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 by people like you. The Sunday program is when the kids are here. Somehow the room feels something extra special. And this is a pretty special room, but there's something extra special when the kids are here. Fortunately, my daughter's not here right now, but I'm thinking about her Any guesses as to what this is? A bell. It's a bell. Any guesses what it might be used for? Anybody else? Ringing, yeah, ringing. But ringing for what? What do you think? You? Just for ringing.

[01:00]

Yeah, it's fun just for ringing, too. It's a pretty loud bell. Any other guesses? I'll give you a hint, okay? This bell lives in this room. This is where it stays most of the time. What do you think? To call God. That's a great answer. Any other thoughts? Do you want to try it? It's pretty heavy, huh? A little bit heavy. Do you want to try it? To wake people up. Yeah. That's right. To wake people up. And I'm going to talk about this a little bit more later, but I have what I think, what I think is a super special, wonderful job.

[02:03]

This, what we call practice period. Do you know what I get to do every day? Almost, except Fridays. Every day? Every day? I get to come in here early, early, early in the morning when probably almost everybody here is still asleep. And I get to ring this bell. And it's extra special right now. This happens all the time. Somebody comes around and rings this bell early, early in the morning. But it's extra special now because there are people who are living here for seven weeks for a special practice period. And where do you think they live? Where do they sleep? Mm-hmm. The houses, right? Yeah, actually both. So there are people who sleep all over the different little houses here and there. And this practice period, which hasn't happened in, I think, a really long time, if ever, there's a practice period where people are sleeping in the Zendo. So right where you all are sitting, up there on the Tons, there are people who pull out their sleeping bags, and that's where they sleep for the night.

[03:07]

So when I come in in the morning, ding-a-ding-a-ding. more than one way to wake people up, more than one kind of waking up too. So I wanted to tell you, since this is a season, sometimes people say this is a season of giving. Have you ever heard that? Season of giving? Did we just have a holiday? Yeah, what holiday did we just have? I can't see your face, but yes. What holiday did we just have? Thanksgiving. Okay, what are some other ones coming up? Anybody celebrating any holidays around the season? Who hasn't talked? How about you back there? Hanukkah. Hanukkah. Any of any other holidays people are celebrating? No other holidays? Okay. Christmas. Christmas. Any other holidays? Okay. What is it? I don't know, but maybe Buddha's birthday? Close. Close.

[04:08]

There is a Buddhist holiday, but it's not Buddha's birthday. What could it be? What do you think? Well, Kwanzaa, that's a holiday too. Is there a Buddhist holiday around this time? Or is it just those that we talked about? Maybe others we haven't talked about. Any Buddhist holidays? Does anybody know? Did anybody hear about something, Buddha having to do with seeing a morning star? Has anybody heard that story? On December 8th, there's a holiday called Buddha's Enlightenment Day. And guess what happened on Buddha's Enlightenment Day? They say on Buddha's Enlightenment Day that he sat down and he said, I'm not moving from this spot till I wake up. And then on one day he looked up, there was that star. And they say he woke up. So on December 8th Buddhists, especially Zen Buddhists around the world, celebrate Buddha's Enlightenment Day.

[05:13]

So if you want to, you can think about how you might celebrate that day too. Just a possibility. But I want to tell you a story as well. And thinking about the season of giving, someone told me a story about giving that stayed with me, someone in the practice period. Is there anybody in the front, close by, who has a dollar? Anybody have a dollar on them? I think there's one coming from this direction over here. Yeah, I just need one, I think. Okay. So this is a story about a dollar bill. Actually, more than one dollar bill. Someone was telling me that she and some friends were hanging out together in a little town off the road you may know called Fairfax. And they were hanging out and maybe not feeling so wealthy themselves. And maybe feeling a little bit down about that. Feeling kind of poor. Poorly. And they started talking to each other and someone had an interesting idea.

[06:17]

They thought, what if We take all the money we have on us, like in our pockets and our wallets and our purses and things, and we put them in a big pile and we count it all up. What if we do that? Then what would that be like? Any guesses how much they had on them, just putting it in a pile? Any guesses? Give your two guess. Four twenty-five cents and they traded it for a dollar. Four quarters and they traded it for a dollar. Any other guesses how much they had on them when they all piled their money together? What do you think? One dollar. One dollar. Any other guesses? Well, what she told me, I think, is they had, when they piled all their money, they had one hundred dollars. One hundred dollars. So when they realized that they actually had a hundred dollars, they thought, well, maybe we're not as poor as we thought. But they thought, well, what should we do with this hundred dollars? You know, if we divide it out, it's like we still don't feel very rich if we divide it out. Should we give it away? Should we take it to the bank? Should we buy something?

