I just thank you for meeting my request to chant the vows. Most lovely during seshin. Thank you very much. And also thank you for the way you sat and walked and breathed during seshin. Sometimes I go into zendos after everybody's sitting and I see the people and I think, boy, they really are devoted to this practice. I sometimes actually think, boy, they really like sitting. But I think they don't necessarily like it, but they're really devoted to it. When I first started sitting in that old Zendo before it burned down, I never really saw what it looked like to see the room full of people sitting, because I was always sitting.

[01:16]

And I wasn't a Junko at first. I didn't carry the sticks. I didn't see the people sitting. And I was never late, so I never saw the people sitting. Anyway, one time... I was late or a service break or something, anyway, during Sessheen. I went into the Zendo there and I looked and I was totally amazed to see the people sitting. And I thought, it looked like the generator room at the Hoover Dam. So they had this, you know, somewhere around the dam they have this room with these generators, these big, long, large... They're like concert huts. They're like long, kind of round-shaped objects that inside of these things are turning. They're generating all the electricity for California.

[02:23]

And it's just like, I can just feel the energy of the people sitting in this rose, like generator palin... Also, yesterday, she so gave a talk, and she was talking about something that I was teaching, and when she was talking, she kind of hit her hand on the lectern, like he says, Zazen is face-to-face transmission, something like that. So, I don't know if I actually hit anything. But maybe I'm compounding on you. Pounding it into you. So I make, you know, I make energetic proposals.

[03:29]

about things, but it's good to also, number one, I would like you to also consider them as thought experiments. But I might introduce a thought experiment with some energy, some enthusiasm. So today, as before, I guess I have one way to think about it is I like to talk to you about the theory of practice. So Zen students often are shy of theory. They think they are. But anyway, if you talk about theory, I don't want to talk about theory. Let's talk about practice. So I'm going to talk about practice. But it may sound somewhat theoretical.

[04:31]

So I'm talking about... I have been talking about Buddha's practice, the practice of Buddhas and Zen ancestors. And you might think that the practice of Buddhas and Zen ancestors doesn't sound like my practice. And we have one Buddha practice, one ancestor practice. And then we have many, many individual practices. And they're all a little different. You know that, right?

[05:36]

Even your own practice is different at different times. People are making different efforts in sitting, in walking, in working, different practices. So I'm suggesting that Buddhist practice is the one practice which includes all of our practices. That's what some Buddhas say is their practice. And in the tradition coming to Japan through Dogen and then coming to San Francisco through Suzuki Roshi, in that tradition, the practice of Buddhas is, of course, the practice of Anuttara.

[06:38]

Samyak, Sam Bodhi. The practice of Buddhas is unsurpassed, completed, perfect enlightenment. That's their practice. And their enlightenment includes all of our enlightenments. And their practice includes all of our practice. And our practice includes all of our practices. That's their practice. And also in the tradition of Dogen, there's this expression, self-fulfillment samadhi is another name for Buddhist practices. Now all Buddhas and all ancestors who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the true path of enlightenment to sit upright in self-fulfilling samadhi. That's another name for their practice. in that practice is stillness, or in stillness there is that practice.

[07:54]

And in that practice is the practice of enlightenment. This is also called, some people also use another word, for Anyuttara Samyaksam Bodhi and Self-fulfillment Samadhi. They use the word Sazen. That's generally the way I use the term. It's a synonym for this practice of the Buddhas. Other people use zazen in other ways. They use zazen for the practice that they individually do, like I do zazen. And again, you may have heard that sometimes people would say to Siddhartha, I do zazen, and he would say, don't say that.

[08:56]

Don't say that you do zazen. Zazen is what we're doing together with all beings. I don't know if he said that part, but he did say, don't say you do zazen. I don't know if I ever heard him say my zazen. I don't know if he ever said that. But he does say our zazen. Our zazen. And so what I've been stressing, which I admit emphatically stressing, that the self-fulfilling samadhi, the Buddha's practice, is menju. I did a piece of writing, and here it is. This is Menju. And I asked my helper, Eleanor, to get copies of this.

[10:06]

And so there's copies of this. If you want a copy of this calligraphy, you may have one. Just one, though. And the top character is character, which is pronounced men, which means face. Bottom character is Jew, which means to give or to entrust or bestow. It's the character in the expression Jew Kai. Jew and then Kai, bestowing. The precepts. And I told you before, the radical on the left side here means hand, and the radical on the right side is a character which means to receive. So this character which means to give is made of hand and a character which is to receive.

[11:11]

So giving and receiving. So... It literally says face-giving. That's short for face-giving and face-receiving. So it's a transmission of giving face and receiving face. And so there's the dramatic statement that the great way of the Buddhas The great way of unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment is nothing other than face giving and face receiving. Nothing other than receiving a face and giving a face. We can give our face no matter what's going on.

[12:32]

We can give our face in a conversation. They're over here if you can help yourself at the end. If you make it to the end. If the kitchen doesn't make it to the end, they can... take one early. And so this face giving is really going on all the time. And so is unsurpassed awakening. It's going on. It's living all the time. It's alive right now. And it's with us right now. It's offering its face to us right now, and we are offering our face to it. And it is actually us offering our face to all beings, and all beings offering their face to us.

