This morning I said that the Buddhas and all living beings are just one mind. I've said this before and I've said it in some other ways.

[01:19]

It's been said before and it's been said in other ways. In ultimate reality, there's no difference between Buddhas and ordinary people. Ordinary people think there is a difference between themselves and other ordinary people, and that there's a difference between themselves and Buddhas.

[02:36]

But Buddhas understand that there's no difference, that there's just one mind, which is all of us and everybody else and all the Buddhas. That's all there really is. There's not really separation among everything. When you understand this, you're a Buddha who's not separate from those who don't understand it, called sentient beings. When you don't ignore this, You're a Buddha when you ignore it, you're a sentient being. But even though you ignore it, it's still the truth ultimately. So I mentioned that many times before, and this practice period I started by mentioning this again, and also mentioning the two truths.

[03:58]

One truth is that we're separate, that we're ordinary, and we're not Buddhists. That's the conventional truth. There's another truth that's different from that, which is that we're ordinary and Buddhas and not separate. But there's also the teaching that in order to really understand the ultimate truth, that we and all beings and all Buddhas are one mind. In order to actually understand that, we need to understand our ordinariness first. So at the beginning of the practice period, I mentioned the ultimate truth and the conventional truth.

[05:07]

And today again, I mention the ultimate truth. And I haven't been talking about the ultimate truth too much for the last several weeks because I wanted people to really be grounded in the conventional, in being an ordinary person who suffers. Being grounded means not running away from being ordinary. It means not turning away from ordinary life. however it manifests. Even though we're bothered sometimes by ordinary life, we need to stop running away from it. If we're running away from it and we hear about ultimate truth, then we might just run away more and dream that we're listening to ultimate truth. But ultimate truth

[06:12]

It's always there, it's just a question of whether we let it really sink into our body and mind completely. But if we're running away from our body and mind, somehow it doesn't sink in. So I said it before, I'll say it again. All of us, all other living beings, and all Buddhas are just one mind. So you probably understand that intellectual message. How can you let it be a certainty as certain as your bones, your flesh, your feelings? Well, basically what is required is that you have to constantly concentrate on this teaching.

[07:18]

Constantly be concentrated on the oneness of all life, the oneness of all enlightened and unenlightened life. constantly concentrated, always concentrated on the oneness of all life. If you can be constantly concentrated on it, then not only will you hear this teaching, but you'll feel it as the same as your life. and then you'll be what's called enlightened, and nothing will bother you anymore. But in order to think about it all the time, it means think about it, you know, here, and somehow we have to be able to sit

[08:37]

in our own body. If we're wiggling and fidgeting away from our own condition, we're not grounded. And if we're not grounded, this teaching cannot pervade this sentient being who is Buddha. It's not the sitting still makes us a Buddha. We are already not different from Buddha. It's just that we have to sit still in order to realize it. You have to stop running away from what it's like to be alive.

[09:41]

And simultaneously concentrate on this teaching. So you're being this ordinary person, feeling whatever she's feeling, thinking whatever she's thinking. and you're concentrated on the teaching that this person is not separate from all other beings and all Buddhas. This is called the one practice samadhi. I don't know how early in the history of the Buddha's teaching this one practice, Samadhi, was taught. But in our lineage, the person who brought it out as his main teaching was the fourth ancestor of Zen, Dai Daoshin, the great healer.

[10:51]

Daoshin. Dai means great healer. Daoshin means faith of the way. In his case, faith in the way of always being concentrated on the oneness of all life, on the oneness of Buddhas and sentient beings, on the oneness of all activity. His, let's see, His great-great-grandfather was Bodhidharma. And when the Emperor of China asked Bodhidharma, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths, Bodhidharma said, no holy. He didn't explain.

[11:58]

Well, he actually did a little bit when the emperor says, well, then who is it that's standing here talking to me? And he said, don't know. And then he went and sat for nine years. In other words, what's the highest meaning of the holy truth? No holy means there's no holy separate from ordinariness. Who is this standing before me? Don't know. Means, I don't know if this is a kind of Indian guy or Buddha guy. I don't know if this is Ascension being here or a Buddha or a falcon or a storm or a song. I don't know. Do you? Anyway,

[13:04]

I'm here, whoever that is. And the activity of this person or the activity of this presence is both cosmic and personal. What's happening here is not something that I do by myself. Everybody cooperates in this activity. And also it gets called my activity. So I don't know. He didn't say, by the way, this is the one practice samadhi, but it was. One, two, three generations later, Dao Shin says, my main teaching is to be absorbed in the oneness of all life. being absorbed in the oneness of the cockroaches and the horses and the trees and the mountains and the rivers and the Buddhas and the jerks.

