When I prepare for talks, which happen about once a year, I write down my thoughts during the course of the year in this little book, and then when I'm scheduled to give a talk, I look through those notes and see if anything is still relevant or up or worthwhile to present on a Saturday. So the book is rather small, and I wanted something large to kind of back it while we were coming in. So this piece of wood was used, and this is actually the wood block that we originally used for the practice period. It says, practice period for Shippei, which is a Dharma staff, and then it says dragons and elephants, and typically the block of wood. hangs out over here on the corner, and then the shuso presents their case and fields questions from the sangha, and then they bang their staff to cut off the discussion and go to the next person.

[01:04]

So there's some dents in here from former ceremonies, and while there's no staff here today, hopefully we'll make a few dents in our presentation and meeting together. Probably work good for sushi also, actually. An ancient said, our shadow covers the ground equally. That ancient did not say, you cover the ground equally, but your shadow does.

[02:09]

I was really struck when I heard that teaching because much of our practice is centered around fulfillment and feeling inadequate and feeling less than. So this teaching is a reminder that our shadow, each one of our shadows, covers the ground equally, no more and no less than any other person. So the shadow is the expression of the person. This agent was encouraging us not to focus on this person, Tetsudo, or Ross, but the expression. All of the Buddhist teachings

[03:18]

are about suffering and dealing with our suffering. Some of the language in the literature disguises that fact, but if we study closely those words, in between the words is dealing with our suffering, our sense of disconnect, our sense of less than, our sense of better than. Whatever it happens to be that brought us through this gate, today and has sustained us in our practice. But how do we deal with our suffering? How do we deal with our discomfort that things are a little askew? So our ego imaginings undermine this ancient teaching that our expression and shadow come with a ground equally. So when you feel less equal, if you feel inadequate, if you feel that you're uncomfortable or at a dis-ease, you can rest assured that there's some taint of ego or self that's arising that's undermining your birthright.

[04:36]

The birthright to be upright, the birthright that you are a whole person. Our practice brings us back to this reality. It reminds us of what our birthright is. That we're okay just as we are. And Suzuki Roshi says we can use a little help. So here we are in this room today helping each other. A little while ago Soji Roshi was talking about the three arrogances. and that three arrogances are feeling less than others, feeling as good as others, I can do that just as good as that person, or I'm better than that person, I can do that better. So all of those three arrogance are expressions of an ego, which again undermine our sense of and experience of being equal to each other.

[05:43]

So in these opening minutes, I've talked a lot about equality and equal and okay as you are and all this sort of horizontal stuff. And the reason that I began to talk this way and that Sojo Roshi and all the lecturers here emphasize this oneness is that it's very easy for us to think about the duality of things, the division of things. It's much more challenging to see the oneness of things in the intimate nature of the interconnectedness of all things. Until we have an actual experience of that, it's based on faith. The Buddha said it, I believe it. I haven't had that experience yet, but I want to go with it. Wow, that felt really close. I feel really close to this person. Like I disappeared in their presence. Maybe that's what the Buddha's talking about. The Four Noble Truths, which is the first turning of the Dharma Wheel, the Buddha taught on Vulture Peak, are life is dukkha, there's an unsatisfactoriness to our life, things are a little askew, there's a cause to that feeling,

[07:14]

There's actually a way out of dealing with that. And that fourth one, the fourth Noble Truth is the Eightfold Path. And the first fold of the Eightfold Path, which all of the other folds follow along and are intimately connected to and rely on for an accurate understanding of each and every one of them, is Right View or Right Understanding. And right view or right understanding means, as Suzuki Roshi says, things as it is. Things before our mind arises and starts discriminating. So if we have this right understanding, if we have a taste of it, if we return to it when we've fallen off of right understanding and have misunderstanding and make mistakes,

[08:17]

we will experience something that's very close to we all cover the ground equally in our shadow or our expression of it. I said a moment ago that it's very easy for us to see the duality of things, the differences, and it's important to see the world of distinction. There's actually a wisdom, the wisdom of differentiation. So we have the myriad cultures and races and genders, colors, tastes, touch sizes of people.

