Well, we almost finished our, if you excuse me for saying so, little Sashin. I say little because it wasn't big. Just three days, right? That's not so long. But we suffered, didn't we? I did. Did you? Did you? Not so bad. You suffered? Anybody else? Hi. I should have told you earlier that I was suffering, but I was embarrassed. I thought, sometimes I think. Well, anyway, I didn't tell you. I was having a problem. When I was at Tassajara, I went hiking, and my knee swelled up. going down some steep hills. So then when I came back to this sashin and I crossed my legs, when I squished my knee together, the swelling with the leg being pushed together caused pain.

[01:13]

But fortunately, by squishing it together real tight, the juice got squeezed out and went someplace else, and now I feel better. But still it hurts, but not as bad as it did before. I didn't know if I would be able to survive, but I did. I also had some back problem, which almost did me in. But this is more trouble than I usually have in Seychelles. And the funny thing is that I could have used my pain as a nice topic for my lectures, but I was so concerned with the pain I didn't even think of it. So anyway, we're just about done. In terms of the bodhisattva's vow, you know, a bodhisattva not only wants to help everybody, but even one person, just to help one person, even a little, a bodhisattva will be willing to make a tremendous effort.

[02:37]

It's not like the spirit of bodhisattva is not, well, I'll make a big effort to help somebody a lot, or I'll make a big effort to help a lot of people, but I'm not going to make a big effort to help just one person, or I'm certainly not going to make a big effort to help one person just a little. But actually, everybody in the session made a pretty big effort for three days, and I can tell you that as a result of your efforts, at least one person was helped. One person, at least one person had a nice time. this week and thought it was very peaceful here. And part of the reason why this one person thought it was peaceful, I think, was that the other people here were not having such a peaceful time, were kind of having a little bit of a struggle or a little bit of a problem. So talking to people, I found out that everybody made a pretty big effort, including this one person that had a nice time. He left.

[03:50]

I think some people thought the session was over at dinner time. But I caught you before you got away. Anyway, he left very happily. And he will maybe be back for more. peace and tranquility which he found here. He wanted me to tell you that he was very grateful for the Sesshin and for the peace and tranquility of this place. And he said he didn't like service very much, didn't like chanting because he has a Catholic background. But he's one of these people that I told you about last week that was very happy to find a practice that was basically just sit. And he really likes sitting, just to sit.

[04:56]

And he doesn't have to do anything more. He was really happy to be able to do that for three days. He cried even. He was so happy. So we did it, and some of you may think you did a good job, and some of you may think you didn't do a good job. And I may think I did a good job or I didn't do a good job. As a matter of fact, not too long ago I thought I did a bad job. But I don't believe so much that I did a good job or did a bad job. I think I think that way. And I think others of us think that way. But I really think we did it, period. And then you can add opinions later. But we did do it. We snuck in a little sashin without anybody noticing. I hope it didn't cause too much damage. Did the worst of work get done? Was the garden okay? You think?

[05:58]

How about the fields? Are they okay? Didn't suffer too much? Good. The kitchen, of course, was all right. So that's our sesshin. We just did it. And it made some people very happy, and maybe some of you even, especially when it's over. Also during the sesshin, some Jewish people came to see me and complained about me. But they explained that that's part of being Jewish. So I felt okay. I didn't take it personally. And I'd just like to say that, you know, if I, I can only speak for myself, really, but if I, if I screw up in my, the way I live, my behavior bothers you, come and tell me.

[07:07]

I don't, I think it's pretty bad when I screw up. I do think it's pretty bad. But what's really bad is if people can't tell me. But you can tell me. And also, if other people can tell you, if we can tell each other, then even though we may screw up, we can continue our practice. We can recover. As O.J. Simpson says, he's a football player, he says, it's not whether you get tackled or not, it's how you recover. So we do fall down on the ground in our practice. We do make mistakes, most of us. And those of us who don't are making even a bigger mistake. So everybody makes mistakes in practice, everybody. But if others will help us

[08:13]

we can continue. So I'd like to say that I'm really grateful to all of you who sat the session because you helped a lot. And also, some people didn't sit so much. Also, I'd like to say thank you very much to them too. And I'd like to just thank all of us and congratulate all of us on this nice little effort we made. I hope we can continue to practice together in the future. Those of you who don't live here, I hope you come back and practice with us more. Also, as I said to one of the people who doesn't live here but comes here and really appreciates entering the community of practitioners occasionally, If nobody comes to practice with us, we feel a little funny. Like, you know, we like it, but how come nobody else comes to join us?

