Good morning. I thought I might tell you something about me. I just got back from So I'm a little out of touch with where you are. Maybe if I tell you what I've been doing there, that will help. is practicing with about 35 people and sitting a lot of zazen, following a schedule all day long with them.

[01:10]

And in my lectures I've been emphasizing the usual thing in Zen, namely the central practice of What is it? And in addition to that, I've been trying to remind us all that around that great unspeakable, ungraspable, ineffable central practice of awakening.

[02:14]

There is a huge tradition called Mahayana Buddhism, universal vehicle of awakening. which involves myriad practices in addition or as supports or auxiliaries to this central ineffable practice, which is simply to be awake. We do these auxiliary practices all the time, but in Zen sometimes we don't emphasize them. I've been emphasizing the surrounding practices and at the same time emphasizing the the ineffable central practice.

[03:16]

So today I thought I might try to enact this dynamic between the circumference, in a sense, the apparent circumference and the center. The center is at the center of everything. At the center of each thing and everything there sits a Buddha.

[04:30]

And the Buddha sits completely still, unwavering, unmoved. And yet, without coming or going, this Buddha, this awakened thing, which isn't a thing, can respond appropriately to whatever people need, can teach appropriately and benefit beings appropriately without moving. Surrounding this Buddha at the center of each thing is an ocean of enlightening beings, bodhisattvas, or we might say enlightenment workers all around the Buddha.

[05:39]

They, at their center, are unmoving and unshakable in their way. But they run around and move and dance and sing and do whatever people need. So the whole story of awakening is this central immovability, which is also infinitely adaptable and flexible. And surrounding it is all this adaptability. And each one, all the things around it provide ways to access it. So another way I've been thinking about it is that we both sit at the center of our lives.

[06:53]

We both, we sit at the awakened place in our life and we don't move from that and simultaneously we walk around that. We circumambulate, we circumambulate this awakened being. usually clockwise. I asked a physics student if the electrons in an atom circumambulate the nucleus clockwise. And I guess it depends on what direction you look at it. But in a sense, the atomic, the atomic, the atom could be seen in some sense as a model of like the Buddha is the nucleus and the bodhisattvas are the electrons spinning around

[07:59]

Another way to talk about this is that at the center of this atom of reality is the non-dual practice of Zen, the practice which is not really doing anything. It's not trying to attain anything. It's not trying to improve anything. a non-dual awareness, just things as it is, and sitting unshakably in that, in faith of the totality of this. And around this kind of practice, this emphasis, this non-dual awareness, around this are many other practices which

[09:19]

facilitate the realization of this unmoving, unacting center, and also remove obstructions or hindrances to the unshakable faith and settledness in this center. I thought I might walk around the Buddha now and tell you a little bit about some of the categories of practices you can do as you walk around, as you walk around your unmoving nature. You can start any place and One place to start is, a traditional place to start, is with the practice and simultaneously with the practice, the vow or aspiration to pay homage to all Buddhas.

[10:50]

By the way, thinking about coming here and talking to you about this, I'm a little bit afraid to talk to you about Buddha in the first place. Because one of the nice things about Zen is that it can attract you without mentioning Buddha. And I didn't hear about Buddha for a long time when I started to practice Zazen. I thought that was very clever. Today I'm bringing up this Buddha business, but you may have heard the expression in Zen that if you meet a Buddha on the road, kill it, or don't put anything on top of your head. Or one Zen teacher said, Buddha is a Sanskrit word. Buddha is the, I think, what is it, the past participle of Buddha.

[12:09]

Something like that. Walking around the Buddha, we should not do this dualistically. We should not think that the Buddha we're walking around is something other than what we really are. At the same time, we do not identify with Buddha. So without identifying with Buddha or making Buddha something other than yourself, walk around Buddha. The enlightening beings are walking around the Buddha, are sitting around the Buddha, And they're always thinking of the Buddha. All the time the bodhisattvas are thinking of Buddha. All the time concerned with Buddha. But without Buddha being an object of thought. They have a non-dual relationship with Buddha. And non-dual means you're not it.

