We have been talking about the Bodhisattva Samadhi, the Bodhisattva's undistracted presence, undistracted awareness, sitting in the presence of Buddha and receiving the teaching of thusness, the teaching of thus. this teaching of thus the teaching of thus is a wisdom teaching given by the compassionate Buddhas the word compassion has been used more during this retreat I think than the word wisdom but the emphasis has been on being compassionate

[01:05]

to self and other, is the process of settling and then receiving the wisdom teaching of thus. And then being with this wisdom teaching in a concentrated way, as it says in the Precious Mara Samadhi, the use of this teaching of suchness I think it says relieves all suffering or I think it says even gets rid of suffering. I would say more like you can find peace with suffering with this teaching. For me, the Buddha is free of suffering and in touch with it. All the suffering beings are touching the Buddha. The Buddha feels their pain in this huge way, fills this ocean of suffering, and is at peace and free in the midst of the suffering.

[02:17]

The Buddha has not gotten rid of all the suffering, as you can see. There was lots of suffering in past Buddhas, and there's lots of suffering in present Buddhas. They are surrounded by it. They feel its omnipresence. touching all their pores and the pores of their skin. You know the word pore? And their skin is like emanating compassion and light in response to these pains. We must love suffering either first or simultaneous with being free of it. Love means completely honoring it, opening to it, being gentle with it, being respectful of it, and being in the very present with it.

[03:24]

Then we can be present with the Buddha, receive the teaching of suchness, and be free together with all beings even if they don't understand that they're free. We are free with them. And then we can show them how they can be free. So we have the Sanskrit term for suchness is Tata. Tata. Pali's Dada. And then the name... One of the epithets, the word epithet means like an adjective. So Buddha has 10 epithets, 10 adjectives describing Buddhas. One is Anyuttara Samyak Sam Bodhi, Sam Buddha. Anyuttara Samyak Sam Buddha. A completely, authentically, transcendently awakened being.

[04:31]

That's one of the adjectives for Buddha. Another one is world-honored one, Bhagavat. Another one is Tathagata. And Tathagata is the one I want to talk to you about today and yesterday and tomorrow. So Tathagata means Tata, thus. And then the next part is either agatha or gatha. So if you take tatha and put it together with gatha, you get tathagatha. And if you take tatha and put it together with agatha, you get tathagatha. So this wonderful adjective for the Buddha could mean the one who has gone to suchness, the one who has gone and realized,

[05:36]

the one who has gone, who has gathas, gatha to tatha. It could mean the one who has gone and realized the truth of all Buddhas. But it also can mean agatha, the one who has gone and now come back, the one who has come back, agatha, who has come back, with the realization of the teaching of thusness. So the Buddhas sit down and settle where they are. The bodhisattvas sit down and settle where they are in the presence of Buddha and they are carried into the samadhi. They receive this teaching and they realize it. And then they arise from samadhi and bring the thusness to all beings. Tathagata and Tathagata.

[06:40]

Thus gone one and thus come one. In East Asian Buddha, Buddha way, they translate Tathagata into Chinese and they chose the second part. The thus come one. They talked about the coming back part. which is pretty important, but it's understood that the one who's coming back went already into the truth and now is coming back from it. To share this teaching with us, which if we enter compassionately where we are, we will be able to receive it and study it and understand it. And then there's two little Zen stories which work with this word, Tathagata.

[07:47]

They're both really good stories. Maybe I'll start with the older one. So, the sixth ancestor of Zen was visited by a wonderful student. The sixth ancestor's name is Hui Nung, which means capable of wisdom, Hui Nung. And his last part of his name is Da Jin. So his name is capable of... No, no, it's the other way around. The other part of his name is Da Jin, which means a great mirror. Da Jin Hui Nung. great mirror capable of wisdom. That's the sixth ancestor. And the student came to him and the student's name was Nanyue Huirang. And when they met, the sixth ancestor played with the word Tathagata.

[09:00]

So the student has come and the teacher says, what is it that thus comes? In other words, what's the Tathagata? What's the Buddha? But in this context, this person had just come, so he says, what is it that has come like this? So he's both asking him, who are you? What has just come here? What is this meeting? And he's also asking him, what is the Buddha? Really, whenever the sixth ancestor says... What is this meeting? He's also asked. This meeting is actually Buddha. Buddha is this meeting. As I said before, the samadhi is a communion. It's a conversation. It's a conversation between your mind and your body. And it's a conversation between all the elements of your mind and body. It's a conversation between emotions, perceptions, feelings, sense of self.

