Howdy buckaroos. Can you hear me in the back? No? Yes? You can? Everybody okay in the volume department? One of the teachers in our lineage is named Dogen and he said, as he was about to die, he said to his disciple, one of his disciples, come close. Can you hear that?

[01:01]

Come close. In this lifetime, concerning the teaching of the Buddha, there are ten million things which I do not understand. However, I do have the joy that concerning the Buddha's teaching I do not give rise to or I have the joy of not giving rise to evil thoughts. By means of the correct teaching

[02:12]

I certainly have correct faith. It is this fundamental intention which I have taught and nothing else. Please understand this. This fundamental intention, this correct faith, or the proper attitude with which to live our daily life. What is this attitude, this correct attitude? So I, since I asked you that question, I'm sorry to say that the thought that comes to me again and again is that the correct attitude with which to meet each moment is no attitude.

[04:05]

Just to meet each moment as it is. Coming, not even coming to it, but actually witnessing the coming of each moment. Not even me coming to the moment and witnessing it, simply witnessing the arrival of this life in this moment. watching all things come forward and then witnessing that they confirm your life, your personal life.

[05:48]

This is happening right now. It's a question of witnessing it. The habit is I'm here and this is happening. That's the habit that's well established in human beings. Can you reverse that? Just turn that around to All this is happening and I'm here. All this is happening and that's how I'm here. A subtle pivot at the center of what's happening. a subtle and if possible total reversal from the unsuccessful attempt to control things to witnessing creation.

[07:58]

I'm talking about witnessing the creation of your life in each moment. And if you can witness this creation, then the actions that come forth from here will be appropriate. This is similar to staying home, but one step beyond that.

[09:13]

It's like staying home as a first step, and then see how in the next moment everything comes forth and creates your home. I've been offering the image of a wind-bell as a kind of hint of how to witness the creation of your life. One kind of wind bell, I guess, is one bell with a little striker inside that gets moved by the wind, or the whole bell gets moved by the wind, either way, dependant.

[10:41]

And maybe actually better to say the word breeze than wind, because in a sense, I think often winds start, when they first start, they're like a breeze. I really don't know if that scientifically means anything, but I'm particularly interested in that first, the first touch, the first subtle touch of the breeze when it touches the wind bell. But also, I usually think rather than a wind bell, of wind chimes, things hanging down. They could be recycled glass, could be bamboo, they could be bronze or brass or ceramic. Anyway, whatever image you like of a windmill. And here's a poem written by Dogen's teacher. The whole body is like a mouth hanging in emptiness.

[11:54]

Emptiness. not caring whether the breeze comes from the south, the north, the east or the west. To all breezes, it just sings perfect wisdom. Sing song ting. The sound that it made made me think more of a wind chime than a wind bell. So imagine your body hanging in vast space and then

[13:01]

Imagine that now you don't care what direction or what touches you next, and that something touches you. And that response that you have to that touch, to that subtle touch, that response is your preaching your singing of wisdom. Now, I'm not reading your minds, but if I look at my own, I think, I see the thought, well, maybe wisdom would be something wise, something smart. something profound, rather than just the response of my body to the southern breeze.

[14:10]

And maybe so. But the wisdom that's taught by the Buddha is not like that. If someone touches your skin and pushes on it a little bit, the little dent that's made in your skin by that touch, and the little electrical impulses and scurrying around of anything that's inside your cells that happens from that touch, that is wisdom. Or maybe that's not wisdom, but to see that happen and to not wish that it were any smarter than that.

[15:15]

That's the singing of wisdom. That's the witnessing of the creation of the sensation of being touched. When the wind bell is touched by the breeze, it moves.

[16:25]

It moves a certain amount in relationship to its weight and gravity and what kind of a wind it is, how strong the wind is, what direction it's blowing from. All that determines the movement of the wind chime. The wind chime does not think. I think I'll move this much. I think I'll swing this much. And then I think I'll wait for a little bit before I swing back. That would be a good idea. That would be helpful or harmful or intelligent. But if a human being was there, a human being could think, gee, I wish the wind was blowing a little harder.

