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Practicing with Words and Silence
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4/13/2014, Tenshin Reb Anderson dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm.
The talk discusses the practice and purpose of the Bodhisattva path, emphasizing caring deeply for all phenomena without attachment. The teachings focus on the repeated and dedicated listening, speaking, and embodying of Zen teachings, aiming for perfect wisdom, which involves engaging with the world but without grasping or clinging to any part of it, even the merit or wisdom gained from such practices. Fundamental to this practice is the daily recitation and understanding of central Zen texts such as the Heart Sutra and the larger Prajnaparamita sutras, which guide practitioners in achieving non-attachment and perfect wisdom.
Referenced Texts:
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Heart Sutra: Central to the daily practice of Zen, this short text is chanted to cultivate perfect wisdom and embodies the essence of the teachings on non-attachment and emptiness.
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Prajnaparamita Sutras: Discussed as a comprehensive collection teaching perfect wisdom, these sutras, including versions at 8,000, 18,000, and more lines, explore the vast implications of non-abiding wisdom and the Bodhisattva path.
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Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines: Specifically referenced for its teachings on merit and the concept of practicing perfect wisdom without attachments.
Referenced Speakers/Teachers:
- Taitzu Konoroshi: A teacher who illustrated the practice of using words carefully without attachment during a sesshin, exemplifying the non-abiding use of language as taught in Zen philosophy.
Philosophical References:
- Wittgenstein: Brought into the discussion regarding understanding the self and language, noting how self-perception can be aligned with the grammar of language as conceptualized in Zen teachings.
AI Suggested Title: Caring Without Clinging in Zen
This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. As you may know, or you may have noticed, I should say, there's lots of changes happening here at this temple, this temple called Green Dragon Zen Temple, which, by the way, you're welcome to come and practice in this place where there's lots of changes happening. And so we're going to have lots of work done on the building behind this building.
[01:13]
This building, a long time ago, this building was a hay barn. This building here was a hay barn. And the walls were corrugated sheet metal. And behind where the altar is, there was a trap door where the hay was dropped down through the floor to below where there were cows. So we made the hay barn into a Zen meditation hall. And I think around 1991, we re- We reconstructed this building to make it safe for earthquakes. So we can have earthquakes here and just sit peacefully through them. And we've done a lot of work in the room behind, which used to be attack rooms for horses.
[02:25]
We've remodeled that many times, and now we're going to do it again. And also we're going to redo the basement where the cow stalls used to be. And there's going to be a library down below here and so on. I have a little room right over there where I've been meeting with people for 24 years. It's actually room number one. And I moved out now. And people have come to see me last few days saying, I'll miss this room. And I said, I will too. It's a lovely little room which used to belong to, before me, one of our dearly departed practitioners named Jerry Fuller used to live there.
[03:30]
And then when he moved out, I moved in. I think that's the way it was. I hesitate to say what this temple is, what the purpose of this temple is, but I think in the charter of the corporation of Zen Center, it says that this temple is for the promotion of the teachings of the Buddha, for the realization of great compassion and perfect wisdom. I think so. Maybe something like that. So I don't know if I have that right, but lately, Lately, I've been offering teachings about what's called the great vehicle, the universal vehicle.
[04:46]
It's a set of teachings, a very extensive set of teachings, which are intended for people, for beings, humans and non-humans, any kind of being, who wishes to attain complete perfect enlightenment in order to benefit all living beings. Those who wish to work towards the best possible combination of wisdom and compassion in order to be the best possible servant to all beings. We call these beings bodhisattvas sometimes. The Buddha was, the historical Buddha in India, Shakyamuni Buddha, was called the Bodhisattva during his long evolution through many forms, male, female, and whatever. Through all those forms of evolution leading up to the function of Buddhahood, that was called the Bodhisattva.
