for about seven weeks we've been having a training period here at Green Gulch and one of the central things we've been studying is the precepts of the Buddha sixteen great precepts of enlightening beings and Tomorrow is the last day of the practice period. And so this will be the last talk during this practice period. And so I'm kind of rounding up today a little bit. So these 16 precepts are the three refuges taking refuge in the awakened one and the teaching of awakening and the community of practitioners and then the three pure precepts which are traditionally said as avoiding non-virtue or abandoning non-virtue

[01:29]

practicing all that is wholesome, and benefiting all beings, recognizing and abandoning non-virtue, practicing all wholesome things, and benefiting all beings. These are the three pure precepts. And then the ten great precepts are not killing, not stealing, not misusing sexuality, not lying, not intoxicating self or other, and not talking about others' faults, and not praising self at the expense of others, not being possessive, not being hateful, and not in any way abusing awakening, the teaching of awakening, or the community of practitioners. These are the 16 precepts

[02:32]

that enlightening beings, at least as far as we know, from beginning this time, have received and practiced and transmitted to other enlightening beings. And yesterday we had a ceremony where 15 people, maybe it should have been 16, but anyway, it was 16, I was there too. Sixteen people received these sixteen precepts and sixteen people completely dedicated themselves to practice these precepts from now or from yesterday until attaining complete perfect enlightenment and then even after that. These sixteen precepts are called the Zen Gate, or the Gate to Zen.

[03:35]

You don't have to do the ceremony, but you must receive these precepts if you want to practice Zen. You can't practice Zen without dedicating yourself to the welfare of all beings. If you just try to practice Zen for yourself, you won't be successful. I will go on about this. But anyway, basically, this is the door to Zen, these precepts. You can take them right now in your heart. You just heard them. You can just say in your heart right now, yes, I will. If you want to do a ceremony, we have that too. But basically, this is the door This is what we've been studying. It's the gate to the secret of life. And the secret of life is that life is totally wonderful. There's tremendous suffering as we know in this world and there seems to be a lot of cruelty among us.

[04:50]

The secret is that somehow this whole thing is good and the gate realizing how good life is is receiving these precepts and then after receiving them you can practice meditation and understand it completely in every cell of your body and you can share it with others that's what these precepts are about and this week particularly I've been emphasizing the first of the three which I just said was to abandon non-virtue, abandon unwholesomeness, abandon evil. But the way we do that is not by trying to push away evil, and also not by indulging in evil, but the way we do in Zen, the way we use in Zen to abandon non-virtue is we

[06:00]

one form of practice. We give our entire life to one thing. We say we pick the thing that's most important and we give ourselves to that completely. We choose one thing. And So during the sitting we just had, I tried to encourage people to choose one thing and give themselves completely to that. This is an ancient Zen practice. It's called the practice of one form, or the practice of uniformity. By practicing one thing, you kind of get in... in the mood, in the swing, in the groove, of not thinking in terms of this and that, self and other.

[07:14]

And by giving yourself totally to a mind that is a mind of one thing, you abandon the mind that thinks in terms of good and evil. You drop the mind that thinks in terms of right and wrong. You let go of the mind which thinks in terms of self and other. You become one with everything. You abandon the mind which thinks in terms of this practice and that practice. There are endless practices in the Buddha teaching. There's an ocean of practices. just like there's an ocean of beings. What you need to do is choose one practice and understand that there's no other practice than that for you. It doesn't mean other people who are doing different practices are doing something that's not right.

[08:17]

It just means that whatever they're doing or whatever you think about them, that's one with your practice. You also don't think in terms of practice and result, or practice and gain, or practice and fame. Your gain, your fame, if there's going to be any, are right now with this practice. In that way, you give up gain and fame. This is how to avoid evil. It's simple, extremely simple. It just means doing the same thing all the time, 24 hours a day, day after day, for your entire life, even from before you started. If you're not willing to do it right now, all the time, forever, and you're still holding back, you have to be stupid enough to say yes to an incredible demand like that.

