I'd like to review a little bit the last two weeks so that there will be a better chance for continuity between the practice of the ancestors and our practice. part of the spirit of zazen is that we have a feeling of settled, a settled feeling that we are joining and being joined in the practice which is the same as the practice of Shakyamuni Buddha and all his disciples.

[01:03]

And I brought up the story of his Indian disciple, his Indian disciples actually, Prajnatara and Bodhidharma. And Prajnatara said that this poor wayfarer, when breathing in, does not dwell. in the realms of body-mind, and when breathing out, does not become entangled in myriad circumstances. I always reiterate, I always reiterate such a scripture. one thousand, one million scrolls.

[02:23]

So his samadhi was the continual reiteration of not dwelling while breathing in and not becoming entangled when breathing out. The word scripture, I think, is related to, you know, scribe or, you know, to scratch on something, to writing. But the word in the Indian, the English word scripture, but the Indian or the Sanskrit word and the Chinese word The Sanskrit word sutra is more related to the English word suture. It has to do with the thread that runs through sacred texts.

[03:39]

They drill a hole in the palm leaves in the old days and they put a string through it to hold the sacred text together. That string that goes through the text is the suture, is the sutra, the string, the thing that goes through all the texts. And in Chinese, too, the word jing, the word they used to translate sutra, which they had before Buddhism came, it was the same word, same meaning, namely the thread that runs through. And in their case, they had paper texts and block texts, woodblock prints and so on. They also drilled a hole through and put a string through. That's also the jing, the thread that runs through the sacred texts, the I-jing. thread that goes through change is the book of changes. All their sacred texts were jings, and there's a thread that runs through all the sacred texts.

[04:44]

For Prajnatara, the text he always recited was this breathing in and breathing out, always reiterating this thread. Our life is actually the reiteration. Our actual life is the reiteration of not dwelling when breathing in and not becoming entangled when breathing out. That's our real life. That's the life that is realization. And then this monk named Bodhidharma appeared in the world and became the disciple of Prajnatara and received this samadhi, received this awareness from Prajnatara.

[05:55]

And he went to China. And he didn't say much. He mostly practiced sitting upright in this awareness, reiterating this thread. But when he did say something, he said to his disciple, outwardly, The mind is not activated around objects. Inwardly, no coughing or sighing in the mind. Inwardly, no grasping. In this way, the mind becomes like a wall.

[07:03]

Thus you enter the way." Can you hear the continuity between these two teachings? Breathing out, not becoming entangled in myriad circumstances. outwardly, not activating the mind around objects. When you see another person, when we see another person, we often may experience some excitement, some activity, some agitation.

[08:11]

positive, negative, not so sure. Meeting another person, happy or sad, feelings may arise. Various forms, various degrees of agitation may arise when we meet another person, or even when we see our face in the mirror and see how cute it is or how old it's getting. It's not that you should stop this agitation. If the mind sees the object as external, there's no way for the mind not to be activated around that object. But simultaneous with this awareness of something external and the agitation that's caused by that sense of externality, Simultaneous with that, there is a mind, there is an awareness, which does not believe that this is external.

[09:21]

Discover the mind that's like a wall, that does not get activated by objects. When we meet another person, there's also somebody who doesn't get upset or excited about this. there's somebody who doesn't believe that this other person is external. There is an undisturbed, imperturbable mind which does not believe in this separation which causes this external object. And inwardly too, what we think is internal, grasping our internal awarenesses and internal mind objects and feelings and emotions, coughing at them, scoffing at them, rejecting them, judging them,

[10:34]

or sighing about them. How lovely, how subtle, how worthy of a great person are my thoughts. These coughing and sighings, these graspings. There is, again, an imperturbable mind like a wall. that doesn't get involved in grasping internally or externally. Prajnatara, Bodhidharma, were always reiterating such a mind, such a mind like a wall. Thus they entered the way. After receiving this instruction, Bodhidharma's disciple, Huayka.

