Good morning. So I've been thinking of prajna. And now I'm taking this seat. I'm thinking cold foot is prajna. Warm thigh is prajna. Cold foot meeting warm thigh. Prajna. Then over here I'm sitting half lotus.

[01:01]

I have that. one cold foot here and the other cold foot under there. So this is the top of this thigh and the bottom of that thigh. Making friends with each other. So I thought, okay, this is the fourth day of session. Someone told me, this is the hump. can get through today. I remember thinking, I remember thinking, having strategies for getting through sashin. So maybe you have your strategies for getting through sashin. You don't really need them, actually. You don't really need any strategies. Sashin takes care of you. You know.

[02:01]

the buddhas and ancestors of seshin take care of you. You don't really need to plot and scheme about how to get through it. But people do. I don't know, maybe no one in this room is wasting time that way. So we have the In the first line of the Heart Sutra, we have Babala Kitesvara, Bodhisattva, is deeply practicing prajna paramita. So going beyond, cold foot and warm thigh and going beyond the meeting of cold foot and warm thigh have the paramita going beyond prajna.

[03:17]

Prajna going beyond prajna. So we chant this every day and we chant prajna paramita. And I don't know. We've been doing this for quite a while. I don't know if it's become part of the American vernacular yet. If you meet someone in the street and say, say a word about Prajnaparamita, would most people be able to respond? No? Not even? Okay. I thought maybe by now. It's not even at Zen Center. So I brought this big book today. This big book has been kindly gathering dust in the abbot's cabin for maybe for decades.

[04:19]

This is the large sutra on perfect wisdom translated from the Sanskrit by Edward Kahnse. has a picture on the back of Edward Kanze. Can you see it? With your binoculars back there? His glasses are not much different than the Tantos lenses. These were in style in 1970. This book was published in 1975. He did a... Also on the shelf in the Abbot's cabin we have the 8,000 line version.

[05:21]

This is a 25,000 line version of the... Prajnaparamita Sutra. Large Sutra, perfect. So there are, and then the Heart Sutra that we chant is something like 28 lines, is that right? Huh? 25. 25 lines? Okay. The Eno should know. So this is only 1,000 times 25 and 25,000 of it. It's only a thousand times more. So this was a big excitement when this came out in 1975. I only made it, Kanzai for a while was teaching at Cal, Berkeley. I only made it over there one time to hear him expounding on Prajnaparamita.

[06:23]

But it was pretty exciting at the 1975. Must have been 75, 76, somewhere in there. Did you do that, Leslie? Do you remember that? Yeah? I missed him when he was at Zen Center. How about Al? Looking at the old timers here. How about Natalie? No? So this is a very important book. I don't know if it made the publisher's list or whatever. We chant, so let me read a little section, see if this sounds familiar. This is from right, pretty much in the middle of the book. It says, The perfection of wisdom gives light. She is worthy of homage. I pay homage to the perfection of wisdom.

[07:26]

She is unstained. She removes the darkness from everyone in the triple world. She does her utmost to bring about the forsaking of the blinding darkness caused by the defilements and false views. She makes us seek the safety of all dharmas which act as wings to enlightenment. She brings light so that all fear, terror, and distress may be forsaken. she shows the path to beings so that they may acquire the five organs of vision to beings who have strayed on to the wrong road she brings about the knowledge of all modes through the avoidance of the two extremes on account of the forsaking of all the defilements together with their residues The perfection of wisdom is the mother of the bodhisattvas, the great beings, on account of her generation of the Buddha dharmas. She is neither produced nor stopped on account of the emptiness of own marks. She liberates from birth and death because she is not unmoved nor destroyed. She protects the unprotected on account of her being the donor of all dharmas.

