I'd like to mention a few things before starting this show. One is that what we found a year or so ago, a rather beautiful... I only saw photographs, so I didn't know for sure, a Tara statue. I felt it would be wonderful to have Tara statue on our altar for the feminine energy of everyone, and particularly for the women of Zen Center, since there aren't so many figures, images of women

[01:07]

Buddhist altars. Anyway, this figure was in Indiana. In fact, I drove across, this summer across, from New York to Indiana to see it. When I got there, it had moved to San Francisco because the person who had it in Indiana had a kind of falling out with the person who had it on consignment with, so it was sent to to San Francisco while I was en route, and I've certainly been putting it off because... two, because it costs $12,000 and I couldn't figure out where we get the money. Again, it's one of those fetches which is worth a lot more, so... it puts us in some... between $25,000 and $75,000, depending on where it was sold. Anyway, again, it comes from the Rudolph family, from Rudy's family, as many of the figures we have have come from his family. Anyway, I found out circuitously. Someone was supposed to go this summer and look at it at San Francisco, but anyway, we didn't get to it.

[02:37]

and I found out securitously that it was about to go to a buyer, somebody who wants it in Switzerland, and if not, that fell through to an auction in Europe, so it was going to be shipped in a week or so to Europe. So Rev went and looked at it first, and I came back very positive, quite excited about it. So I went and looked at it, and I knew we were going to try to get it. And it's a figure about bronze, and the figure, the tar figure is about this big, pretty big, like that, and seated, so legs are like that. And then it's in a large nimbus or kind of, you know, oval shape. It's quite big. Maybe it starts this wide and goes up this high. And it has quite a few Buddha figures in the side. Like that. He's also throwing in a rather fairly large antique altar table. Not the same type we have at Greenbelch,

[04:03]

So... you know, for various reasons, he needs the money rapidly, so we're hoping to find somebody who will loan us the money for a year. Maybe some... maybe a woman who's interested in... would be interested in our having such a figure. And it's a lot easier to ask somebody for a loan than it is for a gift. You know, we were trying to borrow the money between now and December to... Let's see if we can buy it. It will go in the city, Buddha Hall, to the right of the central Shakyamuni figure. And it goes, and on the left is the Amida Buddha. And it goes, Tara and Amida and Buddha have some relationship, so it's rather good either side. I think it will complete the altar for the Buddha Hall in the city. I want to build a wooden altar there which fits in those three, the fireplace and the two alcoves in the side.

[05:39]

in which the Buddha and the two figures are set. They're set somehow. The three figures. Also, there's two... He has two very fine Arhat paintings that could go on either side of the door outside. And the Arhat paintings are usually in the gate. or paintings or statues, but I didn't make any commitment or even find out what they cost. Enough is enough. So, they were hanging in his bedroom, so I said, are those going to be hanging in your bedroom for a long time? He said, they would be. So, maybe next year. It's not clear whether the paintings are Chinese, Korean, or Japanese, but very good paintings, very clear figures. The other thing I wanted to mention is that

[07:12]

Although I've completed just about everything I had to do, and I've, in fact, canceled a trip. Generally, I'm on the board of, you know, the Council on Economic Priorities, so I go east every fall, and I canceled doing that. Probably, I think I'm going to resign from that. Anyway, So pretty much I can stay down here, I think, pretty much from now on. I hope to stay about three weeks at least now. Maybe I'll have to go up for a day or something like that, but basically I can stay down here now, except for today. So that's what I had to tell you. They are getting a divorce. And they're about to sell the pines through a real estate dealer. So our last opportunity to get them is a meeting I have with them today in Carmel.

[08:39]

And I don't know what will happen. We have a pretty close relationship with them, but when it comes to money and property, even though they, a long time ago, committed, promised us we could have both pieces, they've now arranged for horse pasture in such a way that we can't get it. will sell the pines through a real estate firm, through a realtor, to the highest bidder. So I'm not sure, you know. And then the money, we were given $50,000 about two or three years ago to buy the horse pasture as a down payment for the horse pasture and the pines. We were unable to come to an agreement because they wanted to sell only one at a time and wait and keep hoping for higher prices. And I... I feel, actually, that three should never have been separated. Anyway, they're separate, so...

