was brought up in Choson, why the supervisors came to Dasara. Although there may be many reasons one could, someone could ascribe to such a visit, why is actually quite characteristic of Zen, a form of Zen or basic ideas in Zen. And you probably wouldn't notice it unless you saw why we would do one thing and not another thing.

[01:12]

When you see a range of such decisions, you can see an understanding some understanding of reality or activity that's characteristic of Zen Buddhism. So there's two reasons. This isn't the main thing I want to talk about, but I think it's worth mentioning. There are two reasons. One reason is the same. that I think we talked about last year, a year before, why the governor came to Tucson. At the time we let it happen, I then discussed it with Shinra Roshi and other people to find out what they thought and what traditional ideas.

[02:26]

And one side is that Zen practice places are here by the sufferance of the government, lets us be here, and they represent public power or social power, and they let us be here. And so they have a right to find out if we're doing what we're doing properly. It's not so much because they could, you know, the government could eliminate us, and in history governments have eliminated, tried to eliminate Zen monasteries, but more a feeling of responsibility and gratitude for the government letting us exist.

[03:42]

through taxes and various things. The other side is more a Buddhist explanation, which is that social power is actually Buddhism. And I think that Although I hesitate to say so, if you read history, in most periods, in most societies, in most civilisations, social power has been defined by, created by, articulated by what we call religion. And those people who throw themselves upon themselves to study themselves,

[04:50]

who have the courage, or maybe have more courage, or more craziness, or more defined people. Produce culture. But produce what are values. bonds or define reality for us. And this basic vocabulary that, say, religion, in quotes, religion creates, government leaders need to.

[05:53]

So in that sense, almost the reverse of the first reason. People with outward social responsibility or power should have access to the source of the power. some idea of it. And history says it's true. I think you can say that. I think it's maybe not for us personally true, but it's true in some way. And Zen and Chinese and Japanese Buddhism

[07:00]

social power. Rather, we should stay away from the government. So many Zen teachers in our own lineage were exiled or removed from monasteries because they would not take money or awards or robes from the emperor or the government. So perhaps characteristic of that policy, we turned down yesterday the opportunity to get money to fix up this building that was burned. I don't know if we could have got it, but today the county park people are going to come in and help us fill out the forms for us to be on the National Historic Register, and then be eligible for funds to rebuild the building.

[08:21]

Maybe it's too purist. And I don't know if we made the decision yesterday, because it's tradition, but anyway, for some reason, the various reasons we did, may it be the same. And it's the same with the state trying to approve us as a degree-granting institution, you know, where they want me to give credits for docent. They're really asking if I'm a little great book, and after the person leaves I get out my great book.

[09:29]

Tsukiroshi in Dokusan used to do something like that, but only because he couldn't remember people's names in English very well. Sometimes when I came to Dokusan, after someone else, he still had his little book and he was writing down what happened to the last person. And some people want us to give degrees, maybe B.D., Doctorate of Buddhism, to give the layman something to do, you know. They don't, laymen don't get robes so they could get a degree. Some people think we should do that. But the problem here, again, is the state in trying to set up us, set us up under some form that we got into because we wanted to have people from particular South America at the time, and Japan, to be able to come here on a visa.

[10:55]

We may be able to do it now, I guess, through Windows Finder. Because Limbusfarm is sort of getting involved with Zen Centre, they have some kind of approval to take people on visas from other countries. So Limbusfarm, we can come through Limbusfarm to study Zen. Maybe we can drop the whole school thing. who founded the separate idea of Zen monasteries, founded Yakuji, a day of no work is a day of no eating, founded this system, this jewel which we continue. found it something that's very precious, I think, I feel it's very precious, and it must be cared for in a certain way, because it's not an institution like the state would like us to be, which is something that continues no matter who the people are.

[12:12]

People are interchangeable parts, as long as they're given credits and given, etc. But the way Bojong put together the idea of Zen community life is it will fall apart if there aren't good teachers. It can't continue, if I dare say, like the Christian Church in many ways has done. The institution has continues even though the teaching, the vitality of the teaching and maybe teachers too are gone. The Zen idea is, if that happens, monasteries should disappear, should be ruins.

[13:17]

And that happened many times. The old monasteries would just be overgrown with weeds. And then someone would come and live there and revive it. And whole lineages disappeared. Many, many lineages. Many more lineages disappeared than lasted. And not just because lineage teaching wasn't good. Sometimes a person was sick and died young or their disciples were killed in some war or something happened. And sometimes some lineage is revived rather by, it looks like, historical chance. And even strong linkages don't last so long, maybe four or five generations, and they tend to disappear, unless some reviver comes.

