I wanted to give a lot of things I wanted to talk about as soon as possible, but I have to realize that I won't be able to do them as soon as I'd like, so I have to accept that. But what I'd like to do tonight, one of the things I'd like to do tonight is to give you some overview of the the practice period in terms of what I'm going to offer you to work with. OK? And so the first thing I offer you, which I already did, is the issue or the question, the problem, are discovering your ultimate concern. And I know that it's a very important and difficult issue for us to clarify and become more familiar with and hopefully realize.

[01:11]

Our ultimate concern is another word for faith. Not belief, faith. And faith in the beginning of Zen practice is your faith. And nobody tells you what that is, and you can't decide where it is either. It's a gift. It comes to you from your true nature. But sometimes it helps if you ask, you know, your true nature has a chance to answer you. Can you hear me in the back? Not real well? So anyways, I find that asking, my ultimate concern is always there someplace. But if I ask it, sometimes it says, I'm over here. And it tells me like this. I did an answer right away. But anyway, it helps to ask and look, open the eyes, and be present for it.

[02:20]

So that's the first thing. And that will be something which you could look at yourself any time of day or night, and also you could discuss and share your explorations into this question in your small groups. Maybe get some ideas of some possible answers from other people. Which you then can know, well, then you know, well, that's not mine. Maybe I'll check that one for a while or something. But anyway, you might want to discuss that in your small groups. Maybe partly share also your difficulties or frustrations and not being able to see it yet and find out maybe other people also have had or have similar struggles. The vision of this, even if it's clear, it can get clearer. And even if you have a deep sense of it, it can get deeper. And even if you have some realization of it, the realization can be extended indefinitely.

[03:23]

That depends on what it is. It's all together. So that's the first thing I present, the first thing I offer, and the first thing I want us to find out about. Now, I don't know, as I said before, I don't know what each of your ultimate concern is, but coming from mine, then certain things follow, and I'll show you what follow up of mine. If you have a similar one, even though I have to put in different words, maybe what I present will follow up in New York's too. Basically, my ultimate concern is, you know, to work for the liberation of all beings. in the whole universe. That's my interest, my ultimate interest. That's what, when I die, I will hopefully have done my best to work for.

[04:29]

And following from that, for me, is the practice of, you know, e-mobile city, Zazen, being upright. In other words, you know, the Zen style of practice, which traditionally emanates from that valve. So I'm pretty much, you know, party-line guy. Party-line valve and party-line practice. You know, party-line means the lineage that I have received. The lineage that I am. So that's my thing, okay? Yes. Do you think that's something that you've discovered about yourself or is it something you've trained yourself to do? Well, I discovered about myself. Like when I first, when I heard some Zen stories when I was pretty young, I discovered that that was the way I wanted to be.

[05:36]

I said, oh, well that's it. Before that actually, when I was younger than that, I knew what it was, too. But it wasn't Zen stories at that time. It was even simpler stories, like, you know, I told you this story. I got a big guy who lived in my apartment building. His name was Dick Grant. He was National Heavyweight Golden Globes champion. He was quite a bit bigger than me. I was a big kid, 12, and he loved me. And he, my father had And I left my mother, so I was living with my little kind of mother, and she was trying to take care of this precocious boy. I kind of stopped growing when I was about 14. Anyway, at 12 I was a pretty big kid, and he loved me, and he took care of me. And he was big, much bigger than me. He was 6'4", like 260.

[06:38]

but he gave me a lot of confidence and attention. And he said to me one time, he told me, you know, I was enjoying being a naughty boy. We can get in more into that later. But anyway, he told me about when he was a boy about my age and what he did. So I knew he was just as naughty as me. So I knew he knew about being naughty. And he said to me, you know, It's easy to be bad. And he had some authority when he said that. He said, you know, it's hard to be good. And there was some authority in that too. He didn't say, I'm good. He told me it was hard. I thought, okay, I'll try that then. So I tried, but it was very difficult, as you know. to practice good, especially when you're a teenager in high school full of the kind of people that are in high schools who are so interesting to high school people.