[17:26]

I think we'd get a little bit better sound out of this if the wind was blowing a little harder. Or if it came from a slightly different angle. Or if it were a slightly different temperature. These things would probably improve the sound here. So this practice of being a wind-bell is actually not difficult unless you're choosy. And if you're choosy, then we say that the difference between that little bit of choosiness, that little bit of wishing that your life was a little bit more interesting than just having the wind touching you at this moment.

[18:42]

The difference between That wishing that the wind was slightly different or a lot different and just simply letting the wind touch you and watching how it is when the wind touches you. The difference between those two is as big a difference as the distance between heaven and earth. It's a hair's breadth difference and yet it makes all the difference in the world. The good news about this is that if you do not make that hair's breadth difference, you will get a big encouragement. Because if you don't make that hair's breadth difference and you just actually see this happen, you get to watch creation.

[19:54]

which is what really sustains us, is to see this creation. If you think about just spending your time watching things as they happen and not making that little difference of wishing that they were otherwise, it might sound very difficult and how boring. just to see and experience things as they happen, as you are affected, moment after moment. In fact, you will not be able to do such a practice, I will not be able to do such a practice, unless there is joy in it. The sound that the wind bell makes is the singing of life and also it is the singing of all enlightened beings.

[21:14]

I'm not suggesting that we talk ourselves into believing this. and try to get ourselves to think that this is the song of all Buddhas. I'm telling you this not so that you'll believe it, but so that you'll try it. If you try it, that's all you need to do. And you can judge for yourself whether you just saw something that you want to see again. We have a class studying Zen stories here on Monday nights and last week the story we studied was about two happy people who chose to spend their time talking about this issue.

[22:30]

Why would happy people spend their time talking about something like this? I'll tell you the story. This is how they talk to each other. Listen to how these two wind bells talk to each other. One wind bell's name is Fa Yun, which means true eye or eyes of truth. The other one's name is Xu Shan, which I think means boss mountain or king of the mountains. So, Fa Yan asked Xu Shan. Now, what it doesn't say in the story, which I am imagining, is Fa Yan was there, hanging

[23:49]

like a mouth in emptiness. And Sushant appeared before him and he was affected by Sushant. And in response to Sushant he said, a hair's breadth difference is as great as the distance between heaven and earth. How do you understand this? So one way I feel is that he he was there and his friend walks up and he felt his friend he was affected by his friend's presence and he looked at his life when his friend appeared to him. He looked at his life as it was born partly by the arrival of his friend

[24:59]

And maybe he saw, perhaps, a hair's breadth difference between what was happening and what he wanted to happen. Maybe. Or maybe he didn't see a hair's breadth difference and he actually witnessed the arrival of his life through his friend without a hair's breadth difference. And maybe he was so happy that this happened. That he said this to his friend to see if his friend was with him. So he said, instead of saying, friend, there's not even a hair's breadth difference and I'm so happy you came today. Instead of saying it that way, he referred to this Zen saying, saying, if there was a hair's breadth difference in your arrival here, I wouldn't be so happy.

[26:06]

As a matter of fact, the difference between this happiness which I feel at seeing you and what I would feel if I had the slightest preference for you to arrive slightly different from how you're arriving, the difference between this happiness and how I'd feel then would be as great as the distance from heaven and earth. That's how I feel. And the combination of those two thoughts makes me want to talk to you about this. And I know you know this phrase, so this is our family language. So I'll ask you this question. How do you understand this hair's breadth difference? Brother Xu. And Xu says... Xu said, a hair's breadth difference is as great as the distance between heaven and earth.

[27:09]

Then Brother Fa Yan says, Yes. But how can you get it that way? Brother Xu said, I am just thus. How about you? Fa Yan said, A hair's breadth difference is as great as the distance between heaven and earth."

