Thank you for coming to this somewhat unusual meeting. What I wanted to say, I almost could say in the Zendo, but I thought it was a bit much to talk a lot in the Zendo at night. So I thought maybe this is better. I checked around with some people to see if they felt okay about having a brief teaching in the evening. And everyone I talked to said okay, but one person says, some of us may have trouble staying awake. And I felt like that's fine if anybody If anybody nods off, it's OK.

[01:01]

Actually, what I want to say is, to me, it's kind of a lullaby. To some of you, it might be more like a ghost story. But it's kind of a story about Zen meditation. about enlightenment. There is a realm in Buddha land that makes the spirit whole. So the Zen... often has a reputation of not proposing that there's a realm of peace and freedom. But at the same time, the ancestor Dogen Zenji did say in several places that the criterion for the...

[02:13]

authentic practice of the Buddha ancestors, the criterion for that practice of the zazen of the Buddhas is what's called the self-enjoyment awareness, or self-receiving and employing. But one way of translating it is self-enjoyment, and it refers to the Buddha's enjoyment of enlightenment. It refers to how the Buddha feels when she's meditating, sitting under the Bodhi tree. The bliss of intimacy with the Dharma, understanding that actually, here's the lullaby or the ghost story, actually we're all supporting each other and we're all being supported by each other. This is the realm of the self-enjoyment of the Buddhas.

[03:22]

The realm where we're enjoying how we're actually working together in perfect peace and harmony. The Buddhas have awakened to this realm and they live there. And no trace of consciousness reaches their illuminated life in this realm. self-enjoyment realm. They are aware of this realm. Their life is the awareness of this, but it's not recognized. It itself is not recognized. You can recognize it, but it's not an object of recognition itself. And this is the standard or the criterion by which one verifies that you're doing the zazen of the Buddha ancestors, that there is the enjoyment of this great harmony among all beings.

[04:35]

Now, there's other realms where we feel like not everybody is supporting us. and we don't really feel like we want to or are supporting everyone else. There's a realm where we have certain experiences which we don't feel that supportive of and don't feel that these experiences are supporting us. For example, if we think about ourselves, that we're stupid, we may not think that that's a very supportive thought. have trouble with that. I propose to you that this samadhi of the Buddha's, that this self-enjoyment, self-fulfilling awareness, that that is available if we can open to everything. If we close to some things, then that might also close the door on this awareness, which is the standard of the Buddhist practice.

[05:50]

So I'm basically suggesting to myself and to you, as I've been saying before, and now we're right in the middle of the intensive, so now I think we're maybe ready to really look at this that if we can open and welcome our own experience, all of it, we can welcome this samadhi. When we're walking around, when we're sitting in the zendo, if you can actually completely welcome and be careful and patient and concentrated with what's happening, whatever it is, whatever you're thinking is going on, Whatever you think about yourself or other people, if you can actually completely welcome that, there's a chance to also welcome what we're here for. And so I just wanted to briefly mention that tonight and also point out that at the end of the Heart Sutra, towards the end, in Japanese it says, Boji So Wa Kao.

[07:07]

In Sanskrit, it's bodhisvaha. In English, it is enlightenment welcome. Hail! Hail enlightenment! That's towards the end of the Heart Sutra. That's what it says. It doesn't say, I want to get enlightened. It says, welcome enlightenment. Welcome enlightenment. Welcome enlightenment. It doesn't say so, but I'm saying, if you want to be able to welcome enlightenment, if you want a bodhi-sowaka, then you got a bono-sowaka. Bono-sowaka. You have to klesha swaha.

[08:14]

You have to klesha swaha. You have to welcome affliction and ignorance. If you don't welcome affliction and ignorance, if you don't welcome your karmic consciousness, then it's going to hinder, that lack of welcoming of your karmic consciousness is going to hinder, more or less, your ability to welcome bodhi, anyotarasamyaksambodhi. Now, before it says bodhisvaha, it says, gote, gote, padhagate, padhasamgate, bodhisvaha, gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond what? People might think it's gone completely beyond delusion, but actually it's gone completely beyond any resistance to affliction.

[09:19]

It's gone beyond any stinginess about our difficult life here. It's gone beyond any resistance or holding back about samsara, about other sentient beings. about your own sentientness. It's going beyond all resistance to that. Then you're ready to welcome Bodhi. And then you welcome Bodhi, and then you're practicing zazen of the Buddhas. So the Zazen of Buddhas has this quality of being warm and compassionate and generous towards every being. And being careful and vigilant and conscientious about every being. Every being inwardly, every being outwardly. And being patient with every being.

