How auspicious. When many... dharma students assemble to meet themselves and encounter the moment in the deep mountains. How auspicious spring at Zen Shinji. How auspicious that the monastery is thriving. after 45 years for a long time I've been hoping that we could have a sashim at Tassahara in the summer in the spring I think for about is it did we just finish the 88th practice period

[01:28]

89? Yeah. We just finished the 89th practice period. And during those practice periods, we almost always had seshines. But we never had a sesheen in the summer except the first practice period. I think in August of 1967, there was a one-month practice period, the first practice period. Otherwise, during guest season, we haven't had sesheens. I always thought it'd be great to have one, and I hope that we can have another one. Tassajara was opened as a monastery about 45 years ago this coming summer in July. I think July 4th, maybe. And maybe on the 50th anniversary, we can have another sesheen, and maybe Mel and I will still be around. so maybe we can come again.

[02:31]

How auspicious. We're so fortunate that we could somehow wind up here. On August 20th, 1967. For some reason, somehow, I came to this valley. I had maybe some story about what brought me here, but anyway, who knows how we wind up in the mountains to practice. I thought I was coming to visit a high school friend. I don't remember exactly where my understanding was at that time about Zen. But I came into the valley and I felt kind of uncomfortable because it smelled funny and there was a lot of flies.

[03:45]

More than now. And... I sat out. I remember I was sitting out on the path right in front of where the stone kitchen is. And the stone kitchen at that time was just the foundation for the stone kitchen. They were building it. And there was a man walking around on the foundation named Paul Disco, who would be in about three years from that time. He would be ordained with me. by Suzuki Roshi. We met at that visit. And then Peter Schneider came by and stopped by and talked to me. Were you here, Tim, at that time?

[04:49]

Tim was here, but I didn't see him. Didn't meet him, but he was here. And then Richard Baker came by and sat down and talked to me for a while. And I didn't know that 16 years later we would be in this valley performing a ceremony of Dharma transmission. I didn't know this was the beginning of a lifelong relationship that still goes on. We meet people we don't know exactly who we're meeting.

[05:53]

I came back again in January to sense enter to meet Suzuki Roshi because he wasn't here when I when I came to Tassara so I went to I had a what you might call someone who I thought was my girlfriend, who I was visiting also, who was in San Francisco in the fall of 1967. I went and stayed with her. And then I walked from her house in North Beach over to where I thought the Zen Center was. I heard the address was 1881 Bush Street. So I went to 1881 Bush Street. And I knocked on the door. And what might be called an elderly, what appeared to be an elderly Japanese man, in other words, a Japanese man who was about my age, opened the door.

[07:15]

And I don't know exactly what we said to each other, but he let me in. I went in and sat down. And there was a lot of other elderly Japanese men there. And I didn't know much about the game of Go, but they looked like they were playing Go. And they were smoking cigarettes. So I sat upright and watched them play Go. And they just didn't talk to me. They were mostly speaking Japanese to each other. I had not yet learned Japanese, so I didn't know what they were saying. But after some time, the thought arose in my mind that maybe this wasn't the Zen Center.

[08:17]

So I said to one of the gentlemen, is this the Zen Center? And they said, no, it's next door. This is 1881B. So I went west on Bush Street, as Sam Spade used to do. And there was 1881A Bush. So I knocked on that door, and another Japanese man opened the door. who had a shaved head and was wearing priest robes. And I thought it was Suzuki Roshi. But the person looked like they were about 35. And I thought, wow.

[09:18]

Because I knew he was about 63. I thought, pretty good. And I said, I came to be a member. And he said, oh, come in here and sit down. I'll call the president of Zen Center so I went right inside the door there and to the left there was an office there and I sat on a couch and this priest who I thought was Suzuki Roshi was doing some study writing and he was writing away and reading and writing and then he would fall forward kind of

[10:29]

because he was very sleepy. But he kept working, even though he was actually very, very tired. I was impressed by his effort. And so he called the president of Zen Center, Silas Hoadley. And after a while of sitting again watching him try to stay awake, Silas came to the door, and we went off to Silas's place. And I said, was that Suzuki Rashi? He said, no, that was Katagiri Sensei. And he was 35. Actually, I think he was 38 at the time. But anyway, he was a very handsome young man. He was also a handsome old man when he got older. So then I went and talked to Silas. became a Zen Center member. Even though I was not living in San Francisco yet, I joined the Zen Center.

