As we chant regularly, there's a statement that from the first time you meet a master, without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's name, reading scriptures, just wholeheartedly sit. And I've been working with that statement for quite a while because there's kind of some kind of conflict or contradiction in it. Because when we, at the time of meeting a Master,

[01:05]

Usually there is incense offering involved. And usually there is bowing involved. And often there is repentance involved. not so often reading scriptures maybe, but the teacher's giving you a scripture often in the meeting, or you're bringing a scripture and reciting it. So I propose another way to say this is from the first time you make offerings to your teacher and offerings and prostrations and offering your heart offering your life as a gift the first time you do that

[02:25]

At that moment, just wholeheartedly sit. Don't do any more at the moment. Just at that very moment of making a decision as a teacher, just wholeheartedly sit. And being that way, body and mind drop away. wholeheartedly sit, and he says, maybe he says, wholeheartedly sit, and then it's almost like, and then body and mind drop away. It's the body and mind drop away in wholehearted sitting. And wholehearted sitting occurs when you make an offering. wholeheartedly.

[03:34]

Wholeheartedly sitting is when you offer as a gift wholeheartedly. And also you do it with somebody. You do it with a teacher or do it with all teachers. And if you're playing the role of a teacher you do it with a teacher and with all teachers and with all students. That's a wholehearted way is done together with all the teachers and all the students. And even at the first meeting with the teacher where you really meet and wholeheartedly meet, you're ready to wholeheartedly sit. Let's do a ritual of sitting.

[04:42]

Upon giving yourself to the Buddhas, then do the ritual of sitting in the same way of giving yourself now to the sitting. So that's one way to understand what he means by from the first time you meet a master without doing these things is that you're already doing these things for a long time and now you're ready to do it. You've been making offerings to Buddha for a long time and now you're ready to meet the Buddha and to wholeheartedly do the ritual of sitting with the Buddha. When Dogen met his teacher, according to Dogen, he offered incense and bowed to his teacher and then wholeheartedly sat with his teacher.

[05:52]

And his teacher says, The darkness of face-to-face transmission between Buddha and Buddha and ancestor and ancestor is now realized. in our lives together right now, in our enlightenment right now. And then, Dogen wrote this recommendation of Ho Chi Minh, I think when he was about 34 years old, after he'd been back in Japan for a while from his trip to China. And then, as I said, he wrote this fascicle on offering, of making offerings.

[06:56]

He wrote this probably when he was pretty sick. Now he writes this fascicle on making offerings to Buddhas. And as I mentioned yesterday, there is a long story in a sutra called the Buddha Womb or the Buddha Treasury Sutra where the Buddha says that I can remember in the past seeking unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. I met 30 of Buddhas.

[08:02]

Does anybody know how much a Koti is? It's a lot. Let's say 30 trillion Buddhas. And These Buddhas, and it turns out all these Buddhas were named Shakyamuni. And he proceeded to make these very extensive offerings for a very long time. Yet there was, yet these Buddhas did not affirm me. They did not affirm me by saying, in a coming age you will be such and such a Buddha.

[09:14]

And the reason they didn't was because I expected some gain in my service of the Buddhas." And then this amazing description goes on of him continuing to meet and serve innumerable oceans of Buddhas and to serve them wholeheartedly in practically any way you can think of, in ways that would, you know, just, we would think maybe believable. And one after another did not affirm him, did not affirm him, did not affirm him because he had expectation of gain. and he goes on so long that he actually comes to a situation which we were talking about the other day when after meeting innumerable Buddhas he comes to a situation where there's no more regular Buddhas to meet.

[10:37]

So he starts meeting as many Buddhas left. It's a special kind of Buddha that is a Buddha that lives kind of a solitary life and doesn't shop and set the Dharma wheel rolling. But there were still quite a few Pratyekabuddhas available, so then he served the Pratyekabuddhas. And after a while there were no Pratyekabuddhas. So there was some time when he couldn't serve And then he kept being reborn. And then again, he was in worlds where there were Buddhas. And so he started serving again. But all these Buddhas did not affirm him because he had no gaining idea.

[11:41]

And as time goes on, he starts to meet less and less Buddhas. The number gets smaller. It goes from 30 trillion and so on, or even bigger numbers, like 15, 84, 64. It gets to the smaller numbers of Buddhas that he meets. whose lifespans aren't so long and so on. Things get kind of a little bit cozy and normal. Sixty-four Buddhas in a certain existence. But again he makes offerings to them still on a grand scale and still with gaining idea. And finally he meets a Buddha named Tipankara, which means burning And immediately upon meeting this Buddha, he realizes this mind which accepts that things don't really arise.

[12:55]

Or rather, he could accept the arising of phenomena, which includes no longer arising. seeking any gain or expecting any gain. He continued his practice of making offerings to this Buddha, but because of the realization upon meeting this teacher that there was nothing, I shouldn't say that there was nothing, but that things on some level do not arise or cease, he gave up naturally. And he received affirmation from this Buddha. This Buddha said, you will be, in a future age, a Buddha and your name will be Shakyamuni.

[13:57]

And your land will be Jambudipa, which we also call India. and so on. And you will have these disciples with these names and so on. And as most of you know, one of Sri Sankaracharya's main slogans was, with no gaining idea, or just sit with no gaining idea. So this simple expression from him is a kind of summary of this long course of practice of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

[15:03]

who practiced according to himself in the sutra a very long time, very extensively, very energetically, but with gaining idea, until finally simple practice of serving Buddhas with no gaining idea. So there is the practice of serving Buddhas, the practice of virtue, of giving and giving to Buddhas. You can also give to bodhisattvas, of course, and you can also give to all beings. This is practicing virtue. And when we practice virtue, we probably will have

[16:11]

a problem like Shakyamuni Buddha had prior to his achievement of giving up expectation of gain. If you don't practice virtue, maybe it would be easier not to expect gain. I don't know. But it's certainly difficult to practice really giving, giving, giving with no expectation? It seems to be. And if it's not, then it's kind of funny because even the Buddha had a hard time, so how come we don't? Probably the reason we don't practicing virtue diligently enough. But to put your almost whole heart into making offerings will usually make us see that there's some kind of gain in there.

