Welcome to this center, this center of the universe, this Zen center, which is at the center of the universe. Happy Father's Day and Happy Grandfather's Day, etc. We just chanted something like penetrating and perfect Dharma.

[01:03]

Another translation of that ancient Chinese poem would be, an unsurpassed, profound, and inconceivable Dharma. Is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kalpas. Kalpas are like an aeon. Having it, what it, Dharma, to listen to and remember. And then the last line is we translate it as, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Tathagata is an epithet for Buddha. I vow to taste the truth of the Buddha's words. Another possible translation of that would be I vow

[02:07]

to unfold the true meaning of the Dharma. Unfold is nice because that is done when you open or unfold the scripture. So when you unfold the scripture you have a chance to unfold the Dharma and realize this Dharma. In the world Dharma has a lot of meanings. I'll just mention three today. One is a teaching. Another meaning of dharma is truth or the law, the way things really are. And another meaning of dharma is phenomena, an event. or, you know, all the different events are called dharmas.

[03:13]

And the truth of all the different events is maybe called dharma. Dharma both means the truth of everything and everything, and also the teaching of the truth of everything. And there's other meanings too. Is that enough for now? Three big ones. Let's hear it for the dharma. Laughter is a good thing to do when you hear, for the Dharma. Don't take it too seriously, don't take it not serious enough. Give it the appropriate weight. One of the dharmas, one of the teachings is that words do not reach this profound truth.

[04:22]

And also words do not reach the profound truth of anything. Like, nothing I can say about you really reaches the profundity of you. Nothing I about the truth reaches the inconceivable depth of it. So today, as usual, oh yeah, so today I was in a talk to talk about the thing which my words won't reach. And I accepted this kind of ironic situation that I'm going to sincerely be talking about something that my words don't quite reach. So basically what I feel called to do and what I'm full of is stories.

[05:26]

So I feel called to tell stories today. Is that okay if I tell some stories? I'll eventually stop for your sake. A lot of them. One of my stories is that almost everything I say is a story. So how about a story about, if you excuse the expression, Buddhism. our kind and compassionate founder, who we call Suzuki Roshi, he said, I think I heard him, he said, Buddhism is not one of those religions like, and he named a few, like Christianity, Judaism,

[06:36]

Mohammedism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. When I tell that story, if I make the list too long, people, when I say, or Buddhism, they forget. But I say, it's not one of those religions. Buddhism is not one of those religions like Buddhism. It's not. That's what he said. That's a story about our teacher. And a story about, he told a story about Buddhism. He went on a little further and said something like, Buddhism is when religions go beyond themselves. is when religions transcend themselves.

[07:42]

So when Catholicism goes beyond Catholicism, when Judaism goes beyond Judaism, when Islam transcends Islam, that's what we mean by Buddhism. And of course, Buddhism that doesn't transcend itself is not Buddhism. Buddhism goes beyond itself. The Buddha way This is a story. The Buddha way is basically leaping beyond. That's what it basically is. here's a dangerous thing I'm going to do something dangerous now yesterday one of our former abbots Linda Ruth said that you could translate Buddha as awakened one so Buddhism could be called awakeism but today I would say Buddhism is transism it's going beyond

[09:11]

That's story number one. Story number two. Ready for another one? Someone said to me, someone, well people often said, but yes, just a few days ago somebody told me that she's really concerned and feels a heavy burden in relationship to what she's done in this life. Sometimes we call that a karmic burden, the burden of all of our actions. And we talked for a while and what came out of that was the suggestion that to be free of our karmic burdens, the burdens of our past action.

[10:33]

One of the burdens of our past action is having a body which gets sick and gets old And the body could be seen as a burden and it's due in part to our past action. But it's not just due to our past action, people's past action too. It's due to all of our actions and the actions of the total population of living beings. from beginningless time but it's still a personal burden because of our personal and this person was really troubled by this and kind of wanted to a little bit get rid of the burden so again what I said to her was transcendence of this burden freedom with this burden

[11:42]

not getting rid of it, but freedom with the burden of having a body, for example, with the mind coming with it. Freedom of our body and mind comes from thorough response and great compassion, not and great compassion, which is great compassion for the karmic burden. By fully, which means compassionately embracing our karmic burdens, there can be freedom with the burdens. If the burdens go away, there can be freedom with the burdens having gone away. If they come back, or new ones come, by practicing, great compassion, we will be at peace with the burdens.