[05:58]
So those who wish to join the Buddhist path are now called bodhisattvas. So the teachings which I've been offering lately are teachings for bodhisattvas. So I want you to know that that's what these teachings are for. But I don't know if everyone in this room wishes to be a bodhisattva, so I respectfully... I apologize if these teachings in any way are not supporting your way. If your way is not the bodhisattva way, then some of these teachings might not be appropriate, so I offer them cautiously. But even if you're not sure you want to be a bodhisattva, at least please understand that these teachings are for such beings.
[07:06]
During the time that I've been at Zen Center, many people, not many, yeah, quite a few people have come and said to me, I... I just want to say that actually I do not wish to save all beings. I'm not there. I don't want to do that. I just want to help myself. And some people say, I just want to help myself and a few people. Is it okay if I practice here? And I always say, of course, you're welcome to be here. Still, the drumbeat of the bodhisattvas practice is continuing every day in this temple. So every morning, or almost every morning, from the beginning of this temple and before this temple in the San Francisco Zen Center, and before that all over Asia in Zen temples, the songs of the bodhisattvas are recited every day.
[08:26]
And these songs are songs of wisdom, of perfect wisdom. A wisdom that liberates all beings from any hindrance, any obstacle to freedom and peace and joy and enthusiasm to help others. Every morning we chant a scripture called the Heart of Perfect Wisdom. So it's part of the Zen tradition to listen to teachings on perfect wisdom over and over and over again. And even though that's the case, I still apologize to you for talking about the same thing over and over.
[09:34]
I heard that someone asked about me and what I teach when I was visiting a monastery called Tosahara Zen Mountain Center. I was visiting there. And I heard that before I came, to give some teachings, one of the students there asked another one who knew me a little bit, well, what does he teach? And the other students who knew me a little bit says, well, he just teaches the same thing over and over. But it's pretty good. just a couple days ago, I got a message. I'm going to... I go to Berkeley to give a class at a place called the Yoga Room. And the name of the class is The Mother of All Buddhas.
[10:40]
The Mother of All Buddhas is called Prajnaparamita. And again, almost every morning here, after we recite the heart of perfect wisdom scripture, the heart of Prajnaparamita. Prajnaparamita means perfect wisdom. After we recite that heart of perfect wisdom, we recite a hymn to Prajnaparamita. We recite a hymn of appreciation for perfect wisdom. And we chant, Homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy. The perfection of wisdom gives light. Unstained, the entire world cannot stain her. She is a source of light, and from everyone in the triple world she removes darkness.
[11:46]
Most excellent are her works. She brings light so that all fear and distress may be forsaken and disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion. She herself is an organ of vision. She has a clear knowledge of the own being of all dharmas for she does not stray away from it. The perfection of wisdom of the Buddhas sets in motion the wheel of Dharma. So this hymn we recite every day. Almost every day. Sometimes on Friday we don't have service. But maybe somebody in the valley is reciting it in their house. Maybe somebody in the valley is reciting it all day long.
[12:50]
children's song. Maybe you know it. It's about a bus. I think it goes something like, the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels of the bus go round and round all day long. So the bus I was thinking of was the great vehicle. And the wheels of that great vehicle go round and round all day long, praising perfect wisdom all day long, all over town, all over the valley, constantly praising perfect wisdom. over and over that means that in retrospect what I just said might seem like a digression because I was talking about a class that I'm offering in Berkeley on the mother of all Buddhas so in that class which is about perfection of wisdom one of the two of the participants sent me a message that they couldn't come to class last Thursday
[14:38]
Because the mother of one of them, whose name was not Prajnaparamita, fell down and broke her hip. And so they were taking care of her and couldn't come to class. So the next day I called them and said, I heard that your mother fell and I'm just... want to know how you're feeling and so on. And he told me how they were taking care of her. And then he said, I love you, Reb, and I just want to tell you I'm so grateful that you come to Berkeley and you say the same thing over and over and over. And you never get bored with it. And you seem to love talking about it so much. It's just so great that you do. I was deeply encouraged to continue to say the same thing over and over until it sinks into everybody's heart and liberates all beings.
