Zen StoriesĀ 

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i remind you that
next week
i will be at a pre nuptial event in san francisco so i won't be here next year
however i was thinking that some of you might want to come and sit together
next week and i'm wondering how many people would like to come and sit here next week
one two three four five six
well i'm
if one of you would like would volunteer to be responsible for having the keys and locking up after the session than you can get together and have a sitting the sitting so if there's a volunteer
who would be wanting to do that
ha
if maybe can volunteer now
so maybe next week not much is going to happen in his room at this time
in terms of human habitation
so we have class following week
twenty eighth
in
the call on that i want to bring up tonight i actually would feel more comfortable whispering to you
but if i whisper nancy won't be able to hear me
and maybe some other people would neither so i'm kind of yelling but
my feeling is that this is a
yeah the my feeling is this is a kind of a what's the word a very
quiet kind of quiet well i'm not totally quiet but has lot a quietness in it
this is a call on which i
i was struck by many years ago and then i was struck by it again recently and at duck
what struck me is and i thought it was quite flower like this this on
my my perspective on flowers i'm not telling you how you feel about flowers but my sense of flowers is that
when they're blooming they're they're generally quite fragile and and
fragile and impermanent
often delicate
ah the fruit which
they go with his is from my perspective is often also impermanent are perishable
but it's in some sense sturdier heavier and my i'm attracted to both flowers and fruit but i don't usually think of eating flowers although some of them can be eaten and also don't think of eating fruit and except during when it's ripe
and so some fruits are are attractive and visually like flowers are but also they often are attractive in terms of using them as nourishment
and flowers are nourishing to but not usually in a sense of eating them
ah but flowers are are nourishing and this coin is a both tangibly can be viewed as a flower and also relating to it can bring a fruit
and a i wouldn't exactly call flowers week
but almost can call them wheat flour is obviously strike me as strong
this is a call on about strength and weakness
and the weakness that i see in this call on ah
it is demonstrated by the teacher
and the strength
by the student

hoop
some one point some a friend of mine recently noted that somebody referred to somebody as am
what's it
an asian psychiatrist aura african american psychiatrist a black psychiatrist
when people don't usually say white psychiatrist
our white psychotherapist
but they often say they might say black psychotherapist
so this friend of mine such that for now on she's gonna say you know white psychotherapist white psychiatrist white lawyer white doctor
white politicians

such a be entertaining
ah this site is person
ah
sometimes prefers to me has has referred to me as a as a coot as an old coot
so now it's old white coat
or
little shrinking or old white could
a goods like it related to a geezer
or a codger
you don't know that
geezer codger coot our terms for elderly people
elderly males
so
elderly males geezer coot and codger
so you can check the dictionary a dictionary or real room says it right there say
there's a male could

i'll think about what i'd like you to call me

so one rather poetic introduction to this case which my as will say it
probing probing pole in hand
shadowing the grass around him
sometimes he wraps
a ball
a shock with iron
sometimes he wraps
a stone with silk
to to determine the soft by means of the hard is of course correct
what about the matter of being weak
when meeting strength
did you hear that nancy
what
what about the matter of being weak when meeting strength
when meeting when meeting face to face yes
no
no not that
wrap that silk with iron
that's the introduction to the story here's the story
yeah
and this is a story about it
an ancestor in the zen history a major teacher and his name is ducharme
in which means a
virtue mountain
and there are stories about him where he is quite a dramatic and fierce himself
a very ah
very energetic being
and so now this story takes place when he is perhaps a codger
a coot or a geezer
perhaps he's become for a little pottery tartary
hah what's the word
tottering a tottering geezer i don't know it doesn't say that he's a tottering geezer but anyway
he's in a position of being the teacher in this story and he has an attendant and the attendant i don't not to tend to assign assigned to him by somebody in our like you could take care employees or if he the attendant was like happy to be his attendant
and because he was a great zen teacher and he thought okay to i can be the attendant of a great zen teacher how wonderful
the attendance name is
ha
so attendant ha is goes to
is it is is attending dijon
and he says to the teacher something like
hum
where are all the great sages
where have all the great sages of antiquity gone
and sean says why
what's that
i think that's probably i didn't i didn't have look up their characters but i think that's probably would have literally says kind of what
and in a monk says i know what other translation of that of the teachers' responses i don't know
but i think actually that's an interpretation of who what
get the picture the monk says where have all the great sages of antiquity gone and the teacher says what
the great zen master says what
and then the monks as the attendant says
the request was for
flying dragon horse or a horse that runs like a flying dragon
but what showed up was a lame tortoise
and
the teacher does ducharme
let it pass
that's the way i first heard it translated just let it pass now the translation is he didn't say anything kind of in a spirit of like being defeated in debate
like that the student kind of like
asked him a question he gave an answer student basic said i wanted something you know
how another a galloping horse and your but you're like a lame tortoise as he just didn't say anything let it pass
week teacher
her and i week teacher
the next day when bush on came out of the bath
so again first where her destroy was when dish on came out of the bath the ah
attendant served him t
and he patted the attendant on the back
and then the attendant says
ah this geezer has finally gotten a glimpse
or
hail man you understand them better today
he patted him that was a little bit better understanding
again this this path was interpreted verbally by some people as saying
how are you feeling about the come on you brought up yesterday
and monk says
you're doing here you know you you're catching on better oh boy
and er schon let it pass
how commenting on this
story does various ways to go one way to go is to say