[13:15]

You know, it's not you. And yet you really are it. The non-dual relationship is the middle relationship with it, without grasping the extremes that it is or is not you. You don't identify with Buddha. You don't differentiate yourself from Buddha. Your relationship with Buddha is beyond all discrimination. In a sense, you have no relationship to Buddha. That's your relationship to Buddha. Or we sometimes say, when you meditate on Buddha or when you think of Buddha or when you perceive Buddha, Buddha cannot be perceived. And to understand this is called the perception of truth. Perception of Buddha is to realize you cannot perceive Buddha, to realize that. So walking around Buddha, we do it non-dualistically, okay?

[14:19]

So we're walking around the Buddha on a tightrope. One side is, hey, I am Buddha. Great. Or I'm not Buddha. It's terrible. We don't go either way. We just walk around Buddha in this balanced way, mostly concentrating not on something else, but on staying upright and not falling off the rope. So walking around on this tightrope, paying homage to Buddha, Maybe I should just walk around once quickly and tell you these ten stations. These are the ten vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. As Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of universal goodness, is walking around the Buddha. This is what he practices, and these are his vows. First, to pay homage to all Buddhas. Second, to praise all Buddhas. Third, to make offerings to all Buddhas, to make great vow offerings to all Buddhas.

[15:31]

Fourth, to confess and free yourself from all non-virtuous activity. Fifth, to rejoice, jubilate over the merits and virtues of others. Sixth, to beseech all the Buddhas to teach to turn the wheel of the Dharma. Seventh, is that right? To request the Buddhas to stay in this world, this phenomenal world, not to split. Eighth, to zealously practice the Buddha's practice. Ninth, to serve and accommodate all living beings.

[16:39]

And tenth, to dedicate, to turn over, to get rid of all the goodness which we have just accumulated by doing these nine practices. And eleven is to go around again. So round and round you go, these ten practices. So these are practices, but also when this bodhisattva, when this enlightening being walks around and does these practices, at the same time of doing these practices, making vows, and aspirations not just to do these practices now, but to do these practices forever. Well, at least, not forever necessarily, but until all beings do all these practices to their completion, we will continue to do these practices. So, to do them now and to do them inexhaustibly long time, if necessary, to benefit others.

[17:47]

and not to stop these practices until everybody is sitting at the center of this activity, completely realizing their happiness and freedom. Maybe I should go back to the center for a bit here before I start walking around. And that is to say a little bit more about this center. At the center, the Buddha is there. And the Buddha, realizing this place, we recommend that in order to realize this place at the center, the medium or the media you use This kind of surprises me now and then, even though I say it over and over to myself and to others, it always surprises me that the media you use to realize this Buddha is... What?

[19:10]

What do you think it is? What do you use to realize Buddha directly, to sit at the center? What do you use? Everyday life. And what is everyday life? Huh? And what is yourself? What? What is this you're hearing now? Huh? Body? Body and mind. And this body and mind, not a new improved one, not a slightly improved one, not a slightly degenerate one. This one, of all things, to realize Buddha immediately, directly using only this body and mind. That's what the Buddhas are using. They are using a body and mind. They are using feelings. They are using pain, pleasure and neutral feeling.

[20:11]

They are using conceptions. They are using emotions. They are using consciousness and they are using form. And that is the only media that they use to realize the awakening. And they never use another feeling or another emotion or another intention or another belief or another delusion than the one that's happening right now. They always use this kind of stuff that you've got right now. They use exactly your experience, in other words. I think that's amazing. So that's why Manjushri Bodhisattva sitting there on one occasion was teaching Buddha. Buddha let Manjushri give him a little lecture. And Manjushri said, Lord Buddha, for a living being to realize awakening,

[21:23]

is simply not to move. Manjushri was talking to Buddha. Buddha at that time was listening to Manjushri and wasn't moving. Manjushri was telling Buddha that for all living beings, each one, for them to realize awakening is simply not to move. And Buddha was sitting there, not moving. So Manjushri was telling him, but also Manjushri was looking at him, telling him what he was doing. Buddha was not moving from his feelings, from his impulses. But, but, it is hard for sentient beings not to move from where they are. They have a hard time.

