This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. We just said that an unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect dharma. And the word dharma... could be understood as teaching, an unsurpassed perfect teaching. The word dharma could also be understood as truth, an unsurpassed perfect and penetrating truth. And dharma also can mean phenomena, any phenomena, an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect phenomena. Dharma. And it says that an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with.

[01:21]

Even though, of course, the perfect truth is always present with us, it's rare that we meet it. Even though we meet it, Every moment, somehow, it's hard for us to accept the meeting. To accept the meeting. So I say to you, thank you for coming to the meeting. There's a chance right now for a meeting with the Dharma. With the unsurpassed, complete, perfect Dharma. May we be ready for the meeting. I brought a book with me today

[02:42]

It's a big book, pretty big book. And in English it's called The Book of Serenity. And in this book are 100 principal stories with hundreds of substories. Commenting on the principal stories. So the first story in this book... is called, The World Honored One Ascends the Seat. Think that's what it's called? Yep. Actually, literally in Chinese it says, The World Honored One ascends the hall, goes up to the hall, and in the hall there's a seat, and the Buddha goes into the hall and gets up on the seat. The World Honored One one day

[03:43]

went up to the hall and got on the seat and sat. It doesn't say how long she sat or they sat. It just says, and sat. At some point, maybe one second later or 15 days later, the great Bodhisattva, who is in the center of our meditation hall, who we call Manjur Sri Bodhisattva, the enlightening being of sweetness and light, that Bodhisattva struck the gavel and announced... clearly observe the dharma of the sovereign of dharma.

[04:50]

The dharma of the sovereign of dharma is thus. And the world-honored one got down from the seat. my way to the to this hall where I have been invited by various people to get on the seat and I said I accepted the invitation so here I am on the seat on my way to the seats somebody gave me a little note which I asked for earlier this morning And the note says, what overwhelms us is not the meaninglessness of the universe.

[06:08]

Did you hear that? What overwhelms us is not the meaninglessness of the universe, but the coexistence of a sense of apparent meaninglessness of a sense of apparent meaninglessness with the astonishing interconnectedness of all things. When the astonishing interconnectedness of all things comes to meet us, the true Dharma is the astonishing interconnectedness all things when it comes to meet us there might be a sense of there might be the sense of an appearance of this is meaningless and that might we might feel overwhelmed at the combination of this meaning with the Dharma and an appearance of that it's meaningless a meeting that appears to be meaningless

[07:36]

even though we're meeting the magnificently wonderful interconnectedness of all things in the universe. Last weekend, I was talking to some people in public about interconnectedness, like, you know, We have this expression, right in light there is darkness. Right in darkness there is light. So we were talking about that and this young man raised his hands and he said, would you please help me? This is meaningless. But he probably felt like that. I mean, maybe he didn't feel meaningless when he came in the room, but when people started to open the door on the interconnectedness of all things, this meaninglessness came up. So, anyway, I took care of him very nicely and talked to him about... Oh, and he not only was there a sense of meaninglessness, but he was afraid of it.

[08:49]

So we dealt with his fear, and it worked out. It worked out. In this story where the World Honor One got up in the seat and sat, maybe the great Bodhisattva thought, the people in this assembly do not understand that they are being presented with the teaching of thusness. They don't get it. They don't see the Buddha as giving the teaching. So I'm going to tell them. that unsurpassed perfect and penetrating dharma of the sovereign of all dharma it's like here it is most of us do not have a little or a big

[10:06]

great bodhisattva of wisdom walking next to us all day long telling us clearly observe clearly observe clearly observe the dharma of the sovereign of dharma is like this Really, we do have a manjushri that walks with us all day long and is telling us exactly that. But are we listening for it? We could have manjushri on one side saying, clearly observe. We could have another bodhisattva on the other side saying, observe everything. Observe all beings. Observe all beings.

[11:09]

That's my name. Observe all beings. Please observe all beings. And then observe that the Dharma is like this. The interconnectedness of all things is right in our face. And there's a poem celebrating this case which goes like this. The unique breeze of reality. Do you see it? The mother principle is constantly working her loom and shuttle, incorporating the patterns of spring into the ancient brocade. The Dharma is thus.

[12:35]

What is thus? How is this thus? How are you thus? How am I thus? How am I the way things are? How are you the way things are? Really. How are you? are how things are is that you include everything in the universe and you are included in everything in the universe you are supported everything in the universe and you support everything in the universe the whole universe is responsible for you and you are responsible for the whole universe as I talk the door to the astonishing interconnectedness of things might open and then a sense of meaningless might arise

[14:04]

And you might become afraid. And everybody's here to help you deal with any trepidation you have about the astonishing interconnectedness of all things. Of all things are included in you, and you are included in all things. This is the ultimate truth. This is the final truth of life. There's also a conventional truth of life which coexists with the final truth of life. And one example of conventional truth is the view, the idea, the consciousness, which believes that it includes not everything and not everybody. and that it supports not everybody and not everything.