[12:49]

Ready for another story? Next story is about called nirvana. Have you heard of it? Nirvana. Nirvana often comes with the word samsara. So nirvana, nirvana The basic definition of nirvana which I offer to you is peace. Nirvana is peace. The possibility of peace is being offered by a tradition which transcends itself. Sometimes people think nirvana is getting rid of samsara, which is cyclic Sometimes think, Nirvana, that peace is getting rid of suffering, getting rid of the pain of loss. I disagree.

[13:56]

I think Nirvana is being at peace with the pain of loss. The pain of loss is omnipresent. There's always beings who are suffering from loss around us. We are sitting in the middle of unlimited suffering beings. Nirvana is not about suffering beings. It is to be with them with great compassion and be at peace with all their suffering and all your own. The word nirvana etymologically is related to, I think, nirodha, which means extinction or cessation. And sometimes people think that nirvana is the cessation of suffering, the cessation of pain and frustration, fear, etc.

[14:58]

I say, Cessation is the cessation of ignorance. And when there's a cessation of ignorance which comes, how would that come? Well, it would come by being greatly compassionate with ignorance. And then, without getting rid of your ignorance, we have awakening right in the middle of it. And that awakening, that wisdom, is peace. Nirvana is peace in the middle of all different varieties of samsaric misery. Should I keep asking you before each story?

[16:06]

Are you ready for another one? Here's another story. Here's another story. What is it? It's... The stories which I'm going to announce some more, these are stories for the sake of peace." These are stories about how to fully embrace and sustain all suffering beings so they may live in peace. These are stories of practice with all the burdens and sufferings. So again, I already told you a story which I didn't mention was a story. The story is today's story. You know, the word Father's Day doesn't actually reach the profundity of this day, but we say today's Father's Day.

[17:09]

And so, yeah, so now here's a story which is fatherhood, or being a father, Here's a sub-story. I'm a father. That's a story. I'm a grandfather. As far as I know, I'm not a great-grandfather. For me, and I would say for all fathers, fatherhood is a great opportunity. It is a great, wonderful responsibility.

[18:11]

And maybe I could mention right now that when I say the word opportunity, I often think of also the possibility of harm. the possibility of injury. The great opportunity goes with the harm of not fulfilling the opportunity. And part of the reason I think of that is because there's a Chinese compound are made of two characters. One character is opportunity, the other character is danger. The combination of opportunity and danger means crisis. The turning point of our life is our opportunities, moment by moment, and the danger

[19:19]

of not taking care of them, not accepting them and exercising them, which they're given to us to be exercised. So right there in every opportunity is the danger of not fulfilling it. And that's a crisis. Do we accept and exercise our opportunities So I thought I might mention a few opportunities of fatherhood. A few opportunities of fatherhood. And again, the word responsibility I often want to mention. Responsibility, part of the meaning of responsibility is duty. But another meaning of responsibility is a capacity. Another meaning of responsibility is a capacity, an ability.

[20:28]

Fathers and mothers, all of us, have the ability to respond to every situation. So every situation is an opportunity, a duty, and we have the ability to respond to it. I won't list all the harmful ways of responding. I'll talk about the beneficial ones. In being a father, and again this applies to mothers and applies to everybody, but let's just mention fathers, being a father, there is the opportunity To adore. To adore the children. Being a father, there is the opportunity to adore.

[21:39]

And the children are right there, needing to be adored. offering themselves to be adored. This is an opportunity if you're a father, if you're a mother. Another opportunity of being a father is being respectful. Being respectful of children. So many of you heard the story about me and a young man who called me granddaddy. By the way, I'm always impressed that these little people go to the trouble of saying a three-syllable name for me. But they go granddaddy. Granddaddy, they don't seem to be tired of saying that kind of long word.

