This morning I'm going to give a talk and also as part of the talk give you some idea of what kind of plan I have for the practice period in terms of a topic that I was thinking of emphasizing. What I would call this topic first of all would be, am I speaking loudly enough? Last year if I was talking like this nobody could hear. The topic would be, I guess, the teaching of suchness. Or the practice of suchness.

[01:03]

This is also called zazen, it's also called just sitting, it's also called the one practice concentration, it has many names, it's going to rain I think, is that rain, what is it? And what I was thinking of doing was, starting with Bodhidharma or thereabouts in history

[02:41]

of Zen, and coming down through all the ancestors as far as we can go in three months, and looking for the teaching of suchness in each one of these practices as we understand them. Perhaps you can think of a long silver thread that runs from our life here now to the next life, back through all the Buddhas and ancestors.

[03:43]

And also this thread connects each of us, so in one sense each of us have our own practice and in another sense there is just one practice. So you can say, the practice, and you can say, this practice. Where does this practice, the practice that each of us is doing, the practice that all

[04:49]

of us are doing, and the practice that all Buddhists have always done, where do they connect, how do they connect? What is the practice that all of us are doing here, and how is that practice essentially connected to all Buddhists of all time, all Buddhas of all time? What is the essential thread that runs through everything that we actually practice? This is what I would like to look at with you for three months. So in a sense what I'm saying today has to do with an orientation towards this practice

[06:07]

which we are doing. Getting up in the morning, going to this meditation hall, sitting, walking, eating, working, we will be observing these forms, but what is the orientation or what attitude do we have towards these things as we do them? How do we understand what we are doing? I have to remind myself again and again that I'm not talking about anything.

[07:19]

There's no object that I'm referring to by this speech, and when I talk about Bodhidharma I'm not talking about somebody else. When I talk about the ancestors I'm not talking about some other time. So part of the orientation which I try to reiterate for myself is that language is not talking about anything. When I talk about Bodhidharma, when I look back or when I imagine a thread of light going into the past and touching Bodhidharma, running through all the ancestors, this past is no

[08:27]

place other than here. Part of what we're dealing with here in terms of our ancestors is that we are not talking is that some people suggest that there really wasn't even a Bodhidharma, or even if there was, that he wasn't really the ancestor of some of our other ancestors. For example, the fourth ancestor of Chinese Zen, who seems to be historically fairly well

[09:35]

proven and left behind teachings, there's almost no indication whatsoever, almost no document which shows that he actually is connected to the third ancestor, or that the third ancestor is connected to the second ancestor, or the second ancestor is connected to the first ancestor. Now some of you actually met Suzuki Roshi and some of you have seen pictures of him, but have any of you ever seen a picture of or met Suzuki Roshi's teacher? I've seen a picture of Suzuki Roshi's teacher but I've never met him, so all those stories that Suzuki Roshi tells about his teacher, I just believe. What does it mean that I believe them?

[10:54]

And just keep working your way back and pretty soon you're in some place where almost nobody knows anything about who was there, and it's all just stories that people are telling. Stories that people like to tell over and over. Why do they like to tell the stories? Maybe they feel good when they tell them. So I'm going to tell some stories about Bodhidharma and so on, but maybe these really aren't Bodhidharma's stories, maybe they didn't really happen, maybe I just like to tell these stories about what his practice was. And maybe he's really not, in actual fact, connected to our lineage, but still, when I hear the words that he's supposed to have said, I see something there that I really

[12:12]

appreciate. And we can appreciate this line of suchness not just coming from Bodhidharma, but maybe coming from a lot of other places too. Nobody owns the teaching of suchness, or the practice of suchness, or everybody owns it. So you may not care about what I just said, but I'm saying it because I want to make clear that when I tell you a story about Bodhidharma, I'm not saying that there really was a person who said these words named Bodhidharma. I'm not saying there was a Bodhidharma or that Bodhidharma said those things.

[13:14]

Maybe there was a Bodhidharma, but maybe he didn't say the things that I'm going to read. And in fact, isn't it true that he didn't speak English and neither did Dogen? So again, they didn't say these words, for sure they didn't say these English words. So what they said somehow was scribbled down or chiseled into rock or remembered in some dialect of Chinese or Japanese and then repeated because people liked to say it over. It encouraged their life in this world of suffering. And then somebody translated it into English and they translated it into English probably, you know, to some extent they translated it into English that made some sense to them. When I translate things from Japanese or Chinese into English, I have a tendency to want to

[14:22]

translate it into something that I will find useful. I try to honor the original and if it doesn't make any sense to me, I don't just sort of lie outright and make it into something that doesn't make sense, but I try to make it sense out of it. I try to make it something that will help my life and then it's something that was never said before. So you see, Dogen Zenji didn't say, he never said to study Buddhism is to study yourself. He didn't say that and yet we say he did. It seems helpful to say that he said so, doesn't it? Somehow the fact of his life allows us to say that he said so and then sometimes not

[15:31]

even to say he said so and just to say outright ourselves, forget about Dogen Zenji and just say yourself, to study Buddhism is to study the self. And all these words that I'm saying and all the words that we say over again, in a tribute to the ancestors, fundamentally all come from silence. And hearing these words, we should remember their source. Last night I said, just sitting, Buddha is just sitting.