[07:46]

And sometimes when you see them and they interact with you, you forget that what you want to do is practice good. And you kind of want to do other things. So I forgot. Anyway, I remembered a couple more times through high school. That's what I wanted to do. And then after I got out of high school, I read some Zen stories. And then they gave some really good examples, some really cool stuff that seemed quite accessible. And I really wanted to be like them. So I kind of decided at that point to be like a Zen monk. I didn't think of being a Zen monk. I just wanted to be like those. The monthly wasn't the thing. The way they acted, I thought, was totally cool and fun. And also they made it look easy, but that wasn't what attracted me. It was just spontaneous that they did this cool stuff. And then I found out little by little about their practice. The Zazen practice, so then I tried that. That was really kind of interesting too, as you know. And then I found out about them.

[08:51]

And sometimes when you see them and they interact with you, you forget. that what you want to do is practice good. And you kind of want to do other things. So I forgot. Anyway, I remembered a couple more times through high school that that's what I wanted to do. And then after I got out of high school, I read some Zen stories. And then they gave some really good examples, really cool stuff that seemed quite accessible. And I really wanted to be like them. So I kind of decided at that point to be like a Zen monk. I didn't think of being a Zen monk. I just wanted to be like those. The monk thing wasn't the thing. The way they acted I thought was totally cool and fun. And also they may have looked easy, but that wasn't what attracted me. It was just spontaneous that they did this cool stuff. And then I found out little by little about their practice. and I tried that. That was really kind of interesting too, as you know.

[09:51]

And then I found out about to practice good, especially when you're a teenager in high school full of the kind of people that are in high schools who are so interesting to high school people. And sometimes when you see them and they interact with you, you forget that what you want to do is practice good. And you kind of wanted to do other things. So I forgot. Anyway, I remembered a couple more times through high school. That's what I wanted to do. And then after I got out of high school, I read some Zen stories. And then they really gave some really good examples, some really cool stuff that seemed quite accessible. And I really wanted to be like them. So I kind of decided at that point to be like a Zen monk. I didn't think of being a Zen monk. I just wanted to be like those. I didn't. The monk thing wasn't the thing. It's the way they acted, I thought, was totally cool and fun. And also they made it look easy, but that wasn't what attracted me.

[10:54]

It was just spontaneous that they did this cool stuff. And then I found out, little by little, about their practice. And the Zazen practice, and I tried that. That was really kind of interesting, too, as you know. And then I found out about it. [...] And then I found out that the practice which I was doing came from the vow. And so on. So it evolved. My understanding of my ultimate concern has evolved. It continues to evolve. And it's different every day. But it evolves. And sometimes it gets deeper. Sometimes it gets whiter. Sometimes it gets smellier. Sometimes it gets off. It evolves. But I'd like to just continue to do this overview so that you can listen to it if you forget what I said, and then you can ask questions later, okay?

[11:54]

So write your questions down. So the next step is I offer you this. Next thing I offer you is, and I'll do it over and over and over, for some reason that I am willing to do that, to talk about this, what this, you know, a mobile sitting is, what this upright, being upright is. That's the basic practice. And I wrote down on a piece of paper, in the middle of this paper, I wrote Zazen, you know? Just sitting. Being upright. Being yourself. And then around that, I wrote all these other names for that. There's many, many, many other names for it. Like, just don't know. The mind of no bone. The backward step. on and on and on and on. I'll tell you about them later. But I'll keep offering throughout the practice period, as I already have, the basic practice of zazen, which completely includes the bodhisattva pao, and also completely includes all the other things which I will offer.

[13:03]

They're all coming from that. That being upright is the gate to all the other studies that we do in the Zen school. It's the gate, but it's also exactly what you enter, too. It's the gate, and it's the realm that's opened up to. So it's not like it's the gate, and then you do these other things. It enters, and then it continues through, all the way through. Just like the Bodhisattva Bhava initiates the whole process, it initiates the practice of Zazen. And the Bodhisattva Bhava also goes all the way through all the meditations, all the studies. So the being present and upright with the vow. So the yoga practice, the yoga practice is the zazen and the motivation is your ultimate concern. Two together produce liberation. The vow, the wish to bring Buddha's wisdom and compassion to all beings

[14:07]

So they will awaken to it. That vow, in conjunction with this practice, the healing practice of uprightness, those two together, produce liberation for all beings. They both go all the way through the practice. And actually, they both started way back before they even knew about it. They're always going on. They're not really personal. We just join them, or we don't. We just choose to have that vow and do that practice, or we don't. Anyway, that's the second step. Third step is, in this practice period anyway, is to use this, if you do have some law in this neighborhood, if you want to use this practice for this purpose, the next step will, what naturally happens, is of course you start getting, I hope we all get grounded. I hope we get grounded.

