A friend of mine during our lunch period mentioned to me that this person I practiced with for a long time in venues other than Zen Center and other than No Abode, in situations where we practice sitting meditation and walking meditation, and where I offer talks and we have discussion. And she came to visit Green Dragon Zen Temple at Green Gulch Farm. And she said she was surprised. by feeling like she was in a place of religion. She hadn't felt... religion hadn't struck her so much as in previous practice situations that were where we met.

[01:04]

But at Gringotts she felt something about religion there. And she said that she got a sense that some of the other people there thought that there was something religious about the place. And that also reminded me that I was considering what to say, gringos, tomorrow morning to the children. So I was looking at a book called Dharma or something like that, Buddhist teaching for young people. And at the beginning it says something like, that something like, human beings search for many things.

[02:08]

For example, they search for truth, beauty, goodness, and inner peace. And the person who wrote this then said, religion has to do with inner peace. And I'm not saying I agree with that, but I thought it was just an interesting statement that And you might think about that. Are there some people who actually search for or seek truth, but they're not so concerned with beauty? They're not so concerned with goodness? They're not so concerned with inner peace? Maybe some philosophers are interested in truth or wisdom, but they're not so concerned about whether that brings them inner peace, perhaps. Some other people don't think of so much about that they want, that they're searching for truth, but they do want inner peace.

[03:15]

Some other people may feel like they really want goodness. And some other people who you might think are artists, some artists might say, I'm just interested in beauty. But, you know, some artists I know are definitely interested in truth and beauty. Like Keats, you know, John Keats, he said at the end of the Ode to the Grecian Urns, all we know on earth is truth, beauty, beauty, truth. That's all you need to know on earth and all you will know. So for him, truth and beauty were closely associated. But it's possible some artists just are concerned with truth. I mean, just beauty. But some artists might also just be concerned with truth. And some artists don't seem to, if you ask them, they might say, I'm not the least bit concerned with goodness. Ethics has nothing to do with art for me. And I know an artist who said that most of the artists he knows, if you say that art has something to do with inner peace, they would say, I'm not going to agree to that.

[04:31]

But if you don't say it to them, he said, they probably would say that art has to do with liberation from suffering, from distress. So these four interests of human beings, some people would say, You could be interested in one but not the other. Some people would say two, some people would say three. And I guess I would say, for me, all four. I'm interested in inner peace. I'm interested in beauty, truth, and goodness. To me, I think there has to be goodness in order for there to be inner peace. But just goodness by itself without wisdom, may not bring inner peace. But to try to achieve inner peace and not take care of goodness, I don't think you'll be successful.

[05:33]

To practice goodness definitely sets the ground for inner peace, but you need wisdom, otherwise you might think the goodness is what you think it is. So I think that wisdom is necessary for inner peace. And I think wisdom needs to operate on goodness. In other words, wisdom is understanding what goodness is. Understanding what goodness is is related to understanding what not goodness is, because they're related. So it seems like to me, you must have wisdom for inner peace and you must, in order to have wisdom you need to practice goodness, and in order to practice goodness in a liberating way, you need wisdom. Which is what I said this morning, you know, we try to practice compassion, we try to, perhaps we try to practice compassion,

[06:39]

We do some wholesome practice, like sitting meditation, which we practice in a generous way, an ethical way, a patient way, and of course a calm way. But we also do it without a mind that takes an abode. Then the combination of the mind of no abode, the mind of wisdom, together with the wholesome practices of sitting and so on, gives you inner peace, gives you liberation. What about beauty? For me, beauty, in order to be realized, has to be free of any idea of beauty. Just like the full realization of goodness or ethics is inner peace.