[13:39]

But we have to fully engage with our face in order to awaken to the meeting. And that full engagement somehow is a big effort for us. So we have a place like this to really work at, you know, having your own face. And then giving your face and having your own face and then you can receive another face with your face. Another ship sleep over there.

[14:47]

Yeah, so, yeah. So here's another proposal about this. The nature of life is that life is a or the total field of all phenomena. And each phenomena is the total field. phenomena. And the total field of phenomena is facing the total field of phenomena, giving rise to the total field of phenomena.

[16:01]

Someone said, is this like Indra's net? And I said, yeah. So Indra's net is an early Buddhist image for, I would say, for what I just said. So you have this more or less infinite net and it has intersections in the fabric and at each intersection there's a jewel and the jewel reflects all the other jewels or the jewel contains all the other jewels and the jewel is contained in all the other jewels. So the jewel is a place where all the jewels are meeting that jewel, and that jewel is meeting all other jewels. That's an early picture of, yeah, you could say interdependence or face-to-face meeting.

[17:11]

yeah so awakening is to realize that is to wake up to that and live it and so living it and waking up to it also again can be called zazen the zazen of the buddhas And then, as I mentioned earlier, there's a poem written by... There's two poems written by... Sorry. Written by Hongjir Jungjui, the compiler of the Book of Serenity and also Dogen's kind of grand-uncle. And... Ehe Dogen really honored Hung Jir.

[18:30]

And Hung Jir wrote a text called The Acupuncture Needle of Zazna. And the text starts out by saying, so this is a text about Zazna, and this text starts out by saying, the... Pivotal activity of all Buddhas. The active pivot of all ancestors. So the character, pivotal activity, then gets pivoted to active pivot in the next line. And so this is a poem that Hongjir Jungjui wrote about the Zazen. And then Dogen Zenji, who really honored him, said, nothing wrong with his poem, but I have one too. And he changed it a little bit. So we have these two poems about Zazen as pivotal activity.

[19:37]

And face-to-face transmission is pivotal activity. It's how you're meeting me and I'm meeting you. It's how you're meeting the universe and how the universe is meeting you. And in that meeting of you with it and it with you, the universe arises. And this is what Buddha's basic thing is. And this term that I wrote before, pivotal activity... Oh, there it is, right on top. This term, pivotal activity, also means... Essential activity, essential function, necessary function. But also, somebody translates it as the be-all and end-all. The be-all and end-all of Buddhism is this activity.

[20:41]

Which, again, on the schedule, we write it as zaza. but I kind of would like to change the schedule and have different schedules. One day that says 4.20 for an hour. Or 7.30 face-to-face transmission. Or 10.30. self-receiving and employing samadhi kind of but maybe that's silly but maybe not so that is a lot is kind of a summary of the thought experiment will you pass those chant cards back please towards the source where did they come from over there

[21:54]

by the way on some of the chant cards it says by the power of repentance and some of them it says by the power of confession and repentance and so somebody went through those ones that say by the power of repentance and added the word in handwriting confession and repentance so now they all say confession and repentance and I hope that person doesn't get in trouble for writing on the Zen Mountain Center chat cards. Now, if you're ready, we could chant those poems. Some people are nodding their heads as though I'm ready. And I don't see anybody with their hands up.

[23:02]

blocking this. You're a leader in the way, be careful. Okay, so let's start with the one that says Lancet. And why don't you send us straight back for a while. So the one written, the one, the older one, they're both written in Chinese. And the older one's written by a Chinese teacher named Hongzhi. And the second one is also in Chinese, written by Ehe Dogen. And so I thought we could chant.

[24:04]

chant it and get to know it a little bit, and then maybe discuss this text, which is like some discussion of what zazen is like from the perspective of this pivoting. So let's wait until everybody's got one. And again, I would request that we chant it, which means you don't stop at the end of lines and don't stop periods and stuff. We just chant straight through until you run out of breath. And then take your time, get some breath, and start chanting again. Does everybody see one yet? Could you read that line, please?

[25:22]

Lancet of seated meditation. Lancet of seated meditation. Ding! I love how much different And turn it over.

[26:29]

The acupuncture need... Sorry. The acupuncture neediness of the Zazam. The individual function of each single development of functioning, delivery of each single ancestor manifests as not picking, completes as not merging. Manifestation is not picking and picking, mismanifestation is intimate on itself. This completion is terrified of itself. This contestation that is intended on itself is never defined. This completion that is terrified of itself is never absolute relative. Thank you. Very nice.

[27:49]

You can keep those for a while. It's really hot up here. I haven't heard of these poems being recited in Soto Zen monasteries in Japan. I don't know if they do.

[28:52]

But anyway, we just did. And this, again, is a poem by our great ancestor. ancestors. And before I offer anything about these poems, in the spirit of face-to-face transmission, I open up this session for conversation, for face-to-face conversation about anything. But I just wanted to introduce this chant today. But is there anything you'd like to talk about? About anything, but particularly about this. Which, of course, you will be doing. Please do. Yes?

[29:54]

I was just curious if there's an alternative translation for man as space. Is there an alternative translation for space-to-face translation? Is men usually translated as face? It means face and also means before or in front of, right? It means in front of and before. Mainiwa in Japanese means before, now. So it means before like in the sense of past, but also before like right in front of you. And also means in front of, before, and in a way the past is kind of in front of the present in a way, but it's also behind the present. Anyway, that's how man is used. But it does literally mean faced. Yes.