studying with a teacher serving a teacher
i don't worry about
the great sages of antiquity who are you know
hot stuff
like you know don't worry about great zen masters like dutch on
it's just enough to serve your teacher
forget about the glories
of the golden age of zen and all those masters and mistresses
and just take care of your life with people you're working with
when asked when a person's being attended to somebody they may say oh i'm being attendant to this person who's playing the role of the teacher and teacher is like you know something this teacher is something
the student might feel
and then how much should the teacher led the student
sir
how much should the teacher
i'll let the student
call him teacher
in some sense
the teacher should not take this seriously
the teacher should understand that the students' understanding like for example
the students understand this cases you seem to be a lame
tortoise
students' understanding as
i like to see some ancient sages here
students' understanding from a certain perspective is
you know just kind of a student's understanding
but the teachers' understanding
in this story i think is that
the students' understanding is not separate from the teachers' understanding
the teachers
dharma the teachers truth is ah
consists consists of
the students' understanding
the students' understanding that the teachers lame the teachers' understanding is in the students' understanding
and is living together with the student having various opinions of the teacher and perhaps believing them
which is not the teachers position
did she doesn't believe with the
believe what the student believes
but the teachers' understanding which doesn't believe with a student believes is not separate from what a student believes and the teachers' understanding is totally included in the student believing what they think
we're going beyond that in getting over it
you know and not being a student anymore
teachers not separate from that either
so this is a story about the
the teacher the teacher being weak
in negotiating this relationship
the teacher being a very thing of like a flower
very delicate easily crushed
but not protecting itself you know with some strong comeback after it almost got knocked down
the mere fact just j gently patting the monk the next day
when he served the t
and then again the monk another strong another a strong response from this
teaches offering and the teacher again
doesn't say anything just let it pass
when i remembered this story i could hardly remember the student's question you know the first and the about where are all the sages of antiquity
now where are they gone i couldn't really i didn't remember the question i just remembered the part about the teacher kind of like not having much of an answer and the student kind of
not taking that that was so cool and the teacher just letting it be that of that part i remembered i didn't remember what the student was looking for in the first place
and and but i do remember that the student kind of got whatever he was looking for the next day he got a little bit of it when the teacher pattern him he thought all maybe they're here we have a little bit of sage hood here
maybe maybe the teacher paradigm in the student could think of there there's all sage and is right there at low that's a little bit of a wise man
i feel that sorted away touched my shoulder
this is rails and after all
hi i'm happy we have this flower which blooms every spring in our tradition
and i'm happy to offer to you
hes
innumerable views of this flower of course
and if you wish to offer any more flowers and this flowers you're welcome to do so
i yes please

yes jeff

said

hmm
yeah the teacher has become a fruit and the student was looking for a flower
yes go

yeah was i was wondering if i should tell you the other stories first cause there's a drink there's he's so strong and those stories