[28:23]

Brother Hsu profoundly bowed. This is how, according to history anyway, these people spent their time. I'm not saying we should copy them, literally. Because maybe our family stories are not the same. But can you see what they were working on? Can you see what they were watching for? saying what they said, watching precisely on each word how they felt, watching for their authentic being in each moment as it arrived through this interaction. Hearing this story, one of the people here said, oh that reminds me of another story.

[29:40]

A monk was sick and another monk went to visit him. And the sick monk said, I'm so sick. And the visiting monk said, You're so sick. And the sick monk said, Oh, I'm sick. Just wind bells. And yet, people learning. Learning what? Can you see the fundamental intention in these stories?

[30:53]

Not giving rise to evil means dropping everything and just witnessing all things coming forward and confirming the Self. watching your spiritual potential pivot right in this moment from clinging to your own agenda to having creation revealed to you on this moment. And please excuse me if I'm being impolite, but just in case anybody doesn't know, creation is only revealed to you in the present.

[32:00]

You can't get it revealed to you one moment ago or in the future. And it is revealed to you in a present that you cannot get a hold of. I mean, I think you all knew that, but I just wanted to say that in case anybody hadn't heard about that. Now here's a story which I'd never told before, but I've always wanted to tell, and it's been told now for more than 5,000 years. And when I first heard it, I thought, oh, this is a beautiful Zen story. So today I tell it.

[33:02]

So it's going to be shaky, because it's the first time I told it. I don't know the story very well. It's a story about a Sumerian goddess named Inanna. And the story is called sometimes the descent of the goddess Inanna. She was the goddess of the sky. And to make a long story short, she wanted to go down to the earth. She wanted to go down and join all the things of the earth. So she went down. And she just didn't go down to the surface of Earth. She wanted to go all the way through the Earth. So she wanted to go under the Earth, too. To the underworld.

[34:08]

And when she got to the door to the underworld, she announced her regal presence. the goddess of the sky wishes to enter the earth, and the guard at the gate went down and announced the queen of heaven to the queen of the underworld. The queen of the underworld's name is Ereshkigal. And Ereshkigal said, go back and tell the queen of heaven that she has to come in just like anybody else. So the guard went back and told her that which entailed she went through seven gates and at each gate she had to take off a piece of her regalia until finally after going through all seven gates she was completely stripped naked and bent down. And then on top of that

[35:20]

After she got in, the queen of the underworld killed her. And just left her there to rot. And on top of that, she took her flesh, her rotting flesh, and hung it on a peg on a wall to let it dry. Into, what is it, queen of heaven jerky. Before she left, she told her attendants that if she wasn't back in three days, come looking for her down on earth. So her attendants went to her, I think, grand, sort of grand uncle or grand cousin, whose name was Enki, who was the god of wisdom and water.

[36:29]

And this god picked out a little dirt from underneath his fingernails and rolled it into two little balls and made these two little balls into living beings. In particular, made them into what we call the little mourners. He sent the little mourners into the underworld to retrieve or save or check out Inanna, the goddess of the sky, the queen of heaven. Since they were so little, they didn't have to announce themselves at the gate. They just zipped right through the gate without being noticed, all through all seven gates. And they got down right down there where the queen of the underworld was. and also where their dead queen was, drying on that spot, dead on the spot.

[37:41]

And they came over to the queen of the underworld. And the queen of the underworld just happened to be having a hard time at that moment. She had just lost her husband who has another interesting name, which I can't exactly remember. It's something like Galula or Gaulalula. He had died, and so she was mourning him. She was mourning his death, but she also was acting kind of like she was going through childbirth, too. She was, I think, laying out on a slab, moaning. And she was moaning and she was saying, oh, my insides. And the little mourner said, oh, your insides.

