at the beginning of this intensive retreat, I mentioned that great enlightenment about delusion is Buddha's. And then further, it was mentioned that the zazen of this school He is great enlightenment. The zazen of this school is great enlightenment about delusion. So during this intensive we have studied delusion. We have studied affliction. We have studied karmic consciousness in hopes that enlightenment would soon be here our wishes have been fulfilled.

[01:10]

Playing with English and Japanese, I would say the zazen that we teach in this school is not learning zazen. It is learning Zabutsu. Zazen means sitting Zen or sitting meditation or sitting concentration. The sitting meditation of this school is not learning sitting meditation. It is learning meditation. sitting Buddha. It is learning sitting Buddha, studying delusion, enlightening delusion. In this school

[02:28]

Sometimes we speak of summer school. This is winter school. In this school session, there is a whole lot, a whole lot of sitting going on. A whole lot of meditation going on. Through sickness and in health, for better and for worse, there was a whole lot of sitting going on totally amazingly wonderful. I don't know how it happened, but it did. Congratulations to us all. We did a truly great thing to practice this way for three weeks. At the end of one practice period at Tassajara, I said,

[03:38]

This wasn't the best practice period of all time at Tassajara. And after that, Reverend Neenan came to me and said, I don't like that talk. So since then, I have never said, this is not the best practice period. I'm not going to say that. This isn't the best intensive. Matter of fact, I'm going to say, this is the best intensive. And you were there. and you contributed to it wholeheartedly so and in this school while there's a whole lot of sitting going on from ancient times there has been a whole lot of sitting going on and now in the present we continue the whole lot of sitting going on in the ancient times Teachers went to students or asked students when they were sitting, questioned students when they were sitting, and students questioned teachers when they were sitting, and teachers questioned teachers, and students questioned students.

[04:59]

It's an ancient tradition to question ourselves and others while we're doing this meditation. To question, are you learning meditation or are you learning Buddha? To question, what are you intending to do in your sitting? What are you thinking in your sitting? bringing our attention to this ancient tradition of sitting and questioning and inquiring what's going on. We have been inquiring and questioning what's going on. And I pray that we continue to sit together and inquire together, what are we up to when we're sitting? What are we thinking? What is the karmic consciousness in this sitting?

[06:01]

we've looked at a few stories of this questioning sitting. We saw Nanyue question Matsu. We're in the middle of this dialogue of Nanyue and Matsu. We heard about Shertô Sakitô Gisen in asking Yaoshan what he was up to when he was sitting and thinking. We heard a monk ask Yaoshan what he was up to. After chanting the Lotus Sutra this morning, I thought I might mention Tenjin Zenki asks the Buddha World Honored One, what are you thinking when you're sitting in meditation?

[07:09]

And the World Honored One says, I'm always thinking how I can assist all sentient beings to enter the unsurpassed Buddha way, and quickly realized the Buddha body. I'm always thinking of this. Buddha is always thinking. The Buddha is sitting, always thinking, always thinking, how can I assist living beings to enter the great way, the unsurpassed way? Buddha's always thinking that, about that, about how to help beings enter the way and attain the Buddha body quickly. And of course, when Buddha is thinking, when Buddha thinks, Buddha's thinking is realized emptiness.

[08:16]

Buddha's thinking is disciplined and disciplining the thinking and realizing emptiness of the thinking simultaneously with the thinking. Some bodhisattvas switch back and forth. They take care of the thinking and then they realize the emptiness and then they go back to the thinking. The Buddha simultaneously is always thinking and always realizing the emptiness of the thinking. Totally engaged in thinking, totally engaged in realizing its emptiness. Would you like some water?

[09:29]

I don't mind your germs. Some other time? This water is wet. Since we have a little bit of time left, I thought I might tell some stories. And when I said when I have a little time left, I thought about the little part of the time left. And I thought if I was having a talk with... Reverend May yesterday after the ceremony, and I said, if I die before you, would you do tea ceremony at my funeral?

[10:40]

And she said that she would be honored to do so. And then we talked about how this funny thing is that, for example, if I die soon, I don't have to worry about anything because the successors to this school will take care of things. But if I live a lot longer, the successors of this school might die So then there's nobody to take care of things. So if I keep living, I have to find some younger disciples just in case the current ones die before me. So Maya has to find some young disciples. If she dies right now, somebody else can do the tea ceremony for me.

