Good evening. So if you'd all settle into a comfortable upright position, wherever you are. Paying some attention to your spine should feel awfully good. Stretching your spine upward toward the head, balancing the head on the shoulders. Your eyes gently focused on the area. Somewhat down from you, like 45 degree angle, usually we say that. Looking down to about a 45 degree angle. Soft gaze. A couple of deep breaths through the mouth to start. And then just going back to a normal, unnatural breath. Think not thinking.

[01:31]

How do you think not thinking? The monk asks. Non-thinking. This is the essential art of Zazhen. Hello again.

[06:18]

I hope you all are well and finding your way back into your communities and your families, spending time together again. I think we're all probably deeply aware of the suffering going on right now in the Middle East, rekindling of old anger and hatred and violence. And I think all of us are praying for an end. An end to the endless. So with those thoughts in mind, I wanted to go back in time, you know, probably not to any time where there hasn't been conflict, of course, humans and all. But looking back on the history of our tradition and with some hope that there are these teachings, such as the one that we're looking at, Shito. It's a poem of the harmony of difference and equality. Even that alone, that title alone, you know, harmony of difference and equality.

[07:23]

What a hopeful thought that is. So last week I started talking about some of Suzuki Roshi's lectures on this poem that was written by Shito. His Japanese name is Sekito Gisen. So that's the one if you have ever chanted with us, the ancestors' names, that's the one you'll hear is Sekito Gisen by Oshoku. And this poem, the Sandokai, was Suzuki Roshi's favorite poem. And he lectured on it just before he died. In 1970, he gave lectures at Tassahara, which are now published in a book called The Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness. So that's the book that I'm reading and very happy to be reading it. It's such amazing. He was an amazing teacher. And, you know, when I first came to Zen Center, everybody was quoting Suzuki Roshi, you know, and they even oftentimes did so with a slight Suzuki Roshi accent, you know, so that was kind of funny.

[08:26]

But less and less so in recent years, I noticed more attention to other teachers. And so I'm very happy to have gone back to Suzuki Roshi and the way he helped us when He first came here, this kind of fresh soil, Western students eager to meet a Zen master, you know, and he didn't disappoint. He was really ready to do that. So how lucky, you know, for all of us. So for those of you who might be new to this assembly, I really welcome you. I'm glad you've come. So what I've been talking about over these last months are stories of the Zen ancestors. that are told in a book called The Transmission of Light. Transmission of Light was written by one of Dogen's descendants a couple of generations later by the name of Sekito Gisen. Sorry, Keizan Joken. Sekito Gisen is Shito.

[09:28]

Keizan Joken. These names all sound alike after a while, so don't worry about it. When the time comes, you can always look them up. So The Transmission of Light is a wonderful series of stories about the Zen ancestors passing on Dharma transmission or verification of their students' understanding through this process of what's called warm hand to warm hand. So one teacher verifies the understanding of one of his students and that student in turn, now having become a teacher, verifies the understanding of their students and so on. And that's the Zen story. That's been going on since Shakyamuni Buddha. passing the Dharma along from one warm hand to the next warm hand with a kind of living flow of this teaching with never cut off. That's one of the things we've promised to do when we enter into this contract, the Zen contract, is to not let it be cut off. I will not let it be cut off. We actually say those words in the ritual of Dharma transmission.

[10:30]

So I began these teaching stories with Shakyamuni Buna. and his transmission to Mahakashapa, who is considered our first Zen ancestor, takes place when Shakyamuni held up a flower and twirled it slightly, and Mahakashapa smiled. That's Zen, Zen starts there. And then I jumped ahead to two of the great Indian Mahayana philosophers, Nagarjuna, also known as the second Buddha, and basically the philosopher of the middle way teaching, the emptiness teachings. Heart Sutra, for those of you familiar with that. And also Vasubandhu, who is one of the founders of the Mind Only School. So these two schools, the Middle Way and the Mind Only, are basically underpinnings of Zen. You can lean into one or the other of these depending on what's appropriate for the student that you happen to be in relationship with. Sometimes Mind Only is good, encouraging, and sometimes emptiness teachings are encouraging.

[11:34]

So from there, from those Indian masters, I jumped up to Bodhidharma, who was the Indian Zen teacher who was sent to China by his teacher. And so that's the beginning. The Zen story is that we came to China from Bodhidharma's arrival. That's how we got to China, was the Indian Zen master coming there. And then from there, from Bodhidharma, there's a... about five steps before we arrive at Huynong, who I talked about a few months ago. Huynong is called the sixth Chinese ancestor, and he's probably the most important, influential, iconic figure in Zen. So from there on, the branching streams flow out into a great many directions and throughout all of China and to Japan and onward to Korea and then off to America by and by. So even though Hui Nong was most likely apocryphal, his stories were created much later after he'd long passed away.

[12:39]

Still, his name and the teachings that are packaged under his name are significant in the foundation of Zen. So his name, Hui Nong, sixth ancestor. So after talking about Hui Nong, I then went to Chinese master Shito, who is the person I'm talking about right now. And he's significant for us because the line I'm following, the one that's in the transmission of light, having been written by a Soto Zen master, Keizan, is the line that will get us to the San Francisco Zen Center. So we are Soto Zen. And this is our branch. The branching stream that landed in California with Suzuki Roshi is Soto Zen. So Shito was a significant ancestor for Soto Zen, and his Dharma eventually arrived with and was taught by Tozan Ryokai, who's our founder, considered our founding ancestor. So he's the one who wrote the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, which is a very beautiful poem and very like this one in message.

[13:53]

It's just a more elaborate poem, and it has incredibly beautiful imagery in it. So we'll look at that one in a while, too, when we get to Tozan Ryokai. So among the many descendants of Tozan, so Soto, that's the toe of Soto's end, Tozan, and his disciple, Sozan, who, for some reason, Soto didn't, I mean... Toso Zen didn't sound right. So they just flipped it and made it Soto Zen. It just sounds better. But actually the primary teacher is Tozan. So among the many descendants from Tozan are Dogen Zenji and Suzuki Roshi. And then all of us at the San Francisco Zen Center are considered descendants of this lineage. So that's it. That's our story. Direct line from Shakyamuni Buddha to us. You know, that's how the story goes. So what Kezon's book, The Transmission of Light, is doing is basically reaffirming this story of the Zen lineage, which is a very fascinating history.