[31:02]

Whatever is in front of you is an intimate, meeting with you and that intimate meeting with you gives rise to the universe and what's in front of you is the universe appearing in some way that you can see and it's also what's in front of you is the universe appearing in a way that you can't see so we somebody we meet somebody and we see this reduced version of them you know that our vision make makes a reduced version of things, something we can get a hold of, but actually the person is much more than our vision reaches. So we meet the appearance of the totality of the world, moment by moment. We meet both the appearance and the background of the appearance, or we meet the foreground of the world. But in the background of that foreground is this inconceivable, unlimited context, which you can't see.

[32:20]

But we do know it. And a Western philosopher named Michael Pagliani wrote some books about what he calls tacit knowing. It's kind of like a quiet knowing. So when you meet a face... you know in a coherent graspable way you know use that face but you also know the background of that face but very quietly tacitly implicitly so you explicitly know this face and this tree and this feeling and you implicitly know its entire background like those famous examples of the picture of the old lady and the young girl. So when you see the young girl, you know her explicitly. But you also implicitly know the old woman, because if the old woman wasn't there, you couldn't see the young girl.

[33:23]

So you do know the old woman. And if they change the old woman, the young girl will change. And if you see the old woman, you explicitly, you see the young girl implicitly. So you do know the background, the ungraspable background, everything you see in a coherent package. You know the background, but it's quiet. And then, of course, the background and foreground can often flip, can pivot. And you see the other side. Like it says, when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark. Okay, so now we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I don't know about the order of that, but it might be, could possibly be Edward and Laura in that order.

[34:25]

But maybe not. I think of face-to-face transmission, that term, I think when I think of a face, I think it was sentience behind it, kind of awareness of it. And I guess you kind of touched on that already. I get how sometimes in Dogen's writings, you get this sense of like a kind of encyclism, like how objects have kind of sentience. And I guess I was curious if you could talk about that. Maybe. Because when I do that, I see that as like from a Yogacara perspective, that it's kind of the background awareness, so to speak, that's not separate from what's perceiving it. And it's sort of that pivoting that you're talking about. But I guess I was curious, like, do you have anything else to say about the sentience behind the face that's other than self?

[35:33]

Mm-hmm. Well, since there's eight people, I'll try to make this brief. In Yogacara, one of the big new emphasis of the Samnirama Chana Sutra is that whatever appears is just conscious construction. Appearances, everything that appears, is just a conscious construction. So, for example, in a simple way, if you look into your... Well, like if you're dreaming and you see things, like you see a mountain in your dream, of course, that's an image of a mountain in your dream, right? But when you're awake and you see a mountain, that mountain that you see in the place called consciousness, where you are, that mountain is... a mental object.

[36:35]

It's not the mountain that you're seeing. It's just mind only. It's just your thought construction. And that's a wonderful thing to know about. That's in consciousness. For now, I'm just going to talk about that. And so... But when you see a human being, we're highly susceptible when we see a human being that looks like a human, doesn't look like your mind. These faces don't look like minds. They don't look like my consciousness. But they're actually images in my consciousness that look like not images in my consciousness. They look like people out there, not mental events. but they are mental events for me. You are not mental events, but the way you appear in my consciousness is as a mental event.

[37:38]

It's kind of like you're standing outside consciousness, and you send me a photograph of you. And I look and say, hmm. And I know that's not you, because you sent me a photograph, but you send me actually something, you and my nervous system send me something that doesn't look like a photograph, it looks like a real... person. So we're being told that's really just a thought construction. And that's a well-known breakthrough or emphasis in that sutra, which then leads to, in some sense, a whole school of philosophy. But what I'm trying to emphasize here is the pivot, which is, yeah, everything that appears in your mind is is just mind and all the things that appear in your mind which looks like matter are really just mind but also mind for example which appears as mind is actually just matter that's pivoting

[38:58]

First, it's like pivoting in the sense of going against people's usual understanding. That they see things in their mind and they think what they see is what there is there, rather than just a mental image of it. This is saying, no, all you're seeing in your consciousness is a mental image of it. This is all saying that mental image is actually just a physical thing. The mental image of a mountain... is actually a physical thing appearing as a mental thing, which looks like a physical thing. The emotional thing or mental thing which is appearing in consciousness as a mental thing, like concentration or faith or anger, those mental things, we usually think they're mental. Well, they are. And those mental things are actually also pivoting. They're physical things. The modern... So, Yogacara is emphasizing everything in consciousness is mental construction.

[40:05]

The pivoting teaching is emphasizing, yeah, everything is mental construction. And mental construction is also pivoting with the things that it's mental constructions of. Because it's now mental construction without any basis. So the mental construction that we have of each other is pivoting with... each other and mind is pivoting with matter or mind is pivoting with body so body is a deceptive version of mind and mind is a deceptive version of body so let's Yogacara is wonderful. This is taking one step beyond Yogacara, which Yogacara wants you to do anyway. Yogacara doesn't want you to abide in Yogacara. This is one of the ways to leap beyond Yogacara into mind only, but also body only.

