This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Did you ever think, how did the Buddha make himself heard? Did you ever think of that? When they say there was an assembly of 10,000 Monks, how in the world could anybody hear? People say, I can't hear you, but in the Buddhist time, I bet you nobody heard a word he said. They were too far in the back, right? They were too far in the back, they couldn't hear, there was no sound system. Nobody ever heard any of this stuff. Maybe the few people in the front row heard something. The disciples, that would be the only way they could have heard anything, right?

[01:00]

That's right. Or the Buddha had a super normal voice that would be more likely that everybody could hear it just as if he was perched on their little bridge of their ear, you know, sitting here, little tiny Buddha. That would be the only way. Yeah, like they did in Occupy, right. Right. You wouldn't want to do that with one of my talks. That would really not work. Speak up just a little. You want to hear what I'm saying? Why? What you're thinking is better anyway. Okay, all right. Are we ready to start? Here we go. Here we go with our Dharma talk. The 30th case of the Mumankan, the Wumenguan, is a little... short dialogue between Dame and Matsu. Dame says, what is mind?

[02:04]

What is mind? Or I think actually, I think I wrote this down wrong. I don't think he says, what is mind? I think he says, what is Buddha? I think I made a mistake. What is Buddha? And Matsu says, this very mind is Buddha. So I think that's correct. What is Buddha? This very mind is Buddha. So, sounds good, right? Don't you like that? It's a good saying. This very mind is Buddha. And it reminds you, and it kind of rhymes with, and it sounds like, what we have come to after a couple of thousand years of our recorded human history, we have this new idea that they never had before called human rights. They never had this before. We have the idea, I think it's written in the United Nations charter or something, that all human beings, without exception, are worthwhile and dignified.

[03:11]

This is a new idea. That human life, every single human life, is sacred. So we can understand, in the light of that, this very mind is Buddha. This mind as it is, my mind, your mind, every mind is Buddha. And this is the teaching that is the cornerstone of Mahayana Buddhism and it's the whole basis for compassion practice. All beings are Buddha. Inherently, just as they are, worthy of respect and love. And this is my top number one favorite practice. This is an imaginative practice, like all spiritual practices. When I say imaginative, maybe it sounds like I mean imaginary, as opposed to real or true, but that's not what I mean.

[04:23]

Because I think the imagination is true. And it's at least as true as what we call nowadays facts. Poets and artists have always known that this is so. What they can discover through their acts of the imagination, they know to be completely true. Truer than true. When the Heart Sutra and other emptiness texts say all dharmas are empty, this is in essence what they're saying, that there's no fixed truth and no unassailable facts. That the world is not a solid thing, you are not a solid person, in effect. When the Heart Sutra says all dharmas are empty, it's saying everything is imaginary.

[05:26]

Everything flows, everything is true, but not exactly true in the way we think. True in some wider, more expansive, more imaginative way. True in a way in which illusion and unreality also have their own kind of truth. So the imagination is like another eye. With it you can see things that might not be visible with the physical eye. So in spiritual practice, really it's all about the imagination. And you've been cultivating your imagination for a long time on your cushion. So it's possible for you to actually see with your eye of imagination all beings as Buddha.

[06:32]

And this is my main practice. This is the main thing. And I recommend it to everyone. So let's try to investigate a little more this saying, this very mind is Buddha. What does matsu mean by this? Well, first, the words are not as simple as they seem. They're a little bit technical. This very mind means something like this immediate mind, this suddenly appearing out of nowhere before anyone messes it up mind. That mind is Buddha. In other words, the Zen words are the mind of just this, the mind of suchness, which is always at the bottom, the basis of our consciousness.

[07:39]

This is the very mind that is Buddha. So this very mind is Buddha is the mind of immediacy, the mind of limitless consciousness, of purity, the mind beyond concepts, beyond conditioning, beyond self, beyond other. So what are the implications of this very mind is Buddha? Does it mean that only when we're in a special just-this frame of mind, then our mind is Buddha and the rest of the time We're not Buddha? No, I don't think it means that. I think it means that this very mind is Buddha all the time, no matter what state of mind we're in. And yet, this very mind is Buddha requires something of us.

