So this is the day that we get to practice with young people who are part of our dharma. And what I want to talk about today is, you may not know, but this is the Lunar New Year. The new year that's based on how the moon moves. And that's celebrated, has been celebrated for many centuries as the new year in most of Asia. And in China in particular, it is traditional to have little envelopes with gifts in them. Is it just for the young people or is it for everybody? Single people. Well, you're not married. None of you are married. Okay, good. So I'll pass it around and you can each take a gift. Each of the young people take a gift. Some parts of the world in Japan, I don't know about other places, but in Japan the New Year is everybody's birthday.

[01:22]

So everybody has a birthday on the same time. Why don't you wait until you get in the other room before you open it up because you're likely to spill things out and lose them. So it's kind of fun to get a present, isn't it? It's kind of fun to get a gift. And especially if you're not expecting it. But you know something that you might want to notice? There's some little people back there too. What I want you to notice. Hello. Can I have your attention? May I have your attention please? I'm talking to you. What I want you to notice is that it isn't just something like this. Even if you even if you go to a store and pay for it, for example, that somebody somebody grew the cotton or the sheep or whatever the source of the fabric.

[02:41]

You can build the house yourself. The wood comes made from trees and you can quickly cut it down and sew it in a bowl so you can make a house. Anything you can comes through as a gift. And there's something in particular that you identify with this body that you have. comes to you as a gift from your parents. If they look and decide to have a baby, you wouldn't be here. So your whole life is a gift. And all of the things that you have are gifts. And I find that when I realize that, and I keep that in my mind, I'm just as happy as when I get a I don't expect a good thing to do.

[03:50]

It's amazing. Gee, this is amazing. Even when it's a hard day, still, I'd rather be here than not. So to me, just knowing that everything that comes to us through the kindness of others, really knowing that I'm curious now some of you got ten dimes some of you got four quarters and some of you got a dollar dill which one is better you know Every one of them is a dollar, but it's in different forms. But it's all a dollar. And I was just kind of just curious about what would be most interesting to you.

[04:55]

Well, I think Jesse probably has a program all arranged for you. So you might want to go with Jesse if she was having, you know, because it's New Year's and because Jesse has. the Chinese background and there's some other students here who are Chinese. They put on such a beautiful banquet for us last night. Wow, it was just great. Chinese food is really good. Why don't you go hang out with Jesse and I'll have a conversation with the grownups that probably wouldn't interest you so much. Do you want to scoop up your dimes and tuck them in your pocket? I've had a kind of unexpected crazy mixed up day to day.

[05:58]

I was supposed to be preparing myself for this talk, but also for the past. For several months, many of us have been working furiously on a special okesa for Hoetsu Roshi. Hoetsu Suzuki Roshi, Suzuki Roshi's son, has been here many o'clock. Some of you may not have met him, but anyhow, he and his wife Chitose-san are staying with us. There's another ceremony today down in Mountain View. When he comes, all the people in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, try to have an event and get him to come to it. And so today we're going down to a ceremony in Mountain View. Anyhow, so we're going to the ceremony and having finished Hoetsu Roshi's Kesa in time for the mountain seat ceremony last Sunday, but not having finished Arakasu, a small version of Buddha's Road in many more circumstances,

[07:11]

I was making a small rakasu for Chitosei-san, his wife, from the same fabric. The scraps of the same fabric that his case was made out of. He picked a beautiful pine green in the linen. It's a really lovely fabric. So we were working furiously trying to get this thing done. We didn't get it in done time for the ceremony. But I had it done this morning. And I wanted to give it to her. And so I went to him and said, would you do some colligally on the back? He said, how did you do it? You do it. It doesn't mean anything. So I put aside studying the talk. It's such a beautiful rock, Sue. Well, what could I do? But I wanted to give it to her so she could wear it to the ceremony today. So I had to do it. You know, it's okay.

[08:15]

It's not pretty the way it would be if you've done it. But the Rakusa is pretty. Anyhow, that's what I've been doing. But one of the things that I wanted to do was there's a poem I really love from Suedo, who is a Chinese. And Dogen Senchi quotes it in... Instructions to the cook, Kenzo Kilken, because he met this when he first went to Japan. I think I've talked about this enough. You've probably heard about it. He met a cook visiting who came to the ship that he came on. He couldn't get off the ship right away because he didn't have the right immigration papers. So he was on the boat and this monk came. and to get some mushrooms because it was a special holiday the next day and he wanted to serve something special.