[07:43]

But in order to get the full realization, in order for there to be the full realization of goodness, there has to be no attachment to the idea of goodness. And no attachment to the idea of goodness also includes not avoiding the idea of goodness. You have to face the idea of goodness without attaching to it and be devoted to goodness and the ideas of goodness and care for goodness free of the idea of goodness in order to realize the full function of goodness, which is inner peace. In other words, you have to be wise about how you practice. This is also realizing beauty, I would say. So for me, those four interests are all part of inner peace. And if inner peace is religious, then I would say, well, then the religion needs philosophy or science.

[08:54]

It needs science and philosophy. It needs art and it needs ethics. So for me, religion embraces the whole realm of things. But I also understand that some people conceivably could practice science and philosophy and mathematics without concern for realizing inner peace by that practice. And I think it's possible that they would find a truth that was very encouraging to them. But I think that when they found it, if it was real, they would accidentally find inner peace. But I don't know for sure if Einstein and Niels Bohr and so on found inner peace. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, felt that the art of music was really the way to realize inner peace.

[10:01]

So many people feel that art is their way to inner peace. But if you don't practice ethics, it's hard for you to appreciate art. And many artists who are great, they don't seem to be into ethics, but they seem to be great artists. But I don't know if they're into ethics. They don't look like it. And they don't seem to be at peace. And yet their art seems to maybe help many people. So I'm just throwing that out there for meditation, that these four issues for human beings, truth, beauty, goodness or ethics, and inner peace. The main thing that the Buddha emphasized, the main point of the Buddha's teaching was inner peace.

[11:03]

But he taught truth. His teaching was the teaching of truth which would bring inner peace. So he said, I found this middle way which brings peace, which brings ease, which brings freedom, which brings joy. I found this middle way. And what's the middle way? It's the Four Noble Truths. It's the truth of suffering. It's not the truth that there is suffering. It's the truth of suffering. And it's the truth not that there is an origination of suffering, but it's the truth of the origination of suffering. And it's not the truth that there is liberation. It's the truth of liberation. And the truth of liberation is this practice, this path. And all these three truths, we're trying to understand what they are. Understanding what they are is called the middle way, which brings ease and brings peace, brings the cessation of suffering.

[12:07]

So the main emphasis of the Buddha's teaching was on cessation of suffering or inner peace. But he didn't say inner peace, inner peace, inner peace. He taught truth, truth, truth. And he taught truth in terms of the mind, how the mind works. So his philosophy, his truth teachings were mostly given in terms of consciousness, the truth of consciousness. Because consciousness is the origin of suffering. Suffering originates in the mind and by the mind and of the mind. We only have problems in mind we need to become free of mind. So he taught about the mind in order to realize the truth of the mind. And realizing the truth of mind is called freedom, or is freedom. It's nirvana, and nirvana is peace.

[13:14]

But some people, as they approach the Dharma, when they see the some of the stuff that crops up around inner peace, they start to get nervous because it looks like religion. And so, in that case, we can kind of like, you know, relax around the inner peace issue for a while and then go do the truth part or the goodness part for a while. and by gaining some confidence around the truth part or the ethics part or even the beauty part. Actually, the beauty part is kind of... particularly characteristic of Zen is the beauty part. The beauty part attracts a lot of people to Zen. You know, like the gardens at Green Gulch, the bread in the bakery, the flowers in the garden.

[14:17]

For some people, they wouldn't want to go in the zendo with those people sitting still in those statues, but they feel comfortable in the garden. Or they like the food. And they start eating the food and eating the food, and gradually the food takes over. and they suddenly want to sit because they ate all that food with those little sitting germs in it. Or like Babette's Feast. These mean people, they eat this food and suddenly they start loving each other. But some people don't like to eat. they see a picture of a person sitting and they say, that's for me. That's what I saw. I saw a picture of this lay person sitting in zazen on a tatami mat. And I thought, and the subtitle said, in deepest thought, I said, that's the way I want to think.

