Yesterday about 70 of us sat here all day quietly, not causing much trouble. At least we tried. We tried to be good. At the end of at the end of our meals, our formal meals here. Am I speaking loudly enough? No? Okay. What? How's that? How's that? Can you hear me in the back? All right. Did you hear what I said before? About us sitting here yesterday? Well, we did. And we will continue.

[01:05]

Please come and join us if you have a chance. So at the end of our formal meals, the chant leader says, May we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus. Thus we bow to Buddha. That's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about may we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus. Now last time I gave a talk on Sunday, how many people were here last time I gave a talk on Sunday? So, quite a few didn't hear me talk, so I just want to mention briefly that what I talked about was that to be a human being involves, for most of us, maybe not for you, but for most of us, for me, it involves making mistakes.

[02:30]

Or as they say, as I say, to err is human. And I did a little survey and most people think it's to err is human. And err or err, the root of that is to wander. Human beings wander. We wander in a world of mud and confusion. Right now, you know, all over the world there's crises, tremendous crises in the mud. And people are wandering around in it. And that's just normal human condition. Anyway, I talked about that and basically my faith is that... My faith is that if we can be present in the middle of this wandering, if we can accept our wandering nature, we can become free of it.

[03:43]

We can be a lotus in this muddy water. That's what I talked about. And at the end of the talk, I said, well, I guess you kind of got the idea about this part about to err is human. I'm sorry if I kind of rubbed it in. And then later that day, Linda Ruth Cutts gave me this fortune cookie that she got. And the fortune cookie says, Confucius says, To err is human. To rub it in is divine. Anyway, to forgive it is divine.

[04:47]

In order to forgive it, you have to be aware of the mud. And sometimes, as you know, you might be aware that you have mud in your face, but you don't know you have mud in your back, so you need help. Anyway, that's what I talked about before. I'd like to talk today about this lotus in the muddy water, how to be a lotus. Yesterday I talked about pure presence, and pure presence is the way to be a lotus in muddy water. I say. That's my faith. But another way to talk about the faith is that there are many kinds of faith.

[05:49]

I also said the last time I talked to you, I asked the people, I asked you and I ask you today, what is your faith? What is your faith? I don't want you to sort of have the faith you think you're supposed to have, to have the faith like some great Buddha has. Actually, I do. But I think in order to get to the place where you have the same faith as a Buddha, you have to start with the faith that you've got right now. What do you believe in? What do you trust? What is really, in the long run, at the end of your life, what is your ultimate concern? That's my question. And people can have many, many faiths. And within Buddhism, there's a variety.

[07:03]

So one of them is to trust that cause and effect is important. And to trust that following the paths of virtue For example, following the Bodhisattva precepts, to trust that practicing those will bring you happiness. Or rather to say, for some people what's most important, what they most care about in life is to be personally happy. And some of those people are Buddhists in the sense that they receive the Buddhist precepts and they practice the Buddhist precepts in order to be happy. This is their faith. The faith is what really I want at the end of my life is to be happy, is to have been happy, or at least be happy at that time. And I believe that, I trust that following, you know, practicing not killing, not stealing and so on, that this will be the condition for my happiness.

[08:09]

It's one kind of faith. Another kind of faith is that in addition to following the precepts, practicing the precepts, that meditating on how birth and death happens, studying birth and death, to study the conditions of suffering, that that will not only bring happiness, but will even bring liberation. will bring complete liberation, even liberation from states where we're not happy. But still the motivation is to bring liberation for myself. The next kind of faith is a faith that wanting to be enlightened and wanting all beings to be enlightened and trusting that practicing the six perfections will bring that enlightenment eventually.

[09:13]

And the six perfections are giving, conscientious, vigilant, careful behavior, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. So that's another kind of faith. And all those kinds of faith are completely, I think, coherent and bring those results. Personal happiness, personal liberation, and the liberation of all beings. But another faith, which is particularly characteristic of the Zen school, which is in complete harmony with those previous ones, but is a little bit more concentrated is to put your faith in the actual nature of your mind.

[10:16]

To trust the essence of your mind as being the same as the essence of Buddhahood. To not look outside your own nature for the path of peace and liberation, but look inside at the actual nature of your mind. Trusting that the nature of your mind is the same as the nature of Buddhahood. If I would try to practice this way of looking inside and trying to see the nature of my mind, the essence of my mind, the essence of the mind is that it's not a thing.

[11:31]

It's not a thing. And it's also not nothing. In the midst of all that mud, in the midst of the swirling turbulence of our mind, there is a permanent, ungraspable light. It doesn't come or go. It doesn't increase or decrease. It can't be grasped, and you can't get away from it. You can try to grasp it, but when you try to grasp it, you show you don't trust it. If you try to run away from it, in that sense you say, in a sense you trust it, you trust it's awesome, but the running away distracts you from appreciating it.