[15:01]

It's much of it written out and with these incredible characters and their amazing activities and things that they said, which is a really interesting to historians themselves. They find Zen history interesting and they question most of the historical claims of the Zen tradition have been seriously questioned. challenge, which is great and interesting in itself. I think I've recommended to all of you, Seen Through Zen by John McRae, which I just really enjoy. I've read it many times, and it's almost everything you want to know about Zen is in there in a very nice way, a very encouraging analysis of Zen history. But more importantly, Zen history is important to teachers of Zen. You know, those of us who want to convey the stories and the teachings themselves that came through this storytelling process, this kind of fanciful storytelling. So we use the stories of the ancestors and these iconic figures in order to kind of package the teachings.

[16:07]

You know, humans love stories. We love to tell stories. And so we remember them in many ways better than some kind of... philosophical treatise. I have no idea what they said. I read it. It was interesting. But some story about a teacher and some exchange with a student or another teacher can be learned and memorized. And this is really, they're like cookies. This is kind of how the teaching has been passed along, these little cookies. So the Buddha himself reportedly said, don't look at me. Listen to what I have to say. And if you like what I say, well, then it's yours. Please take it. And if you don't, it's fine. You can leave it either way. So I think one of the things I've always appreciated about Zen is it really is saying to itself, don't look at these teachers. Just listen to the teaching. Listen to what they say. That's really what's important here. So... So that's just a little background on our weekly gatherings.

[17:10]

And if any of you who haven't been along for a while would like to have questions, you're more than welcome to ask. It's easy to get a hold of me at Green Gulch. So any questions you have, I'm happy to respond. So I'm going to continue this little peruse through the centuries of ideas and teachings. And I hope all of you can enjoy the scenery as we do that. Last week in telling Shito's story, which is Chapter 36 of The Transmission of Light, I mentioned he'd had a dream that was really significant. I'm sure you all dream. I certainly have had lots of dreams in my life. And there was a time when I was writing them down. And I think that was a very rich, maybe some of you still do that, but it's really rich to write down your dreams and let them talk to you. Let them try to help you know what's important, what you're working on or what you're going through. So Shito was working on waking up. And he was going through a lot of, he made a lot of effort.

[18:13]

He'd been a monk for quite a long time. And he was smart. He was a very smart fellow. So he had a lot of knowledge building up inside of him, a lot of understanding of the intellectual understanding of the teaching. So then he has this dream. And in the dream, he's riding on a sea turtle with Hui Nong, the six Chinese ancestors. So that gives him kind of elevated status in his own mind. But in his dream, he's there with the six Chinese Zen ancestors. And this sea turtle is riding on the ocean. So when Shito wakes up, he has this realization about what he's seen in the dream. And then he writes this poem, the Sandokai. based on this realization. So the way that Shito interprets the dream is that the sea turtle is knowledge, all this knowledge that he's accumulated throughout his life of study, and that the water that the turtle's riding on is the ocean of existence or the essence of reality itself.

[19:20]

So in other words, Shito and Huynong are riding on the same body of knowledge, on the Buddha Dharma, the Buddha's wisdom, which in turn is riding on the ocean of reality. one as a conveyance it's a way for us to pass through the ocean of existence which we all we're all on it whether we get on the turtle or not there's some other conveyance whatever it is that we're using to support our lives this buddha dharma is the way that shito and and the zen ancestors have been supporting their lives on the great ocean of reality And then Shito says, my teaching is the bequest of the enlightened ones of the past. So this is lineage story, warm hand and warm hand. My teaching is the bequest of the enlightened ones of the past. The body itself is Buddha. Mind, Buddha, sentient beings, enlightenment and affliction are different in name, but one in essence, but they are the same in essence.

[20:25]

They're all part of reality. If you can realize this, you will be complete. So I think, you know, we really keep hearing the same thing. I mean, in a way, it's sort of like, well, isn't that just the same thing we keep hearing? That you need to study your mind. You need to study the contents of your mind. You need to be aware of what's going on in your own sense of things. You know, it's just common sense. What's going on? within your mind and within your understanding of the world around you. So all of the Zen ancestors are telling us the same thing, encouraging us to study the teachings, including study the mind, and also to study the sea turtle, the conveyance, so the teachings about studying the mind, that's the turtle, and then to study ourselves as we are riding on the back of the turtle, know with our companions with our teachers so she toes there with one of his teachers a great master of the dharma so we find a teacher some way that someone we can trust to help us navigate you know riding on the sea turtle so and then we also study the ocean itself you know the vast circle of water this all-inclusive awareness both awake and in our dreams

[21:44]

So one very good way of doing this is by giving ourselves time throughout each day to reflect on ourselves and on the world and to reconsider what we are seeing, what we are thinking, what we are doing, and in particular, what we are believing. And then by asking ourselves this very simple Zen question, you know, is that so? I remember Reb... I'd like to tell that story, maybe you've all heard it, about the old farmer who accuses the priest of the temple of impregnating his daughter. His daughter's gotten pregnant, so he takes the baby up to the old priest and he says, this is your child, you take care of it. And the priest says, is that so? And then a few months later, the farmer finds out from his daughter that actually it was the neighbor boy who's the father. He goes back to the temple and says to the priest, I'm so sorry, you are the best priest that's ever lived. And the priest says, is that so? And the farmer takes the baby back.

