As you may know, or you may have noticed, I should say, there's lots of changes happening here at this temple. this temple called Green Dragon Zen Temple, which, by the way, you're welcome to come and practice in this place where there's lots of changes happening. We're going to have lots of work done on the building behind this building. This building, a long time ago, this building was a hay barn. This building here was a hay barn. The walls were corrugated sheet metal.

[01:05]

And behind where the altar is, there was a trap door where the hay was dropped down through the floor to below where there were cows. So we made the hay barn into a Zen meditation hall. And I think around 1991, we reconstructed this building to make it so we can have earthquakes here and just sit peacefully through them. And we've done a lot of work in the room behind, which used to be a tack. We've remodeled that many times. And now we're going to do it again. And also we're going to redo the basement where the cow stalls used to be.

[02:15]

And it's going to be a library down below here. I have a little room right over there where I've been meeting with people for 24 years. It's actually room number one. And I moved out now. And people have come to see me the last few days saying, I'll miss this room. And I said, I will too. It's a lovely little room. which used to belong to, before me, one of dearly departed practitioners named Jerry Fuller used to live there. And then when he moved out, I moved in. I think that's the way it was. I hesitate to say what this temple is, what the purpose of this temple is, but I think part of the corporation of Zen Center, it says that this temple is for the promotion of the teachings of the Buddha, for the realization of great compassion and perfect wisdom.

[03:55]

I think so, maybe something like that. I've got to have that right. But lately, lately I've been offering teachings about what's called the great vehicle. universal vehicle. It's a set of teachings, a very extensive set of teachings, which are intended for people, for living, for beings, humans and non-humans, any kind of being who wishes to attain complete perfection in order to benefit all living beings. those who wish to work towards the best possible combination of wisdom and compassion in order to be the best possible servant to all beings.

[04:59]

We call these beings bodhisattvas sometimes. The historical Buddha in India, Shakyamuni Buddha, was called the bodhisattva during his long evolution through many forms, and whatever, through all those forms of evolution leading up to the function of Buddhahood, that was called the Bodhisattva. So those who wish to join the Buddha's path are now called Bodhisattvas. So the teachings which I've been offering lately are teachings for bodhisattvas. So I ... I want you to know that ... but I don't know if everyone in this room wishes to be a bodhisattva, so I respectfully ...

[06:07]

I apologize if these teachings in any way are not your way. If your way is not the bodhisattva way, then some of these teachings might not be appropriate, so I offer them cautiously. But even if you're not sure you want to be a bodhisattva, at least please understand for such beings. During the time that I've been at Zen Center, many people, not many, yeah, quite a few people I just want to say that actually I do not wish to save all beings. I'm not there. I don't want to do that.

[07:12]

I just want to help myself. And some people say, I just want to help myself and a few people. Is it okay if I practice here? And I always say, of course, you're welcome to be here. Still, the drumbeat of the bodhisattva's practice is continuing every day in this temple. Every morning, or almost every morning, from the beginning of this temple and before this temple in the San Francisco Zen Center, and before that all over Asia, in Zen temples, the songs of the bodhisattvas And these songs are songs of wisdom, of perfect wisdom. A wisdom that liberates all beings from any hindrance, any obstacle to freedom and peace and joy and enthusiasm to help others.

[08:30]

Every morning we chant a scripture called the Heart of Perfect Wisdom. So it's part of the Zen tradition to listen to teachings on perfect wisdom over and over and over again. And even though that's the case, I still apologize to you for talking about the same thing over and over. I heard that someone in what I teach, when I was visiting a monastery called Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, I was visiting there And I heard that before I came to give some teachings, one of the students there asked another one who knew me a little bit, well, what does he teach?

[09:39]

And the other students who knew me a little bit says, well, he just teaches the same thing over and over. But it's pretty good. And just a couple of days ago, I got a message. I'm going to, I go to Berkeley to give a class at a place called the Yoga Room. And the name of the class is The Mother of All Buddhas. The Mother of All Buddhas called Prajnaparamita. Prajnaparamita. And again, almost every morning here, after we recite the Heart of Perfect Wisdom scripture, the Heart of Prajnaparamita. Prajnaparamita means perfect wisdom.

