is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kaphas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. I was looking at myself on my computer. I thought, no, I can't, I don't wanna give a talk looking at myself. So now I have this wonderful image of little images of all of you. I had planned, I'm giving the talk from my apartment.

[01:02]

And I had planned to do it in a place where I'd have a nice Buddha statue behind me, but my internet wouldn't work there. So I do have a Buddha statue, although it's small and hard to recognize. And then there were other wonderful questions. You know, usually this is before I have given a couple of Saturday morning talks while I was at Tassajara. And this is the first one back in the city. And I brought my trusted sutra cover. And now I will set it aside. And then I thought, well, how should I dress? And as you can see, put on my full outfit. Probably most of you don't know that in in Soto Zen I'm not sure if it's just sort of Zen but in Soto Zen we have one robe we wear for Zazen and then another one which is a seven Joe seven panels and then another one for giving talks and it was reminding me and I've just come up this week from Tassahara

[02:32]

our formal, our traditional monastery down in the wilderness behind Big Sur. And I was thinking about the contrast of the two lifestyles, you know, being a householder in the city and being in a monastery in the wilderness. And both those are significant, you know, that it's a monastery, traditional Zen monastery. You know, each day has a rhythm, zazen, chanting, breakfast, work, lunch, work, bathing, dinner, zazen, you know? And all that in the context of wilderness, all that in the context of a, A wonderful Zen teacher, Shohaka Komura, has just finished giving a teaching here at City Center.

[03:47]

Well, actually he's back in Bloomington, but in our minds, he was here giving a teaching about insentient being preaching the Dharma. And it seems like In the wilderness that surrounds Tassahara, it has a presence, you know. I went down there for a three-month thing. The plan was a three-month period, January, February, March, and then I would return. But the pandemic struck and rearranged the schedule, and so I stayed for eight months. for which I am deeply appreciative. There's something about engaging in a way that has a continuance.

[04:48]

I think of it as there's a steady influence, and the more we stay in proximity to that influence, or even better, immersed, in that influence, the more thoroughly it unpacks and undoes the habituations of our life. And in a way that's what I want to talk about this morning. And not to say, you know, that monastic life is nothing but serenity and equanimity and the gracious presence of each other in that exquisite environment. No, as human beings, we manage to bring in things to perplex us, annoy us, challenge us, disturb us, and...

[05:59]

And you learn, this is monastic life. It's this Tibetan teacher, Chogum Trungpa, once described it as being in a shower with a jet of really hot water and a jet of really cold water. So at Tassahara, as I think with monastic practice, there is this influence towards peacefulness, you know, an ease, a flow, an acceptance. And then there's this other karmic undoing that expresses itself in little ways, you know. Actually, sometimes not so little. This week when I came back, I... I got an email from someone and said, oh, this happened at Tassahara, in inviting my involvement.

[07:08]

Two people had a misunderstanding and they spoke to each other in a kind of clumsy way. And in a monastery, We are afforded the opportunity to unpack it thoroughly. And when you, in that context, it's kind of obvious to see that this event was symbolic for both of these people. That in their subjective world, it represented something deep in their own process. They had projected onto this other person, they had projected onto the occasion, the interaction, some powerful expression of being for them.

[08:15]

And as happens in all of our lives, this one flared up into an uncomfortable, challenging experience for them both. And part of me thought, may this be how the challenges of our life arise, you know? But here they are, identified, acknowledged, with the capacity to meet them and address them. And then I was contrasting that. I was watching myself back in the city after this long hiatus from being in the city. What's it like to be back in the city? At first, it reminded me a little bit, once I went to an environmental event,

[09:25]

over in Fort Mason, which is a conference center in San Francisco. And there was probably 500 people at the event. And up in the stage were two men who days before had left the Amazon jungle for the first time, where they'd lived their whole lives, And they were standing on the stage looking at this surreal world of human beings who don't have the relationship to nature they have. And I marveled at the way they stood, you know? The way they looked out as if to say, This is totally strange, but it's kind of amazing.

[10:28]

And the way they maintain their own presence. So when I come back from Tassajara, the way the wilderness, the way the creek, the way noticing the light changing, a while you can notice it how it changes even in a couple of days you know we we start meditation somewhere around sunrise and or the first light and we end it a little bit after the end of uh this is sun setting sun and then fading light that connection to nature coming back to the city, as if to say, insentient being had been instructing me, had been whispering in my ear what life is.