[11:46]

But if she lives a long time, she needs to find some younger disciples just in case. So we have this wonderful situation of if I die today, everything's fine. But if I keep living, I have more work to do. You can't quit because your disciples might go away. And in this tradition I mentioned to somebody there was a situation where this lineage had a teacher who had a successor and the teacher only had one successor and there was only one teacher in this lineage. And the successor died and the teacher was old. So the teacher had to find a successor and he found somebody who was already a teacher to be a successor so it could be faster.

[12:49]

And then that person said, I will receive your lineage and take care of it, and I'll transmit it, but I don't want to be responsible for both lineages. So that person doesn't appear in our lineage, even though that person cared for the lineage and then gave it to the next generation. So it's a fragile situation. This wonderful school of a whole lot of sitting can be lost. So we have to be careful and make sure that somebody's on deck to take over. And then keep an eye on them in case they get sick. Take care of them And then there's another story we could tell, which is...

[14:10]

Nanyue asked Matsu, and again, one way is to say, are you practicing, or are you learning sitting meditation, or are you learning sitting Buddha? So that question and answer, and that question is in the Fukanzazengi. Are you learning zazen or are you learning zabutsu? Dogen Zenji says, examining, investigating, probing this question is the essential pivot of the Buddha ancestor's mind. So here's a question for us. And it's highly recommended to study this question.

[15:15]

The essential pivot of the Buddha ancestors' practice is right in this question. So here's a really good question for you to take care of for the rest of your life, if you wish, please. That would be good. Are you learning sitting meditation, or are you learning sitting Buddha? And then I mentioned another translation is, if you are learning sitting meditation, you are learning sitting Buddha. Or your learning sitting meditation is learning sitting Buddha. The question and the statement are both, I think, Dharma treasures to bring your practice energy to.

[16:23]

So then playing on this question or this statement, then Nanyue further teaches Matsu, if you are learning sitting meditation, then the sitting meditation has nothing to do with sitting or lying down. If you are learning sitting Buddha, then Buddha has no marks. Previously I said, Buddha's always thinking of how to assist us to enter the unsurpassable way and quickly attain the Buddha body. Buddha's always thinking about the Buddha body.

[17:32]

But of course Buddha is thinking of the Buddha body which is not the Buddha body. Many of us feel uncomfortable saying Buddha because we We don't want to reify. We don't want to make Buddha a substantial thing. And when we say it, Buddha sounds so substantial. Great forces of the universe come and say, make this a big, strong Buddha. But the Buddha that the Buddha wants to realize and wants us to realize is a Buddha that's not Buddha. a Buddha that has no fixed marks. It has marks, but those marks are just to help people, and as soon as the help is done, the marks move on.org. If you're learning Sated Buddha...

[18:42]

And you're welcome to do so, as far as I know. Please, practice seated Buddha. If you are learning that, then you will realize that Buddha has no fixed marks. And because Buddha has no fixed marks, sitting Buddha has no fixed marks. So because sitting Buddha has no fixed marks and Buddha has no fixed marks, it's virtually impossible to avoid Buddha or seated Buddha. You can't escape it because you don't know where to run to. Sitting Buddha follows you wherever you go. If sitting Buddha had fixed marks, then we could maybe not be seated Buddha or be seated Buddha, but it doesn't.

[19:48]

Therefore, we cannot escape the practice of seated Buddha. Therefore, we can enter the practice of seated Buddha on all occasions. The next thing that the Inanye teaches is more quite familiar, which is in the dharma of no abode, in the non-abiding dharma, there is no grasping or rejecting. And then he says, if you grasp... The marks, if you grasp the marks or the form of seated Buddha, you do not reach the essence or the principle.

[21:08]

But the understanding of the school of sitting a lot is that you must, we must grasp the form of seated Buddha knowing that the form does not reach, grasping the form does not reach the essence and grasping the form already completely realizes the essence. But we must know both realities and we must wholeheartedly commit ourselves to something knowing that this wholehearted commitment does not reach anywhere. This dynamic effort is called dropping off body and mind, is the actual practice of not grasping or rejecting.

[22:30]

We might think, I mean, I might think, you might think that not grasping or rejecting would mean that you don't grasp. Just like Buddha might mean Buddha rather than not Buddha. Negotiating this dialogue, negotiating this relationship, with its ungraspable energy and life is dropping off body and mind. Taking care and in the process of taking care developing enough confidence to not be able to grasp taking care anymore.

[23:40]

Taking care and following along until you can't follow along anymore and being able to tolerate that. And then Master Ma feels, I don't know what, but anyway, Master Ma understands what his teacher is teaching.

