The last series of classes that I did here at the yoga room with you, with some of you, was on the four methods or the four ways of embracing and sustaining or being embraced and sustained at bodhisattva's practice. And so in that teaching there's lots of quite direct expression of kindness and compassion. In the text that we're going to be looking at in this series, There's almost no mention actually of compassion, literally, or even wisdom.

[01:06]

It's a somewhat different type of a text. The text, as you probably know already, is one that was written by an ancestor of the tradition which comes down to the Bay Area in the lineage from Dogen. The author of the text is named Ehe Dogen. And he managed to have students who managed to have students who managed to have students for about thirty generations from his time up to the present.

[02:17]

Thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, something like that. Depends on who you run into. And I thought I might mention at the beginning of the study of this text something about the end of his life. after he had written this text that we're studying, and many other texts, and done a lot of teaching in a fairly short period of time, in a way. When he was dying, he said to one of his close students that concerning the Buddha Dharma, the teaching of the Buddha,

[03:21]

truth of the Buddha way there are 10 million things which I have not yet fully understood but I have the joy of correct faith and my understanding now of what correct faith is for him is that to be present and upright right now in the midst of the awareness of how our life right now is embraced and sustained

[04:23]

by all beings and how our life right now embraces and sustains all beings to be present and awake to this reality and then from this awareness from the presence and awareness of this type to then give one's spiritual life with gratitude Give one's spiritual life to all beings with gratitude for the Buddha, or for Buddha, for awakening and nature. We sometimes say Buddha and nature, but we can also say gratitude for the enlightened beings, but also gratitude for nature itself. which is our playground where we give our life with gratitude in the midst of the practice of remembering and being aware of how it is that our life is embraced and sustained by all beings and vice versa.

[05:42]

This is the basic practice. And this thing we're studying, this text we're studying here, is a one of the ways that the person who has this faith and this kind of awareness and practice this is his way of trying to illuminate and help us understand this process by which we are always embraced and sustained by all beings to help us wake up to that and continue the practice in the middle of that awakening. This awakening is called by Dogen Zenji the self receiving and self-employing awareness or

[06:48]

a self-fulfilling awareness. The awareness of how we are sustained is an awareness which is self-fulfilling. To be aware of a self without being aware of how it's sustained and how it sustains is not a fulfilling awareness of the self. The self-fulfilling awareness is this awareness of how we are constantly fulfilled and how we constantly support the fulfillment of others. This awareness is basically to be said as the same as what we call genjo koan, the topic of this class. Genjo Kahn is translated in different ways. One way it's translated is the manifestation of reality.

[07:59]

Another translation is actualizing the fundamental point. Another translation would be actualizing the koan. Another translation is the issue at hand. Another translation could be the koan is solved. The koan is realized. koan of life and death the question which reality has asked us the question which reality is asking us right now is answered right now

[09:11]

Or, this is not translation, but how are we answering the question that reality is asking us right now? This is a, in a sense it's a, it's actually, it's a detectives written in classical Japanese It's not written in Chinese, it's written in Japanese, but the title is a Chinese compound. And the title is taken from Chinese Zen history. There was a Zen teacher who said one time, he just said one time to a monk who came to see him, he said, Genjo Koan, and walked out. In other words, at that time it meant the monk that came to ask him a question about reality and he said, the koan is understood.

[10:26]

Reality's been realized and left. The Chinese, when it's spoken, is basically a... Dyslobic language. They usually speak in pairs. There's a character for eye, which is yin. But they don't just say eye when they speak. They say yin-jing. And the character for nose is bi. But they don't just say bi. They say bi-zi. In literature, you might just see the character for eye or the character for nose. But when you speak it, because it has lots of homonyms, you speak in couplets, usually. So you say, 鼻子 for nose and 眼睛 for eye and so on. So this title is made of two parts.

[11:30]

One part is the genjo and the other part's koan. So the genjo part, gen means to appear, to be present, or to be in the present moment. That's gen. Like right now is called, you know, the present time. or the present yoga room class would be called the gen zai yoga room class, the presently abiding yoga room class. Gen, to be present in the moment, to appear right now. So it means to appear or show up, gen does,

[12:37]

right now. So it has the meaning of something appearing, like a person, that you see a person, or a feeling arising. The begin of that is how it's appearing, and what's appearing is something which you didn't see before. But now you see it. Or something you didn't hear before, but now you hear it. Or something you didn't touch before, and now you touch it. Slightly different meaning is something which was potential and is now actual. So, you know, in a sense, we didn't see this class before, but also in another sense, it's this class that was the potential of this class. We set up the class beforehand, and it was potentially going to happen.

