So in the English translation of the Fukan Zazengi, the universal encouragements for the ceremony of Zazen, a couple of times, at least two, maybe three, this expression, this term occurs which is these two characters, yo-ki, that appears. And yo means essential, it means necessary, and it means pivotal. In other words, it could be translated that way. It also means essence.

[01:02]

It means essential, necessary, and pivotal, and pivot, necessity, and essence. It also means key point, most important matter. This character here. Yo, and the other character is, means working, function, opportunity, machine. So in the Fukunza Zen, some translations say, you are maintaining the essential working, the yoki, the essential working of the Buddha way.

[02:07]

So Zazen is the essential working of the Buddha way, as proposed by, for example, me. proposed, but by Zazen I mean what I think Zazen is, and also I think what Dogen thinks Zazen is. I think Dogen thinks Zazen is the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, is the pivotal activity of the Buddha way, or the necessary activity of the Buddha way, or the essential activity of the Buddha way. the essential activity we call zazen. Dogen called that zazen. And that's what I now call zazen. Earlier I thought zazen was one of the three learnings. I thought it was concentration. And I practiced concentration and that's what I thought zazen was.

[03:10]

But now my understanding is different. Now I'm concerned with the zazen. And I think you can practice sitting concentration. So some people are practicing sitting concentration and that could be called zazen. But the zazen I'm talking about is the pivotal activity of the Buddha way. It also says in Phogon Zongtse, you have attained the pivotal opportunity the yoke of human life. And I hear that in two ways. I don't know if the Chinese would hold that up. But one way is you've achieved human life, which is a pivotal opportunity. Yes. In other words, a human life you can pivot from being an ordinary person, a sentient being, to a Buddha, or from a Buddha to a sentient being. So human life is that kind of pivotal opportunity.

[04:11]

And it is also, there is a pivotal opportunity in human life. So human life has a pivotal opportunity and is a pivotal opportunity. It's an opportunity to pivot between awakening and enlightenment. Awakening, no, delusion and enlightenment. And delusion and enlightenment and delusion and enlightenment. or to pivot between practice and realization, and practice and realization. Lots of pivotal possibilities of a human life. I'm not sure, but I think in the early versions that Phu Quang says, I think this term was not present. But in the later version, it's present.

[05:16]

And by the way, Fukunzazengi is written in Chinese. The Shobo Genzo is in a special kind of Japanese, ancient Japanese. But Fukunzazengi is written in Chinese. Also, around the time, in the later years of Dogen's life, he seemed to be more appreciative of a Chinese master called Hongzhi. And he wrote, Dogen wrote, a Japanese essay called Zazen Shun, which means the acupuncture needle or the point of Zazen. And that Zazen Shin, before Dogen wrote that, there were lots of other Zazen Shins written in China.

[06:18]

In other words, a number of Chinese teachers wrote essays or poems called Zazen Shin, called the acupuncture needle of Zazen. So there's a whole bunch of them. And Hung Jur wrote one too. He wrote a poem called Zazen Shin. And Dogen said, among all those other, among all the acupuncture needles of Zazen that were written, Hung Jur's is the best. And at the end of Dogen's essay, called Zazen Shin, he quotes Hung Jur's Zazen Shin. his poem. And then after he quotes Hong Jerry, he said, this old Buddhist Zazen Shin is great, but I have a little different way of putting it.

[07:25]

So he wrote a Zazen Shin. And Hong Jerry's Zazen Shin starts out in Chinese, translated now as the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, the yo-ki of all Buddhas. And then he pivots it and says the active pivot, the ki-yo of all Buddhas. Does that make sense? So Hongzhi's poem is the pivotal activity of the Buddha way and then he turns it and then he says active pivot of the Buddha way. See, active pivot or opportune pivot, pivotal opportunity.

[08:26]

So he pivots the compound and says it these two ways. Now, what's the pivotal activity? Zazen is the pivotal activity of all Buddhas, Hung Dur says. And the active pivot is the active pivot of all ancestors is Zazen. So what the Buddhas and ancestors, their key point, their pivotal activity, we call that Zazen. And the Zazen, which is like that, this is the Zazen of Hangzhi and Dogen and some other people too. Now at the beginning of this fascicle, which is called Zazen Chin, there's a story. And the story is about

[09:29]

Yaoshan, or Yakusan Yen, who is in the lineage that we chant. He's sitting, and a monk comes up to him when he's sitting and says, in this immobile sitting here, what kind of thinking is there? The student's examining the teacher, questioning the teacher, asking him, in his consciousness, in his karmic consciousness, what kind of thinking is going on there? And Yao Shan says, thinking, not thinking. Some people translate that as, I'm thinking, not thinking. But it doesn't say, I'm. It just says, thinking, not thinking. And so if you look at the Chinese, it's rather playful.

[10:33]

It says, what kind of thinking? And then Yashan says, thinking, not thinking. So I would now point to the thinking, not thinking. That is an example of pivotal activity. So in the mind of the ancestor, there's thinking, and the thinking is pivoting with not thinking. And there's also a not thinking, and the not thinking is pivoting with thinking. And included in not thinking is no thinking. But also included in not thinking is Mars and Jupiter and all sentient beings. In other words, everything that's not thinking is pivoting with a particular moment of thinking.