[10:15]

But the $50,000 that was given to us, which we, because they couldn't come to an agreement, one, they want a lot of money, and two, they want to sell only the pines for almost, you know, as much as we paid for Tazara. And then they want to save the horse pasture and try to sell it for more. It just isn't, you know, reasonable. We put the money into Janesburg Two House since it was committed to do something here in this area and leave it until maybe we could buy the horse pasture or the pines. But now the person who gave us the $50,000 needs it back. has turned so that they feel they shouldn't have made the contribution. So, anyway, we're going to try to give it back to them in some way. So we don't have the down payment for it anyway. So I don't think much will come of trying to tie up these two pieces. Just, if you don't know, they're just right up the road and they basically bordered this property and I guess the top of the hill they're planning

[11:50]

according to Will's reading of the deeds, planning a housing development at the top of the hill right outside the gate of the entry to the forest. And these pieces would be sold for development. I don't know how much you could do on it, but there's five or six building sites on the pines. So money can, first of all you have to come up with it, and second, how much is it worth to keep it unused, because we would just keep it unused, although maybe someday we might have a, you know, one of you might have a temple there, someone might have a temple there. Anyway, did I talk, did I mention to you when I was here last time, 13 days ago, that when I gave a talk here, it was 13 days ago, about Yangshan and his, the Ho, and coming from the field? Did I talk about that?

[13:30]

in the bottomless shoe of the present? No? Okay. Anyway, Yangshan was coming from the fields, pretty obviously coming from the fields, and Guishan or Guishan thought of coming and said, where are you coming from? And he said, from the fields. And he said, How many people are working there? And Yangshan just took his hoe, when he said that, Yangshan just took his hoe and stuck it in the ground in front of him. Didn't say anything, folded his hands. And Guishan said, Oh, on the South Mountain, there are many people cutting thatch. And went on. and Yangshan then just took his hoe and left. It's a very simple story, typical, again, a typical Zen story. This story is used to illustrate deep relationship between teacher and disciple. Or it's said, pastoral monk.

[14:58]

And the introduction to this says, knowing before speaking. Knowing before speaking is called silent discourse. Spontaneous knowing, spontaneous seeing, without clarification, is called hidden activity. Knowing before speaking is called silent discourse. Spontaneous seeing is called hidden activity, without having to clarify. Then it says, bowing at the gate, or saluting at the gate, and walking down the hallway, these have their reach, or these have their reason, these have their reach. What about dancing in the garden or wagging your head out the back door. I like that stuff, wagging your head out the back door. You know there's a poem in this Goan story which is that the shadowless tree of a thousand years means the teaching

[16:51]

formless teaching, the shadowless tree for a thousand years, the bottomless shoe of the present, the bottomless shoe of the present, an abiding master or your you, the moon and equate that with the moon over a valley and a mountain, robe and bowl, cloud and river. Who empowers the silent monk? Everything empowers. Everything is the family work. Everything is the family work. Many people treat knowledge as some kind of possession, territory, not rather something with which to work. Just how you can, how it's your work. A temple, you know, temple means something, a window, a template, or something cut out. And we practice with a schedule,

[18:33]

as a kind of window if you don't have a schedule we won't find out much even if you as I've said live in the mountains all by yourself if you get up when you want to to do Zazen or some days you sit early and some late depending on your situation your Zazen won't have much effect on you Even in such a situation like that, you should give yourself some schedule. Maybe when the rising sun first meets the crotch of a tree or just comes over the horizon. Whether you feel like it or not, at that time you sit. That kind of schedule or window is necessary to begin to pay attention to us. to our existence and to begin to experience continuity of mind. Most people don't have much mental continuity of mind. If they did, they wouldn't be so easily distracted. I suppose what distinguishes a good music, say,

[20:04]

lousy music, is that you have to pay attention to good music. Music you don't have to pay any attention to. Muzak, or disco, which gets your attention, you know, without your making any effort. This is not, we don't usually consider this good music. Or if Bach is on the background in the elevator, you know, a restaurant or some place. And you don't have to pay attention to it, it's music, not Bach. Billboards you don't have to pay much attention to. Some other painting in a museum, maybe, you have to pay some attention to it before it reveals itself. And I sometimes say our school of Buddhism is the intention-only school. Because everything that's in Buddhism, that's the name of the game. Intention. But attention, maybe we should look at it from the point of view of attention. So we talk about mindfulness and so forth. But maybe a better name for it, to use a more familiar word, would be sharing mind.

