Good evening. Well, let's sit for a few minutes and then we'll continue with the Fukan Zizengi. So we're in the midst of Fugan Zazengi, Universal Guidelines and Instructions for the Practice of Zazen.

[06:55]

And the author is Dogen Zenji. So this is kind of like the big top for me to be talking about Dogen's teaching and looking at the work that is very familiar to all of us at Zen Center. We recite the Fukanza Zengi regularly during morning service, along with the Genjo Koan. And at certain times, practice periods is self-receiving and self-employing samadhi, another of Dogen's major works. So, I've really enjoyed spending time, you know, swimming more slowly around in these words and reading some of the commentaries, which are quite helpful. And I'll be using some material from particularly Dr. Kim, who I have taken on as sort of a patron saint. I feel like he has an extraordinary gift for, I wouldn't say explaining Dogen exactly, but opening doorways so that you can begin to think about things in a way that I think he's deeply thought about them and been able to write

[08:10]

you know, write and produce his, particularly the book that I'm going to be telling you about in a few minutes. So, the last few weeks, as I mentioned to you, the entire essay, Fukan Zizangi, can be viewed as having these three sections. And it's only the middle section that actually gives you any concrete information about sitting, and mostly having to do with positioning of your body, body parts, you know, the cushion and the temperature in the room and that kind of thing, very concrete and practical things, the what to do part. So that's section one, rather section two. So this next section, which is section three, is referred to as the great mystery section. And having just given us some practical instruction on how to meditate in section two, Dogen now tells us in his usual fashion the following. The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation.

[09:13]

It is simply the Dharma gate of repose and bliss. The practice realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you know, this is the mystery part, you know, the how, what, when, where, and who of practice. Once its heart is grasped, you are like a dragon gaining the water like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that just there, in Zazen, the right Dharma is manifesting itself, and that from the first dullness and distraction are struck aside. So in this first paragraph of section three, Dogen is praising the virtues of Zazen in which the right Dharma is manifesting itself, and itself being our essential nature, our Buddha nature, which is the suchness, the suchness body of all the Buddhas, empty, still, all pervasive and unattached.

[10:24]

to which we suddenly awaken. So awakening to the inherent calm, the silence, and the innate wisdom, the luminosity, of our true nature. So I was really interested in reading, Dr. Kim's full name is Hee Jin Kim. I don't know how to pronounce it correctly, but Hee Jin Kim. His book is called Dogen on Meditation and Thinking. a reflection on his view of Zen. So Dr. Kim says that this word enlightenment or awakening has many more nuanced meanings in East Asian languages than it does in English. So we've inherited enlightenment. We kind of got that one. And we have awakening. So those are two most common English terms that we use in translating scriptures. But what he says that in There's these Sino-Buddhist characters, meaning Chinese characters, the ones that the Japanese read, the kanji, Chinese letters.

[11:34]

Kan means China, ji, letters. So the kanji, the Chinese characters that are used for enlightenment, they're actually three different words. And those words in Japanese are shou, go, and kaku. which in Japan pretty much referred to Satori, which is kind of like waking up. Satori is kind of the big bang of the Zen tradition. And that means that you know in a way that is beyond intellectual knowing. You know, you just know. It's kind of like that old hippie word to grok. You know, you grok it. You grok reality. You get it. You know, just like... kind of like the Big Bang, intellectual Big Bang, that is really hard to talk about. And for people who have that experience, they don't seem terribly articulate while they're going through it. So among these three characters, Dr. Kim explains that the character Go, so again, it's Go, Shou, and Kaku.

[12:37]

You don't have to remember any of this, but I think this is a really interesting point that he's making here. So this character Go, is often combined with another character, may, which means delusion. So when go is used, it's stressing the emancipation from delusion, like you've basically, your delusions have cleared, the clouds have cleared, and you're able to have an insight into the true nature of reality, which is thus, right? Another word, that's kind of a pointer, just this is it. So that's, the delusions have, the clouds have parted, And you're right there, you're right there. So the emphasis of this term is on intuitive comprehension. It transcends, it's transcendent wisdom. You have an intuition about things, right? Kind of a knowing, again, this grokking thing. And this next character, Kaku, is the awakening of the mind from its slumber.

[13:38]

So this is referring to, it's a little bit like waking up in the morning. You know, you just had a really weird dream and you wake up and you go, oh, whoa, that was a really weird dream. So you're waking up from the weird kind of waking dream of what reality is into a kind of an unknown truth, one you haven't seen before. So kaku is sometimes paired with the character of mu, meaning in this case, meaning dreaming. So kaku paired with dreaming, you're waking up from your dreams. So that's another kind of different shift in what it means. awaken waking up from a dream right the first one goal had to do with intuitive knowing you know kind of grokking as i said and this one is waking up from from sleep now the third one is the one that dogen's using throughout his writing so he said in contrast this third character show show like in show bogenzo means to prove or to bear witness to

[14:40]

or to verify, thereby signaling a kind of direct personal verification of a liberative reality or truth. He uses a term, you know, salvic, which means like salvation, same word as salvation. You've been saved. You know, this is the character and you've actually, this person has been saved by their understanding of reality. So, and it happens through Body-mind. So there is Dogen. Body-mind. Shinjin. As you may remember from his Enlightenment story. Shinjin Datsuraku. Body-mind. Drop body-mind. So this is the verification of your understanding that Dogen is pointing to here. Through one's whole being. It's not just intellectual knowing or even transcending intellectual knowing. It's not this kind of like waking up from a dream and having some kind of sense of the presence, the present moment. which is not dreamlike.

[15:42]

It's this other kind of deeper, like he says, is verification. It's an active knowing. Shinjin Datsuraku. Datsuraku Shinjin. Body-mind. Body-mind. The whole thing. So Dr. Kim goes on to say that the crucial point here is that which verifies. And that which is verified, so that which verifies, I don't want to say it's me, but that which verifies and that which is verified are inseparably entwined by means of the wholeness of our body-mind and the wholeness of reality with the body-mind. So this is the altogetherness of the universe. It's like Buddha's awakening at seeing the morning stars, another story we know about what that moment was or what it might be, and we're trying to kind of understand that. So Dogen uses this term show most often when he's referring to enlightenment, it's verification.

[16:44]

It's kind of an interesting point that I hadn't run across before, so that's kind of why I wanted to share it with you. I thought, that's really interesting, this is interesting. So Dogen couples show, this word for awakening, with another word, shu, the word for practice. So shu show. Practice enlightenment. So now we're getting into what Dogen really cares about most. Practice. That's what you do. It's what you do with your awakened insight, with your verification. You practice. That is the verification. That's how you know that it's verified, is by your actions in the world. So enlightenment, this non-dual realization, makes it really incumbent on the practitioner to put this non-dual intuitive wisdom of all things, this kind of the big bang that's come to you in whatever that timing is, whenever that might happen or whenever glimmers of that might happen, you bring that into practice in terms of dualities.

