omnipresent and all-pervading or all-reaching or all-penetrating. So why do you fan yourself? And the teacher said, you understand the meaning of the nature of wind being present everywhere but you don't understand the meaning of it reaching everywhere. The monk said, well, what is the meaning of it reaching everywhere? And the teacher fanned himself. What's happening? Buddha nature is not present more in Buddhas and less in dope fiends. Buddha

[01:06]

nature is not present more in Shakyamuni Buddha and less in Adolf Hitler. All sentient beings make possible Shakyamuni Buddha, all sentient beings make possible mass murderers. Mass murderers are not living that way all by themselves. All sentient beings make that happen. The Buddha nature reaches everywhere and is everywhere present. So why fan yourself? If the Buddha

[02:12]

nature reaches nice Zen students and dope dealers, if it reaches them both then why do you fan yourself? The dope dealer doesn't fan himself because the dope dealer perhaps understands that Buddha nature is everywhere present but the dope dealer doesn't understand that it reaches everywhere. The fact that it reaches everywhere is the fanning. I don't fan to make it reach everywhere. The understanding that it reaches everywhere is the fanning. So

[03:17]

whether I meditate on the oneness of all life or not, the oneness of all life is everywhere present and reaches everywhere. It reaches everywhere. The oneness of all life reaches all living beings. It reaches bulls and the matadors. It reaches frogs and murderers. It reaches everywhere and it is everywhere present. The understanding of it reaching everywhere is the meditation on the oneness of life. That's the fanning. When you meditate on the oneness of life, not only do you understand that it reaches everywhere but you also understand that it reaches

[04:17]

everywhere. Your understanding that it reaches everywhere is exactly the meditation. It isn't that you understand that it reaches everywhere and then you do the meditation. It's that when you realize that it reaches everywhere, that is the meditation. That is zazen. Zazen is realizing that the Buddha nature is everywhere and reaches everywhere. Both of those. That's zazen. That's zazen. I would hope that you would look and see when you do that meditation, is your action right? When you're really doing that meditation, can you break a precept? So my hope is that if we can do

[05:19]

this meditation called zazen and while we're doing it we look at our behavior, that we may find our actions are right. Not so much that, I don't even want to say that, but perhaps when doing this meditation you will be able to look to see how is your action. You don't need necessarily, you don't need to say, good boy, good girl, this is right action. You are a Buddha. You don't have to do that. So I'm just beginning, I'm trying to connect now this concentration on the oneness of all life and the cauldron and precepts, precept practice. And to develop an understanding of the

[06:21]

bodhisattva's precept practice. What is the precept practice of an enlightenment worker, of a person who is, of a being that's working for the enlightenment of all beings? What is their precept practice? And I'm trying to move into that kind of meditation now or that consideration from this basic bodhisattva meditation which is called one practice samadhi or zazen. So I think maybe some things are stirred up now in you about all this stuff and try to stay, you know, take care of yourself. Try not to get too excited or upset about all this that I said or that you're feeling in reaction to it or just let it stir around in there, bubble around in there, just try to stay

[07:25]

with it and see what questions and experiences and insights come up in the pot. I have a question now. You said it's not the human point of view and I agree but then my question is, whose point of view is that? Well, as Dorgan says, there is a who. There. There is? In that one practice samadhi there is a who. And the who will take care of you. The who is Buddha and bodhisattvas don't know anything about Buddha. We don't know anything about Buddha. If we know this much about Buddha,

[08:31]

that's not very much, is it? If we know as big as a mountain, that much about Buddha, that's not very much about Buddha. How much is it? Buddha is, as Dorgan Zenji says, Buddha is, you know, like think of the biggest thing you can think of, okay? Get your mind out there, you know, big size, big scale, okay? That's pretty good. It's good to have a big scale. What's a big, what's an example of a big scale for your mind? Can you think of one? Andromeda Galaxy. Huh? Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda Galaxy, that's a big one, right? That's a big one. Okay. And I was talking about a big one today too, did you notice? The oneness of all life, that's a big one. That's a way to think, to think about the oneness of all life, this huge galaxy full of living beings, all of them bearing down on your little life. That's a big point of view, right? This is the way bodhisattvas are supposed to meditate, I would suggest, to have this huge point of view and also this very huge

