Welcome to those of you who have just arrived. About 20 of us have been practicing here for three days or so. We start a weekend retreat where you're all joining us. And you may have noticed that sort of the topic, in a sense, for the week is, for the week, the Buddha way as performance, or performing the Buddha way. So I offered you this topic and I offer you the proposal that the Buddha way is performance of your actions moment by moment

[01:28]

your actions as and for the sake of the Buddha way. To give everything you think, everything you say, every bodily posture that you assume, to give those to the Buddha way. And then I also propose to you, and I propose this to you, but I feel this proposal has been given to me to pass on to you. I propose to you that there's no other Buddha way besides your life, our life, being given to the Buddha way. that there's no other enlightenment.

[02:33]

There's no enlightenment other than life to the way of enlightenment. might make people, today and tomorrow and the next day, might make people think of religion or something. I'm actually proposing a way of life, and I often hear, heard people in the past say, Zen is not a religion, Zen is a way of life. But the way of life which I think that the Zen ancestors lived might look like a religion or something.

[03:39]

This morning I suggested to some people that Zen masters are always to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. And later in the day, I thought maybe I should say, Zen masters who are bodhisattvas are always paying . There may be some Zen masters who are not bodhisattvas. I don't know. I noticed that some people who are called Zen masters, like there seems to be some Zen masters who don't necessarily call themselves Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are beings who are on the path to realizing Buddhahood.

[04:49]

And they're on this path to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. They're not on the path to realize Buddhahood for themselves. They don't think about themselves becoming Buddha. They think about everybody becoming Buddha, and they are part of everybody. So Zen masters, they are always paying homage to Buddhas. Bodhisattvas are always, anyway, in each moment, they're paying homage to all Buddhas. If they're not paying homage to all Buddhas, they're a bodhisattva on vacation. What were they called? Like in AA, they have Alcoholics Anonymous, they have what are called sponsors.

[05:54]

And if sponsors start drinking again, they're If you fall off the Buddhist path temporarily, you're not a Bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas are on the Buddha way together with the Buddhas. They're not walking that way by themselves. They're walking with the Buddhas. That's the way they think. They think, I'm walking the path of the Buddha with the Buddha, and I love Buddhas. Bodhisattvas, they love Buddhas, they're in love with Buddhas, they adore Buddhas. They worship Buddhas. And again, worship is a word that sometimes people associate with religion.

[06:57]

But the word worship, you know, it isn't necessarily associated with religion. It just, it basically, the root means worthiness or to acknowledge worth. So if you acknowledge the worth of Buddhas, that's a kind of worship. Worship revered and adored. Bodhisattvas adore Buddhas. And Buddhas adore Bodhisattvas. And Buddhas adore... Buddhas even adore people that aren't Bodhisattvas. Buddhas see worthiness in everything. Or Buddhas sees worth in everything and adores everything. So to, again, to be here in this world and be adoring Buddha is to be on the Buddha way.

[08:17]

And if you're talking, if you're walking, whatever you're doing, having that activity be an adoration, be given as a gift to the Buddhas. And that is using your current action as the performance of the Buddha way. Last time I was here for a retreat, we were talking about the Bodhisattva vows. Actually, you just recited a bodhisattva vow. That was a bodhisattva vow of an ancient bodhisattva named Dogen, Heihei Dogen. That was his own personal vow that he wrote.

[09:19]

He wrote, he vowed to hear the true Dharma from this life on through our countless lives. He prayed that the Buddhas would be compassionate to us from hindrance to performing the Buddha way. He prayed that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would be compassionate to us and free us from any resistance we have to giving our life to the Buddha way, moment by moment. He also said that if we feel that we are not giving ourselves, that if we reveal and disclose our lack of giving in the presence of the Buddhas, That will melt away the root of our resistance to being generous with our life and giving our life to the welfare of all beings, giving our life to practicing the Buddha way.

[10:34]

If we confess when we're resisting that and repent it, if you confess it and feel good about it, that's not repentance. You say, I'm glad. I'm holding back. I don't want to give my life to the Buddha way. I don't want my life to be the performance of the Buddha way. I don't want that. So I'm happy that I didn't do it. And that's not repentance. Repentance is, I want to give my life. I want my life to be a gift. I want every moment of my life to be a gift. That's what I want. I vow to make every moment of my life a gift. And just now, I shrunk back from that I confess that, and I don't feel so good about that. But now I'm going to go back and try again, the next moment, to make this life, to make this action, to make this thinking, this talking, a gift to the Buddha. Kathy, could you please go to the bookstore and get me a copy of Bing up there, please?

