The last time I sat in this seat, I mentioned that the chant which we just did, I referred to the chant which we just did. Did you hear it? It ends something like, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Anybody not know who the Tathagata is? Please raise your hands. Anybody who does know who the Tathagata is, please raise your hands. I can't really, well, unless you want me to, I can't really speak for you, unless you want

[01:25]

me to. Do you want me to? You don't, okay. So I can't speak for you, but I can speak for Hugh, right? I can't speak for you, but I can speak for Hugh. Do you know who Hugh is? He's right behind you. Hugh is behind you. So, you know, I don't really know who the Tathagata is myself, and yet somehow I love the Tathagata. Can you love someone who you don't know who they are? So anyway, if you don't know who the Tathagata is, there's

[02:35]

what has thus come, and we call the Buddha sometimes, what has thus come, or the one who comes from the way things are, and talks, has words, and the Buddha talked, apparently. People said they heard the Buddha, and they've transmitted these words down to the present, and so we can hear them, and then there's the issue of tasting the truth of the Tathagata's words. So, of course, the words we hear now, here in America, are English, mostly English translations of Asian languages, like Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, Vietnamese, Sanskrit, and Pali, and also middle, what do you call it, Central Asian languages. All these countries

[03:43]

where the Buddhist, where the words of the Tathagata have been recited by people who love the Tathagata, who love the Buddha, and they bring up the Buddha's words, and they have vowed to taste the truth of them. So we hear them, and then hearing them is one thing, and then tasting the truth might be another. So, anyway, last time I talked here I brought up some of the Tathagata's words, and some of the Tathagata's words have been translated into English as, everything that appears, actually I didn't say this last time, but everything that appears, or everything that arises, ceases. Everything that arises

[04:55]

in dependence on conditions deteriorates. Everything that arises is impermanent. The Buddha said that right at the end of her life, and then she said, so please be diligent and study how everything that arises depending on conditions is impermanent. But another teaching of the Buddha is, everything that arises, arises in dependence on conditions. Nothing arises by its own power. These are some words which we say, which we say the Buddha said, which we say we've heard, that somebody heard, that somebody heard, the Buddha

[05:58]

said. Everything's like that. Everything that arises, arises in dependence on conditions. There's no things that arise by themselves. So we, each of us, arise depending on other things. We do not arise by our own power. So one way to taste the truth of these words is, I suggested last time, is to consider that in an event like this, where we gather together and there's words spoken, that these words do not arise by their own power, which I probably, you probably don't think they do, right? That these words just popped up by their own power? But you might think that these words arose from the power of me, but the Buddha taught that that's not so. These words do not arise ... well, actually they

[07:06]

do arise by the power of me, because I am part of the other power of the words. I'm one of the conditions for these words, so the words actually do arise powered by me, but they also arise powered by you. These words would not be arising right now if you were not here. I like to reiterate that point. I do not walk around talking like this. Really, I don't. In some ways, when I'm walking around, it's different, you know? It's like, oh, mud, step, mud, step, like that, that's what's going on. But when I get in a room like this and cross my legs and look at you, somehow I start talking differently, because of you. So, part of tasting the truth of the Tathagata's words is that you tune into

[08:16]

how you, together with all of us, how we together are the arising of this event. So, since we're sitting, maybe we should talk about sitting, since we're sitting.

[09:35]

This room is sometimes called a Zen-do, and there are more than one ways that one might understand what that means. So, one way of understanding what it means is to translate it into English, but as you know, Zen is now an English word, so you don't have to translate it like that, and do means hall, so you can call it a Zen-hall. This is a Zen-hall. Now, some people might say, well, actually, Zen-hall is short for Zazen-hall, and za means sitting. I laugh because the Chinese character for sitting is going to be on a reprinting of a book that's attributed to me. On the front cover, it's going to have a Chinese character which means sitting, and I don't know, somehow I was talking to some people

[10:46]

and I said, what do you think is a good character to put on the cover of the book, and I don't know, did somebody suggest sitting? Somehow the character sitting came up. We were studying a text about sitting Zen, so someone said, how about sitting? Of course, you could put Zen on it, but there are so many books that have Zen on it, so we thought, how about just sitting? And the Chinese character for sitting is composed of putting together two different characters, actually three different characters. One character has a horizontal line, and then another horizontal line above it, a little bit shorter, can you picture that? And then a vertical line going through the upper horizontal line, can you picture that? So it looks like kind of a cross stuck on a horizontal line. And then there's two Chinese characters, both of which mean person, and the two persons are sitting up on the shelf of the upper line.

