We haven't sang too many songs this practice period. As a group, anyway. This one I thought was... Gee, now I can't find it. I know most of the words, but the introduction I hadn't seen before. Somebody just sent me this book. Oh, here it is. Somebody just sent me this book. It's from, I think, from a musical by Rogers and Hammerstein called The Sovereign and I.

[01:14]

and so one of the main characters in this musical is a teacher right and she starts off by saying it's a very ancient saying but a true and honest thought that if you become by your pupils you'll be taught As a teacher, I've been learning. You'll forgive me if I boast. And I've now become an expert. I like most getting to know you. Getting to know you Getting to know all about you Getting to like you Getting, no, excuse me, getting to like you, getting to hope you like me, getting to know you, putting it my way, but nicely, you are precisely my crush.

[02:38]

getting to know you getting to feel free and easy when I'm with you getting to know what to say haven't you noticed Suddenly I'm bright and breezy because of all the beautiful and new things I'm learning about you day by day. And one thing I just happened to find out about yesterday was this Chinese character.

[03:46]

This, these two characters. This means self. And you know the possible etymology of that character, right? It's the top part of nose. The Chinese character for nose has this element at the top. Anyway, this means... And this character means to abide. Abide. Or exist. In Japanese, jizai. So it looks like sometimes self-existent. Yeah, sometimes it's sometimes used as part of the translation of Avalokiteshvara. In particular, I think it's probably translating the part of Avalokiteshvara, which is Avalokita, right? Avalokita Ishvara. That's how you make it.

[05:01]

Ishvara means self-existent. So this is kind of, in some sense, a semantic translation, you could say, of self-existence. And the first character that they use when they translate this, and this is the form of what you touched on in the Hartsutra, the most common version of the Hartsutra in Chinese. The first character up here is... This means at guan, to observe. So in the Heart Safety, it says kanjizai. That also means . So observing, you could say observing self-existence, observing the way the self exists, is the name of Avalokiteshvara.

[06:11]

Now, in Sanskrit, it's ava-lokita means particularly observing, but observing from up, looking down, and observing, looking down and observing. But usually the way it's understood is the self-existent one, who looks down on the world. Ava-lokita. The one who's looking down from above upon the world. The self-existent one who's looking down upon the world. Self-existent one means like a lord or a god, right? So a divine being who's looking down on the world, who's looking down at the suffering of the world. Right? You know, although etymologically it may not be correct to interpret it that way, but You know, you can play with it. And I think it's true that it also can carries the, it also packs in the meaning of looking down on the world, looking down on the way beings exist, selves exist in the world.

[07:26]

So the Chinese look is literally looking down, looking, looking self-existent. So it could be the self-existent contemplation, or the contemplation of self, or contemplation of existence of this self. And this bodhisattva, in contemplating the existence of self, found that the self was empty. And this version of Avalokita, this kanji zai, appears very few places in Chinese Buddhist scriptures. scriptures, one of the few places it appears is in the Heart Sutra, where Avalokiteshvara is playing part of, you know, particularly meditating on the self. Yes, Samantha? To go? No. And the reason why I just brought this up, so you can see how my mind works, was we just sang this song. where she says, suddenly I'm free and breezy.

[08:42]

Yeah, free and breezy it says, but no, bright and breezy, there it is. Bright and breezy. Because I just ran into this self-existent as meaning free and easy. Baijian Guaihai talks about, you know, when you, you know, letting go, cutting off the road of , you're free and easy. And he uses this, self-existent. Kind of interesting, I thought. which is another way of understanding avalokiteshva. Avalokiteshva is watching the world of suffering, of being caught up in self-abiding in self, but also at the same time seeing free and easy, seeing the way they're empty and liberated.

[09:53]

Cutting off the road of words. you're free and easy. And a big part of Zen is to, you know, like, is to cut off the road of words and speech and then talk. To demonstrate that you've cut off the road of words and talk, that your talk is unhindered by words, that you can use words without being hindered by them. Because you're not using words to separate yourself from beings. You're using words to demonstrate that you're not hung up on words. Cut off the road of words, which also reminds me of that other thing I mentioned to some of you at the beginning of that African novel. Well, it's not really an African novel, it's an English novel written by an African. It's called the famished road.

[10:59]

Something like. In the beginning, it was a river. But then the river got covered over by a road. But because the road was originally a river, it was always hungry. So the river gets covered over by the road of words. the road of conceptual imputation. Dependent core rising gets covered over by conceptual imputation. But because conceptual imputation was originally dependent core rising, it's always hungry. It's a hungry road. But the road covers the whole world. The river got covered over by the road and covered the whole world. So is there anything to speak about?

[12:01]

Speak about? What? What did the road come from? What did it come from? The novel? Yes. The novel's called The Famished Road. And is it seriously called that? It is The Famished Road. You have trouble accepting that as not a joke? How come? You don't picture roads being hungry? That's right. That's our problem. We're wondering, where's this hunger coming from? A good road. The reason why I got the book was because I was watching a television show in England and, you know, just turned it on and there was this show of this presentation of the Booker Award, which is an award to writers in England.