[12:03]

And when I was talking with you earlier this this year, which was called last year, about the bodhisattva vows, I particularly brought up the ten vows of the great bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra said that the The qualities of Buddha are so vast and so wonderful that even if all the Buddhas got together to try to measure them, they would never be able to complete measuring the virtues and merits of great enlightenment. And if you wish to give your life to this vast wonderful thing called the Buddhas, then there's ten ways to practice, to realize Buddhahood in this world for all beings.

[13:37]

And those ten ways are always, in every moment, worship the Buddhas, pay homage to the Buddhas, express your loyalty and devotion to the Buddhas. That's one way. And to do that, to perform that, no matter what you're doing, or to make whatever you're doing, performing it. So if you're blinking, make that blink. an action which is the performance of your worship, your homage to Buddha. If you're coughing, if you're standing, if you're sitting, whatever you're doing, whatever you're thinking, whatever you're saying, don't forget the opportunity to give that

[14:52]

to honoring, to revering Buddhas. That's the first one. To vow to do that is one of the great Bodhisattva vows. To vow to do it every moment very, very widely to all Buddhas throughout the universe. That's the first one. And then I propose to you that Buddhas have been transmitting, what Buddhas have been transmitting from beginningless times, they've been transmitting that very practice. Buddhas have been transmitting the practice of venerating Buddhas. And all Buddhas who transmit veneration, the practice, the performance of the practice, of venerating Buddhas, all those Buddhas who transmit that themselves have been practicing it for a long time.

[15:59]

The Buddha, no one realizes Buddha without venerating Buddha. And once Buddha is realized, Buddha teaches veneration of Buddha as a way of life. We are alive, we are active, and donate it to Buddha generation every moment. Bodhisattvas promise to do that, vow to do that. They don't say that they're actually going to succeed at it, but they make... And we call the vow vast and extensive because there's no limit to it, but also auspicious. Auspicious means... conducive to success. Making this vow is conducive to being actually someday being able after a moment to give your life away.

[17:03]

The path of Buddha, maybe obviously, is not a path about trying to get anything. That's not too surprising to you, is it? Or is it? Our society, to a great extent, there's elements of our society and elements of our own background, in our own comic background. You heard about it? Are people trying to get something? You've seen that? Go for it. It's hard to avoid this impulse to get something out of life. And why we're unhappy is because we spend some of our time or a lot of our time or almost all of our time trying to get something out of life. This is called enacting the lie.

[18:15]

The lie. It's about giving things. The truth is life's about giving. Or if you want to live in accord with the truth, practice giving. Make everything you do a gift. And start by giving to Buddhas because it's easiest to start with Buddhas. You may think it's hard to start with Buddhas. It's actually easier to start with Buddhas than with all sentient beings because, as you know, some people, when you give to them, they might slap you in the face, be afraid of you and run away, think you're trying to get something by giving them something. If I can just jump ahead in these, what do you call it, these ten bodhisattva vows of Samantabhadra,

[19:15]

is to give to sentient beings. That's the ninth of the ten. Because giving to sentient beings is actually more advanced practice than giving to Buddhas. And giving to Buddhas actually is kind of hard for a lot of people because they think it's weird. Well, who can give to Buddhas? What? I didn't think Zan was about that. I came here because I didn't have to give to anything. I came to Zen Center to get some enlightenment for me. I came to get some calm. I came to get some mental health. I came to become, to get adoration, but I didn't come to give adoration. Most of us did not come to this Zen Center, you know, thinking, oh God, I can go to this Zen Center and enjoy everybody there. Most people are just waiting for me to just come and worship them. But now, now some people, that's what they come to this end center for.

[20:18]

They go there because they worship some people. I can adore them. How wonderful. But actually it's easier to start with Buddhas because when you adore them they don't punish you for it. And they're not afraid of you. You can love them like 100% and they do not get scared. You can love them 10% and they don't get scared. And 150% they don't get scared because there's They're fearless. And they love you. Right now. So no problem giving to them. They will give you back. You give them love, they'll give you love back. They'll be kind to you. No matter if you give them love and say, I want it back. If you give them hate, they'll be kind to you too. They're kind. It's nice. It's a warm-up to sentient beings to give to kind beings, to give to vastly compassionate beings, because they'll just thank you, thank you, thank you.

[21:21]

Good boy, good girl, keep it up, come on. I'm rooting for you. And then you can gradually extend it to bodhisattvas. And bodhisattvas are sentient beings too, but they're the easiest sentient beings to give to. Because they're all... And the second vow of Samantabhadra is the vow to make offerings to Buddhas. So again, it's the vow to make everything you do a performance, making offerings to Buddha. Which includes that you think, you think, my life is an offering to enlightenment. My life is an offering to the Buddha. And then the next one is you praise the Buddhas.