[22:47]

Dad or Reb is shorter. But anyway, this person who called me granddaddy and still does, even though he's getting busier and busier at college, he was having breakfast in L.A. And I was there watching him eat his cereal. And I was availing myself of the opportunity and responsibility to adore him. I was standing there watching him eat his breakfast, adoring him. Nobody said, go adore him. I just came out. Just the adoration of the little boy came out. And the little boy's face started to crinkle up and his brow furrowed and his lips and cheeks twisted in pain. What? Adoration. Adoration. I didn't realize that that's what it was twisting for.

[23:50]

But then he said, not too long after the twisting and the furrowing, he said, would you please stop staring at me? And I said, okay, and I looked at the ceiling. Adoration and respect. If the adored one says, give me a break, give him a break. Everything they ask for, just respect them. Sometimes they don't want you to be adoring them. Well, respect that wish. Just look someplace else for a while. You don't have to stop adoring. Just respect their wishes. Respect the wishes of children. Respect the wishes of everybody. And you can get into this practice very nicely by being a grandparent. After being a grandparent, it helps you respect other people. It helped me a lot.

[24:51]

So before I had this little boy to adore, sometimes when I would see really large, what do you call it, male-identified sentient beings, like, you know, 6'4", 250 pounds in their trucks, you know, driving in very aggressive ways. Sometimes I would forget to adore them. I would find them, well, dangerous, arrogant, etc. But after having this little boy, I realized they're just little boys. They're just frightened little boys. who haven't gotten enough respect, etc., from their fathers and grandfathers and mothers. They're just like frightened little children, immature. They need more compassion. And now when I see them, I actually can kind of see them as my grand- my grand-boy.

[26:00]

And actually, they could actually be my grandchildren. biologically it's possible that some of these large, aggressive, arrogant, frightened, deluded people could be my grandsons. And so I can adore them and respect them. I don't like what they're doing, but I can respect them. It's good. My grandson helped me learn that. He showed me how sweet males can be. I didn't get it before he was born. When I was a little boy, I didn't think, oh, those other boys are so sweet. They probably were, but I didn't notice it. It's more like they were my playmates. Now I see how sweet the men can be. And I used to think before I migrated, I'd come and talk about certain men, and they'd say, oh, he's so sweet.

[27:03]

And I'd go, wow, you can see that? That's amazing. Adoration, respect, these are great opportunities and great responsibilities for us. Mother, mother. Well, they're responsibilities really for adults. And children can learn them, sometimes quite young. And when they learn them, they start to become an adult, a young adult, when they learn to adore and respect life. But certainly this is a duty of being a living being, a duty of being a father. What's next? Well next, the list goes on for a long time. The next opportunity is to be careful.

[28:06]

These beings, the little ones, and the medium-sized ones, but everybody sees the little ones, are really fragile. They're fragile. And that fragility is calling for carefulness, is calling for tenderness. These fragile beings are opportunities for tenderness and love in the form of tenderness. And then when they get bigger, they're still fragile and they're still calling. And when they get really old, we start to see again what living beings are. And in between, we sometimes say, people aren't fragile. You don't have to be tender with them. They'll be all right. Forget the tenderness for the middle 60 years. fatherhood and motherhood can teach us that everybody is fragile and everybody needs carefulness and tenderness.

[29:22]

Such a great responsibility, such a great opportunity. Can you stand another one? Okay, another one is being formal. Being grandfather is an opportunity to be formal, particularly grandchildren. When I take care of certain young little people, When I show up for my duty to take care of them, I often try to develop formal relationship with them. Some agreements about the time together, like when are we going to eat? How much screen time? When are we going to take a bath? What time going to bed? We make a formal arrangement so we can be at peace with each other.

[30:39]

Now, after we make the agreement, it doesn't mean that that's going to happen because people try to renegotiate or even get rid of the whole agreement. But it's something that it's an opportunity for a grandfather to work with a grandchild to negotiate the agreement to be To adore and respect and be tender with the agreement, it's a necessary, it's an opportunity. It's part of the responsibility. It's not completely just do it, do whatever. It's really at missing a responsibility. Well, I saw some people leave. It's getting late, so I won't tell all. I have a bunch of other stories, but there's a couple that I really want to get to, about 40 of them, and tell you another opportunity of being a grandfather, of being a father, of being a mother, of being a teacher.

