we just said that an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma. And the word dharma could be understood as teaching, an unsurpassed perfect teaching. The word dharma could also be understood as truth, an unsurpassed perfect and penetrating truth. And dharma also can mean phenomena, any phenomena, an unsurpassed penetrating and perfect phenomena, Dharma. And it says that an unsurpassed penetrating in perfect Dharma is rarely met with.

[01:04]

Even though, of course, the perfect truth is always present with us, it's rare that we meet it. Even though we meet it every moment, somehow it's hard for us to accept the meeting to accept the meeting. So I say to you, thank you for coming. There's a chance right now for a meeting with the Dharma, with the unsurpassed, complete, perfect Dharma. May we be ready for the meeting. I brought a book with me today.

[02:24]

It's a big book, pretty big book. And in English it's called The Book of Serenity. And in this book are 100 principal stories with hundreds of sub-stories commenting on the principal stories. So the first story in this book is called, The World Offers the Seat. Think that's what it's called? Yep. Actually, literally in Chinese it says, the world-honored one ascends the hall, goes up to the hall, and in the hall there's a seat. And the Buddha goes into the hall and gets up on the seat. The world-honored one one day went up to the hall and got on the seat and sat.

[03:30]

It doesn't say how long she sat or they sat. It just says, and sat. At some point, maybe one second later or fifteen days later, the great Bodhisattva, who is in the center of our meditation hall, who we call Manjushri Bodhisattva, the enlightening being of sweetness and light. That Bodhisattva struck the gavel and announced, clearly observe that Dharma, of the sovereign of Dharma, the Dharma of the Sovereign of Dharma is thus."

[04:44]

And the World Honored One got down from the seat On my way to this hall where I had been invited by various people to get on this seat, and I said, I accepted the invitation, so here I am on the seat. On my way to this seat, somebody gave me a little note, which I asked for earlier this morning. And the note says, What overwhelms us is not the meaninglessness of the universe.

[05:51]

Did you hear that? What overwhelms us is not the meaninglessness of the universe, but the coexistence of a sense of apparent meaninglessness the coexistence of apparent meaninglessness with the astonishing interconnectedness of all things. When the astonishing interconnectedness of all things comes to meet us, The true Dharma is the astonishing interconnectedness of all things. When it comes to meet us, there might be a sense of, there might be an appearance of, this is meaningless.

[07:03]

And that might, we might feel overwhelmed at the combination of this meeting with the Dharma, and an appearance of that it's meaningless. A meeting that appears to be meaningless even though we're meeting the magnificently wonderful interconnectedness of all things in the universe. Last weekend I was talking to some people in public about interconnectedness, like, you know, we have this expression, right in light there is darkness, right in darkness there is light. So we were talking about that and this young man raised his hands and he said, would you please help me this time? But he probably felt like that.

[08:04]

I mean, Maybe he didn't feel meaninglessness when he came in the room, but when people started to open the door on the interconnectedness of all things, this meaninglessness came up. Anyway, I took care of him very nicely and talked to him about, oh, and he not only was there a sense of meaninglessness, but he was afraid of it. So we dealt with his fear and it worked out. In this story where the World Honor One got up in the seat and sat, maybe the great Bodhisattva thought, the people do not understand that they are being presented with the teaching of thusness.

[09:11]

They don't get it. They don't see the Buddha's giving the teaching. So I'm going to tell them. That unsurpassed, perfect and penetrating Dharma of the sovereign of all Dharma. It's like, here it is. Most of us do not have a little or a big great bodhisattva of wisdom walking next to us all day long telling us, clearly observe, clearly observe, clearly observe that the sovereign of dharma is like this. But really we do have a Manjushri that walks with us all day long and is telling us exactly that.

[10:29]

But are we listening for it? We could have Manjushri on one side saying, observe. We could have another Bodhisattva on the other side saying, observe everything. Observe all beings. observe all beings. That's my name, observe all beings. Please observe all beings and then observe like this. Interconnectedness of all things is right in our face. And there's a poem celebrating this case which goes like this. The unique breeze of reality Do you see it?

[11:31]

The mother principle is her loom and shuttle, incorporating the patterns of spring into the ancient brocade. The Dharma is thus. What is thus? How is this thus? How are you thus? How am I thus? How am I the way things are?

[12:37]

How are you the way things are? Really. How are you? The way you are how things are is that you include everything in and you are included in everything in the universe. You are supported by everything in the universe and everything in the universe. The whole universe is responsible for you, and you are responsible for the whole universe. As I talk, the door to the aesthetic connectedness of things might open.

[13:42]

And then a sense of meaninglessness might arise and you might become afraid. And everybody's here to help you deal with any trepidation about the astonishing interconnectedness of all things. All things are included in you and you are included in all things. This is the ultimate truth. This is the final truth of life. There's also a conventional truth of life which coexists with the final truth of life. And one example of conventional truth is the view, the idea, the consciousness which believes that it includes not everything and not everybody, and that it supports not everybody and not everything.

