Hello? Hello? I think I'm asleep here. Okay. Good morning. There's a story about waking up in the Lotus Sutra.

[01:11]

kids are playing in a house that's on fire, but they're having a lot of fun with their video games and cartoons, but they don't notice that the house is on fire. So the parent who's there says, come on outside, there's some Wally playing, or I've got some good Bicycles outside. And the kids leave the house and they're safe from the burning fire. The point of the story is that the fire is always happening. And for those of you who know, it's the fire at Tassajara right now. there's an external fire and there's an internal fire.

[02:15]

And to not get them confused, each one of us has a fire in us which we try to distract ourselves from. And we can distract ourselves from an internal fire by thinking about Tassajara as an external fire. Or we can be distracted from the external fire by our own problems and not deal with the fire that's out in front of us. I was at Tassajara a couple of weeks ago doing a workshop and one of the teachers there was sick and I substituted for her in talking about the Lotus Sutra.

[03:38]

So I... So I talked about the Lotus Sutra once and then it seemed like the next day she was actually sick and they had an evacuator. So I had to prepare another lecture on the Lotus Sutra. And so the two people who were taking over to oversee the workshop saw me come down the path and said, are you going to lunch now? I said, no, I'm going to study. And I went into my cabin. When I got in the cabin, I realized they weren't interested in whatever I was having lunch or not. They wanted to meet with me. But I responded to the words rather than the situation. Have you done that before?

[04:45]

So luckily, it didn't take me too long to figure that out. And I went into the dining area and talked to them and apologized for responding to the words rather than to the meaning. You didn't shout this time. So yesterday was July 4th, which we call Independence Day. But for Buddhism in America, we might call it Interdependence Day.

[05:51]

When a country is young and breaking off from... its parental ruler it emphasizes independence when a country is powerful and maybe a little arrogant it emphasizes how people are dependent upon them But a real mature relationship is interdependence. Each thing has its independence and it's related to everything else. Interdependency. When you're at Tassajara, you are very aware of the interdependency of everyone there, the weather,

[06:56]

the craters, and the circumstances such as upon fire. You're not independent. Excuse me, I think I'm gonna change my posture here. The truth of the matter is there's a fire on all the time.

[08:48]

There's a fire in each one of us all the time. And the Tassajar forest is burning all the time. And we distract ourselves with video games. other things. We're not aware of the burning house. Except when we get sick or there's a fire right in front of us, then we have a chance of waking up. The truth of the matter is that fire is actually a good thing.

[10:07]

I mean, it's not a good thing in that we should be all rejoicing that Kassar is on fire. But it's a good thing in that fire leads to renewal. Many of the plants don't regenerate until there's a fire which triggers their seeds. Fire causes us all to respond and brings out our concentration and our alertness and our practical thinking. There are also trees in the forest.

[11:12]

that have some kind of a rot. And the fire burns them to the ground and gives the new seeds a chance and a fresh start. Whatever I do, I'm uncomfortable. Whatever I do, there's a fire. I want to stand. Oh, it's a beautiful day out, and yet I'm talking about fire.

[12:33]

We can be too obsessed with fire and not appreciate the beautiful day. So let's not do that. But let's be aware of everything that's going on. The forest is always on fire. And the forest always needs renewal. Each one of us has something that's unresolved, which sometimes we try to avoid. The kids were so cute today, weren't they? They were standing so straight. as if they were on fire. The fire of attention was put on them. And they did their best. So part of understanding of fire is understanding interdependency.

[13:49]

That each one of us is connected to each one of us. And we affect each one of us. And yet we're independent. The last time there was a fire at Kasahara was 1999. And Sojin was given Dharma transmission to Vicky and I at the time. And it was a fire. How inconvenient. So we left... and came to the city center to finish the Dharma transmission. But there was a fire here too of some kind. The fire we brought from Tassajara in our own uncomfortableness. We wanted a beautiful ceremony in an idyllic Tassajara.

[14:55]

So this fire which is burning in us all the time, and the fire outside which is burning all the time, how do we deal with them? Well, I think we mate them as best we can. We don't ignore them. The world is on fire. I'm sure most of you have noticed. You listen to the news every day, there's a different kind of fire, but there's fire of the day. Buddha was about awakening, awakening to the fire, not ignoring it, but not being obsessed by it, dealing with your own fire and what the fire is in front of you. We were in the middle of Dharma transmission at Tassahara.

[16:36]

And it's a little bit of an intense time. You're capping the lineage and it's a little bit difficult to do. And you're a little bit on edge because you're trying your best. And then someone comes and says, you have two hours to leave. luxury, two hours. In 1977, when there was a fire, I was cooking in the Greenville's kitchen. And I wanted to be at Tassara helping with the fire. So eventually, they sent me to James Bend to cook. But each one of us has this dominant position wherever it is.

[17:44]

Those of you who are working here in the city center kitchen are helping with the Tatsahara fire as much as anything. And some people, when the Tatsahara fire comes up, it brings up all their anxieties. And they start yelling about the fire inside them. Alas. So, I'd like us each to take a minute and think about the fire that's in us. Think about the internal fire and the external fire and how you can awaken to it and help others awaken.

[19:18]

It doesn't mean you have to lose your three-day weekend or you have to be hot. It's self-indulgence to find that there's problems in the world and then to get depressed because of them. To meet them and to see what you can do in your Dharma position, wherever you are. To help awaken yourself and everyone. To recognize the interdependency of all things. Sometimes in a crisis people spend their time criticizing everybody else rather than taking a good hard look at themselves and deciding what they can do better.

[21:05]

That doesn't mean that you can't play video games either. The parent of the burning house said, come on out here, there are better video games than there are in there. Reality is the thing that's the most interesting. You can't make up a game that's more interesting than life. It doesn't have as many consequences in which it can be as helpful as. So now that you've visualized the fire that you're in personally, can you visualize the way out of it or way into it which addresses it?

[23:09]

There's the fires of old age, sickness, and death. In which there's no fire department. So when you realize the interdependency of all things and that everybody's on fire, it's rather a warm, intimate feeling. It's when you want to get away from it that it's threatening. I guess I'd like to say to endure yourself in the midst of suffering, to help do what you can do with suffering, and to realize that we're all interdependent.

[25:04]

Each one of us affects everyone else. Happy Independence Day. Happy Independence Day.

[25:25]

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