Good morning. Thank you for chanting that wonderful chant that frees you from me, frees me from you, the vow. And I'm sorry we don't have more copies of it around. It's a perennial. a thing to try to offer these little cards that then end up somewhere and we forget whose job it is to print them and things like that. Welcome to Green Gulch Farm. But it's a beautiful chant and at the end it says, I vow, each of us chanting it, I vow to taste the truth of the teaching. So I vow to share whatever teaching I can muster, and I count on your vow to hear, to listen for the true teaching.

[01:21]

So I hope you meant it. Because today, this morning, coming to this talk, I feel a little bit shaky, and I was wondering about that, and I think it's that this is a teaching I want to share with you today, It was very tender to me and quite beautiful. And I don't want to spoil it. Like this little bird. But here goes. Some words, teaching offered by our founder, Suzuki Roshi. words that he shared with some young people almost exactly 50 years ago. Next Sunday, it will be 50 years ago today, 50 years ago next week that he shared these words.

[02:29]

He said, I came this morning without preparing anything to say. unlike my own extensive preparation. I came this morning without preparing anything to say, but I wanted to share the feeling we have right here, right now. Sharing the feeling right here, right now, is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice. Zen is, in a word, to share our feeling with people, with trees and with mountains wherever we are. That is Zen practice. But, usually, our mind is filled with something like ice cream or lemonade or bananas.

[03:40]

or how much the soap costs in one store compared to how much it will cost in another store. And looking at the newspaper and seeing an ad where there is some sale. So it is almost impossible to share the actual feeling we have where we are right now. So Zen is in a word to share the feeling we have. So to share the feeling, to extend, to extend the feeling to others, which doesn't mean to tell you about my feeling necessarily, but to extend this feeling to you, to the walls, to the trees, to the mountains. This is to be open and radiate, allow what we are, allow our feeling for life to radiate out, to share that, to offer it.

[04:57]

To be transparent. So you may have some feeling right now, sitting here. It's quite likely that you have some feeling. And that feeling is kind of a funny word. Feeling could be an emotion. But it's also, I think, in this sense, in this teaching, a kind of feeling for life. This feeling for life that we each have. to extend that out, to share that with those next to you and in front of you and behind you and the roof and the floor. This feeling of aliveness, to let that be shared. So last night I was thinking about this talk and I mentioned to my nine-year-old son, some of you know, named Frank,

[06:09]

I told him that, you know, Suzuki Roshi says that Zen is to share our feeling with the trees and the mountains. And Pring said, yeah, the trees are very good listeners. And people, people too. No, not so much. The trees are good listeners. They're ready to receive our our feeling if we extend it to them. I think part of what I am so moved by in this teaching of sharing our feeling is what Frank is also appreciating, that when we share what we are, we share our life feeling, it's received. It's received. The trees are listening to You know, they're waiting for us to share ourselves.

[07:12]

The walls, you know, where have you been? They're ready to receive us. So to practice sharing our feeling with the trees and the walls and the mountains is to come into a real relationship with the world that we're in. Later on this morning, I hope to share a little bit from another part in this talk where Suzuki Roshi talks about the Buddha's enlightenment. But for now, I want to mention one thing that Suzuki Roshi says about that, which is picturing the Buddha. So when the Buddha was enlightened, the moment of his enlightenment was seeing the morning star. So he sat for a long time, and then one morning he saw the morning star. And that was his, and was awake.

[08:14]

And said, oh, it's always been like this. We're all just this. So Suzuki Roshi says of that moment, what happened there is he shared his feeling, the morning star's feeling. We don't know. It is difficult to analyze whether that is Buddha's feeling or the morning star's feeling. Anyway, he shared his feeling with the morning star. That was his enlightenment. So there's the Buddha sitting, an open mind, and he sees the star, and he's sharing himself. He's extending what he is. He's transparent. And the star receives him, and the star is also sharing itself. Not sure whose feeling was that, the star's feeling or the Buddha's feeling. So this relationship, coming into relationship, Basically, the heart of this teaching is snapping out of ourselves, snapping out of it and sharing in our world.

[09:23]

And so that's another way that I read this teaching from Suzuki Roshi. When he says share our feeling, he's also talking about sharing in, sharing in the feeling. So in that sense, this first paragraph would read, sharing in the feeling right here, right now, is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice. Zen is, in a word, to share in the feeling of people, of trees and of mountains, wherever we are. That is Zen practice. to share in the feeling of our situation. So for me to be extending my feeling out, to be received by you all, to be received by the trees and the walls,

[10:45]

And then to be sharing in that feeling. What is that? What's the feeling of this place? Can I be sensitive to that? Can I tune into that? That is Zen practice. But usually our mind is filled with something like ice cream or lemonade or bananas. or how much the soap costs in one store compared to how much it will cost in another store. And looking at the newspaper and seeing an ad where there is some sale. So it is almost impossible to share the actual feeling we have where we are right now. It's almost impossible to share in the feeling of where we are. So he continues, that is how our life is going on and on endlessly with some rubbish. It is not rubbish when you are using it.