[22:25]

It doesn't take any effort not to move, actually. You're already not moving from where you are. Moment by moment, you don't move in the least. But it's hard for us to believe this. It's hard for us to believe that we have resistance to believing this. And believing means not just that you think, oh, yeah, that's true. Believing means that you actually totally, with your whole body and mind, live that way. That means you believe it. Manjushri also said to Buddha, in that same little scripture, Manjushri said, the condition, the condition of being a living being, the condition of being like each of us are right now, exactly as we are, the condition of being a living being is precisely what we mean by awakening.

[23:32]

So this kind of talk is instruction from Buddha back to Buddha. This is non-dual awareness being described. So to aid us in accepting this non-dual meditation, these ten practices are suggested. they generate the kind of positive energy we need to be willing to not move, to be willing to accept our true nature. Because, again, we have, because of past actions, we have resistance. We have some hesitation to being a living being. We think we should be something better than a living being or worse than a living being. There are two kinds of resistance, basically, to being a living being.

[24:46]

One kind of resistance is kind of like, basically, shrinking back from it. No, not me. I don't want to be that. That's not good enough. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be here. Don't make me be here. This couldn't be Buddha. No. You know that kind of resistance? That's very common. Right? The other kind of resistance is, hey, this is Buddha. How wonderful. This is it. And I'm it. In other words, getting kind of excited about being where you are. You're where you are and you like it. In other words, you overshoot the mark a little bit. You don't just arrive. You're not willing just to be here. You've got to sort of be excited about it and say, hey, this is great.

[25:53]

You can't just sort of arrive and say, okay, this is it. So one way is holding back from being where you are, and the other is kind of getting there and going, no, no, this couldn't be it. I'll go a little further. To just arrive and stop. That's pretty hard. Moment by moment, be right there. Now the kind, if you're practicing, the people who are overshooting the mark are a little easier to take, often. Because they're so enthusiastic, right? They arrive, and then they have a little extra, so they open, you know. It seems so generous. As Dogen Zenji says, the sound of the valley streams enters the ear and moonlight pierces the eye.

[27:33]

Beyond this, one instant of thought. So the first practice paying homage to all Buddhas. Homage means... Homage means... Homage means to align yourself, to put yourself in a line with something, or to join a club. So the first is to pay homage to Buddhas means you align yourself. You put yourself in a line with you're awakened with awakened nature, with being awake.

[28:37]

And again, this alignment is not something out there or in here. You're aligning yourself with an awakened nature that is everywhere. Next is to praise, to sing praises, to open particularly the throat and to cry out praise, to do it with your voice, to do it with your body, and to do it with your thought. We chant in Zen Center, we chant Every morning and every evening and sometimes at noon, we sing praises. But sometimes when we're chanting, it's maybe hard for some of us to believe we're singing praise. The teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated by Buddhas and ancestors.

[29:57]

Now you have it, so keep it well. Sometimes it's chanting sounds like this. And then the Gyuto monks come and they sing praises. And people say, oh, I can hear the singing. So please, you sing the praises too. Join the chorus. Join the chorus. And Samantabhadra says, I vow to sing the praises of all Buddhas unremittingly, unceasingly. In other words, right now I'm talking, okay? Right now, if I take his vows, and this is the praise of the Buddhas, I'm telling you right now, I'm singing the praises of Buddhas.

[31:03]

Do I dare talk like this? That my words, I will have the intention to have my words from now on, unremittingly, sing the praises of Buddha? Yes. Every conversation you have with anybody, good morning, This is the praise of the Buddha. You're saying good morning as a vehicle to praise Buddha. Plus you're also praising a Buddha that you're looking at when you're saying good morning. And you see in every atom of the person you're talking to, you see Buddha's in there. Good morning. Good morning. How do you say good morning to Buddha? Good morning. Good morning.

