Yesterday I asked you lots of questions about your wishes. There's a teaching that the world is formed as a result of the wishes of all living beings. What we intend, what we wish for, what we want has consequences. And the consequence is the formation of the world. These wishes can also lead to realization of the truth, which is from the suffering of the world.

[01:02]

this fall had been telling lots of stories about good friendship between Chinese practitioners. One of the ancient teachers discussed was named, his name was Snowy Summit because his monastery was on that on that mountain, Snowy Summit. One of his One of his disciples was named Cloud Gate, Yun Mun.

[02:45]

Another of his disciples was named Gensha or Shrensha. Trenshaw had a disciple whose name was Earth Store or Earth Womb. His name because a governor built a monastery for him and the name of the monastery was Earth Store Monastery. It's named after a bodhisattva. The bodhisattva sitting beneath here. This tall, lovely person in monk's robes with a brocade statue and a halo.

[03:53]

This is Earth Store Bodhisattva. This bodhisattva ...from the vows of a girl, of a girl who wanted to help her mother. And she was so successful, her wish to help her mother was so successful that she was deeply encouraged. And from her heart came an abundant bouquet of vows. These are the vows of the earth store in Jizo Bosatsu Ditsan Pusa So in China, once upon a time there lived a teacher, an abbess of a monastery called Earth Store Monastery.

[05:15]

And of advanced Zen students, a group of elder Zen students, a group of Zen teachers were traveling together. In the rain, in the snow, their way was blocked. They couldn't go any further, so they found themselves near Ditsong Jizo Earth Store Monastery. So they went to the monastery for shelter. They didn't go to study with the abbess of the temple. So they were admitted

[06:24]

to the monastery. They were allowed to enter through the gate and go indoors. And there was a fire. And they circled around the fire to warm up and dry off. I remember their names were Shushan which literally means Master Mountain, or another monastery, Shushan. Another one's name was Dharma Ai, Fa Yin. Another one's name was Master of Jinshan, and another one's name was Wudo. These four were around the fire, warming up. an earth store came in.

[07:30]

And she said, may I ask you about something? And Shushan said, sure. If there's something you want to talk about, please go ahead. It doesn't say so in the record, but I'm just pointing out that they came to the monastery to warm up, but they didn't go to see the teacher, the abbess. But the abbess came to them and said, may I ask about something? And Xushan said, sure, go ahead. If there's something, please ask. An earth store. Master Jizo said, are the mountains and rivers and great earth the same or different from you elders?

[08:47]

And Shushan said, different. And Earth Star raised two fingers. I don't know if it was two fingers like this or two fingers like this. It doesn't say. It just says, two fingers. It could have been two thumbs up. Anyway, he raised two fingers. And Shushan said, Or maybe I should go back. You may have lost track. Are the mountains, rivers, and great earth the same or different from you elders? And Xu Shan said, different. And Earth Star raised two fingers.

[09:49]

And Xu Shan said very fast, identical, identical. Earth Star raised two fingers again and left. Young Fa Yun, young Dharma Ai said, what was the abbess's meaning? And Shushan said, he just did that randomly. Okay. And Fa Yan said, you shouldn't crudely insult him. And Xu Shan said, are there dragon tusks, excuse me, are there elephant tusks in a rat's mouth?

[10:55]

When the weather cleared somewhat, the visiting Zen priests decided to move on. You guys go ahead. I'm going to stay here for a while. There may be some good points to this earth store person. If not, I'll catch up with you. So the three of them left and one stayed. And he stayed and studied with Di Cang for a long time. Later, Xu Shan came back to visit Earth Store. And Earth Store said to him, where have you been?

[12:19]

And Xu Shan said, I've been in the south. And Dietzong said, Earth Store said, Jizo said, what is the Buddha Dharma like in the south? And Shushan said, there's lots of discussions and debates going on. And Ditsong said, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and growing rice to eat? And Shushan says, well, what can you do about the world? And the first source said, well, what do you call the world?

[13:26]

Over and over and over I say that in the midst of liberating beings from suffering, the Buddha Dharma is completely realized. And turning it around, we say, of completely understanding the Buddhadharma, all beings are liberated from suffering. Now we have so much suffering. We see so much suffering and in the Buddhist community there is discussion and for the most part respectful debate of what to do about this world, about how to help people.

[15:29]

Again and again I said, Suzuki Roshi taught that his disciples were practicing in order to help others. I heard him say that in person, but maybe I heard him wrong. Maybe he didn't really say that. But that's what I thought he said. I also read recently that he was, I read that he said, there's no special way to help people. And then I read that he said, let them know our human nature and let them know how we have problems. Let them know how we have problems living together with each other.

[16:57]

And also let them know that we do not understand how sitting here taking care of our posture supporting other people to sit down and take care of their posture tell them let them know how we have a problem understanding how that helps other people we have a problem we have Doubt. We have doubt! Doubt! That's part of Zen, is to have doubt. We don't do a practice where we can see, oh, I did this and this helped them. I do not see how they help people.