[11:39]

But that's not no thinking, that's just everything that's not thinking. And one of the things that's not thinking is no thinking. So among all the tremendous, among the vast, infinite universe, And also, there's lots of thinking, but also my thinking is pivoting with all the thinking that's not my thinking. So my thinking is pivoting with all your thinking, which is not my thinking. Your thinking is not no thinking. Your thinking is just as much thinking as my thinking. But your thinking is not my thinking. And my thinking is pivoting with your thinking, which is not mine. So all your thinkings are part of the not-thinking that my thinking is pivoting with. But also there's all the other things in the universe that my thinking is pivoting with.

[12:49]

And that's what's going on in the ancestor's mind. The thinking... He could have said, what kind of thinking is going on? And he could have said, thinking the whole universe. or thinking, not thinking, which is the whole universe. His thinking is pivoting with the whole universe. And the whole universe is pivoting with his thinking. or his sitting is pivoting with the whole universe and the whole universe. His thinking includes the whole universe, which is not his thinking. And the whole universe, of course, includes his thinking. This is what's going on in the ancestor's mind. This is the total emancipation of the pivotal activity of the Buddhas. So the Zazen that I'm talking about is a Zazen that includes, wherein the practitioner includes the whole universe and wherein the whole universe, no, where the practitioner includes the whole universe and the practitioner is included in the whole universe and every part of the universe.

[14:17]

So zazen is how I'm included in each of you and all of you and much more than that. And how each of you and all of you and much more than that is included in me. For me, that's zazen. And before we go more into that, which will continue as long as I'm alive, The monk then says, well, how? How? How is there thinking, not thinking? And Yashan says, non-thinking. As I said before, non-thinking is great compassion. Also, great compassion is non-thinking. There's another essay by Dogen, I think it's called, yeah, 108.

[15:31]

Dharma lens or something. Anyway, he goes through the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Seven Paths of Liberation, 37 Wings of Enlightenment, and so on, adding up to 108 Dharma presentations. And when he goes through the Eightfold Path, when he gets to the second part of the Eightfold Path, which is Right Thinking, usually it's called right thinking, he says that's non-thinking. That kind of thinking is non-thinking. And what is that kind of thinking? Well, basically it's just being kind and non-violent and patient with all phenomena. So non-thinking is the practice we do with our thinking treating our thinking with great compassion, we open to the truth that thinking is not thinking.

[16:44]

We open to the way thinking is in a reciprocal relationship with not thinking. I would actually suggest that no thinking is different from not thinking. No thinking is a mental construct. Non-thinking is the whole universe. I mean, not thinking is the whole universe. So the basic practice is non-thinking, which means, again, practicing great compassion with all, and great compassion applies to all living beings, which means every person you meet, every animal you meet, every plant you meet, and everything that's in your consciousness.

[17:47]

I personally cannot meet the things that are in my unconscious cognitive processes. But I am in a space of karmic consciousness. That's where I'm appearing. And there, I and everything there can meet each other with compassion. And if there's not meeting with compassion, which I've heard from many people sometimes that what's coming up in consciousness is not being met with compassion, then that lack of compassion can be met with compassion. And then I guess I can take one more kind of big step which I also have already mentioned, but briefly, and that is that the thinking being the overall pattern of a moment of self-consciousness, but also sometimes we call it a moment of karmic consciousness, the overall pattern of a moment of karmic consciousness, the thinking is the definition of that moment's karma.

[19:11]

The karma of a moment of karmic consciousness is its thinking. Thinking is the definition of the activity. So, the monk didn't say this, but could have. And you can say this to any teacher. What kind of karma is going on in your mind? What kind of thinking is going on? You say, what kind of karma is going on when you're sitting? And Yashan, I think, would say, the game of playing with the word thinking doesn't work so well in this case, but maybe it does. So what kind of karma is going on in your sitting, teacher? And Yashan says, karma, not karma. How karma, not karma? Non-karma. So great compassion is non-karma.

[20:16]

It's an activity, but it's not karma. Karma is the pattern of karmic consciousness. But again, if you become intimate with the karma, there's a realization that the karma is not karma. And the way you become intimate with the karma is by practicing non-karmic compassion. You can practice karmic compassion too. But karmic compassion is just circumscribed by your ideas and the patterns of your consciousness. Compassion is not just what's going on in your consciousness. So I think that's what I wanted to introduce. Yeah.

[21:19]

That's where I am today. Kind of simple, so maybe you understood. You not necessarily agreed with me, but there it is. Oh, one more thing. And that is that this, the pivoting of this thinking going on in this consciousness with everything that's not that thinking, which is the rest of the universe, which is all your thinking, which is not this thinking, that relationship is not something I can see. It's a teaching that's being given and the actuality of that is not something that appears in consciousness.

