There seems to be kind of a good feeling in the room. This is of course a very unusual morning, a very joyful morning, even the sun's coming out now. So we're doing things differently. We've never had two people speaking at our Sunday morning occasion before, but I thought it would be appropriate this morning. I actually invited five people to speak this morning, but the only one who accepted was So, I hope this is enough. In our talk at this time, during this first phase of the ceremony, we will not be so specifically

[01:24]

mentioning all the ways that we're overjoyed and grateful. We'll save most of that for the ceremony itself, but of course that's what we feel. And I thought that maybe I could speak about the form of the ceremony so that you would actually be able to be initiated into the way the ceremony will go, and I thought my partner could maybe speak from his point of view about how he sees the whole overall Green Gulch event. Does that seem okay? Good morning.

[02:27]

Good morning. And it's really wonderful to see everybody this morning, some familiar faces, many, many familiar faces, and many faces that I haven't seen for a long time. So this event is bringing a lot of people together, and hopefully this will continue. This place will continue to bring many people together. I just came back from Tassajara, where I've been leading the practice period, the fall practice period, and although I saw this building under construction from time to time, this is the first time I've seen it at this stage. So this morning is a wonderful surprise for me to see the more or less finished product, and I'm really pleased beyond my expectations as to the way it turned out.

[03:32]

It's a beautiful building. I remember my first contact with Green Gulch was in the early fifties, when I used to take my Model A and drive up the coast, exploring Highway 1. Those were great days. And I'd look down at this valley just before getting to Muir Beach, and I thought, what a great place this is. Imagine somebody living here. I would love to live there someday. I really thought that. I thought, God, if I could think of any place I'd like to live, it's in that wonderful Green Valley. And lo and behold, beyond my wildest expectations, not just myself, but so many other people have

[04:34]

the opportunity to share this place, and uncounted people probably had the same dream as myself. So, I remember also when Suzuki Roshi died, and while he was alive, he talked about having a place. What we talked about was a farm, and that never came to fruition when he was alive. And Baker Roshi kept that in his mind, and it was one of the first things on his agenda when he became abbot. And I remember the day that he asked us to, the older members of Zen Center, he invited us to a meeting, and he served us strawberries and cream. And he said, there's this wonderful place across the bay.

[05:38]

The Nature Conservancy and Mr. Wheelwright are willing to make this place available to Zen Center, and we have to do it within a couple of days. This was his style. And we scratched our heads and searched our souls and decided that we'd go ahead with it. So, this is the beginning of our stewardship of this valley. And Green Gulch has always been a place that nobody knows exactly what it is. And trying to establish exactly what it is has not always been easy.

[06:40]

We think of it as a place where we practice our Soto Zen, but Green Gulch has always been the kind of leading edge of Zen Center since we've had it. And it's been the place of wide events, not narrow events. Like Tassajara is the narrow event of Zen Center. In order to enter Tassajara as a student during a practice period, you have to go through the narrow door of what we call Tangario, which is just sitting for five days without Kinhin, but just five days of just nothing but Zazen.

[07:44]

This is the narrow door, and the practice is a very narrow practice of just Zazen and work and various activities. Whereas Green Gulch is the wide open door to the public. You don't have to do anything special to come here. You can decide how you practice except for the residents. Residents have a kind of narrow door, but the public has a very wide door. And we have many events which cater to the public and invite the public. So these are the two opposite ways of practicing. And during the crisis of the middle 80s, Green Gulch almost lost its identity because there was a lot of confusion at that time.