[22:50]

Is that so? So Rebbe was saying that when he first heard that story years ago, he thought of it as a little bit more kind of like, I don't know, defiant exactly. But is that so? Is that what you think? In both cases, you're the best or you're the worst. Is that so? And then he said later, as he got older, he thought, Actually, it's a very good question. Is that so? Am I the worst? Am I the best? He began to see it more as questioning or doubting our own sense of like that I'm right, that whatever I'm thinking must be true because I'm also feeling it. So beginning to really challenge the belief system that we carry around, which we've trained ourselves to as protection, whatever we use it for. Is that so? Do I even need it anymore? You know, most of us are getting to that point where we probably don't need it much more. You know, we can let it all go. So I was appreciating this morning that as Reb, for those of you who attended the lecture this morning that Reb gave, you know, it seems like every answer to every question someone brought up, he just responded with this teaching of giving of generosity.

[23:59]

So whatever it is you're going through, can you give it your attention? Can you give it kindness? Can you give compassion? So here's another kind of giving. Can you give yourself time and space to reconsider your intention toward each other, toward yourself, toward the world? And in particular, to reflect on this core of silence and stillness at the center of reality. I'm saying that and that is a profound teaching that has been said, again, all through the history of Buddhism, there is a core of silence and stillness, call it nirvana, blown out. Nothing's happening, you know, all these different ways that this is said. But, you know, saying it and actually touching that core, like entering into the core of silence and stillness is, you know, profound difference between knowing something with your knowledge, with your intellect, and knowing it experientially.

[25:01]

So this is the big bridge that also has what we're hearing about with Shito's awakening. This silence and stillness is always right there, silently waiting for us to visit, but not just to visit, but also to dance, as happened with Shakyamuni Buddha under the tree. He began to dance. with the vastness of reality with the stars in the sky with the the grasses and the trees and the young woman carrying water he wasn't afraid of her anymore he wasn't afraid of his own passion for life you know which had been what had driven him into the forest he was afraid that you know his life would be taken away so he he got really depressed instead of this kind of opposite exaltation at being alive you know um so you know it Silence and stillness is the salvation or the salve for our pain as it was for the young prince under the tree and as it was for Shito as he floated on the back of the sea turtle.

[26:03]

And so once we touch this core, this base, the oneness or the equality of all things, then we can turn back the other way and reflect on our tiny living world. This little, what was it, Carl Sagan called it, the pale blue dot. Now, here we are in the pale blue dot with its multitudes of suffering beings. And each and every one of us, you know, each and every one of them are different and unique. And at the same time, each and every one has its own equal value. Everything, everyone has equal value to exist. Right where it is, right where it stands. Just like the furniture in your house and the plates on your shelves. you and your family and so on we each have our place we have our place in this tiny living world and uh how to how to respect that and and treat that with great care you know so this is what is what meant by the harmony of difference and equality and it's what is meant by the mind of the great sage of india it's this all-inclusive mind you know the ocean of reality itself with each of us you know tiny sea turtles riding along on the surface there

[27:21]

So just remembering that Shito's own story, which I talked about last week, he's gone through these two stages of awakening. The first one is this intellectual stage, the stage of what's called the stage of vision. He really sees, you know, he's got it. He sees it in his dream. He sees it there on the back of the turtle. The turtle is the sea turtle of knowledge, which is really good stuff. You know, he and Hway Nung share this sea turtle of knowledge. And at the same time, With all of that knowledge in hand, when Shito goes to call on a Zen teacher, he gives a lot of clever responses to the teacher's questions. He's kind of rude, actually. The teacher's asking him things, and there's no humility in Shito's responses. I think they play it that way on purpose in the narrative. And yet at the very end of their dialogue, it seems like Shito may have bested him with this emptiness teaching. His knowledge He comes to the end of what he knows. He comes to an abrupt end.

[28:25]

And that's when he has his second experience of awakening. So the first one is this stage of vision. And the second one is called the stage of being, of being or becoming. So in this second awakening, it is the one that truly brings him to life. And that's when his teacher, after he's been kind of... Arguing or playing ping pong with the teacher. Teacher says this, he says that. He says this, he says that. The teacher finally just hits him with a whisk. Hits him in the nose. And that just stops him in his tracks. So this is at the moment at which Shito is reminded of silence and stillness at the core of his being. You know, when he can't speak anymore, he can't think anymore. He can't move from the spot of earth on which he's standing at that moment. He's been, you know, he's been stunned by this kindness of this teacher.

[29:27]

This is called the stage of being. Just this is it. You know, just this is it. I have a hunch, Shito may have smiled at that point, as did his teacher. So after his second awakening, when all of his personal doubts and his arrogance and his mental gymnastics have dropped away, then Shito writes his poem. He's now simply devoted to conveying this teaching of awakening in a way that he hopes will be a benefit to others. Many others, those who aren't even born yet, like all of us, way long time away. Could he even dream of us? Probably not. I guess we were in the ocean of of existence way back then too. So anyway, this is one reason that Suzuki Rishi found this poem, said this was his favorite poem. You can feel the freshness of this young teacher's awakening, that moment of his awakening throughout this poem.

[30:34]

So I was thinking about the same kind of sort of two-step process. Conflict, you know, how do we resolve conflict when there's, you know, there's something there to be known, something further to be known. And we're kind of stuck. We're a little bit stuck in our opinions of one side or another side. So I don't know, some of you may have been involved in this intensive that we did the last few weeks with myself and Gil Fransdale and Paul Heller. And we called it, you know, kind of riffing on Chito, the harmony of Zen and Vipassana. And I think we were kind of calling on Shito's help to navigate what seems to be a difference between Zen and Western style Vipassan teaching as it's being practiced right now, right here in Marin. For those of you in Marin, we have Spirit Rock up the road and then there's Green Gulch over here. And, you know, oftentimes a lot of our students are going back and forth between these two approaches.

