Today we're going to have a birthday party for Suzuki Roshi. So I thought more than usual would be good to discuss some of my views of his teaching in this world. The first thing that comes to mind about him is that he was quite a varied teacher. He was sometimes pretty strict, pretty surprisingly tough, but also in the context of it, not loving us all very deep.

[01:05]

So they had a great range of possibilities that they I also want to say that

[02:11]

Some of the stories, some of the then stories about the transmission of the teaching about teacher to student, some of these stories overemphasize the importance of that lay leadership and disregard the total context, which is really always had to be there for the stories to make any sense. But you can't really talk about the total context in a short story. So these simple stories of students teaching are easy and attractive to our minds. And it's very useful to attract any of us to do it. When I heard about it, person-to-person transmission of this essential teaching, pointing back 2,500 years, I thought that really neat story.

[03:26]

It really blew up me. But as I practiced more years, I realized that that story is too simple, of course. And we have to not attach to that story too much, even though it's very lovely, even a child can understand it. And also, Western scholars approaching the ocean of Zen, it's understandable that they would like to grab onto some simple little stories to convey some coherence to the great ocean of teaching and activities. But really, you can't say anything about it. What is happening or something like that.

[04:29]

So I say, when the stars hear that, they say, well, they want to know what's happening. Well, they got this guy and that guy. And people say, oh, thank you. That's really nice. If you ask some Zen teachers, they won't tell you some simple story like that, that throw you back on the feeling of just that you're in an ocean of teachings, an ocean of century beings. And really, it's no simple story you can hold on to. You have to face your life. But people don't like that, so they leave the Zen centers, and they go to the universities, and the professors tell them some simple story, which didn't end the same. They throw you those things, and then you think, oh, I'm not going to say, even though you're still in the same ocean.

[05:48]

But you've got this little white thing to hold on to. And if you get scared again, you'd say, help me. I'll throw you another one. And you'd have a whole assembly of a colony of wood light preservers out there. You're still in the ocean, however, which is fine. The problem for Zen teachers is that they're still out in the ocean with a light preserver, but no one's with them. So I said, what's going on here? I said, what? So then sometimes the Zen teachers get a little discouraged and start saying, well, maybe I should take some light preserves too. But it's not what they're hanging out with me.

[06:54]

I want the friend here is focusing. And so sometimes energy just starts giving light preservers too. But it's OK, because after a while, people get so entangled with light preservers that they get on the books and stuff. But they finally realize that by drowning the light preservers, they try to get hurt the nose. And they go back to some place where they don't give life preservatives. So it works out. I did not complain. I'm just saying, this simple story of teacher-student planning now, it's morbidly simplified about how the zen is transmitted. It's at Life Preserver, because many of you don't know how it's transmitted or who's transmitted or what directions don't know where it is. Because we don't know where it is in its end place, so we want to be localized in Life Preserver so we can grab onto something.

[07:57]

But actually, it's an every drop of water, even though it's choking. The great teacher, who's a seven-footer, lived in China. Wonderful teacher. He said, don't you know? Haven't you heard that in all China, there's no teacher then? He said, Well, what about all these big monasteries full of monks and practicing meditation and studied the scriptures and what kind of interesting activities? What about them? He said. I didn't say there's no Zen. I said there's no Chi Jiu Zen. So there is Zen.

[09:07]

And That's why you're here. That's why I'm here. You're here because it was already here. It was here before you came. Here before you got into the building. And it was outside before you got outside. So we're not saying there's not Zen Buddhism. We're just saying there's not teachings of Zen. The teaching is not localized. Now, what? Some place. But of course, it isn't localized. It's localized in each place, right? But it's not localized in some special little section of the universe where these guys play these games of having sticks and robes. It's not localized over around here, up there. It's not getting hotter as you get up . Do you mind playing that game with one of your friends?

[10:17]

Where's the Zenz? Really, how would you say it to somebody who was trying to find Zenz? It would be hard to say. I mean, easy to say, but you might be busy with someone. If you're lost, every step you take is the way home. He was willing to play these enemies, wearing this stick, wearing these robes, and all that stuff. He was willing to play that game. But he played it just like a clown. And one of the roles he could play was the role of a kid. He played it like a boy. Sometimes they're like a serious boy. These are precious.

[11:22]

This is proof of the existence of Buddhism right there. Precious. But also, there's a lot of other proofs of the existence of Buddhism. Everything is truly Buddhism. Every single manifestation in the universe proves Buddhism. And if not, that's not Buddhism. So one of the significant teachings of this was, and made it continually, that Buddhism is not one of those things called Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and physical. So Buddhism is not one of those religions. Buddhism is what all this religion is. Buddhism is the nature of all this religion. It's not one really what's not good.