[17:19]

But if you half-heartedly give, you might think, I'm not trying to get anything. You might think that. But as you get closer and closer to wholeheartedness, the part, that little bit that's not being given is that little bit that's still trying to get something. when you or when we finally drop that gaining idea in our diligent effort to practice virtue in particular the virtue of giving then it finally becomes wholehearted we finally giving for example wholeheartedly giving ourselves to sitting in a small parenthesis here, maybe not so small, is that in the course of practice which comes to fruit as Shakyamuni Buddha in this world, he was enlightened many times before he was born in India 2,500 years ago, it seems to me.

[18:37]

He was enlightened for the first time then. He was enlightened many, many, many times before. And he practiced with that enlightenment for a long, long time before. It's just that he became Buddha here in this world. So he practiced virtue for a long time, but with some defilement. then he became free of his defiled way of practicing virtue. And then he practiced virtue a long time after that. And then he became Buddha. And Dogen is saying at the beginning of the swastika, we become Buddha through making offerings, through making offerings and through

[19:39]

At first we become Buddha, first of all by making offerings with some defilement. Later we make offerings with no defilement. And by making offerings with no defilement we become Buddha. And that's one point he's making. We become Buddha by making offerings By making offerings we become Buddha. And another thing he's saying is you will become Buddha. In other words, you will make offerings. And you will make offerings until you make offerings without seeking gain. We are evolving in this direction. And again Again, at the end of his life, coming back in a way to his early years as a monk, when he was ordained into the Tendai school on Mount Hiei in Kyoto, where he received the teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

[20:56]

And I don't know how deeply it impacted him, but probably from an early age, the teaching of the Buddha saying, you will become Buddha. You are evolving in that direction. You will learn to make offerings wholeheartedly with a pure heart. You will learn this and you will become Buddha. All of us will become Buddha. And then his teaching, as he became a successor to the teacher in China, his teaching didn't seem to be so simple for quite a few years.

[22:06]

And he wrote these wonderful teachings. But at the end of his life, he's saying again, you will become Buddha, and you will become Buddha by making offerings to Buddhas. and he tells the story of Buddha like this. I have a history of the Lotus Sutra myself.

[23:21]

I didn't grow up with it, but when I came to Zen Center... When I first came to Zen Center, I didn't hear about the Lotus Sutra. And then I met Suzuki Roshi and started to practice sitting. And then after being at Zen Center for about a year, Suzuki Roshi went to Tassajara in the fall. I didn't go with him. I stayed in San Francisco. But I heard in Tassajara he was teaching the Lotus Sutra. So I thought, and a number of other people of his students who were in San Francisco, maybe we would read the Lotus Sutra in San Francisco. So I tried to read it, but I just didn't find it very interesting.

[24:28]

And the translation we were using at that time was a translation from Sanskrit. a scholar named Kern, I believe. And I just didn't find it interesting. Real quickly I didn't find it interesting. Like the first couple pages I didn't find interesting. And I didn't feel like skipping over them even and looking for some interesting part. I just stopped reading it very quickly. And we were also listening to some tapes of some of his talks at Tassajara. And I thought they were a little bit interesting. He was talking about Shakyamuni Buddha. I think they were very interesting, but I did listen to at least one of the tapes with some other people. But I wasn't reading the sutra. And then he came back from Tassajara

[25:34]

at the end of the practice period and I went to see him and asked him if I could go to Tassajara in the winter. And he said, okay. And then I went to Tassajara and we thought he was going to come down and teach the Lotus Sutra. So again I tried to read the Lotus Sutra and again I did not find it interesting and stopped reading it. And I thought, maybe I'll start again. But he didn't come because he got sick. So it was thirty-eight of us in that practice period, thirty-eight young people. The oldest person was forty. And so we'd kind of do it by ourselves, the kids. no Lotus Sutra with me, although there was some consideration about whether, I remember there was some discussion about whether the Lotus Sutra really had more Buddha Dharma in it than zapped comic books. We were talking about that kind of stuff.

[26:46]

And then again, every now and then I would look at the Lotus Sutra. just open it up to see what was going on. And about two years later I opened it up and it was time to read the Lotus Sutra. I was admitted to its inner chambers to somewhat and went in to see what was going on there. And I remember one of the things that really struck me was the discussion of people making offerings. I thought, I was struck by the discussion there. And here in this fascicle on making offerings, there's a little quote from that section of the sutra where it talks about making offerings.

[27:55]

And it says something like, if people to shrines and stupas, to jeweled images and painted images with flowers, incense, banners and canopies, reverently make offerings or if they cause others to make offerings drums to blow horns and conches or to play pipes and flutes and lutes and lyres harps and gongs and cymbals and many fine sounds such as these, they bring forth the entirety of offerings.

[29:18]

Or with joyful hearts, they sing the praise of the Buddha's virtue even in one small sound, they all have realized the Buddha's truth. Even if people whose minds are distracted and confused with even a single flower serve offerings to a painted image, they will gradually see innumerable Buddhas. Again, people who do prostrations or who simply join their palms or even raise a hand or bow the head and thus serve an offering to an image will gradually see countless Buddhas.

