Good evening. It's good to be here. For me, anyway. I'm wondering, is there anyone who's here for the first time? Wednesday night, a few people. Okay. Welcome. Is David Silva here? There you are. Okay. David's the one who roped me into coming. He, some months ago, was planning this gallery show of photographs and developed this theme of fire and birth. And some reason wanted me to comment a little bit.

[01:07]

I just drove out of Tassajara yesterday morning and admired the green vegetation. I stopped for a moment. It was mostly raining pretty hard. And we had, the day before, had cleared fallen trees that had come across the road and some rocks that had come down. And just above Lime Point, those of you who know Lime Point, I noticed... I know I'm in the city now. LAUGHTER It was raining, but I noticed the, actually I rolled down my window and I saw there was manzanita blooming just above Lime Point.

[02:12]

So little bell flowers already. And many of the, you know, many of the plants that had been burned by fire were showing tremendous regrowth. And then a little farther up the road, I encountered snow. So I heard last night that there was about 10 inches of snow up on the ridge. So I bring greetings from Tassajara. from the Los Padres National Forest, the Santa Lucia Mountains. But I want to first say very basic, what's a very basic practice?

[03:13]

And Suzuki Roshi at one time answered that question by saying that This way is to accept what is as it is and help it to be its best. So pretty simple, right? Just accept what is as it is and help it to be its best. So I'd say this applies to everything, everything in the phenomenal world. meeting your friend, meeting a stranger, meeting a mountain, meeting a raindrop, accepting it as it is and helping it to be its best. So this is really two sides.

[04:15]

If you do this completely, then you are the host within the host, as we say. First aspect of host is receiving. being ready to receive what is. This is being completely at home and receiving. I was just reminded that someone this morning presented me this image of saying, you know, going to your door. If you're at home and you go to your door, the bell rings and you go and there's Federal Express. delivering this message. Here's your delivery. And you say, well, I didn't order anything. Ah. Are you ready to receive what you did not order? And how can you be sure you did not order it?

[05:17]

How can you be sure that some of your previous actions, your previous actions, karma did not set something in motion that helped produce this unwanted delivery. So then how to receive it and then help it. Even help the person who's making the delivery. Since I recently made a a vow to, whenever I quoted Suzuki Roshi, also to quote Mitsu Suzuki. Here's a haiku. This is from Tassahara, spring 1978. It goes like three lines.

[06:24]

Incense touched by fire. Rhythm of breath. Spring rain. Incense touched by fire. Rhythm of breath. Spring rain. So I don't know the circumstance exactly, but this was Tassajara in 1978. This was... the spring after the big fire in 1977. I imagine her being up at the Ashes site, Memorial Ashes site, where there was some storage for incense. In that time, that storage box for incense did not burn, but maybe was just touched by fire. Incense touched by fire. Standing there, coming to awareness of the breath, rhythm of breath.

[07:30]

And then light, spring, rain. If you accept what is just as it is, then fire and birth are Fire and birth both seen as expressions of boundlessness or emptiness. We say form is empty. Meaning that what we say as form is not quite what is. as if reality precedes form, precedes conception, precedes what we call it.

[08:36]

But what we call it makes a difference in how we regard it. So we regard fire and we regard birth. Maybe have some different feelings about fire and about birth. Someone... asked in this recent fire, 2008, in Tassajara, someone asked about how to regard fire when the fire was maybe, it was approaching. We weren't sure that it was going to ever arrive at Tassajara, but it was out there moving around in the mountains. I said something to one of the interviewers that said, we regard fire as a friend, not as something separate. And they found that kind of surprising.

[09:47]

If you see everything as... just reality itself, then you may notice that there's a spaciousness to what you see or what you hear or what you feel. And as soon as you grasp it, as soon as you form some opinion about it, it becomes less spacious, becomes more, say, rigid. So we have this profound teaching of how things are both separate individual and how things are completely boundless before they actually become things. About a thousand years ago in China, there were some monks who were traveling on a pilgrimage.

[11:04]

And because of this kind of weather with rain and snow, they were diverted into a local temple, a local monastery in central China. And the abbot monastery is known as Dijam. Dijang noticed at some point there were these visiting monks who were kind of huddled around the stove drying out and heard them talking a little bit and went up and said, do you mind if I ask a question? And the leader of the group, Xu Shan, Xu Shan said, no, please, go ahead and ask any question. And Dijang said, so are your bodies of you monks separate from these mountains and rivers and earth or identical?

[12:20]

And Xu Shan said, separate And Dijon held up two fingers. So then Shushan said, identical. And Dijon again held up two fingers and turned and walked away. And one of the other monks, Faiyang, said, what do you suppose the abbot was trying to get at, right? holding up two fingers. Why did he hold up two fingers? And Shushan said, he was being arbitrary. And Payan said, I think that's kind of maybe careless of you to just say he was being arbitrary. And Shushan said, no.