[16:45]

And again, I don't know exactly what kind of speech that is, but I said Buddha is just sitting. Now, one way to understand that is that enlightenment is the act of just sitting. Another way to understand that is that statue over there, that Buddha statue is just sitting. Or, that enlightenment itself, right now, is sitting, but enlightenment is just sitting. And that enlightenment is just breathing. Enlightenment is breathing, enlightenment is alive, and it's just breathing, that's

[18:06]

all it's doing. And if you can, not you even, if there can be breathing, just breathing, this is Buddha. Can there be just breathing? Buddha said, yes, as a matter of fact, all living beings are just breathing. All living, how wonderful, how wonderful, all living beings are just breathing.

[19:10]

And yet, because of preconceptions and attachments, they don't realize that they are just breathing. All beings, all living beings without exception are just sitting. All living beings, without exception, fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddha. But they don't realize it.

[20:15]

So, just breathing and just sitting has miraculously transformed into teachings so that beings can realize just breathing and just sitting. This teaching of just breathing, this teaching of just sitting, has been intimately communicated by Buddha's ancestors. Now you have it. You already have it.

[21:35]

This is the conclusion of Buddhism. And again, you already have it, and this is another conclusion of Buddhism. Right now, this here, in this room, is the conclusion of Buddhism. This is the end of Buddhism. This is what it's come to after all this time. We have Buddhism. There is no other Buddhism. This is the end of it, and this is the beginning of it. We are breathing. Our breath is the breath of the Buddha.

[22:40]

And at every moment, our breath is the end of Buddha's breath. And it is the beginning of Buddha's breath. You have Buddha's breath. Keep it well, or let go of it well. Now the things I just said to you, including this, have never been said before. And yet, I feel as I say these things, that I can only, not only, but I'm saying them because of my idea or my experience of the past. Although there's no other past, and all the ancestors are dead, and Buddhism has come to a conclusion right now,

[23:47]

still it's because it's come to a conclusion that I can say these things. So this is my version of the teaching of suchness. So the next time I talk, I'm going to talk about Bodhidharma's two-fold entry into the world. These are available in translation in a number of books,

[25:14]

which I can tell you later if you want to study them. But I'll read this text to you the next time I give a formal talk. So I'm going to start with Bodhidharma, and as I said, go down through the ancestors, trying to demonstrate or share with you this teaching of thusness, as it are, are not the right way or the wrong way. They're just the way I'm telling you about. That's all. They're an example of exactly what's happening as I tell you.

[26:21]

So one thing that I'm talking about is that when I pick up the Horiyoki bowls, I try to use two hands as much as possible. I try to use both hands to pick up the bowl, the big one, the medium-sized one, and the little one. That's a practice of suchness that I do. Now, if I pick it up with one hand, that's a practice of suchness also. And if I pick it up with no hands, it's also a practice of suchness. But, and yet, for me, using both hands, especially on the little ones, as a practice,

[27:31]

helps me remember the thread that connects my practice with all of yours and our practice with all other Buddhas. Now, if I had decided to have one-handed picking up the bowl be the way I did it, then that could be it too. But I found that partly because two is not sort of my natural vent, but one is sort of the way I would usually pick things up. Almost every time I reach for the bowl with two hands, except for the big one, sometimes I reach for the big one with two hands and don't remember this. But the particular little ones, especially the middle one, when it's hard to get a hold of it, I remember why I'm going to this trouble. The reason why I'm going to this trouble is to remind myself

[28:39]

of why I was born in this world of suffering. And if I reach for two hands, then I have something to talk to you about. Then I have a thread. Then there's a thread between us. Every time I reach with two hands, almost every time I reach with two hands, I feel connected to other people. But when I reach with one hand, I feel connected to another person. When I pick it up with one hand, I tend to feel like, well, I'm picking up this bowl so that I can eat out of it, which is true in both cases. But when I reach with both hands, somehow I feel everybody else there too. When I was a little boy and my mother gave me my glass of milk,

[29:51]