[38:46]

And she said, oh, my outside. Oh, my outside. They said, oh, your outside. Actually, they said, oh, your serene highness, your insides. Oh, your serene highness, your outside. Oh, my... Stomach hurts. Oh, your stomach hurts. Oh, my liver hurts. Oh, your liver hurts. That's all they did. And after a while, Eris Kegel said, the queen of the underworld said, oh, thank you so much. And they said, oh, thank you so much. Said, you guys are so helpful. what can I do for you? And they said, can we have that slab of meat over there?

[39:48]

She said, sure, anything. And they took their queen back and they gave her water therapy. She got rehydrated and reborn. But she had learned something. She got her trip, and she got her death, and she got her life. And there's more to the story, but the parts that I'm emphasizing are, number one, that to go down, you have to completely strip yourself. And bending down, being bent down, not so much in a bad sense of being bent down, but being bent down to this thing that's happening Being willing, being humble enough to live your life that you've got now. Being humble enough to actually not try to choose another one. To strip yourself of everything but this.

[41:00]

And even strip yourself of this. And even strip yourself of stripping yourself of this. And then your reward will be that you'll be completely killed. And that reward of being completely killed is the reward that you already get every single moment of your precious life. In fact, you are completely killed every moment. This is just to say, catch up with what's happening. This is not something you do. This is simply called staying close to your actual life which is constantly being taken away. It's a question of joining the process of complete and utter renunciation of that which is already gone.

[42:05]

Then What happens? Then you're ready to be a wind bell. Before that, you're still a wind bell with an agenda. You're still a wind bell who's holding something in her hands. And when the wind comes, you say, just a second, I'll be right with you. Or, oh, southern wind, could you come from the southwest, please? You still haven't really dropped everything and made yourself somebody who's willing to accept what's coming now. And because of that, you are less effective in helping people. And when the queen of the underworld says... Oh, my inside, you say. Well, would you, what can I, you know, want to do something about that?

[43:12]

I mean, God, you want me to get you a pizza? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with saying that. I'm saying what she really wants in this story is somebody to say, oh, your liver. Oh. Nothing wrong with getting a pizza. Yeah. But in this story, it would be more like she says, oh, I want a pizza. And then you say, oh, you want a pizza. Please get me a pizza. Okay, I'll get you a pizza. First of all, let's drop everything. Let's completely die. And then let's see what we do. Then let's see if somebody says, oh, my inside, see what you say. See what you say. When you see creation, see if you think you want a doctor creation. If you don't die completely, you're going to want a doctor creation.

[44:18]

In fact, excuse me, Neil. That's the way we use the word doctor. The word doctor means doctor. It means fix it. Rather than appreciate it, fix it. But maybe the greatest healing is to help people appreciate what's happening to them. That's also being a doctor rather than doctoring it. Be a doctor. Be a professor. Be an expert at what's happening. Oh, my liver. Oh, your liver. Your liver. Just respond and go from there. And the next moment, again, you don't know where that will go or how it will be. Once we see creation, because after we've given up everything and witnessed the birth of the world, once we see creation, the response we have will also be very creative.

[45:24]

I don't know what it will be. But this is the fundamental intention that the Buddhas have taught. This is the way to be actually compassionate, rather than compassionate according to the way I think it is compassion. This is called non-dual meditation. And it should be conjoined with, to some extent, other practices which make this non-dual practice really work. And the practices that it should be conjoined with, which are not different from it, but just help you understand better what it means to just simply be a wind-bell, it's conjoined to practices called giving,

[46:28]

ethics, patience, enthusiasm, and concentration. These five practices join with the sixth one which I've been talking about, which is sometimes called perfect wisdom, but is also simply the fundamental correct attitude towards life, which is simply to be life itself. That practice of perfect wisdom is conjoined with these five to bring compassion to full bloom. And since I've been talking a long time, I can't really go into a lot of detail on the first five. But I'd like to mention a little bit about them because somebody passed me a note saying that today there's been a request from a group of 30 religious organizations in the Bay Area which are asking various ministers and priests to talk about the practice of giving and volunteerism in church.

