Good morning. I am happy to be able to see your faces, see pictures of your faces. Some of you I haven't seen for a long time, so this is great for me. I want to acknowledge again, as I did last time I spoke, the great suffering that surrounds us all, the illness and fear, the disease, death, the violence,

[01:17]

that is all around us. And again, I would like to bring up a transmitted image, an image which has been traditionally handed to us. The image of, as I mentioned last time I spoke on Sunday, the image of the Buddha sitting in the midst of fierce flames of suffering. The image of the Buddha sitting in the middle of all living beings.

[02:20]

And sitting there, the Buddha turns the wheel of the Dharma for the wheel of all beings. But another image would be to say that authentic awakening, the image of authentic awakening, awakening sitting at the center of all beings. Authentic awakening is sitting at the center of all beings, turning the wheel of Dharma, for the welfare of all suffering beings, for the peace and ease and enlightenment of all living beings.

[03:36]

I also would mention that another version of this image of the enlightenment sitting at the center of all life, all human life, all animal life, all plant life, is that this enlightenment The enlightenment roars the Dharma. It roars nonviolence. It roars nonviolently. It sings of nonviolence. It roars of service to all beings.

[04:51]

But this roar is a nonviolent roar and transmits nonviolence at the center of all violence. Our world is wracked and challenged by violence. true awakening sits in the middle of it and faces the violence nonviolently and transmits nonviolence to a world where violence is appearing and disappearing. This image is transmitted And it's an image of transmission. Awakening, authentic awakening isn't just by itself.

[06:04]

It has a function. It is a transmission. And the transmission is not happening in one direction. The enlightenment transmits nonviolence to all beings. But all beings also transmit to the enlightenment and prompt it to teach nonviolence, to teach service to each and every being. The enlightenment is basically silent and still. And the silence and stillness roars.

[07:06]

The silence and stillness transmits. It is a relationship. Right now, each of us also sits in the center of all beings. That's a transmitted image. Each of us right now sits in the middle of all beings, just like Buddhists do. In a way, I may feel like a mouse sitting at the center of unlimited trouble.

[08:27]

And yet, my relationship with all beings and all beings' relationship with me That relationship roars. This little being accepting this seat and accepting this transmission can be part of the transmission, can allow the transmission, can transmit the Buddha's roar. The fearless, vital roar of compassion. Not from the Buddha, but the relationship between all of us. That empowers and powers the lion's roar of the Buddhas.

[09:38]

This transmission is given to us for us to live, join, and transmit. The universe has given each of us a seat and we're there now. And our mutual relationship with the whole universe is present right now.

[10:48]

Another thing about this transmission, which is emphasized in the Zen tradition is, again, that Zen is a transmission. And it's a transmission which we say sometimes doesn't depend on words. Another way to say it is it's a transmission that words do not reach. even though words do not reach this transmission, whatever we say about it doesn't reach it. It roars. The transmission, which is silent and still and no words reach, it speaks. And the words of the transmission are necessary to realize

[12:01]

that words don't reach it. Once again, we need to receive words from this relationship. We need to transmit words from this relationship which we have right now in order to verify and realize that no words reach it. Part of the responsibility of the transmission is to accept its silence and to allow the silence of our relationship with all beings to speak and to understand also the nature of this speaking. Or you could say to not misunderstand the nature of this speaking.

[13:03]

As part of Zen formal practice, as many of you know, we regularly recite the names of people, of humans, who have participated in the history of this transmission. In a way, we could say we recite the names of the transmitters, but it's also the names of those who have received the transmission. So they're transmitters, the ancestors, the Buddhists are transmitters, but they are also transmitees. They are those who have received it and give it or who are receiving it and giving it.

[14:16]

They're people who represent the relationship from which nonviolence is transmitted. So at the San Francisco Zen Center, we have now around, we're now in like the 92nd, 93rd, 94th generation. We imagine that we're like the 92nd, 93rd generation from the Buddha, Shakyamuni in India. This is our imagination. So I imagine that I'm the 91st generation. And when I give, when I transmit the precepts, the person who receives them is the 92nd generation.

