This series of practice events has been titled, Zen Meditation, The Seeds and Fruits of True Awakening. It also has been re-titled Zen Meditation is the seed and fruit of entry into reality. True enlightenment could be also called entry into reality. And so Zen meditation is the seed which leads to entry into this awakening and it is the fruit of entry into reality or entry into...

[01:19]

That's kind of the title or the theme for this series of meetings. And there are a few people in the class like Sandy and Lorraine and Tracy. But even if they weren't here, there would be a few people who have not been here before. namely everybody else, have been here before. We might assume that the people in the room are the same people that came here before, but you don't assume that people who weren't here before were here before, do you? You think they weren't, but you think that maybe you were here before. but you weren't here right now for the first time and so am I. It's a reasonable assumption in the sense of, it's a conventional assumption.

[02:35]

However it is, it's a mistake. It's a mistake. It's a mistake we share in. Hi, Laurie. See? I say, Laurie, and she says, hi, and all works out really nicely, and I never met her before. It's a completely new person. How do you do, you know? By the end of the class, usually we're kind of like... we become in tune with each other, even though at the beginning of the class we meet somebody we haven't met before and think that we have met them before. Because of that, at the beginning of the class, we're not very well in tune. As the class goes on, some of us realize that we've never met these people before and there are some problems.

[03:39]

Like, get in tune, because we're out of tune, because we didn't really, we weren't really ready to start completely from scratch with everybody. So there was some dissonance. And then we gradually accepted that, and by the end of the class, there's a whole new group of people, but we're kind of in tune. And somebody else comes in next week, and some of those people, a lot of those people assume that they're going to meet the same people again, and then we start the same. I think we have to get it tuned again. And so here we are, again, tuning up, getting to know each other, getting to getting in tune. I often think about one time I was with my daughter, my younger daughter.

[04:43]

Her mother went to France, and I was taking care of her for about two months. And then this daughter and I went to a place called Tassajara, and we were in a rendezvous coming back from Europe. And I was like in a position where I could see my daughter when she saw her mother, when she saw her daughter. I saw them when they first saw each other. They were about 100 feet apart. The daughter thought that the person who she was seeing was the mother she used to have. And the mother thought she was the daughter she used to have. And they were very happy about this. And it was a sunny day.

[05:45]

And I kind of saw this golden arc of light joining the two of them. And they ran to each other in this delusion that they were going to meet. their dearly beloved, who they had been separated from. And then they found out that there was a new person there, and then they fought for two weeks. They were both kind of frustrated that this new person had shown up, and new people kept showing up. It took them a long time because they didn't have the expectation to meet this fabulous creature that they used to know. And sometimes we human beings kind of feel like, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. No, but I don't want to go through all that every time I meet somebody. I don't want to start from scratch like, who is this?

[06:47]

Can't we just sort of say, okay, it's the same person we used to have here? Yeah, you can, but then you're going to have a problem. So, So I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, okay, now I wanted, I was going to, I had some things I wanted to talk about, but did these people want to hear about that? Even the people who said before they wanted to hear this stuff maybe, there's a whole new group of people. What do they want? Are they going to accept this? I don't know. I don't know if you'll accept this. I don't know if you are accepting this. So I'm sorry to give you something which you maybe didn't ask for, but this is what I'm offering. I'm also kind of apologizing, because I don't know if you want this. I don't know if you want to hear about how to enter

[07:52]

authentic awakening how to enter into reality I don't know if you're interested in that even if you were interested you're not interested anymore so well it's kind of hard to ask each person individually and then there's social pressures like probably I should say I am so I don't know if you are I don't know if you want to hear about how to enter into reality or not And even though if I ask you and you say yes, I don't know if you're being honest with me, but still, do you want to hear about the path of entering into reality and the fruits of entering into reality? Do you want to hear about it? A few people nod their heads and the other people, I don't know what you mean by not nodding your heads, but... but I did hear the train and I don't know what it means also I you know this place is called the yoga room and I don't know who is in charge of naming this place but tonight I'm asking you to visit okay is that alright with you Donald

[09:25]

Tonight I'd like it to be Buddha's room just for, because what I'm having to talk about is the kind of stuff that happens in Buddha's room. Now usually, oftentimes people call this the yoga room. I don't even know if this is the yoga room. Maybe that room out there is the yoga room. Where is the yoga room actually? Do you know? Is this the yoga room or is that the yoga room? This is the yoga room. Is that the entryway? The prop room. Okay. And maybe sometimes in the yoga room people come in here. When they come in, sometimes they warm up. Do they sometimes warm up? Well, at the beginning of this series of classes, I have a story.