[09:30]

But unselfish people are that stupid. Selfish people aren't that stupid. They know it's impossible and they won't be made a fool of by trying. This is your faith. This one practice is your faith. The thing you choose as the ultimate practice. Ultimate is not two. If you've got two practices up their way on the top, you let one be on top. You say, one is ultimate. This is the one. It can be anything. Just holding your hands together. And then people say, what about when your hands are apart? Do it then, too. Even when they're together, they're apart. See them? See the separation there between the two? You can make that into two. And you can make this into one. No matter what you're doing with your hands all day long, no matter what you're doing with them, always make them together.

[10:40]

That could be your practice. Always bowing to everything. Forever. Or you can just sit. And you can just sit in any posture. The point is, give yourself a way to your practice. Give yourself to awakening. Give yourself to the Buddha way. Give yourself to the way of benefiting all beings. Give yourself to the way of doing all good. Give yourself a way to avoiding non-virtue, to dropping it completely. Just give your life to that. That's all it takes. It's very simple. It's extremely difficult, though, because we want to hold back at least a little bit, or a lot, just in case this doesn't work. You have to put all your chips down on one thing and not worry about the result. And if you worry about the result, put that down too.

[11:42]

If you live with that faith and you give yourself to that faith, then the reward for that, well, not the reward actually, because there's not even any reward at this point, but you realize the source you realize the source from which all Buddhist teachings come. And at this source there's nothing but this oneness. And this oneness isn't even a thing. And you also realize at that point that the form you chose is formless. But you have to choose one thing and do it completely before you realize it's not even that. If you sit a little bit, give yourself a little bit to sitting, you're still going to think sitting is something a little bit different from other things. But when you give yourself completely to sitting, you'll realize that there's nothing that's not sitting. And sitting is not different from anything. Anything you give yourself to completely, you'll realize it is the entire world.

[12:48]

Any person you devote yourself to, you will realize in the extreme limit of your devotion, you'll realize you're serving all people. But if you try to spread yourself out and serve all people, then you say, well, I'm sorry, I'd like to talk to you longer, but I have an appointment. I love you, but I can't love you completely because I have to love somebody else, too. If you love one person completely, you will realize that this isn't one person in front of you. This is everybody. If you hold back, you'll always think this person you love is just a limited thing you think they are because you're holding back. And the same with your practice. If you practice some, even 99%, you'll still think your practice is limited to what you think it is.

[13:52]

When you throw the extra 1% in, the practice will explode and turn into the stars. As far as I can tell, none of the Buddha ancestors say anything different from this. This is faith. Not believing that this will happen. That's a belief. Not sitting here thinking, well, maybe he's right, maybe I should try it. That's a belief. The faith is when you actually your chips down on the bet. I'm going to bet on the Buddha way. I'm going to bet not just on the Buddha way, but on the Buddha way just for the Buddha way, not even for me. I'm going to bet on the Buddha way for itself. I'm just going to be a servant to the way of awakening, which of course is for the benefit of everyone, but I've got to get rid of my selfish things.

[15:04]

The way I do is just take that selfishness and plunk it down, plunk this self down on the Buddha. Practice that one thing. And when you do it, you realize Buddhahood right then. And then your reward for your faithful practice will be the second pure precept. Namely, practice all that is wholesome. But now you will no longer be practicing like I'm practicing. Your reward will be that you realize that it's not like I'm doing practice. I'm here and practice is over there or I do good. You'll be free of that. You'll just feel that everything is good and you will practice that way. this is your reward this is called the bliss body of Buddha it's the reward for giving yourself to the essential body of Buddha which is always the one thing you practice good but again not like you practice good you and the practice are the one thing and that is good and if you think what does he mean everything's good aren't there bad things

[16:34]

Yes, they're bad things, but it's good that they're bad. It's good that bad things are bad. It would be really weird if bad things were good. Bad things are bad, and it's good that they're bad. It's good that cruelty is bad. It would be not right if cruelty was good. It's good that cruelty is bad. Goodness cannot be stopped. It cannot be stopped. That's the secret of life. It reaches everywhere. Nothing stops it. Nothing so horrible that it's not good that it's horrible. Buddha is there. Compassion reaches everywhere. This is your reward for practicing one thing. You will understand this. And then you will practice that precept spontaneously. As a reward you'll practice it, not as a burden. Oh, I got to do good, I got to do good, I got to do good.