[22:23]

It's not a perception. So that when we sit here we are doing the ceremony of that. We're doing the ceremony of this pivotal activity. And we can see the ceremony, which is each of our posture and also the postures of others and the fact that we're sitting together. We're doing a ceremony of sitting as an offering, as a statement of this zazen, which is not something we can see and of course it's not something we can do. It's the reality of what we're doing. What we're doing, our karma, is not karma. That's the reality of our karma. And I don't do my doing not doing.

[23:32]

I do my doing, but that's an illusion. Really, my doing is done with the support of all not doing. The pivotal relationship is really what's happening, and I may think that I'm doing something by myself. And that thinking that I'm doing something by myself is pivoting with not thinking I'm doing something by myself. that reality, that zazen, is not something I can do or you can do. And so Sukershi, as I said, he did teach counting breath, following breath, and just sitting. And he did say to some people who said, when I do zazen, and he, in one case, he kind of fiercely said to her, and that's one of her main stories, don't say you do Zazen.

[24:37]

And every time he heard that, he didn't jump on each person that said that. But this one particular student, when she said, I do Zazen, or I'm going to do Zazen, he said, don't say that. I don't know, I didn't hear from her what he said after that. So I think for him Zazen was, yes? Will you say something? Oh yeah, Zazen does Zazen, yeah. So the pivotal activity of all Buddhas does the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. And also, let's all count our breath. But when we count our breath, wholeheartedly, with great compassion, counting our breath is not counting our breath. Because everything's in pivotal relationship to what it's not. And that's, you know, the teaching of the Heart Sutra.

[25:39]

That's the teaching of Prajnaparamita. Everything is nothing but all that it's not. nothing in addition to what it's not. But it doesn't mention, it doesn't bring up the word pivot. I haven't seen the word pivot in the Prajnaparamita or in the Heart Study. It doesn't say form is pivoting with emptiness. But it does say form is emptiness, emptiness is form. There's the pivot. So again, we... Some people are doing Zazen here and some people are offering their body and mind to the ceremony. And the ceremony is in a pivotal relationship with the actuality of Zazen. So we do realize Zazen by the ceremony of Zazen. And I know this person who, every time something good happens, she says, is that because of the ceremony of Zazen?

[26:45]

And I say, mm-hmm. Okay. Now I think that's my offering to start. Is there anything you want to offer? Yes. Kurt. Kurt. Thank you for the talk, attention. So you mentioned that we're not doing Zazen, we're doing the ceremony of Zazen, but Can we be Zazen? So it's not a doing, it's more of a being.

[27:50]

Yeah. We're being that pivotal activity. Yes, definitely. We are Zazen already. We are already pivoting with the whole universe. which is zazen. So we already are zazen. And that brings us back to the story of the teacher who's fanning herself. If we already are zazen, why, you know, the nature of the wind reaches everywhere. So why are you fanning yourself? Well, if we already are zazen, why are we doing the ceremony? And then the teacher says, well, you understand that you understand that zazen, that this pivotal relationship is permanent and all-pervading. I mean, you understand that it's permanent, but you don't understand that it pervades everything. Well, how do you understand that it pervades everything?

[28:52]

And the teacher just sat. And this is one of the differences between Hangyur and Dogen, which I'll go into more later. But basically, the idea is that we have to practice what we already are. We already are Zazen. But if we don't practice it, we don't realize that we already are. I mean, you intellectually realize that now. Aren't we Zazen? Yes. Aren't we Zodzen? Uh-huh. Okay, that's good. But to really realize that, you have to do the ritual. And, you know, yeah, you have to practice what you already are to realize what you already are. And that's, I would say, the wonderful irony of life. And in particular of Zen. And so you practice what you already are by doing nothing, being compassionate, being intimate with your experience.

[30:03]

Well, you could say you practice to realize what you already are by doing nothing, which is compassion. Or you could say by doing compassion, which is not just your personal activity. And in the story where the teacher just sat, he could have stood. He could have stood. He could have stood, yeah. But that punchline would go with the teacher was standing. And the monk said, well, you know, our nature is... is such and such, why are you standing? In order to demonstrate that the teacher would have continued to stand. So it's just, you're doing what you're doing. Why are you doing that? And again, that brings to mind the middle-length sayings, number four, called fear and dread.

[31:15]

And in that sutra that Buddha talks about how to overcome fear, and it's kind of like another example of by using nothing other than what you're doing right now. you will become free of fear. So if he was standing and fear came, he would just continue to stand. If he was walking and fear came, he would continue to walk. If he was sitting, he would continue to sit. If he were reclining, he would continue to recline. So that's another example, although they don't put it quite that way. That's an early example of through nothing other than your present body and mind, realize the way. So that's what he did. He used nothing other than what was going on when fear came, and he became free of fear and realized the way through that practice, through being what he was already at a given moment.

[32:21]

You're not supposed to move that arm there. If all thinking is karmic... It's not so much thinking is karma. It's that thinking is the definition of karma. So when thinking is going on in mind, And that thinking is the definition. The thinking is a word for the karma. But it's not exactly the thinking is the karma, it's defining it at that moment. So language is not necessarily karmic? That's right, it's not necessarily karmic. However, in the realm of karma, the medium of exchange is language. But it is possible to shout in such a way that it's actually compassion for the thinking rather than another thinking.