[14:17]

In the prosecutors, in the prosecuted. I don't choose between any sentient being. I embrace them all. That's what I really am. So we have here, you know, two hands and when we practice meditation in the ceremonial way, we make a mudra with these hands. We bring them together and make an oval an oval with the hand. And this is called the Cosmic Concentration Mudra. We concentrate on the oneness of all life. And it's our mudra, it's your mudra, your personal little hands, remembering that this activity is both yours and it's only there because of the cooperation of the entire universe.

[15:31]

You remember that. You can remember that when you make this mudra. This mudra is the oneness of all life. I make this mudra. I constantly make this mudra. Even if I take my hands apart, I still feel this circle, this seal of the oneness of all life. Even those people who hate me, Even those people who despise me, I understand they're not separate from me. Even the Buddhas who love me are not separate from me. Even the Buddhas who are patient with me when I forget that they're not separate from me are not separate from me. This mudra can help you, what do you call it, marinate yourself.

[16:33]

Soak yourself in this teaching, in this understanding of the Buddhas, that we are one, that there is just one mind. Saturate yourself until you feel it. And when you feel it, then everything that comes to you is the Buddha Dharma, is the blessed teaching that comes to you from all directions all the time. Over the hill, in the prison called San Quentin, they have execution chamber. When we hear about that execution chamber and when we hear they're going to execute somebody, that's a Buddha Dharma coming to us. when they postpone or call off the execution, that's the Buddhadharma coming to us.

[17:41]

If we understand that, we can save all sentient beings. If we think there's something that's not Buddhadharma, well, that's wrong. There's nothing that's not Buddhadharma. Nothing. When you understand that there's nothing that's not Buddha Dharma, you will become a great healer. And you will be able to heal people when they're ready. You will be able to be a place, be a person where miracles happen. You will be able to convert frightened people. Sometimes you'll be able to stop a murderer, but not every time, because sometimes the murderers won't even be stopped by a Buddha.

[18:56]

But sometimes they're ready to be converted. But if you think, if you don't immerse yourself so that your bones are convinced of the oneness of these bones and other bones and Buddha's bones, then you're not convinced. You don't feel that it's true really when it comes down to your body. And we need to be patient if we're not convinced, and just patiently, steadily convince ourself by absorbing ourself in the oneness, in the teaching of the oneness of all life, and in the actuality of the oneness of all life. The teaching is just helping us settle into what's already happening. It's already so.

[20:05]

All we need to do is not run away from it. And another subtlety of running away is that we might even, in the process of settling with the teaching, we might try to grasp it. We might try to grasp the teaching. of the oneness of all life. We might try to grasp the teaching that we and all Buddhas are one mind. But it's not to be grasped because it has no characteristics. It was never generated and it never ended. this teaching is un-graspable.

[21:11]

It isn't subject to grasping. You can't grasp what's going on. But sentient beings who are inseparable from Buddhas always try to make even the teaching that they're not separate from Buddhas, even the teaching that the mind of Buddha cannot be grasped, they try to grasp it. So while, if you wish to do this samadhi of the ancestors, the samadhi of the oneness of all life, while doing it, don't try to grasp it. Don't try to grasp it means don't grasp anything, including it. Don't grasp anything and don't make an exception for the Buddha Dharma that that can be grasped. So you sit as an ordinary person, because you are, feeling what it's like to be ordinary, because it does, not wiggling away from it, because you really can't get away, and then don't grasp anything in body or mind.

[22:35]

Don't grasp it means don't grab it. It means don't push it away. So I've been asking people, are you giving yourself love? Because we have to give ourself love in order to be the ordinary person who's not separate from Buddha. We have to give ourselves love in order to be able to sit at our place. And the fundamental act of love is to let ourselves be what we are in this moment. Not to grasp the way we are, just let ourselves be this way.