[41:09]

Also, usually you say, usually we say that cognition of a rock is something that can discern, discerning something which can't discern. So we could pivot with that and saying what you usually think can't discern can discern what is usually seen as can discern which doesn't discern. Mind is... And so in modern neuroscience some take the position that mind is a physical phenomenon. That mind is brain. Mind is neural functioning. Mind is body. Mind is matter. Mind is chemistry. Physical chemistry. Organic chemistry.

[42:12]

Analytic chemistry. Those are three chemistry courses I took. That's what mind is. But also, physical chemistry is just a mental concept when we're talking about it. And so on. A pivot. That's a pivot. Yes? I had a question a bit ago, actually, about those images that slip, or young women, because it seemed like a helpful way for me to think about It just came up when I was thinking about the relationship between the absolute and the relative, and I was wondering, and I think you actually may have answered this already when you're thinking, but my question was, is what seeing in Anitara Samyak Bodhi, is it both of them? Is it ever possible to see both of them at once?

[43:18]

Yeah, some people say that the Anitara Samyak Bodhi can see both at once. But for us practitioners, talking to humans... I think mostly we see one side or the other when we're wholehearted. When we're half-hearted, we see both at the same time. So we're wholehearted enough to look at the picture of the old woman and the young woman. We're wholehearted enough to see that flip. But some other things we don't know that we aren't able to be wholehearted so we can't see the flip. That's a setup to help us. It draws us in enough so we can actually look at that and see the flip. But some other things, we just are not there enough to see the flip. We're messing around with the young woman's face, or we're messing around with the old woman's face, so then we can't see the flip.

[44:26]

We're stuck in the old woman or stuck in the young woman. So when Dogen says, when one side is illuminated, the other side is dark, he's talking about when you wholeheartedly, with your whole body and mind, see sights and hear sounds. And he says, then, it's not like the moon reflected in the water. So the moon reflected in the water, you still have the two, the moon and the water. That's what life's usually like for a lot of people. Got moon reflected in the water, or... image reflected in the mirror. But when you're wholehearted, there's just an image and there's no form. Or there's just a form and no image. So now, is it possible to even leap beyond that and see both? Yes. The actual situation is to see both simultaneously. But in our practice, we usually see... flipping from form to emptiness rather than see form and emptiness at the same time.

[45:31]

Do we practice seeing the one that we don't see as often or do we practice by working on the flipping more? I don't recommend working on the flipping. I do recommend remembering that I told you about it so you're ready. be fully engaged with not flipping. And if you're fully engaged with not flipping, you'll flip. So it's more, be fully engaged with the face you've got, which means your face, to be fully engaged with your body and mind, then you will, by being just your body and mind, you will open to not your body and mind. Your body and mind will flip. not your body and mind but it's a lot of work just to be your body and mind like just to be present with it and let it be and not try to fix it and not try to entertain yourself like someone told me of a nice meditation she does when she can't face her life and it seems a meditation practice

[46:52]

Very nice meditation practice. But she notices she does it when she can't just like be there with herself. Just like, okay. And oftentimes when you're like right there and just about like you're pretty much ready to just like be there and not try to get anything out of this meeting with the universe, this thing comes to you which says, boring. And someone was also talking to me about these voices that are saying stuff to her. And she's going like this around her ear. And it made me think of it. I found out that in medieval times, devils were not like... I used to think devils were like about five, six. I didn't think of them like a six or seven feet tall. I thought of them like normal size or maybe a little small. But generally human body size. But in the medieval images, they're small so they can fit in your ear.

[47:58]

They sit in your ear and you're no good. You're better than these other people. You have better things to do than just be here. You should be getting something out of this. You should be getting somewhere. Or you're so arrogant to think you're getting somewhere. All these little devils in your ear. Well, then it's not boring. But if the devils would go on vacation and you'd just be sitting there with the universe, it's like, what can I do? Whatever. We have problems just being present, period. Just clearly observing. We have to train ourselves into being able to accept that. And sometimes, since actually you can't do much when you're sitting in the zendo, But you can bring in some home entertainment. Various kinds of meditation practices and things which aren't meditation practices, which are just basically entertainment.

[49:04]

Which reminds me of a cartoon about Dogen. You know, in the New Yorker they have cartoons about people's relationship with God. And they have a few cartoons about Zen in the New Yorker. But this is one, which the cartoon is, it's a small graphic novel. It's several pictures. One picture is Dogen Zenji's on a talk show. So he's come from 800 years ago. He's on a talk show, TV show. And the moderator says to him, I understand that you teach people just to be still. And that if they do, they will enter. the great way of the Buddhas. Is that true? And he says, mm-hmm. So what about the people who teach koan practice? And Dogen says, well, that's good, too. And the moderator says, well, I thought you said just sitting was the practice for entering.

[50:10]

He said, yeah, but some people have to study koans in order to be still. And some people have to do other special meditations in order to, like, stay in their seat up there. They do stay in their seat. And their stillness of staying in their seat is entering the way along with some entertainment to keep in there. So in a sense, anything we're doing up there is basically entertainment. And the practice is actually the way we're not trying to get anything. And we're still. And that opens on to the way we're practicing with everybody. But remember, that was a cartoon. That wasn't a real TV show. And I don't know who is next. Maybe... Yes? Would you tell me their names?