[11:35]

And then the next day I went to Zazen early in the morning. And I was sitting there on the floor of the Zen Do at Sokoji Temple on Bush Street. I sensed that the teacher was walking around the room, and that I thought it was Suzuki Roshi. And when he walked in front of me, I saw his feet, and I thought, those feet can teach me Zen. And then when the period was over, we chanted the Heart Sutra, and we chanted in Japanese three times. It was a lovely card. It had Chinese characters and then Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters and then English transliteration. But we just read the Japanese.

[12:39]

And then after service, Katagiri Roshi was there too. Katagiri Roshi was the Doshi and Katagiri Roshi was the Doan, the Kokyo, and the And the Fukudo. And in those days, one person did all three of those things. So when the Zazen was over, we went out through the door. There was two doors. One door was this door most people entered. And then the other door was to Suzuka Rish's office. At the end of Zazen, we walked through his office. And he greeted us as we walked through. and when it was my turn, I met him, and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then he looked away. And I thought, was I not supposed to look at him?

[13:41]

I couldn't tell. Is he shy? Or did I offend him? Or am I that thing that he doesn't talk about? LAUGHTER I really didn't know what happened. And I thought, as I was walking down the hall after I left his office, I thought, that's good. That's good that I don't know what happened. I think, again, maybe this is a teacher for me. So then I left San Francisco, went back to Minnesota, and... And then I heard a story when I got back there from one of my cohorts in graduate studies in psychology. I missed a seminar with my advisor while I was in San Francisco.

[14:47]

And my advisor was a kind of Renaissance man, and he was very kind to me. But he kind of nicknamed me the Suomi. because he knew some of my interests. And he said, where's the swami? And someone said, he's in San Francisco at the Zen Center for the weekend. He said, how could he be in San Francisco? He was here yesterday. He just couldn't conceive how I could be there on Friday and then be in San Francisco on Saturday. How could a graduate student do such a thing? but then I I left I dropped out of he helped me he was a really kind person he helped me see that I didn't want to be his disciple and he was a kind person and really really smart really really smart but then I saw him

[16:00]

I was walking by that Bob Dylan song, what's it called? Is it called Absolutely Fourth Street? What? Positively Fourth Street. So I was walking down Fourth Street, and there's a McDonald's there. And I saw my advisor in there eating a hamburger. And there was something about his posture that made me feel like I don't really want to be his disciple. I want to go study with those feet. So I just left. I didn't say goodbye or anything. I couldn't find a way to say it to him that wouldn't feel like I was. Anyway, I left the graduate program without saying goodbye and moved to San Francisco. And I drove out in a hearse. And I drove up to the 1881 bush and parked my hearse.

[17:07]

And that was one of the few times I parked it, because if I moved it, I couldn't find any place else to park it. So after a while, I just left it wherever it was. And then my high school friend lived across from the Zen Center in 1824 Bush. And I walked in and said hi. And there was a room for I could stay there. So I just moved in and lived across from the Zen Center. And also Tim and Amy lived there too. Maybe not right at that time, but you lived there a little later. Amy's room was right next to mine. And then I went to Tazahara that summer, again. I was living across from the Zen Center.

[18:18]

And I got a job as a computer programmer at the Bank of America. So I would go from there to work every day. I'd do zaza in the morning and go to work come back and do something at night. And I did that for the rest of that year, 1968. And I went to Tassahara one summer day. And I was assigned to wash dishes. And the person I was washing dishes with had a goatee and a beret. And that was the beginning of a 42-year love affair. I remember it was pleasantly hot.

[19:31]

Do you remember that when we were washing dishes? No? No. In those days, your name was Mel Weitzman. Do you remember the goatee? Yeah, goatee. And a beret in the heat. How auspicious. meet people we don't necessarily know who we're meeting. We didn't think probably that we would be co-abbots of the Zen Center someday. Oh, we did, though.

[20:47]

Because I remember, if I can say a few words, that although we had a love affair, we also had a lot of problems with each other a little later. And we sat down. We said, well, let's sit down and talk about this. And we sat down. We said, we have to do something because we know that we're going to be doing this together forever. Do you remember that? I do. I do. So we did something together. We decided that we would make an effort. Yeah. So we decided to play Abbott together. That's right. Yeah, and so 44-year love affair up till now anyway.