[10:43]

After we recite that Heart of Perfect Wisdom, we recite a hymn to Prajnaparamita. We recite a hymn of appreciation for perfect wisdom. Chant, homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy. The perfection of wisdom gives light. Unstained, the entire world cannot stain her. She is a source of light and from everyone in the world she removes darkness. Most excellent are her works. She brings light so that all fear and distress may be forsaken and disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion. She herself is a vision. She has a clear knowledge of the own being of all dharmas, for she does not stray away from it.

[11:48]

The perfection of wisdom of the Buddhas sets in motion the wheel of dharma. So this hymn we recite every day. Almost there. Sometimes on Friday we don't have service. But maybe somebody in the valley is reciting it in their house. Maybe somebody in the valley is reciting it all day long. I just thought of a children's song. Maybe you know it. It's about a bus. I think it goes something like, The wheels on the bus go round and round, round, round and round.

[13:03]

The wheels of the bus go round and round all day long. So the bus I was thinking of was the great vehicle. And the wheels of that great vehicle go round and round all day long, praising perfect wisdom all day long, all over town, all over the valley, constantly praising perfect wisdom. over and over. In retrospect, what I just said might seem like a digression because I was talking about a class that I'm offering on the Mother of All Buddhas.

[14:03]

So in that class, which is about perfection of wisdom, two of the participants sent me a message that they couldn't come to class last Thursday. because the mother of one of them, whose name was not Prajnaparamita, fell down and broke her hip. And so they were taking care of her and couldn't come to class. The next day I called them. I said, I heard that your mother fell and I just want to know how you're feeling and so on. And he told me how they were taking care of her. And then he said, I love you, Reb, and I just want to tell you I'm so grateful that you come to Berkeley and you say this over and over and over again. And you never get bored with it.

[15:06]

And you seem to love talking about it so much. It's just so great that you do. I was deeply encouraged. And you just say the same thing over and over. until it sinks into everybody's heart and liberates all beings. It doesn't work to say it just once, I've noticed. And all the ancestors, they didn't hear it just once. They heard it a lot. They heard it year after year, and finally their body and mind matured through this hearing into a great bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas are those who listen to these teachings over and over and over. And listening to them transforms our body, transforms our nervous system.

[16:12]

transforms our tissues to support a mind which continues to listen to the teaching. And again, continuing to listen to the teaching, and study the teaching, and chant the teaching, and write the teaching, and talk about it with others, this transforms our body again. So it's a constant evolution possible here. So the Bodhisattva way, the Buddha way, which we call Zen practice sometimes. Zen practice is the practice of the Bodhisattva way. And still, Zen practice welcomes everybody whether they think they're Bodhisattvas or not.

[17:15]

Everybody's welcome to practice the Buddha way. And we also call this practice as Azen. So this hall is called a zendo. It's a place for practicing Zen. It's a place for practicing the great vehicle all day long. So this practice of the Buddha way is basically caring for all phenomena. deeply caring for all phenomena. All phenomena includes all living beings. Every living being you meet, when we're aware of each other, when we know each other, we are phenomena to each other.

[18:18]

The Buddha is caring for every living being you meet, but if you meet anything, That doesn't seem to be a living being, like your own feelings. I could call them living beings. I actually do call them living beings. But a rock, bamboo, the land, the sky, the water, everything we meet, this practice is to take care of it, to be generous, ethical, patient, diligent, and calm with everything, with every being, without abiding in anything, to care for everything without abiding in anything. The way is to be devoted to the welfare of all living beings, to vow to lead them, carry them, ride with them to complete peace and freedom.

[19:39]

And yet, in doing so, not abiding in them. not dwelling in them, not attaching to them. Because if we attach to the things we're caring for, we're not bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas do not fix on the appearance of things as the way things are. They take care of the appearance of things without dwelling in the appearance of things. They take care of the appearance of what they know, of consciousness, but they don't dwell on it. You could say, well, these are adept bodhisattvas. Maybe some people could be called bodhisattvas who are but still dwelling.

