I wrote here a list of student-teacher relationships. So we've been talking about during this retreat the stories about Master Ma when he was about to die and also about Master Linji when he was about to die. And Master Ma is a student of a teacher named Nan Yue. And Nan Yue is a student of Dajian Huynung. This person is called the sixth ancestor of Zen. All the schools of Zen come pretty much from this one teacher. And his two main disciples, the sixth ancestors, his two main disciples, Ting Yuran and

[01:01]

and Nanyue. The lineage that's here today is a lineage that goes down through Qingyuan, down to Dongshan, and then in Japan to Dogen, the States to Xunryu, and then now down to Yu. As I said, Matsu had lots of disciples, but this disciple led to a lineage that made it to present day. And this disciple, and Qingyuan also had many disciples, but this disciple, Shirtou, made a lineage that went all the way down to present day. Japan and China and America and Europe and so on. So these are the two main lines that come from the sixth ancestor.

[02:02]

And this is the lineage that goes to the San Francisco Zen Center. I also thought it might be helpful to talk about a dialogue between the sixth ancestor and Nanyue. Okay. It relates to these three pure bodhisattva precepts, particularly to the precept of restraint. I said to you the precept of restraint is to embrace the forms of practice with the understanding that the practice we're doing is not separate from the Buddha way. That the practice we're doing is not separate from Buddha's enlightenment.

[03:08]

Even though we are not yet completely matured in our practice, our or immature practice is not separate from the mature practice. I've said that quite a few times. But another factor here is that although our practice is not separate from the Buddha way, it's also not quite right to say that this is the Buddha way. this being me or what I'm saying or the practice I'm doing. There's a difference between... And even if there was a state of full maturity, it wouldn't even be proper to say that at that time, this is the Buddha way.

[04:13]

Because the state of fully enlightened Buddha, to say this is the Buddha way, might make people think that this is the Buddha way and that's separate from that over there, which is a less developed person. So there's a story about when Nanyue, Master Ma teacher, met the sixth ancestor. The sixth ancestor said, what is it that thus comes? So it's a wonderful question because in one sense he's saying, you know, what is it that has just come here? Like, who are you? But also, thus comes one of the epithets for the Buddha. Thus come one is one of the epithets of a Buddha. So you could also understand him saying, what is Buddha? This person has come.

[05:14]

Actually, the full story is the monk comes, monk not. And the sixth sense teacher says, where are you from? And I think he says, I'm from Sung province. And then the teacher says, what is it that thus comes? Where do you come from? What is it that thus comes? So what is the Buddha way? And Nanyue say, to say it's this misses the point. To say this is it, or to say it's this misses the point. To say what we're doing is it misses the point. and so on to say that my coming is it misses the point so he says to say it's this or to miss is the point and then the sixth ancestor says well then is there no practice realization no practice enlightenment and he said I don't say there's no practice enlightenment I just say it can't be defiled and I stop here and say defiled by what?

[06:21]

By language, by pointing, by saying this is it. That would defile it. To say this isn't it also would defile it. So he said to say this would defile it. Misses the point. So then the teachers say, well then is there no practice in enlightenment? In other words, then is this not it? I don't say this is not it. I say to say this is it misses the point. But I don't say this is not it. So what we're doing here is not the Buddha way. And it's not like what we're doing here is the Buddha way. It's that the Buddha way is not separate from what we're doing and what we're doing is not separate from the Buddha way. The Buddha way cannot be grasped but it can be realized and enacted and we can enact it right now. But it's not the same as saying this is it, or this is not it, or that's it, or that's not it.

[07:32]

So this is a dialogue between these two that sets up that teaching. Japanese master Dogen really emphasized that the Buddha way is the performance of our daily life as the Buddha way. or the Buddha way must be the performance of our daily life. It cannot be otherwise. If it's otherwise, it's defiled, but also if we say, this is it, that defiles it too, okay? I wrote the three pure precepts here. The first one is the precept of restraint, which is kind of the one I've just been talking about. Restraining... In a sense, restraining defilement. Restraining saying this is or this is not. And again, this is kind of, again, restraining extremes.

[08:36]

Restraining saying it's this. Being in the middle is the Buddha way. And I'll try to say this briefly. I mentioned this last week at Green Gulch on Sunday, a week ago Sunday. So one kind of middle way that Buddha taught is the middle way between the extreme of existence and non-existence, or it is and it isn't. Buddhism doesn't say it is, Buddhism doesn't say it isn't. Buddhism presents a middle way without leaning into the conditions. But another version of the middle way, earlier version which is called the practical middle way is the middle way between the extremes of addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification.