[47:56]

So when I first thought that, I thought, well, I'll try to work it in. Now I'll try to work it in. So first the practice of giving, okay? The first thing I want to make clear is that the giving practice which I'm going to suggest to you, and maybe I would say, it doesn't have to be towards Green Gulch or towards me. It can be towards your neighbor here, one of your neighbors. And it can be very small. But I ask you to consider either in this room or over on the deck or someplace that you've picked somebody in this group and it could be Green Gulch too, that's okay. And give them something. But before you give it, think about it. Don't give it before you think about it a little bit.

[49:01]

The practice of giving as a spiritual practice is primarily something you think about beforehand. And when you think about it, unless some joy comes to your heart and to your body when you think about it, it's not yet time to give. Now, if you think about giving, I don't know what, several of you drove here, if you think about giving your car, maybe you think, oh, that doesn't make me very happy to think about that. I feel kind of, I feel kind of, you know, tense about that, or, you know, it seems, it seems, it's kind of an irritating thought. To give your car to somebody when you felt like that wouldn't really be what I'm talking about as giving. To resent giving it at all wouldn't be giving.

[50:07]

That would just simply be being kind of disrespectful of your own feelings in a way. But maybe if you thought about giving something less, like for example a handshake, or if you thought about giving somebody a flower on the hillside, or if you thought about giving somebody a kind word, or if you thought about giving somebody a penny or a dime. And if you think about it, some people have started already, if you think about it, it's also okay to pass it along. If you think about it and the thought of doing it makes you very happy, or I should say, makes you a little bit happy, then think about it some more. And see if you can get even more happy about the idea of giving a penny to somebody here.

[51:11]

And if somebody gives you a penny, And then you're going to pass it on. Don't pass it on right away unless you've already thought about giving it and feel really good about giving it. Keep it for a minute and think, now, will I really feel good if I give that penny? Maybe not. I don't know. Maybe you want to make it a dime. Or maybe you want to have it be something else. Giving addresses, is to address stinginess, which is often located around in our heart. And we feel uncomfortable that it's there. To whatever extent it's there, we feel uncomfortable, I propose to you. Or maybe I won't propose it to you, I'll just ask you. Can you locate any stinginess in your heart? And how does it feel? Does it feel good?

[52:23]

Check it out. And then if you think about that stinginess and you imagine, just for example, just imagine some small thing that you feel good about giving and think about that and see how that affects the stingy feeling or this feeling that you have in your heart around stinginess. See how it touches it. And you might be able to generate enough joy around giving a penny to, for a moment anyway, completely let go of that stinginess and see what that feels like. it is inconceivably beneficial to wholeheartedly give a penny. And not just because of giving the penny, of course, or even that moment, but also because it will possibly lead you to practice giving again and again and again. Start with this positive feeling. Now how does that giving relate to what I was talking about before?

[53:32]

Well, it's exactly the same thing. If you look at the feeling that you have as you think about giving, just watch what happens at the moment that you think about it. Watch the arrival of your life around the thought of giving. And any resistance or happiness, whichever the case, doesn't matter. Not at first. If you witness stinginess, that will educate you. The practice of giving, you see, though, will lead you to notice the stinginess. The practice of givingness will lead you to notice the stinginess. When you notice the stinginess, you're very close to Because you'll notice what stinginess feels like. And if you notice what stinginess feels like, you will eventually, if you can completely give up everything, completely give up everything, and completely just feel that stinginess, and not prefer even that it wasn't the stinginess, and just hear and deepen your sides yourself saying, oh, I'm so stingy.

[54:53]

then somebody will say, oh, I'm so stingy. And you will say, oh, I'm so stingy. And when you realize how stingy you are, you won't be stingy anymore. Same thing. Except the practice of giving is a specific practice to address the specific thing of stinginess so that you can go in there and really admit how stingy you are. we have, many of us, at certain moments in our life, some stinginess appears there. If we can witness the creation of stinginess, we will be liberated from stinginess. And that, when it happens, is in extreme joy. We have a strong habit to wish that things were otherwise, which one of the forms of that is stinginess.