[15:26]

I want to think in that posture. I want to practice that the beauty of that sitting attracted me. I wasn't attracted to the Four Noble Truths. I hadn't heard about them. And when I first heard about them, I really wasn't interested. Now I'm a little interested. But the Four Noble Truths did not attract me. The Truths did not attract me. But people ask me, First I was attracted by the beauty of the sitting, and then after I started sitting, people said, why do you sit? And I said, I don't know, it's just, it's real. And I didn't think about truth, I just thought that I felt in touch with reality when I was sitting. And I didn't think of ethics at all. However, I realized later that ethics was there in that beautiful sitting. in beauty, in actual beauty, not your idea of beauty, but in actuality of beauty, I would propose to you, goodness is there in the actuality of beauty.

[16:35]

And truth is there, and inner peace is there. But we have a problem with a number of these issues. We have a problem with beauty when we have a fixed idea of it, because a fixed idea of beauty is very damaging to beauty. But it's hard with something beautiful, we often get a fixed idea about it, and then we damage it. Like we want to keep the appearance of it the same. Now, knowing that holding on to the appearance of it maybe maintains the appearance, but damages or even can kill the beauty. For I think anything can be killed after a while, especially beauty. That's what the man said to his son Peter in the father's poem, in Being Upright. It's in there, isn't it? For I think anything can be killed after a while, especially beauty, if you try to control it.

[17:41]

So we have problems around beauty, we have problems around truth, again particularly holding on to it. We have problems around ethics and we have problems around inner peace when it starts to look like religion and we hold on to religious forms. So it basically, it's a lot of problems possible here. I thought I would just bring that up. and see if you have any response. So with the person who said that she was surprised to find out that there was some feeling of religion around Zen Center, would she say what she meant by the religion or by the sense of religion? Yeah, I said that before we met at Mount Madonna, and it has been more like a class or a seminar, and it felt kind of like there wasn't a lot of rules, and I didn't feel like I was going to make a lot of mistakes.

[18:56]

Ah, there we go. When it comes to religion, you think you can make a mistake. I felt like I was making mistakes all the time. So, since you're making mistakes all the time, you're in the land of religion. Right? Right. Yeah. The realm of religion is where you can make mistakes or where you notice you're making mistakes. That's one thing for you, right? Right. And you were raised Catholic? You know, my mom was a hippie Catholic. Your mom was a hippie Catholic? We would go to Mass and she'd say, don't believe anything, just sit. She said, don't believe anything and just sit? No, sit. Anything you just said. Oh, don't believe anything you just said. And if she didn't say, just sit? No. But that's what you say to your kids, right? I say, go outside.

[19:57]

Okay, so that's one important thing. When she sensed that you could make mistakes at Zen Center, she felt, oh, religion. And I know some other people who, when they went into the Zendo, they walked in the room and they thought, this is a room I can make mistakes. They didn't say religion, but they thought, obviously you can make a mistake in this room. Like, obviously there's a right and a left turn option here, and there's also a going straight ahead and going backwards, and one of them probably is right. I don't know which one it is. And even if I back out of here, I still could be making a mistake. So uncomfortable when you enter that realm. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Yeah. Even walking into the Zen. Even walking in the Zen, though, you sense you can make a mistake. Because, you know, somebody's hitting the... And I didn't know if I was supposed to walk when they're hitting or not walk when they're hitting.

[20:59]

There just were a lot of rules. You sensed that there were. And some people told you that was so, and then you thought that you heard them say that. I also knew that it's okay if you make a mistake because all of these people are wanting to practice connection. Yeah. So if they really were, if they didn't forget that, you'd probably be relatively safe. You'd be protected by their compassion. And what if some of them didn't? Yes, and some of them had... They had short. They were curt. They were curt. They were brief. They were brusque. No, not brusque. I didn't want to ruin the ambience.

[22:00]

You didn't want to ruin it? Right. And you know, there might be some other people who don't want other people to ruin the ambiance by their mistakes. Like some people feel like, we have a nice ambiance here. And then somebody does something that disturbs the ambiance. And some people would like that, maybe think a non-compassionate thought towards that person who just disturbed the ambiance. Like, could somebody remove that person from this ambiance, so we can return to the old ambiance. People might think that. People have confessed to me that they thought that, that they wanted to eliminate the ambiance disturbers. Can you imagine? Yeah, you can imagine. So this is part of, and this is associated with religion.

