The other day I was sitting in a hot room, a sauna, after I was swimming in the bed, trying to warm up. And next to the sauna is a shower room. And in the shower room, there was a man talking to another man. This man is a teacher of windsurfing. He was explaining the rules about how to get up. Wing circling is these little surfboards with sail on them. You have a tiny little sailboat. You stand up. He now is explaining that you have to get the mast exactly at 90 degrees. And before you get up, certain very strict rules about how to do it.

[01:03]

And after he finished talking to this man, he said, it's a very rigid rules. He said, teacher's job is just to get people to do what they have to do. So for the first four days, I've been just trying to get us to do what we have to do. This is part of what we have to do. And that is to drive a stake into the ground at a particular place. And if you pin yourself down in some place then the heat comes on.

[02:21]

And in that furnace when things arise They behave according to reality. You can see them behaving according to reality. So I haven't actually been giving much, I haven't been talking too much about, I myself been holding back a lot of things I want to say because I want to offer you something that when you receive it, it goes into this furnace. It goes into this fire. And everything I say and everything you experience behaves according to the dawn. So you don't have to hear about it. You only hear it and watch it behave properly.

[03:26]

And now I don't know if the furnace is on in all of you or not. But that's what I've been doing so far. That's been my primary thing is to make each of you furnace it. I must say, I won't think of myself as a fire person, so I... I feel a little uncomfortable working with fire. Or the idea at any point. Again, I feel you just drive that peg someplace.

[04:40]

The heat comes on. When the heat comes on, the unnecessary is burned off, dropped off. I wasn't going to bring with me the Two big books today. But since I was a little late, I didn't have time to put them in a package. I didn't want to put them down unpackaged. But anyway, the two big books are the first two volumes of the Babatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Darmament Sutra.

[05:50]

I want to write them down. I'll give you a lecture on the sutra. But actually, my intention was to start by talking about the title of the sutras, so I didn't really need them. I remember the title. It's a three-word title in English, Flower Adornment Scripture or Sutra. First word is a flower. So what does the word flower mean? Well, we could spend the rest of our life studying the word flower.

[06:59]

But today I just want to talk about it a little bit. For me, the first meaning of the word flower is . That's what the flower is. And also that's the meaning of the flower. The meaning is doing . The way we do zazen is like a flower lives, like a flower is. And the way a flower is, is just like our zazen. Study zazen, you study flowers. And study flowers, you study zazen. Flowers are fruits. Well, actually, flowers are not fruits, but flowers that came within them as fruit.

[08:12]

And flowers are alive. And flowers grow. And flowers reproduce the plant that produces them. Zazen is Elijah. Zazen is life. Zazen is reproductive, is creative. A flower also has a stem in it, or a staff, and it comes out of a particular place, like Zodlin does. Flower is also changing all the time.

[09:30]

And there are five traditional stages of the development of a flower in Buddhism. First stage is called the path of equipment. Second stage is called the path of concerted effort. The third stage is called the path of stealing. The fourth stage is called the path of practice. And the fifth stage is called the path of no more learning. These are the five stages of development of this flower. This week, I've so far been emphasizing mostly the stage of the path of equipment.

[11:11]

During the stage of equipment, or the path of equipment, For example, in terms of the traditional practices of the four foundations of mindfulness, mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of mental dharmas, and mindfulness of dharma or the law itself, in terms of systematic meditations like Gandhas, Ayatanas, Datu, Four Noble Truths, and any kind of teaching, Apo Pak, 37 Wings of Enlightenment, all that stuff happens in the fourth foundation called Foundation of Dharma Teaching. These are four paths. These four paths, these are four practices, four foundations. These are practice during, you start practicing during these, during the path of equipment. Basically, what that path is, is you settle down into the phenomena.

[12:20]

You drive up to the ground. And you do that with your posture, with physical phenomena, with your breathing. with feelings, and so on. You start with your body, though. And you learn through your body what it means to settle down into an experience. And this stage culminates at the point when you are settled And you go into the next stage called concerted effort when what's called the heat, the heat for warmth develops.