[08:30]

She brings about the ten powers of a Buddha because she cannot be crushed. She sets in motion the wheel of dharma with its three responsibilities. and its 12 aspects on account of its being neither turned forward nor backward. The perfection of wisdom shows forth the own being of all dharmas on account of the emptiness of the non-existence of own being. So some... I'm not sure who extracted what we chant. Steve Weintraub did? So we have Steve Weintraub to blame for not chanting this. Oh, yeah? So I've never talked with him about this. But anyway, you can see some of the lines in here are exactly what we chant. And then there's some other.

[09:31]

It could be distilled a little bit more, so we chant something a little... But the last line here, the perfection of wisdom shows forth the own being of all dharmas on account of the emptiness of the non-existence of own being. Even the emptiness of the non-existence of own being. So that helps me appreciate the cold foot on the warm thigh, knowing the emptiness. of the non-being of the cold foot and the warm thigh. Doesn't that help? Maybe I should... I had... Since earlier in the week I talked about factors of enlightenment.

[10:35]

And then I was going to talk about the Mahayana actually more, I'd say, subsumes the factors of enlightenment into the six paramitas. And so there's tremendous amount of, let's say, instruction in here about practicing the paramitas. So let me just read another little bit. What is the great vehicle of the bodhisattva, the great being? How should a bodhisattva be known? Where from will that vehicle go forth? Where will it come to a halt? Where will it go forth by means of that great being? No, who will go forth by means of that great vehicle? And the Buddha responds.

[11:40]

So this is a question from Sabuti saying, and the Buddha responds, with regard to what you say, what is the great vehicle of a bodhisattva? The six perfections are the great vehicle of a bodhisattva. And Sabuti says, what are a bodhisattva's six perfections? And then it goes through, the six perfections, beginning with a bodhisattva's perfection of giving, consists in that with productions of thought associated with the knowledge of all modes, one gives gifts, inward and outward things, makes these common to all beings and dedicates them to full enlightenment and instigates others also to do likewise, but always without basing oneself on anything. So this is the characteristic line here that's repeated for basically every teaching.

[12:40]

This is always done without basing oneself on anything. So it goes through all, including, finally, so the perfections, perfection of giving, of morality, of patience, of energy, of zazen. and of wisdom, of prajna, finally says, perfection of wisdom, this perfection of wisdom consists in one does not settle down in any dharma, contemplate the essential or original nature of all dharmas, also instigates other beings to the contemplation of all dharmas, but never bases oneself on anything. Never bases oneself on anything. This is the great vehicle of a bodhisattva. So this is our ongoing practice, and this is the practice Dogen's talking about in going beyond Buddha, going beyond awakening, going beyond realization.

[14:00]

and it's the most difficult thing most difficult the tendency to want to have something is so so strong so powerful that Even subtle forms kind of have some residue of seem to adhere, seem to adhere in the consciousness. So it's hard to see, hear, taste, touch anything without having some little some residue that wants to last for more than a moment.

[15:07]

So right there is some kind of maybe very subtle desire, wanting something to last for more than a moment. Knowing this may be liberating, it may be more confusing. It may be... the confusion of how do you how do we act how do we make decisions how do we do things knowing that okay there's some there's some residue in my even how i am conceiving of things so this morning breakfast shows up wonderful thing. Sashin, for most of us, breakfast just shows up. But then there's always a lot of decisions to make.

[16:11]

The server's here. You put the bowl, and then they start something coming in, and so what do you do? Do you decide how much? Do they decide how much? It's a interplay. How much is in the ladle? Do you accept one ladle? Is it a full ladle or is it not quite full? Does it all come out or does some of it stay in the ladle? There's a lot going on right there. And so this morning with the second bowl, I'd actually read the menu but I forgot what it was and I saw, what is that stuff? It's kind of dark. I couldn't... It's kind of dark stuff. Well, okay, we'll see what it is. So I had one spoonful, and then later it came time to taste it. So I tasted it, and then I began to get these adherences.

