I've heard that Tore Zenji is a disciple of Hakuin Zenji. And Tore's sattva vow is, he vows that, when I, a student of Dharma, look at the real form of the universe. All is the never-failing manifestation of the mysterious truth of the universe. And these days, one could say, have been beautiful days. Even though tragedies like big ships running into the Bay Bridge cause oil spills and the oil comes onto our little beach, the days still seem beautiful to me.

[01:25]

How about you? It was a beautiful opportunity for you to go down to the beach and clean up. And people far and wide are talking. Green Gulch monks who went down and cleaned up the beach. It does look, these beautiful days, like everything. You know? the hillsides, the human beings in this valley are appreciating each other, are seeing that every event, every being is the marvel, revelation of the glorious light. Someone went... And in that face, I saw a glorious light.

[02:39]

I see friends shaking hands, saying, how do you do? They're really saying, I love you. My arms are around their shoulders. It looks like they just finished a fight. And now they're cuddling each other through all the daylight. And I think to myself, I can put my arm around Arlene too. Things actually happen at Green Gulch. Today, And every day. I'm not saying that my vision of the glorious light is uninterrupted. But anyway, it's wonderful to see the glorious light in your faces and in the way you're relating to each other, which is unfailing.

[03:52]

And I can remember to say that wholehearted sitting is the way. Just wholeheartedly sit. Just wholeheartedly walk. Just wholeheartedly look and taste. This is the self-fulfilling samadhi of the Buddhas. practicing all our daily actions of body, speech, and mind. Together, bodhisattva vows. Now we have three newly initiated children of Buddha, offspring of Buddha, in our practice period. Six others have gone to other parts of the world.

[05:01]

One person came from Poland, maybe you know. Flew from Poland to San Francisco, came to Gringosz, got ordained and went back to Poland. He practiced at Zen Center many years ago. and has been away pretty much that time, but he kept his Dharma roots and came back to be initiated. Now they have been initiated into the great bodhisattva precepts, these sixteen bodhisattva vows, bodhisattva vows, but these are the sixteen that they committed to on Sunday. And now they have a chance to practice those sixteen bodhisattva vows every moment. When they're sitting, they practice the bodhisattva vows. They can. They're initiated, they've committed to every moment of sitting taking refuge in Buddha, every moment of sitting going for refuge in the Dharma, every moment of sitting returning to the Sangha.

[06:19]

Every moment of sitting, embracing and sustaining the forms and ceremonies of sitting. Every moment of sitting, every moment of walking, every moment of life, embracing and sustaining all good, embracing all beings. Observing the precept of not killing while sitting, while walking, while talking, continuously observing the precept of not taking what's not given. All these great bodhisattva precepts, they have promised to practice continuously throughout all their actions. Isn't that a wonderful promise that they've made? And of course there's many other bodhisattva vows. And all these bodhisattva vows equal practice with all beings.

[07:21]

When we sit, we sit together with all beings. When we answer the telephone, we answer the telephone together with all beings. This is wholehearted telephone answering service. And then we pick up the phone and we say, hello, this is Green Gulch, may I help you? Is Bert here? Sick. He's sick? Well, he's heard this story about himself before, so... Matter of fact, he told the story. When Bodhisattvas pick up the telephone in the Green College office, they ask a question.

[08:26]

Question which will help all beings. Like, may I help you? May I assist you in entering the Buddha way? Is Bernt sick too? He went to the city? Hello Berndt? So anyway, when Bodhisattvas ask questions, they ask questions together with everybody. They ask questions together with their great followers. And one time we were We were meditating on bodhisattvas asking good questions.

[09:31]

There was a bodhisattva in the Shurangama Samadhi who, at the beginning of sutra, he wanted to ask a question which would be extremely helpful to all beings. And then during a break in the session later, somebody called Bert on the telephone. He was my assistant at that time, so he answered the telephone. And the person wanted to have him have the opportunity to get a really good credit card. She was explaining to him the virtues of this credit card. And she was going on, and then Bert thought, oh, maybe I should ask her a question. How many of you have heard this story before?