[13:09]

I think they would give the Booker Award to a person who even wrote in America, but this guy was a Nigerian. I don't know if he got the Booker Award for... I think maybe he got it for this book, The Famished Road. So I heard The Famished Road... And I wanted to get it, not because the book sounded good, but because he read some of his poetry. And it was just so beautiful. He's one of our little, one of our poets on the planet. His name's Ben Okri. He's a Nigerian black guy, but he can really make English do wonderful things. I didn't like the book very much except the beginning, it's really strong. That first three or four sentences are... Another thing he said, actually the first couple pages, his creation myth is very beautiful.

[14:18]

Another thing he said was, we originally, you know, we were originally up there in the land of not hungry, right? But then as we got more and more happy, we got born into this world of suffering. So the concept that being in a very, very happy place, happy enough, you come back into the world of roads and hunger. You get born because of your happiness. And I think that's the case for bodhisattvas. They don't come down kind of like, oh, God, I have to go back there again? Oh, jeez. I don't want to go down there and those road words, those word roads. No, they don't even think that they want to come back. They don't think, oh, I want to go back. They think it's going to be fun. They're like totally, you know, they're born.

[15:20]

They come to play, and then when they get here, they find out. That it's very painful. Huh? I forgot. They remember it's painful. But they remember, even though they remember that it's painful, they don't forget why they came. They say, oh, yeah, it is painful. What did I come here again for? I came to play with these suffering beings. That was it. Yeah, good. Yeah, good. Okay. All right. Yes, Sarah. I can't remember if it was in that book. I was reading that. I didn't. Nobody finishes it. It was a what? A living road. Do you say it's a living road later? I'll check. I don't remember anything. Huh? Yeah, the living road, right.

[16:28]

And also, this morning, you might have heard the living road. Did you hear the living road this morning? Huh? This morning, we chanted the Fukanzazengi, talking about the living road, the vital way of total emancipation. It's also living road, the living road of total emancipation. Yeah, so there is a living road. Yes, Jeff? Do you happen to know when the Chinese system of writing developed? When did it start? I mean, what's the earliest signs we have of it? I don't really know, but I... that 3,000 years ago you have these primitive, these kind of early characters, 3,000 years ago, maybe 4,000, but at least 3,000.

[17:29]

Certainly, 2,500 years ago, you have massive oppression and highly organized bureaucracies. But I think maybe 3,000 years ago, or even 3,500 years ago, you have these highly developed And there's characters on some of those. I think maybe 3,500 years ago, the first signs of those primitive little kind of like types of characters at least were around. And then before that, there was the notches on bamboo. This is about words. I don't know if you want to... Well, in a sense, what you said is right.

[18:35]

It's what is between us. It's what creates separation. And connection right it makes connection too but there's a connection between things that are separate but there's an interdependence from things that aren't separate so we can be with each other without being connected does that mean that my realization has to be perfect? No, it means... It means that you can realize being separate and you can realize being connected.

[19:39]

But that's... Being connected means two separate things connected. So that's the world of suffering. But there's another world where we're not connected, we're interdependent. There's no, like, Brian over there on his own who's connected to Reb over here on his own. There's no Brian independent of Reb. That world of interdependence, which is not really connection of separate things, is what we find when we don't get caught by words anymore. You don't have to get rid of the words. So, you know, the world of words can coexist with the world of cutting through them. So you can use these words, but words usually are this and that, self and other. They precipitate, you know, these views and make them solid. And then there is connection, but as long as there's connection between beings that are separate, there's still anxiety. We're connected to who we're separate from.

[20:42]

That's nice. If we're separate from who we're separate from, that's not so nice. Well, sometimes it is maybe, but anyway. The separation, as long as it's solid rather than just conjured up by words, it produces ills. So as sentient beings, that's all we've got. But as Buddhas, we have more than that. We have the world of dependent core arising where there isn't separation. There's just interdependence. There is no separation. Separation is just a projection. It's not a real thing. And words solidify that projection. So as suffering beings, that's all we've got, is that karmic world. But, again, the suffering that arises from that solidifying that projection itself is what Buddhas know about.

[21:44]

So if you study that and understand that, then you see how it works and you become free of the whole process. Yes? The idea of the living road, that it's still there, or the river is still there. It's not secure, but part of our job is finding it again. Right. Our job is to recover the river. Yes. I'm not sure I can get this into something clear, but I thought I'd read Brian and say, Uh-huh. Uh-huh. The way that we are related to ourselves and to the world, and to each other.

[22:55]

Uh-huh. So, outside of work, our language is Catholicism. What we do here doesn't matter. You know, our vow here matters, but they don't work. Well, the first part, again, if you say we are connected beyond... You can say we are connected in some way beyond words. Um... In that statement, there is this thing of, you know, we are two different things connected. And number one, that's just more suffering. And number two, you need words for that.