[09:21]

There's father Mark holding daughter Hazel, two very different sized people, but still people. There's a oneness there. The intimacy and closeness between a parent and child. Hey, Hazel. We have a memorial stone in the memorial garden that Sojiroshi got at American Soil. And it weighs, allegedly, one ton, 2,000 pounds. And it was a project that Sojiroshi wanted to have here at our temple to memorialize the founder of the temple, Suzuki Roshi. So it was a long time coming, but the stone arrived. Diane dug a hole and dug out the plant that was there.

[10:28]

we placed some of Suzuki Roshi's geta, or little wooden sandals, and not always so, one of the books based on his lectures, and perhaps some other things that wasn't there when Suzuki Roshi put them in the box, he put in the ground. And then Troy, who had procured this winch triangle device, and a few other people, wheeled the stone from the alleyway to the back. It was a huge, huge, huge undertaking. And somehow or another, the rock was put in place. And Sojuro, she stepped back in the pathway there and was kind of looking at it. And I said, Is that the right place?" And he smiled and said, yes.

[11:33]

I said, well, it better be, because it's a lot of work to get it there. And we had a brief ceremony of installing that memorial stone. So when you are passing that stone, you're passing Suzuki Roshi. And you're also passing a rock that cost about 700 bucks for American soil. Thank you all for your dues and donations that paid for the upkeep of our temple. That was a gift from Sogyal Roshi. Thank you for your practice to support Sogyal Roshi. Salary, which paid for the stuff. So the so-called other extreme of size and financial impact is at the other end of this divider here, right in front of Jerry and Paul.

[12:40]

There's a little hook and a bulldog clip. this also was something that was a long time coming. When we have our meals here in the Zenda, we chant out meal cards and there's a little wooden box at the front of each thang and at the front there by the door and by Leslie and the cards are passed out along the back. Then anyone in the back who's sitting in a chair has to like stretch over and lower ton or a server will bring it by. So it's a little awkward, but over the years we've just gotten used to doing that and just as part of the landscape of Berkeley's N Center. So again, out of the blue, as this stone came in the back after many, many years. I guess Berkley Zen Center arrived here from Dwight Way in 1980. So that's what, 25, 35 years ago, I guess. 35 years for that stone.

[13:40]

And so Sojiro, she said, you know, we should have something for the people in chairs to retrieve a meal card so we don't have this awkward reaching. So I suggested, why don't we just put a hook back there and see how it goes? And so he said, okay, we could try that. So I went to the garage and I found a hook and I had a little bulldog clip and drilled a little hole in there and screwed it in there and I looked at it and I said, it looks like it might do the trick. So the subsequent Saturday breakfast, the cards went on there and of course there was a taint of pride that I had came up with this idea inspired by our Abbot and maybe this took care of this little problem. And it seemed to have done that. So then I began thinking about the rock and the significance of the founder of this temple, Troy, having to go down to Redwood City and get this huge contraption and five or six people, you know, manipulating this rock.

[14:46]

And the relative light task I had of just going over to the garage and getting a couple little things and drilling a hole and putting it in there. and the difference in that. And I thought, well, which is more important? Which is more significant to our practice? This memorial stone, which is really beautiful. I mean, physically, just people who come here don't know what the significance of it is. It's like, wow, that is an incredible stone. In contrast to walking by there and maybe getting your pants caught on the hook, I apologize. What's this hook dangling here? What's that about? So this is the sameness, that the shadow of this stone and the shadow of this hook and clip cover the ground equally. In the hierarchical world of world of distinction, there's a stone memorializing the founder of this temple, who came over from Japan in 1959, and is a significant reason why we all are here today.

[16:05]

And this clip, four people sitting in chairs to more easily retrieve a meal chant card so they can chant along with everyone else. So both are true. Both are true. I'm 700 and some odd dollars richer in my pocket than I have to pay out for that hook. Or poorer, actually, because I'm still working on it. So we must see the equality of things in order to recognize their individual integrity. And that doesn't go just for things, that which we handle very carefully as part of our practice, but also people.

