I've noticed this morning we have a couple of children with us and the first part of the lecture is devoted to the children. And I'm wondering if you would like to sit a little bit closer because I have something to show you. You can sit right up here. You can sit right up here. What's it say on your card? Reserved. What's your name? What's your name? Keith. Welcome. What I have to show you is a very special leaf. And when you look at this leaf, see there's a

[01:00]

Tell you a story. Okay? Like, where does it come from? Why is it here? If it could speak, what would it say? If it could dance, what kind of dance would it do? You want to hold it? What about you, Annabelle? You want to make something up? Where do you think it came from? It came from where? From where? Have you seen leaves like this in Mill Valley?

[02:05]

Yeah. Let's make something up. Did you see the way it's folded over there? Did you see that part? Did you see the way it's pressed flat? So instead of being green, it's almost black? It's gray. Okay, gray. But almost black, look. Do you think there's little bits of black? Gray. Okay. It's gray. Did you see the veins in it? It's gray. You like that line, don't you? See the lead? It's gray. Okay. It's from Graytown.

[03:12]

It's from Graytown. Where's Graytown? Now, do you want to hear the story I have to say about it? What do you think, Annabelle? Do you want to hear this story? Okay. It's okay. You get to do whatever you want. Okay, here's the story. You ready? You ready for the story? Yeah. This leaf came the whole way from India. And it came from a tree. It came from a tree.

[04:13]

It came from a tree. It came from a tree under which... Under which Buddha sat when he meditated. And that leaf is like the grand, grand, grand sun of the tree that Buddha sat under. And so someone brought that leaf here. What do you think of that story? So the tree was called the Bodhi tree. Bodhi tree? Bodhi. Not bony. Bodhi. Bodhi? Bodhi. Bodhi. Bodhi. Yes. Bodhi.

[05:16]

If you were sitting, why don't you try sitting just like that? See the way that Why don't you try to sit just like that, Annabella. Just like that. You mean criss-cross applesauce? Criss-cross applesauce. Criss-cross applesauce. Yep. Criss-cross applesauce. Applesauce. Okay. And then see for three seconds, can you sit as still as rock. Okay? You close your eyes and I'll come. You have to sit as still as a rock. One. Two. Three. How was it? Good. Good? How was it for you, Annabelle? Good. Annabelle, how was it for you?

[06:16]

Good. Good? Good. Good, good, good. Now, one last question. If this leaf could tug, what would it say? It would say, I'm a pretty leaf. What do you think it would say, Annabelle? Golly, what a day. What's it? Don't say a day. Could you say it again? I think she said, golly, what a day. Golly, what a day? Is that what you said? Golly, what a day. Like, golly, what a beautiful day or a surprising day. I don't. I'm sorry. That's pretty good. So do you realize that everybody in this room has had great, great,

[07:22]

great-grandparents. Everybody in this room came from someone who was alive a long time ago, the same time the Buddha was alive. But I wasn't born when the Buddha was alive. That's right. Neither was I. But somebody was. And every plant, every tree, came from a tree that was alive when the Buddha was alive. Even this net made out of grass comes from grass that was alive when the Buddha was alive. It's grass? That's made out of grass. It's dried out grass. And the clothes you're wearing came from... What is this made out of? I think... I'm not sure.

[08:23]

I can feel it. Come here. Is it made out of? It's made out of suede. What is suede? Suede is a fabric that's made out of something that was alive. When Buddha was alive. It's great-great-great-grandparents was alive when Buddha was alive. So I have a little game for you to play when you go to have some tea. As you walk down the hall... Okay, I'm going shopping right after this. You are. Okay. Yeah, I've heard a lot of birthday stuff. Well, very good. But here's a little game you can play as you go to have some tea right now. As you go down the hall, think, everything in this hall comes from... Something that was alive when the Buddha was alive. Okay?

