I didn't finish the story yesterday about Pukasati. The bell rang for the kitchen to leave and I thought maybe it'd be nice to stop so they don't miss the end of the story. I apologize for remembering Well, I don't exactly apologize for remembering, but for telling the story that I remembered incorrectly. I mixed up Pukasati, their great disciple of Buddha named Bahiya. And part of the reason I mixed them up is because at the conclusion of their of both of their meetings with the Buddha and both of their kind of enlightenment with the Buddha, both of them were killed the same day by Kama. So I mixed them up.

[01:10]

So what I told you about Phukasati's background was really the background for Bahiya. Phukasati had been the king of Palashika. No, Palekashika. And he had a friend, King Bimbisara, and they were exchanging gifts, and King Bimbisara sent him a golden plate. On the plate was inscribed a description of the Triple Treasure and some other dharma, aspects of dharma. King, well, when the King Phukasati read, the inscription, he was filled with joy and renounced the world.

[02:11]

And without formal ordination, he shaved his head, put on yellow palace, intending to go and meet Shakyamuni Buddha. who at that time was in, I misremembered where he was. I thought he was in Bali or Paranasi, but actually he was in Savati. Savati is about 300 miles from Raja Griha. And so Pugsati is going to Raja Griha to meet the Buddha, which is one of the, one of the main places Buddha taught. Vulture Peak is near Rajagriha. So the Buddha, with his clairvoyant knowledge, saw that Pukkisati was a great teacher and also saw that Pukkisati had great capacity for the practice and the fruits

[03:28]

So he went to meet him, walking on foot for 300 miles. And the Buddha concealed his marks and pretended by this concealment to be an ordinary wandering monk. And then Pugsati arrived in Graja Griha, a little ahead of him, and went to the potter's shed. The Buddha went to the potter's shed too, or went to the potter.

[04:32]

And when he met the potter, the potter addressed him as Venerable Sir. And the venerable pretending Buddha asked if he could stay there. And the potter said, yes, if it's okay with the wandering monk who's already there. And to the potter said, may I stay here with you? And the bhugasati said, yes, friend. you can stay here, there's plenty of room. He addressed him as a little kind of familiar friend rather than venerable sir. And then they sat together most of the night and then the Buddha asked him, like I told you yesterday, who's your teacher and

[05:37]

Pukasati said, I'm going to meet him. I never met him, but I'm going to meet him. So then the Buddha thought that this person was... He still thought this person had great capacity, so he thought maybe he'd like to hear Dharma, so he offered it to him. And Pukasati... He gave this discourse, and Pukasati... after listening to the discourse, Bukasati thought, indeed, the teacher has come to me. The sublime one has come to me. The fully enlightened one has come to me. Then he rose from his seat, arranged his robe, his upper robe, over one shoulder. We still wear our robes this way, over one shoulder. Before, they didn't necessarily walk around with over one shoulder.

[06:44]

They walked around with the robe over both shoulders. But as a sign of respect, if you meet your teacher, you bear one shoulder, you bear your right shoulder and put the robe just over your left shoulder. So he did that in acknowledgement of finally meeting his teacher. And then he prostrated himself with his head at Gautama's feet. And he said, Venerable sir, a transgression over me, in that, like a fool, confused and blundering, I presumed to address the Blessed One, the Bhagavan, as friend. Venerable sir, may the Bhagavan, the Blessed One, forgive me for this transgression, seen as such, for the sake of restraint in the future.

[07:54]

the seen as such, a mistake, a transgression, seen as such. Then the Buddha said, monk, transgression overcame you. But since you see your transgression as such and make amends with dharma, we forgive you. For it is a growth in the noble one's discipline when one sees one's transgressions as such and makes amends in accordance with dharma for the sake of restraint in the future. This, to see a mistake as a mistake, is a term which translated in English as one continuous mistake, which is I think a wonderful idea.