[32:03]

I don't know how I say good morning to Buddha, but I'm singing good morning to Buddha. How silly. How childlike. These practices are practices in helping us be childlike. Childlike enough. naive and innocent enough, unheard enough by sophistication to actually be able to sit still in who we are. Just like a child is willing to be as silly and innocent as they are. We have to work to remove our resistance from being so un-sophisticated. And going back to that simplicity, that utter radical simplicity where you can say, good morning Buddha. These practices are to help us not be jaded.

[33:15]

If you're not jaded, you can do things over and over. Or if you can do things over and over and over and over and over and over and then you get to the place where you say, I can't do this over again and you keep doing it over and over, instead of getting weary, you go beyond your weariness. And you're willing to do things like sweep and sit and sing the same song every moment. for eternity. And you're willing to do the same thing, namely be who you are every moment. And that's where Buddhas wake up. They wake up in this boring stuff. Next one is to make offerings. And that means that you make offerings. inexhaustible offerings.

[34:22]

So you can make offerings at an altar. That's nice. You align yourself with the altar, with what's on the altar. You praise and sing praises of what's on the altar. And you make offerings to what's on the altar. But actually the vow is not just to make offerings, fantastic offerings, but to make offerings unceasingly. So while you're driving a car, make offerings. While you're in a traffic jam, make offerings. while you're cooking lunch, while you're taking a bath, you make offerings. Washing your body as an offering. Brushing your teeth as an offering. You see what everything you're doing all day long as an offering. And you can also make material offerings. You can put bananas on the altar. You can put beautiful treasures on the altar for Buddha.

[35:27]

You can build temples for Buddha. You can give possessions to people for Buddha. But the thing, the greatest thing to give Buddha is the truth, the truth of your life, to be truthful to yourself. And then when you're truthful to yourself, give that honesty, see that honesty as an offering to your enlightenment, to all beings enlightened. This is the offering most treasured by the Buddhists. We might want to give less than that, which is fine. When I was ordained by Suzuki Roshi, I wanted to give him a gift. So I said, what gift can I give you? I asked his wife first, and she said, give him your practice. And I asked him, and he said, be a good priest. Give me an endless offering.

[36:33]

Don't give me one thing now. Give me offerings for the rest of your life. That's how you repay me. And next is a tough one for people in this culture. Next is confession. Confession. Confession and use the word repentance. The word repentance has the word pent in it. Pent, like penitentiary and penance and penalty and punitive and pain and pucker. So we don't like repentance. But the meaning of repentance in Buddhism isn't that you punish yourself. It means that you recognize what you did. You honestly expose what you did to yourself.

[37:36]

And you look at it. And you feel the pain of it, I guess. But you don't try to feel the pain. You just look at what you think you've done. And if it doesn't work for you, you look at that and you look at it until finally you regret it. And when you really regret it, you actually finally say, I'm not going to do it anymore. And you keep that realization of what you've done and that you really don't want to do with it. You keep that realization with you all the time. And it keeps you fresh and pure and free. The point is not to punish yourself. It's to release yourself so you can go sit at the center. So you don't think you're unqualified. You don't think you should be somebody other than this and you should use something else to realize Buddha. I won't rub this one in right now. Next is rejoicing in the merits, rejoicing in the virtues of others.

[38:44]

jubilation in the goodness, the spiritual qualities of other living beings. Once ironically, perhaps, or paradoxically, once you confess your own non-virtue to yourself, once you see your own past action and also see them so vividly and so clearly that you actually don't want to do them anymore, Your eyes, the eyes of your eyes, the eyes of your heart open up and you suddenly can see how virtuous other people are. This kind of confession does not make you start seeing other people's faults, ironically. Admitting your own doesn't make you start to see how bad everybody else is. It actually helps you see how wonderful other people are. This is a great benefit of confession. Seeing how wonderful other people are is a great reward for being honest with yourself about yourself.

[40:02]

I believe this. I think that's the way it looks to me. It looks to me like it works that way. But the more I admit my own activity and the more I'm ashamed of myself, the more I get rewarded by the great joy of seeing the wonderful qualities of others and seeing the wonderful qualities of others, including my own, along the way. But the spiritual quality of others is much greater than the spiritual qualities of me, just because there's so many more others. They've done much more than I've ever done. It's really a much better place to look for them, at least in my case.

