This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. It's a joy to see you here. Whether you are in person, and I'm imagining everyone who's in the virtual field as well, thank you for joining this morning. And for those who might not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I have lived here at Zen Center for 24 years, and currently serve as the central abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. And... I don't know if anyone who's new, you may have, or just recently returning, that we got around to renovating the Zendo. It's still a work in progress.

[01:00]

Maybe in a month, we'll have a door to the Gaitan and a new way to circulate air in this space. So looking forward to the reopening of the building, which will happen in January. I'd like to begin this morning with a koan. And this is a koan or dharma study. Story, excuse me. And this is case 36 from the Mumankan. Mumankan can also be translated as the gateless gates. And the title of this particular koan is When You Meet a Person of the Way. And it goes like this. Wuzu said, When you meet a person of the way on the path, do not meet them with words or silence. Tell me. how will you meet them? When you meet a person of the way, on the path, do not meet them with words or silence. Tell me, how will you meet them?

[02:04]

And as is often the case with koans, Mumon, the person who collected all the koans that were put into the Mumon Khan, has a comment to go with the case, in which he says, in such a case, If you can manage an intimate meeting, it will certainly be gratifying. But if you cannot, you must be watchful in every way. And then he also includes a small verse or a poem in which he says, Meeting a person of the way on the road, meet them with neither words nor silence. A punch on the jaw. Understand if you can understand directly. So Wuzu Fayan was an 11th and 12th century Chinese Chan master. His Japanese name is Gozo Hoen. And in time, Wuzu became the teacher of Yuanwu, who edited another collection of koans, the Blue Cliff Record.

[03:13]

And Wuzu here appears in several koans in the Mumankan, including in case 38. For those of you who might know it, this is Wuzu's buffalo passes through the window, as well as case 35, Zanzhou and her soul are separated. And so in our koan, Wuzu poses a question to his students. Meeting a person of the way, don't use words and don't use silence. How will you greet them? So now our first two questions, perhaps, as we enter into this particular case, is first, what is the way? What is the way? And second, who or what is a person of the way? The way, often translated from the word Tao, is a path or a road. It's traditional meaning. And in Chinese Taoist and Buddhist understanding, the way of the Tao is also the natural order of the universe.

[04:18]

The way, you could say, the way things are. Meaning the way that all the myriad causes and conditions have come together throughout time and space and have unfolded. and ripened as just this moment, just this reality here and now, what's manifesting. And a person of the Tao, a person of the way, is one who understands this natural order, understands what causes and conditions have come together to manifest right here and right now. And... You could also say that this might be an accomplished practitioner, an adept, or it could be a Dharma teacher. Or there could be anyone who is on a spiritual path who is awake and who lives in an awakened way. So it's not necessarily limited to, if you will, the Buddhist tradition. However, I think I might suggest that we can also venture to say that

[05:22]

by virtue of your being here today and participating in this Dharma practice, that you are each persons of the way for this very moment. And I imagine you too, at some level, are wanting to know how to meet and live in accord. with reality, with the way things are, particularly in a way that brings you less suffering and those around you. So when you meet another person of the way, maybe when you meet each other here, how will you greet them? And is this going to be different? If you meet a person of the way, you're going to greet them differently than you would an ordinary person? And does a person of the way look a certain way? Do they act in a certain way? And furthermore, if we're talking about the way, the path, what does that look like?

[06:24]

How broad and narrow is it? Are there particular places along the way that you're going to meet these persons of the way? I'm going to return to this koan in a little bit to explore it with you, but I want to make a brief detour. and talk about some traveling along the way that I have done over the last six months. I've been traveling quite a bit, both in the US and overseas, mostly to visit other Dharma centers and monasteries and attending conferences and participating in several very special ceremonies. that were held to, in large part, to acknowledge and honor our Soto Zen ancestors and the transmission of Zen to the next generation. And so over this period of time, this particular koan has kept coming back to me. And as you can imagine, I have encountered during this time scores of persons of the way.

[07:29]

And... I can say that whether I was exchanging words, having conversations with them, or simply sitting in silence with them, that I was touched and inspired by their sincere practice, by the sincere practice of everyone that I met during this time. So let me see. In April... I joined over 100 other people in going to Japan, people from the West, going to Japan to participate in the 700th anniversary tour and celebration of Kezon Jokin, who is considered one of the key founders of Soto Zen. And this particular tour included visits to Eheji, which is the temple that Ehe Dogen, our primary founder of Zen, founded. founded, and then Sokoji, which was founded by Kezan himself, and also had an opportunity to go to Rinzou Inn, which is the family temple of Suzuki Roshi.

