Welcome to the meeting. Thank you for coming to the meeting. I pray that this may be a thoroughly responsible meeting. I think I would like to talk to you about Zen practice. I saw up at the entrance to Green Gorge there's a sign that says Zen Center. I think, does it say Zen Center? Yeah. So Zen center, it's a center for Zen. And maybe I could say it's a center for Zen practice.

[01:03]

And sometimes we call Zen practice Zazen, like sitting Zen. And I can accept calling Zen practice Zazen. So I recently have been emphasizing the suggestion from certain ancient teachers that Zazen, that Zen practice, is the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. And I would also today suggest that Zen practice is the pivotal activity of face-to-face transmission.

[02:24]

Zen practice is a face-to-face communication. One way to talk about it is it's a face-to-face meeting or communication between Buddhas. It's a face-to-face meeting Buddha to Buddha. But that's the practice of the way, is for Buddhas to meet Buddhas and for Buddhas to give their face to Buddhas, and for Buddhas to receive the faiths of the other Buddha. The Zen practice is to exchange faces in transmission. I haven't always thought of Zazen as this kind of face-to-face meeting, but today I do.

[03:33]

Another way for me to talk about this practice is the pivotal activity of Buddhas is how Buddhas are pivoting with all living beings. Buddhas and living beings can change places. They can pivot on each other. they do pivot on each other. Great enlightenment of the Buddhas is pivoting with great delusion of living beings. We don't have great enlightenment of Buddhas all by itself. Buddha is nothing by itself. Buddha is in relationship to not Buddha, to delusion. and the relationship is completely intimate.

[04:43]

And it's functioning of exchanging. It's a transmission, it's a transfusion. The practice is a transmission of great enlightenment and great delusion. The practice isn't great delusion by itself, which most people probably wouldn't expect, but it's also not great enlightenment by itself. It's the face-to-face meeting of great delusion and great enlightenment. This is the practice. And another way of talking about it I've been talking about all summer The practice is the pivoting of finite life with infinite life.

[05:53]

Those two meet face to face and pivot on each other. Our life is both finite, yes, and infinite, yes. I say yes. And our ancestor Dogen Zenji encourages us to not esteem or despise the finite. And also don't esteem or despise the infinite. Rather, become intimate with both. In case I forget, please remind me to talk about how to become intimate with both.

[07:08]

And one more way to talk about it is our life can be superficial. Our life is superficial. I would say today it's unavoidably superficial. But it's also unavoidably deep. It's both. It has a surface and a depth. And we don't have surface without depth, and we don't have depth without surface. And the depth and the surface are pivoting on each other all the time. The practice is to embody and enact this pivotal activity. I think the last time I talked here I brought up a story about the Zen ancestor Master Ma, horse master, Matsu.

[08:28]

There's a story that he was unwell. And there's a traditional expression in the Buddhist community of visiting someone who's sick, you say, how is your venerable health these days? In India they used to ask each other when they were sick about that, and in China they also used that expression. So the great master was unwell and the director of the monastery came to him and said, Teacher, how is your venerable health these days? And Master Ma said, Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. Now visiting Master Ma, of course, if I asked him how his health is, I would really be saying, how is your practice?

[09:38]

I know you're old and sick. How is your practice? How is zazen? But I might do it in this kind of polite way of, how is your health, your venerable health? How is the health of your zazen practice? And the great ancestor says, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. Now there's a sutra where they have names of Buddha. There are infinite names of Buddha. The sutra has a lot of them, but not an infinite number. And one of the Buddhas is named sun-faced Buddha, and another Buddha is named moon-faced Buddha. The sun-faced Buddha is basically infinite life Buddha, lives 1800 or 18,000 years. And the sun-faced Buddha lives one day and one night. So now I understand Master Ma is saying, my Zazen practice is the pivotal activity of the infinite life Buddha and the finite life Buddha.