[09:35]

and interconnected point of view. This is a bodhisattva should think, right? They think with their heads in this wonderful way. This is the way they think about Buddha. Bodhisattvas all the time are thinking about Buddha. This One Practice Samadhi, the oneness of all life is the way, is one of the ways bodhisattvas think about Buddha. Okay? And again, thinking about Buddha, Buddha is not an object when you think about Buddha that way. Okay? This is a way to think about Buddha without making Buddha an object. However, we have to remember that we bodhisattvas, even if we are able to do this wonderful meditation called Zazen or whatever, meditating on the oneness of all life, we still know nothing about Buddha. This is just the way to think for bodhisattvas. This is called the way to think so that we can let Buddha reach everywhere and be everywhere. If we think this way, Buddha will be everywhere and reach everywhere.

[10:44]

This is our job, but we do not understand what we're doing. What we're doing, that's who's there. But again, as Dogen Zenji said, I didn't say it, Buddha is not like a little bit beyond this big point of view. It's not like you get this big point of view and you think in this big interconnected way, which is so healthy and wonderful, and then Buddha is just kind of like a little bit over the edge there, like right to the edge of what you can think, then over the edge of that, there's Buddha sort of like lurking there, right? No. Actually, Buddha is kind of like way out there, even beyond the edge. In other words, it's not our job as bodhisattvas to understand Buddha. It's our job as bodhisattvas is to understand that Buddha reaches everywhere and is everywhere and let that be. So we work to bring, we are working, all of us are bringing enlightenment into our lives and into the lives of other beings. That's our job.

[11:48]

But who is there? We don't know. But who is there? That's our faith. And we're working for who? And who is helping us? But we don't know anything about who. And if we did, that would be too bad for who. I guess we'd package it. But we can't do anything about who. I'm trying to stay with one practice and to develop the sense of a continuity with other practices.

[12:59]

So, I thought I would begin by asking, what did you think my last lecture I gave, what was that about? Do you remember? Yes? I think we discussed a little bit about forms. I was discussing forms? Yes. Intimacy. Intimacy. Discipline. Discipline. Pardon? What did you say? A cauldron. Cauldron. Hara. Hara. Honesty. Honesty. Are there any other points that you can remember?

[14:14]

Subject, no object. What was that again? I believe you discussed subject, no object, having no object. He said something about subject and having no object, but that point should be clarified. I don't mean that there's a subject with no object, but rather that when meditating, have no objects of thought. But that doesn't mean it's a subject over here that doesn't have objects. And it doesn't mean that there's not a subject and not an object, or that there is an object and not a subject.

[15:37]

It rather means that in any experience, there's some subject-object mechanics going on. Without an awareness of something, there's no awareness at all. So this is a mechanical necessity of experience, that there's this consciousness of something. So this is kind of a prerequisite for life, this type of mechanics. However, as an exercise, as an antidote, as medicine to that mechanics, which has a bias in it, we try to understand that there are no objects of thought. We try to understand that.

[16:50]

If you can understand and actually live without having objects before you, this is having a calm mind. This is having ease in your relationships with yourself, and ease with your relationships with all beings. This is to harmonize body and mind inwardly, and to harmonize your relationships with other living creatures and things. So that's the short way to put all that, is to say, have no objects of thought, or have no objects before you. But you still see things and hear things and think things, and all this stuff is still going on. But the subject-object interactions are no longer causing disturbance and misery.

[18:02]

Another way that we talk about this sometimes, or it has been talked about in ancient times, which we used this terminology last winter here, is to call this practice the one-practice samadhi. Remember that term, samadhi? One-practice samadhi. This is a simple Buddhist practice, which was recommended by the early ancestors of Zen, particularly the fourth ancestor, Dai Daoshin, the great healer, Faithful Way, the fourth ancestor.

[19:38]

He taught this one-practice samadhi. Another way to say this one-practice samadhi is absorption in the oneness of all life. You can also say absorption in oneness, but I think it's good to remember that this isn't a theoretical oneness like the number one. It is absorption in the concrete, the very tangible oneness of all living beings.