[23:58]

That we are ourselves or others without words. There's no... So that's kind of like one. That's not... Well, you can say one big connection, but again, connection means between things that aren't the same. Connection doesn't make sense between something that's one thing. But interdependence doesn't mean that things are the same or different. It just means that whatever existence there is, is that whatever seems to be appearing, arise by itself. It arises because of dependence. Depending on something, it appears. That is pre-verbal. And also, the belief that there's something that's not like that is also pre-verbal.

[25:04]

The belief that there's something which isn't dependent, that there's something self-existent, is pre-verbal. And then you give a being who has that pre-verbal ignorance language, and then they use language to manifest and project this misunderstanding. Interdependence is pre-verbal, and independence, the idea of independence, is pre-verbal. The view, the false view, the ignorant view of inherent existence is pre-verbal, and also the wisdom, which understands interdependence, is also pre-verbal. But it also is the dependent co-arising of words and suffering. Yes.

[26:11]

Uh-huh. So I understand that this and that we've covered a lot of ground in these classes. And I'm wondering how you feel about the teachings that you intended to transmit to us. I feel great! And I would say, you know, at various points when I was reading certain scriptures, I felt consolation, solace, Because the Buddha said, oh, this is so hard to teach this stuff. You know, one of the most famous, the Maha Nidana Sutta starts out with Buddha start talking about the pinnacle arising.

[27:19]

And Ananda says, it's really clear this teaching about the pinnacle arising. And Buddha says, don't say that, Ananda. This is not easy stuff. Akshaya Vedananda said, this is so profound, this teaching is so profound, yet it's easy. Buddha said, don't say that last part there. One interpretation of some of the things the Buddha said is that he hesitated to teach dependent co-arising and emptiness because he thought it would be so hard to teach. So I have found that practice period the most difficult, I think, maybe ever. But not the most difficult because the students are resisting. I didn't feel like you were resisting. I tried to teach, I tried to study and teach and bring forth the teachings of emptiness before, like many years ago, and just everybody went to sleep.

[28:25]

And then the last few years... for whatever reason, people have not been going to sleep. I don't know what the difference is. But people have not been going to sleep when the stuff's... But people have... For example, this practice period, people had a lot of difficulty. Real hard, real hard. Yes. I feel like we got into it enough for a lot of people to have... When you have you're getting into it. When you feel that it's difficult, you're getting into it. If you go to sleep when you hear about it, you're not really having a hard time. You're just saying, I know what to do. But many of you thought about it and listened enough to be challenged. And I'm really happy that by your response, I felt inadequate most of the time.

[29:29]

uh that i you know but it wasn't that i wanted things to go faster or something like that uh like i said in one of the classes if i if i get then i feel like well we tried to climb mount everest and we got you know about 150 feet up if i forget about gaining idea i just think it's great that we got to try to climb mount everest i think it's wonderful that we have a mount everest to climb and if we can climb 150 feet As a group, it's fabulous. We still, you know, we're still climbing Mount Everest, after all, and we're still mountain climbers, and it's a wonderful activity. But, you know, so there's many more trips that we can take now. I don't feel frustrated at all, and yet it was difficult. And your response has been, generally speaking, great.

[30:32]

Which is basically that you have responded. You haven't just tuned out, as far as I can tell. Very little, like just spacing out and going to sleep. Yes? Luminous Hall? So, if I believe in this view of self, what about, could there be... Ah, you can just say, if there's a belief in self. There isn't one who does, and there isn't one who doesn't. as a way of talking about it? Is there that way of talking about it? Yes, there is. But if you ask me, in the first place, there isn't one who doesn't have the view and there isn't one who does. Just like Nagarjuna said, the Buddha taught self and no self.

[31:38]

But he didn't teach self, and there was a thing, no self. So there isn't somebody who... independent of having the view that there is a self. There isn't then, on top of the view of the self, a self that has the view of self. No, there isn't. But there also isn't one who does not have that view. Maybe what I wonder is, while there is that view, could there be moments of expression This is on the ultimate level I'm answering your question. Conventionally, there is a self. And conventionally, there could be a self that has a view of inherent existence. And conventionally, there could be a self who realizes the emptiness of inherent existence. The self like that.

[32:41]

He wants to know if the beliefs co-exist. Can the belief in the inherent existence co-exist? Is that what you want to know? Can the two views co-exist? Yes. Belief in inherent existence and seeing the emptiness of inherent existence, can they co-exist? Either co-exist or alternate. They can alternate, yes. They can alternate in the same conventionally existing person. Yes. But they can't co-exist in a conventionally existing person. They can only coexist in a Buddha. So it's possible to at some point not have that belief? That's right. How would that work? How would it work? Once you've got that belief, you're a stream anchor, right? Yeah. So, one way to understand this is, once you understand emptiness, if your understanding of emptiness is what we call through, is an inferential understanding of emptiness, in other words, you understand it for this particular, in a particular case, you understand it, you will be able to realize that on other cases, but you'll have to apply that understanding to the other cases.