[15:55]
It doesn't work to say it just once, I've noticed. And in the stories of all the ancestors, they didn't hear it just once. They heard it a lot they heard it year after year and finally their body and mind matured through this hearing into into a great Bodhisattva all the great Bodhisattvas are those who listen to these teachings over and over and over and listening to them transforms our body transforms our nervous system transforms our tissues to support a mind which continues to listen to the teaching, and again, continuing to listen to the teaching, and study the teaching, and chant the teaching, and write the teaching, and talk about it with others, this transforms our body again.
[16:57]
So it's a constant evolution possible here. So the Bodhisattva way, the Buddha way, which we call Zen practice sometimes. Zen practice is the practice of the Bodhisattva way. And still Zen practice welcomes everybody whether they think they're Bodhisattvas or not. Everybody's welcome to practice the Buddha way. And we also call this practice zazen. So this hall is called a zendo. It's a place for practicing zen.
[17:57]
It's a place for practicing a great vehicle all day long. So this practice of the Buddha way is basically caring for all phenomena. deeply caring for all phenomena. All phenomena includes all living beings. Every living being you meet, when we're aware of each other, when we know each other, we are phenomena to each other. The Buddha way is deeply caring for every living being you meet, but if you meet anything, that doesn't seem to be a living being, like your own feelings. I could call them living beings. I actually do call them living beings.
[18:59]
But a rock, bamboo, pine trees, the land, the sky, the water, everything we meet, this practice is to take care of it, to be generous, ethical, patient, diligent, and calm with everything, with every being, without abiding in anything, to care for everything without abiding in anything. So the bodhisattva way is to be devoted to the wealth, to the welfare of all living beings, to vow to lead them, carry them, ride with them to complete peace and freedom.
[20:04]
And yet, in doing so, not abiding in them, not dwelling in them, not attaching to them. Because if we attach to the things we're caring for, we're not bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas do not fix on the appearance of things as the way things are. They take care of the appearance of things without dwelling in the appearance of things. They take care of the appearance of what they know, of what appears in consciousness, but they don't dwell in it. You could say, well, these are adept bodhisattvas. Maybe some people could be called bodhisattvas who are taking care of things but still dwelling.
[21:06]
So part of the bodhisattva path might involve that you're caring for things, but you still can sense that you're dwelling in what you're taking care of. I took care of that room. Other people took care of that room where I met people for 24 years. I took care of that room. But did I dwell in that room? Was I clinging to that room? So I watched as I moved out. I watched and enjoyed watching to see if I was clinging to my little room. I watched. I looked inward. to see, is there some abiding? Is there some clinging? Because for there to be perfect wisdom, we must find a mind that does not abide in what we're taking care of. And people, actually, these people I told you about whose mother fell and broke her hip, the woman of that couple,
[22:20]
she said to me just a few weeks before, how can you care for something deeply and not abide in it? I think it's maybe easy to understand that if you care for something deeply, you might abide in it. So we're trying, the Bodhisattva way is learning how to care deeply without abiding. Or another way to put it is, Learning to turn it around, how can we be not abiding and still caring? How can we be detached but not dissociated? So it's the path of non-attachment or detachment and non-dissociation. Intimately, actually, when the intimacy is fulfilled, it doesn't allow for any abiding.
[23:30]
Incomplete intimacy is actually caring and abiding. Some people may notice that if they care, for something deeply, they're stressed. And they may or may not know that the reason why they're stressed in their caring is because they have expectations and clings in the caring. They may or may not notice that. So then what they sometimes think is, well, if I would just pull back on the caring, it would probably hurt less. And that sometimes does work. That reduces the pain coming from the clinging if you reduce the depth of the caring.
