I often mention that it seems sometimes like I'm saying the same thing over and over. And today I actually would like to kind of say the same thing over and over in different ways. So, one thing which I've said many times is that Zen practice is sometimes spoken of as first clean the temple and then sit. Another version of practice is first give up everything and then sit.

[02:03]

So, cleaning the temple to some extent is like give up everything in the temple. But it isn't like just in theory give everything up, but in particular each thing give up. In that way you clean the temple and you're ready to sit in the place that you've emptied, where you've given everything up. So, another way to say it about what our practice is, is to give everything up and listen to the cries of the world. Or clean the temple and listen to the cries of the world.

[03:08]

But we may have to clean the temple or give everything up because we might think, oh I can't listen to the cries of the world yet because I've got to take care of this stuff. First, give everything up and then listen to everything. But if you're holding on to things, it may be hard for you to listen to other things. If you're holding on to this person, it may be hard for you to open up to all persons. Another way to say it is, give up everything and study the self. Another way to say it is, give up everything and study stories.

[04:20]

Another way to say it is, give up everything and study good friendship. So, I now would say, it's by good friendship that we enter into the realization of the path of the Buddhas. Also, it's by entering into realization of the self that we enter into Buddhahood. But the self and friendship, before we enter into perfect wisdom, they

[05:33]

appear to us in images or stories. The temple appears as a story of a temple. We clean the temple and sit in the temple. We let go of the temple and sit in the temple and we enter the reality of the temple. We give up our stories and enter the reality of the stories. We give up our stories of friendship and enter the reality of friendship. I just want to share some words from a psychologist.

[06:34]

The sane believe that confusion acknowledged is a virtue. And that humiliating another person is the worst thing we ever do. Sanity should not be our word for the alternative to madness. It should refer to whatever resources we have to prevent humiliation. The psychologist's name is Adam Phillips.

[07:50]

Why did I bring that up? I believe, and when I believe this, someone might say I'm sane. I believe that the practice of acknowledging confusion is a virtue. That practice is a virtue. For me to acknowledge confusion is a virtue. My acknowledging of confusion is a virtue. And again, give up everything and listen to the confusion of the world. That's our practice. The confusion of the world appears to us as stories of confusion of the world. Of confusion. To acknowledge these stories of confusion is virtue practice, is compassion.

[09:06]

And the great Bodhisattvas listened to and acknowledged the stories of confusion. To acknowledge the confusion of the whole world. And listening to and acknowledging the confusion of the whole world assembles an ocean of happiness and blessing beyond measure. It's saying the same thing. To acknowledge and listen to confusion is good friendship. It's the kind of friendship that realizes the true nature of confusion. And when we realize the true nature of confusion, we're not confused anymore. Or rather, we're free of the confusion.

[10:12]

And growing out of the confusion is a great, marvelous life of awakening. It's the assembly of an ocean of happiness. How that happens, you'll realize once the ocean has been assembled. In the meantime, listening to the cries of the world is assembling the ocean. When the ocean is fully realized, one would actually understand the inconceivably complex and rich life of good friendship. So in Zen, Zen is well known for cleaning the temple. Zen temples are often known for places where part of the practice is to clean the temple.

[11:18]

And not hire other people to come in and clean the temple for the practitioners. Nobody doesn't hire people to come in here and clean. The people who sit here are the people who clean this place. So clean the temple means let go of everything, means empty the temple. And when the temple is emptied, then sit here and listen to the stories of the world. So in Zen we empty the temple. We have a temple and the purpose of the temple is to empty it and then sit in the empty temple and listen to the stories of the world. Listen to the stories of the world. Listen to the stories of everybody practicing here. And listen to the stories of all the people we know throughout the world.

[12:21]

And listen to the stories of the ancestors. Because their stories are offered as examples of stories about people who listen to stories. And acknowledge stories and assemble blessing oceans. If we understand those stories, we can then understand everybody is doing that. Everybody is really listening to the cries of the world and assembling this ocean. Nobody is outside that. But we have prototypic stories to look at to help us get with the program. And then we have our individual stories, each one of our stories where we go and say, I'm confused. And then we are reminded that this acknowledgement of confusion is virtue.