[08:43]

Yes, no matter what we do or don't do, still, this very mind is Buddha. And that's why you can never, ever condemn a person for wrong conduct. Even though it is wrong conduct, it has to be perhaps stopped or turned around, corrected. Still, though, you can never condemn a Buddha. And yet, if we are not wise and diligent in our practice, we can miss the Buddha that we are, and then we will suffer. And when we suffer, we will make others suffer. That suffering will be Buddha suffering, so we can't regret it.

[09:48]

But Buddha is awakening. Buddha is the end of suffering. Buddha is not going around suffering and making everybody else suffer. So, this very mind is Buddha, cheers us up, but it should also sober us. And it should give us the confidence that no matter what state of mind we're in, No matter what pickle we're in, we're still Buddha. And if we're Buddha, then there's got to be a way within the suffering. This very mind of Buddha also gives us a sense of the awesome responsibility that each one of us has for this gift of an extremely brief human life.

[10:53]

Since this very mind is Buddha, we have to act like Buddha. We really have to awaken and save all beings. We've all been vowing the entire practice period that we would save all beings. that we would enter all Dharma gates, purify all defilements and completely become the Buddha way. We've been saying this the entire practice period and many of us been saying it for decades before that. Be careful what you say. You say it, you have to do it. Exactly because this very mind is Buddha. you have to really be a Buddha. Since this very mind is Buddha and all beings are Buddha, face-to-face friendship with Buddha is face-to-face friendship with all beings, even grasses, rocks, and roof tiles.

[12:12]

So when you are feeling unfriendly in this world, you know it's time to practice with more diligence. So the saying I bring up is from the wumen guan, the wumen khan, which is the simplest and the shortest, the starkest, and I think the funniest of the three koan collections that we usually pay attention to. The other two great collections are more serious and more literary, more complicated. Most of the time I get mad at the Wumen Guan because it seems to make the teachings into a kind of Zen cartoon. So I often don't study the Wumen Guan, but today I'm enjoying the direct and funny presentation of

[13:18]

woman. And his commentary to this story says, if you can grasp the point directly, you wear Buddha's clothes, eat Buddha's food, speak Buddha's words, and take Buddha's role. That is, you yourself are Buddha. Dhamme, however, misled quite a few people into sticking to the zero point of the scale. Don't you know that you should rinse out your mouth for three days when you even utter the word Buddha? And if you're genuine, you'll run away holding your ears when you hear this very mind is Buddha. So all practice period long, we have actually literally been wearing Buddha's clothes, eating Buddha's food, speaking Buddha's words, and in general, going around pretending we are Buddha.

[14:36]

Practice period, as our Eno has taught us, is actually a kind of elaborate, extended theatrical performance. And instead of playing the role in our other theatrical performance, which we call our life, the role of Ruth or Tanya or Peter or Robin, we set aside those roles temporarily and we take up the role of Buddha. And if by any chance any of you have had moments of frustration, and annoyance during the practice period, it's because you are not used to this role. And sometimes you don't like it. I myself have been asking, does the Buddha really require such outrageous sleeves?

[15:45]

Well, what is it about the Buddha's sleeves that have to be like this? Would the Buddha still be the Buddha with like smaller sleeves perhaps? So here in this part of his commentary, Wumen is affirming the truth of the saying, this very mind is Buddha. He's telling us that even in our usual imaginary world, even when we're not in this, We're in our other, more normal performance. Even then, actually, we're Buddha. But then, he immediately casts doubt on the whole thing. Because it is really true, when you say this very mind is Buddha, it's quite misleading. We like it, I think, to hear. this very mind is Buddha, because it is so affirming of our values.

[16:49]

And maybe because of that, we are misunderstanding it. Sticking to the zero point of the scale is an old Chinese saying that more or less means having an idea about something, but missing the actual living point. In old scales, like the one maybe sometimes they have them instilled in butcher shops, there would be a pan or sometimes a hook and then a gauge. And you would take a piece of meat and hang it on the hook and then you'd look at the gauge and you'd see how much the meat weighed and then you know how much to pay. But the point is the meat on the hook, which you can take home and actually eat, not the number on the gauge. And when the number on the gauge is zero, we are talking about emptiness. So this very mind as Buddha might be to us an abstract zero point on the scale.