[09:26]

Bless you. Okay? So thank you for coming. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So you can go now if you want, or you can sit there if you want. So this morning here at City Center, we're having a one-day sitting which also begins the start of a three-week intensive, a three-week of time where a number of us are going to

[10:45]

Follow a schedule similar to our monastic schedule. And the theme of this period of time is realizing the essence and embracing the ten thousand things. Which is a loose translation of the Sandokai. Emerging of difference in unity as we often call it. Or contrasting or examining closely the harmony between getting deeply in touch with what's most fundamental in our life and letting that inform and express itself in all the activities of our life. So that was the teaching I was trying to give the kids.

[11:46]

With a show and tell. I'm a big believer in show and tell with kids. Let their imagination go to work. And to let your imagination go to work, I'd like to start with a poem. A couple of mornings ago, in the mornings often... I do one-on-one interviews, Doka-san, with students. And in good Zen fashion, we were talking about a particular kind of Zen story, about Mu. Mu, which fundamentally means, what is it when you clear away all the projections, all the distractions, all the complications, all the fancy ideas and fears you have about what is? What is it? perspective, this is very close to the heartbeat of our life.

[12:59]

What is fundamentally vibrating in our existence? What is the foundation of what we are? The essence. And... course, since it goes beyond the words and ideas we have about it, the words and ideas we have about it are like metaphors. They're like analogies. They're like a poetic expression pointing at something beyond the words. And what is it to dispose our mind, our sensibilities, our that looser, more open, more appreciative, maybe even less cognitive way of being.

[14:04]

So to my mind, poetry offers us something in that it turns us towards that sensibility. Let us look for the secret things somewhere in the world. On the blue shore of silence, or where the storm has passed, raging like a train, there are the faint signs that are left. Coins of time and water, debris, celestial ash, and the irreplaceable rapture of sharing in the labor of solitude and sand. secret things in the sutra that we're going to study this practice period it starts off by saying you know this esoteric or intimate or secret teaching has come through

[15:31]

all our ancestors to know. The same way that being a leaf has come through all the leaf's ancestors to know. How to be this shape. How to have this kind of texture. This kind of pattern. How to float in space. on this kind of stem. How to shade a Buddha from the strong sunlight. It's like it passes leaf to leaf, tree to tree, in a way, without the tree even knowing what's being passed or how exactly it is a leaf. So something similar in our human existence.

[16:32]

We're always completely who we are. And yet, in some miraculous and amazing way, it's beyond what we say it is, what we think it is. What is it to get in touch with that? And how can that inform and express itself... in all the ways that we live our life. This is the theme we're gonna delve into in this next three weeks. And one of the ways, well, we're gonna look at this Zen teaching. It's not exactly a sutra, it's more of a long poem. that has become revered in the Zen tradition. One of the ways we're going to examine this, realizing the essence and embracing the 10,000 things, is we're gonna invite teachers from different traditions.

[17:41]

We're gonna invite a Jodo Shinshu Bishop, Bishop Ko Shinagui, who by coincidence came to San Francisco not long after the finder of our center, Shunriya Suzuki came, and actually considered Suzuki Roshi one of his teachers. And once I had the good fortune to give him a ride from Palo Alto to San Francisco, and he shared with me several humorous anecdotes about their time together. What I'd like to mention is another teacher who became a Zen teacher, Katagiri Roshi, who came a little bit later, but not much, after Bishop Agui came to San Francisco from LA.

[18:44]

He was Japanese and was struggling to find his way in San Francisco, as was Katagiri Roshi. And they were talking, Kategori Roshi and Bishop Agui were talking about their various travails with each other. And Kategori Roshi was saying, well, it's very hard to be a Zen priest. There really isn't. There's no Zen community to support you. It's hard to know what to do and how to be. and maybe I should be a pure land priest you guys have a whole community and you have it all figured out and worked out and a whole community to support you and Bishop Agui was saying it's very difficult to be a pure land priest you know there seems to be something missing about fundamental structure of practice you know how do we

[19:55]

get in touch with the essence and stay true to it, to have a method of doing that. So they both went to Suzuki Roshi, and they both told him about their conversation. Kadigiri Roshi was thinking, well, maybe I should be a Pure Land priest. And Bishop Agui was thinking, maybe I should be a Zen priest. So Katagiri Roshi said his piece, you know, about maybe he should be a pure land priest. And Suzuki Roshi went, uh-huh, uh-huh, yes. Well, that might be a little bit more difficult than you think. And then Bishop Agui told him his thinking of why he should be a Zen priest. And Suzuki Roshi had the same answer. And then they looked at each other. And then they all started to laugh. You know, they just realized, isn't it amazing what our minds come up with?

