I was at Tassajara, which is a monastery, a Zen practice place in the mountains south of here in the summer of 1970. And I listened to a talk by the founder of that Zen center and this Zen center and San Francisco Zen center. We called him Suzuki Roshi. And during the talk he said something about, he used the expression, my disciples, not so much in a possessive way, but just more like referring to them as the people that were kind of like

[01:05]

learning from him. And when he said that, I wondered if I was one of his disciples. I came to Zen center and stayed in Zen center to study with him, but I wondered if I was actually one of his disciples. So after the talk, I asked him, Roshi, who are your disciples? I didn't say, am I your disciple? And he said, I don't like this, but my mind makes a discrimination among people, even among people at Tassajara, in the monastery. He said, some people are at Tassajara, in this monastery, some of the students are here to help themselves and some

[02:15]

others are here to help others. The ones who are here to help others are my disciples. So at that time, thirty-three and a half years ago, I wondered, hmm, am I one of the disciples? Am I here to help the other people in the monastery and beyond? And I've been wondering about that for thirty-three years. Am I here this morning to help others or just myself? Of course, wanting to help others and learning how to help others is the greatest joy. But

[03:17]

it has to be sincerely that you do want to help them, not just to help yourself, because it'll be fun to help them. It will, but in a way the other comes first and doing it that way is what opens us to Buddha's wisdom and the happiness of Buddha's wisdom. I was going to say before that story popped in my mind, I was about to say, I imagine that most of you, or perhaps all of you, do care about life, your life and you do care about other people's life. I imagine that you care about the life of other living beings. I imagine that somehow. Partly from experience and partly from why on earth would you come here this morning. But actually I could imagine some selfish reason you came here. Just convenient

[04:22]

parking near the ocean, nice muffins, non-hassling people. So maybe, I don't know, I still thought maybe you did actually have a concern for others. I don't mean to, in any way, I don't want to make anybody who's not concerned for the welfare of others uncomfortable here, but I just imagine that you are. There's being concern for or wishing to be devoted to all others, the entire community

[06:20]

of living beings. There's that kind of heart too, and so we can wonder about that too, whether we are actually wishing to care for and serve the entire community, the whole community, all living beings. And it's not exactly in addition to this, but then there's also, in addition to the community of beings, there's also what we call the Buddha and the truth of the Buddha. These three things are things that the disciples of Buddha, at the

[07:35]

beginning of becoming a formal disciple of Buddha, that one actually says that one wants to care for the Buddha and care for the Buddha's truth and Buddha's teaching and care for the community of all beings as all beings work to realize the Buddha in community life. It's not just that we're caring for each individual person, there is that too, but we care for the person with an understanding that this person is actually working together with us and with all beings and in this way we're actually caring for Buddha too. So it is said

[08:41]

that the great condition, the most important condition for the appearance of the Buddha in the world is the compassionate desire to awaken Buddha's wisdom in beings. So it's hard maybe to see where the Buddha is, but if you can see, if you can sense, if you can realize the wish to help all beings be wise, as wise as a Buddha, in that wish the Buddha is born in this world. Caring for the community and caring for the Buddha is caring for that wish, looking for it,

[09:51]

not necessarily possessing it, but is there that wish in your heart that beings would be opening to Buddha's wisdom and see Buddha's wisdom and awaken to Buddha's wisdom and enter into Buddha's wisdom? Is there a wish in the heart like that? This wish means that you're wishing that beings would be happy and free, free even beyond their idea of happiness. Free beyond their idea of happiness means free no matter what is happening and able to take care of this wish to help others realize Buddha's wisdom no matter what is happening. Do you wish

[10:56]

that for all beings? Do you wish that for one being, for any one being? Do you wish it for all beings? In wishing it for all beings, in that wish, the Buddha is born in your body, in your place, in your time, in this world. This is compassion, but this is caring for and wanting beings to be happy and also wishing for what is necessary for them to be free, namely wisdom. It's nice to have the wind, you can hear the wind amplified. I wonder what that wind is. Is that Buddha coming to visit us? There is a Chinese character which many of you are familiar

[12:18]

with. In Chinese it's pronounced Dao and it's translated into English. In Japanese it's pronounced Do. In Sanskrit it's pronounced Marga. In English it's translated as the path or the way. Is that too much? The way is opening up and this way means the way of the Buddha. In the Buddhist tradition we use this character in China, in Japan, in Korea, in Vietnam and so on. That character is used as a symbol of the way of the Buddha, but the character has some other