[11:40]

And now there were other voices, there were other expressions, descriptions of reality. The pandemic, you know. Black Lives Matter, protests, the turmoil with the economy, with politics, all these things arising and speaking, speaking their version of reality. And then the particulars of my own life, you know, the utility of the things to take care of, sorting through mountains of junk mail, just in case there's something in there I have to attend to. And how initially it had this somewhat surreal notion.

[12:43]

It was like, oh, look at this. Look at this pile of mail. And then the utility of sort through it, what can be discarded, what needs to be kept. And then to listen to Shohaku and reflect on his teachings. He told this marvelous story, which I'll repeat in brief for those of you who didn't hear it. He's 15, he's at school, he's disillusioned. And he, I forget what we used to call it when we were kids. When you'd skip school, we had a slang term for it. I think it was bunking. So he bunked for the day. I see John nod. He bunked for the day.

[13:46]

John. And went to the creek to write a poem. So he sat beside the creek, listening to the creek for inspiration and... to catch the sign of the creek and weave it into the boat. And he had a sense, sitting there doing that, accidentally, coincidentally, he had an experience of presence. That way in which consciousness, our human consciousness can listen to insentient being and not be so lost or dictated to by its own narrative, the narrative of our subjective experience. The I, the me, that defines reality, defines what it is, has a response to our own definition, and then has conclusions and emotions around reality.

[14:57]

our assessment, our definitions. So listening to the creak, something settled. And how, and then he went on to describe in brief, how transformative that moment of simplicity, that moment where the internal narrative with all its accompaniment, quiet. As Mary Oliver says, and a silence within which another voice can speak. And I was thinking, it would have brought up to mind was something I'd been thinking about, which was a Zen teaching, certainly prevalent in Zen, probably in other parts of Buddhism too. And it has two terms, one is Mu-shin and the other one is U-shin.

[16:07]

And the Mu is a negation and the U is kind of affirmation. So the dropping of the particulars of the subjective world, Mu-shin and the affirmation of the particulars of the subjective world. And I would suggest to you that within the context of Zen, within the context of practice, I would say personally, in however we're defining practice, there's a request, in the vernacular of Northern Ireland, cut yourself on. See your own stuff.

[17:10]

Okay, here's my subjective experience in this moment. I'm delighted, I'm annoyed, I'm frightened, I'm enthusiastic. Here's me creating my description of reality. This is a good thing. This is not a good thing. This is a lovely person. This is a terrible person. My life's going well, my life's going badly. Global warming is going to destroy us. This is an opportunity and a challenge for us to meet the world afresh, to bring up beginner's mind and to drop old worn-eyed habits and to create a new way of being.

[18:15]

And within the burden of that, Mushen, somehow finding, release a return to simplicity and what I'd like to suggest this morning is you know traditionally I would say that traditionally motion is characterized as it was characterized in Shohaku Gomorrah Roshi's of listening to the creek. Everything drops away. There's a simplicity of being. And what I'd like to propose this morning is that in addition to that marvelous practice that I think each of us can benefit from,

[19:36]

can rediscover who we are, where we are, how we are. There's also the practice of engaging Ushin, the stuff of our life, in a way that we find the same understandings, appreciations, who we are, how we are, what we are. And here's a notion I'd offer you is that given the tenacity of our ocean, the way we create a reality, the way we respond to that reality, the way we live within that reality, It's its own immersion.

[20:43]

We are immersed in being. Recently, I was reading an article by Robin DiAngelo, who wrote a book, a powerful, provocative book called White Fragility. I was struck by a phrase which I thought was a classic Zen statement, where she said, What arises, we can relate to it as a way out or a way in. The way out is we just get carried away by our own stuff. We're hoodwinked by the world according to me. And we say, yes, that's reality. And then we have our accompanying responses to it. our emotions, our habitual way of being, our habitual way of relating, our habitual way of dividing the world into right and wrong.

[21:47]

And she was suggesting in contrast that we turn it around and instead of being a way out, it's a way in, that we examine it, that we look at the... the propositions of reality that are coming up, that we look at how we're responding to it, that we look at the world it sets up. And of course, she was referring to it in the context of racism, justice and injustice, and all the consequences those things create. the circumstances that created them in the first place. So both Mushin as this dropping away and then Ushin as this engagement.

