These three worlds of samsara. How to be free. How to be free. And I think the beauty of translating it into just what can you do about the world is it also has this other meaning for us in modern times of what can you do about this suffering world that we call the world or even the planet, the environment. and the people of this world. We don't need extensive Buddhist cosmology to be concerned about the world and what to do about it. So in either case, what can you do about the world? And in either case, what do you call the world? What is it that we call these three realms? of samsara. What is it that we call the environmental problem?

[01:05]

This is, as I say, the key turning sentence. What do you call the world? and is planting the fields and making rice balls and making beds and washing the dishes, actually addressing this point. I think quite related to this, many centuries later in America at Tassahara Hot Springs in 1970, Suzuki Roshi, our founder, said Our way is difficult. Our great practice way is difficult. Why it is difficult is because it is too simple.

[02:08]

It looks like nothing is happening at Tassajara. All day long, day after day, we are carrying stones and building cabins, scrubbing floors, eating the same food. It looks like nothing's happening here. But something great is happening here. I am quite sure about that. Maybe his students were asking him, well, we're here doing this and working very hard, but what is it doing about the world? There was a war going on after all. many problems in the world. I think if people are out here for a while and this question doesn't come up for them about wondering about hiding out in the mountains in such a troubled world, maybe there's more to look at.

[03:19]

I think it's quite natural and important to face such a question. It was a big question for me. some years of practice quite concerned, and yet I didn't leave, but there was a lot of doubt about this. What does this do about the world? We might even think, well, I can see where, like, you know, the kitchen crew is doing something about the world, but like washing dishes after the food's eaten, that's like, you know, that really doesn't seem so important but no difference Suzuki Yoshi says our way is difficult it's difficult because it's too simple it's too simple for our minds that need to see some way in which

[04:27]

the world is being benefited. So though he says our way is difficult, going back to ancient China, the third ancestor of Zen said our way, the great way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences. So these may not be contradictory, it's just our way is difficult. Suzuki Oshii is maybe speaking to people holding preferences for those for whom it's too simple. It's not just simple enough, it's too simple. It should be helping in some more grand way. For those of us who think such a way, our way is difficult.

[05:29]

But the third ancestor says, this way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences. Sometimes they say, have no preferences. I could say that's just a technicality, but I think it's impossible to have no preferences, actually. hard-wired as humans to have preferences. And it doesn't seem such a problem, actually, to me, that we prefer some things over other things. But the holding the preferences is where we start to run into difficulty. The Great Way is not difficult for those who hold no preferences. When longing and aversion are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.

[06:31]

Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinion for or against. The struggle of likes and dislikes is the disease of the mind. So simple, so difficult. So a week into the long summer season at Tassajara and people are starting to get tired already. And it's getting hotter too. And there may be some doubts about what are we doing here in this troubled world, washing dishes and making beds day after day.

[07:37]

But Suzuki Roshi says, it looks like nothing's happening here, but something great is happening here. And how can this be so? What is our practice in such a situation? Well, around preferences, which are arising maybe almost every moment, we can practice the non-difficult way. We have the opportunity to find a non-difficult way of not holding them. And it's very challenging to find this non-difficult way. Because make the slightest distinction and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. Freedom and bondage are infinitely apart. The slightest least like or dislike arises.

[08:38]

The mind's lost in confusion. And we have such an opportunity. We have it around, for example, the schedule each day. we have the schedule for the residents particularly and of course guests are welcome to practice with these opportunities too but we ask the residents to follow the schedule and it includes these two periods of Zazen and it's not much but it gets difficult because there's a lot of work and it's hot and it's tiring so we may often have a preference to not show up all the time. I think maybe especially like those evenings, you know, when it's like so hot and you're just going to go into the sauna of the zendo and sweat and you're already exhausted.

[09:40]

And so we have this pad, you know, where people, the accountability pad, in the back where people sign their name if they really can't make it, but just to be accountable anyway. And there's a lot of, you know, it's like often people are working and so on, so it's understood. But there's oftentimes it's like I'm tired. It has a reason column. So it's sick, you know, I think valid, and working is valid. And tired may be valid, but this is something to look at. I was thinking in the 19 years of being at Zen center and related Zen temples, I don't think it ever occurred to me to write tired on a pad.

