Good morning, everybody. Last night I was looking at the ceiling in the zendo here. And I was remembering that when I first sat in this zendo, it didn't have a ceiling. Not a roof, but no ceiling. No, it did have a ceiling? No. I remember that it didn't have a ceiling. Maybe for a week it didn't have a ceiling or something. Kathy was...

[01:02]

saying the other day that when the old zendo burned down, we were all in it at the time. And it was a shosan ceremony. And the abbot was sitting up in the front on the big stage. There was a big stage up in the front where the altar was because the building in the hotel days had been some kind of social hall, so they had a stage in the front. So he was sitting up on the stage facing all of us, and we were all facing him. He was facing the door, and our back was to the door. And he was answering questions, and all of a sudden his eyes went big. And he said, fire, everybody get out. And he leaped off the stage and ran out, and we all ran out too. And when we turned around, The entire building was engulfed in flames.

[02:06]

It was that dramatic. It seems unbelievable, especially when you try to get a fire started in your wood stove and you can't do it. How could a building suddenly rage into flames, really in the space of a minute or two, it seemed like. And the funny thing is that it was very dramatic, of course, but it wasn't scary, at least it didn't seem scary to me. And we had a great fire crew, Kathy also mentioned. And somehow they managed to jump onto the roof of the kitchen and hose the kitchen down while the zendo right next door was in flames. And so they saved the kitchen. And that was a miracle because the fire was so big. How did they do that? Believe it or not, that night, which happened to be, it was the last day of the practice period, we always closed with the Shosan Sari.

[03:06]

Believe it or not, that night we sat down to a beautiful festive dinner, perfectly cooked in the kitchen while the firemen were wetting the roof of the kitchen. The crew was still cooking dinner. And we had a beautiful dinner with... in those days the day off dinner had red tablecloths with napkins and kerosene lamps and we all sat down and we had a wonderful dinner and the zendo was still smoldering but of course the fire was out but it was still smoldering for quite a while but now summer was coming and there was no zendo so we were sitting in the lower barn which was very funky And we needed a zendo like immediately. So all of our carpenter friends from far and wide were summoned and they all converged on Tassajara and they worked really hard and they worked beautifully together or so it seemed.

[04:18]

And in six weeks they built this zendo, temporary zendo. Anyway, when I was looking at the ceiling, I thought to myself, I am so grateful to construction workers. I, myself, could not figure out how to build this Zendo, let alone all the skyscrapers of San Francisco. And I am really glad that we have buildings. We can go inside and be comfortable inside of buildings and we can get in out of the rain and the cold. I was reading the memoirs of U.S. Grant and he was writing about one of the battles of the Civil War, maybe the Battle of Shiloh that went on for days and days and days and it rained, torrents of rain.

[05:29]

And for some reason, they did not bivouac. They had no tents. So for days, they were in the pouring rain without any shelter at all. That sounds so tough. And I'm so glad that when it rains, I can go inside a nice building, which I didn't make. Somebody else made it. So thank you, all construction workers. May you all flourish and live long lives with decent pensions and medical coverage. And while I'm at it, thanks to the farmers who grow the food we eat. I am really happy to eat. every day why should I be able to eat every day I don't necessarily deserve it as we say every day you know let's see now do we deserve this breakfast this lunch maybe maybe not certainly my meal is not guaranteed nobody owes me this meal and

[07:01]

Farming is such hard work. To farm, you have to be very smart. Very smart. Because you've got to do a lot of improvising. You have to be smart. You have to be sturdy. You have to have strong qualities of loyalty and endurance. You have to love the land you farm. And you will not get rich being a farmer. So thanks to all farmers who we take for granted and we don't respect. We respect people with fancy degrees from big universities. We respect people who go on TV. We do not respect farmers or construction workers. So thank you, farmers.