[31:41]

to awakening and definitions of awakening. You're like, are we after the same thing? I mean, are we going to have the same outcome here? Which was a really interesting part of our conversation. And I thoroughly enjoyed. So I found it really helpful when Gil, an old friend who started off as his end student here at Gringold, actually long, long time ago, and then did training. And I think he was in Thailand for quite a while and became really, devoted to the Western style of Vipassana. He studied with Jack Kornfield and really developed his guided meditation practice. It's quite lovely. So when he was talking about the tradition, he said that after great effort, one student or practitioner enters into the current or the stream of the Buddhist teaching. So it's called stream entering. And then once you're in that flow, then you're simply carried along. by your own devotion and your own embodiment of those teachings.

[32:45]

You really don't have to work so hard anymore. You're kind of being pulled downstream by the teachings themselves, the practices themselves. And that there's really no difference between that, to my understanding, and this continuous practice, this emblematic of Soto Zen. Every day, every day is a good day. Every day is a day of practice. And everything you do is an expression of your intention. to practice and to awaken. So we, as we all said to one another, the closer we get to the kind of the fruition of our effort, the more and more it just becomes the ocean, the essence. You know, these streams, branching streams flow in the darkness and they flow into the ocean, the great ocean of all-inclusive Buddha's mind. So there's plenty of room. for different approaches. So in Chito's poem, it's the reunion of the two sides of a seeming conflict in which realization arises.

[33:50]

You know, it's these two things, like water and fire, you get steam, you know. This intense and passionate regard for approach or for my side and your side and so on. As the conflict becomes, you know, intimate, the intimacy of the two sides, there's the transformation, the possibility. of harmonizing. You can't harmonize if you're in two different rooms playing your own notes. You got to get in there and try to make a kind of choir orchestra out of yourselves. And that takes work. That takes lots of work, lots of time. And when it happens, it's extraordinary. The self drops away. Someone told me that one of the reasons they love choir, and I think I'm looking forward to finding a choir one of these days, because I love to sing in choir too, is that you disappear. It's the one time this woman was saying that as she disappears in the sound, like when their sounds are all, you know, they're singing together, you know, she's gone. She no longer feels her separation.

[34:52]

And I thought, oh, yeah, that's great. That's awakening right there. So I wanted to again go back to Shito's own time. So in his time, the conflict wasn't so much Vipassana and Zen, or Tibetan practice, the conflict was between the teaching styles and doctrines within Zen itself. So there was the northern and southern schools of Zen. So I went through that a bit in the Platform Sutra that we looked at, where Huynong is basically the victor and proclaiming the southern school as primary. And the northern school sort of evaporates eventually over the centuries. And you're just left with, there's no more southern school, there's just Zen. But the approach of the Southern school was characterized as sudden enlightenment. And the approach of the Northern school had been characterized as gradual enlightenment, like steps and stages. So...

[35:55]

You know, this is one of those places where like, well, is it going to take you a while? Do you make a big effort over time? And here's different things you have to do in order to get wherever you're going, whatever that is, what's your goal? And, you know, you're here now, but you're going to get there later. Or does it happen right now with the sudden awakening to the true nature of existence? So these two seemingly conflictual approaches to realization. Really, if you think about it for a little while, it's like, well, whatever you're doing, the sudden part is that whatever you're doing, sudden, suddenly is always sudden. Everything is sudden because there's nothing other than sudden. We're always here in the present moment with nothing else other than that. And so whatever is happening there, if it be some happy realization, great. And if it be some despair. I'm not great, but there it is. So being with what's happening is actually our life. It's our true life. And yet we can think about all these plans and where we've been.

[36:58]

And so the mind allows us, we don't want to just say, well, I'm sorry, but you're not allowed to think about the past or about the future because you can't help yourself. You will do it anyway. So we have to include the narratives. that we all run about our lives and ourselves. And we are going from here to there. And we did do this or that. And at the same time, recognizing them as it's just a story. Where is it now? Where is it now? So it's sort of in and out of these two perspectives, the gradual path and the moment in time. You know, this kind of these two... The moment in time just goes along the gradual path. They never separate for a moment. That's us. But this part actually is a bit of an illusion. But it's the one that we're rather fond of and used to. Storytelling. Anyway, there's a lot more about that, which is fun to think about. And we will be doing that because that's where it keeps going.

[37:59]

It all keeps going back to this. The vertical and the horizontal. Shito is talking about branching streams in his poem. He says the branching streams flow on in the darkness. So for him, the branching streams of the northern and southern school, this conflict within Zen about this long, effortful path or the sudden awakening. You just hear a pebble hit bamboo and kaboom, you're awake. So there's stories like that. And then there's all of the stories of these great efforts that humans have made over centuries to try and relieve themselves of their suffering. That's pretty much the point of whatever we're doing, right? Just try and get out of the terrible throws of certain kinds of optional suffering. So to go back to the Sandokai, how are we doing for time? That's okay. So the mind of the great sage of India first line, is intimately, says Buddha's mind, is intimately transmitted from west to east, west to east.

[39:06]

So Bodhidharma was in the west, and he came to the east, to China. The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from west to east. While human faculties are sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors, no gradual or sudden enlightenment. So Shito is basically taking the side of a reconciler. He's reconciling differences. It's a big part of his non-dual, non-dual approach to, you know, bringing peace to two sides, the two sides of his own ancestry. You know, this is the Buddha's family. And why are we fighting? What happened there? You know, we're all the children of this first ancestor, the Shakyamuni Buddha. So how it is that we end up going off in these different directions is very human, but it's also kind of discouraging, you know? So I really, really, really enjoyed bringing the Vipassana and Zen schools together for these three weeks.

[40:10]

And we couldn't find anything that really made much difference. We were all feeling just completely compatible with each other's way of teaching and understanding and lots of mutual learning. It took place for all of us. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The spiritual source, the great ocean of reality, shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow on in the dark. How did that happen? We don't know. We can't really see how those changes happen, but they flow in the dark. So given that this poem begins with the mind of the great sage of India, we also begin with the biggest and most inclusive approach. to what it is that we're trying to learn from these teachings. So we wanna learn the ocean of reality, which is where we are, it's what we are. And at the same time, as we know, we have this very small way of understanding reality because that's all we've been told, that's all we've been taught.