[24:46]

In one version of the story, he understands it. In the other version of the story, he understood it before this dialogue. So the Dogen Zenji tells this story, he already understands, and this is a conversation between two teachers. Master Ma teacher is sitting, Nanyue is asking the other teacher about his sitting practice. In the traditional record, it says that after this conversation, or at this point in the conversation, Master Ma understands and they go on to have some post-understanding discussion. And one more time, today anyway, just tomorrow there will be more, but one more time today just to say that thinking of not thinking, which is the kind of thinking that Buddha does, uses non-thinking.

[26:08]

And non-thinking is thinking to make a Buddha. How do you think when you're thinking to make a Buddha? When you're thinking to become Buddha, how do you do that? With non-thinking. Thinking to make a Buddha, you're thinking of how to make a Buddha and you're thinking of how to make not a Buddha. And you're thinking about how to get thinking to make a Buddha to dance together with thinking to make not a Buddha. or to think to make a Buddha and think not to make a Buddha. All these possibilities are in the dynamic process of wisdom which is engaged with thinking, which engages karmic consciousness and authenticates it. Karmic consciousness, deluded consciousness, can be authenticated in the dynamic study

[27:12]

of sitting Buddha. I could say I feel this teaching is well received, but some people would rather have me say that this teaching is being well received, that this teaching is well receiving. Anyway, I feel something like that. I'm very gratified that we could focus on these teachings and that we have the possibility of continuing to take care of them and practice them. Is anybody not here that's here?

[28:25]

Anybody sick that's not here? Anybody in their bedrooms right now? Are we all here pretty much? Connie, what do you think? Are we all here? We're kind of all here. There have been moments when we weren't, but we're all here now. So, yeah. We're all here sitting. We're all here practicing sitting Buddha.

[29:26]

Even though I know some of you wouldn't put it that way. Please excuse me for accusing you of practicing sitting Buddha if it doesn't seem appropriate. Please forgive me. And if you feel it's not appropriate, would it be more appropriate if I said you're practicing sitting not Buddha? Would that be okay with you? And sitting... You want non? Huh? Is that what you want? Okay. So you want to have me accuse you of sitting non-Buddha? I accuse you of sitting non-Buddha. Are we going to have a cook's circumambulation?

[31:21]

We're going to have a cook's circumambulation ceremony after lunch where we express our thanks to the cooks. Then tomorrow we'll have another ceremony to express our thanks to each other and formally formally say goodbye. Now we could have a ceremony of expressing the Dharma, if you like. You're welcome to come and express unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment.

[32:35]

Konnichiwa. Konnichiwa. Genki desu ka? Desu ka? Desu ka? Testing desu ka? Hello, hello. I have a story. I went up, I went up, up to the mountain and there there was a meeting of a very solidly existing Carolina and two bobcats. And as I was sitting there verifying that they were in fact bobcats yowling fiercely at me, I thought, oh, I'm very fragile. And then I thought, well, I can't run. I'm tethered here. I can't run. And I'm quite afraid.

[34:40]

And I think that I will enact the human ritual of singing to the bobcats. And so I sing. Well, I went down south for to see my gal singing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day. And I stopped to make sure they knew I was a human being after I sang that song. And a miraculous thing occurred. I got up and stood and moved away from my lunch. And the bobcats appeared as bobcats. And we were together for quite some time, standing there in the mountains. So I have... a confession, I have been very possessive of a song. A little bit farther away. How is this? A little bit farther away.

[35:42]

How is that? I think it's better. Is that good? And so the song goes like this. I'd like to offer it so you won't eat me up. Moon river wider than a mile I'm crossing you in style Someday, oh, dream breaker, you heart maker. Wherever you're going, I'm going your way. Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. We're dreaming. And sitting in the bend, my huckleberry friend, that's me.

[36:56]

The bones of the ancestors are here, Deska. the fresh tongue of the ancestors is here. What is it that the tongue is doing? The tongue is enunciating human speech for the welfare of all beings, telling stories about what has gone beyond words Bono soaka. Boji soaka. Boji soaka. Domo arigato. Doitashimashite. O daijini.

[38:16]

Take care of the great affair, the great business under the patch robe. Intimacy. In the appearance of the world?

[39:53]

In the appearance of the world? Like a dream. All things are karmic consciousness. all things are the result of karmic consciousness in the world. But they're not themselves. No, the consequence, things of the world are consequences. But karmic consciousness is working on those consequences.