[10:29]

At the beginning of this series of classes, there was a warm-up. And now tonight I'm saying, yes, there was a warm-up, but I think we have to warm up. Warming up last week is great. It's not that it doesn't count. It does count. But that doesn't mean because you warmed up last week, you don't have to warm up this week. In the practice of in the practices which lead to entry into reality, in those practices, those practices need to be repeatedly warmed up to. It isn't that you warm up to them on Thursday and then the next Thursday you don't have to warm up. Warming up to this kind of practice. And so at the beginning of this series I mentioned aspiration.

[11:30]

Aspiration is the warm-up practice for entering reality. The aspiration is the warm-up practice for entering into reality because aspiration is the warm-up practice for the energy to do the practices by which you enter. Energy to do the practices that follow from entry. It's the source, it's the root of the energy to do the practices of enlightenment. And so it's the root and it's also the way of refreshing. The way to start and refresh. So every week in a sense, if I don't mention it, you might forget to do the warm-up exercises.

[12:34]

So, and some people may feel like me even, even me might feel like warm-up exercises every week will have less time for the exercises. Well, that's normal. In fact, the more muscles you get, the more, you know, practice muscles you get, the more you have to warm up. Like little kids, when they first start doing various yoga or running or something, they hardly need to warm up at all. But as the intensity of their exercise program and their muscles get stronger, they have to warm up more. Because they are so strong that they have this strength and without warming the muscles up they can hurt themselves. Whereas most little kids, like most four-year-old kids, do not pull a groin muscle from running or pull a hamstring or whatever from running.

[13:42]

But when you get to be in your teens, 15, 16, 17, you can have big, strong muscles and you can really hurt yourself if you don't warm up. It's the same in spiritual practice. If you don't remember what you're doing this for, and you just start doing the exercise that you got pretty good at, you can get hurt not remembering what the point is. What's the point? Well, let's see now. What was the point again? That's your aspiration. It's the big wish of your life. What was it again? Well, I don't know. You didn't tell me. So again, I'm not really assuming that you all want to enter reality. I'm not assuming it. I'm just telling you about if you did assume, not if you did assume, if you did want to enter reality, if you did want to enter enlightenment and then practice from that enlightenment, then this is a course for that intention, for that wish.

[14:48]

If you wished. So if you don't have this aspiration, then you're welcome to a, I don't know what you call it, a witness. You can just witness somebody talking about these practices. And maybe if you witness it, you'll think, oh, I think actually I would like to join. Oh, I feel aspiration to do these practices. asking your permission to talk about practices which I don't even know if you want to practice yet. And one of them is the practice of aspiration. Those who aspire to true enlightenment for the welfare of others are called bodhisattvas. or another way to put it is those who aspire to true enlightenment and aspire to teach the true dharma, to teach the truth, to teach entered are bodhisattvas.

[16:02]

And a lot of people who I think Maybe they say, okay, I want to enter reality, I want to enter enlightenment for the welfare of beings, but they don't necessarily, they haven't necessarily heard that the way, that what you do with enlightenment to benefit beings is to teach them the thing that you've entered. A lot of people are quite modest and they think, me teach the true dharma? Yeah, I know, I know. It's kind of grandiose to think, can I say that I wish to teach the Dharma? Well, that's the thing that's going to really help people, is if somebody can teach that to them. That's what the Buddha's main job is, is to teach the Dharma. The Buddha doesn't come in and just take people's delusions away. The Buddha teaches. And when people listen and listen and listen, they change. And when they change, they can hear more and more deeply what the Buddha is saying, what the Buddha is teaching.

[17:09]

And when they really hear it, then they're really helped. So the aspiration of the bodhisattva is is an aspiration to enter the reality and then help beings from that reality and also help beings from before entering reality to try to help beings. And the training which initiates us into reality is to try to help people as best we can now. And And so the aspiration is not just to enter reality and help beings from that place, but to train the aspiration. So I aspire to enlightenment, but I also aspire to do the practices which lead to and realize and follow from the realization.

[18:20]

The practices and I aspire to an enlightenment which is the practices. I aspire to practices which are enlightenment and enlightenment which is the practice. I aspire to practice enlightenment, to enlightenment practice." That's an aspiration of bodhisattvas or great vehicle aspiration. And I've said this, I just want to say again that bodhisattva path is an aspirational path in the sense that bodhisattvas want to help beings, want to realize the practice of enlightenment, the enlightenment practice, but they don't actually spend their time thinking that, necessarily thinking that they're doing that. Bodhisattvas do these things, but they don't necessarily think that they're practicing enlightenment.

[19:26]

but they do think that they want to. They don't necessarily think that they're being helpful, but they do think that they want to. They think about their aspiration, and when they think about what they're doing, they realize that what they think they're doing is actually not really what they're doing. It's just... It's just what they think they're doing. So if they think they're helping people and people say, excuse me, that's not helpful, they can listen to that quite easily because they realize that they're not really doing what they think they're doing. But they do realize that they're thinking. And this is what they're thinking. Like, for example, they sometimes do think, oh, I'm Mr. Helpful.