[20:42]

So part of the bodhisattva path might involve that you're caring for things, but you still can sense that you're dwelling in what you're taking care of. Like I took care of that room. Other people took care of that room where I met people for 24 years. I took care of that room. But did I dwell in that room? Was I clinging to that room? So I watched as I moved out. I watched and enjoyed watching clinging to my little room. I watched, I looked inward to see, is there some abiding? Is there some clinging? Because for there to be perfect wisdom, we must find a mind that does not abide in what we're taking care of. And people, actually, these people I told you about whose mother fell and broke her hip, the woman of that couple, she said to me just a few weeks before, how can you care for something deeply and not abide in it?

[22:04]

I think it's maybe easy to understand that if you care for something deeply, you might abide in it. So we're trying, the Bodhisattva way is learning how to care deeply without abiding. Or another way to put it is learning to turn it around. How can we be not abiding and still caring? How can we be determined but not dissociated. So it's the path of non-attachment or detachment and non-dissociation. Intimately involved. Actually, when the intimacy is fulfilled, it doesn't allow for any abiding. Incomplete intimacy is actually caring

[23:11]

and abiding. People may notice that if they care for something deeply, they're stressed. And they may or may not know that the reason why they're stressed in their caring is because they have and clings in the caring. They may or may not notice that. So then what they sometimes think is, well, if I would just pull back on the carrying, it would probably hurt less. And that sometimes does work. Pain coming from the clinging, if you reduce the depth of the carrying. but actually that's called dissociation or spiritual bypass. And someone for many years who really cared for me, there was no question in my heart or hers that she really cared for me, she came to tell me after many years, she said, I now see what my problem with you is.

[24:35]

I'm trying to get something. That was the problem. Her devotion, she was expecting to get something. And fortunately or unfortunately, I was right there to not give it to her. Just by the way. And actually everybody's like that. So we're not recommending caring less as a coping mechanism. The coping mechanism is care a lot. That's the name of Care Bear Heaven. Care a lot without abiding in the care. Be devoted wholeheartedly to all beings, that's the first part of the coping mechanism, without abiding.

[25:49]

This copes with being alive in a way that's called perfect wisdom. So here's a two-part teaching. The first part is not necessarily for bodhisattvas. If you come to this room and sit with us, and you can also sit in your own home meditation room, sit upright and care for the breathing. Sit upright and care for the breathing. wholeheartedly care for the breathing body, for the exhaling body, and the inhaling body.

[26:52]

This teaching is a teaching which is beneficial and you don't have to be a bodhisattva to do that. It's the first part of the teaching which seems to be almost universally appropriate to humans. Second part of the teaching is while caring wholeheartedly for the breathing in and breathing out. In the breathing. That's the bodhisattva instruction. That's the way of breathing wholeheartedly which opens to perfect wisdom. So again, this is an example of taking care of something, learning to take care of it more and more deeply, and coming to the final place where you're taking care of it without abiding in it.

[27:58]

So taking care of breathing, without abiding, taking care of all living beings without abiding in them, and taking care of words. Bodhisattvas take care of words also. They take care of all phenomena, breathing, posture, living beings, and they take care of words. They're devoted to words. They vow to be thorough and careful and generous and ethical and honest with words. And they vow to be honest if they use words in an uncareful way. They vow to confess and repent. That unskillful way of using words. They vow to care for words without abiding in them.

[29:17]

And by caring for words in this way, they perfect wisdom, which is free of words. Perfect wisdom is free of words, detached from words, without dissociating. Bodhisattvas use the words to demonstrate detachment. and to demonstrate non-dissociation. They show a careful use of something without attaching to it. Just like a great musician demonstrates careful, meticulous, thorough, skillful use of the violin, for example, without dwelling in the instrument. the body's movements or the music. In that sense, the musician is thoroughly caring for the music and the instrument and the body and the audience, reaches not dwelling in the process, and demonstrates perfect wisdom.

[30:36]

You don't have to think or say to practice the Bodhisattva way. There's many scriptures teaching the Bodhisattva's perfect wisdom. The one we do every day here is the Heart Sutra, which is quite short. It's just 254 Chinese characters in the original text that we use. It's not very long, only one page. But there's also large texts, like there's a text called Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 lines, and then there's 18,000 lines, and 25,000 lines, and 100,000 lines, and 125,000 lines, etc.

