An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. Welcome everyone I can see here in this room and everyone I can impute. on the Zoom link.

[08:08]

And thank you for Zoom hosting, Burke, because our usual Zoom host is away in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, I think. So, I wonder if we have Shosai Myokichi Jojarani someplace that people could chant. They already have it? Okay, so I would like to ask that everyone online mute yourself if you're not already muted so that we don't have a lot of different things going on at the same time. And I would also like to ask that people who have never chanted this before Be the first ones to respond. And the question I'm asking you to respond to is when we chat this, how does it come off to you?

[09:12]

What does it mean? Just asking. And don't worry if you don't get every word right. Okay? So shall we? Are we ready? Are we almost ready? What page is it? Anyone know? Page 10. So you'll see a bunch of syllables. Just follow along. If they're going by too fast for you, just catch the ones that you can. And we'll chant it three times. Okay? And I'll keep time. I'm sorry.

[10:22]

Unnun shihura, shihura, hara shihura, hara shihura, chishu sa, chishu sa, ri chishuri soa ja soa ja senchi gyashiriye somoko nomo sammanda motonan. Ra-chi-koto-sha-sono-nan-to-ji-to-en-gya-gya-gya-ki-gya-ki-un-nun-shihura. Ha-ra-shihura, ha-ra-shihura-chi-shu-sa-chi-shu-sa-chi-shu-sa-chi-shuri-chi-shuri-sawa-ja. Senji-gya-shiri-e-somoko-no-mo-sam-man-dha-moto-nan-ohara-chi-koto-sha-sono-nan-pro-ji-to-en-gya-gya-gya-ki-ki-un-nun-shihura-shihura-hara-shihura-hara-shihura-chishu-sa-chishu-sa

[11:34]

This recitation of the Shosai Myokichi Jodorani is dedicated towards the removal of hindrance of everyone in this room, both physical room and the virtual room, to all our friends, family, family of choice, family of association, family of genetics, and family of humanity, and to all beings. Okay? So, now, particularly for the people who have never chanted this before, anyone want to speak about what it said to you when we were chanting? And if it's nothing, it's okay. If it's something, it's okay. You don't have to. Okay, now for people who have chanted it before, anyone?

[12:37]

What does it say to you, if anything? Okay, oh, mic. Yeah, thank you, sorry. It's so they can hear you. I've never chanted it before. It felt very comforting and grounding. It felt nice. The rhythm, I don't know what the words mean, but the rhythm and kind of the depth and speed felt very comforting for me. Thank you so much. Maybe someone else, please. You're going to get your aerobic exercise. Yeah.

[13:46]

Yeah, I've changed it a few times before, not many, but it is always, I agree with the grounding component, but there's also a collective component that everyone is doing the same thing, and there's the collective component to it where you drop in and out of your own ability to take a breath, but it continues on on its own. So I think that there's certainly a communal component to it. Thank you. And one more person? Anyone? Yes, an online participant would be great. Yeah, just one more person would be great. Sorry, Terry. We'll catch you later, okay? Um... Kahi says, felt like a comforting reminder to be here now in the present moment. Thanks, Kahi. Okay, so what we just chanted and what we just commented on, and you can add your own mental contributions to the understanding of how it feels.

[14:56]

Don't worry, those contributions are not lost. They're in the room, and everyone is here together. Okay? So it is the Shosai Myo Kichijo Dorani. And I'm going to try to give some background on this Dorani and what a Dorani is. Please excuse me that I didn't pass this out. It's not ready. It's a study guide that I'm in the process of writing. And we'll try to write by May or so. Okay? So... The graphics will have to wait. So every day in our Zen practice, we evoke emotional readiness. And we're going to look at or try to understand what dharanis are. Dharanis are from the Sanskrit root dr, same as dharma, which means to hold.

[15:59]

And so... A dharani is something that holds a teaching, an utterance that holds a teaching. And as you could tell, it doesn't necessarily need to be in English or in our home language or translated or translatable to communicate this, which is really interesting because this dharani is a transliteration from Sanskrit to Chinese, to Japanese, to American English. So how does that happen? What is this? So Durrani's, you know, if you look up Durrani, you'll probably find out that it's a magic spell or an incantation, but it's rather more than that. In fact, it's a transmission ritual that evokes in us teachings. within the field of our own bodies and minds.