[12:28]

So then we would ask him, well, then why do you wear Buddhist robes and shave your head like Buddhists and stuff like that? And usually he would bring that one up at the end of the lecture, so he wouldn't have time to answer it. But I think he should have him to bring up earlier. He'd have to say, I'd call him something like, well, I wear these robes to remind me. that religious do not want to be as religious. I wear these robes to forget them. Just like I take on a self to forget a self. And as I mentioned the other night, now, I have a Christian monk who's a teacher to me.

[13:49]

But I feel a little uncomfortable about that because inside of me is a little bit of a feeling like Buddhism's one of those religions, like Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism, something like that. There's something like the English, I have to admit. But that's just something in me. That's just the way I feel. That's not Buddhism. Or it's also not natural. It's just a feeling I'd have that Buddhism did some kind of limited thing. But I don't believe there's something else about Christianity. And if there was somebody over saying that they were Christian, then there would be some kind of conflict there. But after a Christian drops being a Christian, a Buddhist drops being a Buddhist, and a Christian can be a Buddhist. So the one image that you may have heard about is the image of

[15:02]

Many paths lead into the same mountain top or something like that. Read that as a question? All different religions lead to the same place. You know that one? It's OK. There's another one here. All these religions being little like dogs. You jump off the docks, and they're also not in the middle of the docks. But you have to have people out into the ocean. They won't get up very far, but the religion gets them out so far that they can't get back. And then out there where they can't get back anymore for their own religion, then they meet people who got out there by other docks. And they can't tell with literature anymore between who's who or what's what.

[16:05]

And nobody's better than anybody else. Out there, nobody's better than anybody else. So, Suzuki Bersha said, you know, we have a Zen center, but actually many people come to Zen center. Some of you are Zen center members, some of you are Christians, some of you are Jews, some of you are fallen members of Zen center, but he said, I accept you all. And I don't mind if you go study other things. So that was a big part of his teaching. And it wasn't just because he was being tolerant. And it wasn't like, OK, . I think it was more of it, actually, at various points, except when he was playing Buddhism, he'd forgotten about Buddhism.

[17:15]

He'd gone beyond it. And therefore, he distinctly appreciated all different kinds of people. But he did play this little sport called Buddhism, and he played with certain people who wanted to play that game. He was the one who did that. Like, if my hair got long, he would put his hand on my head and rub it and say, that's about all I did, rub my head. And he knew what he meant. He meant, let's play Buddhism. If you're a little bit of [...] a little I'll go in my room now. You come in. And you go in his room and sit there. And I go in and we talk about food.

[18:19]

I like it. I thought it was a beautiful thing to do, so I wanted to do it. And partly because it was beautiful, now I feel almost ready to put the game aside and not have those games to play anymore. But I needed those games for 20 years. to be willing to let them go and not have any games.

[19:23]

Not have any problems and head-shaping practices to do. And again, I think he was perfectly willing to play the game for when we were children. And it's beautiful to play the games with people leaving. But then at a certain point, we can't cling to them. So this thing, we have this little publication that I've sent it, called . It said something like, if you are trying to hear something or see something beautiful, You miss the bird you hear right now. If you hear that Buddha had some wonderful teaching, and you think, I want to find out what that means, you miss the actual reality that's right in front of you.

[20:44]

And even now, while I'm saying these words to you, I'm not distracting. Sorry. And I was reading that whole thing. Actually, I started to copy it down. And while I was copying it, I was driving And we missed the actual read. And I said, when are you going to stop writing? And I wrote R, B, A, and I actually stopped. Believe how beautiful what the saying was. I mean, I finally stopped writing about these beautiful words. I stopped and listened to the period. And I was relieved of writing down his teaching about how you cling to something beautiful and miss the actual reading.

[22:05]

And I just stopped, and I actually stopped. And nice to let go of the subdirector's teaching. But he's telling me, let go of my teaching. Let go of it. It's been fun long enough. He's what it wants. That's it. Don't write it down. R-E-A. [...] It stopped. And I sat there for a while.

[23:18]

And then I thought... I'm not Brianna. I'm not going to come back and start writing again. So I grew... Guilty. I mean, literally. Hell. The space between the A's. Pretty big space between the A's. He tried to look back. I gave it up for a little while and enjoyed the burger. Enjoy just having nothing, having no teaching, letting go of such a lovely teaching that I want to share with you. I want to share the beautiful teaching, which is such a relief, and I want to share the relief of the beautiful teaching.