[08:33]

near Yokohama. And I found it particularly powerful to be able to visit these temples, and this was the first time that I had been to any of these temples, to visit them, to see them have the sense of history and deep practice and the way that that history and practice has inspired and shaped generation of, you would say, Zen practitioners over many centuries. And then after my trip to Japan, a month later, I went to Oregon and attended a biannual Gen X Dharma teachers gathering that was at Great Vow Ministry. And then in July, I went to Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, our monastery near Big Sur in the Ventana Wilderness. And I was leading retreats there and spending time with the students. And then in September, the beginning of September, I traveled to Switzerland and then southern Germany to participate in mountain seat ceremonies at the Zen Buddhist Center in the Black Forest.

[09:47]

Another name for that center is called Johanneshof. And finally, after all that, you know, the latter part of September, I flew to Pennsylvania to attend the annual, biannual conference of the Sotizen Buddhist Association. So I was meeting a lot of people of the way and being in lots of places of the way, if you will. Aside from my time in Japan, particularly memorable, was my visit to Johanneshof in Germany and participating in the ceremony there. For those who don't know, Yohannisov is a Dharma center that Zantatsu Richard Baker, who was the second abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, that he established in the mid-1990s. And so the main event of the four days of ceremonies included a stepping down as abbot of Richard Baker. And then the stepping up ceremony, the ascending the seat ceremony of his 24-year-old heir, not 24, 44-year-old heir, Tatsuro Nicole Bodden.

[10:59]

And it was really wonderful to be able to witness these really important ceremonies. There were quite a few teachers and old friends who have... connections to San Francisco Zen Center, who were there in attendance, including Huizu Suzuki Roshi, who is Suzuki Roshi, our founder's son, and also his grandson, Shungo, was there, and then a number of Zen Center alums, David Chadwick, some of you might know David Chadwick, Norman Fisher was there, Fu Schrader, Tova and Vicky were also able to attend. And It was important for me to be there for two reasons. First, as a healing gesture between San Francisco Zen Center and Baker Roshi. Now, I was not around at Zen Center in the 80s and during the events that surrounded Richard Baker's departure from Zen Center and the impact of those difficult times and the...

[12:07]

You know, the way that the reverberations of those difficult times still, we can still feel 40 years later in different ways, particularly around how we understand power and perceive power, get power and well power at San Francisco Zen Center. And I'm not going to go into the details of what happened, just to know that there was a difficult parting of ways. And... Well, I think my elders here at Zen Center and who maybe moved on from Zen Center are the ones responsible for addressing the karma of that particular time and circumstance. As a member of the so-called next generation, I really want to do my part to support a process of healing and moving forward. So that's why I wanted to be there to honor Richard, to honor the entirety of his legacy, and also to support the transition that was happening.

[13:09]

And secondly, I had a wonderful connection with Nicole Bowden. I had met her a number of years ago when she came with Richard to visit San Francisco Zen Center. And we ended up all going out to lunch together at Green's. And as we were departing, Richard and I think it was Ed Sarazan and maybe Fu were kind of still on their way coming to the front door. And I took Nicole aside and I said to her, I hope that as both members of the next generation that we could create new connections and and transcending any past difficulties that our elders had or that our particular Dharma centers may have had, and be able to meet each other in a new and fresh way. And I also feel that it's vital for members of the next generation, dharma leaders, to have peers outside of their particular sanghas that they can connect to and get support from and counsel and ideas and inspiration. So I wanted to offer that to Nicole.

[14:12]

And I expressed this at the ceremony. I was invited to join the panel, and this is some of the first things that I said at the beginning of the panel. And afterwards, many people came up to me really expressing their appreciation, because the whole song there was very aware of the difficulties that had arose during Richard's departure. And really, they were touched and said how meaningful and healing it was to have members of San Francisco Zen Center there to support this transition and honor Richard and Nicole and also kind of strengthen the connection between our mutual sanghas. During the ceremony, I think this was a part of Richard Baker's stepping down ceremony. One of the gifts that he gave to Nicole during the ceremony was his kotsu, which is a teaching stick just like this, that Suzuki Roshi had given to Richard shortly before he died. So it was quite a powerful and touching moment to witness this literal generation-to-generation handoff of the expression of teaching, expression of the Dharma, and this trust that Richard was putting in, giving to Nicole that she would be able to continue and carry on Suzuki Roshi's legacy.