[17:17]

I thought, that really tastes pretty good. I wonder what it is. Some kind of fruit. Then there are little nuts in there. Then there's this dynamic interplay between tasting now and thinking about it. And then thinking about, should I get more? Should I ask for seconds? start strategizing about seconds when I've only had the second bite. Amazing how the mind does that. So then I thought, should I decide about seconds? Should I make a decision now about seconds? Take another bite.

[18:21]

And I thought, I actually want to enjoy it and not decide about seconds. So I decided to not decide about seconds. But then I wondered, I wonder if I will have seconds. So I thought, well, wait and see, right? Wait and see. So after a while, I thought it really, really would be great to have seconds. But I'm not sure that this is the time to decide. So this all happens in a few moments, right? But still, it's kind of interesting. So I was happy with my decision not to decide. I thought, a lot of things work out that way, actually.

[19:25]

To not decide in advance and say, oh, when it comes time to, you know, after the soku comes and takes the Buddha tray away, I'll see where I'm at, you know. And as it happened, by the time the seconds came, I was still happily not ready for seconds anyway. And so I didn't need seconds. And so now I have to live with that decision. For the rest of my life, I have to live with that decision. So this is how profound it is that we actually, moment by moment, are deciding, creating karma in our thoughts and our actions. And then whatever it is, we have to live with that for the rest of our lives.

[20:33]

And not only that, everyone else has to, too. Are you okay with that? Uh-oh, uh-oh, everyone has to, oh my, yeah, yeah. So that's why sometimes Zen students tend to make things complicated, knowing the import, you know. of deciding whether to stay with this thought stream or drop it. To stay with this or to clearly see that there's no, say, beneficial dharma.

[21:41]

No wholesome Dharma created by staying with this thought stream. So to be aware of what the thought stream is, is first step. To even be aware, okay, what is this thought stream? Where is it coming from? Whose is it? Is it something that is actually coming from the true intention of this being, or is it coming from some karmic habit, or is it coming from some, say, social convention that I've kind of glommed onto, or has been laid onto me, or is it coming from something that... you know, my mother said, or my father, or some teacher, or somebody said something there, and so is that where this is coming from?

[22:48]

There's all kinds of possibilities. So how can one clearly see that this is something to set aside, or something to investigate further? And when one is faced with this, that's a time to. sit down time to sit down and say what what is this and we can't always sit down in zazen so sometimes we have to sit down while we're already in motion you know sometimes we have to sit down while we're walking sometimes we have to sit down while we're talking sometimes we have to sit down while we're hearing someone else um Often there's a belief that there isn't time or space to sit down in the middle of someone else talking.

[23:50]

I used to come to, when I was sitting sashin, I used to come to the Dharma talk and sometimes I would resent having to listen to someone else It wasn't optional. It's not optional. You're sitting here and then there's a Dharma talk. Oh, God. I've got to listen to somebody and actually I can't even hear what's going on in my own mind. Not to mention what's going on in someone else's mind. I had the belief that there wasn't space. There wasn't space and time at that But actually there is. It's amazing how much space there is. But having a belief crowds it out. Having some belief crowds out space. So that's pretty much true.

[24:58]

Even to have the belief that there's space would crowd out space. So Dogen's coming back to his essay on the Heart Sutra. I think I mentioned that. I think I mentioned that a couple days ago. We had a silent day. That's what happened. We had a silent day. And tomorrow we have another one. Do people appreciate silent day? Does it look good? Yeah. Yeah. It actually is helpful, I think, to not have... to listen to a Dharma talk. Not chant so much.

[26:04]

And even to have the word silent day in the middle of sesheen, it's like, okay, isn't sesheen already silent? But then to have silent day in sesheen... It seems to influence those tendencies to start chattering, even to start chattering within oneself. So tomorrow's silent day, sometime during that day, Sojin should appear. And I think he's going to give the last two Dharma talks. We talked about it on the phone and he said, okay. We'll see. Anyway, I think so. So Dogen writes about the Heart Sutra and talks about prajna.

