I continue to discuss the essential art of zazen. When we perform a bodhisattva initiation, a ceremony of receiving the bodhisattva precepts, This ceremony is also called okudo, which means attaining liberation. And this ceremony of receiving the Bodhisattva precepts can also be described as a ritual way of the Buddha way.

[01:02]

And I think most of you witnessed the one we had recently. And those who have not witnessed it, did not witness it, have witnessed others. So I think you remember, perhaps, that we begin the ceremony by... Well, actually, there's no beginning of the ceremony. But at a certain point, In the ceremony, we make offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We express our homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We invite the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come to the ceremony. In the ritual performance of the Buddha way, we invite the Buddhas and bodhisattvas to come and join the practice.

[02:21]

And then again, we invite them again and again. And then, at the beginning of the ceremony, we practice renunciation. And we say that the Buddha ancestors have all practiced renunciation. And we say that renunciation is the way, the unsurpassed method for harmonizing body and mind in the Buddha way. That's the way we speak at the Bodhisattva initiation ceremony. But during Sashin we talk somewhat differently.

[03:27]

we talk about the essential art of zazen, but I propose to you that the essential art of zazen is renunciation. Renunciation is dropping off body and mind. So we could rephrase the ceremony, but there's a tradition, so we follow it. Say in the ceremony, at the beginning of the bodhisattva precept ceremony, we could say, all Buddha ancestors have practiced dropping off body and mind. All Buddha ancestors have practiced shin-shin-datsu-raku. dropping off body and mind is the unsurpassed way of harmonizing body and mind in the Buddha way.

[04:30]

Perhaps in some ceremonies we could say that. Today I say that. And another way we can say it is that the essential art of zazen is the unsurpassed way, harmonizing body and mind with the Buddha way. And again, non-thinking is the essential art. Non-thinking is the unsurpassable way of harmonizing body and mind with the Buddha way. To me it's therefore non-thinking, renunciation, dropping off body and mind are different words for the same practice.

[06:12]

Non-thinking comes from a story and that story can help us understand more intimately what dropping off body and mind is, what renunciation is. It shows us, it gives about how to work with our thinking. We are sentient beings, we have thinking consciousness, and it tells us how to work with our thinking consciousness in a way such that this thinking body and mind. We don't just have a body, we have a thinking body. And the body we have, we think about. The thinking body and mind, we practice with that.

[07:21]

to realize not thinking body and mind. And working with thinking body and mind and not thinking body and mind, in that careful, thorough, compact practice, we realize renunciation. We realize dropping off body and mind. by disciplining our thinking, which includes disciplining our body, our feelings, our emotions. By disciplining it, by totally engaging it, by totally engaging body and mind, body and mind is renounced.

[08:27]

Pronunciation is nothing in addition to total of our body-mind. This is disciplined form, feeling, formations, perceptions, and consciousness. In discussing non-thinking we discuss thinking and not thinking.

[09:50]

And there is the mind that has heard the Heart Sutra wonder if maybe thinking is like form and not thinking is emptiness. In thinking about this, I suggest that thinking and not thinking are both realized and understood in and through . I wouldn't say that thinking is more or less emptiness than not thinking. When you understand the emptiness of thinking, you understand that thinking is not thinking.

[11:01]

When you understand that thinking is not thinking, you understand that thinking is emptiness. And not thinking is emptiness. Not thinking is no more emptiness than thinking is. They're both emptiness. They both live in emptiness, together with emptiness. They both are emptiness. So understanding the emptiness of thinking, we are free of thinking. and realize that thinking is not thinking. Carefully meditating on not thinking, we realize it's thinking. Of not thinking, we realize it's thinking and we're liberated from not thinking. So I quoted Suzuki Roshi saying that emptiness is disciplined form.

[12:19]

Emptiness, now that's the end of the quote, emptiness is disciplined feeling, is disciplined perception, is disciplined mental formation, is disciplined consciousness. And again, emptiness is these disciplined forms. And you could say it again differently and say realized emptiness is disciplined form. You can say realized emptiness is disciplined form, but you can also say emptiness is disciplined form, and emptiness is also not disciplined form. The path of prajnaparamita is the path of totally engaged feelings, conception, perception, all mental formations and consciousness.

