You know, it doesn't take long being quiet before you start to notice what's up, you know, what's going on in your, mostly you notice short-term memory is really active when I'm quiet. In the morning during Zazen, oftentimes I would notice the first hour of sitting, first 40-minute period would be just download of things that had happened maybe mostly the day before or something particularly strong was happening. it would just be there and i would have a chance to let it pass through and be noticed and pay attention to it so just now even these few minutes we were sitting um i really noticed how much my body is is activated by the weekend in the ceremonies and i i would imagine some of you were watching or were at the big ceremonies that took place at zen center these last three days so um They're all over now.

[05:59]

It's amazing. I just feel like, whoa, that wasn't quite a thing. So on Friday night, myself and Ed Satazon, who have been serving as abbots at the Zen Center, I've been the abiding abbots at Green Gulch Farm, and Ed has been both the abiding abbot, the city center, and then also the central abbot for many years. So the two of us have... gone up on the mountain which is what it's called when you become an abbot it's there's a mountain seat ceremony and for those of you who saw it you know what it is for those of you who didn't it's a little hard to describe because it's kind of amazing it's high theater you know really is an enactment of taking big responsibility for the community at the invitation of the community and being willing to hold that space for some period of time so for ed and i We were abbots at Zen Center for nine years. We went up in the mountain together nine years ago, and we agreed to come down off the mountain together on Friday evening.

[07:07]

This week is last Friday, and it was quite a sweet time because nine years later, so many things have happened, and we're now old abbots or former. Now I'm a former abbot, and there's something very touching about passing, passing on, you know, passing on something you've cared about. It's like when your kids go off to college or now I'm, I'm kind of going off to college. I'm going off to retirement from many years of caring for and holding positions at, uh, at Zen center and particularly at Green Gulch these last 25 or so years. So that was big. That was big for, for certainly for me personally. And I think for the community, there's a lot of feeling, uh, that comes along with our living together and sharing the care for this land, this land and these buildings and this inheritance from our founder, Suzuki Roshi, and on through the generations of Zen founders that we honor in our liturgy and in our hearts, for real.

[08:14]

So that was very sweet and very special. And then yesterday, Saturday, we had a mountain seat ceremony in the city center for our two young incoming abbots. And as they were saying, we're not that young, we're 50 years old. We're going, no, that's young. That's really young. So it's the next generation of students who arrived here. I remember Jiryu arriving here as a 20-year-old. And... And he was, you know, just tall and skinny and serious and just full of passion for changing the world. And he chose to do that by practicing Zen very sincerely for many, many years. And Mako, who I don't know as well, but who's been at Zen Center, she was at Tassajara for 10 years. practicing there so she's quite steeped in monastic practice and and then she served as the abbess of the austin zen center for 10 years so she's had quite a long run as a leader and dharma teacher so saturday she was installed she went up on the mountain at the city center we all were there to witness it's online if you want to watch if you didn't see it it's it's quite something to watch these ceremonies they're available on the zen center website

[09:43]

And then today, at 10.30 this morning, we installed Jiryu as the abiding abbot at Green Gulch Farm. And I noticed for myself through the whole ceremony, I was seated, I was holding my, I have a fan, a ritual fan, that I received when I was the head student a long time ago. It was in 1999, maybe. So I'm holding my fan, my Shuso fan in my hands, as were all the other former abbots. So Norman Fisher and Paul Haller and Christina Lenhart and Rem Anderson. So all of these friends and fellow practitioners who've been at Zen Center for their adult lives were seated side by side and in order of our terms of holding those positions. and then as i watched my internal transformation going on as they came in and did the ritual and it it became so meaningful to me to see this young this young man who i've watched grow into adulthood and had he's got two sons who are growing up now and lovely wife and

[11:03]

And having seen him as a 20-year-old, and now at least 30 years later as this grown man, well-trained, very sincere Dharma teacher, going up the mountain and making his statements from the top of the mountain and being welcomed and all the gratitude that was expressed for him. Yeah, it was something. I was saying to people, I felt like my heart just grew about eight more sizes inside my body. It was just more and more filled with gratitude for this crazy thing that we're doing here on the coast of California. It's like, really? Yeah, really. It's a grand theater. It's full of heart and it's full of meaning. We have the great fortune of having the Dharma as our script. for our theater. So Hoetsu Suzuki Roshi was there playing a major role that he plays in these ceremonies. He played the same role for me nine years ago for Ed and me.

[12:07]

And so he's getting, as he said, he's 83 now. So, you know, he was in his 70s. And so as that old clock of time just keeps turning, he's now looking quite like a venerable older man. And he talked about that, his hearing's going, all kinds of things are going. And as he said to Ed and I, you've got many more mountains to climb up ahead. And I think he was referring to aging. I'm pretty sure he was. And his son, Shingo, who was here. is a lovely young man, and shockingly looks like his grandfather, Suzuki Roshi. First time I saw him, when he came to California the first time, I was like, oh my, he really looks like his grandfather. And he's now a young, trained priest who will be taking over his grandfather's temple, Rinsoen, in Japan. So he also came to help with the ceremony, and a number of other

[13:12]

Japanese leaders from temples around California and also from Japan came to join us and help us with this ceremony. So I was thinking as I was waiting to speak to you that I have some things I want to say about Dogen and some thoughts I have. And I thought, it's not that it's different to be talking theoretically or... Thinking about the Dharma, it's just a particular activity that I do with my mind. I guess it's my mind. That I use these texts and I try to bring forth things that hopefully make sense to you. For you, I do that. Or whoever's there, whoever's listening. And at the same time, this embodied feeling of enacting our love of the Dharma and performing our roles and carrying our staffs and our fans and our whisks and wearing our ocasas and our robes.

[14:18]

It's just, there's some embodiment that's embodied in the power of being a person of the cloth, you know, where you've got all this cloth that you're working with and trying to keep on you and trying to, you know, tidy up as you go along. And everyone's doing that. All of the All of these people who've taken up the role or the responsibilities of ordination are doing the same thing I'm doing, getting their robes on and trying to keep things tidy. It's just so touching. It's just such a privilege, I feel, to have accepted this form of practice for my life. This is my life. It's what I've done with my life. And I'm now at the end of that. offering. At the end of it, I will continue to put on my robes and show up in the Zendo and so on, but I won't be at Green Gulch in another year. I'll be leaving Green Gulch and all of that that's meant for me personally and for the community.

[15:23]

We all care. We care about each other so much and it's time. It's time for the next generation to grow and into their position and take their responsibility. So that the next generation has that same, it's like, I was thinking of when I was talking to Jiryu after the ceremony, Jiryu is coming in as the abbot at Green Gulch. It's like a baton, you know, we're doing this relay race and I've been carrying this baton and running around the track for nine years. And now he's up ahead, and I just handed it to him, and he took it, you know, with a really firm, firm grasp. And I felt that we all felt it. He really accepted the request to become the abbot, and that's such a great joy in that. He didn't drop it. He grabbed it, and he took it, and he spoke beautifully from the top of the mountain. So that made me very happy, and I think it's a good sign. The Zen Center is alive well and will grow.

