This morning, how is that sound? The seventh major bodhisattva precept was brought up during sitting, the precept of not praising self at the expense of others. And then the comment on that precept was also brought up. Buddhas and ancestors, Buddha ancestors realize the entire sky and the great earth This sounds like instructions for wholehearted sitting.

[01:21]

Buddha ancestors in wholehearted sitting realize the entire sky and the great earth In practicing wholehearted sitting there is no praising of self at the expense of other. There is no praising wholehearted sitting at the expense of other. There may be other kinds of sitting But wholehearted sitting is not praised at the expense of them. And in fact, any kind of sitting, any other kind of sitting that is done wholeheartedly is wholehearted sitting.

[02:33]

Any meditation done wholeheartedly is the Buddha ancestors realizing the entire sky and the great earth. Or so it seems to some people sitting here. This also echoes for me and now for you that when we sit upright and express the Buddha seal, the Buddha mudra, in our three actions of body, speech, and mind. The whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment.

[03:44]

when we express the Buddha mudra in our speech, in our posture, and in our thought. What is the Buddha mudra? It is what Grandmother Mind remembers. It is that the Buddha way is none other than this verbal karma right now. The Buddha way is none other than this posture right now. The Buddha way is none other than this thinking right now. grandmother mind remembers that every action of daily life cannot be other than the Buddha way.

[04:57]

And yet, if we're not mindful of this, it's like our daily life is far away from the Buddha way. But when we do, Express. And the Chinese character for express also means to hold up like a banner, to raise a flag when you're sitting. And your sitting is raising the Dharma flag of the Buddha mudra. that the Buddha way is none other than this sitting. And this sitting is an offering to the Buddha way. This sitting is celebration of the Buddha way. This sitting is in praise of the Buddha way. This sitting is paying homage to the Buddha way. This sitting is an offering to the Buddha way.

[05:59]

When you raise up the Dharma flag, of the Buddha mudra in your posture, in your breathing, in your thinking, in your voice. The whole phenomenal world becomes none other than the Buddha way. And the entire sky turns into awakening. I don't know where this teaching came from, but it is written down in English and Chinese and Japanese, various places. And it's attributed to Eihei Dogen Daisho. Thank you, Dogen Zenji. And I understand your birthday's in two days.

[07:02]

please come to your birthday party at Green Gulch. We will offer a ceremony. And when we offer the ceremony, we might remember that this little ceremony we are doing on January 26th is none other than the Buddha Way. We will grandmotherly mindfully have a birthday party for Dogen Zenji. And then, of course, one might wonder, will Dogen Zenji come? And one might say, Dogen Zenji will come if there are companions who are also expressing the Buddha mudra at the ceremony.

[08:04]

So at the ceremony, I pray that you remember Dogen Zenji's teaching to express the Buddha mind seal in your actions of standing and chanting. and bowing as the Buddha way. Now, a daily life affair this morning has been me talking with you and sitting with you and you listening and you sitting. is our daily life today. If we hadn't been sitting, that would have been our daily life.

[09:11]

And the Buddha way would have been none other than that. But in fact, we have been and are sitting. This is our ordinary daily life. And now I tell the story. about the January Intensive. And I welcome other people who have different memories from mine to offer their stories. So one story about the January Intensive is that it started some time ago. 20 years ago? 30 years ago? Did it start 30 years ago? I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe it started 30 years ago at Gwingolch.

[10:15]

And there was a concept of having a short, intense period of practice during the downtime of the work at Gringolch, during the latent part of the growing of the plants. And that experienced practitioners from around the world who had practiced at Zen Center in the past but no longer come and do practice periods at Zen Center, but did in the past, would come and we would have a practice period together. So it was thought of for experienced people, people with perhaps practice period background, who would like to get together and refresh and renew their monastic exercise program.

