The ancestor Eihei Dogen wrote, by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith in practice or faith and practice before the Buddhas, we melt away the root of transgressions by the power of the practice of confession and repentance. This is the pure and simple color of true practice, of the true mind of faith, the true body of faith. At the beginning of the teaching of the historical Buddha, the Sangha didn't have much forms and ceremonies. But little by little it seemed necessary to have some community agreements, some forms and some ceremonies.

[01:16]

And once they had the forms then there was the opportunity of forgetting them. And so when people forgot them, there was the opportunity twice a month at the new moon and the full moon to gather and reveal and disclose lack of practice of the forms and ceremonies. And that ceremony was called Upasatta. And the Sino-Japanese transliteration is Fusatsu. Upasatta Fusatsu. So we, once a month, do an abbreviated

[02:26]

Fusatsu, called Ryaku Fusatsu, which means abbreviated Upasatta. It's an abbreviated confession and repentance ceremony. This month, the full moon is on the 31st. And on the 31st, many of you will not be here, so... And also, Gringalt will So if we had the ceremony, it might not be very well attended. So we thought, if we have it tomorrow morning, it'll be well attended. So we can have a chance to do this ancient practice of revealing and disclosing our shortcomings in practicing according to our aspiration. we invoke the presence of all the Buddhas and great Bodhisattvas, our acknowledgement that we have forgotten, perhaps, stillness.

[03:48]

That when we've been slapped in the face by our environment internally, we sometimes forgot stillness. And Yeah, maybe we're sorry. Because we do want to remember it and practice it and transmit it. So we'll do that ceremony tomorrow morning. Now one of the... because it's tomorrow morning, we get dressed up. And we wear white footwear. So if you don't have white footwear, I told you, you know, somebody wanted to know, are there some tricks? Well, one of the tricks is white footwear. And do we have white footwear for sale in the office, in the Welcome Center? So you can get one of the Zen tricks is white footwear. Once you put the white footwear on and you go to the ceremony, the root of your forgetting stillness will melt away.

[04:59]

So tomorrow morning, maybe this evening, we can have a sale at the Welcome Center of White Footwear. Or you can borrow some from some of the bodhisattvas here. I don't know. But anyway, we have that practice. If you can't find any white footwear, please come anyway. And we'll also, some of us have white robes, we're going to wear white robes too. So that will be our, kind of like our closing ceremony tomorrow morning. And even though we may have forgotten to embrace and sustain the practice and reality of stillness, I have also made a great effort to do so and I just want to acknowledge your great effort in embracing and sustaining your body and mind and embracing and sustaining the bodies and minds of others during this intensive.

[06:22]

We've had health challenges but we have continued to practice And now. Later today we will, after our midday meal, we will express our gratitude and meet the kitchen staff.

[07:39]

and we'll express our gratitude at that time. Many people have, throughout this intensive, expressed great gratitude for the intensive. And there's a lot of work besides the kitchen work to make possible the physical reality of this time together. And so it's difficult for the people who are taking care of this container to also come to the basis. But even so, the people who take care of Zen Center have been able to come and be in the Zender with us.

[08:52]

In particular, the central abbot of Zen Center, Linda Ruth, she was able to be here almost the whole time, even though she has so many other responsibilities. she signed up for it and thought it was after the intensive, so she's not here this morning. But anyway, she's not only wishing to be here, but she was joyfully here. She was very happy to do this intensive with us all. And abiding Abbas, after a really strong illness, has been able to return and enthusiastically embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies. And our Eno started us out intensive, got us going, but then he also was struck down and couldn't get up.

[10:09]

Tried to, but down again. But finally he got up and came back. And here he is. And on one of his attempts to come back, he came into the Zendo and he thought, it's like a religious experience, being in that room. It's fabulous. It's one of the nice things about being sick, is you can see that. And Artanto, she's been sick throughout, but she has been here anyway. Her illness was not totally, didn't knock her completely out, but She's been sick and she's doing her job all the way through taking care of you all and also was doing Eno's job when he was down.

[11:11]

So we have all these heroes who are in this room, all of you, and the people who And it's just, and also I want to acknowledge Elder Maya, who also has been here very steadfastly, except for also she got knocked down for a little while. But she's back. So thank you all for your support. And I pray that you continue without end. And even if all beings are saved, still, keep doing it. The conversation, the face-to-face conversation, which is the great way of all Buddhas, is going to continue.

[12:18]

And we're all going to be part of it. That's what I think. And if there's any further conversation you want to have this morning in this arena, you're welcome. Yes? Did you hear that? She's willing to help you get... Yes? I have three questions. The first one is, could you say a little bit more about the ceremony for Dogen's birthday, particularly the source of the two lines that you gave? The source of the... The source of the lines.

[13:22]

Well, I don't know what the source is, but... People say that those lines were written by Dogen. And the name of the poem is... I think the name of the poem is Non-Abiding Mind, from the Diamond Sutra. The mind that does not abide. So it's a... Water birds coming, coming, coming. The water birds leave no trace, nor do they need a guide. That's speaking of the spontaneous activity of the bodhisattva in stillness. They come, they go, and nothing's guiding them other than everything.

[14:25]

That's the waterfall to demonstrate the bodhisattva activity. The other question about the ceremony is the three offerings, is there something more about those in terms of the symbolism? I mean, they were impressive objects in themselves. Well, we usually, we often, a standard offering for celebrating births or the death of ancestors. A standard offering is some kind of liquid concoction like sweet water and some cakes and tea. So it was sweet water, cakes, and tea. Nice offering. Utensils. Yeah, so they're raised up in the spirit of... The Chinese character for making an offering is like a line like this, a line like this, and a line like this.

[15:39]

A sense of lifting up, giving an offering to the ancestor. The second question is more about practice. Can you hear him? The second question is more about practice. I'm wondering, as I'm practicing with some of my vipassana habits of noting are starting to come in, and I'm actually in the field, I can actually sense, oh, timidness. And I don't know if there's a problem with that. There could be a problem as I move out into the wider world of, oh, this is a trick. And I'm just wondering if there are ways that you use that awareness of tenderness. in a more, I don't know, comprehensive, or some, if you have any tricks.

[16:46]

Do I have any tricks about how to avoid tricks? Yeah, that's basically it. If a trick or an attempt at a trick should appear, and there's remembering stillness, and receiving stillness, then there's practice of stillness. The practice of the stillness will be tender. If there's no trick, there's just a person, a fragile person in front of us. And there's remembering stillness. And there's receiving it. The causes and conditions of a response. So here's a tender person calling for compassion.

[17:47]

In stillness, the request comes up and the response comes up. Nobody's back here making the response. In stillness, inquiry, request, and response come up together. So if we're remembering and giving ourselves to the practice, the tender response will come. Now if we're trying to be tender, I would see that as a request, a call for tenderness. And a request, a wish to practice tenderness is a wanting, is a wishing for tenderness and the tenderness comes to meet that wish. So we're not trying, don't try to get rid of tricks or techniques because all the tricks and techniques are really compassion to come and meet them.

[19:04]

So again, that character for embracing and sustaining, it also has a meaning for receiving, embracing and sustaining. So when we attempt to embrace and sustain being, we're also asking for the compassionate response to come and meet our... So that's the seal, right? The two

[19:31]

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