[51:11]

Okay. Dylan. This reminds me of something that... She said, you know, when you're sitting wholeheartedly in Zazen and enter into stillness, the conceptual form of you disappears. Your body doesn't disappear. The conceptual form, the idea of my body is absorbed in that stillness. Your body doesn't really disappear. The idea of my body disappears. Mm-hmm. It sort of reminded me of that. Also, he has another sort of phrase where he says, you know, when a leaf in autumn falls from a tree, it's never just on one side. As it comes down to the ground, it flips on both sides.

[52:13]

And at any point, it can be on either side. I don't know if it's similar to what it is. So... I would amplify it, actually, and say that in the... Well, there's two concepts of our body. One concept, at a given moment, if we have a concept of our body in consciousness, that image was sort of supported... by an image of the body in unconsciousness. So our unconscious mind has images of our body. But in our unconscious mind, there's no... I'm not in my unconscious mind. I'm not there. And it's much too... The unconscious is much too much for an I to live in.

[53:17]

So we have this other place for the I's to live, which is consciousness. And when the image of the body arises in consciousness, when you're wholehearted, you could say that one side is illuminated and the other is dark. And you can take your choice. One side could be the eye and the other could be the image of the body. If the image of the body disappears, then all there is is eye. Or the eye... could drop away and all there is is the body. So it could go either way. But the sense of self doesn't evaporate. It just goes into the darkness of wholeheartedness. And the body doesn't... The image of the body doesn't even go away. It just is in the dark. It doesn't go anywhere. And also the image of the body and the unconscious is untouched by this meditation. So there's...

[54:21]

Both sides, in wholeheartedness, one gets illuminated and the other's in the dark. So, of course, leaves don't know how to be half-hearted, so they always get two sides, and one side's in the light and the other one's not. We know how to be half-hearted, so we have both self and the image of the body, or the image in the body and me. It's my body, for example. But in wholeheartedness, there's just the image of the body and the self drops away. Or vice versa. There's just awareness and there's no body image. And they can flip. Same, same. But I would, you know, it disappears means stops the appearance is in the dark. Nothing's annihilated. It's just that the attention is not. with the attention is not with both sides at once because in the wholeheartedness you can't be on both sides at once.

[55:23]

Any other kitchen people? Yes. When studying or listening to classes my gaining idea of mind tends to be present and alive. Yes. I think if you're here and you notice the arising of the gating mind, that's good that you noticed it. And if you're in the Zendo and you notice the arising of the gating mind, it's good that you notice it. Again, I'm suggesting everything that appears is a reduced version of the world, and even of itself, well, yeah, it's a highly reduced version of itself appearing in consciousness.

[56:27]

And so in consciousness there could be this appearance of, I would like to get somewhere in this practice someday, or I would like to be very knowledgeable about this, or I would like to understand this. I would like to get some good understanding that could appear here, or there. And in both cases, it's calling for your compassion. So it's good to remember that. And I don't know if you noticed that this gaining idea that you noticed was calling for your compassion. Did you? Did you notice that? Yeah. So it's like, Bradley, please help me. I'm coming out from the closet in this class. I thought maybe I could show myself here. Please help me. Don't indulge in me, but be kind to me and let go of me. And you go, okay. You're welcome to come to the class with me, and I'll also keep letting go of you.

[57:30]

Because I'm not trying to kill the gaining idea. That would be another gaining idea. Just let's annihilate all the gaining ideas, and then we'd really be good sense students. But we wouldn't be. Good sense students are kind to gaining ideas and also losing ideas. Maybe we're more sensitive to, like, be kind to thoughts like, well, I'm losing something. But how about I want to lose all my problems? Well, be kind to that. And so, yeah, I think it's good when we become aware of this tendency to try to get something or avoid something. Good to be aware of it and then be kind to it in the class and after the class and in the Zendo and outside the Zendo. Yes and yes. Yes, Greg. So here's one time I have to talk about mind is quiet in Zaza.

[58:34]

There is a benefit to analysis. Yeah, analysis is part of wisdom. So you were talking, you know, presented theory today. How do you go about analysis in Zaza? Well, here's one way. You're like letting things be, including your interest in how to do analysis. How do you do analysis? I see you. I'm listening to you. I got my... My eyes are on you, that question about how to do analysis. I'm with you. Then it goes away and other things appear and you learn how to just clearly observe and let things be. You know, be compassionate to them, listen to them, watch them with eyes of compassion. And this blessing arises. A blessing arises when you just let things be. What's the blessing? They come and analyze themselves right in front of you.

[59:38]

They come and they go, hey, hi, watch this. I'm taking my mask off. Look at that. Guess what? I'm you. Guess what? This is the Yogacara for you right now. This is the 30 verses number 17. The analysis is when you're still, you're not like I'm doing the analysis, but the analysis is going on in stillness. So there is analysis, and there's books about the results of analysis. The analysis has appeared to various meditators, and they wrote down what was revealed to them. Are they active? Yes, the analysis is an activity in stillness. There's activities all the time. You're analyzing things all the time, right? Right. You're analyzing who's in the zendo and who's not in the zendo.