[13:41]

The mark of the heat developing is that, for example, if you're aware of a physical event, color, sound, or any of the other events, feelings, emotions, so on, but particularly starting with the physical thing, that you have settled enough into the physicality of it that the marks of existence, the marks of all conditioned phenomena start to appear. In other words, you start to see that this thing is impermanent, that it's fleeting, that it's transient. You start to see that its frustration itself. You start to see that it does not have an abiding unitary identity or self.

[14:42]

And you even begin to get a glimpse of the emptiness of all phenomena. When there is sufficient heat, you start to get the first sight of these marks of phenomena. But these marks of phenomena are not something that you've heard about me. You see things that way. If you've heard about these marks of existence, you may remember the time and say, oh my god, look, things are behaving like they're supposed to. Meditation on impermanence is not that you necessarily start to think about impermanence. That's a nice thing to do. But that's not what I suggest. I suggest you settle in on what you think is happening until the impermanence is revealed to you.

[15:49]

Until you see it, you feel it, you think it, you taste it, you touch it, you smell it. In other words, your smell, your touch, your taste, your color, all these phenomena are fleeting by. swirly, pulsing, fleeting flux. At the beginning of that, we call that the heats. And at that point, we shift from the first pattern to the second pattern. And then you just keep working at it. You plot the same thing you now really have plot. You've got the hang of it. And you have settled it enough so that the heat starts to set the structure to be soiling hot light. And I also want to mention that in Xang, we keep our eyes open.

[17:01]

And in some ways, it's easier, I feel, to see this swirling, turning, hot world of change and impermanence and not self with your eyes shut. But what we want to be able to see is that keep the eyes open and that the inside and the outside are both doing this. Not just inside is swirling. Not just inside is melting down all phenomena into their domic qualities, but outside happening too. It's harder to see it outside sometimes. But with eyes open, you can see inside and outside at the same time. Now, Ru Jing told Dogen that if you practice for 40 years and never fall asleep, close your eyes sometimes.

[18:14]

So I have not in this lifetime practiced 40 years without falling asleep. I don't even think I practiced one year. But not hold to that rule strictly. That's occasionally when the heat really gets hot. And if you close your eyes, then you probably won't fall asleep. And maybe that's an easy way to get a glimpse of this world as it is. where all the forces of life are bearing down on this phenomenon that you are now experiencing. All phenomena are like that. Every single phenomenon is like that. This is what we call the zanke, or the whole works.

[19:16]

Every single event, every color, every smell, every touch, every feeling, is the whole works. The entire cosmos is working through everything constantly. If you sit still, your experience can become the whole works. You can see the whole works. You can see the whole works, and you can see that the whole works. When you see that the whole works, and you see the whole works, impermanence, ill, not-self, and emptiness are there, too. You don't have to make them that way. You just have to stay with it. And again, as the heat develops

[20:21]

You might get excited that you now are seeing what they mean by these marks of existence. And again, you jump off your spot, come back, keep the peg in through this time, through this wonderful time where you're building up even more heat. At the maximum heat, the summits, the patiences, and the highest worldly dharmas, this second path ends with what we call the path of seeing, the path of vision, or the path of insight. That happens when he has built up sufficiently so that you really can see everything that's happening as a permanent feel and not so. And particularly, the aspect of guilt is the pivotal one, the aspect of frustration.

[21:31]

In other words, in this world, in this furnace world, where everything that happens is like a snowflake dropped into a blazing fire, in that world, Nothing holds up. Everything can happen, and everything is instantly brought to perfection. Perfection means what it really is. Entity, frustration, not self. It is here that the Buddhas turn the wheel of Dharma. That's where they are when they turn the wheel. And that's where the relief comes.

[22:37]

Even during this time, one would wish, as I do, for a respite, for a pause to muse, for a gentler flame. But it is in this situation that the artist or yogi creates. It is here that the world is born and dies. Literary critics said, a sacred text is normally written with at least the concentration of poetry.