[31:46]

There's many texts. In the 8,000 line version, there's a place where the Buddha is talking to her group and speaks of the merit of caring for breathing. So the merit of meditation in seclusion, like in this room here, we kind of meditate in seclusion. We sit together quietly and we let our neighbor sit there without talking to them except during parties. But basically we sit in seclusion here So we don't have to answer the telephone.

[32:48]

Usually there's no telephones in here. There may be some here now. But usually we do not bring telephones into the meditation hall or walkie-talkies or iPads or whatever. So we don't have to answer the telephone and we don't make calls. We're just here basically alone together so we can take care of our breathing and posture. So the Buddha is speaking of caring for meditative concentration practices, which we do here. And then the Buddha mentions that if while doing these meditation practices, these concentration practices, the Bodhisattva then is taken up by perfect wisdom, then the merit, the worth of the meditation practice becomes immeasurably, incalculably greater.

[33:55]

And the Buddha is talking to bodhisattvas at this time when he speaks of how if you practice concentration and you're taken up by perfect wisdom in the process, you practice concentration without abiding in it, without clinging to it, Then you're taken up by perfect wisdom. Then the worth, the excellence, the goodness of paying attention to your and posture while sitting becomes immeasurably, incalculably greater. He's saying this to bodhisattvas, and one of them says, Oh, excuse me, teacher. You said that a bodhisattva begets immeasurable, incalculable heaps of merit.

[35:28]

But how can you say that a bodhisattva begets a greater merit? taught us you have described all accumulations of merit as the results of false discrimination. So the Buddha says, if you practice this way, you're going to create an immeasurable amount, an immeasurable accumulation of merit. And then your student says to you, but you said that all accumulations are the result of false discrimination." And the Buddha said, good point. And then the Buddha says, in that case also this accumulation of merit on the part of the bodhisattva who is practicing meditation without dwelling in it, this merit

[36:39]

which I've described as a result of false discrimination, the bodhisattva, in coursing in perfect wisdom, must be described, all this merit must be described as empty, worthless, insignificant, insubstantial. The Bodhisattva, the Buddha is saying, if you practice taking care of things, you will be taken up. by the mother of all Buddhas, perfect wisdom will arise in you, in your wholehearted care for things, and you will not dwell on them. And then the merit of what you were doing, which was pretty good, will become immeasurable and incalculable.

[37:43]

But isn't that just, isn't that accumulation, all that, all that merit, isn't it just the result of false discrimination? Buddha says, yeah. And the Bodhisattva understands that all the merit that comes from not abiding is immeasurable, worthless, empty, and incalculable. And they remember that as part of their practice of not abiding in all the good merit that comes from not abiding. So, you don't abide, then you don't abide in the merit, and you get even greater merit. which is the result of false discrimination, and you know that. There's nothing to get a hold of. And this is the best and most wonderful teaching. This is consummate demonstration by the Buddha.

[38:45]

The Buddha teaches, if you do this practice of perfect wisdom, the merit of it is incomparably greater than anything. And what do I mean by merit? I mean, and if you understand that, that is the greatest merit. This is a teaching of perfect wisdom. Using words to liberate beings from words like merit and demerit. are usually suffering because they're dwelling in words. Bodhisattvas still may be dwelling, but they're training in non-dwelling. But the way they train by non-dwelling is by taking care of words. And in order to take care of words, you have to take care of silence. Part of taking good care of words is to practice in silence, which we do here.

[39:49]

We sit in silence taking care of words and silence. And then we get up from this room and we sometimes start talking and we vow to take care of the talk but also continue to take care of the silence and not dwell in either I have a kind of a habit of, when I'm talking to people, something occurs in my mind which And then I laugh, but you don't know yet what I was just thinking. And sometimes I just go on without telling you what I was laughing about. But lately I've been thinking, well, I'll just tell people what just went through my mind that was funny.