[17:36]

It won't be like that anymore. It won't even be like this is good or that is good. And then the third pure precept is benefiting all beings which is simply to manifest this goodness which you've been given by being willing to be yourself completely. and to dedicate yourself to the oneness of all being you just share it basically and in the sharing it becomes manifest in the world completely this is called face to face transmission of good with human beings particularly we do with our faces we manifest this goodness which is the reward of practicing oneness.

[18:46]

We manifest it in our completely ordinary daily affairs. This is the test of your practice to see if it can manifest. This is sharing the joy of goodness. the third precept of benefiting all beings. You share your working on yourself. And how do you work on yourself? You give yourself away to the Buddha way. And by working on yourself, you get the realization of goodness which you share face to face. This is called sympathetic joy. The joy of suffering with other people in oneness. The joy of seeing how good other people are.

[19:53]

And seeing that their goodness is talking. Their goodness is saying, yes, yes, come, come. Talk to me now. Make a face at me. Shake my hand. Ask me how I am. Or just don't move, and I'll come to you and ask you a question. Just sit still for a little while, and when I'm ready, I'll come and knock on your door. But don't move until I come. I will come eventually, because I'm good. You can hear that. You can see that. So you just wait. You don't even wait. You just sit still. And if you sit still long enough, everybody will come. and knock on your door one by one and when they come you take care of each person completely when Suzuki Roshi was still alive towards the end of his life

[21:08]

Zen Center got bigger. And he said, now we have so many students here, I have to make appointments with people. Everybody wants to talk to me. But there's so many I have to make appointments. And when I'm talking to one person, someone else may be waiting. But I take care of this person completely because I'm taking care of this person for everyone. And people have, and he didn't quite say this, but people have to learn that me taking care of somebody else thoroughly is the way I'll take care of you too. Even though I may never finish taking care of this person. You can see by the way I'm taking care of this person how I would take care of you if I ever had time. And guess what? While you're waiting and realizing that it's been a long time and I'm taking care of this person, maybe you could start taking care of somebody.

[22:15]

And sure enough, if you do wait long enough, thinking of somebody else taking care of somebody else thoroughly, maybe you'll kind of think of doing it yourself. Because in fact, that's all they can show you, whether it's towards you or towards somebody else. Everything's good, you know. Or maybe you don't. But in this practice, we say there's no place in the world where you can spit. So you have to have those machines that they have at the dentist's office that suck your saliva out. No place that you can spit means there's no low-quality areas where you can go Like I'm spitting, and this is like spit that I don't want in my mouth anymore, so I'm going to put it over here on you, piece of earth, or you, flower, or you, tree, or you, whatever.

[23:23]

Because you're not a good place. There's no place like that. You can spit, but when you spit, if you're going to spit, you should feel like you're spitting. spitting, you know, nectar and giving a gift. And if you don't believe that, then brush your teeth before you spit. Use a nice mouthwash and then spit. Anyway, everything that comes out of you should be a gift. And it is already. It's just that maybe you think, oh, my saliva is like crappy stuff, so I'm going to put it in some other crappy place. So we sometimes think these things we're sitting on, these flat rectangular cushions, they're called sitting cushions. We sometimes think, well, they're just sitting on or just standing on, so who cares?