[09:40]

It's not the middle way between sense pleasure and self-mortification. It's not the middle way between selfishness or concern for the self. It's the middle way between the extreme of devotion or addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-interest. On the other side, self-mortification is not an extreme. Self-denial Self-mortification is not an extreme. It's only an extreme when you're addicted to it. So self-denial or self-sacrifice or self-mortification could also be phrased as altruism. Serving others and denying yourself. Sometimes that's really good. But it's an extreme if you're addicted to it.

[10:46]

Addicted to service. Robotic altruism is an extreme. Knee-jerk, like they say, knee-jerk liberals. Knee-jerk altruism is an extreme. But altruism is great when it's not an addiction. And taking care of yourself is great when it's not an addiction. And we are biologically... made to do both. And so within our social world, and we are social beings, serving the self benefits the self. But between groups, between societies, serving the group or serving others helps the group. And we need the group. The individual human needs the group. That's why we are rather successful mammals.

[11:53]

Because we are social and we sometimes deny the self of others. But also... We take care of ourself for the welfare of the individual. So taking care of the self is not an extreme. Taking care of others is not an extreme. Addiction to either is the extreme that we avoid. That's the middle way. And this teaching is a middle way between it is and it isn't. Between this is the true path of Zen and this isn't. I'm not going to say it is. I'm going to say it isn't. Unless you really pressure me. And then I want to be flexible and say whatever you want. But I will say that the true path of Zen, the true path of intimacy and peace with birth and death,

[12:57]

Even though we haven't perfected the intimacy, the perfect intimacy with birth and death, which is nirvana, is not other than our partial realization of intimacy. That's the first one. The second pure precept is to embrace all wholesome phenomena or all wholesome practices. What are all wholesome practices? The six perfections. All the wholesome practices can be submitted under these six. The sixth one, wisdom, is very closely related to the first of these pure precepts. The first of pure precepts is a kind of wisdom instruction. which gives you the right attitude towards the practicing of these wholesome activities and towards the service and maturing of other beings.

[14:05]

So, the first one of the three pure precepts is like wisdom. The second one includes all six. And the third one is what these six are applied to. And the ethics one in the list of six includes all three of these because these three precepts are the ethical responsibility the ethical responsibilities of bodhisattvas is to practice number two which includes all six you see how that works These are ethical things which include all practices, both ethics and generosity and patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and ethical responsibilities of someone who wants to practice the Buddha way. But ethics in the limited sense is also on this list, but ethics in the broad sense is also on this list, and ethics in the broad sense includes all these practices and all these practices.

[15:21]

So they're broken up and analyzed, but everything includes everything else. So that's a little summary for you. Yes? Yes? Yeah. Yes. Yes. No, it is a list that divides. It divides the Buddha way up into, for example, six parts. However, after it divides it into six parts, it reminds you that you just divided one thing into six parts.

[16:28]

So there's something that includes all six. But it may be helpful to notice that within this one thing, there's six categories. And then within, it also might be helpful to notice that within each category, there's innumerable practices. And it might be good to mention them. It might be helpful. But it does divide, it analyzes. This six-fold presentation is an analysis of one thing called the Buddha way, called being what it's like to be a Buddha, six things to perfection. But also Buddha can be analyzed into different dimensions or different aspects. And the reason for analyzing is it might help people. Buddha is helping people and sometimes it helps to analyze Buddha to help people. And then there's further teaching after the analysis which is to mention again that this is an analysis of one thing. That these things are not really separate because they're aspects of one thing.

[17:33]

Just like my fingers can analyze my hand into five fingers and a palm. but they're really one thing called a hand or parts of one thing called a hand. But in this case also there's further teachings which say in each of the six the other three are contained. So you have one thing that has six but all the parts include all the other parts. That's a little different because we don't usually say, although it's true, that in each finger all the other fingers are included. But in a way it's true because in each finger there's DNA and in the DNA the entire body is contained in the DNA cell in each finger. Right? So each cell actually includes the whole body. Right? We know that now. But Buddhism has been saying that for a long time. That each part of a whole

[18:39]

We already know the whole contains the parts. But the parts, each part contains all the other parts because each part contains the whole body. So the human body is like the reality that Buddhism teaches. And the logical... the scientific findings of biology actually seem to reflect the middle way which I just said to you that partly living beings serve themselves and within a group within a group serving yourself benefits you and that's fine to benefit you but to be addicted to that serving yourself and not being able to serve the group hurts the group which supports you. Also if you're addicted to serving the group which supports the group, which is good because the group supports you, it hurts you. So addiction to self-denial hurts the individual even though it helps the group.

