dogen is talking about this guy who stole flour for the monks. He made a mistake, you know. But Dogen says about this cook, we cannot fail to study the Tenzo Fa Yuan's faithful heart, which can be met only once in a thousand years. It is difficult to match for both the wise or foolish. However, if Tenzo's do not experience dedication like Fa Yuan's, how can their study of the way penetrate the innermost precincts of the Buddhist ancestors? So this commitment and dedication and care about his caring about the other monks, even though he made a mistake to try and feed them, it's very important to Dogen. And then his persistence in wanting to practice with others. So this kind of dedication is what Dogen is talking about for all of us. Of course, we can't all be like that. Mary, please don't steal anything from this.

[32:52]

So I wanted to read a couple more stories, but let me read just one more and then a closing section. This is a story about Rinzai. Great teacher Rinzai, who founded the Rinzai branch of Zen, he's called Linji in Chinese. Great teacher Linji was on Huangpu Mountain planting pine trees when his teacher Huangpu asked, for what purpose do you plant so many pines deep in the remote mountains? Linji said, first, to make some scenery for the mountain gate, for the temple. Second, to make a guidepost for later generations. As he finished speaking, he struck the ground once or twice with the head of his hoe. Huangpu said, although it is like this, you have received my 30 blows. Linji again struck the head of the hoe on the ground twice and whispered, Huangpu said, when you take up our lineage, it will greatly flourish in the world.

[33:54]

And it did. So Linji was planting trees in the deep mountains, way back in the mountains, like the Tassajara. And Huangpu asked, why are you bothering to plant trees up here? And Linji said, first, to make some scenery, to decorate, to adorn the mountain gate, to adorn the temple. Second, to make a guidepost for later generations. That's us. Huangpu says, although it is like this, you have received my 30 blows. So he was able to be like this because he had been willing to meet with a teacher. 30 blows was kind of an image for this discipline. Because he had been willing to be in the temple to take on the discipline of practice. Now we don't literally get anybody 30 blows anymore. But this feeling of this commitment is there. Huangpu said, when you take up our lineage, it will greatly flourish.

[34:55]

And I like Dogen's comments about this very much. He says, Linji was at Huangpu's for 20 years, doing nothing but strenuously studying and exerting the way. Sometimes he planted pines, sometimes he planted cedars. Is this not the intimate discussion and intimate practice of the single mountain scenery and the 10,000 ancient ones guidepost? In the world it is said that the wise and noble do not forget virtue, whereas petty people do not repay generosity. How much more must children in the house of the Buddha ancestors repay the deep kindness of the milk of the Dharma? What we call repaying this blessing is to plant pines and cedars and to be satisfied with our gruel and rice. Even for the sake of those from extremely distant ages, we return to plant trees in the remote mountains. If you yearn to be a bridge to the Buddha way, you must become familiar with this time of Linji's. So this sense of generations going back to Buddha

[35:57]

and going ahead for the next 2,500 years too. So part of this practice together, this community, is to keep alive something for future generations, to help us all see Buddha's truth right now, each day in our own lives. But also we think about future generations and we take care of this wonderful Buddha Hall and this wonderful building and keep it alive for people to come to practice. So I'll close with one last little section. This is from the section where he's talking about the instructions to the director. And he's talking first of all about how it's not important how many people are there, how many monks or nuns are there. And he's also talking about contemplating the ancients, which is a very important term for Dogen. So let me read a little. You should know that even if there are 100, 1,000, or 10,000 monks without the mind of the way and without practice of contemplating the ancients,

[36:58]

the assembly is inferior to toads and lower than earthworms. Even an assembly of 7, 8, or 9 monks who have the mind of the way and contemplate the ancients is superior to dragons and elephants and excels the wisdom of the sages. So dragons and elephants are kind of images of awakened beings. And this contemplating the ancient in Japanese is called keiko. It's a very important term for Dogen. And now it's commonly used for practice in Japan, like for martial arts or all kinds of practice, practicing the piano even. But this idea of contemplating the ancients, thinking back to the tradition that we have and looking at this tradition and looking at these forms and using them as a resource and really studying how do we keep this alive. What is called the mind of the way is not to abandon or scatter about the great way of the Buddha ancestors, but deeply to protect and esteem that great way. I'll skip a little bit just because it's getting late.

[38:00]

Furthermore, reflecting that inhalation does not wait for exhalation also is the mind of the way and is diligence. Contemplating the ancients enables the eye of the ancestors essence to observe intently and enables the ear of both past and present to listen vigilantly. So that we accept our bodies as hollowed out caverns of the whole empty sky and just sit, piercing through all the skulls under heaven, opening wide our fists and staying with our own nostrils. This is carrying the clear transparent sky to dye the white clouds and conveying the waters of autumn to wash the bright moon and is the fulfillment of the practice of contemplating the ancients. If such an assembly has seven or eight monks, it can be a great monastery. This is like being able to see all the Buddhas in the ten directions when you see the single Buddha Shakyamuni. And then he says a little later about the director,

[39:05]

whenever seeing the countenance of any monk from the ten directions, the director thereupon inwardly dances with joy and is delighted. So the temple abbot, administrators, department heads, and all the monks should circulate the Buddhist instructions to live together and see each other as the world-honored one. To see each other as Buddha. In the essential path of emancipation, nothing is more important than this. So this practicing together in community is about how do we encourage each other and share together and see that we are all Buddha practicing together and help each other to express that. So thank you all for listening to these words and I look forward to your questions during the discussion period.

[39:53]

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