[60:42]

You're analyzing what was the last sound that was made in the zendo. What's the next sound? You're analyzing various things all the time. We're talking about analysis in stillness. We're talking about when you're not messing with things, does that mean there's no activity? No, there is activity in stillness. And part of the activity in stillness is the activity analytic process of revelation. But it's not necessarily on the level of I'm doing the analysis. It's rather that because you're still with me and not me, then the relationship between me and not me gets demonstrated right in front of, on the scene. And not necessarily even to you, because it's about the relationship between you and that. and the actuality of it starts to be revealed. That's analysis. You can also try to analyze and try to do that, but then that would be another thing to be still with.

[61:47]

And when you're still with your attempts to analyze, then your analysis becomes fruitful. If you're analyzing to try to get to the truth, and you're moving around, then it probably won't get you to the truth. It'll just give you more activity to get something. which is another form of gaining idea. But if you're trying to get something out of your analysis and let it be, that appearance of trying to get something will reveal that it's not that way. That's an analysis of this into this and not this, which relates to this pivotal activity. So in the schools where they have... detailed discussion of an analysis they also have detailed discussions of being calm before you do the analysis but you can learn the elements of analysis before you enter into calm so when you enter into calm because of your karma of studying Buddhist analytics because that's part of your background your unconscious will serve you up five skandhas

[63:05]

and twelve ayatanas and eighteen dhatus and four noble truths. This Buddhist stuff will be served up to you because you've been studying it. But now it's served up to you in samadhi where you're not trying to do anything and where the analysis can actually come to fruit. That's one story. God, it's hot up here. We were talking specifically about studying the Lanka, and if I wanted to manifest the study of the Lanka, would that defeat the purpose of this still analysis? If you wanted to manifest the what of the Lanka? The analysis of this particular sutra. Would I just let that come up, or is there a way to kickstart the process? If you're looking at the sutra... One time I was kind of showing off for Suzuki Roshi, and so my room was next to his in the city center, so I left my door open so he could see me study.

[64:16]

And I was sitting upright looking at the books. So if you're looking at the sutra and you're upright and being kind to your gaining ideas, the sutra, will tell you, start, the sutra will start telling you secrets. So you're reading the sutra, and the sutra, while you're reading the sutra, the sutra says, will say to you, it's not on the page, you know, you're reading the words in the Lankabitar sutra, and then suddenly from the sutra it says, hello, Greg, we have a secret message for you. Would you like to hear it? And you go, yes! And they say, see you later. we'll come back when you're not trying to get anything from the sutra again so you're reading the sutra you're not trying to get anything from the sutra the sutra says well maybe it's safe to come out of hiding now because this reader is not trying to get anything from us we're going to tell him what this is about now

[65:32]

And maybe we'll even give him warning to test to see if he salivates. I told Greg just recently that Suzuki, she said, I think I would like you to go to Japan. And how did he put it? Maybe in not more than a month. something like that, put it in this kind of funny way. And so I thought, okay. And then I went over to the Japan consulate because I thought I would need a special visa in order to stay longer than a tourist visa would let me stay. So then I got the papers, and I went back and I gave him the papers, and he took them and said, what's this? He could read English, but anyway, he said, what's this? I said, well, it's applications for a special visa.

[66:36]

And he said, oh. He walked out of the room. Never heard any more about Japan. He seemed a little miffed also. So you're practicing along, you know, pretty well. And then somebody offers you something and you grab it. And then this thing came to you as a gift and And, you know, you grab it and then it's no, no, no. So, if you can study with this service attitude, I'm here to serve you, Sutra. I'm here to study the Sutra for all beings. I'm not trying to get anything for me. I'm not trying to get, you know, the person who knows most about the Lankavatara in this section of Tassahara. I'm just devoted to the scripture. I'm giving my... ears and so on, the sutra will give you secrets.

[67:37]

It will give you the part of the sutra that's not written down. It will show you its meaning. That's not just the words. While you're taking care of the words, as a servant, not trying to get anything, being upright with the scripture, it starts to tell you all kinds of wonderful things. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. But, yeah, so the Alankavatar is one thing you can be a servant of. You can be a servant of the Heart Sutra. You can be students of Abhidharma. All these scriptures you can be servants of. And when you study in that way, they give you gifts. They show your life that you didn't see before. You don't just accumulate lists, you know, five skandhas, twelve ayatanas. You don't just learn all the details. You do learn the details. Maybe you even memorize them. But as a servant of the teaching for the welfare of all beings, not that you get to be an expert.

[68:45]

Now, of course, you're going to slip into that. And the more you study, the more you're going to think, this is my sutra. This is my baby. Not just this copy, but this is my field of knowledge. That's probably going to happen. Just like some people think this is my Tassajara. Because they take good care of it. Gradually they think they own it. That's part of the deal. And again, if you would be upright with your thought, I own Tassajara, that thought will take its mask off and show you the truth. So study away all these scriptures and study them with joy of studying them without trying to get anything, and you'll get all kinds of blessings. Anything else this morning? Oh, excuse me, I think you were next, sorry. I've been seeing with your teaching that seeing Zazim and the relationship that you have with the whole universe is the first transmission.