[08:02]

Thank you, construction workers. Anyway, these are the kinds of thoughts you have in between periods of Zazen. Okay, so back to the subtle Dharma gates of the sublime. So now we're up to... The fifth and sixth gates, turning and purification. So we talked already about the first four, counting, you remember, counting, following, stabilization, contemplation. We said, at least we said a little something. We could have said a lot more, but we said something. And last time we were talking about contemplation.

[09:03]

which we begin after we're pretty connected to the breath, pretty still. As I said, it's a subtle thing. Sometimes you could be pretty still, and you think your mind is wandering, and it sort of is, but actually the wandering mind that's sort of still is different from the wandering mind in the beginning, when the mind is still pretty coarse. Now it's sort of subtle. Now, even though there might seem like there's some wandering, actually the stability is really there. So maybe you're floating or traveling around a little bit. But if you really could look and see your own zazen, you'd see that there's a degree of stability there nevertheless. Because sometimes when the mind is stable and you've brought to bear a degree of concentration, it's as if the practice becomes kind of automatic.

[10:10]

The coarse mind thinks, I'm doing this. But when you get past, I'm doing this, the mind is doing itself. That's why you think, oh, my mind is wandering, because you're not doing it anymore. It's just doing you. And then you can feel that. If you look, you sit down and kaboom, all of a sudden... without doing anything, the breath is so vividly there. And sometimes when that is the case, you might experience all kinds of visions, images, maybe super vivid memories, almost as if this moment was like wiped away and you were in some other moment that happened. Long ago, more real now than it was at the time. Sometimes you have weird visions. Sometimes it takes the form of bodily sensations, all kinds of weird.

[11:14]

You might think, it feels like you're a 100-foot stone Buddha statue. It's a weird feeling. Not necessarily comfortable. All kinds of things could happen. It's very entertaining. And sometimes instructive. Sometimes you can see why this happens in this moment. And it helps you to understand a little bit about your own particular craziness that you didn't understand before. And all of this is so interesting that you might even think this is the point. to sit so that you could produce these amazing moments. But it's not really the point. It's a side road. The main road is to see your life completely for the purpose of transforming it.

[12:17]

So, after you have enjoyed a few of these interruptions which come and go, you know it's time to just come back to the breath. Just the breath, just this immense stillness. So then you, there you are. And then you might notice your mind is like slowly sinking. Slowly you're losing energy. And that's when you rouse yourself and you know it's time to practice, as I was saying the other day, careful discrimination of the breath in its detail. The beginnings, the endings, the middle, the pre-middle and post-middle of the inhale, the exhale, and so on. And this wakes you up and it stirs your sense of purpose.

[13:22]

The breath itself is so fascinating. Once you can stay with it and see it, you realize how alive it is in its many forms and sensations. It's all over your body, influencing everything. And when you really see the breath in that full way, now you're ready to practice turning, the fifth Dharma gate. How do you practice turning? Turning is really hard to get hold of. Maybe you feel, when we're chanting, and you hear Dogen say, take the backward step to turn the light inward to illuminate the self. Maybe you think, what is he talking about? How could you do that? How could you turn the mind around to illuminate the self?

[14:28]

Well, actually you can't. It is impossible. You can't do it. The practice of turning is impossible. It's impossible because it's a practice that is asking you to go beyond objects. And when you try to go beyond object, you realize... that every single thing you ever experience is an object. That's why we call it an experience. I experienced that. It's an object. When the mind meets an object, you say, oh, that happened. I experienced that. And as soon as you say that, it's past. It's already a memory. So it's funny, all our experience is actually a recent memory of an experience that we may or may not have had.

[15:35]

And we aren't there for those experiences. You don't even know what actually happened. I personally think that experience is highly overrated. I would rather not have any experiences. I would rather just be alive. We think of experiences as things that happen, things that we see, things that we do. We take a selfie. I was really there. But our thoughts are also objects of our experience. And this itself is a huge realization when you see this. You thought that these thoughts were you, but no. They're objects. They're not you. If you see a cloud, you don't think it's you.