[27:06]

And he says that everything is prajna. Let me just see here if I have... I copied out something. Yeah. He says, taking refuge in all things... He's referring to precepts, samadhi, liberation from views, the Four Noble Truths. He says, taking refuge in all this, in all those things, is taking refuge in prajna that does not arise or perish. At the very moment of taking refuge, the prajna that establishes precepts, samadhi, wisdom, and awakening sentient beings is actualized. So this is prajna doing this. Prajna is establishing precepts, samadhi, wisdom, and awakening. This prajna is called emptiness. So the actualization of emptiness is established.

[28:10]

That's pretty funny, isn't it? What a strange thing to say. The actualization of emptiness is established. How could emptiness be established? Anyway, then he says, this is the manifestation of prajna that is extremely subtle. and fathomless. So, so I'm chuckling there. So, you know, Hakuin, commenting on the Heart Sutra, makes a lot of fun about saying deep, that Avalokiteshvara is deeply practicing prajnaparamita. He says, what's this business about deeply? How can you say deep? There's no There's no depth to prajna paramita.

[29:16]

There's no shallowness. There's no dimensions at all. So what is this? And so still Dogen comes back and says this, actually taking refuge in anything, later someplace I think he says in all phenomena, taking refuge in any phenomena is taking refuge in prajna. And then he quotes the poem from his teacher, Ru Jing, the poem Wind Bell. It says, the wind bell, the entire body is a mouth hanging in empty space, regardless of the wind from east, west, south, or north, joining the whole universe and chiming out prajna. Ting, ting, ting, ting. Ding, ding. And then Dogen adds, this is an authentic air of Buddha ancestors speaking prajna.

[30:24]

The entire body is prajna. The entire other is prajna. The entire self is prajna. The entire east, west, south, and north is prajna. So this is a way of seeing the depth of anything. The depth of anything is to also see its essential no-thing-ness. No-thing-thing. So we care for each thing seeing its no-thingness. Seeing that it's not a thing then we see it as something that's very tentative and yet precise and inescapable

[31:42]

and potent. So it can't be denied and it also can't be worked with just as a thing. If we work with it just as a thing, then we sell it short. So that goes with everything that arises. every part of our own body, every thought that arises, any being that we meet. So unless one has some, say, quietness, receptivity, then the thing is missed, or the depth of the thing is missed. the actual experience is missed because of one's preconceptions, one's bias, one's selfishness, being involved with just oneself.

[32:58]

But then, you know, how does something become important enough to take action? Clearly the decision about what was in the second bowl for me this morning wasn't important enough for me to actually say, okay, I have to do something about getting seconds. The wind bell is simply responding to the east wind, the west wind, the north wind, the south wind. So when the north wind blows, it's important enough to respond to the north wind. When the east wind blows, it's important enough to respond to the east wind. So it's up to each of us to tune in to, okay, what is the nature of this wind, the wind of this experience right now?

[34:11]

fully receiving it, I'm moved by it. And the bell goes, moves, but then also swings back. So it's moved and responds. And if it's moving, then it also vibrates and sends out sounds. So I was thinking of bell because I've got a I checked my phone messages last night, and I had a voicemail alerting me to an e-mail that I haven't seen, but an e-mail that comes from Ajahn Abbas. Abbas Ajahn cuts at Green Dragon Temple. And Ajahn, Abbas Ajahn, is responding to a question that came from senior Dharma teacher Tenshin, who in turn is responding to a question that came from Suzuki Roshi Hiwitsu about the big bell hanging at Green Gulch, the Oboncho.

[35:36]

So I thought, it's very interesting. This wind is blowing from Japan. And it comes to me, and the question is, is that Oboncho still hanging in the tree at Green Gulch? So, is that disrespectful of the tree? Is it harming the tree? Is it disrespectful of the bell? Is it harming the bell? Disrespect and harm may be a little different. So then the question is, should we do a temporary structure for the bell?