[17:13]

it's very easy to thing people. Thinking is a term that the psychologist used many years ago during a mediation here at Zen Center when there was some discontent amongst different bodies of people. And he said that, you know, thinking someone, you know, which is basically objectifying someone, is a way to dismiss them and minimize them and puff yourself up. And that's not what we want to do here. but we do that. And if we remember that it's not so healthy or helpful to us or them, we'll stop. The image of justice is a really great example of practice. The image of justice is a woman in robes, as I recall, and she's blind, she has a blindfold. She's holding up a balance, a scale, which indicates that blindness is true seeing.

[18:25]

And if we close our eyes, we actually see more clearly. And the balance is equal. We open our eyes and we start secreting thoughts from conditioning, and then the balance starts tipping one way or another. So when we're blind, we see the essence of things and we see the essence of people. In the Heart Sutra, the very well-known and well-repeated line, no eyes, no ears, no tongue, no nose, no body, no mind. Well, we have eyes, nose, tongue, body and mind, but what is the practice of no nose, no eyes, no ears? That's the world of oneness that Avalokiteshvara is encouraging us to see.

[19:37]

Because when we see that we are no longer separate from other things, our suffering will diminish considerably. So this covering the ground equally, when we think about that, when we look around the zendo, quite naturally we think, well, I don't feel like I cover the ground equally. Look at that person over there sitting full lotus, upright, and not moving. And I'm like slumped over, I should take a posture thing going. I can't get my, Well, I can get one foot up, but I cannot get the second foot up.

[20:42]

So I can only cover the ground mostly, but not equally. And God, those people sitting in chairs, they don't have any shadow at all there. Well, that's mistaken view. That's mistaken view. And we constantly change. People who once sat in chairs sometimes move on to sitting on benches or on a cushion, one leg in front of the other, or moved up in various lotus postures. Sometimes people sitting on cushions move to chairs. It doesn't really matter, even though we see images of Buddha sitting cross-legged. And we strive for that. The reason we strive for that is that it's a very stable position. But you can achieve stability of mind sitting in a chair because it's all mind. It's all your mind.

[21:47]

So this body is going along with the mind, so what do I do with this body? Well, we have to listen to Zazen instruction in between what the person is saying to arrive at this comportment that is consistent with that image up there. And everybody is different. All the flowers in the field are different. Even though we want to pluck the pretty, upright, full lotus one as the example. But it's not right. It's a misunderstanding. So we all cover the ground equally at different times in our life. In each moment, we cover the ground equally where we're at. I used to sit half lotus for years, and I felt some discomfort in my knee, but then I'm gonna sit through this. I don't know whether I should or should not have, but as a result of that, I don't sit half lotus anymore on a regular basis.

[23:02]

So I've adjusted my physical comportment to this. Now my mental comportment started secreting a lot of busy judgmental activity about myself and others and what I should have done and all the rest of that. And then after a while, it settled out and I'm okay with this now. So how do we adjust ourselves to the conditions of our zendo that Sojourner Roshan has established here? We have to listen closely and not judge ourselves or judge others. It's okay to discern. To discern. We're conscious beings and we see the myriad expressions of life here in this room. It's good to be aware of that. It's also good to remember the singularity or the oneness of all things. Sojuroshi often talks about the three bodies of Buddha to describe our practice.

[24:16]

And the three bodies or kayas are Dharmakaya, Nirmanakaya, and Sambhogakaya. So the Dharmakaya is the essence or Buddha nature. It's a very still place. It's ineffable. is represented by a Vajracana Buddha, which is an image of a Buddha, and he got bright, of course, with a halo and like sun or energy beams, you know, light that's going out all over the universe in 10 directions. So that's the essence of life. The Nirmanakaya, is us. The nirmanakaya Buddha is in whichever moment is arising is the person or the thing that's in front of us.