[41:12]

So we're trying to kind of unlearn the small way or keep it around, I mean, it's handy, but really open up to the mind of the great sage of India. And in order to do that, which always seems a little counterintuitive, you'd think you just want to dump all your baggage. Well, let's just get rid of all the gunk, and then we'll have the mind of the great sage of India. That's what's left over when you get rid of your discursive thinking and your irrationality and your judgments and so on. But Suzuki Roshi says that this approach includes all of our desires, our selfishness, our judgments, and so on, which are the very things that we need to explore. in order to see what the great mind is made of and what it responds to. So the great mind of the great sage of India is not in a vacuum. It's not in a void or a null set. It's right here. It's what you're looking at right now. You know, I don't mean...

[42:13]

I mean, the whole surround of your awareness right now is a 360-degree awakening. You are awake in 360-degree vast bubble of awareness. You are all the time from the minute you get up in the morning until you go back to bed. You are in this great bubble of awareness, along with all your desires and your selfishness and your judgments and so on. It's a set, you know. The big mind and small mind are a team. They work together. And the big mind is responding to the small mind. That's what Buddhists do. Buddhists respond to suffering beings. So our capacity for our oceanic aspect responds to the turtle or whatever it is you're writing. It responds to that little cry of humanity, of sentient beings. So the Buddhas arise in response to sentient beings. And Buddha's great mind is omnipresent.

[43:19]

It doesn't sleep. You know, it's just always on patrol, you know, looking for, listening for us. You know, that's us. So when we reflect on ourselves in this way, holistically, meaning all of our parts, you know, all of the ways that we're cranky and selfish and so on and so forth, as our practice, you know, each step of practice is is enlightenment. Enlightenment is the path. The path is enlightenment. So every step of your practice, if you view what you're doing as practice, you are in the stream. You have entered the stream. And, you know, sometimes we get out of the river. We just want to sit by the side there and be cranky. That's okay, too. But basically, whenever we enter into the world of practice, Suzuki Rishi says, well, that's Buddha's mind. Buddha's mind is in the current. of the bodhisattva vow, the wish to save all beings, the perfection, six perfections as training.

[44:21]

All of these teachings are in this current, this universal, this big mind that includes everything without exception. That we accept our judgments without judgment. That we accept our selfishness without being selfish. That we accept our anger without being angry and so on. You know, in other words, we are cultivating a mind that doesn't mind itself. It doesn't mind what comes in it. You know, I don't mind. I don't know. I know you're welcome. Please come right in. You know, you're very welcome here. Whatever's here is a guest, is a guest of the host, the host and the guest. Another big, wonderful teaching that I'll be bringing up later is this five ranks of guest and host, you know. So the guests are all these little momentary beings blips of thought and of image and memory and wishes and impulses and agitation, all of that stuff. You know, I know them all because I have them all.

[45:23]

I don't think I've had any new ones added for a while, but I could be surprised. But, you know, sort of like I think sometimes of a keyboard and like all these different keys that I've been playing my whole life. You know, some of them are really pleasant and some of them are really harsh, but they're all there. And that's the instrument upon which my life is determined. My well-being and the well-being of the people in my life is how well I learn to treat this set of responses that I have to the world. So cultivating a mind that doesn't mind itself. You're no longer, your mind isn't your enemy. You're not afraid of it. You understand that all that stuff that's coming in and out of your mind is just that. It's just stuff that comes and goes. None of it lingers very long, you know, unless we, you know, do this thing that we can do, which is make a habit out of it. You know, we start, oh yeah, every time, if I kick in again with the same stimulus and I do the same actions, this is,

[46:29]

Then I repeat it again and again. I make a habit out of it. And that's the unfortunate part of how our minds work is we can create this wheel. It's called samsara. We do it again and again and again. So breaking those habit patterns is the challenge. How do I stop just, well, maybe this time it'll work. Last time it didn't work so well, but this time it's going to work better. So the weakest link in the habit pattern of the 12-fold, this is called the 12-fold chain of dependent co-arising. The weakest link is feelings. When we have feelings, there is a hope. There's a chance of not moving. At that moment, like with the whisk, you know, just stop. Just stop at feelings. They will run their course. Nothing lasts. Everything's impermanent. Feelings too. As you know, you've had many feelings in your life, and most of them are not here right now. So they will go away.

[47:31]

And one of the major aids to that happening is if you just stop at feelings. Don't engage with them. Don't take them to the next step. Don't enact them. Don't speak from them. You know, just wait. Give yourself a count of ten. Breathing, you know, there's a nice couple of big inhalations followed by about eight normal breaths. And in some cases, I find it is a major difference between a really big mistake and, you know, conflict resolution. It just didn't go there. It just didn't have to go there. So just stop at feelings. It's the one place we can actually put a stick in the spoke of the wheel of birth and death, which is just what happened for the Buddha when he faced off with Mara, the evil one, under the tree. You know, Buddha had refused to give up his seat.

[48:32]

And as I tell this story over and over again, because I think it's so great, Mara tells the Buddha, I'm going to kill you now. I've given you every chance to get up, and now I'm going to kill you. And Buddha says, no, you're not, because I know who you are. You are myself. And with that, Mara, the evil one, also known as the master of illusions, disappears. So when we face off with the master of illusions, that would be us. When we actually look at the amazing capacity we have to imagine, this imaginarium, that big sphere that I was mentioning, the sphere of awareness, is our imaginarium. We enjoy naming and calling and playing with all of these elements of our imagination. That's how we entertain ourselves. It's how we get ourselves all in a snip or thrown off or in love or you name it. It's all through this vivid imagination we have.

[49:34]

It's a wonderful invention of the species and it's a little out of control. So we're trying to get into a good relationship with our imagination. And I think all of these teachings are basically teachings about our imagination. What we imagine is so. And is that so? Is that so? I don't think we can be ever sure that it's so. We can act on it carefully and with our practice, with our intention to be kind. But is it so? I don't know. Suzuki Roshi says that when we can just be ourselves, We can speak without thinking too much and without having some special purpose. We just then speak or act just to express ourselves. And that is complete self-respect. He says, if you practice hard, you will be like a child, just playing, just singing, just sitting, just this poem, just my talk.