[07:17]

You know, what should we do with this hundred dollars? And someone said, well, just for fun, just to see what happens. Let's take this $100. And it was like a big pile with lots of quarters and dollars and $5 and all this stuff in a big bag. And they all went over to the bank, went into the bank, and they said, this is $100. And the clerk had to count it out every bit. Yes, it's $100. And they said, please give us $100 bills like this. So they had a nice stack of dollar bills, $100. This is in Fairfax. And they went, and there was a busy intersection in Fairfax with a stoplight. And so they divided up, and everybody had a stack of $100 bills. And they stood at this intersection, so people had to stop, right? And then they also, in preparation for this, they had made a sign that said, free money. Okay? And so as people would stop, they would come up with their bright, shiny faces and say...

[08:18]

can we give you a dollar? And so at each street corner, someone was stopping the cards and saying, can we give you a dollar? And she said that there was a remarkable range of reactions to this. Some people looked at them and rolled up their windows very quickly. Some people said, oh yeah, wow, thanks. One person said, do you have another one for my friend? One person said, one person actually got angry. Does that have any response? They got angry. Why would they get angry? What do you think? Because they thought that they were giving them a dollar because they thought they were poor and then they got offended by that. Yeah, that's interesting. They thought that maybe they thought that the people in the cars were poor and so they were offended by that. That's an interesting answer. This one person was angry because...

[09:19]

He said, well, you know, all the people around here have plenty to eat and everything. There's so many people out there in the world who don't have anything. Why are you giving the people in Fairfax dollar bills? Why don't you send it to Africa or to somewhere else that people need more money? So that was an interesting response. And then one woman had a daughter in the back of the car, and so the dollar, she took the dollar and she gave it to her daughter, and then later she saw one of the people on the street, and she said, oh! so much for that dollar she said it impressed my daughter so much that she kept it and she framed it and it's now up on her wall and finally they had given all of their dollar bills away and now now they really had zero money but do you know what happened it's kind of a miracle now they didn't have any money but guess what they didn't feel poor anymore Maybe even some of the people they gave the dollar bills to felt a lot richer, even more than a dollar bill. So that's my story for today.

[10:23]

And I hope you have good holidays. And I was going to keep this up here with me to play with or enjoy, but I've learned that it's going to go with you all. You get to take it. So we'll see what happens. you for coming. Stay warm and dry. And a lot of seats are going to open up in just a second if anyone in the back wants to come forward. Yes. Oh, dollar bill. Could you give that to him, please? Thank you very much. I was talking yesterday with someone who's here for this practice period I was mentioning.

[11:55]

And he was saying that several years ago, many years ago, he used to come here on Sundays. And he said he would come every single Sunday, religiously, so to speak, and would hike around in the woods and things. But he had no idea. what else happened around here. He just came for the Sunday program and hiked around and went home. And I was thinking about that and there's a lot that happens around here and some it's quite beautiful actually. And I'd like to talk about or offer to share some of it with you. As I mentioned, we have what's called a practice period going on right now, and at Green Gulch it's seven weeks. So we have almost 30 people who have made a commitment to be here for seven weeks, and that means really be here, like not leave the valley. You know, we can hike around the watershed, but pretty much be in the Green Gulch Valley for this whole seven weeks.

[13:01]

And they range in age from 22 to 75. That's quite a range. They come from locally, but also from all over the country and really all over the world. And I didn't even quite realize from how many different countries until I started writing them down. There are people here from Germany, from Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, Argentina, Ethiopia, and Japan. Did I leave anything else? In England. In England. People are here for the practice period from all these different countries. And somehow they've made space in their lives to carve out these seven weeks. And some people were here already. Some people were working on the farm this summer and have stayed on for this different cycle of the Green Gulch life.

[14:06]

In the summer, things are growing and moving and people are doing a lot of work and out in the farm. And in the winter, it turns a little bit there's not as much going on in the farm and we have these practice periods one in the fall and one in the spring some other people didn't really plan here to be plan to be here at all they just they something was pulling them here and suddenly here they were and suddenly they were signing up for a practice period and then other people have been planning very carefully in their lives to make this space available some people have left their spouses said goodbye for seven weeks some people with their jobs and don't know if there'll be a job waiting for them when they return. But all of them, I think, felt some deep inward request that they really wanted to or were able to or circumstances made it able to listen and to follow up. So practice for you, the Japanese word actually is ongo, and it literally means dwelling in peace.