[25:33]

So Siddhartha Gautama was nirmanakaya Buddha. Ross Blum is nirmanakaya Buddha. So that form or expression changes. There's all these nirmanakaya buddhas in this room now, in the form of people, the form of the makugyo and the bell, the belly mat, watch, all the things that you see. The sambhogakaya is the expression or the shadow. So there's a hand. This is a hand. So the expression of two hands clapping, this is Simbhogakaya. This is Nirmanakaya.

[26:39]

This is Dharmakaya. So as you can see, the shadow or our expression is based on the arising of nirmanakaya, in whatever form that happens to be, all coming from the same essence, or dharmakaya. So in that case, it can't be any different. We're all coming from the same thing. in seeing the difference and creating a story around that and feeling separation from the essence and the disconnect, and we feel that suffering. And when we get back on the cushion, or in the chair, or if we're just waiting in line at the Berkeley Bowl for the cash register, we can return to essence, essence of mind.

[27:56]

and thus our suffering will be turned for a moment or two. We've all had that experience. I do not doubt that. We've all had that experience of touching or experiencing the essence. And while we all want it to last forever and never go away, it does. Because one of the three marks of existence is that things change. Things are impermanent. There's a little solace in that. Because when you're going through hell, remember that things change

[28:59]

and you will return to the essence of mind and be in heaven for a moment or two. Thank you all for your quiet, attentive listening, especially Hazel. I really appreciate your listening to my talk and I hope that you were able to get something out of all this nonsense. If anyone has any questions or comments, thoughts, we have about 10 or 15 minutes or so. Please. Peter. Ross, I kept wondering as you were talking, for myself, if things as it is, or our Buddha nature is so wonderful, of grasping and pushing away and all the things that seem to be part and parcel of our suffering.

[30:10]

And I just wondered, I had an idea I wanted you to comment on, is maybe that is just, that those are really I keep going there. But anyway, can you comment on that? Yeah, thank you. So a couple of thoughts. One is, I'm reluctant to say that things as it is, the Dharmakaya is wonderful. So I think we have to remember to just leave it as it is without commenting on it.

[31:12]

Although that is what probably most of us were thinking about when we were, before we came to practice. I want to calm my mind. I hear this really wonderful thing about being still and being like a Buddha and I want to do that. So there is that carrot. When I was at, working at Pete's, I worked with people a lot younger than me, and I remember watching them and hearing their stories about how they wanted to be happy. wanted to end their suffering, although they weren't using those terms. And it reminded me of myself when I was younger. And it's rare that people who are young come to practice the saying that they haven't suffered enough. But at some point, the tricks that we try to use fail us.

[32:17]

And some people, due to their karma, will just continue living out their lives playing out those tricks and ultimately be unfulfilled. And some will realize that there's something beneath those tricks. And they find themselves doing a practice like this to uncover. It's a mystery that they're causing conditions that compel people to destroy themselves. You pick up the newspaper and you see destruction all around the world and down the street. I think there are a lot of reasons why people do that. A lot of it is to do with culture and the conditioning and family of origin. Chemistry not be able to help themselves Advertising What what are your what's his visceral thought or feeling in your in your body that You know for me.

[33:38]

It's just like I mean the other thing that I just disappear in their presence. Well, that's kind of something I do, which I don't feel very good about. It's kind of like, if I can just disappear, everything will be okay. You know, it really doesn't work very well. Right. But there's a sense of, it's risky to come forward and just be present. Really good point. Yeah, that's, so, We want to be present with people. We want to be present with the things in front of us to honor them. But we have to be careful about our presence being overbearing and diminishing the other person.

[34:42]

So when I've been in the company of people, where they disappear, they don't literally disappear, but I feel more of my essence and I feel less self-conscious. And it's just an intimate exchange between one hand to one hand. So we need to be present and we need to be conscious. Good question. Thank you. Thank you, Ross. I'm very moved by your conversation with us. You talked about being the Manakaya Buddha. Can you tell me, you took our refuges today at the Bodhisattva Serum. How do we approach taking refuge in Buddha?

