Looks like something out of Star Trek. Oh Oh Oh

[01:34]

from this life. Father, I've got this life to be a true karma to help upon your head. The love of God will arrest us so that we can complete that upon a meeting. We shall get us worldly affairs that may take in the living room while at night in the streets of the grave. And all the big things together will take no good away. Although our past, people's karma has to be humiliated. It may be because and condition of obstacles in practicing the way made up with us and as a source to end the thing that we away be compassionate to us and free us from conduct effects allowing us to practice the way without interest to share with us and compassion which feels to plan this universe with the virtue of their enlightenment and teachings to us and as a source of all the rest we even teach us how to be with them .

[02:35]

. . before Brutus were at night and they were the same as we had like to meet you but that they are exactly as those of all who finally explore the products of these causes and conditions as this practice is the exact transmission of a verified Brutus and confessing and avenging it this way one never fails to receive profound help of all Brutus and ancestors by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice before the Brutus Good morning, good day, my friends.

[04:01]

joy and an honor to be with all the people here. And I have to say it's a bit disorienting because I haven't given a Dharma talk in person with a, you could say, a live physical audience in over two years. So I'm so used to looking at a screen and seeing all the whole assembly manifest in little boxes, you know, in the 9 by 14 space along with my notes and all the assembly. And so it's a little, it's both wonderful and it's a bit strange. So it may take me a little bit to adjust in terms of my notes, the assembly and so on. So please bear with me as I kind of re-adapt to these new circumstances or renewed circumstances. So yeah, it's a joy physically to be with all of you in this way. Also, what's wonderful is because I get to see all of your faces. As you know, on Zoom, oftentimes people will turn off the camera.

[05:05]

So all you get is an icon or a name. And who knows what they're doing behind yoga or something else. I don't know what. But anyhow, I get to see all your faces. And I'm just going to assume that since you're here physically, you are also perhaps here mentally. I don't know if that's always the case but I'm going to make that assumption and I just want to appreciate you all for showing up and supporting each other in this way. Thank you again. So we've had a week so far to arrive and to settle in and to get oriented and thanks to the pandemic We've also had, all of us, had an opportunity to do a Tungario of sorts, right? So we've kind of gone through the ritual of masking up and following all these kind of limiting COVID protocols for five days together.

[06:09]

And so that we could, on the other side, come out with confidence that we've created a safe pandemic pod or a bubble. and be together in a way that everyone could stay well. So I'm grateful. Everyone is well. And looking forward to what we already have, returning to many of our traditional forms. So being able to be oryoki again and to be able to chant with a whole body and breath. I have to say yesterday was the first time I've done oryoki over two years as well. So I had all these wonderful things I got to return to in terms of our Zen ritual and practice. And it was really amazing to see how much my body retained after 21 years, 22 years of doing this. There's something in the body that says, this is how you do it. And I still forget. I won't make mistakes. So I think it's been an auspicious and precious time to be here at Tassajara and engage in monastic practice and holding a place of relative calm and sanity while it seems so much of the rest of the world is struggling with myriad natural and man-made but frankly I think we're all man-made.

[07:47]

problems, issues, difficulties, conflicts and at times seemingly on the verge of insanity. And the relentlessness of the pandemic continues to create many challenges and uncertainties including revealing and exasperating the already existing disparities within our societies. such as economic, racial, gender, health inequality. And then there are the issues of political and social divisiveness. There's also the growing existential threat of climate change and you could say the unraveling of our democracy is the way it appears to me. You know, the unraveling of democracy, the unraveling of women's rights.

[08:48]

And one could say the unraveling of the ground of truth itself. You know, what is truth now? And everyone can call anything that you say as your own experience fake. So how do we find what is authentic and true for us? How do we locate that? And how do we share that truth and live in some other shared truth together? So we're seeing a... the fruition of our collective human karma. And it seems to be, you know, kind of accelerating at an unprecedented alarming rate. And Buddhism teaches that the way to address the problems of the world begins within us. How we gather and maintain our own presence of mind and cultivate a deep concern and care for the world, begins with studying and addressing our own fears, our own internal turmoil, our own inward divisiveness, all these conflicts within our own mind.