[10:58]

Like you, Director. In other words, my Zazen practice is still alive I'm still living in this face-to-face transmission of infinite life and finite life, of superficial life and profound life. There's no end to stories discussing this pivotal activity. There's no end to stories discussing this face-to-face transmission. There's so many Zen stories about people meeting face-to-face and performing Zazen together, performing Zen practice together, face-to-face, in silence and also talking in silence. In stillness and being silent in stillness.

[12:05]

in stillness and being and talking in stillness. So many stories about this. It's almost time to stop. So back to the superficial life. or the superficial quality of life. We find ourselves when we're born and born again, we find ourselves, we find ourselves, we find a self. A self is found in a world in an alien world. A self is found in an alien world, a world which is otherwise, to a small extent or a great extent.

[13:18]

And in such a world where a self is found, there are limits. There's a limit of the self and the limit of the other. We are actually a self and other, but superficially it looks like self is finite and other can also be finite. And in this realm there's birth and death, coming and going, And there's also the, can be, the appearance of the other not respecting the self. Or even the other threatening the self. The other being aggressive towards the self.

[14:22]

A mild aggression like, for example, touching the self. Someone in your world reaches out to touch you. And when someone reaches out to touch you, not to mention if they reach out with a lot of speed and energy, you might be afraid. In this superficial life where there's a self appearing and others, when the other comes towards the self, there can be, great fear can arise. I just had a story pop up in my head. Another one came. And they're both about, and here comes another one, all three are about a little boy who's now... There are stories about a little boy, a boy when he was little.

[15:33]

Now his successors have become big. But they all call me granddaddy. So I was with this little boy in the Los Angeles Zoo, and it was lunchtime, and he had what he calls a bag of lunch. and in his bag of lunch he had an orange. And he was trying to open the orange and I asked him if he would like me to help him. I didn't just try to help him because from experience I thought that could be seen as an aggression, active aggression, just to start helping him. So I said, would you like me to help you? And he said, yes. So I took the orange and I opened the orange the way I usually open oranges, which is I bite the top off and then peel it back. And when I bit the top off,

[16:33]

he screamed intensely and started to attack me. I bit his orange. And actually a policeman was nearby and came over because he thought maybe I was abusing him. Fortunately his grandmother was there too to say, he just, I bit the top of his orange off. And then he was going to throw the orange in the garbage. And his grandmother said, if you throw the orange in the garbage, you're getting no lunch. So he didn't. But he really was angry at me for biting that. And I accept it.

[17:35]

because I have some training in being intimate with the superficial, which includes people attacking me, in my superficial life people sometimes attack me. They sometimes reach out to touch me without asking, and they talk to me sometimes in aggressive ways. So I could accept his anger and the minutes and hours went by as we continued to be at the zoo and gradually we made up. He was staying away from me, he was angry at me, but gradually he started to ask me to perform some of my usual services. like embrace him and carry him around.

[18:41]

Another time he was eating a banana and I asked him if he would like me to open it for him. and I cut it in half. And again, he just flew into a rage. This is our superficial animal life. And I'm reading a book about chimpanzee politics. And chimpanzees if a chimpanzee goes towards a chimpanzee with a lot of speed, just speed, not to mention making some grunting sounds, the other chimpanzee will usually intensely scream really loudly.

[19:56]

And maybe a whole bunch of them will scream. when people aggress upon them and threaten them, they will often scream a very loud protest. It's part of our superficial nature to vehemently, to feel vehement protest in the face of violence. this is part of our limited, our finite life, is that we're seeing sometimes violence, aggression, and injustice. And we feel, and our body picks it up even before we're aware of it. And we get really worked up in response to these appearances in our finite life.

[20:57]

protesting against violence is in our body. It's in our primate nature to protest when we see violence towards somebody we care about, like ourselves and our family. And this finite superficial life where a self appears in a world, a world which can sometimes be respectful and gentle with us but also sometimes can appear disrespectful and harsh with us, in that world we are encouraged not to esteem that world and not to despise that world but to become intimate with it.