[08:46]

We lost our leadership. And in the interim of re-establishing our leadership, Green Gulch was open to all kinds of practices. So we had to decide, what's our real practice at Green Gulch? What is our real identity at Green Gulch? And we decided that our main practice at Green Gulch was our Soto Zen, Zazen practice. And if we know what our real identity is, then we can be open to all kinds of things. But if we don't know who we are, and we're open to all kinds of things, we just get pulled around by so many different ways. So to keep our practice very simple and our identity clear,

[09:47]

and we can know who we are and be open to so many different kinds of ways to practice and introduce people to so many different things. And that's what we've been trying to do, and I think we've accomplished that very well. So there's a great variety of ways to practice at Green Gulch, and we can invite various teachers from different traditions to also present their way here, without losing our own way. So in a way, we know who we are, and on the other side, we don't know who we are. And it's very important not to know who we are too much. So to have a foundation in our traditional way gives us the advantage

[10:54]

of letting flowers grow out of that foundation. New flowers, new plants, and new ways. Zen in America must change and transform in time, but if we do it all at once, we'll lose our way. So to make a strong foundation, create a strong foundation in traditional practice, and to see the various plants and flowers grow, new ones, new ways, new transformation. Always looking for transformation. But transformation needs to prove itself. So there's always a tension between new transformation and old, steady foundation. And that tension is necessary.

[11:56]

So sometimes we find ourselves in a state of confusion. From time to time we find ourselves in a state of confusion. But the confusion is the matrix for growth. So we appreciate our confusion, or I hope we appreciate our confusion. When things get too steady and too correct, that's the time to watch out, I think. Time to really look at ourselves. Once we stop having confusion and problems, we start to die. So I think American Zen will be in this state of upheaval and a little bit of confusion, but with a very strong foundation.

[12:57]

And it will be very exciting and interesting, even though excitement is not so much what we're looking for. So in our excitement and in our confusion, if we just learn to settle into it, I think we'll be all right. So I hope that we can contribute something to our society and I think that we already have contributed something, but we shouldn't feel so good about it. There's a long way to go, and we all have a lot to learn. Green Gulch will be a wonderful place from now on.

[14:00]

To give people a sense of themselves, a sense of our true foundation, our real life, and all of us can contribute. So I really feel very strongly about how we provide for the non-resident community. When I look at this gathering, the non-resident community seems to be overwhelming in this group. So how do we do our best, actually, to make a place, give people a way to practice? And to me, that's really important for our future. Green Gulch is not only an asset for Marin County, but for anyone who wants to come

[15:08]

and benefit by what we have to offer. We have a priest's practice and lay practice, and sometimes people say, what's the difference between a priest's practice and lay practice? Sometimes they're indistinguishable, and they think, well, that's a problem. But for me, that's not a problem. When the priest's practice and the lay practice are completely indistinguishable, that means everything is just right. When they look too different, that may be a problem. So I can see that in the future,

[16:24]

from now on, we'll have many happy hours of sitting in this new zendo. And I wonder if Tenshin Sensei wants to say something else. Thank you very much for what you said. As you all know, as you were speaking, I felt that you were making your commentary on the text of Green Gulch. And my scholarly mind immediately thought of commentaries on your commentaries, point by point, which I will try to restrain myself.

[17:25]

But I want to say thank you for mentioning Bekaroshi's contribution. Not only did he bring us, bring Zen Center in contact with Mr. Wheelwright and Nature Conservancy, but he pulled us, as Mel suggested, rather strongly. We were, we dug our heels in a little bit. And as a result of getting involved at Green Gulch, we have had many, many years of difficulty that we wouldn't have had if we hadn't gotten Green Gulch. We were doing pretty well. We had City Center in Tassajar. We had things under control. But Green Gulch has kept us

[18:30]

in almost a constant state of crisis. But as Mel said, that's the, what is it, I don't know if this is correct, but the growing edge, the cambium layer of a tree is always in crisis. Right? Is that right, Wendy? So it's been, it's been difficult, but it's been alive. And I remember when I first went to Tassajar, I heard it was a valley. And when I got, what I thought of a valley is a place like this. And I was expecting something like this. And so when I got there, I was shocked to find out it wasn't a valley. It's a, it's a canyon. It's very, it's a very narrow place. And I didn't like it. It was so narrow. Tight. It smelled funny.