[09:26]

But the other meaning of it is a mistake which you see as a mistake and you make the best of it. You do something good with the mistake. You recognize it, you confess it, and you're transformed by that. So here is this nice example of this. And then Pugsati says, I would like to take refuge in you with the Buddha. I would like to admitted to your training group. And the Buddha said, do you have the requisites of bowl and robe? And Pukasati said, no, I do not. And the Buddha said, I do not admit the order unless they have the bowl and the robe. So if you go get the bowl and robe and come back, I will admit you.

[10:28]

And in the chapter of the Shobo Genzo by Dogen, discussing going home and entering, receiving the precepts and entering the priest training, he says the same thing. We must have the robe and the bowl. And you can't borrow somebody else's for the ceremony. So he went to get the robe and bowl, that day and that same day he was killed by a stray cow. And people came to Buddha and said, well, what happened to this person who we saw? And Buddha said, don't worry about him. Although he died, he is now living in a pure abode and he will attain Liberation and peace without being reborn.

[11:31]

So this is a story which I... Buddha pretending to be... First of all, Buddha pretending to be a constructed thing, a human being, pretending to have 32 marks of a great person. when the Buddha is in the Great Assembly, the Buddha appears as the great teacher. This is a false picture of Buddha, but it encourages people to see somebody with these 32 marks. Some of us might actually be horrified if we saw something in the top of his head. and a white curl in the middle of his forehead and webbed feet and hands and diamond wheels on his palms and feet. But in India, people were, I guess, really inspired by this. It's all Buddha's outfit.

[12:41]

You know, like Iron Man and Batman and Supergirl and, you know, Marilyn Monroe. People put on these outfits and it inspires people. Marilyn inspired people to practice virtue, but the Buddha did. And that's, this is the, oh and also I said yesterday, I'm sorry, I made a mistake I think, I said the Buddha's not always pretending. The Samdhi Nirmacana Sutra says that the revelation of the transformation body is constant. The Buddha is constantly pretending to be various manifestations. The Dharmakaya is constantly not pretending. The true body, the non-fictitious

[13:48]

body of the Buddha is never pretending, but also it's inconceivable. But it emanates conceivable manifestations. And these manifestations are constantly happening. So the Buddha is constantly offering pretend Buddhas in order to make an impression upon beings such that they will be able to generate virtue. And again, like I said last time, I heard Siddharth Ganesha gets up and he pretends, he says, he pretends, I'm an ordinary person. I'm not enlightened. Then he pretends the next week to be Buddha. This week I'm Buddha. This week I'm not enlightened. This week I've got the flu. This is all motivated by compassion, of course.

[14:55]

And I remember, too, when I was thinking of this, came back the time I went to Oregon with him and he had this gallbladder attack. And then we came back to San Francisco. And when we got off the plane, his wife, Oksan, and Yvonne Rand were waiting at the gate. You could wait at the gate in those days. And they had a wheelchair. And he said to me, I'm not going to sit in that. Punchline. I'm a Zen master. And I kind of, in a way, I felt sorry for him when he said that. Kind of like, oh, you sort of have to be strong because you're a Zen master.

[16:00]

But I thought he was just pretending. Pretending to be a Zen master, which is fine with me. I like the way he did it. Then we went home to the Zen Center. He went upstairs. They contacted the doctor, and the doctor said, come to the hospital. But that time, we carried him out on a stretcher. He didn't say, I'm not going to get on the stretcher. I'm a Zen master. Then he pretended to be Today is 12-10-10. And I almost always remember on 12-10 that on 12-10-1968 I went to his office in the afternoon after work and I asked him if I could come here for the practice period which he was going to lead.

[17:19]

And he said, OK. I wondered how it would be to open that door. Would you open it and see how it is? Director? Venerable Director? Open that one and see what happens. Sorry, Miao Yu.

[18:24]

You can come and sit here. Could you open the other window, please? You can come and sit here if you can't see me. The ancient teacher, Nanyue, said, if you're studying seated Buddha, Buddha is a fixed mark. Another translation is practicing seated Buddha. Buddha has no fixed mark. And then the other one is When you are learning seated Buddha, Buddha is beyond any set form.

