I don't want to summarize what I've been talking about the last six weeks or so, but say that I feel in a way I'm going to move on into a different topic of talks from now on. I just want to say in parting that my hope here has been and continues to be that we all together realize a Buddhaland we need a Buddhaland to practice in. And in order to realize this Buddhaland I've been talking about with the ten public works of the Bodhisattva of Universal Goodness, Samantabhadra.

[01:14]

These practices prepare the individual practitioner for the wonderful occasion called Just Sitting, and also prepare the environment to support people to be able to just sit. These ten practices are, and rather than review, I would like to give you a final examination. The first practice is what? Well, let's do them in order. First offering is? Homage to Buddha. Homage to Buddha. All Buddhas. Homage to all Buddhas in ten directions. Homage means also that you align yourself.

[02:19]

You join Buddha's club, so to speak. you let yourself be tender enough to feel that you are Buddha's child. In the great, in the Avatamsaka Sutra, sometimes these super-developed bodhisattvas, you know, inconceivably developed beings, ask questions of other inconceivably developed beings. They go over, they ask questions, and then the one they ask says, ìOh, child Buddha, They even call these really amazingly developed beings, they call them children of Buddha. And these children of Buddha ask questions of these other children of Buddha for the sake of the other children of Buddha.

[03:23]

So first is you feel that you're a child of Buddha, that you're Buddha's child, really in the same family. and you say thank you to your parents, your enlightened parents. Next is, what's the next one? What? Praise all Buddhas. Sing praises. Praise with your voice. with your body and with your thoughts, which we do. And the next is? Make offerings to all Buddhas. Next? Confession and repentance.

[04:30]

Next? No, there's one before that. Stay in the world. What? Stay in the world. Stay in the world. That's not the next one. The next one is what? To rejoice in the virtues and merits of others. To rejoice in the virtues and merits of others. Even the slightest goodness in the most terrible enemy It's a hard one to practice too. Especially somebody who is really juicily evil. It's so easy to really get in. You can easily get into really wailing away at how bad they are. And a lot of people will join you in rejoicing at how terrible they are and how great you are to see how bad they are.

[05:35]

It's wonderful. But this is a different practice from that one. This is called noticing that even in these people there is something excellent, something wonderful. And relating to that, not to mention rejoicing in the merits of people who are really great and don't have, you know, who are very easy to see all their virtues. Even those people rejoice in theirs too. Next. Now we did that. That's the one before that. That's the one before. Huh? Ask, beg Buddhas to teach. Beg, beg the teachers of enlightenment to teach. Call for them to teach.

[06:35]

All of them. Next. Next. That's a sub-one, yeah. Beg them to stay in the world. Next. No, that's one of them, but that's not the next one. Well, basically you do the practices which all the Buddhas have done. You do the practices that the Buddhas have done. All the Buddhas did a certain set of practices. For example, all the Buddhas did, guess what they did? Zazen. That's right, they did Zazen.

[07:38]

What else do you think they did? Bowing? They did bowing, yes. What else did they do? The other nine. They did the other nine. All Buddhas have aligned themselves to all Buddhas before they were Buddhas. And they did it for a long time because it takes a long time to align yourself with all the Buddhas because there's not a limit on them. All the Buddhas praised the Buddhas. All the Buddhas made offerings to Buddhas. All the Buddhas did confession and repentance. When you think about that, it's kind of, I would think, well, jeez, did the Buddhas have to do that too? Even these fantastically developed enlightened beings, did they have to go through that stuff? Yes, they did. All Buddhas rejoiced in the merits of others, and all Buddhas are currently now rejoicing in the merits of others. Right now they're doing that. They're rejoicing in the merits, not just of the Buddhas, but of every living being.

[08:43]

That's what a Buddha is. A Buddha is somebody who actually is doing that for all beings right now. They did all those practices. So we actually now vow to do all those practices that the Buddhas did. Isn't that a hard one? Can we dare to take on all those practices? Well, please do. Doesn't mean you have to finish them because they're actually not supposed to be finished in a day. But to now vow to dedicate your life to take on all those practices. Next. What's the next one? To serve and accommodate. To adjust to and serve. I think it's good to keep those two in mind. Not just serve them, but adjust to them. Don't just serve them Mexican dinner if they can't eat beans. Adjust the diet, maybe, if they need something else, cook a special dinner for them.