[18:02]

In other words, a good idea about our true nature as Buddha, but without any meat on it. without any living, breathing, hollering reality to it. This very mind as Buddha is not meant to be a religious or a philosophical position. It's actually an invitation. It's an invitation to life, an invitation to be who we really are, and to find out how this very life, with all of its joys and all of its pain, is and has always been the life of Buddha. So when someone says, this very mind is Buddha, thinking this means something, thinking it's a statement about mind or consciousness or human nature, we should wash out that

[19:10]

person's mouth for three days or if they won't sit still and let us wash out their mouths we should cover up our ears and run away screaming because in this case this very mind is Buddha is just a cover-up it's just an excuse for us to go on as we are Having a bunch of really good ideas that are totally true, that we agree with, is not enough. And that can even be a problem if these ideas answer our questions and thereby rob us of the living effort we have to make all the time. in order for our lives to really be true.

[20:12]

Here's woman's short poem on the case. The blue sky in the bright day, no more searching around. What is Buddha, you ask? Holding the loot, you declare your innocence. When the sun comes out around here, I think we all like suddenly swoon. We all go to pieces. We're all overcome with the spring beauty and the blue sky. And don't you feel what more happiness could anyone ever want than this? It is so obvious when you see and hear and smell and taste and touch and think in this miraculous world that is perfectly made to evoke beauty.

[21:41]

through the doorways of our human senses that there is nothing whatsoever lacking. There is no problem that we are taking a perfectly good body, mind and world and making a mess out of them for absolutely no good reason. As soon as we start thinking about our lives how they should be, how we want them to be, how other people should be, how the world should be. Right away, unhappiness and anguish is there. Driven by our suffering, we come to practice

[22:44]

And like Dhamme, perhaps with desperation, we say, what is Buddha? And when we ask, as if we weren't ourselves already Buddha, what is Buddha? We're like a thief, you know, who just broke into somebody's house and took the television. standing there with the television saying, I'm innocent. I'm innocent. I didn't take anything. It's like that story that Kathy always tells about her student in the class sitting there at his desk punching. Maybe she's already told us this practice period. Punching this girl, you know. He's punching her. And Kathy says to him, don't punch, Nancy. What's wrong with you? And he's punching her. and says to Kathy in all sincerity, I'm not punching her.

[23:49]

And he means it. This is how I feel all the time. When people are talking to me about their suffering and what a mess everything is. what a mess their mind is, what a mess their life is, and how they can't just get it, why can't they get it, and so on. And they're totally sincere when they're telling me this. And I'm looking at them, and I'm seeing Buddha. A beautiful, true, and perfect Buddha living exactly what a Buddha is meant to live. To me, this is such a poignant thing. It reminds me of the experience that I would have every summer when I would come down to Tassajara to do a workshop. And I would arrive here and I would see the Tassajara students walking around and I would be filled with admiration.

[25:03]

Because everybody walking around Tassajara in the summer, all the students, they look so peaceful, so focused. so unflappable, moving along the pathways, you know, paying attention to what they're doing like composed Buddhas. And then I would think all over again every year, wow, what a great Zen training place this must be. And what fabulous, amazing Zen students these are. And then I would talk to them. And I would discover that each and every one of them was totally miserable. Completely unhappy, embroiled in this or that, horrible controversy. Overworked, exhausted, confused, knotted up inside.

[26:13]

And I will think to myself, what was I seeing? Was I making all that up? Was I just projecting my imaginary Buddha onto these innocent people? Well, yeah, probably. But also, probably, they really are Buddhas, just as I imagine. Probably they really are Buddhas temporarily suffering because all Buddhas have to temporarily suffer. Didn't Shakyamuni Buddha start out with that feeling? Didn't he start out by shockingly recognizing all conditioned existence is suffering? I mean, he meant this. This was his experience.

[27:20]

And I mention this in particular now because guest season is coming and Tassajara is going to be full of people who see Buddhas and who have the crazy imaginary idea that all Tassajara students are enlightened. And they're right. And you know, this is why they keep coming back. I mean it. Year after year, they come back to see the enlightened, peaceful Buddhas that staff Tassajara every summer. So my only wish for you for the summer season is that once in a while, once in a while, you get to enjoy your Buddhahood as much as they will. This very Mind is Buddha was a really important story for Kathy when she was a young Zen student and a young wife and a young mother.