[13:30]

Total compassionate engagement of all experience, of each experience, of every state, is the practice of prajnaparamita. whereby we realize that all these forms and feelings are emptiness. And when we realize that, we realize that form is not form, feeling is not feeling, perception is not perception. This relieves all suffering and distress. A further aspect, again, the practice of dropping off body and mind, the practice of non-thinking.

[14:32]

In the practice of non-thinking we understand that non-thinking is the ritual performance of Buddhahood. and that Buddhahood is ritual performance, is ritually performing Buddha or Buddhahood. Dogen Zenji says, truly Buddhas, they do not necessarily think, I am Buddha. Or they do not necessarily think that they are Buddhas. But they might.

[15:42]

And if they do think, I am Buddha, they understand that this thinking that they're doing is not thinking. If they think, I am Buddha, they also understand that that is not, I am Buddha, because the Buddhists understand emptiness. So whatever they think, whatever they say, whatever posture they assume, They understand its emptiness. And therefore, everything they say is not thinking. Everything they say is not saying. And everything they gesture is not gesturing. So, they are performing the ritual of thinking, the ritual of speaking, the ritual of a posture. Buddhas sit

[16:44]

And when they sit, this is the ritual performance of a seated Buddha. So, can sit as the ritual performance of seated Buddha. The Buddha's sitting is emptiness, and our sitting is emptiness. The Buddha's sitting is not sitting, and our sitting is not sitting. Therefore we can practice sitting Buddha or seated Buddha. I hope that this sitting we're doing is emptiness and is empty of an inherent existence.

[17:51]

It's insubstantial and the Buddha's sitting is also insubstantial. Our sitting is always not sitting, and Buddha's sitting is always not sitting. And our sitting and our not sitting are equally supported by emptiness. And so it is the same with the Buddhists. that we are sitting, and we can think that we are practicing sitting Buddha. And when we totally engage in thinking that we are sitting, body and mind drops off, renunciation is practiced, and the body and mind are harmonized with the Buddha way.

[19:05]

Yakusan Igen Daisho was long ago performing the ritual of sitting Buddha, performing the ritual of sitting still and practicing non-thinking. Yakusan Igen was sitting and practicing renunciation harmonizing the body and mind with the Buddha way. Harmonizing the body-mind of this moment with the Buddha way. How? by thoroughly, intimately, totally encountering and engaging it, and thus letting it drop off in that total care,

[20:39]

Before the story of the monk coming to Yakusan Igen Daisho and asking him about his sitting ritual, before the monk came and talked to the master about his performance, his ritual performance of the buddha way, when he was younger, or I should say when somebody else who has the same name was there, Yakusan Igen was sitting in meditation and his teacher came to him and asked him, what are you doing sitting there? And Yakusan Igen said, I'm not doing anything at all. he was performing the ritual of not doing anything at all in sitting posture.

[22:12]

And his teacher said, then, are you sitting? And Yao Shan said, if I were idly sitting, I would be doing something. His teacher, Sekhito Gisen, said, doing anything at all. What is this not doing anything at all? And Yao Shan said, even the 10,000 sages don't know. The Buddha ancestors were very happy about this. And this happiness has been transmitted for more than a thousand years and is here today. Intimate body and mind is not doing anything at all and nobody knows what that is.

[23:26]

Nobody can grasp total engagement in immobile sitting. But everybody can realize it. Before Yaoshan, there was the great master Ma, the horse master. the cow master, Matsu. His teacher was Nanyue. In the traditional record of Nanyue, there's a story.

[24:32]

And in the story Master Ma, Matsu, Basso, was sitting. And sometimes they say he was sitting all the time. And his teacher came to him and said, What do you intend here all the time?" And Matsu said, I intend to become Buddha. We chant here in this room quite frequently, Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it.

[25:56]

Master Ma intend to become Buddha. And then his teacher, Nanyue, picked up a tile and started to rub it on a rock. And Matsu said, "'Teacher, what are you doing?' And Nanyue said, "'I'm polishing this tile to make a mirror.'" Master Ma said, "'How can you make a mirror by rubbing a tile on a rock?' And Nanue said, how can you make a Buddha? By sitting in meditation.