[16:27]

You know, the name of the new teachers, the new abbots, as they come in, they're called Shinmei. So when I was a new abbot, I was the Shinmei. It means new growth, like in spring. That's happening right now. It's a perfect time of year to be installing the new abbots, you know, spring. And Ed and I... Well, we're the old weeds. We were spring chickens at one point, and now we're the ones who are passing on the responsibilities to the Shinmei. So all in all, it was just a wonderful day. Today was a wonderful day. Yesterday was, and Friday night was. So I kind of filled up with that right now. And even though I want to start talking about Dogan, I just wanted to let you know. where my life is you know how i'm living inside of this this body right now and yeah so there is that's it okay so enough of me and let's go find out what dogan has been doing with his life which is you know pretty wonderful very inspiring so uh in in order to look at dogan you know

[17:46]

I often find myself needing to understand the context of where did this come from, you know? Shakyamuni Buddha was alive in India, what we call ancient India. It wasn't ancient India for him. It was his home, and it wasn't even called India. You know, it was just this little family, tribal family, where he lived, the Shakya tribe. And... You know, he walked around, it was hot there, so he wore a very simple robe, just a single cloth. Most of his career was in this one robe that we then wear now as the outer layer. The okesa is called in Japanese. The Honorable Buddha's Robe is in honor of what Shakyamuni Buddha wore. And then underneath the okesa, we have the koroma, which is Chinese. robe so as the clothes we wear are also representing the cultures that this tradition has passed through and coming to us so from the the outer robe is from india in honor of shakimuni buddha and and the ancestors that followed him indian ancestors next layer down koroma from china and all of the ancestors starting with bodhidharma who came to china and from india

[19:08]

and passed his tradition and his love of karma through many generations. So they wore the outer robe and the karma. And then we get to Japan, so the inner robe is called the kimono. So I have these three robes that I wear, that we wear as people who've taken on the responsibility for the tradition and its expression through what we wear. and ritual implements that we use and so on, the bells and the staff. Again, if you saw the ritual that we did, each of us had a staff that we carried and hit the ground with as we were walking. So that's another part of our tradition. So Dogen, you know, and Dogen was born in Japan at a time in its history which was very unique. as are all times and all histories are unique. And so he was very much influenced by the conditions, the social and historical conditions in Japan when he was born.

[20:15]

So I think in order to understand Dogen a little better, it's helpful to me to know a little bit about the elements that were true for Japanese society at the time that he was living. And that was the 13th century. So it's also known as the medieval period of Japan. And it's quite an era. A lot of things, a lot of big transformations are going on. I think maybe we feel that a little bit right now for ourselves. Something big seems to be happening in our culture. And it's a little disconcerting or very disconcerting, you know. old vocabulary words, can't say certain things. It used to be no big deal, and now it's a very big deal. People don't feel comfortable with their gender necessarily. They want us to use pronouns that they prefer, and we're being asked to respond to that, and all of the racial demands for respect and equity and so on.

[21:17]

So there's a huge upwelling of change that I feel in this just this last decade or three decades maybe, a growing sense of dis-ease with how things have been, the presumptions of authority, presumptions of hierarchy and all kinds of stuff. So Japan was that way too. In this period of time, there was a huge upwelling change in society that was going on. So there's a wonderful book that I enjoyed reading some years back called The Karma of Words. by a professor named William Lafleur, F-L-E-U-R, Lafleur, L-A-F-L-E-U-R, The Karma of Words, Buddhism, and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan. Sounds kind of, you know, maybe, I don't know, not that exciting, but it was a very exciting book. I thought it was a really good read. Lots of content for Dogen's life. So he goes in, in this book, goes into a great deal of

[22:21]

detail about this period of time in Japan. And he uses, helps us to understand the poetic imagery and that helps us also to understand where Dogen's coming from. Where did he get his language and his sense of things and his belief in how the world was and so on. So I thought I'd share with you some of the significant issues and commonly held views of Dogen's day. So first of all, Le Fleur describes 13th century Japan as an episteme. This is a term that I looked up a couple times because I would forget. An episteme is a period of history during which a couple of things are so. So there's a general consensus about the kinds of problems that need to be discussed. So if we think about our own episteme, is there a consensus about the problems that need to be discussed? Kind of seems like there might be. At least there's a gathering of things that we think we need to discuss.

[23:25]

Racism certainly being one of them, one of the big ones. And economic inequities, another one. Environmental degradation is certainly another big one, as we all know, with climate change and so on. So there seems to be a gathering of problems that we think we need to discuss. So that's an episteme. History will look back. will all be gone but maybe some people will look back at our time and say oh this is what they were into this is what they were were concerned with so that's one thing common sense of the problems that need to be discussed another another part of what makes an episteme is what kinds of texts and traditional practices are worthy of referring to of sight of sighting Like, what are you going to cite for your evidence? What is your evidence base? In many, many periods of time, it was the Bible. You know, people would hold up the Bible. And that's not that long ago. In fact, it's still happening. People are holding up the Bible. Well, this is what it says in the Bible. That's our foundation of our beliefs.

[24:30]

And so it's certainly not true for everyone. So what kinds of texts and what traditional practices matter? you know, are worthy of using in order to address the problems of the era. And the third, another quality or third feature of an episteme is the symbols that are present in transmitting information. You know, what kind of images or what kind of symbols or what kind of clues do you have about how information about your culture is being taught or explained, you know, so symbols are another... So the point that Le Fleur is making in his book is that the episteme in medieval Japan in the 13th century was overwhelmingly Buddhist. And this is a really amazing fact, because it's not been very often... in human history where there was just one kind of world view that was holding.

[25:31]

It happens, and it has happened. But this was really true in Japan for this period of time. For many hundreds of years, Buddhism was truth. You know, they had received these teachings from China and they had become really important in all levels of society. They'd really made their way into the dominant culture. And so what Buddhist teachings were telling them explained the world. They understood it in Buddhist terms. It's hard for us to imagine that. Even as a Buddhist, I don't think that way. Even though I'm a Buddhist, I still check out the science, and I check out the other philosophies, and I'm kind of looking at what's going on around a variety of different views. So... Along with this idea that it's all Buddhist. So there's some features of Buddhism that were particularly significant. And again, this is about where's Dogen coming from? So there was a general belief that the world had entered into a period of decline called Ma Po.

[26:36]

And we may feel that way too. Ma Po, you definitely were in a period of decline. You know, I think a lot of young people feel that way. That what's happening now is not good and it's not going to get better. So this is called the degenerate age, and it's a Buddhist teaching. And during the degenerate age is the end of a cycle of teaching. And during this particular mapo, it's very hard for Buddhist teachings to be heard. So that was one belief, that they were in this period of decline. And it actually led to a further belief in that the degeneracy within Japanese society was inevitable. and was driven by karma. You know, it was like, not much can be done. This is just the way it is. It's ma po. So that explains everything. It explains the warfare. It explains the poverty. It explains the abuse and the overlords and all of that stuff. It's just ma po. What are you going to do? So Dogen himself argued against that theory.