[69:58]

But there is something, I don't know if it's too basic of a question, but I really feel like face-to-face transmission feels like one human being looking to another human being. Yes. And when you're sitting in like you and the universe, it doesn't feel like one person looks to another person. No, it doesn't feel like that. It feels, well, but it could feel like one person's looking at a wall. Yes. Okay. And Bodhidharma did that. He was looking at the wall. But when he looked at the wall, the wall was the whole universe appearing as a wall. He understood that. And how this relationship between him and the wall kind of is the same of face-to-face sensation? Because the wall is bringing you the whole universe in this form. Just like the tree is bringing the whole universe to you in this form.

[71:04]

Just like a person is bringing the whole universe to you in the form of a person with a face. And again, whenever you look at a wall, you are facing the wall. And the wall has a face. it's just not a human face I'm not saying a wall is a human face but I am saying that all human faces are included in the wall but the wall doesn't look like a human face and human faces don't usually look like walls but all walls are included in every human face every human face is everything appearing in this form this face Everything's included in this unique way that is arising because of my nervous system, which also the whole universe is bringing to this person.

[72:12]

So face-to-face transmission, usually the training in how to do this with everything usually comes in a human face with a human face. So we grow up with our nervous system is built on this... working with this limited face with another limited face. Our body develops by this face-to-face meeting with our mother or whatever. So we use this face now to learn about everything. And so the Zen student meets the Zen teacher and the Zen teacher says that Zen is a face-to-face transmission and the student asks questions about that. And that human face to human face opens both sides to their relationship with everything. Because when we grow... When babies... Babies, you know, have a hard time going to sleep because they're kind of open to everything.

[73:16]

They're always on the verge of being overwhelmed by so much, you know. Their minds are not... cohering things yet as much as they need to learn to do. And another face helps them learn how to cope with the whole universe so that they can get around in life, so that they can make limited versions of the infinite to get around in. So we have that kind of a face, so we use that face with other faces who are trying to understand our actual relationship, which includes everything, not just me and you. So we do use the human face to learn about the fullness of the field of experience, meaning the fullness of the field of experience, giving rise to the fullness of the field of experience.

[74:26]

And you're asking questions about the meeting. And I'm responding. So we're enacting the face-to-face transmission. And in the process of enacting it, we come to realize that it's not just you and me meeting. And because you are the whole universe in this way. And I am the whole universe in this way. That's what's meeting. but we have to take care of the limited meeting in order to open to the infinite meeting, which is already there. It's a question of being thoroughly taken care of the limited meeting. So that's a virtue of Zen, is that we take care of limited things, like oryoki cloths and setsu tips and spoons and bells and schedules and faces and postures. We take care of all these things as a service rather than trying to get something out of them.

[75:38]

And if we're trying to get something out of our setsu tip, then the setsu tip will not give us the gift that it can give us if we are compassionate to our setsu tip and not try to get anything from setsu tip. And if you're compassionate with the wall, the wall will open up and reveal the truth to you. But to learn how to be compassionate to a wall, most people can't learn it from the wall. They need to learn it from their mother and their teacher. So Bodhidharma learned from his teacher how to be compassionate to a wall. And the basic way to be compassionate to a wall is to clearly observe it. That's what it's calling for. Everything's calling for your presence, your complete... ungrady presence. So his teacher, face to face with a human, taught him how to be with walls. So he was happy to be with walls because through the wall he met the entire realm of Buddha activity because he knew how to treat walls.

[76:44]

And so we know how to treat bells and schedules and ground and rocks and food and people. We learned to do that so we are available to realize the complete story. But we need to start with human faces because that's how we become human beings is by face-to-face transmission with our mother. We don't really become human without that face-to-face thing and we won't become free of our humanness except by exercising the exercise by which we got stuck in the human realm will be the same exercise to get out. to be free. So it's by conversation that we get stuck in the human consciousness and it will be a conversation that will become liberated from human egocentric consciousness. We are trained into egocentric consciousness face-to-face and we'll get trained out of it face-to-face.

[77:51]

That's the Buddha ways. Work with people who are stuck in egocentric consciousness and have them have happy conversations so they can become free of it. Thank you for coming. Please come again soon. Thank you for coming. Let's see, and then there was Catherine. Yes? actual phrase was, insentient beings preach the Dharma. As we've been talking, I'm interested in the face itself, literally, as this sort of field of expression, as something that is both insentient and sentient, and how I can...

[78:54]

My own face can betray me. It can reveal you. Yes, the karmic emotions that can show up in their habit way across my face in the midst of even a conversation when I'm very connecting with someone. But also that feeling of one face pouring into another. And when people speak of and feel... opening openness often it's your joy is the whole universe or your sorrow is the whole universe but then the kind of literally felt as a tightness in the face when these more sort of karmic feelings are arising and you can't see it but you can feel an expression that you're giving off to someone and

[79:56]

And that's when I sort of pick up on, I'm calling it a betrayal, because I'm wanting to present one thing, but then this other more karmic thing is arising that gives away some true feeling or conditioned feeling. And it's a painful thing to observe and feel very palpable and very visible. when I'm noticing this. So everything that you're saying about the wall and insentiency is how I'm picking up on this, as what preaches the Dharma. But you also mentioned the mask several times. How, if one is to study and practice literally the face, how would you, encourage explorations and what has that been like?