[30:31]

will naturally realize the supreme truth and will widely save innumerable multitudes. Even if little girls on the beach make moms and offer them to Buddhas, they will realize the supreme truth. Even if boys pile up rocks by the stream and offer them to Buddhas, they will realize Buddhahood. And, you know, I read that and I thought, hmm, sounds a little simple. Sounds kind of easy.

[31:35]

You don't have to make super big offerings, just little ones. And just children, and even confused children. So I think, well, maybe this means when you make offerings like this with no gaining idea, that you go down to the beach and you make a pile and you make that an offering to Buddhas, but with no expectation. And you don't even have to walk all the way down there to do that. You can just happen to be there and make a little pile. You can make one right here.

[32:41]

in the parking lot. But I guess it would be like a child, like with no gaining idea. Just let's make, let's just, let's just give a gift to Buddha. Just like that. Not to realize the truth, but in fact the teaching says that does realize the supreme truth. And we might feel, well, it's kind of silly for us to, like, during your break, go there, you know, and we can go through it in mind, some of that, some of that, what do you call it, mulch, some of that mulch. Just make a little mulch mound right up there. And after you're done, you could flatten it out again in case you thought it would bother anybody. Just go make a little mound. Kind of silly. That's what I thought, you know, when I was reading the sutra.

[33:46]

I thought, it's kind of silly. Well, what about making, you know, kind of, not too huge, but how about making a really nice stupa for Buddha? More adult, doesn't it? There's a huge stupa that was made out in Colorado for Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. That's a big offering, yes. So there's something in there about being wholehearted. And tomorrow maybe we'll have a ceremony celebrating Buddha's, we call it Buddha's enlightenment, but it should be Buddha's attainment of Buddhahood is what happened then, in a way.

[34:47]

But maybe not quite. But anyway, he had this event occur on November 8th, we say. Today's November 8th, but we'll maybe do the ceremony tomorrow morning. What? December? Oh, this is December? Okay, December... On December 8th, we'll have today, okay? And then tomorrow we'll have December 9th. Okay? Ceremony in the morning, celebrating something. And during that ceremony we might make some offerings to Buddha. And will we be able to make these offerings better than Buddha did for a long time with no gaining idea? we might be able to. It's possible that we could just make these offerings just because, I don't know what, just to make offerings.

[35:55]

Now, as I mentioned to somebody, like my job, you know, okay, time to make offerings. Thanks, thanks. All right, here's another one. Okay, here you go, Buddha. So, you know, To me, it's not like, oh boy, I'm going to get something out of this. Maybe I'll get something out of this one. I don't think that. I almost never think I'm going to get anything out of making offerings to Buddha. But some of you say, well, yeah, of course you don't, because you don't really do it that wholeheartedly. You don't think, oh boy, I'm going to really make a good offering to Buddha. I'll try to make a really good offering to Buddha and see if I can just do it and let it go at that without trying to get anything out of it. That makes it harder to really make my best possible offering with expecting nothing. But we'll be doing that tomorrow.

[36:58]

We will make offerings to the Buddha very literally and concretely with our body, speech and mind and we have a chance to do that to practice virtue with no expectation of gain. And this is what Dogen is saying and what the Lotus Sutra is saying. This is the path. This is the path. This is the path of Buddha. This is the way In this world, to become Buddha, this is the ceremony of becoming Buddha. And we are in the process of becoming Buddha, so we do the ceremony of becoming Buddha, so we realize how we are becoming Buddha. And doing childish things has certain advantages, because they're kind of simple, like a child could do them.

[38:09]

some of them anyway. And our mind goes, you know, like, good sign. Rather than, this makes a lot of sense, we're going to get something out of this. It's kind of like, what's the point of this? That's kind of like, maybe no point except just to do it. That sounds kind of good, actually. So let's do some things like that, that we're getting out of it, but we do it anyway, wholeheartedly. And again, excuse me for saying it again, to do something where we don't see what we're getting out of it, that's close to doing something without trying to get out of it. And then again, can I do things where I don't think I'm going to get something out of it as wholeheartedly as I might do something where I thought I would get something out of it?

[39:13]

Can somehow I be wholehearted about doing something and not see what I'm going to get out of it? And another story in here is about this blind monk who, even though he was blind, he was a seamstress or a seamster or whatever. He sewed robes and he was blind. But he had some trouble threading the needles ...blind, unless he had these, you know, really big needles. But anyway, at one point he's having trouble threading a needle, and I exactly forgot how it happened, but anyway, the Buddha saw that he was having trouble threading the needle, and the Buddha came, threaded the needle for him.

[40:22]

And I can't read this, but I think the Buddha said something like, I love to do virtue, so I love to help people thread needles to sew robes. Now we know that he did a lot of virtue and made a lot of offerings towards The point here, too, is that after being Buddha, he continues to love to do small acts of virtue, like helping people thread needles. Somebody else can thread needles or help people thread needles. I've got big things to do here. I'm going to stop wars and, you know, convert emperors and presidents.

[41:39]

Yeah? Good. But also, I love doing little tiny virtuous acts. The Buddha says here. Like making little... or offering cups of tea, giving somebody a seat, driving carefully, closing a door carefully, opening a door carefully, as a gift to the Buddhas, as a gift to the , as a gift to the Dharma. I love doing little things, the Buddha said, little, small, I love doing small acts of virtue. So it looks to me like when we do small acts of virtue and love doing it, we're just like the Buddha.

[42:43]

And of course, not expecting anything. But if we do expect something, also because the Buddha, our ancestor, expected for a long time to get something out of these acts, large and small acts of virtue. So we might slip many times too. But here it is, you know. And during each period of zazen, a whole period of zazen is kind of a big act of virtue. Like innumerable moments in one period of zazen. But how about just one, during one little tiny moment of sit nicely. I'm going to make a nice posture. And another one.