[17:57]

getting up on time, showing up at the zendo, going to the kitchen, stirring the cereal so it doesn't burn. This is how you work the practice of dealing with dualities, with Ji, you all know that term now, Ji, the particularities, bringing the universal sense of all-inclusive reality into your actions in the world. So that's for Dogen is the whole point of all of this, is this shu shou, practice enlightenment. practice realization. And he talks about that a lot. We'll hear that again and again. So Dogen frames his religion, if we can call Zen a religion, not so much in terms of whether to practice. It's not like inviting anyone to practice. That's a choice that one makes. You come in closer and then you make a choice that you're going to practice. So it's not about whether to practice. He's not proselytizing. But it's how to practice. That's what he cares about.

[18:58]

How to practice in our daily circumstances. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, whatever your job, this is not about monasteries, this is not about zendos, this is about you, this is about me, and how I choose to practice in this world. So how we, as practitioners of the Buddha way, bring authenticity into our daily life, into our Dharma situation, as it's called, is the question the dogon is endeavoring to answer it through his own life, his entire life was trying to answer the question of how to practice in daily life. And he teaches that he and he's a monastic. So, you know, that's a kind of confinement in terms of who's in the in the within the walls of the monastery and his students are there intentionally to work with him and him with them and you know to bring these questions into the actions in the monastery so you know zen centers has a similar charge that we have a somewhat circumscribed situation people are kind of inside they've asked to be inside they they they apply to come and to be here they forget they applied and then they start

[20:11]

complaining but that's okay so that's all normal that's part of it how do you practice with something that you really want to do and it gets hard so it you know things are starting to the grit is starting to show up and in our daily activity that's the point that's where we go that's what the lights for the light of awakening is to bring illuminate the grit illuminate the challenges So Dogen says in his essay, another very fine essay we'll look at at some point, called the Bhandawa, meaning negotiating the way or on endeavoring the way. He says, a Buddhist should neither argue superiority or inferiority of doctrines, nor settle disputes over depth or shallowness of teachings, but only be mindful of authenticity or in authenticity of practice. So this is all coming back on us. Is this my best shot? Is this my authentic offering?

[21:12]

Am I being honest and engaging? And is it my wholehearted effort? Nobody can tell me whether it is or not. I can't show you. I can only, only I know, as the saying goes, only I know whether the water is cold or warm. Only I know how this just this person is engaging in the activities of my daily life. So in this way, Dogen is responding to his own question that began this essay. If the way is basically perfect and all-pervading, Hon Gaku, original enlightenment, what is the use of going off here and there to practice? Why do all that hard stuff? Why do that? Which of course he eventually did. Why go off here and there to practice? Well, he got on a rickety old wooden boat and sailed off to China. He went off to practice. And then when he finally resolved his own inquiry, he returned home to spend the remainder of his days teaching the how of practicing the way.

[22:22]

So much of his writing is about the particularities. I've recently begun to read the Tenzo Kyokun again, which is the instructions to the head cook. And that's partly because I've been working in the kitchen. And so it's brought back to mind all of those instructions, Dogen's instructions that we used to read out loud at the beginning of our kitchen work. You know, we'd read the Tenzo Kyokun, you know, a couple pages every morning before we'd go into the kitchen. And it's an amazing text. And it's about rice and boiling water and vegetables and all. It's very much about how how to work in the kitchen, how to care for the community by creating delicious food, regardless of the ingredients. You know, not to be, you know, fussy about what you have, just to treat it with respect. Do your best, that kind of instruction. So in the simplest terms, again, this is Dr. Kim, the authenticity of practice has to do with the manner and quality of negotiating the way through a dynamic approach.

[23:27]

dialectic relationship of practice and enlightenment. So it's spinning, it's like a turbine, it's like the way you generate electricity, that this relationship, this dialogue between practice, doing your life, everyday life, and awakening, this is what he refers to, and I think a lot of people find this to be very helpful framing, I think I've mentioned it before, as these two I hate this word foci. It's a focus, but the plural is foci, and I think it's a funny word, so I would like to avoid saying it. So these two focuses, you know, you can imagine, like, the way we're made. We have these two eyes, we have these two ears, and two hands, and two legs, right? Two feet. We've got a lot of twos going on here as one whole body. So, you know, my eyes... Actually, if I close one and look, I've been doing this in the morning to kind of prove it to myself. I close one eye and look, I see this half of the room all the way over to here.

[24:30]

And if I close that eye and look at the other one, I see this half of the room all the way over here. But when I open both eyes, I've got the whole thing. So it's a little bit like that. I think it's a pretty good exampling of this teaching of these two focal points. You know, they work together. I don't experience my two eyes seeing different things, even though they do. I experience the one whole room. So this is the same kind of dynamic working of realization, awakening and activity in the world. How those two work together, you don't see a line, you don't see a demarcation between the two, between awakening and practice. They're just one whole activity, authentic. He's calling that authentic. So, and the whole point of these two, these two focal points, is to bring freedom. You know, it's for the sake of liberation, for the sake of awakening.

[25:32]

It's in the context of our work is liberation. That's what we're after. That's what we're doing. to see through the veil of illusions, to see past the clouds of confused thinking, and have some sense of the clarity which is there all the time. We just have to come into it. We have to make ourselves available to know it and to be it. We are it. We just have to come to that realization of who we really are. So in Japanese, the term is genjo, as in genjo-koan. which is the next text of Go Against that we're going to be studying, you know, Ganjo. Gan means to fully show up, to fully appear in the present moment. You're here, you are here, to really know that, to fully inhabit the present, which you're already there, you might as well. You might as well have that energetic arrival.

[26:33]

So to fully show up, that's Gan. And Zho means to become. to be complete or to accomplish so to accomplish to become fully here genjo genjo so in in this case the self and all things in the universe are nothing but the true buddha dharma itself you know again and again this is the same message you know and it's i think what dogen is doing is really he's like a cheerleader you know he's really trying to get us to to catch on to the language of awakening and the liberative language. He's all about ultimate truth. He's not so much interested in the how of meditation, the steps and stages, how to get you somewhere where you can then see things better. It's more like now. This is it. You're there. Open your eyes and let them do their work. With his underlying intention in Dogen's teaching to engage in authentic how of practice, then we look again at how he instructs us in the practice realization of seated meditation, which is what this essay is all about.