[11:48]

So the character with the cross on the horizontal line, that character means earth or ground, so the word for sitting is two people sitting on the ground. But I like it because it's two people sitting on the ground, it's not just one person sitting on the ground. They could have chosen some other, there's other characters for sitting in Chinese, I think, like they probably have a character for lounging, they probably have a character for like sitting in chairs, probably have a character for sitting on the throne, probably have a character for sitting on the pot, you know, they got a lot of characters. But this character is the character that they put together with Zen. So Zen is a sitting of two people sitting together on the ground, Zen. So this is that two people sitting together is really the same as Zen,

[12:56]

because Zen is not just one person practicing Zen. Zen is two people, and two is short for quite a few people sitting together on the earth practicing Zen. So Zen is a sitting which is what I said before, it is a practice that doesn't arise by its own power, it arises in dependence on the power of other things. The Buddha Dharma, the Buddha's teaching, the Buddha's life, the Buddha's practice arises in dependence on us, and the practice of our life arises independent on others. We support others to practice, we support the practice, and others support us to practice. And when we understand that, then we are not any longer,

[13:59]

what do you call it, out to lunch. You know that expression, out to lunch? So there's like lunch, right? You have lunch, and you can go out to lunch, which means you go and have lunch, right? But out to lunch means you're not having lunch, right? Is that what it means? You're missing lunch, out to lunch, you're missing your lunch. When we understand how we're practicing together, we don't miss lunch, the Buddha lunch, we don't miss it. Zen doesn't own reality, although sometimes people, when reality comes up, they give it

[15:08]

to Zen. Do you know what I mean? No? Yes? A lot of times when something real happens, people say, oh, that's Zen. Do you know what I mean? If you get a really good haircut, some people say, that's very Zen. Now some people give it to some other school of Buddhism, sometimes, or even some other religion, like get a good haircut, people say, that's really Christian, that's very Jewish. But somehow in this culture, Zen's gotten a really kind of, it's nice and short, and so when something cool happens, even on the street, people sometimes say, that's really Zen. I'm not saying Zen deserves it, but people give it to it. Zen doesn't own all the cool things that are happening, but a lot of times when something cool happens, people say, that's Zen. Have you ever seen that happening? There's the Zen of this and the Zen of that and the Zen of that, right? There's not the

[16:10]

Christianity of this and the Christianity of that, or the Jewish of this and the … well, there is the Jewish of this and the Jewish of that, like there's Jewish humor, right? Anyway, I don't want to be possessive on behalf of Zen. Since I'm speaking for you, I don't want to make you be possessive in terms of what Zen owns, but still, for me, what attracted me to Zen was not like, I don't know what, the great truth of the Buddha. It wasn't presented that way to me. What attracted me was … What attracted me to Zen was …

[17:44]

What attracted me was the free flow of our life together, as presented to me by stories of the Zen tradition. It doesn't exclude the inconceivably awesome, wonderful teaching of the Buddha of India and China and so on. It doesn't exclude that, but that wasn't what attracted me. What attracted me was just that human beings can somehow enter into the unobstructed vitality of their life together, that that would be possible, that we really could live fully and harmoniously in daily life.

[19:03]

To make this unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma alive today. Working, the possibility of working together and playing together and relating without attachment, and in that way having life flow freely, and always be ready to die and be born again, always fresh, because we're willing to let go of what's dead.

[20:15]

And the history of Zen Buddhism up to this morning is dead, of course. And what could be more splendid on the planet than the history of Zen? Even a history which is the history of a tradition which constantly recognizes that it's dead. A religion which points to itself as, hey, us, Zen, dead. Yeah, we've got a great history, it's gone. We've got nothing now, and now that's gone. So there's an opening for you, you know, there's a vacancy in the Zen school for you. All the Zen masters are gone. Welcome! You can be the Zen tradition because it's over. And yet, it can be recreated by, of all people, us.