[20:42]

This oneness of all living beings is what I was talking about last time as, what word do you think I would say it was from my last lecture? The oneness of all living beings, what word would that be? The oneness of all life, that's what intimacy is. So, to be absorbed in intimacy is the one practice, which all Buddhas do. They're absorbed on the intimacy of their own consciousness with their own feelings, emotions, concepts, sensory experiences.

[21:59]

They're also intimate with all beings as objects. They're also intimate with all experience in the sense that every experience is created by all other living beings. That my breath, my experience of breath, my thoughts are produced by all living beings. That all life is one and all life creates this center here, and this center there, [...] all these centers. universe, every place in this room and every place in the universe is a center of all life. So each of us where we are, if we practice the one practice Samadhi, we practice as this

[23:08]

as the center of the entire universe, the entire universe of living beings comes together very intimately to make possible my experience right now. But it's also that same thing is happening other places. So my absorption is first of all here, but then I also remember that that same wonderful thing is happening everywhere else. So not only am I grateful to all living beings for making possible my life, but I also respect all living beings because they also have this wonderful opportunity. They also are places where there should be a lot of gratitude. If they would do this meditation called absorption or concentration on oneness of all life, concentration

[24:09]

on the unitary form of all life. The cauldron image is, can be applied here because somehow you need to make a container here, you need to maintain a container or a vessel in which you experience not only your everyday experience because that's in the container too, but where you experience this interconnectedness, where you experience the interrelatedness and oneness with all living beings. Many things that happen to us seem to be pulling us away from this center.

[25:14]

For example, when I was in the city I saw the Winter Olympics and in particular there's a Canadian and American man in men's figure skating. They're both, of course, very good, but they're the two best and both of their names are Brian. So on the TV they say they talk about the battle of the Bryans for the gold medal. And then, of course, before and after their performance, the newspapers and the television people ask them how do they feel, what are they thinking about, what do they want to do, and they say, you know, they talk about the other Brian, what about this other Brian, you know, the battle of the Bryans. And you can see these are young men, but they've had many years of this kind of thing happening

[26:25]

to them. I don't know how many, but anyway, a few years of being celebrities and having them ask them about somebody else. What are you going to do about this other person? So by now, and especially now that the pressure is so hard, so hot, now about all they will say is, and they say it over and over again like a mantra, both of them say it, I just want to concentrate on what I have to do and I want to do the best I can, I want to live up and do the best at what I'm doing. They won't say anything about the other person, but the whole media is trying to get them distracted and to get them to think about whether they're going to win or not. But in this particular sport, winning doesn't have too much to do with how the other person

[27:34]

does, it mostly has to do with how you do with yourself. And if you think about the other person while you're skating, if you think about whether you're going to win while you're skating, you don't think of the oneness of all life and you trip. Or your mind is a little bit someplace aside from your life, and your life is, you're a figure skater, you're flying through the air, you've got a body, you've got to deal with gravity and speed and muscles and breath. What the other Brian's doing is a distraction, and everyone wants to know what you're thinking about the other Brian, so your mind, under all that pressure, it's very easy for your mind to go off to think about somebody else. So you have to really bear down and remember who you're supposed to take care of, whose

[28:40]

legs you're supposed to walk. That kind of concentration has to do with this one practice, samadhi, but it also has to do with this idea of a cauldron in the sense of not being distracted by certain kinds of words. And another figure skater, this young woman, her name is Debbie Thomas. And I heard that she, somebody said that she, the fact that she's black is kind of just a coincidence to her. They said it's even stronger than that, it's just a coincidence. She's not like figure skating for the black women.