[09:59]

How do we address those? I originally came across an excerpt of a letter that Alan Watts, maybe some of you are familiar with him, he was the British philosopher, writer, interpreter who helped to popularize Asian philosophies for a Western audience, including Zen. He did a lot to promote Zen. He wrote a letter when he was 25 years old to his parents, and this was shortly before World War II. And in his letter, Watts reflects on how the awareness of the reticulated nature of reality, because of the network, nature of reality and the interconnectedness of all human experience casts any one experience, any experience that we have, even the most terrifying and challenging experience, in a wider frame of reference that makes it somehow bearable.

[11:00]

How do we bear with, how do we stay with and encounter what is terrifying, difficult? uncertain for us. So Watts writes to his parents, I have faith that something good will come out of this in the end, like the phoenix out of the fire. But in the meantime, it's almost impossible to know how to plan for the future. Things here are as good as can be expected. But under such strainings, you never know when people are going to go crazy. Sometimes I get the queerest feeling that things going on in the world around one are in some odd way reflections of things happening in the depth of one's own mind. It is almost as if the world gets calm as you keep calm yourself and vice versa. Yet it would be absurd to imagine that one could actually control the course of events in that way because this would simply imply the belief that oneself alone is real.

[12:09]

and all else is a figment of thought. But it convinces me more and more that there is a universe inside one which contains Hitler and all forms of human madness as well as love and beauty. So we're here at Tassajara taking the opportunity to study the universe inside ourselves. To look into and understand the depths, the complexities, and the multitudes of our own mind and our character. And both the aspects that are, you could say, beautiful and wholesome, and those that are ugly and harmful. And to see the way in which the world around us reflects these. the world around us reflects what's in our mind.

[13:12]

And when we do so, we recognize that the universe within and the universe without, or ultimately not too. And we can also gain faith that something good will actually eventually come out of whatever challenges and obstacles we might be experiencing by understanding our fundamental interconnectedness, and by realizing and exposing our Buddha nature. So at the start of this talk, we chanted the Ehe Koso Putsugama, which is a great ancestor to Ehe Dogen's words for arousing the vow of practice. And it begins, as you know, with the following lines. We vow with all beings, from this life on, throughout countless lives, to hear the true Dharma, that upon hearing it, no doubt will arise in us, nor will we lack in faith, that upon meeting it, we shall renounce worldly affairs and maintain the Buddha Dharma, and that in doing so, the great earth and all living beings together will attain the Buddha way.

[14:31]

So by virtue of your being here, I see that each of you has decided to manifest bodhicitta, the state of the mind of a bodhisattva, the mind that didn't really strive toward awakening, empathy, compassion, and for the benefit of all sentient beings. So you, in some mysterious way, have been called to hear the true Dharma. You have vowed to hear the true Dharma and therefore have left behind so-called worldly affairs for a period of time to fully take up listening to and cultivating the Dharma. And renouncing worldly affairs means renouncing those things that distract you from your particular practice now and path.

[15:35]

And even in the midst of various obstacles and uncertainties, you vow to maintain your commitment to the Buddha way. Later in this practice period, we'll be observing Chakramini's perinavarana, and the Buddha's final words to his followers were, which is often translated as, everything falls apart. practice diligently. So before he dies, the great teacher encourages us to engage wholeheartedly in practice, despite, or perhaps precisely because, the truth of impermanence. Nothing lasts. So love and care for it all anyway.

[16:36]

the Buddhist teacher and author, Stephen Batchelor, he offers an alternative translation of the term, Appamadena, which translated before, practiced diligently, as tread the path with care. Tread the path with care. So I appreciate how this rendition offers a different flavor of instruction. We are walking a path of awakening that includes being generous and caring, patient and helpful. And this expansiveness of intention includes or brings, you could say, confidence and spaciousness and warmth to our sitting practice, allowing those heartfelt qualities to pervade our living with others, our living with each other.

[17:44]

So as we settle into this practice period, what is it to bring our full care and compassion to walking the path together? What would happen if we were to nurture and attend to ourselves, to each other, into the world with tenuousness and love, understanding that each of us is doing our best to examine and resolve our particular karmic consciousness and afflictions. Now, treading the path to practice first entails acknowledging and meeting the particular circumstances that we find ourselves in. So due to the pandemic and various other causes and conditions, we have a smaller than usual number of participants in this practice period.