[13:26]

The confusion itself is neither good or bad in a way, but the acknowledgement of it, the listening to it, this is compassion practice. And this practice somehow, if done moment by moment, and expanding it to excluding nothing, creates this ocean of blessing beyond any measure. The process by which it's assembled is beyond measure, and the ocean is beyond measure. And the listening is beyond measure. And the story is beyond measure. I went to Carmel, California.

[14:28]

Carmel-by-the-Sea. Is there another Carmel besides Carmel-by-the-Sea? So I went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, did I? And you three were there. Anybody else there besides you three? These people were all there. And the topic was Zen practice and friendship. Zen practice and friendship. And one of the stories I brought up about friendship, I'll tell you. And you get to hear it again. As a matter of fact, maybe I'll ask you to tell the story to see if you remember it. I could try.

[15:30]

If that would be friendly. Okay, so, I've heard this story before, but I heard it again from our old teacher, Suzuki Roshi. And he told the story in the context of Zen students practicing, I think probably in the monastery, and sitting for long periods of time, and having some problems with discomfort in their legs, and some problem with the cries in their mind, the very active process of confusion in their minds, which he often called monkey mind. A lot of Zen students have problems with the monkey running around inside their head. And he said, maybe it would be good if I talked a little bit about our practice.

[16:46]

And I guessed that the reason why he thought maybe he should talk a little bit about the practice was because people didn't seem to know how to deal with the discomfort, the physical discomfort that was coming up, and the confusion in their minds. So he thought maybe he should say something about the practice that we do under such circumstances. And then he kind of parenthetically mentioned that one of our ancestors said, when it's cold, you'd be a cold Buddha. When it's hot, you'd be a hot Buddha. So he didn't say this, but I'm saying now,

[17:48]

when it's confusion, it's confusion Buddha. When it's fear, it's fear Buddha. When it's X, it's X Buddha. That's giving up everything and being friendly with whatever it is. That's giving up everything and listening to the cries of the world. Then it's cries of the world, cries of the world Buddha. So I think a lot of people feel that there's no shortage of cries of the world. Now we're saying that the ancestors say, cries of the world Buddha.

[18:50]

But the cries of the world Buddha means listen to them first. Don't say, okay, cries of the world. Listen to them. Give up everything but listening to them. And then we have cries of the Buddha, cries of the world Buddha. So then he goes on to this story, a story about this famous teacher named, in Japanese way of saying his name is Gutei. And the Chinese way of saying his name is Judy. One of the easy Chinese names to remember. And he lived in a meditation hut. And I guess it was maybe raining.

[19:56]

And one night maybe, I don't remember if it said it was night, but I picture maybe it was night time. And a female monk, a nun, came to visit him. I don't know what led her to come to visit him. But anyway she came to visit him and he was happy to see her come to visit his meditation hut, to visit his little temple. And she came in but she didn't take her rain hat off. And he said, why don't you take your rain hat off? And she said, I'll take my rain hat off if you can say something. And by the way, this nun's name was Shirji, which means reality.

[20:58]

The nun's name was Reality. Reality came to visit him with her rain hat on and he said, why don't you take your rain hat off? And she said, I'll take it off if you can say something. But he couldn't say anything. Can you tell the rest of the story? She left. She left, uh-huh. She left. She didn't take her rain hat off and she left. And then what? I'll leave that up to you. You'll leave that up to me? Please, great teacher. Do you remember? Johnny? He remembers another story where people took off their clothes and laid down. Romi, do you remember him more?

[21:59]

Forgetfulness Buddha. Forgetfulness Buddha, you're very good. You don't need this story. You've got forgetfulness Buddha, great. So, another rendition of the story, besides the one where people take their clothes off and lay down, is after she's walking away, he says, it's getting late and dark, and baby, it's raining outside. Why don't you stay the night? And she said, I'll stay the night if you can say something. And he couldn't. And she left. After she left, he lamented that he couldn't say anything. And he said,

[23:02]

I have the body of a man, but I don't have the spirit of a man. I should probably leave my hut and go on pilgrimage to find a teacher. So I can respond to people in a more positive way. In a more vital way. And then some kind of vision appeared in his mind which said, I guess it wasn't a vision, a voice appeared in his mind which said, you don't have to leave. A great teacher will come to you and help you. So he stayed in his hut, and within two weeks, a teacher did come. And the teacher's Buddhist name was Tianlong, which means celestial dragon. Or Tenryu. It's a ten of like intention. No, no.