[22:28]

Sing their praise. I've been singing their praise just now. Did you hear me? I've been singing how compassionate they are, how generous they are, how fearless they are, totally worthy. I'm talking about the most worthy thing that there can be in the world. And Buddhas are not necessarily Buddhist. A Christian could be a Buddha. A Christian could be someone who is greatly compassionate. A Muslim, a Sufi, a Hindu, an atheist could be greatly compassionate. A Democrat. a republican could be in this retreat i'm inviting you and inviting me and inviting myself and you to perform the buddha way

[23:49]

to make the good away what you're performing. You are performing things. You are performing activities. Now, you always have been, you will for the rest of the weekend and beyond. This weekend, maybe we can concentrate on making everything we do the performance of the good away. Make everything we do the practice of giving. Because it is. But if we don't practice it, we might miss it. And another way to put this is that Buddha is the intimacy of all beings. That bodhisattvas hear the teaching that all beings are intimate and they want all beings to realize their intimacy with all beings. They want Republicans and Democrats to realize that they're intimate with each other.

[24:57]

They don't want to turn into Democrats or Democrats to turn into Republicans. They want the diversity to realize that it's intimate with the rest of the diversity. They don't want everybody or Muslim or Christian. They want the Christians and the Buddhists and the Muslims and the Jews to realize that they're intimate. That intimacy is Buddha. And the activity of that intimacy is the Buddha way. So another way to put this is make every action a gift to realizing the intimacy of all beings. Try to remember to make every act to the intimacy that's already going on.

[26:03]

And if you feel some reservation about that, if you feel like you would like the Republicans to become Democrats and just have intimacy by everybody being the same, then you can confess that that's what you're doing and make that a gift. I'm not trying to sell books. But on the cover of this book is kind of an auspicious Chinese character. It's auspicious in the sense that this character is conducive to success. It's a character which has two parts which are also characters. The part on the left side. This part here in the red means person here. And the part on the right means meaning.

[27:08]

Or it also means justice. And it also means righteousness. When you put the person together with meaning, the character means righteousness. ceremony or ritual or performance. That's part of what we're talking about here now is to join your personhood with the meaning, with righteousness. Make your personhood through a ceremony. Make your personhood justice. Make your action of your person justice. Connect it with justice by making your action a ceremony to perform justice, a ceremony to perform meaning, a ceremony to perform righteousness. When you are doing something and you want to give what you're doing to righteousness, then what you're doing becomes a performance of righteousness.

[28:17]

And there's no other way to know righteousness other than your action being given to it. If you sit here and think about righteousness and say, I understand righteousness, yeah. You understand the word, maybe. But the real knowledge of righteousness is when your action is given to it. And the real knowledge of Buddha, or the Buddha way, is when you are When you are adoring Buddha, you know Buddha. When you are adoring Buddha, there's one Buddha. Not you and Buddha. When you're making offerings to Buddha, there's just one Buddha. And when you're taking care of sentient beings and making offerings to them, that offering you're making to them, you also offer that practice of being Buddha's.

[29:21]

Because Buddhas are doing that same practice. So you're joining the practice of the Buddha when you care for living beings. That's the performance aspect here. And also part of the performance, which some of you saw last time I was here, we put a cushion, like this one here could be. Can I have this cushion here? Can I use this cushion? Will somebody give me this cushion? put a cushion here, and you're invited to come up here and perform the Buddha way. You're invited to come up here and give gifts. So for three days, then comrades had been coming up, had been coming up, making gifts.

[30:23]

you're invited also to come up and sit here and make gifts, offer gifts, offer words, offer postures, offer thoughts. Come up here and perform in the Sangha, perform the Buddha way. When you're sitting there, where you are right now, you're invited to perform the Buddha way right now. But you can also come forth and do it up close to me. And Glenn's going to demonstrate. And one of the things I'd like Glenn to demonstrate is speaking up.

[31:36]

I was thinking of what you commented this morning regarding death and thinking about well-being. It's brought up in something that I read a couple weeks ago. Enlightened beings, if they come across someone who has no eyes, will gladly give their eyes. That may lead to the path to enlightenment of others. If you know anything, if someone's got a tongue, they look glad to give their tongue and glad to give their ears and glad to give their fingers and skin. Big chunks of it.