[13:23]

You can't expect elephant tusks in a rat's mouth. I wonder who is being arbitrary. Elephant, you know, elephant is an image we use for someone who's maybe expressing profound teaching, the Dharma, we'd say. image of an elephant. Well, you can't expect elephant tusks in a rat's mouth. Well, not very complimentary of Dijon. And they spent the night, I think. And the next day, as they were leaving, Fayong, maybe he continued to have this question. And so he stayed back a little bit as they were leaving. And the abbot came to the gate and said, you know, I heard you talking about how everything is mind and how all the phenomena in the world are contained in consciousness.

[14:39]

And Fayan said, yes. And so Dizhang pointed to a big rock there by the gate and said, so how about this rock? Is this rock in your mind? And Fayang said, yes. And so the abbot, the Dijang said, so you're going on a pilgrimage with a big rock carrying in your head, you know. And Fayang didn't know what to say. So he stayed. He said to his companions, go ahead, you know, go on ahead and let me, I think I should stay here for a while. So he stayed and continued his training practice at Dijang's monastery. Later became actually a transmitted disciple of Dijang. And then Shishang also actually came back and also became a disciple of Dijang.

[15:46]

So here we have this question of... How do things exist? How do the mountains exist? How does fire exist? How does birth exist? These are words that we say. I was just struck coming down the hall and looking at the photograph on the wall with the little fresh green sprouts of coulter pine. Where did that, where were those little seedlings? Not far from where? Near the trailhead for Church Creek, going up in that area? Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

[16:55]

Up there, okay. Yeah, there's a big pine tree that just fell down across the road there. I mean, a big one about this diameter. Maybe. A parent of those seedlings. Yeah. So, you know, it's wonderful to have the feeling of some fresh growth, right? and to see this emergence. So fire is, you know, one moment, and we can say that fire includes, the future of fire includes, seedlings. Right when there's fire already. Seedlings. But usually we think it's more of a problem.

[17:57]

Fire is more of a problem. So when I was saying that the fire is to be regarded as a friend, this is... I didn't necessarily mean that there was no action to be taken. You know, we all have different kinds of friends. And some friends... some friends take a lot of work but to go back to the original practice of accepting what is and then helping it be its best so we may have some feeling that Tassajara is the buildings or Tassajara is all the trees around and the particular elements that we are so fond of and want to be protective of.

[19:03]

So we do have many guests that come to Tassara, and we give them guidelines. And so I thought also we could do that with fire, give the fire some guidelines as we do with our other guests. And fortunately, in this case, Someone said, you were just lucky. Well, maybe lucky. I think my feeling is my whole life is very fortunate. Everyone in this room, very fortunate just to be here. So that's, but not just fortunate. In the sense that you did not contribute. by your own actions, by your own decision, by your own, say, waking up to your own intuitive feeling for what is true. Some question, what is true? So being willing to ask what is true, then it's possible, say, to meet what is partly known and partly unknown.

[20:21]

and maybe put the emphasis on not knowing. At the same time, not forgetting that everything that one does experience is kind of a unique gift that we're able to move in this phenomenal world that we've evolved with, uniquely able to perceive a way to exist in space, exists with water in our bodies, exists with fire in our bodies. So when you take nourishment, when you eat food, you realize you're eating, actually, eating fire. All of our nourishment that comes from the sunlight, powerful fire energy, received by plants, turned into some nourishment that we can actually digest.

[21:27]

So when I was considering this fire at Tassajara I was feeling, this is also my body. It's not something unfamiliar. So therefore I know how to also relate and take care of it to some extent. And there's also... situation in which it's impossible for me to survive. But looking at that situation at that time, it looked like we had already done much preparation and it was a really good supportive environment to take good care of ourselves and take care of Tassajara. So I think that's the same situation every day when you meet some unexpected guest. Are you willing to see that you can meet it?

[22:31]

Are you willing to let it, say, touch you? And then help it. Help it to be... It's best, or to be an appropriate guest, to cultivate a relationship. And there's no particular way to do it. There's no formula. Every situation is unique. So Dogen says, firewood becomes ash and doesn't return. He's saying, no moment, no moment ever returns. Each moment is unique and unrepeatable. It's actually, I'd say, maybe not quite right to say firewood becomes ash.

[23:34]

But you can also say that firewood is simply firewood. Ash, simply ash. And in emptiness, of course, no firewood, no ash. These are our constructions. Helps us sometimes to know, okay, this is firewood, this is ash. This is a burned mountain. This burned mountain can erode very quickly if it rains heavily. So we take some action to take care of it. And at the same time, not quite right to say It's a burned mountain. If we think that, then we begin to have some kind of, say, limited ideas based upon that idea, that construction, and lose the capacities to see what's unlimited.