[34:07]

They won't be dropped right away. So, in a sense, you switch back to the belief in inherent existence of something. You'd realize emptiness of something. Then something else would appear. And for a moment there, it would appear, because things still do appear as though they were out there on their own. our belief in inherent existence we think things are actually out there on their own separate from us once you realize it's not true for one thing you basically have the that realization that's being a stream enterer you could say now because of that when you see again another example of something appearing to own you will be able to look at that and understand that that's an illusion and again realize the emptiness of that out there on its ownness.

[35:10]

In other words, you will not be able to find that it's out there on its own when you look for it. But when you first see it, there still might be that view that might pop up there, and you do it again. So in a sense, you won't be fooled for long anymore. So there is a big change once you realize the emptiness of one thing. You have to keep applying it over and over. There is a difference. One of the big differences is this amazing experience of direct emptiness. And at that time you understand the emptiness of everything. So even though things will again appear to exist until you're a completely enlightened Buddha, things will still appear, but you'll instantly understand that they're emptiness. apply your meditation to them to realize, oh yeah, this is empty too. That's one story. That's the direct realization of emptiness, which is, you know, very, you know, well along in the bodhisattva development.

[36:18]

That happens, you know, pretty high yogic situation to produce that kind of thing. Yes? Yes? How do you do the impression? He said it's been a really long time since I did one. You can be Buffalo Bob. How do you do you wear glasses? Yeah, some people don't know who Natalie is. She's too young. Holly Doody. Holly Doody was a, I think it was called the Holly Doody Show or something. Yeah, I don't know. The guy with the star with Holly Doody.

[37:18]

He was a mannequin, right? A mannequin? A puppet. A puppet. A puppet. A puppet-sized string. Mary Ann. [...] Clarabelle. Clarabelle. And then there was... Gretchen Park. Other marionettes, like Mr. Buster, and there was Princess Summer for our winter space. Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, girlfriend. Thank you very much. This is an afternoon show. After school. Five days a week.

[38:24]

Okay, I want to just be honest with you. What year is this? It's a TV show. It's a TV show. I don't know if it's still touring. Really, it's on a street fair. He's like, still more like, where's the outfit and looks kind of okay. Are we ready? We're ready. I'm waiting on the painter.

[39:24]

Like me? Do you like this one? Should we move this? I think we need at least a couple of connections. Okay. Perfect. Hey, kids, what vibe is it? So this is, uh... I don't know, but it can't be that strange. They weren't really on the ground. They just touched slightly on the earth.

[40:26]

Is that enough? Actually, I should have done it over by you. You couldn't see. What really drew you to Zen were these stories about these Zen monks who made really creative responses when they were asleep. And I think there's some story about Hakumen back here, but I don't remember the details. Could you tell us the story? Did somebody ask you to put you up to this?

[41:31]

You really don't remember the details? I remember some of the details. Oh, so you couldn't tell it if I asked you to tell it. I wouldn't tell it as well as you tell it. And you usually tell it when you bring up this thing about the story. Yeah, right. It's one of the main stories that Drew Mead is in. It's actually in the, you know, for years, I remember the story but forgot who it was. first read the story, I didn't know who Hakuen was. To me, when I read Zen, it's Zen flesh, Zen bones, those stories. So when I was reading these stories, they often would say the monk's name, but I never, I didn't know that that monk was some big Zen master, right? To me, this was like a one-time deal for them. So I just remembered a monk, and so the monk was not just any old monk, it was this one of the primary Rinzai Zen monks in history Hakuin and he lived in a fishing village and by the way Hakuin's village is right near the fishing village is right near Suzuki Roshi's fishing village so Hakuin's temple is near Suzuki Roshi's temple they're on the Pacific side of Japan about an hour

[42:59]

south of Tokyo. So probably the fishing village that Hakuin was in was just, you know, quite close to the fishing village that Suzuki Roshi grew up in. Actually, he didn't grow up in that town, but anyway, the fishing village that Rinso-in is in. So in this fishing village, went to her parents at one point and said that she was pregnant, and she said the father of her baby was Hakuin. So she wasn't married to him, and he was, you know, supposed to be a... So he was accused of this. So the parents went to him and insulted him, falsely accused him. And this is the situation that most brings out the self, right? And so on and so forth.

[44:03]

A disgrace to the Buddhist tradition. And that when the baby came, he could have it and he could take care of it. And he said, is that so? And I said, ah, soですか? It's like, So it's like this, is it? So it's come to this, has it? And so when the baby was born, they did bring him the baby, and he took care of it with the help of his father for two years, I believe. And then finally the girl told the parents that Hakman was not the father, that a young man in the village was the father. Then the parents, yes. think that includes changing diapers? I think so. I think it probably includes changing diapers. Well, actually, you know, in Japan, except in the winter, they just walk around without any diapers on.

