So, that Harry Roberts is, most of you know, he's been our advisor here at Gringotts and he's from Hurok Indian upbringing. Can you hear me okay? So-so. Anyway, what someone told me is that Harry said, if someone comes to you, to an Indian shaman, to be a student and asks, can I be your student, can I study Indian ways with you, he might say, the shaman or the teacher might say something like, yes, please make your request after you find six different flowers. Then, if the potential student takes one step away, he's disqualified, because you should be able to find six flowers right where you're standing, right away. Such a story

[01:32]

At least in Zen, I don't know exactly, of course, how it's used in Indian ways, but in Zen, such a story on one hand is… a little frightened. Everyone thinks, oh God, I don't want to be set up like that, or get caught like that. On the other hand, such a story is to make you be more alert, to try to get you to be more alert, because actually that kind of test is going on all the time. And whether you know it or not, such a test is happening. And third, such a story in Zen indicates a wider state of mind or another state of mind. That is necessary if you're going to study

[03:00]

the way or practice. As children, of course, as babies even, I think if you remember back to moments of clarity They were often moments of challenge, like crossing a street for the first time, or maybe you can remember walking or talking. But these really major events are just extending yourself, stepping out into the world. I, it looks to me, I watched Ivan, one of the children who lives here, crossing the parking lot, going from, I guess, dinnertime to his house. He moved here recently from San Francisco. He's quite small. And I'm told, I asked about it later, and I'm told he

[04:28]

is testing himself, getting from the dining room to his house by himself, something you can't do in the city, so easily at least. Someone asked me the other day, your ambitions, what are Zen Center's ambitions. And I had to think about that for a moment, because ambitions, it means to go around, to look around. And that's like taking a first step to go further. But ambitions, it doesn't have the flavor of what I think everyone is actually doing.

[05:50]

If you look, now I don't like to use the word other for what we perceive as outside ourself, so let me in today's talk use the word further. What is further? I like a noun. What is further from us, but what is further? And we actually are always entering that further. When we give up or when we stop, you know, you are going backwards or dead. And it's not so clear. When you're a child, you have very clear examples. There's all these giants around you who are walking and talking. And it becomes more difficult as you're older. The examples are more subtle. You have to seek them out, like going to an Indian teacher, a shaman, or some person who knows the ways of your culture. And by your activity, actually, long before you find out

[07:12]

you get to the point of asking overtly, can I study with you? First you have to recognize the person as a teacher. And Suzuki Roshi, he was here quite a few years, and most people did not recognize him as a teacher. It's very interesting for many people, for a number of us, he was clearly the most pivotal, significant person in our life. But for other people, he was just a nice little Japanese man. They couldn't yet get it. Maybe their life was going in a different direction. Maybe their life was already taken up with their work, their life work. but also they may not have that aroused state of mind or mind of initiation which allows you to see something, allows you to pass that kind of test of knowing, to look for six flowers right where you're standing.

[08:29]

So, we are always this further, are relating to this what I'm calling further. And how can I approach what I mean? A while ago I talked about pivotal thought. Do you remember? Not all of you are here, so. Briefly, what I mean by pivotal thought. is, in any situation, there are many reasons you do something. I think the example I gave is, you may be making a meal for someone because you want to please them, because you found fresh vegetables, because of a number of reasons. But they all are reasons we're doing it, or we add to it, or do it better, or more carefully. But basically we are making the meal because we must eat. Now, when we lose sight of that and we're too much involved with the kind of food, who we're making it for, whether we're appreciated, etc., if we lose the pivotal thought, those additional thoughts become demons, not angels anymore.

[10:13]

but demons, and you can get quite crazy worrying about all those. So practice means to be able to stay with the pivotal thought, to know in any connotation, in any situation, What is the pivotal thought? Why you're actually doing it? It means clear observation. It means your senses are not ambivalent. So this is practice. Finding, knowing, inherently knowing the pivotal thought or pivotal nature of each situation. And this mind that knows the pivotal thought is the mind that can stay with something. As I said last Sunday, when you see how everything is corruptible, how we are corruptible, how everything changes, how you can't depend on anything, your parents even, or your society, or your own body,

[11:47]

not being able to depend on your own body, what is there? We take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, but that slips away. What is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? So we start, as I said, with our posture, our position. Even though you can't depend on your body, By zazen, you see, you can depend on a position, something that gives you a sense of physical and mental continuity. Then we can talk about, is there a mental position you can depend on? This is more posture. This is more complicated, because if it's something definite, it is decay or corrupt, changing all the time. So, the name for the position of the mind, maybe, that is dependent on, you can depend on, or is continuous, is suchness. And suchness means tathagata, it means realization. And suchness is a word, of course, suchness is an expression of

