I have a dermatologist, I have a normal cell, keep it solicited to see this. I'm getting adjusted.

[12:06]

I might suggest, particularly for those of you on this side of the room, if you'd like to change your orientation a little so you can face this way, do whatever helps you to be more present and active. You don't have to look at me, but... Thank you, training, and I didn't prefer it to talk to my mind.

[14:52]

It is just great, but you didn't want to wear it. You didn't make me want to wear it, but I'm not good at the office, but I'm not good at the office. I don't need it to be a place, isn't it? I'm not good at the office. I don't need it to be a place, isn't it? I'm not good at the office. I'm not good at the office. I'm not good at the office. Good morning, everyone. Is this working? Do I need to turn it on? Might help, huh? That was the voice of Buddha. What's up? Is that better? Okay, let me know if we need to make any adjustments.

[15:56]

Well, welcome again. Good to be with all of you here, whether you're here in person, or joining virtually online. Anyone who might not know me, my name is Tenzin David Zorongren, and I live at City Center, which is just a block away, and I currently sort of as the central habit of San Francisco Zone Center. And wow, what a beautiful group we've got here. I'm wondering how many people are here for the first time. Excellent, great. And how many of you are here for the one-day sitting that a number of us are joining? Excellent. And how many people just randomly found a word in here and don't know how they got there? After 24 years, I'm still wondering, how did I get there? But as I said, a number of us are participating in a very long depletion retreats.

[17:02]

And Well, as we've been doing over the last five months since the renovation of the Kinders of Mind Temple, we've been holding these day-long sittings at different locations, including the Unity Church right down from the Sun Center, and today we're at the 8th Street Art Center, which is kind of fun, you know, to walk through the halls and see the various art exhibitions that are around, and they're putting a new one up now. Yesterday, we had a bunch of mannequins in the hallway, so I guess they're going to dress them up on the costume exhibit of some sort. So, yeah, it's quite an adventure to be moving around in kind of these pop-up zendos and really finding different settings. And I think that when we do this, we get a good reminder that the point of a strong and continuous Zen practice is to be able to find a place of practice wherever you are, under whatever conditions, whatever circumstances that you find yourself encountering.

[18:14]

And when we're able to establish a consistent practice, you know, and kind of tune into this very bottom line and be present with what's arising in this practice field, then Again, we're able to practice wherever we are. We're able to find a place to practice. And we don't need a particular location. We don't need a particular place. We don't need particular conditions. Now, this is one of the things I discovered when I lived at Casa Arda Monastery, Deep in the Beltano Wilderness, how over time, the more you practice and the more you engage in practice places, you know, if you have advantage to engage with them, you realize that you internalize the temple, you internalize the practice of place. And then when you go out into the world, wherever you are, it is your temple. You are a walking, manifesting place of practice, right? And Dogen, one of our founders said, when you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

[19:23]

And you find your way at this moment, practice. purpose. So in other words, this very body mind is your place of practice. So you don't have to go anywhere else. Just be right here. This is the first Dharma talk that I've given since I came back from a two-week pilgrimage at Japan that I took at the end of Beat World. And the impetus for the journey was to participate in a multi-play or in a series of ceremonies commemorating, I guess it would help me, commemorating, thank you. Sometimes my people, let's see, it kicks up. Anyhow, these were commemorating the 700th anniversary, memorial anniversary of Kazan Jokun. who, along with Ehi Dogen, is considered one of the principal founders of Soto Zen, which is this particular, if you will, school of Zen.

[20:28]

And the tour was organized by a group called the Soto Zen International, and they have an office here in San Francisco at the old Sukoji, the temple that Suzuki Roshi originally came to. And they partnered with the Japanese Soto Shu, which is kind of like the big the soft tissue organizing group in Japan. And they did three weeks of ceremonies for the Japanese practitioners, and then they invited about 100 global practitioners to join for three weeks, sorry, a tour, three days or so afterwards. And so there were myself, as well as Abed Mako and her husband, Joel, Victoria Obstyn, and Kim Hart. The five of us were able to participate, and it was quite wonderful. Victoria included visits to Eiji, which is the monastery established by Dogen in 1244, and Fukui, which is on the west coast of Honshu, which is kind of the main island.

[21:40]

And also Sojiji, which is the primary temple affiliated with Kezon, and that's located in Yokohama, which is close to the Tokyo Bay. And then on the final day, and look after the tour, if you will, Mako and I and a few others went to visit Rimzo Inn, which is the home temple of Suzuki Roshi. And his family stole his son and grandson and and the rest of the family are still running that temple. Very beautiful. It's a very intimate family temple, and it was very sweet to be there. When I'd been to Japan before, it's like 30 years ago, and when I originally went, I had just been practicing Buddhism for Zen for about four years or so, here in San Francisco, and I wanted to go to Asia to experience Buddhism and its original cultures of development.