[27:48]

Practice realization of seated meditation. So he says, when you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both unenlightenment and enlightenment and dying while either sitting or standing have all depended entirely on the strength of Zazen. And then in the next paragraph, Dogen returns to honoring the lineage of the Zen ancestors and reminding us, his audience and his own monks, of their affiliation with that lineage. and therein his own historical justification for transmitting the Buddhist teaching. He has his certificate. He received his certificate from Ru Jing. He went to China and he had this experience that he's trying to convey to his students and down through the centuries to us.

[28:50]

So he's saying, this isn't mine. This is coming through. I'm a transmitter. You know, I'm transmitting. Dharma transmission is coming through, you know, from that moment under the Bodhi tree, when Shakyamuni Buddha had his authentic experience of awakening, of reality. And when he brought that to his students and those students brought that to their students and so on. So that ball's been rolling now for 2,500 years of this inspired teaching, bringing relief, you know, bringing some very real sense of freedom. to humanity over many many centuries and you know now it's our turn it's our turn to take this inspiration and to bring it into our lives you know and then pass it on i mean that's that's what you do with something that you love you just you want to you want to give it away you know it's it's the greatest gift is the gift of the dharma so reb said to us that the buddha dharma is nothing but the cultivation of the lineage

[29:54]

you know, the correct transmission of the Buddha mudra of body, mind, and the dropping of body, mind. So, you know, which basically means what I just said. It's like cultivating the lineage means that you receive the teaching, you want it, you demand it, you know, beg for it, whatever you have to do, you read about it, you study it, you receive it, and then you kind of fill up with that. It's kind of like that... tick on a dog, you get all full of the Dharma and then your job is to kind of express it. You want to offer that out. It kind of makes you sick if you don't begin to express what you've accumulated. You need to really pass it on. Pass it on to those who are eager, as you were, to receive it. So the practice of a Buddha does not seek to make a Buddha. We've heard that before. It's not a means To an end, the practice of Buddha is what Buddha does. And what Buddha does, how they practice in the world of sentient beings, is what Dogen honors most deeply, the lineage of the Buddha ancestors, which he evokes in this next section.

[31:06]

So, and then he says, in addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the effecting of realization with the aid of a hosu, which is the whisk, a fist, a staff, or a shout, cannot be fully understood by discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers either. It must be deportment beyond hearing and seeing. Is it not a principle that is prior to knowledge and perceptions? know so he's clearing away other kinds of possibilities he's saying you know this is really about this you know this immediacy you know this presence this genjo kong you know this is where where you come to life so um i wanted to i had got very excited about um

[32:11]

My dear friend, Kokyo Henkel, who is our Tonto right now here at Green Gulch, and I'm very grateful he's here, and he's not staying too much longer, sadly, but we've been very lucky to have him here as Tonto for some months. Anyway, I asked him if he knew about these references. I knew some of them. This, a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet. Hosu, a fist, a staff, or a shout. You know, these are all koans. These are all stories or examples taken from very, very well-known koans. What makes it really interesting to me is that these are koans that Dogen knew. I mean, part of what is so... lovely about reading this material now, you know, for me, is like, I'm reading something that Dogen read. You know, he read it in Chinese, I'm reading it in translation into English. But there's a lot of space between those, you know, in terms of eras and cultures and so on.

[33:14]

But in another way, there's no space at all. We're reading the same story. You know, I'm just sitting right next to Dogen. And we're in the study hall together. And we're reading the same material. And so it's kind of like a family affair. We're all in the same boat, rowing around and trying to catch on to these teachings as best we can. So Kokyo sent me a footnote from a book that was translated. This is, again, a book about the Fukanzazengi called The Heart of Dōgen's Shōpo Genzo. And they tell us what these references are. So I wanted to share them with you because I think this is really a wonderful addition. You know, this is sort of like a footnote for Dogen's Fukanzazengi references. So we know which koan, what koan is he talking about here? So this first one, again, this is confirming the lineage of the Zen masters. He's using stories from the lineage of the Zen masters as verification.

[34:16]

So verification, authenticity. So the first one, a finger, is from case three of the Mumankan. It's a book collection of koans. And here's the story. So whenever Chu Chi, this is kind of a difficult story, so I think I should maybe give you a trigger warning. There's a little violence involved, and I never really liked this story, but this is the story that he's quoting. Whenever Chu Chi was asked a question, he simply raised one finger. One day a visitor asked Chu-Chi's attendant what his master preached, and the boy raised a finger. So his attendant raised his finger. Hearing of this, Chu-Chi cut off the boy's finger with a knife. And as he ran from the room, screaming with pain, Chu-Chi called to the boy. And when the boy turned his head, Chu-Chi raised a finger. The boy was suddenly enlightened. So it's kind of a happy ending. But, you know... This stuff, some of this stuff, some of these things that these old guys did, I think they would probably go to prison these days for having done them.

[35:23]

So we've dropped a lot of the enactment of these. But that's the story of finger. And then when Chu-Chi was about to die, he said to his assembly of monks, I received this one-finger Zen from Tianlong. I used it all my life, but I've never used it up. And with that, he entered into his eternal rest. Probably holding up one finger, no doubt. So that's a finger. Then there's a banner. So that's the next image that Dogen refers to. So Ananda, the Buddha's disciple, his first Dharma transmitted, the third, Mahakashapa was after the Buddha, and then Ananda was given transmission from Mahakashapa. So when Ananda asked his teacher, Kashapa, if the Buddha had transmitted anything to him besides the golden robe, Kashapa called out to him, Ananda. And when Ananda responded, Kashapa told him to take down the banner at the gate, whereupon Ananda attained enlightenment.

[36:24]

You get it? I don't. But I think it's really worth pondering, you know. I have heard an explanation of that one before. Something about identity. And I think of the banner is usually a sign that a teacher is going to give a talk. So they used to raise them. It's kind of like, you know, the, the marquee on a movie theater, there's going to be a talk. So they, they put a flag up, they put a banner up to announce that there's going to be a Dharma talk. So maybe this Dharma talk was just this connection between Makashapa and Ananda. Anyway, you can think about that one. Let me know if you come up with a good idea. So the third one is the needle. The 15th Indian Zen patriarch, Kanadeva, paid a visit to Nagarjuna. So we're kind of going through the ranks here. We're going from Mahagashapanananda, going way back to the beginnings, and now we're up to Nagarjuna, the second century, the second Buddha.