[09:19]

Are we kind of on some kind of a trip or cult or something? So we really, not only do we need input from visitors who practice with us who don't live here, but it also kind of encourages us that maybe we're not totally off, that it can help people who don't just live in such a nice environment maybe even helps people who live in such terrible places as Mill Valley. By the way, speaking of Jewish people, as you know, especially the Jews know, you are the chosen people, right? But what about the Eskimos? What about the Eskimos? What do you say about them? Well, let's just, just for the sake of argument, let's just say the non-Jewish Eskimos, what do you say about them?

[10:32]

Well, I'll tell you what to say about them. They are God's frozen people. So last night, last night I brought up that story about these two monks. I think, you know, I never get it straight whether they're actually blood brothers or not, or just dharma brothers. But anyway, there are a lot of stories about these two monks, Chinese Zen monks. One is named Yuen Yuen, which means cloud cliff or cloudy cliffs. And the other one's name is Da Wu, which means... I guess it is Da Wu.

[11:35]

I think it means... enlightened in the way, or enlightened on the path. So they were close Dharma brothers, and one day Cloud Cliff asks Da Wu, what does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion use all those arms and hands for? And Wu says, It's like reaching back in the middle of the night for your pillow. And actually, literally what it says in Chinese, it says it's like straightening your elbow and extending your hand in the night. Just going like this in the night. Just reaching for something, not even necessarily the pillow.

[12:36]

That's maybe more literal and maybe better translation because you're not even reaching for a pillow but you're reaching for something in the night you're you're reaching for something in the dark you're reaching for something but you don't know you're searching for something but you don't know what it is even but you do sense that you're reaching for something um And Suzuki Roshi on this point says that when you reach like that, not for anything in particular, not for something definite, like you know exactly where you're going or something, but you just reach. At that time, your practice is functioning fully. You may have heard about certain research on the brain I'm not using this as proof or anything, but this is just to entertain Lou Hartman.

[13:45]

If you check the level of brain functioning of somebody like doing this or doing that, you get various degrees of the brain being used. If you use your right hand, this side of your brain is a little bit more active than that side, right? If you use your left hand, The right side is a little bit more active because of that and so on. If you're hearing something, a certain part of your brain is more active than another part if you're talking and so on. But if you're just... They found that if you're just like waiting or just watching for something but you don't know what it is, like if they say, now watch over there, or they say watch over there, but then if they say... just be ready to be attacked from any direction, you don't know what direction it will be, and you're just ready for anything, then they find that just being waiting and ready for anything, the brain is fully functioning. So I think it's true of the brain, but it's true of our whole life that if we're just ready for we don't know what, rather than something specific, this is our full function.

[14:55]

And if we're reaching or searching For happiness, maybe, or for comfort, or for peace, but we don't even know what that would be. And yet we do want that for ourselves and for everyone. We do want everybody to be happy, but we don't know what that is. That's this kind of effort, I think. its effort in what's called inconceivable liberation rather than conceivable liberation. In other words, there can be such a thing as conceivable liberation, liberation which, you know, like it happens to people, they get liberated and they can conceive of the liberation. It's actually something they can think of. Such things do happen and they're very nice and a big encouragement. But there's also an inconceivable liberation, which is not just for you or for me. It's for everybody.

[15:57]

Such a liberation we can't actually think of. It's not really thinkable. And yet, the Bodhisattva vow is to that kind of liberation. This one that's not just something that we can think of or we know about. which is similar just to simply reaching for something. It's similar to just some simple act like reaching for something without knowing what it is, just reaching. It's similar, that same attitude of inconceivable liberation is similar to simply being ready for whatever. Just being ready. Just being ready. But not ready in general, but ready here, being here, now, and being ready here and now. Not ready theoretically, but ready actually in terms of your present experience.

[17:04]

And I can't say anything about that readiness either. I can say stuff like, well, I can say it's the full function of our life, but I don't know what that would be like for you to be ready. When I was at Tassajara just recently, this person named George Leonard, who some of you may know, he lives in Mill Valley, teaches Aikido, and he's an author. He and his wife were talking to me. His wife's named Annie. She also teaches Aikido, and she's a Zen student. And they were talking to me about something inconceivable, a thought that you can't think.

