Loudly enough for people? Welcome, honored guests. How's that? And in particular, I want to mention the honored guest, among all the others, that visiting us here from Japan, my Dharma uncle, It's come to lecture today for some reason, I don't know why. I've been in Tassajara for the last month, in the mountains there, and I have been continuing to study and practice, trying to, anyway, practice the teaching of suchness, which I've been also talking about here last time.

[01:25]

Do you remember? So I want to continue this thread, this teaching of dustness, or teaching of suchness. Nyose no ho. And as we say often, the teaching of suchness has been intimately conveyed by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well. Now you have it, so keep it well.

[02:30]

It may be not so easy to be aware that now you have it because it's like snow in a silver bowl or like a heron in the moonlight. The first thing I'd like to mention is that if you want to practice suchness, if you want to practice suchness, you should do so without delay. That's the way that suchness is always practiced.

[03:40]

It's always practiced without delay. In other words, right now. In other words, right now. Not later when you're better prepared. That's not the practice of suchness. However, there are practices like that that you can get ready for and prepare for and do those. First of all, I want to emphasize the practice which is done without delay. Now I think, what can we do?

[04:43]

What is it that we can do without delay? And I think, well, actually, there's nothing I can do without delay. But everything is being done without delay. I can't do anything without delay, because as soon as I try to do something without delay, already I'm delaying. I am in the way, causing a delay. If I'm not in the way, there's no delay. And constantly, things are happening without delay. Everything is on time. That everything being on time is the practice of suchness. Not that I make things on time, but that things being on time, that's me.

[05:47]

I am just everything happening without delay. I am thus, you are like that too. The practice of suchness is not something that I do or you do. It is simply the practice of suchness which all Buddhas do without doing. And right now it's happening. You have that practice right now, you already have it, so please take care of it. This is the thread that runs through all Buddhist practices, this non-delayed practice. This practice which is not done by anybody. And this practice which confirms everybody. Not people confirming the practice, the practice confirming the people.

[07:00]

And the people are completely confirmed, not a little bit confirmed. Each of us in our own individual, special, whatever kind of quality we have, is confirmed by the non-delay of all things. There's a story about a couple of ancestors. One was the One was, they were both Chinese people, Chinese men. I wish I knew these men, these Chinese people. They lived a long time ago, 1,500 years ago about. And one was named Nanyure, Huaihrong. The other was named Nanyure.

[08:03]

Dajian Hui Nung. Hui Nung is called sometimes the sixth ancestor of Zen. Now, he used to be called the sixth patriarch. And almost all the living schools of Zen come from his lineage, from his heart. And one of his greatest disciples was Nan Yue, Huai Rang. When Huai Rang came to Huai Nung, Huai Nung said, where are you from? Where do you come from? And Huai Rang said, I come from Songshan. And Huai Nung said, what is this? that thus comes. And Huai Rang said, as soon as I say it's this, I already missed the point completely.

[09:24]

And then the great master, Hui Nung, said, Well, then is there no practice and realization? And Huai Rong said, I don't say there's no practice and realization. I just say that it cannot be defiled. The great master is very happy to hear this and he said, all the Buddhas practice this non-defiling way. You are thus, I am thus too. It cannot, the practice cannot be defiled.

[10:46]

In other words, it cannot delay. It cannot be delayed. It's always marching ahead, completely happy. There's nothing we can do whether we try or not, to interfere with the Great Way. But we must not defile it by hesitating or carrying a self to it. So, for example, if I try to be a better person, already I'm defiling myself. I have no I have no ability to improve myself by me trying to.

[11:48]

I don't even know what improvement is. But that doesn't mean that it isn't possible to change. It doesn't mean that there's no practice in realization. Only that if I try to get in there and fix it up and cause practice in realization, I defile it. Then I say it's this. And I miss. So I don't say there's no transformation. Only that the transformation is not something that I can do. The transformation does me. And the medium in which transformation occurs is called owning your own.

[13:00]

Own your own stuff without delay. Just own this and this or thus and thus. In that medium, the transformation will occur. absorbing ourselves in exactly suchness. Transformation does occur, but this is transformation in non-defilement, sitting in purity with no concerns. A little bit later, after this dialogue occurred, one of their disciples said, the way of meditation does not require cultivation.

[14:15]

Only just don't defile it. Cultivation is related to the word till. to till by plowing, harrowing, and so on. And till means to labor, to work, to toil. The way of meditation does not require toil. Only just don't defile it. It doesn't require toil, but it's not easy. You don't have to work to not delay. It's actually not something you can work at or toil at, and yet it's very difficult to do it or to let it happen.