[11:43]

Prajnatara means jewel of Prajna, the pearl of wisdom. Then came Bodhitara, pearl of awakening, whose name was changed to Dharma Bodhi, the Dharma of awakening. And his disciple, Huayka, Huayka means able or skillful in prajna. So after receiving this instruction, able in wisdom, Huayka, came back to Bodhidharma and said, after receiving the instruction of inwardly no coughing or sighing, outwardly not activating the mind around objects, after receiving this instruction and reiterating it continuously for even a short time, he returned to Bodhidharma and said, I have no further involvements.

[13:07]

Bodhidharma said, doesn't this fall into nihilism? Another translation of that is, doesn't this fall into death? Doesn't this result in death? To not be involved, to not be entangled. And Huayka said, no, it does not fall into nihilism. It does not result in death. And Bodhidharma said, prove it. And Huayka said, I'm always clearly aware. And no words can reach it. No words can reach this awareness. It is bright, awake and alive.

[14:15]

It's not entangled and no words reach it. It's not dead. Bodhidharma said, this is the mind essence of all the Buddhas. Doubt no more So this is my review of the last two weeks. These monks lived, it seems, around 500, the year 500 of the Common Era. And approximately 700 years later, a person appears in the world named Dogen. he considered himself a disciple of these monks and a disciple of their teacher and their teachers.

[15:33]

He devoted himself to continually practicing the same awareness that they practiced. the ancestors' awareness, the ancestors' samadhi. And as you know, he wrote a great deal and spoke a great deal about this samadhi in many, many ways. Lately here, we've been reciting, we've been reiterating one of his expressions of this awareness, which is literally, can literally be translated as self-receiving and employing awareness. Ji, self. Ju, receiving. Yu, using or employing. Zanmai, awareness.

[16:35]

Now, he says, all ancestors and all Buddhas who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the true path of awakening to sit upright, practicing in the midst of self-fulfilling awareness. Self-fulfilling is another way to say self-receiving and self-employing. He proposes that all the ancestors and all the Buddhas who uphold the Buddha Dharma have made it the true path of awakening to sit upright in the midst of this awareness, this self-fulfilling awareness. The self-fulfilling awareness is breathing in,

[17:39]

not dwelling, breathing out, not becoming entangled. That's how to receive the self and use the self. That's how to have an awareness of the self-fulfillment. The self, also sometimes called self-joyousness awareness, And he says that those who attained awakening in India, Prajnatara and others, Shakyamuni Buddha and others, and those who attained awakening in China followed this way. Bodhidharma and all his disciples, they followed this way. And it was done so because teachers and disciples personally transmitted this excellent method.

[18:44]

They transmitted this method as the essence of the teaching of the Buddha. He goes on to emphasize and stress how wonderful this essential method, which is the essence of the teaching, is. How it's the unsurpassable of the unsurpassable. He says that from the first time you meet a teacher without engaging in incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha's name, repentance, or reading scriptures, just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind.

[20:01]

Just wholeheartedly sit and thus drop away body and mind. And then he says, when even for a moment you express Buddha's seal in the three actions, three actions, in body, posture, in voice, and in thought, when even for a moment you express Buddha's seal in body, posture, voice and thought by sitting upright in this awareness. The whole phenomenal world becomes Buddha's seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment.

[21:10]

when even for a moment you express Buddha's mudra in posture, voice and thought. By sitting upright in this awareness, the whole phenomenal world becomes Buddha's mudra and the entire sky turns into enlightenment. So what is Buddha's seal? What is Buddha's mudra? The word mudra, Sanskrit word mudra, means a seal, like a seal that you put on a document, or a ring, a ring on your finger, a ring of fire, the circle of the earth,

[22:39]

But it also means the shape of a yogic posture, the shape of your hand mudra while you're sitting, the shape of your body while you're sitting, and various other gestures of roundness and authority, various gestures of wholeness and completeness. What is Buddha's seal? Here it is proposed that Buddha's seal is to continually, to eternally reiterate breathing in without dwelling, breathing out without being entangled. This is Buddha's seal. How is this mudra, how is this seal of authority expressed in body, voice, and thought?