[45:07]

But he probably cleaned up the poop on the mats in the temple. But this was his baby, his responsibility. He wasn't going down in the... ...helping people with... So he did that for two years and the parents came back and they said, you know, we're terribly sorry. We accused you of offending yourself and you took care of our grandson and now you're going to give it back to us, are you? And he said, yeah, sure, take it. And they said, you are truly a great priest and a great inspiration and that would would be the way to be. Not only would I be happy, but everybody I met would be sharing in that way of responding. And so that was Hakuin.

[46:12]

Mostly he was famous for training, being very strict at training monks. But this is the case where he's the kind of person he was. And also, when I read the story, I didn't feel... For me, the story was not about somebody who was not affected by the insult. You could understand the story as you come up and you spit in the guy's face and it doesn't... You insult him and scream at him and call him a disgrace and it doesn't bother him. And then you praise him. and doesn't affect him either. That wasn't the way I understood it. I understood that when people were criticizing him, you know, it hurt, you know, that he was a sensitive organism, that he wasn't entirely withdrawn from the world in his experience, and that when he was praised, I also felt that his body would respond in a certain way to the praise, which was different from the insult. That's the way I would see the organism would still be responding to the hot and cold,

[47:15]

But the training would be... The way you relate to that experience would be that in the herd, there's just a herd, that way of being with it, so that there is this training of your response. So you can say in both cases sincerely, is that so? And the further... That's to me is that he was affected differently by the two situations. That's why the same response had such impact. And the other thing which came to me after a number of years was when he said, is that so? It wasn't just the same response, but he was also maybe even considering in both cases. Maybe I am a bad priest. Is that so, that I'm a bad priest? Is that so that you're telling me I'm a bad priest? And is that so that I am a bad priest? So I'll think about that. So another dimension of the story came up in that way.

[48:25]

You could see it that way, yeah. And then the other story, which also... main one from that thing, which is also about somebody who's famous, who I didn't know when I read the story that it was famous, is Ryokan, the famous Sotozen poet, who wrote great poems and also played with children all the time, apparently. And he... He was teaching, but he was the teacher of the children, not the parents of the children. The parents were... The parents weren't interested in him. Just tell the story. So this story is about... It's a full moon night and... And he's, well, there's one way to hear his story.

[49:29]

He's in his hut and he hears this thief coming up. He hears somebody sneaking up to his house. And as the person's about ready to come in the house, he takes all of his clothes off. Well, he takes all his possessions and throws them out the window. Plus he takes all his clothes off and throws them too. He said, here, take all I've got. Not much, but so it's yours. And then as the thief's off with the goods, he yells after him, and I'm sorry, I can't give you the full moon too. So that little punchline too, I can imagine, I've heard other stories, you know, of people giving away their stuff, but that you actually wouldn't just be giving not being attached to it, but even want to give the person more than you've got. That's really great. And again, I thought, that's the way I want to be.

[50:32]

And so then I found out these guys practiced some kind of way where they got to work with themselves to get maybe in touch with what it is that makes it, that hinders us from responding in these wonderfully creative ways. Wonderfully, you know, surprising, unexpected, and enlightening and, you know, soothing ways. Probably the, probably the, everybody was happy, right? The thief not only got all the stuff, but he probably felt, gee, this is really interesting, too. This wasn't a usual job tonight. Well, that's not again, like I mentioned just a couple of times, Wang Bo's definition of enlightenment is this silent,

[51:49]

contract and that's all you don't i wonder i think this is an appropriate response you're you're working closely together with beings you're in this you're in this um close committed relationship you're walking hand in hand through birth and death but you don't necessarily think response, I'm doing the right thing. Because what if they, you know, as you're walking into death, what if they say, I've changed my mind, I'm not going to go into death. Now, wait a minute, I'm walking through birth and death with you, and it's time for death. Let's go. I'm doing this appropriate response thing, and this is the... So I think you don't circumscribe the appropriate response. You don't have this sense of what it is. You just... Joining hands with beings and walking through birth and death.

[52:53]

You do not have an agenda about what it's going to look like or how it's going to go. So you're not... It's appropriate. The thought may occur to you, but you're not operating the level of... Okay, now, one, two, three, let's do the appropriate response. It's more like one, two, three. It's creative. It's creative, yeah, it's very creative. And it's not creative... The appropriate response is not... side or your side. It isn't that I do the appropriate response. Hakun couldn't do what he did. He couldn't be the way he was if the people weren't doing that to him. Ryokan couldn't have done that if there wasn't a thief. They did that together. Not like you think, oh, I wonder if I did the appropriate response. You could say, I wonder if that was, I wonder, did we dance? Was that a dance that we just did? You could wonder, I guess.

[53:53]

But usually in dance, you're not like thinking on this. Am I dancing? How do I dance? If you're still doing that, you're more like in a dance class. Or you're sitting on the edge saying, geez, I wonder if I would be able to dance. When you're actually out there, when you're actually dancing, you're not within the prescription of dancing. Does that make sense? Yes? Yes? You say that the thought of I is kind of relieved in that moment on both sides? The thought of I is relieved, yeah. You're being relieved. You're relieved. So the thought of I is still hovering there in the neighborhood, but the actual appropriate response is not the two I's. But the two eyes are part of what's going on there. And if someone said, boy, you guys are really dancing well, one of the eyes might go, beep, [...] beep.