[21:56]

And the title could be called Gone with the Wind. Hopefully there won't be any more wars. One of the blessings of being a grandfather of a boy, because my daughters are daughters rather than sons, when I had the opportunity to be a grandfather to a grandson, I realized that the male of the human species can sometimes be very sweet. Very sweet. I knew that the females could be very sweet, but I didn't understand that the males could be very sweet.

[23:06]

When I was a little boy, I used to play with other little boys, but I never noticed how sweet they were. I did feel blessed, however, by big boys who were very kind to me and protected me. and didn't beat me up. They could have, but they chose not to. But I didn't notice that boys were sweet. But when I became a grandfather to a grandson, I learned that. And so now I can see that the male is sweet, sometimes. Not always. And the female's not always sweet. But sometimes they can be very sweet. And I can see it. How auspicious. Also in 1968,

[24:21]

One day I heard that Suzuki Roshi was going to give a talk at Grace Cathedral. So I went to it, and so we went down. It wasn't like in the main room. It was in a smaller room downstairs, I think. I went there, and there was a group of people. Some of them were regular San Francisco Zen Center people, and some of them were new people. And Richard Baker was there with... with Suzuki Roshi. And so the first thing was Richard Baker gave Azen instruction. And then when he finished, Suzuki Roshi said, well, Richard already said everything you need to know. But since this was what you call advertised as me giving a talk, maybe I should say something. So yesterday, Mel gives us an instruction, and that's pretty much all you need to know.

[25:26]

But maybe I should say something. Yeah, there's a little bit more time. We just chanted the vows of the great ancestor, Ehe Dogen, and it starts out by saying something like, we vow from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true Dharma. And then a little bit later it says that when we meet it, we will renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddha Dharma. When we hear and see and meet the true Dharma, will be able to take care of it.

[26:26]

Someone, a young man, asked Mal yesterday, and I think he said something like, well, he didn't say this, but he said something like, it made me think that he was interested in doing wholesome living. He was interested in doing things that would benefit beings. But he was wondering, well, how can you tell what's beneficial? I think most people want to be skillful and beneficial to themselves and others. But how can you see? Now we often make an attempt to do what we think is beneficial. We make an attempt to do what we think would be helpful. But we can't necessarily see what's beneficial. So part of the theory of this practice that Dogen is offering is if we hear the Trudharma, if we see the Trudharma, if we meet it, we will actually be able to see what is beneficial.

[27:40]

And it won't necessarily be that we see it out there, we'll just see it in the marrow of our bones. We'll see, we'll feel what is right and we'll do it. Even if it is scary, even if it's a high price, we'll do it, just because we'll see that that's the right thing to do. And we'll be right, because we've heard the Dharma. We want to do good. We want to benefit the world. many of us really feel that but as we chanted this morning if you're confused mountains and rivers block your way and human beings are innately confused we're born confused we have a problem of a consciousness that is generated in a way that's deceptive we have a consciousness

[28:52]

which arises with its objects. And it appears that its objects are separate from it. The mind tricks itself into thinking that the mind is external to the mind. The mind's looking at itself, and it looks like it's looking at something that's separate from itself. The mind sees what's interdependent as independent. The mind sees itself and thinks it's looking at something not only other, but separate from itself. And because of this misconception, this misperception, it's both misperception and then misconception, because of this, we Not we.

[29:54]

Yeah, we. We living beings who have minds like this and bodies like this, we desire to grasp this thing that seems to be out there separate. We thirst to connect with what the mind has separated in a deceptive way. And then we grasp this separate thing and then we suffer we grasp the confusion and the way is hindered like right after it says when you meet the true Dharma you will renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddha Dharma and then it says although our past evil karma has greatly accumulated, indeed being the cause and condition of obstacles to practicing the way.

[30:55]

It says although, but it also could say, however, if you see the Dharma, you'll maintain it. You'll be able to do what you want to do in life. However, because of a long history of imagining things falsely, There's lots of obstructions to doing the practice of taking care of the Dharma. And it says, may Buddhas and ancestors be compassionate to us and free us from karmic effects. But they can't come in and just free us. What they do is they give us some suggestions, some instruction, like they give us zazen instruction. And this zazen instruction... isn't really the true dharma. It's words. It's some kind of offering which we turn into words. And these words can reorient us so that we can open to the true dharma.