[15:10]

So one of the things which being upright does is it grounds you. One of the things Zazen does is it grounds you. Of course, you sit on the ground. You stand on the ground. It's fundamental that you're touching the earth. It's an earth-touching practice. Just as the bow comes up from the earth, from all beings, the practice brings you back on earth, too. And the grounding means many, many things, but one of the things it means is that you push your work in your body, You feel your body, you're aware of your body, where it is, how it is. You feel your feelings. You feel your emotions. You sense and are aware of your attitudes and opinions, all that. And as you become present, you also become aware, of course, that one of your feelings is pain. And another one of your feelings is pleasure.

[16:14]

Another one of your feelings is you're not sure. You get grounded in that kind of stuff. You get grounded. You open up to your experience by just being present for whatever. Then you start accepting whatever. But as you do, you may wonder. Some people often wonder and doubt that that's a good idea because it seems sometimes very difficult to face pain. suffering, and the anxiety. And the more present you get, in some ways, your reward for more present is that you open up to more. And if you can open up to more and then be present with even more, you get settled with that and grounded in that, then your reward for being so present and grounded will be that you open up to more. The amount of anxiety that there is in the universe right now is just that amount.

[17:20]

Whatever it is, no one knows exactly how much it is. It's just whatever it is. And now there's a different amount, I suppose. It's very large, the amount of anxiety that there is in the universe. And if you can be present with what you're aware of now, your reward is you'll get to know more about how much there is. Until finally, through practicing being upright, through practicing being present and being patient, and finding how to be stable and courageous in the middle of your experience, you can finally open up to much, much more of what's going on than you could with your baby or when you were in some past lives. And the more you open up, that means the more you open your eyes, then you not only see more and more anxiety, you see more and more of a lot of other stuff too. So you start opening up to not only the anxiety and how big it is, but because you're willing to see the anxiety, you also get to see how it happens, how it comes to be, what its causes are, what its conditions are.

[18:31]

In other words, you start to see from this grounding of yourself and your experience, you start to naturally, spontaneously see the dependent polarizing of your pleasure and your pain and your confusion and your delusion and your attachments and the relationship between your delusions and your attachments and your confusion and your pain and your anxiety you start to see all that that's what I that's what I offer you is enters into that cave that dragon cave an encouragement that it's healthy to go there, that it's healthy, and that only by facing this stuff will you achieve liberation. And by turning away from it, I hope to convince you that that will cause you to be sicker, sicker, sicker. Whereas facing it is just facing your illness and opening to it, seeing its cause and seeing its effect and seeing its cure.

[19:38]

And I've been doing some workshops in fear and anxiety. And they're very encouraging because people really got into it. And they really got anxious. They really opened to their anxiety. and their fears. It was great. Great to see people do that. It wasn't that the workshop created the anxiety. When I first was going to do it, I wanted, I thought, very scary things to do to make people pregnant. Some of them, some of them, I realized, would jeopardize Zen Center's corporate existence. So I didn't do those. But, um, I finally realized that through the middle of the first workshop I did, I realized the scariest thing for people was to be themselves.

[20:44]

By far. Everything else pales in comparison to just being yourself, flat out. Because when you're yourself, you're very vulnerable. They can find you. They can get you. Whereas if you're being what they want, they'll never find you. And you're totally protected. Anyway, I'd like maybe to do a little fear and fearlessness anxiety workshop here with you. It's already started, of course. But maybe a little bit of encouragement for that purpose. If you want to, we could do that. After all, all I'd be asking you to do is consider being yourself with these people. expressing yourself before the Great Assembly, which, as you know, is one of the main fears. So, all this is, you know, this is grounding, this is getting into, you know, your actual experience.