[33:59]

So if compassion If compassion towards thinking is non-karma... Compassion for thinking is non-karma. That means if I bend my language towards compassion... Compassion for thinking is non-thinking. is non-thinking and non-karmic. So if I bend my internal language towards compassion, towards everything that's arising, my speech will be non-karmic, non-harming, and it will be in alignment with thinking that is not thinking. Yeah, that's close enough. Thank you. I see that. Was there somebody?

[35:01]

So Vanessa and Sarah and Caroline. Is that it? Okay. And Christopher? Christopher? I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about the support of the bodhisattvas in relationship to this process of pivoting. If I would speak a little bit about... I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about work with the bodhisattvas in relationship to this process of pivoting that you speak of. the bodhisattva in relationship to the sitting? Bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Jizo, so on, support from the bodhisattvas on this process of... Wait a second. Are you asking about Avalokiteshvara's zazen practice or something else?

[36:05]

Sure. That'll work. What I'm talking about is Avalokiteshvara's sitting practice. This is the way Avalokiteshvara practices. And there's a relationship between ourselves and Avalokiteshvara? Yes. We are included in Avalokiteshvara and Avalokiteshvara is included in us. And that mutual inclusion is Avalokiteshvara Zazen practice. And we have an opportunity to join that Vazen practice. We are already, our life already includes Avalokiteshvara and we are already included in Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara includes all of us already and is included in us all. That's the reality of our life. So there was some discussion of content of Zazen.

[37:07]

The content of Zazen is that mutual inclusion. The content of Zazen is not nothing. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. And that's the content of Avalokiteshvara's Zazen. And we are included in Avalokiteshvara's Zazen and Avalokiteshvara's Zazen is included in us. And the same with all the other bodhisattvas. We are included in the practice of all bodhisattvas, and they are included in the practice of us. All the Buddhas are practicing with each of us, and we are practicing with all Buddhas. But we have to practice, we have to, you know, do the ritual practice of that in order to realize it. Thank you. You're welcome. We have to be mindful of that in order to realize that.

[38:12]

So next maybe was Caroline. Would it be all right to reverse those doors to push that one back? Yeah. And bring that other one forward? Thank you. Yeah. Is Timo here? Is that okay, that change? Okay. Yes. I'm wondering about, I guess, I'm not sure if I understand the distinctions between thinking, not thinking, and non-thinking. So I wanted to sort of say what I thought I was understanding and hear from you.

[39:17]

Okay. It sounded like you were saying that non-thinking is an action, like welcoming or practicing compassion. Mm-hmm. And that not thinking the way you're using that word is like more of like a noun or like that's the whole universe or an entity beyond me? No, it's also, it's a whole universe. It's also, it's a noun and it's a verb. Not thinking is, for example, for me, I have thinking and I have not thinking. And part of my not thinking is your life and your activity. You're part of the not thinking of my thinking. Okay. Okay. And if I take care of my thinking, I'll realize that my thinking is an intimate relationship with your life and can't live without it.

[40:20]

And you're a noun and a verb and much more than that because you're also not just Caroline but not Caroline. But you can't practice not thinking, right? You practice non-thinking, but not thinking is like the reality. I can't. In a way, I don't think I can practice your talking. Mm-hmm. But I can wake up to and be intimate with the relationship between what I'm doing and what you're doing. So I can't do your doing and I can't do our relationship. So I do what I'm doing in relationship to what you're doing. And by practicing compassion with what I'm doing, I wake up to that relationship that we're doing that I can't do and you can't do, but what we actually are.

[41:23]

So practicing non-thinking with my thinking, I wake up to the relationship between my thinking and not my thinking in a form of you and other beings too. I realize that intimacy, which is already there. I already am. The thinking that I am is already in reciprocal relationship with the thinking that you are. But I don't do that relationship. But by practicing compassionate non-thinking with my activity, with this karma, I wake up to our actual relationship, which is thinking, not thinking. Thank you. You're welcome. I was also curious if you know, like, in the original language, how any, like, those words are very similar in English, not thinking and non-thinking.

[42:30]

Do you know if there are any other connotations to them in the original? That, these characters? So the character that's usually translated as thinking, that character also means, it's also the word that's used to translate the Sanskrit term for the overall pattern of consciousness. The Chinese chose that character. The Chinese had that character before Buddhism came to China. And they used other words for chaitanya too, but in, I think, the center of gravity of Chinese characters for Sanskrit terms. That character for thinking also means the Chinese character, which were translated as thinking, is the character that they chose most of the time to translate chaitanya, which is a technical term for the overall pattern of consciousness.