[23:53]

This expression of this Buddha mudra in your body, voice and thought is not something you do to your body, voice and thought. It is not that while I'm speaking now, I'm putting little stamps on each little phoneme. It's not that while I make these gestures with my body, I'm putting a little stamp of approval onto my postures, onto my gestures. It's not that I, while thinking, do something in addition to my thought to express Buddha's seal. When even for a moment you express Buddha's seal through body, voice and posture, does not mean that I do something in addition to my body, voice and thought.

[25:32]

It means that the nature of body, voice and thought is Buddha's mudra. That while I speak, as I speak, the way, the actual way that I speak the nature and the radiance of every sound that my voice makes. That is Buddha's seal. As I speak, the way my voice appears in this world, The way my voice appears in this world without dwelling in itself or other. The way it appears in this world and happens in this world without becoming entangled in anything.

[26:40]

Its uniqueness, its impermanence, its radiance, its lack of inherent existence as it appears in this world that untangled, undwelling, unstoppable, uncreatable nature of my voice, that is Buddha's seal. And the same with my thoughts. It isn't that I think this or that, that is Buddha. It is not Buddha to think I'm Paul or short. It is not Buddha to think I've realized the way or not. Thinking that way is just thinking that way. That's just thought. It's just delusion. To think I'm practicing or not practicing, to think I can practice or not practice, is just a deluded thought.

[27:48]

While I think in this way, simultaneously, the Buddha mudra can be expressed with any thought. The Buddha mudra is being expressed with any thought. with any posture, with any vocalization. And when that seal, that Buddha's seal, is expressed in voice, thought, and posture, when that happens, the entire phenomenal world also expresses the same mudra.

[28:57]

The entire phenomenal world also expresses inwardly not coughing or sighing, externally not activating mind. When we human beings read, when even for a moment you express Buddha's mudra in the three actions by sitting upright in this awareness, this samadhi, the whole phenomenal world becomes Buddha's seal and the entire sky turns into enlightenment.

[30:02]

When we read that when, we think, we may think, oh, that when means that when this is happening, when this wonderful thing happens, that the Buddha's seal is expressed And it says that, when, then. It actually doesn't say then, it just says when. But we think that's a certain time when it happens, and maybe some other time it doesn't happen. But that is not what I think that when means. My human mind thinks, oh, now, in this case, in my life or in somebody else's life, now the Buddha seal is being expressed. And now, because of that, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha seal.

[31:04]

But that's not the kind of when this is. It's a when which means at a time, but it doesn't mean sometime and not some other time. It means that this thing happens in a when, in a time. To think that sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't, and to judge, now it's happening and now it's not, this is the phenomenal world. The phenomenal world is to think like that, is to think, now the Buddha seal's realized, now the Buddha seal's impressed, now the Buddha mudra's happening. Such a thought is the phenomenal world, is an example of the phenomenal world. Another example of the phenomenal world is, I really don't believe that the Buddhist seal is being expressed by this cough, by this sigh, by this thought, by this attachment.

[32:12]

by this liberation. I don't believe it. I don't think so. Or I don't think this person is expressing the Buddha seal as she speaks right now. I don't think this person is expressing the Buddha mudra in his present posture. I don't see it. I don't think so. Such a thought is another example of the phenomenal world. Thinking that it's expressed, thinking that it's not expressed, is the phenomenal world. Such thoughts are just thoughts. Such thoughts always express the Buddha's mudra. They never don't. To think that they do sometimes and don't other or never do is again another phenomenal thought that expresses the Buddha mudra in the form of thought. No matter what thought we ever think, the nature of that thought is Buddha's mudra.

[33:25]

Whatever thought you think, because that thought is not what you think it is, that thought is completely free. to express Buddha's mudra as well as any other thought that has ever occurred and ever will occur. If thoughts were what you thought they were or what I thought they were, then they would be something and they wouldn't be able to be anything and they wouldn't be able to express Buddha's mudra, but they aren't what we think they are. They are free of our thought. Thoughts are free of our thought. Voice is free of our thought. Posture is free of our judgment. Whatever judgment you make, again, is the phenomenal world. And in the time, Buddha time, and it can be even for a short time,

[34:35]

at such a time when whatever posture, whatever voice, whatever thought expresses this light, at that time, the entire phenomenal world also expresses it. By the same principle, it expresses it. but also it expresses it because there is a relationship between all thoughts. Part of the reason why what I think is just what I think and is not really what I think is because what I think is happening is not the same as what you think is happening. Even my own thoughts, even what I think about my own thoughts, I may think my thoughts are swell, you may think they're not so swell.