[29:43]

She's figure skating to figure skate. And then she said, and people tell her, do you know that you're a role model and an inspiration to thousands of black women all over the world, millions of black women maybe all over the world, not to mention millions of white men? I'm saying that. She says, well, you know, I don't think about that. I just say, okay, I'm going to be a figure skater. Okay, I'm going to be a doctor, and then I do it. She says, well, if that's an inspiration to people, all the better. But notice the initial point, the initial point is, I do it, and then if I win, or then it's an inspiration, or then people think I'm great, or blah-de-blah. But if you try to be an inspiration to people, and you try to win, that kind of stuff is

[30:47]

kind of not your business. It's actually nobody's business. I had a dream, actually. Nancy Schrader was giving me a ride around in a car, and I noticed that I trusted her to drive me. I thought she was a reliable driver. And somehow in the conversation, I said something like, it had to do with somebody trying, somebody was trying to fix up somebody else. Somebody was trying to purify somebody else. And I said, you can purify yourself, you can purify your relationships with people, but don't purify other people. And afterwards, I thought, that's pretty good. So, the cauldron, staying with the cauldron, or with the oneness of life, is to work on

[31:49]

yourself, work on your relationships with other people, but don't work on other people. Working on other people is an example of what I would say is a breaking the cauldron. It may seem like a subtle thing, but I think it's a subtle thing. To stay with the oneness of life, you don't go around fixing up other people. You do relate to other people, and I think you relating to them will promote, will, if you're concentrating on the oneness of life, if you relate to other people from the oneness of life, you relate to them differently than if you relate to them from the point of view of, I'm going to help, I'm going to fix you. I'm going to fix you is not, is a kind of language which is coming from not concentrating

[32:53]

on the oneness of all life. When you are coming from the oneness of all life, when you relate to another person, you're not relating to them as an object. You're working on a relationship, and therefore you're not trying to purify the other person. You're working on harmonizing the relationship. It's not that you're fixing them, that you're the right one telling them what to do. So that has to do with forms around a Zen monastery too, in that, for example, if you're a teacher, you may say, this is the way we get on the tan, or this is the way we bow, or, like this morning I moved the kobako and the incense burner over more to the center. This is where we put the kobako, you may feel. But if you go up to the person like, you're off, and I'm going to show you the right way,

[33:59]

this is kind of like breaking the vessel of the relationship. What keeps the vessel intact is to remember how grateful you are to this person, among others, for making your life possible. And being concentrated on life, then what will you say to this person about the forms of practice? Maybe nothing. Maybe they'll do something in a unique and eccentric way for years and years before you say a word, and then somebody else tells them before you do. And they say, when the other person tells them this, they say, well, how come you never told me that? And you say, well, you never asked.

[35:02]

If you ask, then that's part of the relationship, and you can say, oh yeah, well, usually it's done this way. But if it's coming from the oneness of life, there may be no directive there to tell them anything, for years and years. Who knows? Or, if it's coming from the oneness of life, you may be able to say it the first time they do it. I don't know if this is true, but I said this the other day too. I said, the teacher needs to be able to see resistance as beautiful. And there's two kinds of resistance that are very applicable at a Zen temple. And one kind of resistance is the resistance of not wanting to do something, and the other kind of resistance is wanting to do it too much. And, so actually there are those types of people, some that hold back from the activity

[36:09]

of the form, and some that are into it so much, really, they're too willing. In other words, they don't hit the mark exactly. They're using extra energy to, it takes this much energy to do it, and they put this much energy into it. A little bit too enthusiastic. But both could be beautiful from the point of view of life. From the point of view, not only of life, but of the oneness and the intimacy of all life. From that point of view, both of them are lovely. And so the teacher has to be able to appreciate the loveliness of these two types of resistance. Of course, also appreciate the loveliness of somebody hitting right on the mark. The teacher is what we, we all should be teachers.

[37:13]

You know, we all should be bodhisattvas, in the sense that we should be with this living center, which is everywhere. And if we stay with that, that's our job. That's the job of the teacher, is to stay with that oneness of all life, and then the teacher, the bodhisattva, will be able to be tolerant and patient, and even grateful for the behavior of all the students. But to try to be grateful won't necessarily work under all circumstances. I recommend this one-practice samadhi. I think it works. I think gratitude comes from there. And gratitude lives right there in the same place as this awareness of this intimacy of all life.