[43:40]

So that's the character. And also, by the way, that's a nice character which has an ideogram for rice paddy on the top, this nice little simple pattern. And underneath has mind, so it kind of says pattern mind. Or, you know, rice paddy mind. It has this sense of the mind which is dealing with patterns or the pattern of the mind. And then it's also, I just think that in the, this is a conversation, right? That he was playing with the language, right? What kind of thinking? Not thinking. How not thinking? Non-thinking. So if you look at the Chinese characters, it looks very playful and it's very active and jumping around with the same characters being used in different ways. Thank you. You're welcome. And again, you know, usually when people translate, they use I and you in the translation.

[44:50]

And that literally is not in the characters. But, of course, people assume it's there. But the nice thing is in the characters, he doesn't say, what kind of thinking are you doing, teacher? He's saying, in this stillness, what kind of thinking is there? And the teacher doesn't say, I'm thinking, not thinking. The teacher just says, thinking, not thinking. And the monk doesn't say, how do you do that? He says, how? Think, not thinking. And the teacher doesn't say, I practice non-thinking. So for me, it's a very, very beautiful poetic interconversation with ordinary colloquial language. And then maybe Sarah and Yuki. Sarah and Yuki. And Steve. It's getting kind of cold.

[46:07]

I think you said something like the ceremony of Zazen is an offering. Yeah, I think of it as an offering. Like we make offerings at the altar, offer incense, I offer sitting. And we offer incense maybe as a ceremony of our relationship with Buddha, and I offer my sitting as a ceremony of offering my sitting to Buddha and to all sentient beings. That's the way I see it. And Dogen Zenji did refer to Zazen, to the ceremony of Zazen. Is there receiving in that offering? Pardon? Is there receiving? Oh, yeah. In that offering? Yes, definitely. Definitely. So in the ceremony of Zazen, I offer, and in the ceremony of Zazen, I receive. Thank you. So I sit, and I receive.

[47:13]

So we talked about it before. Immediately, right here, receive the hit of... So immediately right here, we sit, we do the ritual of sitting right here and receiving zazen. So we sit right here and offer zazen, and we sit right here and receive zazen. Yes, it's both giving and receiving, sitting. That's the way I see it, yeah. And we usually, a lot of people say, I'm going to go to the zendo now and do zazen, but we could also say, I'm going to go to the zendo now and receive zazen. I'm going to go zendo and give and receive zazen. And there's a play on the self-receiving and employing samadhi. There's a play there between the self-receiving and giving samadhi. And then there's another play is that that term also is a transliteration of one of the names of Buddha.

[48:22]

So that Samadhi could be called Buddha Samadhi. Yes, some people translate it as Buddha Samadhi. And another translation is self-receiving and giving Samadhi. And then, Vanessa? I think you're supposed to put your mask on when you talk. Oh, that's right. Just don't talk on the way there. Is the wisdom of thinking non-thinking? Somehow now I can hear you better.

[49:23]

Say it again. I'm wondering if the wisdom of thinking is non-thinking. Did you hear that? Is the wisdom of thinking not thinking? I would say no. Is the wisdom non-thinking? Non-thinking. I don't think so. I think the wisdom of... It's not the wisdom of thinking. Thinking is not wisdom, really. Thinking is kind of like delusion. So the wisdom in the situation is thinking, not thinking. That's the wisdom. Emptiness is not wisdom. Of course, it's not delusion either. Maybe it is. But delusion is delusion, and emptiness is delusion, and delusion is emptiness. But delusion is not wisdom. delusion is emptiness is wisdom, and emptiness delusion is wisdom. So thinking not thinking is wisdom.

[50:24]

It's not really the wisdom of thinking. It's the wisdom of the relationship between thinking and not thinking. The reality of thinking is thinking not thinking. That's the wisdom. And non-thinking is a compassionate approach to this, to the thinking, which opens onto wisdom. So for me, non-thinking is compassion, great compassion, encountering, encountering our conventional deluded mind and discovering the truth in relationship to that. So the wisdom of thinking is thinking, not thinking. And this is achieved through great compassion, which is non-thinking.

[51:26]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. Thank you. You're welcome. So I see Karina and somebody, I can't see who that is. I know, I'm just calling on people. I'm trying to register the hands before I lose them, so. Who's next to Sam? Okay, okay. So, after Yugi is Karina and you, it was, and... Yugi. What time is it, by the way? I want to... Steven? You're not supposed to be talking with your mask off. Actually, I don't want you yelling from out there. I shouldn't get into these long-distance yellings, even with masks on.

[52:32]

Sorry. Sorry. Well, I thought Karina and that gentleman there came before you. I remember after me is Steve. Steve's after you? Mm-hmm. Okay. In order to ask a question, can I use a whiteboard? That's the way I... And then if... Yeah, and I guess you should wear your mask when you do it. Okay, sure, I will do that. And then it may take a little bit of time, so if somebody wants to ask, yeah. And may I erase your things, and I will write it down again.

[53:36]

Here we go. Okay, Steve. Steve? Steve's getting upstaged a little bit here by the Chinese characters. So I'm understanding that the word play is wonderful here. And I'm understanding that you've been talking a lot about compassion.