[24:32]
But actually, that's called dissociation or spiritual bypass. And someone who had a hard time with me for many years who really cared for me, there was no question in my heart or hers, that she really cared for me. She came to tell me after many years, she said, I now see what my problem with you is. I'm trying to get something from you. That was the problem. Her devotion, she was expecting to get something. And fortunately or unfortunately, I was right there to not give it to her. Just by the way I am. And actually, everybody's like that. So we're not recommending caring less as a coping mechanism.
[25:40]
The coping mechanism is care a lot. That's the name of Care bear heaven. Care a lot. Without abiding in the care. That's the coping mechanism. Be devoted wholeheartedly to all beings. That's the first part of the coping mechanism. Without abiding. This copes with being alive in a way that's called perfect wisdom. Here's a two-part teaching. The first part is not necessarily for bodhisattvas. If you come to this room and sit with us, you can sit here and you can also sit in your own home meditation room.
[26:49]
Sit upright and care for... The breathing. Sit upright and care for the body breathing. Wholeheartedly care for the breathing body, for the exhaling body and the inhaling body. This teaching is a teaching which is beneficial and you don't have to be a bodhisattva to do that teaching. first part of the teaching which seems to be almost universally appropriate to humans. Second part of the teaching is while caring wholeheartedly for the breathing in and breathing out, don't abide in the breathing. That's the bodhisattva instruction. That's the way of breathing wholeheartedly which
[27:56]
Opens to perfect wisdom. So again, this is an example of taking care of something. Learning to take care of it. More and more deeply. And coming to the final place where you're taking care of it without abiding in it. taking care of breathing, taking care of all living beings without abiding in them, and taking care of words. Bodhisattvas take care of words also. They take care of all phenomena, breathing, posture, living beings, and they take care of words.
[29:00]
They're devoted to words. They vow to be thorough and careful and generous and ethical and honest with words. And they vow to be honest. If they use words in an uncareful, dishonest way, they vow to confess and repent. That unskillful way of using words. They vow to care for words without abiding in them. And by caring for words in this way, they realize perfect wisdom, which is free of words. Perfect wisdom is free of words, detached from words, without dissociating.
[30:06]
to demonstrate non-dissociation. They show a careful use of something without attaching to it. Just like a great musician demonstrates careful, meticulous, thorough, skillful way of using the violin, for example, without dwelling in the instrument, the body's movements, or the music. In that sense, the musician who is thoroughly caring for the music and the instrument and the body and the audience reaches not dwelling in the process and demonstrates perfect wisdom. You don't have to think or say you're a bodhisattva. practice the Bodhisattva way.
[31:09]
There's many scriptures teaching the Bodhisattva's perfect wisdom. The one we do every day here is the Heart Sutra, which is quite short. It's just 254 Chinese characters in the original text that we use. It's not very long, only one page. But there's also large texts, like there's a text called the... perfection of wisdom in 8,000 lines, and then there's 18,000 lines, and 25,000 lines, and 100,000 lines, and 125,000 lines, etc. There's many texts. In the 8,000 line version, there's a place where the Buddha is talking to her group and says...
[32:35]
It speaks of the merit of caring for breathing. It speaks of the merit of meditation in seclusion. Like in this room here, we kind of meditate in seclusion. We sit together quietly and we let our neighbor sit there without talking to them, except during parties. basically we sit in seclusion here so we don't have to answer the telephone does not usually you know usually there's no telephones in here there may be some here now but usually we do not bring telephones into the meditation hall or or walkie-talkies or iPads or whatever so we don't have to answer the telephone and we don't make calls we're just here basically alone together
[33:36]
so we can take care of our breathing and posture. So the Buddha speaks of the merit of caring for meditative concentration practices, which we do here. And then the Buddha mentions that if while doing these meditation practices, these concentration practices, the bodhisattva then is taken up by, perfect wisdom, then the merit, the worth of the meditation practice becomes immeasurably, incalculably greater. And the Buddha is talking to bodhisattvas at this time when he speaks of how if you practice concentration and you're taken up by perfect wisdom in the process, in other words, you practice concentration without abiding in it, without clinging to it, then you're taken up by perfect wisdom.