[22:57]

And in a way, in a powerful historical way, This meeting and engaging Ushin is the heritage of Zazen in the Zen school, the heritage of relating to consciousness and feelings and physical sensations with this mind, this consciousness, this heart mind that's engaging in a way to express awakening. Not that it matters much, but traditionally it's called in the Zen school. The continuous practice of meeting what arises and learning from it.

[24:03]

And then how do we do it? And you know, I started this talk by mentioning my own discovery of what is the mandala of practice when I'm giving a talk from my own apartment? What does that look like? What are the particulars? You know, every situation has its own particulars, whether we acknowledge it or not. Whether we eat our breakfast with a cup of coffee on one hand and looking at the news at the same time as we're reading. And yet, when we engage in that way, to use the phrase from Dogen that Chohaku was talking about, insentient beings are silent.

[25:22]

They are, they're inanimate. They're invisible. And as they become invisible, that we're creating in that moment becomes assumed and in a way invisible in of itself. And so not only the inanimate, but the very animate ocean of our being becomes invisible. we become like a mystery to ourselves. Like often the insights we have, and I think for each of us to reflect on this, the insights we have about ourselves, about our relationships, about the world, often they're quite simple.

[26:29]

The profundity is in their clarity and how they're not caught up in our opinions and judgments and habitual way of thinking. They arrive from beginner's mind. They arrive from a mind that has started over. A mind that has gone beyond its unexamined assumptions. Like when I think of those two people at Tassajara. A couple of weeks ago, I brought them both together, and I know them both very well, which is one of the great gifts of Zen, practicing together for years and years. I sat them down, and in a kind of humorous way, I said to them both, would you stop it?

[27:32]

I said, you know, this is not middle school, you know? You're not nine years old playing out your grudges by annoying this other person. And then we all left. With what voice do we speak to ourselves when we're trying to arouse the impulse, the motivation to practice. And I would suggest to you that's a very significant consideration. Over the years of being a mentor and a coach and a teacher for other practitioners, I've learned that reassurance and encouragement

[28:40]

is much more effective than criticism and scolding. Making someone feel bad about themselves so they will so-called reform. I've learned that reassurance and encouragement, they set the stage for honesty and honest inquiry. What is going on for me? You know? So in a humorous way, I engage those two people as if to say, nothing terrible has happened. Yes, you're annoying each other. Yes, it's not helpful for either of you or for the Sangha. but nothing terrible has happened.

[29:43]

This is why we're here. We're here to learn. And let's see if you can learn something about each other and how you trigger each other. And what would be an alternative way to deal with it. And how does any one of us find the skillfulness, the honesty, I would say radical honesty, the fortitude, the patience, to engage in that role? One of the things Robin DiAngelo said, she said, and often significant characteristic is that there's something uncomfortable.

[31:02]

There's some kind of tension, sense of conflict, discomfort that we're challenged to turn towards. not to act it out, but to inquire, to create insight. And how do we do that? And here's what I'd like to suggest. There's a teaching in Buddhism. a long-standing teaching, as far as I can tell from what I've read about it. It's called, in Pali, it's called the paramis, and then in Sanskrit, it's called the paramitas. Really, but it's the same term, essentially.

[32:06]

And the word parami or paramita It can mean, it's often translated as a kind of a transcendent way of engaging. Or sometimes it's described as crossing over to the other shore. On this shore, we're stuck in our karma. We cross over and we see, we have insight into that karma and we're not stuck. I would offer you a much messier notion that we have our insights and then lo and behold, we turn around and we do a replay of the very thing we had an insight into. As if quite simply, we've forgotten.

[33:17]

And I think anyone who sat down for more than five minutes has borne witness to this. There's this unrelenting capacity within us to repeat. That's what we do. The messy notion of paramita that I'd like to offer you is that it fits very nicely with what in the Mahayana we call the bodhisattva va. Delusions are inexhaustible. They keep coming back. And so we need to keep coming back. That there's a kind of a and understanding of the capacity our habitual way of being has in terms of repeating itself.

[34:30]

That's what it's going to do in a whole variety of ways. You can pack up, come to the monastery, get your Zen outfit, engage in all the beautiful traditional Zen practices, And guess what? If you'd like the rest of us right there in the middle of all that, you'll recreate the very stuff you're made of, the very stuff that brought you to the monastery that you thought you were going to get away from. And it's not a problem. It's not cause for alarm. It's not cause for shame and regret and remorse. Can we go in rather than opt out?