[40:59]

And therefore this karmic consciousness perceives it. Perceives it and then constructs something with it, upon it. Which is? Is the ancestor samadhi not only that the self is employed and received, but also that the world is, it's not just separate, but it's... The ancestor samadhi is

[42:19]

receiving and employing a sense of self. And the answer to samadhi is focused on how everything in the world is assisting each other in an imperceptible way. and fully engaged in this imperceptible mutual assistance. It's aware of this way we're all assisting each other in perfect harmony, how we're enlightening each other, and how we're enlightening those who are resisting the enlightenment. The ancestors are focused on this. This is learning, sitting Buddha. And meantime, each person has a person to receive and employ, which is a key point to take care of in order to realize this inconceivable harmony, this harmony beyond conception.

[43:41]

this harmony which we cannot disturb. We can only be estranged from it and confused about it. But it's waiting there for us to open to and enter. There's some piece around the karmic consciousness providing a unique perspective or a unique take on the world. Yes. So that everything that appears is I don't know how to express it without slipping into solipsism.

[45:10]

Can you express it in a way that slips into solipsism? We can use that. So that everything that appears in my world is an expression of this karmic consciousness? Yes, but also it's an expression of the whole universe. But it is a limited picture of it, which is called karmic consciousness. But when you said unique, it reminded me we should respect and honor this limited picture. It is the place where Bodhi will be welcomed or not. There's some way that thinking of it around... It's more intimate when I think of it as... It's more intimate when I think of it as... Like the problems and the delights of my world aren't...

[46:47]

just causes and conditions that happen to be happening, but they're expressions of this karmic landscape. You say that's more intimate? It seems to bring more intimacy. More intimate than what? I guess in another worldview, the sense of being a separate self is held more clearly or solidly. And would it be more intimate to not make the former more intimate than the latter?

[47:55]

Would that even be more intimate? Of course. Of course. I agree. let us not be tricked by one appearing more intimate than the other, even though it does appear that way. And if we are tricked, let us welcome being tricked. The mind is a trickster. Let us honor it for the great challenge it is offering to us. Thank you. Would you say it louder, please? Thank you.

[48:56]

You're welcome. You don't realize how off-center this endo is until you're in the middle, but not in the middle.

[50:08]

A couple months ago, a monk asked me a question publicly that I was not able to answer thoroughly. Can you hear well in the back? Several months ago, a monk asked me a question that I was not able to answer thoroughly. And afterward, he came and spoke with us about the question, which was... this person was sitting with Jerome Peterson's physical body and she wondered, is this all there is? And I felt like your answer or your discussion with us later was very helpful.

[51:26]

And I feel like, um, It would be helpful if you might share that now. Okay. What did I say? My interpretation is to look at how we are with that question and that fragility of life and that humility of not knowing what life is. That beauty is asking the question about sitting Buddha. In a sense, I learned more from not answering that question myself than I ever would have.

[52:43]

And I mentioned this yesterday to you, but I was really moved when Maya did the tea ceremony. But where I was actually... Tears came up was when her siblings... And she herself were offering incense. They were offering, they were giving, and offering the tea. It was the offerings which had that humility of making offerings, which was profound in some way for me. And this opportunity we have with this tradition of sitting with deceased people for several days and being with them is so rich for everyone.

[53:50]

Thank you for including me in your interpretation. My interpretation is thank you. I hope I continue to make that interpretation. I want to just say hello to you and to all my Dharma buddies and to thank you. I want to say hello to you in the back and to thank you, all of you, and

[55:22]

The words are not so important to me anymore. I hear them. I mostly hear the great encouragement of everyone. And I'm very, very grateful. I am very, very grateful. Thank you for your expression. Please continue. May everyone be very well and take good care of themselves as they transmigrate from this beautiful valley. Could you say as much as you can about intention and thinking and intention and wanting in terms of outflows?

[57:14]

Intention in terms of outflows? intention as maybe compared to thinking and intention as maybe compared to wanting or desiring regarding outflows? I think that for now, to make things simple, I would say that intention and thinking are alternative definitions for karma. that when the Buddha explains what he means by karma, this very important thing which has consequence, sometimes the word he uses is translated as intention, as will, as thinking. In a way, often the word intention is a little bit more limited than the word thinking. But I think the important thing is what is outflow?