[36:46]

So this is my fifth year of being in Abbott, one of the Abbott's. And one of the first things I asked the director at Green Galt when I came in, one of the first things I said, let's do the bell tower. What does it take to do a bell tower? And the director said, I think there's some plan someplace that somebody drew, right? So we actually went as far as digging out the plan and getting an estimate and having someone work on it. And then it got complicated. Then there was somebody else. Maybe we should get someone else's input. And then we still don't know quite where to put it, where to put the bill. Then we had a whole master planning process for green culture.

[37:51]

A whole planning process. That took a couple of years. So in the process, I kept saying, don't forget. Let's put on the plan to have this bell tower someplace. So it would kind of get forgotten. Oh, yeah, OK, we're going to get it. It's on the list of things to locate somewhere in the long-range plan. We actually, we don't call it a master plan because that's kind of dangerous terminology. But it is a long range, it was a long range plan. We wanted to kind of locate everything that we thought. So we have even a little shrine for Jizo Bodhisattva floating around somewhere on the planet. long-range plans. So we have an idea approximately where this could go. So the question comes up now, should we do something temporary?

[39:05]

Because we still don't know exactly and do we have the funds to do something temporary? So I think we should regard whatever we do as temporary. But temporary for 20 years? Like this Zendo. This temporary Zendo. This temporary Zendo. In this case, it was pretty clear since this is a Zen monastery, it should have a Zendo. Two most essential things are Zendo in a kitchen. Zendo in a kitchen, those two most important things. So when the zendo burned over there, we thought, okay, that was 1978. The zendo burned. And we thought, well, quick, we need to whip out a zendo. There was no question about it.

[40:09]

immediately came to the top of the list of things to do, drop everything, put everything else aside, get all hands on deck to build a zendo, or at least the hands that had the skills. How long did it take? Do you remember, Leslie? which was about one month. Less than a month. Three weeks, two weeks, 20 days. Fortunately, this had already been a site for the hotel that had burned down years before. So there was some level ground, pretty much level ground. What? Garden beds. Garden beds, right. Thank you. garden advocate garden had to be sacrificed for Zendo in this case so anyway we have these you know if we're all like the wind bell we're all the wind bells hanging here in space being affected by so many things you know the winds um

[41:39]

question comes up you know well okay is this does this require a big movement or just a little vibration you know so sometimes the wind blows through each other you know so for for bodhisattvas very important to be listening and responding to requests But responding to requests doesn't mean that you necessarily do what's asked. Because the bodhisattva is still in charge. Each bodhisattva being is in charge of this field of awareness. It may not feel like it. It may not feel like it. It may feel like, oh. I have no power I don't even know I don't even think of myself as a bodhisattva maybe and I don't have any power and I don't know what to do anyway even if I did have power well maybe if I had power I'd have some ideas but would that come from desire or would that come from bodhisattva vow so

[43:09]

To take up the vow of bodhisattva is to take up this position of being in charge, but in charge of the awakening of all beings. So it's not being in charge of this field from the point of view of this one here. It's being in charge of the whole field of awareness from the point of view of the whole field of awareness. And the whole field of awareness can have no point of view. So when something comes, some request comes from this whole field of awareness, the response also has to come, has to meet it, from the whole field of awareness, from the whole body. So the whole body meets the whole body.

[44:10]

request comes to prepare lunch. The request comes from the whole body and the whole body is now responding. The whole body responding doesn't mean that everyone in the room has to get up. So this is a marvelous activity that each Each field of awareness, each body, each Buddha body, each awakening being, is the whole body responding to the whole body. And the whole body is responding to the whole body as a particular body. So this ongoing practice of awakening is this being willing, I'd say.