[23:04]

religion plays with this thing about create an ambiance, you know, create a beautiful ambiance, like a beautiful meditation hall, a beautiful cathedral, and then let people in and let them enjoy the ambiance. And then if somebody comes in and disturbs it, there's an issue there. Should we do something so that the disturbances eliminated, which means get the person out of there? Should we enhance the ambience by being very compassionate towards this person who's disturbing the ambience. Should everyone turn to the person and say, thank you for disturbing our ambience. You gave us a chance to practice real compassion. And now the ambience is totally disturbing. Now everybody's dancing and singing in joy that we did not freak out and get mean when you disturbed our ambience.

[24:13]

And now the ambience has completely changed into this huge celebration of how the ambience can never be destroyed. That could happen. I know this story, I heard this story anyway. There once was a Zen monastery that had a really nice ambiance. Or as they say, ambiance. And when they ate meals, they had a lovely ambiance when they ate their meals. And they had these special bowls that they used to do a ritual eating practice, and they had a nice ambiance. And one day, one of the monks came to the master and said, somebody stole my bowls. And then another monk came and said, somebody stole my bowls. And he didn't say so, but I think there was a possibility that the ambiance of the monastery was disturbed. And then somebody found one of the monks, went into one of the monks' rooms and found lots of bowls in the monk's room.

[25:16]

And the ambiance in that room was not good. So then the master said, Everyone come to the room with me and bring your bowls." And they all went to the guy's room and they put all their bowls in his room. And then they had this wonderful ambience. So you don't want to disturb the ambience and Some of the people do not want you to disturb the ambience, and they don't want anybody to disturb the ambience. But some people actually would like the ambience disturbed. And I'm not going to say who those people are. But some people, who are called Zen masters, want the ambience to be disturbed so that the ambience people can deal with that disturbance with a greater ambience than they had before.

[26:28]

Sometimes they hire people to come and disturb the ambience in order to realize the meaning of the ambience. The peace beyond our idea of peace. Excuse the expression, the peace which passeth all understanding of peace. But, there would be no opportunity to transcend it if there wasn't an ambiance which is the result of careful attention to the room and the forms that create this wonderful ambiance which then we can take care of and take care of and take care of and create and recreate and then let it go. And one of the ways to let it go is when somebody disturbs it. So it's disturbed, then we let it go.

[27:33]

But that's a delicate balance, right? And you sense that and you associate that with religion. And I would associate it with not so much religion, but I would associate it with inner peace. Because if we're attached to the lovely ambiance of the Zen center, like the clean Zen-do, and the monks sitting with good posture, if we're attached to that, there's not going to be inner peace if there's attachment. So we had some people in Zen who sit very nicely, and we had some other people who don't sit so nicely according to some people's opinion of what nice is. And some people think, this person doesn't have good posture, this person does, and they're not attached to that view. Some other people think this person has good posture, this person doesn't have good posture, and they're attached to their view. Then we don't have inner peace.

[28:36]

And also then we don't have truth. And also then we miss beauty. And also we miss really the point of ethics. We're trying to be ethical to get everybody to sit the right way. We're trying. But the attachment This is the inner peace and this is the truth. But the not-attachment we can also find right there in the form, in the ambience, we got the ambience, okay, now we got something to not attach to, something really good, something really good. Now this is something to not attach to. So we take care of this place, like somebody fixed the door in the doksan room so it actually closes and it doesn't just keep blowing open and it actually closes a little bit. And somebody swept up eucalyptus leaves.