[19:47]

But if it helps, it doesn't help the group for the individual to get hurt because then the group has to take care of the individual who's not taking care of herself. So really the best thing for the group is for the individual to deny themselves when it helps the group, because inner often does, but not do it habitually, do it according to wisdom. And same way sometimes it helps you to take care of yourself, not habitually, not addictively, because it's appropriate. And that way of taking care of yourself... So there's a cycle between taking care of yourself in order to take care of the group and taking care of the group in order to take care of yourself in the Buddhist way. So if you want to help people, you know, if you're going to carry somebody across a river, it's good to maybe have some boots on because the rocks are really sharp. So you put your boots on, take them across. You can't always do it, but sometimes you can.

[20:51]

Also, if you're going to carry somebody up a hill, and it's a big hill, you might have breakfast first. Because you're having breakfast, you need breakfast. You have the strength to carry them up the hill. So you're taking care of yourself so you can take care of others. If you're balancing somebody on your shoulders, you want to check your posture first. Get in a good position. Strengthen your core and all that. And then lift them. So you take care of yourself first by being mindful of your own body. And then you do the service to others. Now when you serve others, and you can serve others when you take care of yourself by being patient and careful, serving them helps you. So this is the middle way of how the parts include the whole and so on. Okay? Okay? So analysis has sometimes helped, and then there's further instruction about the analysis so we don't rigidify the analysis and think that the analyzed parts are actually separate.

[21:56]

Because they're not. Because nothing's separate. It's thought construction. And we do have that thought construction. So if we're kind to the thought construction of separation, we can be free of it. Basically, anything that we're kind to, we will come to understand, and we understand we'll be free with anything, including evil, including death, including birth. Question in regards for death. Well, I don't yet understand your question.

[22:58]

Does somebody else understand your question? Just there you flipped over into it is not. You said it's not about giving it a form. then that's our leaning in. In order to realize it, you need to be present.

[24:03]

In order to realize the middle way, we need to be present with experience. Yes. Did you say, isn't that what makes sense? Well, for some people it makes sense, but another way to put it is, when you're present, things will start making sense. But some people, if you tell them about being present, like if I tell my grandson about being present, that doesn't make sense to him, if I say that. However, when he is present, things will start making sense to him. Like now, he just recently has started, he's been playing baseball and basketball and some other team sports, but recently started running long distance. And it seems like he's found his sport, at least for now.

[25:07]

And when you watch him do this running, he's really present. Somehow in the exertion of trying to do, you know, put into the running, You can see him really finally being really present. Now he used to be present when he was a little tiny boy. He used to pile things up with his little fingers. He was really present then too. But that wasn't like his fingers. Now he's found a way to get his thighs into it. It's hard to be precise because they don't have fingers on the end of them. But when you really exert them, you can really be present. So I think when we're present, things start making sense to us. But if you tell people about being present, being present doesn't necessarily make sense unless they try. That's why when people ask you about Zen, if you try to explain it, it's pretty hard for them to understand. But if you say, well, just sit still, they'll understand quite quickly.

[26:11]

well, if they're able to sit still. And before they're able to sit still, they'll understand quite quickly that they're not able to sit still. And you say, until you can sit still. And when you can sit still, you'll know why I practice Zen. But it may take you several years to sit still. So you may not want to spend that much time. But I can't explain it to you. But if you do, it hurts like somebody saying to you, what does Boston cream pie taste like? It's easy to explain by giving them a piece to taste. And you can even say, this is not a very good one, but here, have this one. Or this is an excellent version of Boston cream pie. Taste it. Rather than try to explain. So presence is not something I can really explain. It's something I want to encourage. I hope I can encourage it. And I can tell you how to watch out for it. I can tell you kind of what it looks like but I can't really explain it but I can guide you to it like they also use the example the Buddha can't really tell you what it looks like from the top of a mountain but the Buddha can walk with you up to the top and then you can be at the top you can look and see what it looks like from the top you can see all the valleys on the other side but the Buddha can say to you well over the top of this mountain there's these beautiful valleys and stuff happening

[27:41]

That doesn't really work. You have to go and see for yourself. But the Buddha can take you up to the top of the hill and you can look. So, when you're present, you start to understand the middle way. You also feel? As I said, I said to you, do you feel? Do you feel? Do you feel? Yeah, that's what I'm checking. You feel. Thank you. You're welcome.

[28:47]

I'm happy to hear this. You'd love to what? Yeah, well, ready? There you go. I love that too. Yeah. Yes, you may. Okay. Okay. So this is what came. I was watching the sun. I started realizing that I was looking at how I looked. I was way down there, so really there was nobody around me. But as I was watching the sun and I felt the radiance of the sun on my face, at one point I caught myself watching how others may see me.