[35:15]
Then the worth, the excellence, the goodness of paying attention to your breathing and posture while sitting becomes immeasurably, incalculably greater. He's saying this to bodhisattvas, and one of them says, Oh, excuse me, teacher. You said that a bodhisattva begets immeasurable, incalculable heaps of merit. But how can you say that a bodhisattva begets a greater merit since you have taught us, you have described all accumulations of merit as the results of false discrimination? So the Buddha says, if you practice this way, you're going to create an immeasurable amount, an immeasurable accumulation of merit.
[36:28]
And then your student says to you, but you said that all accumulations are the result of false discrimination. And the Buddha said, good point. And then the Buddha says, In that case, also, this accumulation of merit on the part of the bodhisattva who is practicing meditation without dwelling in it, this merit, which I've described as a result of false discrimination, the bodhisattva, in coursing in perfect wisdom, must be described as All this merit must be described as empty, worthless, insignificant, insubstantial.
[37:29]
If the bodhisattva, the Buddha is saying, if you practice taking care of things wholeheartedly, you will be taken up by the mother of all Buddhas perfect wisdom will arise in you in your wholehearted care for things and you will not dwell on them and then the merit of what you were doing which was pretty good before will now become immeasurable and incalculable but isn't that just isn't that accumulation all that all that merit isn't it just the result of false discrimination Buddha says yeah and the Bodhisattva understands that all the merit that comes from not abiding is immeasurable, worthless, empty, and incalculable, and they remember that as part of their practice of not abiding in all the good merit that comes from not abiding.
[38:39]
So, you don't abide, you get great merit, then you don't abide in the merit, and you get even greater merit. which is the result of false discrimination and you know that there's nothing to get a hold of and this is the best and most wonderful teaching this is the consummate demonstration by the Buddha the Buddha teaches if you do this practice of perfect wisdom the merit of it is incomparably greater than anything. And what do I mean by merit? I mean no merit. And if you understand that, that is the greatest merit. This is a teaching of perfect wisdom. Using words to liberate beings from words like merit and demerit.
[39:44]
Beings are usually suffering because they're dwelling in words. Bodhisattvas still may be dwelling, but they're training in non-dwelling. But the way they train by non-dwelling is by taking care of words. And in order to take care of words, you have to take care of silence. Part of taking good care of words is to practice in silence, which we do here. We sit in silence, taking care of words. and silence. And then we get up from this room and we sometimes start talking and we vow to take care of the talk but also continue to take care of the silence and not dwell in either. I have a kind of a habit of when I'm talking to people, something occurs in my mind which I think is funny, and then I laugh, but you don't know yet what I was just thinking.
[41:09]
And sometimes I just go on without telling you what I was laughing about. But lately I've been thinking, well, I'll just tell people what just went through my mind that was funny, because sometimes it's relevant. Not always. So the example was that what came to my mind was, I just said this to you, which I've said before. And I was thinking of saying something else, which I've said before. And then I thought of the young man at Tassajara who says, he says the same thing over and over. He always says the same thing. And then I thought, one of the nice things is that I have older people in my audience now, and they don't remember that I said this to them before. So they go, oh, wow, that's neat. I never thought of that. And the new people haven't heard it many times yet, most of them, so they think, oh, okay. So that's what I was laughing at. And you did too, see?
[42:10]
So here's another example of something which, you know, and not only that, but I often say, may I tell you, I say repeatedly, may I tell you something that I told you before? May I? Thank you. Once upon a time in this zendo, about 35 years ago, a visiting teacher named Taitzu Konoroshi came and led a sesshin. And he sat like there or here or whatever. I was sitting like over there. And I remember I was sitting over there. I was sitting over there someplace. And it was springtime, like now. And he brought up a story about another once upon a time, back in more than a thousand years ago in China.