[17:04]

So I was thinking about what I wanted to speak about today, and the tentative title I came up with is The Hidden Architecture or The Secret Architecture of the Shosai Myo Kichijo Durrani. Why do I say architecture? Well... I studied architecture and urban planning, and architecture for me is a very interesting human discipline. First of all, it started out that architects and engineers and builders were the same people for thousands of years. They only got separated in the industrial era. And the point of architecture was to create a sense of place or a sense of environment. And a Durrani is speech. So we prepare for it in the body by creating certain architecture in the body. And then it creates an architecture of speech through its sounds.

[18:07]

And then an architecture of mind. It establishes an external and internal environment for understanding some part of the path. That's why I wanted to think about Dharani's. So this Dharani, in general, or any Dharani, it's used in a variety of ways from very, very ancient times until today. So in the Vedas, you find Dharani's pre-Buddhist. So the Buddha already knew about Dharani's before Dharani's. He was a Buddha. And the records or manuscripts of Dharanis are often drawn in the context of mandalas or palm-leaf scriptures, and those scriptures are themselves relics. So they can be rolled into scrolls and put into stupas or tombs, and that's how we found a lot of them, actually.

[19:16]

They're the earliest printed records in the world, as far as we know. So the Dharanis include visualizations that go with them, body practices that we can do with them, and mnemonics to remember teachings. And the Sanskrit sounds... It's part of a whole medicinal lore that uses seed syllables to touch into the energy of different parts of the body, speech, and mind. And it takes an act of kind of purified will to study them and to chant them in that way. But when they do, they really open the gate to understanding what the practice is about. Not everybody needs to use Dharanis, but they are a big tool in our tradition.

[20:21]

They were established in Buddhism at about the time of the Third Council when people were scared that the teaching would get lost. And so they wanted to present it in very concise forms that were changeable and memorable, memorizable. And so they're kind of mnemonics. They stand for stuff. It's kind of like, you know, if you want to know the amino acids that are part of DNA and RNA, it's a tall girl called or an ugly girl called. Sorry, I learned this in the 60s. I'm sure it's different today, but I still remember it. I learned it in the 60s, and that was quite a while ago, right? Adenosine, et cetera. Okay. And because of the mantras of the Duranis, or the sounds of the Duranis being written so carefully and beautifully, they were kind of delivered as something nice that could be in somebody's house.

[21:38]

And actually, Empress Shotoku, who was... a nun before she was an empress, made and distributed over a million of them. And that, in itself, helped spread practices of Buddhism in Japan. So Empress Shotoku is a hidden heroine of Buddhism in Japan because she didn't give lectures, she sent Duranis. And another example of how Durrani practice can be used, I don't know if you, the people who have been practicing for a long time will no doubt have heard the story of Dogen Zenji, the founder of Zen in Japan. And we often study his teaching work, the Shobo Genzo, among other works that he wrote or said. So there's really a lot of records from Dogen Zenji.

[22:44]

And I find this very moving. So like the Buddha, at the end of his life, Dogen Zenji needed to practice in simpler and simpler ways. So we have the story that the Buddha... I went on a pilgrimage one time where I kind of tried to research the names of the places that the Buddha taught in the last two months of his life and go there. And what I discovered was that... he walked with dysentery. He had dysentery. In the last two months of his life, he walked 200 miles saying the same thing in simpler and simpler ways. And Dogen Senji did something similar to this where he wrote Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Awakeness, Teaching, and Intimacy. on a pillar, and then he walked around and around the pillar in the last days of his life.

[23:50]

A very simple practice, but within it, it held a lot. And this is another way to use Jorani's. So, what is the Shosan Yoki Jito Jorani? So it was transmitted to us by a teacher of esoteric Buddhism named Amolgha Vajra. His Chinese name was Bukong, and I don't know the tone, I'm sorry. But he lived in the 700s. And it was then... compiled into a group of texts called the Ten Small Mantras. And the Ten Small Mantras started to be recited in basically all Chinese temples as part of morning service.

[24:57]

And they're still recited today. And they each evoke environments conducive to practice and conducive to remembering the teaching. But if you go behind the mantra and try to understand, well, what does it mean? As you found out, it's not translated into English. We don't know whether it means anything. Traditionally, Dharanis are kind of advertised to not mean anything but just be kind of magic spells or incantations. But the clue is in the title. The Shosai Myo Kichijo Durrani. Kichijo is a person. I don't know where I wrote who Kichijo is, but she is Lakshmi Mahasri.