don't and float
if you've paid your dues you have the right to doubt and float
codger is often dote
upon grandchildren
today i ah
yes yesterday i flew to los angeles i flew to burbank actually
ah to do what my daughter called a bold act of devotion
a bold act of devotion she she what's the word she
she proclaimed to if that it was a bold act of devotion
through my body across the sky to burbank
be present at grandfather's grandparents day
ah at his add my grandson school so you'd have as his grandson grandfather there
and
the people in the school
kind of i don't know they they ordered him
to show me his like he has his book he made describing various things
add that they're doing in his class
very study projects and
and he and he was explaining he was he had this book here which you gave to me in any i was looking at and he was explaining to me
he doesn't very often like sit me down and and give me explanations of things and tell me stories about what's going on and what he's been doing but they told me to do it and he did it
and i was a new entity was sitting there looking at me in the face telling me about this
and
the tears were not so abundant in my eyes that he was embarrassed they were just a acceptable level of moistness but i was just so moved by his genuineness and just being there and talking to me
part of part of the story was it doesn't matter what he's saying
but he is saying something thing is he's actually like
he's following the teacher's instruction and doing this thing which he doesn't know which he doesn't like to do like to sit there and tell your grandfather what you're doing at school
but he did it and then then certain point that will soon offer and he stopped he said giving my book back
i wanted to look at more but he'd had enough of it and took it back

eleven
i don't know if there was a flower or fruit that i saw
but without somebody besides me asking him to do that he can't do it
he can't like sit right in front of me and tell me what he's doing like that but they set him up for it and it could do it is
where's the trip
and then i came back from burbank to oakland
and then i came here
and i said to him when his mother said that about this bold act of devotion i said
i really am happy to do things
in service of my grandson
even if the things themselves harm
you know something i wouldn't ordinarily do like i don't ordinarily i get on airplanes and goal places but sometimes if if it's my job i do it
sometimes when i'm at the airport i wonder what am i doing here
a nice guy off when i now and i think that i often think while i'm here to support the people in this line
they're doing a pretty good job and i'm i'm supporting them to be patient
an unselfish as they go through the security fine
but yet you know you can actually do that without a without having a boarding pass you can't go and stand in line with our board region he could stand on i guess and take it to the place where you sure the boarding pass and you
you say i don't have a boarding pass
have you waiting in line to support these people but then they probably lock you up
so

so there is a question about where
we should be of service
you know who we should serve
this is a story about somebody who is serving
deshawn who had paid his dues
for quite a long time
yes

hmm
yeah you could say he was marrying the students confusion than he was mirroring students distraction you could say that
you
and you could say that a marriage a strong thing
here's a is a mere can be a strong thing in a way
it can be a startling thing amir american start on us
right
i go
wow
amazing
in other times and mirrors more gentle and sometimes emiratis can let it pass
yes

you don't want
there are contexts yeah right

it takes

so i may i say that you're the years sick you're saying that you feel the teacher's response or responses were strong
see now that's encouraging to to
that's getting that's encouraging the coots
that in their frail shrunken form they can be offer strap strong something strong
to that to the young the young'uns

huh
again the introduction could be also
you could
feel from the introduction that there there is this contemplation of
of strength and weakness that that that's
part of the opportunity of our life as to contemplate that
yes sunday

yeah

yeah certainly that may be how the teacher
viewed herself
that can certainly possible but also i kind of feel like i'm the teacher
yes
committed to be vulnerable
not necessarily committed to be hurt unless it's helpful but if it's helpful the teachers committed to be hurt
the teachers committed to be insulted if it facilitates the relationship
and the teacher yeah the teacher may not some teachers may be a little queasy about
not being separate from their students' understanding because our students are standing is
how hard to really accept being intimate with
and to yeah but to think that the teacher in this tradition is is committed to that even though it's hard
and kind of scary like
if you're not separate from the students' understanding you might get thrown in a trash bin
cut students can have that understanding and still be students but a teacher has understanding maybe that's not acceptable for a teacher to have a understanding that a student has
but
the teachers committed to that
and students know maybe but not they don't have to be that they're allowed me students if they're not yet ready to make that commitment
and the teacher maybe
it's encouraging them to make that commitment so that they'll be another generation
god
a people who aren't afraid to be fools
or who are afraid to be fools but they have a they can be patient with that fear
the chinese character for know the like as endowed dutch dao de jing thou dj the dirt means virtue but it also means power
lost his name can be power mountain
you know so i think a arthur wally translated the tao te ching as the way and it's power dao de jing the power of the way or the virtue of the way the way and his virtue so here this guy's name is power mountain
so the dynamic you have the power to be vulnerable
the power to be not separate from
beginners fools
said
yes