[54:57]

And the face might turn red. But the person wasn't actually talking about you. They were talking about the dance, which isn't you. And you could shift back that. But really, the eye was relieved. And therefore, this wonderful thing could happen. Without killing the I, without annihilating it, there can be relief. When you were talking to David about dancing, I remember in a movie I saw one time, this woman had been going to the therapist and... I don't actually want to go into the whole thing, but at one point he asked her to dance. And they said, dance... Right.

[55:59]

And like Wang Bo says, and that's it. There's just this unselfconscious working together and that's it. There's no on top of that, like, something on top of that. Wow! It's been a while. You'd like to ask about what they are? Do you want me to write them on the board? Do you want me to write them on the board or not? In Chinese, jirguan. In Japanese, shikan.

[57:02]

No. Shikan means just or only. Different Shikan, right? Yeah. It's already there, but it's an ugly version of it, so I'm going to erase it. I'll write him in the middle here, because that's . So this character, the first one, Jur in Chinese or Shi in Japanese. This is the character which I mentioned you see on stop signs all over Japan. It means stop. Look. It means stop. It means stabilize, calm. And then the other one is this one I already wrote.

[58:11]

The same character as in, you know, Guan Yin. Observing the cries of the world or listening to the cries of the world. That one. So this is Khan or Guan. That's the she. And this is the car. And taza means, the word ta means to hit. So some people say in sas, the sitting, some people say it means to hit sitting, but sometimes ta does mean to hit, but in the case of hit sitting, it just intensifies sitting.

[59:21]

So just only intensely sit, or just only sit, or just sit. Pardon? Do I know where those characters are derived from? Some origins. Well, sitting, sitting I know. Sitting's really cute. Do you want to see sitting, how cute, how cute sitting is? Sitting is so cute. So here is... Oh, sitting is so cute. I mean, this is like all of Buddha's... Huh? Am I getting any... Yes. I just... For your benefit, you know. Otherwise, you wouldn't know what I was talking about. So here we have the character. This character is a character for Earth. See it, that Earth? One other character is Earth, and some other one.

[60:25]

And then you have up here two people sitting on Earth. So sitting in this character, sitting is not just one foot. So just do that kind of sitting. Or two people sitting on the earth. Do that two people sitting on the earth sitting. OK? Do that. Try that. So you can see why we emphasize that practice of sitting, because it's us sitting on the earth. It's practicing together with all beings on the earth. And the hit, I don't know the etymology of hit. And the character for mouth on legs, walking mouth. Huh? Yeah, it's got some mouth there.

[61:28]

The top part's a mouth, and it's got little legs coming down from it. Could you tell us a little bit more about that site? Because it's also, you know, it's the, it's strongly location. It's not just... Yeah, well, it's like earth with a little roof on it. This is also the earth thing, see? This is earth, earth radical, with this little hut on the top of it. So it's kind of like, this is in a... It's also in a boat. It's like a... It's a, you know, like a house or a residence. This is your residence, right? This also means for your address or something. So this is what bodhisattvas don't have. You know, and it says in the Dhamma Sutra, create a mind which doesn't have one of these residences, doesn't abide anywhere. Yeah, this is the zai, and kei is house.

[62:34]

But again, the interesting thing about zai kei is zai kei and shu kei, the word kei can mean, you know, house, you know, like your family house. But it also can mean, like in Zen, your family style, like the, you know, the kind of practice you're doing, like Rinzai Zen or a particular lineage is also sometimes called the kei or ka, the house. Like a lineage. Huh? Like a lineage. Yeah, right. So one way to understand this is the literal way is you're staying in your family's personal residence. But another way to understand it is in terms of maybe Zen style. So one way is you'd leave your family residence and enter the Zen house. But the Zen house is that you shouldn't even abide in the Zen house.

[63:39]

That's the Zen house. So wherever you are, you're supposed to not be residing. And again, Avalokiteshvara is watching the selves that do abide. Because there's the one who's crying. They're crying because they're abiding. So the bodhisattvas create a mind that doesn't do this and then they keep an eye on those who are doing this. And they're not complaining about it. They're happy to do the work of contemplating the cries. So, contemplation, you know, if you're contemplating sounds, like kanan, contemplating the sounds, or kanzeon, contemplating the sounds of the world, then you're listening. So, primarily it's listening, because it has an, you know, kanan or kanzean. If you were seeing, then you would be looking. And if you were smelling, the contemplation would be smelling.