[21:32]

What do you share? What do you share with phenomenal world? When you look at... When you look at the stream. What do you share with the stream? When you look at the stream. Or with your neighbor. What do you share with your neighbor? If we talk about mind only. You know the last time I was here I believe I talked about five eyes. Lifely eye and Heavenly Eye and Wisdom Eye and Dharma Eye and Buddha Eye, if you remember. Well, I expanded that a little bit and talked for the Sashin, I gave five lectures each on one eye and still barely covered, didn't cover. We've considered continuing the Sashin another week or so. And we talked about, from that point of view, mind-only or Yogacara school. And this is very important. Maybe I'll try to talk about Yogacara, mind-only approach of Buddhism, not Zen. But at least if we're talking about everything is one or mind-only, we must be talking about mental continuity.

[23:15]

or continuity of some kind, let's say mental continuity for now, do you have at least a continuous experience of your mind? Ego thinking is not a continuous experience of your mind. Ego is a kind of retrieval system. How everything exists inside and outside. Fleshly eye, you know, I that sees hundreds of miles of world systems sees world systems inside and outside. And naive materialism of recent decades or centuries is pretty much at an end. Even in science, we don't have naive materialism. But how do we have this mental continuity? Starting whether we talk about mind only or everything is one substance. First of all, mental continuity. And as I started to say, ego is a kind of retrieval system. According to how it affects you, you see the world, or even your five senses,

[24:48]

or a kind of retrieval system. So what exists is extensive continuity, but you retrieve only certain parts of it. What we're talking about in practice exam is to alter this using computer language, this retrieval system of yours. And ego, egotistical thinking is always involved with testing yourself. What will happen? What did he say? What did she say? What could I have said? What should I do? What will happen if I do this? How will people think? It's a very exhausting way. You're always testing yourself. You're always putting yourself in a situation of measurement. and the billboards and media information is all based on this, on getting your attention. Things which you don't have to pay attention. And the degree to which that is, our culture, media, is the degree to which you can see people don't have

[26:18]

mental continuity, or otherwise you couldn't get people's attention in that way. They wouldn't be distracted by this, that, and the other thing. People's minds are like pastry, you know. Mayonnaise or cream puffs were made. Slightest heat, it spoils you. Slightest problem and your mind deteriorates. Your mind should be more like dirt. If you pick flour, dirt doesn't mind. So, mind of continuity is also mind of humility. And by humility I don't mean, ah, you're lesser than the other guy, or you have to think of yourself as low down, you have to go around with your head bowed, sort of eating dirt and crawling, you know. No, that's not bad to try on. It's quite useful to try on. Every time you meet somebody, say, feel, I'm willing to take lesser positions.

[27:34]

I'm willing to give this person the edge. I think most of us find that pretty hard to do. If you don't have the edge, you don't want anybody to point it out. You don't notice it. But it's quite useful to play the apis game of giving the other guy the edge, but without trying hard. But that's not what I mean by humility. Because if you actually just pay attention, you're immediately... First of all, you find that you don't control. You're just looking at things. Intention, attention, or attention. You're just looking at them. And it's rather scary. We would prefer the exhausting testing

[28:37]

maybe testy state of mind because we can control it we're always putting it into a control kind of frame so you think you're rather afraid of what's not in control but if you see a sunset you're not in control of sunset but we feel Maybe, I hope so, we feel part of the sunset. But you're not afraid of it. It's certainly not in your control, but you're not afraid of it. So things that are not in our control, we don't have to be afraid of. But this fear, I've spoken of it often, you know, is very real for people. Even if you're not afraid of