[21:27]

I said you, but I didn't mean you by yourself. I meant you together with the other people here, now. One of the slogans of Zen is a special transmission outside the teachings. The wonderful teachings of the Buddhist tradition have been brought to us right now. The Zen is a special transmission outside these teachings, which means, not inside or outside, which means based on these teachings that we've received so far, like, for example, the teachings of interdependence. Based on these teachings, we now go beyond these teachings. Based on these teachings, which are helpful.

[22:34]

They should be helpful, because giving up teachings that are not helpful is not going to work. You have to find a teaching that works, and if you love the Buddha's teaching, if you love the words of the Tathagata, then you have to meet them and let go of them. Go beyond them, and find the Tathagata's words today, with us, not just by yourself. It's okay to find them by yourself for a minute, but then check out the rest of us, and see if we helped you, and if we didn't, you didn't find it. The truth that I find by myself is not the Buddha's truth. When Zen is first born, it can live for a while,

[23:42]

and if it lives and is useful to people, fine, I would say. But then, it has to eat itself, to save itself. The Chinese word for digestion, or one Chinese word for digestion, is a compound of two characters. One character means destroy, and the other means transform. To digest, we must destroy the food. We must munch it, we must bite it, we must crush it. Gently if you want, but you've got to crush it. It's got to be pulverized and transformed, because you don't want any rice particles in your bloodstream. That would not be good. It has to be transformed, and you have to bite it,

[24:47]

and really, to be healthy, you have to bite it, and chew it, and taste it, and salivate on it, and put it in your tummy, and put juice on it, and suck it up, and transform it, and then you have life. That's what we need to do with Zen, with the Buddhist tradition. In order to save the Buddhist tradition, and we should chew our food really well, tasting the truth of the Tathagata's words, chewing it carefully and well, so it can be transformed into today. .

[25:52]

. We have this practice called Zazen, or in English, half English, half not English, we can say Sitting Together Zen. Zen... The Zen of Sitting Together. And we practice the Zen of Sitting Together in this room for thousands of hours. Thousands of hours, thousands of people. Thousands of hours, thousands of people have practiced Sitting Together in this room. For 30 years, right, for 30 and a half years thousands of people have practiced probably

[27:00]

I guess millions of hours sitting together in this room. And I just wanted to mention that during those millions of hours of thousands of people maybe there was Buddha, maybe the Tathagata was sitting here that whole time together with all those people. Perhaps the Tathagata is sitting together with us now here. And how does the Tathagata sit together with us? The Tathagata sits together with us surrendering to us, surrendering to just sitting here with

[28:02]

us. We are good enough for the Buddha. Could you believe that? That Buddha would not trade you in for some other sitting mates? Would you like to have some different sitting mates, want to trade seats with somebody? Buddha sits with no expectations. When there is sitting in this room with no expectations, Buddha sits there. Buddha is alive today when there is sitting in this room with no expectations. Is there any place or is there every place sitting with no expectations, surrendering to how we are being supported by everyone now?

[29:07]

Sitting with no expectation is Buddha's sitting. This, in a sense, was once news, and now it's old news, and yet it's news. Is it news to anybody? Good. Good. The essential point that marks the investigation, what investigation? The investigation that goes on when we sit together on the earth. I didn't tell you about that part. Now I'm telling you. You're supporting me to tell you that while we are together here sitting on the earth,

[30:18]

there is an investigation going on. Did you see an investigation recently? There was an investigation as to whether there was any expectations. Did you notice? Did any of you check to see if there's any expectations going on around here? Did you? Some of you did. Some of you checked. I wonder if I'm expecting anything here right now, or from this talk, from this morning, from this rainy day. Am I having any expectations, like do I expect to finish the day, do I expect to grow today? Now, you know, or you've heard, that you'll be older tonight than you were this morning, right? But while you're sitting, you're not into that, expecting to be older or wiser this evening. What a waste. Another day shot, didn't get anything, except Buddha was sitting all day with no expectation.