[12:52]

It's most appreciated by not moving and not even seeking the Buddha way. The Buddha way is not some other place, not even the slightest bit some other place or some other time. Now when I say that, what I mean is that there is a kind of faith which focuses on Buddha nature not being some other place. If you want to think of Buddha nature as some other place, and you want to try to go to that place, that's okay. That's a different kind of faith. It's a faith where you, in some sense, don't really trust the Buddha nature as what you already are, really.

[14:02]

But if you don't, then maybe that's appropriate. Not every time, but often, if I try to turn and go back to the place, return to the place where this lotus comes from, I try to go back to that place. When I get in the neighborhood or when I get to that place, which again, that place, I can't grab the place. I can't get the place. And yet when I'm there, often doubt arises. Is this good enough? Is it good enough to be in a place that I can't even tell where it is? It has no address. And again, that doubt is again saying that in that doubt, the essence of that doubt is not it.

[15:05]

But actually, the essence of doubt is faith. The essence of ignorance, the nature of ignorance is the same as the nature of enlightenment. The nature of pain is the same as the nature of enlightenment. The nature of things is all-pervasive. There's no place it is blocked or stopped from entering. It can't be hindered. To think that way, to talk like that, is a kind of faith. It's not like a truth. It's a faith. That's not like I'm telling you that's the way it is.

[16:06]

That's my faith. And as I said, that's a characteristic, special character of the Zen school. We say, you know, at the end of the meal we say, may we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus. And, you know, Zen monks, Zen practitioners, Zen students eat. They eat food before enlightenment and after. We eat. We're not beyond eating. And when you eat, you have to come into the world to eat And when you eat, you have to deal with lots of problems. You have to deal with how the food comes to you. Who did the work? Were they paid well? Did they use pesticides?

[17:08]

Was someone cheated or harmed in any way to bring you this food? This is the mud. And we live there. How can we be a lotus in this muddy situation of eating food, of feeding this body? How can you be tuned in to what is the source of the lotus? And when I ask myself that question, or if I ask you that question, I watch in my mind, I watch in my eyes that I look away, immediately look away. Where is it? Where is the source? How can you hear that question and not look away? Not look towards or away, but settle into the question until you find yourself at the source of this lotus blossom.

[18:22]

Finding this source of lotus blossom, the lotus comes up out of the mud, into the air, as a bud, opens its petals. And it opens its petals in all the practices which I mentioned before, which you might do in order to Realize the lotus. So when the lotus opens, it opens as meditation, as patience, as giving. It opens that way. That's what it looks like sometimes. So you can do the practices of the petals.

[19:33]

You can practice the petals and work your way back to the source. Or you can trust the source and let the plant come up out of that place and manifest the petals. Either way is okay. Today I'm emphasizing going to the root and sitting there and waiting patiently, giving up everything else, but trusting that your nature, the nature of yourself really, ultimately, essentially is the same as the nature of Buddha. And sit there and be present with that moment after moment throughout the day, throughout your life, until this lotus Manifest. Tell as realized.

[20:34]

Thinking before I give this talk, starting yesterday when I heard that lotus in the muddy water, I thought of talking about that. And since that time, I kept thinking about this lotus, and particularly the source of the lotus. And I noticed how difficult, how difficult It is to stay there, not stay there, but come back there moment after moment. But whenever I came back, I didn't regret it. I don't regret thinking about that lotus in the muddy water and trusting, not my power, to do the right thing, to unfold appropriately, and to figure out what's the proper way to blossom as I meet people.

[22:10]

But to trust giving up my figuring out powers, dropping them away, and letting my focus go to the root, and let the lotus do it. at the essence of our mind, all the causes and conditions of the universe are bearing and giving us life. It's the same in the Buddha's mind. All the calls are coming in from all over and determining the proper response. The way we actually are is the proper response right now. Are you there? Am I there? Or are you wiggling away from this place, trying to get some other place, trying to be some other place?

[23:15]

It isn't that we trust the mud or distrust the mud. It's that we trust that the lotus grows there. Or we don't trust that the lotus grows there, and we think we have to go someplace else to grow the lotus. Now I'm going to make a leap in a sense, but maybe it's not too much, and that is to say that being devoted to the welfare of others

[25:43]

and not to devote it to the welfare of some others, but to be devoted to the welfare of all other living beings is exactly the same focus. The essence of our mind is that it is supported it is supported by all beings. That is the essence of our mind and that is the essence of the Buddha mind. The Buddha mind is supported by all beings and the Buddha mind supports and is devoted to all beings. In order to, not in order to, but as a meditation assistance to find this mind, if you meditate on being devoted to all beings, that may help you find the place where all beings are devoted to you.