[14:24]

Four or five generations is a pretty long time, almost. Furong, Furong Zenji, was a Japanese teacher. He emphasized the self-supporting aspect of monastery, of his monastery. He didn't want to receive money for ceremonies or donations or going to the city to get people to help. He wanted his master to, as much as possible, be self-supported, and to find out what it produces from its fields and labor, divide it into 365 parts, and each day use one.

[15:33]

depending on how you prepared it, if it's just rice water or gruel. Rice. And this, Gregory Bateson says, mind in nature is the pattern that connects. And the pattern that connects is not always visible. And this, maybe wheel, or even machine, we could say, that bhojan, bhajan, starting, is fuel. Fuel is us. And although we can't see the pistons, the fuel line, and so forth, it's there.

[16:55]

And it's in things like just doing the service in the morning. There are certain things that there's a form to it, kind of invisible form, where you can't see the connectives. Connectives are in you. and you can't see them just in one day. Comparison, for example, being at Tassara, to the city, you can compare it today, when you first come. But real comparison is To do the same thing day after day for a year or two years is so different from the sitting. It's not just today is different from the sitting, but the continuity, the charge or accumulation is so different. And lineage has the same idea of charge.

[18:06]

a form or identity which exists. And it may take you your lifetime to understand the form completely, or within you, because the form is mostly invisible. This jewel, it may reflect in a bakery, but its real form flows in utter darkness. And it's this real form that flows in utter darkness that I want you to understand. This practice period emphasizes And the way I want this practice period to emphasize is how you speak to yourself.

[19:15]

Now, Bojong also said, detach yourself from sound and form. Detach yourself from sound and form. Then he said, do not dwell in detachment. activity. This is practice. Where is this dwelling place? Detach yourself from sound and form, and do not dwell in detachment, and do not dwell in intellection. This is practice. But how you speak to yourself, is what I'm emphasizing this practice with. We have form and emptiness, and form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, and form [...] is form

[20:35]

that you get by some sloppy intuition. It's very descriptive of activity. And what I eventually want you to understand is the power of inconceivability. This is the activity of mind. Power of simultaneity. And the power of unrepeatability, this is courage. And the power of centering, this is compassion, activity of compassion. These four powers. The power of simultaneity and inconceivability, unrepeatability and centering. First we have to start with form. how we speak to ourselves, how we understand counselors, supervisors coming here.

[21:54]

So I've been talking about form and measurement and rhythm and so forth, drawing dots in the air, The way, we call it the way, not the spot. There's some rhythm, some pulse, and we do zazen to change our pace, to become possessor of our own pace. Tsukiyoshi says in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Ancient or old Japanese painters tried to disorder the dots, to put sincere drops in a disordered way, so to speak. This is our zazen. And comparative thinking is not just, you know, making some comparison, lining things up.

[23:08]

It's also the comparison, the realities of world as it is, as I said, world of reality or logic of language and consciousness. That's comparative thinking too. So how to speak to ourself, you know, in unequivocal language, undeflected language. How you speak to yourself, and you should find that out. You know, some of us find it difficult, you might say, with falling in love with someone, and you say, I suppose now is the time to tell you I love you.

[24:12]

But sometimes you should be able to just say, I love you. I am a Buddhist. I am practicing Buddhism. Mary McCarthy begins a novel. The fall days, known as glorious, were over. That's deflected language. It's okay, she's being pushy, saying, I'm not romantic, or something. The fall, it's rather nice, the fall days known as glorious were over. Could have said, the glorious fall days were over. But even so, the fall days known as glorious, they're over. It's so different from the beginning of the Upanishads. which is Aum, meditate on this syllable and with full heart chant it as Aum.

[25:24]

Minecraft, it didn't write that. We should be able to speak to ourselves in that way. Maybe Smokey Robinson found a good path between the two. This may not be the love I've heard about, but if I had to choose between the two, there's no question in my mind I'd choose you every time. Maybe if I divide language up, it's three kinds of language.

[26:34]

Everyday language, you're just talking. Language that shapes society or calls forth power. and the language that describes reality to us, the logic of language. And we can use it. There's two uses. One is ego and one is egolessness. One is comparative, lining up, and one is centering.

[27:38]

You've talked before about centering or lining up. Lining up is, you know, there are boundaries when you line up. You, I think, will feel trapped. But centering, when two things are centered, there's no boundary. When you sweep in a monastery, you know, I told you, you put your broom in front of you, and you sometimes sweep. put the broom along that line, and then we sweep from that center, within relationship to that center. That's the physical activity that you yourself do in so many instances of centering. And this is also subject meeting subject.

