Bring forth as much as you can of love, of respect, and of faith. Wipe away all taints and remove all obstructions. And listen to the perfect wisdom of the gentle Buddhas, taught for the benefit of the world, intended for heroic spirits. May all beings be happy. May all beings be at peace. May all beings be free. Did you hear the garbage cans going by?

[01:10]

Did you hear that? They're collecting the garbage now. Do you feel the kindness of the garbage collectors? Do you feel gratitude for this work they're doing? Change for their work?

[02:23]

And once you feel shame, can you then feel gratitude that they clean up after you? Someone may have the preconception that while feeling shame, that gratitude would not come from there. In America also they make good money, their securities.

[03:57]

I don't feel shame, but I did feel gratitude. Please pick up, please. Because they're collecting the garbage. You can sit here. That would be good. Good for them. Mostly I feel gratitude for the things schools have given the students.

[05:32]

I press that girl on most of the time without my even being aware of it. And I do what I do when I do it for people. Amen.

[06:57]

So, Thank you for watching. That's the street cleaners, right? And before the street cleaners was the meter maze. People gave me tickets if anybody's car was in the way. But tell me, do you want to basically continue along the way you've been going, or do you want to try a completely new direction?

[09:24]

You want to go the other way? Yes. The direction you're drawing in? I don't know the direction you're drawing in. Do you know the direction you're drawing in? Oops. You want to go the direction you know you're going? No? Really? Good. So you want to go in an unknown direction? In the direction of the unknown? You'd like to know a little bit more about the unknown? We can say that that's fine and what you want to do is get it, but not have it. Did you get it?

[10:55]

Yes. Do you have it? No. How about you? I don't have it. You don't have it? Anybody have it? Gladys, do you have it? I have it. You have it? Yeah, but I don't know what. You don't want it? I don't know about it. You don't know about it? Any questions about going straight ahead? It means that when you stop breathing, that's really breathing.

[12:15]

That's not dying. That's dying. It means when you die, you'll start living. Could you say that louder? I'm going deaf. I agree with myself. It's very hard to stop breathing. Hard to stop breathing? It's hard to let go of your idea of breathing and find out what breath is. That's why we're grieving here.

[13:33]

You have to let go of your idea of what breath is in order to find breath. As you approach your real body and your real breath, a lot of fear might come up. And you want to hold on to what you think your body and breath is. This session schedule delivers you a body and breath every period. You get one. You get a breathing body every period. You don't have to worry about that part. What you have to do is go the opposite direction from what you think this body and breath is. Buddhist truth cannot be perceived.

[14:43]

Buddhist body and breath cannot be perceived. Realizing this is called perceiving Buddhist truth and perceiving Buddhist body and breath. But it's difficult to settle into a body without bringing along with you your old idea of your body. It's sad and frightening to not drag along your old idea of your body and breath everywhere you go. What a surprise you'll find there when you forget to bring yourself along.

[15:54]

So, Vasya surprises me by saying, please tell me more about what it's going to be like. I can say anything, but really it's going to be a surprise when you get there. Willing to go forward without dragging along any rose-colored glasses, without bringing along all this knowledge, not easy. Very ordinary, but not easy. Really, we're doing it all the time, but we can't stand to face it. But I tell you, I sincerely think Zen is awfully neat.

[17:13]

What is the Every Adam Samadhi? How could he say, how could he come up with that wonderful surprise? Rice in a bowl, water in a bucket. How neat. How surprising. How ordinary. How lovely. You can do that too. If you can dive into the Every Adam Samadhi, if you can give up your knowledge, your sureness, then you don't know how to do the Every Adam Samadhi. You don't know how to realize it. At Zen Center, for some time now, we've been switching from the age of the patriarchs.

[18:33]

And we no longer say Buddhas and patriarchs. We say now Buddhas and ancestors. But ancestors isn't quite right for Asian culture, because Asians have lots of ancestors. It's not just the Buddhas and ancestors. It's the Buddhas and the particular ancestors who realized the way. Not all the ancestors really did. But another translation, instead of patriarch, would be pioneer. Buddhas and pioneers, the people who opened up the present, who dared to go into their life without holding onto anything. This is the Zen pioneers. opening up the unknown, undeceivered, fresh person, which we don't know how to do, and which the Buddhas and ancestors asked us to do, and which is not doing anything.

[19:47]

But they asked us to do it as though we were doing something. to do nothing wholeheartedly, which is the same as dying. So we've got a body, a breathing body. There's endless techniques of how to take care of it. But really, they all just approach giving up body and mind. I have nothing against all these techniques of care for the body and mind. But I'm bringing up now, letting go of it.

[20:55]

and just going straight ahead, even though we don't know what direction that is. So we call it backwards. Going straight ahead is to step backwards. Now we have the plaque here. brought from the Ring Alt, behind the wisdom bodhisattva is the plaque of the protector of the practice principle. Protector of the practice principle. What is the protector of the practice principle? to abandon all human emotion, to abandon all human vanity, including the vanity that you can abandon it, and just join

[22:28]

with all beings in this life. And abandon your idea of what that would be. And forgive yourself if you can't do it. Every single thing you've done, even past dropping of body and mind, is working against you. Even your past insights and awakenings tempt you to hold on to them. Boldly, with no help from anything that's ever happened, drop it all. We get tired of watching the white ox on open ground.