[37:28]

Nagarjuna, so Kanadeva is Nagarjuna's student. Nagarjuna, without saying a word, instructed an attendant to place a bowl brimming with water before his guest. So Kanadeva comes to see Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna has his attendant put this bowl full of water in front of his guest. Kanadeva takes a needle and drops it into the bowl. As a result of this act, Nagarjuna accepted him as his disciple. Okay? Simple enough. Okay, then there's the mallet. One day, when Shakyamuni Buddha ascended to the teaching seat, the Bodhisattva Manjushri wrapped his gavel. This is case one of the Book of Serenity. Manjushri wrapped his gavel to signify the opening of the lecture. and declaring, clearly observe the dharma, the king of the dharma, is thus.

[38:31]

So, as it turns out, it doesn't say this in case one of the Book of Serenity, but it does say this in this particular text, this footnote, that these words that Manjushri says are actually the words that are given at the end of a lecture, not at the beginning. So by saying that, when he did, Shakyamuni Buddha doesn't say a thing. He just gets down off the teaching seat. So, you know, this is again, it's like, what is happening here? This great, this great kind of revealing of what? You know, it's like it gets all of our attention, you know, the needle on the water and the banner coming down. It's like, what are they doing? How do I enter? into these experiences that are being relayed here. You know, how do I find them? You know, definitely, like I said, this is all about the great mystery. So each of these stories is another example of something very mysterious is happening here between these people, between this teacher and the student.

[39:40]

And sometimes, I think all of you have probably been with teachers at various times and had some kind of mysterious exchange with the teacher that no one else would probably understand. But perhaps it held some meaning for you. And maybe some years later, I've reflected on things that were said to me many years ago when I first came to Zen Center that really caught my attention, not because I understood them, but it just really made me wonder, what is going on here? What is this about? I couldn't find it intellectually. These stories don't lend themselves to intellectual explanations. So what I was saying earlier, it's like show. It's more like this show of practice. What? Practice what? Not the answer, but the question. What is this? So without saying a word, Shakyamuni gets down off the seat. And then there's the whisk. That's the next one. And this story is from the Denko Roku, Transmission of Light, the text that we're studying.

[40:42]

This is the chapter we're doing right now of Dogen Zenji, which is from the Transmission of Light. I'm just kind of taking Dogen as a major teacher and using that chapter as a way of opening to a number of his most important teachings. So it's case 30. This is from the Denko Roku. The whisk is... about Shi Tou. So his case was number 36. We looked at that quite a while back. So Shi Tou is the author of the merging of harmony of difference and equality that also we chant weekly as part of our liturgy. So Shi Tou and Dongshan, the founder of Soto Zen, Those are two very famous poems that we honor and have as part in their champ book. So this story about the whisk, we talked about the whisk quite a bit because there are a lot of stories of the teacher, you know, the students going on and giving some kind of intellectual explanation and the teacher just puts the whisk in their face.

[41:51]

And amazing things happen. So Shirtou called on Zen Master Jingguan, who asked him, where have you come from? It's a Zen question, it's a trick question. Where have you come from? And Shirtou says, from Chaoqi, where Zen Master Huynong taught. So he's given his credentials. Huynong's the sixth ancestor. He's the big deal in our tradition. He's the one after whom Zen just spread out all over the place. So I come from Zen Master, the sixth ancestor Huynong, where he taught. And Qin Guan holds up a whisk and says, is there this at Chaoqi? Yeah, this whisk, is that there? Kind of calling him out to be in the present, you know, authentic. Shi To says, not only not a Chaoqi, not even in India. So Shi To's kind of a smart guy. You know, he's playing with the teacher. He's not being the disciple. He's not, this isn't the one finger Zen guy. the young attendant.

[42:55]

This is a kind of, you know, more like a Dharma combat. Shirtou has a lot of confidence. And so does Jingguan, the person he's gone to meet. So Shirtou says, well, you know, not only not at Shaoqi, not even in India, you know. And then Shirtou says, you haven't been to India, have you? He's poking at him and Shirtou says, well, if I had, it would be there. If I had, then the whisk would be there. And Jingguan said, well, that's not good enough. Say something more. So he's pressing him. And then Shirtou says, well, you too should say a half. Don't rely entirely on me. He's kind of a, you can feel him. Wise guy. Jingguan says, I don't decline to speak to you, but I am afraid that later on no one will get it. You know, it's a little too tricky, too abstract maybe.

[43:58]

Shi To said, well, it's not that they won't get it, but that no one can say it. And then Ching Kwan, this is the point where he whacks him in the face with the whisk. And at that point, when he gets the whack in the face, Shi To experiences a great enlightenment. Something breaks through his intellectualizations, his explanations, his wise guy stuff, you know, it's like, and he wakes up. So then the next one is a fist, and this is from the Mumong Khan case number 11, Chao and the Hermit. This is kind of an interesting one. Chao Zhou went to a hermit's cottage and asked, anybody in? Anybody in? The hermit. lifted up his fist. Zhao Zhou says, the water is too shallow for a ship to anchor. And he left. I don't think it was a compliment.

[45:01]

And then again he goes to the hermit's cottage and he asks, anybody in? Is there anybody in? And the hermit again lifts up his fist. Zhao Zhou then says, freely you give Freely you take away, freely you kill, freely you give life, and he makes a full prostration to the hermit." Sounds like approval, right? So the commentary asks us how we respond when we're criticized, you know? The ship, the water's too shallow for a ship to anchor, that's kind of insulting. And how do we respond when we're praised, when the teacher does a full bow? Maybe we like that, you know? So this is really challenging, this hermit. You like it? You like it that way? You don't like it that way? What about, where's your equanimity? Emotional maturity allows us to respond to either praise or blame without being knocked over by them.

[46:06]

Wouldn't that be nice? Treating both with equanimity. So that is kind of one of the aspirations, that kind of tensile strength that a practitioner begins to It begins to grow inside. The more you practice, the more you're criticized and praised and you're kind of like, is that so? Is that so? You can't really say. And when you say, you're probably on the wrong side. It's probably the wrong answer. Either way. Just keep asking, is that so? So then the next one is the staff. And this is from the Shoyoroku case 16, Magu shakes his staff. So Magu had a ring staff. I don't know if you've seen it. If you've been to Green Gulch, there's the Bodhisattva figure, the Jizo figure that's in the back of the hall, behind where the speaker speaks.