[35:46]

How do you do that? To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. So, if we try to be Buddha, as I'm Nirmanakaya Buddha, and I'm going to be the Buddha, that doesn't work. So in the forgetting of the self, what are the other two kāyas. There's the essence, dharmakāya, which is ineffable, which we can't access. It's just there. It's all-pervading. And then there's the samogakāya, which is the expression. So in our Zen tradition, we emphasize mindfulness and attention moment by moment in the expression.

[36:50]

So by giving ourselves over and not holding back, moment by moment in just say yes, just do it. You touch the essence. That's the way that I understand that. But, you know, what about me? Well, you don't have to worry about me, because if, as Dogen said, you know, giving yourself over to Buddha, you will be taken care of. But, well, that's kind of hard in this day and age with family and jobs and mortgage, I mean, all the rest of that. But he's not talking about, like, You have to line up your life, we have to line up our busy, busy life, so it works for us, so we can sit still on the cushion, and then things will flow from that.

[37:53]

Most of the world has it backward, they think that they have enough money, or they have enough, the various things that the advertisers are saying that we should have, that we'll have peace of mind. So they have it completely opposite, or as we say in Buddhist terms, topsy-turvy views. Thank you. Judy. Thank you. Perhaps connecting to the questions that came previously. So in any community, it takes contribution and commitment to be able to come together and experience these forms, including sitting still. And so, you know, just like in a few minutes, we'll be asking who might be willing to wash some teacups, something as simple as that. Something that you've done for many years in many ways, visible and sometimes not so visible, that I really appreciate.

[39:01]

Well, I got paid for it. It was part of my job at Pete's. Oh, you mean here? Oh, OK. So how do you see that functioning in terms of these kayas, in terms of this question of maybe what you just said about that it flows from that still. And at the same time, there's an edge there. Because when I hear that invitation to contribute or to commit or invite it myself, sometimes there can be a nervousness, a tension, a sense of disappearing or noticing someone else, perhaps essence as you were talking about. How do you practice with that? How do you stay in relationship in that? So how do you say yes?

[40:05]

Sometimes. Uh-huh. Well, I know the feeling of not wanting to say yes. I know when I've been tired and I've done various, performed various tasks, and I would think, I'll let somebody else do that. I don't want to do that. And I think that people have very busy, busy lives and are reluctant to just say yes and let somebody else do it. Because I live here and practice here and have the good fortune of the many benefits of this proximity for myself, I feel it's incumbent upon me to give back. Part of it is my nature and the way I've been all my life. And part of it as an adult is this giving back. And when I hear stories of what Sojourner Roshi had to do in Tassajara in the early days and, you know, getting snowed in and having to make snowshoes and climb out for food and moving huge rocks and all that.

[41:17]

What the hell is washing a couple teacups for God's sake? So my mind works both ways. I'm too tired to let somebody else do it. And Which is okay. I mean, that comes up and I honor that. And the other side, the more reflective side is, what's my part in this community? We have formal positions that we are offered to fulfill from our coordinator, Leslie, and they rotate. And there are a lot of opportunities to fill in without a designated position. And one of them happens to be teacups. And it's a simple, simple task But if you wash the teacup and disappear in the teacup and feel the fulfillment of giving back to this place where you receive tea, receive nourishment, receive practice, I think when we truly see that, there'll be myriad hands.

[42:31]

being raised. And I apologize if it sounds like a judgment and people are like, maybe I should raise my hand when Ken asks for teacups. It's not that. Because we all, our shadows cover the ground equally throughout our life. So sometimes we're more generous or feeling more reciprocity, more acknowledgement of this bigger place. And sometimes we may feel a little more close, a little more protected, a little more stingy. And that's okay. It's just a state of mind that changes. But continuing to sit and to be open, to sit upright and actually feel openness and see hands raised. See, I can do that. I can do that. So it's something like that. Thank you again for your all's attention, and I look forward to practicing with you for a long time.

[43:40]

when you pass the stone out of the garden, or when you pass the hook and clip at the back of the divider, remember their place in our life of practice here. They're very significant to remembering what the Buddha taught, what Suzuki Roshi taught, and what Sojo Roshi continues to encourage us to find. Thank you.

[44:17]

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