[22:04]

becoming intimate with this world, we open to the way this world is pivoting with the infinite, profound world. And again, it's not so that we get the profound, it's so that we enter into the pivotal activity of this limited world and the infinite, unlimited world. Neither one's better, The practice is the way that they live together and are changing places all the time. So the Buddha gives an instruction, basic instruction, to train ourselves. So train ourselves to relate to the finite for how to relate to the superficial in a way that will open us to the face-to-face transmission of Buddhas.

[23:17]

The Buddha says, in the seen, there will be just the seen. In the heard, there will be just the heard. And then he makes a statement which is including the next three senses, but I'll say the next three senses. In the tasted, there will be just the tasted. In the smelled, just the smelled. And in the touched, just the touched. And in any kind of mental phenomena, there's just the mental phenomena. So that was the instruction. And I would summarize that by saying, train yourself thus. In the superficial, there would be just the superficial. In the limited, there's just the limited.

[24:24]

Train yourself to let each limited event be just that limited event. most of us, maybe all of us, need this training because we have habits from our past action to not let limited things just be limited things. To not let the appearance of aggression just be the appearance of aggression. To not let the appearance of disrespect just be disrespect. So it's hard, so we need to train ourselves to learn a new way to be intimate with this superficial life. So this is the instruction. Let the fear, in the fear there will be just the fear.

[25:28]

there still will be fear probably for the foreseeable future because we live in this world where our body is very sensitive to certain things, so the fear will still come up. But we can train ourselves to let the fear just be fear. And then by training in this way we become, or I should say, by training in this way the training becomes mature. You could even say we become mature along with the training. Our body and mind mature through this training of relating to our superficial life according to this instruction. Before I go on to the good news which follows later from the Buddha, I just want to say that included in letting things be is being generous towards them.

[26:36]

Welcoming them. Being careful of them. Being tender with them. Being gentle with them. Being patient with them. Being diligent and energetic with them. Being calm with them. All these are involved in the amazing feat of letting somebody be. Now, when we do become mature, in other words, when actually for you or for me, it's the case that in the scene, there's just the scene, when that's the way it is, rather than training yourself that way, when it actually is that way for you, then you will not be with it.

[27:49]

You will not be with it. the threat. You will be not with the fear. You will be not with the color or the smell. You won't be with it. And you also will not, Buddha doesn't say this, but I'm saying, you also won't be not with it. You won't be with it or not with it when you train this way. You won't be in it. You won't be not in it. You won't identify with it. You won't disidentify with it. The Buddha didn't say this, but in this particular instruction he didn't mention that when you're with things and when you're in things, that's suffering. When you're in things and not in things, with things and not with things, this is the normal suffering situation of our superficial life. This training lets that drop away. And then there's no here or there or in between.

[28:55]

And this is the end of suffering, the Buddha said. It is also the opening the door, you know, the door opening on our infinite life. By letting our finite life be, we can open to our infinite life. And there's another set of instructions about how to deal with infinite life after you open to it. But I'm not going to mention it right now, if that's okay. But now I'm going to mention it. Basically, you let the infinite life be the same way you let the finite life be. It's just that in the infinite life you're not letting — you already are letting the colors be colors — but in infinite life you're letting the infinite life just be the infinite life.

[30:00]

You're letting a life where a self is not avoided, and a self is not attached to. You're opening to a world where a self is not found. It's not that there's no self. You can't find a self. Why can't you find a self? Because in the profound aspect of our life, the self is the center of the universe. And each thing is the center of the universe. Each thing includes the entire universe. And each thing is included in the entire universe. So you can't find anything in our infinite life. And you can't get away from anything in our infinite life. Again, if you're completely open to your finite life, you're also open to your infinite life.

[31:06]

And then you open to the fact that the finite is dancing and meeting face to face with the infinite. The finite, we can find things. The infinite, you can't find anything. Those two worlds live together and they liberate each other. Again, not esteem or despise the superficial, not esteem or despise the profound. Becoming intimate with the superficial, we naturally open to the profound.

[32:13]

Being intimate with the profound, we don't esteem it or despise it. And we open to the finite. We open to the face-to-face transmission, the practice. when people hear this instruction they sometimes think that the Buddha's instruction means not to do anything. So when I hear that I think, well actually following the Buddha's instruction, learning the Buddha's instruction involves lots of activities like, for example, training in generosity. Generosity is an activity. It's not doing nothing. It's practicing being generous.