[32:05]

The Buddha speaks, but the Buddha's words are not actually the dharma. The Buddha's words are what can orient us so we can hear the dharma. Once we hear the Dharma, we'll be fine. How can we get to a place like that? Now, I heard the Buddha use this example once. I don't know. The first part, I'm not sure he said. But basically, I think he was kind of implying, you know, I can't show you the Dharma. but I can take you to a place where you can see it. And then you can see it for yourself. So it's like we're sitting in a valley and there's a mountain in front of us. And over on the other side of the mountain there is a valley, a green valley. And not only is there a valley over there, but there's an excellent view of it from the top of the mountain.

[33:09]

So the Buddha can either... tell us how to climb the mountain or can walk with us up to the top of the mountain and from the top of the mountain we can see the green valley of the Dharma. We can see something we've never seen before and we'll see our path. So in the early days, the way the Buddha helped people climb the mountain of confusion was by saying, Everything that you're looking at is impermanent. All the things you think that are solid and dependable are impermanent and fleeting. Pay attention to your body and your mind and remember the teaching that what you're looking at is fleeting. And also that it doesn't have a substantial existence. It doesn't have self. And also it's ill. And the reason it's ill

[34:13]

is because you're trying to grasp it. If you focus in on these characteristics, you'll be able to hear that when you see things this way, you will open to the true Dharma. In later teachings, in the great vehicle teachings, it's taught that all phenomena are just, all of our experiences are just constructions everything we're looking at is a mind construction and what we're looking at that's a mind constructed is constructed in such a way that it looks real it looks like something more than a mental construction so we live within mental constructions that say hey other people have mental constructions but not me Their ideas about me are just their ideas, but my ideas about them are reality.

[35:19]

It's funny how that works, but that just happens to, you know. Like the princess, I'm sorry, I can't help but be right. I'm sorry, I just happen to be right. It's not my fault. So like the instruction of when doing zazen, zazen is being done. Or do zazen for the sake of zazen. Those kinds of instructions, if we sit, for example... with the instruction to sit for the sake of sitting, this reorients us. Because most people, when they do something, they do something to get something.

[36:26]

They do something for the purpose of something that's other than what they're doing. This instruction is to help us open to the true Dharma. To sit without trying to get anything or to sit while trying to get something and just be that person for the sake of being that person is an instruction to try to reorient us to open to the true Dharma. For a sentient being, for a living being, to be a living being is precisely what we mean by this thing that we don't mention.

[37:35]

Enlightenment is not about trying to be somebody other than what you are right now. It takes quite a bit of training, that's an understatement, to learn how to be a living being. For a living being to learn how to be a living being takes lots of training. Because living beings who want to be Buddhas think that they can get to be a Buddha by being somebody other than a living being. But the way to Buddhahood for a living being is by being a living being completely the Buddha way cannot be other than our daily life and if we want

[38:51]

to realize the Buddha way, our daily life cannot be other than the Buddha way. If the Buddha way were other than our daily life, the Buddha way would have outflows. It would be defiled by the duality of being separate from our daily life. But the Buddha way is not ever the slightest bit separate from our daily life. No matter how bad our daily life is, no matter how stupid I am, no matter how cruel I am, the Buddha way is not some other place from my cruelty. The Buddha way is not separate from it. Cruelty is not the Buddha way. Cruelty is the way of living beings sometimes. What we're doing right now We do not say that what we're doing right now is the Buddha way.

[39:55]

Even if it was, we wouldn't say it was. It's just that what we're doing right now is not the slightest bit, not a hair's breadth difference from the Buddha way. Like it says in the Phukhanza Zengi, the great way penetrates everywhere. There's no place it doesn't reach. However, if you don't practice, you don't realize that. If there's a slightest bit of difference between where you are now in your mind, in reality, there's not the separation. But in our mind, if we think there's some place that's separate from this place, that blocks the realization. And again, our minds are innately inclined to think that there's something separate from where we are now, that there's something separate. Not to mention that the Buddha way is separate. The source, you know, the spiritual source of what's called the Soto Zen tradition, but really it's a spiritual source of all of Buddhism, is that daily life and the Buddha way are not two.

[41:12]

There's no separation. And also, we don't say that this is the Buddha way. It's just this, whatever it is, needs to be cared for because it just happens to be what we have to take care of. But we don't say that this is the Buddha way, but we just say that we shouldn't say this is the Buddha way and that the Buddha way is not separate from this. When Nanyue Huai Rang came to meet the sixth ancestor, in that meeting, they didn't know Nanyue didn't know who he was meeting. Maybe the sixth ancestor knew deep down. Oh, this is going to be my great successor. Anyway, Nanyue came to meet the sixth ancestor and the sixth ancestor says, where are you from? And he says, I'm from Mount Sung.