[40:55]

Because sometimes it's relevant. Not always. So what came to my mind was, I just said this to you, which I've said before, and I was thinking of saying something else, which I've said before. And then I thought of the young man at Tassajara who says, he says the same thing over and over. He always says the same thing. And then I thought, I have older people in my audience now, and they don't remember that I said this to them. So they go, oh, wow, that's neat. I never thought of that. And the new people haven't heard it many times yet, most of them. So they think, oh, OK. And you did too, see? So here's another example of something which, you know, and not only that, but I often say, may I tell you, I say repeatedly, may I tell you something that I told you before?

[41:55]

May I? Once upon a time, in this zendo, about 35 years ago, a visiting teacher named Taizu Konoroshi came. And he sat like there or here or whatever. I was sitting like over there. And I remember I was sitting over there. I was sitting over there someplace. And it was springtime, like now. And he brought up a story. about another once upon a time, back in more than a thousand years ago in China. And the story was about a teacher named Feng Shui. A monk came to Feng Shui.

[42:59]

Speech and silence both have faults. a more elaborate translation was, speech transgress into alienation and vagueness. How can we avoid this transgression? And Huang Shui said, I always think of Hunan in springtime. The partridges chirping in the fragrant grasses. And listening to that in this room 35 years ago or so, I felt very good.

[44:12]

Maybe you do now, too. Hunan in springtime, Green Gulch in springtime, we have quail chirping in the grasses here. So this is the Bodhisattva's teaching of words, cares for, just like that. And I heard Taizu Konin Roshi caring for words just like that. And I saw, I think, and felt, and heard using words carefully, wholeheartedly, in them. Not transgressing into abiding in words and not transgressing into abiding in silence. Detachment without dissociation.

[45:19]

To demonstrate it. If I wonder, which I just did, have I been speaking carefully without abiding in my words? It is immeasurable, incalculable, insignificant, empty, and worthless. I have no way to get a hold of whether I have not abided in what I've said. I don't also abide into the discrimination about whether I cared what I said. But I say, I say, I wish to speak carefully and thoroughly and wholeheartedly. I do. I say that. And I wish to say what I just said without being said.

[46:21]

I wish that and I wish it with my whole heart and I wish not to dwell in my whole heart or cling to my whole heart and I also wish not to dissociate from my whole heart or my half heart. I wish to turn the wheel of perfect wisdom all day long wherever I go and I wish to now dwell in the turning." Which is almost a quote again from the perfect wisdom scriptures. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas turn the wheel of Dharma all day long without dwelling in the turning. They give the merit which is inexhaustible, immense. They give it away without dwelling in the giving away.

[47:24]

And they do it all day long. And I vow to do it all day long. How about you? Well, it's almost Time to stop talking. And it's almost time to start talking again. But maybe that's enough. But maybe not. On Thursday night I mentioned to people in Berkeley that the perfect wisdom scriptures say that bodhisattvas, enlightening beings, they, when they're practicing perfect wisdom, they use words without

[48:54]

viewing some reality behind . Bodhisattvas who are practicing perfect wisdom, great compassionate beings who practice perfect wisdom, view words, they see words, seeing any reality behind the word, and in this way they do not abide in the words. This is another instruction about how to work with words in a way that you won't dwell in them. How? Use them. See if you think there's some reality behind them. Bodhisattvas do not, it literally says, do not review some reality behind the words. They don't do that.

[49:56]

And in that way, they use the words to dwell in them. Now, I mentioned, which it doesn't say in the scripture, but probably someplace else in the scripture it says, if we use words and see a reality behind them, then we dwell in the words. That's the subtle thing, turning point there. If you use words and you think, like for example, if I say, you're beautiful, I use those words and I think there's a reality behind you're beautiful, then I'm dwelling. But if I say, but I don't see a reality to what I just said, I just say, you're beautiful! And there's no reality behind it, it's just talk. I mean it. I mean what I said and I said what I mean, right? I do. But I'm training to not see behind the words I give.

[51:04]

If I can do that, then I don't settle in my words. And by not settling in my words, because I don't see a reality behind them, reality enters me. and takes me up and lifts me. If I think there's a reality behind the words I use, that view hinders my usefulness to reality. That's what I mentioned the other night And it's perfectly all right with me that I did not think up this amazingly wonderful teaching. I read it in this perfection of wisdom, 8,000 lines, page 347. If you look in the translation, don't look in the pagination pages.