[10:38]

Not so many. Only three? Just these three? I think four. Yeah. But you haven't memorized it yet. Okay, so anyway, Bert thought, he thought, maybe I should ask her a question. Will benefit all beings, which will, you know, quell the malevolent spirits in all beings' hearts and so on. So he said, do you have to make a certain amount of money to get this credit card? And the woman said, well, yeah, how much money do you make? And Bert told her. And she said, where do you live? Well, I live in this valley by the ocean.

[11:43]

And it's called Green Gulch, and we have a beautiful meditation hall, and we grow organic fruits and vegetables and herbs. And we shake hands with each other and really mean I love you all the time. And she said, oh, can I come there? Yeah. And he said, yeah. And she said, oh, great. He said, can you smoke? And he said, well, you have to go to a special... And she said, oh, well, thank you. So we sit together with all beings. We answer the telephone together with all beings. when we're wholehearted. And when we're wholehearted, this is the Buddha way.

[12:45]

This is the way of the self-fulfilling samadhi. So when we sit, we don't sit to get something. We sit to give something. We sit to give our sitting to all beings. sitting as giving or giving or sitting, not sitting as getting. And actually thought, somehow they thought that sitting was to get something, that sitting was to get enlightened or get free of suffering or get to India or get taller or thinner or whatever. They thought they were going to get something. And when they were told that that wasn't the point, they had a hard time adjusting.

[13:51]

But gradually they have adjusted. So now they're all practicing not to get anything. They're practicing to give. Now all the Zen students practice as a gift to the whole universe. So that's been a wonderful change in the history of the world. Dogen said, I can remember that Dogen said, I can remember when my late teacher, Tian Tung, and as I told you in the koan class, Bajong is a person who lived at a place called Bajong. So Tien Tung is a person who lived at Tien Tung. He was the teacher of Tien Tung, so we call him Tien Tung.

[14:55]

And Dogen says, my late teacher, Tien Tung, was dwelling at Tien Tung. And he instructed the assembly in the Dharma Hall by saying, right at the very time of sitting, monks can make offerings in the whole universe in ten directions. Back in the Sung Dynasty, Dogen's teacher said that. I can remember. And today, it's pretty much the same, that the people sitting in the halls here, while sitting or as sitting, make offerings to all Buddhas in ten directions and practice together with them.

[16:00]

all without exception pay homage and make offerings ceaselessly. Do you know and see this? Do you know this way of sitting as offering and paying homage to all Buddhas? If you know this, do not say you are wasting time. yet know this, do not avoid what you are facing. I am intending, I have a plan to continue to offer this kind of instruction and to build on it.

[17:32]

the patterns of spring into this ancient brocade. Samantabhadra's vow, Samantabhadra says, if you wish the inconceivably vast and wonderful qualities of the Tathagatas, then you can think, in all your actions of body, speech, and mind, you can think, is paying homage to all Buddhas, as innumerable as dust particles in innumerable universes. Every action can be paying homage to all Buddhas. So Samantabhadra says, and to understand that and practice that way if you wish to realize the qualities of the Buddhas.

[18:50]

And to think about making every action, or with every action, and for every action, and as every action, make offerings to all Buddhas, and so on. So this is what was said in the Indian Buddhist world And then in China, hundreds and hundreds of years later, Dogen's teacher, now here in America, the same suggestion is being made. That you consider and contemplate and be mindful that every action of body, speech, and mind is paying homage to Buddhas, is making offerings to Buddha. and is done together with all Buddhas and with every single living being. And of course together with the mountains, the rivers, and the poisoned beaches, and the frustrated swimmers who can't go in swimming.