[15:17]

And normally it's three months, which it is at Tassajara, here it's seven weeks. And it came in the early days of Buddhism, it was the rainy season retreat. So the monks would wander about, and then during the rainy season they would gather at a certain place and come together. to learn from each other and be together for three months. And at the end of those three months of dwelling in peace together, they would disperse. And I've had the real pleasure of being able to participate in this practice period for these seven weeks. And I have a six-year-old daughter and one of her friend's mothers sort of heard I was staying in the valley for this whole time. And she said, isn't she going stir-crazy? And, you know, I haven't been going stir-crazy at all.

[16:19]

It's actually been quite a luxury to be able to just be here and just settle down and just feel the repetition of our daily life together and the land. I've seen the same trees and the same rocks and the same streams. That becomes your life, in a sense. But again, as I mentioned before with the kids, one of the big surprises of the practice period for me is I have this job of ringing the wake-up bell every morning. And one of the surprises has been that I really love ringing the wake-up bell. I hadn't really thought about it that much. And people say, oh, you have to ring the wake-up bell. Or, oh, you know, I feel really bad. You have to get up so early. But it's been quite remarkable. So I'd like to tell you about it, if I can. So I live right over here in this little house, the little white house by the pond.

[17:21]

And so I set my alarm in the mornings for about five after four. And I get up and I put on my black sitting robes. Not this full robe, but this here. And I step out in the morning. And it's very, as you can imagine, it's very, very quiet. Except there's something special that happens in the early mornings, and I'm not so familiar with the physics of it, but people tell me that when air is damp, more damper, then sound travels more easily. And so sometimes in the very early morning, you can hear... the crashing of the ocean waves in a way that you can't hear at any other time in the day. Usually we're a little too far away to really hear it, even if we listen carefully. But sometimes in the morning, walking out in that stillness and that still damp air, there's just this... So that's happening.

[18:24]

And then there are deer that are grazing out on the lawn here. usually a few fawns, and I see these black shapes moving. It's all very dark. And then we've had these gorgeous clear nights with stars out. And so when I step out, I look up and I see in front of me, in front of me is the Big Dipper going up to the North Star. And then behind me every morning is Orion. And then I come up here along this path and I open those doors. And I come into Cloud Hall. I turn on the lights just a little bit. And then I go out to the Han. And before I ring the wake-up bell in the morning, before that loud ding-a-ding-a-ding, there's something that announces that that's about to happen. And there's something, a wooden block called a Han. And it calls people, usually what it does is call people to the Zendo. But also it announces what's about to happen. So I go out there and there's a wooden mallet. And I take it and I hold on to the rope and I...

[19:25]

pull back, and I go whack, pretty much as hard as I can. And what's written on that board, it says, listen carefully, everyone. Great is the matter of life and birth and death. Passing swiftly, gone, gone. Awake, awake. Do not waste your life. And you can hardly read the middle of it because so many whacks on it have worn down the surface. And eventually it will actually break from all those whacks. But you might take a look at it as you go out. So whack, awake. And then I come in here. I open up both those doors of the Zendo. And I walk down here and I light the candle on the altar. And then I take that wake-up bell and I put it at the back of the mat and do three full prostrations all the way down. And again, there are people sleeping here.

[20:26]

So a few of them start to sit up at that point. And then I come over with a wake-up bell and start right here. Ding-a-ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding-a-ding. And then all the people sit up sort of in their sleeping bags facing the wall. I feel kind of motherly waking everybody up. And I go ding-a-ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding. And then in each of the four corners, I go ding-a-ding-a-ding. I try not to be too loud, but still. Ding-a-ding-a-ding. And that is either to, I'm not sure if it's to wake up or to greet the guardians of the four directions. Ding-a-ding-a-ding. And then I go out there, and I go out this way, and then I kind of tie up my robes and things like this, and then I run. And I'm kind of grateful I can still run because it's kind of a running kind of thing. And I ring the bell, and I run, [...] kind of holding up my skirts in the dark. All the way up the stairs to the parking lot.