[18:14]

And he is an example of when he was 20 years old, he was in the American Air Force, and he was flying against the Japanese. And they were flying in over Japanese soldiers, you know, and shooting at them, like, shooting little Japanese people running around. And he said when he looked at them at that time when he was 20... They were kind of strange and mysterious and kind of frightening. And the American conception was that they were dangerous and they didn't make things very well. Their planes weren't quite as neat as ours and so on. But still, they were dangerous. That part, actually, they could conceive of at that time. He said if someone had told him at that time that in 1989 he'd be driving a Japanese car, have a Japanese television set, Japanese hi-fi, almost all of his appliances would be Japanese, that he would be a third degree black belt in a Japanese martial arts, that every morning he would get up and bow to a picture of a Japanese person,

[19:30]

And a few other things like that. He said if someone had told him that, that would have simply been totally inconceivable. And yet, although it was inconceivable, in fact, that's what's happening now. So we can't actually conceive of what's going to happen. We do live in a little world, and we can't see beyond it. We cannot think of what's inconceivable, and yet the inconceivable happens to us. It's not inconceivable like impossible. No, it's inconceivable like that's what happens. Exactly what we cannot think of happens. Not occasionally, but always. Exactly what we can't think of is what happens.

[20:35]

And what we can think of doesn't happen. Except right now. What we're thinking of right now, that happens right now. So it's kind of funny that way. So that's sort of why it's suggested that we practice inconceivable liberation, that we search not for what we think is going to happen or what we think would be good, but search very openly for Not for a particular thing which biases us in some direction, but search with an open mind. When we meet people, don't relate to them in terms of what we think they are. Let's relate to them in terms of what they might be. Let's try to find out a little bit about who they are. And even then, let's not say, well, now I've got it. But realize that people are actually, what they really are going to be in our life is always inconceivable. But again, don't think of that. Be open to it.

[21:38]

Be ready for it. So we make the vow to help all people, even to make a tremendous effort to help one person a little. And then, after we make this great vow, we try not to approach it just in terms of our own conceptions. Once we make that vow, then we try to meet the people with open mind, like, hey, what's happening? Who are you anyway? What do you see? How can I help you? I don't know how to help you. How can you help me? I don't know how you can help me. So that's kind of a little bit about what that story is about. But I didn't tell the whole story. There's another part coming up. So he says, what is the bodhisattva compassion?

[22:46]

What do they use those hands and eyes for? Or how do they use those hands and eyes? How do they use that infinite willingness to help and that infinite willingness to see and look for other beings and what do they need? How do they use it? If we were blind, when we met each other, we could put our hands on each other's faces and try to feel who they were, right? Since we're not blind, that's kind of considered to be unusual. But that might be a good thing to do, just feel each other's faces a little bit. Kind of intimate, isn't it? But a nice idea. So then he says, how do they use it?

[23:50]

They reach in the dark. They stretch their arm out and open the hand. They unbend the elbow and extend the hand in the dark. That's how they use the eyes. That's what they use the eyes for. That's another way to use it. What do you use? What does the Bodhisattva use the eyes and hands for? That's another way to look at it. They have eyes, right? And hands. So what do they use the hands for? They use the hands to go like this. They don't use the hands necessarily to reach over there and sort of, like, they don't use the hands to go like... We use our hands that way, which is okay. But they use the hands just to reach in the dark. In other words, their eyes, how do they use their eyes? They don't use their eyes to see. Or they see in the dark. There is a practice in Soto Zen which is called memitsu no kafu.

[24:53]

Kafu means house wind or wind of the house, which means the style of the house. Wind means also style. The style of Soto Zen is memitsu, which means mem is cotton. And mitsu is kind of secret or intimate. So intimate like cotton. The style of the school is as intimate as cotton. So we reach in the dark and we do things. We really do things like we pick up sticks and put sticks down. But being intimate with it Ironically, being intimate with it, in the particular of it, is closely related to being open and waiting to see what it is.

[25:57]

So, like when Suzuki Roshi... I used to watch Suzuki Roshi offer incense, particularly when I first came to Zen Center. I used to watch him, and he kind of... It's hard to show here, because I don't have an incense burner, and it's maybe too much trouble to bring it, but he... let's say this is the incense stick, I usually would find, he would go like this and he would put it in the incense burner, kind of like, and then sort of watch to see what would happen. It's kind of like, I had to grab it so it didn't fall over, but I didn't have to grab it, but anyway, I did. He put the incense in and it was kind of like, what's gonna happen now? And then kind of like, ooh. And in fact, if you do put incense in that incense burner, or most incense burners, especially a thin stick of incense, when you put it in, it often jiggles a little. It often does, after you let go of it, it often moves and jumps and does something unpredictable. Sometimes it just goes, you know, but even when it stays upright, unless you put it in

[27:03]

Really carefully, hardly with any pressure to straighten it even, but just let it sink in with almost no hand. When you let go, if you put it in an angle like this and let go, it'll often go... And when he put it in, I always felt like he looked a little surprised by what it did. It wasn't like he was definitely put it in, I'm going to put it in this way and this is the way it's going to be. It was more like, okay, this is incense offering time. Let's see what happens. And be very intimate with it. and put it in there and see what happens in this world now. So it's intimate to the details, but not like trying to control them, more like intimate with what happens and then what's going to happen and see what will happen. Imagine being that way with everything you do. When you say hello to somebody, like, oh, I think, okay, here it goes.