[21:04]

Isn't it amazing how we hold our situation and look over our shoulder and think, you know, that looks a whole lot better over there. My troubles would be a whole lot less if I went over there and became that. something very human about looking for a solution to our difficulties outside of the environment of our own life. And then, of course, we can also do the reverse. We hold up the environment of our own life and look at other and think, oh, pity them. Look at us, great Zen students. We've really got it. Look at the great robes we have to wear. It's fancy outfits. And the big bells we have to hit.

[22:06]

And the wonderful ways and instructions we have. So we raise ourselves up and put others done. And I think, you know, earlier in... the passage of time in our own Zen center. I think we had some of that. If you really wanted to practice Buddhism, Zen was the way. And if you really wanted to practice Zen, well, maybe this was the place to do it. And it's marvelous to watch as we just kept practicing. our relationship with other Zen centers is much more collaborative. The notion of comparison and competition doesn't make very much sense to us. And so in thinking up the theme for this intensive, I thought, well, how about we take that one step further?

[23:19]

How about we embrace the 10,000 things of the different flowering of Buddhism in the West. So Bishop Agui is going to come since then in the early 60s when he was a young Pure Land priest trying to figure out why he was in America and what he was going to do here. He is now the head of the Pure Land sect in all of the United States. But despite his busy schedule, he is going to come and do some teaching as part of our intensive. He didn't exactly say it, but I think part of it is honoring Suzuki Roshi. What essence did Suzuki Roshi have that he touched so many lives? And how can each one of us be such a person?

[24:23]

That those who have interacted with us are moved to stay true to the Dharma, to the way of being. That deeply makes sense. And then another teacher is going to come from the Chan tradition. the Buddhist tradition in China that gave birth to the Zen tradition in Japan. Chan is usually considered just to be the Chinese for Zen. Or maybe more exactly, Zen is considered to be the Japanese for Chan. So a teacher will come from their center in Berkeley.

[25:30]

And now as those two plants have grown up in different environments, the Chan of China and the Zen of Japan have distinct differences. And then another teacher is coming from the Thuravadan tradition, the teaching that comes from Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. which still follows a lot of the rules and regulations and formalities that were evolved in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. And a Thai teacher will come. Actually, we'll go to his temple and watch them go through parts of their rituals. The inquiry, the exploration will be for us. What is the common ground of these three distinct kinds of practice?

[26:40]

What do we all share? What do they share with this? Primarily inspired and crafted by Western sensibilities. This center. embracing the ten thousand things. Can we literally embrace each other? Can we be each other's Dharma brothers and sisters? What was most striking to me in listening to Bishop Agui as he talked about Suzuki Roshi was what a good friend Suzuki Roshi was to him. How when he was in a kind of crisis or confusion The person he went to. And then he had great, outrageous stories of the mischievous things they did together.

[27:42]

You know, so that too. That kind of friend too. They hung out and had fun. Another time he asked Suzuki Roshi, should he be a Zen priest too? And Suzuki Roshi responded, what's wrong with being a Pure Land priest? It's just fine. It shares the essence. It comes from the same root. And then as practitioners, how do each of us discover that we share the same root? We share the same essence. And so in this intensive, you know, we will. We will listen to these and learn from these wonderful teachers.

[28:52]

But we will also practice diligently. We will do quite a bit of zazhin. We will take on... the formalities of Zen training and the discipline of it. Because cutting through the obscuration of our distractedness, cutting through the way being lost in our habits puts us to sleep requires a deliberate effort. The proposition of our practice is that we bring an intentionality to the conditioned nature of life to realize something beyond the conditioned nature.