[10:49]

Maybe it just sounds stupid or something. Maybe I didn't think that it was possible. And I didn't really know until recently in the evening. I thought, wow, this is possible. I missed out on something. But I actually have no regrets. And I don't feel like there's lost sleep to make up for. But having said that, I will admit, though, that of all those times not sounding out tired, There were many periods of zazen that I slept through. Completely. I mean, you know, not like lying down on the tongue, but maybe close. And not that that's necessarily recommended. Or recommended over not, you know, over resting in bed. We should take care of ourselves and our health and energy. And at the same time, I think to really examine closely, we have a preference, no problem.

[11:59]

I definitely have a preference for going to bed now, and yet there is this schedule. This is a practice opportunity to study the way of freedom. Well, is it really more free to actually just like struggle through like nodding zazen for 40 minutes and sweating zendo? Is that more free than actually just like drifting coolly down the path into the cool bed and dreaming of sugar plums or something? I don't know. What is the freedom? What is freedom? And training around preferences and having them versus holding them.

[13:00]

Punishment will not be inflicted for such things. This is self-training where nobody is here to tell you what to do sometimes it might seem like it but really each person is completely responsible for their own practice and completely it's an opportunity to take up or not and also I heard about this other practice recently somebody told me I don't know where they heard it, but they said it was working for them. The practices, when they're asked to do something maybe difficult or you're not sure about, first just say yes, and then later you can think about whether you can actually do it or not. He said it was kind of working for him. Part of me doesn't like to hear such practices.

[14:11]

It's easier to not hear about them. I was recently asked to sometimes do the town trip, this all-day event. And I was like, oh, I'm okay. And then afterwards I started doubting, like, oh, there's a lot actually starting to go on here. And would that really work? So that doubt was where I was not free at that time. And going along with these activities, not just for ourself. I mean, there is this self-training, but we're very much doing something together, and I think we all perceive that to a greater or lesser extent. But it's really different when you walk into the Zendo and it's half empty, or, you know, I think of like the...

[15:22]

the informal periods when there's not many people, and if you go in and there's nobody there, it's like, maybe I won't go after all. If there's a few other people, I'll join them. It's like together practice. So much of our practice is together practice, right? And we might feel like we're not really encouraging others, but I think deeply we are. We can't do this alone like this too much. But we can do it miraculously with each other, with the support of each other. So about this group practice, Dogen Zenji, our Japanese ancestor says, Buddhas and ancestors endeavor in the way without veering off. They endeavor in the way without veering off.

[16:25]

Straight ahead, they don't give up. Where there are guidelines and schedules, endeavor in the way arises. Where there are no guidelines, endeavor in the way does not arise. This being so, when everyone sits, you sit. When everyone lies down, you lie down. Be one with everyone, both in motion and in stillness. Do not leave the monastery in death or in birth. To be conspicuous in the community is not beneficial. To contradict the assembly is not appropriate. This is the skin, flesh, bones and marrow of Buddha ancestors. This is dropping off body and mind of the self. Thus it is practiced realization beyond actualization since before the empty eon.

[17:28]

This is the fundamental point before the first signs appear. It does not await great enlightenment. For evening zazen, put on the robe upon hearing the sound of the sunset bell. Enter the hall and sit at your assigned place. This is the fundamental point before judgments, before the empty eon. This is the actualization of total enlightenment. At the sound of the bell, put on your road, come to the Zen-no, and sit at the place. Our way is difficult. Why it's difficult is because it's too simple. It looks like nothing's happening in Tassajara. So I think about a summer when I was here some time ago, and I would struggle with these things, preferences around the schedule, but for me it came up more around positions, like job assignments, you know, like, should I really be on this crew?

[18:54]

Especially, like, maybe there's some enthusiasm at the beginning and then partway through the summer it's like, well, maybe I'm really not on the right crew because these people are hard to get along with and this work is meaningless and boring. And it would be so interesting to work on maybe any other crew. We might have some such preference. But can we have it without actually, like... going to the director and saying, I really need to switch my crew. So then I can really practice. This is the practice. Can we actually continue harmonizing with the community, supporting each other from our unique position? And it's not always easy. So this one time I was working in the office, which looking back, I think, was one of the more pleasant jobs that I had here in the summer.

[20:04]

But I remember at the time, maybe near the beginning of the summer, it was a very brain-oriented kind of job. And sometimes my brain would kind of hurt a lot of thinking in there. and like you know and busy thinking and like lot of details to take care of and it was getting kind of disturbing and I kind of felt like at that time I think I felt I was quite concerned about these three worlds of samsara and it just didn't seem like a good response to transcend samsara working in the office And I went to my teacher who came down here and I said, working in the office is ruining my zazen. It's like destroying my mind.