[23:41]

We don't even look at the rootless grasses like good Buddhist monks should. We forgot what mindfulness is. How do we spend our days? I have tons of interesting stuff here in these books. So many beautiful stories of people who practice the yoga of the backward step. who perceived the Buddha's truth which cannot be perceived and surprised everybody, especially themselves.

[24:54]

So I don't want to hold you up now from carrying on your enlightenment. Go right ahead. How are you going to do it? Is it a session? Now, what is it? Four and a half day session you've got ahead of you? How will you spend your days? I'm trying to do my best.

[26:28]

I do my best for you and with you. But it's possible that if you don't understand this, you'll have some problem with it. Just like you might have with the meter maids, the speed cleaners, and the garbage collector. I'm sincerely not trying to be original. And yet, I dearly hope I will be. I'm not trying to surprise you, and I really wish I did. But I'd like to see you now come forth.

[27:39]

Come forth with love and respect and faith. And do something that they'll remember for a thousand years. Come on. What is three? Have you reached the realm where there's no doubt? My blood pressure is going up.

[28:54]

I think my blood pressure is going up. What is the meaning of the silence of the elders in this room? Hey, he dared to join the elders group.

[30:12]

I don't know what he said. He's a new student. You don't even know his name. Who is that guy? What's your name? Antonio? Antonio. How about you, Antonio? Let's hear more from the elders. Violate the taboo against talking. Let's hear more from the kids. Should we just keep sitting, or should we keep just sitting? Or should we let go of just sitting? Maybe we should forget everything you said. Can you do it?

[31:17]

No? Where does it break after this talk? You can go wash out your ears in the highly treated water of San Francisco. get chlorine in your eardrums. Anyway, I hope that somebody can understand how wonderful we are and what a great honor it is to be in this group of people and to be able to just sit and turn the darn wheel for the benefit of all bees in this unexpected in conceivable manner. Somebody knows.

[32:25]

And also, nobody knows the troubles I see. Today is a memorial of the death of one of our sitters. So we'll do a service at noon. It's also the night before the day that Suzuki Roshi died. So we'll do a service in the evening, preparing for a ceremony for him tomorrow. Today is also a birthday of one of the yogis. Birth and death.

[33:31]

We as human beings do have some resistance to living in birth and death, even though that's where we're living. we're a little bit queasy about entering into birth and death with all beings, aren't we? This is a natural human tendency. We are the great species which thinks it can get a little distance on birth and death. abdicate the buffer zone. Let's be living beings. Let's thoroughly investigate how we can actually be living beings, birthing and death beings.

[34:37]

Let's express ourselves completely in every moment. I give you my permission to do that. I'm willing to cope with what that might be, although I'm a little scared. Is there anyone here who also will give that permission? Norman, thank you. Great. How about you, Jerome? Great. Catherine? Linda? Cut it. How about the next student? Share it. Share it? Share it? Work the other way around.

[35:43]

Well, first I want the people to sign up for Wood. Which one do you want to sign up for? Anybody? How about you? What are the two here for? You so? Hi. You know, the authority figure is here looking forward. No? Uh-oh. How about you? Okay, so anybody besides Lee that's opposed to this program? What's the program? We and Idelios also. What's the program? The program is for people to express themselves fully and not worry about whether we can handle it. Just for, at least for the session, okay? I'm all for it. Okay, now, now that I've, now that I've, now that, yeah, there's a stipulation. A stipulation? Not a stipulation. It's a request. I want, I, I'm, I'm not kidding, folks.

[36:50]

I actually want you to really express yourselves. I also want to ask you to follow the script. It's a request. You don't have to do it. But I'm asking you to do it. Anybody else asking for that to be done? Please. Norman's also asking for that. And Paul is. And Jim is. And a lot of people are. Anybody not asking for that? I think the forum is asking for that. What? I think the forum is asking for that. No, I'm not saying the forum isn't. I'm saying anybody opposed to asking, requesting the people to stay in a sashim. So that's the way it is. I really want you to fully express yourself. And also, I'm making a request to follow the schedule. We're not sure who we truly are to express ourselves. That's nice. If you're sure who you are, you will not be able to express yourself. What are the schedule confidence?

[37:53]

What do you think is the effect on yourself? Express yourself. How do I do? Express yourself. With what? Express yourself. And please follow the schedule. That's me expressing myself. I'll express myself again. Please follow the schedule for the sake of all sentient beings and express yourself. For all sentient beings. We need you to express yourself, even though when you do... It's unspeakable what it's like. Can you express yourself without...

[38:54]

Expressing yourself, when I say express yourself, I mean express yourself. I mean you do not leak when you express yourself. If you express somebody else, that's leaking. If you have some idea of who you are and try to express that, that's leaking. You're going to get worn out if you try to express somebody else. or express what you think you're supposed to be. You're going to get worn out doing that. You're going to get worn out if you follow the schedule according to the way you think you're supposed to follow it rather than the way you do follow it. So I'm saying express yourself. I'm also saying please have no outflows. Express yourself means no seeking. Express yourself means no gaining idea. And who is those? The Buddha or the God?

[39:59]

That's what homage to Buddha is, is expressing yourself. That's the most, that's what Buddha is asking of you, that's what Buddha is waiting for, that's what Buddha loves. Buddha is you expressing yourself exactly as you are, that's what Buddha is. You don't want to discuss these things about yourself. If that's what's happening, it's expressed. Have we not been expressing ourselves? You have been expressing yourself. It is unspeakable, even though it has words. Or rather, even though it's not without speech. Okay, thanks for signing up.

[41:02]

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