The event today is sometimes called a one-day sitting. So maybe it would be appropriate for me to talk to you about sitting, the sitting that is done in this hall. So we call the sitting we do here zazen, which means sitting zen. And this morning we recited a text which could be translated into English as Universal instruction or universal encouragement for the ceremony of Zazen.

[01:09]

So I could say that that text is instructing us about how to do a ceremony, a ceremony of sitting together with other people. In one sense, then, we are given instructions for our human activity. We're given instruction about how to sit, how to cross our legs, how to hold our posture upright, how to use our eyes and our mouth and our hands. We're given instruction about how to do certain human activities. We're given instruction relative to human agency We're given instructions about constructing a ceremony with our body and mind.

[02:31]

With our body, we're given postural instruction. With our voice, we're kind of implicitly suggested, told to be quiet. And with our mind, we're told, basically, give up everything. Let go of all your mental activity that's coming up. Just let it go. Aside from the mental activity of performing this ceremony, the mental activity of remembering to take care of your posture, and remembering to let go of everything that's not here, just attending to what's here as part of the ceremony. So, given postural instruction, and then we're suggested. Anything else that comes up other than taking care of this posture and breathing, just let it go. This is instruction for us. This is instruction to humans

[03:40]

who have language about how to create a ceremony, a sitting meditation ceremony. However, this text also goes on to talk about, it doesn't explicitly say, You've been given instruction on the ceremony, and now I'm going to tell you about what this ceremony is related to. And also, at the beginning of the text, it says, the way is basically perfect, all pervaded, so why do we have to make some effort? The way is basically perfect, so why do we have to do a ceremonial sitting? What is the way?

[04:46]

The way of Buddha, the way of great compassion. So, it's all pervading. It's with us all day long. We can't get away from it. It's impossible to avoid or escape. You can't get away from the Buddha way. You can't get away from great compassion. However, if we don't do some human activity, In offering to this all-pervading great compassion, we somehow, we're not in accord with it. We have to give our human activity to this great compassion, and we need to give it in a way that doesn't have any separation, that's perfectly attuned to it.

[06:01]

It also says, the slightest discrepancy will make it like the distance between heaven and earth. So this way of great compassion of the Buddha's, which is all-pervading, omnipresent, if we don't accord with it, it's like it's separate from us, even though it's really not. So we do the ritual of sitting, as a way to bring our human life, our human posture, speech and thought in intimate accord with great compassion of the Buddhas. The great way, the zazen of the Buddhas, the great way, The sadhana of great compassion is beyond human agency.

[07:08]

And yet, we have to remember that. And then, whatever human thing we're doing, whatever we're doing, we need to remember that the Buddha Zazen is right here in this room. So we sit and... Yeah, we sit. We give our body to sit. We create a sitting human posture. And we also understand and need to remember that Buddha Zazen is in this room with us. So we are doing a human action, and also we are doing an action. We are participating in an action beyond human agency.

[08:14]

We are practicing Buddha Zazen in this room, and each of us is practicing our own Zazen at our own seat. I'm creating a sitting posture here, and each of you is creating a sitting posture where you're sitting At the same time, we are here together practicing the great way of Buddha's compassion. And again, even if we do not do some practice, and even if we think our practice is our own and separate from the Great Way, we're still not separate. It's just that our thinking creates a division and an affliction, and separates us from what we cannot be separated from, and separates us from what we most want to be with.

[09:26]

We want to be intimate with great compassion, But if we don't take care of ourselves and remember that great compassion is with us, we suffer and we are disabled in the full function of our life. So a story which we often... Also in the text we chanted this morning, it said, It mentioned, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Do not be suspicious of the true dragon could also be said, do not be suspicious of great compassion, which you can't see, even though it's with us all the time. Do not be suspicious of the true dragon refers to a story about a person

[10:27]

in China, who loved dragons, who loved created dragons. He loved paintings of dragons. He loved sculptures of dragons. I think in one full version of the story, it mentioned that this gentleman had dragons made from many precious materials like coral and lapis lazuli and, of course, wood. And he really loved carved dragons. And because he loved carved dragons, a real dragon came to know that he did, and the real dragon thought, he probably would like me to drop to visit him.

[11:30]

He probably would like to meet a real dragon, since he loves carved dragons. So the real dragon came down to his mansion, his estate, and stuck its head through the front window. And when this gentleman saw this dragon, he was frightened to death. He was really scared. Suspicious is an understatement. He was totally shocked by a real dragon. And in one version of the story, frightened Sestros could also be frightened into a swoon. He fainted. One time, Sigur, as he said the story, and he said he got frightened and picked up his sword and ran after the threat, hurt the dragon, and the dragon flew away. In both cases, whether he fainted or whether he got aggressive,

[12:35]

But Jaya said, I guess he's not ready to meet me face to face. Bye-bye. So there are, in a sense, yet again, as Guruji mentioned, there are two ways of practice. One is practice in form and color. The other is practice without form and color. The carved dragon, you can see it. You can touch it. You can carve it. It has colors and shapes. And a lot of people love these carved dragons. Our posture, you can see it. You can shape it. You can make it. We can make carved dragons in our city. But there's another practice which has no form, which is the real dragon.

[13:40]

Buddhasasana is not a color or a shape. Buddhasasana is what we're doing here together. Buddhasasana is how our practice right now is the same as each other. It's the same practice that we're all doing. It's the same awakening that we're all living. And we can't see the same practice that we're all doing. We can't see the practice that we're doing always, pervades everything. We can see in the car of the practice. And Guruji also says, we should, I think he says, get rid of, or certainly give up, our carved dragons. We should give up our carved practice.