[42:13]

And the sixth ancestor said, what is it that thus comes? In other words, what's the Tathagata? What's the Buddha? What's the Buddha way that's here now? And Nanyue said, to say it's this misses the point. And the ancestor says, does that mean there's no practice realization? No practice enlightenment? And Nanyue said, I don't say there's no practice enlightenment. I just say it can't be defiled. What we're doing right now is not separate from the Buddha way. It never is. And we should not defile the Buddha way, which is not separate from what we're doing, by saying this is the Buddha way or this isn't. And even if I do say this is, still it doesn't defile that non-separation.

[43:15]

So when we sit, the sitting we're doing today we never did before and we'll never do again. and sometimes the sitting we're doing is I don't know maybe maybe we're distracted maybe we're concentrated maybe we're relaxed and calm and full of compassion and generosity or maybe not wherever we are the sitting we're doing today could be done in the context of the teaching which says what we're doing now is not separate from the Buddha way. And also we don't say it is the Buddha way. So when we sit, it could be a testament, a statement. This body says the Buddha way is not separate from our life now. And this body-mind

[44:22]

which is not separate from the body-mind of Buddha. If I study it, if I learn about it, then I'm also learning about the Buddha way. If I want to learn the Buddha way, I should learn this body-mind, I should learn this self. Not to make the self into the Buddha, but to realize this self and the Buddha, whatever this self is and whatever the Buddha is, are not two. Studying one, you're studying the other. If you study the Buddha way, that means you're studying the self. If you're studying yourself, you're studying the Buddha way. And when you're studying the Buddha way, you're not trying to get anything. You're doing the practice of studying the Buddha way, which is the Buddha way. If you're studying yourself and you're not trying to get anything, it's the same.

[45:25]

If you're trying to get something, that's not appropriate. However, anybody who's practicing meditation here and trying to get something is not separate from the people who are practicing and not trying to get something. The Buddhas who are sitting not trying to get something are not separate from the sentient beings. who are practicing trying to get something. But some people, after training for a long time, can actually sit without trying to get something. They can learn to be an ordinary person after a long time. And when they're a completely ordinary person, they're identical to the Buddha. And they're also not saying that they are Buddha. Although that might be quite ordinary. So maybe they should. There is a story which a lot of people really appreciate, me being one of them.

[46:49]

It's a story about a monk who was sweeping the ground, supposedly sweeping the ground or raking the ground or scything grass or something, working the ground, working the ground. Something was working the ground. And in the process, hit a rock and the rock flew. and hit bamboo and went . And when he heard the sound of the bamboo being struck by this pebble, he understood something. So I thought I would tell you a little bit more about this story. But I also want to tell you the reason I want to tell this story was that one time I was reading about this story and I heard somebody's comment. And the person said that this monk, his name is Xiangyan.

[47:54]

He said, the person's comment was something like, Xiangyan actually had a very good understanding, but he had a problem, and his problem was the problem of consciousness. He still had a consciousness problem, but the way they put it was like, the way that they said it was kind of like, he was fine except for consciousness. I thought, that's kind of interesting. Consciousness is the problem? It wasn't like he didn't understand. It was like consciousness itself was his problem. So, in a way, there is that message to orient us that... Our consciousness is the problem. And in order to hear the true Dharma, we have to become free of consciousness. Not get rid of it.

[48:58]

Just get free of seeing things from the standpoint of consciousness. So this story that leads up to this awakening is a story of leading up to becoming free of mind. And in the stories that they tell about this monk, they say he was extremely, extraordinarily intelligent. And he really loved the Buddha Dharma and studied it. And somehow, again, he wound up in a place where there was a Zen teacher named Bai Zhang. And so he got to be with Bai Zhang. However... He did not understand the true Dharma. He did not hear the true Dharma while Bai Zhang was alive.

[50:00]

His consciousness was interfering. Wouldn't open up and let the Dharma in. And he had really a great consciousness, this guy did. This is like a consciousness to die for. but also a very difficult consciousness to drop and say, if anybody wants this, here. And so when Bai Zhang died, he started studying with one of Bai Zhang's senior students, Guishan. Guishan was really... really skillful at offering ways for people to become free of their minds. Ways of caring for the mind that liberated the mind from itself, from its own delusions. So, yeah, so the story goes something like at some point Guishan says to Xiangyan,

[51:16]

You know, I'm not asking you about anything that's ever been written in the history of Buddhist teaching. I just say to you that I want you to tell me something from the place before you were born. I want you to say something to me and tell me what it's like before there were any objects. And... And Shang Yan sat quietly for a pretty long time and then mumbled something and Guishan did not accept. So Xiangyan said, teacher, would you please explain to me?