[29:59]

And I was like, oh my God, I criticize women for dressing up. What the heck am I doing here? I want to look good to a stranger who's not even around. So this is how it came. When all masks wore off, there remained one face, which I had always assumed was my real face. I had to face it realistically in that moment. I had to face it realistically until it did its time too, when the masking tape tore off, revealing a shiny mirror beneath. In that mirror was the orange of the setting sun, the cool of the rising blue moon. Well, it wasn't a full moon. It was actually a new moon. So I just imagine that in this mirror, everything is visible. Why am I trying to look good? ...looking good even to beings that are not there.

[31:04]

I mean, it's like the whole narcissistic thing came out. Thank you, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. Okay, so now you want to hear the story about Linji's great enlightenment? So, who's Linji's teacher? Wang Bo. So Linji was forty-eight, 49? What's the number? What number is it? Anyway, Lin Ji was staying at Wang Bo's temple. It's called Wang Bo. And the head monk of the temple...

[32:13]

appreciated Linji. Thought he was a wonderful monk. And after he had been at the monastery for, well, I think maybe two or three years. Anyway, it says that Linji first and the commentaries and he realized it wasn't the essential shortcut, these teachings. So he went to Wang Bo. And there he went along with the assembly. He just practiced in the assembly.

[33:19]

But he never went to see Wang Bo. He never went to see the teacher. He just was in the big assembly. And then the head monk said to him, you should go talk to the teacher sometime. So, Linji just kept to himself. He didn't ask any questions of Wang Bo. He modestly kept his place in the assembly in silence. And the head monk said, considered Linji unusual. And so he urged him to call on Wang Bo. I'm trying to read without my glasses and it's difficult. But it's fun.

[34:26]

It's also kind of fun too. But anyway, so basically the head monk encouraged Lin Xi to go ask the question of the teacher. And Wang Bo said, what should I ask him? And he said, what is the essential great meaning of the Buddha's teaching? So he went to Wang Bo and he said, what is the essential great meaning of the Buddhist teaching and Wang Bo slapped him. Remember Wang Bo slapped his teacher too? So now he slapped his student. so after Bongbo slapped Linji what did Linji do?

[35:29]

I don't know but anyway he walked away from the slap and then the head monk said how did it go? well I asked him the question and he slapped me and it hurt and the head monk said oh well why don't you go back and ask him again and Linji did Went back and asked him again. And after he asked, slapped him. And Linji left, and the head monk said, how did it go? And Linji said, he hit me again. And the head monk said, you really should go again. And Linji did. Hard to believe these stories sometimes, huh? He went again. and asked the question again and Wong Bo slapped him again and then he went and the head monk said how did it go and Linji said he slapped me again and I've had it laughter

[36:56]

I'm not going to go back again and ask him again. And the head monk said, okay, okay, okay. And he said, I'm out of here. And the head monk said, I understand, I understand. You know, and say goodbye. You can stand far away when you say it. So he went back to see Wang Bo and said, I'm leaving now.

[38:09]

And Wang Bo said, well, okay, you can leave, but I recommend you go and see a friend of mine who lives nearby on the other side of the mountain named Da Yu. Da Yu is not on the list. So Da Yu is not in the lineage, I don't think. He's a friend of Wang Bo's. So Wang Bo sends Lin Ji to see Da Yu, who's pretty close by. So Lin Ji goes to see Da Yu about asking Wang Bo these questions three times and getting slapped. So then he says... So Da Yu says, where are you from?

[39:14]

And Linji says, I've come from Wangbo. And then, what did Wangbo say? And then Linji says, three times I asked him about the true essential meaning of the Buddhist teaching, and three times I was slapped. Actually, here it says, beaten with a stick. And then Linji said, I do not know if I had any fault or not. I don't know if I was right or wrong. Sounds like he's maybe in the middle. Pretty good. And then Dayu says, did his utmost to treat you with great love and compassion.

[40:19]

That's how I remember it. What does it say here? It says, Wang Bo was so kind. He did his utmost for you. And you still come and ask me if there was any fault or not. And Linji said, understood. So, what did he understand? He understood the middle way. He understood birth and death. He understood intimacy with Wang Bo. He understood that Wang Bo was... intimate with him, and in that intimacy, there was great compassion, and the great compassion managed by him asking a question and Wang Bo slapping him. Him asking a question and Wang Bo, this is the intimacy.

[41:26]

But he didn't understand until Da Yu said that. And that's the end of the story. It's just listed here, but it goes on. After he woke up, I think maybe he was, looked like something happened to him. And you, I think maybe said, what happened to you? Let's see if it's in here. Yeah.