[35:34]

Can we explore? Can we feel the intensity of the worldview we're bringing forth? Can we feel and notice the rigidity of the thinking of it. Can we notice how often it can shape our, what we're attending to. So these two people that I've been mentioning, the Tassahara. Then together the three of us explored how they trigger each other. It's like each of them has become an expert in what it is about the other person that they find offensive. Outside of the intensity of their intrigue of how they relate to each other and how each other has become emblematic

[36:53]

of the karma of their lives, most of us wouldn't notice the little details. But for them, sensitized each little detail. They did that just to annoy me. That was their sole purpose in doing that. what one of them said to me recently. And I thought, what can we say? Is there a single one of us hasn't been hooked by that notion? Not that we say it as an intellectual notion, but the notion is charged with feelings for us. And those feelings have deep roots.

[37:58]

They go back in time. They go back to when we were open and available, taking in the world, sentient and insentient, and letting it shape us. So this is, This is the human condition. And from the Zen school, each time we sit down, it's a statement of, yes, I will. I will sit in the middle of the human condition, my own and our collective human condition. And I will attempt to be awake the unfolding of this amazing creative narrative that I insist upon making about being alive.

[39:11]

And then I would suggest you after the end of our sitting, whether it was 10 minutes or 10 hours, there's this valid reason for saying to ourselves, okay, Well, I was present a little bit and I didn't notice the intensity with which the world according to me asserts itself. And in that, can we learn the proposition of the six paramitas? Can we learn, the first one is generosity. Can we learn the generosity that says, okay, this is what's happening.

[40:18]

It may be painful or difficult. It may be weighing on my life. But it doesn't require aggression. profound criticism, opposition, a generous attitude towards our being alive. What does it request? The second paramita, sila, that which behavior that promotes the spacious, wholesome being. And sometimes in our sitting, we're looking at how we're engaging sitting. Are we tightening? Are we struggling? Or are we allowing? Are we allowing that generosity?

[41:23]

Are we allowing this substrata of being? that's usually overlaid with deep interest and preoccupation with the world according to me. Can we allow that substrat of being to start to reveal itself? Here's the patterns of thinking. Here's how all this is held in the body. Here's a psychosomatic expression of it. Here's the emotional intensity that I find arises with each inhale or each exhale. And can we meet all this and the persistence of our own contraction?

[42:29]

No? In Buddhism, we have a profound and simple notion, dukkha, the word du, meaning contract, contracting to being, dukkha, suffering. Sukha, expanding, opening, softening, pleasant. This simple binary of our being. Can we be patient? Can we be willing, as Robin DiAngelo says, to go in, even when it's disturbing, challenging, unpleasant? Generosity, virtuous conduct, and patience.

[43:31]

The three primary paramitas. They soften us. They start to work on us. And the great thing about them is we can start to engage them in a tangible way. I have written out What I did recently, I was teaching the class and so I wrote out reflections and practices on each of them. And at the end, I'm gonna ask Kodo, so get ready Kodo, wherever you are. Is there a way to disseminate this? Can we put it as an attachment to the talk? But I would also say to you, you know, I made these up.

[44:37]

And what I would suggest is that you read them. And rather than think, you know, this is the official way to practice with the Paramitas, to think this is a suggested. And maybe you should read them a different language. A different way of languaging, a different way of articulating. Recall moments when you feel motivated to be generous. How did it feel? What perspective, relationship, or relationship to others did it engender? How the inquiry into generosity, stimulates go entering into being what we are and learning from it what's it like when i'm generous what's it like when i'm not generous what's going on recall moments

[46:03]

of not being generous? What feelings, relatedness did that stir up? And can it be matter of fact? Can it not be some reason to invalidate, to criticize? and so on with each of the paramitas. And how, how to take the teachings, you know. Earlier this morning, I was reading a text on this, what it's called, Jiji Uzamai,

[47:07]

Japanese term written in the 13th century by a famous Zen teacher of the time, Menzan. I think it was the third, no, it wasn't about the 15th century. So that's my frame of reference, having read a lot of Zen stuff over the years. But so what? It doesn't matter. Finding the frame of reference, finding the articulation that works for you, that ignites your enthusiasm, that ignites your curiosity. That sounds like it might be worth exploring. Sounds like it could be relevant and helpful to my life.