[33:15]

Being careful and tender with things is not doing nothing. It's a way of being with things. All these practices involved in letting things be are a great activity. It's just that what people often think doing something is, is that it's messing with things. It's trying to control them and manipulate them. That's what they think doing things is. And if you're not manipulating, well then, what are you doing? I mean, what could you be doing other than manipulating? Again, that's part of our animal thing. Chimpanzees are manipulating all the time. And sometimes they scare each other, but also sometimes the manipulation calms us down. Manipulation in this teaching is not to be despised. In manipulation we should train ourselves so that in the manipulation there's just manipulation.

[34:18]

And that's not manipulation. this great activity of letting things be themselves is the way to take your seat in the middle of the universe, your seat of wisdom and compassion. And from that place the appropriate response to whatever is there arises. If there's aggression, if there's unkindness, and we can quickly meet it and let it be completely, and realize this maturity, that gets transmitted, that's an action which gets transmitted to the aggression, which sets up the possibility of reconciliation.

[35:21]

and peace with the aggression or aggressors. So we can walk from this place, we can walk up to the aggressors and say, excuse me sweetheart, how are you feeling? We can see our grandchildren in frightened, aggressive, adult, I shouldn't say adult, I should say large white males. We can see and we can walk up and they can see the grandfather's eyes or the grandmother's eyes, they can see our love which is coming from the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. They can see our love And it may not work right away because even the Buddha looked at people that way and some people could not look at the Buddha's love. It was too much. And when they didn't look at it, they kept, they didn't drop their weapons.

[36:26]

Another story which, among those three stories, I was looking at this little boy you know, with these eyes of... I was looking at the grandson with eyes that are looking at grandsons. So like, grandson, oh, grandson. And he was eating his breakfast and he started to frown and I just kept looking at now my frowning grandson. And then he said to me, would you stop staring at me? So I did. I looked at the ceiling. And we made up. Once he saw that I wouldn't just keep beaming this love at him — he could get a break from it — then we could make up.

[37:32]

I was kind of being aggressive. I was looking at him too strongly. He felt like I was giving him too much attention. And he's saying, you know, leave me alone. And I did. And he forgave me. Yeah, someone came to me in a retreat recently and she was really having a hard time because there was a person in the retreat. Every time she looked up, that person was looking at her. And she really, it was really bothering her. He probably thought, well, I'm just like, think you're just really beautiful, I'm just going to stare at you all the time. But that was very hard for her. And so I gave her some advice about how to let him be, and then letting him be, maybe walk up to him and say, I have a request that you stop looking at me so much.

[38:40]

I'm really uncomfortable how much you're looking at me. Please give me space and don't look at me so much. You can do that as an act of love once you let it be. You can transmit freedom from suffering if you let it be. If you could let it be, you can find a place where there's no here or there, in between, and then you can still go and say, please, don't look at me so much. So with also, you know, with grandchildren, if you touch their food or even if you move their toys, this intense scream comes because they feel aggressed upon.

[39:43]

You know, their whole world is getting reorganized if you move a toy three inches. I'm not talking about throw the toy out the window. I'm just saying touch it or move it. Again, like certain adult, certain large Homo sapiens, who have big, shiny trucks. If you put your finger on their shiny truck, they may feel, you know, terrified. Not to mention scratch it. It's like they respond like a little kid. They scream. Maybe they won't. But the child will scream. So then you say to the child, please use your indoor voice. So if the child hits you, you say, use your words, right? If you move the child's toy and then they punch you, you say, use your words. Or they throw another toy at you, you say, use your words, right?

[40:46]

And then when they use their words, then you can say, use your indoor voice. But the chimpanzees, you know, in these situations I have not heard yet about them using their indoor voice. Maybe I'll, if I learn more, maybe sometimes when they're aggressed upon they say, excuse me. They really scream and we get trained out of that. Out of like this intense scream that we used to do when people bit our oranges or moved our toys or walked out of the room. But we still feel these things. and they're still there, and they're still calling to us for compassion. All these things that are happening in the superficial realm are calling for compassion. And in reality of face-to-face transmission, we are responding with compassion.