[24:31]

So one time I was in the room with Suzuki Roshi and I moved one of these things with my foot. And... he turned to... Steve Weintraub was sitting right near me, and he turned to Steve Weintraub and he said, We don't push anything with our feet! And Steve kind of like, sort of melted, and wondered why he was saying that to him. So, he took care of Steve, as a way of taking care of me. And since that time, what is it, 24 years ago or 25 years ago, only maybe a couple of times have I moved those things with my feet. But when I did, I thought of Suzuki Roshi, and I thought of all the Buddhism ancestors, and I thought of my foot.

[25:40]

so maybe two or three out of many thousands of times I have been a little lazy but I always felt bad about not being kind to those Christians because goodness has no limit and so we should treat everything with the utmost respect and treating everything with the utmost respect is the greatest joy and it is also sympathetic joy because you see the other thing too is really worthy of it this process of the teacher or the senior or whatever seeing in the junior practitioner or the student this goodness and feeling joy in it and the student feeling that from the teacher Or the student feeling joy in the teacher and coming to the teacher.

[26:45]

This interactive thing of sharing face-to-face the joy of this life is sometimes we use the analogy of a chicken and a chick. Or a hen, I guess. Roosters, I don't think, do this. A hen and a chick. And the chick's inside the egg. inside the shell of the egg and the hens outside. And again, I don't know if they do this in this modern day of degenerate practice, but in the old days, back in the time of Buddha, when the little chick was at the right stage in order ready to receive a little instruction, it would make some wiggles inside there and peck on the egg. And the hen would hear the peck and peck back. And the little one would hear the peck and peck back. The big one would peck back.

[27:47]

And they'd peck, [...] peck like that. And the more vigorous the peck's inside, the more vigorous the peck's outside. Because, you know, if it's vigorously pecking, it must be pretty strong. So maybe you can peck back. Maybe it's time to break the shell. If the peck's real weak, you wouldn't want to peck back too hard because you don't want to break the shell too early if the chick's too wet, you know, and... So in relationship to the pecking of the chick, the hen pecks back, and when their pecks get strong enough, the egg bursts and the chick's out. This is how we share joy back and forth that way. It's always going on between teacher and student. Now, sometimes the student doesn't know that the teacher is looking at the student with joy.

[28:49]

Oftentimes, teachers don't say how joyful it is to see a little, well, pecky or peccoret. What is it? But it is there, you know. When the little one comes, the big one is very happy to see the little one. The big one has been sitting there waiting for this peck. Has been sitting for years without moving, waiting for a little peck. Sometimes the peck is right in the eye of the hen, so the hen sometimes flinches and gets confused. But anyway, that's what it's about. And then the hen pecks back. And sometimes the hen pecks back and the chick sometimes gets a little knocked out of balance too. So it gets sometimes a little shaky because it's got to work this out, this relationship.

[29:54]

So I'll tell you some stories now about this. Oops. Stories of joy, of sympathetic joy. tell you a story about a Zen master when he was young and his name was Wei Yan when he was that was his monk's name when he became a master his name was Yao Shan, Medicine Mountain he's one of our ancestors Wei Yan means concern with what's really magnificent. Concern with great, what's really great. So Wei Yan was ordained as a monk when he was pretty young.

[31:03]

And he received the precepts, these precepts I was talking about. And he practiced them very scrupulously, very thoroughly. But finally, one day, he lamented to himself, a true person ought to purify herself apart from rules. Who would believe that it is simply a matter of being scrupulous about trifling details? Right away, he went to see Shurto Stonehead, the great master Stonehead. He went to Stonehead and he said, teacher, I know a little bit about the Buddhist teaching.

[32:23]

Actually, he knew a lot about the Buddhist teaching. He was well-versed in it. I've learned a little about this and I've learned a little about that. I've studied this, I've practiced the precepts, but I've heard that in your school you can point directly to the human heart and show the way to become Buddha right now. I don't understand this. Please teach me. Stonehead said, being just so won't do. Not being just so won't do either. Being just so and not being just so won't do at all. How about you? The young monk was speechless.