[45:30]

Sometimes I think it comes down to willingness. Willingness to be exactly what this is. The willingness to be what this is, is to be the whole body. this is the great vow this is why it's such a great vow for Bodhisattva to be willing to be the whole body there's no way to conceptualize the whole body we can say whole body but that's just then we begin thinking about that maybe have some image of it or what could that mean the whole body is known in not knowing the whole body is known in being fully present in not knowing in always going beyond knowing going prajna paramita always going beyond prajna always going beyond all of the paramitas

[46:51]

Going beyond doesn't mean going anywhere. It means being right here. So this is being willing to be right here and also being willing to go forward. So this is being willing to be right here. is the space to see what is and being willing to go forward is to take a particular path take a particular response and to fully accept the karma that comes with that knowing that any response is consequential so with all of the clarity of mind that one brings to one moment this includes acknowledging all of the tendencies the limits my own selfishness

[48:23]

Acknowledging any desire I might have and including that in the requests. But not prioritizing it. Again and again to make the big, the great vow that comes from the whole body to make that priority. So even though it may look like I'm doing something very particular, you know. I'm asking for seconds or not. I'm hearing a phone message and I'm remembering the message or I'm forgetting the message. Or I'm saying I need to respond to this right away or I'm deciding this can wait until after session.

[49:29]

Or this can wait until after practice period. That decision is in the service of the whole body. And then listen carefully to, okay, is the whole body okay with that? Is the whole body okay with that decision? Or do I get some more? intensified request. No, this can't wait. This can't wait till after sashim. This can't wait till after lunch. This can't wait till after hongo. And is that true? Or is that just somebody getting overexcited? Is that just a worried mind? Or is it true?

[50:32]

Is it true that it can't wait? So this is listening more deeply and knowing the tendency, oh, well, maybe if I have a tendency to get anxious and worried, then maybe I say, oh, that's just my tendency to get worried. Or is it, does huitsu have a tendency to get worried? Is he worried about the big bell or is he worried about the tree? Is that based on him having a tendency to worry? Or is it about, does he know something? Or does he not know the true condition of the tree? That the tree is actually okay? I've checked myself, I've climbed up and looked at it and I, well the tree is okay. The tree is... But actually, the bell is not... The bell is actually getting some corrosion from being out in the weather.

[51:37]

It's not so good. But it's really more a matter of how do we want to... How do we want to honor the tree? How do we want to honor the bell? So each of us now, this is toward the end of Ango. So there's a tendency to think, oh, okay... I have ideas, okay, what to do, what am I going to do next week? Have I planned enough? Do I need to plan some more? Can I hold the plan lightly in case something else happens? So all this is appreciating this situation of wanting to serve the whole body.

[52:39]

So I think everyone on the street, everyone and all in the whole planet, which now we can see, we can see a picture of the whole globe from outer space. We can see how we have, we actually are all living in this one orb. everyone because we're all a part of it everyone wants to serve the whole body but so much of the time that wish to serve the whole body and of course the whole body is not just planet earth but to take that as an environmental example to serve the whole body, everyone wants to serve the whole body, and is in a kind of a dynamic conflict about one's selfishness.

[53:45]

Actually, I'm mostly concerned about taking care of my lunch, getting enough to eat, my own survival. And so serving the whole body gets often gets pretty much lost. So it's part of our responsibility, I think, as people who have maybe awakened just enough to know there's a question here. Have awakened just enough to know that there is something called prajnaparamita. Have awakened just enough to know there is something called bodhisattva vow, to be willing to put ourselves right in this intensely challenging spot, you know, intensely challenging spot, to be really serious about being right here in this intensely challenging spot.

[54:59]

receiving everything, responding to everything, serving everything, not neglecting oneself in the process. So, I thought I would leave a lot of time for questions after this introduction. Well, maybe I should stop and say it's already 10.30. And I think, you get the idea, right? Gratitude to Edward Kahnse. We don't know who put together the large sutra perfect wisdom in the first place nobody put their signature on it maybe they did it maybe they didn't maybe they didn't possess it

[56:28]

Thank you for listening. Giving.

[57:02]

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