[43:47]

And another one. And another one. And another one. little act of upright posture I make, I do, I give. Now I do the walking posture, nice walking posture. And I watch the other people do their walking posture. And I thread the needle through every one of them. And I appreciate and I'm amazed too sometimes with the way some people are doing walking meditation in non-traditional ways in this endo. Watching the other day and it was amazing. And I kind of felt like, well, I'm just going to let that guy keep doing that for a while. I really enjoy letting him do it his way.

[45:02]

I have a gift to offer him someday, though, of telling him a traditional way of doing it. Reverend went to a special training in Japan one time, and it lasted for a pretty long time. a large number of the lectures were discussions of how to do walking meditation. Like how many, how much time did they spend on that? Four or five days discussing walking, Soto Zen walking meditation. And for all I know, pardon? For all I know, one of the forms they discussed, which, you know, was the form I saw here the other day that I never saw before. Who knows?

[46:09]

These forms are gifts, potential gifts. So we little children of Buddha, or big children of Buddha, we bodhisattvas, have the opportunity of constantly practicing virtue and learning to do it constantly with no gaining idea. And this is the path of the Buddha. which Dogen really says simply towards the end of his life. And in a way, scholars and practitioners are somewhat struggling how to justify this later teaching with his earlier teachings, but I'm happily feeling more and more integrated about it myself.

[47:16]

and I'm sharing that happiness with you. So you might, after Sesshin, you might want to check out this chapter on making offerings to all Buddhas. It's amazing. Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2, where it has all these discussions of these simple offerings, amazingly simple offerings that we can make. But it's just a mind which just is so simple and so pure to act in this way. It's hard to believe that we can just do good to do good. And that almost everything we're doing could be that way. And we can vow to make, like Samantabhadra, we can vow to make every action of body, speech and mind an offering to all Buddhas.

[48:58]

Make every action of body, speech and mind paying homage to Buddhas. Make every action of body, speech and mind praising Buddhas. And when we can't do that, then we can vow to confess and repent some chances and to do that confession in the presence of all Buddhas. Samantabhadra does that. And have every action of body, speech and mind be an expression of praise of the virtues of others And to me, that's actually a little bit more advanced in some ways than the previous ones for me at this point. But when I do the previous ones, it's not so hard for me to appreciate the virtues of others.

[50:02]

When I do my own shortcomings, then I start to see how great everybody else is. And I feel that we, you and I, have been noticing our shortcomings during this session and have been noticing the virtues of others during this session and have been making offerings to Buddha and ancestors. Any feedback on this process? I'm trying to relax with the possibility that he's going to ask me to eat his socks.

[52:30]

Thank you. You've always wanted a mohawk. I think I was sophisticated yesterday. Actually, I wanted to come up because I felt my performance yesterday was not complete. So I want to complete it. And this is not without any gaining idea, because I'm trying to get fearless. Fearless, because as most of you know, I have this dramatic fear always to stand in front of people and make performances.

[53:53]

And that is really true. I spent half the night thinking about not finishing that performance yesterday. And I actually have to apologize. Do I speak? Shall I speak? Whatever. And so there was... Tilt it this way, Timo. Thank you. There was this amazing happening this night at the start of Buddha's birthday, exactly at 12 o'clock, that probably all people in the Zendo woke up at the same time. And the reason was an alarm clock going off. And I... It actually was in the other part of the room. So I mean, it was that type of alarm clock which .

[54:59]

And I thought, I mean, the one who has this alarm clock will realize. But then, I mean, finally it went . So I stood up and looked for it. And finally, I found it. And it was at the Dohan's place. And it was my alarm clock. So. I really want to apologize for waking up all this. He slept through? Oh, wow. But afterwards, that's where I started. Afterwards, I couldn't sleep anymore, and I heard from you then, actually. That was amazing, and besides me getting so big in my mind about what happened yesterday, it was an amazing night to listen to all these noises which appear when ten people are sleeping in the center. I mean, really. Okay, I don't know if I wanted to say anything more, but I feel more complete now, sharing with you my mind.

[56:13]

And I really honestly thank you that opportunity to make this sort of strange thing. Thank you. Rabbi, you've talked a lot about offering to put up when you sit and other ways. But I would like to know whether you think you and the monks of this center could have done what the monks of about two months ago.

[57:22]

when that was really a matter of life and death, what they did. Many of them died in that protest. And the way we sit here is very comfortable. And you can talk, but you don't seem to be tested. And those situations can come in this country. I just wonder what you really are capable of. I wonder, too. And in some sense, I want to be ready to do the right thing when a time like that comes. I hope we can do it, the right thing then. In the meantime, I don't want to wait until then to start making offerings and making small kindnesses. I think they get us ready to do the big ones when the big ones come. But, yeah, we'll see. I appreciate the question, though.

[58:27]

I don't know the answer. Yeah, I mean, it's something we all wonder. Yeah. So you speak of practice with no gaining idea. Yeah. So with that in mind, if there's no idea of gain, what reason is there to practice one way rather than another, or even to practice at all? Well, my first response is I don't think no gaining idea means there is no idea of gain. It's just that we're upright with it.

[59:31]

So there's, you know, ideas, just like there's many children around, you know, there's many around, but we try to be upright with it and flexible with it so that we can dance with the idea of gain rather than, like, leaning into it and grabbing it and being knocked off balance with it. So, I think you're asking, in addition to that, you're saying, If one way is not better than another, would you say? Why would you practice some way if it's not better than another way? Well, more if you have this idea that practicing this way, there's this idea, oh, then we might gain enlightenment or some such. Or at the very least, we might be a calmer or a better person or a more compassionate person. For me, it's more like, this is the way I want to be. That seems to be a gaining idea.