[47:07]

I think it might be visible on the Sunday lectures when they're broadcast. Anyway, he's holding, the Jizo figure is holding this ring staff. And it has six rings, and the staff has a couple of purposes, but the main purpose is to, it makes noise. So when you walk along, if you're pilgrimage, that noise will frighten the little animals so you don't step on them. You know, it has a kind of compassionate function to make sure that nobody's going to get hurt as you walk along. So, and the six rings, represent the six realms which i spoke about a while back if you remember the wheel of birth and death there's the 12 links the samsara how samsara works because of ignorance and desire is suffering so that's the the whole story of suffering how suffering is comes to be an elaboration of the first and second noble truth there is suffering and you're suffering because you're ignorant of non-duality

[48:12]

of the true nature of reality, of Honggagu, of your fundamental Buddha nature, your ignorance of that, of who you really are, leads you to behave in very human ways that has a lot to do with wanting things you don't have, or wanting to get rid of things you don't like. And that's the cause of your suffering. Desire, ignorance and desire combined, is the cause of suffering. And in the center of the 12-fold chain are the six realms, which is where we go. There are psychological states for us. I think that's really a very accessible way to understand that if you behave in a good way, then you might end up in heaven. That's what we all think we want. Or you might end up as a kind of ambitious something or another, attorney or stockbroker. Those are the fighting gods or the gods. But actually, those are not highly recommended. What's recommended is the human realm. If you behave well, you get to be a human. And as a human, you have a chance to practice because things aren't too bad and they're not too good.

[49:18]

They're kind of like just right, just good enough so that you can enter into this commitment for this practice realization. That happens in the human realm. very hard hard for the gods to practice because they've got everything they want right so then the problem is because of impermanence when heaven ends which it will you go to hell which is one of the lower of the six realms so you might want to just think through those six realms again see if you remember them the three top ones heaven fighting gods wanting to get into heaven and humans the lower realms as hell in the very bottom. And on either side of hell, there are the animals that don't really work with karma very well. They just do whatever they want and have terribly karmic consequences. And on the other side of the hungry ghosts who are never satisfied, no matter what they have. They're always wanting more. They're longing. They're in the realm of longing. Very painful.

[50:19]

So that's the ring staff. So the six rings are also the keys, considered to be keys. This is metaphoric. that this ring staff has keys to each of those realms so you can unlock them and liberate the beings that are trapped in there. It's kind of sweet. So Jizo Bodhisattva, one of the Bodhisattvas of compassion, is carrying the keys to your liberation from these psychological states that you've gotten trapped in. We all get trapped in. So Magu, with his ring staff in hand, comes to Jajin and he circles the meditation seat three times. shakes his staff once and stands there at attention. Jiajing says, right, right. And Magu next goes to Nanjuan, circles the meditation seat three times, shakes his staff and stands there at attention. So he's gone to first one teacher and does this thing. And the teacher says, right, right. Then he goes to another teacher, does this thing.

[51:22]

And the teacher Nanjuan says, wrong, wrong. So Magu says, Zhang Jing said right. Why do you say wrong? And Zhang Quan says, Zhang Jing is right. It's you who's wrong. So this is something that can be blown by the power of the wind. It inevitably disintegrates. Whatever your trick is, is going to disintegrate. No more tricks. No more play acting. Where's this authentic meeting? So this is another one of those, you know, like, right, wrong, which is it? Which is it? Well, it's both. And we just need to find our way to hold it. Whatever one is coming to us, we have this ability to be upright and meet it, you know, with, is that so? Is that so? Okay, the next one is a shout. This is from the show you wrote, Kase.

[52:23]

The Book of Serenity. Shoyuroku is the Book of Serenity. Case 22. Yanto's bow and shout. When Yanto came to Deshan, he straddled the threshold and asked, Is this ordinary or is this holy? Deshan immediately shouted. Yanto bowed. Dongshan heard about this and said, Anyone but Yanto would hardly get it. Yanto said, old Dongshan doesn't know good and bad. At that time, I was holding up with one hand and putting down with the other. So all of these stories, except the one I didn't understand, all of these stories have a lot to do with this dualistic thinking, with right and wrong, with good and bad, how to reconcile dualities without denying them or avoiding them or, you know, Picking one and dismissing the other is just staying in the middle, you know, keeping your equilibrium while things are moving around you and you're confused.

[53:31]

But you maintain your upright physical posture, which is huge for Dogen. And we've just gone through his instructions for seated meditation, which is like our anchor. That's how we anchor. Our anchor out is our seated, our body. Body-mind combination is this upright sitting, which Dogen is constantly telling us is enlightenment itself. The body seated upright, standing upright, laying upright, whatever, horizontally, vertical, horizontal, doesn't matter. It's upright. It's there, fully activated. So that's what seems to be going on here. So this being the case, intelligence or lack of it does not matter. Between the dull and the sharp-witted, there is no distinction. I've always appreciated that line. I thought, oh, good. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. Practice realization, there it is again, practice realization, like one word, is naturally undefiled.

[54:39]

Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness. Dogen is all about everydayness. What are you doing? How are you doing your life? It's not like I was saying to you last week, it's not like I didn't go to the zendo so I'm not practicing. No, you are practicing. There is no getting out of it. You heard about it. You've gone too far. You've all gotten too far in to think that you're not practicing. You are. Everything you do is your practice. And so how? how to practice in your daily life is really the only question that Dogen is offering you suggestions and that you resonate with as you receive whatever encouragement you receive. So in general, this world and other worlds as well, both in India and China, equally hold the Buddha seal and overall prevails the character of this school, which is simply devotion to sitting, total engagement in immovable

[55:43]

sitting although it is said there are as many minds as there are persons still they all negotiate the way solely in zazen why leave behind the seat that exists in your home and go aimlessly off to the dusty realms of other lands if you make one misstep you go astray from the way that is directly before you right here right there you have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form That's the realm, the human realm. Do not use your time in vain. You are maintaining the essential working of the Buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from a flintstone? Momentary pleasures. The pleasure thing as the driver. Because it feels good. That's the momentary spark from a flintstone. Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass. Destiny is like a dart of lightning. Emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash.

[56:44]

Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant. That's a story I'll tell you in a minute. About the blind men and the elephant. Long accustomed to groping for the elephant. Do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Revere the person of complete attainment who is beyond all human agency. Gain accord with the enlightenment of the Buddhas. Succeed to the legitimate lineage of the ancestor's samadhi. Constantly perform in such a manner and you are assured of being a person such as they. Your treasure store will open of itself and you will use it at will. That's it. That's Dogen's offering. He came back from China. He had this inspiration about practice realization and answered his own con, the desperate wish he had to understand why practice.