[18:47]

I actually like to think of this, we have the perfect number of participants here. There is no larger or smaller or better or whatever. This is the perfect number. And it's not the size that makes for a transformative practice period. But it's the extent of our individual and collective wholehearted endeavors. So that's what makes for the vitality of a practice period. And I really appreciate actually somewhat smaller practice periods because I feel that there's a greater opportunity for intimacy and for connection. More of a chance to get to know each other better because there are fewer people. have to get to know. And at the same time, this great intimacy is going to ask of us greater vulnerability, the willingness to be more visible and more available.

[19:55]

So the presence or the absence of any one of us at any time becomes more apparent. when there are fewer people here. As does the degree of our individual contributions to the mandala of our communal life and practice together. So it's not just about showing up for yourself. It's about showing up for each other. Because when you show up for each other, you encourage each other profoundly. You hold each other. It's like a basket. what is a strand or a braid in a basket, holds the integrity of the basket. And one disappears, and then if another disappears, suddenly the integrity of the basket begins to come apart. It doesn't hold what is meant to help. So think of yourself as an essential aspect of the practice container and how it is that your presence sustains each of us.

[21:02]

So as we embark on the 107th practice period, that's a GG. That's a lot. 107. Wow. We are creating a new paradigm. You can think of it. These are new conditions we're working with. We're creating a new paradigm. We're responding to circumstances that we find ourselves in. And as I and the director have mentioned previously, we're going to need to be flexible, creative. We're going to need to be able to be willing to try things on, see what works, and also make adjustments according to them. So this is going to require a beginner's mind and a willingness to experiment, to see what's possible or necessary, and to do so in a sustainable way. This isn't trying to stretch ourselves to see how far we can be out of our comfort zone.

[22:06]

But it's really a matter of what is sustainable in how we make the changes that we need to make. So the Tasara leadership and each of us are asked to be intentional in our aspiration to collectively create a container that can encourage and support us. At the same time, you probably already know this, the container is also designed to challenge you. It's designed to challenge your habitual tendencies. And most of those tendencies are to center yourselves and to center your preferences. So this whole mandala is set up to disrupt your sense of self or selfing. but do it just enough so you don't go too far over. And so it's kind of a fine balance.

[23:10]

We try to figure out how do we do that, how do we get ourselves to stretch, at the same time hold each other in a way that we don't become too undone in a certain sense. And so here we are in the stillness, in the quiet of the container, And we're allowing, you could say, the dust of the world, our karmic dust, to settle. And we're allowing the thinking mind to open and to relax, to be more spontaneous, to be more open to wonderment and delight. As it kind of naturally appears, as our kind of karmic mindset falls away, there's something buoyant that comes up. there's a lot we could rise to. And I find myself just being back here at Tassajara, back in the wilderness again, how much I've reconnected to a sense of awe and delight and gratitude and open-heartedness.

[24:14]

You know, I had this, I don't know if it's a bad habit, it's not a bad habit, is it? Every time, at the end of the night, I like to really just go and look at the stars for a while. It's just so amazing. I don't get to see the stars in the city. there are no stars in the city sky it's really hard to see because of the light pollution so to come here and see that aspect of nature I sense my whole being lifts up and I feel this larger connectedness to the universe just like seeing the night sky and nature itself the way that nature invites us to practice I sometimes imagine that The mountains equally support us in creating the practice period container by holding us in their kind of cut hands. It's like creating is a valley for us in order to be cradled. And so it's inviting us to relax into, settle in, and turn inward to engage with a mysterious process of transformation.

[25:26]

that's not ours to determine or control. I can't think of the valley as a chrysalis of sorts. It's kind of like we are all caterpillars that have entered into this chrysalis of the valley and the practice period, and we've taken refuge for a period of time, for a long-awaited transformation, something that we could sense within us has been waiting for some period of time to come forward and blossom in some way. And so already, I would say, in the short time you've been here, if you've only just arrived, that the process of dissolution has already begun. I think you all might be aware of how kautas go into their chrysalis and then they literally turn the mush. So if you would open the chrysalis, there would be nothing but goo inside. And of course, you don't want to do that because that container holds the process of dissolution and you could say resolution and finding, you know, it's kind of a new expression of being.