[28:40]

Subject meeting subject. Not object meeting object. Object meeting object is everything is lined up. But subject meeting subject. This is also Picasso saying, I paint what I want. The person who said, I paint what I can, is lining things up. So subject meets subject. And in this sense, centering is, language is also power. But it's then the power of mantra, of evoking. And the Dharanis that we chant, if we translate them, you'd see they're like cheerleading in a sports event. Go! Go!

[29:43]

Yuki! Yuki! Blue! Oh, blue-necked one! Complete! Complete! The power of speaking, the need to be able to speak directly to yourself, in unequivocal meaning, I am practicing. Some of us can't say that to ourselves. How to find out, then, what to do with equivocation? So immediately your practice begins, what to do with equivocation. When it's resistance, probably to ignore it. When it's, no. Alternatives, to find some way to include it, to make your mind inclusive. So unequivocal language which doesn't exclude everything, which doesn't exclude anything, is centric to subject meets subject.

[30:56]

One koan begins with commentary. All knowledgeable people, all knowledgeable people learn by analogy and parable. But when there's no comparison to be made, when nothing similar or identical can be found, how do you express it? It's the same thing as Bhoja. Do not dwell in detachment, do not dwell in intellection. This is practice. Over and over again I'm saying the same thing. How do you do it? Let's start out by centering. Let's start out with form. Let's start out with trying to speak to ourselves in unequivocal language. If you're going to leave home, you should set your minds at rest. You should be able to set your minds at rest.

[32:03]

And if you can set your So this is saying, how to express it? All knowledgeable people learn by analogy and parable, but when there's no comparison that can be made, when you don't make comparisons, when you can't find anything similar or identical, how will you express it? How will you express yourself? Something like that.

[33:07]

Someone says, the Dharmakaya is like the vast sky. How do you express it? Something like that. And he says, I express it. The way I would express it is, a donkey looks in a well. A donkey looks in a well. Did I tell you this story before? A donkey looks in a well. And Sozan says, that's only 80%. And somebody else, Kaku, says, well, what would you say, teacher? And he says, the well looks at the donkey. This is subject meets subject, or a wide meaning of how I'm using the word centric. Subject looks at subject, subject meets subject. It's the same thing as when you open a sutra and what is said speaks directly to you, even as if it knew your personal history or knew you at that moment.

[34:28]

This is also the way. way, everything you see, not in some schizophrenic way of some sign or of your importance or confirming your identity or ego. No, it's no comparison. Subject meets subject. But everything speaks directly to you. Sentient beings reach the dawn. When subject meets subject, the phenomenal world is charged or we have simultaneity. You know, power of water finding its own course, power of water finding its own course, is not some power you can take away from water. Water may go through some institutional banks of the Mississippi.

[35:32]

That's okay. But also, if you take water and just pour it on the ground, it finds its own course. This is the power of water for simultaneity. You know the story about Chicken Little and the sky that fell on its head, a piece of sky fell on its head. It's a very good story. There's some song. Cry me a river that leads to your ocean. That's good. Cry me a river that leads to your ocean. Maybe this Buddhist idea is creeping into popular songs. Or I'm creeping into popular songs. Dharmaskaya, dharmakaya, dharmaskaya, power of vast sky, power of vast sky.

[36:49]

But you can't get Chicken Little, you know, it's a very good Zen student, Chicken Little was trying very hard, that's a great doubt. A good student always asks a very pedestrian question. It says, no eyes, no ears, no nose. And Tosan puts his hand on his own face and says, but I have a nose and eyes. You know, this bluntly and directly you deal with the sutras, not, oh, it's okay, it says no eyes, no ears, it must mean something intuitive or something. Right away. You know, so chicken little. But we can't find a piece of the sky. And sky is not a bunch of air.

[37:53]

This air in this room is not the sky. And a bunch of air on Mars is not the sky. You may say sky is blue, but sometimes it's black. If you have a blank piece of paper, it's not the sky, but if you draw tip of a pine tree at the bottom of the piece of paper, whole piece of paper becomes the sky. So, pine tree produces the sky and sky produces the pine tree. Power of spring, sky is Without plants, there'd be no air, there'd be no sky.

[38:55]

Without light, there'd be no plants, or we'd be scorched by light. So sky is light, sky is darkness, sky is spring flowers, sky is pine tree, sky is wind, but you can't grasp the sky. You can't get a piece of it. Although you can't grasp the sky, and you can't define it as separate from flower or tree or moon or sun or light or darkness, although you can't grasp it, the sky is very powerful. Without the sky, there'd be no So sky is a word like emptiness, vastness, inconceivability, or simultaneity.