[16:44]

You think it's a cloud far away in the sky. Kathy was saying more or less this the other day when she was talking about the way she put it, the story. of white. But why is that like that? The cloud in the sky is actually in your mind, because your eye somehow registers something, but it's your mind that makes the cloud. Just like it's your mind, as she said, that makes the color white. There is no color white. There is no cloud either until your mind makes it. So the cloud is you. just as much as your thought is you, and just as little as your thought is you. Both the cloud and your thought are objects of your own mind. Both are things in the world. But also, you yourself are a thing in the world.

[17:53]

You yourself are an object of your own mind. You don't even know who you are. If you think of yourself, that thought isn't you. It's another object, another cloud. Even the subjective experience of you-ness is an object of consciousness. Otherwise, you wouldn't have the experience. Of course, a thought or a feeling isn't you. How could it be you? Your ideas and feelings about yourself are not yourself. They are ideas and feelings, objects of the sense organ called mind or manas. And all experience is of objects.

[18:59]

And in that sense, all experience is limited, false, and binding, because all objects are limited, false, and binding. There's a wonderful sort of Dharma maxim The eye can't see itself. The fingertip can't touch itself. A knife can't cut itself, which is true, right? The eye is a marvelous camera, even better than the iPhone camera, the eye. And the eye... can see amazingly well. And with eyeglasses, a microscope or a telescope, it can see even better.

[20:03]

But with all the things that the eye can see, the eye cannot ever see itself. Yes, you can pull an eye out of a dead being and you can dissect it and you can see all the different parts of it. But no eye can see itself. A fingertip can touch many things, can appreciate various textures and temperatures, but a fingertip can't ever touch itself. A sharp knife can cut lots of things, but never itself. That's why it's impossible to practice turning. How could the mind turn around and see itself? It would be like trying to trick yourself into seeing yourself by walking down the path and suddenly, without any warning, turn around.

[21:11]

See yourself. But you wouldn't see yourself. There wouldn't be anybody there, right? It's like that. So, I have my own version of the six subtle Dharma gates. I read it like this text so long ago, I can't even, I think I read it before this translation existed in some way. like manuscript translation decades ago, and been practicing it ever since. And I simplify it into a different, my own version, which is five practices, counting, following, which is the same, discriminating, questioning, and leaping off.

[22:17]

So I turn the turning into questioning. And I call the practice of contemplation discriminating instead of contemplation, because I like to practice it, as I've been saying, by discriminating the breath. To me, that's the most immediate way of practicing it. And so, to do this impossible practice of turning, I call it questioning, because I think that's the way to look at it. That's the way to practice it. You question the breath. So, practicing all the other practices, now you're really in union with the breath. Your breath is just something very dear to you, close to you, and very alive in you. Very stable.

[23:20]

Very still. And now you start to wonder, what is this breath exactly? What is it? What is it, really? Which is a kind of meaningless question. You could explain the physiology of the breath, this, that, and the other thing, but that doesn't explain, doesn't answer your question. The question is an impossible question because it's a question meant to take you beyond objects. And this is... the unique, I think, contribution of our Zen ancestors, this method of questioning. It's really the method used for koan investigation, right? You ask a question that cannot be answered in ordinary ways. You ask the question with your whole body. And in the case of questioning the breath,

[24:25]

You don't need to get tangled up in Zen ideas or characters and stories. It's just the immediacy of the breath, so there's no distractions. So you're asking, what is this moment of breathing? And to ask that question is the practice of turning. And you're not grabbing for an answer. It's only frustrating, you're waiting for an answer to find you, sitting literally on the edge of your seat with a questioning, searching, feeling, looking, looking, looking, and at the same time, absolutely content to go on looking forever. because you know you are not looking for something.

[25:30]

You are not looking for an object. You are not looking for an answer. You are not looking for an experience. You are just looking. Some place, Dogen says, it's like going fishing with a straight hook instead of a curved hook. If you go fishing with a curved hook, you might be thinking you could fool the fish and catch one. Probably you'll catch one. But if you go fishing with a straight hook, maybe you don't catch any fish. Maybe you just wait until a giant whale leaps onto your straight hook. So you're sitting there questioning the breath. What is it? You might actually say that. What is it? What is it? Or maybe you don't say that.