[20:06]

We have a session coming up. We can go more into this. But tonight, is there any feedback you have on this wholehearted practice of joining hands with all beings and walking through birth and death with the great Bodhisattva vows. Any response? Would you give that to Arlene, please? Please come up. I must confess I was spacing out a little bit. Thank you for confessing the space out. Yes, and I caught an end of what you said, and I wonder if I could hear the beginning.

[21:24]

I caught this morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dolphin, riding high there. That's all I remember hearing. What were you talking about? Something else? When did it happen? About... Seven minutes ago. Seven minutes ago? Do you remember what it was? What came before and after it? I remember what came after. What came after? It was about zazen. Zazen? And if you can see something, you don't say something. You are wasting time. Yes. And then if you can't... You can see this. And if you can't yet, if you haven't... No, it doesn't say you can't. But if you haven't yet, then... Keep doing it. Don't avoid... Oh, what you need to look at.

[22:25]

Yeah. And what is it? What is it? It is sitting zazen, which is a gift to all Buddhas. Sitting zazen, which is paying homage to all Buddhas. It is sitting zazen where every pore in your body is reaching out to all the Buddhas and all the Buddhas are saying thank you to every pore in your body because you're completely giving yourself, giving yourself, you're giving your dear little zazen as a gift to all the Buddhas. That's it. If you've seen this, don't say you're wasting your time because you're not. You might think so because, you know, I'm not making any money. I'm not getting any younger. My spine's compressing. At this rate, I'm going to be another inch shorter pretty soon.

[23:27]

If, you know, things are running downhill and I'm not going uphill, but I don't say I waste time because I'm offering this poor wreck. Beautiful wreck. to all the Buddhas. And I'm going to continue offering this, this, and [...] this, moment after moment. I'm doing a lot of sitting during this practice period, so I might as well make it gifts to Buddhas. And I've heard that Ru Jing, Tien Tung, told his monks, don't say you're wasting time. Now, if you don't see this, okay, then at least don't, you know, face the situation at least then. It's like, you know, I'm resisting this whole thing here. And you think that's funny? Okay, well, that's it and that's you. And I appreciate you checking back in on the spaceouts.

[24:47]

It's good. Yes, please. Oh, it's got a notepad there. Okay. I just want to keep focused. My question... Can I have that? Okay. Okay. My question is that you talk about this giving of yourself at every moment that we're here. Giving yourself to all beings everywhere, to all Buddhas, to everything in every direction, every place, everywhere, you name it. When you're doing this giving, are you, A, envisioning, or if you do envision, do you have any suggestions on how? all Buddhas, all everything, everywhere, in every place? Or is it simply you're giving your attention, say when you're meditating or when you're sitting, whatever you do, you're not getting anything, but you're giving your attention to whatever you do.

[25:57]

Is that the meaning of giving? Or is it a more encompassing... It could be that. It could be that. And it could be more than that. And it could be less than that. So actually I didn't say this part, but Samantabhadra when he's explaining how to, in some sense, practice giving, he says that you practice making an offering of whatever you're doing to all Buddhas as though you were face to face with these inconceivable Buddhas. So it's as though you could see the faces of all the Buddhas. But most of us cannot see the faces of all. Some people say, well, actually some advanced practitioners in the tradition in various countries like Tibet, China, Japan and so on, Korea, some of them say, well, I actually can't do that.

[26:57]

I actually can't see the faces of all the Buddhas. There is one guy in our tradition that can do that. So sometimes they say some people can do that. I think it's fine to try, but it's also fine just to remember the instruction and just say the instruction. I want, I give this zazen to all Buddhas. as innumerable as the number of dust particles in all universe. I offer that. And again, if you don't want to do that, you could also say, well, I would like to offer my practice to Shakyamuni Buddha or to one Buddha. The point is you're opening up to the possibility of being generous without limits. and entering the realm of unhindered generosity and wholeheartedness. And you could try to visualize it, starting with one, then go to two, and either three or four, and you could start squaring them.