[13:24]

meanings too and one of the second meaning is enlightenment and the third meaning is speak. So, the way of caring for and nurturing and serving the community, what is that way or the enlightenment of caring for, the enlightened way of caring for and nurturing and serving the community, what is that way? How do we enter that way? Do we want to enter that way? Do we want to care for that way and enter that way? Do we? And if we do, how? Well, one way is you think about and you're mindful of whether you'd like to enter it and whether you'd like to take everyone with

[14:24]

you into that path. That's one way, but there's subtleties and I'd like to bring up a subtlety in a sense, say something about a way that it might help us listen to this subtle teaching about how to enter the way and that came to me. I was reading a little article on the way we human beings, how

[15:33]

our brain and body and so on, mind seem to be spending quite a bit of time trying to predict the happiness which might happen if certain things happened or the happiness which might arise for us if we did certain things. And I'll maybe talk about that later, but I just wanted to mention that I was reading there and it said, to understand, and then it said to understand and it talked about something. It said, to understand, x, is to wonder. And I just stopped and I said, yeah, to understand something, the thing they were talking about was to understand this way that our mind is caught up in predicting what will

[16:41]

be happy for us, to understand that, but I thought to understand anything is to wonder. So I think wonder is another way, another word to guide us into the way. Then it went on to say, to understand is to wonder and then it said, if everything you have ever thought about, fill in the blank, everything you've ever thought about life, happiness, the pursuit of happiness, the nature of experience, death, any person you meet in other words,

[17:42]

anything, the way that you thought about that, to understand what's happening is to wonder if everything you've ever thought about what's happening has been at least somewhat, at least somewhat naïve, at least somewhat inaccurate. Could you consider that? At least, you start there and then open your wonder to completely mistaken. And you might say, well, no, thank you, I'm not going to wonder that

[18:44]

far. But wonder doesn't really have limits on it, usually, but you could start with a little wonder, like, I wonder, I'll consider the possibility that I have been slightly off in what I've been thinking about everything. Or what is it? I'll consider that I've been completely off about something, but I'm not quite ready to consider that I've been completely off about everything. So I would say, okay, fine. It's a start if you consider that you've been either completely wrong about something or a little wrong about everything and then we'll just try to open that door a little wider. It doesn't mean that you really have been completely wrong about everything. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, if you want to understand, it might be good to open to that possibility because if you don't, the door of wisdom is a little bit narrowed. Why not open all the way so that the Buddha can come

[19:49]

in? Because the Buddha is not just a little thing. It's about the accurate understanding of everything, so don't pick and choose, just open all the way to that possibility. How about it? Wouldn't you think that that would be okay for other people to do? Don't you think they might be completely off about everything? Might be? Is it a possibility? Sure, sure it is. As a matter of fact, it's quite likely in some cases. And so how about me? It doesn't mean you have to say, yes, you have been, but just open to the possibility and opening to that possibility, then Buddha's wisdom is not going to be hindered by your

[20:51]

partial openness to your ignorance. I think that's a nice frame for developing wisdom, for welcoming, for opening, seeing, understanding and entering Buddha's wisdom. It's not the whole job, but it's a very nice start. So, spend time, give time in the day, in the night, give time, perhaps one minute a day, ten minutes a day, perhaps an hour a day, perhaps three hours a day, up until twenty-four hours a day, be in meditation. But you can start just with a minute, you know, like we have these meditation sessions here, people come in here

[21:55]

and sit, just take a little bit of that meditation period and just open up your mind and heart completely, just for a moment, to the possibility that you're completely ignorant. And you might feel like, well, God, I'm doing pretty well under the circumstances, here I am in this nice meditation hall, it's not killing me to think that. And that's enough of that, I'm going to go back to my usual thing. But just try it a little bit and then maybe let it expand and let me know if you have any problems. I haven't heard about people having problems with that. It seems like most of the problems come from people who think they're right. That's ignorance, is thinking that you know what's happening. Ever heard of that feeling? So the teaching, the core teaching I wanted to bring up is one that I've brought up many times but it just seems to be coming back again into style. And it's a story, it's some