[15:24]

So many of you in this room now are wearing Buddhist robe, which I gave you, and you are the 92nd generation. You are the 92nd generation of the transmission. And some of you also have received the transmission and transmitted to the 93rd generation. And each generation of this transmission, of course, needs to be regenerated. needs to be renewed, needs to be refreshed. It's a generation. It's an enlivening of the transmission. Hopefully, every day, we refresh the transmission.

[16:37]

We renew it. We reawaken it. The awakening, which is transmission, needs to be reawakened and retransmitted in order to be alive. And we are the ones right now who have been given this opportunity and this responsibility to take care of this transmission. So, as part of that, we say the names of certain, in a sense, archetypal or prototypic ancestors in our morning services at the San Francisco Zen Center. We chant.

[17:40]

We say the name of seven Buddhas, seven ancient Buddhas, the seventh of which is Shakyamuni. These are the ones who we imagine transmitted the roar of nonviolence, the roar of justice, the roar of compassion. And even mice are invited to join in this lion's roar because mice are included We all include mice.

[18:47]

And the way mice include us and we include mice, that mutual inclusion roars the Buddha Dharma. The relationship roars the Buddha Dharma. I don't remember the exact date, but it was 1971. Suzuki Roshi had returned from Tassahara. He was at Tassahara in the summer of 1971. He came back to the city center. And he was sick.

[19:52]

We understood that he was sick. That he had liver cancer. But he was still able to walk around. And he invited one of my elder Dharma brothers and myself to the Buddha Hall. And he trained us on how to lead morning service. By virtue of his relationship with us. He was our teacher. We deeply respected him and were. Joyful to be of service to him. All the time we knew him and and continue to be of service to him.

[20:59]

Now that he was sick. And he also deeply respected us. Joyful to be of service to us. And in this relationship, in this transmission, which was our relationship, he spoke and he invited us to come to the Buddha Hall and he trained us in doing morning service. And part of doing morning service when you're the officiant or the leading priest in the ceremony, is to do prostrations as we recite the names of our transmission.

[22:01]

So we say the name of some number of ancestors and then we bow or rather we bow and say the names and then we stand up while the names are being chanted and we bow again. And then we continue to stand up while the names are being chanted and we bow again. The names of the teachers who sat in the middle of suffering and roared nonviolence and roared justice and roared service and roared compassion We say the names of these ancestors. And we bow. And we say the names. We chant the names and we bow. So he taught us at what point in the chanting to bow.

[23:12]

And he said, usually we do nine bows during the chanting. So here's Suzuki Roshi, who many of you probably appreciate, devoting his life energy in the middle of his illness while he has liver cancer. And what is he doing? He's transmitting. He's teaching his devoted how to perform a ceremony. A ceremony about the transmission of the Dharma, the transmission of the lion's roar. So he tells them, usually we bow nine times during the chanting of the names.

[24:21]

By the way, his name would be the last name chanted after he died. But he wasn't dead yet. Our teacher was not yet dead, so we did not chant his name. We chanted up to, just before his name, before he died. Actually, I got it quite wrong. He taught us to chant nine times the last no up to the fourth Japanese ancestor Keizan Jokin Dayosho so he said usually nine and he told us when to bow and one of the people that he told us to bow to is named Fuyo Dokai

[25:24]

And I, of course, I had heard the name in the chant. But I wondered why bowing at his name. The other people whose names we bowed at were very famous ancestors. Like the sixth ancestor of Zen and Bodhidharma and the founder of Soto Zen. and the founder of Japanese Sotozen, these very famous pivotal ancestors. But one of them, Fuyo Dokai, I asked afterwards, I said to Suzuki Rishi, do we bow to him just because it was even spacing? So his name goes between Tozan Ryokai and Ehe Dogen. So his name's kind of halfway between those two ancestors.