[42:39]

After he had this great awakening, after he realized his intimacy with his teacher, he said, now I see there's not much to Wang Bo's teaching. And... said to Linji, you bed-wetting devil. Or another translation is, you bed-wetting brat. You just asked if there were any, and now you say there's not much to Wang Bo's teaching. How much is this? And Da Yu grabbed him and held Linji and said, speak, speak. See, life goes on after enlightenment. And Linji knocked Daoyu three times in the ribs with his fist.

[43:50]

Boom, boom, boom. Paul, would you come over here so we can enact that? He's taking his electronics out of his pocket so they don't get hurt. Yeah. Who's who? Okay. So, you can be Lin Ji, and I'll be... So, I'll be Dayu. So, Dayu... Da Yu says, a little while ago you were asked, you didn't know whether it was right, whether you didn't know whether you're right or wrong. And now you say there's not much to Wang Bo's teaching. How about this? Speak, speak. Right. Okay, ready?

[44:54]

Speak, speak, speak. Okay. Who says, okay, okay. But Wang Bo is your teacher. Thank you for coming, Linji. You can go home now. You can go back to Wang Bo. Don't we get to do some more punching? Yes, yes. Linji, you're going to spend the rest of your career punching. Oh. Until somebody comes. That's a different person. That's a different story. You have to go backwards to get to that one. Okay, let's finish this story, okay? Let's finish this story. So, Linji knocks Da Yu three times in the ribs with his fist, and then Da Yu lets him go and says, Okay, your teacher is Wang Bo. It has nothing to do with me.

[45:56]

So, this is an example which sometimes happens. There's other examples up among these people where the student meets the teacher, the teacher gives the teaching, the student doesn't seem to get it, the teacher sends the student to somebody else, and the person understands with somebody else, and the person with whom they awaken to the teacher's teaching tells them, you awoke in my presence, but that person's your teacher. They just sent you over here so I could, like, finish the job. You couldn't finish it with them. That's why they sent you to me. I finished it, but that's your teacher. And then they go back to the teacher and study for some time. There's an example here where he doesn't understand what the teacher's doing. Some other teacher points it out. And... He wakes up. And then that teacher says, okay, good. Now go back. That's what happened here.

[46:58]

So now, Lin goes back to Wang Bo. Okay? And he gets back there. And he tells him what happened. And, you know, he goes back to Wang Bo. And Wang Bo sees him and says, going and coming and going over and over will never end. Going and coming, coming and going, over and over, when will it ever end? Here he comes again, this Linji guy. And Linji said, it's just because you're so kind. It's just because you're so kind. This statement is said over and over again for 2,500 years. It's just because you're so kind. And then Linji told Wang Bo the story of what happened. Wang Bo said, that old fellow Da Yu is too talkative.

[48:04]

But still, even though he was too talkative, in other words, he told you what I was doing. Wait till I see him. I'll give him a beating. And Lin Ji said, why talk about waiting to see him? Hit right now. And then Wang Bo gave a slap. Then he gave Wang Bo a slap. And then Wang Bo laughed. Remember when Wang Bo slapped Bai Zhang? Bai Zhang laughed and said, I knew that fox's beards were red and now I see a red bearded fox. And this is after the fox guy, right? This time, after the teacher slaps the student, now the student slaps the teacher, and the teacher laughs again and says, this lunatic comes to grab the tiger's whiskers. And then Linji hollered, and Wong Bo said, attendant, take this madman to the meditation hall.

[49:19]

That's a story of Linji's great enlightenment. And then quite a few years later, when he's about to die, San Xiong comes to talk to him. And Linji says, after I die, don't destroy my teaching. And so on. Yes? Yes. Sometimes I hear you telling these stories about Wang Bo and Bai Zhang and Ling Ji and slapping each other and shouting. And I laugh and I listen. Other people laugh. And then sometimes I feel kind of troubled. And some of us were kind of exploring this at breakfast this morning about what is this slapping, hitting, shouting thing.

[50:35]

And... And I kind of wonder if we laugh because we're uncomfortable. I think that's so for me. It's kind of funny, but it's kind of uncomfortable. Like, why are these people? It feels violent. And so we were kind of exploring that at breakfast. Like, is it just a different time, a different culture? You know, poking each other in the ribs. I mean, you don't go around slapping me. I think when I was about to mention that in China at that time, this behavior was more outrageous by far than it is today. I've heard you say that before. How are we to take that? After these people did this, it became kind of common in their lineage to do that. But at the time they first did it, I don't know, there's hardly any examples before these people of teachers doing that.

[51:36]

as a successful means of enlightenment. Teachers maybe sometimes discipline their students in the past, like they do in high schools and stuff. But these are cases where Buddhist teachers very seldom hit their teachers, hit their students, or hit their teachers. So this was a very unusual thing, a way of teaching. that happened at a certain point in history. And like I said, this person, Maad Su, who kind of started that, was, you know, it was very helpful and very unusual. It's a very creative thing. There is a risk here. And some people do this kind of thing and it doesn't seem to be helpful. And you say, I don't do this anymore. But when I was first at Zen Center, like I told you, I went with Suzuki Rush.