[11:47]

At that time, it is an important thing for you. But after you use it, it is not necessary to keep it. It is the same with our everyday life. Because we have too much useless rubbish in our mind, we cannot share our feeling with people, with things, with trees or with mountains. Even though we are right in the middle of the woods, Still, we cannot appreciate the feeling of the woods. When we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods, that is zazen. Do you know that feeling of not feeling? Of being in the woods and not appreciating being in the woods? Say, being in this old barn zendo together. And it's hard to appreciate the feeling of what it is to be here. Many of us, as we come to practice feeling the pain of that disconnection, like here I am in this beauty and I don't appreciate it, I don't quite feel the feeling of being in these woods.

[13:10]

because of all this rubbish in my mind. This and that, seyo. So to say that when we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods, that is zazen, I think points to something really important about Zen practice and about the feeling of Zen practice. which is that Zen doesn't feel like something in particular. There's not a Zen feeling that we're trying to have, that we sit in here trying to get that Zen feeling going. The Zen feeling is transparent. It's about appreciating what it feels like to be where we are. So when we're in the woods, feel what that feels like. That's the Zen part.

[14:23]

It's not something we bring. It's that capacity to just be transparent, clear, and feel what there is to feel fully, to be where we are. So to let the moment share itself with us. And then to... to share ourself fully, to not hold ourself back from extending our presence, our feeling of life into the surrounding. And this is true when we're in the woods and in the sunshine, and it's true when we're in the midst of cruelty and suffering too. to be able to share in the feeling of what's happening around us.

[15:28]

So we share our suffering with each other, and we share in the suffering of each other. And when we're doing that, we say, that's sin. Practice. It's the basis of compassion. And in a way, that's the stakes. That's the stakes of this practice. That it matters that we stop or that we work on the way that we cut ourselves off from what's around us and then cut what's around us off from ourselves. That there's some stakes in that. Like great compassion, the flow of compassion and our capacity to respond. So we may want to feel this. We may want to extend our feeling with no boundary, you know, transparently express and share, extend our feeling for life.

[16:39]

And we may want to be sharing in the feeling of what's around us all day long. But it's hard because we're such a mess. Our mind is so full of stuff. So how are we going to do this? What should we do to... to share in the feeling of what's around us, to be in the woods and feel the woods. How do we do that? So Suzuki Roshi offers some instructions for us. He says, we can sit in zazen posture with an empty mind. So if we can clear our mind of this rubbish for a moment, then we can participate in the feeling of the situation. Since we can sit in zazen posture with an empty mind, but there is some technique or some explanation needed in order to do this, I hope I have enough time to explain this point.

[17:48]

The purpose of our practice is to open up our mind You must open it like you open a tin can. You must cut hard and open the tin so you can eat what's in it. The purpose of our practice is to open up our mind. You must open it like you open a tin can. I like the physicality of this image of Snap out of it. What's happening around you? Some of us here occasionally practice breathing with the belly. So we exhale fully from deep in the belly.

[18:53]

And I have this feeling for that kind of practice as like tin can opening practice. clearing the rubbish practice. So I've been feeling that sometimes as I breathe, this, you know, you squeeze, you know? And to feel that in your belly. And then there's a little exhalation. To just clear, to be able to clear, to find that strength. that it takes strength. We have to cut through the clutter now and again. But what would it be now to snap out of it, to set aside some of the clutter and just feel what it feels like to be right here and to let that feeling extend out around us and receive the feeling around us.

[20:26]

So one of the practices that Suzuki Roshi encourages is to exhale, letting everything go. Exhale all the way out. And just past the end of the exhalation, there's a perfect calmness of mind. And then from there, from that still point at the end of the exhalation, the inhalation begins and we receive our life. So sometimes the deep breath helps to open the can up, to clear our mind and connect with what's around us. Generally,

[21:32]

yelling at our mind to shut up is not so effective. Trying to, you know, getting mad at the rubbish, not so effective. Suzuki Roshi says, if you're saying the stuff in your mind is dirty and needs to be cleared, that's dirty. Calling it You know, trying to get rid of it is being caught up in it. And you just open the can. Just clear the mind. Drop into the body and the breath. Drop into the feeling of being alive. And feel that everything is expressing its feeling of being alive. And join with that. So he says, the purpose of our practice is to open up our mind You must open it like you open a tin can.