[10:09]

delusions about self, all those things in communion, that's the Samadhi. That conversation with your own body and mind, and then in conversation with other sentient beings and Buddhas. That's the Samadhi. So here comes the student to meet the teacher. The teacher says, what is the Tathagata? Or, you know, what has just come here now? So he's both asking the student, what are you, I guess, or what is this? What has just happened here? You've come to meet, we've met, what is this? And he's also saying, what is Buddha? What is this is Buddha. And this great student says, to say it's this doesn't hit

[11:11]

The target. Doesn't hit the bullseye. To say it's this misses the mark. What is thus come? What is this? To say it's this. No, not what is this. What is thus? To say it's this misses the mark. It's not this. It's not that. It's the thus of this and that. Anyway. He says, what is it? And the student says, to say it's this or to point at this or this misses the mark. And then the teacher says, well, is there no practice in realization? And the student says, I don't say there's no practice in realization. It just said it cannot be defiled by saying it's this or that. And then the teacher says, This undefiled is what all Buddhas transmit.

[12:16]

And this, yeah, so to say it's this is kind of like touching it. To say it's not this is like turning away. This suchness is like a massive fire. To be with it without grasping it or turning away from it. And the next story. Yes. Another word is stained. Yeah. So like if someone says, what is it that has come? And I say it's you. I kind of stain it because it's not all over towards you. It applies to everything. So to say it's this or that misses that it's also equally everything else plus everything not this. To say it's this, it's equally this.

[13:31]

To say it's this, it's equally not this. To say it's that, it's equally not that. To say it's that, it's equally this. If you pick one of those things, you narrow it. You make it like, put a little color going in rather than vast emptiness, which it is. So the other story which brings this teaching of thusness, I think, closer to the flower adornment scripture is an elder monk named Luzzu comes to see the teacher Nanjuan, who we talked about yesterday, the teacher who Dungshan met and said, Master Ma will come tomorrow to the memorial ceremony if he has a companion, if there's somebody to meet him. So Nanjuan is now asked by another monk about a quote from a text.

[14:40]

And the text says, the name of the text is The Song of Awakening. And this part he's quoting is saying, the wish-fulfilling jewel, it's the best jewel, the jewel that liberates all beings, can be obtained in the womb of the Tathagata. In the womb of this going to suchness and then coming back from it. Going to suchness and realizing it and coming back from it. In the womb of that Tathagata that's where we find the jewel. And then after he tells that story, the elder alludes and tells the story, then he says to Nanjuan, what's the womb?

[15:47]

What's the womb? Clearly translates that as mine, like in a gold mine. I prefer womb. Tathagata garba. The womb of the thus come and gone one. The womb of the Buddha. What is the womb? And then Nanjuan says, that in me which comes and goes in you. In some sense, not all of me comes and goes in you. For example, my arms and legs do not come and go in you. there's something about me that does come and go in you that's the Tathagatagarbha that's the womb of the thus come one and that's what it says and this is case 93 of the Book of Serenity this is the 93rd Zen story in that book that's what it says but now I would turn it around also so I agree that the womb

[17:13]

the womb of the Tathagata. Everybody know what womb means? The womb of the Tathagata is that in me which is coming and going in you. It's not my nose, it's not my ideas, but there's something about me which comes and goes in you. That's the womb of the Tathagata. according to Nanjuan. Now I turn it around and say, that in you which comes and goes in me, that also is the womb. There's something about you that's coming and going in me. That's coming to suchness and going to suchness. What's coming to suchness and going to suchness in us, That's the womb of the Tathagata.

[18:17]

And then the elder says, what about no coming, brackets, or going? And then Nan Chuan said, that would be the same. The elder says to Nan Chuan, what about not coming and going? What about not coming and going? And then... that would be the same what is not coming and going in me that's coming in what's not coming and going in me that's not coming and going with you that's the womb and so another way to talk about it what is it that's not what is it that's coming and going in me what is it in me that's coming and going in you well zazen Zazen is what in me is coming and going in you and what in you is coming and going in me. Zazen is my practice coming and going in your practice and your practice coming and going in my practice.

[19:33]

Also, my awakening that's coming and going in your awakening and your awakening that's coming and going, and my awakening. Of course, this cannot be grasped. This is the Buddha body. The way the Buddha body pervades me, the way it's in me, in you. So this is a wisdom teaching to contemplate and learn to play with. You see these ancestors and their students playing with the word tathagata, playing with the teaching of thusness. But again, these people are not trying to get away from their suffering. They're settled. They love everybody's suffering. And so now they're ready to use this teaching to free everybody from suffering so they can free everybody from suffering.