[20:30]

I'm Ms. Boom to the world. That's who I am. They sometimes think that way. They sometimes think, I'm the worst mother on this block. Or I'm a terrible father. Or I'm a lousy teacher. Or I'm a great teacher. They think all kinds of stuff. But they listen to the great vehicle of teaching which says, this constructions. And when people tell them, when they think they're a bad teacher and people tell them a good teacher, then they think that they're hearing people say they're a good teacher. But they realize that that's what they're thinking then too. So it's not like I think I'm a bad teacher and you tell me I'm a good teacher and what I hear you say is right. No, it's not like that. Bodhisattva aspires to sit on the seat of the Buddha, which is to sit on the seat of the insubstantiality of all phenomena, to sit on the seat of the insubstantiality of all thinking.

[21:41]

In order to sit on that seat, as I mentioned earlier, it's recommended that you enter the room of the Buddha, the room of great compassion for all living beings, which means the room of great compassion for all thinking, because living beings are thinkers, or living beings are thinking. So we have compassion for living beings, especially for the living beings who believe that what they think is reality. When we believe that what we think is reality, we suffer. Like when we believe that the person that we saw two months ago is the person we're meeting now, we have stress. But if we practice compassion towards that stress and towards that story, we gradually start to be ready to put on the robe. which is the role of being gentle with this stress and be flexible with this stress.

[22:53]

And then we're ready to enter into that the story is not a substantial truth. That we're meeting now has never been met before. And we don't know who it is. And we still feel great compassion, even though we don't know who it is. So now we're ready to enter the place of meeting each other without grasping. It might have a story here. The story is I have to keep returning almost constantly to the aspiration.

[23:59]

I have to stay in touch with the aspiration. Because it's the root of the energy. The energy to do the practices. Now, what are the practices that take care of this aspiration so that the aspiration gets, supports us to enter reality, the first practice is generosity. So every moment, phenomena come in moments.

[25:12]

Moments are moments of phenomena. There's no, as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong, there's no like moments floating around that aren't phenomena. There's no little packets of time that aren't phenomena, as far as I know. So what I'm working with is phenomena. In other words, a moment of experience of phenomena, whatever phenomena there is. I didn't even say what it was, but I was looking at a kind of like a chimney in a building. That's what I was looking at. And I was exercising my aspiration while I was looking at this chimney on a building in Berkeley.

[26:17]

And so I remembered my aspiration, or the aspiration, to enter reality and teach this reality for the welfare of anybody, the teaching. And I said, now, what practice will take care of this aspiration? And I thought, oh, well, generosity. So I practiced generosity towards the phenomena of a chimney on a building in Berkeley in the afternoon sunlight before the wind came up. And when the wind came up, Then I would have to again remember, what's my aspiration again now? What am I here for? What do I want to do with this life? Oh, I want to enter reality when it's windy, when it's cold, when it's hot. I want to enter reality, not just to get reality for myself, but so that the aspiration will be purified, realized, and be of use to all beings.

[27:32]

So if this thing's going to be to use of all beings, it would probably be a good idea to do the practice with all beings before the reality too, just to get in the mood. And that means every experience. All beings means not just all other living beings, it means every experience, because all I know about all of you is my experience of you. For me, all of you are phenomena. My take on on you as phenomena. I'm not saying you're really phenomena. I'm not saying you're really phenomena. I'm just saying I have to deal with you as phenomena. If I deal with the phenomena of you and if I deal with the phenomena of me, I will be able to sit on the seat of the Buddha, which is the insubstantiality of my experience of you and my experience of myself. And from that seat in my experience of you, we're going to really be able to have a good time here in this suffering world.

[28:47]

We're going to be able to have peace. But starting, number one, I start out with compassion to the experience of a stove chimney. I don't know if the chimney was functioning or not. I didn't even call it a chimney. I just remember I was looking at this, actually this image of this thing up there when I was saying, what's the first practice now? And I remembered, oh, it's giving. Practicing giving with towards the stovepipe or the chimney, but on the occasion of me seeing a chimney, what's the practice? So there's a lot of Zen stories in our tradition where two people are walking along together and one of them says, and they come to a street, they come to a yoga room, and one of them says to the other one, on the occasion of entering the yoga room, what's the practice? On the occasion of crossing the street, what's the practice?

[29:50]

On the occasion of seeing a stovepipe, what's the practice? Well, what's your aspiration? Tell me your aspiration and I'll tell you the practice. Wish to enter the reality of this experience of entering the yoga room. Okay, you want to enter reality? Okay. That's what you want? All right, well then practice generosity towards this occasion. With or with this occasion. which is kind of like towards the stovepipe or towards the person or towards your story of the person. It's kind of like towards it. The towards it is actually a little off because they're not actually out there. Before entering reality, when a phenomena comes, there may be some sense of experiencer and experienced or self and other.