[14:44]

But I don't, you know, he said that, and I think probably after he said that, everybody got so disturbed he stopped saying it. I think what he meant was, you should give up. You should let go of what you think your practice is. You should let go of what you think your posture is. You should let go of what you think your breathing is. This is part of great compassion. And I think one of the texts says, you should love the true dragon. But loving the true dragon, I would say, doesn't mean to prefer the true dragon and try to get rid of the carved dragon. We are karmic actors, we're doing something all day long, and everything we do could be seen as a carved dragon, which we use to offer in relationship to the true dragon.

[15:57]

The true driving is not better than... Buddhist zazen is not better than my personal zazen. It completely includes my personal zazen, because Buddhist zazen is how my sitting is the same practice as your sitting. Your practice how your practice is the same as all of our practices. That's bodhisattva. So bodhisattva doesn't need us to get rid of the way we are acting, to get rid of what we're doing. It needs us to perfectly harmonize what we're doing ourselves with what we're doing together.

[17:00]

We need to harmonize our personal action, which is unique and different from everybody else's personal action. We need to take care of that and do that wholeheartedly. And part of doing it wholeheartedly is to realize I'm making a personal effort in this huge thing that's being done here, in this huge practice, which is everything that's going on together with all other beings. So my personal practice is a ritual in relationship to great compassion. In the Zen. And not in the Zen, though. There may not be ritual instructions, there actually probably are, but we also have ritual instructions for how to walk in this room.

[18:09]

And you could make specific instructions about how to walk when you're outside this room. And one of the ritual instructions could be, when you're walking, remember, practice mindfulness when you walk. Mindfulness of the walking, outside, all over, and mindful in remembering that this walking is calling for and enact great compassion. And everything else during the day could be something we're doing, which is our car driving, which is offered to the real driver.

[19:17]

And again, not because I don't like my card dragon, and the real dragon is better than my card dragon, it's just that if I don't, then I get out of touch with the real dragon. Most people are somewhat in touch with their card dragon. In some ways we should be more in touch with our card dragon as part of our relationship with the true Dragon. More thoroughly in touch with our body and mind, which has form and color. More thoroughly intimate with that. so that we can realize and remember that it's not separate from what's beyond human agency, beyond color and form, and is all-pervading.

[20:32]

And I think also the person who wrote the text this morning, we call him Zen Master Dogen, and he also says in that text, in other texts he says, don't despise the car dragon and esteem the real dragon. Don't despise the form and color of your sitting. Don't despise it. Become intimate with it. And don't esteem or prefer great compassion. Become intimate with it. But honour it. Honouring it. One way to honour it is to remember it. And also remember that it is omnipresent.

[22:01]

Suffering is omnipresent, and great compassion is omnipresent. Now, people are somewhat successful at remembering that suffering is present. But sometimes people forget that it's present. And then when they remember, it's a shock. So I think it is good for us to, excuse me for saying this, to, I can start by saying, consistently remember the suffering of this world. To not forget all the suffering of this world. I think that's really part of the Great Way. It's like a ritual, actually.

[23:07]

A ritual of remembering there is so much suffering all around us and all in us. And acknowledge that suffering. That's, I think, helpful to then also remember there is great compassion in solidarity with every moment of suffering. And I honor that great compassion that embraces all suffering beings, all suffering humans and all aspects of each human. Every feeling and emotion and idea of each human is a living being which great compassion completely embraces. So, if I remember that, at the moment of remembering, I would say that is an act of respect.

[24:15]

to something I think is really very important to me. And also, I offer my life to that thing I respect, which is the same as I offer my life to all suffering beings. And part of my job is to take care of every action of my body, speech, and mind, and then use every action of body, speech, and mind to express great compassion, to uphold great compassion. So I, like you, am constantly in the process of creation and of doing things that I can see and hear and touch and smell and think.

[25:32]

And all these things can be expressions of upholding great compassion. And in this way, the intimacy and the non-separation of our actions with great compassion, the non-separation becomes realized. And we allow great compassion to completely become our life, and we allow our human life to completely become great compassion. And in this situation, we have to allow our sitting to the to offer it great compassion, and allow great compassion to become it, and allow it to become great compassion.

[26:49]

In the case of the Buddha, the Buddha has allowed great compassion to become the Buddha. In the case of the ancestors, the ancestors have allowed great compassion to become their life, and they have offered their life to great compassion. And a state of great accord between human life and great compassion has been realized and transmitted. So this practice of intimacy, of human action, and what is beyond human action, This integration of human action and what is beyond human agency, that integration has been transmitted to us, has been given to us. We have received it. And now we can practice it.

[27:55]

Just like that Chinese person. He liked carved dragons, and he was given the real dragon. We like sitting, and we are given the real sitting of the Buddhas. However, when we hear about it, we might be suspicious. And in general, human beings are somewhat suspicious of what they can't see. They think it's kind of spooky to talk about a great compassion that you can't see. That's part of the deal. And by listening to this teaching, you may become more comfortable being devoted with something that's beyond hearing and seeing, that's beyond intellect.

[29:15]

And also with the teaching that this thing that's beyond hearing and seeing, beyond human action, is always with us. The kitchen needs to leave at 11. What time does the kitchen have to leave? 3.45? Well, it's 10.45. So we're going to end now. I'm going to end so that the kitchen doesn't have to leave. Okay? Thank you very much. Thank you.

[30:10]

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