[60:35]

To me it's not a gaining idea, just I want to be this way. I want to be, I see some way of being and I say I want to be that way. I don't have to think it's better than another way. So we have a Bodhisattva precept which says don't praise self at the expense of others. So you can like this way for you that people who aren't doing that way are less than you. And we have to learn that as bodhisattvas. Otherwise, we're going against the principle of the path. So I like this way, and all the people who don't like this way are not beneath me. They're my friends. I like the way that they're not beneath me. That's the way I like. But I don't say it's better than the other way. That's not the way I'm talking about. I'm talking about the way that values, the way things are, including value, people do not value them the way they are.

[61:43]

And they're not worse, they're not lesser than those who do value them the way they are. So the practice is to be upright with right and wrong. It's not to prefer right over wrong. The proposal that being upright with right and wrong helps us not tense up around right and wrong. And then we realize non-discriminating wisdom. Again, with subtly not trying to get anything from being upright. There's tests to it, because you can watch when you're not upright, do you actually think that's lesser than when you are? But to do something without thinking it's better than not doing it, that's what the Buddha's learned. So then in comparing and not being upright, if one finds that one prefers to be upright and tends to therefore practice being upright, does that have anything to do with ideas of gain?

[62:53]

Yeah, you said prefer. I want to be upright without preferring it. I want to be upright but I don't prefer it over not being upright. That's what I'm saying. Or at least I vow to learn to be upright without preferring it over not being upright. And I can find I do prefer it when I'm not upright to see if I, you know, if I think badly of myself or something. Now, to feel some pain about being away from what I value most, that's looking down upon myself or others who are not doing that. It's just, I'm off from what I want to be. So I come back to it, but without being caught by preference. Thank you.

[63:57]

You're welcome. This is quite a con, huh? I feel like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz when she's waking up. You're back in Kansas? Yeah. And I feel just this amount of gratitude. I've been, as we've been chanting this week, And I've had the experience of chanting together with all of you and reflecting on the suffering, sickness, old age, and death.

[65:03]

It's been so touching to know that you all have chanted for me over the past ten years during all of those sort of life experiences. and hope the beauty is so precious. And it's really hectic out there. And it's really hectic out there. And to have the opportunity to experience life in this way has been truly a gift. So thank you. The practice here helped me kind of rediscover the preciousness of the gifts we can do in every moment and also to receive these little gifts which can come in every moment.

[66:32]

I think this is a very important teaching which came over to me here in this rally in the Sendo. And I hope this will be part of my life also back at the marketplaces. People say here when monks are departing. But on the other side, when I listened to the morning, I think out there on the marketplace there are the big problems already. Probably they were always there through the centuries, but especially today I think we don't have to wait for bigger ones. And I don't find a proper way, a Buddhist way, to take all these problems. I always feel we have to make big plans, fight big battles maybe, doing big campaigns or whatever, needing also the help of Buddhists, engaged Buddhists to help out there.

[67:39]

And I cannot really find a proper form of practice in a Buddhist way to go for these type of problems. When you're working on some big project, he works for Greenpeace, you can do little things every day with your co-workers, little kindnesses to them. which are not, you know, it's not maybe in the charter of Greenpeace that the people who work for Greenpeace are kind to each other in giving each other, making offerings to each other all day long. Well, this is what I want to take away. Sometimes we are a non-violent organization, but still among each other we have conflicts as well. Yeah, probably the people at Greenpeace are sometimes afraid of each other. Maybe. Other people are afraid of Greenpeace people, we are afraid of others. Yeah. This is something I try to learn, and I think I'm also not to think in this dualistic way.

[68:44]

We very often do it. We are the good ones. We are the bad ones. But still, I'm missing, from a Buddhist perspective, a proper way of working for the bigger issues. I don't really think they are bigger or smaller, but they are there. And I have a problem when we are saying, here is a Sendo and there is a marketplace. I like very much the sentence a friend of mine wrote me from Thailand when I told him that I come here. I also go to a monastery. He's living in a monastery and he wrote me just the sentence, Sendo is everywhere. And when we say here is a sender and there is a marketplace, I'm missing somehow this connection. What is our answer to the marketplace? I will be and we all will be out of the marketplace. So what do you think, what is our answer? What is our answer to the marketplace?

[69:46]

Would you like to offer an answer? I think I have an answer for... The moment. Okay, what is it? This is a very important answer. It's maybe the answer that we're going, the goals to have the big ones do not really count so much. Okay, say it again slower, please. The way you're going and the goals you have may not count. It's the way you're doing it. It's the way you live every moment. Yeah. This is the answer I have. Maybe I have. The answer I do not have and I'm asking for is what is helping us from a Buddhist perspective to go the right way, find the right goals, and have our compassion also for the things which need a long breath and maybe years to be resolved. And the problems are out there. We cannot say there is a marketplace and here is a sendo.

[70:47]

I think we have to go on the marketplace. Well, I can't tell you what the Buddhist perspective is, but the perspective that I'm bringing up in this session is that everything you're doing in your job, do it with no expectation of gain. Do it as a gift. Make everything you do with your co-workers and everything you do with those corporations always make it as a gift referring to Buddha. And that way will guide the particular type of gifts you wind up giving. But anyway, now whatever gifts you're giving give them with no expectation of gain. If you give them with expectation of gain it's virtuous But we can't confirm that as the Buddha way unless you are doing it with no expectation of gain.

[71:51]

Can you clarify about gain? When I set a goal like I want to change the behavior of a We as an organization want. This is a goal, this is something we want to gain. We want to achieve that one. It's maybe not for our personal benefit, but maybe also a little bit for that. Would setting such goals, would that be already a wrong thing to do? No, not necessarily. We do set goals, but we set them without some expectation of gaining something in setting them. and without some expectation of gaining something when they're realized. The gaining is antithetical. The gaining idea to peace among beings. It's a disturbance in the ecosystem to think that way. I don't understand it really when I have the goal I want, say, to win.