[53:10]

And Guishan says something like, I have nothing really to teach you. And if I tried to express anything, later you would revile me. What I understand is just for me. You have to find something for yourself. He actually did teach him something. He taught him how to reorient his practice. But he could not teach him the true Dharma. He told him how to climb the mountain to see it. but he couldn't climb the mountain that fast. Some people can, but he couldn't. His mountain was extremely high and wide.

[54:12]

So then he left and went back to his sutras and his notes that he took on Bai Zhang's talks, and he studied and studied and went back again to Guishan, and Guishan said, mm-mm. So then he went back and burned all his all his notes, and decide and determine not to try to get anything more from these scriptures. In other words, one might interpret that he decided just to face that instruction, tell me something from before you were born, that he was going to actually work on that instruction. And another story is that he heard that the monument of the national teacher, Nanyang Huizhong, was being neglected.

[55:21]

So he thought he would go there and take care of the monument and work on this instruction. One story says, he tearfully said goodbye to Guishan. Another story said that Guishan approved of him going to take care of the National Teachers Monument. So there he was. cleaning around the National Teacher's Monument and the pebble flew, hit the bamboo, and he heard the sound of the true Dharma. He awoke from the dream that he had been living

[56:37]

the dream he had of the Dharma. Living beings can't help but have dreams about Dharma. But sometimes the dreams about Dharma lead us to get instructions which will awaken us from our dreams about Dharma. They're still dreams, but they're dreams which tell us how to avoid some tendencies, like, for example, instruction to avoid us trying to get something from our life, instructions which help us avoid thinking that the way is something other than what we're doing here today. Then Xiangyan bathed.

[58:08]

He bathed. And then he faced in the direction of Guishan and did prostrations of gratitude for this instruction, the instruction which he faced over and over until he heard the tridharma. And he expressed his great gratitude to Guishan for this instruction and for not distracting him by explaining it so that he could deal with the instruction without explaining it to himself. So Guishan not only gave him instruction, but he told him, don't try to figure out this instruction. He got to the point where he wasn't trying to figure anything out anymore. He just was who he was.

[59:11]

This is something we can all do, and this is the most difficult thing for us to do. But it may be that it's absolutely necessary that without being willing to be who we are, by being off someplace else other than being who we are, The true dharma is not going to come to us being somebody else. It always comes to who we are, being who we are. And it's really hard for us. He put aside his great intellect and entered this reality. He entered the reality that all phenomena are simply conceptual constructions and he became free of mind and his mind became free of mind and he got to go along with his mind being free of mind his story goes on and ours may go on with his but that's maybe enough for today

[60:35]

I had trouble remembering the name of the person who heard the true dharma at the sound of stones hitting bamboo. And I asked attendant Timo to call my and have her Google sound of stones hitting bamboo. And while he was doing that, I somehow thought, what about that guy who talks about being up in a tree hanging by your teeth from a branch? Seems like that has something to do with this. So I looked up case five of the gateless gate called Up in a Tree. And it was Xiangyang that made that example.

[61:43]

And there was the story of his relationship with his dear teacher, Guishan. And then word from Green Gulch came back and confirmed my findings. Word from Tassahara. Oh, you never got to Tassahara? People knew. OK, good. Mako found it. Mako. Thank you, Mako. So then following this, we have wonderful teachings coming from this place, which are further kind of Zen-style instruction to help people understand and enter the reality of conscious construction only. So the Mahayana, Indian Mahayana teacher, The Samdhinir Murchana Sutra says, all phenomena are conscious construction only. And Asanga's summary of Mahayana says the same thing.

[62:50]

And Guishan says, tell me something from before you were born. And then Shanyan says, it's like being up in a tree, hanging from a branch by your teeth and not able to put your foot on a branch below you. And someone calls out to you and says, tell me the true Dharma. If you don't speak, you don't help the person. And if you do speak, you lose your life. This is instruction. free us from our mind and open our mind to the true Dharma. Maybe we can talk about that more sometime later. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[63:58]

Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[64:20]

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