[31:23]

And there was investigation as to whether there was any expectation. Just to make sure, just check. Checking to see that there's no hindrance to Buddha. Now, if there is hindrance, if you do investigate, if there is investigation and we notice somebody's expecting something around here, you say, okay, somebody's expecting something, but right next to that person who's expecting something is somebody who's not expecting something. And there it is. Somebody who doesn't expect you not to yawn, and doesn't expect you to yawn. Somebody who doesn't expect you to like her or dislike her is sitting together with you

[32:27]

on the ground. The essential point that makes this investigation, oh, excuse me, that marks this investigation of the Buddha, the essential point that marks the investigation of the Buddha, the essential point that marks the way that the Buddha investigates, what's the Buddha investigating, what's the main thing Buddha's investigating, is the understanding that there is a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha. Zen people, some Zen people, and you might do it later today, have vowed to realize the Buddha way, which means vowed to realize enlightenment.

[33:28]

Some Zen comrades, some Zen devotees, some Zen people have vowed to attain Buddhahood in order to help this world, and then they enter into an investigation, the essential mark of which is an understanding that there's a practice, there's a practice of a Buddha that does not seek anything. There's a practice of a Buddha that doesn't seek anything, and in particular is a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha. This is old and this is new. I hope it's for you. May I ask you to say something? Would you say something? May I ask you to say something?

[34:49]

Okay, say this, there is a practice of a Buddha that does not seek to make a Buddha. You said it. This is the realization of Zen. Thank you, my dear. The embodied Buddha does not make a Buddha. Do you believe? Do you believe that? Do I believe that?

[35:57]

So we come in this room, we have a chance to come in this room and sit on the ground together and give ourselves away to a practice of a Buddha sitting, not seeking to make a Buddha. Now, you may not be interested in that kind of practice, you may wish, I would like to make myself, you know, something, but here is a practice. This room is available for us to come and sit together and not seek to make a Buddha. When we give ourselves completely to such a practice, when we loan our body and mind

[37:08]

to Buddha, to be used for the practice of Buddha, not making a Buddha, not seeking to make a Buddha, then this sitting Buddha does not interfere with, guess what? Guess? Making a Buddha, right, or Buddhahood. When we sit in this way, we don't make a Buddha and we don't interfere with the making of Buddha. Buddha is being made non-stop. According to us, you make me say this, Buddha, the living Buddha, is being made moment by moment by all of us and by nothing in addition. By all of us, I don't mean just all of us in the room, I mean the rain on the roof too, the black rain on the black roof.

[38:12]

All of us, everything makes the Buddha moment by moment. When we sit this way, when we give ourselves to such a practice, we don't interfere with the making. When we sit without seeking to make the Buddha, we don't interfere with the making of the Buddha. And this is not the only room that's available for such a practice. And yet, when we sit in this way, it's up to you to accept my support and it's up to you to accept all of our support, if it's there, I think it is, to make a room in your house, a room where they're sitting on the ground together and you can sit in a chair, it could be what you call a breakfast nook. You can be sitting with your children or your parents or your enemies together in

[39:23]

the breakfast nook, not seeking to make Buddha, investigating a practice that does not seek to make Buddha. You can provide that opportunity in this world, in your house, in your car, wherever you are, you can join this program of making a Buddha, which means you do not seek to make Buddha, which means you have no expectation, you have no agenda to make a Buddha and you don't interfere with this wonderful thing called making a Buddha. So, we want to go beyond, we want to do a practice of Zen maybe, which is to go beyond

[40:34]

the teaching, which means go beyond the wonderful teaching, go beyond the teacher, the wonderful teacher, go beyond. Thank you. Thank you.

[41:36]

Thank you. If the practice of a Buddha, not seeking to make a Buddha, is successful, then sometime this successful practice must be eaten, must be destroyed and transformed in order to save this successful practice of a Buddha, not seeking to make a Buddha, of sitting in this way to not hinder the making of the Buddha.