[09:45]

Adjust and accommodate and serve all beings. Next is Yeah, give back all the merit that you've ever accumulated, all the goodness that you've ever been able to generate. Give that to all beings. Dedicate your life and all your goodness to the benefit of other beings. Constantly cherish other beings. Constantly think about how to make other people happy and free. Those are the ten, okay? Those are... equal to, inseparable from Zazen. So that's why we really, no one knows how great Zazen is. Not even Buddha knows how wonderful Zazen is. And since nobody, including Buddha, knows how great Zazen is,

[10:53]

No one can stop you from practicing it. Okay, so that's basically what we've been working on. I hope we continue. And I'd particularly like to emphasize returning your cups to the kitchen. There was a cup on the table there this afternoon, which had been sitting there quite a long time. It had two little packages of herb tea in it that had been sitting there. So it was wasted herb tea, plus whoever did it just forgot it there. They just left it there. Try to remember when you have a cup with you to return it to the kitchen, to the dishwashing area. Also, right now, currently, you will be able to find a cup of coffee sitting on that table, which I don't know if it belongs to any of you, but if nobody wants it, I'll take it back. So that's a big one. That's called accommodating and serving meat.

[11:56]

Thank you for taking that seat. Okay, now we're moving into the summer and starting a practice period next week, six-week practice period. And I think I'm going to be talking about the Mountains and Rivers Sutra of Dogen Zenji. I thought you had quite a reaction to that. Do you like that sutra? As I remember. Good. The scripture of mountains and waters by Dogen Zenji, that's going to be kind of a start with that. That's also about these ten vows of Samantabhadra. I had an interview with an artist, and this interview is going to be published in the Wind Bell, and I was looking over it the other day, and in the beginning of it it says, the interviewer said, what would be a Buddhist use of language?

[13:23]

And I said, well, it would be to use language to set us free from language. And that's another thing I've been talking about, is how to how to, when we speak and when we hear language, how, when we hear words, how to understand the source of the words. And another thing about language that I think is another way to use language that helps language set us free is to speak the truth, to be honest. So part of what I'd like us to work on from now on, but particularly right now while I'm talking about it, is being honest. Saying? Expressing. Being honest. In other words, expressing yourself fully.

[14:26]

Fully expressing yourself. to yourself, but also to others, at least to somebody, fully express yourself. At least to your teacher, fully express yourself. Fully expose yourself with your words. If I don't fully express myself, you may not be able to understand me. And also, if I think that there's some other time

[15:30]

for me to express myself, then I also may not express myself. So I have to not think of another time from this to express myself, to do it fully now. So another thing I've been talking about which I'd like to continue to work on is to try to see through others' eyes. This is another difficult practice. So there's two things to work on. One is to express yourself fully And the other is to try to see through others' eyes, which may mean sometimes when you have trouble seeing through others' eyes that they may not be expressing themselves fully.

[16:49]

So maybe you try to get them to express themselves more, more fully, so you can So you can practice trying to see from their point of view. There's this practice, this is a practice that Gandhi practiced of expressing yourself called Satya Graha. Satya means truth. Graha means to hold or grasp. Of course, this does not mean that you hold to some fixed idea of your truth or hold to your fixed view, but that moment by moment, as best you can, you hold out your truth to all beings. You hold your truth out.

[17:53]

You put your truth out. At the same time you put your truth out, you do that as part of trying to understand others. and see from other's points of view, but you put your truth out too and try to understand what their truth is. Both of those things. Again, this is another hard practice. It takes, well, doesn't it take all you've got to put your truth out? You can't sort of half-heartedly put your truth out. You can't put your truth out and be doing something else at the same time. Putting your truth out will take your entire life at that moment. And maybe my truth is that I want to see through your eyes. So I put out the truth of trying to see, with my whole body and mind, I put out my truth of my faith in trying to understand others.

[18:59]

That's my truth that I might put out. And I think Gandhi also said something like this, that you put your truth out, but you don't put it out there to make your truth be what's happening in the world. And your truth may have almost no effect. It isn't that suddenly everyone will agree with you, but you still put your truth out there anyway. So there's many practices, and these are some. This is one I'd like to ask us to do, but mostly I'll try to do it myself, to hold my truth out moment by moment and to try to see through others' eyes, to try to learn the hearts of each individual and the hearts of the whole community.

[20:17]

The mountains and rivers of the immediate present are the realization of the way of the ancient Buddhas. Abiding together in their normative states, they have culminated the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness. Abiding together in their dharma position, They have culminated the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness, abiding together in their phenomenal expression. They have culminated the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness. Each of us has a phenomenal expression. Every moment we are a phenomenal expression, each of us. by abiding in that phenomenal expression, it is that is the media that we use to culminate the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness, to totally exercise our life in this moment.

[21:59]

This is the livelihood This is the life of the immediate present. That we live this phenomenal expression right now. This is also called just sitting. But it means just sitting, it means just taking notes, it means just lifting your eyebrows. It means just crossing your arms. It means just putting your finger to your cheek. It means what you're doing now is a complete expression of where you are now. And it is through that expression that mountains and rivers culminate the qualities of total exhaustiveness. This is a radically simple practice and, again, requires total dedication, total devotion.