[38:15]

Another thing that happened to me when I was up in San Francisco was I had a talk with some people that are getting married. Actually, they're already married and have a child, but they had a very simple marriage, and they wanted to have a Buddhist wedding. And they wanted to prepare for it. So we've been studying the refuges and the precepts together. And so at some point, anyway, they started studying the ten concrete, or the ten heavy and specific precepts. And the first one is not to kill or not to take life. And they spent a long time on that one, that first one, and they realized that they would

[39:34]

never get to the bottom of the first one. After working on it for a couple months, that's how they feel. I was really impressed because I felt like they really were sincere of seeing that the more they studied it, the deeper it got. And I suggested they study these precepts in terms of their relationship with each other in particular. How do these precepts apply to their marriage? So, they actually said, both of them, that they feel like they kill each other all the time. How do they kill each other? Well, one way they kill each other is, you know, right around practice. For example, one wants to do some practice for him or herself, wants to get away to meditate

[40:34]

someplace or take a walk for their own meditation. Of course the other one wants them to do that good thing for themselves, right? But also they don't want them to because then they have to take care of the baby. So while one is doing something for him or herself, the other one has to do less for him or herself. So sometimes they don't want the other person to do something for themselves and they feel like they're killing them. Another thing is, which they talked about, and I got this image, it's after you live with somebody for quite a while, I should say, after you meet someone and for some reason or other you decide to marry them. Okay. Then after that sometimes, after you got married, sometimes you look at the person and you kind of think, who is that? Or how did they get here? Or you might not even say, how did they get here?

[41:37]

You're not even that interested. All you know is that you want to take a walk or you want to go sit under a cherry tree or something like that. You do know that. That you're pretty in touch with, I hope. I want to go out. Then you say, oh, who is that person? And why do I have to tell them I'm going out? I mean, how weird that I have to tell this person here who happens to live in this house that I'm taking a walk. Why can't I just take a walk? Yes, of course, they have to take care of the kid if I leave, but still it's kind of a hassle to go through this formality. And perhaps I'll get interrogated too. How far am I going to walk? Why am I walking? Do I need to walk? Have I considered how much work they're going to have to do if I do take a walk? All this kind of stuff might happen if I say, I'd like to take a walk. It would be so much easier if they weren't there in certain ways just to walk out the

[42:42]

door. There's one thing that at that time that the person is likely to forget, and that is that you ask that person, maybe on bended knees, to live with you. You said, would you please live with me? Would you please marry me? Be married to me? You forget that. Therefore, as soon as you forget it, then you can't understand why this person is in the room and why you have to ask them to go out the door. So I suggested, you know, it might be good to ask each other again more frequently or now and then. Say, would you live with me? Just remember that this is a thing you asked them to do. They got there not by accident, but by your request, by your karma.

[43:46]

Otherwise, we tend to forget and then we feel like, same thing applies more widely, right? So even at Tassajara, we sometimes feel like, well, why should I have to ask these people about body blocks? And again, another irony is that, you know, you may feel like you're really in touch with your own life, you know, like you're really meditating on life and you're cherishing your own life. Therefore, why should these other people be hassling you about what you're doing? Why don't they just let you, why don't you just let me go do bloody block, take a hike or take a bath or miss a meal? It's just my life that I'm trying to take care of. What's the problem with you? Well, it's true, what is the problem with them?

[44:51]

But anyway, don't try to purify them. Try to purify the relationship or yourself. And remember that they are living beings and they're one with you and that as part of that, you've got a relationship. How do you take care of it? How do you ask them or tell them what you want or what you don't want? This is to take care of the cauldron, if it's with another person. This is to take care of the cauldron, if it's with your own body and mind. And this is also to meditate on the oneness of all life. And of course, you just want to take a walk. You don't want to meditate on your relationship with other living beings. You just want to take a walk. Yeah, that's called trouble.

[45:53]

That's called just about getting ready to jump out of the cauldron or break it. And it's very hard not to do it. It's very hard. Can I just take a walk? God! Well, actually, you can, but all sentient beings are making it possible. You can take a walk, but it's a very intimate thing. All living beings are going with you. It's not that you can't take a walk. It's just that if you forget what is actually going into what you're doing, you're not actually where you are. You're not actually meditating on the oneness of all life. And when you don't meditate on the oneness of all life, that's when we get in trouble. That's when we cause for ourselves and others... That's where the misery comes for ourselves and others.