[21:52]

And then, I would like to, if we are very much on the ground, in our bodies, in our feelings, in our thoughts, in our emotions, in our delusions, aware of our attachments and anxieties and fears, when we're there, and everybody's cooking, then I would like to discuss this incredibly subtle and magnificent teaching of Dogen and Nagarjuna and of course Buddha, Shakyamuni, on how their vision, what they saw about how it works. After you have your own experience of it, then sort of see some of the stuff that they saw so we can get into the subtleties of attachment. and show how they have examined all the different ways you can hold a twist and then how the ways you can, after being released from holding a twist and how you can hold that. Anyway, but to get into that now would just send some of us into, you know, you know, such a state of realization of emptiness and you get so far off the ground we might never be able to pull you back.

[22:59]

So we have to make sure everybody's got a lot of ballast. Before we set sail in the teachings of Nagarjuna and Dogen on this matter of the dependent core arising of birth and death, the dependent core arising of misery. And of course, by understanding the dependent core arising of misery, you understand the dependent core arising of liberation. By understanding the dependent core arising of birth and death, you understand the dependent core rising of the Nirvana. Same study, different dependent core rising, different size of the same coin. And as part of that, we'll put in the Citra book one of Dogen's most beautiful, for me, beautiful teachings about the relationship between the then, the dependent core rising, and how we enter the realm of us saving the world and the world saving us. And Nagarjuna's, part of Nagarjuna's fundamental verses on the middle way, chapter 1 and chapter 24.

[24:02]

Chapter 1, the basic one. The dedication of the fundamental verses on the middle way, Mulamajanaka Karakas, the dedication, which is basically a dedication to Buddha for producing the teaching of the Pinnacle Arising. And then studying the first chapter on how things are, very much a treatise on Zazen in chapter 24 which is about the tentacle arising. These multiple watering possibilities will start to appear to you soon during morning and noon service. So this stuff will start circulating through you and you will start chanting it and we won't discuss it for a while because if I start discussing it I get so excited that I might distract you so I'm going to restrain myself until you're so heavy with experience that I don't have to worry about getting you excited anymore.

[25:04]

Because you'll be like, what, 55 moments and then I can share my enthusiasm about this teaching with you without bothering you. You could just have pity on me. And if we should possibly get through this material, which is two chapters and Dogen's two pages, we should possibly get through this material, discussing it, and then we discuss some of the ramifications and extensions of the subtleties that they bring out about Hava, attachment and liberation. Just a few pages of text, but it's such an incredible text. that we can, of course, spend the rest of our lives on it with no problem. But we'll have a little time here. As someone said, a little time on Earth here to see if we can stand the rays of love.

[26:06]

Nothing. The beams of love. These are Nagarjuna's beams of love. This is the way he This incredible bodhisattva, this was his beam of love to us. It's not, you know, bodhisattva's beam, you know. It's not what you might think compassion looks like. And yet, 2,000 years, he lived around the turn, he lived in the first, first century AD. 2,000 years of Buddhists considered him to be the most compassionate philosopher that the Buddha thing did. Incredibly compassionate and wise. And it's hard. So that's why we need a lot of grounding and help from our fellow practitioners to look at this teaching. It can be very daunting. Part of the dauntingness of it is a lot of people look at it and they say, I must be really stupid.

[27:09]

I don't get this. But almost everybody feels that way when they first, or second, or third, or fourth, or fifth, or sixth time looking at it. It's so bright that it looks totally dark. But that's why I think we just keep going over it, day by day, chanting it, getting used to it, in our group getting discussion, and we'll be able to go at least a little bit into it, which will be a great thing. So that's it. That's the overview of what I'd like to present to you. And then other practice leaders and issues solved will have other things they'd like to present. And you may have things you want to do. But that's my dream for this practice period. We'll see what actually happens. What is the Dogan classical? Well, it's that section of the Bendo-wa, the middle section on the self-fulfilling samadhi, which is self-fulfilling awareness.

[28:10]

Beginning of Bendo-wa, he says basically what the standard, the touchstone of the practice of all Buddhas is a self-fulfilling awareness. And then in the middle of the text, he probably freaks out and, you know, expresses himself on the matter. So we'll chant that middle section, but you might want to read the first part, too. The first part of Ben Doha, he said some things, too, which are lovely about this awareness. This awareness, this self-fulfilling awareness, is the awareness of the Pentacle rising, or simply is the Pentacle rising realized. This is a poetic way of putting it, which is so apropos, living here in these moments. and our 20th century concern with, you know, our relationship with the planet. So Dogen is kind of telling us about how this works, how we can enter into the relationship, the helpful curative relationship with the planet.