[26:39]

So we're also beginning to experience our own melting, you know, in the practice period into some indefinable, inconceivable expression. You could say an expression of non-duality. And in time we discovered, perhaps with some surprise, that we are unfolding into something we were always meant to be. But we actually didn't realize it was possible. It's a beautiful process. It's a painful process for any of us, but it's a beautiful process. We realized that we had to go through the pain in order to transformed into what we were meant to be, actually. We already are that, by the way. Not that we become that. We already are that. We come back to our original expression of be.

[27:41]

As you may recall, the Japanese word for practice period, ango, translates as peaceful abode or peaceful dwelling place. So how do we do this? Peacefully abide together. How do we create a peaceful abode together? And part of what makes our living together unique is our commitment to learn how to live together. This is what we're doing in Sangha. We're learning how to live together. Which in my mind is the foundation of Zen practice and Zen training. It's what it's all about. So how do we learn to live this life which is one of profound intimacy and togetherness? During the opening ceremony, the universe shared with us one approach that was suggested by Suzuki Roshi, who, by the way, was echoing Dogen, who was echoing Shakyam Buddha.

[28:51]

And Suzuki Roshi said, all students should be like milk and water, more intimate than that even. because we are all good friends from past lives, sharing eternal Buddha nature as each one's own. So it's a lovely analogy for how we can be together in Sangha. Milk and water, they mix together easily and smoothly, appreciating each other's company like good friends. And this phrase, as I mentioned earlier, comes from the Buddha, comes from the Pali Canon. And in it, the Buddha was describing a group of monks that were peacefully and harmoniously living and practicing together. And they were sharing the task of preparing food, washing out, taking care of the community, and so on. When the Buddha saw this, he said, wherever monks are dwelling in concord, harmoniously, without disputes, blending like milk and water, veering each other with eyes of affection,

[29:55]

I am at ease about going there. The Buddha himself was saying, I want to be in the company of those people who act in that way and are together in that way. Their behavior draws me to them and I want to share in that way of life. So that feeling of coming together easily and with warm regard and affection is and nomadic of the basic feeling of practice period, or what we like to create together. Now, this isn't to say there aren't going to be tensions and disagreements and conflict among the people, among us. That's par for the course. You get two humans in a room, something's going to happen. And it doesn't mean that there won't be difficulties and challenges, but these challenges occur within the pool of milk and water, within our interconnectedness, within the harmony that we're trying to swim in together.

[31:05]

So how we are together in this valley helps us to express the reality of being like milk and water. How do we do this? How do we peacefully abide like milk and water? How do you live with others, not just in the monastery, but together with everyone else in the world. So this is a training ground for, should you ever leave here, go back out into the world and actually engage with others with the same spirit of milk and water. Something we can take away from here. Some of the Guidelines for how we can practice peacefully, peacefully abide together, were offered last night in the shinyu, the pure standards of conduct. And to quote a statement as well that the Ina read during the opening ceremony, to thoroughly engage the monastic guidelines with body and mind is to go beyond the paramic afflictions of greed, hate, and delusion, and to realize the emptiness of self's nature.

[32:16]

So the shingis are offering us numerous practices for how we might go beyond our selfish nature. And I hope I'm not the only one here who has a selfish nature. Maybe there's one or two would admit to that. And so are wanting to study, how can I go beyond that and find ways to be mutually supportive and respectful. And so we are, through our own bodies and minds, creating the body of the practice and one of the skeletal or fundamental skeletal structures holding it together and upright is the Shingi guideline asking us to follow the schedule more heartedly. So if you consider your relationship to the schedule, this will help you wake up by realizing your habitual ways of doing things.

[33:20]

So following the forms, the schedule, and the shini are all skillful means to work with our own karmic consciousness and to awaken to our life together. A shared reality, you can say. But we can't do this in an intellectual way. We have to work with the habits of mind, which is what we're going to be looking at this practice period. So when you hear the wake-up bell, how is it for you just to get up No turning over or thinking about it. How many of you hit the snooze button? Where? Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, I got a few more minutes. So it's just our habits. So rather than what is it to just respond to the call of practice? Oh, there it is. Hi! I'm here. Yes. Just get up. And before the Hindu mind kicks in and says, no, I don't want to.