[29:42]

Somebody filled holes and cracks in the pavement and the asphalt so that the water won't go in there and make holes in the road and have the road cave in and fall into our neighbor's backyard. Somebody made new pipes to drain water off the hill. Somebody's taken care of trees so that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beyond beautiful, beautiful plants will grow. People are clean. Everything's being taken care of so nicely here so that we can not attach to this place. Because that's the name of this place. The name of this place is do not attach to this place. Take care of it, take [...] care of it. Say thank you to other people. Let them thank you for taking care of this place that we don't attach to. And we keep taking care of it so we can not attach to it. But to not attach to a place you don't take care of doesn't really do any good.

[30:45]

In other words, wisdom of non-attachment to something that you're not totally devoted to, that you're not practicing ethics with, is not real wisdom. Real wisdom is when you're totally devoted to ethics and not attached to it. When you're totally devoted to a beautiful practice place and a beautiful community with beautiful people and beautiful practice, and you know the truth of it is you can't get a hold of it. And if there's anything you'd like to get a hold of, this would be it. This would be the best thing to get a hold of, such a great, beautiful practice and beautiful people and beautiful practice place. So let's make it as beautiful as we can so we can test to see if we're attached to it. Shall we? Shall we continue? It's lovely to make the ambience so nice, to make the place so beautiful.

[31:52]

It's so nice. And let's not attach to what is nice and what's not nice, but let's try to make it really as beautiful as possible. And then deal with the specter of religion looming over the place. This place has a really nice ambience. Be careful. But mainly be careful to not care about it. Be careful, excuse me, be careful that you don't not care about it. Be careful to be careful. Be careful about the place. Be careful of it. Take care of it. Like Rex on the board of this place. He's the treasurer. He takes care of this place. Huh? He just got promoted to secretary. And Karen and Elenia take care of the place. Elenia goes and buys all kinds of stuff for the place.

[32:55]

She bought the liquid asphalt. And David came today and he cared for the place. All you people are caring for this place. So be careful to continue to care for it. But most important then is once you care for it, then take the big step to not attaching to this thing you care for. So really the religion is about not attaching to religion. But first religion says, this is really important. You see how important this is? This is so important. This is like really holy. This is so holy, so precious. Okay? Got it? And your mother says, don't listen to him. Don't listen to anything he says. This is the holiest of holy, which means do not attach to it. You don't have to believe that, though. Just take care of it as though it was. And if you take care of it as though it was, you will not attach to it.

[33:57]

But eventually, but first of all, you will attach to it. And that will be the period of making mistakes. It may go on for quite a while, but eventually you won't attach to mistakes either. But thank you for that comment. And we will try to find a way to deal with religion if it crops up, which is to treat religion like you treat non-religion. Treat it with compassion. Treat it with kindness. And you'll realize it's truth and realize inner peace. The Buddhas guarantee that. And I'm giving it a try. How about you? Yes, what time is it, Catherine? Oh, we've got a lot of time. Yes, Catherine. It occurred to me, and you said, I wasn't really thinking about goodness.

[35:10]

But I thought your story of your attraction to the stories, like I was specifically thinking of the Hakos, was actually an attraction to ethics. It was an attraction to ethics, and particularly it was an attraction, I would say, to Bodhisattva ethics. But I didn't think it was ethics. No, you do think it was, and now I would agree with you. It's the ethics of being totally cool. It was ethics that wasn't attached. It was ethics that wasn't afraid. It was ethics that weren't attached to right and wrong ethics. Yeah, so now I see that I was attracted to bodhisattva vows and bodhisattva ethics, but I didn't think so. If somebody said ethics in relationship to Dzen, I would say, I just wouldn't know what they're talking about. Basically, I didn't know anything about ethics before I came to Dzen.