[57:46]

And he came back with how practice, not why, how. So that was the resolution for him. And then he offered this teaching. It's one of the first things that he wrote. You know, his monks asked him to give them something from his trip to China. And then he wrote the Fu Kanzizengi. There are a couple of versions of it, which is a really interesting point that Karl Bielfeldt makes in his book on the Fukanzizangi and it's quite detailed scholarly work and very interesting you know the things that Dogen put in the first version handwritten that he left off the second version and so on and so forth so there are some nuances that can be looked at but the basic basic point or the basic teaching is this one that we've just gone through here so it holds a very because it was the first thing that Dogen offered. It holds a very high position in Zen literature. You know, it's considered to be the very, very, you know, hugely significant offering of Dogen's beginning as an independent teacher.

[58:51]

So I did mention, I was going to say something about the blind man and the elephant. So this is a Pali Canon story. The king has an elephant and he thinks, I guess he's doing it I'm not sure exactly why, but he invites these five blind men to come and meet the elephant. And so they touch the elephant. The only way they can access is to go up to it and touch the elephant. So one of them touches the leg and he says, oh, elephant is like a tree. And then another one touches the trunk. He said, no, no, no, it's like a rope. No, no, it's like a hose. And then another one has got a hold of the tail. He said, no, no, it's like a rope. And then one of them has the ear, and he said, no, it's a plantain leaf. It's a banana tree leaf. And then the last one is holding the trunk, and he says, no, no, no, it's like a wall. So the king is amused by the fact that they can't see the whole thing.

[59:53]

you know, we tend to be getting a partial handle on reality or on ourselves or on what's going on here. We've got a hold of one part of the elephant. So coming to understand what an elephant is, is really kind of the all together now or the all inclusive realization. This is this Shobo Genzo or Genjo Koan that Dogen is inviting us to. And we can't see it, but we can we can learn it. We can learn about it, and then we can have this realization that comes from that kind of leaping beyond, leaping beyond what we already know into that space that we really don't know. It's a great leap of faith, basically. Okay, so that's the Fuganzizangi. And I think that's probably enough on the Fuganzizangi. It's a short essay. You can all read it over again. It's worth reading through. It has a lot of amazing points to be made, and there's also some points to be made of what's missing, what Dogen did not include in what were traditional Zen and Zazen instructions.

[61:04]

He basically has his own take on it, which is quite historically significant for us, certainly, and Dogen's, the Soto Zen that he brought to Japan and that we have inherited. from Suzuki Roshi. Okay, so I think what we'll do is I might wrap up a little bit more in Fukanza Zengi. There's some other issues or points that are really interesting that I might include next week. But mostly I think it would be time for us to move on to the Genjo Koan. And there's quite a few books on the Genjo Koan and Shohaka Okamura has written a book just about the Genjo Koan. So there's so much material on that essay for you to look into yourselves if you haven't already. And I welcome you to do that. I'll be doing my own studying and reading and trying to kind of walk along with you through that amazing essay, which is probably the most famous of Dogen's works.

[62:05]

It's kind of his masterwork is the Genjokon. So welcome, welcome all of you. If you have something you would like to offer or some comments, I very happy to hear from you, please. Amir, welcome. Yes, thank you. Yes, very new to Zen and appreciate this wonderful talk. Thank you. Learned so much. And you may need your whisk ready. But I wanted to offer you some Hopefully good news. The plural of focus is actually pronounced foci. Oh, that's a little better. Much more pleasant sound. Okay, thank you. Get that out there. So thank you again. Oh, and I also realize now that I bowed to the bodhisattva. It was a train guilt yesterday instead of the Buddha.

[63:07]

So thanks for pointing me the right way too. It was closest to the... entryway to this end so yes i'm still learning thank you oh well you're welcome learners are especially welcome both side that is much better hey tim hi uh i was going to relate an anecdote when you were talking about reading basically the same text that Dogen was studying. Um, there's, uh, in a similar vein, uh, as a young Theravadan monk, he's an American, Bhikkhu Mangala. He actually lives with Bhikkhu Bodhi in the monastery in upstate New York. And I sat in on, he did a, um, a series on the Satipatthana Sutta. And he said he visited India and there was a park

[64:10]

I want to say, someone correct me on geography, New Delhi or Delhi that's surrounded now by giant condo buildings, but it is still the exact same park that Buddha gave a discourse in. It's still there 25 centuries later. Wow. That's interesting, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of in that... theme. It's a short time, really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I would like to go to that park, wouldn't you? I really would. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we can organize a trip. Let's go. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Marianne. No, it's Carmina. Oh, Carmina. It's both of you. Oh, you're tricking me, you guys. It's a test every time.

[65:15]

I know. I am not getting A's. No, you're doing well. I just put you together. What? Excuse me. I just put you together. Yes, we're foci. Yeah, you are. Right. First, a comment, and that is... then I think we ought to break out the banner for you on these five o'clock Dharma talks or explication to text. Okay. So aside compliments and praise, two little questions. One has to do with what seems the proximity between literature and what we're talking about. I think, related to what you've talked about today, which the whole business of form and content, okay, which is the way you analyze literature, right?

[66:17]

The form, the content, which is most important. Well, ultimately, you know, both infuse each other and In good writing, it's hard to separate it. I mean, you can kind of try and deconstruct it. But ultimately, you're looking at the whole picture when you read, say, a masterpiece, a novel, a poem, whatever. And so I wonder, does that sound like some of what we've been talking about today? Let me think about that. It's a little different angle that I'm... When I was listening to you, I thought a little bit about, well, then there's the person reading. I think what we're talking about includes the reader. Oh, always. Absolutely. The conjunction of the form and the content is happening over here. It's happening in here. And how I'm experiencing reality, literature, whatever form of reality.

[67:25]

So form, whatever form... is being experienced is content for me. I have become it. I become that book. I become that sunset. I become that cold water. So I think it's the intimacy of the reader with what you were talking about. Don't forget the horse you're riding. Right, of course. Absolutely, because the reader is the one who is actually, if the reader wants to, to try and separate, analyze, say, a literary work of art, well, it is the reader who actually changes everything. Yeah. You know, becomes the receptacle because that person is bringing, these different foci, if you will, form, content, or style and content, whatever you want to call it.

[68:34]

But the reader brings it together. And so it's only the critic who will try and move these two things apart with the hope of bringing it back together to help the reader. If the reader so desires to read a critic, analysis. Right. So we have all these gifts for us and certainly in the traditions we both are fond of, you know, literature and Dharma literature and all sorts of things. So, you know, we bring ourselves to the table. Absolutely. It's our party. And, you know, we choose which party we're going to go to. And some people don't read at all. They don't really want to read. And they, you know, so it's okay. So there's sort of like self-selecting. And then we have our, you know, I like to just get lost in what I'm reading.