[27:01]

Then Matsu said, well, then what is right? And Nanue said, when driving a cart, if the cart doesn't go, should you beat the ox? Matsu did not reply. Nanyue went on and taught further. Are you studying seated meditation or are you studying seated Buddha? If you are studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting still. If you are studying seated Buddha, seated Buddha has no fixed mark.

[28:29]

In the non-abiding Dharma, there should be no grasping or rejecting. If you are studying seated Buddha, this is killing Buddha. if you grasp the mark of sitting or the form of sitting, you are not reaching its essence. The story goes on, but I suggest that this is a story about dropping off body and mind.

[29:35]

This is a story about non-thinking. We have two more days and I would like to go into more of this story. May I? Well, the first thing I'd like to bring up is that in the traditional record, it says that the great master Matsu was studying with the great master Nanyue, and the great master Matsu was sitting all the time

[30:55]

He wasn't doing anything else. As you have heard, many of you, we also have another ancestor whose name was Bodhidharma. And they say he sat a lot too. They say he sat for nine years facing a wall. In the room where I meet with you folks, there's a painting or a reproduction of a painting of Bodhidharma sitting in a cave facing a wall and somebody offering him a severed arm. Bodhidharma is said to have sat a lot and now Matsu is sitting all the time. This is a kind of a story that has been transmitted to us, that we have a great ancestor.

[32:09]

He's not in our lineage. Yes, he is in our lineage because Dogen Zenji inherited both the lineage from Matsu and the lineage coming down from Sekito. Both those Chinese lineages the one of Sekito, Yaku-san, and Matsu, and so on, Baijang. So the Rinzai and Soto come together in Dogen Zenji. From Myozen Zenji, he got the Rinzai side coming down through Matsu, and from Rujing, he got the Soto line. In a way, Matsu is our ancestor. And he sat all the time. It didn't say he walked all the time. It said he sat all the time.

[33:12]

However, one of his ancestors' name was Walk and Think. But it didn't say he was walking all the time. It just said when he walked, he thought. What did he think? Well, we know what he thinks. He thinks non-thinking. So the story again is this great ancestor sitting all the time. But when Dogen Zenji tells this story, which is different from the record, he said, after or having already realized the Buddha mind seal, after realizing the Buddha mind seal, he was sitting all the time. In the traditional record, it doesn't say after. At the end of this story, it says he inherited the Buddha mind seal.

[34:14]

So in the traditional story, it sounds like the story which we're getting into now, which goes on, at the conclusion of this story, he realizes the Buddha mind seal. But when Dogen Zenji tells it, he says he's already realized it. I think I like the combination of these two perspectives, which seems to lead to the realization in one story, the realization which leads to the practice in the other, or the practice which is the realization in the traditional story and is the practice in Dogen Zenji's story. to handle this dynamic between sitting, which realizes, and realization, which is sitting, to handle those two, part of the work of totally engaging sitting.

[35:28]

This sitting is the enactment of enlightenment. Enlightenment is enacted by this sitting, and this sitting enacts enlightenment. As my dad used to say, Easter time is the time for eggs, and the time for eggs is Easter time. Thinking is not the way. Not thinking is not the way.

[36:38]

It's their dynamic intimacy that's the way. It's their constant dialogue and mutual support and inseparable non-duality. And negotiating this is negotiating at the same time. So in one story he seems to be sitting trying to learn this practice of non-thinking. In the other story he already knows how to do it. And his teacher's asking him about enlightenment. And in the other story he's asking him about his practice. And both perspectives. I welcome both perspectives. I welcome both renditions of the story. the one from the records and the one from Dogen Zenji's discussion. And I just wanted to say a little bit about sitting all the time.

[37:46]

One time, Suzuki Roshi's son was here at Green Gulch, gave a little talk, and he mentioned what we call just sitting thoughts. just sitting, and he said, but you can't just sit all the time. So what does just sitting mean if you can't just sit, if you have to do something else? Well, at that time he said, just sitting means that no matter what you're doing, you're always pointing at sitting. So when it says Matsu was sitting all the time, maybe it just means that no matter what Matsu was doing, he was pointing to the Buddha sitting. He was always pointing to the Buddha way. No matter what he was doing, he was always pointing to the Buddha way.