yes

national
not there
rest
as is
the

it's like that it seems that were anyway
hmm

hmm right and
the teacher lets that pass
so
a student expected some spectacular wise answer he's asking the sage about where the stages are and the say doesn't know where the sages are and then it makes a comment on the sage not knowing where the sages are
because he kind of expect the sage to know something about or at least make some really brilliant response to to their absence
and there by manifesto presence and he didn't fan the students point of view
and the teacher let him have his expectations
sometimes teachers don't seem to let the students have expectations sometimes they say hand over your expectations
my fact
you may be asked to hand over your expectations
yes
during the student knew that he was dancing
i think the student new
well i think that day
the knowing that he was dancing i think in this story was that
ha
enclosed in iron
which reminds me of
kings question could you be in a lineage but not know it
could you be dancing with this
with this ages
and not know it
how could you know it but cover it with iron
could you have the silky
dancer dancing relationship with the ancestors with the sages yes would you need to know it no could you know it the dance would be knowing it he in fact he was dancing with the teacher we know it
now
the iron has been removed temporarily
for now we know that he was dancing with the future
that the teacher's skill was taught was it was not separate from are constituted the students' performance
but it looks like the student didn't know it
it looks that way that there was a covering around this
this actual wonderful relationship
and it even a covering his to from trump pas respective the covering also makes to me the covering of the story makes the story look kind of like outstandingly
quiet or you know different
there's not that many stories about the teachers having this rather bland quiet letting it pass answer another there but there may be innumerable cases of that story but they didn't write them down because they're so boring
this one got written down and i think this actually might be a little more common than one or two out of one hundred cases in terms of actual
how it's a word anthropology
actually saw you might find that this kind of relationship is actually more about what zanzibar to bring people down right here rather than looking to some heaven with the sages to come and practice right now together

where the student
the teacher dancing
this
it appears that the student isn't
it appears that were and there's many stories with as many stories where the student is an awakened to the dance
but lot of stories the teach it looks like a teacher is and the teacher says so
his teacher says you're not awake to the dance and then office is no more comment from the student
the tv doesn't say the students not awake to the dance
did you let it pass in both cases
did she doesn't indict the students' understanding teacher demonstrates the dance very nicely
but it looks like the students not getting it
but the teacher saying i'm not separate from the student not getting it
i'm not better than a student who doesn't get were doing this dance together here we are doing were actually practicing together we're actually doing the thing the student doesn't get it and i'm not separate from him not getting it
i'm a successful teacher of a student doesn't get it i've successfully got a student who doesn't understand i'm successful in that way
i'm successful because i i can stand to be a teacher who has students who don't understand it's similar to the story about the zen master who says don't you realize you're talking to somebody who can be cut through
you're talking to somebody who can be week
i'm have been preparing to be week i've been practicing for a long time and now i feel i can make an offering in my weakness and i can make an offering by having students like you would understand anything
and i can really accept that and i'm really successful by having students like you who don't get what we're doing together
i look forward to exploring your lack of understanding further
and meanwhile explorers by not saying anything that bright
and you'll get more and more
ah
i don't know what about me