[24:03]

Yeah, it's a ten of intention. Celestial dragon came to visit him. And when this celestial dragon came into his hut, he was very happy, and he bowed to the teacher. Walked around the teacher and bowed to the teacher. And then the teacher said, what do you need? And he said, this reality came to visit me and I couldn't speak. And Tianlong raised one finger. And Judy woke up. Now this is a story of giving up everything and meeting a good friend.

[25:06]

A friend who shows us the meaning of our life. If we give up everything, we can realize this one finger, which is monkey mind Buddha. Discomfort in the knees Buddha. Confusion Buddha. And we realize that by giving up everything and studying the story of confusion, of monkey mind, of not being able to speak,

[26:09]

of being able to speak. Listening to the cries of the world is one of the resources that helps us not humiliate any cries. I'm not sure, but I Oh, the name of the book that this quote is from is called Going Sane. Another article which I read in relationship to this was called Mature Shame. So if I am not kind to someone,

[27:12]

I feel that I can be ashamed of that. I can be embarrassed about that. And that kind of embarrassment can be a mature embarrassment. An embarrassment which encourages me to practice compassion. It's not somebody else humiliating me. And it's not me humiliating myself. And it's not me humiliating someone else. It's me acknowledging that I'm not following through on listening to the cries of the world. And I'm sorry if I don't. If I notice, if I acknowledge that I get confused when I hear a cry, inwardly or outwardly, if I get distracted from listening openly to the cries, I'm sorry. I want to confess I did not listen.

[28:16]

And I also want to say I'm sorry for not listening. Because I want to listen. Because listening and listening more and more widely assembles the ocean of virtue and happiness and blessing beyond measure. So we study the stories of the ancestors to see how they listened to each other. How their friendship was the context in which they realized the nature of reality. So Tianlong's one finger helped Judy realize who reality was. He understood what a good friend she was to him.

[29:23]

Thank you for not taking off your rain hat. Thank you for leaving when I couldn't say anything. So that I could invite Tianlong to come in and raise one finger. And then for the rest of his life, as an enlightened teacher, whenever people asked him about the Dharma, he just raised one finger. Greedy Buddha, cold Buddha, confused Buddha, frightened Buddha. But he didn't say that, he just raised one finger. Suzuki Roshi says, painful Buddha, monkey mind Buddha. I have approximately eight million more stories about friendship.

[30:29]

But maybe that's enough for now. Do you have anything that you'd like to bring up? Yes, Homa? I appreciate your expressions of the stories. And I am contemplating on the cries. But at the same time, I'm confused. Meaning, I wouldn't say confused, no. I am unskilled. And I'd like to have the skill of listening to the real cry. I hear a lot of immature cries. So I'd like to listen to my own real voice of cry.

[31:39]

Not all these baby cries. You don't want to listen to baby cries? No. Well, I'll listen to them for you. No, and that's why it keeps coming. Did you say no? No. I hear, I'm listening to no. I'm listening to no. Are you listening to no? Yes. And I don't know the level of maturity of that no. But I listen to it. It keeps coming, right? I hear it, I hear it. I hear, I hear the cry. The cry is, I don't want it to come anymore. I hear the cry, I don't want it to come anymore. That's similar to the one I told you recently. I don't want granddaddy. I don't want granddaddy. No granddaddy, go away granddaddy.

[32:41]

Yes. I listen to, I don't want granddaddy. And also I listen to, sit down here granddaddy. But here's the thing, granddaddy is quiet. What? When granddaddy is quiet, I want it quiet. Granddaddy is trying to practice being quiet. That's granddaddy's practice, to be quiet. So granddaddy can listen to all the cries of people who are endless. On Thursday night, on Thursday night I was taking care of the little person, the tiny person who is called my leader. And quite late at night, I was finally able to put her in her bed.