[27:40]

He said that the possibility of practice and of realization were as good as they ever had been. He really said, this is not the case. It's just a fantasy that we can't practice and have a realization as always. Same human, same mind, same freedom, same dharma, and same possibility of realization. So another very important factor in this episteme for Dogen was the prevalence of a belief in what's called hongaku. or original enlightenment, Buddha nature. We've talked about that a bit. So that the nature, or as Japanese is the kaku or the satori, the awakening or the realization, already exists. It's not something you can get in the future. You can't get enlightened. You can't become enlightened. You can't do some process that will enlighten you. It's already happening. This is it. Just this is it.

[28:40]

You've heard me say that quite a few times. And that's very much the Zen thing. This is coming from Dogen. Just this is it. And this Dogen is coming from this episteme when this belief in inborn, that Buddha nature is, that you're born, you know, you are a Buddha already. You just don't know it. You just haven't had the realization of who you really are. So in other words, awakening has to be there in the beginning, or you can't be in there in the end. You can't have a whole different animal come out. If you had a fish, you're not going to get a bird at the end. You have enlightenment, and you're going to have it all the way through. It's just the kind of, the variation is really to what extent you understand yourself and the world. So awakening is not some end that is arrived at by some means. It's just the way things are. Okay, so that's another very important. So this hongaku, so we have mapo, is a very big influence, and then we have hongaku, or original enlightenment, as a huge influence.

[29:41]

Now, unfortunately, in Dogen's time, this belief in original enlightenment was thought to be leading to a laxity within the culture as a whole. Well, if you're already enlightened, well, you don't have to do anything. So there's this kind of, you know, what's there to do? If you can't make it better, you're not going to be able to... wake up because there's nothing you can do you can't bring it about it's already happening there was this kind of willingness in society to accept things as they are just to accept the way things are and to not make a great effort to you know exert yourself around ethics or around spiritual practices within your own personal life So it kind of goes along with the Mapo thing. Well, it's just the way things are. It's kind of a little bit like hippie logic, you know, whatever. Just, you know, let's just go out and run around in the forest. So these are two kind of discouraging qualities that Dogon was confronting.

[30:47]

And so this belief in the pointlessness of doing something is really helps us to understand Dogen and what was driving him in his own spiritual practice. And he said, as he said, as I study both the exoteric, meaning external understandings, and the esoteric schools of Buddhism, they maintain that human beings are endowed with Buddha nature by birth. This is his Hongaku. You are endowed with Buddha nature at birth. And then he says, if this is the case, why did the Buddhas of all ages undoubtedly in possession of enlightenment find it necessary to seek enlightenment and to engage in spiritual practice? Why do we practice? This question comes to all of us at various times. Why are we doing this? If it means to an end... You know, why are we working so hard at it?

[31:49]

Why do we keep getting up early? And why do we keep going to the Zendo? You know, and so on and so on. That's a why question. So Dogen had a big why question. Why practice if we're already enlightened? Why did all the Buddhas of the past work so hard? So this drove him for all of his years until he arrived finally with Ru Jing in China. And was able to experience, you know, not the why, not the answer to the why, but what he had been overlooking in himself that had already been there. He had a realization of his own freedom and his own vastness. And, you know, he became liberated from why questions and from all kinds of questions. So... Along with this, here's another factor, so along with this assumption of inherent Buddha nature, ongaku, for better or worse, there was another great assumption that came from the Buddhist tradition into Japan, and really contributed very much to the culture of Japan at the time, in this medieval period.

[33:03]

And this was an extremely coherent explanation of the world. and of our human experience, called the Roku-do. Roku is six, and do are realms. Six realms. So it might ring a bell. Looked at the six realms. Before, I'll show it to you again. The six realms are at the center of the 12-fold chain of dependent core rising. So the wheel of birth and death, if that's ringing a bell, or the wheel of dependent core rising, is... In the center of that, there are these six destinations or realms that you will land in, depending on how you behave. So this is an absolute truth in Japan, that if your behavior is bad, if you're doing unwholesome behavior, you're going to go down into the lower realms. And if you behave well, you're going to go up into the higher realms.

[34:04]

So the kind of thing they'd tell their kids, I'm sure. You're going to go down. You're going to become a dog if you don't be careful. You're going to reincarnate in a very bad way if you don't clean your room or whatever it was. So I think the six realms played very much the same role that science does in our modern day or in our own episteme. We have a great belief in science. That's kind of a given. I don't even question it that much. well they've done an experiment and they proved that this toothpaste is better than that one or whatever so we have we use that language all the time uh as though they're facts and as though you know somehow things are proven so we don't question that so much uh well some of us don't and so the rokudo or the six realms as i said are found at the center of the 12-fold chain and basically they gave 13th century japan a basic map of reality so i want to show you again that i did a little drawing in the six realms which i was kind of fun to do uh some years back and i had found it on my desktop so i wanted to show it to you again here it is so there they are i'm not sure this is very clear but

[35:24]

Okay, so the 12-fold chain of dependent core rising. And the chain begins up here. So there's 12 or 12 links. They go around, if you remember. And this is basically a summary of the first and second noble truth. So noble truth number one, there is suffering. Noble truth number two, there's a cause of your suffering. And the cause of your suffering is this picture. is it this is how it works so one of the of the two causes of suffering that are named in the buddhists buddhist first sermon when he taught this he didn't teach all of this it's too complicated he taught just two of the links he taught this one up here which is a blind man with a cane with a staff walking across a bridge i didn't put the bridge in over a crevasse So this very treacherous situation. And the blind man represents ignorance. We are blind.

[36:26]

We are ignorant. We are ignoring our Buddha nature. We are ignoring our awakened nature, our inherent, our hongaku. So in ignoring that is what sets the wheel turning. You know, if we weren't ignorant of the non-dual nature reality, of that whole world is making us in each and every moment, And of the gratitude we could express for that in each and every moment, to each and everything, you know, the awesomeness of life. When we ignore that, we set this wheel turning, okay? So after ignorance, there's karmic formations. That's a little being there making pots, you know, habits. These are your habits, habit formations. You did it before, you're going to do it again, you know, over and over again. So we have habits. And then there's the mind. which is this little monkey picking apples from a tree. And then there's this six, I'm sorry, there's the five aggregates that are riding in the body.

[37:27]

The body is one of them. There's a form, feeling, perception, impulse, consciousness. It's in the Heart Sutra. So we've got little form as the boat. And then inside the boat are these three little passengers. I've used this symbol before, showed you this. Your hand is very good. Here's the boat. Here's the passengers. And then the environment is the mind. So you've got form, the body, and you've got feelings, perceptions, and impulses that ride along in the boat and basically drive your life. And depending on your skill set, either drives you in a good way or kind of drives you crazy. So that's what's happening here all the time. So you have a perception of something over there, something that you think looks really interesting. And so your feeling is positive. And with that positive feeling, you take an action to go get that thing. So you send your boat after whatever it is that you're attracted to.