[15:37]

and his faith in the next generation. And coincidentally, over this kind of six months of my travels going to different centers, there were a lot of conversations about how to prepare, pass on, transmit the teachings to the next generation and how to support the next generation. As I mentioned, I was on a panel at Johanneshof, and the panel included Shungo Suzuki, Huitzu's son and Suzuki Roshi's grandson. And the title of the panel were for us to address some of the perceived challenges for the next generation of Zen practitioners. So I got to speak to some of the Western views of that, and Shungo spoke to some of what the word might be the Japanese challenges.

[16:40]

And there was also a topic that came up at the Next Generation Dharma Teachers Gathering and also the Sotisam Buddhist Association. While I, you know, while people still maybe consider me a member of the Next Generation, just because I wasn't a member of the founding generation, I'm at 61, I think I'm a little long in the tooth. to be considered next generation. But I kind of perceive myself more as a bridge between generations. So a bridge between the founding generation and the generation that is already coming up, you know, and after me, already stepping into Dharma leadership roles and wanting to foster a healthy and vital Dharma and also Zen center. And so it's really sobering at times to reflect on and to consider the responsibility that comes with this transmission from the ancestors of the past to the ancestors of the future and how best to support it.

[17:49]

And of course we can... recognize a whole multiplicity of ancestors, including our familiar and our biological ancestors, the ancestors of our diverse cultural heritage, as well as the ancestors of our spiritual lineages. And each of these forms, each of these types of ancestors have their particular gifts which they are wanting to bestow to us and for us to take up and to find ways to carry on and make the best use of. And so as a Zen priest, I represent a lineage of practitioners and ancestors that reach all the way back through Japan, through... through China all the way to India, Shakyamuni Buddha, 2,500 years ago. That's quite a heritage to consider. And while our particular familiar and cultural ancestors, in most cases they were not Buddhist practitioners, they may nevertheless have endeavored to find a way to be in harmony with the universal order as they understood it.

[19:01]

Right before I went to Germany, I actually flew into Zurich, and I spent a number of days in Switzerland. And I intentionally wanted to go to the ancestral homeland of my Swiss-German-Mennonite ancestors. And they lived in an area called Thun, Thun and Steffesburg, which is just north of Interlaken and not too far from the Alps. And it was fascinating to walk in that land and see and imagine where they lived and how they lived and get a feeling of what it was to walk the path that they walked in that particular place. They ended up fleeing Switzerland in 1732. They fled religious persecution because they were Antibaptists. And eventually we landed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which I was born a little over 200 years later and was able to go to their graveyard, the two brothers that came over, Hans and Christian Zimmerman.

[20:03]

I went to the farm that they first created and to their gravestones that were still there. So quite a sense of this connection of place and time. I often think of our ancestors, whether they're our Dharma ancestors or our familiar ancestors, as people who are no longer with us. And I would say this is a mistake. Our ancestors are alive. They're in us. They're with us. So how are we going to meet these ancestors? How are you going to meet your ancestors? And I would suggest that one of the ways to meet the ancestors is by recognizing the ancestors in every single being whom we meet. So just looking around the room and acknowledging the ancestor quality of everyone here in the room.

[21:04]

And when we live our lives with such an awareness, seeing each person as intimately related to us in some way. We naturally want to be kind and treat the world, our mutual home, with great respect, great care. And in doing this, we realize that what we do, everything we do, how we meet each other really matters. How we live our lives matters. So we ask ourselves, how are we going to be good ancestors to those around us and for the world and for the earth? Okay, so going back to the koan, I briefly introduced at the start of the talk. Wuzu said, when you meet a person of the way on the path, do not meet them with words of silence.