[56:07]

The first way, one of the first ways to crack that habit is by the practice of giving. It's very difficult to transform this habit. this habit of wishing things were otherwise, to transform this habit of, I make the world, I control the world. It's very difficult to transform that habit. The first practice to transform it is giving. Then comes ethics and patience and so on. So what I'm talking about is not so easy, I know, because we have strong habit in other direction.

[57:24]

But to tell you the truth, as far as I can understand, this is the fundamental issue that was transmitted by the Buddha, which is fundamentally the correct attitude towards life, which is to switch from bringing yourself to situations to having situations come forth and find yourself. That attitude is the main thing. And to make that, the number of times we make that switch have not been that great perhaps compared to the number of times we do it the other way. So mostly we've got the strong habit to do it the other way. And don't be discouraged if you can only once in a while make this switch.

[58:30]

That's normal that most of the time you won't be able to. But admitting that you're not able to is also getting yourself into the position where it can happen. Because it happens at the same place as the habit. The reversal happens in the habit. So if you can admit the habit, you're already very, very close. That's why I say stay close and don't do anything. Just get yourself into the position and drop everything and it will switch for you. So before the noise starts and the chairs get moved and the announcements happen I'd like to leave you for a little while in silence for you to contemplate what I said and also think about the practice of giving.

[59:38]

Just please excuse me for asking you so strongly but for your own benefit and for the happiness of all the people here Just give up your agenda and think about some small thing or anything that you could give. And if you think about it and you don't like my idea, then see how you feel not liking it. And imagine how you'd feel letting go of your thing and just doing what Buddha said is the first practice of just give it all away. See if you can feel the happiness of that just for a few moments. Imagine something concrete that you could give, something that you have with you right now.

[60:42]

I thought of something for myself I'm going to give somebody. It's a nice thing. Somebody's going to be happy when they get this. Another rule is don't discriminate for who you give it to. Just give it, regardless of discrimination, maybe to the first person you run into. Anybody need more time? Nobody needs more time? You've all decided to do it or not do it. So help you God. Anyway, please excuse me if I've coerced anybody into being, into practicing giving.

[62:08]

I don't mean to do that if I pressured anybody. I don't mean to do that. Actually, I thought I had a piece of paper here and I was going to give that, but I don't have a piece of paper. That wasn't what I was going to give. I thought, no, that's not good enough. That's too easy. And I was going to give this, but I didn't. And then I was going to give my old handkerchiefs. But then I thought of something in my office that's quite cute that I'm going to give somebody.

[63:13]

But I'm not ready to give this toy. Maybe I should. Now Wendy's sitting over there, she's saying, no, don't give it. She's not a very good fundraiser. She goes and visits people, you know, and they say... Well, that would be kind of hard for her. She says, oh, I know, I know. It's really wonderful that you even thought about it. We're really sorry to ask you. So she doesn't want me to give this away. This is a beautiful thing, you know, it's a beautiful piece of wood and I got this special string for it too, you know. I thought this sort of off-color thing really went well with it.

[64:26]

Don't you think so? So beautiful. And also, not only is this something which I like very much, and one of my favorite toys, but there's also the issue that, well, you know, you people aren't entitled to carry one of these things, right? So, you know, I'm willing to give it up, but it's, you know, there's certain protocol that wouldn't allow me to. See, another C, she agrees. But, in a way, I think more important than protocol is giving. Okay, so here it comes. Everybody watch out, don't get hurt. Now there's always a possibility that it'll come back to me.

[65:34]

But it may circulate for several days or weeks among the community before it comes back. By the way, if you need training on how to use it, there's a 15-year course. So you can not only have it in your house to show your friends, but you can use it in ceremonies and stuff. May our intention

[66:17]

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