[38:28]

If you see something that scares you, you don't like, then you send your boat away. So this is greed. I want it. hate i don't want it i'm out of here so these are the main drivers of our life that's really all that's talking about it's very again it's about your body it's like how is it in your body when you see something you like what happens to you you know you might remember a situation like that recently there's something you really wanted like ice cream that's left over in the fridge or something and you think about it and then you know pretty soon you you're in the fridge you know so this is just normal behavior Part of how we are, how it works. And then from there, we have this little fortress, which is the self. You know, we've made ourselves into something that thinks it has boundaries that it can protect. So the image in the Buddhist teaching is that we're like a fortress. And we're really defended. And I think we all can feel how defended we are. And then comes the situation that we have no choice about, which is running into another fortress.

[39:32]

So this is contact. So we don't want really to be a fortress all by ourselves up on a hill alone. We actually do want to meet another fortress and have some friends or have a partner or whatever. So we're compelled to mate some way, to connect in some way with one another. So this picture of contact, which is the next link, is of a couple kissing, getting together, being intimate. How nice is that? And after that contact, there's feelings. So this picture is of somebody with an arrow in the eye. Feelings are very clear. And we get it. When we have contact with something we like, we feel it. And if something we don't like, we feel it. So either way, feelings are so important in how our lives are run. So feelings have this big image of an arrow in the eye. And then from there, we go into desire.

[40:32]

So this is where trouble, this is the trouble in River City. So the two big trouble points on the wheel are ignorance, ignoring that you're not separate from the universe. That's number one. And all of that stuff happens. And then you get to following feelings. You get to desire. And that's number two of the big forces that cause our suffering. So all of this stuff happens. And then I have this strong desire for something. I really want it. And my desire is oftentimes not in line with reality, what I can actually have. I want something that I don't already have. Always. Or I don't want something that I have. Always. So this is where the pivot of our suffering is taking place. It's a desire. And from there on, we just basically have caught ourselves up in another round of disappointment. Or, yeah, now I got it. Now I don't need it anymore. I put it on a shelf.

[41:33]

I really wanted that thing. And now it's in the garage or whatever. So the cycle starts over again with us getting tired of whatever it was. And then we don't even care about it anymore. In a sense, it's like this whole cycle of behaviors is now dead. So there's a corpse at the very end of the wheel. You're done with that. It's all over. And so then what do you do? You start over again. You start over again. Maybe this time. It'll work. So that's the wheel. That's how the wheel works. But depending on, so here's the good news is, depending on how you deal with these various forces in your life, if you're aware of Buddhist teaching and you know that by not indulging in your desires, by not lying to people or sexualizing people or killing people or whatever it is you do when you're filled with desire, that you're going to be moving up the wheel. in terms of the six realms, or the Rokudo. So that was the reason I brought this up again, is because it has to do with these six destinations on the wheel.

[42:37]

So this round of behavior results in choices. We have moral choices that we can make. It's not choiceless. Karma is not something that's just put on you. It's what you have intentionally done. Unintentional, you know, if you... bump into somebody not on purpose or whatever that doesn't that's not going to hurt you it's when you do things on purpose you know you're doing it you did it you wanted to do it and so that's when consequences happen so if you choose good make good choices to be kind to be generous to not steal to not kill to not lie these are precepts then these little characters are going up the wheel to these higher destinations This is, again, the six realms, the Rokudo. If you make bad choices, then these little characters are falling down to the six lower realms. So this is the total belief system in Japan during Dogen's day.

[43:40]

This was true. You know, if somebody had a cauliflower ear or they got some illness or whatever, it had to do with their intentional actions. That was just retribution. for your behavior so it explained everything and now we know thanks to science that that's not true you know we have different ideas about what is causing our suffering you know some of it we still fall into some sort of superstitious understanding of why oh well you know they deserve that or whatever but basically uh we have a little more leeway into explaining cause and effect but in japan in that era there wasn't any leeway at all If you did bad things, you would go down. And if you did good things, you would go up. And that was just the way it was. So just to name these six realms, the lower realms, the three lower realms, the worst of them is hell, just like we know about that.

[44:43]

And one way to understand these is that these are states of mind. Okay? So it's not like... This is something somebody else might go through. We all go through these. And to some greater or lesser extent, pretty much every day or every week, or certainly in our lifetimes, we have been in each one of these realms many times. So hell is when you have no power, you feel powerless to do anything. You can't help yourself. You're absolutely depressed. Everything's falling apart. You have no agency. To help yourself. So it's like you're being tortured. As though something outside is pushing down on you. And the other two ones. There's the animal realm. And that realm is a little more interesting. Although it's not very good. Because you're basically driven by instinct. It's kind of like teenagers. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's just no consequences.

[45:44]

You're not considering the outcome of your behavior. You don't really care. oh, I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings. You know, it's whatever. You're really not into that. You're not into owning and taking responsibility for your behavior. So that's kind of not very nice for the animals to be treated that way by us. But anyway, that's one way of explaining that state of mind is when you're really indifferent to the suffering of others and that your actions are just based on your own pleasure or whatever you think you should have. Or you want to fight, you fight. You want to have sex, you have sex. nothing so you stay down here and then the other one on the other side is the hungry ghosts and hungry ghosts is really awful like you can't get satisfied no matter what you get how much you're offered it's never enough it's just never enough it's really the half the cup really more than half empty and so these creatures these poor beings and the hungry ghost have very tiny necks And very big abdomens.

[46:45]

And they're always hungry. They're always trying to get some nourishment. And they just can't get enough. It's a terrible, terrible feeling. And I think we know that feeling. That's not it. That's not working. That doesn't help. So these are the lower realms. And they're a result of actions you've chosen to take. Ethical actions that you've taken. And that's why you're there. Now, if you make good choices, then you have these three upper realms. that you get to incarnate in. You can say incarnate or experience as psychological states. For me, they're psychological states and they're familiar. So up at the top, right up above hell is heaven. And I think our culture thinks that's the one. The heaven is the one. And if you get enough of the right stuff, you're going to be in heaven. And the right... partner the right vacation the right home the right job the right amount of money i mean that's what we're selling we're selling material well-being in our society and i that's been you know offered to me my whole life is like well you you know do this isn't this and you're going to be happy because you'll be in heaven with those other people and you know you'll live in an exclusive neighborhood and you'll have all the best kinds of friends and go to the best parties and all of that right and

[48:09]

So, well, wrong. It's really not the best. In fact, it's really the worst in one sense because of impermanence. Heaven, as with all things, is impermanent. And when heaven ends, there is like a fireman's pole that goes right down to hell. So because of impermanence, you do not want to get stuck thinking that you've arrived at the ultimate well-being. It's really... recognizing the fantasy, the fantastical nature of your beliefs in what heaven's going to be like, you know. And I think you all know when you've gotten really great things and nice things, it's like, well, this is quite what I was thinking this vacation was going to be like. In fact, I got a sunburn, the worst one I've ever had, you know. So we all know. We know, but we forget. So heaven is not the one. And then there's another one over here. I don't know if you can tell. It's not exactly a very anatomically correct drawing. But there's a little guy with an axe who's cutting down this flowering tree.