[21:11]

This is my good. And I don't think it's really helpful to anyone either because if I had a job, for example, just sitting Zazen all day, that might actually address this issue of the three worlds and what to do about them. Don't you agree, teacher? His response really stayed with me, I remember this conversation, because maybe I kind of expected him to say, well, just practice patience and, you know, actually the office is a really good job and something like that. And, you know, it's not so bad, really, like, you know, look at the other jobs. But he said something like, as I recall, he's like... Yeah, the office is actually really the worst job. And I can see how it's ruining your job.

[22:15]

I understand. And it's really bad that you're there. But if you weren't, somebody else would have to do that job. Yeah. So when things get tough, you might remember that story. Do you have any doubts about such a... non-difficult way or anything to bring up? Questions about our difficult practice?

[23:16]

Yes. You said that for many years you've had doubts. What changed? About whether this is doing from the world. It's not that those doubts never arise now, but I think I just got tired of them. Of putting a lot of energy into them. So it's not that they don't arise, but I used to put a lot more energy into them. And I realized that it didn't go anywhere. It didn't go anywhere. It didn't actually... And I remember one time, too, saying... speaking with one of the teachers about, you know, I think numerous times, like, I think maybe I should leave here and start really practicing, go somewhere where I can really practice.

[24:20]

And they would say to me, maybe several times, they're like, well, you know, you can do that. You're free to do that, but I've noticed that you haven't. You're still here. And I was like, oh, yes. Thank you. So maybe that was unconsciously just getting tired of the doubts without having to do anything. And trying other things, too, and realizing that it's all the world. It's all the different practices and great practices we can do. in a way they're all the three worlds and they're all equally free of the three worlds. It's not so important what we do, I think. The specifics, whether it's making beds or going to Africa and feeding the hungry.

[25:29]

I actually feel like it's not so different. But it's how we do it and how we're just responding. And how it's joyful also, I feel, to this thing of just saying yes. So just responding to conditions. So actually being at Tassajara now wasn't even my idea. Somebody just said, will you come to Tassajara? And I said, OK. And somebody said, will you come to Santa Cruz Zen Center? If I start thinking about which is more preferable, and it's not so fun, and doesn't go anywhere, and how can I figure out anyway? Yes, where? About that summer. What's that? About that summer. Yeah, the summer in the office? Yes. I have some recollection of it.

[26:32]

during the summer, and I just wondered, how did you practice with it? I think that that story, that teaching shifted something. And then I think also over the course of the summer, and interesting to see how people's experiences with this, but at the beginning, often things seem overwhelming. like that learning something new just seems like how will I ever learn this and have like any sanity left and then I think over the course of the summer just just doing it just continuing without trying to change the job something changes and I think that's part of the beauty of Tassajara is that we keep changing jobs just when we learn and get really good at it and kind of comfortable in it it changes and And then we get an uncomfortable situation again.

[27:39]

And then we learn over and over how it actually, not that it necessarily gets easy, but we see our capacity to do it. That we can actually, we can do it. What we think is the impossible. And that is, I think, a really great gift of how the practice works at Tassahara. Because it surprises people. People get to see, they go beyond their limits. And I was thinking that too, earlier too, about this, preferences and stuff where like, well, I actually have to do this now. Or I have to rest or something. But I think if we practice at the edge of our, at the edge of our limit, that's where the practice is really alive. I don't know if I'll survive whatever, the next thing, you know. But to be at that edge, of survival, maybe, and then realize we have more capacity than we thought, that's a great gift.

[28:45]

And if we don't get to the edge, we don't get that gift. So again, it's up to us. So I see it's about time to, at one with the community, lie down. so that we can get up and sit again in the morning. So, in this story of Ditsang and Shushan from the Book of Serenity, the commentator who Wansang wrote, even though planting the fields and making rice balls is ordinary, Unless you investigate to the full, you don't know their import. The ancestors would reap and boil their chestnuts in rice in a broken-legged pot deep in the mountains.

[29:47]

Their fortune was no more than contentment. All their lives they never sought from anyone. Their nobility was no more than purity and serenity. What need for lots of emblems? Thus, having investigated to the full, you clearly know there's nothing to seek.

[30:10]

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