[26:04]

why I'm looking it up, because I wanted to get the name right of who she's the wife of in Japan. She's the wife of Bishamonten, and I'll research this before I do my study group on this. But basically, I want to say something about Lakshmi, who in Buddhism became, after the 700s, became Vasudhara. So Lakshmi... it's a really interesting origin story about Lakshmi. And in Hinduism, Lakshmi is the goddess of plenty, of prosperity, and good fortune. And she's often shown smiling with an elephant on each side, like an upright elephant. And the elephants are... showering her with water.

[27:08]

And it's a form of... It's kind of an understanding of Abhisheka, which is a water purification ritual that we do, that people with Dharma transmission do as part of ordinations and various other major ceremonies. And... Why elephants? Elephants are good fortune, of course, but the Sanskrit name for elephant, Naga, also means a snake. And there's a legend about how the teachings were held under the surface of the water by the Naga king's daughter. And so snakes and elephants have always been associated. And this pouring of teaching, particularly in times of stress or difficulty, is part of what the Nagas do.

[28:18]

The Nagas kind of produce the teaching at the appropriate time. And the elephants shower Lakshmi with this water, which is the source of life. She is of the... She's of the nature of prithvi, or earth, which also goes with architecture, built form. And it goes with, she's associated with wealth or riches. And in the yoga tradition that I practice and teach, Lakshmi is associated with prakriti, or created form. built form, created form. The understanding is that our personalities are kind of built form. And we can change both the personalities and also the impulses or motivations that help build our personalities. We can actually change them and purify them when we begin to or if we want to practice.

[29:23]

And so the point of Lakshmi in Shosai Myokichi Dojarani is to point out that everything that is created is material for practice. So there's a quote by Dogen Zenji that was given to me by my teacher and Paul's teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman. And everything that comes up in the study of the way is the true human body. Think about that. Everything that comes up in the study of the way is the true human body. Everything. Everything. I mean, think of all the junk that's come up in the study of the way, right? Or in life. The idea of Lakshmi is that all of it, without exception, is material, is a gate.

[30:27]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. So those vows that we just chanted at the beginning of the talk hint at this riches of of resourcing that we have. And that's why it's Lakshmi. So the Sanskrit name of the Shosamyo Kichijo Dharani is the Jvala Mahogra Dharani. Jvala is flames. Flames. Maha is flames. And ugra is strength. But particularly a kind of a, you know, like spiritual or moral strength with which we can meet obstacles to bring them into and explore them in our practice.

[31:40]

So... And so... The origin story of Lakshmi hints at this, because Lakshmi, let's say, one time the angels and demons were fighting a war. This was also the origin story of the Dahishin Durrani, the great compassion Durrani. The angels and demons were fighting a war over the nectar of life, the very essence of life. And the angels got really concerned because they thought that the demons were going to, kind of get it and abuse it. So they went to Brahma and they said, oh, Brahma, please, would you please unmake those awful demons? And Brahma said, no, maid is maid. Forget it. I'm not going to unmake the demons. And then they went, oh, Shiva, could you do us a favor and kill them so we don't have to deal with them having the nectar of life? And Shiva said, no, I will not.

[32:45]

And then they went to Vishnu, and Vishnu said, hey, have I got a deal for you? And he said, why don't you make them an offer they can't refuse? And that is to do a tug-of-war contest, and the winner takes all. And so the angels proposed this idea to the demons, and the demons said, we're strong. We can do this. And so they did. And Adishesha, the snake king, became the rope. And Mount Sumeru, the center of the universe, became the fulcrum. And they started pulling the angels on one side, the demons on the other. The first thing that came forth was a poison so bitter that one drop of it would kill all life. in all the universes.

[33:46]

And Shiva, you know, thank goodness for Shiva, opened his mouth wide. The poison had already entered the great ocean of life. And Shiva went and drank the entire poisonous ocean, poisoned ocean, in one gulp. So he drank the entire ocean of suffering in one gulp. And then the next thing that came forth from the churning was still not the nectar of life. The next thing that came forth was all the beings, particularly the devas and the jealous gods. And one of the ones who came out was Lakshmi. And she decided to stay with the devas because she didn't want... Her main talent is... fortune and beneficence and wholesomeness. So she decided she was going to stay on the side of the gods and the angels, and she did.