he said the teachers not invested in in but before you say anything you say the teachers not invested careless look just remember you said the teachers not invested in something but that's the important thing is this the teachers not invested in blank and you can fill in whatever you want their now so go ahead filled in but mainly before we do dishes
member she said the teachers not invested in
what
thinking in thinking teachers not invested in thinking what else
the teachers not invested in thinking period the teacher not invested in thinking i'm not a good teacher period that he does not invested in thinking i'm not a good student teacher because a student doesn't get it period all those things to teach have not invested in plus the teachers not invested in like
you not invested in blank either in other words teachers not invested in not thinking teaches not invest in thinking teachers not invested a non thinking not thinking in the teachers not invested in it and it's in think anything is you can be there however the teacher also by not being invested in any of those blanks or those things
kings
can be
not invested in be exempt from the student who's invested in thinking
so the students thinking he's a he's not a good teacher because i'm not getting it
maybe or the students thinking he is a good teacher because i'm getting it
but if the teachers really not invested in a this stuff a teacher like is realizing non separation from the students thinking so the teacher actually might as well be doing the thinking and the teacher can do the thinking but they're not invested in it so teachers can think
i'm not a very good teacher because look at my students
did you can think that but they shouldn't but teachers in this school should not be invested in any thinking
that she just think
and let the thinking drop away and then the next one
but they can also not think but the thing is you got the main thing is the teachers not invested and again
the teachers not invested means a teacher can demonstrate to those who are invested
that somebody was not invested is not separate from you when you're invested and their patient with you if you're invested their patient with you until the end of the investment
and isn't like now the investments over so let's have a big party but you could have a big party at that time because it might be quite a lot wonderful if the investment came to an end and the student wasn't invested send the teacher might say we're not going to be invested and you can save me from my investments
but that's a good thing the teachers not invested that's a teacher's role is to not be invested and still do stuff like take a bath and pet people
and say
i knew the answer to that question once but i forgot yes
the teacher was taking it the teacher was taking a bath splish splash he was taken a bath
long about a thursday night yes said he was not invested in also not tested he was not investing is not if he was not vested
yeah he was not vested
why don't know he might have worn some clothes into the bath just like the image
chancellor see

being a teacher
leave
bathing and
helped him
and i just started my grandson
he performed a service
and while he was performing he was very vulnerable
that's why doesn't usually performance
but somehow the conditions were such that he performed a service he was very vulnerable and yeah
and that was great the heat to see was he was so vulnerable telling me about this work that he was doing
and he doesn't usually wanna be there which is understandable
i'm not he hasn't taken me on as his teacher
and this wasn't i wasn't a teacher in that situation either but the people who has does exactly this teachers
i don't know what the word has been a way they supported him to perform this service to his
his grandparent
and he was so vulnerable and so you know
he was so naked it was amazing
so he was doing that
and your you know but you're in a position with your kids of being the teacher so
it's a little harder for you to tell them to be vulnerable with you
but if you'd give him some a simon with the grandparents you could support them to do that for their grandparents
yes

and strength
oh

say again if you want

yeah you might put iron around your own better
get
i

no safety or lack of safety or holes in the safety is pretty much the same as vulnerability only mode means doesn't mean vulnerability doesn't mean you're being hurt it means you can be heard

yeah
it's nice nice a translation is that's that's the usual way we saved the practice is to welcome be vulnerable to welcome everything everything and then also everything that's the practice basically the practice is welcoming
and then that's not that's that's the basic than you can you move on to ethics patients in his enthusiasm concentration and wisdom but the basis is welcoming
learning anything
we don't always welcome so then we
we have something to confess i didn't welcome

no i didn't say that
veera said that but i appreciate that she said that i welcome that she said that i underline that she said that

well apparent apparently yes apparently most people have gone through innumerable lifetimes of investment
that's when it looks like could be wrong but i'm not invested in that story but it looks like most people have done lot of investing and now it's time to
divest
but you know
lovingly graciously not not in a rejection of our investments carefully give our investments away make make oliver convert our investments into gifts
carefully
ah patiently
ethically patiently diligently calmly and wisely
give a give up or i'll give all our investments
which were originally could have been seen as gifts but we didn't see it so they look like investments they were actually gifts that was the dance but we in art
immaturity we didn't get that so now it's time to understand that
and it's like we can we this is we can do this
we can do this we have to we we have the rest of our lives to learn this
and a doesn't mean that that's the end of the story but we have the rest of our lives to do it and then maybe we'll have more opportunities later to continue
to learn to divest
yes