[52:08]

Look in the text where it has the brackets. If you check this afterwards, see if I got the right page. review a reality behind the words which they're wholeheartedly using and thereby do not settle down in the words. And that is how they practice perfect wisdom. Or when they practice perfect wisdom, that's how they do it. Did I tell you that I said that the other night? I did, didn't I? And I think I did. But there's no reality behind those words for me. However, the reason why I told you this story is because an amazing thing happened to me on my way back to Green Gulch from that class where I said how bodhisattvas work with words. I was driving, and I can't remember what I said, but it was something like, in an

[53:13]

It was inside me. I didn't say it out loud. Inside me there was, I'm tired. Or, I'm hungry. It was like, you know, about 10 o'clock at night. I hadn't eaten for a long time. I'm not blaming anybody for that, including myself. And the other possibility is the words that came up is, I'm thirsty. I think of one of those three. It was a really sincere, I'm tired. And I saw that it really seemed like there was somebody there behind the I'm of the I'm tired. It seemed like the I'm tired, but it seemed like, yeah, it really seemed like there's somebody here

[54:15]

behind it. Yeah, it's very subtle there. But there really isn't somebody behind I'm tired. The somebody that's there is actually just I'm tired. That's all there is there. That's all that was there. But it seemed like there's something more than just I'm tired. The me that's driving is something more than I'm tired. oh yeah, this is hard, this is subtle. The deep perfect wisdom means it's deep, it's subtle, it's hard to settle into. And there's no me in addition to I'm tired. One could argue about this by just saying, take away the I'm tired, and at that moment there's no me. say I'm tired, and they're really here.

[55:21]

Wholeheartedly, I'm tired. But again, I thought, oh, there's a little bit of somebody there in addition to I'm tired. But Bodhisattva doesn't see a reality behind I'm. Not to mention, I was working on the I'm part. I am part. I am. I think, therefore I am. I am, therefore I think. I think, therefore I am. But Descartes didn't go on to say, and there's nobody in addition to. There's just the thinking, and then that's the I am. There's now the thinking and the I am. But it seemed like there was a thinking I am, a saying I am, and me. The same could be for tired. There's a tired and there's a tired. There's a dependent co-arising of the tired, but there's no reality behind the word tired.

[56:28]

There is a reality, and the reality is that there's no reality behind the word reality is there's no reality behind the word that's not behind things it's the way things are happening it's the way words work that's reality and that's not the way they work is not behind them and I was struggling with that and also very happy It was such a vivid sense of the dynamic between being fully someplace and having that fully being there was words. I'm hungry was really my life. And there was no except I'm driving. But at that moment, all there was, there was nothing in the universe but me. And there was nothing in the universe but I am. There wasn't two things, me and I am.

[57:32]

And yet I felt like there was because it was so much me to be I am that I thought there must be. The teaching says there isn't and there wasn't. So I'll probably tell that story again, but not for a while. I'll tell that story again, but not for a while. When we look inside ourselves, we may see a picture. And that picture is a picture of our .

[58:39]

It's a picture. It's a pictorial representation of the way our words work. So I looked inside myself and I saw I'm tired. I saw a picture of myself. picture I saw was the picture of me, which is, I'm tired. That's the me I saw. I didn't see a bald old man. I didn't see a slender young woman. I didn't see a young man with wavy blonde hair. And what was me? Me was, I'm tired. I didn't see Zen priest. I didn't see grandfather. I didn't see friend of those who have no friends. And not at that moment. All I saw in my life of who I was, was quotes. That's all I was.

[59:42]

And I was fully a person. Sincerely, wholeheartedly, that's all I was. It was shocking. And I could not stand. I didn't completely accept it, so I shrunk back a little bit to try to be somebody in addition to the full person I was, which was nothing but words. But then I came back in, and I'm still trying to be right there with my story of myself right now. I'm glad I said that. You look like you understood more deeply how to be yourself. Thank you very much.

[60:28]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_91.03