[38:54]

Whatever he was doing was the ritual performance of the Buddha way. that everything we're doing is devoted to the performance of the Buddha way. Can we remember that what we're doing now is the Buddha way? Can you remember that now lifting your eyebrows is the performance of the Buddha way? Or would you say, well, lifting them is, but lowering them isn't. But we've got that covered. Matsu says, sometimes raising the eyebrows is right, sometimes it's not. Matsu raised and lowers his eyebrows as the performance of the Buddha way. How about you? Or do you say, well, after I wasted all my practice then,

[40:01]

or after lunch I'll practice Zen, but now this is not the time for such things. And you can say that, but when you say that, is that the ritual performance of the Buddha way? Do you want to be the ritual performance of the Buddha way? You may guess that I think that the ancestors were of the Buddha way, that they trained and trained and trained so that moment by moment they were performing seated Buddha. Moment by moment they were performing renunciation. Moment by moment they were performing non-thinking. Thinking. And their thinking was intimate with not thinking.

[41:05]

And they practiced with that intimacy. And they learned to do it moment by moment by moment by moment. Just practicing. Always practicing this and this and this. for the welfare of all beings, always practicing this as thoroughly embracing all and liberating it by that thorough embrace, thoroughly entering every occasion of Dharma, thoroughly becoming the Buddha way. That's my imagination of the Buddha. of their practice. And that's my imagination of non-thinking.

[42:13]

And that's my imagination of the essential art of Zazen. And in my imagination, I imagine I occasionally forget I forget to celebrate the essential art of Zazen. I'm flying through the air with the greatest of ease. At some point in the process, I forget to celebrate I want to celebrate every moment as renunciation. I want to celebrate every moment as the current opportunity for harmonizing with the Buddha way by dropping off body and mind.

[43:20]

So in both stories, both the traditional record and in Dogen Zenji's reporting of the story, the teacher Nanyoe asked Matsu, what are you intending, what are you figuring, what are you thinking of doing sitting there? And Master Ma says, I'm thinking of becoming Buddha. So with your permission I'd like to stop at that point in the story and say welcome any feedback that wishes to come forth. I wonder if the kitchen workers are going to go to the kitchen now.

[44:53]

They're leaving the room. Oh, here comes the Tenzo. Maybe the Tenzo can speak for the kitchen staff. Or perhaps for herself. Welcome, worthy Tenzo. I have to take the opportunity. Yeah, you got all dressed up. You might as well come and And express yourself. In the Koso Hotsuganmon, it says, Buddhas and ancestors, whereas we, we in the future shall be Buddhas and ancestors. What do you think?

[45:55]

Why does he say that in the future? And why were they in the past? Well, one way to understand it is Buddha ancestors used to occasionally forget to ritually perform the ceremony of Buddha. They used to forget. When they weren't trained very well, they sometimes would forget to perform dropping off body and mind they would sometimes grasp and forget that the grasping was part of the process of the Buddha way. That's the way we are now sometimes. We forget to celebrate the Buddha way in this current action. And they used to be like that. That's one way to understand it.

[46:56]

I've heard some stories. report that Shakyamuni Buddha actually talked about some of his own limitations, about times when he was kind of petty. He was embarrassed by some of the things, some of the ways he practiced. But he practiced with those ways of not practicing. And we're doing that now too. We see our shortcomings. We notice them. We confess them. We repent them. We practice confession and repentance just like the Buddhas did. They used to be like us. And we will be like them when they got well trained. We will be well trained. This is the great optimistic view of this tradition of the Lotus Sutra. We will learn the Buddha way. we also have shortcomings.

[47:58]

But Buddhism ancestors, before they were accomplished Buddhism ancestors, they were like us. So we aren't exactly Buddhism ancestors in a way. However, non-Buddha ancestors can celebrate, virtually celebrate being Buddha ancestors, performing Buddha ancestors. But then sometimes they forget, and then they're not performing Buddha ancestors, and they're not performing Buddha ancestors means they're not Buddha ancestors. Did the kitchen, people go to the kitchen? Are they going there to practice the Buddha way? I'm sure they will. Oh, great. Would you move that question out of the way, please? Just a little bit to the side.

[48:59]

May you? Yes, you may. Today's lecture, you talked about renunciation.