yes that i would say that
i wouldn't say i would want yeah welcome you say you know you'll notice them so now you can welcome them
welcome them and be careful of them and be patient with them then you bring benefit
to these attachment and the afflictions
well the our afflictions attachment is is a basic form of affliction
and so bring kindness to these to this affliction of attachment and that would beneficial
and that will set the stage for
meditation and wisdom to also work on the attachments but first of all we have to benefit the attachments before we can effectively meditate on them i mean benefiting them is a kind of meditation but it's not we're not necessarily com with them until we benefit them
we have to be kind to them and then we can come down with them and then see them clearly so the fact that you notice them and can express stitched he did you see them set up the opportunity for you start acting beneficially towards them

pardon

yes it does seem that way

they are insufficient they are insufficient they want they're not enough however they're necessary
in order to do with sufficient you have to start by doing those things he first of all have to benefit these afflictions
an order to do what is sufficient when is sufficient his wisdom buddha's wisdom is sufficient when you have put his wisdom that will be sufficient that will not then you will not be fooled by attachment anymore
that will be sufficient but to have that wisdom when we must first of all
to be very kind to the problem or somebody said you have to love the world before he can save it
yet to love your attachments before you can save them
but loving them isn't enough you have to also see them for what they are when you see them for what they are they're saved
without changing them at all they're saved
miss stories are very much this is a lot of this story is a very much about story about not changing anything a student was maybe looking for some changes in the teacher was not really changing there's much
was not reorganizing the setup a student in some sense almost was running the show
yes

yes mary

you're wondering if the student is fragile rather than the teacher
well
yeah i think student is fragile
the student is fragile i agree i wouldn't say i wouldn't say rather than the teacher though
i think the teacher should be somebody who has gotten used to being fragile through many years of of contemplation of being fragile or or through many years of contemplating avoiding
being opened a fragility have led her to be able to actually then open to the fragility open to the front the the vulnerability
it's the teachers should encourage everybody to to face how fragile we are but students are fragile even before they face it again my grandson he doesn't usually like to admit that is fragile even when he's
crying and wants to be with his mommy
it doesn't quite admit it is fragile at that time sometimes
like not too long ago we were riding bicycles and green gulch and
i saw him approaching a speed bump and i said slow down there's a speed bump and he didn't slow down and then
he fell off the bike and
and when he hit the ground it wasn't so bad but then he kept going you know and then it started to get really painful and then he didn't admit that he was fragile he was very fragile but he just he didn't admit it he said i'm never going to ride a bike again and you know and then
when certain people tried to a system he said
nobody can touch me
it's my body nobody can touch me you know so he he he manifested in demonstrated his fragility but he was not able to admit oh wow i'm fragile and everybody know that but i'm i'm vulnerable to people helping me and to clean my scrapes
bruises
and in my case i just you know i recently sat in a group of priests i was talking and then the topic of you know how long we're going to go on with this came up i say well i'm
this with you i'm i'm up for it if i can be of help
in the study i love i love to do this and and
you know if you want to do this with me i'm i'm hockey or keep serving you in this way
afterwards someone someone said why on kind of not so good about that
seems like he should stay beyond that
and and let sure
let your dear students take care will you when you're you know not able to do anything really
when you're not the teacher the way used to be when you're just a ball of fragility and vulnerability and
let them let them serve you in that state when you don't even remember what what are we studying again what what what the text
by the way that's
that's one of the next stories i'm gonna bring you
ha
i said good point
has kind of like will i'll be around as long as i can serve as a teacher but when i'm serving as a teacher by basically just being this you know
detour this russia not deteriorating but this thing that's changing such a way that he can't do any of his old services
he can't perform any of his previous duties anymore
the tinnitus can feel like well i'll go aussie later i don't want i don't want to be here for when i'm like not able to do any of the stuff i used to do
i'm not much use to you then
but this person said well
then you're then you're offering yourself to be cared for
and that's that's another service which you haven't been doing maybe as much as you could do later
i said i said yeah good point
so not invested in which way you're going to be of service i'd like to be a service in this way rather than the service this way
i have when i'm services we'll just die but if the services way i'll keep living but if if this is the way i'm being of service line enough i really wanna
vince said isn't that way and then some he says yeah but that's just as good as the other one good point
because i remember suzuki roshi when he was dying you now
first of all he you know
stop giving talks
stop giving dogs on but he still went to the xander i do i couldn't go to the zendo and like to why he couldn't go we had to carry him to the zendo and to why couldn't go the zendo couldn't go down the stairs
but he was still there in the building in citizen he was still there and he was just like everything he did was like to me anyway it's everything a distress went right into my
give say my heart but it kind of more like went into my bones everything you did was like such clear teaching i can see so clearly almost every moment that that he was the you know why he was dying was so clear
and but he wasn't teaching in the ways he used to teach
he was he was like teaching by wincing you know when the
when incense cones got down to his skin
you know for the moxibustion he was wincing that's the way he was teaching and
it's not usually what we think of as the way of teaching and i also told you the story about this
quite he could say famous zen master who was the abbot of one of the heap biggest monasteries in japan
and then and then after he was abbott he retired and then he got what they called very old and i went to see and i went to see him when he was you know when he was in his eighties and he was still to scrape calligrapher and very light on his feet and
very energetic and then i want to see him when he was very old and there he was he as his students put on his robes
you know and put him in a chair fancy teacher's chair and then they invited some people like me to come and visit him and i came to visit him and then his students as roshi do you remember this this man he's from san francisco member tensions on his he's visiting from san fran's
cisco's and center
and his enormous eyes were just glazed and he was drooling
and i saw no sign of him recognizing anything anybody said and i looked at him and i and i really thought
what is a zen master is this a zen master
or was the guy who is like doing as calligraphy and on
that is a master where's the zen master
it when he were in when he was doing the calligraphy i kinda well there's a zen master you know but i didn't really want i didn't really wonder what is that what is the zen master in some ways is teaching when he was doing other thing didn't really make me wonder what a zen master was i just thought well you know this is nice
but when he was nice state i really wondered what is it what is wisdom what is compassion is gone know when when you start drooling does the wisdom go away
if you can recognize that is tuesday is that wisdom
and then if cat we were in sewing in some ways the most powerful teaching that he ever gave me
was when he was in that state that's when he really made me wonder what are we doing here
rather than oh that's what zen masters are likely to have read it and the end they they often do a really nice calligraphy and people pay a lot of money for their calligraphy because they're zen masters
and if it's if it's not very good calligraphy people who said well maybe not a good zen master but
had a certain point they say what when when the handwriting can really shaky it's even more beautiful and then but what about when there's no handwriting anymore is just drool marks
you know
the scroll you know just a big draw mark
people look at what is that a zen master there is a zen master drool