[14:52]

I support the Democrats, not the Republicans. I support the Republicans and not the Democrats. I don't include all the Republicans. No. I include three Republicans, but not millions, not infinite Republicans. No. This is a kind of truth. It's an illusion. An illusion. It's not true. It's not really true. It's just temporarily, superficially true. So if you look at your life superficially, which means not all the way to the bottom of your life, you might see, I only... sixteen Democrats. That's a superficial vision of your life. You include all Democrats.

[15:54]

Little babies include all Democrats. And all exes that you cannot yet accept or allow that you include. you do include them ultimately. If you go deep and deep and deep and deep, you will see, oh, I include everybody. Everything. And I also am included in everything. This is something which my vision cannot see. But if I can be wholehearted about my superficiality, which is possible, the superficiality drops away, and I allow the teaching of suchness. And I'm allowed into it.

[16:57]

I always was, but because I did it, it seemed like it didn't open to me. So, and part of the teaching of suchness is that the ultimate truth that you include the entire universe and you're included in all aspects of the universe, which is also the truth of how you can never deeply be found. You can't be found because you are found only by the whole universe. If you could find the whole universe, you would find yourself as the universe in a way called you. But you are empty of any independent existence from the whole universe. You are just the whole universe like you, as you. You're unique. You're a unique center of the whole universe.

[17:59]

And everybody else is too. Which is, again, why Manjushri reminds you, clearly observe, everybody you meet is the whole universe like that, thus. Everybody you meet is truth in this relative form, this limited form. And this ultimate truth is always intimate with the relative truth of I include not others, and also because I include just some things, not everything, I can find myself and get a hold of myself. And that's an illusion because I'm not just a few beings, I'm this. I can't get a hold of me because I can't get a hold of all beings.

[19:06]

However, I include them, and I'm included in them, but I don't contain them. I don't confine you. I don't limit you. I'm in a generous relationship with you where you give me life and I give you life. And I don't know if I'm the giver, the receiver, or the gift. And no one else knows either, unless they look at me superficially. Just a little bit, you might say, oh, he's the receiver. Or you might think, no, he's the giver. Somebody else may say, no, he's the gift. Or somebody else might say, there's no giving in the universe. It's a total illusion. There's no generosity. So he's not a giver, a receiver, or a gift. I'm not. I'm all three, and so are you. And I don't know which one I am. I can't get a hold of anything in the process of reality because every grasping point has no basis for grasping.

[20:15]

how the ultimate truth that we absolutely completely support all beings and they all support us, that absolute truth with the limited conventional truth that we support some people and not others, and some people support us and others don't. That limited misery which varies in a miserable way, that is inseparable from the ultimate truth. They live together. They dance together. We're listening to the teaching which tells us, don't try to get rid of the delusion that you only support some people. Be completely compassionate. and you will open to its partner, the ultimate truth.

[21:26]

And then you will open to the teaching of suchness. And then you can enter it into the teaching of suchness. And playing in the teaching of suchness, you can then again fully embrace the world of delusion again opening the door to the teaching of suchness. And round and round we go until everything's integrated. I brought a watch, a really nice watch. I can't figure out how to wear it. Now I just turn it upside down and I see what time it is. But upside down is only because I had it upside down.

[22:30]

And now I turn it upside down and it's right side up, or rather, easier for me to read. It's getting, it's around on my nice watch, see? See? it matches my heart. It's included in my heart. And my heart is in the watch. It's really a nice watch. I've told this story about the Buddha before. I've been thinking about this story for A long time. Well, forty years probably. For forty years I've been playing with this story. I've been devoted to contemplating the teaching of suchness, the teaching of... About twenty-five years ago there was a

[23:48]

a proposed repair project at the Zen Mountain Center at Tassajara. We have a, we built a very beautiful, simple building called Founders Hall, Kai Sando Founders Hall. And the mud that was put on the walls, the recipe for that mud was a Japanese recipe. But Japan doesn't have so many hot deserts like Tassajara. It's like a hot desert in the summer. This particular mixture was drying up, cracking and falling off. So there was the idea to repair it. And I was in the position of abbot at that time and I thought, fine.

[24:57]

And then someone said, well, we could take the mud off and then put plywood up. What was on there before is this kind of ancient structure of sticks intertwined and then the mud was stuck on that. So you take all that the sticks and stones out and then put plywood on and spray it with stucco. That was a proposal and I thought, okay. Watch on, but probably you don't want to watch me try. I'll just leave it out here. So I said OK to this idea, and then somebody else said, I have another idea. What we could do is we could change the recipe for the mud.

[25:59]

And we could put some stuff in the mud that would help it not crack. And I thought, well, that sounds good. But I still kind of thought the other way sounded good too, but this one I thought sounded a little bit better. And then I thought it sounded even better. And then I thought about some more and it sounded really good. And then I started to like, my mind started to like tighten in in the fixed, best way. And then I was talking to somebody about this project, and from this view of this way of doing it, that I was fixated kind of as being the best way, at least the best of the two, I talked to him, and I could see that my voice shocked him.