[22:34]

You must cut hard and open the tin so that you can eat what's in it. It's your life. But just to open is not enough. The spirit of repetition is also necessary. If you do not have this kind of spirit, or if your everyday life is not based on this kind of spirit, to repeat it forever... You cannot cope with the problems you will have day after day. Because every day there's a new problem. There's some more rubbish, you know, coming every day. So some schools, you could say, of Zen, or sometimes we in Zen, emphasize just open the can as though, and then what, you know? Then the can is open. for a moment, but the rubbish keeps coming. So if spirit of repetition, if you don't have, if your everyday life is not based on this kind of spirit, to repeat it forever, you cannot cope with the problems you will have day after day.

[23:53]

As long as you live, you must eat something After you eat, you may have a big rubbish pile of cans and papers. So constantly we should work on it. We should clear our table every day. So we don't get to just open the can once, but he's shifting the image here into something more continuous. Every day we need to clear the table. Uchiyama Roshi teaches a wonderful teaching about this practice of kakusoku. There's a Japanese term kakusoku, which means, has the characters for waking up, wake up and contact. And it's a term sometimes used for enlightenment or practice, which is to wake up, just snap out of it, and then contact,

[25:03]

What's around us? Clear. Anyway, one of the things he says is, we do this billions and billions of times. We come back. We need to let go and return. Billions and billions of times. Doesn't count to open the can last week. One of our Zen ancestors, Shen Shou, says in the famous and much maligned Zen poem that we need to keep the mirror clear, constantly, constantly wiping the mirror clear. So after every exhalation, there is an inhalation.

[26:06]

And we have the opportunity to practice turning that over again, clearing that again. finding our own feeling for life and letting it extend out, seeing if it can reach the walls. And then feeling, if we can feel the feeling that the walls are reaching out to us.

[27:11]

So I'd like to read what Suzuki Roshi says later in this talk about the Buddha's enlightenment. Before attaining enlightenment, Buddha studied under many teachers, studying many things and becoming occupied with some philosophy or religion or other. When he realized he was caught by this, he lost interest in such things. He got tired of that kind of effort, so he gave everything up. All of these teachings weren't helping him connect with his life. It was kind of just more clutter. So finally, he went to the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment. We say he attained enlightenment, but it may be better to say he forgot completely everything. He had nothing in his mind at that moment.

[28:17]

such a simple and clear teaching. I think this is part of the appeal for me. We can just have an empty mind now and then. Just clear our mind and connect. So the Buddha in this moment, this wonderful moment, he had nothing in his mind. And when he saw the morning star rising up from the east, that was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind. That is why he had such joy at the sight of the morning star. You know, it wasn't like me and then ice cream and lemonade and bananas and sails and primaries and then the morning star way over there, you know, through all that. It's just morning star. So that was the first thing he saw coming out of his empty mind. That is why he had such joy at the sight of the morning star. In other words, he shared his feeling. the morning star's feeling.

[29:27]

We don't know. It is difficult to analyze whether that is Buddha's feeling or the morning star's feeling. Anyway, he shared his feeling with the morning star. That was his enlightenment. Sharing the feeling right here and right now is the fundamental or basic thing for Zen practice. Zen is, in a word, to share our feeling with people, with trees and with mountains wherever we are. That is Zen practice. Because we have too much useless rubbish in our mind, we cannot share our feeling with people, with things, with trees or with mountains.

[30:36]

Even though we are right in the middle of the woods, still we cannot appreciate the feeling of the woods. When we can really appreciate the feeling of the woods, that is zazen. Thank you for your kind attention this morning. We're receiving my feeling. and sharing your feeling with each other and the room and the mountains. And letting ourself be affected by each and everything. Natenshin Roshi has been teaching us the ten vows of Samantavadra, and one of them is to harmonize, to accord with and support living beings.

[31:59]

So to accord with, to harmonize, to support living beings, we should be open to their feeling. We should... try to receive and feel their feeling. And we should offer them our feeling. So this practice is dedicated to all living beings. And whatever merit, whatever good comes of our time this morning together, we dedicate, we offer that we can try to do this practice. We can endeavor moment after moment to clear away the inessential. come into our body and our breath and our life. Notice what's behind and in front and above and below us and how it feels. How does it feel? How do I feel? And letting that flow. And offering that, noticing that that is the basis of great virtue, of compassion, of ability to respond.

[33:07]

And remembering that we do this practice for others. and offer any merits of this practice to the liberation and well-being of those suffering along with us. Thank you very much.

[33:26]

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