[34:24]

It's cold. I did this yesterday. Can I sleep in today? Oh, there's a little tickling in the throat. Oh, the director said I shouldn't stay in bed because I could have COVID. Just kind of notice what the mind does, the little kind of excuses it comes up with, you know. And just notice your resistance, how that comes up. So I have made it a practice to radically, I try to cultivate the first thought when I realized I'm awake. I try to cultivate one of gratitude and intention. Because I can see my mind, you know, sinking my, you know, without wings, like, oh, shit. Like, nope, I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to go to sinking mine. So I cultivate gratitude. Ah, wonderful. I have breath. Have another opportunity to enjoy this beautiful world? To practice? How do I want to step into the world today?

[35:26]

What's my deepest intention? And that uplift of heart and mind helps me to lift out of bed and step into the day. So I just thought, well, where? When does the mind start going into that kind of negative tilt? That might be habitual in some ways. No two practice periods are the same, and this practice period is going to be different for each person. So each person is going to have different challenges, different joys, sorrows, concerns, different learnings, insights, openings. All totally different. And for some of us, the hardest challenge will be to wake up and go to the Zendo in the morning, particularly if you're on an early birth. And for other people, The practice of getting up and going to the Zendo when the Han begins, that won't be so difficult. What might be difficult will be getting along with others, or dealing with your own entrenched habit patterns.

[36:30]

So each of us has our particular karmic challenges that are going to manifest and make themselves known. So how can you say, oh, hello, I know you, you're familiar. begin to befriend your particular karmic challenges don't see them so much as enemies or opponents but something to get to know to become intimate with to understand how they manifest in your own mind and one of the things that we'll be looking at this practice period as we study karmic is intention or volitional action or volition and particularly the intention that is the driving impetus behind karma, which is volitional action. So I'd like to see everyone in Dokusara in the next couple of weeks, next few weeks, and I'd like to hear about your practice intentions for this particular practice period. I also want to hear what's alive for you right now in your practice.

[37:34]

What are you turning? What are you working with? What's alive in the sense that it is perhaps challenging you bringing you to the edge of what you are comfortable with in some way. Because that's where real growth happens. It doesn't happen being comfortable. It happens in dancing on the edge of your comfort level. And so what is the inquiry? What is the question that's coming up, the exploration, the dis-ease that you're noticing in your body-mind? And how is it that you're working with it? How is it that you're engaging with it? And I'm guessing Paul said this last practice period when he was here, for those of you who were here for the practice period, he often says, what are you asking of practice and what is practice asking of you? So we can turn that question. What are you asking of practice and what is practice asking of you?

[38:38]

And practice is always asking at some level. to question who you think you are. Question who you think you are. So as I said before, lots of things may come up for you this practice period. Some of them may be more challenging than others. So I invite you to please treat yourself with care and respect. Treat yourself with kindness. Each of us is engaged with our own process of settling, becoming undone, opening, encountering deeper layers and knots of karmic consciousness and habitual beliefs, right? You'll see them. You'll keep peeling them away. Oh, they'll dissolve on their own. Oh, you'll smack your head up against them, which is often what

[39:43]

I think is the ones that wake us up, the ones that hit us in the head. And so it's going to take courage. It's going to take tenacity. It's going to take true kindness to stay with your experience, particularly when it's painful or something that you're afraid to recognize or to meet or to let go of. That for many of us is a big challenge. What are you afraid to let go of? You have all these reasons by, oh no, not yet. I'm not going to take care of that yet. I need to hold on to that a little bit longer. What can you renounce in such a way in your own self-clinging that will free you and allow you to expand your heart-mind? I'm going to guarantee that all of us during this practice period are going to make mistakes. Already I've made a nice share.

[40:46]

Thank you very much. And it's going to be unaffordable. And I'm sure you're familiar with the Zen adage that Zen practice entails one continuous mistake. Dogen said, stepping forward is a mistake. Stepping backward is also a mistake. Taking one step is a mistake. Taking two steps is also a mistake. Therefore, one mistake after another mistake. So whatever we say or do with a divided karmic consciousness is a mistake. And yet we need to make a single-minded effort. That's our way. And whether we're a do-on or on the kitchen crew, a general laborer, a member of senior staff, we're going to make lots of mistakes. And it's particularly challenging for us when we have a And we aim for an ideal. We have some idea of what perfection looks like or how the perfect Zen student should be, right?