[10:22]

Being patient with beings who are not welcoming themselves and others. Being patient with hungry ghosts and hell dwellers and frightened animals who are resisting welcoming their life and our life. Being patient with how long it's taking them to open to this life and this death. So people very kindly come to me and tell me about their afflictions. And when I encourage them to love their afflictions, they sometimes tell me they can't. And I say to them, I'm going to love you until you start loving your afflictions.

[11:27]

I'm not in a hurry for you to be gracious to your own problems. But I'm not going to give up until everybody welcomes affliction. I'm not going to give up simply welcoming my affliction until everybody else welcomes theirs. And when we do this so wholeheartedly that we actually open to bodhi, that's what Zazen is. So we need in Zazen, we don't need to think, it just happens that we do. We don't need to have karmic, you don't need to bring karmic consciousness to your cushion, but if you go there, you'll probably find it because you're a sentient being, I think. So we don't need to think this and you don't need to think that.

[12:32]

You don't need to think good, you don't need to think bad, but you probably will think good and probably will think bad. But you don't have to. But if you do, what you have to do is you have to welcome your thinking good and welcome your thinking bad. You must do that if you wish to welcome Bodhi. If you wish to practice authentic Buddhadharma, authentic zazen, you must welcome what you're up to or down to. So I'm basically saying the same thing I said before, and I'm just making a little bit more emphasis now in the center of the intensive. So we can now just sit back and sit up and sit down and sit upright and welcome our life completely and welcome Bodhi moment by moment. Welcome affliction moment by moment.

[13:33]

Welcome Bodhi moment by moment. Welcome Bodhi moment by moment. Welcome affliction. Both. They're not separate. Welcome them both. To welcome Bodhi without affliction is just... It's not even a dream. But to welcome our affliction is really... if you want to welcome the actual authentic practice. So that's all I really wanted to say tonight. And I hope you can go to sleep after this harangue. And I'm very happy to be very clear about what we have to do. And I know it's hard. I know we have some very strong afflictions to welcome, inwardly and outwardly. And again, I'm not saying like afflictions.

[14:34]

I'm not saying like pain. I'm not saying like pettiness. I'm not saying like selfishness. I'm saying welcome it. I'm not saying like your enemies or like your friends. I'm saying welcome your friends and welcome your enemies. Love all beings, in other words, and be careful of them, very careful, respectful, vigilant, and patient, and enthusiastic about this, and calm. This is what we have to do if we want to. And I think we do, but it's hard, right? And even though when you do it, it's easy, but just before you do it, it may seem quite difficult. And then again. All over and again and again.

[15:36]

And be patient when you forget for a few seconds or weeks. So I think that's really all I wanted to say. And so we can retire early if you like. Anything else, Bridget? I think that would be nice to chant the refuges. We could actually do it about 10, 15 times. But three maybe is enough. Did you want to say something? Yes. Well, would you please be the... There is a bomb in Gilead. Is it Gilead? There is a bomb in Gilead that makes the spirit whole.

[16:43]

Is it the same thing again? All right. So how do you do rounds? Is this one group here and one group here? Should we try something like that? Huh? So maybe people over here, you want to start? You ready to start? Want to be the leader, Meg? Huh? I think it goes something like... There is a balm in Gilead that makes the spirit whole. What? What? That makes a spirit? I did, yeah. I said it differently. I said I'm a Buddhist version of it.

[17:45]

My words? You think there's a bomb? Bomb. Bomb. It's pretty good. I don't remember what I said, though. What did I say? There was, there is a... Oh, I see it. There is a Buddha land in Gilead. What? What's with Gilead? Oh, we could say, we could say, there is a bomb in Buddha land. Huh?

[18:48]

Balm. Balm. Balm. As in ointment or salve. Are you feeling afflicted? You know what to do with that, don't you? Lullaby? Lullaby, yeah. I have a lullaby story. You do? Do you want to hear the Frenchman's story? It's actually the lullaby of Green Dragon.

[19:57]

And this is like a club. Club. Like a cabaret? Club. Okay, club. And... It goes like that. It belongs to the Afro-American tradition. And I don't know if the Afro-American tradition is represented here tonight, but it's an homage to the Afro-American tradition. A one, a two, a one, two, three. From babadooby dooby doo baboola, sha pa da. Thank you.

[21:05]

Anybody asleep yet? Thank you.

[22:00]

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