[54:37]

And to that extent, we're talking about compassion in Zen. But why don't we talk more about compassion in Zen? Why not just say compassion sometimes or more often? How many times have I said it so far? I know, you, notwithstanding. I forgot to mention at the beginning of this thing that this year, after the January intensive, I've been giving... All my talks have been about compassion. But I'm not saying that that means that there's been talk of compassion in Zen. But I've given three series of classes on compassion, and all my lectures after the January intensive up till the beginning of this year have been about compassion. But I think what I hear you saying is you don't hear that word very often. And again, if you look in Dogen's writings, you don't see compassion as often as you see some other words like wisdom.

[55:39]

So I think Zen often does have a reputation as being more concerned with wisdom than compassion. But I think that's a total misunderstanding of Zen. So I emphasize the founder of Zen, Bodhidharma, is Avalokiteshvara. The founder of the Zen school is Avalokiteshvara. But And I say that over and over, but I haven't heard it said by other people very much. It was said back in the Liang dynasty. Emperor Wu of Liang's teacher did mention that Bodhidharma was Avalokiteshvara. So that's why I did it this year is because I wanted to make it clear to people that compassion is really where we start in Zen.

[56:41]

Buddha's great compassion is the foundation of our practice. We start with generosity for all beings, for all phenomena. Do you think that maybe the word play is used as a hook or that there's a purpose for not talking about compassion as much as we could, notwithstanding your talks? I would say that... that the bodhisattvas use words, you could say as hooks or skillful means, to teach people compassion and also to open people to wisdom. And that activity, the activity of offering a hook, is an act of general, is an act of compassion. So it might, sometimes not mentioning compassion could be an act of compassion. But compassion is unavoidable in the Buddha way.

[57:42]

But you don't necessarily have to be saying it all the time, but I felt like, well, this year I'm going to say it a lot. And then I did. Every talk was about compassion. And I forgot to mention at the beginning of this, I did that last year. Now I'm going to move on to the direct realization of awakening. with that foundation. And many of you have been participating in that foundation. So thank you very much, Steve. Thank you. All right, now Yuki. All right. So my thinking is thinking, but other people's thinking is thinking too or not thinking?

[58:44]

Say that again. My thinking is thinking, but your thinking is thinking or not thinking? So for you, my thinking is not thinking. Not thinking, okay. Mm-hmm. I'm part of the universe. Oh, yeah, that's right. And rats. Okay. Then, that non-thinking is very self-conscious and the pivotal activity of thinking, not the non-thinking. Well, you have the pivotal activity between these two, so that's replaced for it. But I don't... The pivotal activity is wisdom.

[59:51]

However, don't... It's okay. The pivotal activity is Buddha's wisdom, and Buddha's wisdom includes compassion. But we can practice this kind of compassion non-thinking before we realize this. Non-thinking is not pivotal activity. It's not really, but... Realizing by non-thinking. Yes, but when you realize the wisdom of pivotal activity, then you also have all that compassion there, and you use that compassion now from the realized pivotal activity. So compassion takes us to realize the pivotal activity, And then once we realize it, the pivotal activity enables our non-thinking. It sort of makes our compassion completely free and fully functioning.

[60:56]

But we can use a little tiny bit of compassion that we maybe have now and work that to realize pivotal activity. Once we realize pivotal activity, then the wisdom is united with the compassion. Not thinking. Yeah. And the way the white screen pivots with our thinking, that's the way it pivots is zazen. The way the thinking pivots with the not thinking. is zazen. And the way to realize that the way the screen's pivoting with the movies is zazen.

[61:59]

The way to realize how the screen's pivoting with the movie is non-thinking. So if you watch movies and practice compassion while you're watching the movies, you realize how the movie is pivoting with not the movie, with the white screen. Realizing it, the way to realize it is non-thinking. Compassion. Not with. Non-thinking is compassion. Yeah, so being compassionate to the movie, you realize the white screen. And the way that, but always, the white screen's always pivoting with the movie. That's always going on. But if we don't practice compassion with the movie, we don't realize that pivotal activity, which is already going on.

[63:09]

But the pivotal activity is the reality that's there before we practice compassion. Yeah, pivotal activity is reality. Zazen is reality. Yeah. Zazen is reality. The pivotal activity of Buddhas is reality. Buddha's practice is reality practice. And the way we realize it is by practicing compassion with not-reality. For example, our thinking. Yeah, I'm saying compassion is non-thinking. I'm saying non-thinking is compassion towards all of our you know, deluded activity. Then we wake up to how our deluded activity includes the whole universe, which of course it already does. The whole universe supports us being a deluded person, just like we are.

[64:11]

And we, being a deluded person, support the whole universe. That's reality. That's zazen. And we need to be compassionate to our limited suffering person and other limited suffering people in order to realize this reality. It's hard to hear, but we have to be intimate with it to realize it. And it's rather difficult for us to be intimate with all beings. Right? We have some... that's a struggle for us. You want to take a picture of it? By the way, these are getting a little bit worn out. We're getting some new ones. But they're still working pretty well. But they were working better before. Whoops, wait a second.