[64:50]

And if you were touching, the contemplation would be touching. If you were tasting, the contemplation would be tasting. If you were conceiving, the contemplation would be of conception. But the name has, in Chinese, they put sound first. But in Sanskrit, they do not put the sound first. They say just the world, which the world comes in these five skandhas. So you're actually observing the five. Sanskrit doesn't specify sound above the others. Yes. Yes. Pardon? Well, you could say seeing, hearing, or contemplating. Do you say seeing, hearing? No, it means contemplating sound. But the way we usually contemplate sound is we listen to it, right?

[65:50]

So it's contemplate sound or regard sound. Or, again, this word kan also means insight. So it would have insight into sound. In other words, oh, this is the crying of a living being. Oh, this is the crying. This is, oh, this is my partner crying. This is my partner crying. This is like insight. When you understand that the cries are the cries and your partner is something that you do not exist independent of in this partnership practice. So that's like you understand the relationship. You understand what the sound means. And so then the appropriate response will come because of that understanding. You interfere with the appropriate response, which is that you're listening. Somebody's making a sound, you're listening. That's the appropriate response. Don't you think? Yes? Yes?

[66:53]

I think I would say direct perception of emptiness is wisdom, but wisdom is based on insight. In this wisdom, there's no conceptual mediation, but there still can be conceptual insight. So vipassana is actually like, it sets the ground for non-conceptual, non-discriminating, totally, you know, direct realization. Some bodhisattvas are not at that stage. But some bodhisattvas are at that stage. And you're wondering, when they're having that direct realization, are they that way all the time? No, they're not that way all the time.

[68:06]

No. They do sometimes come back in and get involved with conceptual mediation again in order to play with conceivers. Once you understand emptiness, you don't stop understanding emptiness. Once you're a stream-enterer, whether you're on the bodhisattva path or not... So bodhisattvas can be stream-enterers too, it's just that they're stream-enterers with this vow to save all beings and become... Not everybody that's a stream-enterer is trying to be a Buddha. Some stream-enterers want to be arhats. So... some Theravada scriptures, like the Kacchyanagota Sutta, for example, have teachings of emptiness in them that's teaching of no-self. Bodhisattvas can study that sutra and realize stream-entry-ship through that sutra, can realize no-self through that teaching.

[69:09]

But people who do not have bodhisattvas can also realize enlightenment through that teaching. But they don't realize Buddhahood. They realize So their understanding is good. Yes? Is the direct perception of emptiness necessary to attain stream entry or is it not necessary to attain stream entry? It is not necessary to attain stream entry, no. Lack of inherent existence of person is necessary to be a stream-managerer. So you have to understand what they call as the expression sat-kaya-drshti of the truth or the true existence of the kaya. And kaya means body, literally, but it could be understood as, for example, the five aggregates.

[70:14]

So when you don't any longer believe aggregates really inherently exist, then you're a stream enterer. But that's not direct perception of emptiness. That experience can be conceptually mediated and still counts. And once you have that experience, once you have that experience, in some ways your concepts help you because they remind you that you realize that this stuff doesn't inherently exist. You understood that. And you never forget it. You're permanently changed from that realization. So you have actually entered the stream. But there can be lots of residual habits that have not been worked through yet. And that's part of the yogic path to direct realization of emptiness.

[71:22]

It starts to clear out your body, the habits in your body. But even the arhats do that too. They also clear out the habits in the body, but bodhisattvas have even further work beyond that. Their vow is to come back and work with beings in endless ways, provoke situations which more thoroughly and completely purify their body and mind until the Buddha-land is realized. Because when they... beings, the merit of this semi-enlightened being interacting in the world of suffering precipitates the Buddha-land. which is what Buddhas vow to do. They don't just vow to attain enlightenment and help people. They vow to make a Buddha land, a Buddha world, to make an actual world of Buddha.

[72:26]

And Arhats do not have that vow. They do not vow to make Buddha lands. Although some Arhats, even without the vow to make the Buddha land, are making a Buddha land. or have been making Buddha land. In other words, they have this insight and they come into the world and interact with beings and create the merit of that interaction. And this is setting the stage for a Buddha land, even though they may not have consciously thought of the bodhisattva vow. Examples of arhats living that way after becoming arhats and in some sense precipitating the very thing that bodhisattvas are doing. thinking, you know, consciously thinking of doing. So bodhisattvas conceptually commit themselves to doing it. But even if they're not arhats, they do. But some arhats might be doing this work without even thinking of it. Does that make sense?

[73:29]

And some other arhats apparently became arhats and did not do this work. And that's one or that perhaps historical fact is perhaps one of the reasons for the arising of the Mahayana, is that some people were attaining arhatship but not making Buddha lands. They were staying separate from the uneducated, unconverted people. The people who wouldn't listen to the teachings, they kind of said, okay, they're not listening to the teachings, we'll leave them alone. rather than make a Buddha world where they'll have no choice. Because you can't force, you know, people to do. But you can create a situation where they will want to. So that's part of, that's one of the great virtues of Zen Center.