[50:12]

Renunciation is the dropping body and mind. It's the non-thinking. And I have a understanding of renunciation, so I would like to ask you. Okay. Almost 10 months ago, the leaving home ceremony, and that ceremony included renunciation. And somehow I understood that it's giving up something or limiting my challenging limitation of my life or something along the way. For example, renunciation means giving up drinking, giving up relationship, giving up growing hair. Those were, I thought, renunciation. But somehow it doesn't. occur to me as dropping body and mind or non-thinking. So what is that renunciation means you're talking about today?"

[51:16]

So renouncing sex, for example. Let's take a simple one. Renouncing sex means to actually renounce it. it means to give it up. And giving it up means to really give it up, you must be intimate with it. Then why we cannot perform and intimate it? Performing sex and intimate to it, what's the difference? Bodhisattvas can perform sex intimately. And monks can perform sex intimately. Right now, in this room, we are performing sex intimately. And in the intimacy of sex being performed right now, ritually, this is a ritual performance of sex right now.

[52:27]

In this ritual performance, there is dropping off body and mind. This way of sex that we're practicing right now is harmonizing with the Buddha way. then why you ask us to not having sex for five years? I didn't ask you not to have sex for five years. Yes, you did. I did not ask you that. Yes, you did. I did not. I did not. And I did not, and I never have. I just train as a priest. Do not start intimate relationships for five years of training with me. I didn't ask you to train with me. I said, if you want to train with me, then for five years do not start an intimate sexual relationship. That's not the training. I didn't tell you to do that. I just told you, that's the training. I didn't tell you to do the training. I just said, that's the training. I understand.

[53:31]

Yes, you told me that. Yeah. So, I'm saying, this is the way you can Ritually perform sex like this for five years. This is the way you can do it with me and everybody together. This works quite well. You can do a sesshin and there's no special arrangements necessary. You can perform in a way that's in harmony with the Buddha way during orgy-oki meals. But for me, this is not sex. Orgy-oki is not sex. If for you this is not sex, that's part of it. Part of sex is called, as you said, not sex. So you understand the not sex part. You've got that down. Okay? This is not sex for you.

[54:32]

And for me, it's also not sex. But for me, this is also sex. Right now, this is sex. There's no more sex than this for me. This is sex. And this is not sex for me. So I'm here to teach you that this is sex. You got the not sex part down. Most people know the sex part, but they don't know the not sex that's always there with sex. That's what we're trying to learn here, is that sex and not sex are not dual. People who think they're dual have some stress. So we need to engage intimately with sex, and when we do, we realize that sex is not sex, because both sex and not sex are empty. Sex is empty of sex, and not sex is empty of not sex.

[55:36]

For five years, this is the kind of sex that I invite you to... Four years and ten months more. Anyway... Did you say four years and ten months? Yeah. No, no, only four years and two months. Yeah, it's true. Only two. But then, why... Then, yeah, then... Then... Then... Why you are asking that things we call the sex do not perform intimately due to those five-year training? What... Non-sex is the same thing, sounds like. Why once you are... Well, one of the main reasons is because some forms of sexual performance, I would not be invited to attend. You or I or... let's say somebody who I was training went off with somebody else into some room somewhere, perhaps into their own room, okay, and closed the door.

[56:51]

Okay, let's say that happened. But I wouldn't probably be invited to come, right? Be there to teach and affirm that the people were practicing intimately according to the Buddha way. So you wanted to be invited. That is why. I want to be invited. Yes. So if someone was going to do something like that, they were training with me, they would say, I'm thinking of going into so-and-so's room. And I would say, well, I don't think that's a good idea. Or maybe you should have the person come out into Cloud Hall and we can actually do this with everybody watching. And then, you know, like, and it would be done appropriately, you know, together we would do it. After five years of training, then you have a good chance of how to practice intimately with sex and not sex.

[57:52]

Most people already know that there's sex and not sex, but they're separate, they're dual. They don't know how to realize not sex, and therefore they don't drop off body and mind in the process of sex. But also, they don't know how to drop off mind in the process of not sex. When they're involved in not sex, they're not intimate with that either, and their body and mind is not fully engaged. Renounce. Either way they don't renounce. I'm trying to teach and practice renunciation with you. And if you're busy, if you have relationships that take a lot of attention, and sexual relationships take a lot of attention, I don't practice with you. I'm not invited. It's not something I would be there for. So any kind of relationship that I can be there for during these five years, I say, it's just competing for our precious. We have a little bit of time together for five years.