[35:39]

I may think my thoughts are stupid, you may think they're not so bad. Especially it's not so bad that you think your thoughts are stupid, I think that's good that you think your thoughts are stupid. Or I think my thoughts are good and you may think I think it's bad that you think your thoughts are good. And each person in the world thinks that me thinking my thoughts are good each person thinks differently about me thinking that my thoughts are good. And when I think my thoughts are bad, each person thinks differently about how I think my thoughts are bad and has a different understanding. But what my thoughts are are not even the sum total of what everybody thinks about my thoughts, including what I think about my thoughts. All the judgments in the universe about my thoughts still do not exhaust what my thoughts are. Because there's also our feelings about my thoughts, all my emotions about my thoughts, and all your emotions about my thoughts, and also all the responses of beings who don't have feelings and thoughts about my thoughts.

[36:48]

All that together, and the relationships of everything, that's something about what my thoughts are. That's a little, kind of like, tiny little sample of what my thoughts are and what your thoughts are. That's why thoughts do not get entangled and do not dwell. There's no place to dwell because thoughts are all pervasive, vast, bottomless, topless, sideless, seamless. They don't dwell, they don't get entangled because they're connected to everything in the universe and then it's all changed. When one thing's like that, everything's like that. Because one thing is like that, because of everything. But we think this sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't happen. We think that way and that's just another thought which is also like that.

[37:53]

If you think about a mudra as a seal, like a seal of approval. You know, you can imagine perhaps like they did in Europe a while ago. You take a bunch of red, what is it, gook, red wax or whatever, and you make it hot and melt it and pour it on the seal of an envelope, and you take a stamp and you push the stamp into the wax, right, and it makes a seal of approval. It puts your seal of approval on the envelope, on the gook. But also the seal, the thing you push into the gook, is also called the seal of approval. And the mark that the thing makes is the seal of approval. Is that right? The stamp is on the envelope, but it's also this block or whatever that you squish into the stuff. So there too, this mudra is something that's not one-sided.

[39:04]

It's not over here. It has to do with this impressing of things on each other. So the mudra of my body mudra is not just my body mudra. My body mudra impresses the rest of the universe. Everything you do, every posture you make, makes a little seal, a little pattern in the rest of the universe. And that pattern is kind of like the mirror image of your posture. The universe is a mirror image of your posture. The universe is the mirror image of your voice and your thoughts. This is always going on.

[40:06]

And that seal, that fact of your voice, your posture, and your thoughts being your stamp that you put on this vast gook called the universe, that interface, that interrelationship, Appreciating that is the Dharma. The mood is not just you over here, your voice. It's the way your voice shapes the universe. And it is the shape of the universe. It is the mark that your voice makes. It is the mark that the stamp makes. And it is the stamp. It's both of them at the same time. before there's an impression of the stamp, before the stamp squashes into the material or makes the mark on the paper, it's not really functioning yet. It's potentially a seal or a stamp of approval or authority, but it's not really doing its thing yet.

[41:14]

It's when it touches and makes the mark. But the mark that's made is equally the seal as the seal that makes the mark. And they're opposite. And they need each other. So when you or I express Buddhist seal through our voice, it's not that it is our voice that is it. But through the voice, the seal is expressed. And this interface between what we're doing and the rest of the universe, there is no clinging there. There is no disturbance there. There is no activation there. It is a perfect fit, a perfect fit. And before the mark is made, there's nothing happening. We do not speak or think prior to its effect on the entire phenomenal world.

[42:19]

It isn't that we start to do something or think something and then it has an effect. As soon as something starts to happen, it has its effect in this world. There is no before and after here. And in that way, we also practice not just the same mudra or the same awareness at the ancestors, we practice at the same time as the ancestors. It is the same moment. So no matter what happens, as far as I know, all of us, as long as we're alive, will continue and continuously express ourselves with body postures, with vocalizations, and with thoughts.