[29:17]

He was talking about that in this fascicle. And Soto Zen, establishment in Japan, I don't, you know, the way they act shows that they did not understand that. I talked about it recently. They let certain things happen that one wouldn't do it. One understood this to the relationship to the environment. Anyway, that's the overview. And one more thing I want to say before it's too late, and that is, as part of this, I'd like you to memorize something. And there's some good candidates. So not only might you chant some of these things, but you might also memorize them so that not only could you go along in service and follow along with the sutra card eventually,

[30:26]

but that even if you took the suture card away and the rest of the people away, you could still recite it. If you can get this into your body, you can learn it by heart. You can learn these texts by heart. They aren't that long. Even if you can learn a little bit of it by heart, then if you've got it in you, you can use the text to comment on the text. You can use the text yourself. And when you're reading, when you're thinking about a line in the text, you can use the other parts of the text to tell yourself about that part of the text. So it's very useful. Pasahara is a place where you can memorize things. People do it. I really encourage you to ask you to do that. I will also make my efforts to memorize some of these texts when you're studying. And I think I'll be able to memorize some. I memorized third verses. That was good. And very useful to me. Now I can recite it. So I ask you to do that.

[31:30]

And I suggest you do that. And that's, again, part of traditional Buddhist practice is to get the teaching into your body. Don't have it up on your shelf. Maybe you could stop the tape now for a second. And one more thing I want to say is that, again, somebody always reminds me to do this at the beginning of anything, and that is, I have to say this, and that is, I forget sometimes that the train's going along and somebody's getting left out. And so I have to tell you right away that if you feel you're getting left behind, you always have the prerogative and encouragement to stop the train for a second and say, I'm getting lost.

[32:31]

You can always do that. And if you're one person that's getting lost, probably 10 people are getting lost. So always feel free to stop the process and ask questions. It's a much better world and much better practice period if everybody feels the privilege and responsibility to stay with the flow and process, okay? We need you to do that. Yeah, I'm not clear whether ultimate concern is the same thing as intention. At the end of Tongario, You said something about you resolved your intent, and I was going to myself, uh-oh, because I didn't, I mean, after five days sitting, I didn't have any idea what my intent was. Ha-ha. And so? Well, I guess what I meant was that the purpose of Tongario, to some extent, is to resolve whether you do intend to do the fall practice period.

[33:36]

OK. That's what it was. Yeah. So that's what Tongario is for. Sometimes people come to Tassajara, and they think maybe they want you to practice great. And then, like, actually, one person did come, and she thought maybe she wanted to do the practice period, but after she sat Tangario one day, she thought, no, I don't. So she thought that was her intention, and then she changed her mind. And actually, there are some other people right in this room who have sat Tangario with the intention of doing the practice period, and in Tangario, decided that that was not their intention, and then didn't do the practice period, and who came back later and did Tangario again. and then did finish and did decide they wanted to do the prosperity and did the prosperity. So that's one kind of intention for this limited, limited intention for this three months. So attention is a lot of things, and ultimate is one. Yeah, exactly. And there's lots of little intentions, like I have intention to do, I've done a certain number of prosperity, certain number of sessions, and so on, and each one of those was I had intention to do every one of them, and I completed the ones I completed. Actually, I can choose all the ones that I intended to complete.

[34:39]

But there's one intention that's been in every single one of them. And it probably will continue to be in the rest of them. That's the one I want to know about. That's the Gaiety Principle, which I would like to know about. I think everyone here would like to know as much as you want to tell us about that. Because then we can help each other with basically this one thing in life. There she is. The practice of the Buddha is the practice of what the one thing for that being is. There's one practice that includes all practices. There's one practice which is the embracing or awareness of the wholeness, not just of your life, but the wholeness of life. What is the thing that gathers your whole life together? Your whole life right now and your whole life, if you now were to die, they'd go back and gather your whole life. What would it be? There is something. What is it for you? That's ultimate.