[24:42]

And like poetry, it is very closely involved with its language. Your body. similarly is written with at least the concentration of poetry. Everything that happens is the result of the convergence of all factors and associations of your life. That vortex of forces creates things perfectly and also is the reason for their emptiness. This is the vital center of the flower. This is where all creative activity comes from. And this is what they mean when they say Zen is the key that unlocks the teachings.

[26:14]

This is the place where the treasure store opens of itself, and you can use it at will. Or rather, its use is your will. Or rather, your will is its use. Your feelings are its use. Everything you do, everything you think is its will. At the culmination of that path is the path of seeing, which is simply now having just seen the world now without things being set into permanent happy and self-centered phenomena. The idea of self has been melted down to its basic function.

[27:31]

The self is now free to function properly without the extra accretions. This is the beginning of the Bodhisattva pattern. The stage which is called extreme joy. The flower opens at that point. Before that, the flower was closed. Pressure was building up. Now, the petals of flower open slightly. And at the first opening, the fruit is revealed.

[28:42]

As soon as you open the flower a little bit, you can see the fruit down into the petals, down into the hole. Fruit isn't real. That's why Buddhists use a lotus flower, because a lotus actually does that. As soon as you open the lotus a little bit, you can see the fruit. You can experience the fruit. That's the first stage of bodhisattva path. Then there's nine more stages, and the nine remaining stages occur during what's called path of practice, where you take the truth that you've seen and you apply it to use it in your life.

[29:59]

At that stage, you have seen, but you have not yet changed your whole habit structure. The transformation of your entire body occurs by applying what has been seen. Truth which has been revealed, applying it. to your daily life. And you can see by the one to nine ratio, which path is longer. The path of insight is quite short compared to the path of practice, like one to nine. At the end of that sequence, you come to a path called the path of no more learning.

[31:13]

That's actually where Zen practice, in some sense, starts. Even before you can settle down and accomplish the first stage, you're already starting the practices based on the last stage. So you start at the last stage and you go around to the first stage you come through. But this first stage is based on the last stage. But that doesn't mean that you don't have a lot of work to do.

[32:30]

It means that we don't take this process I told you too seriously. This process is a process of causation, of cause and effect. But it's not really true. In itself, it's just a process to release. That's why we have to understand that this whole thing I'm describing is based on the end of the process. And we test the end by going to the beginning of the scene, but you go back to the beginning. If we really achieve the end, we can go back to the beginning. If you're really at the stage of no more learning, you don't mind going back to school. That's the nice thing about being enlightened or having to reach the stage where you don't have to learn anymore. When you don't have to learn anymore, you can go to school again.

[33:32]

And again. And go through all the joys and sorrows of going to school. But you wouldn't go to school in the first place if you weren't already at the end of the academy. But that doesn't mean that when you go through, it isn't just as hard as it would be. Well, I say as it would be, but there's nobody else. There's nobody who doesn't start from the end and go through this process. It's just that people think that they're miserable creatures. that they don't have already attained the perfect completion of Buddha's wisdom and compassion. But actually, it's because of Buddha's wisdom and compassion that you're willing to start over again and go through this path of application and drive this peg into the ground and sit there and go through this process.

[34:49]

just like a flower. It's because of a flower and because of a matured flower. Not just a beautiful flower, but a flower that has gone beyond beauty and becomes fruit and dropped its seeds and died. It's because of that that another flower comes. It's because you forgot about your Buddhahood and forgot about your great things. that you're willing to go and do a very basic practice like you're doing this week. It's because you forgot about it that you're willing to hold your hand against your abdomen an hour after hour. But not just that you forgot it, but also that you are it. So it's your buddha nature that's driving this whole process.

[35:53]

And it's the fact that you don't hold on to your buddha nature and take it so seriously that's driving the process. Just like a flower, the water and nutrients are running through it. And the fact that it's alive and the fact that there's nutrition moving through it is what drives it to its death. and rebirth. Thank you.