[48:10]

So in reading what I write, suggestions, to explore the translation of it that ignites your interest. To trust yourself to be capable of that. take the heart, what it creates, and then that stimulates the next parameter, which is a diligence. But a diligence that has a heartfelt purposefulness. And then, The next paramita is immersion. And of course, in the great Zen paradox is we're always immersed in our life.

[49:18]

It's impossible not to be. We're always under the influence of so many particulars. Coming back to my apartment, and watching you know haven't really lived here for over eight months so it initially it had a certain kind of strangeness and of course it had a deep familiarity i've lived in the same apartment for a long time but initially it had a strangeness and i could feel myself become immersed in it again And in that, that immersion was becoming invisible. Walking from the bedroom to the kitchen.

[50:22]

Walking from the fridge to the stove. It's like looking, pulling open the cutlery drawer and taking out a fork. Our life is in immersion. And the challenge is to both have moments of motion immersion and also have moments of the motion, the dropping, of the fixed ideas in discovering immediately, in the immediacy of the moment, what's happening. And then within the ocean, letting this moment not be invisible, letting it become alive, letting it have the quality of insentient being that teaches you what is.

[51:38]

And then the sixth factor is insight. How do we be a good student? How do we keep returning to beginner's mind? Even parts of yourself that you've seen for a long time still seeing them will have something to offer. Before I left Tessahara, I tried to, I spoke to one of those two people who were in that challenging dynamic. And I said,

[52:45]

Try to remember this, you know, something we talked about. And then four days later, I got an email saying, guess what? Guess what happened? And I thought, hmm, delusions are inexhaustible, aren't they? until we start over. And somehow, in that, there's a kind of hopefulness. And it supports our life. I often think that one of the most cruel things we can engage, inflict upon ourselves is despair.

[53:45]

which not to say, you know, we're utterly in control of our feelings, which we're not, but as best we can, you know. Can we remind ourselves? Can we have some process? So I'll try to, with Kodo's help, link these to this, or somehow, if you wish. I'll leave Dakota to make some suggestion. And then if it's not possible, just make up your own. Maybe that's an even better idea. What are the reflections? What reflections would be helpful for you with regards to patients? practices would be helpful for you.

[54:50]

Okay. I think that's more than enough. Thank you for listening. And maybe now, I think if you have any questions, I think by my reckoning, we have about 10 minutes or so, but I'll leave that to Kodo. So Kodo, if you want to orchestrate whatever's next, please do. Sure, sure. Thank you so much for the talk, Yushin Roshi. As a transition into Q&A, we can do the bodhisattva vows. Okay. And then have about 10 minutes for discussion. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless, I vow to save them.

[55:56]

Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it. So as we head into the first question, one way that you can, I think, gain access to these practices would be to leave your email in the chat and I can send it to you. That could be one way. Let's see how that works. First, I see Maggie. Good morning. Good morning, Paul. So good to see you and everyone. Can you hear me okay? I can hear you. I'm trying to find your picture. Oh, and there are a lot of people. I'm right here.

[56:59]

Okay. Ready? Ready. Okay. First of all, I just want to say hello. And I have this overwhelming sense of, um, love for you and everyone at zen center i've felt i haven't lived there for a few years and i just i feel like i'm i feel very much a part of the family and i care very much about zen center and the practice um so this is the this is from where i'm coming with this question okay as well so my question for you is what can a predominantly white sangha do to include and do no harm to people of color? You know, it was in response to that question that I was reading Robin DiAngelo's book.

[57:59]

I think in a tangible way, educate ourselves. Educate ourselves on the history of structured racism, how it affects, it's reflected in our society and how each of us as an individual, through a certain kind of behavior, oppose it. And then I think the challenge for San Francisco Zen Center is to look at how does our institution operates, how does that, how is that racism and injustice sort of embodied in the organization?