[26:32]

Maybe just in your belly, you're just feeling that searching, that looking, that questioning feeling. And the tremendous immediacy of every single breath. And pretty soon, the question is going to change. Pretty soon, it becomes, who's looking? Who's looking? Or what is this moment? What is knowing? What is the mind? Because it's clear, asking what the breath is, you realize there's no breath unless there's a mind that sees the breath. There's no thing until the mind knows a thing. So to ask what is something is to ask, what is the mind? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is this life about? And when you're able to sit calmly with a pretty good focus on your breathing and on the surroundings, so you feel the space around you, you feel the sky, the earth, you feel the presence of the myriad others, the stars arranged overhead in the vastness of cosmic dispersion, Venus over there, Jupiter over there,

[28:04]

Here is a piece of moon over there. When you can sit in the middle of all of that, holding the question tenderly in your heart, then you're practicing turning. So that's my version of how to practice turning. Master Jury's description is quite different, and I'm going to now Read it for you. Remember, there's two aspects to each of these practices, the cultivation stage and the realization stage. So here's what he says. As for the cultivation of turning, once one has realized that contemplation itself arises from the mind, and once one has understood that that if one continues to follow along with analysis of the objective sphere, this does not by itself directly bring about convergence with the original source.

[29:15]

One should turn then back the direction of one's contemplation so that now one contemplates that very mind that is engaged in contemplation. Contemplation being the fourth practice, which now we're going to the fifth. So you turn around and engage the very mind that is contemplating. As for this mind which engages in contemplation, from what does it arise? Where does it come from? Is it generated by contemplative thought? Or is it generated by something other than contemplative thought? If it is the case that it is generated by contemplative thought, then it should also be the case that there was a pre-existing contemplation process already underway. But in the present circumstances, this is certainly not the case. Why not? Because there was not yet anything in the midst of the three immediately preceding dharmas of counting, following, stabilization, and so forth, that was identifiable with this process of contemplation.

[30:26]

It just came. It wasn't there before. So what produced it? If it is the case that the contemplative thought arose from a mind not involved in contemplation, is it the case that the mind not involved in contemplation generated it when that non-contemplating thought had already ceased or instead produced it when that non-contemplating thought had not yet ceased? If it is the case that it produced it when that non-contemplating thought had not ceased, then this would be a case of two thoughts existing simultaneously. and absurdity. If... He's just getting started here. If one were to posit that it was generated by a dharma which had already ceased to exist, so in other words, it was either generated by contemplative thought, in which case there's two thoughts, or it was generated by something that's not there,

[31:31]

But once an extinct Dharma has already disappeared, it's no longer able to generate any contemplative thought process. It's like I was saying at the very beginning, when you're dead, you can't do anything. A thought that's gone can't do anything. So where did it come from? It didn't come from a thought that was already there, and it didn't come from a thought that was gone. Where did it come from? if one were to claim that it was generated from that which had ceased and yet not ceased, okay, ceased and yet not ceased at the same time, if one were to go so far as to claim that it was generated from that which had neither ceased nor not ceased, in all such cases, those antecedent causes cannot ultimately be apprehended. One should therefore realize, this is the payoff, One should therefore realize that the contemplative mind itself was originally unproduced.

[32:43]

Because it was unproduced, it doesn't exist. Because it doesn't exist, it's empty. Because it's empty, there is no mind engaged in the process of contemplation. And if there is no contemplative mind, how could there be an objective sphere which serves as the object of contemplation? This perishing of both the sphere and the faculty of knowing is the essential factor in turning back to the source. This is the characteristic feature of the cultivation of turning. So that's how Master Zhe Yi explains it. You can see why I explain it differently. One more thing. That was the cultivation part, now the realization part. As for the characteristic feature of the realization of turning, the wisdom of the mind opens forth and develops in a way no longer requiring one to bring to bear additional skillful effort.