[19:30]

And lots of flies. And, but over the years I got used to it. And I realized how important that narrow place is. But still, this wide valley is wonderful too. And so Zen Center is great because it has a narrow valley and a wide valley. And we learn things in the wide valley that we can't learn in the narrow valley and vice versa. So hopefully we all can practice in both the narrow and the wide. Although we may have to specialize in one or the other. Anyway, he said many other important things but if I talk about them all it will get too long. So maybe some other day. I'd like to talk about I guess first of all

[20:35]

to talk about that we have named we never named this place this building. When we first came in we came in, there wasn't a door here exactly but there was just a big hole and we came in here and we looked at this space which was a hay barn. There used to be cows down below. We looked at this space and we saw in the back there was a raised platform and we realized immediately this is the meditation hall. So we called it the Zendo, the meditation hall. And that's what we've always called it. But we never gave it a name other than that. So now we're on the verge of giving it a name and the name we've almost come up with the community still hasn't completely settled is Dharma Sea or perhaps Dharma Ocean. Would those who like Dharma Sea please raise their hand? And those who like Dharma Ocean please raise your hand.

[21:36]

So how many for Dharma Ocean? How many for Dharma Sea? One more time, how many for Dharma Ocean? How many for Dharma Sea? It's interesting, more people voted the second time. How many people for Dharma Ocean? What's Dharma? Sea. Sea. She said, would you define those words? What's ocean? Dharma Ocean. What did you think I said? What did you think I said?

[22:38]

What did you think I said? Dharma Ocean. Dharma Ocean and Dharma Sea not Dharma She. Dharma Sea. Sea or Ocean? Which do you prefer, Sea or Ocean? Okay, you think about it. I'll check back. And behind here we also remodeled the room behind here, the building behind here where the monks live and we used to call it in Japanese word Gaitan which means the seats outside the main zendo but that doesn't apply really because we don't have it's more of a dormitory or residence hall or study space so the name we thought of calling it is Cloud Hall and we had a little bit of a misgiving about that because of the association with Toad Hall. Anyway,

[23:46]

the imagery here is this is called Green Dragon Zen Temple right? and dragons live in the sea or in the ocean and they swim and dive in this ocean and when they do they create clouds and rain above them so trying to draw the motif of this dragon of truth playing in the ocean of this valley playing in the sea and creating clouds and rain so that's where we came up with those names although we haven't written them down yet so there's still time Yesterday we actually started this ceremony yesterday we built a new altar here which you see and we had our what do you call it the patron of perfect wisdom the prince of sweetness and light

[24:49]

Manjushri Bodhisattva had been resting over in the tea house for six months while construction was going on and we carried him back in here yesterday and we put him up there and we opened his eyes we opened his eyes with a chant which is the chant is from the Lotus Sutra which is with eyes of compassion regarding all living beings great accumulation of happiness a sea immeasurable with this chant we opened the eyes of our leader sitting in the middle here so now he's here with us and we're ready for the ceremony

[25:50]

to open this space the main parts of the ceremony are that we will I guess enter this space again we hoped to have this talk in the tent and then have you come in here to enter but we're going to have to do it another way of having you leave and come back in and when you come back in if you wish you may offer incense to this space to this practice and then come in and take your seats and then a procession will come in and we will make offerings we will offer simple things food, tea and water and and we also will offer

[26:53]

our homage our alignment with actually I don't know what so please consider what we're lining up with here what you're lining your life with and then when we align ourselves with something, especially something which we consider to be the most important thing in our life for example if we align ourselves with great compassion, universal compassion or if we align ourselves with perfect wisdom if we align ourselves with complete freedom for all beings then it's important, part of the Buddhist teaching is important that this alignment not be done in a kind of one-sided way in other words

[27:55]

we say that turning away from what is most important to us and also touching it are both wrong and as Mel said in our confusion in the confusion and tension we feel in relationship to our our highest good we often times can't stand it and we either say okay I'm checking out or okay I'm going to get it it's hard for us to stand in the proper relationship to the truth without turning away from it or taking hold of it without eliminating the confusion that human beings feel in the intense relationship with truth with the paradoxical relationship with truth that you are not it