[32:39]

Take all you need. That's it. And that's difficult. That's difficult. It's difficult to be in your eyes. Yeah, I think it would be kind of uncomfortable. And then there are also the other people with knives. If they come up and they want their money, I'm glad we give them their money. Yeah, the people come up with knives. But the thing is that they don't need the knife. Right. But that's why it's good to start by giving to the Buddhas, because the Buddhas want you very often to ask you for your eyes. All they ask you for is love. They don't need your eyes. But if you get to Buddhism now, I propose to you, if you get your thing going with the Buddha, you'll actually have an easy time giving your body to sentient beings.

[33:48]

But you have to practice with the Buddhists for quite a while to be able to get the sentient being. And also, not every sentient being that asks you for the eyes should you give it to them. You only give it to them if it will happen. And also, only give it to them if they waste it. You only give it with no expectation. And not only do you give it happily, but you don't expect that they'll even use your eyes once you give them. So I would suggest to you that before you actually give any body parts or organs, that you consult with your teacher. Because your teacher might feel like, I don't know if to give your organs to this person. But if you're actually really ready to give it, and you really won't regret, if they don't even use it.

[34:50]

If you really care that way, definitely you would be the bodhisattva thing to give it. But just to, you know, want to take something, an ear, for example, to give to somebody who doesn't even want it is not necessarily a good idea. But sometimes people do want organs from living people, like sometimes a relative might want a kidney. And that might be actually, if you can give it with no expectation, that might be a very good thing to do, and it might not be that hard. It's difficult to give it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, I would say it's difficult when you're not ready. So then if you're not ready to give your, give me to your uncle or whatever.

[35:51]

Then you practice. Say, well, I don't really feel ready. I just don't feel ready. Then you can be yourself and your uncle, hopefully, can be gracious toward you and not be ready. So give patience and give graciousness to yourself when you're not ready to give to him. But get into the giving. Don't Start with something you can give. Even a small, even a tiny thing, if you give it, the tiny thing becomes a treasure. And even a tiny thing, if you give it, is a giving and is the Buddha way. And if you give with no expectation, joy will come to you. And as you give again, joy will come to you. And as you give again, joy will come to you. And the joy will grow and grow and grow the more you give.

[36:53]

Until finally the joy is so great, you will not be afraid anymore of giving. And you will also not be afraid of saying no when you don't think it's helpful. You can give a no. Like if someone wanted you to make money, you wouldn't necessarily get it. It wouldn't necessarily be helpful. But you might get something else. Like, honestly, I give you that. I give you that. I don't want to do it. That's my gift. That's a gift I can give. And I feel good giving you that gift. And I feel good giving you a response. There's another thought, please. Okay, another thing, I mean, when you talk about death this morning and, of course, I thought of well-being and, you know, we championed the idea of every week and every night.

[38:16]

Talked about that. I I don't know when you mentioned that I feel like you know, grabbing the Mokugyo and pounding on the Mokugyo and seven times for seven rounds and. But that would make. Things better or this narrative that would give you. Longevity. I feel that when you want to chant that chant to protect my life, is that right? Yeah. Or my well-being. I feel you wanting to do that is wholesome. And I wonder, do you want to do that as a gift? Do you want to chant that as a gift? There's two elements. Yeah. There's one element of clinging.

[39:23]

Yeah. So if you want to practice the Buddha way, when you see the clinging, you confess, oh, I'm not chanting this thing as a gift. I'm trying to get him well-being. So I confess, I'm doing this chant, this Buddhist chant, to get something for him. I'm trying to get him to have well-being. I'm trying to get him to have more years. Rather than I'm giving, I want him to live a long time, but I'm giving this chant, and I'm not trying to give. I want him to be protected. I want that. And now I give my chanting for his protection, but I'm not trying to get his protection by doing this chant. I'm not trying to get his well-being. I'm giving my practice, my life to Buddha. I'm offering it to his well-being. And if you notice I'm trying to get something from the chanting of the verse, then you confess, oh, there's an element of trying to get something in my well wishes for him.

[40:39]

The well, which is great, I'm making this thread, running through it, I'm trying to get something. So when we can get depressed while we're working for other people's welfare. Severely depressed sometimes, working for other people's welfare is a bit wholesome. Unless it's defiled or trying to get to them. Even for others. Even for the Buddha way. Try to get something for the Buddha way. It doesn't hurt the Buddha way. It just stops you from the path of giving me away. Give me away. Give me away. And if you're chanting for my welfare, give that away. And if you give me away, you just put my life and yours and protect your life and protect mine.