[23:57]

That same attitude of love can be applied, should be applied, to the teaching. Just let the teaching be the teaching. Don't try to own it or disown it. Don't try to own your body or disown your body. Owning your body is not love, is not loving. It's suffocating. Disowning your body is not loving either. Have your experience without owning or disowning. Don't grasp it. listen to the teaching without owning or disowning, then you and the teaching will become what they really always are, inseparable. Someone told me that he hates zazen.

[25:50]

Someone else told me they hate kin hin. You name it, I've heard of somebody hating it. Right while you're hating zazen, that hate, of course, is personal activity. It's also cosmic activity. Everybody's cooperating with you. Everybody's cooperating to make this feeling of hating Zazen. Buddha didn't teach to hate. We have a precept called, don't hate. But don't hate means Many things. One of the things it means is don't hate without everybody's help.

[26:56]

When you hate, realize that's your personal activity and everybody helps you hate. And when you understand that everybody helps you hate, that understanding is inconceivable gratitude and love. Understanding that everybody helps you hate, that understanding is not hate. But that understanding is always there in the middle of your hate. Buddha is with you when you're hating, and Buddha is helping you hate. You're never, ever separate from one Buddha, two Buddhas, three Buddhas, and so on. Also, every other person who hates helps you hate, and every person who loves helps you love. Everybody helps you all the time. The question is, are you there?

[28:03]

And you remember to concentrate on teaching the ultimate truth that everybody's helping you? And the answer is, I don't know. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm right and maybe I'm wrong. I only know I'm in love with you. Nice? Nice. [...] Nice boy. Funny boy, stupid boy.

[29:09]

You name it, Buddha's right there. Never separate from stupid boy. Except there are some exceptions. And the finger will now point to the exception. Who will it be? Could it be you? Could you be the one exception, the one person who is not accompanied by all the Buddhas right now, who is not being supported by all the Buddhas right now? Could that be you? What a coincidence that you should be chosen as the one to be excluded. from Buddha's compassion and complete support. Wouldn't that be funny? You might say, well, actually there's some other people too who are not supported by Buddhas. Perhaps you go so far as to say, everybody's not supported by all Buddhas. Even all those Zen ancestors who said they were and said that we were, they weren't either. They actually were just these great Buddhas who got to be Buddhas all by themselves with nobody helping them.

[30:15]

Isn't that wonderful? So they get their pictures on the altar. So the fourth ancestor's picture is up there now. Is that really the fourth ancestor on the altar, or is it just a picture? Anyway, I like the teaching of the fourth ancestor. I try to concentrate on the teaching of the fourth ancestor. And when I'm concentrated on that teaching, I'm a happy, happy monk, happy priest, happy boy. And sometimes people say I'm nice, and sometimes they say I'm other things. But anyway, I try to concentrate always on that teaching. I never regret it when I do concentrate on it.

[31:16]

I never regret it. It always helps me be a good boy when I'm concentrated on it. Because it reminds me that the person I'm looking at is a good girl, a good boy. It reminds me that the person I'm looking at, although they might be kind of ordinary, there's Buddhas all around them, totally surrounded by Buddhas. So although I might just be an ordinary person there, I've got all the Buddhas watching me. So I've got to treat the whole situation like Buddha. It's not like I can say, oh, you crummy little... All the Buddhas are watching me because all the Buddhas are helping that person. So I've got to be careful to express my love to that person who is surrounded by all the Buddhas. Now, if I forget, then I don't have to be careful, right? Then we've just got an ordinary person there, so what?

[32:17]

So I'll stop now, but I'll stop with a little song which comes from... I don't know where it came from, but anyway... I'm not going to stop. You know, nowadays the word weird has, for a lot of people, means strange. Right? Strange or what else? Strange. Bizarre. Odd. Peculiar. Different. Unusual. That's what weird means for a lot of people, or at least for the people in this room. But the root of the word weird is fate. Fate. It means fate. Fate. It's a Norse word, and in Norse mythology, the goddess of fate is a triple goddess, the three-headed or three weird goddesses.

[33:41]

So in Shakespeare, at the time of Shakespeare, weird still meant fate. At the beginning of Macbeth, those ladies over the cauldron who are stirring up the causes and conditions of our life. Those are the three weird sisters. They're not called the three witches. They're the three weird sisters. Weird. And in Roman mythology also, fortune or fate is a triple-headed goddess, tree fortuna. So anyway, the root of weird is fate. So it's interesting that for many people now our fate seems weird. Here we are like someplace like in a Zen meditation hall or maybe some other situation and there we are in that situation and we say, weird.