[11:22]

And some experienced people did return and have returned over the decades. In this practice period, some people have returned to this temple who have done practice periods here and Tassajara in the past, and city center in the past. But we have also allowed newer people to come in, newer people who are not so familiar, who are not trained in the forms of our exercise program. The bowing, the serving, the bell ringing, the Han hitting, the Mokugyo drumming, the incense offering, the altar cleaning, the zendo cleaning, the bathroom cleaning, the kitchen cleaning, and so on.

[12:34]

People who are not so familiar are also in this intensive and have been allowed to come to past ones. That's the story so far. Now, something which if I happen to lead any future January intensives, I hope to say this earlier. And what I would like to say is that this intensive offers an opportunity to work with the forms and ceremonies. Our exercise program is a form and ceremony exercise program. where all these things I mentioned have kind of traditional ways, you know, Zen-centered traditional ways of being performed.

[13:36]

They are opportunities in our daily life to do things through body, speech, and mind to express the Buddha mind field. And these forms are taught and learned. And in that process, sometimes the instructors give feedback and comment on the way the students are learning the forms. And this instruction, of course, is for the sake of realizing great compassion. These forms are for the sake of realizing the Buddha way. They are for the sake of realizing great wisdom and compassion.

[14:42]

In the process, people may feel various things. They might feel that the instructor was not instructing them respectfully. That sometimes seems to be how people feel, that the instructor gives them instructions about how to hit a bell or pick up a set suit tip or open a bowl or set a bowl down or serve soup or walk or talk and so on, or wear a mask or not. like masks, that could be considered a really disrespectful comment. Or it could be considered what we're here for is to be with that

[15:46]

And that doesn't mean that if you feel that you are being talked to or gestured towards disrespectfully, it doesn't mean that you don't honor the feeling of disrespect. That feeling of disrespect is a conversation piece in the work of the Buddha way. you can bring your feeling of disrespect and say to the person who you feel disrespected you, I have a gift for you. Would you like to receive it? I have some feelings that I felt when you talked to me. Would you like to hear about it? And if they do, you can give them generously and calmly and respectfully the feedback that perhaps you didn't feel respected. Perhaps the person talked to you very quickly, or perhaps they talked loudly, something anyway about it you felt uncomfortable about.

[16:59]

And you have the opportunity to share with them who you are and how the action was to help them learn and to help yourself learn how to have conversations with the people who are teaching you these forms. So I'm sorry I didn't bring this up earlier. There have been moments when people did receive some comments, some feedback on their performance of our forms, and they felt somehow uncomfortable about it. And usually, I usually find that it seems like they felt that the instructor wasn't perfectly respectful of them.

[18:05]

That's often what it is. And when I've heard of these cases, I've asked the person if they felt that they could go to the other person and offer this information, this conversation piece to them. And during this intensive, everybody that I've talked to said, yes, I think I can do that. And I've heard that they did do that and that things went quite well, that they offered this, the person listened to it, and they brought harmony to everyone without any hindrance. They did the work. They did the Buddha work of peace and harmony. Some other cases maybe I didn't hear about, maybe the person took care of it even before they talked to anybody.

[19:12]

So this is a very important part of our work. With Suzuki Roshi, you know, I never had that experience of him disrespecting me when he gave me instruction. And I said to him, not too long before he let us know that he was sick, I said to him, because I knew that other people had received feedback from teachers and had a difficult time. And so I noticed that he gave me some feedback, some instruction, but I never had a hard time with it. He was always so respectful. And I said, you know, am I missing something?

[20:17]

That I never seem to have a hard time with you? And he said, you will. But he died. And even the way he died was not disrespectful. I just never, I never got to a place where I felt like the teacher was disrespectful to me. But maybe if he'd lived longer, he said, you know, that you will. And he did kind of criticize me, but so gently and indirectly. that I heard it, but it didn't, you know, it was just, it was pretty easy to accept. Like, I want to hear some examples. So some of you heard the example of one time I was in a morning tea with him in his doksan room at the city center, and we put out these black

[21:29]

sitting cushions, which are called in Japanese, Zabutan. And we each had one, and I moved my Zabutan with my foot. And he turned to somebody near me and said, kind of loudly, we do not move the Zabutan with our feet. That person didn't quite understand why Sanzakaroshi said that to him, but I did. He was telling him for my sake and telling me that we don't do that. And when I was ordained, he said, I'm sure you won't be arrogant getting ordained so young.