[52:39]

He was the teacher and I was his attendant and I was carrying the stick. We used to carry the stick. So when I first was practicing at Zen Center, we did use a stick. Matter of fact, we had like two people carrying the stick. But then when I became an abbot, I suggested not using the stick anymore. I don't know how to do that, but when I became abbot of Zen Center, I suggested putting it aside. And so since that time, it hasn't been used much at all. But I grew up for maybe 15 years or so using the stick. A lot. And, yeah. So the stick and the slapping aren't... They're not disciplined in the sense of... I think this is partly what I just heard you say. It's not that kind of discipline.

[53:43]

It's more like slapping someone when they're in shock. You can't say really what it is. You can't say really what it is. You can't say it's this or that, really. You can just say, well, I think that's helpful or not helpful. I think that's discipline or not. You can say various things, but we don't really know what it is, really. Now, some people, when I was carrying the stick, some people, you could either request the stick, like if you're awake, you could request the stick. And some people did request the stick because they found it relaxing. Because you get hit right here, and that's where a lot of people Some people used the stick as a massage stick. Or some people were getting sleepy and they'd ask for the stick to help them wake up. But also, when I first came to Zen Center, the stick was administered to people who were asleep. It wasn't so much meant as a punishment, but meant as a punishment. Depends on the person hitting.

[54:44]

Some people might be hitting someone and be angry at them for sleeping. It's possible. It's also possible, since the students carried the sticks, that they were, you know, hitting people they didn't like. And so when they saw somebody they didn't like who was asleep, they said, ah, good, here's a good chance. So when I first went to Zen Center one time, there was one of my friends, actually. This is one of my friends, right, who I went to high school with. This is an important person in my life who actually told me about Zen Center. He was in the Zendo and somebody was carrying a stick and the person hit him with the stick and he told the person that if he hit him again the stick broke and the person hit him again and the stick broke. And then later, this high school friend of mine was sitting next to me in the meditation hall, and he was asleep.

[55:52]

And somebody came over, and the person carrying the stick saw him, and then kind of ran over to hit him with kind of really kind of, you might say, macho energy, and hit him. And... And my friend grabbed the stick and pulled the stick and pulled the guy down on top of him. Stick away from him. I think it's a boy thing. We had a visiting teacher from Japan who was sitting there watching this. You know? It was the Wild West, you know? Beautiful? I don't know. I'm telling you the story. But anyway, when I was abbot, I suggested not using the stick anymore, and that's what's been happening since.

[56:54]

And my experience is that people are more awake in the Zen door than they used to be. Who knows? Who knows? This practice is not so much about trying to figure out whether other people are being skillful or not. whether other people are being violent or not. It's about meeting violence with compassion. If it looks like violence, meet it with compassion. If it looks like violence, meeting with compassion means that you will come to understand what it really is. Dharma doors are boundless. I vow to enter them. It means that whatever's in front of you could be a door to the Dharma. If you're trying to figure it out and grasp what it is you're not going to find out what it is. If you want to know the truth of something

[57:55]

you practice compassion towards it. And if you practice compassion, you can practice wisdom with it. And when you practice wisdom with it, you will understand not that it's this or that, not that it's good or bad, not that it's violent or kind. You will understand the reality of it and you will realize freedom from birth and death. So we have to be careful not to try to figure out what that was, but always bring the practice to the thing. You can ask questions, but the questions should be the wisdom practice, not grasping practice. Wisdom is not to grasp. Wisdom is to find out that things can't be grasped. Stop grasping, but the fruit of wisdom is that you don't grasp. But it's not because you restrain your grasping, it's that you see the truth. of things. So, these examples, in any example you have a question about, is that question a gift?

[59:02]

Is that question asked ethically? Is that question coming from patience? Is that question coming with enthusiasm for concentration? Are you present and calm and flexible with this? Now, what is it? But anyway, you have these to deal with you're hearing the history or a history and you can look at these things and if you practice with them you'll understand them all but maybe when I'm old and can barely walk I'll start hitting people you know and they'll just feel like I did when Suzuki Roshi hit me like oh how sweet how sweet It doesn't hurt at all. He has no strength left and he's using it all to hit us. How sweet. The system falls down and then we have to lift him up so he can hit us again.