[28:33]

She had a not very cooperative husband. It was not easy. So she would say to herself, no matter what state of mind she was in, no matter how tired, how exasperated, this very mind is Buddha. This very mind is Buddha. And she would take it to heart. And as much as her mind was not the mind she might have thought, to be Buddha's mind still she would say to herself with conviction even this very mind is Buddha and it helped her a lot so this story is one of the great stories of all time one of the great treasures of the Zen tradition in the 33rd

[29:46]

story of the woman Guan. Another monastic, this one unnamed, also asks Matsu, what is Buddha? This time Matsu says, not mind, not Buddha. Even though, as I said the other day, my teacher cursed me. And in general, gives me a hard time. He also has given me a lot of really good teachings. And I don't hang around with him that much now, so many of the great teachings he gave me, he gave me like 40 years ago, and he probably forgot them, but I haven't forgotten them. And one of his great teachings was the teaching called the other side, he would say something and then he would say, and the other side is, and then he would say the opposite.

[30:56]

Everything has another side. Just like Dogen says in Genjo Koan, I think, the moon is bright on one side and dark on the other side. And it's always, always, always like this. Whatever we're seeing and feeling, there's always another side. There's always something we're not seeing, if we're seeing something. And not mind, not Buddha is the other side of this very mind as Buddha. Because if we say this very mind is Buddha, we may start to think there's consciousness, there's mind, there's something. And then we'll have faith in something. And we will be disappointed. That something will not hold up.

[32:04]

Nothing holds up. And that is why Everything is so marvelous, so fluid. That is exactly why everything is Buddha, everything is freedom. So to really know this very mind is Buddha is to also know the other side, not mind, not Buddha. Saying not mind, not Buddha does not deny mind or Buddha. Like the skeptic who says, oh, it's just baloney, there's no Buddha. There's no limitless consciousness. All this rigmarole is totally made up by some religious guys in their towers with their quill pens writing in old texts. They had nothing else to do. They made this stuff up. The skeptic is right.

[33:07]

They made it up. It's all imaginary. and all true, and we can have full confidence in it. Impermanence is a tragedy only when we expected permanence and thought we deserved it. Losing something is not that tragic when we realize We never had it in the first place. No birth, no death, no coming, no going. Have you ever heard that somewhere? Impermanence is not the opposite of permanence. There is no opposite to impermanence because there is no exception to impermanence. There's nothing outside of impermanence that it could be opposite to. what we call permanence or impermanence.

[34:15]

These are just words that we fumblingly use to describe the same reality. Not mind, not Buddha reminds us of this. It's not pointing to the non-existence of mind in Buddha. It's simply showing us the other face of this very mind is Buddha. Wu Men's comment to this story is one sentence long. When you see this clearly, he writes, your Zen training is complete. This is Wu Men at his most hilarious. Ridiculous thing to say. First of all, who could know such a thing? Who could really know?

[35:16]

Not mine, not Buddha. It's like seeing you're not seeing. You can't see you're not seeing because it isn't anything. When you feel like you have seen the true Dharma, have a good laugh. What a wonderful feeling. Just don't take it too seriously. Because whatever it is, you've understood. That's not it. So, it's a joke when you see this clearly. Your Zen training is complete. And the other part, too, the idea of Zen training being complete is also hilarious. If you would like to complete your training, get your diploma. and go forth to be recognized as an expert, take up something else. As I was saying the other day in Zen, we say Buddha's halfway there.

[36:25]

If Buddha's halfway there, how far along are you? From the standpoint of being able to have the satisfaction of having passed the course and accomplish something, this of course is tremendously frustrating. But from the standpoint of really appreciating the practice, which is a tremendous joy and a great adventure into the unknown, this is great news. We're not going to use this up. You know, we're not going to go finish this and then go on to the next thing, which would be what? The bodhisattva path does not end. It stretches on forever and ever. We will never, ever use it up. After Dhammei left Matsu, he practiced by himself in a hermitage.

[37:37]

Once another one of Matsu's disciples came along and Dame said, oh, you're from Matsu. What is the old teacher saying these days? And the disciple said, he's saying, no mind, no Buddha. Dame said, too bad, the old guy's lost it. Now he's getting people confused. This very mind is Buddha. That's the teaching. I don't care what he says now. And the disciple went back and reported this to Matsu who said, the great plum is finally ripening. Dame means great plum. Well, it might not come as a great surprise to you to hear that Dogen also comments on this saying. There's a Shobo Genzo fascicle

[38:48]

with this title. So I'm going to give you some of Dogen's words on this saying, this very mind is Buddha. And these words are from the Hubert Niermann translation, which in this case, for some reason I thought was clearer than Kaz's translation. So I'll read you Dogen's comments and then I'll give my own. what do you call it, super comments or sub-comments or comments on the comments. Dogen writes, the term Buddha, so he starts out by, in this passage, defining every word in the phrase, this very mind is Buddha. So he starts with the word Buddha. He says, Buddha, the word Buddha implies... that hundreds of karmic seedlings from defiling passions have been weeded out and discarded.