[43:34]

I was struck yesterday and I think the day before by some information I got from people, somebody said to me, Do you know so-and-so? I don't remember the person's name, but some of you maybe know this person, I guess this person is famous, wrote a famous book called The Power of Now. I never heard of it, the book, I've heard of The Power of Now. It's a familiar term in Zen from thousands of years ago. You read Zen texts and the teachers say, Right now, blah, blah, blah, right now, blah, blah, blah, right now, blah, blah, blah, right now, right now, right now, over and over. They emphasize now, it's kind of a Zen thing. So this person wrote a book called The Power of Now. And then someone else sent me an article from Oprah Magazine.

[45:23]

Do you know who Oprah is? And actually it just struck me that her magazine has kind of a Zen symbol on it, a big circle, right? It's called O Magazine, it's called O. It's got this Zen circle on it. But it's white, I think, instead of black. It's a negative image of Zen. And anyways, this person sent me this article from Oprah Magazine and this guy is teaching in there. First he teaches two questions. One is, what's happening right now? And the other is, can you be with it? Or, can you be with it?

[46:26]

Or, as it's often said, what's happening right now and can I be one with it? Now this guy is making a good living from writing that article. You get your article in Oprah Magazine and then you get to be on TV. Now there's that joke which most of you have heard by now. And the way I heard it is that the joke took place in New York City. You know, at a vendor selling hot dogs. You know that one? And the Zen Master goes to the vendor, right? The hot dog salesperson. And says, may I have a hot dog? And the salesperson says, aren't you a vegetarian?

[47:32]

You know that one? That one just occurred just now. And the guy says, no I'm not a vegetarian, I've gone beyond vegetarianism. I'm now a carnivore. So would you give me a hot dog? And the guy says, okay Master. And so what do you want on the hot dog? And the Zen Master says, make me one with everything, right? You know that one? Some of you haven't heard it before? So anyway, you see Zen gets credit for that kind of stuff. They didn't say the Christian priest came and said make me one with everything. Okay. So now this guy says, in Oprah Magazine, whatever is happening,

[48:40]

oh yeah, the question is, what's happening right now? And then, can I be one with it, or can I be with it? So you see, Zen has just been outmoded. We don't need Zen centers anymore because it's on Oprah. But actually, we still can use this place, after people read the magazine, they can come here and sit here in this room and say, what's happening right now? That's okay, that's like a Zen practice. You can come here and practice Oprah Magazine practice here, which is, what's happening right now? And then you can say, how can I be with it? Not how can I make some money on it, not how can I do anything with it, but how can I be with it? How can I meet whatever is happening

[49:46]

with complete relaxation? And then, eat that teaching and forget it and come up with your own, your own expression. Okay, so that's it. And I brought this little clock that somebody gave to me, and they suggested I give it to my grandson, and I did give it to my grandson, and I said, this is for you, this clock is for you, and he said, can I take it home? And I said, sure, but he keeps forgetting to take it home, so he left it at my house, so I have his clock at my house.

[50:49]

And it has a picture of a loon on it, and the loon is a state bird of Minnesota where I grew up. It's also, I think, an important bird for the Canadians, right? It's on their coin. They call their coin a loony, right? It's got a loon on it. So the loon lives in northern Minnesota and different parts of Canada, and it has a song. So this is the loon song. And grandsons can press that button repeatedly and listen to it over and over, and grandmothers do not want to hear it over and over.

[51:53]

However, grandfathers, who have completely surrendered, can listen to it over and over, in total submission to what's happening and being with it, knowing that grandmother will stop it. Because, as my grandson says, Granddaddy, let's practice together. Well, there's one other thing he says. Well, there's more than one other thing he says, but he actually talks non-stop, which is, what do you call it? Anyway, his mother doesn't like that. But anyway, he talks non-stop,

[53:01]

and one of the other things he says, he says he's now in the process of learning to use the toilet for his elimination process, making his deposits in the toilet instead of in diapers. And so he sits on the toilet, but he needs a little encouragement. So usually there's someone sitting there with him, otherwise he doesn't want to go. So he's sitting there on the toilet with his mother, and he says to his mother, Granddaddy, say, relax. Granddaddy, say, meet whatever comes with complete relaxation.

[54:03]

Okay. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the true merit of love's way.

[54:30]

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