[60:04]

Who knows, you know? But you look in your own heart to see if you're practicing compassion. And if you're practicing compassion, Maybe you'll realize somebody else is practicing compassion to you. Linji was practicing compassion, but he didn't understand his teacher's compassion at first. But he kept practicing compassion. He went to see Dayu. He told Dayu this. He was practicing compassion. So when Dayu said, He did his utmost to help you. He could finally see. He saw the truth. the truth that compassion is not my idea of compassion. But I'm not going to see that compassion is not my idea of compassion because I try to practice compassion by my idea of compassion for quite a while. But if you do your best to practice compassion according to your idea and follow these programs, you will take your compassion to wisdom and then you'll see that your idea of compassion is not compassion.

[61:17]

And you'll see what compassion really is. And you'll see what cruelty really is. Okay? Sure. Yeah, yay then! Actually, most stories are not Zen stories, but Zen is just three letters. So people call almost all stories Zen stories eventually. Eventually, everything will be a Zen story. Because Vipassana is a long word for Vajrayana story. So in fact, Jewish is pretty short. It's a close competitor. It's a Zen story, really. It's so Zen. So Zen. We don't say it's so Vipassana, do we? It's so Theravada.

[62:26]

It's so Jewish. It's so Christian. It's so Muslim. It's so Zen, we say, right? Yeah, it's so Zen. Oh, he's Zen. He does the Zen. That's one of the lucky things about Zen. So maybe it will help because it involves punching, but no slaps. So I practice, I do Vipassana quite a bit. It's sitting in silence and watching mainly mindfulness and awareness of the breath and awareness. but it causes sometimes so much pain that I found an antidote to it in moving meditation. Anybody here who practices moving meditation, as in dance practices, like Sufi dances, or in Berkeley there's something called Dash Journey, Santa Cruz has Dash Church. So I was in Oakland Ecstatic about a month ago, And I really love the moving. And there are two requirements at moving meditation, or two practices, I mean, two constraints, if you will.

[63:36]

Number one, no talking. No intoxication, food. Alcohol, anything. Just complete silence. Number two is respecting others. No physical violence. No gestures that would be violent to others. So I've been doing this for nine years. Last month, when I was dancing, so there's a great teacher called Harmony Gates, and she teaches something called contact improv, which is through touch. And it's really, to me, it's really a blessing. So before the ecstatic dance, we had one hour of contact, and Harmony's... She was the first one, she's lighter than me and she carried me all around the room one time. Just lifted me and carried me and that woke me up that it is not weight, it's how we handle weight that helps in contact. So what happened was Harmony was dancing with this big guy,

[64:39]

And she's like 120, and she was lifting him and so on. So at one point, I started dancing with the two of them. I started contact from the back. So this big guy came up to me and punched me really hard. I was in shock because it had never happened to me in nine years. So I looked at him, and he said, never make me do this to you again. So I was again in shock because he violated two things. One was physical. Second thing was threatening words. So my first thought was to complain, but there was no teacher to complain. So you're not supposed to talk. We're not supposed to talk. So what do I do? So I thought about it, and I said the safest thing to continue the dance would be at the center. I went straight to where the microphone is, to the front, and I like the limelight anyway. So I started dancing there. Because I said if he comes to punch me again, I don't have to do anything.

[65:42]

Oh, so this continued for 10 more minutes. I was like, why did he punch me? Why did he punch me? So he came up to me and he said, do you know why I punched you? So I said, no. I just said, and he said, because you got in the middle of my dance with harmony. So I was like, oh, I was thinking. So I said, so I just did namaste. And I understood why he punched me. Although he shouldn't have, but I was going to give him a lecture. But I was trying to be polite to the space. And I said, maybe there's another way in which I can tell him I understood him. And I, this is the way we offer hugs, you know, silent. So he was like, what? And I go again. So we hugged for five minutes. At the end of which, he was crying and I was crying. And we left the space. We never met, talked after that. The whole thing told me you both got it.

[66:45]

And it was very nice. It hurt for a while, but it reminded me that other people may have a different reality For me, it was perfectly fine to judge. For him, it was like I was stealing her away from me, from him. And both were true at the same time. The punching I felt was uncalled for, but that was his way of stopping me from interfering with his dance. And my way of saying I understand. And I now respect the dance was to offer him a hug. I don't think I did it rationally. Rationally, I would have taken him to court because it really hurt. But I said, let me just, I didn't think, I just offered him a hug, which is what we do when we say, I care for you, I understand you. So, and then I cried because I understood that he understood. And then I also understood him.

[67:48]

So it can happen even here, and I'm not trying to say, I was as a teacher, he taught me how to be compassionate, permission when we join a dance and I'd skip that one little part I could have kind of been there and like see how they feel I knew harmony was perfectly fine but I didn't see his expression I wasn't even looking at him I had just joined the dance so I'm trying to explain I'll stop here Any questions? About how to practice Zen in birth and death? Did you learn how to practice Zen in birth and death?