[19:35]

So I thought that was again a nice difference in what Buddha is. Buddha is no fixed mark. Not only is there a Buddha who doesn't have marks, that's what a Buddha is. Buddha is no fixed mark. And this is for people studying seated Buddha. Maybe for other people, Buddha is a fixed marker. Maybe if you're studying giving and precepts and patience, and maybe diligence. If you're studying them, maybe then it's good for you to have a Buddha who is a fixed mark, who has a nice story, and who has 32 marks.

[20:37]

So when the Buddha practices giving, you say, oh, totally, I'm with the program. But to practice seated Buddha, you're moving in now to practicing concentration and wisdom in union. Now you're practicing wisdom. This is a teaching of ultimate truth. Seated Buddha. So if you're practicing Seated Buddha, then the Buddha is no fixed form. So I would say In order to be able to practice seated Buddha, the Buddha needs to be no fixed form. Otherwise we won't be able to. And then the Guru gives more explanation for this.

[21:42]

He says the reason that Buddha is one or two Buddhas is that Buddha adorns himself with no fixed mark. Now, again, the reason that sitting Buddha is neither singular nor plural is that the sitting Buddha is adorned with no fixed forms. Another one. The reason that sitting Buddha appears as one Buddha and then a second Buddha is that it, Buddha, is adorned with no set form.

[22:44]

Saying here that Buddha is no fixed form, describing the form of Buddha. Saying that Buddha is no fixed mark, that's how Jnanue describes the mark of Buddha. When you're practicing sitting, if you're practicing sitting Buddha, you're practicing no fixed mark. You work on your posture, you do the ceremony of sitting upright wholeheartedly with the understanding of this sitting posture is no fixed mark. Since

[23:54]

Since Buddha is a Buddha of no fixed mark, the seated Buddha is difficult to avoid. That sounds like good news to me. If the Buddha is a fixed mark, to avoid that Buddha. Or anyway, easier. Many of us, I think, have been able to avoid Buddhas of fixed marks. The fixed mark Buddhas, some people have never even seen a fixed mark Buddha. They're saying, where are the Buddhas? I don't see any fixed mark Buddhas. We don't have fixed mark Buddhas in this practice. We have no fixed mark Buddhas. And those are hard to avoid. Difficult to avoid, this translation says. The other one is a little different.

[25:01]

Same meaning, but a little bit different. As Buddha has no fixed form, there is no escape from sitting Buddha. Isn't that nice? You can't escape from a sitting Buddha. Even if you don't want to be a Buddha, you cannot escape it because the no fixed Buddha cannot be escaped. Adorned with Buddha's no fixed form, the practice of Zazen is itself the practice of Buddha. Our Zazen is just a little, what do you call it, a little form that we work with, with varying degrees of wholeheartedness. But no matter how you work with it, because the Buddha's sitting has no fixed form, your practice is itself sitting Buddha.

[26:09]

However, you will not get that unless you wholeheartedly do this form. You won't be at the place where you're doing this form. And the place where you're doing the form and the form you're doing is itself sitting Buddha. Always. But if you've got other business, you'll miss out. If I've got other business, I've got other business. Then what? Then sitting Zazen dash sitting Buddha. Because of its being, because it is Buddha beyond any set form, it is utterly impossible to escape from sitting Buddha.

[27:14]

Because Buddha is adorned with no sitting Buddha, when you are learning sitting Buddha, Meditation, it is just sitting Buddha. Nanyue also said that in the dharma of no abode, there should be no grasping or rejecting. And no grasping or rejecting goes quite nicely with this practice of the Buddha, which is no fixed mark.

[28:37]

In this dharma of no abode, who would grasp or reject something In the abiding Dharma, which some of us sometimes slip into, we sometimes grasp somebody or something as Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha was like this. Or, that doesn't sound like Shakyamuni Buddha to me. Some people, when they hear about Zen, they say, doesn't sound like Buddhism to me. Or some Zen people, when they hear about another school of Buddhism, they say, doesn't sound like Buddhism to me. In other words, I reject that as Buddha.