[72:53]

So I have a gaining idea. In the moment when I set a goal, I want to win, I want to achieve, then I find myself already on the wrong track. You mean you want to win together with everyone? Hopefully. You want everyone to win? Well, I know that not everybody is. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have. But first of all, do you want everyone to win? I can't answer this question if everyone wins. When we set goals, we want to. I want to have these goals to be beneficial for many beings, kind of rescue thing. But I also know there are people who do not like these goals, who fight against them, also for good reasons.

[73:59]

This is something I'm doing for everybody because some people will oppose it, politicians, industry people, and it's a fight at the end. Yeah, but opposition can be included in working for benefit. But still, even if it's not opposition, we can still sort of feel a lack of concern for the welfare of some beings. So my understanding is that the Buddha Dharma is about the welfare of all beings with no And that doesn't mean everybody has to agree to work for the welfare of all beings. We can have differences of opinion and find peace among different views. We do have different views even within the so-called Buddhist views.

[75:01]

Even within the Greenpeace Sangha you have different views. Even within the Buddhist Sangha we have fear between us. So the process of feeling separate from beings, of disagreeing, of opposition, and of fear, it exists within every meeting. So I just extend the practice of working with that here to working, I would extend it with working between Greenpeace and corporations and governments, same policy. how to be upright and gentle and fearless and honest and peaceful with people who disagree with us. Which means how to be peaceful with stories we have that so-and-so disagrees with us and opposes us. How do we bring to this person?

[76:01]

With the very, what do you call it, amazing proposal that the first way of helping people change their mind is through giving. Giving is the first, the beginning. If you are generous with these people who disagree with you, that generosity is the way for them to change. And also your generosity is not stiff and tight about how they're going to change. but you help them come out of any fixed position by your generosity and they will start entering the process of generous change and compassion. And you can make proposals of things you want as offerings to them which you give and you give and you give and you have the confidence that this compassion will eventually work in this world.

[77:10]

But it doesn't necessarily mean it works the first time or the second time. But people eventually open to the ... given to them consistently. They will eventually open to it. I think you've seen that already to some extent. And that's, I would say, I think that's the Buddhist view. I think most Buddhists would agree with that. But I'm not saying it's easy. be the shape of the gift, what the proposal will be, what the idea will be, what the request will be, that can vary constantly. And because it's a gift, we give it and then we give another one and another one. So it's constantly changing what we're offering. The more we're generous with them, the more we realize that they're generous with us, even if they're opposing us. They're giving us gifts to stimulate our giving. So we're working for this mutual assistance, mutual graciousness in this world.

[78:16]

I totally agree. making these experiences and the way I'm changing also the way in negotiations and how I see these people. But I more and more feel it would be much, much better if I met them without my goals, without a gaining idea, being free of them. I agree. It would be better for you to meet them with no gaining idea, but I don't agree that it would be better for you to meet them with no goals. If you have goals, those are your gifts. You are a gift. So to meet them would be better. So bring yourself with no gaining idea. That would be better. But not get a different person from who you are. You have your values, and your values are your virtue. But if your virtues get mixed with gaining idea, then they will not affirm you.

[79:22]

They will not realize they're meeting the Buddha way. But when they see your virtues with no gaining idea, which means elevating yourself above them, then they start to open up to you and realize the way with you. Then they realize you're their companion worker, which you are. You're trying to work with them to help them evolve positively. This is what I try. This is what Buddhist practice more and more means for me. Still, it's a totally sorted out because always I still feel having these goals, which I think are good goals, means having, gaining ideas. Well, even the Buddha had good goals. He had good goals and good ideas. He had a good idea. Over and over and over and over he had it and he kept getting, and yeah, but he finally got over it.

[80:30]

It took him a long time, so it might take us a long time. But that seems to be the name of the game. But it isn't just... It can be free. Right. I'd like briefly. It is a distinct honor for me to be able to speak here in this place to this group of people.

[81:35]

I feel maybe not least among you, but certainly not the best at keeping the schedule, which I specifically promised Reb that I would keep in a phone call about two months ago. I'm noticing quite a lot of virtue among my co-practitioners, and by it, as you might hear, I'm touched and encouraged. There are at least five of you that I have singled out and noticed whose names I won't mention, who seem to me to be exemplars of

[82:45]

what I call building the great dragon temple. Some of you have heard this haiku before. I'd like to offer it again to everyone. That red wood soars over blue and black and brown robes. This green freedom roars. So thank you for being exemplars for me, those of you who are. And if you'd like to know whether or not you're on the list, You'll have to find a time to ask me that in private.

[83:51]

I will be honest. But perhaps you'd prefer not to know. And now I'd like to offer you a gift, Reb, if I may. I'd like to try to summarize what I've heard you say, which, quite frankly, has bored me to tears at certain times. Well, not to tears. That would be a little much. But bored me to pain. But it still keeps echoing in there, so I thought I'd just distill it into a phrase or two that I can keep with me. Because I, you know, I did pay for it.

[84:53]

To be able to go back to it and look at it once in a while. As I understand, you've been talking about a practice that you're interested in. I could go on and define all these words, but I think we have a basis in English here. Just use the standard definitions, English definitions. Practice, which is the same practice of all beings. You have quite a few more beings in your faith categories than I do. I see all these airborne beings and magical beings and Even I don't do very well with ghosts. I seem to be pretty practically oriented and just see human beings. But anyway, all beings, whether I can perceive them or not, and then out of these beings at certain times, for reasons we may not know,

[86:14]

arise enlightened ones, Buddha beings. And this practice you've been recommending to us is the practice of all beings and all Buddhas. By those definitions, I guess that holds. And that same practice, when we stay upright and honest, tender, and this is the one I always forget, relaxed. Is the salvation is the saving of our beings when it's done in the context of the Bodhisattva vows.