[30:53]

This is the pre-reality practice. I wish to aspire to not yet realize that they're not separate from me. I still have the story that they're separate. But that doesn't stop the practice. And I still aspire to enter the reality of non-separation. But it looks like the chimney's separate from me. It looks like the person's separate. And I can be generous towards that illusion. I've heard it's an illusion and I can be generous towards the teaching that it's an illusion. I can welcome the teaching and I can welcome the appearance of separation. And this is like immeasurable to do. And it takes care of this aspiration. The aspiration reminded me of the practice and the practice reminds me of the aspiration and takes care of the aspiration.

[31:55]

The aspiration gave me the energy to think about and then to engage in the practice of generosity towards now I can practice generosity towards the phenomena of you. And I want to do that. And I don't have to think that I'm doing it. I just want to. I just want to keep remembering what that would be. It would be that I really would welcome you. That I really would let you into the room. Into the room. It isn't my room. It's Buddha's room. Which means I... I really want to welcome you. I'm not saying I am, but I really want to welcome you into the heart of great compassion for all living beings. I want to be in that room, and I want you to come in there too. And even if you don't come in, you're still welcome.

[32:56]

You're welcome to stand outside. You're welcome to come in. I welcome you wherever you're at. Inside, at the threshold, outside. I welcome you with whatever your aspiration is. I mean, I want to. And then I can maybe say that I do. That's just me thinking I do. I don't know if I really welcome you, but I definitely want to learn how to do that. Okay, that's the first practice I thought of in regard to that thing, that chimney. That's the first thing I think of in regard to you and me. What's the next one? Our next practice is ethics. Now, I mentioned last week that the ethics on this path have two aspects.

[34:01]

One aspect is the exercise of restraint or you could say the exercise of presence. The precept of restraint or the precept of presence. That's the first ethical discipline on the path of entering reality. After welcoming what's happening, the next practice is practice ethics with it. And the first ethical discipline is to restrain distraction from being present. So, okay, me and the chimney. Okay, let go of any distraction, any going away from just this chimney. Or me in this sense, just give up distraction from being here with them, just being here with them, just being present.

[35:04]

And just being present is very similar to Don't try to get anything out of this meeting. So restraining distraction or practicing presence is similar to restrain trying to get something out of the chimney. Try to restrain yourself from trying to get something out of the wind. Restrain the impulse to get something from this person. from this being, from this pleasure, from this pain. And also restrain yourself from trying to do anything. Trying to get something or avoid something are two ways of not being present with what's happening. That's the first ethical exercise, is to give up those kinds of defiling ways of being with the phenomena. So people come to study Zen.

[36:10]

As I mentioned last week, they often go out of their way to find a Zen teacher. They walk up to the Zen teacher. They meet the Zen teacher. And then they themselves from trying to get something from the Zen teacher. They just go right ahead and try to get something. And then the Zen teacher mentions to them, hey, we have a practice of not trying to get something from Zen teachers. Sometimes they don't put it that way. But basically they're saying, you came a long ways to practice Zen, and I'm here to tell you, now try to get Zen from me. And then the student says, oh, thank you so much. That's right, I was trying to get something. And the teacher might say, what did you come here for? Before that, what did you come here for? I wanted to practice Zen. Well, practicing Zen is not trying to get something. As a matter of fact, it's like welcoming.

[37:12]

If you're trying to get something, it's welcoming that. And then it's like giving up trying to get something. So it's also trying to give up, trying to avoid something. And then the other two aspects of practicing with things so that the aspiration to enter reality is realized are to practice all the practices, generosity, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, wisdom. And the other one is to do the practice you could say helping others, but usually the word is more literally to mature beings. It isn't just to help them. It's to help them, yes, help them, but also mature them.

[38:17]

Mature, help them. But then after helping them, mature them. In other words, help them find their aspiration. You can benefit people before they're even willing, before they're even ready to look at their aspiration. So people who have forgotten their aspiration, or who haven't found it yet, are not ready to do the practices for entering reality. They have to find aspiration first. Because the energy to do the practices for entering truth come from the aspiration to enter truth. And some people yet have not realized they want to enter truth so that they can enter the process of liberating beings. So in that case, you can still let them in the room. they can still come in the room even though they don't want to do any practices.

[39:23]

In other words, you can practice generosity towards people who have not yet found their aspiration to do the practices. But when they see the practice of welcoming, of generosity, stimulate the arising of the aspiration. If it doesn't, then you just continue to practice generosity. And then also you practice ethics with them. For example, you don't think you're better than them. They somehow sense that you've got this big aspiration that's taken over your life, that they don't know what theirs is, and you don't think you're better than them. They can see you're like really going to town on your aspiration. that you're taking real good care of it and it's like it's... They can see it. They're impressed by it. But they're not yet sure that they want to sign up for such a thing.