[13:15]

elemental or fundamental nature of everything. And that suchness is an activity of your expression, too. So by your postures and by your zazen you begin to be able to find some continuity. Finding some continuity, actually objectless continuity, you then can have an object of continuity, a pivotal thought. You don't lose your way by many distracting thoughts coming up and disturbing you. By your intention, a kind of flow, you can stay with your pivotal the phrase I'm using, the pivotal thought. This also includes clear observation or awareness, or awareness which touches everything. This is also very close to the same definition as the mind of initiation, the mind which

[14:45]

as I was, to go back over that. I said that the mind of initiation is like the mind which, when you read a poem, some poet which has not opened itself, himself, herself, to you, suddenly one day you are ready to, you feel some song or some line or a few words You feel it in a way that opens up the whole poem to you. This mind, which can initiate you into the poem, is also the mind which touches all the notes of the situation. So, by practice, you are developing, and we are doing. Now, in San Francisco, a seven-day Sashin. Today is the second day. And the effort to extend our effort in Sashin is, for seven days, is to get a direct taste of this continuum or mind of initiation or ability to stay with a pivotal thought.

[16:14]

So how do we, how, again, I'm talking about the further, you know, throughout your life you are, you know, let's not use ambitions, let's call another description of the further, aspiration, breathing upon, or responsibility. Where does your responsibility end? If you have a party in your family's house, you may feel some responsibility for getting everybody out at a certain hour or protecting the furniture, etc. But many people won't feel that in a friend's house. But as you develop, of course, you feel it the same way in a friend's house. Not just out of responsibility, but out of caring for your friend and your friend's parents. Or maybe that caring extends then to a nightclub. And now, you know, we are

[17:37]

living here at the Dream Gallery? Where does our responsibility end of practicing with others? Does it cover the whole earth? Does it cover all sentient beings? We can say all sentient beings, but practically speaking, does your own responsibility reach that far? And our mind is always changing. Even if you say something twice, the second time it's different. So it's always new. You don't reach a permanent state, just like a child walking for the first time or talking. You are always in that situation. Can you make the great decision? Yes. When it's necessary to make the decision, can you? make, as Cavity says, the decision yes. Cavity's poem, you know, is, there comes a time in everyone's life when it's necessary to make the great yes or the great no, and the one who makes the great yes goes on to fulfill his life, and the one who makes the great no will repeat that no again and insist it's right.

[19:01]

and go on to some half-life. And Tadashi's right, that if you make the great no, you can't turn it around. No, it can't be erased. Taking the step away to look for flowers elsewhere is irrevocable. There may be other opportunities for you to make a yes, but it's not something we can experiment with. Oh, that was a yes. No, I better make a yes next time. Practice is to be ready for the yes or no on each moment. It's too fast to be correcting yourself. You don't have time to correct yourself. Unfortunately, when people make the no, then they reinforce it and insist it was right. Confucius says inferior men just amplify their mistakes.

[20:30]

So, it's not inferior in the sense of talent, but inferior in the sense of commitment or your own courage. So, this further I'm talking about. this wider world or responsibility or where, what can we actually do? Not just it's a good idea to have some policy or to try to solve all the problems of the world. We can only do little by little and we can't do everything in your lifetime and my lifetime or one generation's. But practically speaking, from the point of view of practice, where does this further come in? This further, which is always a challenge, always the actual change or the actual great decision we are making that transcends or transforms your personal life.

[21:49]

that calls out more from you. And it doesn't get easier, you know, as you get older. I think it probably took tremendous effort to learn to walk or talk, but you had great examples around you. Now you don't have such obvious examples and you have to begin to seek the examples. And there are many societies, you know, there's upper class and lower class and rich people and educated people and various classes, academic classes or societies, you know, etc. Working classes, middle classes. But there are also unnamed classes or societies.

[22:54]

of misdirected people, of well-directed people, of even enlightened people, of, maybe in quotes, good people. And they are strung like jewels throughout society. And you can, by the practice of the way, you find that way also becomes people. When you're ready to see people around you, your friends become great jewels for you, reinforcing you, helping you, expressing now what you can't express, expressing various aspects of your own development and personality. So by practice you arouse the mind of initiation and you can maintain. Now, pivotal thought, I want to go one

[24:20]

further. If you're in a situation… I don't know anything about archery or any such sport, but my own feeling is, I don't know how they teach them archery or anything, but my own understanding would be that when you are about to shoot an arrow, you know, or throw a dart or maybe a baseball, I don't know. In Zen practice, I would guess if you combine Zen with such a thing, is you would not imagine the target and this, but you would visually imagine the trajectory through space. You would see a little hole through space, and you'd shoot the arrow through that hole. Do you understand what I mean? So, physical thought is one stage. Next stage is the ability to retain visually an entire situation and the people in it. You are somewhere with people.

[25:43]

Although you're relating to each situation, now your mind, because it's not easily distracted, because your mind is concentrated, has the whole situation in it, all the people, or table, or room, and each person very clearly, like the trajectory of the arrow. There's that kind of, you know, your relationship to the further now is your calm mind includes it. I don't know how, I better not make it too explicit. It's a kind of visual awareness. For example, here at Green Gump, working in the farm and, for example, the farming part, I would think the more you, on the one hand, are concentrated on exactly what you're doing, but at the same time you have a tangible sense of the whole garden and farm and that particular day, and who is working in it, and the weather. It's outside you, but that experience is also inherent or in you.