[46:58]

That's when anger, lack of respect, ingratitude, all that stuff comes rushing in as soon as you forget... ...the fact that we individuals cannot lift a finger by ourselves. So in one sense we're very impotent, but in another sense we're incredibly potent because all living beings are helping us live. Anything is possible with intimacy. Anything. And anything good. Anything good. Willie Mays says...

[48:04]

People said to Willie Mays, What is the secret of your success? He said, They pitch him, I hit him. They hit him, I catch him. This is the one practice of Mahadi also. But, you know, it takes a lot of faith to practice baseball that way. To practice life that way. Now, this talk has already gone on for a long time, and I want to put another kind of link into it,

[49:04]

which will be connected to some future talk perhaps. I want to connect this discussion of the one practice Samadhi, of harmonizing body and mind through this absorption and oneness of life, and harmonizing relationships with all other living beings through this concentration. I want to connect this to what we call ethics. Or virtue. And perhaps to start out with a somewhat shocking statement, or a series of shocking statements, for your consideration.

[50:10]

These shocking statements are not true, these shocking statements are for you to be shocked by. Or for you anyway to think about and wonder if perhaps they could be true, or perhaps they could be false. But I'm not saying that they're true or false, I'm just saying them because I want to say something, I want to repeat something which I enjoy hearing myself. First is that virtue is the, what do you say, top of the line of human values. Among human things, among things that human beings can develop, virtue is the most wonderful. And alongside of that one, I propose that

[51:13]

being free and happy, or I should say, not to forget about even happy, but complete liberation has nothing to do with human values. As a matter of fact, being free is to take human values and turn them around and go in the other direction. Which unfortunately or fortunately doesn't happen to be the opposite of the usual direction. It's another direction, not the opposite, not the same, not 45 degrees from it, but another direction. Religion. Religion has to do with going in another direction, or really another direction. And virtue is, among the human directions, is the best. So, in some sense, that would even lead you to think,

[52:19]

might lead you to think or conclude that virtue has nothing to do with religion. Being good is not going to make you free. What's virtue? Being good, and getting good at being good. Being wholesome, and developing all kinds of wholesome roots. That's one of the precepts, that's the second precept. I vow to accumulate all the wholesome dharmas. And also, also or however, if you don't practice virtue,

[53:24]

your life may become such that you won't be able to do this wonderful thing called going in the other direction. Or, the one practice Samadhi is an example of what we mean by going in the other direction from the normal human tendencies. The normal human tendency is not to meditate on the oneness of all life. And, given that human point of view, the personal human point of view, then virtue is the best thing to do. But better than virtue, as far as religious freedom goes, is to meditate on the oneness of all life. Now I propose that if you do that, your actions will come forth

[54:27]

and will be right, and will be virtuous. But that's quite different than developing virtue in order to be free. Developing virtue in order to escape misery. Considering good and bad and always doing the good will not set you free. But among the things that you can do, it's the best stuff. Meditation on the oneness of all life is not something that you can do. If you think you can do that, then you don't understand the instruction because the instruction would say, meditating on the oneness of all life is to meditate on the fact that all living beings make possible every moment of your life, including all living beings make possible your appreciation that they make it possible.

[55:28]

The fact that you can do meditation is also, all your opportunities, all your experiences are due to the entire universe. This is not something you can do. This is not the human point of view I'm proposing. I'm a human being, but I'm telling you something which is not human point of view. And what I'm proposing is that that type of meditation is the core of the Bodhisattva's precepts. That to meditate on intimacy is the core of all these precepts.

[56:30]

And I myself alone cannot meditate on intimacy. I need other people to be meditating on intimacy to do it. And I myself cannot practice the precepts. I cannot practice not stealing by myself. I have to do it with other living beings. I cannot practice not lying without other living beings. I can't tell the truth all on my own. Other living beings have to support my telling the truth. So, developing virtue as something I can do, this is a wonderful thing. However, in fact, I'm suggesting to meditate on the fact that all virtuous actions and all unvirtuous actions are the work of all living beings.

[57:33]

Thank you. Thank you. The teacher.

[58:22]

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