[41:53]

Or the perfect Doan Bell or the best soup, right? The perfect soup. When we have these ideals, we're going to miss the mark almost all the time. Or we do one thing with a positive intention only to see that it has an opposite effect? And when this happens, can we be kind to ourselves? What is it to look back and reflect, what can I learn for this? And to forgive ourselves for our imperfections, for missing the mark, but honoring the intention that we had. The American writer Joan Didion, who died recently, she wrote, People with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. People with self-respect have the courage of their mistakes.

[42:57]

They know the price of things, meaning the price of wisdom. They know how wisdom comes. Nevertheless, character and the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect respect springs. That kind of self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked, but can be developed, trained, coaxed for. It's beautiful to understand this relationship between making mistakes and self-respect. Can you respect yourself enough to make mistakes? Can you love yourself enough to make mistakes? Can you be that generous with yourself? And in doing so, also with each other. So it may be the case that some of you are going to experience pain in this practice period, whether physical or mental, emotional.

[44:09]

And the practice is to cultivate the ability to stay with the experience, to tolerate as best we can the experience of discomfort, of pain, within reason, not doing self-harm, and to develop the capacity to simply be aware of the experience rather than pushing it away, not grasping it, not averting from it, just the capacity to be aware within awareness of each experience moments. So this kind of open, receptive, non-judgmental awareness itself is transformative. So we're not being aware in order to make the experience change. The practice of awareness is itself a transformative process. We are already bodies of transformation. So let's take up the practice of being kind to ourselves, gentle, loving, open hearts, taking care of the bodies.

[45:17]

This may be easier for some than others. Many of us have learned over time not to do this. We've been kind of taught to set aside our particular needs and take up the agendas of others, making them more important. Or we criticize or judge ourselves. for not being good enough, not being worthy in some way. Maybe I'll just say here, my own self-care includes recognizing I have a sensitive back and it has trouble these days with bowing. So I have to be very attentive to how I'm bowing and sometimes it basically feels like something's gonna pop in my back or it gets tight and so on. So you'll see me kind of being very careful as I bow at times, trying to negotiate what my dog is telling me. And also, when I get on the thang, I have two torn rotator cuffs and a broken shoulder.

[46:24]

So I can't lift myself. Maybe the eno will show us the correct way to get up on the thang, but I can't lift myself up with my arms and shoulders. If I do, my arms seize up and begin to go numb. I do this funky way of getting onto the cushion and trying to lift myself up. So please excuse me for not having good form. It's not so graceful. And if you're able to follow the form, it's a lovely form. I encourage you to take it up and also to acknowledge what is your body supporting you to be able to do. So I have to take it up with a little bit of humility for myself because I want to look good in my forms. I'd be happy. I'd close up the right forms. Here he is, this clumsy guy, getting on his cushion. It's okay. It's why I'm taking care of myself. We can recognize when we take care of ourselves, we're actually taking care of others. So it's important to acknowledge that and not separate ourselves or end up indulging in habits or harshly criticizing ourselves.

[47:38]

Okay. So that's what I want to say about the practice containment. And I just want to, in the last few minutes, to talk a little bit about karma, since it will be the study for our hunger together. And the framing, the theme that I gave for it is becoming unbound, understanding, working with any karma. So we're going to be exploring what karma is, what it isn't. how to work with it in our daily lives, and also how we might go beyond it, and how it is that we might understand what it means to end karma or go beyond karma. Beings are the owners of the karma, the Buddha said. They are heirs to the karma, originators of the karma, and are bound by their karma. So in the first class that I did the week after the next book, I'll be giving more of an introduction to the topic of karma, but for now, just briefly say that karma, the Pali word for those who are not familiar with it, means deed or action.

[48:50]

Karma means deed or action, and specifically volitional action. So it's essentially our conditioned consciousness our mind may manifest through our actions of body, speech and mind. So karma is our conditioned consciousness. or mind may manifest through our actions of body, speech, and mind. And here in this quote I just read, the Buddha is reminding us that we are the originators, the product, and the recipients of our actions, and thus we are responsible for them. And for this reason, the Buddha taught that karma should be known and understood. He said, the calls by which karma comes into play should be known. The diversity in karma should be known. The result of karma should be known. The cessation of karma should be known. And the path of practice for the cessation of karma should be known.