[34:43]

In other words, how strange it is that this is my life. How strange it is I'm talking to you. How strange it is that you're talking like that. We mean strange, but actually we also mean this is what's happening. It's weird. I didn't expect this. So because our fate seems unusual and strange or unexpected, we sometimes think, well... No thank you. Don't say no thank you to your fate. Because then your fate will come true. Your fate is not true. It's just a place you're sitting right now. It's just a body you have and the people you're talking to.

[35:46]

But if you think that's like true, then you're going to sometimes say, no, thank you. I'm going someplace else. See you later. You can say that, but you say, I'm going, listen to this, okay? You say, I'm going someplace and I'll see you later. You say that, if you're a Buddha, you say that after you say thank you and mean it. If you say no thank you and then say I'm going away, you missed your life. So first, really, thank you. Thank you, fate. This may be the last moment of life I have. Thank you. And now I'm going away.

[36:52]

Bye-bye. It's been fateful. I hate Zazen. Thank you. It's your fate to hate Zazen sometimes. Weird, huh? I thank you. Now I'm going someplace else. The next moment. What's happening? What's happening? What's happening? It's happening. It's happening. It's happening. We're not in control. It's the Buddha Dharma coming, manifesting as our fate, but also manifesting as something we can't see, which is also our fate.

[37:58]

Our fate is that the whole universe is supporting us every moment of our life. That's our fate. Our whole universe and all Buddhas are working together with us. That's our fate. We can't get away from that. Isn't that weird? And we say, no, thank you, sometimes. So let's not say, thank you, no, thank you. Let's say, thank you. Thank you, Buddha Dharma. Thank you, Buddha Dharma. Thank you, Buddha. [...] Sometimes you say thank you to Buddha and she doesn't even look at you when you say it. And you say, would you please open your eyes and look at me when I say, thank you, Buddha? Thank you. But, you know, you mean it lovingly. Buddha, I need you to look at me when I say, thank you. Please look at me when I say, thank you, Buddha. Thank you. Never forget every person you meet.

[39:04]

Thank you, Buddha. [...] Sometimes you say, oh, God, Buddha couldn't be looking at me like that. Thank you, Buddha. Thank you, Buddha. Okay, thank you, Buddha. This must be Buddha, not some mean person who doesn't like me. Thank you, Buddha. Of course, it is a mean person who doesn't like me, but it's really also inseparable from Buddha. You can't pry this person who doesn't like you away from Buddha, so you should say, thank you, How come you're angry at me? What did I do that made you think that, feel that? Okay? Get the picture? I'm convinced somewhat, are you convinced, to concentrate on the teaching that you are Always ordinary person and always Buddha. They're inseparable and that's all that's really going on, that one mind all the time, to remember that.

[40:08]

So this is all just to lead up to a song. Our whole life is just to lead up to a song. The question is, are you ready to sing? So this is a song from one of my childhood. And I changed the words a little bit. You know, the word in the original song is self. Interesting, huh? This is a song about the self. I'm going to change the word self. Actually, I think I'll do it two ways. One way I'll do it with the word self, and then the second time I'll do it with the word fate, because it is our fate to be ourself. Ourself is our fate, right? You may argue about fate or something, but I would say that it's our fate to be ourself. So the first time through this song, you read it with self, and then the second time through with fate.

[41:17]

Okay? Okay? So it goes like this. Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink. Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink. As opposed to gray. It's later than you think. Enjoy your fate. It's later than you think. Enjoy your fate while you're still in the pink. Enjoy your fate. Enjoy your fate. It's later than you think. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink. I vow to try to remember the teaching that I am nothing separate from all Buddhas and all sentient beings until I turn into dust.

[42:39]

I'll try to remember that and concentrate on that. And if I forget, I'll forgive myself and go back to work. Sitting at my place, standing at my place on the earth, accepting my seating assignment on the planet, and remembering the Buddha's teaching of the oneness of all life. That's my little vow, which I learned from the Buddha ancestors. Now I'll stop. May I...

[43:33]

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