Tonight I'd like to say something new and yet something I said before. So I propose to you, it's my understanding that Zen practice or the Buddha way, kind of synonymous for me, has a point. And the point of the Buddha way is enlightenment. And enlightenment is helping others. And helping others is understanding that they are ourselves. is the same as Zen enlightenment.

[01:23]

Zen enlightenment is understanding that others are yourself. Helping others is understanding that others are yourself. It's the same as saying helping others is understanding that there's no others, that you can't find any others. And in the not being able to find others, there's no others. So another way to understand the point of Zen is to understand the way things are, the way all beings are, namely that they can't be found. But a warmer way to put it is, I think, that they're all you.

[02:25]

So that's Zen enlightenment. And to practice that, to practice that is Zen practice. But the practice and the enlightenment are the same. understanding that others are yourself, you practice, you live according to that. So the enlightenment is that others are yourself and the practice is that others practice your practice, that the practice of all beings in your practice are the same practice. And the enlightenment of other beings, in other words, the way other beings understand that they are others, their enlightenment is your enlightenment.

[03:42]

So the practice is the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings. Or you could say the practice is the understanding that the whole universe is supporting you and you are supporting the whole universe. The whole universe is your life and your life supports the life. That understanding is enlightenment and that helps all beings. And then a practice, a form of practice, which is

[04:45]

which follows this understanding that you're practicing to help others is a practice of enlightenment. It is enlightenment in practice. A practice which follows according to others are you is a practice of enlightenment. So when I sit, I can do a ceremony of sitting as helping others. I sit point of my sitting, when I'm sitting, the point of my sitting is helping others.

[05:52]

The point of my sitting is that the point of my sitting is that others are myself. And when the point of this sitting is that others are myself, that others are doing the same practice as me, then this practice that I'm doing is a ceremony to perform to perform the same practice as all beings. It's a way that this person joined to the practice of all beings by offering this practice to realize the practice of everyone, the practice of others, the enlightenment of others helping others.

[06:55]

there's sometimes people think of... let me just say that when Dario was here he did some etymological work on the word ceremony and I remember him finding two kinds of ceremony. One is that he found was kind of like community and the other one was like the root was related to the word karma meaning the thing done So people understand ceremony is that it's a communal thing and it's a way that a community can communicate with itself its values. So if we do the ceremony part of it is that we're sitting to communicate the the teaching and the value that others are our self.

[08:13]

So I'm sitting now and I'm saying this to you. So in that sense I'm doing a ceremony to communicate with you a value that I have, that I live, that this sitting is for others, that this sitting is as the sitter here is others. And another meaning of sitting is, another meaning of ceremony is to do something, to perform something. example, to perform the practice of all beings. Of course, I can't do the practice of all beings, but I perform a ceremony of the practice of all beings. I don't perform the ceremony of me sitting.

[09:19]

Sitting is the ceremony of all beings sitting. I'm sitting, but for me it's my ceremony that I offer to the practice of all beings. And of course my sitting doesn't really exhaust the practice of all beings, but my sitting realizes the practice of all beings when I do it as the practice of all beings. And when I practice that way, I change and the practice of all beings change because I'm doing a ceremony of the practice of all beings. The whole universe changes when I do the ceremony and the whole universe supports me to do the ceremony. And when people hear this kind of proposal, this kind of teaching, they sometimes come and ask how the way that they're practicing, how they relate to what I'm talking about.

[10:42]

Or they don't ask me, but I hear them describe their practice and I... I would like them to understand that in many cases the practice they're doing is in harmony with the ceremony of the practice of all beings. So quite a few people are sitting in this hall and paying attention to or caring for their breathing. That's a practice they're doing. So how, and they're doing that partly, in some cases they're doing it in order to calm down, in order to promote tranquility, which that kind of exercise does often encourage and support the realization of tranquility.

[11:44]

So I would say that if someone was paying attention to their breathing, that they could pay attention to their breathing Paying attention to their breathing is primarily enlightenment. But it could be that for them the point of paying attention to their breathing was primarily to realize tranquility. That's certainly a wholesome thing to do. If you're taking care of your breathing, if you're following your breathing, you could follow your breathing. You could count your breath, you could be aware of your breath, and the point of your awareness of your breath is to help others. It could be not primarily to get yourself concentrated, although you would be happy to do that, you'd like that to happen, and you're actually working for that.