[27:15]

So it's not just you outside in this other. That whole... Now, it's not something exactly that you can try to do, but if you're practicing and your mind becomes stable, you find more and more this is so. That your imagination includes the tangible space of the whole situation. You're perceiving wholes all the time. The mind of initiation means you're perceiving wholes. By a few lines, you sense the whole poem. By a few words, by someone, you sense the whole. And it's visual, tangible, visual. So, if we were going to define your relationship through practice to the furthest, I think we conclude this visual sense. Visual sense of the situation you're in. I mean more than just maybe by visual, I mean vision, a vision of it, hearing and seeing and conceptually. Conceptually, it's very clear.

[28:45]

and would, in such a definition of further practice, would include responsibility. You can feel responsible and that line of responsibility jumps when that decision is on you. When an occasion comes up and you see you are not far enough into the further, that you've been excluding some people. I don't mean you have to start and just imagine everybody. Practically speaking, when you discover, you know, in a way, maybe you are, through your life, you become familiar with an area, to be just what you talk in and walk in and your parents circumscribe it and family. and maybe ambition has more of a sense of, then how do you extend that area? But responsibility is a wider feeling. And always it's narrow. After some insight you may feel some flush of understanding or success, but pretty soon you've explored that territory and it's narrow again.

[30:14]

it's narrow again, and you need it. By your way-seeking mind you come up to another decision. So we need also caring, not just responsibility, but actually caring about the further friendliness or caring. So caring or friendliness is another way we can describe the further from the point of view of practice. Now I'm not talking about some scientific physical world. I'm talking about your friendliness with the physical world. And the last characteristic I'll give of this further today is joy. Your joyful or grateful feeling with what comes up, what appears, not some mean categorizing mind, your joyful accepting

[31:45]

mind. This also is further or suchness. Now, suchness strictly means ... no ... suchness has a slightly other point of view. That suchness comes most tangibly to us when we perceive the world so definitely as changing, that we see things as unreal or always changing and in evolution with us, and this then objectless state of mind is such mind as such, the suchness of mind itself. This then is a more active and penetrating, permeating way of practice or the way that permeates everything. So six flowers are always around us.

[33:10]

we always know exactly what kind of space we're in. And that space is joyful and we have responsibility. We can define it by responsibility and caring and friendliness. And the calmness of our mind visually extends to it. It's not there and we're closed in by it. From this kind of effort, the development of your experience widely like this, we have a good opportunity then, or base then, for finding out reality, having the courage to extend our responsibility and awareness on each occasion as it arises. That was a rather technical discussion, mainly meant for Sashin, not so much for you who aren't in Sashin or don't sit so regularly. But maybe it's interesting to you.

[34:47]

I went to change the topic considerably. I went to see Star Wars the other day. It changes their position, I'll stop. It's a, you know, pure piece of noisy fluff, or theater, you know. It's moving to see how many people go to see it. I avoided Exorcist, but this one I did see. I thought it was quite a lot of fun. Everybody cheers when the hero comes. But at the same time, if you listen to it, not in terms of who's the hero and who's the bad guy, but just as this was all of one substance, say, all good guys are all bad guys,

[36:26]

It's incredibly noisy. They shoot each other constantly, with very poor aim, with all these fancy guns. And it's total anti-up, you know. I mean, the anti is so high, it's like a rock concert or something. It's total auditory bombardment. They don't give you one, only when they're in the garbage disposal unit there. For those of you who've seen it, when the walls are crushing in. That's a relatively dull moment. The pace drops a minute as the walls are closing in. But generally the pace is much faster than that. So noisy. Of course, as Lou pointed out, there's no noise in space. They're not trying to be authentic in this movie. And as you may know, it's a movie, a large part of it is just camp. They play off all kinds of other movies, The Wizard of Oz and The Battle of Britain. Many characters from other movies appear in there. But the ante is so high.

[37:47]

They keep the ant with auditory bombardment, and they're not just killing people, they blow up whole world systems, they blow up whole planets. And the machines are quite humorous. It's very interesting, why so many people? I suppose it'll be the largest common experience other than breathing on the planet. Is it ever going to go over big in Japan? Wow. Samurais with laser beams. The state of mind that that movie is drawing out is the opposite of the state of mind I'm talking about, the opposite of the mind of initiation, the opposite of the six paramitas, which are a method of extending the further, permeating the further, giving or charity or acceptance

[39:23]

and conduct or precepts, and patience. The mind of initiation is also a very patient mind, waiting mind, and effort, and meditation or samadhi, or concentration, and wisdom or insight. the mind which is the real hero of this universe the path by which we find out our extended being through each of us with everything

[40:33]

by the suchness of your calm.

[40:43]

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