[33:45]

Maybe, I won't say the number, but it was rather a large number of times before, after we finished watching a TV program. After watching a TV program I said, can this be the last one? No. And so I tried to be quiet and listened to, no. After one more, can that be the last one? No. And so we listened to another one. Now can we go to bed? No. And then finally I said, we've listened to so many TV shows, I think we should go to bed now. And she said, five. It was actually more than five, I'll tell you that much. Five. And so I put my arms around her. This is quite late at night already. I put my arms around her, I picked her up and said, no, no, no. I said, you're such a good girl.

[34:50]

You're such a good girl. We're going to, come on with me. No, no, no, you're such a good girl. No, no, no, you're such a good girl. And I'm carrying her. My leader is now a very small package in my arm. And she stops and she starts, the good girl, she becomes calm. And I put her in bed and I said, do you want to hear a story now? And so I read her a story about the big bus. So I read the story about the big bus, but she wanted another book, another story. So I said, do you want a story about Olive, Olive the pig? And I said, it's right here. And she said, only mommy reads that book. And there was another book next to her, I picked it up, she said, only daddy reads that book. I listened to the cries. I said, well, I'll go find some other books. So I left and she said, you stay here, I'll come back. And I went away. And as I went away, I thought,

[35:52]

probably pretty soon, while I'm looking for this book, she'll be asleep. And sure enough, she was asleep. But I was listening to the cries, I was happy to listen to the cries through the evening. Lots of, many, many no's. But it was very, it was very happy, blessed, it was a blessed evening. Anyway, I could tell you more, but it would take several hours, so I'm going to stop there. But I hear, I don't want to hear anymore. I hear that cry. I hear it. I'm here for you to say you don't want to hear anymore. If you want to keep saying that, my job is to listen to you say it. Okay? You're welcome. Yes, Charlie?

[36:55]

How do we know when the temple is clean enough to sit? Oh, just a second, before I answer that. You know, I asked you if you were going to bring your sister? Yeah. Casey, is your last name Wilson? Yes. Charlie Wilson, Casey Wilson. Casey. Yeah. Okay, so how do we know when it's clean enough? Yeah. Knowing that it's clean enough is something to let go of. Clean the temple of the piece of dust called knowing it's clean enough. Now sometimes when you're cleaning the temple, that piece of dust does not come up. But sometimes that piece of dust might come up. So, let go of the thought it's clean enough. Let go of the thought also that it's not clean enough. Letting go of the thought the temple is not clean enough is part of cleaning the temple. It sounds like sitting is cleaning the temple.

[38:00]

I think that for me to hold on to the idea that sitting is or is not cleaning the temple, that would be something I should let go of. What needs to be accomplished before we sit? Letting go of everything. And letting go of everything includes letting go of the idea that you have let go of everything. Sometimes we clean this temple and somebody might think we haven't cleaned it enough. And so we could say, well, let's clean more in response to that. Or we could say, we haven't cleaned it enough and now we're going to stop cleaning. And we're going to let go of the idea which lives in this temple at this moment. Somebody has the idea we haven't cleaned it enough. The person who says it might be me. The person who says it might be you.

[39:06]

And I might say, I agree with you, we haven't cleaned it enough. And now let's clean that thought. Let's let go of that thought. We have to let go of the thought we have or have not cleaned this temple in order to sit. We have to let go of the idea I'm a good enough person or I'm not a good enough person. You do not have to have the idea, I should say, if you have the idea that you're a good enough Zen student, if you happen to have that idea, fine. But in order to sit, you have to let go of it. If you have the idea you're a below-average Zen student, fine. But in order to sit in the true sense, you have to let go of the idea that you're a below-average Zen student. That doesn't mean you switch to have the idea that you're above-average Zen student, but you might. Like some people might say, OK, I gave up the idea I'm a below-average Zen student, but I think now I'm going to

[40:08]

have the idea I'm above-average Zen student. And I would say, fine, hand it over. And the person says, here. And I say, thank you, I'll put that on the altar. Put all your ideas about yourself and others on the altar and sit. That's required for sitting. And then when you sit, after giving everything up, now, what will come up? More ideas. More stories. But now, you set the stage of, I'm not going to be distracted from listening to these stories. I've given them all up. I've prepared myself to really study these stories with great compassion. Including the story that I just missed an opportunity with this story. I wasn't very compassionate towards something. I didn't really listen. Okay.