[13:41]

If everybody sort of got here, we could have the class. So there's the gain of this class in the sense of it wasn't here before we arrived, but now we see it. And there's also the gain in the sense that there was a potential of this class, and the potential has been realized. one of the potentials and another of the potentials and so on. There's a constant actualization of the potential of this class. This class has lots of potential and it's being manifested right now. Not all of it, some of it is being manifested right now. The present part of it has been manifested, and you can see it. And Joe, next character, which goes again, it means to become or to actualize or accomplish.

[14:52]

You put these two together, but they're somewhat similar. already, but we put them together and the overlap between them makes this meaning, which is more dynamic now. And so on one side it can be a verb, and the verb will mean to manifest or actualize, and it can also be a noun, which implies reality as it's actually, presently, That's the genjo part. And the koan part, a little complicated, the ko of koan means basically public as opposed to private.

[15:57]

The an part is a little complicated because there's two different Chinese characters, both of which are pronounced an, and they're quite similar in their structure. And both of these characters have been used with ko to make the word koan. And not in general Chinese, but in the Zen school, these two different means, these two different ans that can be used to make the word koan, these two different ans are interchangeable. If you look at them, they look similar. But in usage, they're really not to be discriminated between.

[17:02]

although they look similar, they mean different things. They both have a kind of a root radical, and the radical is the source of the sound of character. The radical is a character which means basically peace. It's a picture of a woman under a roof or a woman in a house. It's the character for woman under a roof. And that character means peace or tranquility or safety. China was a kind of patriarchal society, so having a woman in the house was considered safe. So that root character forms a radical root of the other two characters. One character, you take the an and put it with a character for wood or tree, and that character means desk or table.

[18:12]

The other one is you take that same radical and put it together with the character for hand. It means to press or to push, as in massage. That was probably kind of complicated, but you can ask questions about it later if you want to. If you take the first on and put it together with the co, to make koan, then you have a public, in a sense, a public desk. Or, which means a public document that sits on the desk of an official in the Chinese culture. Or a public document that sits on the desk of a judge. And it's a document, it's an official document or a public document In particular, it has within it laws.

[19:18]

And the feeling is of this using this koan, it has a strong feeling of an unshakable, unchangeable truth. And there's something to this kind of understanding of koan is that it's It's the unshakable. It expresses the unchangeable, unshakable, unstoppable reality. But another, using the other one, if you put that together, the word public together with the other character, which means more to touch or press a massage, that compound doesn't have so much the feeling of a law.

[20:20]

It doesn't so much mean an official document. That character doesn't mean an official document. So that could be interpreted differently. And for the sake of practice, I'm going to present that interpretation of that side more. The previous side would be, in some sense, you could just say, this official document sitting on the desk presenting the unchanging truth is put together with what's happening right now. So it's, you could say, how the unchanging truth is happening right now. So that also is genjo koan. So the koan of unchanging truth is manifesting right now. But the other way of interpreting we can say in some sense that the

[21:27]

The compound has more dynamism in it. And the dynamism is that the word co, which means public, can also be understood as public means to be equal or to equalize inequalities. And, of course, we can think that in, for example, public officials, or sometimes called politicians, officials of the polis of the city, the political people, in their public activity, they're supposed to,

[22:37]

eliminate inequalities or injustices. They're supposed to take care of everybody equally. They're supposed to care for everybody. Equally doesn't mean not different, but equally. Somehow equalize inequalities as much as possible. And in public, so everybody can see if they're doing their job. If they do it in private, they might not do what we want them to do. Is it the Declaration of Independence where it says all men and now it says all men and women are created equal?

[23:50]

Is that where it says it? All men are created equal? That's where it says it. But equal, again, the understanding at that time when they wrote that was all men had the ability to feel compassion. for other beings. We all have that ability. That's the ko part, equalize the unequal. The other side is, the an part is that in some sense, you know, touching each thing, pressing on each thing to help it be what it is. The on part means that each thing really be what it is.

[24:57]

Each thing is uniquely what it is, and it's not other things. each thing, of course, dependent on the things-to-be itself, but it is itself and it's not other things. So the ko means to be equal and an means to be unique. Or the ko emphasizes the universal and the On emphasizes the individual. The ko, the public, emphasizes unity. And the on emphasizes difference.