[28:07]

And you might feel like, oh, I can't do it. I can only do three Buddhas, you know. But you might not even do one Buddha. You might just say... I often and I'll try to visualize them and still have the feeling of I would like to do this as though I was face to face with them. Thank you. You're welcome. Want the windows open? More? I was wondering if you could give us advice on the practice of being wholeheartedly tired. Or maybe more specifically on the practice of being wholeheartedly too tired to be wholehearted.

[29:11]

Okay. I mean it seriously, actually. So you're not so tired you can't be serious? I don't know. That's still possible. Well, okay, so that's how tired you are. I go like this. I'm tired. I go like I'm tired, and I try to just really go right down into the tiredness. Just like, oh, I'm so tired. feel the tiredness all the way down to the, you know, you're kind of a good-sized person. Thanks. And so you got this tiredness which is filling a lot of your body. So you're like this big mountain of tiredness, especially if you like sitting. This big mass of tiredness. And just sort of feel the tiredness from the top of your head down through your face, into your shoulders, all the way down to the tips of your toes.

[30:17]

Just completely feel tired. even when you're really, really tired, you might be able to feel that tired. I mean, when you're tired, it doesn't take a lot of energy to feel tired. It actually takes a little less energy to go with the tiredness than to fight it. In my own experience, and I think some other people I know too, when they're tired, if they fight the tired, then they go, you know, just like, but if they just kind of relax with the tired, just relax and go, just relax completely into the fullness and the bottom of the tired, and no resistance to it, completely, exactly as tired as you are, and that's that, and you're resting. And you might go to sleep, but you're resting sort of before you go to sleep, you're already resting. And then you may do some other kind of resting called sleep.

[31:22]

And that may be good too. But the resting you do before you conk out, when you're really completely relaxing and being present, actually, with your tiredness, sometimes you don't go to sleep. Sometimes you kind of go... energy comes up again, sometimes. Or sometimes you go to sleep and then after that you wake up and you just feel very refreshed because you didn't go into the sleep in a very resistant, tiring way, so you're kind of like open for some refreshment. Like some people are tired and they fight the tiredness and then they go to sleep and then they fight the sleep. They're kind of angry at themselves for being asleep, so they just never get any rest. So they're sleeping all the time but getting no rest because they think they're not supposed to be sleeping rather than wholeheartedly be tired. And don't work on being wholeheartedly tired because you're too tired to work hard.

[32:23]

Right. There's some situations where you might be very tired, but you also are involved in something else. Like you're washing dishes, but you're also very tired. And then you feel like, oh, I'm not wholeheartedly washing this dish because I'm too busy being tired. You have more energy than somebody else who's next to you who can't even think that. He's more tired than you are, and he can't think, I'm not wholeheartedly doing this. he's wholeheartedly being tired, you know, and wholeheartedly barely able to hold on to the dishes. But he doesn't have the extra energy to comment. He's just like... And people are like telling him to go faster, and he doesn't have the energy to get upset, you know, kind of like... He can't strike back. He's just too tired.

[33:24]

Thank you. I'll aspire to that. This is a Zen center. You can be tired. You have a good reason to be tired. You're getting up early in the morning. You're sleep deprived. Many people say, why are we sleep deprived? I don't know. I'm tired. Go ask somebody else why we're sleep deprived. Go ask the director. Not here, though. But our assistant can help you. Where is your assistant? Is your assistant here? Oh, there she is. You can ask your assistant, why are we sleep-deprived? But she's not tired, right? So you can ask her maybe. But she might not be in the mood, so she might send you maybe to OWL. He knows a lot about that.

[34:26]

Because he used to be very sleep-deprived. But now you're getting more rest, right? I don't sleep at night anymore. That's the reason. Yeah, but the thing is, I didn't realize why I was naming him that until just now. Now I understand where the name came from. I channeled it from you know who. tell Catherine what you say. So here we are sitting in the world of Zen and if you want to you can go to bed early tonight and sleep Sleep.

[35:39]

Is that OK? Had enough? Good night. .

[35:49]

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