[40:27]

And they can see that you don't think you're better than them. Or they can see this person of great aspiration doesn't look down on them. And they think, how cool. They've got this great, amazing... And they don't think they're better than me. And they don't think they're better than me not only because they don't have it, but because I don't even care about it. I'm like a bad boy. And they don't think they're better than a bad boy. But I think I'm kind of better than them. Maybe not. Maybe I think I'm worse than them, but they don't think I'm worse than them, and they don't think I'm better than them, and they don't think they're better than me, and they don't think they're worse than me. Weirdo. Anyway, the weirdo just keeps dumping... compassion on them, keeps opening the door to the room, and eventually the aspiration will arise.

[41:37]

That's the program. The practitioner may have to actually enter reality before the force of this compassion becomes so pure that nobody can stand up to it, against it, or avoid it. But some people can get converted from being distracted from their aspiration, even by somebody who hasn't yet entered into reality. A lot of possibilities here, too. I mentioned last time and I mentioned it again and I'm going a little deeper maybe this week and that is that for this practice of purifying the practice of purifying our practice from trying to get something

[42:53]

it's good to pick some form, form, and then you can notice, you can, what do you call it, the impurities are discovered and disclosed, and then they can be dropped. It may be hard sometimes to spot the way you're trying, what you're doing. So this first practice, this first bodhisattva ethics practice, which is basically a purifying practice, purifying our practice, what is the practice for? The practice is to mature this seed, this aspiration into enlightenment and the fruit of enlightenment, which is enlightened compassion. to purify and to take care of and purify this seed, we need to reveal that we're trying to get something out of this process.

[44:04]

It's a wonderful process. What could be better than the process of bringing this beautiful aspiration to flowering and fruit? It's a wonderful thing, but for it to actually proceed, we have to not by trying to get something out of it, And we naturally do try to get things out of things, so even the best thing will try to get something out of it. And even the best thing, if you try to get something out of it, will be stalled. So part of the ethics practice is to choose a form and do it, and then you can see the defilements. and then be kind to them, and then they can drop. And then you can do the same practice as before, but now without trying to get something from it. Amazing.

[45:05]

And when you practice that way, you're pretty much, you're almost home. Except you're not home, so you practice patience. And then also you're not home, so you keep doing all these other practices. to find more and more subtle versions of trying to get something. So this kind of gaining attitude towards the practice has been revealed. And, oh yeah, there I'm trying to get something out of this. Okay, hi. Hi. And be kind to that. Okay. That's gone. Here I am doing the same practice, pretty much, I mean it's not the same practice, it's a new fresh version of the practice that's called by that name. Here I am doing the practice, doing the form, like for example, sitting. I'm doing the sitting. I noticed I was trying to get something. I was kind to it. The sitting thing just dropped away and now I'm just sitting. And I'm continuing to do it, and now I see a more subtle version of it.

[46:08]

I see kind of like the reverse of it. I'm not trying to get anything anymore. I'm just trying to avoid trying to get something. So the more you do it, the more you get. And that's part of the ethical training. The giving is not so much about that. The giving is more like, okay, come on in, everybody. Of course, that's when it's working. Sometimes it doesn't work and you say, okay, come on in, but not everybody. That's giving that's hindered. But sometimes it really is, okay, come on in everybody. And then did anybody notice what happened there? Did somebody notice I let everybody in? Somebody let everybody in? Wow, that was spectacular. And it just happened to be, I wonder, you know. Yes, I am famous. I am famous. They noticed. Okay, get rid of that one. But now. Again, notice that and let go of that.

[47:15]

That's the ethics which follows the generosity. Last week, I want to say again, because none of you were here last week, that in this practice of whatever form you're using, whatever practice you're doing, whatever form the practice has, of purifying the practice unites lay and monastic bodhisattvas. The forms that people do in monasteries are somewhat different than the forms that people do in the streets of Berkeley. Like in the streets of Berkeley, a person sees a chimney. Monasteries don't have chimneys. Maybe they do. Anyway, in Berkeley, on the streets of Berkeley, sometimes you see a chimney, and then what you do is you practice a presence with that chimney.

[48:24]

And if you were in a monastery and you saw a tiled roof or a bell, you would do the same practice. So in that sense, in a monastic situation or in a non-monastic situation... Monastic situation means... This is a monastery, and this is a place where they say it's not a monastery. This is a place that does Zen forms. This is called a grocery store. And some of the people in the grocery store say this is not a Zen temple. And if a Zen monk walks in, like I walked into actually, a grocery store, and somebody came up to me and said, are you all right? What are you doing in the grocery store? I said, yeah, I'm okay. That was the grocery store. You can imagine some other places they might ask me, what am I doing? A bodhisattva can be a monastic and can be a layperson.