[40:03]

So sky by sky I'm emphasizing. Power of simultaneity. Power of water to find its own course. So subject meets subject is power of simultaneity. We don't see moon and mountain in the mirror. Frosty sky, moon is set. Who will see it? No one will see it reflected in This is also a way to express subject meets subject, or a central activity.

[41:33]

This state of mind, which you may feel sometimes, a particular time when you... I think it's common to open a book and it speaks to you. But this state of mind is not just accidental, you see. Our power, our power of simultaneity, our power of subject meets subject, or the way Dainties and music will stuff a stranger, but the words of the Way are bland and tasteless. But used, they are inexhaustible. This is also the Way simultaneously. Activity of, we can say, activity of phenomenal Form equals emptiness.

[42:47]

So form is emptiness and so forth. You can understand it maybe better as a charge. Again, the idea of a charge. To increase the charge or disperse the charge. Emptiness equals form is to increase the charge. form equals emptiness is to disperse the charge, to be free. This is our activity. So Centering means contact, of course, compassion, affection, no ambivalence, No equivocation. And this no equivocation part of simultaneity of subject meets subject, you can only find out when you can speak to yourself on a good level.

[43:55]

when the clarity of your image and activity and circumstance are one. When your activity and circumstance and consciousness are one. And again, you may feel it sometimes. it, greed, hate and delusion come up and slips away. So in addition to being able to speak to ourselves unequivocally, we should begin to be able to trust our mind, to speak in its own as a poem, it's lodged in the words.

[45:20]

The words may bring you to, you know all the words, and they bring you to a certain point, but the poem isn't there, but it's lodged in the words. Or maybe before you have any words, the poem is there. So to speak to yourself in unequivocal language is also to trust, allow the poem Eight cash twice makes sixteen cash. But even if you count them one by one, it won't be enough. Eight cash plus eight cash. Eight cash twice makes sixteen cash.

[46:21]

But even if you count them one by one, it won't be enough. Throw them, hit or miss, out into the courtyard And the courtyard will be dotted with the bright green mosses of spring. Eight cash, twice is sixty. But to count them one by one won't be enough. Throw them, hit or miss, at random, and the courtyard will be dotted green spring moss. Or Yangshan, you know, is visited by Lin and Pang.

[47:26]

Lin and Pang says, to meeting you for a long time, but why are you sitting there, face downwards?' And Yang Chan puts up his whisk, and Layman Pan says, exactly, Yang Chan says, is my whisk up or down? Laman Pani knocks on the post and says, although no one sees us, this post will testify. And Yangchen puts down his whisk and says, you can show this anywhere. This is obviously a conversation about not dwelling.

[48:35]

Detachment or sound or form. Intellection. And it comes from not freezing everything over. You know, Officer Liu, a government official, was visiting Nanchuan, Nanshan, the capital. Officer Liu said, quoting some teacher, I believe, Sen Zhao, a famous Chinese teacher, Zen teacher and logician.

[49:39]

And he said, Sen Zhao says, Heaven and Earth are of the same root. Myriad things. And I have the same body, are of the same body. Isn't that marvelous? That's a pretty good statement. Heaven and Earth are of the same root. Simultaneous. Heaven and Earth are of the same root. Myriad things and I are the same body. Isn't it marvellous? In Nanchuan sense, pointing to a flower. People of this time see this flower as if it were a dream. So, in practical terms, to go back to what I was speaking about before I left, the 78 words of the first-grade reader versus the 6,000 words of the child, the child reads.

[51:07]

And did you know that a baby who has... a child who has deaf and dumb parents can't learn a language by watching television? language. You can't do it. You can't learn a language by watching television. I'm not suggesting that seventy-eight words of the reader should be increased, but we should know the charge of six thousand words. And our society, people are afraid of the charge of each person. We want to minimize it and get you on a feeding schedule and so forth. Or we don't take care of old people, we don't realize the charge on old persons.

[52:19]

We are so blind to our charge, and I am so glad that so many people in Zen Center take good care of their parents or relatives when they are sick. Especially when they are sick, of course, also any time. to speak to yourself in unequivocal language, to not be afraid of your own charge.

[54:34]

This is fuel of this jewel, the ancient Buddhist community that will continue, and fuel of society. We can't separate. Fuel of this teaching. Subject meets subject begins with you. To find a power of simultaneity or non-action, a power we can't take away or give away.

[55:20]

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