[58:20]

And outflow is what happens to our life when we... Outflow is also sometimes trans... It literally means outflow or inflow. that our energy, that we're living in a world of gain and loss and disturbance and turbulence and defilement. That's what outflow is referring to. And that happens when we cling to the intention or cling to the thinking process. It creates outflow. When we have a view and cling to it, we're thrown into a turbulent, a disturbing sea when we cling to verbal designations. So it's the clinging. Or you could say it's the incomplete discipline or incomplete disciplining practice of our intention and our thinking.

[59:26]

The lack of full, wholehearted engagement in the process of thinking. the lack of calmly caring for our karmic consciousness allows outflow, allows disturbance. And whatever you say is included in that field of things to take care of. So when it's realized that the intention or the thinking or the wanting is arising rather than I'm doing it, Even what can be arising is the thinking that I'm doing it. So we can fully engage, I'm doing it. And if we fully engage, I'm doing it, which is a delusion, and it's a way we think, and it's a way things appear, if we fully engage it, it can be authenticated, it can be realized.

[60:30]

It is enlightenment of the Buddha's. Can I ask one more question that I think is related? Is it okay if she asks another question? Yeah, I guess so. What do you think about, did Buddha manifest the way? Can you hear her? Louder, please. Louder. What do you think? Louder. What do you think? They took their hands away from their ears? What do you think? What do you think regarding Buddha manifesting the way? Yes. Or the way manifesting Buddha? What do I think about that? I think it's, yeah, I think it's reciprocal.

[61:35]

The Buddha manifests the way, the way manifests the Buddha. And sometimes the way is unmanifested and sometimes Buddha is unmanifested. If there was an initial Buddha. Initial? I've never heard of an initial Buddha. Never heard of an initial Buddha. Buddha, actually, Shakyamuni Suzuki Roshi, you know him? He said, if you think Shakyamuni Buddha was the first Buddha, you know, if you don't recognize that we talk about these seven Buddhas before Buddha, and we only say six, but if you think Shakyamuni is the first Buddha, you don't understand who Shakyamuni Buddha is. So, But the first of the seven... There isn't really a first of the seven. If you think the first of the seven is the first of the seven, you don't understand the first of the seven. Do you think the Way and the Buddha originally came up together?

[62:40]

Do I think the Way and the Buddha originally came up together? Yes, I do. But they didn't just come up alone together. They came up with all sentient beings. There's no Buddhas and way coming up aside from suffering beings. Now, you say, well, did suffering beings come up ahead of the Buddhas? And I would say no. But, you know, that's just what I said. Thank you for interacting. I was

[63:53]

thinking of offering my apology to the Sangha for being not... Not... Fill in the blank. Not what? Not... Not... Yeah. Okay. Or maybe I was a little too much that... um i've had feelings of self-judgment about my participation and availability and focus during the intensive and uh i hope it did not detract from anyone's experience and i'm really grateful for everybody coming and showing up and doing this practice um Lately, in the last two days or three days, I've been thinking, I wish I could start the intensive over again and do it better this time.

[65:00]

So I have to figure out how to do that now. I have the February intensive. Anybody is welcome to participate with me. I was particularly inspired by some energy that came up around thinking, not thinking and non-thinking. And I wanted to share this image that somehow related about that, which is when you're standing outside and like, if that's the sun and it's shining down and then on the ground, there is your shadow. And you think, here I am, and there's my shadow. But if there's a bee that's flying over, and then it flies right past you and goes back that way, it goes through a period of darkness right in here.

[66:04]

That's your shadow, too. But when I think of my shadow, at least, maybe other people don't think this. I think that's it down there on the ground. I don't think of it as having dimension. And I really like that image. And I was thinking about thinking is like the shape of my body and the mass it takes up. And not thinking is like my shadow, my flat shadow there on the ground. And non-thinking is like the entire creation around me, like the sun and the light and the dimensional part of my shadow that kind of holds it up. Holds it up. Yeah. Takes care of it. Yeah. Also, I really like serving orioke, and I really like being served an orioke.

[67:11]

And that, I feel like, has been making everything okay. So thank you very much, everybody. I have a story too. This event took about four seconds. I was coming down the road from Hope Cottage yesterday and I looked down and on the road was a piece of pottery about the size a little smaller than your ear.

[68:19]

And I had a flash of recognition. It was black, it had an orange band and white spots. I thought, Persian, it's Iznik. 17th century. And I reached down to pick it up and it flew away. I don't think I have to say anything more. Our intentions equally extend.

[69:44]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_93.08