So is this all set, Lukey? Wow. Good morning. I'm happy to see all of you here this morning. In fact, there are a good many more of you than I imagined there would be. For some reason, I thought there might just be the practice period and my friends who work with me in the kitchen and some of my... fellow priests, but there's actually quite a number of visitors here today. I'm very happy to see you. If some of you were here, are long-time visitors to Green Gulch, or have practiced at practice periods, or Sashin's here, you might know me from some time back, but I fairly recently... less than two months ago, came back to live again after not living here for a number of years.

[01:01]

And straight into the thickness or the busyness of a very demanding job, which is taking care of the kitchen and the food, and the many people who work to prepare the food, and the many people who help me help the people who work to prepare the food, prepare the food, and so on. All of you who've been in that situation, whether for a day, a week, or a month, know that that's one of the great responsibilities here. And it's a joy, and sometimes it's exhausting. So when I was told I would be, well, I was invited to give a talk, which is a lovely invitation, and I said, well, maybe it will be just a little too soon, having... more or less recently arrived. And so I thought someone else had been invited. And about two weeks ago, I found out, no, actually not. And so at that moment, it was very clear to me that the topic that I would want to speak on or speak to or reflect on for a period of time was finding stillness in the midst of the hurly-burly of activity.

[02:18]

So that concept or that idea has organized my thoughts over the last couple of weeks as I prepared to meet you here today. And the first way it came to me was as a newly returning staff member, I had the opportunity to sit what we call tangario, which is a day of silent sitting in the zendo. And there was a group of about 20 participants in this current practice period sitting. that day and also quite a number of returning staff members. So I discovered by being given that invitation to sit Tangaryu, which is what you do when you come to live in the monastery for either a practice period or for extended to stay on staff, I realized it was possible to organize the work of my responsibilities in such a way as to take a full day away from my work in the kitchen.

[03:23]

And this was kind of a revelation to me. I still haven't succeeded in doing it on other occasions, but it was very clear to me that it was possible. And my sense that it was not possible was completely something I had manufactured. So that was a real gift. One way of recognizing both the need and the possibility of finding stillness in the midst of great activity and great responsibility is to stop and pause and see that one can do it, just in the most practical way. But the invitation to sit here is also a recognition or an opening to the possibility of finding stillness in the midst of activity. This is the teaching seat or the Dharma seat, but it's also the reality seat. I think of it as from this place to speak from the reality of this body, this life, and this moment.

[04:31]

And in truth, we're asked to do that all the time, every moment. But often we're caught up in making the soup or making the salad or getting the ordering done, which is what I'm usually doing on Sunday morning for the next week's food, or taking care of the children or the grandparents or whatever our worldly responsibilities seem to be. And we lose track right in the midst of all that activity. I certainly do. And I know that people who work with me have seen the difference between losing track of that place of stillness, even in motion, and being in that place of stillness, even in motion. And there's a difference and we can feel it and we can renew our commitment to that stillness. So I have felt that sitting at this seat also, like many of our forms, invites us to do this again and again and again.

[05:36]

We don't need the form to do it, but the form supports us to do it. So we're very happy to have these forms that, even coming to the zendo from whatever busy life everyone has come from, and giving yourself an hour or half an hour or two hours of peace and quiet in this beautiful valley. Or giving yourself a corner in your apartment or your home. where you can give yourself that quiet. But finally, or again and again finally, it comes back to not a special place or a special time, but in this exact moment, when a tray has fallen in the walk-in and there's ketchup and mustard all over the floor, right in that moment, and broken glass, right in that moment. can I find the stillness that can respond to that disaster?

[06:38]

Probably there's a moment of stillness there. Just the shock of seeing what has happened is a kind of moment of stillness right then. But in the midst of all of this, when there's pressure or the unknown or the unexpected or five things coming at once, is there stillness right now? there. And when there isn't, can I notice that there isn't and find it again? That's the challenge. It's not that necessarily that stillness is a constant. It's that it's always available if I am able to receive it. But I distract myself from that receiving. So that's kind of the frame of what I had in mind for talking about today. And then I noticed that there's an old Zen story that comes up around this very quickly for me, and it may have already occurred to some of you if you've heard it before. Yunnan was sweeping, and Dao Wu came by, his Dharma friend of many years, apparently, came by and said, too busy.

[07:53]

And Yunnan said, you should know there is one who is not busy. And Da Wu said, if so, then there are two moons. And I don't have a broom, I only have Qiyun's watch, but then Da Wu held up his, I mean, Yuan Yan held up his broom and said, which moon is this? And Da Wu ended the conversation. He was done. So there are different interpretations of this story and I don't want to get into interpretations because the interpretations point to different views and then we get caught in stories about stories about ideas and that's not really where I want to go today. I invite you to investigate it if you like. I've always felt the silence of that story, the reality of that moment.

[08:57]

or not even that moment, that reality within busyness where there is stillness and silence right in the heart of the activity. And it is not beyond our ability to be aware of that and to sense that as long as we remember. So, in a way, yu nyan was...

[09:20]

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