[12:49]

But the practice, which I say is the point, is the point of which is enlightenment. So that if you're following your breathing, you're following your breathing to help others, to help others, to help all others. You're following your breathing to understand or from understanding that all other beings are yourself. With that understanding, you follow your breathing. some Buddhas follow their breathing. One time, Suzuki Roshi said, I don't know if he said this first part, but he said something like, people were kind of debating which was the best practice at Zen Center. Counting the breath, following the breath, just sitting. And what was the best practice? Because he taught many practices.

[13:54]

And in a sense you could say, well his, some people would say, well his main practice was breathing. But he also taught people to follow breathing sometimes. So at one point he said, let's all count our breath. And he said that like in January of 1970 in San Francisco, he stopped, that I heard him, In the summer, I was talking to one of the students at Tassajara and he said, he said, Roshi didn't tell us to stop, but I think he wants us to. So I'm going to stop counting my breath. So I'm not speaking for Suzuki Roshi other than quoting him in this case. But I, even though I'm not speaking for him, I do think that for him, sitting was done for the welfare of others, to help others.

[14:56]

I think that was the point of his sitting. He was sitting for the sake of enlightenment. He was sitting for the sake of Buddha. He was sitting to realize that others were himself. That's my understanding of him, and I could say he said that. in many different ways. The whole Sangha, let's all do the same practice for a while. So if some of you are following your breathing or counting your breath, I would say, fine. If some of you are cutting carrots, I would say, fine. If you are paying attention to washing the dirt out of the spinach, I would say, fine. But then I would say, how about washing the spinach for the sake of enlightenment? How about washing the spinach in order to help others?

[15:57]

And of course, partly you're helping the spinach so that they won't have the dirt in their mouth when they eat it. That helps them. But how about helping them in the best way? The best way to help them is to understand that they're yourself. So whatever you're doing in this temple, piling firewood. I saw some people sweeping the road, climbing ladders, planting vegetables. Whatever you're doing, how about doing it in order to help others? How about doing it to realize that others are yourself. Why not? And then someone said to me recently, a senior student said to me, what percentage of the time do you think of helping others?

[17:02]

And he graciously confessed that he didn't do it very often. He didn't very often do things and think of helping others. Maybe he was just trying to encourage some people who don't think of that very often. So I don't know how often you can remember that when you're talking and when you're making gestures and when you're thinking, that you're thinking in order to help others. But actually, it's okay with me if you never think that you're doing something to help others. while you're doing anything, that what you're doing is others, that your action is others, that others are your action. That might be easier. Everything I do is actually others. If you can remember that a few times a day, that would be a great benefit in this world, I say.

[18:10]

And some people have been coming to me recently and giving me this really good example. One person put it like, just on Saturday somebody came and talked to me and she put it like this. She says, sometimes I have these really nourishing thoughts. Sometimes I think that somebody is supporting me. And I'm supporting everybody. I sometimes think that way. And I feel really good. In other words, sometimes she thinks of enlightenment. Sometimes she thinks others are herself. She didn't quite say, sometimes I think others are myself, but it's almost there when you realize everybody's supporting you and you're supporting them. It's almost like you understand that they're yourself when you think that way. So sometimes she thinks that way or even sees that way. And then she said, and I have this other way that's not nourishing when I think others are not supporting me.

[19:23]

Others not supporting me is kind of like others are not me. Does that make sense? And I'm not supporting them. Again, I'm not supporting them is also kind of like they're not me. She says she has these two Somebody came to me just recently and said, oh, by the way, I sometimes, I sometimes feel like, I feel like rejecting just about everybody. And I feel like everybody's rejecting me. Or I feel like and I feel like some people are rejecting me. And of course when I feel like rejecting them, and that they're rejecting me, I feel really bad. This person didn't say, sometimes I feel like I'm not rejecting anybody and nobody's rejecting me. I just proposed to you, which I mentioned recently over at Noah Bowd, you know, seeds are nourishing, can be, seeds.

[20:32]

And the seed of enlightenment, the seed of enlightenment, the seed of understanding that others are yourself is, well, it's the understanding that others are yourself. Or it's the thought that the others are yourself. considering the possibility that others are yourself. That can be a seed. And you can take that seed that you're supporting others, you want to support others, and you want them to support you, and actually you think sometimes they're supporting you. You can take that seed and bring it over and plant it of I'm rejecting everybody and everybody's rejecting me. You can plant this nourishing seed seed of I want to help others and others really want to help me.

[21:34]

You can take that seed and bring it over and plant it in. I don't want to help others and others don't want to help me. Plant it there. It can grow in this kind of miserable situation of others are not me and that's fine with me, and I hate them, and they hate me, and I'm miserable. You can plant the seed of Buddha in this terrible, in this terror field. You can plant it right there, and actually it grows really well there. It's okay to plant the seed of he's supporting me, and he's I support him and I support him. It's fine to plant that seed in. I support him and he supports me. You can plant it there too. But that's fine. But it's not going to grow very well unless you also plant it in.