[36:13]

I didn't know anything about good and evil. I never even used the term. I never said the word good, except when people did what I wanted them to. But you also have a story about good. The other man that told you it's not difficult to be bad, it's difficult to be... Good. Yeah, he said... It was there, but I didn't think I was trying to be good. I just thought I was trying to do what was hard. You know? What was manly. Don't be a wimp. Don't be a wimp and do bad. Be a man and do good. That's what really... That's what takes something. But I wasn't trying to do good, I was trying to do what really would require my life energy. Because I knew actually, I knew and he knew too, it is not that hard to be bad. It takes a little guts sometimes, because people don't like it. But he also, in those days, he got a lot of praise for doing bad, because Elvis Presley,

[37:18]

James Dean and Marlon Brando. They were my heroes. What did you say? I said Marilyn Monroe. Yeah, she was yours? I was a little younger. I didn't know. But Jane Mansfield was one of mine. I didn't know that they were bad. I didn't know they were naughty girls. I thought they were attractive. Yes. I thought they were frightening. The first time I went to the Zendo, not for the public program, but for early morning sitting, I was really intimidated as well. It was 5 a.m. There were always people in robes. Dark. Dark, but only by cannons. There were, you know, there was just a lot of stuff. And, you know, I felt like I was just going to be a bull in a china shop.

[38:23]

And I contrasted that, as you were talking about this, with I was raised Episcopalian, but when I was in the fourth grade, my parents switched me to a Catholic school. And the first time I went to a mass in a Catholic church, and this was way back when they spoke Latin. It was different because it was more like being a spectator. You go into the church and you sit in the pews and you watch what's going on out there. Yeah, you weren't a performer. Whereas in a zendo, you're right in the thick of it. You're a performer, yeah. And in Asia, a lot of lay people, they don't go in zendos. They only go to the temple and watch the monks. Only the monks go in the zendo. So in the West now, we have... Everybody who goes to Zendo is basically a monk, because you're doing a monk's practice by going in there and trying those forms on. So you're a performer. The Eno, it was just a beautiful thing.

[39:27]

As I was walking in, I said something to the Eno at the time. This is 18, 20 years ago. What do I do? And he said, just look for somebody wearing a robe and do whatever they're doing. And they might be looking at somebody else, just wearing a robe. Yes. Thank you, Karen. Can I just sort of add to the obvious? Because I'm thinking of three memories that are really interesting. One was to sit next to someone who was coming down from a heroin addiction for a whole period and was making unbelievable sounds, and just their body was making sounds. Gurgling? Gurgling, like belching, and these... And nobody, we all just sat for the whole period. It was an interesting experience.

[40:30]

And another time during a meal, someone was serving oatmeal and they were trying to go quickly and they tripped and the oatmeal went, down the... Old mill carpet. And everyone was trying to do oriente. It was a pretty... That was a great moment. And then the other one was down at Talsahara, you know, a long time ago. To come into the monastery, you're supposed to sit tangareo. And there were two guys who hadn't done it because they'd been working all the times when everybody else was doing it. And it was almost the end of the summer, and they had to do it. And as you get toward the end of the summer, you've been working really hard, and people are tired. And it's a long time to sit. And these two guys were in there, and they were the only two in Zendo. And I guess the story was that At some point around mid-morning, there was a fly that kept coming around, and it kind of landed on his lip or something, so he went...

[41:36]

He blew it away. He just went... And then like two minutes later, the other one cracked up. And then they started laughing, and they went into this laughter that was like uncontrollable weeping. It was like the whole summer's worth of laughter. And then they kind of... And everybody walking by, you know, her eyes just completely roaring with laughter. And they'd like sort of settle down again. And then somebody would go, and then they'd go. And they were laughing on and off the whole day. And they had to keep going back and sitting. And it was really joyful for the rest of us. When you got to hear this... It was really one of the most joyful of... It was particularly fun because they weren't supposed to be... Because they were supposed to be in the ambiance. They were instructed to be laughing.