[58:54]

So during that five years, I'm giving special attention to you and you're giving special attention to your fellow priests. We're really focusing on training and we are sexual beings. The sex is part of it. People still have the same nature and we're struggling with that. The word for nature, the Chinese character for nature that's translated as nature also means sex. You know that? Its character on the left side is a mind character and the right side, life. That character is translated into English, nature. It also means sex. Our nature, we are sexual reproducing organisms. Now, how can we be intimate with that? Well, we get a special training program to be intimate with our nature, to realize that our nature is not nature and sex is not sex. That's what the training's for, is to realize that intimacy in the non-duality.

[60:00]

Then if you wish to have a so-called formal sexual relationship with someone where you commit to it and work on it and so on, and it takes time and effort to maintain it and care for it properly, you wouldn't have as much time to be with me and I wouldn't be invited to those practices. But that would be fine. After five years, I say, if you wish to do that, You have my support. You trained in this special way for five years. You learned things in this training that you can't learn unless you're focused. And my experience is that I ordained some people as priests many years ago or more. I ordained them as priests. They got involved in a relationship and they were not able to be present in their practice with me as much, like half as much maybe. They couldn't come to Zazen as often. the relationship took almost as much energy as their practice with me.

[61:03]

That isn't the same with everybody, but for some people the relationship just took them completely away from Zen Center. And that's okay, but I don't call that training when somebody gets ordained and goes away and I don't even see them anymore. I'm not training with them anymore. So for me, I want people to understand the reality of sex. which is the reality of human life. So this is what this training's for. And for five years we're focusing on formal practice that we do together, that everyone can participate with. That's a whole sangha practice, not a relationship between just two people in a special way, which is fine, but I'm not training that relationship. I hope I prepare you for such a relationship so that you could have a wholesome and enlightened relationship someday, if you wish. But now I'm training you to practice with everyone.

[62:06]

You and I are practicing with the whole Sangha. We're not practicing just you and me. And you're not practicing with one person much more than other people. If you want to practice with one person, So I'm going to say, well fine, that's not the kind of training that priests are going through. Does that make sense? But I'm not telling you to do this. I'm offering this to you, if you want it. And I want it. at Tassajara last fall, I mentioned that Dogen Zenji taught that there is this practice of prostrating three times before asking a question about the Dharma.

[63:42]

And having mentioned that, people, when they came to ask questions, were doing three prostrations. So then we said, but then that made the question and answer sessions really long because each question was before and after each question. So then we said, well, if you wish, you don't have to do three prostrations before you come and ask a question, but if you wish to, do them before you come up to ask a question and after you leave. So if you wish to do three prostrations before you offer your question or your feedback, I would suggest you do it before you come up here and after you leave. And if you don't do three prostrations, I would suggest you do that before and after you leave, too.

[64:45]

You did this nice job in this practice period by showing how the mind... Can you hear me? They were having trouble. Maybe if you tilt it like this. Is that better? Try it now and see how they do. Hello? Hello? Okay. So you did this nice job in the practice period, like showing how the mind works. That was helpful for me. Like now the thought arises and it goes. So you were also talking about ethical discipline. So I wanted to ask you if you could also give an example on that, how you practice that from the inside point of view. You want an example of practicing discipline? Ethical discipline?

[66:01]

Ethical discipline. How do I practice ethical discipline? Yes. Well, I guess the main way I practice it is by being careful and gentle and quiet. That's the main way I practice it. So if I even know I'm talking to you now, I try to simultaneously be quiet while I'm talking. Even if I talk loud, I try to be quiet and careful when I speak to you, and vigilant and watch to see the response in you as I'm speaking to you. This is what comes to mind as ethical discipline. I'm disciplining my speech action, my actions of speech, Very careful of them before and during and after.

[67:05]

And also physical movements. If I'm going to make a gesture towards someone, I try to be mindful and careful of the gesture. If I bow to someone, I try to be careful. If I meet someone, I try to be careful of the meeting. If I see someone and I want to talk to them, I generally don't yell at them from a distance. I try to get close to them before I talk to them. Maybe I have to run, but I try to run carefully. So with my body, speech, and mind, I try to be careful and observant and nonviolent and gentle and calm and so on. That's basically it. I try to do that with all my actions of thought, speech, and posture. And then sometimes I'm not careful.