[49:14]

And the flowering tree is flowering in heaven. It's a fruit tree with lovely fruit on it. And this guy over here is called a fighting god or a fighting. He's a fighting god, jealous god. and the jealous gods are jealous of the guys in heaven and they want what the guys in heaven have so they're they're they're so angry about it that they're going to cut down their fruit trees they're going to take away their their privileges they're going to sue them whatever they can do to take them down so you find a lot of lawyers over here a lot of people who really want to get it you know they're going to get them uh and they're and they're they're they're hungry They're kind of the opposite of these hungry ghosts. They actually have the capacity to feed themselves on, you know, to get here. So these heavenly creatures come from here. You know, they fight their way in. And then they think they made it, right? Okay, that's just, you know, just not true.

[50:14]

So then here's this last realm, and this is the one that's recommended. Sad to say. It's the human realm. And the human realm, you know, Every day is not a good day. Some days are OK. Some days are not so good. It's kind of up and down, up and down, but not hugely up and down. It's not like these giant waves. It's more like your normal life, you know, like this morning, a nice breakfast. And then I went to this lovely little ceremony and then that ended. And then I came home and I'm talking to you. And so it's a pretty nice day. It's, you know, it's it's good enough. Good enough. I think the human realm is the place where things are good enough. And what I love about the depictions of the human realm is it looks a lot like green golf. There's a little farmer here plowing the fields and there's some little houses. They're all about the same size. And there's a zendo. And people are going to meditate and spend time together and study the sutras and so on and so forth.

[51:15]

So I think that's kind of a kind of... simple life more or less simple life not too much not too little just right everything's about right and it's proportional I remember being I'm going to stop sharing this now I remember being back east at one point I hadn't really spent any time on the east coast and it's really kind of a different cultural event than California in many ways at least as far as I could tell historically certainly And so the way that the layers of society were laid down back east were pretty much based on European aristocrats. And they owned the big estates. And they had people who worked for them. They had slaves. They had all kinds of privileges. And they built big houses on top of hills. And there were kind of the English aristocracy was one of the models. So you can see it in the land where I was staying in this particular part of...

[52:16]

New York, there were these big houses, you know, all over the place, and then little villages. And then there were little houses where the people who worked for the big houses lived. So it was a very stratified society, really different than the suburbs where I grew up. And then I went for a drive one afternoon. I was staying with a woman who had the big house, helping her. I was working to help her. I was driving around looking for other kinds of parts of the place where I was, and I came into this little village, and all the houses were the same size, and there was a lovely little center village shopping area, and I went there, and it was all very old and quite lovely. So I asked the guy in the bookstore, you know, where is this? What's this place? And he said, oh, this was founded by the pilgrims, or not the pilgrims, Oh, the Quakers. It was a Quaker village.

[53:17]

And everyone had the same amount of land and the same size house. And they all shared the commons. And you could feel it being there. Of course. Of course. This is a community. This is a communal. This is not a I got a lot more than you've got situation. So, I mean, I have to admit to my bias. I have a very big bias toward... distribution of wealth that is really equitable and fair and everyone has enough you know and and it would be not not you know i'm not into revolution because that didn't go very well you know taking things from people doesn't work they get really mad and then everyone starts killing everyone and it's terrible so that's not going to work so i'm really into education i feel like if we educate ourselves and our in our offspring about sharing that maybe someday There'll be a little more of these Quaker villages around and a little fewer of the mansions on the hill. But I don't know.

[54:18]

It's a competition for the souls and the hearts of humans. What values, you know, what ethical values they hold for themselves. You know, and each of us has our own choices to make. And so do our loved ones. So that's how it was in Japan. And that's how it is for us now. So let me see what else. So the Rokudo, the six realms that I just showed you, that was reality in Japan. There was no other map of reality than that. So, yeah, there are moral choices to be made. So the six realms include this fundamental Buddhist teaching that their karmic... consequences for your intentional actions that will drive you either up or down the ladder of the universe, because they also believed in reincarnation. So this is not just this lifetime. So I think we can make it work for us in terms of psychological states.

[55:20]

I mean, I have great fondness for this teaching as a way of explaining what my own psychology and the psychology of people I'm talking to, you know, oh, that you did that. And that's what happens when you do that. You know, it's not that complicated to understand. So I'm going to also be sharing with you when we discuss Dogen's teaching, some of his reflections on the six realms, which is a very important part of his upbringing and his understanding, this inviolable retribution for determining the outcome of your life. actions, which, as it turns out, was a particularly challenging societal problem for soldiers and butchers, as you can imagine. By virtue of their professions, they were in violation of basic Buddhist moral principles, especially the precept of not killing. So if you wanted to have soldiers, if you were the lord of the manor in Japan and you needed some samurai to protect your property and so on,

[56:24]

you're endangering them. You know, they were going to go to hell. And there's no doubt. And they knew that. So there was a real need during this era to come up with another way of negotiating the Rokudo. And that's exactly what happened during this period called the Kamakura. The Japanese, the intelligentsia and the spiritual leadership of Japan came up with different ways of softening the blow. There are certain things you can do, like at the last minute, You know, a soldier could pray to Amida Buddha and you could be saved from going to hell. So they came up with other types of Buddhist teachings and practices that could rescue you, you know, and your dying wish was that Amida Buddha would save you and then, you know, pop you out of your destination. So it's quite fascinating to see how these... many of these traditions, including Zen, came about in order to soften the blow of this inviolable belief in your destinations, you know, based on your behavior.

[57:35]

So I'm going to stop in just one minute. So another feature of medieval Japan that was important for Dogen's teaching was another of the central tenets of Buddhism, which is that things are not what they seem. Things are not what they seem. You know, That little furry ball in the corner, you know, the monk points to the furry ball in the corner and says to the teacher, I call that a cat. What do you call it? And the teacher says, you call it a cat. Things are not what they seem. As I was saying in my class the other day, you pick up that little furry ball in the corner and you take a good look at it. Is that a cat? What is it? You know, what is it? And what are you? Is it enough to have a name? Is it enough to have some explanation or to tell us about your resume? Is that who you are? I think we know it doesn't even come close. We are a great mystery. We are unfathomable. And yet we keep trying to come up with ways to understand ourselves that are like little tiny boxes compared to these pictures here and compared to what really is going on.