[29:53]

This is the Dharma, this is the abiding Dharma. This is the dharma of abiding, that we reject something as Buddha or grasp something as Buddha. In the non-abiding, things are different. In the dharma of no abode, who can discriminate Buddha from not Buddha? In the Dharma of no abode, who could have a preference or an aversion for not being a Buddha? Who could have a preference or a rejection for being a Buddha? Some people tell me, you know, say, I don't want to be a Buddha. Some people say, I want to be a Buddha. But in the practice of the Dharma of non-abiding, how could you prefer, being or not being a Buddha?

[31:09]

In not preferring being or not being Buddha, you are practicing Buddha, if you're practicing sitting. This is because sitting meditation has dropped off all grasping and rejecting that it is seated Buddha. It is because zazen has dropped off all grasping and rejecting that it is seated Buddha. Falling away before discriminating is sitting Buddha. Because this sitting has dropped off before the moment of a preference or aversion, it is sitting Buddha.

[32:27]

There is more instruction given by Nanyue to Matsu. But I kind of feel like, doesn't that kind of give you a lot to work with? You have a lot to work with here. No grasping or rejecting. That's a lot of nothing to work with. Just practice sitting, understanding that Buddha has no fixed mark, and that's sitting Buddha. Just practice sitting with no rejection, and that's sitting Buddha. Buddha is form.

[34:01]

Sitting Buddha is also no fixed form. Then sitting Buddha is Buddha. We must use the form of sitting Buddha. to practice sitting Buddha, which has . you haven't been invited yet.

[35:09]

You to pretend to be dragons and elephants. Particularly, I invite you to be green dragons. And gray. And I invite you to bring forth the Dharma of no abode. Also, if people want to bring the Dharma of the abiding Dharma, they're welcome to. SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN BRINGING ME THE ADBIDING DHARMA, AND I WELCOME IT. NOT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN BY PRETENDING

[36:22]

Has there ever been a time when a pretending Zen master is able to wear glasses? Yes, and they sometimes have a case for the glasses too which they sometimes open and close. Is there any pretending Zen master that I might have met who has an aversion to doing that? Well, it isn't that I have an aversion to doing that. It's to have an aversion to taking them off again and putting them back on again. Because my glasses only work after I finish reading.

[38:21]

I have to take them off every time I finish reading. I don't like taking them off and putting them on and taking them off and putting them on and taking them off. I don't like that part. I wouldn't mind just putting them on and reading, but then they have to come off because I can't see with them on. That part I don't like. It seems kind of not lovely. I feel like we share the same ideas that maybe you could Wear them on the tip of your nose all the time. Maybe you could wear them for me.

[39:22]

It would be a pleasure. You're welcome. Thank you. And you can make a confession. I've attended a few Star Trek conventions in my days. You attended a few what? Star Trek conventions. You did? Yes. Wow. Welcome. Thank you. It's good to be here. Nice to... And what I wrote for you today is, I have this... There's a ceremony at issue with ceremonies and rituals and service and all these things still kind of, it's just not there.

[40:28]

But anyway, the other day I was thinking. Yeah, right. I was thinking. At the Star Trek conventions, they have rituals. They do. They do. That's the point. Yeah. I'm sitting with us and they're not Buddha, I'm not sure which. But anyway, Star Trek arises somewhere. Okay, this is okay. This is weird. Freaky, but that's good. Anyway, I just start watching. You know, I never dressed up. I mean, let's put that out there. But I must make fun of the people that did dress up. You did make fun of them? Yes. Oh. But I was there with them, at least. Is it the same here? Oh, yeah. That's the whole point. Yeah, that's the whole point. And that's the third recognition, you know, watching these people engage something that they love so much. Learn to dress up. And some of them even learn Klingon. It's strange. I was like, no one else can speak except these two people. And you're like, how bizarre, but how wonderful that they took all this effort to learn Klingon.