I took a hold of it with two hands because my hands are too little to get a hold of the cup with one. Then with my hands got bigger, I could pick up the glass with one hand. I could even pick up a half gallon of milk with one hand. Now that my hands are big and I can pick up big things with one hand, to use the other hand, I can pick up the glass with one hand. If I pick up a cup with another hand, now I think of... I feel my connection with all beings then. This is a practice that I do. And when I do it, I not only feel connected to all the people who are living with me now,

[30:56]

but I feel connected with all the ancestors. Even though maybe not all of them did that, I know some of them did, because some of them told me that they did it. So again, it's not a right and wrong kind of thing. It's more like taking a hold of the thread. And when I take a hold of that bowl with two hands, I also take a hold of that thread and I feel connected with all beings, past, present, and future. This is an example of a practice of suchness. It's beyond right and wrong. And it's beyond whether anybody else does it or not. It's for me to feel my connection with all beings.

[32:00]

While I'm at Tassajara, a person moved into our house to help my wife take care of the house and help take care of our daughter. This person is a school friend of my wife's. And she's a little bit of a gypsy. She has Greek blood in her. Before we eat breakfast at our house, we chant the veneration of the triple treasure. We say, we venerate the three treasures and are grateful for this food, the work of many people, and the sufferings of other forms of life.

[33:18]

So she heard us chant that. And then one day she was eating by herself. We weren't chanting with her, but we were sort of nearby. And so she had to do the chant from memory. And she sort of paraphrased it because she couldn't remember where we did it. And she said, I'm happy about the three treasures, and I'm sad about the suffering people. This is not right or wrong, although some people might think it's an improvement. But the thread was there. The thread was established between her, between the gypsy and the Buddhist.

[34:22]

That appreciation of the triple treasure runs through all creatures, even though they say it a little differently, maybe, or express it a little differently. That connects all beings. Whether they're gypsy, Buddhist, or what. And all beings also feel sad about suffering creatures. Sometimes we don't see that. Sometimes we don't see how happy we are about the triple treasure. Sometimes we forget that or can't realize it. And sometimes we don't see that we're sad about the suffering people. But still, when we do, when we do feel the happiness about the three treasures, and when we do feel the sadness about the suffering creatures, then the thread is there. Even with other beings who do not at that moment realize this. So, I'm saying, I'm suggesting this practice about picking up the bowl.

[35:47]

I'm not even suggesting it, just telling you that I do that. And I'm also telling you the story about this woman. I don't want to get into sort of like, you know, right and wrong kind of stuff about these forms that we're doing here. But more, open our eyes and see how these forms connect us and enhance our appreciation of the Dharma which runs through everything. And if you enjoy the practices, then enjoy them. And can you share them with your brothers and sisters without caring whether they do them or not? But just share your happiness about the three treasures when you're happy and share your sadness about suffering beings when you're sad. And if they don't want to be sad, that's okay. If they don't want to be happy, that's not the point.

[36:51]

But I know from experience that, especially at Tassajara, the little Buddhist birds have their mouths open and are just chirping, chirping, chirping. Give me more Dharma, give me more exercises, give me more practices. So we give these practices just to eat, just for nourishment, not for right or wrong. So I myself and others will give you and give me practices, all practice period, give each other practices, but these are not right and wrong things. These are food to feel the suchness so that we can eat the suchness. Feel it running through our blood and through our breath and through our body. This practice is so much better than right and wrong, you know, so much better.

[38:16]

But the strange thing is that when you find something really good and you share your appreciation of it, sometimes people think that not doing it is bad. I don't know what you want to start with, but I guess, you know, in the army, when some of the boys are smoking, they enjoy it so much that the other boys think that they should start smoking because it seems wrong not to smoke. And then in the monastery, some of the boys stop smoking and they're so happy to stop smoking that they start thinking that the boys who do smoke are wrong. So we have this funny way that our mind can work,

[39:28]

that if we do something really good like that, something we really enjoy anyway, then the way our mind works is that if we do something that we think is good and think of it as an improvement, there's a waste product coming off the other end. So if you stop smoking and think you've improved, then you think it's bad that you used to smoke or you think it's bad that other people smoke. Or if you do anything like that, that you think of as improvement, that seems nice, but the problem of thinking of things that way is that there's garbage or this shit comes out the back end of it. So how can we do something and enjoy it? How can we be happy about the three treasures without thinking other things are bad? How can we enjoy our practice without thinking of it as an improvement?

[40:33]

Without thinking that the person who we were before we did it is not so good. This is something we have to watch carefully. And again, watching that is a joy. Making sure we don't slip into that kind of gaining mode, which then makes other things better. That also is part of the dread. So next time, Bodhidharma. Thank you.

[41:46]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[43:04]

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