[21:27]

And then across the parking lot is Spring Valley. And that's where various people live, including my teacher. And so I take the bell and I go ding-a-ding-a-ding, wake up. And then I come around and I'm quiet in the central area so as not to wake up the guests. And then go in the small dining room, ding-a-ding-a-ding. Then all the way around the kitchen, ding-a-ding-a-ding. And then to the altar. And then three bells, ding-a-ding-a-ding. out quietly, and then down to the basement, to the basement door where a lot of the guys sleep, ding-a-ding-a-ding, wake up. And then I come up these stairs, ding-a-ding-a-ding, and then I come to the door of the Zendo again, and three rings, ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding, and then I put it square middle of the door, the step of the door, and three more full frustrations. comes back to where it lives, just right next to the altar. And then I go back outside, as far doors back to the Han, hold on to the rope.

[22:34]

Great is the matter of birth and death. Whack. And the day begins. So if you're ever up in your life, if you ever happen to be awake around 4.30, you can, I don't know, take comfort or amusement, I'm not sure which, and the fact that this is happening, this is happening, someone, for right now it's me, later it'll be somebody else, is running around Green Gulch, ringing this bell, whacking on Hans, reminding people to wake up. Oh, and then when I come back, and I have a few minutes, I walk back to my house, and then often, If I look up, if I remember to look up to the east, which is up there through the hills, just about that time, what's rising right there is the morning star. I think it's interesting to consider...

[23:46]

You know, these 30 or so people who've come here for this time and who stepped into these certain voluntary limitations. Why would one do such a thing? And so they're agreeing to leave behind whatever they were involved in. Lots of really interesting things. Leaving them behind. Coming into this valley for seven weeks. And they're staying here in the valley. Can't drink alcohol. No new sexual relationships. Eat what's offered. And following the schedule. And our schedule during practice period, people in the practice period wake up with a wake-up bell. And then we have two periods of meditation in the morning. two 40-minute periods with some walking meditation.

[24:52]

And then there's service, so we do a lot of chanting and bowing and offering incense and then whatever merit, whatever good comes from that, dedicating it, giving it all away. And then we have soji, which is, we all get a big circle out there. And then people, I think this is a great insight in cleaning organization, But people work intensely and silently for 20 minutes. So if you have 40 or 50 people intensely working for 20 minutes silently, a lot can get done. So that's how the temple is cleaned. And then we stop. Then there's the Han. Bum, bum, [...] bum. And people go to breakfast. And sometimes we eat together in the dining room. We put out three white bowls and we eat formally together in silence. Sometimes we come back into the zendo and we use our oryoki bowls, the three nested bowls that are a venerable tradition, and eat inside the zendo.

[25:59]

And then people go to work. And then at noon, we stop what we're doing. We hear the big bell, the bansho bell out here, bong. It's a very aural experience. All these sounds. telling you what's happening next. So people stop work and they come here. And again, we chant and offer incense and bow. And just an aside, I was talking with someone recently who had spent some time with Brother David Stendelrost. I think Blanche mentioned him last week, a Catholic monk who's been a friend of Tassajara. This friend was saying at least at one point he had a practice of at noon every day whatever was happening to stop and to center and silence. So even if you were in the middle of a conversation at noon stopping or riding in a car suddenly wouldn't talk and centering.

[27:02]

So it's similar this idea at noon in the middle of our day remembering come back, come back, come back. And then there's lunch. and more work and some personal time, usually just an hour or two. So you have to give up a lot of your things you think you have to do. And then at five, there's zazen again. People come back into the zendo and we sit in meditation and another service with more bowing and chanting and often incense and dedicating of merit. And then dinner. And then almost every night, there's something going on. Either people come back into the zendo and they sit until nine o'clock. or there's a class or there's a lecture and then there's lights out and someone goes around with clackers and that's this fire watch and so it means people go to sleep and then in the morning it starts all over again with the Han. Whack.

[28:11]

So Why bother? Why do all this? There are a number of interesting metaphors for monastic practice. And Gringold's is very complex in a way. I don't think of it as a monastery, but there is monastic practice that happens here. And one interesting metaphor is if you have a bamboo tube and you have a snake, and you put the snake in the bamboo tube, So if you're the snake and you're used to wiggling over here if you like to and wiggling over there if you like to or doing this, that or the other, suddenly you can't. I want to go this way, but I can't. There's the bell. I have to go do that. I don't like that. So what do you do? Where is the place of happiness? within this very strict limitation, how do you work with these impulses?