[41:31]

And then you show up here and I'm like, we're doing the same thing. We've all come to a big Star Trek convention. Exactly. We're all dressed up. Exactly. Jim Kirk and Scotty and... And I started thinking about it, like, yeah, if they're running in service, all of a sudden, you know, if I think I'm on the bridge of the Enterprise, maybe that can break through this idea of virtual... I haven't wiped. I'm not sure if it's there yet, but... I wanted to offer that to everyone out here, that this, you know, feel free to think this is a big Star Trek convention, and choose the character you want to be, and if it's worse than... you know, being warped and being fully, wholeheartedly. And I guess that's what it is. I never saw more wholehearted anything than they did at Star Trek. Wholeheartedly Uhura or whoever they were. It was just wonderful to see that. And it's wonderful to see it here too. Yeah. You know, let everyone know that, you know, do whatever it takes.

[42:34]

I just wanted to offer that. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Yeah. So, going off... Going off on what Doris was saying, um... When I was little, my favorite game was to pretend to be Batman. And now, two decades later, I wear a black cape and my vow is to save all beings. I turn 28 years old next month and I'm wondering is it okay to still imitate Batman?

[43:48]

Do you think that imitating Batman will promote the peace and happiness of all beings? not based on his action in the last movie. He's pretty violent. And for me, violence doesn't promote the peace and welfare of all beings. Is there a Batman who you feel imitating would promote the peace and welfare of all beings? Do you wish to imitate that Batman? Yes. You have my unlimited support.

[45:34]

Thank you. You're welcome. Hi, Daddy. Hi, Daddy. My heart is concentrated on Marilyn Monroe. And I wonder if you would fully support me to offer in prayer for her liberation.

[46:44]

Definitely. And also, I thought you were going to ask me if I would support you to imitate her. Would you support me to imitate her? I would ask you the same thing I asked Brendan. And I think you imitating Marilyn Monroe with that intention would be totally supportable. With what intention? with the intention to promote the welfare and happiness and . I wish I could ask her what her intention was. And I wish I could ask her if she felt respected. But I cannot, for instance.

[47:54]

And I would feel satisfied with that. OK. I need to let Mr. Turkle to carry this forward, but please continue. Welcome.

[49:26]

I wanted to ask about a line in the Genjo koan. Where did it go? If you just get a piece of it, we can give you the rest. There we are. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be distinctly apparent. If it isn't distinctly apparent, how do you know that it's actualized? as you probably have heard, the Great Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing.

[50:37]

It's a matter of no doubt. Could you please explain? That's what led to that statement. Somebody asked for an explanation. And then the explanation wasn't satisfactory. So he said, well, how will I know if I'm right or not? And the answer was, it's not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is karmic consciousness. Not knowing is blank consciousness. You're welcome. And I might also add that the path of no doubt is the path of wholehearted performance of every action of body, speech and mind, day and night, as the performance of no doubt.

[52:44]

That's not knowing, that's realization. That's a verification by the practice with knowing or not knowing, included or excluded. When you have realization, you perform every act that way. And when we notice that we're half-hearted about some things, that we think some things are not worthy of our 100% devotion, then we don't, at that time, know that we understand. We know that we don't. In other words, we know karmic consciousness is in charge. So then we just go back to work and see if we can be wholehearted the next moment.

[53:46]

perform the next ritual, the next pretense that what we're doing is the Buddha way. What we're doing is totally given to the Buddha way and nothing else. And that there's no other Buddha way than that. You'll call to tell a Marilyn Monroe story. A Marilyn Monroe story? Please. You sent Steph up again. The first time I heard you tell the story of the Buddha taking off his glamour, I thought of it in relation to this story. So Marilyn Monroe at one time... Can you hear her okay?

[54:51]

It would be easier to hear my performance from her mouth. It's actually very garbled for me. I can't understand. Try again. Okay. Is that better? Yes. Okay. Marilyn Monroe at one time in her life was living in New York and going to, I think, Hector's studio. She was a good friend of Susan Strasberg, and she walked around New York in ordinary clothes. They were walking down the street one day, and nobody noticed that she was Marilyn Monroe. And she was talking to Susan Strasberg, who was her friend and who told this story. And she said, would you like me to be her? Would you like me to do her? And she immediately, you know, there wasn't any fancy clothes or makeup or anything. And instantly, people on the street knew who she was and were all beside themselves. So there were no marks to that. And yet, she wasn't here.