[41:20]

I have, there's a story I've heard about a finger pointing. It's a little different from the story you've heard. It's getting in the way of my seeing the finger. This is what we're talking about. Okay. Yes? Yes. Go ahead. What? Should I tell the other story? Yeah. Tell the other story. The other story is also a teacher who's pointing at something and says to the student, don't look at my finger, look where I'm pointing. Yeah? Yeah. Which, then I've not seen the finger. Yeah, it was the same thing. I just went like this and Simon looked at the ceiling. The architect. Some people think I'm pointing to the ceiling. He didn't say what direction he put the finger, by the way. He could have gone like this, or like this,

[42:21]

or like this, or like this. Anyway, he raised one finger. And so, this is not pointing, this is not, he said don't look at the finger, look at what I'm pointing at. What's he pointing at? He's pointing at dead man Buddha. He's pointing at a man who doesn't have any spirit. He's pointing at that and saying that's man without spirit Buddha. That's what this finger said. That's the same thing. And Judy understood that this one finger meant you are one with Buddha. Buddha is not confused, distracted, hesitant monk. But hesitant monk is Buddha. My teaching for you.

[43:23]

So it's actually the same thing, except in his case, the reference to the one finger was the apparent duality between somebody who can't respond to reality and somebody who can. Actually the way you can't respond to reality is the way you do respond to reality. And then, okay? And then, if I might mention something before I call on you. And then Suzuki, and then Suzuki she says, you are sincere Zen students. So the context is bringing up the story is that the Zen students, the sincere Zen students were talking to him about stuff that they were having trouble listening to, like Homa. They don't want to hear anymore monkey mind Buddha. They don't want to hear anymore painful legs. So maybe I should give you some instruction.

[44:27]

You are sincere Zen students, but only a few of you are actually sitting in the true sense. Only a few of you, in other words, have given up everything. So actually, most of you should get out of the monastery. I should say get out. You don't have this conviction. He said, but get out means get out and come back. Come back with the conviction that you are going to listen to your life and what you hear is Buddha. Is that sound Buddha. You must have this conviction and most of you don't. So you should get out and come back. And I was going to, this morning, come into Zen Dojo and say, everybody go outside and don't come back in here

[45:28]

until you're ready to listen to the cries of the world. Until you're ready to sit with the conviction of what's happening to you is what's happening to you Buddha. But I didn't do that. And I hadn't really registered that Suzuki Roshi said that. I should tell you all to get out. I remember Kadogiri Roshi one time said, when Zen teachers in those stories tell the people to get out, that means come back. But first you have to go out. And I remember first you have to be told to go out. That's the friendship which tells you have conviction in this teaching. Don't start, you know, saying well I'm not going to,

[46:30]

not everything am I going to actually meet with friendship. There's some things I'm not going to be friendly with. And how to do that in a skillful way. Did you have your hand raised? I did. Would you like to bring up a question? Or comment? A comment? Yes, please. So, yeah, there was cleaning of the temple happening this morning. Thank you. And there were cries of the world that came inadequacy. And then... You heard, inadequacy! Inadequacy. Inadequacy. And I wasn't so compassionate. I was kind of confessing a little. There wasn't listening to that? There was listening, but it's just such an old story. Oh, there was listening with comments. Again, so,

[47:33]

that's part of the skill is listen, and when the comment comes, listen to the comment. Listen. Listen. Comment. Listen. Cleaning. Huh? Then cleaning. Well, the listening is really cleaning. Okay. Okay. You clean enough so you feel like, okay, now I'm going to really listen to everything. I've cleaned enough, so I feel like now everything I can relate to as listening. So, like somebody says, we haven't cleaned the temple enough. And then somebody else says, a friend says, I hear that you say we haven't cleaned the temple enough, and so we're going to sit now anyway, okay? Yes, okay. Like I often told that story over and over about one of my first work assignments