[68:10]

I get maybe an act. I speak, but I get ahead of my mindfulness. I talk faster than I can be present. I wasn't really mindful then. And then I confessed that and repented and tried again. So confession and repentance is also part of my ethical discipline to notice that wasn't such a careful thought. I wasn't paying attention to that. So I'm sorry. And now I wish to go back. And be careful again for the next action, for the next thinking. Yeah, practicing. Out of that comes a particular discipline. Yeah, it's non-thinking, yeah. It's non-thinking in the form of being very careful with the thinking. But also being generous with the thinking is part of non-thinking, too.

[69:15]

So generosity is somewhat separate from... Generosity is more like opening to the thinking, opening to the actions. and really feeling gracious towards it and really feeling grateful for it. That's fundamental. And then be patient with the difficulty of the practice. So giving ethical discipline and patience are part of non-thinking. But also part of non-thinking is diligence. is enthusiasm for doing these practices. Enthusiasm and joy and energy for practicing concentration. And then to finish non-thinking is to have wisdom, to understand, for example, that action and not action are intimately related with

[70:20]

that speech and not speech, that thinking and not thinking. So that's the wisdom part. So then the whole all this together is non-thinking. All this together is right thinking. All this together is dropping . the beginning of dropping our body and mind in the practice of ethical discipline is being careful of action. And as we get more and more intimate with the carefulness of the action, we realize that all action is not . And then the intimacy deepens and deepens. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Can you hear me?

[71:50]

You spoke about Buddha, and I'm curious, what is Buddha? You're curious about what is Buddha? Me too. There's two questions, yeah. So what is Buddha, and what is a Buddha? Well, I can say something about it, but what I'm saying is not Buddha. That's the first thing I'm saying about it, is what I say about it is not Buddha. You could also say something about it, and that wouldn't be Buddha either. Want to say something about it? So you talked about there's sentient beings in this bubble, and there's Buddha in this bubble.

[72:55]

No, Buddha isn't in a bubble. Okay. Buddha is in a bubble. It's just I draw a circle around B so you know the difference between... A circle around B means Buddha, but without the circle around the B, the B is just a B. But that's also Buddha. Yeah. Correct. That's my question. It's like there's something spiritual or separate about the being in a circle. Yeah. But that's not my understanding of Buddha. Right. The Buddha's not separate. The Buddha's not separate, and also we're not separate either. But we think we are. So those who think that they're separate and believe it are called in a circle. So sentient beings have karmic consciousness and karmic consciousness seems to limit, seems to separate us from others. Or karmic consciousness is built up upon the mistaken perception that we're separate.

[74:02]

Sentient beings had those kinds of minds. So it seems like an issue of belief if I believe I'm a sentient being, then I have karmic formations, and if... You could believe that, but you don't have to believe that. You can just check to see if you have karmic consciousness. And then, just by definition, if you notice that there's karmic consciousness to your sentient being. But you don't have to believe that sentient beings have karmic consciousness. You can just understand that that's the definition. The important thing is you look to see whether you've got it or not. And if you've got it, then you've got problems. I guess my question is also about believing in a Buddha. Can I believe, like, am I really meant to understand that there is a karmic formations? The Buddha taught, the historical Buddha taught,

[75:10]

that there are beings who have worked with their karmic consciousness, and by working with it, the karmic consciousness has been transformed so completely that they're no longer caught by it at all. And they can then interact with other beings who are still caught by karmic consciousness in a way to help them. Someone said to me this, you cannot direct living beings, but you can disturb them. So Buddhas can disturb people with karmic consciousness. They can send messages like, Check to see if you've got karmic consciousness. And if you need to know what it looks like, I'll explain. And then once you start checking, you start to feel it's the problems involved. And once you start doing that, you're on the Buddha way. And the Buddha said, and there are people who have understood this process of karmic consciousness.