your dog is your dog even when they're old yeah
so you know what this this is a call on very much about what is a zen master other guys give the startling amazing answers that you know light the sky while sometimes year
that's what that's some some stories are just dazzling
but sometimes they're just
not you don't see the dazzle but
but the dance is there and what is the dance what is the dance
it's a must be there all the time
say again
the death maybe even maybe a slow dance slow dances are nice sometimes rate
yeah
and tortoises go even slower than turtles
yeah
so next week looks like we're not going to be meeting here hopefully will meet next week and
and also i told you before the
ah who's class here the yoga room and other venues
now we're starting kind of a new type of study which used for a starts with the study of the buddhist teachings of the unconscious mind
and so they'll be offered to and various venues but in particular will offer a class here at the yoga run
the unconscious support of the mind of delusion so this is a beginning of a i think along a long study of a tax called the summary of my on the summary of the great vehicle which is a study of the mind of delusion starts with looking
at the unconscious support
the mind of delusion
so keep tuned to your local information sources yes
the sanskrit name is mahayana some gras it's by the great ancestor a sanga
it's a commentary basically it's a commentary on the sounding near march on of cetera
don where and monica guys i have a publishing business in their publishing
a commentary on the somebody or more china sutra
and
and then the mahayana some gras has a commentary the ancient commentary on that cetera
and so that that that i'm turning towards that for a while and it seems to be going quite slowly so it'll probably a while but i'm i'm really on
i'm enthused about what a rich object of contemplation it is so just wanted to
inform you of this direction
and
the publisher of the translation will be very happy that i'm doing this
the publisher the translation of the my on some gras which is an english summary of the great vehicle
but actually nudged by briefly mentioned that the word that they translate a summary from chinese can also be translated as embraces sustain or embraced and to stand so it could also be translated as embraced by and
embracing the great vehicle through the study of these teachings of mind
thank you very much

he said his mother's house
his mother says vicki he said