[50:37]

It doesn't mean very much. We say that Zen is not something that you talk about. It's something you experience in the true sense. in each and every moment. So in the next chapter of Branching Streams, I'm going to continue through Branching Streams. I'm just learning so much and looking back over these teachings. The next chapter he calls, Suzuki Roshi calls, warm hand to warm hand. And he takes up the next few lines of the poem. And then talks about the purpose of this poem and how really it's intended to explain reality from the two sides. And I know we've talked about the two sides. It never, I think you can't talk about the two sides too much because they're invaluable keys to understanding Buddhist teaching. Certainly Zen. So the two sides, and this again is Nagarjuna's specialty, are the ultimate side, the ultimate truth, and the relative truth.

[51:40]

So there's the ultimate side, the great ocean of reality itself, as in Shito's dream. And then there's the relative side, which is the sea turtle with these two Zen teachers riding on its back, talking away about the meaning of reality. So there's the ocean of reality. And then there's these two folks sitting there talking about the ocean of reality. That's the relative truth. Their relationship to one another, their relationship to the sea turtle, to the ocean, all of that is relative truth. And it's what we can talk about. The ocean of reality itself, not so much to say. Just, wow. So remembering from the title of the poem, Harmony of Difference. So the harmony of difference and equality. So there's this... Difference is the two guys and the turtle. Equality is the ocean. Or you can also say the many, the two guys, the turtle, the ocean, and the one, just the ocean.

[52:44]

So san, san do kai, san is many, basically three, Ichini, san in Japanese. San, many, and do, one, san do. And then he reminds us about the kai. Sandokai, which is the friendship or the harmony or the combination, how the inseparability of the many and the one. That these are two elements are conjoined. And they're conjoined in each of us. Each of us human beings is Sandokai. Many and the one. The big mind and the small mind. The universe and the self. There's no separation. You don't take the self out of the universe. Yeah, right? So anyway, you don't take the small mind out of the big mind. They're twins. They're conjoined. That's lucky for us. So this relationship is one in which the many is right and the one is right.

[53:46]

They're both right. It's not like one's better or not right. They're both right. They have equal value in and of themselves, just as a mountain and a dog and a cat. worm and a chair and a person has equal value in and of itself. So being right doesn't, however, mean that it's easy. You know, each thing has its own challenges and its own dharma position within the mandala of our shared existence. So in referring to the line in the poem that says, while human faculties may be sharp or dull, the way has no northern or southern ancestors, he's giving us some instruction on how to treat each other's differences. So I really like this teaching about love that Suzuki Roshi gives to us during this particular, his commentary on these lines of the poem. He says that love has two sides. One is to give joy, and the other is to lessen suffering. When someone is very good-natured, we give them the joy of practicing.

[54:49]

We offer them a zafu and a seat in the zendo, you know. on the kitchen, put them on the kitchen crew and so on. But when someone is caught in suffering, then we suffer with them. They may not be able to sit on a zafo or work in the kitchen. It may just be too much. It's just too hard, too scary. So we suffer with them. We share their suffering. He said that's love. Lessening suffering on one side and giving joy on the other. So next Sunday, I'm going to talk about Suzuki Roshi's third talk, which is called Buddha is always here. And he reflects on these verses. The spiritual source shines clear in the light. The branching streams flow on in the dark. Grasping at things is surely delusion. According with sameness is still not enlightenment. So this is one of the chapters I've been spending quite a bit of time with. And if you have a chance or have the book and would like to read through it, be great.

[55:51]

We could, you know, we could. talk a bit more about your own thoughts about this. So as I said, I feel so grateful to have rediscovered Suzuki Roshi's teaching. You know, and I just think it's amazing that, you know, hear this wish that he had to come to California to bring the Dharma even further to the West, you know, further than China, you know, all the way to California. It's amazing, you know, as we say in California, you know, Eureka. There's gold in them there, Hills. And this is gold. This is really gold that this lovely teacher brought to us. And yeah, sometimes I think it's really hard to continue to hold the gratitude that I know we all feel for what we've been given. So please, if any of you would like to... comment or share thoughts, I'd be happy to hear them.

[56:52]

Let me get my full gallery view on. Lots of familiar names, some faces. Hi, Tim. Last Thursday, I was in surgery. Oh, no, are you okay? Objective surgery. Ah, good. I heard a voice saying, Tim, wake up. A very gentle voice, a woman's voice. Tim, wake up. Tim, wake up. Tim, wake up. It was the nurse in the recovery room. Sweet. And I thought, and I woke up, and I went... Wow, the nurse is a Buddhist teacher. She's telling me to wake up. That's so sweet.

[57:54]

It's funny, right? Yeah, it's great. It's true. I've been carrying that with me since I had that experience, yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of listening to you talk about your knowledge and experience, and I feel like you're saying that to me too. Tim, wake up. There's a party going on, Tim. You are invited. Thank you for telling it. That's so sweet. Thank you. Thank you. silence and stillness. So I have an idea.

[59:03]

How about for those of you who, oh, great. Alicia, thank you so much. I was just going to share the thought that maybe for next week, if you could think about a question, you don't have to ask it, but it'd be really nice if you'd think about something that's on your mind, that at least you'd have a possibility of jumping in. You know, when we were doing the intensive, it was really lovely after a while that more and more of the people began to let us hear their voices and so on. So you're so welcome to do that, all of you. Alicia, good afternoon. Hi, how are you? Good afternoon. Thank you so much for what you shared with us. I had two questions, but I'll pick one. Okay, I'll try to make them go together. It's interesting to me because when I have studied koans, there was always a sudden enlightenment, and they're always so brief, and I wondered, how did they get enlightened? I mean, I was always thinking about a more gradual enlightenment, so that's just so interesting that the koans, even though we don't study koans per se and so do Zen, they're always sudden, and I always wondered about that.