[31:53]

It's the opportunity and the responsibility to tell stories. Mothers, fathers, and grandparents have the opportunity and the responsibility to tell the children stories about their ancestors, which will be very useful to them. And you should tell them soon because you want them to remember. And after you're gone, nobody else can tell them certain stories. And if you haven't heard the stories, ask people now to tell you stories about the ancestors, because you'll want them someday. They're really helpful for the family. The good stories, the wonderful stories. So part of the responsibility, part of the opportunity is to tell stories, which I've been doing this morning. Oh, I forgot one other really important responsibility, one really important opportunity for fathers and mothers too, is the opportunity to practice patience.

[33:07]

Because these little creatures and big creatures and all creatures offer us the opportunity for compassion by giving us a hard time. Giving us a hard time. by insulting us, by disrespecting you. Grandchildren sometimes disrespect their grandparents. Children sometimes disrespect their parents. And that's irritating. And there's an opportunity to practice patience with their disrespect. And with the aid of the patience and respect and all that, and the tenderness, we can teach them to be respectful. which is another great opportunity and responsibility, is to teach to be respectful and to teach them how to be respectful is to be patient with them disrespecting us. Back to the storytelling, one more I want to mention is

[34:16]

Being a father is an opportunity to give and receive gifts. Being a grandparent is an opportunity to give and receive gifts. And to understand that process and share it and learn it together with a child, with other beings. So back. I don't know, this song came up in my mind which has a storyline to it. And the storyline that goes with this song is that a boy is asking his father to tell him stories, or a story. And the father is really tired and not feeling well and doesn't want to tell any stories tonight. This is a song I heard back in the days when I was a boy.

[35:25]

The song goes something like this. Tell me a story. Tell me a story. Tell me a story. Remember what you said. You promised you would. You promised me you said you would. Yeah. So now give in and I'll be good. Tell me and then I'll go to bed. there's a young woman, a young girl comes out here sometimes and gives me the opportunity to adore her, to care for her, to respect her.

[36:30]

And she was here last weekend, not this weekend, last weekend. And as the bedtime approached, I asked her if she wanted a story, and she said yes, and I said, which one? And she said, Dr. Seuss. So I went, and there were a number of Dr. Seuss books in the library, and I pulled out one, and the name of that, Dr. Seuss. Did I ever tell you how lucky you are? So it's basically saying over and over again, do you know how lucky you are, ducky? I like the ducky part. And she said, why does he say ducky? I said, I don't know, ducky.

[37:32]

And then she laughed. And then she said, don't call me ducky. And I said, I won't, ducky. And then she laughed some more. And she said, call me ducky. Don't call me ducky. We had fun reading the story about how lucky we are. And so it goes back and forth of telling stories of chaos and confusion. And then the refrain is, remember how lucky you are. So now my big story at the end of all these stories is a story not exactly of how lucky you are or how lucky I am, but how blessed I am and how blessed we are. We are blessed. Now you tell me if I'm going on too long.

[38:34]

How am I doing? It's about time to stop? She said, pretty soon? So how can I say this next story pretty soon? The next story is about our original true nature.

[39:35]

Our original true nature is that we fully possess the wisdom and all the virtues of the Buddhas. And then there's another death story which is, but because of misconceptions, and attachments we don't realize our original true nature. So we have an original true nature and we have a kind of provisional or temporary not true nature, a nature where we don't understand our true nature.

[41:06]

So we have an original true nature and we have a temporary, provisional, kind of diluted nature. And those two natures live together. and their living together, the fact that they live together, that our original true nature, our temporary, diluted nature, the fact that they live close together, that they don't live separately, I call that our Buddha nature. Our Buddha nature isn't just our original true nature, it's our original true nature and associated with our constrained, limited, misconceived life. An attachment to that misconception. Those two live together. That's our Buddha nature. And realizing that relationship is peace.

[42:22]

In question and answer, I'll tell you a little bit more about this. Thank you very much.

[42:35]

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