[26:34]

So I thought, are we just buying there because it's an even space? And Suzuki Roshi said, oh, no, he's a very important Zen teacher. And I really didn't know anything about him before Suzuki Roshi told me that. And then our dear teacher quite soon after that died. This was this teaching, this transmission of the way of doing the service occurred at the end of, I think at the end of August or beginning of September. And by December,

[27:35]

by December 4th, our teacher had passed away. But all that fall, all that fall, he was sitting at the center and sometimes lying down at the center of his own suffering and our suffering and all being's suffering. just like us. And he was transmitting nonviolence and patience and generosity and carefulness and gentleness and roaring wisdom. And the morning he died, lying in his room on the second or third floor of the Zen Center.

[28:46]

As he died, down beneath his room was his lion's roar. 132 of his students were sitting upright in the first period of the Rohatsu Sesshi, the first period of the December Sesshi. As he died, his roar was his 132 students sitting downstairs. the years I have been happy to learn more about this teacher who I bow to when chanting his name Puyo Dokai he was an amazing

[30:01]

He was an amazing mouse. He had a great roar, which refreshed and renewed and regenerated the transmission. Before him, there was only one person in our lineage. one person who formally received and transmitted the tradition. But he revitalized the transmission. He received it and revitalized it and refreshed it. And after him, there was a waterfall of transmissions. So he was really worthy of our powers. I bring him up today.

[31:14]

Such a receiver and transmitter. And here's one of the stories about him. It's a transmission story. And One of the places this story appears is in a book called Transmission of the Light. This story could be said to be a story of the transmission of the light. The light of Buddha's wisdom. But Also today we could say it's a story about the transmission of transmission because the light, Buddha's wisdom is not just a light by itself.

[32:22]

It is the light of our relationship. It's the light of how we support each other. It's the light of transmitting nonviolence. So again, the book's called The Transmission of Light, but it also could be the light of transmission. So here's a story of the light of transmission. So Fuyo went to study with a teacher named Tosu. Tosu Gisei. And at some point he said to the teacher, who? Fuyo Dokai. Fuyo said to the teacher, Tosu Gisei. The words and sayings of the Buddhas and the ancestors

[33:35]

are everyday rice and tea. Some people translate it as the words and thoughts of the Buddhism ancestors are like everyday rice and tea. So you can say that the words of the Buddha's The Buddha's roar, the roar of the Buddhas and ancestors, their roar of nonviolence is like everyday rice and tea, which you can also say it is everyday rice and tea. So that's what Fuyo brought to the teacher Tosu. The words of the Buddhas. and ancestors are everyday rice and tea.

[34:39]

In other words, they're completely ordinary everyday activity. But literally it says rice and tea. And then he said, is there anything else to help people? Teacher, I've heard and I understand that the words of the Buddhas and ancestors are completely ordinary affairs. Is there anything else? Is there anything else to help people? And the teacher Tosu said, you tell me, does the emperor in his own territory depend on the authority of the ancient emperors to make his mandates?

[36:01]

And as Fuyo was about to speak, Kosu covered his month with his whisk. Zen teachers, sometimes when they're giving talks, carry a ceremonial whisk. So here's the student standing in front of the teacher, apparently in a ceremonial event. The student says, the Buddha's and ancestor's teaching is completely an ordinary affair of speaking. Do they have anything else to help people? And the teacher says, you tell me. Does the emperor in her own territory depend on the authority of the ancient ancestors, the ancient emperors to perform their services?

[37:02]

And as Fuya was about to speak, his mouth gets covered. the whisk and he realizes the lion's roar he realizes the transmission the transmission is complete and he bows profoundly to the teacher And starts to leave. And the teacher says. Come here sir. Wait a moment. Come here sir. And Fuyo does not turn around. And just keeps going. And the teacher calls out again.

[38:05]

Have you reached? Have you reached the land, the earth, the realm of no doubt? And Fuyo covers his ears. Let me say again, it's very touching, very moving for me to see the faces of people who I haven't seen for a long time.