[22:43]

And so I spent a year traveling around through Asia. But when I went to Japan, because I didn't know enough to go to A.G. and all these other wonderful places, so this time it was quite a privilege to have been an honor to be able to visit and practice at these historic root temples in our lineage. I'd say it's one thing to experience Zen Dorusen as it's been reinvented here in a Western context. It's quite another to witness and touch the living Buddhism that's in Asia, including Japan. And it was also inspiring to connect with both the Japanese practitioners at the various temples that we visited, as well as many of the international ones that come to participate in the court. And to have very interesting conversations about how is it to practice in our particular locations?

[23:44]

How is it to try to hold songas, to support songas, to lead them? How is it to deal with the various issues and challenges that are arising in this particular day and age for each particular songa? And then how can we kind of foster greater connection among each other so we can continue to support each other in the practice of the Buddha Dharma. One of the highlights of the tour was the opportunity to spend the night at Sojiji, which is Kezan's temple. And this included eating some very traditional temple meals. They were vegan meals laid out of mint dishes. Very delicious, wonderfully made. And also do a communal bath in Temple Onsen. And there was also the night we arrived, the lecture by the head of the meditation hall of Sajiji. That was on Kezon. And then the next morning at 3.20, you know, they ran away from the bell, though it wasn't the traditional one.

[24:50]

It was with the speakers throughout. And so we had to get up. We did like 20 minutes to get up and get dressed. and then kind of go through all these hallways to get to what was the guest zendo. We weren't allowed in the primary zendo because that's just reserved for the monks who actually are kind of hoisted there in practice. So we went to the guest zendo, we spent a period of zazen, and then we went to the main hall, the Dai Soto, or the great ancestor hall, to participate in a series of ceremonies for Kheison. And this hall, it's dedicated to Kheison. It's actually not dedicated to the Buddha or others. It's actually for Kheison. It's huge. We were told that it has 1,000 tetami mats. So a tetami mat is the size of this, 1,000 of these. And also that it could accommodate 3,000 people.

[25:53]

So and the longest as many as we have here today. It was huge, very tall, and the thing that was amazing to see is just how the size of it all dwarfed for the ceremony, about the 200 people that were there, particularly just for the ceremony. And there was something about the grand scale, the hall, and the beautiful, very elaborate, very carefully choreographed ceremonies that were taken. on behalf of Kaizen that kind of underline both the vast and the inclusive hearts of Zen practice, as well as a particular ethos that's known to Zen, of Nimitsu no Kafu. And Nimitsu no Kafu basically describes what we would say is the Soto Zen family style, which is the style of careful, exquisite, very considerate, intimate, one-hearted, and a continuous attention to detail that characterize as much as in practice.

[26:59]

And it was really beautiful to see, to be in Japan again, and see how that just comes alive, that particular practice comes alive in so many places. How many of you are familiar with Keizan Shoken? Well, I'll do a little bit to introduce you. While Dogen, Zenji, and Kazan Jokin are considered the founders of Sultan today, it's usually Dogen who gets more attention and reverence. How many of you have heard of Dogen? Yeah. Quite a bit more. But in fact, it wasn't until the 19th century, the late 19th century, that Kazan was actually officially designated as one of the two founding patriarchs of the Japanese Sultan Zenji School, so along with Dogen. So, Keizang was born in 1264. And this was, he was born 12 years after Gobind had already died. And he was born to a serious Buddhist mother who was devoted to Kenan Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva Compassion.

[28:08]

And the story goes that she dedicated her son to the Buddha before he was even born. She said, this child, this child is for Buddha. And You know, who knows whether or not this is true. But the thing that we do know is that Kazon started to practice Zen at the age of eight, at Eiji. So he went to the Mayan Monastery at the age of eight, started practicing under four of the Obin's believing disciples, including the second abbot of Eiji, Koan Ejo. And then he was ordained as a monk at the age of 13, and later received Dharma translation from his master Tetsudikai at the age of 32. And so this placed him in a fourth in the generations of successors to Doka. There's a story related to Keizan's awakening that I'd like to briefly share with you, just get a sense of him.

[29:08]

Keizan was listening to a lecture on nonsense, ordinary mind is the way, that his master, Gikai Esenji, was offering. And during that talk, Gikai noticed that Keizan seemed to have kind of achieved a realization of some sort. And so he asked Keizan to explain the meaning of what he had just been speaking on, ordinary lioness way. And then Keizan stated, it is like a black ball racing through pitch darkness. In other words, Zazen and realization are ultimately the same. But then Dikai stated that, although you are correct, it is difficult to understand, so please clarify to me.

[29:58]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_86.69