[58:48]

both inside and outside of us. So this idea that things are not what they seem led to an understanding in Japan at the time that really was at the service of the poetic community, the good poets, that simple objects of everyday life are imbued with symbolic meaning, that everything is a metaphor for something very, very powerful. So for... For example, a traveler's hut becomes an image of reincarnation. The lotus, flowering lotus, out of the mud becomes an image of emergence of your awakened nature out of the mud of your delusional life. Falling cherry blossoms, impermanence. The moon of awakening. A spider's web, dependent horizon. And the sound of the mountain stream. you know, is our presence, the presence, being present with what you're hearing and seeing, being right here where you are.

[59:49]

So in a way, it's as if the world in Dogen's era was illustrating Buddhist truths, you know, in thousands and thousands of ways. So you're walking around the forest. It's a forest of poetry. It's a forest of meaning. Everything is imbued with meaning and meaning. And again, in a... episteme that is buddhist truth so it's quite amazing so impermanence interconnection immediacy and just this is it just this is it so i'm going to stop with that and uh open open up to your questions and comments um and anyone like to um Say something. Let me see. Now, like I said, I'm flying solo here, so I'm going to have to. What do I do? Do what? Spotlight.

[60:51]

Hey. Hi, Fu. Hey. It's so good to see you. I wanted to say congratulations, first and foremost, so much. The ceremony, your stepping down ceremony was so, so moving, so beautiful. I was moved to tears so many times. And I just wanted to say that all of the sentiments that were shared, all of the gratitude, all of the love, I think that at least speaking for myself, it resonates within me. It was the exact words. And I'm grateful that they, that all of those in attendance shared that because because it's so much truth. Thank you. Thank you so much, Luke. Congratulations. It was a once in a lifetime. Someone said to Karina, I said, is that poem a eulogy? She said, yeah. I sure felt like I got to go to my own funeral. It was sort of like, how wonderful for all of us to be able to be present and awake for the kindness of your loved ones, to be able to speak to you with how much they love you.

[62:06]

So I... can't even tell you what a privilege it was for me to be it was kind of embarrassing in a way but i just you just stand here and listen do not deflect this is your you know let it happen and it was very sweet so thank you so much for for adding your sweetness to that no thank you thank you but like you. Alicia. Hi, Fu. Sorry. I watched most of Friday evening your ceremony. And I, too, I cried so much. And it was just so moving. It was so powerful. I was so happy for you.

[63:07]

And I was just also just so moved at how you've dedicated your life to this, to Zen. And I'm just awed by it, to be honest. That's just awesome. It's awesome. Well, I'm a lucky person, I got to tell you. Yeah. Wow. A good choice. I really, really made a good choice. And I didn't know that, you know. Mostly people come into practice really full of mad. They're mad. They're angry and they're frustrated. And all the realms are just spinning around, you know. So it takes quite a while to settle down and to start to appreciate it. oh, this is pretty good. This is actually not a bad place to be at all, you know? So I have feel like my life really, I got planted in very good soil and I, you know, and I made that choice. So I give myself some credit for that. Absolutely.

[64:09]

Not for growing. I think growing is not under our control. You know, it just, yeah. It definitely like exemplifies the 12-link chain and the choices you make. And that's kind of a question I have about, so the six realms are inviolable, but so it sounds sort of fatalistic in a way. Like there's nothing you can do. It already happened. So how do you change it again? How do you set yourself up? You know what I mean? I do. And that's what the Japanese were looking for. How do I get out of this? How do I actually, you know, one way is we'll be good. I'll just take whatever bad thing happens and smile. Well, you know, I'm not going to fight back with you. I'm not going to pick up a weapon and fight you. I'm not going to write a nasty letter. I'm just not going to do those things. And, you know, I'm certainly not going to let you abuse me.

[65:10]

I mean, that would be not good for me. It wouldn't be good for you because that's bad for your karma. So part of my job as a recipient of bad behavior is to say, you know, this isn't good for you to be doing it. And in some extreme cases, we need to restrain people if they really have lost their minds and they're being violent and cruel. It's like that we have to stop that. They're hurting themselves as badly as they're hurting people they think they're hurting, right? It's madness. So it doesn't mean we don't take responsibility. We do. And we do our best to make better situations for ourselves and for others. So that's kind of on the literal. That's in the relative realm, right? That's in the G. I put things neatly. I put them away where I got them. I take my stuff back that I borrowed, and I make sure I answer my messages. And there's certain things that we do that are all about G. Yeah.

[66:12]

But the thing about the Buddha Dharma and about where the liberative aspect of all of that is, is that it's an illusion. The wheel is an illusion. It's how your mind works. There's nothing like that. Where's hell? Where is it? It's in your mind. And your enemies are in your mind. And all of the things you're afraid of are in your mind. So when you learn that it's my mind that's producing and projecting my ideas on the world, and that a lot of that, in some cases, is just being blasted back on me. You know, what can I bring to the situation that is aware of the fact that this is, I am basically dreaming and I'm meeting dreamers. We are dreaming this world together. So the more you wake up to your own dreaming, the more you can help other people to realize that they're dreaming.

[67:13]

You know, that's just a story you have. It's just a story. And how can you begin to enter into that story, into that narrative, in such a way that you can free yourself, you know? And the more you do that, the more often you see that, oh, no, gosh, if I let go of that thing I've been carrying, what a... What a gift to me and to the person that I'd been holding to some kind of, you offended me and I'm never going to be your friend again. So it really is a job. It's like our work is to realize the re, to have a realization of the ultimate truth of non-separation. And within that ultimate truth, because we're connected, My job is to help you understand that we're friends. We are friends. And we're here to work together in harmony.

[68:15]

That's Sangha. That's all I want to do. I just want to live in one big Sangha. The whole world has Sangha, right? And wouldn't that just take care of all the problems? It would. Yeah, it would. Yeah. So we're working on that. That's our project. It's our mission plan. Yeah, yeah. Well, I had another question, but there are other people, so maybe if there's time, I'll ask it later. All right, all right. You keep on coming. Okay. Hello, Paul. Hello. Hello. Hello, hello. Are you okay? Yes. You guys okay? Yeah, we're hanging in there. It's pretty challenging. We're buried. I don't know. And they're threatening. We're getting threatened with lots more snow coming.

[69:16]

There's no more place to put any snow anywhere. It's piled sky high, 20, 30 feet along the roads. The roads are narrowed to one lane, mostly in residential neighborhoods. Travel is challenging, and we're just kind of staying home and staying safe. We're okay, but it's on the edge of things can happen, but we're trying to avoid everything we can think of. Yeah, well, we're thinking about you. Yeah, thank you. I felt that. And I wanted to reflect on something you were saying just a minute ago about the great weight of the abbot position that you had taken on for nine years. And was just, I heard it more clearly, you're describing as passing on from that.

[70:27]

But in the injurious ceremony, it was really evident that he was taking on a great task. So as opposed to you leaving it behind and being unweighted by it, it was clear that he was now taking on, receiving the baton of the great weight of leading the community and that he's really committed to it. And I really, I enjoyed his experience. analogy of his World War II story of the row of troops lined up and the commander asking for volunteers and everybody but one took a step back and the one who was forward I guess was volunteer I could relate exactly that this wasn't something that Jerry stepped up to but he was chosen and a and agreed to take this position for the benefit of the community and for the world.