[33:55]

It carries on in a way allowing one naturally effortlessly, to be able to invoke analyses, turn back toward the origin, and return to the source. This is what is meant by the realization of turning. So, I'm guessing that if you're still awake, you probably were not that impressed with Mishriyi's rather tortured Buddhist logic. but I wanted you to suffer through. The whole text is like this. That's why don't bother reading it, probably. But more or less, what he's saying here is what I was saying. More or less, he's saying that when you practice turning, you're realizing

[35:00]

that when you try to think about the mind, you can't do it. It is impossible. And when you try to find the mind, you can't find it. The mind simply can't find the mind. But you've all this time been looking for it. We have experiences. We know we're alive. We know that we know. But we don't really know what all of this amounts to. And we are yearning for it to amount to something that it will never amount to. That's the problem. So we are here, but not as something. We are here in freedom and in lightness and beauty. the mind is empty. There is no mind.

[36:02]

And if there's no mind, there's also no world, as Zhuri says. Because the world is created by mind. That's why when you suddenly turn around to catch yourself off guard, you don't see anybody because there isn't anybody there. This is exactly Huayka. saying to Bodhidharma, please, Master, my mind is not at rest. Help me. And Bodhidharma says, okay, please bring me your mind. And Vajraga goes away for a minute or a year or a decade and practices turning. And he comes back and he says, I can't find my mind. And Bodhidharma says, excellent, you're cured.

[37:05]

And Vueca is cured. That part, though, at the end, where Master Jury says something very salient. He says, when turning is realized, there is no more effort required. Practice becomes effortless. It disappears. And life takes care of itself. And you can absolutely trust life, always, to take care of itself and take care of you. You don't have to worry anymore. You don't have to do anything. Of course, as a living being, you're still going to do things because that's life. Life is doing stuff. You're going to still sit and walk and stand and bend over and bend forward and bend backward and you're going to eat meals and you're going to go to the toilet.

[38:09]

You're going to be thinking, you're going to be feeling, you're going to be doing your practice. But you will no longer have to slog through. You will no longer have to push a big, heavy stone uphill. It is a joy. to practice and to live. Even when you're tired and grumpy, even then, it's still a pleasure to be alive because there are no obstacles. Even the catastrophes that you always feared and were trying desperately to prevent are part of your path. And from this perspective, you look back at all your previous effort and you realize what a big joke it all was. Oh man, I suffered so much. I was trying so hard to get. What? What was I trying to get? There was nothing to get.

[39:13]

It is comical. There is nothing to this practice, nothing at all. Literally nothing at all. And you were trying so hard, and all along there was nothing to it. All dharmas are empty. They're serious when they say that, you know? Dharmas really are unsubstantial. They really are without self. They really are without inheriting distance. What are we struggling for? What are we struggling for? I was telling somebody about this this morning, and it reminded me of the great trilogy of novels that I read years ago that nobody reads anymore by Henry Miller, which nobody even knows about Henry Miller. Sexus, Nexus, and Plexus. Henry Miller was a great scandal, you know, in the 1950s or something like that.

[40:15]

Sexus, nexus, and plexus, each volume of which is big and fat. It's like that one that people are reading now about, what's his name, that guy from... My Struggle. Yeah, My Struggle, yeah, like that. It's very similar. It's My Struggle in the 2000s. I mean, My Struggle is sexus, nexus, and plexus in the 2000s. Anyway, the whole thing is about Henry Miller and his friends struggling in 1930s Paris and being miserable. On the last page of the last novel of the trilogy, he suddenly has this insight, which is the point of the whole trilogy. On the last page, he has this insight. And the insight is, suffering is unnecessary. You don't have to suffer. And he says, and I had to suffer through all of that so that I could find that out. So the last of the six gates is purification, which I like to call leaping off.