[22:33]

And again I go, hmm, what's he saying here? Is he saying that I'm arrogant? Or that I'm at risk of arrogance? Maybe, maybe. And then another time he took a used envelope, which said Reverend Suzuki on it, and he drew five vertical lines with arrow tips on top of them. And one of the lines was taller than the other four. And he pointed to the tall one and he said, we don't have that one. And he also wrote in Chinese, a monastic regulation which was visiting others, or no, I think it was others' rooms.

[23:54]

not visiting others' rooms. It was a monastic precept. And he said, I don't want to tell you to not do this, or I don't want to tell you to follow this precept, this detailed precept. Again, he was very respectful, I felt, you know, he was saying, we don't have this one and this one sticking up. In other words, something about me was sticking up. But it was so, it was pretty easy to accept. He was saying, something about you is sticking up and we don't have that. And he didn't tell me to pound that one down. And he didn't tell me to lift the other ones up. But I think he meant to lift the other ones up. It's not that you don't do something quite well. It's just that you do other things well too, not just one. All of us are probably good at something, but we should bring everything up to that level.

[25:09]

So that was the criticism. It was not difficult to receive. And another time, it was January 1970, we had just moved into the new building on Page Street a few months before, just a couple months before. And it was before the January practice period which I went to. We didn't have a Buddha Hall yet. What is now the Buddha Hall was a very nice living room with lovely stuffed chairs and a fireplace. I loved that room.

[26:10]

Felt like I was living in a mansion, like Hearst Castle. Yeah, and the woman who designed that room worked on Hearst Castle, right? So it's kind of like we had our little Hearst Castle there in the big room when you came in. Yeah. Anyway, it was still the dining room then, so we were doing service in the, it was still the living room, so we were doing service in what is now the La dining room. And I was playing the mokugyo. and I was facing perpendicular to Suzuki Roshi's face, and he was sitting perpendicular to my mokugyo stick. So he's facing the altar, and I'm drumming the mokugyo. And while I was drumming, I looked at him.

[27:13]

You know, why not? Why not look at the teacher? And then the teacher didn't turn his head, but out of the corner of his eyes he looked at me. And it wasn't like, stop looking at me. It was just looked at me. So I stopped looking at him and kept from. And then I looked at him again. And he looked out of the corner of his eye at me again. Not mean, just like, I see you there, boy. And I stopped looking at him. I didn't feel he was disrespectful, but he was definitely giving me something to work with And this is part of learning.

[28:20]

This is part of learning. Wooden fish drumming. We get responses from the assembly, from our seniors, and we can work with that. This is part of the training. We don't just do it on our own. We do it in the Great Assembly with our peers and seniors and juniors. And sometimes it's difficult. I mean, you know, some people, I don't know, if they were doing the mokugyo and looking at Suzuki Roshi and he looked at them, they might have dropped the mokugyo striker. I don't know. But anyway, I was able to continue and receive that feedback from him. And I felt really good about that, you know, and so I'm telling you about it. 52 years later.

[29:24]

Because it was a nice Dharma event for me that I still remember very clearly. I felt really, and I still do, so fortunate that he cared enough to let me practice with him and gave me his eyes. He gave me his eyes. How could I be so fortunate to receive his eyes? He could have been looking other places. He looked at me in response to me looking at him. The Buddha way is nothing other than you looking at the teacher and the teacher looking at you. That's all it is. It's nothing more than that. It's also, if you don't look at the teacher, the teacher not looking at you, it's our daily life, face to face.