[49:35]

This practice, the practice of generosity unites them. If you're in a monastery, you welcome whoever comes. If you're in the street, you welcome whoever comes. But there's forms, like sitting upright with your legs crossed, or sitting in a chair trying to be upright. These forms And if you practice this way with these forms, you're doing the same practice basically on a different form than somebody in a monastery is doing with a bell or a prostration or whatever. It might be good to choose one form. that you're always kind of like pointing towards, you're always zeroing in on, all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time.

[50:39]

And I was going to say you can choose, but yes, it is true, you can choose, but I also suggest that you choose, then after you choose it, then you ask someone to give it to you. So whether you're a lay bodhisattva or a monastic, the form you use that you focus on for your ethical training is something that's given to you. And it's given to you by somebody who received it from somebody else who gave it to them. And it's given to you correctly means you check out to see if you understand it and some agreement about what the form is. And you work on it. So I'm saying to you, choose a form and then try to find somebody to give it to you.

[51:52]

You, if you wish, you can help me figure out how to help you if you want to do that. This is a traditional teaching and it's pretty, this is another form. The form is that the form you use to purify your practice, and you use this form to purify your practice, and then that purifying function, all the varieties of practices you would do, but you choose some form to focus on to purify all your practices. So for example, in Soto Zen, in the 13th century in Japan, a Zen teacher named Dogen changed meditation as the form.

[53:03]

He said, that's the form that I'm using. And so you can do this sitting, and then you can see if you can practice that sitting without trying to get anything from it. Or practice that sitting without trying to avoid anything with it. Some people might sit to avoid the problems of the world. That doesn't sound so bad. except they're trying to get something from the practice. And that will not actually free us from the problems of the world. Trying to avoid the problems of the world in this tradition is not the way. In this tradition, the way is the way to be free and at peace with the problems of the world is by acknowledging them and fully embracing them. Also to try to get the problems of the world or to get a better world is also something not to try to get away from, but again, welcome that and then practice ethics with it.

[54:14]

Be present with it. Don't try to get away from it. Don't try to hold on to it. So in that tradition, we use the sitting form as a particular form, like we do it in this room. You can come in here. Every time you come in, you sit here at the beginning of class, and you can just sit there and use that form on Thursday night. See if you can practice that form without trying to get anything or avoid anything. And if you want to... You can ask me, and I'll give it to you. Or you can ask somebody else, and they can give it to you. The person who gives it to you is somebody who asked somebody else for it and received it from them. And then every class, you can start that way.

[55:16]

Plus, between the classes, you can also do... And you can remember this any time of day or night and you do not have to be sitting. You can begin walking down the streets of Berkeley and remember sitting upright. And you can think of it. You might have to stand still for a little while because when you first think of it, you might not be able to concentrate on, you know. So maybe you stand still for a little while. and say, OK, now I'm standing, and I'm remembering just sitting, not trying to get anything. And now I'm standing here, and I'm not trying to get anything, and I'm actually practicing. Yeah, I'm just standing. And now I notice I'm trying to get something. There it is. Amazing. Amazing. I'm standing here. I'm not going anyplace, and I'm trying to get something from that. Be kind to that and you can drop it.

[56:18]

It is on the earth in Berkeley or in the West Bay. You can stand on this earth without trying to get something out of standing on this earth. You can sit so you can choose a form and you can remember that form whether you're doing it or not. And you can form that you're not doing and still try to get something out of it. But if you're forgetting the form, it's hard to notice that you're trying to get something from it. You have to remember it. You have to go back to the form and say, that's the form. I'm not doing it now. Yeah, I'm not doing it now, and I'm not trying to get anything out of it, I think. Wow. And now the form is happening, and I'm not trying to get anything out of it. Wow. And now I am. Not exactly wow, just like wow, like amazingly strong, that impure trying to get something out of everything is.

[57:28]

So that's Soto Zen of that particular lineage. They use this form. And you're not sitting cross-legged all day long, but you can that form all day long. You can always be thinking of just sitting. You can always think of being just present, not trying to get anything out of your life. And you can catch yourself innumerable times, and the more times you catch yourself, the better. It's not the more times you forget, the more times you're not present, the better. The more times you notice it, the better. Because when you notice it, noticing it, and then feeling a little bit of regret that you got distracted from just doing it in the pure way, you will eventually learn things without trying to get something from them. You will eventually learn that.