[49:56]

We might hear an echo of the former Patritsa, yes? So I see the Buddha's teaching on karma as nothing other than his compassionate explanation of the way things are. Our thoughts and actions determine our character, as well as our future. And therefore we ourselves are largely responsible for the way our lives unfold. And that's a sobering thing to take in, and we have to understand what we mean by that. And we'll be looking at that. So such karma points to the mechanics of why we suffer. and how we can make the suffering end. Our will today, including all that's good and beautiful, and all that is awful and heartbreaking, is a consequence or a flowering of both individual and collective karma, of conscious and unconscious intentions, wholesome and unwholesome actions, past and present.

[51:07]

And what I find encouraging and rewarding is that a clear understanding of karma and how it works can provide a foundation for an ethical, contented life and an open-hearted way of living. Indeed, from a Buddhist perspective, a clear understanding of the law of karma can serve to change our lives, heal our world, and liberate us from the will of samsara. This is the reason I thought taking up the study of karma during this practice period would be powerful. I actually started it last fall, and I've kind of decided I'd take up Linda Ruth and Reb, I understand, for a while. We're taking a particular topic for a year and studying it for that year. So this is what I decided to try on, because karma is so essential to how it is that we understand Buddhist practice. And actually, as practitioners of the way, we're always studying karma.

[52:11]

To study the Buddha Dharma is to study karma. To study karma is to study the self. To study the self is to study karma. And our intimate relationship with our beings. So we're always in the midst of karma, seeing it arise, seeing its consequences, feeling its weight, although we may not recognize it as such. And as Dhammas practitioners, we're constantly making our best effort to use karma skillfully, adaptively, and ultimately as a liberative methodology. But in order to do so, we have to understand what karma is and how it works. And the point of reflecting and studying karma is not to make ourselves guilty. Karma is not some form of a divine punishment for our sins.

[53:12]

There's no one in charge of the process of karma. No deity. It's just how things naturally work. So no one deserves pain and suffering. But at the same time, our relationships just don't pop out of a void. If we don't understand and acknowledge karma, and how things actually function, our view of the world will be distorted. So the study karma is to study our relationship to both our small, limited relative sense of self and our limitless, all-inclusive, ultimate self. And E. He Dogen famously taught that the study of the Buddha way is to study the self. The study of the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by many things, and when actualized by many things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies and minds of others, drop away.

[54:18]

And no trace of enlightenment remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. So the study karma is to see the karmic myth of interrelationships, which you and I all beings coexist and co-create through our own actions of body, speech, and mind. But we can only truly see and have insight into the profound nature of the web of our inter-being when we drop off our phonetic delusion, our ignorance, in which we conceive of ourselves as soft, autonomous body-minds. And when we fully drop off this conceit of self, then, as we'll see, no trace of karmic activity remains. And this is how everything is liberated. So I'll close with a quote by the American Buddhist scholar David Lord.

[55:27]

He says that karma can be understood as the key to spiritual development. revealing how one's life situation can be transformed by transforming the motivations of one's actions here and now. And yet karma is not something the self has. Rather, it is what the sense of self is. Because one's sense of self is transformed by one's conscious choices. So in other words, we are the product of our choices. Our character is a manifestation of all the choices we have ever made. And so by choosing to change what motivates me, I change the kind of person I am. And I personally greatly appreciate Shohako Gamora's definition of a bodhisattva, an awakening being, as a person who lives by vow instead of karma.

[56:34]

Our karma is the habit energy of our conditioning. But a true vow, whether it's a public or personal vow, is a compass that helps us turn in the right direction. So living our lives based on how we can continuously shift the direction of our karma towards the Buddha way and foster a more heartfelt, compassionate way of living. which is what we are doing here together. You may not have originally thought you were doing that when you arrived. Maybe you thought you were doing something else. But in the end, I think we all discovered this is what we are doing. So thank you very much for your kind patience and attention and supporting me as I adapt to

[57:39]

talking to a live audience, although people on Zoom were also live, but, you know, so making these adjustments. It's a joy to be with you, and I look forward to continuing our journey of study of karma together, and how it is that we can help each other to undo the karmic knots and free ourselves of conditioning that limit us. from being able to express our true selves. Thank you very much.

[58:40]

Thank you. It will be something so very disastrous. I will not have to threaten them, but I will not have to threaten them. I will not have to threaten them, but I will not have to threaten them. I will not have to threaten them, but I will not have to threaten them. I will not have to threaten them.

[59:31]

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