[56:01]

And also, I want to thank everyone for letting us come to Sushina Tassavara. It's wonderful to be back here for this little while. Thank you. And I just might add, she wasn't who she pretended to be both before and after the glamour. You're not who, when you don't have your makeup on or you don't have your mojo on, that's not who you are when you're pretending to be that. And then when you put your makeup on, that's not who you are. Neither one are who you are. You are a person of no marks. I've heard that there is a school that practices koans, and that in the practice of koans... Excuse me.

[57:22]

Have you heard that this is a school that practices koans? No, I've heard of a school... Let me tell you, this is a school that practices koans. We're practicing koan right now. I like that. Now, when you were practicing a koan? Who knows? Yeah, I didn't ask if you knew. I asked if you were practicing a koan. Yes. Did you say yes? Yes. Welcome to Koan Enactment School. I heard a story about this koan. This one here? Or some other one? About this practice of koans. Okay, you want to tell the story? Okay. Is that going to be practicing koans, telling the story?

[58:26]

We can ask. I'm asking you. Is telling the story practicing the koans? Yes. All right. Thank you for telling me. So what leads to enlightenment during the practice of koans is this great doubt I heard. There's a doubt that keeps building and building and then the fruit of that doubt is the awakening. How is your doubt? It's building. It's building? Are you encouraged by this building doubt?

[59:32]

This growing doubt? Is it growing? It's growing. Are you encouraged by the growth of this doubt? Until I heard somebody say that there is no doubt. There is the practice. Well, no doubt is the fruit of the doubt. Doubting and blossoming. Doubting and blossoming, right. And the doubt blossoms into a more and more total blossom. A more and more total doubt. When you totally doubt, that's the same as no fixed mark. When you totally doubt, that's the same as Buddha.

[60:39]

Thanks for opening the doors. You're welcome. Is your name Bruce? When I was 13, my favorite TV show was called The Pretender. And I don't know if anybody else has seen this show, but it was about a man who's separated from his parents when he was very young. When he was young, there was a boy they discovered he was a prodigy. And so this exploitative group called The Center, they took him from his parents and exploited his genius.

[61:56]

And part of his genius was that he could learn things. So one day, I think with the help of one of the people at the center, he escaped. And the way in which he decided to try to keep evading people at the center was by taking on different jobs. Just like step into a role immediately and he would like spend some time learning and researching it and then he would help people. Help people in that occupation? Yeah. Within that form? Yeah. He would help people? Yeah. This sounds like a Bodhisattva, doesn't it? So I really liked the show. And when I came here to Tassajara, I had never waited tables in my life. And then they asked me to be in the dining room, and I was like, sure. And so I pretended to wait tables for five minutes. And then four months ago, Marco came to me and asked what my gardening experience was.

[63:05]

And I said, yeah, I pulled some weeds in France. And so for the past four months, I've been pretending to be a gardener. So I think I've already answered my question by now. But this show I watched on television 15 years ago. Next month, I turn 28. I wonder if I could, you know. And the character's name is Jared in the show. So I'd like to continue to imitate Jared. May I continue to imitate Jared? Do you think that that would be for the welfare of all beings? Absolutely. I support you. You asked me, what was your question again?

[64:05]

My question was, may I imitate Jared? Yeah. So you asked me if you could, and I support you, but also you could tell me that you're intending to, and I could witness your... I'm intending to imitate Jared. I witness your commitment... Thank you. ...to take whatever form and do it wholeheartedly. for the welfare of all beings to take what any form and like he did and learn it really well and do it really wholehearted like for the sake of the buddha way thanks for your support thanks for giving yourself to the buddha way Thank you, dragons and elephants, for bringing forth the Dharma.

[65:14]

And I really hope that it continues so that you can practice your great vows.

[65:27]

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