[22:36]

He's rejecting me. I'm rejecting him. I'm a miserable enemy. I'm a miserable enemy. Also plant it there. Otherwise it's not going to reach its full potential. This wonderful seed needs to be planted in the worst areas, the most terrible points of view. Seems like we've got the terrible point of views. No shortage of those, so plenty of places to plant. Do you have the seeds? Let's find the seeds. I'm proposing some seeds. And then you can start planting whenever you find them. Whenever you consider, even maybe others are myself, and maybe they're supporting me, and maybe I'm supporting them. That's almost the seed.

[23:37]

To learn to actually... Yeah, I try that on and I feel really good, and I would like to plant that. And I know where to plant it. So another expression which I often use is the horse arrives before the donkey leaves. You don't have to wait for all the nasty thoughts in your mind or other people's minds to go away before you bring thoughts of great compassion and thoughts of understanding emptiness to this underdeveloped misery. So this afternoon when I was sitting here in the zendo, I was thinking that I was sitting here in order to help others.

[24:52]

I was thinking that. I was not thinking I was sitting here to help me, although it's okay. I was thinking I'm sitting here to help others. And I was thinking others, all these people in this room are me. And I didn't stop there. I thought all the beings in the universe are me. I thought I'm filled with the whole universe doing this ceremony where I welcome the whole universe to fill me and this is a ceremony where I fill the whole universe and everybody else is filling the whole universe and the universe is filling everybody else. But if they don't do this ceremony they might not realize it. for themselves with the understanding that they are not, that others are not them, that understanding can block the realization that the whole universe is filling them every moment.

[25:57]

And in particular, it's filling them while they're doing ... of the whole universe is filling the ceremony and this universe, this ceremony fills the whole universe. I'm performing here. This is a performance of the whole universe fills this performance, and this performance fills the whole universe. You don't have to think that, but if you don't think that, what do you think? And probably if you don't think that others are yourself, you think they're not. Most people do one or the other. Some people do say, well, maybe they are and maybe they aren't. That's pretty good, actually. But I think more to the point is I'm really considering that you are not only me, but you're more truly me than I am.

[26:58]

I mean, I'm kind of... You're really me. So, yeah, when our ancestor Dungsan was... feeling that he wanted to go on a pilgrimage. Or anyway, he wanted to leave his teacher. He went to his teacher and said, I want to leave. And... And he said, and I wondered later, what your teaching is, what should I say? And Yun Yan said to Deng Xiaon, Deng Xiaon's teacher, Yun Yan said, just this person is it. And Deng Xiaon didn't understand. and his teacher says, you must be thorough going about this teaching of just this person is it.

[28:08]

So then Dung Shan left and took a long walk and after approximately 150 miles of walking he came to a river and as he was crossing the river he saw his reflection and he realized that others were himself, that his self was all beings. And he said, everywhere I go, I meet him. To seek him outside is to get lost on the way. Now I am not him, and he is me. So we already know how to think he's not me, she's not me. And the point is to understand that he truly, in truth, that's who this person really is.

[29:24]

So this is the ceremony to communicate this teaching and this is the ceremony to perform this teaching that I'm doing with you right now. And I would like to encourage you to make everything you do every day, all day long, try to see if you can make everything you do a ceremony performing enlightenment, a ceremony performing that all beings are yourself, that others are yourself. And if we think about ourself, if we're concerned about our own well-being, that can happen.

[30:57]

And if we think of self-concern, how about planting the seed of others are my true self. Remember that in the midst of self-concern. When we're perhaps and we're a little bit concerned about our own dying process, that's fine. That's a place to plant the seed. Or if the seed's already been planted, to remember the seed and plant the seed of, I'm dying, but all beings are myself. And all beings are myself is the practice. And that practice and that enlightenment will be living when I die.

[32:03]

And now that I'm alive, I give myself to the practice which is undying, the practice which is always the same practice and the same enlightenment as all beings, always the same practice. And my illness and death do not hinder that. However, if I'm sick and dying and don't remember that, this is, I think, a case of missing the opportunity of doing the ceremony, of performing the Klingon beings. It seems that each of us can do the ceremony of the practice of all beings as well as anyone else.

[33:18]

But you sort of have to remember it. If there's a donkey here, please welcome it. Don't hold on to it. Welcome it. Open to it. And you'll also open to the horse. The horse is always present, ready to enter us. may our insight equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of the Buddha's Way.

[34:55]

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