[71:33]

And it's a really giant commitment. So I can see I'm now seeing what your commitment was because we weren't really aware of the level of commitment when you stepped up. Neither was I. Did you see that rock that his friend gave him? Oh, yes. Huge rock, beautiful rock. You know, it's like, we're going to put this on you. And Jerry took it. And I did as well. I think I told you that when the board of directors, the chairman said, we'd like to invite you to be Albus, would you like some time to think about it? And I said, I better not. So I had a sense. from having watched the other Abbots and having my own reaction to them. I mean, we're all terrible, terrible human beings. You know, we talk about each other and we don't like this and we don't like that and so on and so on. So having been a terrible human being and dealing with my own relationship to leadership over the years and which softened as I became a leader, you begin to realize, oh, it's pretty hard, you know, holding a position.

[72:44]

So by the time I was invited to be Abbott, I had done a lot of jobs that I knew were really hard. And I knew that one was really hard. And I'd seen people carry it. And I had so much respect for them. And so I felt like with like Jiryu, when I was invited, it was sort of like, there is no way you're going to say no, you know, this is the place you love. And these are the people you love and, and, and the practice that you love. So was just there wasn't even a choice and uh i appreciated him also uh knowing that and and we will help him you know he's he's got a lot of support and and uh loving his family's great and he's got some great other senior people who will be you know help him and the senior staff is really good right now at green college so I think he's coming in at a very good time. And also there's a lot of room for growth because we've been so depleted by COVID and all the finances collapsing and all that.

[73:53]

So we've kind of become a lot more humble. It's like our begging bowl. It's really out front. And he's worthy of our confidence. I really, I told him that. It made me cry that... watching this young man and seeing him go up there, knowing he didn't want to. And there were some comments about the senior, the elders leaving the community or kind of moving out of the community. Enzo isn't that far away. And I have the feeling that the elders at Enzo will continue to support Enzo. Zen Center, even after this transition, will be around to lend, you know, energetic support. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. And they're going to invite us. And it'll be by invitation. Although we'll be sneaking in every now and then to make sure they're behaving themselves.

[74:58]

But I think we're really intending to be available to lead practice periods and give talks and all of that. And It's exciting, actually, to see how they will make use of this opportunity to be in charge of the space and care for the place. It's huge. All of these places, all these properties are enormous. And they take a lot of skill and a lot of continuity. So we're rebuilding that. That's the set we need to rebuild is the continuity. People who will stay for as long as we have. paul and i were talking about that this morning paul holler said we were looking around we're going like you know we were just a bunch of hippies who came into here we weren't going anywhere else we just thought this is it we found our our community and we got to work it and we got to be here and you know and there's norman and me and paul and so on i said these young people don't have that same feeling they they're thinking about their retirement plans it's like what

[76:03]

What's a retirement plan? You know, so we really didn't have a very, we were pretty naive when we were starting Zen Center. So I think there needs to be a combination of less naive and also kind of understanding this is a real life commitment you're making here. Very conscious that people would make a conscious choice to care for Zen Center. So we'll see. So there was one specific sort of scripture question I had for you related to something Jiria recited yesterday related to, you know, I'm not going to say this very well, but I'm wondering if it was related to breaking into a million particles and entering the bloodstream as evidence antibodies or whatever against greed, hate, and delusion. Is that a, I don't know, a mainstream or writing?

[77:08]

He didn't make that up, I wouldn't imagine. I think he did. He did? Well, you know, the Avatam Saka Sutra is basically... is the inspiration. I mean, these guys, these poets, centuries and centuries ago, were breaking things into billions of pieces and reflecting them back and reassembling them and creating spiraling galaxies. They didn't have telescopes like we have. I don't know what they were fantasizing, but they use their imagination to envision what we now can see with our telescopes. Like they already wrote all that stuff out. Galaxies swirling and throwing galaxies with your hand across the, you know, And world systems and infinite space and time was just totally vast and interconnected and Indra's net and all that. So, I mean, I felt the resonance with those teachings from the Hawaiian or the Avatamsaka Sutra, which are just fantastical. And so I think that image he used was fantastical and fun.

[78:10]

It's like, yeah, antibodies and... And it's such a metaphor for our current pain of disease that's happening right now. It's like the body is sick and we need those antibodies. We need that kind of truth. And so he called it. He called it forth. And I think it's like faith and faith that these things will heal us, that we will find good health again somehow as a people, as a... a species, you know. And so I appreciated it in that way. It totally resonated with me because during my cancer treatment about 10 years ago, I was given a visualization to sort of help. And it was almost exactly the statement. It was visualizing the white blood cells, you know, mounting an attack on the cancer cells and so forth.

[79:15]

It was almost exactly the same visualization that Julia was describing to attack, breed hate and delusion in entering the bloodstream to do that. It was very, so someday I'll get a chance, I hope, to ask him where that came from or what he was thinking about it. It really struck me significantly because I used it quite a bit to try to help my body attack the cancer cells. Successfully. Successfully. Obviously, I was following all of the Western medicine, surgery and radiation and everything that was advised. But there was this additional piece that seemed to be helpful. Yes. Well, his mom has just gone through that. So I have a hunch it may be very much in his heart that this healing is possible and that it is a matter of really seeing that sort of the truth of that kind of healing that comes from belief, you know, believing that your body can care for you.

[80:27]

You know, it's really well built to do exactly that. So, yeah, I hope you talk to him about it. I think that would be wonderful. I'm sure he would enjoy it. Well, thank you so much for these sessions and for all of your devotion and hard work as Abbas for all these years. And may you have a little bit less work to do. Thank you. And may you soon see some green. We are looking forward to spring someday. It doesn't seem like it can ever come. I think it's coming. It's just a little bit around the corner right now. But you stay safe, Paul. We're doing all we can to stay safe. And if you need a rescue, you let us know. We'll come in there with our shovels. We'll come get you. We've got a good shoveling team this year. We have assistants. Good.

[81:31]

Millicent. Hello, Millicent. Hello, Fu. Just very briefly, when I turned on my computer this morning, because it's this morning for me, this afternoon for you, I was half expecting you not to come to us because I consider the enormous opportunity experiences and ceremonies of the last three days for you. Like the others, I've attended online, which is fantastic. Great, good. You were there. I'm so glad to hear that you all were there. Some of you were there. Yeah, yes. As I was saying, I really only put my hand up to thank you for coming now.

[82:38]

When I think that just a few hours ago you were present for Jurya's mountain seat ceremony, let alone the day before and the day before, and yet here you are sharing the Dharma with this person Funny little group. My motley crew. Very important to me. It's just wonderful for us. And we've kind of formed a sangha over it because it's three years you've been talking to us. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And such a focal point of the week for me and the other members of the group, you know, we get to know each other a little bit. I kind of have a little hunch of the kind of questions people are going to be asking.