[15:09]

I support the Democrats, not the Republicans. I support the Republicans and not the Democrats. I don't include all the Republicans. No. I include three Republicans, but not millions, not infinite Republicans. No. This is a kind of truth. It's an illusion. It's an illusion. It's not true. It's not really true. It's just temporarily, superficially true. So if you look at your life superficially, which means not all the way to the bottom of your life, you might see, I only include 16 Democrats. That's a superficial assumption. vision of your life you include all Democrats little babies include all Democrats and all Republicans and all exes that you cannot yet accept or allow that you include you do include them ultimately if you go deep and deep and deep and deep you will see oh I include everybody

[16:36]

Everything. And I also am included in everything. This is something which my vision cannot see. But if I can be wholehearted about my superficiality, which is possible, the superficiality drops away and I allow the teaching of suchness and I'm allowed into it. I always was, but because I wouldn't open to it, it seemed like it didn't open to me. And part of the teaching of suchness is that the ultimate truth, that you include the entire universe, and you're included in all aspects of the universe, that ultimate truth, which is also...

[17:39]

the truth of how you can never deeply be found. You can't be found because you are found only by the whole universe. If you could find the whole universe, you would find yourself as the universe in a particular way called you. But you are empty of any independent existence from the whole universe. You are just the whole universe like you. as you. You're unique. You're a unique center of the whole universe. And everybody else is too. Which is, again, why Manjushri reminds you, clearly observe, everybody you meet is the whole universe like that. Thus. Everybody you meet is ultimate truth in this relative form this limited form and this ultimate truth is always intimate with the relative truth of I include some things but not others and also because I include just some things not everything I can find myself and get a hold of myself

[19:07]

And that's an illusion because I'm not just a few beings. I'm all beings like this. I can't get a hold of me because I can't get a hold of all beings. However, I include them and I'm included in them, but I don't contain them. I don't confine you. I don't limit you. I'm in a generous relationship with you. where you give me life and I give your life. And I don't know if I'm the giver, the receiver, or the gift. And no one else knows either, unless they look at me superficially. So if some of you look at me just a little bit, you might say, oh, he's the receiver. Or you might think, no, he's the giver. Somebody else might say, no, he's the gift. Or somebody else might say, there's no giving in the universe. It's a total illusion. There's no generosity.

[20:13]

So he's not a giver, a receiver, or a gift. Which is true. I'm not. I'm all three, and so are you. And I don't know which one I am. I can't get a hold of anything in the process of reality because every grasping point has no basis for grasping. So the teaching of suchness is how the ultimate truth, that we absolutely, completely support all beings, and they all support us, that absolute truth, with the limited conventional truth that we support some people and not others, and some people support us and others don't. That limited truth, which is misery, which varies in a miserable way, that is inseparable from the ultimate truth. They live together. They dance together.

[21:14]

So we're listening to the teaching which tells us don't try to get rid of the delusion that you only support some people. Be completely compassionate towards it and you will open to its partner. the ultimate truth, and then you will open to the teaching of suchness. And then you can enter it and play in the teaching of suchness, and playing in the teaching of suchness, you can then, again, fully embrace the world of delusion. Again, opening the door to the teaching of suchness. And round and round we go until everything's integrated.

[22:19]

I brought a watch, a really nice watch. I can't figure out how to wear it, though. And now I just turn it upside down and I see what time it is. Upside down is only because I had it upside down. And now I turn it upside down and it's right side up, or rather easier for me to read. It's getting, it's around quarter to 11. On my nice watch, see? It matches my heart. It's included in my heart. And my heart is included in the watch. It's really a nice watch. I've told this story about the Buddha before. I've been thinking about this story for a long time.

[23:39]

Well, 40 years, probably. For 40 years, I've been playing with this story. I've been devoted to contemplating the teaching of suchness, the teaching of thusness. About 25 years ago, there was a proposed repair project at the Zen Mountain Center at Tassajara. We built a very beautiful a simple building called Founder's Hall, Kaisando, Founder's Hall. And the mud that was put on the walls, the recipe for that mud was a Japanese recipe, but Japan

[24:51]

doesn't have so many hot deserts like Tassajara. It's like a hot desert in the summer. So this particular mixture was drying up, cracking, and falling off. So there was the idea to repair it. And I was in the position of abbot at that time. And I thought, fine. And then someone said, well, we could take the mud off. and then put plywood up. What was on there before is this kind of ancient structure of sticks intertwined, and then the mud was stuck on that. So you take all that, all the sticks and stones out, and then put plywood on and spray it with stucco. That was a proposal, and I thought, okay. I could try to put this watch on, but probably you don't want to watch me try.

[26:00]

I'll just leave it out here. So I said OK to this idea. And then somebody else said, I have another idea. What we could do is we could change the recipe for the mud. And we could put some stuff in the mud that would help it not crack. And I thought, well, that sounds good. But I still kind of thought the other way sounded good too. But this one I thought sounded a little bit better. And then I thought about some more and it sounded even better. And then I thought about some more and it sounded really good. And then I started to like, my mind started to like tighten in on this being the fixed best way. And then I was talking to somebody about this project and from this view of this way of doing it that I was fixated, kind of rigid about, as being the best way, at least the best of the two.