[39:50]

However, I'm not speaking of this term as applied to a 16-foot tall golden statue. So in other words, let us not be casual about this very mind is Buddha. Awakening is actually something that we can realize in this lifetime, as we are. And awakening means, as he says here, that we've gone beyond being caught by our old habits and identities. We have clarified our lives. We're no longer tripping over our own feet. And we can actually be... of help. And this is possible. Maybe we can't do it perfectly, maybe we can't do it in the way we think we're supposed to be doing it, but we can actually do this.

[40:58]

We actually can be a Buddha. Buddha is not a statue in a temple. Buddha is not a word in a sutra. Buddha is the meat and potatoes of our daily living. when we have really cultivated the way. So that's the term Buddha. The next term, which is translated as very, Nirman gives the Japanese word soku. The term soku, that which is immediate, in other words, refers to one's spiritual question, Jane, you could sit down, you don't have to stand there. Go sit down. refers to one's spiritual question before one deals with what is right before one's eyes and before one learns to avoid the blunders that may arise from not dealing with that question.

[42:00]

That's how Niermann translates that next, the definition, Dogen's definition of the word immediate. So it's the word very, and this very mind is Buddha. So I think I don't read Japanese and I don't have the Japanese text, so I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that Dogen here is using the word Genjo Koan, which Nerman translates as... the spiritual question that is always right before your eyes. That's genjo koan. Genjo koan is the koan of this immediately arising moment of time in your life. All koans are actually referring, they're kind of fleshing out in different ways

[43:13]

Genjo Koan. And the details of all the Zen stories are not as important as this actual point that always lies behind them. This fact, this living, breathing, startling and disturbing fact that we are alive in time together, which means we are dying. We have nothing to hold onto. Our life is appearing and disappearing out of nowhere all the time, and we don't understand who we are, and we really don't know what's going on. And this is a fact. This is the fact. That's the spiritual question that's always right in front of us. How could it be that we're here? How are we alive?

[44:14]

How do we die? What a catastrophe. We don't even have any idea what that is. And yet it conditions every moment. What is our true face before our parents were born? The very of this very mind is Buddha. Is our mind, he says, before we notice, before we attend to that question. In other words, before we've taken up our practice even, this very mind is Buddha. That's what the very means. At the bottom of every mind, enlightened or deluded, at the bottom of the practicing mind as well as the non-practicing mind is this very, whether or not we know it. Then he discusses the term ze, is. It's funny, you know, like, what does is mean?

[45:16]

Good question. And here's what Dogen thinks the word is means. He says, is refers to the three temporal worlds of was, is, and will be from which there is no retreat or escaping and which is not merely a figment of the mind. chilling don't you think being which is time which of course since we're swimming in the middle of it we can't even see it has no escape and no retreat being is a desperate trap we have to cope with It's no joke.

[46:18]

And we didn't make it up. Even empty dharmas have dire consequences. Then he discusses the word mind. The term shin or mind implies the walls and fences of discernment before they have been mudded fast with mortar. And before, one has fabricated anything or added fixtures. So he says that mind in the phrase, this very mind is Buddha. Mind, which means cognizing, knowing, discerning. This very mind is inherently pure before we mess it up. That's the mind that's meant in this phrase. And then he says... We may thoroughly examine these various words I just defined in the form, for instance, of your very mind is Buddha or in the form of your mind at this very moment is Buddha or in the form of Buddha right now is your mind or in the form of your very mind is what Buddha is or in the form of this Buddha is your mind right now

[47:46]

And you get the feeling he could go on indefinitely saying other ways. But he stops there. To thoroughly explore the meaning in this manner is precisely an instance of one's very mind being Buddha. In other words, as this very mind is Buddha, we are given to investigate. This very mind is Buddha. And Dogen always says, investigate this, investigate it up and down, from every angle, every side. There's no end to this investigation, no end to avenues for investigation. Dharma gates are numberless, and we should always be interested in the next one in front of us. Thank you, guys. very much. We look forward to lunch.