[41:12]

Maybe some of you are exceptional, but I don't know. Now, what about if you don't see the spiritual qualities of others? Then what does it mean to go around rejoicing in the spiritual qualities of others? Well, if you don't actually see them, it may not be quite as meaningful to be rejoicing and to look out there and see all the people are both rejoicing in the qualities, but I don't see it. Well, in a case like that, I would suggest you take one step backwards.

[42:21]

It's really not that much fun to rejoice in the spiritual qualities of others when you actually don't see them. It's probably a little bit fun, maybe, just because you're getting beyond your own limited view. It's sort of like, yay, yay, people's spiritual qualities, oh, I love them, yes. And if you get into it, maybe you'll start to see it just by doing that, I don't know. But I think it's actually more effective just to take one step back, or actually maybe four steps back, sort of build up some momentum from first, you know. Align yourself with the Buddhas, you know. Get aligned with the Buddhas. Okay, now Buddha, I'm with you. I'm heading into number five there. I had trouble last time I got there. I couldn't see it. I got there and I started doing it and it seemed empty to be rejoicing in spiritual cause. I didn't see them. Actually, I looked and I didn't see them. So now I'm aligning myself with my enlightened nature because I heard and I believe actually that Buddhists can see the spiritual qualities of people.

[43:27]

Buddhists can look and see, wow, these people have immense background of virtue. Now they also have immense background of twisted karma. Buddhists can see that too. But it didn't say that you're supposed to now look and meditate on people's twisted karma. It is possible to do that. Buddhists can see that. But it's talking about particularly being aware of and rejoicing about the good parts, rather than sort of being depressed about the bad parts. It says, look at the good things in people. It doesn't say deny the bad things in people. It doesn't say that. The step before that was to admit the unvirtuous things about yourself. Now that would give you an idea that probably other people have some stuff to do like that too.

[44:27]

So you do it for yourself, and if you really get off on it, and it really purifies you, and you really get enthusiastic about it, maybe somebody else will try it. But you don't then go start thinking about, well, what should they be confessing about? No, you don't do that. You just keep confessing your own stuff. Moment after moment, day after day, keep setting yourself free. And someday somebody will come and say to you, how come you're so free? How come you're so fresh? It's number five, number four, whatever it is. Number five, isn't it? And you're having a little trouble. Just back up. Back up to Buddha. Remember that Buddha is aware not only of people's past karma, but also can see people's spiritual qualities. When you actually see people's spiritual qualities, you will naturally be very happy. It's just saying, don't be afraid to rejoice.

[45:31]

Don't be afraid to cry with joy when you see how wonderful other beings are. It's okay. People can take it. It's a little embarrassing for you, maybe. Because you're not supposed to cry in public. But anyway, you can do it. It's okay. I think so. Now, 11, 10. Lecture's getting long. I'm not going to make it around, I don't think, to the end. I heard this story one time about Pablo Casals, you know, the cellist?

[46:32]

Didn't he stop doing performances until... What is it, the fascist regime? Was that the reason why he stopped doing performances? He left Spain because of fascism and stopped doing public performances until the regime was overthrown or something like that. Anyway, Pablo Casals, I know two stories about him, I think. So I'll just end by two stories about Pablo Casals. One is which I'll tell, first I'll tell the one which is directly relevant to this number, this day. And that is he, this young man, I think he was a violinist. Maybe he was a cellist. I think maybe he was a cellist. I'm not sure. He was doing a recital for Pablo Casals.

[47:39]

And He was nervous, of course, being with the master. And so he did his thing. I forgot exactly what he was playing, but he was playing something. He did his performance, and afterwards Pablo Casals, well, just kind of, I don't know, flipped out with praise. He just sort of bubbled over with this most exuberant praise. of this guy, this young cellist or violinist. And the guy, while Pablo Casals was praising him, he was thinking, what's he talking about? I made all these mistakes. You know, I didn't do that well at all. What's he being so patronizing and condescending for? Why so insincere? I couldn't really think this was good.