[22:10]

Tell me, how will you meet them? Now, again, while we might usually think of a person of the way as a Dharma adept or a teacher or ancestor, the truth is that every day we are meeting persons of the way, right? People who are actually teaching us, who are kind enough to teach us. And the question is, can we hear their teaching? Whether or not we like it or don't like it, there is still a teaching that is arising in our relating to each other and how it is that we show up and relate to each other. And oftentimes we might just say, well, I'm going to just reserve attention to the person who's here on a Dharma seat or in the front of a classroom, has their microphone, and we expect that they will teach us in a certain way, but... the invitation is to be willing to be taught by everyone and everything. And not only is this question about how we meet others, but it's also one of how we meet ourselves.

[23:16]

How do we perceive and greet ourselves as a person of the way? And that means, are we able to welcome not only each other in whatever way other people are showing up, but how do we meet ourselves, the entirety of ourselves, everything that we are experiencing in this particular mind-body? Are we welcoming it? Are we receptive to it? Meeting a person of the way, not using words, and not resorting to silence. How will you greet them? So as I mentioned in Muman's brief commentary on the case, he says, in such a case, if you can manage an intimate meeting, it will certainly be gratifying. But if you cannot, you must be watchful in every way. Now, Zen is fundamentally a practice. It's fundamentally about intimacy. The intimacy of meeting ourselves and each other.

[24:22]

meaning so intimately that there is no separation, no self and no other, no you and me, no subject and object. And when we can manage such an intimate meeting, particularly with another person, whether they're a practitioner of the way or not, then Munman says, how wonderful it is, how gratifying. Another translation has him commenting that meeting this way is pleasant and joyful. And don't you feel that when you meet someone that you have kind of open-hearted connected to, this sense of intimacy, that it brings a sense of warmth, you know, of joy, of ease, happiness? How wonderful that is. However, if we're not able to recognize and meet another intimately, Then Munan instructs us to be watchful in every way, to be watchful in every way. In fact, this is one of the ways that teaching is offered in Zen Buddhism.

[25:28]

We can teach with our words, sure, of course. I'm up here going blah, blah, blah, and maybe you'll take something away from that, and then you're getting something from something I say. But more so, in many ways, we teach through our actions what it is that we do. So as apprentices of the way, we are encouraged to continually watch, to observe, to mindfully observe what is the teacher doing? What are others around us doing that might be a teaching for us? And so we look for and we observe others who inspire us, who embody a particular way of being that we also want to manifest. And we watch them. This is kind of part of the apprentice practice that we encourage. We watch them, what they do, how it is that they talk to people, how it is that they interact. Their way of being often teaches us about what it is to be practitioners of the way, more so than actually their words.

[26:30]

And many people who had met... Suzuki Roshi in person said that it wasn't always so much what he said, it was how he was. His very presence, his very way of being was a more profound teaching for them. And I know when I first saw the copy of Zen Mind McGinner's Mind, you know that photo on the original issue on the back of Suzuki Roshi? I immediately said, that guy's got something I want, right? Whatever it is, even before I read the words in the book, I was like, He's got something. I want that, right? It's just his way of being inspired me to practice. Another translation has Mumman advising us to be alert in every aspect of your life and to every single thing. But the thing is, this is just our practice, right? This is Zen practice, paying intimate attention to everything.

[27:32]

So in Soto Zen, we are encouraged to engage in all of activities and meeting others with a specific kind of attention. And this form of attention is often called mimitsu no kafu in Japanese. And it was Dogen, apparently, who himself coined this particular term, which essentially means the careful consideration of everything. Intimacy with everything, as well as literally the family style. So those three meanings come out of the words, So this family style of Zen, one that characterizes all of Zen practice, is an exquisite, careful, considerate, intimate, warm-hearted, continuous attention to detail. It's a form of intimate attention.

[28:36]

It's a non-dual intimacy that's both soft and also subtle. And a good deal of Zen training, particularly at a temple like this or at a monastery, is learning how to embody mimitsu as one goes about their daily activities. So as you put on your robes, your clothing, sweeping the hallway, cutting the vegetables, washing dishes, you know, put together your oreochi bowls and so on. Our intention throughout the whole day when we're training is to maintain a continuous thread of intimate awareness in everything that we do. To stop and pause, where is my mind? Is my mind present? Is my mind connected to the activity that's happening in this moment? Or is it once again wandering in the clouds, right? to come back and be intimate again with the experience of the moment.