[69:36]

I'm not particularly critical. I like junk. I like mystery novels. I'm really open to being lost in the narrative. Right. And I appreciate the folks who really, go in there with a kind of, you know, like a sword. Like they're going to... Yeah, deconstruct. Yeah, deconstruct. And I can appreciate that, too. It's a little more work. You know, it's a little more... I'm going to have to cook a little bit to follow this. But it's good. It's a good exercise, I think, for us to take things apart and then put them back together. And then how does that feel? I mean, what did I learn? what is this what is what is the gift and uh yeah this reminds me also in physics you know how the viewer is changing the experiment or the structure of what she's looking at isn't that weird

[70:41]

If you're looking at it, it's a particle. And if you're not, it's a wave. And that is so bizarre. And even physicists tell you, this is really strange. I think I mentioned to you all that video that we were offered from Paul about Einstein's quantum riddle. Yeah, quantum riddle. That basically, if you find this too frustrating, if you're a physics major and it's just too frustrating not to be able to understand how that's possible, the teachers will tell you, you're probably in the wrong field. You don't want to be in this field if you need to understand it, because we don't understand it. We don't know how this is happening. So I think that's kind of exciting. It makes me want to be a physicist. It's like, okay. You know, I'm pretty comfortable not understanding. As a Buddhist, I'm pretty comfortable not understanding things. And I think that's sort of like not knowing is nearest is one of our mottos.

[71:45]

So, you know, just letting go of having to know something. And it plays through you. And if you go back and read it again, you see something else. That's right. You know, keep reading masterpieces. whether they're Buddhists or whether it's Shakespeare or whatever, you bring new eyes and it comes together. Even if you've taken it apart, it'll always come back together. That's right. Well, they wrote it for us. Yeah, exactly. They spent all that time and effort so that we'd read it. And I think it's a very kind thing to do, to thank them. Thank you. William Shakespeare. So I'm going to read your plays. But think of this, you know, and it's certainly true of poetry or Shakespeare or whatever, is that sometimes they didn't know how deep they were or how many ramifications there were to something the writer, him or herself.

[73:02]

And it is only after decades of, say, Shakespearean criticism that suddenly you begin to see the structure that Shakespeare might not have intended, the implications of the writing. He wouldn't have gone that far. After all, he was writing very fast to put it on stage. But he had such a brilliant mind. that, of course, there were all these hidden depths, right? Anyway, well, that's one question, and thank you. You're welcome. You set me straight on some stuff. The other question was, close to the end of your talk, you referred back to some, was it case or con that you said you didn't understand? Which one was it?

[74:02]

Well, lots of them, actually. Well, yeah. I have a list. They're the ones I skip. I was like, oh, I don't think so. Which one did I say? I think it was the one, was it the banner? It was the banners. Yeah, I was like, what? Anyway, yeah, I can't really, you know, I'd have to sort of, like you said, I would have to be willing to spend time with those stories, which I haven't done, in order to find my own response. So that's what's missing. I haven't invested in those stories to say, okay, here's what I think. Really, koans, someone said this recently, and I thought it was very helpful. Koans are for you to interpret. They're not an answer or they're not an explanation. They're open to your interpretation. What do you think? What do you think's going on there? So that's... That's kind of exciting. So I would say I'm not embarrassed that I don't understand them.

[75:03]

I just haven't put my time in to come up with my own critique or my own inspiration of some kind. So, you know, and there's so many of them that I won't run out of opportunities. No. On this side or that side. That's right. That's right. We're very lucky in that regard. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Good to see you. Alicia. Hi, Fu. How are you? Hi, Sangha. Sorry. Whoops. Hi, Fu. Hi, Sangha. Sorry, I thought someone was ahead of me. I thought Millicent was ahead of me. Millicent was there and then she went away. Okay. So I'm still wondering, After discussing this with you, so Dogen is answering his question, why practice?

[76:04]

Because the way is right here. And he just says, this is how you practice. He doesn't go into why you should practice. He just skips right over that. That's right. That's up to you. Why are you practicing, Felicia? You've been at it for a while now. Do you still wonder why? No. No. No. No, I'm in it. I'm hooked. Everything depends on it. That's right. That's right. My life depends on it. Yeah. I remember kind of using, I think it's Shakespeare, like, I could not love thee half so well, loved I not Dharma more. Wow. I really feel like it's brought my whole human mind relationships and my whole life, I'm able to be so much more loving because I love the Dharma so much that it's given me a context. Yeah. Yeah.

[77:04]

So what do you think happened to do again with that? That his question? Do you think he just realized it? And that's, yeah, what stupid question? Why? He spent his whole, you know, 10 years of his life or more since he was 12 years old or seven years old. You know, why would I practice if I'm already Buddha? So he got all caught up in that, you know, and then all of a sudden he has this this realization like here he is, you know, he's he's a full blown monk and he's sitting in this. He's gone to China and he's sitting in this. Temple and the teacher's saying, drop body and mind. What do you mean, why? Not why, do it. Do it. And for some reason, he did. He just let it go. And up came, oh, okay, if I don't need to know why, then maybe I just need to figure out how. How do I bring this beautiful understanding into the world?

[78:09]

You know, that was Buddha's thing, too. How do I explain? How do I help people enter into this realization of who they really are? So the why is kind of an intellectual question. It's conceptual anyway, so. It's regressive. It's infinitely regressive. You'll never get to. There's another story I like about this guy. The guy asks him something about why. And the teacher says, well, I once wrote that question on a biscuit. And tried to feed it to my pig, but my pig wouldn't eat it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I kept looking for his answer as we ran through it, and it's not really there. How? Not why, but how? How? How do you put your robes on? Why do you put your robes on? You're going to spend your life trying to get an answer to that. Put your robes on like this. Yeah. And he answered it. So, yeah, he did answer it. And you can do it. You can do the hows.

[79:12]

How do you make a good miso soup? Not why. You know. Why get up in the morning? You know. How? Well, set your alarm. Put your feet on the ground when you hear the alarm. And go to the zendo. Yeah. Okay. That's helpful. It's like his... his spiritual immaturity, he realized that that was a useless question. Yeah, wasn't helpful. And Buddha said that too, about like people say, well, are we going to, is there life after death? You know, they'd ask him all these questions. And he said, those aren't helpful questions. They will not help you to become free. You need to ask the questions that will help free you from your traps, you know? So... Finding the right questions is kind of the trick. Yeah. Yeah.

[80:13]

And I don't know. Yeah. The questions kind of start falling away, too, for me, anyway. It's interesting. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Millicent's back. I think Millicent. Jason, I see you, but I think that's okay. Oh, Millicent, should we be right to you? Are you okay to wait one more time? She's nodding good. Hi, Jason. Hello. Thanks for your practice. You're welcome. This is probably not the right question. Why? I'm familiar with many of the traditional texts in our history. lineage, what is the significance of the Book of Serenity and what is its place? Have you looked at it a bit? Not yet. This is one I have not looked at yet.