[24:40]

So we always have this situation, moment by moment. Can we see what is limited and also unlimited? Only if you see what is unlimited can you see what is also limited accurately. Does that make sense? Some people nodding your head. Some people are nodding their heads because they're asleep, and some people are nodding their heads because... So I was told to end so that people, but I think maybe I'll just invite, maybe if we have eight minutes for questions, it would be okay. Or maybe there's room for question and answer or some comment.

[25:43]

Hand here and then hand there. You spoke about the first duty of the host being to receive. What's the second duty? Second duty is to help. First receive, next help. And help is to help whatever is received in the sense of it's to maybe help it be complete. from its side, actually. Maybe come back to that. Here's a hand up here, Baird. people hear that?

[26:58]

He was referring to this story about the big rock carried around in one's head on pilgrimage, saying, he says, he has a big rock. How can he let it go? Yeah. So you have to be careful not to try to get rid of it. So first is to receive it completely. Receive the big rock completely. There's probably some good reason you're carrying it around. Once you see it completely, then you have freedom. in relation to it. Then you can let it go or not.

[28:07]

How's that? So this pilgrim already understands the rock is in the mind. And it's still looking for a remedy. Say that again?

[29:19]

Substantializes the mind. Yeah. To stop looking for a remedy. The remedy presupposes that the mind is something. So that mind has to actually be seen as no thing. because it really is no thing so people understand just the problem of substantializing anything this is right at the heart of the practice substantializing anything binds one as soon as you make something substantial actually seeing it as it is

[30:41]

is not a problem, but the substantializing is actually the action of, say, attaching to it or forming a kind of a constriction. And that immediately creates suffering. Immediately creates a kind of anxiety that, oh, now I have to deal with this thing. Maybe even worse. Worse than having a rock is having a mind. Huh? It's as heavy as a rock or even heavier. So the mind that even thinks, oh, this rock is in the mind or that this mountain is mine. That's very heavy indeed.

[31:44]

More usual is to think that one has some opinion about oneself or others and is holding on to that. To have the opinion that, oh, this mind is heavy to notice exactly how is that being held. So this requires more careful investigation. And that doesn't mean figuring it out. It means seeing it. So please continue your practice with that. Now I have to check the time again. I know there are people who have to get up.

[32:49]

We still have a couple of minutes. Yes. And I'm just interested to hear being surprised right now yeah I've kind of actually forgotten the fire I don't know if I even can remember you know I remember I remember some memory is very tricky do I remember the fire or do I remember my memory about the fire after a while it's not so clear

[34:29]

So what's provoking the question? Curiosity about the material world? Mind and material. Mind as material or mind produced by material. It's amazing, this awareness that we have. And how does it happen? And I can't say. And so the best is to continue to be willing to participate, be fully engaged in the moment. So Fortunately, with the fire, you know, I also said, you know, I talked to Stuart Carlson, who was fire captain, Cal Fire Captain, who advised us on how to prepare for the fire and everything.

[35:47]

And I talked to him a few weeks after the Tassajara Fire, and he had just finished fighting another fire up in Santa Cruz, and he said that, and we talked about it a while, and he said, He said, that was the kind of fire I liked to fight. And it struck me that I didn't have an idea of what kind of fire I'd like to fight. He had the professional approach. He knew this kind of fire and that kind of fire. I didn't know. So in a way, that was, I thought, bringing beginners' minds. being willing to be there, having resources, but also not having necessarily an idea of this is that, but just being willing to be right there with it. So right now, you're saying, curious about material and mind.

[36:50]

And I think this is always the same question that Dizong is asking. How is the awareness of this moment including the rock? And how is the awareness of this moment distinct from the rock? So the rock and one's own existence are completely supported in the same way. The rock can't exist without this one. This one can't exist without the rock. This is all this moment manifesting the totality of things. And this moment is this is completely one complete total moment. Can't separate rock.

[37:55]

And at the same time, That's only one side. Same time, we know that the rock is there and I can move around here. I don't have to walk right into it. Very interesting. To me, I was just appreciating how am I supported by everything, even the bacteria in this body. are supporting the mind. I don't know how. I wouldn't be able to digest my lunch without the bacteria in the body. And the bacteria maybe also evolved from, I could say that these are also my grandmother bacteria. I was recently reading Stuart Brand's book on polar discipline.

[38:57]

ecopragmatist manifesto he calls it very interesting discussion looking at a lot of he mentioned that some microbiologist had revived bacteria that had been embedded in salt crystals for 250 million years and freed them from the salt crystals and they start moving around and doing what bacteria do and You know, so that actually could be, those bacteria could be my grandmother, right? I mean, my great, [...] 250 million year old ancestor. Now, here, so that moment, 250 million years ago, is not separate from this moment. This moment includes that. Just as Dogen's saying, you know, ash,

[39:58]

This moment of ash includes firewood. And yet, it's just purely ash. So this moment of the coulter pine seedlings, this moment of coulter pine seedlings includes fire. Marvelous. OK. I'm sorry. No, I'm over the time. And we're just beginning to have fun. Thank you for listening.

[40:36]

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