[29:37]

So Muman is encouraging us to keep practicing, right? Become accomplished in the way. Meet everyone and everything with this non-dual awareness. And the thing is, everyone, or I should say everything in the cosmos, is already doing this practice of meeting intimately. All you have to do is join in. All you have to do is walk the path and be in accord with the way. Be in accord with reality, with the way things are. It doesn't mean you can't work to make changes, but first you have to start with this is what is. Start with reality. This is what's happening now. And now, how do I want to meet it? It's carefully. Furthermore, when Mumong Khan asks, how do you meet a person of the way without words of silence? It's just not he's not just pointing to the intimacy of meeting all things, but in particular, an intimate meeting with all of reality.

[30:40]

Another word I like to say that is all being, right? And what's more, Buddhism's underlying view is that this intimacy with all being is equally an intimacy with oneself, with one's true nature, with one's Buddha nature, awake nature. All of our Dharma ancestors, from Shakyamuni Buddha on, sought to awaken to and embody the Buddha way. This way of profound intimacy with our fundamental Buddha nature. So in Mumon's verse or his poem, he says, meeting a person of the way on the road, meet them with neither words nor silence. A punch! on the jaw understand if you can directly understand so meeting on a person of the way on the road without using words without being silent how are you going to greet them and this without using words means without coming from a space of separation without coming from the ego self you know so often our words are really ways for us to put our ego out there

[32:01]

to put our self out there, to reify our self in some way. We talk and talk just because we're trying to reaffirm I exist and I'm okay and kind of get everyone to see us and accept us in some way. And in doing so, we often create even more of a separation. So speaking without words, without coming from concepts such as you and me, But it said coming from a place without words or sounds that referred to a separate eye, not coming from a sense of eye. Then Muman goes on to describe this way of meeting as a punch on the jaw, right? So he's not literally suggesting that if you meet a person on the way, you punch them on the jaw, right? Hello, boot up punch, right? Hello, or yourself for that matter, right? Wake up. He's not suggesting that. But he's really trying to describe a moment of true meeting.

[33:05]

The moment of direct realization. When suddenly that place of separation falls away. And when that happens, it's often described as a shock. A little... little kind of the feeling of getting knocked out of your body in some way, right? Like a punch on the jaw might kind of do. And so many of the stories in Zen koans include instances of teachers, you know, breaking the legs of their disciple or aggressively twisting their nose, you know, which are really, they're shocking in a conventional sense. Yes, that's true. But ultimately what they do is they serve to trigger a profound awakening for the student. because they break the student's focus on their own internal mind and focus on something larger than themselves, this greater connection to all things. So they drop the mind, they drop the body, and they're just in this kind of suddenly, whoa, what was that?

[34:11]

And again, in a sense, this awakening, even if it's shocking in a moment, it's really nothing special. And this is something we need to remember. We may have profound awakenings, but we don't need to then take it and put it on the shelf and go, oh, look at my profound awakening. It's so amazing, right? And then we want to tell everyone how great it was and so on. We're just making it another object and making it something else. You have to live your insights. Any insight that you have, any moment of awakening you have, it has to be embodied. It has to be lived. Don't put it up here and make it special. It's not special. You have to digest it. Eat it. Eat your insights. So we don't need a punch in the jaw to wake up. Even the evening breeze, if you pay subtle, close attention to it, can be enough to awaken us to our true nature, to our fundamental oneness. You have that experience in nature?

[35:16]

You go in nature. Many of us love being in nature because we feel at one with. all being, right? We don't feel kind of the separation that we might feel in our day-to-day lives, right? So Vuman says, if you want to realize, just realize. Understand, if you can directly understand. So it's that simple. But only insofar as we're able to let go of our conditioned, limited views and our concepts, right? Let go of our fixation on how we think things should be or how we think others should be or how we think we should be. Drop others' ideas and concepts. And instead, allow ourselves simply to rest and expand into a space of unconditional awareness. Another way you could say that is into a space of unconditional love. Just allow ourselves to just rest in that and be held by that and be at one with that.

[36:16]

And it's in this space that we realize we are already intimately encountering each other all the time, even when you don't realize it. It's always happening. And of course, this endeavor to understand directly, as movement encourages us, is the basis of our practice of zazen, which zazen entails becoming still and silent. And listening deeply, observing deeply to the present moment, to what is. To such a degree that you become presence itself. There's no one who's being present. It's just presencing, presencing itself. And this is zazen. When we're able to, as Dogen says, drop body and mind. There's just presencing. The whole universe is presencing at this very moment in this particular Dharma field.