[30:30]

And another time, and another time, and another time. He gave me these little gifts in response to what I was doing. And again, I didn't have a hard time. I thought, this is what I'm here for, is to get this response to my practice. How fortunate I am to get it. He was always respectful, even when he criticized me. and even when he was doing something and I didn't know if it was criticism. Like also the first time I met him face to face, the first time I met him I saw his feet. The first thing I saw was his feet. He's walking by, I was looking at the floor and his feet went by and his body was on top of his feet. But his feet were, I saw, and I thought, I thought, fine, I can work with these feet. These feet can teach me Zen.

[31:35]

And then half an hour later or so, I met his face. Everybody else did too. All of us left the zendo and we went through his office to leave the zendo. And he met us and gashoued and bowed to us and we gashoued and bowed to him. And I looked at him in this first meeting and he looked away. And so much went through me in that meeting. It was a big feedback. I looked at him, he saw me, and looked away. That was the meeting. And I saw, in less than a second, having a human mind, I can think of many things in less than a second. I saw so many possibilities in that looking at him, him looking away. It was so rich and unknowable what happened there.

[32:39]

Did I scare him? Did I offend him? Was he annoyed with me? I could go on. There were so many possibilities. And I didn't know which one it was. And I also, in that short time, I thought, yes. Not knowing what it is, it's like, that really seems, that's good. That seemed right. So can you be there? Can we be there for these everyday meetings? And remember that this is what we're here for. This meeting is what we're here for. This one and this one. The Buddha way is none other than this interaction. And it can be difficult to be there with the teacher, but it can also be difficult to be there for a friend.

[33:42]

And it can also be difficult to be there for a student. We might be afraid of many things in the meeting. And when we do these forms together, the forms kind of invite others to come forth and talk to us about it. Or to do them with us and look at us when we do it. So when we bow to each other, we look at each other and that look can be many things. And so the buddha way is none other than these meetings and yeah, that's what it's about. These face-to-face meetings, these hand-to-hand meetings, these mokuyo to drum meetings,

[34:48]

are where it's at at that moment. And it's hard for us to remember that, and even if we remember it, to actually be right here and not veer off from the intensity of moment-by-moment meetings. Teachers are sometimes afraid of students. They're afraid they'll hurt the student, and they're sometimes afraid the student will hurt them. Students are sometimes afraid of teachers. They're afraid they'll hurt the teacher. They're afraid the teacher will hurt them. And one of the main ways they're afraid the teacher will hurt them is the teacher will hurt them by not approving of them or liking them.

[35:54]

But some teachers actually are also afraid the students might not approve of them, might not approve of their Dharma talk. They might be. It's kind of normal daily life, right? Human beings are afraid of each other in normal daily life. And the Buddha way is none other than our more or less frightening meetings with each other. So I don't think it's going to be possible to, on the 27th, stay here for another three weeks and do the practice period again more completely. But I wanted to say that, kind of late in the game, What is the time?

[37:36]

Does the kitchen leave at 11? Fare thee well, kitchen. Have a lovely walk to the... You don't have to go yet, though. You have five minutes. Enjoy the next five minutes, please. and then enjoy the walk to Manjushri's kitchen. I just had this funny idea of moving that big statue into the kitchen. But it's probably not a good idea unless you put, you know, plastic over it to protect you from the grease.

[38:41]

Otherwise Manjushri would get very shiny. But I've heard that Manjushri does sometimes come to the kitchen. Have any of you seen Manjushri there? Not yet? Okay. I confess that I'm somewhat superstitious. And so whenever I think of saying how well things are going, I don't say it. So I'm not going to say it. And also not saying that is a traditional Zen rhetorical device.

[39:45]

I'm telling you what I'm not going to talk about. because I'm superstitious. And yet, maybe you can kind of tell that I think things are going quite well. And that's due to your practice that things are going quite well. One could even say, astoundingly well.

[40:23]

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