[41:34]

And you could say, in a way, this is post-practice, beyond practice. Because there's nothing to do. You just feel grateful. And you feel, wow, everything is perfect. Everything is given. There's a phrase, don't take it for granted. But I say the opposite. Take everything for granted. Everything is granted. It's granted to you. It's marvelous. Everything is granted. Everything is perfect. Everything is just the way it is. It's not some other way. Things appear out of nowhere so intimately, so tenderly. It's marvelous. You know, in the liminal parts of the day, in the dusk, in the morning,

[42:37]

Just as dawn is coming, you look at the tree's bare branches against the pale sky. How did they get those branches exactly in the right place? So perfect, exactly where they should be. How did they do that? So beautiful. Look at those stars at night. So bright and so quiet. How did they get those patterns like that? How could there be such brightness in the middle of such blackness? And you realize it was always like this. Even when you were at your maximum misery, it was still like this. You probably still have disturbed thoughts, but who cares? Makes no sense.

[43:41]

The whole basis for every single disturbance is false. You are just making misery where there doesn't have to be misery. Maybe you are sitting here and all of a sudden you experience a fabulous Satori moment, which maybe lasts longer than a moment, maybe an hour, a week maybe. Wonderful. Or maybe it doesn't happen like that. Maybe there's just a quiet and almost unnoticeable gathering. Like dawn, you know, just coming, little by little, unnoticeable. It's here, you notice it, but you don't see it's coming. Since it's not such a sharp contrast to the way your mind was before, you hardly notice it as it's coming, little by little. The realization of leaping-off practice appears to us in different ways according to our individual karma.

[44:50]

Despite what you might read in the books, there is, in fact, no one-size-fits-all spiritual process. And all the maps of the path should be understood as more or less maps, including the six gates to the sublime. Sometimes I throw away the entire six gates of the sublime and I reduce the whole thing to four words, which you can practice on four breaths. So for four breaths, maybe eight, we'll do it twice. Let's practice this practice, okay? On the breath, on the exhale. deep slow soft

[46:09]

quiet, deep, slow, soft, So you could practice the whole thing just that way. So this text, Six Dharma Gates to the Sublime, has ten chapters in it. So far, most of what I've been talking about comes from one chapter.

[47:25]

The six gates in terms of sequential development, that's the second chapter. Don't worry, I'm not going to go through the other. chapters or eight chapters, but I just want to say a few words about some of them because I think it's important. Chapter three is called The Six Gates According to Suitability. According to suitability. And there he says that a practitioner should do whatever she needs to do to keep the practice on point. It might be good to go through the six gates in sequence, but once you Know the territory. You should do whatever you need to do. You got the point. Do whatever you need to do. There's no special way to do it. He says that in chapter 3. In chapter 4, it's called The Six Gates as a Means of Counteraction. The Six Gates as a Means of Counteraction. In that chapter, he says that this practice of the six gates can also be used when the mind is obscured by affliction.

[48:32]

So it's not just a meditation practice on the cushion. If you're in a panic, if you're angry, if you're confused, if you're in despair, you can practice the six gates. You can practice them on your cushion, if these things occur, on your cushion, or you can practice them anytime. You can stop, finally, being your own victim. And you can know... that you have a path. Your situation, however dire, is not hopeless. Now, chapter 7 is the best. Chapter 7 is called, The Six Gates in Order of Reversed Orientation. Now, that's weird, right? The six gates, what does it mean? The six gates in accordance with reversed orientation.

[49:34]

So here's what he means by this. It would appear that this whole text is about detailed, deep meditation practice with concentration and insight, seeing through our own suffering and so on. Here we are, deep in the mountains. For such a long time, it might as well be forever. We've left the world behind, and here we are. From this vantage point, the whole world appears to be just a big distraction, a giant confusion, just pain, that's all. But Zhuri's practice is actually a Mahayana practice. It's a compassion practice. And this is where he brings that out in this chapter. He reversed orientation. The whole point of the six gates is not to escape suffering and become a Buddhist meditation expert, but to love and embrace the world and its suffering.