[26:02]

The ko is public. Kaan is private. Kaan is public and private together, universal and individual together. no discrimination and discrimination together. Koan, the word koan in Genjo koan means the reality of our life.

[27:17]

And the reality of our life is that our universal nature and our individual nature are interpenetrating. The reality of our life is that our public and our private are interpenetrating. That's the reality of our life. If you think you can just be a public person, that's not reality. If you think you can just be a private person, that's not reality. No matter how private I try to be, people still see what I am. No matter how much people see what I am, I still have privacy.

[28:19]

to realize what I actually am, to realize what my life really is, I have to, in one sense, let go of privacy and let go of publicity, which means also I have to be public completely and private completely and see how they're not separate. I have to be universal, and I am, and particular, and I am. I have to realize my unity with all beings and my difference. The larger name for Genjō-kon is

[29:26]

Shobo Genzo Genjo Koan. So the larger work that this Genjo Koan appears in is called Shobo Genzo. It's a big book. It has 95 chapters in some editions. Other editions have 75 fascicles or 75 chapters. Each chapter is called Shobo Genzo something or other. This one's called Shobo Genzo Genjo Koan. I suggest to you that the word koan refers to shobo genzo. What does shobo genzo mean? Shobo genzo means literally the treasury of true dharma eyes, the treasury of seeing the true dharma, the treasury of our actual life.

[30:32]

This is the genjo koan, and the koan in genjo koan means shobo genzo. Shobo genzo is what the Buddhas transmit to Buddhas. When Buddhas meet, what they transmit to each other in this school of Zen is called shobo genzo. They transmit a treasury of true dharma eyes. They transmit the reality of our life back and forth between them. That's what Buddhas do. They transmit the reality of our life, which is their life, and their life, which is our life. They transmit that back and forth. and the reality of our life is that we are transmitting the reality of our life back and forth to each other and to all Buddhas.

[31:35]

But are we awake to it? That's the question which reality is asking. Are you attending to how right now you are transmitting the reality of your life to all beings who are transmitting the reality of their life with you. That's the koan, which is the way things are and also the way you're being asked. And what's the answer to the question? Part of it is In other words, the answer to the question is how you are right now in response to the question how you actually are.

[32:41]

How are you actually is how you are actually right now. So how are we living right now to answer that question? How is the way you experience yourself right now and experience others right now, how is this the way you're practicing right now? In order to answer the question, what is your life truly? This is the title of the fascicle

[33:46]

the words come to my mind, of course we're always, of course the reality of how, of our life is of course the way our life really is, must be. Koan means the reality of the way our life is and also by analyzing it the way I just did, it tips us off to something which we might not know, namely that our life has a universal and a particular aspect, and you never have one without the other. The word koan just means the reality of our life, but it tips us off to the fact that we have a public aspect and a private aspect, and they're interpenetrating each other.

[35:40]

And then once again, not just understanding that or hearing me or talking this way, but how is the way I am, how is the way you are, how is the way I'm acting expressing the inner penetration of public and private, which is the way I really am. How is my action right now expressing the way we actually are together and the way we are uniquely which is again that same awareness of how we are embraced and sustained and how we embrace and sustain that same awareness So I offer this before we get into the text to see if you can practice with this, just the title, before you try to practice with the text.

[37:02]

See if you can practice with the It says, actualizing the fundamental point. That's the title, right? The title is saying, actualize the fundamental point. See the fundamental point right now, which is the root point before we get into the flowers and the branches of the text. Can you work with the fundamental point? Can we work with the fundamental point? Steven? Let's see. Well, I often think of, when I think of private, I often think of the toilet.

[38:25]

In some families, when people go to the toilet, at least when they're adults, they sometimes go in the toilet and close the door, even to their family members. Some other families, people go to the toilet and leave the door open. I heard about this person who did a, what do they call it? They're not so popular anymore. They're called, I can't remember the name of them now. Like Laurie Anderson, you know, performance art. Like Laurie Anderson, I was thinking of, she had a set of her ice skates you know, frozen into a block of ice and stood in the ice skates playing the violin until the ice melted.