[60:15]

So I'd love to hear your thoughts about that. And the second thing was, you know, going through this three-week intensive. Unfortunately, I couldn't do it, but I was wondering if you might share something that you took away that informs your practice or your teaching from Vipassana and how you can merge them for yourself. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. I will say something about that. place at that moment when the student you don't know how long they've been thinking about that story or you know suffering in the zendo or whatever they've been doing there's you know i would say that all all of us who practice have spent an awful lot of time in the sweatshop you know somebody once said everybody wants to talk about enlightenment but nobody wants to talk about the sweating horses So there's a lot of work that people have done, mostly misdirected, like trying to find something, you know, or some special state of mind or whatever.

[61:16]

And like, or and then you get something that kind of nice. And then, you know, somebody says something mean to you and it all disappears. So, you know, it's really a long process to come to some kind of settled understanding of like, oh, you mean just this is it? You mean really? Yeah, really. This? Yeah, this. Yeah, I never had to go anywhere. No, never did have to go anywhere. You know, so it's sort of like coming home to your own house and going like, oh, I forgot. I forgot. What a wonderful place I live in. What a wonderful thing. I'm alive. I have a body and I can see and I can hear. And this gift of, like Tim said, wake up. Wake up, Tim. You know, you're here. You made it through. You know, you're back. And that celebration of life, I think that's what I think of as waking up, is that there's a smile. Mahakashapa smiled when the Buddha twirled the flower.

[62:18]

It's like, what have I been thinking? Where's the joy that is our true inheritance as human beings? And sometimes it's really hard to see. It's really kind of... So then that's what Suzuki Roshi said. And we suffer with each other while we're waiting in recovery. And for the healing. And that's important too. There's no skipping. No skipping anything. We just take care of all of it as we need to. All of our parts. Mel Weitzman, this sweet man who is no longer alive, used to say that, you know, Saving all beings means to save all the beings that you are. I think that's right. And as far as Zen and Vipassana, I really enjoyed Gil's guided meditations.

[63:23]

And I thought, oh, that's really nice. And I got really calm. And I thought, okay, I think I'm going to Pay more attention to that for the newer students in particular, because I think it's nice to have some, to be walked in to a space where then you can settle. Because like Gil says, he said, once I, I've heard that from other Vipassana teachers, after I go through my moves, you know, I go through my calming instructions, then I just sit, Chikantaza, just sit. Or Dzogchen, whatever you want to call it. McGill said that too. It's like once you've entered into this calm abiding, then you're ready to start to practice with the wisdom teachings. So I really was encouraged to maybe learn more about how to help people with these initial practices without doing damage.

[64:28]

I think the problem is that there's some mythology in Zen that if you, well, Soto Zen, that if you do koan practice or you do, you know, the jhanas, you're going to ruin yourself for unsystematic Soto Zen, which is like, you know, there's no system. At the same time, it's the unsystematic that, and the systematic together in which realization takes place. just like fire and water, you know. That steam that comes off that's useful comes from the back and forth of the system with no system. They inform each other because they're two sides of the same. There's two sides of one coin. So it's not about getting rid of one or the other. It's about how to see them as complements. So I'm really feeling more akin to looking at the complementary nature of the vipassana.

[65:32]

approach. Thank you. Yeah. I got a lot out of it. Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for asking. No, I don't know how to say that. It's B. Benaddleman? Is that? I bet that's two names, isn't it? Is the B your first name? I can't. You're muted. I'm sorry, I was muted. I just unmuted myself. I don't know how to put it. First initial of my first name, Boris, and then last name, Nadelman. Boris is my first name. I'm relatively new to San Francisco Soto Zen Center, but I read a lot about Soto Zen Buddhism, mostly from, you probably heard that name, Tyson Deshimaru. He spread the Soto Zen more in Europe and France. I also read some of the... Suzuki Roshi books well the question I have is I don't know how to put it most of my family are committed Christians you know and I think it's specifically Christians they always you know think or tend to think this way so you can only obtain relationship or approach God through Christianity and I disagree with that you know so I told them whatever you want to call it ultimate truth ultimate wisdom cosmic mind

[67:03]

Logos, if you refer to ancient Greeks, you know, something like that. So it's all the same, but they disagree. So what is the Buddhist point of view on this kind of thing? Like what is God? What is, you know, or there is such a thing. Yeah, well, the Buddha was asked that. Is there a God or not? And he said, that question will not help you attain salvation. Correct. The same thing about heaven. Is there heaven? He said, that's not going to help you right now. to become free. So he basically didn't answer those questions about eternity or heaven or God or no God. He was like, it's not so useful suffering human. You know, what you really need to understand is what's causing your suffering. He was much more of a physician addressing, like he said, I teach two things. I teach suffering and the cause of suffering and the extinction. I teach the cause of suffering and the extinction of suffering. So And I think he was very practical in that approach.

[68:05]

It was very much grounded on human mind, human thought, human aggression, greed, hate, and delusion. Everything he taught was about us, not about a deity. He said, leave, you know, he didn't say, but leave God to God. Seems like God's got a lot to do out there. Maybe, you know, universes, maybe he's traveling. I don't know. But anyway, whatever that is, that we call that, whatever that might be, we have our own little tiny problems here. And that's where we live, and that's where we have to find relief. So Buddhism doesn't have a deity. Buddha wasn't a god. He was a human and who woke up. They asked him that. Are you a god? He said no. Are you a monster? He said no. Are you a spirit? He said no. He said, are you human? He said, no. And he said, what are you? He said, I'm awake. There's a quality.