[83:39]

It blows me away that this little online mockery crew, It's important for you that even today you come and talk to us. So it's just my heart is just filled with gratitude. And gosh, you know, you'll be able to fix me on the wheel of inappropriate responses. But I feel... Totally inappropriately, but I still do feel a bit funny about this retirement village. And, you know, I'm not questioning it. Who am I to question anything on the other side of the world? But I just feel a bit sad because the monasteries that I've known a little bit, they were Catholic masculine type monasteries.

[84:50]

But they're old guys, you know. They were retired from all duties and stuff other than they said to pray. That was their job. But they were the anchor. They were the wisdom, you know. And when you think of that story of Zhaoshu, I think it was, taking his bowls to the dining hall and this jumped-up youngster, He said, what do you think you're doing? It's not time. And he turned around and just went back to his room. I mean, that story has come down to us with such power and we need the wise old folk being looked after by their communities, grateful communities. That's just my thought, and you can stick me where I should be on the wheel.

[85:53]

No, I would never do that. No, it's each of us finds our own place on the wheel and then decides what we're going to do about that, right? I appreciate what you said. I feel that, too. And I was more than happy to stay in the community. I said, why don't we take care of each other? We can just make this little end of the valley where I live our retirement because we all live up there together. It's called Spring Valley. And, you know, I'll take Reb some soup if he can't get to the dining room. And they can help me if I can't walk. And we can just do that. And, you know, that was my wish. And my wish didn't come true. So the wish of the community was not to take up all the senior housing. So one of the problems is we have, by virtue of our seniority, the larger units. And most of us raise children. So we have rooms that have houses with more than one bedroom and kitchens and all kinds of stuff. And there's no way to get us out of there. Everyone's living a really long time if they don't allow for a way of having us exit respectfully.

[86:59]

while we still have some energy and then bring bring the next generation into our our places so i appreciate the need with our limited resources to not do what unfortunately my dear friends of the dominican sisters have done which is they all stayed forever and now they're very very old there's no replacements and they have they occupy all the space and they don't have a generational there's no next generation. They're just all basically getting very old and they're dying together, which is, there's something lovely about that too. But I think it's very sad for them that they haven't been able to procreate. And so I think we want to keep this living being of the Sangha alive. We want the roots to be strong and the new growth to be good and the old growth to, you know, And so I feel really good about that.

[88:01]

And like Paul said, we're not going very far. We're only about an hour up the road. So if they really need, if they ring the fire bell, we'll come running or walking in our walkers or whatever we're doing. We'll come when we're called. I know we all will. So it's maybe another room in the house rather than we're gone. So anyway, I have some faith in the kindness toward each other, and I think it's really there. Thank you for responding so kindly to my disrespectful thoughts. They weren't very disrespectful. Millicent, you don't seem to have the capacity. Lucky you. Maybe sometime you'll let me share what you have done with the sangha here.

[89:04]

Oh, yes. Would you? Yes, I had a – that would be wonderful. I had a note from the post office saying the parcel has arrived in America. Oh, my God. Can I tell them what it is? Maybe I should just – Well, Millicent is a master weaver, and she has woven the web telescopes. Why don't you tell your story? So you saw... This was at the time when Fu was talking to us about Dongshan, you remember, and the dual mirror samadhi, and how it, with a lot of time spent on it, which I just... and treasured so much that truly it is you, and the next line of the poem is you truly are not it.

[90:10]

And at much the same time I was looking at pictures of the Hubble telescope, actually. Oh, the Hubble. I don't think Webb had been launched. This was about... Well, when Fu was talking to us about Dongshan, and this stunning image from 60,000 light years away, and when the telescope took the flash of this explosion of gas, That explosion was already about 60,000 light years in the past. So it just sort of blew my mind that we're part of this, well, just this vastness of time and space with Dom Shan's lines going through my mind.

[91:17]

So I just wove it. Yes, you did. And it's spectacular. Maybe better than the original. Oh, no, no, no. As best I could. And, yeah, and Florence Caprow, who I'm sure some of you know well too, very, very kindly, with a bit of a squeeze from me, I must admit, did the calligraphy from those two lines, which I've woven into it, and now it's just a tiny sign of my gratitude to Fu and all of us. It's arrived in America. It's arrived in America. I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. It's so beautiful. I have pictures, but I'm going to wait until it comes so I can touch it and get all excited, and then I'll share the photographs with someone.

[92:20]

Oh, thank you, Fu. Thank you for letting me do it. It's so precious. Oh, I'm so thrilled. I'll have to find a wall that's worthy of your offering. Okay. Thank you, Millicent. All righty. Maybe that's we're at 630. That's pretty good. I'm going to go on gallery view and let you all say goodbye. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, Sangha. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, everyone. Congratulations again, Fu. Thank you. Congratulations. I would love to have a copy of what you shared in your stepping down ceremony, Fu. It was so powerful. Thank you. I would be happy to do that.

[93:20]

Okay, great. I just figured out how to put it in the chat. Next time. I'm a little bit whatever you call it. I'm a boomer. I don't really understand these machines, but Guy's going to help me. I will. I was going to say, just turn over whatever you need. I got to do my best. All right. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you, Fu. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for sharing the ceremony. Yeah. Thank you. Thank the Sangha. Yes. I will. I will. They're very happy right now. Fu, were you able to take it all in? Did your practice allow you to stay embodied enough to take it? No, I'm a leaker. I just kind of went in and went right out. I'm going to watch the video too. What happened?

[94:22]

Do you have memories of moments at least? Do you have memories that stick with you? Well, both Angel and Karina were so, I was just mesmerized by these two beautiful women who I love so much. talking to me like that as Karina said you never heard me talk like this before I thought what a gift when I heard Karina I thought what a gift is that how sweet I know totally sweet she worked on she was sneaking around writing all these going to her friends and say well how's this sound you know she was just really in it and I guess I couldn't it was wonderful and Angel's also a dear friend and I'm so grateful she came and spoke so kindly. I just felt very loved. It was returned. It was full of love. We could feel it watching it. It was super duper. I'm so grateful to them for almost speaking on our behalf. It was amazing.

[95:24]

It was truly just the sense of unity of all. Yeah, it was the embodiment, the enactment of our interconnectedness. And it was just what a privilege to, like you said, to be alive and to live it and to experience. And that this is how, you know, the arrow points met. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very lucky person. Okay, you all wonderful people. Can I just ask you, when's the next meeting? When do you, when's the next meeting? What's the date of this? Of this group? Yeah. Every Sunday. Every Sunday. Well, breath continues. I would plan to be here. I took a few vacations, but I'll probably take another one at some point. But yeah, next Sunday. Every Sunday. Wow. Five o'clock. Yeah. I thought you were doing once a month. Oh, that would not be fun. I forget.

[96:24]

What was I talking about? Yeah. I need to keep the threads pulling. Yeah, me too. Thank you very much. You're welcome. We're very lucky and blessed. We really are. I am too. Thank you so much. Bye, everyone. Take care. Bye.

[96:50]

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