[41:53]

But again, we can see the finite, we can see the superficial, but the profound is invisible. Our vision is adequate to see the superficial. Our vision is not adequate to the infinite, profound aspect of our life. So the Buddha's instruction is how to let the visible just be the visible. And then you can open to the invisible. Without preferring it, let it into your life. It's already here. And the way we're working together in peace and harmony is invisible. There's visible versions of it, but the way it's always going on is invisible. We sometimes see it which counts, it counts, but it's always going on.

[42:58]

This pivotal activity, this face-to-face transmission is always going on. It's a question of relating to our finite life so we can open to the infinite life, and then open to how the infinite life is always working face-to-face with the finite life. Yesterday I gave a talk in city center and I mentioned that there's various versions of the enlightenment, the great enlightenment of the ancient teacher Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of the tradition.

[44:00]

There's various stories about his great awakening. But one of the stories is that he's sitting under the Bodhi tree And the way the story is told is like he's sitting under the Bodhi tree by himself, as though the Buddha could be something by itself. And then the Buddha, which seems to be something by itself, or the person who is about to be Buddha, who is something by itself, becomes the Buddha by itself. That's one way of seeing the enlightenment of the Buddha. That a person that is something by itself becomes an awakened person who is by itself. That's the superficial understanding of the Buddha's awakening. And people who hear that or see that story, they say, do you need a teacher?

[45:06]

And I said, in Buddhism, yeah, we usually do need a teacher. They said, but Buddha didn't have a teacher. Buddha was sitting under the Bodhi tree. He wasn't having face-to-face transmission with a teacher. So there's another story, which is the Buddha is sitting under the Bodhi tree and sees the morning star, and then the Buddha says, Now I, together with all living beings and the great earth, realize the way. Now that's, you know, so-called a Zen story of Buddha's enlightenment. That's a story which is, Buddha wakes up together with everybody, but also another way to say it is Buddha wakes up to the reality that Buddha is practicing together with all beings.

[46:22]

Before Buddha woke up, Buddha didn't understand that Buddha was practicing together with all beings and the great earth. Buddha woke up to that's our life. Our actual life is that we are practicing together with all beings and the great earth. We can wake up to that. Maybe. If we practice like the Buddha, which is to let the life where it doesn't always look like that, the superficial life, let it be. In the world where you don't see that you're practicing together with everybody, let that be. In the world where you're practicing together with some people, but not others, let that be.

[47:27]

And you will let the door open to the awakening that you have always been and you always will be practicing, like the Buddhas, together with all beings. Strangers, foreigners, enemies, monsters, they're all calling for compassion. They always have been, they always will. If we can let things be, we're open to the realm of peace and harmony. And when we talk about this, of course, before question and answer, I just want to say that if we have question and answer someday, people will say, but that's hard. Yeah, it's hard to let an aggressor just be an aggressor. It's hard to let cruelty just be cruelty.

[48:32]

It's hard to be compassionate to cruelty. But cruelty is calling for compassion. And sometimes it's hard to find, to allow a compassionate response to disrespect uninvited teeth, uninvited hands, uninvited eyes, and so on. It's hard. That's why we need to train. That's why we need to train. And it's hard to train. But by training it doesn't exactly get easy, it just happens that we have a compassionate response to faces that once upon a time we did not have a compassionate response to. The Buddha as it can have a compassionate response when attacked. But the Buddha is the fruit of a long training process which has been shared with us.

[49:43]

So if we wish to have this ability to respond compassionately to all situations which are calling for that from us, all things are calling us into being compassionate. All things are calling us into being, period, and all things are calling us into being compassionate. And this is a hard training process. It is hard. The ancestors have said, it's hard. But we did it. And we are so happy we did it. And we want you to do it. We want to help you do it because it's so hard. You can't do it by yourself. We're here to help you.

[50:31]

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