[33:41]

Stonehead said, You don't have affinity here. The conditions for your understanding are not here. Go see Master Ma. Last week I told you a story about Master Ma. Master Ma sent one of his monks to see Stonehead. Remember? And he said before his monk left, he said, watch out, the way to Stonehead is very slippery. So now you see Stonehead is sending his student to Master Ma, horse master, or cow master. So he went

[34:46]

cow master or ox master and when he got there he said the same thing I've studied all these different aspects of Buddhism but I heard you can point directly to the way please teach me and Master Ma said sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is right sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is not right how about you? hearing this the monk was greatly enlightened sometimes

[35:50]

You have to put two eyes in the chicken's head for the chick to get it. When he bowed, then he bowed, which is a traditional thing to do when you're enlightened. You want to say thank you to something. And he bowed and the teacher said, what have you seen that causes you to now bow? And Wei Yan said, now I see that when I was with Stonehead, I was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. And Master Ma said, what you say is right, but still, but still means even though you woke up in my presence, still your teacher is Stonehead.

[37:09]

And he stayed with Master Ma for three years and then later went back to his teacher Stonehead. What I see is when he came to see Stonehead, Stonehead saw him. He saw an excellent being who completely dedicated himself to wholesome practices and avoiding non-virtue and benefiting beings but he hadn't completely done it really and he still thought I don't know what but he was great the teacher saw that and the teacher said being this way won't do being that way won't do it's not a matter of being this way or that way it's not a matter of being this way or that way it's not a matter of doing this

[38:24]

It's not a matter of doing right or wrong. It's not a matter of doing both right and wrong. It's not a matter of doing neither right or wrong. It's a matter of, how about you? It's always, how about you? Right now, how about you? It's about that. What do you have to say? He couldn't say anything. He traveled a long distance. Another teacher says, Sometimes you raise the eyebrows. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes raising them is good. Sometimes raising them is bad. It's not a matter of that. It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's not a matter of self or other. Peck, peck, [...] peck. But in between each peck, the monk was coming back, still standing there, pecking back. I love you. [...]

[39:25]

Do you get it? I love you. I love you. Do you get it? How about you? Then he woke up. He understood about himself what he was. Through the kindness of these two teachers, these two brothers who lived on separate mountains, it's not that there isn't good or bad because our mind makes good and bad and when our mind makes it, there it is it's a matter of abandoning that mind of letting go of that mind and not pushing that mind away but just letting it drop which means just let it function which means just let it go right ahead and good, bad, this, that being this way, not being this way, that happens what about you, all day long, what about you

[40:33]

And what about you means, what about you any way you choose? What about your sitting? What about your breath? What about your feet? What about your pain? What about your joy? Anything you choose, but whatever you choose, really you just choose one thing for all time. And if you choose one thing for all time, you realize that that one thing you chose is everything. And then you can be a hen and sit on eggs until they peck. I'm not trying to tempt you.

[41:48]

I just want to tell you that these stories go on. Well, up till now, for about 1,200 years more, they go on. But not to keep you here too long, I'll tell you the next cycle of stories in question and answer. the gluttons. So the next cycle is when Yao Shan, when Wei Yin becomes a teacher, and there are stories about people coming to him and how this sympathetic joy went on, how he shared the joy of goodness that he discovered in his life with the next generation. But I'll just tell you that Wei Yan did go back to Stonehead.

[42:58]

After studying with Master Ma for three years, he went back to Stonehead for a few more years and continued to practice the sitting practice, which the Zen monks do. And one day he was sitting and Stonehead came up and said, what are you doing here? And Wei Yan said, I am not doing anything at all. See, if you sit wholeheartedly, you'll realize you're not doing anything at all. So the ancestor Stonehead said, In that case, you're sitting idly." Wei Yan said, if I were sitting idly, I would be doing something.

[44:03]

Stonehead said, you say you are not doing anything. What is it that you're not doing? Wei Yan said, not even the 10,000 sages know. Stonehead burst forth with tears of joy and sang this song. are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

[45:07]

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