[18:04]

They want to help people, but they doubt that they do. They doubt that they're helping. They work wholeheartedly practicing the Buddha and they doubt that it helps other people. They want to help other people, but they doubt that it does. That doubt is part of our practice. We're not trying to do something to get rid of it. It lives with our vow. We vow to live to help others. We cannot assess whether we are how we are or how much we are. Even if all the Buddhas in ten directions gathered all their wisdom and tried to measure the merit of one person's zazen, they would not be able to fully comprehend it.

[19:10]

We do not know how we're helping. We want to though, don't we? We want to help others, but we don't know if what we're doing is helping others. I don't know. Even the Buddhas gathering together don't know. But they still gather together and practice together. That's their problem. Sukhoreshi says, let people know that we are not sure. We don't know if we're helping others, but we want to. We really want to. It's our favorite thing. It's our ultimate concern. Because we're adults.

[20:16]

We've grown up now. We see that what we want is to help all other beings. To be free of suffering, which means to wake up to Buddhadharma. We want them to wake up for Buddhadharma because that means freedom from suffering. It's for them, but for all beings. I have a leader, a small leader. She weighs under 30 pounds. And I serve her. And one of the things she likes to do is to get into my car. My Prius. And when she gets inside, she sits in the driver's seat. And she reaches into a little compartment to the left side of the driver's seat and pulls out a bottle of hand sanitizer.

[21:27]

And when she picks it up, she holds it dearly in both hands and she looks at me and she said, this is my favorite. Her favorite thing is the bottle of hand sanitizer. And then she's very, now she very skillfully opens the top with the same hand and she's holding it and pours out some on her hand, closes it with her thumb, sets it down and anoints her hand with sanitizer. And then she does it again. She's so happy. This is her favorite thing. And she's been doing that for more than a year and she still hasn't used it up. And it's a small bottle. This is her favorite thing. But when it comes to our favorite thing, when it comes to the Bodhisattva's favorite things, there's doubt.

[22:32]

And there's doubt until there's complete understanding of Buddhadharma, which is there's doubt until all beings are saved, until that's realized. I also said a little while ago that the founder, another statue in this room, is a statue of a standing Indian monk. Manjushri and Shakyamuni Buddha's right is a statue of Bodhidharma, Daisho, the founder supposedly, the legendary founder, the first ancestor in China.

[23:36]

And he taught his students to calm down, to make their mind open, stable, and undistracted. He taught them to do that without using any contrivance. If we try to follow that instruction, we may have doubt. Don't we have to do something, to use something to get concentrated? Bodhidharma didn't say, get concentrated. He said, calm the mind. without using anything to calm.

[24:41]

We have a problem with that. Care for the mind without having a contrivance for caring for it. We have problems with that. Letting people know that we have problems, Suzuki Roshi said, That's the best way to help people. So I don't know if he had doubts about that. About 30 years ago, some friends of mine asked me to perform a wedding ceremony for them. And I don't remember when they told me but at some point they told me that they went to a jeweler to pick out wedding rings for the ceremony.

[25:53]

And they told me that in discussing the wedding rings with the jeweler they felt uncomfortable with the price. They thought the jeweler was asking too much. for the rings. And in the store they also noticed that the jeweler had quite a few Buddhas among the other jewels. They had diamond jewels, lapis lazuli jewels, emerald jewels, gold and silver, and Buddha jewels. And they said to the jeweler, are you a Buddhist? Yes, I practice at Green Gulch Farm. I practiced at Green Dragon Temple. And they said, who is your teacher? And they said, Reb Anderson is my teacher.

[26:59]

Oh, he's performing our wedding ceremony. And he said, oh, maybe we can lower the price. And then when he told me the story, he said, you do not know how you're helping people. Or he said, you do not know how much you're helping people. I don't remember which. True. I do not know how. and I do not know how much, and also all the Buddhas do not know how much I'm helping people. Unfortunately, I also don't know how much I'm hurting people. But I don't want to hurt them and I do want to help them.

[28:04]

Today, I want to help you by telling you that when we sit in this room, in order to benefit beings, that when we practice together, when 100 people here practice together, in order to benefit beings, we do not know how this helps them. We have stories like somebody lowering the price of some jewelry, because of blah, blah, blah. We had stories, but after he told me the story, I still did not know and do not know how I help people. I still do not know how the practice helps people. But I am betting on this. And if you ask me, does this practice help? I very well might say, yes.

[29:08]

If you say, do you have any doubts? I will say, yes. If you say, really? I will say, yes. Also, as I say, but some of you haven't heard it before, so let me tell you that every now and then, quite frequently actually, because many blessings do come in this world of suffering, In this world of suffering we have blessings coming to us without interruption. Blessings are coming in this world of suffering. The practice is to open our eyes to this so we can open other people's eyes. So one of my friends says to me, every time a blessing comes, she says, is this because of zazen? and I say, yes.

[30:13]

And then she says, the ceremony of Zazen, and I say, yes. But we have doubt about that, even though I say yes. Is that enough? Is that enough? I'm never done. That's not the criteria. May our intention...

[31:05]

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