[39:44]

But I was thinking of another performance art of this man who tied himself with a shorter rope to a woman for a long time. I don't know if it was like six months or a year, but something like that. He tied himself to this woman So everywhere he went, she went. She followed him to school one day, as a matter of fact. Even though it was against the rules. And where she had to go, he had to go. So anyway, you go in the bathroom and you may feel like, you know, not everybody gets to go in there with you. like there's a certain amount of like not everybody else there with you kind of thing even though in a sense everybody knows you went in there unless you tried to hide it by going in there without saying I'm going in there that's what some people do too they sometimes they're with some people and they go they leave the table or whatever and they go into that room but they don't say to people I'm going into that room

[41:02]

which I'm not criticizing them necessarily, but I'm saying when they don't tell people where they're going, is that because they're attached to their privacy? Maybe. But even if, you know, but you can tell people I'm going to go to the toilet now as a public act, recognizing your public nature but also you may not invite them to go with you. In fact, you may even feel like, I don't want them to come in here with me. I want to do this all by myself. Alone, me, individually doing this in a unique way. But there's something universal there, too, in that. there's something universal in the issue of whether you tell people or not it's an issue it counts if you don't tell them or you do tell them if you don't tell them that's one world and everybody shares that world with you and if you do tell them that's one world everybody shares that with you everybody does see us no matter what we do and also the way we are

[42:28]

is private and you can get attached to one side or the other and you can also change and change what you call public and change what you call private and a lot of people if you talk to them about giving up all privacy in that conversation you may help them and help yourself too get in touch with your attachment to the the on part of koan personal individual part or you may also in some people's in some cases you may realize that you're attached to certain things being public especially other people being public about what they're doing you might be attached to and to talk about eliminating the public you might realize some tension there In other words, I'm not going to tell you about this and that.

[43:35]

And you may feel like, well, wait a minute. To really feel balanced with both realms, like you can be flexible around what's public and what's private. What you used to think was private, you might be able to sort of make it more public. And what you used to think was more public, you could say, no, I'm going to make that more private. But not to do it because you're attached, but actually as a demonstration of realizing their interdependence, the public and the private. Of being able to, yeah, yeah, being able to not get stuck on one side or the other because you realize you're both. When I was in college, I was I got a job as an orderly in a rehabilitation clinic.

[44:39]

How many people heard about this before? Yeah. And this rehabilitation clinic was a clinic that I was in when I was a baby. I was in this place when I was two. I had polio and it was a polio hospital. It was the first polio hospital, it was the first Elizabeth Kenny Hospital in the world. And I just happened to be in the town where it was. So I got this treatment for polio when I was two years old. And I went back there when I was 20 as an orderly. There were very few polio patients there at that time, though. Now they were quadriplegics and paraplegics and hemiplegics. Anyway, I took care of mostly the quadriplegics and paraplegics who were mostly young men. And, you know, I took care of them intimately. I reached up inside of them and pulled their excrement out of their body because they couldn't move their bowels.

[45:48]

And I bathed them because they couldn't bathe themselves. And this was a kind of, for them and me, a kind of going beyond our horizons kind of thing. Very good for me. I don't know if they would speak for themselves, but it was very good for me to be able to be whatever they needed me to be in that way. Just eliminate it completely? Just get in there and work with that and you'll find in this way, if you would do it, this would be a way that you could practice or you could consider how you answer the question of what your life, your actual life is right now.

[46:58]

are you actually like over on one side of the other are you over on the universal side of the particular side are you balanced between them are you working with both simultaneously this is one way to do it not everybody sees you do everything in a sense but when they don't see you do it they see you not do it i mean they see you they see what they can see everybody does see you all the time everybody is with you all the time in a unique way some people's in the room with you some people are outside the room and that's the way they're with you and also you may have some attachment to how who you wind up in bed with even though you're in bed with everybody you still may have some attachment to where the walls are. And that's how you are, too, that you have attachment.

[48:10]

And there's a public and private side to your attachment to public and private. There's the question is, how? Do you manifest the koan? How do you manifest universal in particular right now in what you're doing? How do I manifest it right now in what I'm doing? How do you manifest it as you ask your question? Where's the private and public side when you spoke that? In other words, where's the koan when you ask me the question about that? And you may have heard stories about Zen monks or Zen students who are meditating on koans and that they meditate on all the time. This particular koan is meditating on how, all the time meditating on how your life right now is the koan.

[49:25]

How is your life right now? the truth of life how is your life right now universal and particular how is your life right now private and public how is your life right now unity and difference right now meditating on koans ideally are that you are you actually remember to think about that and watch and see how thinking about that becomes the manifestation of the koan, because that's the way you are as somebody who's thinking about koans now. But you can also remember, of course, sometimes, that there have been times in the past when you didn't think about how your light was the koan and what light was that. And now when you forget, when you get involved in some particular thing,

[50:32]

and you forget the koan, what kind of life is that? As soon as you remember to look, you're meditating on the koan again. How you are, how I am, how you are, how I am. What's the fundamental point? Oh yeah. How is it? that the way I'm actualizing right now is the fundamental point. How is the fundamental point the way I am right now? And how is it when the way I am right now is that I'm hearing and asking the question? And how is it when I don't hear or don't listen or forget about the question.