[28:56]

and it actually is you that you have it right now and yet don't take it personally you have it right now but don't take it personally and yet you personally must take care of it even though it's not yours so we say stewardship but even stewardship is how to stay close to this thing and not do anything with it how to grow it without controlling it so to symbolize this in this ceremony we'd like to have you walk around this empty hall that has perfect wisdom somewhere in the middle of it in Asia usually they have

[29:59]

highly trained professional priests do the circumambulation and they do it very beautifully very elegantly with great serenity and deep compassion but we thought today instead of having an elite crew of highly trained priests do it we'd have everybody do it and so it will be kind of a mess but we'd like to try it anyway we'd like to ask all of you to walk around this empty hall in one big fat donut one big circle of human flesh as an expression of our relationship

[31:00]

with awakening that we stay close to it we always walk around it we're always in relationship to it but we can't get it we want to get it and that's fine so let's walk around this this space and while we walk around if it's okay with you we ask you to to pay homage to line yourself up with perfect enlightenment complete enlightenment we were talking about that maybe you could say as you walk around you could quietly say homage to Shakyamuni Buddha but maybe even less sectarian would be because maybe there's some other Buddhas that you want to align with maybe what homage to complete perfect

[32:00]

awakening how does that work? homage to complete perfect awakening can you say that? homage to complete perfect awakening so as we walk around this space out that door or out this door and then around clockwise and back in that door over there or if that doesn't work in this door anyway swarm around in your way let's make a great circle around this hall of aligning our hearts our bodies and our minds with did I say complete perfect awakening? walk around three times and when you've done it have a seat and it may not be the seat you had when you left but just take a seat and then we'll

[33:05]

and then we'll hear from various people specific expressions of our gratitude for all that's gone into making this this space renewed and safe so if this is the epicenter of an earthquake it might survive there's really a foundation down there and then after all that after all those offerings after all the expression of alignment and appreciation then we dedicate all that goodness that we as a group have created we give it away we toss it away we give it over to the welfare of this

[34:07]

little world the other day I was listening to a tape of Vivaldi and it was vocal music I think a female soprano was singing and at one part she was accompanied by I think a recorder and she was singing the renaissance instrument and I was listening to it and as I listened more I heard I could hear I could hear this other noise besides the sound of her voice and the recorder and it was, I think, the sound of the musician playing the recorder inhaling and when I first heard it I thought oh, kind of ugly this this

[35:09]

unexpected sound of him inhaling it wasn't part of my planned idea of the music and he sounded a little bit he sounded urgent he was urgently trying to get air he was you know passionately trying to get air to make this music and I thought, well isn't that like all of us trying to get some air to make some music and sometimes with urgency the you know, the woman's voice when she was exhaling

[36:10]

the sound she made when she was exhaling was beautiful and the sound that he made when he was blowing into the horn was beautiful but this unexpected sound which at first I thought was ugly not beautiful was most moving to me we just are poor little creatures who are trying to get some air and there's not much time to get the air we need but we get our air and we sing our song on top of all that we're confused so today we we make our little effort and we have been making making effort now here for 20 years and with this building we can continue to make effort for quite a while it's just a little effort, it's just a little and let's not try to

[37:14]

let's not take it personally or too seriously so do you have sort of a sense of how the ceremony will go? so first of all please leave then they'll turn the chairs around then please come back in and offer incense as you enter if you wish have a seat we'll come and make offerings we'll we'll pay homage to the Great Ones we'll walk around paying homage to Perfect Wisdom Perfect Enlightenment we'll sit down and we'll hear expressions of appreciation, gratitude and love and then we'll give it all away and be free of all this goodness and then you can have cake

[38:17]

is there anything else you'd like to say? sounds good to me what? oh and the first the first offering will be a tea offering and the tea offering will be made in the formal zen tea ceremony way and that that will be made over there in the corner and the tea teacher who will be making it is Nakagawa Sensei who is one of Suzuki Sensei's comrades in tea ceremony and then so we'll offer that first cup of tea to the enlightening being of sweetness and light and then we'll make other offerings of material things and dharma songs and so on

[39:19]

okay somehow something's left undone so see you later

[39:34]

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