[15:22]

At a moment of balance, you don't work, and yet it's hard to be balanced. You balance between working and not working. That's not work. It's also not not work. It's balance. It's difficult, but it's not toil. It's bliss. You don't have to work, and yet you have to be careful not to hesitate, not to think. of an object. So, we say, words are thus. Words are such. You are such. But suchness does not have words, and suchness is without you. Suchness is without self, and self is suchness.

[16:32]

Self is suchness, in other words, practice suchness without delay. Words are suchness, without delay. But suchness does not have words. This is a... I'm trying to talk about the practice of suchness, which we can do without delay. But as I say, this practice is very hard to do properly. Nobody can do it. It's hard to get out of the way of it and let it happen. So, because we have trouble doing this practice, sometimes

[17:34]

And Buddhas help us, give us some way to do it. There's no way to do this. There's nothing you can use to help you practice such a thing. There's no way you can get a lever on it. And yet, Buddhas are willing to give levers and give ways that you can do it. Because some people refuse to try unless they're given some way to try. So they're given ways to try. So we say, you already have it, but if you don't believe it well, do this, then you'll believe it. Or something like that. We have sometimes this expression in Zen of the grasping way and the grantee way.

[18:43]

Grasping way is you already have it. So keep it well. And the early ancestors in China, like Bodhidharma, when the emperor asked him what is the highest meaning of the holy truths, he said, vast emptiness and no holiness. nothing holy. Holiness, in other words, is something in addition to just things as they are. There is no such thing. There is no holiness on top of the way things are. And then Bodhidharma just sat for nine years facing a wall.

[19:59]

Just that's the way it was. And so he didn't have very many disciples. It was hard for people to practice that way. It was so simple. And he was kind of unfriendly looking. Just sitting there facing the wall And this unfriendly looking guy was pure compassion. He was unfriendly to anything but suchness. He was just suchness. Pure practice of suchness. But very few people could appreciate him. And then for a couple generations after him, his disciples were just sitting.

[21:07]

The only gate was the gate as such. Uncompromising, unswerving, steadfastness in suchness. That's all there was. And the greatest compliment he could give to all sentient beings was just suchness. He didn't tell anybody anything that they could do to improve. He wouldn't give them anything to get a hold of so that they could do the practice. He said, you already have it. Therefore, almost no one appreciated you. Then after three generations, one of his disciples decided to make it more accessible. For example, he built a house, a building with a roof so people could come in with walls and some heat.

[22:18]

Because in China, you know, they weren't used to feeding beggars, so Buddhist monks would... where they sometimes had trouble living by just begging. He provided ways for people to get food and housing in order to practice the sitting. He adapted the teaching so that people could get a foothold. One time a Zen teacher came to Tassajara, to our mountain monastery, and he used the example of, in the monastery, it's kind of like somebody, somebody has his hand and squeezes the monastery. He squeezes and squeezes. Squeezes each person right down onto themselves. Squeezes each person into the schedule, into their seat. into their lunch. And squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until somebody pops out.

[23:22]

And then when they pop out, you scoop that person up and put them back in. And squeeze. Until the next person pops out. We don't know who it will be. It could be the teacher. It could be the abbot. Pops out and then scoop them up and put them back in and squeeze. squeeze people into the practice of suctioners, and if they can't stand it, well then, scoop them up in terms of whatever they can do, and then put them back inside. This scooping the people up is called the granting way. Namely, if they refuse to practice, if they refuse to believe that they already have the practice, if they refuse to believe that they already have conveyed to them the teaching of thusness, then, okay, you're right. Now, given that you're right and that you can't do it, well, here, do this practice, which you can do.

[24:26]

And then they secretly are put back inside. Can you hear that? That secret? In the back? No. Secretly, they're scooped up and put back into the practice of suchness if they refuse to admit that they can do it. It's kind of like if you can imagine if you were a, I don't know what, grandparent? Parent would be okay too, but maybe grandparent's a better example. And let's say you were teaching your grandchildren, but also you were teaching adults some kind of art or some kind of practice. And the adults could do it. But the young children couldn't. So you teach the adults to do it, and when they do it, you feel very good to see them be able to do this practice.

[25:35]

It's very, well, it's wonderful to see people learn how to practice suchness without delay. But then maybe some young children can't do that. But you don't feel like they're low quality or something. As a matter of fact, You don't think exactly they're more beautiful than the adults, but they're certainly wonderful. It's wonderful to see them learning this sort of practice that goes along with their idea of who they are and what they can do. And then little by little, well, I guess basically their idea is that, for example, if the practice was what, riding a bicycle, and the adults could ride the bicycles, but the adults would understand that everything is riding bicycles.