[41:44]

But if you try to get something for you or get something for me or get me for you, then you distract yourself from the reality of our true health and the reality that the practice of the Buddha way is not given. But then you confess that and get back on the right path again of trying to find something you can do as a gift purely without giving to get something. and you had just given, the 40-step practice of confessing, that you were trying to get something. Thank you for confessing that. You're welcome. Hang on. If you would like to receive the gift of me chatting in and she took on the art,

[42:48]

I don't want to give you that gift. If everybody else wants to do it, I will. Or sometime. If you want to do it, I will try to be generous and give you the opportunity to give me that gift. And I hope that you enjoy it when you do it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. We are definitely still giving another thought.

[44:18]

Well, before Joanne came up here, I was going to come up and I was going to say, I'll give you my heart and my cold hands. And then I heard what he said and I thought, that might not be the best thing to say. I'm not ready to literally give my beating heart or my cold hands. You're not ready to give your cold hands? You can give your palms to me without moving them at all. You can give your heart to me without taking it out of your body. I feel like it's trying to do that right now. It is. Matter of fact, it is doing that. Your heart is being given to you right now in reality. Your mind is in reality being given to you. That's reality. We don't have to move anything around that is to the self.

[45:35]

We're all giving each other our hearts right now. And nothing is different. That's the reality of the Buddha, is that we're all giving each other and receiving each other's heart. But if you don't feel that and express it, you miss it. So when you feel it, That's when you're performing the Buddha way. And even if you don't feel it, if you say it, if you think it, I would like to get my heart. When you think that, and you realize that thought is lining up your thinking with the reality of getting, then you're performing the Buddha way. That thinking was perceived. You can also, hearts can be moved around, hands can be moved around, you can reach out and touch somebody, But before your hand touches them, you're already giving it.

[46:41]

I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Do you feel appreciated? Mm-hmm. Well, I asked everybody here today. I wasn't yesterday. What? Yes, you do. I asked everybody, they felt appreciative by all of you. I do feel. I feel like you're worshipped by everybody here, pretty much. So you feel worshipped. And the more you worship people, the more you feel worshipped. I live one. recently thinking that I often forget to worship or pay homage to myself as well. And that's a gift. Paying homage to yourself is a gift.

[47:45]

Being gracious to yourself is a gift. Letting yourself be you is gracious. And you sometimes forget to do that. Yeah. And one of the ways that I remember to practice that is by giving to others. And it happens simultaneously. It happens simultaneously. That's right. That's the way we did it. We did it very soon. I know. So I'd like to be giving anyone else would like to come up on confinement.

[49:12]

What would you say? That's performing with the body. And also the speech. She said something. You want to get to? On the mind. It's all there. Waking up tonight? Mm-hmm. Are you doing the apostate?

[51:02]

Could you speak up, please? My name is Catherine. I'm a suitcase owner. I'm in the middle of a country. You think? You're getting here in question. You told me that just in case I didn't know. Well, those are wonderful gifts. Thank you. And I always come here because I like you.

[52:14]

I have a picture of you in my office, my house. I don't practice, so I have that. That's your party? Yes. Making good party. But I came here to say that it really scared me to think about this thing. Your eyes figure me out all the time. My eyes do what? Figuring me out. Figuring you out. All the time. Yes, but you should know that what they're figuring out is something good. I'm not ready to come out of my shell. But you're doing it. You're performing. I know. You're leaving right now. I came here. Yeah. Because I don't want to be able to come to this retreat and have an appointment with you. I'm up here, but I'm always... Yeah, and they predict me as being true.

[53:24]

When you confess your fear before the Buddhas, that's a gift to the Buddhas, too. Like giving is the way to become free of fear. When we're giving, like going with things, when you think about giving with eyes or something, you think it's difficult, you feel some fear in your head. But when we actually practice giving, which is the way to realize that we're already giving, there's an edge of fear that comes up. But then that's how we become fearless, by giving. Giving is the way. But it brings up fear. But it brings up fear in this actually not being dangerous. But it brings up fear about the bungee jump out of airplanes and stuff. And it's just actually opening your heart

[54:27]

And when you're opening the hatch, you open just here. And if you open the steering and don't close up, you also open the lock. No, so please continue. Well, this is a very good start for my point of view. So I hope all we can ...a warm beginning for several more hours together. And now, if most of you are going to walk out the door now, unfortunately, I can't say that today, right? But see if you can practice through the night of continually living as you go through the night. You can get up in the morning Make your getting up a gift to the Buddhists and to all of us.

[55:34]

In fact, getting on your back here and walking to this place to the founder, to give yourself to the Buddha. Walking here to adore everybody and honor everybody and appreciate everybody. You're going to be able to come back. be here. But yeah, why don't we just really open our heart to each other this weekend. And two or three, let's see, we face the fear that comes up when we start to open our hearts to each other. And then do generous with God and come to the people opening and opening. Okay?

[56:23]

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