[35:42]

Okay? And that's your faith. And it may not be real clear to you right now, but just say whatever fuzzy vision, whatever you see it, say it now. And then you can get feedback on it by dialogue. You can get clearer. Okay? Thank you. Well, originally, I mean, there's an innumerable story, but the first one is Shakyamuni Buddha, OK? Shakyamuni Buddha wanted to find the solution to the problem of this yucky stuff that you saw, people suffering and in all kinds of torturing, you know, unadjusted states, okay? He didn't just see people sick. He even saw people having trouble with being sick. Like, he himself, he said, sorry to say, I, you know, here I am, this kind of like, this person, he kind of had a sense of who he was, that he was this person who had a lot of gifts and had very high aspirations.

[36:56]

And yet, even when I see people who are really sick, and getting old and twisted and in pain. Even when I see this, I kind of feel queasy and kind of would like to get away from him. I'm very embarrassed because everybody's like that. I'm no better than the most common person, he said. I'm embarrassed. And he wanted to become free of that and he wanted all beings to be free of the embarrassment of going through the process of birth and death. In other words, embarrassment means having a little trouble adjusting to your circumstances. He wanted to be able to settle and solve the problem of existence. And then he tried various things, like he tried learning meditation. And he got really good at it, and he said, this is not the solution. And then he said, okay, I'm going to sit, and I'm not going to move until I resolve the problem of birth and death. And he sat still. And then various things happened.

[37:57]

And he kept sitting still. And then various other things happened. And he kept sitting still. And gradually, the pentacle rising presented itself to him. And when it did, in his stillness, he understood it. And understanding it, he accomplished his goal. So his sitting was motivated by his Bodhisattva vow. He was the first Bodhisattva. They didn't have a word before Shakyamuni. He was the Bodhisattva. He was the baby Buddha. And Bodhisattva sat still, realized dependent core rising, was liberated with all beings. So his Bodhisattva vow led him to sit still and practice zazen. And practice zazen opened the gate of Buddha Dharma for him. So he's the prime example. And all the other ancestors did the same thing. They had the vow. They were led to sitting, they practiced the sitting, the zazen, they understood the pentacle rising, they'd achieved liberation, and then spent the rest of their life helping beings pull out the nails, draw out the things.

[39:06]

You say, we're liberated with all beings. Yes. Like, give me the sense that all beings are liberated in the same. Exactly. You got that. That's right. Did you know that before? Oh, you heard it before. Yeah, I can explain. I don't know. I mean, a lot of people can explain it. And... But, you know, if you don't mind, I'd like to, can you read this thing? It's kind of a big question. You probably won't forget, right? We can talk about this later. I mean, that's what you will be reading about how this happens in the self-fulfilling awareness. That's what he's talking about, how that awakening happens at the same time. But I also have to talk about this, but it's sort of like out of scale. That's such a big thing. I'd rather postpone the discussion until later, if that's okay.

[40:09]

But you're right anyway. It does happen. The awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha is the awakening with all beings. He said when he was awakened, I, together with all beings and the Earth, the greater, are awake. Not I'm awakened. I and all beings. That's the kind of awakening you have. There are such things as personal awakenings. He also had those. And you see the stories of various Zen teachers. Some of them had quite a few personal awakenings. And then they had what's called the Buddha awakening, which is the awakening of the whole world. There's a difference. One is sometimes a predecessor to the other. Some people jump right into the big one. and don't have these nice little personal liberations on the way, which is one of the criticisms of Soto Zen. It's weird to have these personal liberations. We're kind of not that concerning in some cases. We're just going for the big one, which is not all that big.

[41:14]

Mark thinks maybe it is. OK. So any other questions on this overview program that I'm talking about offering to you? Sorry. You said . Oh, yeah. For example, you can memorize one chapter of the Mulamadalmi Karakas. But now that you memorize chapter one. Or you can just memorize the dedication. Just memorize the dedication of the Mulamadalmi Karakas. It's a dedication. I will have to say no more. If you do that, you'll be so happy. You will be happy if you memorize the wantist dedication.