[68:53]

We'll probably all get a chance to practice Zen in birth and death for the rest of our lives. The opportunity is here for us. I feel great joy at the opportunity of practicing the Bodhisattva way, the Zen way, the Vipassana way, the Vajrayana way. Another thing I've recently been mentioning to people is that in practicing this first Bodhisattva precept, we kind of need... Well, actually, not just the first one, but in practicing these precepts, we need actually a particular form to work with. Sitting is one of them.

[70:02]

And it's a form that's... that's given to us in a certain particular style so they're sitting but then they're sitting with each teacher you know each teacher that you work with gives you a particular style so there is this thing of doing these practices you receive the precept from somebody else and that person gives you a particular style of precept And we often actually say there's a family style. So different lineages, these different lineages have different family styles. But the point of the family style, which is quite specific and a little bit different or very different from other family styles, the point of family styles is to realize that all the family styles are one family.

[71:05]

But some people say all religions are one, but I don't think you really understand that unless you work with one family style thoroughly and realize the reality of your family style. Then you can see how your family style really is in the same family as all the other family styles that are also insubstantial. It isn't like my family style is substantial and the other ones are insubstantial. Or the other ones are substantial and mine's insubstantial. Mine's really the coolest because it's insubstantial. Nobody can get a hold of it. No. My family style is empty. It's selfless. It cannot be grasped. And all family styles are like that. Also, Sukhara, she used to say, Buddhism is not one of those religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

[72:16]

Buddhism is when you go beyond your religion. When Buddhism goes beyond Buddhism, when Christianity goes beyond Christianity, Judaism goes beyond Judaism. That's Buddhism. But that's also what Christianity is. When Christians don't attach to Christianity anymore, they've realized Christianity. If Christians hold to Christianity, it's not Christianity. If Muslims hold to Islam, it's not Islam. Islamic countries... And I've seen Islamic people who do not hold to Islam. They're devoted to Islam and they don't hold on to it. And they're beautiful practitioners. They're inspiring, wonderful people who are devoted to a tradition and they welcome all beings. When you study a tradition and realize how to not grasp it and continue to be devoted to it, you will open to other traditions.

[73:33]

You will not go to war. And many, many Muslims are like that. They're very open. But of course some aren't, and they want to go to war. And some Christians aren't, and they want to go to war. And some Jews are, and they want to go to war. So grasping religion is extremely dangerous, and it's not intimacy. So we're here to teach intimacy, and in intimacy there's no grasping, and in no grasping we open to all beings and all religions, and we also open to beings who are not the least bit interested in religion, like our grandchildren. And then they are. And then they're not. My grandson becomes interested in religion when he's hanging out with young men that are interested in religion. So when he comes to Green Gulch, he meets these beautiful young men and they're interested in religion, so he gets interested in religion.

[74:39]

It goes back to... They aren't interested in religion and he's not interested in religion. That's natural. And... That's that. Anything else you want to bring up today before we head up the road? Toad. Back please. Shankar. Thank you. [...] At this time as I'm dying... I would like to... As you sit dying? As I sit here dying, I think it's the perfect opportunity to vow, and it makes it most beneficial in that the vows that I would like to make are presented to me right behind me.

[75:41]

Thank you for listing them there. And... I would like to vow my Bodhisattva vow to practice restraint, to embrace all phenomena, to embrace and mature all beings. And I would also like to practice the perfections and carl. I would like to practice with you giving and effort and patience and enthusiasm and concentration and wisdom. Thank you. You are welcome. Any other offerings that anyone would care to make?

[77:51]

Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you, Leon. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Jean. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Anne. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Lucetta. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Barnaby. Thank you, Angela. Thank you, Delaney. Thank you, Fred. Thank you, Homa.

[79:12]

Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Anna. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Shirley. Thank you, Tina. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Mickey. Thank you, Anne. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you, Amanda. I wonder why you hesitated to... He thought I was talking to you, right? I thought so, too. I couldn't figure out what was slipping there.

[80:18]

Thank you, Noah. Thank you, Lenore. Thank you, Shankar. Well, before Leon says anything, I just want to say, just want to briefly say, When the red, red robin comes bop, bop, bopping along, along, there'll be no more sobbing when he starts throbbing his old sweet song. Wake up, wake up, you sleepyhead. Get up, get up, get out of bed. Cheer up, the sun is red. Live, love, laugh and be happy. Though I've been blue, now I'm walking through fields of flowers. Rain may glisten, but still I listen for hours and hours.

[81:19]

I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song. When the red, red robin comes bop, bop, bopping along, bop, bop, bopping along,

[81:34]

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