[50:47]

This is reversed orientation. Because so far we've been turning around and looking inward at the breath, at the mind, at the self, and now we reverse the orientation. And we apply the six gates and all we have learned from them to the world. That's the reversed orientation. Now that we know that there's nothing there, nothing inside, nothing outside, we can really appreciate the world without being pushed around by it. So we're looking at the world and trying to understand. Thanks, guys.

[51:52]

So we turn the orientation around from looking at the breath, the mind, the self, and we turn the same power that we've generated to the world. And now we're trying to understand the details of the world, just the same way we would understand the details of our breath. Because we realize the details of the world are the details of the mind. The details of the world are the details of the Dharma. So what's the best way to clean a toilet? We're interested. Where do you get the best carrots around here? We're interested in this. What kinds of laws should we have? How do you figure out how to make a government that actually has equality and justice in it, that actually promotes these things?

[53:05]

How do you do that? How are you going to get enough energy to run this juggernaut of a world economy and not be burning all these fossil fuels? How do you do that? What the hell are we going to do with all this plastic? What are we going to do with it? How do you understand the suffering of others? Let me feel it. and somehow help. And anyway, what does it mean to help? What is helping? Now these are the questions. And every other such question. Jury says, this is emerging from the contemplation of emptiness into the contemplation of the conventional. We are practicing not to leave the world behind.

[54:10]

but to really understand the world so that we can be of service. So even while we're sitting, Shuri says, even while we're sitting here working hard to develop the six Dharma Gates, we should be taking the Bodhisattva vow over and over and over again with every breath. Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them. We should be taking this vow. while we're counting, while we're following, while we're turning, while we're purifying, while we're stabilizing. And we should not forget that this is the whole point of the practice, so that we can love beings and help them in whatever way is given to us to do. And that is what the six Dharma gates to the sublime are really about. Okay, I close today with another short poem. This one is by A. E. Haussmann.

[55:18]

Anybody here ever heard of A. E. Haussmann? Yeah, some of you have. You might have studied him in school. Although you won't find his books on the bookshelves in the store. He's a 19th century poet. He's sort of a classic bad poet. the kind you study in school but nobody would ever read otherwise. He writes old-fashioned sing-songy poems with rhymes and little ditty type of meter. Bad poetry. But I personally am a fan of bad poetry. I do not see why anybody should necessarily prefer good poetry to bad poetry. Really, when you think about it, like what's so good about good poetry? Can't bad poetry be just as good?

[56:20]

I myself write a lot of bad poetry. I don't see what's wrong with it. In fact, a lot of times bad poetry is better than good poetry. So here's this truly great, bad poem. Which is from his famous book, The Shropshire Lad. It's the 32nd poem of this book, The Shropshire Lad. From far, from eve and morning, and yon twelve winded sky the stuff of life to knit me blue hither and here am I now for a breath I tarry nor yet disperse apart take my hand quick and tell me what have you in your heart speak now and I will answer

[57:39]

How shall I help you? Say, Ere to the winds twelve quarters, I take my endless way. So this twelve quarters and the twelve winded sky, Haussmann was a classicist, so he read Greek and Latin and he knew all about the classics. So somehow in Greek mythology, the sky has twelve winds. Everything is blown in by the twelve winds. And for a breath I tarry, means I'm hanging around just for a breath, before I was blown in by the winds, and I'm here for a minute for a breath, and then I'm going to be blown away by the winds. Anyway, I'll read it again with those little footnotes. From far, from eve and morning and yon, twelve-winded sky, the stuff of life to knit me blew hither.

[58:43]

Here am I. Now, for a breath I tarry, nor yet disperse apart. Take my hand, quick, and tell me, what have you in your heart? Speak now, and I will answer. How shall I help you? Say, e'er to the winds, I take my endless way. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[59:49]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[59:57]

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