[23:21]

And one more thing I want to say is that... Bye. One more thing I want to say is that the word sutra in Sanskrit word sutra, which is often translated as scripture, means thread. The Chinese word for scripture, like the I Ching, the Ching means also thread. And concretely, or literally speaking, it means the thread that they run through a stack of papers, the thread that you run through to bind a book, a scripture. But also it means thread that runs through everything.

[24:31]

So what is that thread that runs through everything for you? What is that scripture? What is that suture which is always running through your life? Right now, do you feel it? Do you feel this thread that's running through your life, that's always with you? The unique breeze of reality

[25:39]

Can you hear it? Creation constantly working her loom and shuttle, incorporating the patterns of spring into the ancient brocade This one thing is always changing. It's constantly springtime. And we incorporate the new forms of this one thing into the ancient brocade of our beginningless practice. Can you work your lumen shuttle now?

[26:48]

Can you realize your weaving of the ancient brocade in its newest line of thread? And can you hold the front edge of this brocade up to the rest of the world? I believe the teaching is that this is exactly what your life is. This is not something new. It's just a matter of waking up to it. Moment by moment, each of us is an artist creating a new life and therefore a new death.

[28:44]

a new waking and a new sleeping. So as I said to Diane yesterday, some people say, some people think, a lot of people think, that if you can understand, you will be able to create. If you could understand, then you would be able to create. I think you're already creators. And I would say if you can discover your creativeness, you will understand.

[29:56]

This thread of creativity. So we practice together in a group here. But it's not what you might call groupism. It's not just a group to be in a group. We need a group. We need to help others. I believe we need to help others in order to be able to discover our own creativity. Because our creativity is not just something personal. It's a universal creativity. that we cannot stop. We can only miss it by being selfish. But even though we miss it, it's still, we cannot stop it.

[31:02]

It is our life. So we cherish others, we dedicate our lives to others, and then we watch and listen for the unique breeze of reality, which is creation's current activity. So I wonder, was I honest with you tonight? I have an assignment. I was supposed to talk about something about a schedule for our practice period, but I don't feel like doing it. I feel like another occasion would do better. Will you excuse me?

[32:06]

I'll tell them about it tomorrow. And this morning we had a staff meeting and we talked about various things about practice period and what we're doing here and, again, listening to each other talk, trying to understand each other, trying to understand what we're doing here, what our priorities are, what our aspirations are. And that was the staff meeting. And I would like to try to organize other meetings here, and I would like to attend these meetings and listen to the people here who are practicing about what is your intentions, how do you understand what we're doing here, so that everybody in the community can speak their truth of what we're doing here and listen to others.

[33:14]

In a general meeting, it's pretty hard to get everybody a chance to talk. So I'd like to organize some meetings like that. I hope somebody comes. I want to hear from everybody. I want to hear from everybody, what is that thread? I want to hear that. Please tell me, or you could tell other people too, that would be great, but please tell me what is that one thing that you always want to do? What is that one thing of your life that you never stray from? Please express yourself. fully on that point hold your truth express your truth fully as though you don't have one more chance each moment as though there's not another not another

[34:47]

Not another chance. Some people just recently are becoming residents or came and told me what their intention was. So that was good. And again, this is, excuse me for saying this, but it's not, you know, there's not a right answer to that. It's really what you believe. is your truth. It's not somebody else's truth, it's yours. And we need to know what it is.

[35:57]

So, did I express myself fully? You think so? Good. Gloria, what do you think? I don't know. What were you thinking? We could never know. Did you feel like I was expressing myself fully? I really couldn't say. I don't know. I guess I'm wondering, like, are you telling us what your thread is? I mean, to me, that would be like... I'm trying. I'm trying. Did you feel like I was holding back? I wouldn't be able to say what that was. Well, what did you feel? I guess I kind of got lost into, like, what is this threat? Yeah. I mean, I was kind of lost to try and find what is that threat that goes through my whole life.

[37:12]

Right. So in that way, yeah, you're expressing it in that you got me to look at it in myself. Thank you. Yep, that's what I was hoping for. If I could just be as completely foolish enough, then maybe you would all dare to be fools too. Completely. Or whatever you are. Maybe you're not fools. Many things attracted me to Zen, but one of the things that attracted me to Zen was something which I don't even know if it happened or if I ever heard about it. And maybe it was just in a dream, and I think it was about Zen. But it was about two guys And they weren't real young, these guys. I don't know how old they were, but they weren't kids. They were older than me when I heard this, when I had the dream or I had the idea, they were older than me.

[38:14]

And they were rolling in tall grass, laughing. That was just at that time. I don't recommend anybody do that. although we do have tall grass here. And all those have spines and backs and everything, so you can lie down in the grass, and then you can roll, but be careful, there might be rocks and thistles. Meharin.

[38:55]

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