[39:10]

Thank you for putting your face in front of a screen so I can see a picture of you. According to the pictures I see, people are kind of like adjusting their posture. The story's been told. They're getting ready for the next phase of the transmission. Okay, you ready? So I see this story as giving us a transmission about transmission.

[40:26]

Telling us about transmission. how to take care of the transmission in order to refresh it in order to renew it there's instruction about how to take care of it it's been given to us and yet we may need further instruction about how to take care of it so Fuyo understands in a way that this transmission has been given to him, but he seeks further instruction. And he says to his teacher, what you have been saying to me is so ordinary. You just talk to me. But when you talk to me, it's just like having rice and tea together.

[41:31]

Do you have anything else to help people? So here in, we have this sincere student who appreciates his teacher so much. And he goes to his teacher. We have this person who appreciates the transmission of the teaching so much and he goes to the transmission and he says, this transmission is just like daily life. It's like my daily life and your daily life. Is there anything else to help people other than living together like this? The student really appreciated this relationship he had with his teacher, with his great teacher.

[42:35]

And he was soon to become a great teacher too. But he had a little bit of doubt. He was thinking maybe there's something, something else than just us meeting face to face. Maybe there's something else than our daily life together. Is there a teacher of something else? And the teacher says, you tell me, does the emperor in his own seat, on his own seat that has been given to him, does the empress in her own seat that has been given to her depend on the authority of the ancient empresses, in order to do her job.

[43:37]

Is there anything else in our daily life? And again, Fuyo still reaches a little bit to answer the question. And the teacher covers his mouth. And there the transmission was complete. They were completely supporting each other in this transmission. And the student profoundly expressed his joy, his gratitude to the teacher, and then left. To demonstrate the roar, the roar of leaving the teacher as an expression of the roar, as an expression of gratitude.

[44:50]

And the teacher continuing in this transmission, come here. Come here, sir. And the student does not turn around. Have you reached the land, the ground of no doubt? And the student covers his ears. This covering the ears is the lion's roar. covering the ears so you don't seek elsewhere from daily life. So we can realize the roar of nonviolence.

[46:04]

the roar of justice, the roar of awakening, the roar of the Buddha Dharma. But normal human beings like us, normal mice, may have some doubt that our daily life is what the Buddhas use. The Buddhas have daily life. Enlightenment has daily life. Before enlightenment, we have daily life. At the moment of enlightenment, we have daily life. And after enlightenment, we have daily life. The job is to take care of it without looking for something else to take care of it. And that's hard for us. was hard for the great Fuyo Dokai too.

[47:06]

But he finally accepted the transmission. He finally accepted the transmission without seeking for it elsewhere or beyond daily life. Before, when Zen Center was located in a temple called Sokoji, which means, which is a Japanese way of saying San Francisco Temple. Sokoji means San Francisco Temple. We had a temple there where we practiced sitting meditation. And we also practiced, with Suzuki Roshi, we practiced sitting meditation. And we also practiced eating rice and drinking tea with Suzuki Roshi.

[48:21]

And some of the mice in the Zendo, when they were having rice and tea with Suzuki Roshi, did not actually think, hey, is there something more to Zen than having rice with Suzuki Roshi? Some of the mice thought, this is nice, this having rice. I love having rice. It's great. But maybe some of the people who were in the temple having rice and tea, which is aggression, maybe they were thinking, well, when is the real transmission going to occur? There's pretty good rice at this place. We also, at Sokoji Temple, we not only had rice for our meals in the zendo, we also had these little yellow daikon pickles.

[49:26]

And we used these pickles to clean our bowls after we finished eating. It was pretty good, those meals. And we ate, we didn't have the formal Buddhist bowls yet. We ate on like cafeteria trays. But still, it was lovely. Having lunch with the Zen master. But again, maybe some of the people in the room thought, okay, lunch is fine, but when's the Zen going to happen? Where's the transmission of nonviolence? So I was sitting in the Zendo one day and my seat was such that I was looking right at Suzuki Roshi. He was sitting maybe just a few feet in front of me eating his rice. It was white rice, I believe.