[29:18]

So I think of it as a very helpful exercise model, something artificial set up that it's not rarefied in a sense because there are things like this that happen all the time. in our lives we want to move this way and we're used to moving this way and suddenly we can't I have a healthy body I want to go for a walk suddenly my body's not so healthy anymore suddenly there's something with my knee and I can't hike up the hill anymore what do I do now so in a way it's a practice while things are still While you're still healthy and still going strong, there's this practice for when these things arise in my life, how will I be prepared to meet them? When I can't fix them, when I can't use my intelligence, my strength, my connections to make it right just like I like it, what will I do then?

[30:30]

And another metaphor of people in a monastic situation is rocks in a tumbler. So the idea that the monks are all different rocks with kind of rough edges and they keep kind of bumping into each other kind of uncomfortable and inconvenient ways in the small container and maybe painful ways. But in all of this rubbing and bumping back and forth, all those rough edges start to get Smooth down. And that's a value of coming into this very clear container and situation where you can't get away, in a sense. I mean, of course, no one is holding you here. Or if you're in a practice period, people can say, you know, it just isn't for me. Thank you very much. Goodbye. But if you sign up and you want to follow through and stay in the valley for this time, there's a real commitment, and it becomes quite obvious, actually, that you can't write anybody off.

[31:40]

You can't say, I just don't really like that person, or they said something that was funny, and I don't think I'll talk to them anymore, thank you very much. But what if you're sitting next to that person on the platform up here, or maybe you're eating next to them, or sleeping next to them, or working on a crew with them, and there aren't so many of us, How do we learn to meet those rough edges? What is our commitment? And also in a situation like this, there's a great benefit of having this common language and common commitment to this effort we're making together. And I've heard it said that the true monastery, in a way, is the monastery that you take with you. The monastery of now, in a sense. This is the monastery, wherever this is. So the next time you bump up, your rough edge bumps up against someone else's rough edge, you might consider or imagine...

[32:58]

Okay, if I were sitting there in the Green Gulch Valley for seven weeks with this person, how would that change things? Would that change things? How would I interact with this person? What is my true relationship with this person? Can I really write anybody off? And then the great teacher Dogen also has a metaphor of monks should be like, should harmonize like milk and water. So when you pour milk and water together in a glass, they immediately mix and you can't tell the difference completely harmoniously. So I was considering these two metaphors. One is rough and tumble and one is just completely smooth and even. So if it's rough and tumble, is it a problem? Is it bad? Should it be like that one? And sometimes it does feel like that one.

[34:05]

There's great peace, the peaceful dwelling, the time of peace in the milk and water situation. But even when it's the rocks bumping up against each other, Where's the milk and water there? Is there a way to meet each other's rough edges in a way that's as harmonious as milk and water with an intention and a heart that are as harmonious as milk and water? I mentioned the schedule and there's a fairly strict schedule and at Tassajara in the practice period it's even more intensive with more silence and the schedule starts to have in a way a life of its own I think and I found even I used to do practice periods at Tassajara even if I'd done a few kind of starting to do another one there was

[35:21]

It's like, again, okay, I don't really, you know, five more minutes, please. No, whack. All right, here we go. And it sometimes would take several days or weeks even to kind of get out of this like, kind of feeling. And then finally, blessedly, there was just this surrender, you know. Okay, the Han, whack, yes. The bell, yes. that very tight situation time now time now time now and completely surrendering to it in the smoke and water way there was this tremendous freedom suddenly life just opened up and I felt tremendously free even though I couldn't wiggle over here or wiggle over there I had to go this way And also coming into this, doing a practice period and even coming into the Zendo for Sunday lecture like today, a lot of people are struck by all these forms.

[36:44]

It's a very formal practice. And there are a lot of practices that are not as formal in an outward, obvious way. And many people can find it quite intimidating, it seems. I used to try to give people quick instructions, sometimes if they'd come for our meditation periods and hadn't really had any sort of orientation, and to just try to tell them very quickly, okay, when you step over the door, use your left foot, and then you bow, and this is hands, and this is hands, and I just would hope they somehow would not run away. And... I found the forms just continually challenging and engaging. In a way, it's a basic mindfulness practice. I'm now stepping over the doorstep. What foot am I using?