[43:52]

The question is, will we be able to appreciate this Buddha seal, this Buddha mudra being expressed in a moment with our actions. Everybody laying in their bed right now is busy laying in their bed. People up sitting here in this room, people in their cars driving all over the city, people at work already, people doing all the things that they're doing in animals, in plants. Everything is doing stuff right now completely. I do not feel any need to encourage beings to do things. They're doing it well enough from my point of view. What I think will help is not to get people to express the Buddhist seal in their three activities, but to discover that it is being expressed.

[45:03]

It is being expressed. But we need to be upright and aware to see, to appreciate this Buddhist seal being expressed in everything all the time. In other words, we need to be able to see Buddha in everything and everybody all the time. But we don't need to do that. We need to awaken to that. This is my faith about how to take care of the world." So this goes on to talk about and elaborate on how wonderful it is when the Buddha seal is expressed and the entire phenomenal world becomes it.

[46:17]

So in that way this text is seems so apropos of the summer practice period and Green Gulch in general of emphasizing and studying environmental issues and how to care for this planet. Or rather, how is this planet being cared for already? to discover how it is being cared for already, rather than to think what we need to do on top of what we're already doing. How has it been cared for up until the present time? Somebody gave me a piece of paper, and it had a bunch of names written on it, and these were names of peacemakers, I think.

[47:25]

that this person who wrote this list of names considered these people or said these people were peacemakers. As far as I know, nobody in this room got their name on the list. But you're close. Actually, people who you have touched with your own hands and who you're friends with are on the list. If the list is written in a few years, you may get your name on the list. But there are some people on the list who you might have been surprised by. For example, George Bush was on the list. I hesitate to say his name, but anyway, his name was on the list.

[48:30]

But I don't hesitate to say it like, you know, he shouldn't be on the list. I hesitate to say it like I'm singling him out to say he's the one who some people would say he shouldn't be on the list. To think that George Bush shouldn't be on the list is an example of a phenomenal world. To be able to see that George Bush is Buddha and George Bush is a peacemaker, that's called when the phenomenal world is impressed by the Buddha seal. Simultaneously, the thought George Bush should not be on the list Okay, that's the phenomenal world. Or somebody else says, somebody else thinks, in certain parts of the country probably they think, George Bush should be on the list. Of course he should be on the list, and the Dalai Lama shouldn't be.

[49:32]

What do you have, these weird Buddhists? Buddhists aren't peacemakers. They're causing trouble. They shouldn't be on the list. Anyway, the thought George Bush should be on the list and the thought George Bush shouldn't be on the list is the phenomenal world. to see that everybody should be on the list. To see that, even while thinking, Saddam Hussein should not be on the list. To think that is a phenomenal world. To see that he's Buddha means that thought Simultaneous he shouldn't be. That thought is not anything more than a thought. And if there's any peace in the world, everybody has equal share in making it.

[50:42]

We give Nobel Peace Prizes to certain people. Giving it to certain people is the phenomenal world. In the world of enlightenment, everybody gets a Peace Prize or a piece of the prize. I think that the mind that can do that, that can give everybody the Nobel Peace Prize, or anyway, a peace prize, that mind is the mind which is the ancestors' awareness. And the ancestors, I think, my feeling about the ancestors is they were just as petty, well, maybe not just as petty, approximately as petty as most any of us. Maybe. Maybe they weren't. But anyway, I think they sometimes did, if you showed them a list now and they saw Saddam Hussein's name on the peacemakers list, they might go, oh, gee, that's interesting.

[51:57]

But they might say, well, how kind to put his name on there, too. I don't know what they'd think. But they might say, gee. Or perhaps they might say their own name on the list and think, Why'd they put my name on there? I've been causing trouble lately around here. I don't know. Anyway, whatever they think, that's not the point. That's not the Ancestor Samadhi. The Ancestor Samadhi is the light that's always in every thought. is this awareness which can accompany any thought, which is this sitting upright in the midst of any thought, sitting upright in the midst of any vocalization, sitting upright in the midst of any posture.

[53:03]

and in the midst of any vocalization, of any thought, in any posture, to have this

[53:13]

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