[37:33]

The flower, as soon as it opens, reveals the fruit, but the leaves must all fall off in order for the fruit to be established as fruit. That which covers the fruit then becomes a beautiful embellishment of the truth, and that must drop away to leave the truth bare fruit. So your zazen practice is also bare fruit with no petals around. And also, everything that's hiding the fruit now, later becomes the beauty. The very thing that's hiding it will be the very reason why it's so lovely. And the very reason why it's lovely, or the very loveliness of it, must be dropped away in order to fully realize the process and to then let the whole thing die in sorrow.

[38:51]

Why? Because that's the nature of reality. Nothing stands. Nothing. Everything gets burned up to the cosmic flame. Everything, all boundaries are broken down in a swirling heat. of experience. This is going on all the time inside of the flower, inside of every cell of the flower, inside of every cell of your body. Throughout your entire existence, this is happening all the time. The question is, do you witness it? And you will witness it if you just don't move. And not only that you don't move because you already don't move, but that you do something to participate in not moving, right? Put your hand against your stomach, moment after moment.

[39:52]

Don't move it. In other words, put it there again, again. Because even though you don't move once, it goes away, and you have to not move again and again. If you do that, just watch the show. You'll see the whole works, the whole works, the whole works. And I really want all of us to throw our whole body into flames. Throw our whole body into the treasury of life. And as soon as we throw our whole body in the treasury of light, of course, we get back as our whole body as Buddha's body. This is a way to put end to hypocrisy.

[41:16]

Hypocrisy is burned up in despite. So I quoted that surf teacher, and I quote Suzuki Roshi, who also said, our job is to encourage people to practice zazen, to encourage people to do this kind of just sitting, just putting your hand against your abdomen, moment after moment. And in that act, in the whole act of sitting, or in any particular tiny little aspect of it, like the tongue on the roof of your mouth, or your eyes open, or your hand against your abdomen, any one of those points.

[42:25]

Fully manifest the practice and faith of the ancestors. A lion is you. with the ancestor Simadi. And Dogen says, don't be suspicious of the true dragon. Another way to say it is, don't be afraid of the true dragon. Now I'm saying, carve a dragon. by sitting still. And if you carve a dragon by sitting still, even while you haven't yet seen the true dragon, the true dragon is right there. But the true dragon will appear to you if you totally dedicate yourself to carving a dragon by working on an apostrophe or bleeding. OK.

[43:35]

Well, Star Wars is a movie about the spaceships and stuff. And they ride around these spaceships at high speeds. But then occasionally, for some reason or other, they want to sort of check out of this realm. And what they do is they go into hyper, is it called hyperspace? Okay, hyperdrive. What? Hyperdrive. They have this thing called hyperdrive, and they go, and they go, and then go, and then you go, and then you just go, and then you sort of dive into another world by going this higher speed. And that's what this is like. It's kind of like. It's like that, you know. Sometimes it's just like, kind of like, instead of going, it's kind of like.

[44:39]

But there is this, you do, you check in so strongly that you check out of the sort of passive world where things can stand up. for a long time, for minutes even. And you enter a world where things cannot hold up anymore, where they really are changing. Really. So it's kind of like that. And you can imagine why I hesitate to tell you that. All these people sitting in his hand are going, . But it is like that. Concentrating on a point like that is like that. If you can just hopefully do it. And in fact, you can. So just keep it up.

[45:43]

And you'll keep putting yourself into the world of the reality of your experience. And then just sit back and read the sutra. Read the subtle, elusive phenomena as they pulse and happen. And that reading and that being is what we call wisdom. And it's no big deal because it's just exactly what's happening. That's all it is. It's just what's happening. It's not one additional thing to what's happening. It's not a person looking at it. It's just happening. And you humble little Zen students can't realize this now.

[46:48]

Well, uh... I didn't finish talking about flowers, of course. The flower has so much cheating in it. So maybe tomorrow, continue with how Zazen is a flower and how a flower is Zazen. But that's what I'm going to try to do. Just keep talking about the title of the sutra so that you will be the sutra by the end of session. And you do it.

[47:24]

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