[23:02]

words actually, they're Chinese words originally and they're words said by the person we say is the founder of the Zen tradition in China, Bodhidharma. And he is, in some sense, his most notable student, we call Bodhidharma Junior, the second ancestor, Huike, a really sincere guy. He went to see Bodhidharma, you know, and Bodhidharma was sitting in meditation in a cave and he was supposedly facing the wall in meditation and Huike went up to him and said something like, �Master, please teach me the way, teach me the way to benefit

[24:07]

all beings, teach me the way to realize true compassion.� And Bodhidharma said something like, �I don't have time for insincere people, leave me alone.� And Huike kept asking like that. He was also standing in the snow up to his knees or something at that time and Bodhidharma was also in outdoor kind of situation but he was all cozy in his meditation situation, all, you know, nicely warmed by his concentration and Huike was standing out there freezing and Bodhidharma is not sure that he's sincere enough, so Huike supposedly just did a little token of esteem, cut his arm off at the elbow and offered it and Bodhidharma said, �Okay.� Now some people think that he already lost his arm and just brought it as a gift, that

[25:13]

robbers cut it off for him, but anyway, the idea is that this is a very sincere person, a person who really wholeheartedly wanted to learn the way to benefit beings, the way to actualize benefiting beings in the utmost way, and Bodhidharma accepted him as a student and gave him some instructions about how to enter the way. And the instructions translated into English I heard many ways. One way is, outside, one translation is, �Cease all involvements.� So you want to help all beings? Cease all involvements. You want to enter into the most helpful relationship with them? Cease all involvements, that's one translation. Another translation would be, �Cease all conditions.� Another translation would be, �Put all involvements to rest.� Another translation would be, �Put all circumstances

[26:25]

to rest.� Another translation would be, �Put your destiny to rest.� Whatever situation you're in, put it to rest. And another translation would be, �Put your stories about what's happening to rest.� Put your story about what's happening to rest. Give it a rest. What do you think is happening? Give it a rest. Which is similar to, consider the possibility that what you think is happening is perhaps a little off, or that what you think is happening is like completely mistaken. That means give it a rest. Give your love stories, give your story of working for the welfare of all beings a rest. You want to help all beings? You got a story about how to do that? Fine. We need a story about how to help beings, like you

[27:26]

got a story like, �Well here's a roomful of people.� That's a story. And they got various situations, that's more of a story. And they're asking for this and that, that's more of a story. And I want to help them, that's more of a story. And I want to help them like this, that's more of a story. And they want to help me like that, and that's more of a story. And we're doing all this, we got these stories, stories, stories, it goes on and on. We got stories. How do you help people in the situation? Give those stories a rest. And then Bodhidharma says, inside the mind, no coughing. Actually, the character used there means asthmatic breathing, or choking, or gasping, or panting. In other words, when you like give these stories a rest, inside your mind as a kind of test of that, as a standard for this giving your stories a rest, inwardly your mind will flow with no constriction.

[28:31]

Your life energy will be unhampered by your thinking and believing that what you think and believe is true. And then Bodhidharma says, with a mind like a wall, with a mind this way of being, of letting your stories about what's happening in this world, give them a rest. It doesn't mean that you don't have stories, it just means give them a rest. And give them a rest in such a way that your life energy circulates freely and fully. This is what it means to have a mind like a wall. That's why Bodhidharma was looking at the wall, he was looking at his teacher. The wall was teaching him how he should be. Namely, just be upright and take a rest. And then the last thing he says is, thus with

[29:35]

the mind like a wall you enter the way, you enter the way. And recently I looked up the characters for this story and I was quite surprised by what I found. First character outside was what I was expecting as character which means outside. The second character which means cease or rest. Lo and behold, it was the character for breathe. This character means not only cease or rest or desist, it also means breathe. So I thought, before it said outside cease all involvements or cease all stories, now you can say outside breathe all involvements, breathe all circumstances, breathe all your

[30:42]

stories. Don't throw your stories in the garbage can, just breathe through them. And breathing through your stories of what's happening, if it's really done properly, your whole life force, your whole life will also be unconstricted by this meditation. Or will be liberated by this meditation. In this way you enter into all your relationships in your mind and outwardly too. So you're working with people outwardly, you breathe through all these interactions, you put to rest, you're interacting with people, you think, oh they're being nice to me, oh they're being mean to me, oh they need my help, oh they don't need my help. Fine, that's the story. Now, given the story, where is the help going to come from? It's going to come from giving up that story, it's going to come from breathing through that story with the circumstances. Out of this the way emerges

[31:45]

or out of this we all enter the way. So, in a way, the beginning of the way is to want, is to have a story, a love story, your favorite love story about loving all beings in a way that's beneficial to them. And even that story we should give it a rest. Even attaching to the most excellent and compassionate story blocks our activity, blocks our function and doesn't facilitate entry into the very way we wish. So, somebody just walked out, so maybe it's about time to stop. And maybe that's enough.