[65:16]

Can we what? We can leave this here. Hello. We can leave this here. Yeah, you can take pictures of it if you want. I think she's got it all right now. Okay, next was... Who was next? Karina. The kitchen is going to leave at 10.45, is that right? I'll try to get everybody's I'll try to stop at 1045 and that yes I'm this thinking non-thinking not thinking brought me in mind of a little verse that I think might be non-thinking thinking

[66:19]

which is, a centipede was happy quite until a toad in fun said, pray which leg goes after which, which worked his mind to such a pitch he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run. Thank you. Thank you. A centipede was happy quite until a toad in fun said, pray which leg goes after which, which worked his mind to such a pitch he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run. And next. Tell me your name again.

[67:26]

Ben. Ben. B-E-N. How many Bens do we have? I think just the one. But I put my initial to make it just in case. We have three Johns and only one Ben. Two Julians, three Johns. What about the person who hurt his ankle? Oh, Abe. Abraham and Benjamin, I get them mixed up. It's also my brother's name. Okay, thank you. Okay, Ben. Okay, I think this follows what Katerina was saying, and it's sort of a criticism and kind of a rant that was mulling about in my head, which was that I'm not... At this point, I'm not interested in the non-thinking, thinking, not thinking debate. And I was thinking, like, this is becoming so intellectual.

[68:31]

It's not really what attracts me to practice. And then we have an equation on the board now. So it's, yeah, it's... I'm sure people's brains work differently. But when I, sometimes I need encouragement to practice, but I'd say at a certain point, which is why I've come back to Zen Center a couple times, is I have kind of an intuitive faith. And Yeah, I'm wondering the importance of continuing to think about Zazen and maybe do you wish you had a stick to just thwap? Because that seems to be the, we get into intellectual conversations, but the punchline of more Zen stories is thwap.

[69:32]

That's one of the punchlines, yeah. Yeah, so part of why I'm doing this is that we have this language swirling around in our liturgy, for example. It says in the Pukan Zazangi, think not thinking. How do you think not thinking not thinking? So it's out there, and I want people not to be confused about that and understand that. that when it says non-thinking, it means compassion. So they can practice what they're hearing, or they can translate what they're hearing into a practice that they can do, like compassion towards all beings. And compassion towards intellectual activity. There's definitely some hypocrisy. And compassion towards hypocrisy. Yeah. I am. Thank you.

[70:38]

Yeah, I'm just, I'm thinking about, and I'm also thinking about the Chinese characters that you've gotten into, like the lily pad, the brain pattern lily pad mind, and then like during Zazen this morning, the tiger and the dragon, I feel detached from such examples. I'm curious about the importance that you see in examples that aren't of our culture. As opposed to when Suzuki Roshi came, the examples were it was more, my impression at least, was that it was American Zen. I'm not trying to make something bound, but, like, I'm sorry.

[71:53]

we don't have the archetypes of a dragon and a lion and characters. So I'm wondering why you find that important to keep alive. Well, again, those images are in the Fukon Zazengi. So I'm trying to, actually, I'm hoping to interpret this ancient teaching in a way that people today can understand it. because we are chanting ancient texts in our liturgy. So I would like to have people have access to these ancient texts and be able to apply them to daily life. And so the problems you're having with these ancient images If you bring your problems forward, we can practice with your problems, and in that way we bring those ancient texts into your life, into our life.

[72:57]

I could also bring in current events. That would be fine, and I do sometimes. For example, this past year, practicing compassion, people brought lots of current events in their life to bear. But in this special situation, it's a time maybe to look at the ancient material, which is not easy to bring it up, except in a very concentrated situation. So I see this as an opportunity to bring the ancient teachings into our present life. And in other situations, I'm more bringing up the current situations and applying it to the ancient teachings. Thank you. Thank you. Was there... I don't know who's next. Oh, yeah, maybe.

[74:00]

Shibyo's next, maybe. And now I saw Ciprian and Shindo. Huh? What time is it again? 10.31. Thank you for your teaching. When I was here for two years, and so I pondered quite a bit about thinking. Can you hear her? I think you need to talk into the microphone. Okay, I'm sorry. So I... Thank you. So I thought about thinking and non-thinking quite very often. And I, for quite a while, I thought I had reached my own understanding, which I'm not going to talk about. But I'm going to talk about the new understanding. Perhaps it's like more of a

[75:02]

more clarification of my understanding of the confusions people have about this thinking and non-thinking. So, let's say, Zen is everyday life, so perhaps I would like to use the everyday life as an example to for the thinking and non-thinking. So for two years, every morning, I would switch off the light from outside the bathroom, the corridor, outside the crowd hall. And very often, I would think that it would be so nice if Timo set up an auto sensor or a timer so that every morning at 7.30, it will go off. And at night, 7.30, it will come back. So you talk about pivotal moment. And in Green Gout, we have in some area, we have this auto sensor.