[48:35]

in my first practice period at Tassajara, it was like my third work assignment actually, there was a lot of rain during the initiatory period that I just went through, and then we were working, and part of the rain blew out the pipes that bring the drinking water into the temple, so I was assigned with another person to go and repair the water line, and we repaired the water line, and then at a certain juncture where it came apart, and then we went to fix the next one, and I said to my co-worker, I said, let's go back and fix the line which we had just fixed, and he knew what I meant. Somehow we didn't listen to the cries of, we're rushing, we're not doing this thoroughly, so we went back and did it again properly. Not good enough

[49:37]

so we can go on to the next one, but good enough all by itself. So then we could go to do the next one. But the point of that was not just that, but to set the stage for our whole practice. So we listened to the cry, we didn't give enough attention to that. We really were distracted by the next break while we were doing this. We didn't give it enough attention. We have to clean the temple enough so that we're qualified to really sit and study now, where we're clear that we're nothing more to accomplish in this world. Nothing needs to be accomplished but listening. But we have to accomplish enough to listen in the way that assembles the ocean of happiness beyond measure. If we just try to listen without doing

[50:42]

some preliminary cleanup, then we try and we don't. We get distracted. We're not convinced, we don't have conviction that we can just listen to the story, that friendship is really what's necessary. Not fixing stuff up. But we have to fix stuff up enough so we feel like, okay, now we don't have to fix anything more. We can just listen. We can just be together. We can just be friends. And this friendship will inconceivably, miraculously, friendship in a way that we do not understand, will accomplish what we really want to do. We're not primarily here to clean the temple. We're here to become free of clean and not clean. Because you can clean a temple and still be scared of it getting dirty again. You can make the temple earthquake.

[51:44]

What? Earthquake something up to a certain level of earthquake and still be afraid, well what if someone bigger one than... So we fix the temple enough so that we can sit and be friendly. But if we don't clean it somewhat, if you don't remember to turn the gas off in the kitchen before you come to the temple, you won't be able to listen to everything. So you have to go back home and turn the gas off on the stove so you can come and sit and say, now I can be friends to everything. I can listen to the cries of the world. It isn't just sit, it's clean enough so you can just sit. In other words, clean enough so that you can give up everything. And give up everything means give up resistance to trying to listen to everybody and everything. But before doing some cleaning, say, I can't really like that person I can't listen to.

[52:48]

Well, work on that until you feel like, okay, I worked on that. And there's going to be indefinite examples of resistance, but now I'm clear that they're resistance to what I really want to do. So when they come up, I'm going to let them go. So, Avalokiteshvara doesn't try to fix all the cries in the world. She listens to them. She doesn't say, not this one. She listens to this one. But she has to let go of everything before she can do that. But when she's let go of enough, she said, okay, now I think I can go sit there. My children said it's okay. The fire's off. My wife and husband say it's okay.

[53:51]

The world's supporting me to just sit. That's such a rare thing, you see. Nobody needs me not to listen. Nobody needs me to resist friendship. And then this stuff comes up which tests that. And so, Judy was tested by reality, and he failed, and then Tianlong came and showed him, and he stopped resisting for the rest of his life. We need this conviction. This is the conviction of the Buddhas. But we have to clean the temple somewhat before we can give it a try. So, this morning I also said,

[54:58]

that Shakyamuni Buddha said there's one thing which, when practiced, brings great fruit and great benefit. And that one thing is mindfulness of breathing. And the great fruit and the great benefit, the great fruit is a mind which doesn't abide in anything. And the great benefit is the liberation of all beings. So, following the breath is like cleaning the temple. And by doing that, you can listen to the cries of the world eventually, with no distraction, and stop, give up abiding in anything. Thank you very much for your presence.

[56:01]

And I just wanted to acknowledge that inside of Nettie is a little baby girl who may be coming out to visit us soon. So, we'll be able to see her without her mother's body intervening. And Nettie asked me if when she comes to receive the Bodhisattva precepts, if the baby girl could come too to witness the ceremony, and I said yes. So, when Jeff and Nettie receive the Bodhisattva precepts, we might be able to see their baby at the same time. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend

[57:03]

to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are insustable. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[57:45]

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