[48:50]

He goes on. This so-called mind which has been correctly transmitted refers to the whole mind being synonymous with all thoughts and things. And all thoughts and things are what constitute the whole mind. That's why somebody in the past once said, when a person fully realizes what his mind really is, not an inch of solid ground will remain on the earth. You must understand that when you fully realize what your mind is, the whole canopy of the heavens shatters. And the spinning earth is completely blown apart. On the other hand, when you come to see what your mind really is, the earth becomes three

[50:12]

inches thicker. That's great, right? Gotta love stuff like that. So when you practice this great investigation, it's not just you and your little zendo or us here in the mountains in our little zendo. By the way, this actually is a pretty small zendo, considering the multiple world systems that it contains. No, this is not a small bore investigation. This is not a local matter. Your life is not a local matter. Your life, when you really grasp it, blows the lid off the heavens and blows up the whole world.

[51:17]

And this is true. This is really the truth. And you will see how this is true. You will see that when you really turn your practice, not only do you change, the entire world around you changes. This is really true. The whole world changes. because the effects of your practice are miraculous, exactly as Dogen describes. On the other hand, as he also says, practice is quite down-to-earth. Very practical. Practice is simply a normal, solid way to live a decent human life. Actually, the earth is a bit shaky when you stand on it.

[52:20]

But because you practice, you add three inches to the surface of the earth and you make a little more steady for standing. A little easier to keep your balance on it with that extra three inches. He goes on. The mind that is the great earth with its mountains and rivers is simply the great earth with its mountains and rivers. There are no surging waves, nor is there any wind-driven spindrift to disturb or upset it. The mind that is sun, moon, and stars is simply sun, moon, and stars. There is no fog, nor is there any mist to obscure its clarity. The mind that is the coming and going of birth and death is simply the coming and going of birth and death. There is no being deluded. There is no realizing enlightenment.

[53:26]

The mind that is the tiles and stones for walls and fences is simply the tiles and stones for walls and fences. There is no mud or any water to make a binding mortar. The mind that is the four elements and the five skandhas is simply the four elements and the five skandhas. There are no wild horses or unbridled willfulness. There are no monkeys with insatiable desires. The mind that is the master's dharma seat and the master's ceremonial hos is simply the master's seat in the hos. There is no bamboo whose joints block. passage nor is there any wood twisted up with knots. Since this is the way things are, your very mind is Buddha means pure and simply that your very mind is Buddha. All Buddhas are pure and simply.

[54:31]

All Buddhas. rather overwhelmingly poetic passage is just telling us again thoroughly that the whole world inside and outside is our mind and is nothing other than Buddha so powerful so luminous and so wonderful that it just blows away our puny human messes that we're so obsessed with. Now we get to the punchline. Here's the punchline. Thus, thus, thus, your very mind is Buddha, refers to all Buddhas, that is to those

[55:40]

refers to all Buddhists, that is, to those who have given rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood by practicing and training until they awaken to their enlightenment and realize nirvana. Those who have not given rise to the intention to realize Buddhahood by practicing and training until they awaken to their enlightenment and realize nirvana are not those whose very mind is Buddha. Even if for a fraction of an instant you give rise to the intention to train and realize the truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha. Even if for the tiniest imperceptible moment you give rise to the intention to train and realize the truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha.

[56:45]

Even if for immeasurable eons you give rise to the intention to train and realize the truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha. Even if for the length of one single thought only, only one thought, you give rise. to the intention to train and realize the truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha. Even if half-heartedly you give rise to the intention to train and realize the truth for yourself, your very mind will be Buddha. So the punchline is this very mind of Buddha is not a statement of fact it is a call to action to hear it even once and even once have the glimmering of the thought it might be true it really might be true this very mind is Buddha just to have that

[57:59]

shadow of a thought, once, is to plant a seed that will eventually turn the world upside down. Because this very mind is Buddha, in other words, Dogen says, as you knew he would, right? You have to practice. And there is no other life. There is no other way for a human being. Everyone here has done their absolute best in this practice period. And because of that, your very mind is Buddha. Everyone here. And I think as long as you live, you will never forget this. And knowing this now, your destiny

[59:01]

has been activated. Who knows how you will carry this forth? What form it will take? We don't know. All we know is it will come to fruition one day. It will happen. What could be more wonderful than this? For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

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