[34:51]

And that's her origin story. But whereas Shiva drank the poison, Lakshmi saw the beauty. And that's her origin story. And that's where this mantra comes from. How am I doing for time? 1047. Okay, I'll try to be quiet soon so that we can actually talk about this. I could say a lot about the sounds of the mantras and the parts of the bodies they affect, but I think instead what I'm going to do is talk about this dharani, which is supposedly untranslatable, and I want to talk about it as a cheer. Okay? Cheers, you know how cheers don't necessarily make the best poetry in English? Like, first of ten, do it again.

[35:52]

First of ten, do it again. Like that. You know, it's not exactly great literature, but it is very effective, right? You know, everybody in a wave or cheering, that really gets the enthusiasm up, right? And this is the spirit in which we recite these chants. They're energetic chants. And if you try to translate them kind of discursively, they make no sense whatsoever. But if you translate them as cheers, it's a whole different story. So... So you can follow along on this and see if you can make sense of it. So we chanted Nomo Samanda Motonan. It was page 10, remember? Okay.

[36:53]

So which in Sanskrit is Namo. Nomo is Namo. Samanda is Samanta. Motonam is Natanam. So it means homage to the Samanta, the everywhere guru, which is Lakshmi. Nomo Samanda Motonam. Oharachi Kotosha is Apratihatasya. Or the Aprati... One who overcomes misfortunes or calamities. Homage to the all-pervasive Lakshmi who overcomes misfortunes. Sananam tadyata. Sananam means victory. And tadyata is like a ta, like this.

[37:59]

Okay, then en-gya-gya-gya-ki-gya-ki is om, speak it, proclaim it. Speak it forth, proclaim it forth. Un-nun-shifu-ra-shifu-ra-hara-shifu-ra-hara-shifu-ra. Hum, yes. Hum, yes. Shihura, shihura, jvala, jvala. Fire, fire. Blaze, blaze. Harashifura, harashifura. Blaze out, blaze out. Chishisa, chishisa. Tista, tista. Stand firm. Stand solid. Stand with your feet on the ground. Chishuri, chishuri, spread, scatter like stars, like fireworks.

[39:06]

Sovaja, sovaja is spatha, spatha, burst forth. So it's like stand, stand, fireworks, fireworks, bursting in air. Senshigya is kshantika. Shanti is forbearance or patience, the ability to live with insults and use them for the good. Shriye is, Shri means fortune or auspicious radiance. So, Somoko, Amen. Okay? So, I guess it could be loosely translated. Homage. to the guru that's in everything. Resources that transcend disasters. This way is success.

[40:11]

Om. Say it. Speak it. Spread the word. Yes, yes. Fire it up. Blaze it out. Stand up. throw it forth, scatter it like stars, like fireworks, burst, blaze. To the patient and firmly radiant ones, amen. May it be so. So it carries that meaning. Pretty cool, huh? For a nonsense word. But basically it's a cheer. So it doesn't have to... I'm kind of damning it with faint praise when I translate it, because each of those words has a lot more associated with it. So, for instance, the thing about the light and the flame, there's a holiday called Diwali, which is the Festival of Lights.

[41:16]

And Diwali... there's images of Lakshmi and you put lights out there. And in Pune, when I first went there to study yoga, at first there was like a parade with these statues or you would make little flames and oil lamps and so on. But the last time I went there, this had been the case for many years, there was a contest to have the best altar for Ganesh and for Lakshmi. And that contest had taken an electronic form. So there were these big like parade floats and you could go up inside them and there would be flames and bright lights and the names of the deities would appear in lights that would kind of be like neon signs.

[42:20]

And it had all of that, all of the kind of crazy beauty of New York City at night. You know what I'm saying? It was very, very moving. And all these young people were getting together to make fantastic altars with lights, and that's in this spata, right? So every word in this has... Not just those associations from now, but for thousands of years. And those associations are what carries the meaning. And the Sanskrit syllables carry the meaning in different centers in the body, which is a story for another day. Okay, so I'm going to be quiet now so we can actually discuss this. And, yeah, please. So... Yeah, Catherine has a question.

[43:24]

Yeah, I'm going back to architecture. Sorry, yeah. Thank you, see you. The stupa has been studied as something that represents the body and the chakras. Absolutely. And this, so... And in the stupa, the Buddha's relic would be placed. So I love everything that you said, and I'm falling in love with this notion of the Durrani as a relic of the Buddha that is magically expressed through our bodies. You know, this... that it's never to be translated and that it's given like skin, flesh, bones, and marrow to all of us in this relic form is quite beautiful. And even the time and the context of relic practice.