[42:39]

They were not instructed to be laughing. Not only in the ambiance. But nobody came in and stopped them. Well, they didn't. No. They didn't stop them. They let them go. And they went. I'm sorry, I was thinking about obvious. Mm-hmm. You mentioned something about your talk about the meaning of the ambience, for the practice to get the meaning of the ambience. Is the meaning, because English is not my first language, when you say the meaning, is meaning the same as the essence, or is meaning a definition of ambience? Well, the meaning could be, The meaning could be the truth of the ambience, the meaning could be the beauty of the ambience, the meaning could be the goodness of the ambience, or the meaning could be the inner peace of the ambience.

[43:46]

Could be all those things. Most people... It's not the meaning. When you speak, it's not the meaning. You're speaking of essence. You can say essence, but when you say essence, then you might make the meaning into a substantial thing. Not really. What? I don't think the meaning is... I mean, the essence of things is not something substantial. It's just the way it is. It's not any... good. I'm glad it's not anything substantial. So then the meaning is the insubstantiality of the ambiance. The ultimate meaning of our practice, of the ambiance of the Zen Center, the ultimate meaning of it is its insubstantiality, its selflessness.

[44:49]

And you can call insubstantiality essence if you want to. But that would be called an essenceless essence. Right? And that brings inner peace. That insubstantiality thing, when you realize it, is inner peace. But also it's beauty. And also it's what goodness really is. So it's all those things. I'm not quite sure about If I, you know, again, I go to the definition of goodness, if I let go of the definition, then it may be different. But today, as I was sitting, I could see the beauty of the form. And then at some point, I felt like the whole beauty of everything comes beyond the form. So it's this vastness of beauty, which is... It's not really beyond, though. The beauty of a form is the way the form is created.

[45:58]

The pinnacle arising of a form is its beauty. And the pinnacle arising of a form is inconceivable and insubstantial. The insubstantiality of it for me was the absence. It's more in the absence of things. It's not in the things. It's not the absence of the thing. It's not beyond the thing. It's the absence of a self in the thing. The absence of the self. which is the self of the thing. For example, I appear to be a form, and the insubstantiality in me is the absence of a self of me.

[47:05]

I come with an absence of a self. I come with an absence of substantiality. That's the ultimate meaning of me. Okay? Amazing. She said, okay, did you hear that? Don't attach to that. Well, thank you very much. We had another sitting here. And we had quite a few new people. Congratulations to the new people coming here. You really supported our practice. And if you don't come next time, we accept your not being here. Now, one, two, three, four, five, six. Six new people. All right? At least. Thank you so much for supporting our practice. And I must say, it wasn't a very hard day for me. I only had to see nine people.

[48:07]

Right? Something like that. It gets a little hard for me sometimes when I have to see 20. twenty people, and then be in the zendo a little bit, and give two talks, and eat a lot for lunch. So it was a very pleasant Labor Day sitting. Yes? Can I ask what inspired that practice of chanting the Heart Sutra? What inspired it? Yeah. Oh, let's see. What inspired it? You want a story? Yeah. Here's a story. She wants a story? That's what you're going to get. Even if she said what inspired it and I yelled at her, that would be a story. He yelled at her. That would be a story. What inspired it was this monk said that when he was a young monk, they went around begging. And while they were begging, they chanted.

[49:09]

They do a chant while they beg. And he was wondering, he thought, will I be able to do the chant while we're walking begging? And once he got into it, he was able to do it. And he said, I realized the reason I was able to do it was because of the many hours I spent in the monastery walking around chanting. So then I was able to do the chanting out in the snow, you know. That inspired it. I want you people to be able to chant in the supermarkets. while you're begging for food. Chant and walk. Chant and walk, yeah. Chant with your shopping cart as you're walking around the supermarket. We should all meet at Marina Safeway. Yeah. So that's my story of what inspired it. I thought we should maybe practice walking and chanting at Noah Bowen because we have a nice place to walk here. But I really don't know what inspired it.

[50:12]

I really don't know. That's just a story. It was nice. Yeah, it was like, it like was gote, gote pada, gote pada, some gote bodhisattva, wasn't it? We like went beyond there, didn't we? Thank you very much. May our integer equally extend to wherever we place it.

[50:43]

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