[43:12]
And the story was about a teacher named Feng Shui. A monk came to Feng Shui and said, Speech? and silence both have faults. A more elaborate translation was, speech and silence transgress into alienation and vagueness. How can we avoid this transgression? And Feng Shui said, I always think of Hunan in springtime.
[44:14]
The partridges chirping in the fragrant grasses. And listening to that in this room 35 years ago or so, I felt very good. Maybe you do now too. Hunan in springtime. Green gulch in springtime. We have quail chirping in the grasses here. So this is the bodhisattva's teaching of words that he cares for. Just like that. And I heard Taitsu Koneroshi caring for words just like that. And I saw, I think, and felt and heard using words carefully, wholeheartedly, without dwelling in them.
[45:25]
Not transgressing into abiding in words and not transgressing into abiding in silence. Detachment without dissociation and speaking to demonstrate it. if I wonder, which I just did, have I been speaking carefully without abiding in my words? Non-abiding is immeasurable, incalculable, insignificant, empty and worthless. I have no way to get a hold of whether I have not abided in what I've said. I don't also abide into the Discrimination about whether I cared thoroughly for what I said. But I say, I say, I wish to speak carefully and thoroughly and wholeheartedly.
[46:36]
I do. I say that. And I wish to say what I just said without abiding in what I said. I wish that. And I wish it with my whole heart and I wish not to dwell in my whole heart or cling to my whole heart and I also wish not to dissociate from my whole heart or my half-heart I wish to turn the wheel of perfect wisdom all day long wherever I go, and I wish to now dwell in the turning. Which is almost a quote, again, from the perfect wisdom scriptures. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas turn the wheel of Dharma all day long without dwelling in the turning. They give the merit, which is inexhaustible, immeasurable.
[47:44]
They give it away without dwelling in the giving away. And they do it all day long. And I vow to do it all day long. How about you? Well, it's almost time to stop talking. And it's almost time to start talking again. But maybe that's enough. But maybe not. Thursday night, I mentioned to people in Berkeley that the perfect wisdom scriptures say that bodhisattvas, enlightening beings, they, when they're practicing perfect wisdom, they use words without
[49:18]
viewing some reality behind the words they're using. Bodhisattvas who are practicing perfect wisdom, great compassionate beings who practice perfect wisdom, view words, they see words, without seeing any reality behind the word. And in this way, they do not abide in the words. This is another instruction about how to work with words in a way that you won't dwell in them. How? By as you use them, see if you think there's some reality behind them. Bodhisattvas do not, it literally says, do not review words. some reality behind the words. They don't do that.
[50:20]
And in that way, they use the words and don't dwell on them. Now, I mentioned, which it doesn't say in the scripture, but probably someplace else in the scripture it says, if we use words and see a reality behind them, then we dwell in the words. That's the subtle thing, turning point there. If you use words and you think, like for example, if I say you're beautiful, I use those words and I think there's a reality behind you're beautiful, then I'm dwelling. But if I say you're beautiful, but I don't see a reality to what I just said, I just say you're beautiful and there's no reality behind it. It's just talk. I mean it. I mean what I said and I said what I mean, right? I do. But I'm training to not see a reality behind the words I give.
[51:28]
If I can do that, then I don't settle in my words. And by not settling in my words, because I don't see a reality behind them, reality enters and takes me up. and lives me. If I think there's a reality behind the words I use, that view hinders my usefulness to reality. That's what I mentioned the other night in Berkeley. And it's perfectly all right with me that I did not think up this amazingly wonderful teaching. I read it in this perfection of wisdom, 8,000 lines. If you look in the translation, don't look in the pagination pages, look in the text where it has the brackets.