[26:53]

The place where all beings are devoted to you is the essence of your mind. Being totally devoted and focused on your Buddha nature is the same as being focused on your devotion to all beings. all beings, but also each individual being. Can you see the place in your heart where you not just care about everybody, but where you care completely about everybody? Can you find that place in your heart? That's where the lotus grows. That is the essence of the human heart. is that place where we care completely and want the very best for every single living being.

[27:56]

So if you think of like some particular living being and you feel, I want the very best for that person, that's close to the place I'm talking about. If you think of someone else who you say, well, I want pretty good for them, but I don't know if I want the very best for them. That's quite close, but if you can, in that neighborhood, find the place which is not just that you want a little bit of good for them, but that you want the very best for them. You see, The place the lotus comes from is a place where you want the very best for everybody. And then if you can give your entire life energy, be totally devoted to that way of being, well, that's your faith.

[29:05]

I mean, that can be faith. That is faith. That is the faith of the Buddhas. And that faith can be developed. So, you know, in the last 24 hours, I've been developing that faith. I've been working on that, thinking about talking to you about it. I've been meditating on it. I get there and then I flutter a little bit. I jiggle. It's hard to stay steadily at that place. To visit it for a second and say, hey, that's nice, nice. Totally devoted to all beings, every single one. Oh yeah, but then a little hesitation comes, at least with one person. You flinch. You flinch from the consequences of that presence. But then you slip a little bit, turn a little bit to the side and get back there. That is the best place. That is the Buddha home. That's where the lotus comes that can live in this world of confusion.

[30:06]

That is the place. And then slip again. Because our human nature is to keep wandering, keep wandering, keep wandering. Oh no, I couldn't do that because then, [...] you know, they might ask me to do, do, do. What would be the consequences? Yeah, if you think about it, you get scared and you fly away from that place. But the consequences actually are the lotus. That's the consequence. This gorgeous lotus. This amazing flower. Now, there's other nice flowers who don't grow in mud. You can grow flowers in sand, you know. where all the nutrients are washed out and you just put chemicals in. That's fine. They're nice flowers. But lotuses, as far as I know, they don't do that yet. Did you know that lotuses, in the daytime they open and at night they close, the flower? And did you know that even in cold climates, the lotuses stay warm at night?

[31:10]

Did you know that? They keep their heat. They're one of a couple of kind of flowers that at night they stay warm. They open in the day, and I don't know exact temperatures, but they stay like in the 80s and 90s all night, even in cold climates. Not real cold climates, but, you know, like when they get down to 50 or so, they stay up in the 80s and 90s. So they open in the days, and then at night they close, and the animals that pollinate and stuff on them stay inside forever. and camp out and then have parties in there. They do. So in the morning when they come out, they're totally drenched with the lotus stuff. So it's good for the lotuses and it's good for the campers. This is a recent botanical finding. So I'm really not trying to herd anybody into this kind of faith.

[32:52]

I just wanted to talk about it. I am trying to herd at least one person into it. Me. I want to practice this kind of faith. I trust it. So I thought I'd tell you about it, because I'm trying to practice it. And it's not so easy, because it does require total devotion. That's not so easy, if you think there's anything, any alternatives to total devotion. Do you think there are alternatives? I guess there are, right? That's called the mud. That's called misery. The alternative to total devotion to the welfare of every single living being, even dead ones. But I won't get into that. Is that enough?

[33:58]

What more do you want? Huh? A song? Oh, okay. I don't know how this song goes, I'm sorry. I know part of it. This is a song which I used to hear when I was a kid, like most of the songs I know. Since I've been practicing Zen, I've been sort of radio and so on deprived. So I don't know the new songs. Anyway, this is a song I used to hear back in the 50s at home. I used to watch TV with my dad, and we watched Liberace. My dad was a piano player, and he liked Liberace. He said Liberace was good. He said he was really a good concert pianist. Anyway, here's a song. I believe this is Liberace's, if not his theme song. I think maybe it's just about this theme song. So it goes like this. There's an introduction, which I really don't know anything about the music to, but I know this part a little bit.

[35:07]

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces all day through. In the small cafes and parks across the way, the children's carousel, the chestnut tree, the wishing well. I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day, in every truth's... In everything that's bright and gay, I'll always think of you that way. I'll find you in the morning sun, and when the night is through, I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you. Is that kind of it?

[36:12]

That's sort of apropos, isn't it? Just practice that with, just sing this song for every single person and every single plant and every single animal. Sing that song. And I think I should be all set. And if somebody wants to teach me the middle part, I'd appreciate it. About the chestnut tree and stuff. Is that enough now? Thanks. Thanks. May our intention...

[36:48]

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