[51:34]

Check out the two worlds, one where you're meditating on this and one where you forget. One where I remember and one where I forget. One where I remember, which just turns out to be immediate liberation. One where I forget, which turns out to be, I don't know, check it out. Check it out, you're meditating again. How is one fingernail moving over another fingernail, manifesting the koan?

[53:08]

How is the quiet in this room? How is it? Not many questions being asked. Right now. the truth of your life. Kendra Collins saying, the way the truth of your life is manifested is the way things are happening right now. And is this a little bit of a problem?

[54:39]

Or a big problem or no problem? Could you speak up please, Elena? Yes, it occurs to me that sometimes when we see someone that there is involuntary reaction to that person. She excludes me. May I ask a question? Right now, are you meditating on the koan? May I tell you something that's manifesting for me? What is manifesting for me is that you seem to be talking about some other time or place than the present Elena. That's what I'm feeling from your language.

[55:41]

That too, what you just said there. It sounded like you were now trying to justify, and I wasn't sure. If you were appreciating, as you were saying that, that that was the answer to the question. Did you feel like you were answering a question when you were talking? I felt like you didn't. . Are you appreciating the way you are right now as the manifestation of the reality of your life? Not seeing the difference between your public and private, can you see that that is actualizing the non-difference of your public and private?

[57:15]

Truth of the... You can? The difference between public and private, I'm not saying that's unimportant, but the reality that I'm proposing to you is that public and private are not separate. And I'm asking you, while you're being a person who does not understand the difference between public and private, can you see how that person is the answer to the question, do you understand public and private are not separate? You are the answer to that question. You are the answer. You are the manifestation of public and private are not separate. You're manifesting that right now. Are you appreciating that? Are you looking at how you are manifesting public and private? Koan. Koan is public and private. Are you enjoying the manifestation of the koan right now?

[58:19]

That's my question to you. And now I have another question for you. Are you enjoying this manifestation of the fundamental point? Me too. It's also okay not to enjoy it, please. Please hear that, too. It's okay not to enjoy ginger corn in this class on ginger corn. Fran?

[59:29]

May I ask you a question? May I ask you a question? As you're asking this question, are you enjoying ginger corn? In looking up at the ceiling, are you enjoying ginger corn? You don't have to. I'm just checking. It's not blissful. The bliss? The not blissful? The not blissful is the actualization of the fundamental point. That's what I'm proposing to you. Okay? Not blissful when you're not blissful. Not not blissful in general, but when you're not blissful right now, that's the actualization of the koan. And if bliss comes, then the bliss is the actualization of the koan.

[60:39]

I'm just asking, are you enjoying the actualization of the koan? My question was about... Something like that, yeah. You rephrased what I said in a way that I'd like to point out. You said something like asking what is fundamental and particular in the moment. Universal and particular.

[61:42]

Universal and particular. I'm not actually suggesting that you get into what is universal and what is particular. Which is fine, you can do that, but I'm not suggesting that. In this meditation, I'm suggesting that you get into that universal and particular, that's what koan means. Koan means universal and particular inseparable. I'm not asking you to sort of look to see what is and what isn't, but hear that there are such aspects and that they're always together, the universal and the particular. Meditate on that. Now, if you want to, while meditating on that, Be a person who happens to be scratching his fingernails with his fingernails or who happens to be thinking about what's universal and what's particular. That's what's happening right now. You can be a person who's thinking about, well, what's universal and what's particular?

[62:45]

That can happen. Not everybody all the time is thinking what's universal and what's particular. That's not universal to think about that. It sometimes happens, though, that people think about those things. And you can be thinking about those things, but that wouldn't be what I'm suggesting. Whatever particular area you get into, however you're manifesting, that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm suggesting, however, that you will always be some way. You will always manifest as you are right now. Along with that, how you are right now, which is someone who's wondering about universal and particular, blah, blah, blah, or what's private and what's public, blah, blah, blah, you can do that way. But remember that the koan, which just happens to be public and private, universal and particular, that koan is manifesting in your concerns about these things or anything else you're thinking about. I'm suggesting you remember that.