[27:22]

I talked to him and I could see that my voice shocked him. Kind of like sometimes you build up static electricity and you don't know it and you touch somebody and they go... Some charge has accumulated on this view of how to repair the building. And when I spoke to the person, I could see they were startled and shocked and maybe even frightened by this extra electricity on that view. And I was embarrassed that I... had that extra charge. And then a little while later, I went up to the meditation hall at Tufts R, which is like this one. And I sat in my seat, which is the abbot seat. And I noticed that my mind was very turbulent.

[28:30]

and agitated. And then I was embarrassed about that, too. Here I am, I'm supposed to be a meditation teacher, and my mind's turbulent and unsteady. And then the words arose. clearly observe. And the turbulent waters instantly calmed down. And I noticed that I had no charge on which way to repair the building. It wasn't that I didn't care. There was no charge. the world had become peaceful again, even though I still thought plan B was better than plan A. I never said more about it.

[29:48]

Clearly observe that Dharma is thus. When you attach to something, that doesn't include everything life is turbulent and restless simultaneously life includes everything and is included in everything life is included in all repair plans Every project includes the whole universe. Every way of helping includes the whole universe. Clearly observe. That is, and that way things are, is always inseparable from the way they aren't.

[30:58]

Which is, this is the best way to do something and it doesn't include the lesser ways of doing things. It doesn't include them. and therefore I can grasp it, and therefore I have power. I have the lightning bolts. That deluded life where I have the power, or you have the power, and you having the power isn't included in me, and me having no power isn't included in you. That world of delusion we don't try to get rid of, and we never will. It's always arising, even though it doesn't exist, really. There's a constant production of a world that if you look deeply, you can see it never exists. And it's never separate from the world of ultimate truth.

[32:05]

we take care of the world of illusion with great compassion again we open to the world of ultimate truth and when we open to the world of ultimate truth we are supported by this great truth to engage in all the limited forms that don't seem to include everything so ordinary human being can sit on a seat and be transformed into a living Buddha the form and the substance are the same the form of the human is emptiness excuse me the form of the human has the content or the substance of emptiness, which means it has the content of the entire universe without containing it.

[33:18]

There is no fixed form, no fixed referent to which the term Buddha refers. There is no fixed form or referent to which the term for you refers. You're just like Buddha. So in Zen history, the ritual of a person sitting on the seat and being transformed into a Buddha is done over and over for hundreds and maybe someday for thousands of years. Somebody sits on the seat to demonstrate that there's no fixed form to anything and that everything includes everything as anything.

[35:05]

Over and over we do this. And we have a chance to meet the transformation of relative into absolute and absolute into relative, which is to see Buddha without Buddha having a fixed form. All your names are alternative names for Buddha. Buddha is just like you. I could say just like you completely, just like you, but it's really Buddha is just like you being completely you. So when you are completely you, Buddha is shouted out and confirmed.

[36:19]

And everything is supporting you to do this job which I might think I had an alternative to. And even though I think that, if I fully embrace that delusion, Everybody will be free of it. This thought keeps coming up to my mind, and I think it's kind of irrelevant, but I'll just tell you anyway.

[37:27]

One time a young man came to me and said he was a forest ranger, I think. And he told me that near his house where he lived in the forest, he found a deceased bird. And he... He just didn't feel right about just throwing the bird into the trash. Now that I'm telling you that story, the thought, now another thought comes in my head, which is not irrelevant, but I probably shouldn't tell you. But I'm going to anyway just to show you what I think I shouldn't tell you. Because it kind of screws up the story. So... He found this bird, and when he was cleaning up around his house, he found this bird, and he thought, well, I don't feel right about throwing the bird in with the other debris.

[38:30]

I think he had a little glimmering that that bird, that dead bird, forget about living birds, the dead bird includes the whole universe. And this dead bird is included in everything in the entire universe. Maybe he had a... a glimmering of that. A lot of people like birds and they think, you know, birds are really cool and they would be open to the idea that certain living birds, not, well, at Tufts of Har, not belugies. We have belugies at Tufts of Har, which are really aggressive and dive down and, you know, and take your food from you. And if you don't let go, they poop in your food. But we also have these canyon wrens, which are so beautiful and have this beautiful song. A lot of people would talk so hard to say, that canyon wren includes the whole universe. They would say, yeah. And maybe even a dead canyon wren.

[39:35]

I'm saying ultimate truth is that a dead canyon wren includes the whole universe. That's why this dead canyon wren has no independent existence from anything in the universe. It is a precious revelation of something that has no basis for grasping. It is the perfection of wisdom. It is lovely. It is holy. A dead bird. A dead blue jay? Yes. A dead Kenyan? Oh. So he didn't throw it in the trash. Instead, he took it away from his house and deeper into the forest and found a flat rock. And this little bird ascended the seat on that rock and sat there, or laid there.

[40:40]

And then he sat with the bird. The bird was given a seat. And then he was given a seat and he sat with the bird. And then many birds came and landed all around the rock and sat with him. That's what I call irrelevant. 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.

[41:53]

zc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[42:00]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.04