[50:32]

And he had a bowl, a black bowl with white rice in it. And I was enjoying my rice, eating my rice. And while I was eating his rice, while I was eating my rice, I watched him eat his rice. And at that moment, I think the transmission was going pretty well. I wasn't looking for anything more than eating my rice and watching him eat his rice. Can you imagine I was having a good time eating my rice and watching this wonderful teacher eat his rice? Was he transmitting the lion's roar of nonviolence? I don't know. Was I? I don't know.

[51:35]

Were we together the transmission? Was our actual relationship the transmission of nonviolence? I would say in a mousy voice, yes. We were doing, we were trying to practice nonviolence, eating our lunch. And as I watched him on that particular occasion, I noticed that he made his rice, with his spoon, he made his white rice into kind of like a ball. He kind of sculpted his rice into a ball. And I didn't think, is he playing with his food? But he kind of was playing with his food. He was refreshing the transmission by working with his rice.

[52:40]

was Suzuki Roshi there in America to transmit the Buddha Dharma to us? I think that was his intention. Or was another way to say it, was Suzuki Roshi in America in service of the transmission of the Buddha's teaching? I think he was there in service of the transmission. And when he was having lunch, when he was doing the ordinary activity of having lunch and eating rice, was his intention to join the transmission? I would say, yes, it was. And I was watching him while he was attempting to transmit the Dharma to us. Is that clear?

[53:44]

Raise your hand if it's clear, please. Bajra? Yeah, thank you. I'm suggesting that's what he came for. And when he was having rice, that's what he was trying to do. He was trying to join this transmission and teach us and encourage us to join the transmission of nonviolence when eating rice. When walking down the street, and some of you may go to demonstrations this afternoon to demonstrate your commitment to nonviolence. Some of you may go to a demonstration, like my daughter and grandchildren are going to a demonstration in San Francisco this afternoon to demonstrate their commitment to respect for all life. and demonstrate their commitment to non-violence.

[54:51]

This teaching is saying, yes, that's our practice, but don't miss the chance of demonstrating your commitment when you're eating rice. So here's Suzuki rice. He came all the way from Japan. gave up his life in Japan to come here to transmit the Dharma. And what does he do? He eats rice. And he eats rice because he needs to. And he may even like it. But he eats rice to transmit the Dharma to us. It's not so much him eating, him transmitting the Dharma. It's the eating rice. It's the daily activity that transmits it. And his wife made that rice for him. So anyway, he's playing with his rice. He's transmitting the Dharma, just like all Buddhas do in the ordinary daily life, making a nice ball.

[56:04]

But then he tilts his bowl a little bit forward. And I'm sitting in front of him, and the thought occurs to me, that ball of rice might roll out of his bowl onto his lap or the floor. And then another thought arose in my mind, but he's a Zen master. It probably won't roll out onto the floor. Zen masters, that's not how they transmit dharma, by having their rice fall out of their bowl. But as it turned out, the ball of rice did roll out of his bowl onto his lap. It didn't roll all the way onto the floor. It rolled out onto his lap. And this miraculous thing happened. He reached out and picked up the ball with his other hand and put it back in the bowl.

[57:09]

is this miraculous or is this kind of everyday? It seems kind of everyday, but also it was a miracle too. And it was the transmission of Buddha Dharma to us by his daily life, not looking to something else than what he's doing to transmit. There's more stories about ordinary daily life in the Zen tradition. And a big emphasis in these stories is that their daily life and that somebody, sometimes the student, but maybe even the teacher, sometimes people think that there's some other way to transmit the Buddha's lion's roar other than taking care of our daily life.

[58:21]

And that's part of the training is to realize that there's no other way to transmit nonviolence than what we're doing right now. And looking for some other way is an opportunity for training. It's an opportunity for the teacher's whisk to come and cover our mouth. But we can learn this. Well, yeah, I talked a long time about the transmission of the lion's roar of the Buddha.

[59:18]

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