[37:21]

So when we engage in Zazen, we engage in the path of our Zen ancestors who are also, like us, seeking to understand at some level themselves, this life, how it is to meet and live this life, and to do so with some measure of happiness and ease and purpose. Do any of you have that goal? Am I the only one? Oh, okay. A few others. Right? So we take up Zazen, right? And as Zen practitioners, we all serve in some way as ancestors, right? As persons of the way to future. How we meet each other in the circumstances of the present moment now will determine the future. So if you want a better future, find a way to meet now in a better way. That will create a better future. Given this, how then might we greet ourselves and each other as if we are already ancestors?

[38:41]

You're already an ancestor. How will you take up that responsibility? How will you take up the responsibility for helping to shape the future by the way that you travel the path today? And this is what it is to meet people of the way. To find a way to truly meet and connect with all beings. And we do this outside of time and space, right? You find a place outside of time and space, a space that goes all the way back, if you will, generations and generations to the so-called beginningless beginning and all the way to the future beyond the end of the end, right? All time and space is actually only here and now. This is the only place that all time and space exists, right? So how do you enter into this present timeless, placeless realm of being, right?

[39:46]

And serve all life from this place, right? And so it's in this way when we truly meet a person of the way, we don't see other. And all there is is the universe meeting itself. There's no time, there's no space, there's no names, there's no words, there's no silence. There's simply a profound, deep, intimate connection. Before I close, I want to share a brief prophecy. So this coming Monday is October 14th, Indigenous People's Day. And it's, I don't know how many people are aware, originally it was, began in 1992 in Berkeley.

[40:49]

I just read this the other day. As a counter-celebration that was held on the same day as Columbus Day. So, and... Indigenous People Day celebrates and honors Indigenous American peoples and commemorates their histories and their culture. There's an opportunity to do that. And so I want to conclude my talk by sharing a prophecy attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder, an elder of the Hopi nation in Uribe, I don't know if I'm saying that right, Uribe, Arizona. And apparently he gave this prophecy in June of 2000. And I understand that the word Hopi means good, peaceful, or wise human beings. So our ancestors, we hope. And here's how it goes. You have been telling the people that this is the 11th hour.

[41:50]

Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the hour. And there are things to be considered. Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relationship? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And lastly, do not look outside yourself for the leader, or I would add, the teacher. And then he collapsed his hands together, smiled and said, this could be a good time.

[42:52]

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore. Push off into the middle of the river. Keep your eyes open and your heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you. and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt. The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves. Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

[43:58]

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the ones we've been waiting for. It's been 25 years since this prophecy by a Hopi elder was first offered. It was offered the same year that I moved into San Francisco Zen Center, I just realized, right? And so I would imagine you would agree that today we find ourselves in a time where the river, as he says, the elder says, the river is flowing very fast and there are those who will be afraid. No, the river has its destination. So perhaps the elders tend, you could say, life considerations. Maybe they arouse your curiosity, some sense of reflection. How would I respond to those? some sense of inner wisdom about what it is that you want to do and tend to do.

[45:02]

And maybe they, along with the teachings of the Buddhist ancestors, will offer you the encouragement to effect meaningful change now and for future ancestors and generations. So who or what are we waiting for? Now is the time to practice. As the adage goes, practice as if your hair or head is on fire. The urgency of it, how we meet the moment with all of its challenges, opportunities, joys and sours, how we meet each other, is what sets in motion the conditions for the future. So everything we do needs to be considered in this light if we are to meet and care for the people of the way who come after us. So I'll conclude with an excerpt from Dogen Zenji's Ehe Koso Hutu Ganon, which goes like this.

[46:05]

May the ancestors share with us their compassion, which fills the balanced universe with the virtue of their enlightenment and teachings. Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we. We in the future shall be Buddhas and ancestors. Revering Buddhas and ancestors, we are one Buddha and one ancestor. Awakening Bodhi mind, we are one Bodhi mind. Because they extend their compassion to us freely and without limit, we are able to attain Buddhahood and let go of the attainment. So thank you for your kind attention and patience. Thank you for your practice. Thank you for meeting all beings on the way as best you can. And thank you for being once and future Buddha ancestors. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[47:09]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[47:25]

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