[09:22]

So that tells you something about wholehearted practice right there. We've practiced this practice period. But this monk walked all the way from his temple down to the port city to get some mushrooms to serve for the monks in his temple for let's say it was living in New Year. We had mushrooms last night. Several kinds of mushrooms. Anyhow. So he was getting mushrooms for a special treat for the monks. You should know that monks in a monastery often get very plain food. So mushrooms would be a special treat. Yeah, so he walked all the way to get these mushrooms so he could serve something special. And Dogen, of course, was delighted that he was there. He was a real monk, a real Chinese monk from the great Song Dynasty, where all wisdom came from in those days.

[10:24]

And it appeared he had come all the way from Japan to meet monks in China. And here was a real live monk. He says, well, can you stay for tea? You can talk about Dharma. I said, oh, no, let me say no. A venerable monk like you? You're cooking? Shouldn't you be? And here's where my monastery is. And then later on in his travels, he went to this monastery. He saw this monk again and this monk came to see him. So he had some exchanges with him. And so he finally got him and said, well, so tell me. What is practicing? What are characters? I didn't have a chance to look up because I was doing. But he said something like one, three, four, seven, nothing.

[11:25]

But later on he ran across a poem and this poem says one, seven, three, what you search for cannot be grasped. As the night deepens, the moon brightens over the ocean. The black dragon's jewel is found in looking for the moon. It is here, in this way, in the next. What we're searching for cannot be grasped. Whatever it is, that we think we're searching for, that we think somehow out there, somehow. It's not something separate from you. It's not something you can reach out. But I like this particular way of saying, moon brightens over the ocean. The black dragon's jewel is found in every way.

[12:31]

Looking for them. It is here. Here. Right here. In this way, this one that you are, and in the next, whoever is next to you. So letting our true human nature complete as this one. We had an annual memorial. I think Gary Roshi was a younger monk who came up here. He came over to America and was working at the Zen temple down in Los Angeles. And Suzuki Roshi was finding more and more people were coming to sit zazen with him and he needed some help. So Katagiri Roshi came up to help him with Sansana while they were still at Sokoji. In 1969, Katagiri Roshi gave the zazen instruction. And he said then, as he apparently said almost every time he gave the zazen instruction,

[13:34]

We sit to settle the self on the self and let the power of the life first begin. So this power, this jewel, whatever metaphor you want to use for this human nature, this wisdom and compassion, is to let it come to full power. This is our effort. This is why we need to be wholehearted in our effort because we want to live in a world where all of us are fully expressing the wisdom and compassion that is in each one of us, in each way.

[14:37]

The brilliance of the moon in each wave. The dragon's jewel in each wave. We want to make that world happen. And each one of us needs to make it happen one by one here in this body and mind that we have been given. What is the full flower of this body and mind? Only our wholehearted, concentrated effort will bring it forth and let it bloom. For the joy of it. For the joy of it. We've been given this life. Why not enjoy it? Why not allow it to flower into its most beautiful form? All of the wisdom and compassion and kindness that we can muster.

[15:41]

What better thing to do with this life? Here we are. What are we going to do with this life? Why not tend this flower and let it grow. And see, see the dragon's jewel in each one of us. See it wherever you look. It was the toe of Soto, Dongshan Liangjie, who was the founder of this particular stream of Zen, which is sometimes called Silent Illumination Zen. In Japanese it's called Soto Zen. When he left his teacher, when he was leaving his teacher, His teacher said, well, after you go, it'll be hard for us to see each other. And Dongshan said, on the other hand, it will be easy.

[16:44]

We'll be seeing each other all the time. They had become very intimate in their years of practicing together. And so Dongshan said to his teacher, if someone should ask me in the future what you're teaching is, what should I say? Actually, I think he said it in a more poetic way. Can you draw a portrait of your teacher? I think is the way it was said in those days. Can you can you make a portrait of your teacher? Can you can you show what your teacher is teaching? And his teacher said just this, just this is it. And the record says Dongshan sighed. I think he maybe wanted something more like a jewel.

[17:45]

But it is like a jewel. Just this is it. Right here, whatever is in front of you is the whole Dharma. It's up to each one of us to bring it to life. So he sighed and his teacher says, Acharya, now that you've taken on this great matter, you must be very thorough. And Dongshan went off. And at some point he was crossing a bridge and he looked down at the stream below. And in fact, there is a bridge over a stream approaching his monastery, which a group of people who went on a pilgrimage to China some years ago. Andy Ferguson and attention Anderson said they crossed that very bridge and looked down at that very creek. They looked down in the water and saw his reflection.