[59:07]

And then I think the other thing for us as an organization is um the uh the actions maybe we can call them affirmative actions that that can help to undo them that can can facilitate our learning you know i mean maybe there's a six paramitas of undoing racism certainly it seems to me the heritage of our practice is doing you know it's not philosophizing so education only takes us so far at some point we have to do it and and then I think there there are formidable challenges you know delusions are inexhaustible changing a culture

[60:10]

on an organizational level, on a personal level, or a societal level, we shouldn't expect it to be simple. I think we should expect it, as John Lewis would say, I'm in this for the long haul. I think to be in this for the long haul. So those are what come to mind, Maggie, in the moment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Miguel. Good morning. Paul, thank you very much for this talk. A lot of it resonated with me. One thing that I got from your talk, sir, was this notion of simplicity starting over and hopefulness, which, again, I appreciate because, funny enough, going through all this stuff, going through COVID and whatnot,

[61:16]

I have to rework some of my health maintenance practices. I'm not getting the same exposure that I was to particular habits or avenues that I was before. And that notion of starting over is very powerful. But to piggyback off of Maggie's question, something I wrote down here is this notion of how do you return to simplicity when it's so complicated? Taking back to what Maggie had stated earlier about how does our community open up to the greater community, to more people of color, toward more Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian. What I've seen is that I want to return to this simplicity. I want to go back to the creek and listen to the sound of the creek and write my poem. But what I encounter is the complexity of, for me to listen to that creek, I have to hop over a fence. and technically be trespassing, or I have to ride BART out as far as it'll go and then walk a few more miles to get to that creek.

[62:24]

It's almost as if that simplicity isn't that easy. And likewise, coming to this place of practice while acknowledging the fact that I, as a practitioner, am not open to the needs of the women in my Sangha, the needs of the queer people in my Sangha. It's like, how do I return to that simplicity when everything is so complicated? Yeah. I think we need to be careful. If we give too much emphasis on the simplicity, if we exalt it, too much, we may denigrate what the complexity has to teach us. Like the U-shin.

[63:27]

Our lives are complex. Our society is complex. And there are many forces within it that it's challenging to think. okay, how do I deal with this? How do I deal with this in a creative way that upholds my values? As I just mentioned a few moments ago, the culture of an organization, just one that's relatively small, San Francisco Zen Center, just to recount how those two people were relating to each other. They're both white. They're both very dedicated to Zen. They're both immersed in monastic life, the support of Sangha, and still.

[64:32]

To me, as I just mentioned, Miguel, I think the challenge for each of us and collectively and certainly for Zen Center, as I think of it, is the doing. What are the action items? Because in a way, the thoughts can be impotent until they're brought into being. Dogen Zenji, he emphasized actualizing, actualizing the fundamental point. How do we actualize what it is, the values that we want to uphold? How are they expressed in action? And I think that's the challenge for us individually and collectively. And I would say delusions are inexhaustible.

[65:32]

We should not think this is going to be a streamlined, immediately effective and easily engaged activity. This is going to be, I suspect, messy, challenging. We're going to have to learn how to fumble through it together. And I think that kind of generosity will help our purposefully. Often when I read, you know, certain kind of strident accusatory remarks, honestly, for me, what comes up is, yes, there's validity in that. And there's validity in protest.

[66:37]

I was just reflecting the other night, you know, I'm a big believer in non-violent protest. But I was musing on, well, is asserting more than just that helpful? I don't know. But that would be essentially what I would say, Miguel, is that... Educate and take action. And I would hope we're ready for action. And I would hope that we will recognize, we will make mistakes. I once attended a Shoshin led by a Japanese teacher. And he started off by saying, I want to apologize.

[67:43]

I want to apologize for all my shortcomings and the mistakes I make while I lead this machine. I think we should have something like that as we head into our actions. This is a learning process. but now is the time to begin. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Roshi, I think we've come to a close. Okay. I'll say thank you once more. So wonderful to have you back in the city. Very nice to be here. Very nice to... see so many familiar faces. And hopefully we can keep learning together and find ways to feel close.

[68:50]

I must say, part of me misses. I'm back at city center, sort of. I live across the street. I don't know if I'm allowed to go into the building. But so far, it just feels like a curiosity rather than some notion of abandonment or rejection. But please know, if you feel abandoned or neglected by us at the Zen Center, I apologize on our behalf. And please, please know, whether you're in the building or not, there's... our collective Buddha body, you are part of it. Thank you so much. Take care.

[69:55]

You may be able to unmute at this point if you'd like to say goodbye. If not, I'll click a few more buttons. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks, Paul. Bye.

[70:03]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.75