[20:40]

so they can free everybody from suffering. I think you won't be surprised to hear me say that for me the Buddha is about being free of suffering and the Buddha is not about getting rid of suffering. That's my view. Bodhisattvas are not trying to get rid of suffering and you could also say they're not trying to get rid of suffering beings. Otherwise they would try to get rid of suffering beings. If you got rid of all the sentient beings then you would get rid of suffering. Bodhisattvas are not trying to get rid of suffering they're trying to liberate it. And some people

[21:42]

are teaching a way to get rid of suffering. That's not the way I'm devoted to. I'm devoted to loving suffering in order to liberate beings from suffering without tampering with it. Does that sound familiar? And I really love the people, I aspire to love the people who are talking about getting rid of They usually don't say getting rid of living beings, but it's the same. Living beings are what's suffering. We don't want to get rid of them, and they don't want us to get rid of them. They want us to love them. They want us to listen to them. They want us to liberate them by our love and our wisdom. That's my view. And now might be a really good time to say thank you so much to Mikael and Liselot and Kat for all the work they did to organize this community.

[23:02]

And also I would like to thank Nimito and his friends here. And is it Mika? Nimito, is it Nimito? Yeah, and Mika? Yeah, and thank our cook, and thank the whole community here for giving us this place to be together. Thank you so much. And also, somebody told me that he's not so attached to me, but he's really quite attached to this community. And I said, okay, great. And I pray that you get over your attachment to this community and me. That will be good for the community and me. And I don't remember if he said, yes, I will. I want to get over my attachment to this community I love so much.

[24:06]

I appreciate this community so much. And I confess I'm attached to it. I'm even more attached to it than to you. I love that story. And I would like to comment a little bit of history that I watched this community, which is here now, but I also watch quite a few communities in the past. that I've seen here in Sweden and Germany and Switzerland and England. I've seen these communities. I've seen them all grow up and mature. What do I mean by mature? You want to hear an example? I first came to Europe.

[25:12]

I've always wanted to go to England because... America used to be a colony. So we really, I mean, I really appreciate England letting us go. And giving us this amazing language, English. Spanish is great too. And it's coming on strong. So I wanted to go to England. And so there was an opportunity in 1981 for me to go to England and teach. What in me is coming and going in you? In other words, Zazen. So I went to Devon, to the part of Devon where Taughtness is. And then I mostly was in Taughtness and Dartington Hall and Sharperm House. So I was in this beautiful little city and this beautiful manor house.

[26:16]

And, yeah. And then sometime, and then I got invited to come back. And then, actually, when that first visit, I got invited to go to Gaia House. And Gaia House used to be in a different place. And my memory was, it was a white house that was really falling apart, and it had a beautiful lily pond. Anybody, you remember the lily pond? Beautiful lily pond. Not lotus, but that's... Lily's good, too. I did a retreat there in this tumble-down house, and then I got invited back a few years later to go to Gaia House, and I went to Gaia House, and Gaia House has a beautiful room like this, even bigger, and it was full of people, like 80 or 90 people. It was wonderful. We sat together. We had Dharma discussions. It was lovely.

[27:17]

And then when it came time for me to have individual meetings with people, I left the hall and went to, I guess, the library and met with people individually. And quite a few people I met with are here in this room right now. Yeah. And then I went back to the Zendo and almost nobody was there. They thought, well, if he's gone, we're leaving too. There were a couple people. I don't know who. But anyway, a couple people were there, like three or six out of 90. And I said, hmm. I didn't feel like I could stop the individual interviews, but I did feel like... So gradually I started to ask people, if you're going to... I feel responsible for you, so if you're not going to be in the Zendo, please leave me a note.

[28:22]

So I started that practice there, they told me. I think when they got that request, they started to stay in Zendo even when I left. But I went there quite a few years. I don't know how many years I went there. How many years do you think I went there? Fifteen years maybe I went? But by the later retreats, when I left the room and I came back, it was full. The people grew up and realized they're responsible for the practice too, not just me. So they started to, you know, support each other rather than just go to see the teacher and when the teacher's not around, do whatever you want. No. And so they did. They really supported each other and the sangha matured. And then I came, Elisa Lott said, were you led to come to Sweden?

[29:24]

And I said, yes, I've always wanted to go to Sweden too because my ancestors are from Sweden and Norway. And I love Bergman films. I particularly like, they often start with a scene of the, is it the Baltic? The scene of the sea in the morning. the dark, cold sea, and then somebody gets up and brushes their teeth with Vadimacum and goes swimming in that water. So I always wanted to go swimming in that water. So I came to Sweden and did go swimming in that water. It was lovely. And then we had a retreat, and the people were in the room. And when I went to do interviews, almost nobody... was in the zendo but now this community has grown up and so now when I leave the room you are here when I come back you're here you're you're taking care of the teaching of suchness you're taking care of zazen which is

[30:42]

the practice of the teaching of suchness, you're taking care of it. So I'm very happy to see the Guy House group grow up and this wider European group mature and people starting to be responsible for receiving the teaching and remembering it and practicing it and transmitting it. So congratulations to this wonderful community. Congratulations and thank you.

[31:27]

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