[29:38]

of not having control you're afraid of being out of control so we have to build some security in sitting to look through this window through attention to continuity And this goes on, you know. Who's out there in the fields? How many people are out there in the fields? And Yang Chang just plants his hope. Or know something behind. You know, I said, I believe I said, Judeo-Christian experience is reality speaks to Moses or the saints. But in Buddhism, we don't have reality speaks. There's no something around the corner, over there, to speak to us. You know, if we say subject, object, there's some point of view, obviously. I can see that. But... Ready? Participation.

[31:05]

So let's start with the continuity already of Yangshan at his home with possessions at his home with people working in the field or on South Mountain there cutting thatch pieces. You know, a real kind of rather good antidote to the swath, quads and swaths of one side of Zen. He has a poem which goes, the autumn, just could be now, the autumn nights are lengthening. The cold is penetrating my mattress. You know, in Japan, of course, they sleep on the floor and the tatamis Good tatami is good insulation and not so good tatami. Cold goes right through it. Then you have some mattress. Should be pretty hard. Hard as your body can take. Anyway, autumn nights are lengthening and cold penetrates on my mattress. My 60th year is near.

[32:39]

My sixtieth year is near, yet there is no one to take pity on my poor old body, my weak old body. The rain has finally stopped. Only a trickle now runs from the roof. All night long, the incessant cry of insects. Unable to sleep, I lean on my pillow Leaning on my pillow, I see first pure, bright rays of sunrise. Here's another similar poem on autumn. This time, the cold is penetrating day and night through his robe. In the forest, all the leaves have fallen. No longer can you find even the wild chrysanthemums. Yet beside my hermitage, an ancient bamboo grove, always the same, awaiting for me. In both of these poems, there's a very, very simple description. But there's no other or over there in them.

[34:09]

You know, description of these things happening. And still, feeling of what continuity of sign comes up for. Even though the tree leaves have fallen in the forest, the bamboo grove remains. We could change the poem slightly. You know, uh, autumn nights are lengthening. Cold is penetrating my mattress. My 60th year, no one here to take care of me. Take pity on my old body. Rain has stopped trickling off the roof. Cessant cry of insects. all night long, unable to sleep, wide awake, leaning on my pillow, I take a sleeping pill. There goes the poetry. But if you're practicing continuity, you know,

[35:37]

you would not take a sleeping pill. You would assume that your state of mind, unable to sleep, was related, and if it was night after night, it was related to what you were doing. Your job was unsatisfactory, or your relationships, or something was unsatisfactory, or something was going on. Continuity begins just where you are. If you're sitting in the bathtub say, around here we don't have too much time to sit in the bathtub, at least alone. Let's say you're sitting in the bathtub or sitting wondering what to do next and you're thinking what's going to become of my life? What should I do next week or how should I meet such and such a situation? How can I be clear? How can I be clear when such and such a happens?

[36:37]

Continuity, the practice of continuity means be clear right there in the bathtub or where you're sitting. How are you sitting? Are you sitting with attention? Attention like an attention. Does your body have attention in it? Does what you're doing at that moment clear? Clarity leads to clarity. Continuity leads to continuity. So right then, you know, he sees sunrise. Not taking a sleeping pill. What you do right now reaches. Wagging your head out the back door, dancing in the garden, bowing at the gate, walking in the hallway. These have their reach. This, you know, when you hear the stream here, you're hearing tin roof. If this was all wooden building, you'd hear wood of the building. You're also hearing the tin roof. Paper speaker can make symphony. Audio microscope can produce a picture, visual picture.