[29:58]

Beyond our conditioned nature, we can say there's nothing to attain and there's no way to attain it. But in the midst of our conditioned nature, we say, oh, look at the obscurations. Look at the way my mind becomes confused. Look at the way I get swirled around by my emotions. Look at the way my life feels cluttered. I feel compressed. by the demands and worries of my daily life. So part of the initiation of practice is to take on something intentional. And how do we do that? We call this an intensive, a combination of intentional and intensity.

[31:10]

There's a wonderful line from Mary Oliver where she says, and what will you do with this one wild and precious life? And so for reasons best known only to themselves, some people have decided to spend it here at the Zen Center. You know, one of the great gifts of being a Zen teacher is that people come and express their intention. And it is truly a gift because you get to discover that everybody has an extraordinary integrity. Everybody has an extraordinary capacity to touch something profound about their own being and all being.

[32:17]

And then how do we live it? And also, how do we make space in the life where I may be living? to get in touch with it. I would say whether you're doing an intensive or just continuing in your daily routine, part of the challenge is to unclutter. I would say in our modern society, with so many opportunities to engage, so many ways to be impacted by media. This is an information rich society to the point where sometimes it's just too much.

[33:29]

How do we unclutter? How do we create a little quieter? Or as one ancient Zen teacher said, how do you carve a cave of silence out of a mountain of sand? So how do you unclutter? How do you find in your day some moments? of quiet, where your body slows down, your breathing slows down, your mind slows down? How do you unclutter your desk, your bedroom, your living room, your underwear drawer, your wallet, the globe compartment of your car? And everywhere we look, there's an opportunity to practice.

[34:43]

We turn to the essence and we turn to the expression in the 10,000 things. It's one thing to have a beautiful idea about what practice is. But until we live it, until we actualize it, something isn't quite engaged. It's just a beautiful abstraction, a beautiful theory. So to carry it out, to unclutter, to become more spacious and quiet, and then let that flow and permeate into the 10,000 things. And as I say, it doesn't mean that you come and live at a Zen center. Believe me, we have to find our own ways to clutter up again.

[35:48]

We need the very same practice. I think maybe we need a little more. Or maybe I'm just talking about myself. How to unclutter. This is our sila. And then how to let the intention to unclutter create the space for something to speak. Something we've always known, whether we realized it or not. just feeling the body feeling our body be a little more at ease our jaw a little softer our breathing a little smoother but it's just some little physical detail like that or noticing that when you take your desk and you arrange all your papers and

[37:05]

and prioritize your tasks, your mind is both quieter, more attentive, and more at ease. To discover right in all the different aspects of our own life, the engagement that expresses this more settled, more open way of being. And not to begin the exploration as a desperate act, but to begin the exploration as a wonderful adventure. Realizing that it's not that you do this, then you're done, and then your life's perfect. It's more that as you sweep the leaves off the path, more leaves fall off the tree.

[38:14]

So you better start, you better learn to enjoy sweeping. Learn something about the poetry of it. To discover that taking care of your body, taking care of the details of your life, have their own pleasure, their own beauty. They're not simply Sisyphus pushing a rock up a hill. From classic point of Buddhist teaching, and particularly early Buddhist teaching, this is to talk about sila. Maybe it's to talk sila, samadhi, panya. Discipline, concentration or mindfulness and insight.

[39:19]

So discipline is to let our intention find its engagement tangibly, directly. very life for living in the very body and breath and mind we're living this this is how the Dharma wheel starts to turn how how to live starts to be explored and discovered exactly in the life for living how the the substance of our life when it's engaged when it's engaged thoughtfully, starts to reveal something more than just living a life of challenges and chores. So let me end with Pablo Neruda's poem again.

[40:27]

Let us look for secret things somewhere in the world. Let us look for secret things somewhere in the world, on the blue shore of silence, or where the storm has passed. Rampaging like a train, there the faint signs are left, coins of time and water, debris, celestial ash, and the irreplaceable rapture of sharing in the labor of solitude and sand. Turning to the essence and picking up the ten thousand things. Both are for us a rapture, a joy. An avenue for our life's energy. A way to express our creativity, our connectedness.

[41:33]

To discover our solitude and to discover our complete interconnection. Everything in this Buddha hall was born of something that was alive at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. And before that, before it was everything. Thank you.

[42:15]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_89.58