[26:36]

The children maybe would think, oh, there's riding bicycles and there's something else besides riding bicycles. Therefore, you go along with that until you understand that riding bicycles is always happening. But maybe that's not a good example. Maybe I should just say the practice of suchness and not give an example. And just say that some people think that there's a practice of suchness and something else. That there's something besides that. If so, let them practice that other thing. And then you would enjoy it as seeing a child learn how to do something before they realize what they're actually doing. So the first principle, although people don't like it, the first principle of Buddhism is Buddha's mind. And I say people don't like it because what is Buddha's mind? You already have it.

[27:39]

So you don't like that first principle. Because I'd maybe rather have Buddha's mind be something else from what you've got. But the first principle is Buddha's mind. And Buddha's mind is that our mind and Buddha's mind are equal. Our mind and Buddha's mind is the same. That's the first principle. The second principle is not really a principle at all. The second principle is that we think our mind and Buddha's mind are different. The second mind is the inequality of the difference. And because we live in difference, it's hard for us to appreciate the first principle, which is the sameness, the equality of us and Buddhas. But that's the first point. Second point is, we can make differences.

[28:48]

We can make inequalities. So we see inequalities all over the place. These two have to be lived with. And these two together are suchness. This difference here is practicing without delay. Difference is always practice without delay. Even though they say delay. Saying delay always happens on time. For sentient beings, for living beings, to be awake, to be Buddha, is simply not to move.

[30:23]

You cannot move without delay. Maybe this is the grasping one. Not moving. Not moving means being a living being. Without moving from being a living being. Am I speaking loudly enough? Be a living being. Without moving, that's awakening. But there's a granting way too.

[31:33]

So there's a poem by Rilke which I make my own attempt to translate. I live my life in growing rings. They pull themselves around the thing. Perhaps the last I will not complete, but I am attempting to complete it. I'm circling around, he says, God, I say, emptiness.

[32:54]

I'm circling around emptiness, around the ancient tower. I'm circling for thousands of years And I still don't know. Am I a falcon? Am I a storm? Or am I a great song? This is how to scoop up anybody that slips out and put them back in the practice of suchness. So either don't move and just be the living being or just be a living being without hesitation or live your life in a growing ring and ring around everything and ring around the vast emptiness and ancient towers

[34:12]

And maybe we won't be able to complete the last circle. But we keep trying. And we don't know. Am I a falcon? A storm? Or a great song? I tried to memorize that poem in German for you. And I didn't really do it.

[35:19]

But the first line is, Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Rängen. How's that? Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Rängen. I wanted to do it in German because those of you who don't understand German wouldn't be able to understand the German. But you would hear me making a sound and you would react and you could feel that I wasn't talking about anything. The sounds would be without delay before we even jumped to the meanings. While I'd been away at Tassajara, a friend of my wife's moved into the house with us, a schoolmate of hers, a kind of gypsy lady.

[36:44]

like Charlotte. Anyway, she lives there now to help take care of things. And one day I went, I had breakfast time. Usually we chant before we eat. And what we used to chant was We venerate the three treasures and we're grateful for this meal, the work of other people and the sufferings of other forms of life." Pretty good chant. Anyway, she heard that chant once or twice and one day she had to eat before us. So she did it from her memory of it. And she said, I'm happy about the three treasures. and I'm grateful for this food, and I'm sad about the suffering creatures.

[37:52]

So now we do her work. Anyway, the same person also got another practice going at the breakfast table. After we, somewhere, I don't know whether it's before or after eating, but we do this thing called, we practice affirmation practice. It's a Basque practice. Or a Basque practice? Is it Basque or Basque? Basque. It's a Basque practice that she learned. And what you do is you pick out something about yourself and you say, I honor and love this quality about myself. In other words, affirm the first principle that there's things about each of us which are the same, which are opportunities for the sameness with the awakened one.

[39:01]

Actually, everything about us we can affirm as the same. We know about the difference too. But how about a little affirmation, a little confirmation So that's where we start. Number one, confirmation. Number two, you got problems. We don't have to work at that usually. If we do, okay, let's work at it. But don't skip over confirmation. So I joined the practice and I said, I love and honor my great, compassionate heart. And I love and honor that sometimes it closes. I love and honor my appetite.

[40:06]

And I love and honor not indulging it. I love and honor my grateful mind. So anyway, there's a practice. To confirm the first principle on yourself or to let the first principle confirm you every day. I don't know how many times. But throughout the day, let things confirm you. Let what happens confirm you. And have there be nothing there before that. The practice of suchness has been intimately communicated by Buddhists and ancestors.

[42:57]

Now you have, so please keep it well.

[43:15]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.21