[81:14]

I've heard references upon references. Well, I think you might enjoy it. It's a book of koans that were collected. It's particularly understood to be from the Soto Zen angle. So it's kind of our school's collection. There are other koans that are more from the kind of Rinzai angle. So not that they're so wildly different, because they're all kind of wonderful opportunities. But the Book of Serenity is really kind of our school's collection of koans, of problems to think about. So you might just read, you know, there's a really good introduction in the beginning of the book. and helps you kind of orient to who's talking and who's asking and how the things line up. And then you kind of go through them and pick some to sample. There's a couple I've talked about over the years. There's Bring Me the Rhinoceros fan, that's a good one. And the farmers, the one about the farmer.

[82:18]

We like that one at Green Gulch about a farmer. And the first one is very good. The one I mentioned it too about the Buddha gets on the seat and And Manjushi points and says, Dharma, the king of the Dharma, is thus. And the Buddha gets down off the sea. So what's going on here? So they're really wonderful kind of entries into Zen play. They're bringing the ultimate truth to light on the relative questions daily. Thank you. Just briefly, first of all, actually very much enjoyed your talk on bring me the rhinoceros oh good but secondly in addition to the book of serenity in the footnote that you were discussing during this talk and the koans toward the end you'd made reference i imagine from the footnote of several from the book of serenity and then there was another one that you said was from and i i'm gonna slaughter what was it

[83:24]

Mumakhan. Yeah, Mumakhan was a teacher, and so that's his collection. Okay. Yeah, so there's quite a few. I have a whole bunch of koan books that I've gathered together, and there's also some good books about koans, like The Koan by Stephen Hine and Dale Wright, which is really helpful. So, you know, reading about koans also gives you some help. and figuring out how to break open some of what's going on there and give you a little bit of context. And so, you know, it's a great field to start to expose yourself to more and more. Thank you for your question. Okay, Millicent. Hi, Steve. Hello, good morning. Yeah, thank you, Fu.

[84:25]

You're our morning person. I am, and it's deep cold too. Cold? Cold, yes. Well, you're getting winter now, aren't you? Yeah. Oh, it's so interesting because we're just getting summer maybe. Yeah. It's certainly practising from this side of the world is practise in bringing two sides together. Yes. My question, I've popped back again to ask it, arose around Gute's finger, the horrible story about the attendant's finger. And I've long appreciated it. I remember it because it's so cruel and so harsh. But it's a reminder for me not to rely on the authority of people like you.

[85:33]

Like who? You. Me? Yes. Oh, give me your finger, Millicent. So because I know that, I mean, just take the reason I popped back in was I'm going to be tempted to especially when I talk to my Dharma friends, to say something like, Fu says. Don't do that. Fu says, don't ask why, ask how. Okay, you can do that. And I know that. Dogen says. Yes, and I'm happy to say Fu says, Dogen says. That's better. Don't ask why, ask how, because I find a sentence like that so liberating and so full of potential and impact on my practice and so on and so forth.

[86:35]

So my question is how to be a good student because just quoting the teacher, which is what Gute's assistant did, It's not the way. And Gute kindly made sure that his assistant would never do it again. Not that finger. Yes. Yeah. So how to be a good student? Because after I come along to learn and... and your words sink into my life bit by bit. But yeah, how to do it without quoting you? Well, I'm not sure you have to do that. I think that's... Dale Wright, who I just mentioned, who wrote this book on cons, who, as it turns out, sent me a little email one day and saying, are you the Nancy Schrader who was in Uppsala, Sweden, in...

[87:48]

1967? And I said, yes, I am. I was like 18 or 19. He said, well, I'm Dale Wright. I was there too. We went on a study abroad program. And we were both there. I didn't remember him. He remembered me. That was sweet. And because we were very young. And I don't think I noticed much of anything in those days. But anyway, Dale Wright is a scholar and he's a Buddhist scholar. And we both were just overjoyed that our lives went like that and then came back into this Dharma inquiry and love of Dharma. And so he came here one time and we met and had a wonderful kind of 50 year later reunion. And I said to him, Dale, I have to confess, I steal all my material. And he said, we all do. So that was very reassuring. So Millicent, everybody's stealing everybody else's material. We steal from Shakyamuni Buddha. We steal from Nagarjuna. We steal from Dale Wright. You can steal from me.

[88:50]

I'll steal from you. You know, it's a free, it's a, what do you call that? Open, open. No, no, no. There's a digital thing for open something. Anyway, open source. Yeah, exactly. Open source. So, please, it's no copyrights. Everyone can take anything from anyone. And then people can challenge you. Oh, yeah? Well, I don't agree with your teacher and what she said. And then you can sort of, you know, come back at him. Come back and tell me. And then we'll work on a response. Okay? Yeah. I bow with all my ten fingers. See, you made it through. Good girl. Okay. One more. Mr. Gee, you will be our last contestant for this evening. Thank you, Sam.

[89:52]

A great talk. Something that came up, two things. The question that I think it's in Zen is right now. You're breaking up. I don't know if it's you or me. Is it him? It's me. It's me. It's you. It's you. It's okay. Close your video. Maybe it'll work if you turn off your video. Is this any better? Yeah. Yeah. Are you talking? Okay. Well, that answers it. Yeah, right. I'll say next time. It's not a problem at all. Once I have heard it. All right. All right. Well, we'll see. We know where you are. And we'll see you soon. All right, everyone.

[90:52]

Dear Sangha, it's that time. So please feel welcome to say goodbye. And we'll see you next time. See you next week. Good night, everyone. Good night. Good night, everyone. Good night, everyone. Good night, food. Thank you so much. Those hot dog fingers and everything everywhere all at once. Yes. Horrible. Yeah. Very memorable. Yeah. Okay. You all take care. She got an Oscar for those hot dog. I just checked. You actually have four ways to say the word full cut. You can find like there are four ways. Like the way you say it, it's more like the Latin American way. Yeah. And a full style is like American way.

[91:53]

And there's English way. So you have to pick what you like. There's a menu. Oh, great. So pick the one. Which one do you like? I think I don't mind. They all work for me. Anyone will work for you. Okay. Yeah. Anyone work for me from a Chinese, you know, speaking growing up all works for me. Oh yeah. Yeah. English is just funny, isn't it? Yeah. So I'll worry. All right. Bye. Thank you. See you next week.

[92:28]

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