[87:19]

So what I'll take with me, I guess, is the wholehearted practice of all Buddhas and all beings. Thank you. very hard to come after something that beautiful. Can everyone hear me? I have an apology to make to everyone, including you, Reb. And then I have a confession. Today, after rest period, I was extremely late.

[88:28]

I almost missed your talk. I feel extremely guilty. However, I don't feel guilty. I have a tendency to be absent-minded. But, and it's usually for a reason. And today I And I was following the sun. We haven't seen it for a few days. And I guess I became absent-minded. And I was following the sun. And I saw one of the people here standing in the perfect place in the sun.

[89:29]

And I went up and stood there and joined and stood there. And it was perfect. And they left and more joined and we stood there. And I didn't hear anything. Even if I would have had a watch on, which I don't wear normally anyway, time I don't really pay attention to, I would have missed your talk if, I don't know, if someone, which I would have regretted. But yet I don't feel you talk of giving. I feel that I was receiving beauty from what we have where we are now existing.

[90:49]

And beauty is something that attracts me and I would say the primary aspect of my absent-mindedness. It takes me away every time. I'm very visual. I feel but then again there are times when it gives me great pleasure for me to be given the chance, which isn't often. It's not often enough. Someone, the idea of what beauty is, because so many people don't seem to feel beauty.

[91:56]

To comprehend beauty, do you understand? Yeah, uh-huh. I'm not being condescending. It's just that it's... You would like them to be able to see. Yeah, and it takes me away from even your talk. And as I said, I didn't hear... to come here and I felt really bad that I missed coming here and did almost miss this. I told Maya yesterday, I had said before that I lived with the flora and the fauna in New York and I had found that One hand makes one noise, and two hands clapping makes another noise.

[93:10]

And that noise is much, much better, which I think sums up what I have learned this week. But I did want to apologize along with everything else. I hear you. Thank you. And if you would please comment or explain why I did this and why I didn't. Pay attention to the bells or the whatever. Because I really, I still, I still feel guilty, even though I know it was okay. If I would have missed this, I, you know, wow, I would have really, really been guilty.

[94:16]

You know? Guilty of what? of missing you talking and all these funny things and interesting things. I don't feel that I don't feel that you did any harm by by what you were involved with. I think it was okay. And I think that it might be good for you to find a way to have some close companions in life to touch hands with. So you can be more aware of whether you really want to be mindful of what's going on with other people or not.

[95:30]

Are we not social beings? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. For you to become more social would probably be good. I think that would help you see whether you, how you want to relate with others is to actually have some commitment to forms of relationship. So in this situation you came into a where we have a schedule and people are doing things together, and then you kind of got a little bit, what's the word, carried away from that social arrangement somewhat. Absent-minded is what... Yeah, so I think that to set up a social situation where you can get to know what absent-mindedness is, and to use human relationships as a way to get in touch with what is this absent-mindedness, so you can be upright with it and somehow learn to be mindful and present with this phenomenon of being absent-minded.

[96:41]

But I think it's good to have other people in a committed relationship to help you work with this. you know, Zen practice does help people with that. So doing formal practice actually I think would help you become more aware of this process and continue to be open to beauty but without the cost of getting distracted from your relationships with humans. And missing your talks. And missing talks, perhaps, yeah. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I had a story I wanted to share about wholeheartedness and a question.

[97:57]

And I wanted to say to the man who spoke from Greenpeace that at the end of Sechin, if he would like to talk to me, I could give him several real-world examples of Greenpeace-type actions that are done spirit that you're talking about. Yes, they're real. Oh, could you hear one now? Okay. Actually, it takes place almost as the story I was going to tell. So north of here, around Point Mendocino, where the Metol River runs into the ocean. If you go inland a little place, a little ways, there's a place called Petrolia. It's where in California.

[99:01]

And there's a community of ranchers and loggers and dope growers and hippies and New Age people that were all living there. And the Mato River used to be one of the great in the United States. You could walk across the backs of the salmon. And because of logging, when the trees were cut down, topsoil ran into the streams and filled the deep breeding pools because the water gets too hot when it's shallow. And because of the cows, which come from Asia, wandering into the streams, they ripped down the banks and they ate the undergrowth. To make a long story short, because of the way that humans were interacting with the fish, the fish were disappearing.

[100:03]

Also, there were long line fishing boats off the shore, fishing with mile-long nets, catching more fish than the fish could replenish. So friends of mine began living and capturing two salmon every year, a male and a female, and fertilizing the eggs and raising them in big concrete bins where they would raise them until they were about that long. And then they would... and that would increase their survival rate by 90% instead of about 15 to 20%. And they began working slowly and patiently with all the people in the valley, some people who made their money raising cattle, some people raising their money cutting timber, some people using heavy equipment and dragging rocks and gravel out of the creek and muddying it.

[101:10]

And they said about it, although they were not Buddhist practitioners, their personalities were such that they were very non-judgmental. And they were very fearless about hearing criticism and facing up to anger and negative judgments. And they were personally very gentle and truthful and straightforward. And over 20 years, the entire valley, it's called the Matole River Valley, into a concord. And they have farmers and loggers and poachers and dope growers and hippies and merchants who've all come to agree on the specialness of the salmon and the criticalness of the salmon to a happy and healthy valley. and they've moderated their behaviors in little ways which don't threaten their livelihood, but actually protect the salmon.