[42:20]

If you memorize the whole text, the whole first chapter, well, what can I say? If you memorize the first chapter and the 24th chapter, I will be happy, you will be happy, everyone will be happy. Now, if you'd also memorize Dogen's thing, that would be great, too. And then you could also memorize some other stuff, too. Like I asked one person to memorize the lotus suit. He's not here with this. I said, you don't have to memorize the whole thing as a pastor. Just memorize one chapter, which is quite a bit longer than what I've missed. The Mulan Marjama Karakas are not long chapters. They're only, like, the first chapter is just two pages. And the second one is six pages. I mean, well, yeah. But if the first one is two or one? Two. Two. And then this one is six. Six pages. It's not that long. First chapter of Lotus Church is quite longer than that.

[43:22]

I think it's harder, too. So I'd love it if several people would memorize a low suture. If that would happen, a merit would be like, you know, the world would be a better place. And you would think whoever did that would be a very concentrated person. And you have to excuse that person if they're tired, that they might not have time to chat with you. However, I recommend that you give up your memorization if anybody wants to talk to you about anything reasonable. Thank you. If anybody needs your help, give up your memorization, give up your great attainment, and talk to them. But if nobody needs to talk to you during a study, memorize the text. OK, is that clear? But it might be hard for you to memorize that much, so do less.

[44:23]

But I bet almost everybody could do one verse. Or at least the first word of one verse. Like, for example, I'll tell you the first verse is, never. Never, nowhere, and at no time has there ever been anything that originated or was caused by itself, by another. by both or have no cause. There it is, first verse, you got it, okay? And that's Zazen, and that's Nagarjuna, that's liberation right there, flat out. One verse, understand that one verse is enough to understand the other. And the pentacle rising. But the other ones bring out some details which you might not understand, are totally contained in the first verse. You might want to check out the rest of the chapter, too.

[45:26]

Anyway, you will be chanting it, so that'll be fine. And that'll be great. And that's the program. Charlie? That your mom's people agree all the alien and you know. Yeah. Yes. Well, in other words, I care for the moms being healthy, you know, and the rivers being happy. and the rocks in the river being happy. I care about that, too, because their happiness is necessary for me, too, to realize my work to help inanimate beings, that all sort of the rocks are with me. The rock can be happy. That part of anacorizing is the rocks are happier if we're practicing. The rocks are happier when we look at them and love them. Is there any way to know if a rock is happy or not?

[46:30]

No, there's no way to know. And there's no way to know if people are happy or not either. However, that realm where you don't know whether the rocks, how they have, what way the rocks are happy, how people are happy, whether they are or not, that's the realm where rocks are happy. That's the realm of just being upright, where you give up everything Keep up knowing and not knowing, and enter in a dependable horizon. And if you have any questions about it, bring it to questions, and we can reason this out with the help of the answers. They've asked a lot of these questions already, and we can ask some new ones. I read, a while back, I read Meaningful to Be Cold, which is Tibetan teacher Gashi Kelsong Gyatso's book, Commentary on the Bodhisattva Way of Life. Yes. And he's, in their tradition, taking the Bodhisattva vow, it's a very serious thing to actually say you take the Bodhisattva vow and have a lot of preparation and study with the teacher before they're able to do that.

[47:42]

Right. But in the Zen tradition, I don't feel like there's any support in that way to actually take the Bodhisattva vow. But nobody can approach that type of thing that Tibetans do. We'll keep comment on that. Maybe there is. I just don't. It's not so formalized. I don't know. Generally speaking, Zen is not as formalized as Tibetan. The Chinese Zen school was not a formalism, was not systematic, generally speaking. There were systematic approaches in Chinese Buddhism where you'll find intense preparation for receiving the bodhisattva values like that. So Chinese Buddhism did do that thing, but Zen was a different style. So Zen style is different. Zen style is more, you might say, that that preparation style is more like what we might call Sambogakaya approach to Buddhism.

[48:45]

And the Zen style is more Dharmakaya. So Zen's more from the point of view of emphasizing practice after or based upon, rather than practice leading to awakening. So if you have a sentient being here, then the sentient beings should be prepared for this dangerous, risky path of the bodhisattva vow. So if your perspective is that we have sentient beings in the room, then maybe they should be prepared for that. But if we don't have sentient beings in the room, we have Buddhas in the room, then they just do the bodhisattva vow, and then we deal with the problems of having Buddhas. We're making the vow. It's a different style of vow.

[49:30]

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