[44:31]

And I'm just hearing the architecture in what you are saying and wanting to show my appreciation for that. Thank you. Let's go into it a little bit more. So the stupa, you know, there's different stupas. Stupas are like the monuments. And I don't have a picture of one, but if you look at the altar, that's kind of the form of the stupa. So there's a Buddha on the altar. The Buddha's on a base. The base is on a bigger base. The bigger base is on a bigger base. And the whole stupa in general follows the form of the Buddha's body. So the Buddha is seated on a lotus throne of a thousand petals, and on each petal sits the Shakyamuni Buddha, right? And then, in addition to that, the legs mean something, the belly means something, the torso means something, the neck or throat means something, the head, the forehead, and the crown of the head.

[45:35]

So there's even a mantra for each of those parts of the body. And they're also associated with elements, and I'll just say very quickly, la, lang, vang, rang, yang, ka, and om are the seed syllables. They're associated with different colors, with different elements, with different shapes. That's why it's a story for another day. But the stupas are made in that way. The altar is made in that way. And the zendo itself carries that architecture. And there was another lecture a few months ago that I talked a little bit about, the zendo architecture. But the whole idea of this architecture is to... Have you ever seen those mandalas that show the whole world? And if you really look at them, you can see that they're kind of like, you know, those, they deceive the eye.

[46:49]

You can actually see into them. You can see into the depth of the world in those. You can see the stars and all of that if you just shift your vision just a little bit. And they also have rituals associated with them. I don't know who here has seen a sand painting, a Tibetan sand painting, but that one emphasizes some visualization and practices. And then at the end of the ritual that you make it, it gets washed away in the ocean. So this field of how meaning is... established and transmitted on our path is really a huge subject that really hasn't been studied a lot for how rich it is. But the stupas are a whole different story and we can go into them another time.

[47:51]

And thank you. Thank you. Yeah. They're also associated with different Buddhas and different colors. I mean, it's just, you can get very, it's like a fractal. Hey, Griffin. So this body is architecture that comes and goes and deteriorates. And I have an awareness of as both material, but also sensation, vibration. This is how I know my body and a true body, my true name, which is also material.

[48:53]

You bring the elements of an emotional transmission and the magic and the divas, which I, you know, dearly respond to. But also you use the word pure willingness. Pure will, I'm sorry. Pure willingness will do. Okay. Yeah. Which... I understand less because it's a mind, perhaps, if you want to call it that, that I'm less connected to. No, you're absolutely connected to it. So there's this wonderful koan which has to do with the Buddha's awakening. I don't know if you remember it, but when Buddha awakened, he said, wow.

[50:00]

All beings, from the very beginning, are fully endowed with the virtuous characteristics of the fully awakened ones. But because of their habits and preconceptions, they do not realize it. And then Dogen Zenji paraphrased this, which was different from how it had been interpreted before. All beings, whole being, Buddha nature. And so the idea that everything that comes up in the study of the way is the true human body. That true human body, that character of true also means aligned, upright, real. And so what it means is if we can kind of punch holes in our habits and preconceptions to really see into them. That awakening right there or right here is our birthright.

[51:07]

We're already 100% of this nature, but the question is how to realize it, which is what all of these practices are for. We tend to give kind of bad press to steps and stages, in our style of Buddhism. But the thing about steps and stages is when you sit zazen and you're not ready to sit, let's say if you're stiff in the hips or if you have just had a traumatic experience or if you ate too much or just about anything, that's what's going to come up. And so we have a choice at that moment in how we take it. We can take it kind of conventionally, like... Like that. Or we can take it like... Wow, I ate an entire family-sized bag of popcorn.

[52:12]

Okay. That is a condition that I have just done by eating this... entire family-sized bag of popcorn. It's not like I didn't eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And so now what is happening to me? And the moment we bring a sense of attention or uprightness, awareness or sensitivity, and consciousness or penetration to that everyday experience, just like magic, it becomes part of the true human body that we're growing into. So you're not far away. You know? You did walk into the zendo after coming a long way. You sat down, you sat zazen, and you asked a penetrating question.

[53:19]

That's the true human body. right here. So that's my offering. How are we doing on time, Ino-san? 15 minutes, great. So, yeah, Terry. And wait a second. Please rest your legs, be comfortable, refresh yourself, so that you can be with us. You know, when I was going to... I wanted to say something before about just how I felt about the chant. It felt fun. I felt like I was bopping along with it. I was... I don't know if that's correct or anything, but I was moving my body with the rhythm of the chant. Yeah. And it felt very enjoyable.