[58:29]

In other words, you will eventually get really good at ethics. the first part of ethics. And if you get good at ethics, then the next two parts of doing those practices of giving ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, wisdom, those practices will thrive under this training. And then working for the welfare of others will work much more easily and joyfully. in, what do you call it, there's another school that arose in Japan around the same time as Soto Zen. It's called Nichiren. And the teacher in that school, what he taught was, the one practice he taught was Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. To just focus, what does that mean? Homage to the

[59:31]

Dharma to the lotus flower of the true Dharma scripture. Always think of that scripture. And that scripture says that when you think of that scripture, when you think of that scripture, when you think of that scripture, Buddha is born. Buddha goes to daycare. Buddha leaves home. Buddha attains enlightenment. and Buddha enters into perfect nirvana. When you think of the Lotus Sutra, the Lotus Sutra tells you that. But it also means that when you think of the Lotus Sutra, period, rather than you think of the Lotus Sutra so that you can be Buddha going to daycare or Buddha. So you say, namo myoho renge kyo, but then you notice, did I try to get something out of that? And of course, the people who do that practice Some of them noticed they're trying to get something from that practice, but the practice is the same practice.

[60:36]

There's monastic and lay practitioners. There's strict monastic practitioners and lay practitioners, but they have the same practice. Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. And as a matter of fact, on the street, The people get people to start this practice on the street, and they tell the people, some of the people, they say, when the people are walking by, you say, you want a new car? They actually say, if you do this practice, you can get whatever you want. You can be a great, you can be a movie star. You can get a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They tell people that. Some, you know, I've seen them do it. In other words, they catch people's gaining idea and they say, here, use this.

[61:37]

That if they get people to do it, then the people will do it and they'll notice if they do this, they'll notice their gaining idea. Because they'll see, oh, I'm doing this to gain something. And then they'll notice, I'm not getting what they said I would get. I'm getting something different. what I'm getting is noticing, what I am getting is noticing. So I think I'm going to stop this practice and go do something else. But if you keep doing it, you will stop trying to get something from saying namo myoho renge kyo. Anything that helps you notice that you're trying to get something from your life, and you keep doing it and keep noticing it, that doing the thing which shows you you're gaining idea and then noticing the gaining idea and continuing to do it and continuing to notice it, you will become Buddha. If you just say Lotus Sutra, you don't even have to say Namu Myoho Rinpoche, just say Lotus Sutra, or just say Buddha, or just say compassion,

[62:49]

All these are possible, except one thing, one little catch, is that it looks like somebody has to give it to you. Now, that may be for the priest to have a job, but anyway, it's been said for quite a long time that you don't just pick it yourself. You ask somebody for it, and they give it to you. There's a lot of difficulties around that and advantages around it. If you ask somebody for it, then they can help you. If by any chance you think you're not trying to get anything out of it, they maybe help you notice that you are. And again, some people just say, well, people are, some people say, well, everybody's trying to get something, so I'm just going to start by saying, hey, you want to get something? Here. And it would be easy to say, you trying to get something? Well, of course I am. You asked me if I was, and you said, well... I just want to check to see if you notice that that's what you're doing it for. Now, are you still doing it to get something?

[63:54]

Are you still doing it to get something? Are you still good? Yes, yes, yes, yes. And eventually, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. So again, it can be anything, but you need to do it with somebody else. Because this whole thing, this whole program, is doing something with somebody else. And the somebody else you're doing it with is complete perfect enlightenment. This whole thing is about it. with complete perfect enlightenment. You're not by yourself. You're not doing this practice alone. You don't choose it by yourself. You didn't choose it by yourself. You chose it because you have a relationship with the thing which you want to realize.

[64:56]

Complete perfect enlightenment for the welfare of all beings, and that's what you're in relationship with. And that will help you realize how deeply you don't believe that. And therefore you do things which you're not believing it but if you notice the things you do for not believing it you'll drop them and then you'll believe it. So aspiration, generosity, ethics, and I'm focusing on the first of the three types of ethics tonight. Now I encourage you to look at this and start now for a little while, but next week, if you want to, bring me what you've discovered about this practice. I told you a little bit about what I discovered, you can tell me and we can try to work out the difficulties.

[66:12]

Is there anything you wish to say in the remaining time? Yes. Your daughter and her mother reunited when my daughter and her mother reunited. And had some difficulty to each other, tuning to the new people whom they were. How did you support that? Did you kind of wave your arms and say, hey, you guys, you're new people now? Or did you just stand there and watch? What did you do? They kind of, well, I kind of did, I just watched, yeah, I watched. I knew that they had to go through that. You know, it's like when the orchestra gets together and they make those funny sounds, except this is a much more intense thing than just getting ready to play.

[67:18]

I knew that they, I knew, and I, I just, I actually, I kind of stood in awe. I witnessed it in awe. Because they really love each other and it's really hard not to try to get a hold of the person you love. So they loved each other so much that they were tempted to make the other person into something that wasn't so mysterious. And then they gradually adapted, you know, they adjusted to reality. And then they got more and more peaceful. But then, you know, it's another day.