[63:49]

that that question is always, your life is always asking you, are you understanding that the truth of your life is manifesting right now in what's appearing to you? Are you understanding that? Are you remembering that? That's the Genjo koan. The Genjo koan is, remember the koan is what's happening for you now. Yes. It's as opposed to that. However, if you are involved right now in a search for the truth elsewhere, that's what you are, and that is how you're actualizing the reality of your life, is that you're somebody who's thinking about it being someplace else. And you still can recover then. In other words, there's nothing, there's no time, no place when the reality of your life doesn't reach your life. Never.

[64:52]

This teaching is saying, never. Are you at a loss for an opportunity to be free? No matter what happens, no matter what happens, you can slip away or you can recover. Question is, reality is saying to you, are you home? Are you remembering the truth of your life? The truth of your life is calling out to you, do you remember? Are you thinking about us here? Are these true things that are happening? I just realized that Christine is Steven's sister. I just realized that the woman next to you whose name is Christine is Steven's sister.

[66:04]

Tracy? I have a question about that box. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think there's no problem in you understanding it all. Pardon? Yeah, there's a problem. But I'm saying I'm not telling you that you can't understand. You're telling me you don't understand. But you're not saying you can't understand, you're just saying you don't. That's your opinion, right? And the koan, the actual truth of your life, is manifesting as you being a person who thinks she doesn't understand.

[67:31]

Now, when you said that you can't get a hold of it or grasp it or something like that, Yeah, can't hold on. That, I would say, fundamental truth is saying, would you say, yes, that's right. Okay? Fundamental truth also will not argue with you if you say you don't understand. It just says that you're not understanding is the koan. You're not understanding the koan is the koan. And that includes that you can't get a hold of your understanding or lack of understanding or you can't get a hold of your opinions and you can't get a hold of the koan. You can't get a hold of the koan because the koan is you. You can't get a hold of the koan because the koan is you. And you can't understand the koan as an object because the koan is you trying to understand the koan as an object.

[68:34]

You can't get away from the koan. You cannot get away from the truth of your life. And you can't understand the truth of your life as something over there or out there or up there. But you can understand it. You can be the understanding of it. And you can even be the understanding of it while thinking, I don't understand. But you can also somehow notice that at some point you may notice that you do not any longer believe your opinions about your understanding or lack of understanding. And then you might see the difference between believing I don't understand the koan and not believing I don't understand the koan. Just say, there's somebody here who thinks she doesn't understand, but I understand the teaching is

[69:38]

that my sitting here thinking I don't understand is the koan. The koan is the genjo. I'm this particular genjo. I'm this... What? You might as well enjoy it. And you might as well be grateful that everybody helps you enjoy it when you do enjoy it. When you don't enjoy it, everybody's helping you not enjoy it, too. And you are... enjoying it or not enjoying it you are still the koan you're never not the koan you're never not the truth of your life you're never not the truth that buddhas are transmitting to each other you're never not that you can't get away from it you can only forget it and get distracted but when you're distracted it's still right there with you so we're just here to sort of like surprise some we're here reminding each other of reality for an hour or so.

[70:45]

Would you tell me your name again? Barbara? Yes, Barbara? Yes? Yes? Is it a comfort or a tar baby? Is it a comfort or a tar baby? If it's a comfort... the awareness of its comfort, then I would say that that comfort is the koan, is the truth of your life. Some people are comfortable. They're quite comfortable. People are comfortable. The Buddha actually was comfortable prior to realizing enlightenment. He was quite comfortable. But he did not understand that his comfort was the koan. It can be a tar baby, which might not be comfortable. But I'm suggesting to you that you remember that when it's a tar baby, it's the colon.

[71:54]

Then you can enjoy comfort and tar baby. I'm intending to, I brought the text for you and one translation of it, but we didn't get to the text. And I kind of don't want you to start reading it, but if you want to start reading it, go ahead. Here it is. Come and get it after class and you can read it. If you do come up and get a copy of this, please bring it back to class again because we're going to recite it in class next week. But the thing I wanted you to like, before getting to the text, start addressing the fundamental point, which is the text. Without the text to help you, just the title. And so I'd like you just to work on this for a week and I will work on it with you.

[73:00]

I'll be watching you. I'll be watching me intermittently. But I'd recommend that you do not read the text, but that you work on the title, Genjo Koan, as much as you can. But if you want to read the text, here it is. And I just ask you to bring it back so that you can have it to read at class next week. Thank you for your patience with this fundamental point of your life. Please take care of it. It will bring great blessing to all beings and freedom no matter what. Tar baby or What was the other thing? Comfort.

[74:04]

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@Score_88.84