[76:09]

When you step in nearby, the lights come up. that is pivotal moment of the non-thinking to me. And as for the not thinking, is the, so the preparation, the thought, the considerations, and compassion, because all this together, all this thinking of the non-thinking, not thinking, make this non-thinking together. So when I step in, the lights on, triggered by the sensor, but there is no actor, because all the, I'm sorry, my mind keeps, so when I step in, the lights, it trigger the sensor, but the triggering is, It's not an action because it is a pivotal moment. It's nature. It's just revealed. It's just manifest. So to me, that is non-thinking. And I don't like the translation non-thinking because the Chinese word, anyhow, that is up for interpretation.

[77:19]

But my interpretation is beyond thinking will create less confusion. Instead of saying non, they're saying beyond. So another possibility is beyond. For this character, instead of non, beyond. So it could be thinking, not thinking, and beyond thinking. So with this beyond thinking, it's like, because all the preparation, the love, the compassion, and the consideration have already been done, which is thinking and thinking of not thinking. So when I step in the sensor, trigger pivotal moments, and... Beyond thinking, there's nothing needs to be done. Nature is just manifest.

[78:22]

I guess I'm making sense of what I'm saying. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Yuki, if I could comment on your kanji. There's another thing. No, thank you. No? You got it wrong. But it's fine. I have another question. Other people are waiting. Other people are waiting. Okay. And time's running out. Thank you for your offering. I think Cyprian's next. Oh, did you have Henry Sam before? Okay. Okay. So Cyprian's next. And now the time is 1036. Good.

[79:28]

Can you hear me? So when you wrote Beyond on the board, what immediately came to mind is that beautiful verse of Rumi's, beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. I'll meet you there. And that seems to me, poetically, to sum up this whole distinction of thinking, not thinking, and something greater than both of us that holds us, that's in us and we're in it. Does that seem accurate? I think that that's accurate, but I think it's a somewhat different point from what's being made here. The point here is that our ordinary karmic activity is in a pivotal relationship with the universe.

[80:30]

And the way to access that is beyond our ordinary thinking. So your point is a somewhat different point. But it's a good point. But Rumi's saying beyond thinking and not thinking. No, he didn't say not thinking. He said beyond thinking. He didn't address the relation... In that poem, he didn't address the relationship between ideas of good and bad and not ideas of good and bad. He didn't point that pivotal thing out, even though his practice was whirling and pivoting around a post. That was his practice. But in that poem, he's kind of saying, there's a place beyond thinking and not thinking. I'll meet you there. That's fine. But he didn't make the point that there's a place beyond thinking He didn't mention there's also a relationship between thinking and not thinking.

[81:35]

He didn't make that point in that poem. Is that because the ideas of right and wrong are all contained in his thinking? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. And there wasn't the other element, the not thinking? Yeah, he just didn't make that point. He just said, okay, we got this karmic consciousness and there's a place beyond karmic consciousness and I'll meet you there. Fine. This is saying there's a relationship, before you go any place, right here there's a relationship with karmic consciousness and not-karmic consciousness. And the way to access that relationship is by being compassionate to karmic consciousness. Now he could have also said, and I think in other poems he does say, you've got this karmic consciousness, and if you practice compassion towards the karmic consciousness, you will become free of it. Loving karmic consciousness freezes from us. That's another one of his teachings. But in this one, he's a little bit different point. So it's not fair to imply that ideas of right and wrong suggest perhaps I'm right and you're wrong, or you're right and I'm wrong, and that's the pivot between thinking and not thinking?

[82:48]

No, that's all thinking. It's all thinking. Yeah, and we want to practice compassion towards all that. And by practicing compassion for all that is beyond all that. Okay. And that will help us realize that that... is in a pivotal relationship with not that. That's the reality. Is the pivotal relationship, is that implied in, for example, in Shih Tzu's poem, all the opposites like light and dark are in a pivotal relationship and front foot and back foot are in a pivotal relationship? Yeah. And another Roman poem which I often mention is The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You have to say what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. Everyone's walking back and forth at the threshold where the two worlds meet.

[83:55]

The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. Hmm. And in the first several years I thought about that poem, I thought, okay, we're at this threshold where the two worlds meet and we can go from this world to that world. But now I feel more like we're at the threshold where the two worlds meet and we can sit at this threshold and live in the pivot between the two worlds rather than go into the world beyond or be stuck into this one. Usually we're stuck in this one. But there's other worlds. There's the world of not this world. But I don't want to go into not this world, and I don't want to be stuck in this world. But by being compassionate here at the threshold, I open to how the two worlds not only meet but mutually include each other. That's another worldly poem.

[85:00]

Thank you. Thank you. And now? 10.3. 10.43? 42. So the kitchen has to leave now, right? Huh? Shindo. Shindo. Can I touch this? I'll move it. Thank you so much, Tenjin Oshii, for your teachings, which is amazing. And Karina's centipede, I feel like Karina's centipede in the kitchen.

[86:07]

And I just want to say that I'm having many pivotal moments. And I'm learning Zen from the kitchen. I feel I'm getting priest training from all these pivotal moments. And I feel deep gratitude to Sonia, the Denzil, I just want to express that to you, which is a direct send for me in the kitchen. Thank you.

[86:45]

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