[68:22]

Another day of who is this? Again, we worked really hard, we got attuned, and now that's all over. Now it's another person. You know, how... It's like going, we don't have to go back to the beginning, do we? It isn't like starting all over. Couldn't we like get some advance credit for all the work we did yesterday? Well, you do in a way. Because you can remember, there was a lot of work yesterday, so I guess it might be almost as much work today or even more. Rather than every day a little bit easier. Maybe. Maybe. But maybe the easier is every day realizing that I don't expect it to be easier. Every day, every day, being more open to being at harder than yesterday. Taking longer. Or if it's, I mean going deeper. And now I'm trying to get something and so on.

[69:24]

Are we really up for how vast the enlightened mind is? You're talking about, well, maybe starting from scratch every day would be appropriate, if it's that big a deal. And there's some people we really want to practice enlightenment with. We think, oh yeah, it's all set up, we can really work on it together. Maybe later. Like I often tell the story, I went way out of my way to study with a certain Zen master, and then I got the opportunity to be with him, and sometimes he would just say, kind of like, well, I'm here for you. And I would say, oh, great, well, I don't want to take your time. So, yeah. I watched because they really love each other. And I must say, you know, I a little bit feel left out sometimes.

[70:31]

This thing that they've got, you know, this mother-daughter thing is a special love thing. You know, I'm kind of a little bit past lives or something to check it out. I don't know. I'm a little left out. So that's my struggle is like, oh, jeez, I wish I had something like that. It's so intense and so horrible. I wish I had something like that. I feel so left out. I never hit my daughter, except, you know, one time my wife said, would you please spank her? Because she would, you know, late at night, when she was about three or four, she would go... And she'd just go on like that, and my wife would just be like, ah, ah, ah. And if I just swat her once on the butt, she'd go, yeah, and go, poop, asleep. Like she couldn't really, like, cry, you know.

[71:35]

She's just this intense whining, and then one little swat on the butt, and she would just turn into a cry and then conk out. So I did that once or twice, and then my wife said, didn't ask me to do it anymore. I was never even tempted to hit her. But I, you know, I'm kind of, I don't know what the word is, ashamed in a way that I didn't get intensely enough involved with her so that I was pushed to the door, you know, almost of fear and, you know, I never got afraid enough. in my relationship with her. Or with my wife, and this is in the public domain, so I can tell you, when we got married, she said, after the ceremony, she said, kidding.

[72:41]

So in that case, I needed that role because I did really get scared sometimes with her. With her, I got to that place where it's good that she made that role. She said, no hitting. If you hit me, I may still love you, but I'm... So I never hit her. But, you know, if she hadn't had that rule, I think I might have said, oh, this is a good time to... That would be a real good thing to do when you're scared like this. But I never did. But she and my daughter, they got... These places, and I kind of feel... A little bit like, wow, it's just fabulous. So I witnessed it. And I supported them. And I think I was there to hold them together. Not hold them together, like force them together. Create a space. where they could have this intensity, and my presence supported their process.

[73:47]

And I feel like I did serve that purpose. And actually, again, I regret that I wasn't there to do that more than I did. And one time I was at Tassajara in a practice period. She said, I need you to come home. She needed me to come home and contain this this thermal energy of their relationship. She couldn't. So I left a practice period that I was leading to witness this groping for intimacy between these two people. That's what we're really trying to do. We're trying to be intimate. And sometimes it's, we have to watch people and kind of left out, but they still, sometimes if we're there to witness. So that's my positive side, is that I can support that.

[74:48]

So is your assignment clear? Is it clear, Simon? I'd like you to think about what your form's going to be that you're going to use, that you'd like to use to notice, to focus in on whether you're trying to get something out of the practice. What practice will you use to reveal any kind of like distraction from just being with the practice? And then how could I help you? How could I give that to you? How could you ask me to give it to you? So you're not just making it up on your own, and you're the only one who's working on it. Because again, I'm saying, we don't do these practices alone. We do them together with a tradition. Because this is a traditional instruction. So I'd like you to think of something you'd like me to give you, or think of something you'd like somebody to give to you.

[76:09]

And then you and that person will be working on that precept together. For the sake of what? For the sake of aspiration into reality. Does that make sense now? You can talk about it in this room during class, but you can also communicate with me by email or by letter, or make some other kind of, or come and see me. And you can work on this. This is an actual transmission of a precept I'm talking about. Okay? A literal thing Emptiness of the form. A literal practice of a precept to realize the emptiness of all things. Okay? If you have more questions next week about how to do this, I'd be happy to assist you in your questioning process.

[77:18]

Thank you very much. And one more brief thing is people ask me, how are we adjusting to Rozzy's departure? And one of the ways we're adjusting is that now we have mice in the house. She's not there, so they came in the house. When she was in the house, they weren't. But now they've come. Thank you very much.

[77:57]

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