[24:25]

Let go. And then after you let go of it, let go of that and go back to copy. And finishing with sentence. And then, let go of that. So we've always decreed that, you know, and missing the reality. Well, we do that. So don't stop. Don't try to stop. I mean, don't claim to not claim. Cling and let go. And after you let go, well, don't hold on to that. You probably get it. And as soon as you get a hold of it, ready, let go. Time to go on. This is wonderful, but let's keep going. The way I'm talking about it now sounds kind of sweet. And oftentimes letting go and letting go of a lovely teaching oftentimes is quite sweet. And letting go of the reality, which inundates you.

[25:28]

After you let go of the lovely things, this is really wonderful. And letting go of that wonderful, and so on. It's all nice. But sometimes it's kind of strict. Sometimes it's really sharp. He was sometimes that way, too. Sometimes if people didn't hold, let go, sometimes he gave no whack. The tiny guy, he'd get back with it. That's part of the great range he had. Because he was so little, he could be ferocious. And people never accused him of being macho. He could be ferocious with his body and his voice and with his ideas. But he could be really ferocious for what he thought. It was tough. It was great. It rained again. Like one time, he said something shocking.

[26:35]

He said, you know, it's a nice little thing that we do. Like he said, if you look at a flower and you say, that's beautiful, he said, that's sin. That's in their script. I mean, how can you, that's pretty tough, isn't it? Sin! But I think it's true, I think that's sin. That's the one very basic fundamental sin. It seems like a little sin, and it is a little sin, but it's also a root sin. Fundamental sin. They set up a lot bigger. They set up possibility for wars. Because you see, that's a flower, then that flower, that's a beautiful flower that I can set up in that flower. I can judge that flowers. I can also judge people and nations and et cetera.

[27:39]

That basic separation, that basic pointing over there, rather than realizing that it isn't necessarily a beautiful flower. I'm beautiful. It is a beautiful. Anyway, that's the same. I thought that was very strict. Well, it is a very strict definition that's really asking us, instead of going around and saying that's beautiful and that's not beautiful, to live a life which is just beautiful flowers without anybody naming. Or if you name a flower beautiful, it's also OK to simply name that your neighbor and realize what you're doing. That's OK, too. If you admit you're sinning, you're free of sin. The sense that you're calling the space is good. But that's a pretty tough teaching, kind of those kinds of teachings.

[28:42]

They also said one time, he was in a snowy sea, a lovely snowy sea, and he said, it's so beautiful here. I almost forget to die. Wow. That's true. Again, you see these beautiful things, you stop and forget to die. You say, I'll just stay here a little while longer. It's so nice. I thought this trip. And of course, if we see something, if we experience beauty, which is to experience truth, of course, we grab onto it. But we can't die of that beauty. Keep moving. This is part of the beauty of the man, is that he was pretty good at keep dying.

[29:55]

Touching himself and holding on to the beautiful things in his series. Part of his death. And then letting go of the beautiful, dying again and having more healing. And in his way, his very way, So again, we couldn't help loving us. But before we realized he loved us, we still loved himself. And after we found out that he loved us, that didn't hurt either. But even though we valued them and loved them, it wasn't always happening. Never like, that's where it is. It's there and not over there. I didn't get that impression like it was in the situation. Even though it wasn't in, it wasn't tested.

[30:57]

It wasn't dislocated there. And it wasn't excluded from that. But now, it pervaded. Workers don't pervaded a certain distance. Very somewhere between, well, sometimes they only want 50 feet. Sometimes, if all of the students were near him, you could see that it was all of us. As a matter of fact, his teaching was very much possible around him. If we weren't around, he wouldn't necessarily notice his teaching. Do you understand? If you just saw Suki Roshi walking down the street by himself in Fillmore, even if you were a Zen student, you might not even know, but this is your Japanese guy playing there. But if you saw his disciples around him, he'd probably be like, something's going on there.

[32:00]

But all these giants. But the disciples, some of them, were typically away from them. Somehow, it's not variable. We're over here, and you can see it's each a thousand pounds and pounds of weight. You see what they're putting in action. connected with them very far away in time and space. Other times you could see it right, but as I said, tricky people and stuff. And then you did something that you wouldn't want with us. We actually had some disciples. But he was never over this. He never knew about it. You know what I mean? You'd have to tell him, did you know where so-and-so they're going to think he won't be with you? Big. Yeah. It was hard to talk.