[28:07]

I'm going to say hello. Hello. And then what do they do? They say hello back or they wince or, you know, what's going to happen now? So this careful attention to detail is very similar to just sort of like groping, trying something out. searching for how to express your intention to benefit others through this action now. Okay? So he says that. So Yunyuan asks, how does the Bodhisattva use, or what do they use the hands for? He used the hands for being open and ready and entering into the darkness of intimacy with people. That's what he used the eyes for, too. And then Yuen Yuen says, I understand.

[29:12]

Is that clear? What do you use them for? It's like this. I understand. He says, how do you understand? He says, the whole body all over is eyes and hands. And then Da Wu says, you've got quite a bit there in what you said, but it's only 80%. And then Yun Yuan says, well, what would you say, brother, elder brother? And he said, uh... throughout the body eyes and hands so the difference between the two utterances the eighty percent and the other one was all over is the first one and throughout is the other one so then what happens when you hear that does your mind start operating and thinking oh let's see all over and throughout

[30:27]

So I say, oh, OK, so throughout means kind of like more than just all over. It means kind of like inside of each cell, right? Throughout, more thorough. That would be better, right? Well, this is what's called a colon. Think about the difference between those two words, all over and throughout. What do you think about that? This is an assignment for you. You can study that now for a while. What's the difference between those two? I'll just leave you with that, okay? Is that all right? I'm not going to state my opinion about it right now. But just think of that little difference there that they're putting all this attention on. This is case 89 of the Blue Cliff Record, if you want to get some help from the commentary.

[31:29]

OK, well, now I want to tell another story about these guys. One day, Cloud Cliff was sweeping the ground with a broom. And his brother Dawu walks up and says, hard at it, huh? Or, you're busy, aren't you? And Yuen Yuen says to Da Wu, you should know that there's one who's not busy. And then Da Wu says, oh, then is there two moons?

[32:48]

And Yuan Yuan takes his broom, holds it up in the air and says, which moon is this? And Da Wu walked off. This story will also help you think about the previous story. Okay? The two answers that they gave, all over and throughout. This is two things, too. Are there two moons? Moon means truth, right, in this case. So there's a busy world, busy life, sweeping, thinking, doing things.

[33:56]

and feeling pretty busy, maybe not feeling unbusy, maybe not feeling calm, maybe not feeling completely serene and beyond all action. And then there's another truth maybe, another world that is serene and beyond all action and not busy. So here he is looking pretty busy. He could be sweeping, but he also could have been in meditation, just sitting in meditation. And his mind could have been buzzing around. His brother comes over and says, you're busy, too busy. And he says, you should know that there's one who's not busy. Then his brother says, are there two truths? Are these two things? The busy and the unbusy one you're reminding me?

[34:57]

And he raises his broom and says, which moon is this? Which moon is this right now? Which moon is this? All day long. whatever we're doing or not doing, which moon is it? Now, you might think the not busy one would not be busy, right? But if the not busy one wasn't busy, then it would be busy. He would be busy by the action of not being busy. Do you understand? Does that make sense? If there was one that avoided being busy, that wasn't busy, that would be the busyness of discriminating against busyness.

[36:08]

That would be excluding busyness from your life. So the un-busy one is not separate from busy. And yet there is a busy one that doesn't know about the unbusy one. Do you understand? There's a busy one that thinks, oh, there's busy and there's not busy. But the unbusy one doesn't think that there's busy or unbusy. Or rather, it does think that's unbusy and busy, but it knows that this is not busy. Are these two separate? Are they different? Are they two moons? Is the one who's not doing anything at all, is that elephant who doesn't do anything at all, who sits happily not doing anything at all, any different from a butterfly who is fluttering all the time?

[37:12]

Dogen Zenji, in talking about sitting meditation, he says, when even for a moment, although I'll paraphrase for starters, he says, when you sit even for a moment, actually, Another translation would be, if you sit even for a short time. A short time could be three days. A short time could be a second. But it could be faster than a second, too. Now, there's some people I know who don't think they can sit for three days. They have trouble sitting for three days or for a week or for a year. But Dogen Zenji is now talking about sitting for a short time, the shortest time even, that you could sit.