[33:02]

Yeah, maybe it's enough. Get the picture? More could be said, but maybe that's enough. Or maybe it's too much. So, a young man is going to come out here, supposedly this afternoon. He's going to be about three and three-fourths years old and he's coming partly to visit me and I heard that he wants me to help him carve pumpkins. So, maybe he'll come and bring his pumpkins

[34:08]

and say, Granddaddy, help me carve pumpkins. So, then a love story will start to emerge in this world. He'll have his version, I'll have mine. And I will try to give my love story a rest while I'm carving pumpkins with him, which very likely will include that as we're about to start carving pumpkins, he will change his mind and want to do something else. And then I will give the love story of us carving pumpkins a rest. And a new story will emerge, which I hope to breathe through. And in that way, I hope that the Buddha Way

[35:10]

will emerge in that meeting between old man and young boy. Love stories pop up and die away moment after moment with him. Many people are kind to him and I want to join that group of kind people. I want to help him learn the Buddha Way by seeing his grandfather breathe through his love stories and let him breathe through his and let him learn to not hold on to his. He has some amazing love stories, I think. Anyway, I said I'd said enough, but you probably want to hear about them, right? I can't tell

[36:18]

you them all, but one of the recent ones, which is quite interesting, is he told his mother recently, do you know we have this dog that lives in Green Gulch called Rozzy? A female Jack Russell Terrier. And she lives up in the house where I live with my wife. And recently, this little boy told his mother that Rozzy was his wife. And his mother said, no. Give that story a rest. You can't be married to a dog. And he says, well, isn't she a girl? He said, yes, but you can't be married to a dog. And he says, well, but she loves me

[37:20]

very much. And I love her very much. And anyway, we're married. And then he said, the fact is, we're married. And then she started to say, well, but she's in our family. You can't marry someone in your family. So they went back and forth like this. And actually, after I thought about that story for a while, I thought, hmm, there might be some kind of psychoanalytic thing there. Maybe he's testing out whether he can be his mommy's husband. But anyway, he has this story, this love story about Rozzy. Now, another part of the love

[38:21]

story is, get this, she doesn't love him at all. That's my story. My story is she hates him. She basically doesn't like kids. And she especially hates him because he walks in and takes over. But she knows she can't bite the prince. So she's like quivering with, oh, I'd like to get him. And he thinks, oh, she loves me so much. And she's watching, if they step away, I'm going to get them. And we go, Rozzy? You ever heard a story like this? She loves me very much. We've got to breathe through these stories. It'll be okay if we

[39:29]

breathe through the stories. We have these strange conflicts. We're not going to get it all ironed out. But we can breathe through it all, supposedly, Bodhidharma says. And again, since I've said enough, I won't go into the details now, but if you want to hear the rest of the story, come with a question and answer, because Hueka followed the instruction and after seven years, finally understood what Bodhidharma was talking about. This little boy goes to the dog parks and he saw some people that had the same kind of dog, Jack Russell Terrier, and he went up to the people and said, my wife's a Jack Russell Terrier. It's a story, right? It's a story. If you breathe, they'll be funny. But if you don't

[40:40]

give them a rest, you'll start choking. Now I have a song. This is a song about somebody who's having a little difficulty breathing through his story. Sometimes we have trouble with our love stories. Here's one about what it's like before you learn how to care in this kind of breathing way. In a way, it's like, maybe you can do that. I don't know, it's maybe too complicated. 1, 2, 3, [...] 1. I've tried so hard, my dear, to show that you're my every dream.

[41:49]

Yet, you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme. A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart. Why can't I free your doubtful mind? And melt your cold, cold heart? Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue. And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do. In angry, unkind words I say that make the teardrops start.

[42:55]

Why can't I free your doubtful mind? And melt your cold, cold heart? There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me. But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory. The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart. Why can't I free your doubtful mind? And melt your cold, cold heart? May all intention equally penetrate every being and place. Live the true method of Buddha's way, being harmless, heartless.

[44:11]

Live the true method of Buddha's way, being harmless, heartless.

[44:13]

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