[80:58]

I would say I would encourage wholehearted, genuine conversation with another face. Upright, fully responsible conversation. In that field, the revelations will the teachings will come. The other will teach you who you are in that kind of conversation. Was there any... Albert just raised his hand. Was there anybody before him? Yes? I have a question about... Yes? I've always been wondering about this of itself that recurs in almost every other line. And, yeah, I've been representing that with, yeah, like tied together, of itself, to me, this sense of contained, not meeting another.

[82:25]

I have heard this question arise in discussing this poem before about this point of itself which could also be translated as selfly selfly It's like self with another character, which makes it like that's the way it... It's like an adverb. Selfly is how it does this stuff. So I kind of feel like it's something I'd make with the next class we could get into the text. And hopefully you'll survive until then. But a lot of people say, what about this? I just briefly would say that... all those selflies has the character for self.

[83:27]

And so the pivot there is self and not self. So the selfly is how the self pivots with not self. That's the selfly. But we can go on. I think I was maybe at this point to start getting into the text. Maybe it's a little bit unwieldy, but I was... thinking of looking at this text more with you and maybe even chanting this somewhat in noon service or something for a few days or whatever. But we can look at that question. But that of itself means also of not itself. It means of, it pivots of itself. It naturally You're naturally not you. And not you is naturally you. Not you, the whole universe is not you, and it's naturally you.

[84:33]

Nobody's making it the you, but it is the you, and you, and you. So the whole universe is naturally selves, and selves are naturally selves, but not because they make themselves, but because the whole universe has made them. But we can go with that in more detail. And one more, maybe. Pardon? You're ahead of him. No, not ahead. After him. Yes. I feel a little bit ashamed. Okay. I have to confess something. What happened was I missed your talk. I missed your talk on the last day of session.

[85:39]

You're falling asleep beforehand or during? Before. In your room. In my room, yeah. And I woke up and I was totally shocked. I went out and the whole area was empty. I couldn't feel it. Nobody is out here. And I was going like, oh, God, they will hear me. And how do I get in there? And all this stuff. And suddenly I couldn't hear all these little stones. We heard you coming. Who is coming to our door? This lovely kinhead going upstairs. I know they make sound like a ship. and didn't dare to come in and disturb the talk. So I sat there and tried to listen and it was not really possible because the acoustic is not that good out there.

[86:42]

And all of a sudden, I thought, nothing. I heard your voice. I didn't understand your words. I just heard this melodic, soft sound, and that sound took me kind of away, and I let go all that bad feelings. I sat out there and said, that's the way it is now, and that happened in your life so many times. I will tell on the 8th, I will tell why. So many times I had this, and I said, You sit here, you hear his voice, the master's voice. There was some records of a little dog listening to master's voice. And I was sitting there, and it became kind of blissful. And I thought, look at the sky, it's so blue.

[87:44]

Sometimes the sky is blue. Sometimes clouds are white. Sometimes rocks are falling in the cliff. And then the prayer came and went into my old paddards. Same thing. I went down the stairs. The first people coming out of the stairs. Going down and crossing that path and roof came. You. And I crossed your way like in a rush. And I thought, shh. In English? English or German? In English. Very much in English.

[88:44]

And I was on the way down to the city A. And you were coming and you're, as you do in a new procession, dead behind you. Da, da, da, da, da. And I thought, I can't do this. And I turned around and bowed deeply to you. And you bowed back. And it was like, I was in a chair and I looked at you while bowing and you looked at me. And in the same moment, I started to laugh. And I loved it all day. I was so happy. Maybe on the work meeting, some people knew it. I was so kicked by that. And I don't know why, but this is, I think it's a face-to-face business. Is it right?

[89:50]

Oh. Oh. Oh. It's definitely a Tassajara event. That's good. This is a monastery. So we can have experiences like that. And, yes? The question has been clear by my question. So, face-to-face transmission, you use a character, men, which is... mask to me. And actually there is a character of a face. Kao. Why you use mask instead of actual face? Tradition. Dogen Zenji uses that. Shobo Genzo Menzu chapter. Which I translated many years ago with Kaz Tanashi. Kaz Tanashi is a mask to mask transition. No, it's face-to-face.

[90:52]

So it's in the Shobo Genzo, English translation, face-to-face. But I think it's really interesting that when she sees that character, she sees mask. That's part of the drama of face-to-face transmission is that we bring masks to each other. So I bring my face, but you see a mask. Or maybe I even want a mask so you can't see me. I don't want you to really see me. Even though I don't have a mask, I try to have a mask. So I thought trying to hide from each other is part of the transmission. Like little children love to play this game, right? It's part of our nature is to use this. We know everybody's looking at it. Right? When we come in a room, people look right here usually. We don't want them to see too much. So I think that you see masks when you see that character is wonderful.

[91:56]

Because that's part of the process of Menjil, is taking masks off and putting masks on. Like the teacher goes, or... So Buddha winks. It's part of the thing of this mask thing. So thank you. This is her perspective from learning Japanese. She first thinks of a mask when she sees that. Is that right? But again, Dogenzenji uses that term. And I following that choice. And we chose to translate face-to-face transmission rather than, now you know, it could be masked. mass transmission and by mass to mass transmission the mass drops away and we see that the other person is really has a secret to tell us and the secret is I am you and you're ready to accept that now and I'm ready to tell you because I know you'll take care of me as you

[93:14]

Is that enough for this morning?

[93:18]

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