[74:30]

Is it's created a place that people who don't want to practice come, and then when they get here, they decide they want to practice. Tell them about, you know, the reifying views that they have and how they believe in inherent existence and they should knock it off. Not because of that, but because of the gardens and because of the flower arrangements you put on their little tables and because of the food and because of the kindness. These things... make them live in a Buddha world where they start to think, well, maybe I will start practicing. And then they can be given these teachings which they originally wouldn't have wanted to hear about. As a matter of fact, when they do hear about them, they kind of say, oh, geez, it's so hard to learn this stuff too. But they've already been hooked by the Buddha land. They've already been hooked by the friendliness and the well-taken-care-of space and the rock walls.

[75:36]

So that's part of what we're doing here is making this place. And you know, AA is very close to Mahayana Buddhism. Very close. The main difference between AA and Mahayana Buddhism is AA does not have a garden. The problem is by not having a garden, you don't have to fundraise. You don't have to have staff. You don't have to have staff meetings. Stuff like that. Do you know what I mean? Are you following me? Right. And that's good. That's the advantage. That's strong. And that's the problem of having a garden is that people say, oh, it's a Zen garden. Oh, yeah, that's Zen bread. And that's a Zen flower arrangement. So they do that. So that's a strong point of Zen, it's a real culture to attract people.

[76:43]

But you have to understand, the reason for that is not to be possessive, but to offer a place where people can approach practice. And one other thing I just want to say, now that I'm on this little jag, and that is that sometimes the funeral Buddhism in Japan because then priests did so many funeral ceremonies. And that's where they got their, well, it's an important function, but also that's where they got a lot of their financial support. And she studied with a teacher named Harada Roshi. And his point was, priests should learn how to do funeral ceremonies really, really well. So that when the people come to the funeral ceremony, they'll think, geez, that was really a nice ceremony. You know, that was really helpful and you guys really... I could feel your effort into doing that ceremony well. The reason for doing that is partly to do the ceremony, which is important, but the main reason is to attract people to zazen.

[77:49]

Because if they go to the ceremony, and even if they're not Buddhists, and they move by the ceremony, they might start, you know, wanting to do the... So, doing a good funeral ceremony is a kind of aspect of a Buddha land. where people can, like, open up to practicing the way. Whereas before that, they think, oh, emptiness, the pinnacle of rising, I don't like that stuff, or whatever. But maybe I will go to Zazen instruction. Because I just felt something really nice during that ceremony, and it was just great. And maybe it takes a few years before they come, but they remember that ceremony and they say, oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So we do these things, you know. But the point of them is just to help beings become Buddhas, really.

[78:52]

That's what it's all about. So should we go sit for a little while before our lovely vegetarian feast? It's going to be brown rice. So I was telling Robert, I was listening to this tape of Suzuki Roshi, some of you have heard it, where he talks about, he says, he starts out by saying, how do you like Zazen? How do you like Zazen? Like that. And he says, he says, he said, maybe better to ask you, how do you like brown rice? And he says, Zazen is too much. So he talks about brown rice and he gives this fantastic ad for brown rice about how great brown rice is, you know, and how impressed he is by the American Zen students who really chew the brown rice.

[79:53]

He said, I'm really, I was really impressed to see you really chew it. That's so good. And he talks about how white rice is so delicious, but just for a second that it's delicious, and then you swallow it. So easy to just take a bite and swallow it. But if you actually keep chewing it, just that first taste is there, and then after that there's nothing. Whereas brown rice, the more you chew, the more delicious it becomes. Well, he also liked chicken and fish, too. And so part of what he did was buy it, which he was used to, for us. And that didn't cause him to get cancer, but I think that weakened him quite a bit. But he wouldn't have a special practice situation when tasara started.

[80:54]

He just did the same thing as the other monks. People said, you know, go to your room, we'll make special dinner for you. He said, no. So it would have been nice, of course, if he could live longer, but he set an example. See, there was nobody else that set an example. He didn't have a bunch of junior priests to show us what monastic practice should look like. So Katagiri Roshi could have shown, but he was covering for, he was taking care of, Sokoji was, he was down here. So he had to make clear, you know, that he was, you know, by him sitting there, we got a very clear message of, oh, yeah, practice is like to follow the schedule. He's following the schedule. It wasn't like, you guys follow the schedule. It's like, you know, let's, should we follow the schedule now? You know, and then he was there, and so we were there. And it's very simple to get the idea of what it was. If he had presented us with a more complicated example at the beginning, you might not have understood that we're not the old man.

[82:01]

who needs some chicken. So he practiced with us. And also, although he thought that chewing brown rice was really good, it was hard for him. He had false teeth. It's hard for him to chew. As well as the young people with their nice strong teeth, it's hard for him to chew. They don't have enough to eat, too. So he lost a lot of weight. So he sacrificed, in some sense, that for us. And now that he's done that, we must repay his kindness. And if you ever get served white rice, you should chew it as much as you should chew brown rice to verify the flatness of the taste and how it doesn't get more interesting the more you chew. It just turns into glue. Well, on that note, let us just sit.

[83:14]

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