[18:47]

And suddenly, suddenly his teacher's teaching came alive for him. He wrote a poem in which he said I go on alone now but everywhere I look I see him. I am not it but it actually is me. So everywhere I look I see myself. Wherever I look it actually is me. When we see the world in this way, in those moments when we can see the world in this way, wisdom and compassion can naturally flow. When we see the world in terms of separation of self and other, this and that, me and them, me and not me, then a lot of pain and suffering.

[20:04]

occurs. But when we can see ourselves in each other, then we can actually express our true human nature. Our full capacity for wisdom and compassion. And so that is why we practice wholeheartedly. That's why we sit zazen. Dogenzenji, when he went to China and finally met his teacher, went to the monastery and was sitting Zazen and had the experience, as he said, of dropping off body and mind. Just not thinking about himself at all. Just no thinking.

[21:07]

Being right there with just this as it is. With no idea. Just being right there. It was for him, as he said, settling the matter of practice for a whole lifetime. He went to China with this big question. If we're Buddha from the beginning, as all the teachings say, then why do we need to practice? What's practice all about if we're already Buddha? That was his big question. And that question dissolved in that moment of dropping off body and mind. And from then on, he said, practice and enlightenment are one. They're not separate. Practice is the practice of enlightenment. He used this compound word, practice enlightenment. And when Suzuki Roshi was trying to instill in us the spirit of just do it.

[22:22]

There was a session here one morning and someone rang the wake up bell an hour early. And then he went and said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's an hour early, go back to bed. I wasn't at that seshin. I was at home with the kids and Lou was sitting that seshin. But that's the first thing I heard about when he came home because he went on down to the zendo. He was awake. He could make sure he just went on down to the zendo. There was one other person in the zendo and Suzuki Roshi came in and sat. An hour later the wake up bell was rung again and everybody came down to the zendo and everybody sat down in the zendo and then Suzuki Roshi jumped up with his stick and went around. Hitting everybody on wantsonship. Whap, whap, [...] whap. When the bell rings, go to the zendo. When the bell rings, get up, go to the zendo. Who is priest and who is monk and who is layman? You're all badgers sleeping in your badger dens. Anyhow, he was quite energized.

[23:25]

And the person I believe who was sitting in the first seat where he started hitting people I believe was Yvonne. It was the first one who got hit. He was hitting. She said he was hitting really hard when he first started. But it was a big zendo and it was full. And by the time he got to the end he was kind of tuckered out. He wasn't hitting so hard. It was whap, [...] all down the road. When the bell rings, get up, go to the zendo. He was trying to instill in us that feeling of wholehearted practice. You know, and really it doesn't make any sense if you're practicing in a residential situation where everybody is getting up and going to Zendo and this is so, thank you very much, is going around and ringing the wake up bell for us to lie there and think, you know, you just decide once when you sign up for the practice period, you know, and then you don't have to think about it again. The bell rings, you just get up and go to the Zen Bell. You never have to think about, do I want to go?

[24:27]

If you're sick, maybe you get up and you say, hmm, it feels like I'm actually sick today. I guess maybe I can't. But actually, first you decide that on your feet. When the bell rings, get up. And then if it turns out, oh, there's something really wrong and you're sick and you really can't go, decide that after you're up on your feet, not when you're kind of cozy under the covers. This is especially true at Tassajara where it's quite cold outside and very warm in the sleeping bag. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Lua and the other person who were there, you hit everybody. No discrimination. Lulu was very excited by experience actually. I don't think he'd ever seen Suzuki Roshi that energetic.

[25:30]

He was quite energetic. He was getting old then. So it's this wholeheartedness that Dogen Senji is trying to instill in us so that we can actually Bring this jewel into full view. At the end of the Jijuzamai section of Bendowa, he says, just to show you how he feels about this zazen. Therefore, even if only one person sits for a short time, Because this zazen is one with all existence and completely permeates all time, it performs everlasting Buddha guidance within the inexhaustible Dharma world in the past, present and future.

[26:31]

Zazen is equally the same practice and the same enlightenment for both the person sitting and for all dharmas. The melodious sound continues to resonate as it echoes, not only during sitting practice, but before and after striking sunyata, or emptiness, which continues endlessly before and after a hammer has hit it. Not only that, but all things are endowed with original practice within the original face, which is impossible to measure. You should know that even if all the Buddhas in the ten directions As numerous as the sands of the Ganges River together engage the full power of their Buddha wisdom. They could never reach the limit or measure or comprehend the virtue of one person's Zazen. He really had a very big respect for Zazen.

[27:35]

And I have a very big respect. For the people I have met who practice this Sazen. Starting with Suzuki Roshi. And my teacher Mel Weitzman. So I commend it to you all. Please practice wholeheartedly. Drop off body and mind. And be the Buddha that you are. Thank you.

[28:10]

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