[38:30]

We don't know exactly how long it is. But when you sit, even for a moment, and express the Buddha's seal in your three actions, actions meaning body, your posture, your voice, and your thought, How do you express sitting with your voice? How do you do that? Anybody know how? What? So... Is that sitting? Yeah. Can you do that? How about... Is that sitting? How about? How about? Is that?

[39:37]

Come on, let's hear you express sitting. Give it a try with your voice. That's good. Now, once again. Ah, you got it twice. One more. All day long, with your voice, can you express sitting? Can you express the Buddha seal through your voice by sitting? How about your posture all day long? Can you express with your posture, sitting, the Buddha seal through your posture? And how about your mind? Through your thoughts, express the Buddha seal. All right, now give it a try. Express the Buddha seal with your mind right now. How do you do it? Tell me how you do it, please. Somebody, help. Say it. Use an example that I used recently, please.

[40:39]

You don't want to. Right. Just reach out with your mind. That's all. Just let your mind function without directing it any particular way. In other words, however it happens, when I say, how do you express the Buddhasiya with your mind right now, look at it. What's it doing? When even for a moment you express the Buddha's seal with your body, speech and mind by sitting upright in samadhi. Again, how do you express the Buddha's seal with your mind by sitting upright in samadhi? Now listen to what it's like. This is what happens when you express the Buddha's seal with your body, speech and mind.

[41:47]

The whole phenomenal world becomes Buddha's seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment. Because of this, all Buddha Tathagatas in their original source increase their Dharma bliss and renew their magnificence in awakening of the way. Furthermore, all things in ten directions and six realms, including the lower realms, in other words, including people and beings in hell, states of insatiability and fear, all at once obtain pure body and mind and realize the state of great emancipation and manifest the original face. At this time, This time, this moment that we're talking about, all things realize correct awakening, myriad objects partake of the Buddha way, and sitting upright, a monarch under the Bodhi tree, you immediately leap beyond the boundary of awakening.

[43:08]

At this moment, you turn the unsurpassably great Dharma wheel and expound the profound wisdom, ultimate, unborn, and free of all human agency. You do all that in a moment. Not so much you do all that, but by you. thinking and talking and having a posture and you can do those all simultaneously by the way especially if you don't talk when you do that this other stuff happens but also you turn it around and when this stuff happens When all that happens, when all beings in the six worlds are manifesting a pure body and mind, at that time, your body, speech, and mind are impressing the Buddha seal, or the Buddha seal has been impressed upon your body, speech, and mind.

[44:21]

What's the one that's not busy here? And what's the one that's busy? This sounds pretty busy, doesn't it? But this is so busy that it's not really busy. It transcends busyness and totally includes busyness, and all busyness totally manifests the unbusyness. At least that's what I think. So anyway, you know, this guy's sweeping there and he says he's busy. And the other guy says, you're busy. And he says, you should know there's one that's not busy. But the one that's not busy, in a sense, could be something that starts sweeping so intensely that it just simply is the sweeping it's doing and nothing more.

[45:38]

So we have a practice called just sitting. We have a practice called just sweeping. When you just sweep, when you just sweep, the Buddha's seal impresses itself on your body, speech and mind. When you just talk, the Buddha seal is impressed upon your body, speech, and mind. And then all those fantastic things happen simultaneously with that. And also, when those fantastic things are happening, when all beings are happy, you can just sweep. That's what I believe. That's my faith. How about yours? What do you believe?

[46:43]

And remember, Samantabhadra rides an elephant. And they're big and gentle. And they walk through the mud, making a big splash. And they eat a lot. I would guess that all of you would be surprised by how much elephants eat. I mean, you all probably know elephants eat a lot, right? But I would guess that if you sincerely guessed how much elephants eat, most of you would underestimate it, unless you intentionally overestimated it just to prove me wrong. They really eat a lot. They're very busy. Samantabhadra arises busy, big elephants. At the same time, Samantabhadra is like a little butterfly. We don't know exactly what Samantabhadra is or where she is, where he is.

[47:58]

So somebody said, the Messiah may be among you, and I would say Samantabhadra may be among us. Where is Samantabhadra? Where is this fantastic bodhisattva? I will end with a poem written by a Japanese monk named Saigyo. This leaky tumbledown grass hut left opening for the moon. and I gaze at it.

[49:13]

All the while, it is reflected in the teardrops falling on my sleeves. May our intentions

[49:37]

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