[38:12]

If you cup your hands, are you hearing shape or air or ear? Everything is a translation and partakes of it. So you're hearing the screen, but maybe you don't hear the tin roof. You're hearing the air. You're hearing your ear. You're hearing the wood of the building, the shape of the building. And you know, you may think, well, we come in and walk through the Zenda because of the shape of the building. But is the shape of the building determined by the wood walls and the cement and the conditions of the characteristics of the building materials? Or is the shape of the building determined because we want to walk that way? Even a village, you'll find paths. Of course, the road may be windy, but still, usually, some

[39:43]

Blake is, one of his most famous drawings is of Urizen, Urizen, I don't know how you pronounce it. Zen Bard, I know that. U-R-I-Z-E-N, Urizen. Creating, shows him leaning down from a cloud. It's a very dramatic drawing with compass, like calipers. It says he's not, his compass, It does not encompass the infinite, but gives order to the material world. Anyway, that architecture or that space is within us. Buildings are something we do because of that space within us. We have never sat in I've never sat in a zendo without center partitions of where I saw a meal served. I've sat in a zendo without center partitions but not where I've seen a meal served. I didn't know exactly how the server should come in. But certainly the server shouldn't have come in and wandered over here, you know, sort of curving on the shortest route. Some feeling of, you know, like when you approach a temple in Japan, even from the outside you walk,

[41:20]

don't cut across to the door. The architecture is, first of all, in you. So maybe we should, I think we should turn and come down toward, in between, either this one or the next one, and then over. And go over more toward an aisle here and then down. But I don't mean like a robot. Some new students walk like robots. They go, come in the docks on They open the door and then they go click, and then they turn to the right and they go click, and then they turn to the left, and then they bow three times, click, click, click. And I feel like they have a big key in their back and somebody told them what to do every time. And their chin is, you know, poking out the back of their neck. That's not necessary. We tend to like regularity. But if the person's too regular, features like cartoon drawing, then we find it rather gory. So attention, you know, even the word attention is... The word attention, the ten part of attention, has the same root as tantra.

[42:56]

to extend, to reach toward. So to pay attention, you can't pay attention like you gave me lots of attentions. An attendant to attend, to wait, or to serve, to accompany, to attend. What do we share? In what mode do you find this oneness of mind only or sharing? Do you, when you see something, do you emphasize, do you see the aspects with which you share or you ignore the sharing as the grant given that you take for granted and look for something else, trying to add something? You won't find the practice of continuity that way. You won't find mental and physical calmness and continuity. You won't find undisturbed,

[44:00]

So you can follow your breathing. Counting your breathing will give you... You'll see your mind, how uneven it is. And if you follow your breathing, you may find continuity of your body. Anyway, to pay attention to something, you always need to be forgiving. You can't pay attention to a friend unless you're willing to forgive them and accept them. So this is, the mind which pays attention is a very forgiving state of mind, a very accepting state of mind. If it doesn't have, if it's not an accepting state of mind, you'll get in trouble all the time. It's like Dharma-I is the I which sees the virtues of others because without

[45:23]

Seeing the virtues of others, they want to rise in you. This practice is human activity of Buddhism. Man-made activity. Virtues are not going to come for Buddhists from God or some place. You'll only find them out if you have the eye which can see virtues in others. To see, sharing. Forgiving, accepting. Otherwise, you won't stay with it. And if you can't stay with something, you'll never find out. Mind only, or continuity, or everything as one, will be just language, just words. So the word attention is useful, I think. It has so many meanings. To extend, to reach, tantra, attendant, to serve, to wait,

[46:27]

to accompany, to pay attention to intention, courtesy, kindness. It has all of that feeling in it. So it's not some abstract objective, you know, cold eye. You can't, there's no such thing as a cold eye. You can only pay attention to something with a warm eye. So again, compassion is a mode of knowing. Everything in Zen, every aspect of Buddhism is a mode of practice and a mode of knowing. And if it's not useful as a mode of practice, then it's just something somebody's added, you know, to fill a gap that they saw in some way. So Avalokiteshvara is a mode of practice. All hands and eyes.

[47:29]

is a mode of practice. So, again, we have this opportunity here to without much distraction to find, to look for, to approach, to give intention or attention to this, to reach this mind and the body of continuity. To first be able to pay continuous attention to this mind, But it's definitely possible. And it arises from your desire to do it, your willingness to do it, your intention.

[48:47]

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