[37:47]

I'm now going to bow to this room. I'm now entering this room. So following, I'm walking down the stairs. I'm putting my hands in this position, not just... swinging by my sides. So in trying to follow these physical forms, the mind has to keep up. The mind can't float away or the body just goes back into its pattern. So, oh, everyone's doing this. Okay, I'll do this. You know, where am I going to sit? Oh, I bow like this, turn to the right so you don't bump into each other. Sit down, pull your legs up, all these things. Someone talked about the forms, in a sense, being a trellis. It's like we're a vine, kind of like a wisteria vine. And so the forms, in a way, it's something for us to work with or to use as support for practice. Not something that we're going to be punished for if we don't do it correctly.

[38:51]

But to wrap around tightly when we need to and then become a little looser and then come back climbing up this trellis. coming in and the practice of bowing which I think is not so familiar for a lot of us I think Zen practice in particular really grabbed me when I was doing a full prostration for the first time and I thought it was very odd I was I wasn't here I was in Berkeley but everything seemed really strange but then when I came in and I did the full prostration touching my head to the forehead my head to the ground lifting my hands and didn't know what I was bowing to if anything but I was suddenly flooded with this feeling of homecoming and relief you know so what was it about putting my body in this physical position that I didn't understand that created this feeling and basically turned the course of my life

[40:07]

And on the other hand, working with the forms, but not identifying with them too tightly, not being the vine that grabs too tightly. The vine grabs too tightly, it can't grow. And at one point in my life, I had planned to receive ordination as a Zen priest, and I was married at the time, and I realized what I really needed to do, and I couldn't put it off. I really needed to have a baby. And I really couldn't ordain right then. And it was extremely painful. And I was at Tassajara in the summer and I couldn't, I could not, I could hardly bear the forms. You know, I would put on robes. In the summer it's not quite strict, you don't have to wear robes to Zazen. I'd put on robes in the afternoon to go to Zazen and I would take them off. I would go to Zaza in the morning and then leave before service because I couldn't stand it. There was this rejection on a very deep physical level.

[41:21]

And I am so grateful for that experience because what happened was when I let go of all the forms in that way, even rejected them, what I found was I went down to basic practice. the Buddha's basic teachings, impermanence, freedom, and the basic practice of sitting meditation. And those remained solid for me. And so that was extremely encouraging, that these basic practices were there, even when these other forms weren't there. And then later, things developed, changed, and I could come back to the forms. And I appreciate them anew. but maybe not all quite as tightly to them. This practice period has been going on for six weeks, and we have one more week.

[42:48]

And the one more week is, someone said, oh, is practice period winding down? And I thought, it doesn't feel that way to me at all. Because the last week, it's more like a grand finale. We go into, it's called Rohatsu Sashin. So the Sashin, we have usually seven days sitting. And it's our regular schedule, but actually much more intensified. So we still start sitting in the morning at 5 a.m. And I'll still be ringing the wake-up bell at the regular time. But then we keep sitting. And we eat all of our meals in the zendo. And in addition to the people in the practice period, there'll be some residents, Green Gulch residents and staff joining us. And I think many people coming from the outside. What's the total for the whole session? 78. 78. So we'll have 78 people, each with their own seat here, who will be sitting silently and still for seven days.

[43:50]

We have a break after each meal, but basically, and a lecture in the morning, but basically we sit all day long from five in the morning until nine at night for seven days. It's a rare opportunity. I was thinking of the, what are called the sishin admonitions that are read. They're actually tonight. They'll be read tonight. We'll come after all the orientations and various things. We'll all come. All of the visitors have gone home. All the people here for the seven days will come sit in the zendo. And at some point the eno will read the admonitions. And I won't read all of them, but... The first part was coming to me and I'd like to share them with you. It says, be silent and still. Sashin is a time to diligently care for and collect body and mind in one suchness.

[44:59]

It is an opportunity to discover anew, clarify and actualize our ultimate concern. Please be sensitive to the fact that that you and your Dharma friends are making an effort toward being upright and awake. It's an opportunity to discover anew, clarify, and actualize our ultimate concern. Dharma friends are making an effort toward being upright and awake. So individually, we've heard this calling. Individually, We find ourselves here, but then we come together, we come together in this room and sit down. And I've seen notices all over the place, all over the world Zen senders are saying, come sit Rahatsu Sashim.

[46:10]

So maybe if you think of it, you might think or send good wishes to all the people all over the world who will be sitting this week and who will be hearing that bell and maybe seeing the morning star. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:58]

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