[48:46]

It was no good. I mean, I wasn't even up to my usual level. He went away from the interaction feeling kind of bad, like he had a chance to play before the master, and the master didn't really give him any, you know, didn't give him any real feedback. Just treated him like, just treated him like a child. And then many years later, not many, 10 years later maybe, he met Pablo Casals again. And I think that time again he did a recital for him. And that time he did very well. And Pablo Casals again said, great, wonderful, terrific. And afterwards he said, I don't know exactly what he said, but Mr. Casals said, I played for you many years ago. Do you remember?

[49:47]

And Pablo Casals said, yes. He said, at that time, you praised me lavishly. And I made all these mistakes and really did poorly. Why did you do that? And Pablo Casals said, got angry, got angry, and said something like, Didn't you do this right? Didn't you do that? Didn't you approach this thing with that thing? And didn't you do this well? And didn't you do that well? And didn't you do that well? The guy said, well, yes. I saw what you did well, and I was thrilled. He said, I leave it to fools to criticize people. I don't have to do that. I just spend my time seeing what people do right, and I praise it.

[50:51]

We don't need to criticize anybody. Other people will do that. We don't need to do that. Really, it's okay. We can just spend our time seeing how wonderful people are. That's okay. And again, if you have trouble doing that, just look at yourself and confess your own faults and that will release you and you'll be able more effectively to see how wonderful other people are. Don't you think Pablo Casals confessed deeply every day when he played his instruments? What do you think that practice is about? It's about constantly making mistakes and admitting them right in front of your face. It's getting into your life of mistakes and admitting them to yourself and then you can see how wonderful other people are. The other story about him is, Norman Cousins went to visit him one time early in the morning.

[52:06]

He was going to have an interview with them. And the old man, he was 90 at the time, the old man got out of bed and he was all bent over and stiff and kind of walking in a shuffle, like old people do, and shuffled over to the piano. Or maybe it was, I think it was a piano, even though he was playing. Yeah. even though he was playing the well-tempered clavier. He was playing harpsichord music or clavier music on a piano, which was his morning exercise program. And he started to play, and his fingers could barely move, very stiff. And it sounded like that. And his stiff old fingers started going down in the keynes. How many confessions did those old fingers make as they inaccurately, stiffly hit those keys?

[53:16]

Don't you think he knows? Not quite right, not quite right, not quite right, not quite right. Little off, stiff, little off, little off, little off, little off. He knows. He felt it. He enacted his own stiffness. But little by little, the fingers loosened. Little by little, the tension was released. And finally, the fingers started to flow across the board, and the old man started to sit up straight. And after playing that way, he stopped, and he got up, and he wasn't shuffling anymore. So we need some way, every day, to settle into the stiffness of our life, and face that, and go into it, and go into it, and go into it, until we are released from it, and we will be released. Released from this body, this stiff one, this bent one, this sick one, whatever it is, go into this body.

[54:27]

This is where Buddha wakes up, only through this. No matter how old we get, if we settle into this body, we are released from this body, And then we can rejoice in Bach, in ordinary mortals, even in ourself finally. And then after that we beseech the Buddhas to continue to teach, to turn the wheel of Dharma and to stay in the world Our dear abiding friend and teacher, Dainin Kadagiri Roshi, has been very sick. About two weeks ago he was very close to death. Very close, very close.

[55:30]

And for the last two weeks he's been gradually improving. And I heard that just yesterday he was able to start to have a kind of a normal conversation. So we have been, for two weeks or more, every day here in Tassajara, in San Francisco, beseeching him to stay in the world, to continue to be in the world. Through all this terrible pain he's in and difficulty, to stay, even so, even so, please stay, please stay. And to all of you who have a lot of difficulty in life, I'm talking to a Buddha there. And I'm asking the Buddha there, please, Buddha, stay in this world. Please, people, stay in this world to help. Stay here and help.

[56:34]

Stay here and teach. And we dedicate the merit of all this to the enlightenment of all beings.

[56:48]

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