[33:04]

Sometimes he would say, well, let's have so-and-so do this, and let's have so-and-so do that. In other words, he told everybody he knew that he thought that they were like, because he never saw them. They were always around him. So he would assign very competent Buddha work. Other people who knew what they were like, they said, oh no, you can't do that. You said, why not? He said, put up. He said, because at 51 feet, six inches, give that. What? I didn't know that. Does he need to know that? Well, when he's not, he'll go down. So. So when you're around, you're good boys and girls when you're around a good dude.

[34:05]

Of course, you're not. You're gonna be good when you're around the object. No, not you. Oh, let's see if you have. OK, you're quite late, so I have to do that to save me. What? 45 minutes. I want to tell one more story.

[35:16]

And this is a story that I've been trying to tell all week. And every time I told her, it didn't work. Because she's going to have it probably one more time. I see a story that Siddiqui Roshi told. It's about a great Zen master when he was a little boy. Zen master's in England. Zen master, Oka Sota. This is a man who lived, who actually was alive at the same time as the situation, saw him into a boy. He's a teacher of situations. He's a teacher of situations. He's a teacher of situations. So anyway, when he was a little boy, these teachers sent him to the store to get some tofu for it. On the way to the store, the little boy, I don't know how old it was, maybe 10 or something.

[36:24]

It's a doctor advertising for you. acrobatic theater. And look at the picture, while he's looking at the picture, he heard the delver in his temple, and he expanded it, and he was tied in it. So, he, the folk, was presently. not to walk up it's uh activities there very picture lost who knows how long the vision rushed right back the store went into the store yelled at the shopkeeper to give him a finger and that he ran back

[37:27]

What I got to do is that when he realized he had left his hat, that was just like the GPS storm. So he ran back to his car, and he said, there's Matt, the storm. Gimme, gimme! And Matt said, what? See, he looked so excited about the same hat. And Matt said, what? He said, my hat! So Matt said, it's on your head. And so he ran back to the temple. So,

[38:37]

And since it already said that, Pat, you know, it's like precepts. Precepts are always on our head, always with us, but we forget sometimes that they're with us. Our perfect behavior, our enlightened activity, it's always on our head, always on our body, but we forget it. You know, you can understand, you know, if you're a little boy, like you're supposed to get the bean curd, you sit there looking at that picture all the time, in the fell rages, you forget, you forget that you had his on your head, you forget that you're, you forget that you're a good boy. You get that good boy because you know it's fantastic when you get back to your temple with that bean curd that you spoke to cook before there.

[39:42]

You start thinking with real complaints about the first sentence of what sentence happened to you. And how stupid it was to be looking at the picture so long and get involved all kinds of things and you would forget that you had your hat on. But, again, part of what the Zuby Rush did for us is we could see that we never lost our hat. Even though you can sleep, you forget it. You need to sleep. We can't do it, but we're always tripping point and girls. We're at the office too. You just forget it. Because we think we're 51 feet on Buddha, or 80 feet on Buddha, or 7 miles from Buddha, or whatever. Don't hurt the X. Don't get it. What's in that? But it's not that we lose our act.

[40:51]

It's not that we are the slightest distance from the precepts. But if we forget, if we think we're the slightest distance from the precepts, well, that can be terrible. That can make us scream at shopkeepers and dash. one direction and the other. Well, actually, it actually had to start . It went back or back, that was the call. Well, he didn't ever really lose his precepts. He didn't ever really put it into. However, when he got back to the temple, guess what happened to him?

[41:55]

What did he think happened to him? Oh, come on, say something. He got spanked. He got scolded by his teacher. Because dinner was going to be for the next day, because he had to go back and cook it. So he got scolded. But he was a good boy. And he got scolded too, and he scolded his students. And they're up close, and also a little parable, they came back, got scolded. But that doesn't mean we're not perfect. It just means, if you forget, we just scold you. Okay? But don't misunderstand what scolding means. Scolding is scolding for forgetting. Scolding for stopping being one with the most sincere good mind that you all have with you.

[43:04]

getting distracted, and of course, get distracted, there are constants. Go ahead. That's what they should be. Let's have it. And let's see how we practice. And then, let's have more consequences the next time we slipped, the next time we forget our cap. When I first heard that story by I listened to that story many times. I know that story many times. First time I heard it, I didn't quite understand why he said it. He was a very good priest. You know, he was 20 years old. He was a very good priest. But can you see all these very good priests, all these very good dentists?

[44:09]

Can you see them? The group of Americans, really about it. A lot of really, really, really good priests and dentists. Everybody really good. Can you see that? You put yourself through it to help. And really what you are, what's really good about you is what everybody asks you to do. It's that totality of what you are. So, let's be good little. They are

[45:26]

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