[76:14]

For example, the Shakyamuni Buddha said, I've understood it. I see how karmic consciousness leads to discriminating consciousness, blah, blah, blah. I see that. That's what I've discovered. And I've seen how it can be reversed and there's liberation as possible. And I'm very happy to offer this teaching if you want it. These teachings disturb this ancient being and cause them to stop just going along with the illusion and start studying it. Kind of like, oh yeah. And so it might help you to know that not only is the Buddha recommending you study karma, but the Buddha is saying some people have studied it, understood realize the way and can now help others. So I said, that might, it is possible that you would be able to realize this understanding of the Buddhas. And there are Buddhas.

[77:15]

So that's part of what the Buddha said. Are you a Buddha? I am Buddha. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Let me leave it down there just in case somebody else needs it. I have to kneel.

[78:22]

I'm sorry. Make yourself as comfortable as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Would you like some water? Lauda? What did you say? Would you like some water? No, thank you. I'm fine. Be happy with your new little piece you put in front of emptiness, like realizing emptiness is, and then you continued a disciplined form. I think that was the little piece I missed. So I had put for myself understanding emptiness is. And as you described before, I like it because I can work with that more. And as you described before, non-thinking as a process so much, embracing everything, enjoying, there's always this ing. So I'm wondering whether you can complete the whole sentence, like realizing emptiness is disciplining form instead of disciplined form.

[79:31]

You know, one is a dogma, the other one is like a process. Would that work? It's fine to do the process one. And then after you do the process one, you'll be able to take the ings off. The ings off. And then I have a dogma. Yeah, and then practice. And the dogma is a form. And then you practice that way with that form. Because there's forms. There's forming and there's forms. So we have to eventually deal with the form. In the feelings rather than the feeling-ings. Okay. In the perception-ings. Okay. But you can put the ings in now to get going. And then once you get going, we can take the ings off. Okay. And you can like, okay, dogma, come on. I'm ready for you now. Maybe. Yeah. Eventually you should be able to, somebody's got to save these dogmas. It might be a job for you. I don't know. For now, put the ings on.

[80:33]

You have my full support. Thank you. And the important point is that you can find a way to get into the process and exercise your spiritual energy. Yes, I said, if I understand it better, then yes. Yeah, yeah. Like you said, also you said, for me, you know, trust, blah, blah, blah, understanding, liberation for you, it's like if you understand, you can trust. So for you, maybe you want to know that you can trust and relax. Yes. Yeah, so let's do it that way. And then, if I may complete that, the trust is before the understanding, too, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. Because I am here and I am willing to try what you say. So I think there is the trust. Yeah, right. So that's fine. So understanding is before. Yeah. It's a circle. Right. It's deeper and deeper and deeper. Mm-hmm. So we trust some, we relax some, we play some, we create some, and then we understand, and then we trust more, and we're more relaxed and more playful, and then we understand deeper.

[81:35]

So there's no end to the deepening of this understanding. Thank you. You're welcome. I have one more form question. Form question? Yeah. Go ahead. During the Jukai ceremony, we chant embracing and sustaining all forms. And then during the full moon ceremony, I noticed that the first sentence is different. It says embracing and sustaining right conduct. So are the great vows, I don't even know where they come from. Is it up to our translation? The form of doing the Bodhisattva ceremony, it seems like the form of Gringoche that we've adopted is right conduct. But during the precept ceremony, I'm transmitting the precepts that I've received. And the precepts that I received are, it says, forms and ceremonies.

[82:41]

And that's what it says also in the Bodhisattva ceremony. It says forms and ceremonies, but Zen Center seems to have agreed for that ceremony. to say right conduct. But literally the characters say forms or regulations. That's what it says in the Soto Shun, Chinese. It says embrace and sustain that. It's also, that's a way of translating what's called Pratimoksha. Pratimoksha, which is the regulations and ceremonies for monks and that the Buddha gave. So it's actually the detailed procedures of ethics and ceremonies for disciples of the Buddha. That's the first one. So in the precept ceremony I say it more literally. And in the full moon ceremony, I say it the way I feel Zen Center has agreed is the way we're doing that.

[83:50]

So we're ongoingly discussing what the right language is to go to the city center. They're saying the precepts differently, and so there's some variation, and this is part of our ongoing, you could say, struggle or negotiation, as in what language we're using. May our intention equally extend to every being.

[84:59]

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