[54:23]

Yeah. And doing it all together was, of course, part of the enjoyment. So that's okay? Was it okay to bop? Was that the true human body? Why would it not be okay, right? To bop. Like service is a bop. Morning service is a bop. If it isn't a bop, it isn't morning service. You know, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Right? So, like, if we sit there and we go... You know, it's very different. From... Right? That's what's meant by purified intention. Okay, so that energy of swinging is what is called for, in fact.

[55:31]

That energy of swinging is part of our equipment. You can't just use it indiscriminately. You have to use it for a purpose, right? Because your purpose is what you're doing here. But I didn't understand that sentence. My purpose... What are we all doing sitting around wearing medieval uniforms and doing arcane rituals? The point is that this is a path that allows us to fulfill our purpose. What Suzuki Roshi said was our inmost request. That's the point. Some people will just come in to get out of the rain. That's a good point, too. But what keeps us here doing this? What's it for? And that's what we have to stay with. I mean, to me, I feel like what keeps me here is that it works.

[56:36]

Yeah. Basically. Thank you. I have experienced, or other people also have commented on, you know, the way I've changed. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. So I do want to ask, to request, if there is another person who teaches Zen who would like to give a comment from a different point of view, I would be very interested to hear it. So I think that this kind of... 360 degree presentation is important for for our sangha practice so I'd like to call it doesn't have to be a teacher it can be someone who has experience with this and would like to make a comment I'd like to hear one comment if someone could do that thanks thank you so much for your talk

[57:47]

and for a subject that we don't have a lot of Dharma talks about, so it's unique and great to have it in this setting. And I was really intrigued when you got to the section, but then you said you were going to skip over it, about the kind of the topography of the words and the impact on the body of the actual tonal. aspects of these and you know many times my personal experience is that i might be sitting in zazen and have something that is recurring over and over again and i'm trying to not hold on to it i'm trying to not push it away and it's still plaguing me and it's almost like a struggle and then i'll get to the place where we're chanting after zazen in service And now I have the opportunity to have breath and body and posture and a somatic experience. And then when we get to the Durrani specifically, the words and the intonations, the ways that the consonants and vowels were put together was intentional because of the impact of the tonal topography of that entire recitation done in repetition.

[58:58]

And for some reason, by the time that that's over, it seems that the thing that was plaguing me went somewhere else. And it became like a full body experience that was a meditation in a different plane. And that's just something I wanted to share in regard to... And that's some of the languaging other people have given me and things that I've experienced around Durrani's. But... I'm very happy that we don't translate them literally into English and just say this is what the words would be without actually respecting the fact that there was a specific way that they were stuck together based on the previous translations. Thank you so much. Yeah, the reason I didn't want to bring it up was because we wouldn't have had time for Q&A if I did, but I have it prepared and I'll have to think about how to present it. I just want to ask for one more comment, and that's from you again.

[59:59]

Yeah. I'm just interested in what happened over the course of the last half hour, 45 minutes for you. I'm just really interested in what happens with this. Thank you for your interest. Yes, I have a soft voice. Thank you for your interest. I'm glad to be here. I resonated, I think, with the last comment there of the other Zen person kind of experiencing... There's whatever you experience in the Zazen meditation and then kind of a release of something. I experienced, I think, a release of something... simple with these, with the Dharani that we did. I studied Latin in high school and we would sometimes read, we would read aloud the Latin and learn how to pronounce it, ancient Latin.

[61:10]

And I think that was an early day of like an opening for me of something like this because That being Latin, us being high schoolers, we didn't, like, we were learning the language and translating it, but it had a similar effect of like a rhythmic, communal, sort of comforting, like making of sounds with the architecture of the body. So I'm new to all these things, but I'm interested in like, to me there's something powerful, I haven't tapped it yet, There's something powerful about creating sound with the body. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, we'll go into this. I'll try to go into it sometime soon. Thank you so much for being willing to speak. I know I put you on the spot, and I really appreciate it. And thank you, everybody.

[62:11]

Thanks, Tim, for inviting me. Thanks, Abbot David, Abbot Paul. or senior Dharma teacher, Paul, I guess you are. Thank you, Dharma friends and family, and to be continued. Thanks, Mako, coming from Tassajara to this lecture. Thank you. Okay, shall we? May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Uta's way. Beings are numberless.

[63:11]

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