[69:08]

So, you know, there's lots of those questions get answered a lot in the teachings. And then there are these really kind of familiar down home responses that the Buddha gave to those questions. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Satish. Hi, Fu. I think one of these days I have a few questions that I should probably take a few minutes to ask you in another forum. But my question now is, there's a couple of ways we think about all the thoughts that come to us, right? One is like a train coming like a car after car and you just step out of it and watch. There's observation or maybe allowing, let's call it. what you said about or Suzuki Roshi's front invite them in you can and let them go out through the back door you don't need to serve them tea the other thing which is kind of similar with train cars the other thing you mentioned is what did you mention oh let them be guests and there is a relationship with that that is

[70:27]

For me, the quality of that statement, what it means to me is it's a little bit more than just allowing. It's embracing. It is like they're totally fine with everything. Basically, the beauty of the wood grain is all the faults, the knots, which the water carrying things are going around and all this faults. That's what makes it beautiful. without that it'll just be one plain brown sheet so that's how I think about it is that correct and you said five qualities of guests you could probably talk about it at the time I guess well I think that's lovely what you just described and I would say you know what also came to mind when I used the example of the guests is that Suzuki Roshi also said we're all perfect the way we are and there's a a little room for improvement. So when we're guests, even in our own minds, you know, I think it's important for us to be respectful, quiet down sometimes, not be too, you know, indulgent in irritability or whatever.

[71:43]

So the guests within us also have an opportunity for some training, you know, just like you would with a child, if they're being stubborn or, or, you know, unkind. So I think the Dharma is also, it is about letting things be, but it's also when you see how they are, it's like, well, is that, am I okay with that? And who's asking? Who's the one who's saying, I don't really feel so good about that. You know, when I'm behaving like that, I'm not really crazy about myself, you know? So it's always a conversation, internal conversation that... We can share with each other. I can tell you, you know, I was just looking at myself and thinking maybe I could be a little less blah, blah, you know. And you could say, oh, that's nice. Thanks for letting me know about that. I agree. You could be a little less blah, blah, you know. So I think we help each other to find, to mirror, to provide a mirror as a therapist does or a teacher does or a partner. You know, sweetie, you're really great.

[72:45]

And there's a little room for improvement. Right. That leads me to the next thing I was going to add. What you said is little B, but am I okay with that? And between the tension of the two sides, it reminds me again about the middle way. Yeah, it is the middle way. And it's like course correction. A ship, although we think it, or an airplane, we think it goes straight. It never goes straight. It's kind of micro. Since I'm always there. Yeah. What dates should I look up for middle way teachings? I joined in from Yogacara. You want the middle way, the Nagarjuna? Yeah. I started following you from Yogacara. I didn't see any of the Nagarjuna thing. Okay. Well, the kind of best book, I have a hunch you probably wouldn't have too much trouble with it. It's a bit scholarly, but not so much so that you can't follow it with a little effort.

[73:45]

by Jay Garfield. And it's called The Fundamental Teaching of the Middle Way. And Jay Garfield's a professor. He's a Tibetan practitioner. And he's a very interesting and smart guy. And he's fun to watch. I've got some videos of him as well. And he has really done the work on understanding this very challenging teaching. So if you spend some time with that, you probably have some questions that we could talk about. But I'm going to be always coming back. It's the two truths, the ultimate truth and the relative truth. That's Nagarjuna's specialty. Yeah. We'll be going over those again and again and again. And I think you'll kind of get the basics are pretty much in that teaching of the two truths. And the one last thing in answering my question, you actually gave rise to New Thought. Who is that saying, am I okay with that? What's that? When you were answering my question, you gave me a whole new thought of, opened up a different door or opened up the floor to reveal another place.

[74:58]

Who's asking that question? That's right. It's infinite regress. The first cause will never be captured. So we don't really try to go back too far. Who's looking at the who's looking at the who's looking? You know, it's like, no, we can't do that. That's just a waste of time. It might be fun. You could draw it or do an anime or something. But basically, you want to stay with the dialogue. The dialogue, yeah. Just the two. Two's enough. Oh, yeah. That's more than enough. More than enough. More than enough, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You take care. Okay. Very nice to be with you all as it always is. And I'll see you next Sunday, I hope. And we will look at the spiritual source shines clearly in the light. Ain't that the truth? Take care. Thank you, Fu.

[76:00]

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Have a good week. Thank you, everyone. Bye. See you next week. Thank you, Fu. You're welcome. That was beautiful. Very nice to see you all. Thank you so much, Fu. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Good night. Take care. Sleep well, Lisa. Have a good evening. You're going to beat us all. You're going to beat us all to bed, I think. Thank you. Hello, you all. Santa Monica for the night. It was good to see you. Karina yesterday and you in that. Didn't she do well? Oh, my gosh, yes. Really, really. She had us all crying. I was crying. She is amazing. I know. I thought, boy, this is good. Everybody.

[77:01]

I thought everybody who spoke was fantastic. Who is that? Who is that, Carol? No, who is that? Up a little higher. Not Sabrina. No, can't be. Now you have to put it up at your camera. Up a little higher. Oh, my gosh. That beauty. Is that my girl? Is that my girl? That looks like Sabrina. She's coming for her birthday. Is it? You're muted. You mentioned, I think at the very end of the, our harmony, our intensive, that she was 28 and I had gone through, I was a friend of Linda or Ryan. And I think, I think we were also, and I see your name is on the list. It was a sitting group with Yvonne Rand.

[78:01]

Yes. Goes way back. Yes. Way back. And she has different outfits on. So I know that I was there at, More than once, but it was with Linda. Oh, my God. That was her. I think that was her first birthday. I don't think she was that old yet. I mean, I think she was maybe she was very little. She was five pounds at birth. OK, I guess that's right. So she was tiny. Even at her first birthday, she was kind of like a little guy. You know, she's not a big, big person. I'd love to see her now. I know. 28. Maybe I can get her to come on camera next Sunday. She'll be here for 10 days. Oh, she's awesome. If you like these pictures, I'd be happy to send them. There are quite a few of them, actually. There are a lot of them. I would love to have those. Okay. Just send it to you at Green Gulch, right? Yeah. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you, Sarah. How sweet of you.

[79:03]

Okay. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

[79:08]

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