[102:17]

So that story as an example of a way in which you can move into the face of conflict and people with differing goals, but actually the people who wanted to save the salmon wanted also to save all beings, because they knew that happier with a healthy river, and the loggers would be happier if there were still logs for them to cut and mill and make their livelihood around. And so they proceeded from the largest vision down to the smallest of these little fry. And so I think useful to remember, and there are other examples of them. Is that an answer to your question? Yeah. So I wanted to share a story about wholeheartedness. Reb remembers very well Harry Roberts. And Harry Roberts, he was a friend of mine.

[103:22]

Up north of the Mato River is the Klamath River, a very big, powerful North American river. and also famous for salmon and salmon runs. And there's a tribe of Indians that live right at the mouth of the river where it meets called Yurok, which means downstream. And inland just a little bit, there are other people called Karak, which means upstream. Those were people I lived with. And Harry was a Yurok. And we became friends because I knew a lot about that culture and the way people lived there. And Harry was an agronomist. He planted all the red willows or taught Zen Center how to plant the red willows by the pond. He was Ginger Rogers' dancing partner. He was an extraordinary fellow, but he was raised, I think he was only half Indian, but he was raised by a Yurok shaman. And so the point of this story is when people get sick in the Yurok tribe, they do a dance called the brush dance.

[104:28]

And the people pull out their finest regalia, and it's extremely rare. They're naturally white deer skins, albino deer. Red feathers from pileated woodpeckers. They're the red and black feathers from flickers. And they're beaded together with porcupine quills, and it's very, very intricate. And they spend days cleaning these garments impeccably. And Harry was impatient. And his father was cleaning each flicker feather and each pileated woodpecker and taking each little smudge off the deer skin just the way we pick up seeds from the eating tables. And he said, why do we have to do this? Who can see? And so the Indian way is you don't really tell your children much. And his father just looked at him and stopped talking to him for two days.

[105:32]

And so about two days later, Harry got the idea that there was something wrong in his . He went to his father and he said, so would you explain to me why we have to make this effort? And the father said, yes, because when the sick person is in the center of the room, in the center of the dance ground, they look out and they see the entire And they know that each and every member of that community has made their absolute best effort on their behalf. And that's what the healing is. The healing is the best efforts of the entire community directed for goodwill. And if I cheat and I'm not wholehearted, I break that medicine because if I'm in the center of the circle, someone else cheated, I'll know that and it will no longer only works when there's an absolute 100% consistency of wholeheartedness.

[106:46]

So my question, excuse me, my question, what do we mean when we say dharmas do not appear or disappear? We mean that in emptiness they don't appear and disappear. In that context. He said, what do we mean when we say dharmas do not appear? And I said, in emptiness they don't appear and disappear. It's not that we don't appear and disappear. It's that in the context of emptiness, they don't. Thank you. You're welcome. Which leads me to my question.

[107:55]

about when Shakyamuni met after all those gaining ideas and saw non-arising, suddenly what was different There was no difference either. How did the gaining idea just drop? Can you live without difference? Without difference? Can you give it up? Okay. Do you have a gift?

[109:01]

Whatever life this is, do you love giving it? Do you love receiving it? Yes. Even if you're still holding on to difference. But I'm glad you're willing to give it up for a while. No difference. It's not that there's no difference. It's that you accept that there's no difference. You accept no difference. You accept no arising. It's not that there is no arising, but you accept no arising.

[110:11]

You let there be no arising. Let there be no difference. You're generous with that. You're generous with difference. So generous that you're generous with no difference and no arising. So generous with no difference that I can accept the appearance of difference? Yeah. You can accept it. But you don't seem to have such a trouble accepting the appearance of difference. you don't look like you have trouble accepting that. But you sometimes look like you do have some challenge in accepting no difference. And then, from there... Between gaining idea and no gaining idea, for example.

[111:17]

For example. And then from there, to give gifts, continue to give your life wholeheartedly. More wholeheartedly than ever, of course. The same practice and same realization. Be so. I think it's time for our... Is it time for our service? Yeah. Hmm? Well, we could have Jill come tomorrow or today. What should we do? Today? Why don't you ask them to make themselves comfortable?

[112:26]

Okay. Would you all please make yourselves comfortable? Also, I'm worried that this is so out of keeping with everything that's gone. Because I'm sure I'm going to weep. I want to make a confession. Pardon me? Oh, okay. Right before Sasheen began, we had a group photograph. Would you be closer to me, okay? Thank you. Yeah. And there was someone in the group who didn't want, the photograph made of this person. This person didn't want the photograph made. But everybody, I think, thought that, not everybody, anyway, so there was some jockeying and arranging of taller people in the back and shorter people in the front.

[113:31]

And it was, somebody said, well, you know, you, why don't you come forward so we can see you? And so, I mean, to this person, Immediately started meddling in it, and I took myself out of a really nice position I had in the photograph. And kind of was trying, and so I got further back, and I was trying to make it so that this person could be seen. And I had all these ideas about, you know, of this person in the group and also I just kind of couldn't you know sometimes people pretend like they don't want to be in a photograph when they actually do and and so so I kept you know like scrunching over anyway so this I don't know if this person actually was in the But this person was really mad at me. And I found out quickly because there was hostility whenever there was an interaction between us. And I realized finally that it was affecting everything.

[114:35]

I was consumed with it in Zazen and trying to avoid it. walking around and finally I wrote a note of apology and fortunately it was accepted and that seemed to be not quite the end of it because I wanted to confess it again because I realized what ideas I had about that I had such conventional ideas that were contrary even to this person's dignity and respect. And so I'm not sure... I've been connecting it with the idea of the hook, the straight hook that Peter talked about, and I wondered if... The way you dealt with it, Reb, when you said you also tried to get this person to come forward, but the person didn't want to, and so you kind of let it go.

[115:38]

And anyway, that's what I wanted to say. I think that's all. Thank you.

[115:46]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.46