[52:34]
If you check this afterwards to see if I got the right page. Bodhisattvas do not review a reality behind the words which they're wholeheartedly using and thereby do not settle down in the words. And that is how they practice perfect wisdom. Or when they practice perfect wisdom, that's how they do it. Did I tell you that I said that the other night in Berkeley? I did, didn't I? And I think I did. But there's no reality behind those words for me. However, the reason why I told you this story is because an amazing thing happened to me on my way back to Green Gulch, from that class where I said how bodhisattvas work with words. I was driving, and I can't remember what I said, but it was something like, it was inside me, I didn't say it out loud, inside me there was, I'm tired, or I'm hungry.
[53:47]
It was like, you know, about 10 o'clock at night, I hadn't eaten for a long time. I'm blaming anybody for that, including myself. But other possibilities, the words that came up is, I'm thirsty. I think of one of those three. It was a really sincere, I'm tired. And I saw... that it really seemed like there was somebody there behind the I'm of the I'm tired. It seemed like the I'm tired, but it seemed like, yeah, it really seemed like there's somebody here behind it. I thought, yeah, it's very subtle there. But there really isn't somebody behind I'm tired.
[54:51]
The somebody that's there is actually just I'm tired. That's all there is there. That's all that was there. But it seemed like there's something more than just I'm tired. The me that's driving this car is something more than I'm tired. This is hard. This is subtle. The deep perfect wisdom means it's deep. It's subtle. It's hard to settle into. I'm tired. And there's no me in addition to I'm tired. One could argue about this by just saying, take away the I'm tired, and at that moment, there's no me. Say I'm tired, and there really was that I was there. Wholeheartedly, I'm tired. But again, I thought, oh, there's a little bit of somebody there in addition to I'm tired.
[55:54]
Bodhisattva doesn't see a reality behind I'm. Not to mention, I was working on the I'm part. I am part. I am. I think, therefore I am. I am, therefore I think. I think, therefore I am. But Descartes didn't go on to say, and there's nobody in addition to the thinking. There's just the thinking, and then that's the I am. There's not a thinking and an I am. But it seemed like there was a thinking I am, a saying I am, and me. The same could be for tired. There's a tired and there's a reality behind the tired. There's a dependent co-arising of the tired, but there's no reality behind the word tired. There is a reality, and the reality is...
[56:56]
that there's no reality behind the word. Reality is there's no reality behind the word. That's the way reality is. It's not behind things. It's the way things are happening. It's the way words work. That's reality. And the way they work is not behind them. And I was struggling with that and also very happy to be struggling with that. It was such a vivid sense of the dynamic between being fully someplace and having that fully being there was words. I'm hungry was really my life. And there was no, except if I say something else, like I'm driving. But at that moment, all there was, there was nothing in the universe but me. And there was nothing in the universe but I am. There wasn't two things, me and I am. And yet I felt like there was because it was so much me to be I am that I thought there must have been another me.
[58:05]
The teaching says there isn't and there wasn't. So I'll probably tell that story again, but not for a while. I'll probably tell that story again, but not for a while. And Wittgenstein says, when we look inside ourselves, we may see a picture. And that picture is a picture of our grammar. It's a picture. It's a pictorial representation of the way our words work.
[59:11]
So I looked inside myself, and I saw I'm tired. I saw a picture of myself. But the picture I saw was the picture of me which is, I'm tired. That's the me I saw. I didn't see a bald old man. I didn't see a slender young woman. I didn't see a young man with wavy blonde hair. But I saw me. And what was me? Me was, I'm tired. I didn't see Zen priest. I didn't see grandfather. I didn't see friend of those who have no friends. Not at that moment. All I saw in my life of who I was was, quotes, I'm tired, unquote. That's all I was, and I was fully a person. Sincerely, wholeheartedly, that's all I was. It was shocking.
[60:14]
And I could not stand. I didn't completely accept it, so I went. I shrunk back a little bit. to try to be somebody in addition to the full person I was, which was nothing but words. But then I came back in, and I'm still trying to be right there with my story of myself right now. I'm glad I said that. You look like you understood more deeply how to be yourself. Thank you very much. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.
[61:22]
May we fully enjoy the Dharma.
[61:25]
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