[27:12]

Kind of like sometimes you build up static electricity and you don't know it and you touch somebody and they go... Some charge has accumulated on this view of how to repair the building and when I spoke to the person I could see they were startled and shocked and maybe even frightened by this extra electricity on that view. And I was embarrassed that I had that extra charge. And then a little while later I went up to the meditation hall at Tathara, which is like this one, in my seat, which is the abbot's seat, and I noticed that my mind was very turbulent. and agitated. And then I was embarrassed about that too.

[28:18]

Here I am, I'm supposed to be a meditation teacher and my mind's turbulent and unsteady. And then the words arose, clearly observe. And the turbulent waters instantly calmed down. And I noticed that I had no charge on which way to repair the building. It wasn't that I didn't care. There was no charge. the world had become peaceful again, even though I still thought Plan B was better than Plan A. I never said more about it.

[29:31]

The Dharma is thus. When you attach to something that doesn't include everything, life is turbulent and restless. Simultaneously, life includes everything and is included in everything. Life is included in all repair plans, Every project includes the whole universe. Every way of helping includes the whole universe. Clearly observe. That is, and that way things are, is always inseparable from which is, this is the best way to do something and it doesn't include the lesser ways.

[30:47]

of doing things. It doesn't include them. And therefore I can grasp it. And therefore I have power. I have the lightning bolts. That deluded life where I have the power, or you have the power, and you having the power isn't included in me and me having no power isn't included in you. That world of delusion we don't try to get rid of and we never get rid of. It's always arising even though it doesn't exist really. There's a constant production of a world that if you look deeply you can never you can see it never exists. and it's never separate from the world of ultimate truth. And if we take care of the world of illusion with great compassion, again we open to the world of ultimate truth.

[31:58]

And when we open to the world of truth, we are supported by this great truth to engage in all the limited forms that don't seem to include everything. Every human being can sit on a seat and be transformed into a living Buddha. The form and the substance are the same. The form of the human is emptiness. Excuse me. The form of the human has the content or the substance of emptiness, which means it has the content of the entire universe. Ending it.

[33:01]

There is no fixed form, no fixed referent to which the term Buddha refers. There is no fixed form, no fixed referent to which the term for you refers. You're just like Buddha. So in Zen history, the ritual of a person sitting on the seat and being transformed into a Buddha is done over and over for hundreds and maybe someday for thousands of years. Somebody sits to demonstrate that there's no fixed form to anything and that everything includes everything as anything.

[34:48]

Over and over we do this and we have a chance to meet information of relative into absolute and absolute into relative, which is to see Buddha without Buddha having a fixed form. All your names are alternative names for Buddha. Buddha is just like you. I could say just like you completely, just like you, but it's really Buddha is just like you being completely you. So when you are completely you, Buddha is and confirmed.

[36:02]

And everything is supporting you to do this job which I might think I had an alternative to. And even though I think that, if I fully embrace that delusion, Everybody will be free of it. this thought keeps coming up to my mind and I think it's kind of irrelevant but I'll just tell you anyway.

[37:10]

One time a young man came to me and said he was a forest ranger, I think, and he near his house where he lived in the forest he found a deceased bird and he He just didn't feel right about just throwing the bird into the... Now that I'm telling you that story, the thought, now another thought comes in my head which is not irrelevant, but I probably shouldn't tell you. But I'm going to anyway just to show you what I think I shouldn't tell you. Because it kind of screws up the story. So he found this bird, and when he was cleaning up around his house, he found this bird, and he thought, well, I don't feel right about throwing the bird in with the other debris.

[38:13]

I think he had a little glimmering that that bird, that dead bird, forget about it, that dead bird includes the whole universe. And this dead bird is included in the entire, everything in the entire universe. Maybe he had a glimmering of that. A lot of people like birds, and they're really cool, and they would be open to the idea that certain living birds, not, well, at Tassajara, not blue jays. We have blue jays at Tassajara which are really aggressive and dive down and, you know, and take your food from you, and if you don't let go, they poop in your food. But we also have these canyon wrens, which are so beautiful and have this beautiful song. A lot of people would toss it off. You say, that canyon wren includes the whole universe. They would say, yeah. And maybe even a dead canyon wren.

[39:18]

I'm saying the truth is that a dead canyon wren includes the whole universe. That's why this dead canyon wren has no independent existence from anything in the universe. It is a precious revelation of something that has no . It is the perfection of wisdom. It is lovely. It is holy. A dead bird. A dead blue jay, yes. A dead canyon man, oh. So he didn't... Instead, he took it away from his house and deeper into the forest and found a flat rock. And this little bird ascended the seat on that rock, sat there or laid there.

[40:22]

And then he sat with the bird. The bird was given a seat, and then he was given a seat, and he sat with the bird. And then many birds came and landed all around the rock. and sat with him. Now that's what I call irrelevant.

[41:08]

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