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Synchronicity, Serendipity and Suchness

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The talk argues that synchronicity and serendipity can disclose interdependence when experience is received without imposing conceptual narratives. Through Dōgen’s Bendōwa and Genjōkōan, it connects suchness with jijuyū-zanmai, the simultaneous practice and realization of awakening, and frames “dropping body and mind” as releasing conceptual fixation rather than neglecting embodied experience; insight is tested through its consequences in action.

Texts and works referenced
- Bendōwa — Dōgen. Presents zazen as the Dharma gate to awakening, describes jijuyū-zanmai, and depicts sentient and insentient beings as mutually participating in realization.
- Genjōkōan — Dōgen. The teaching that carrying the self forward to illuminate things is delusion, while things coming forth to illuminate the self is awakening supports the talk’s account of nonconceptual awareness.
- Just This Is It: Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness — Dan Leighton. A recommended reading that prompts the talk’s focus on Dongshan and the practice of suchness.
- The Flower Ornament Sutra — Author not specified. Identified as a source tracing the roots of silent illumination practice.
- The Jewel Mirror Samadhi — Author not specified. Referenced as a text linking the discussion of practice with harmony and difference.
- “The Serenity Prayer” — Author not specified. Raised in the discussion as a formulation of discernment between what can and cannot be changed.

AI Suggested Title: When Things Illuminate the Self

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Transcript:

Unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma. It is rarely met with, even in a hundred million kalabas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. I see a lot of new faces. I can't hear you. Is that better? Yeah. Yes, I see a lot of new faces and also old friends. So that's always nice. I hope you've been very well welcomed so far. So this is going to be an unusual talk for me, that's the warning.

[01:19]

So the name of the talk that I will be giving is called Suchness and Synchronicity. Or, a funny thing happened, getting ready to go to Tossahawk. So I was, I am going to be going with Mary Dorie, we're meeting a group, a study group to Tassajara in September. And I was thinking, what shall I talk about? And my thoughts went to, well, last year, we talked about Ham Shur and Silent Elimination, a book a book by Dan Leighton. He traced back the roots of Hanakshir's practice back to the Flower Ornament Sutra and up through the Jewel Mirror Samadhi and the harmony and difference.

[02:35]

And I thought, well, you know, we'll keep while we're on a roll. Maybe I'll do the Jewel Meri Samadhi. So a week or so after I had that thought, an email from San Francisco Zen Center that said that Fu Schroeder, who was a long time priest at both San Francisco Zen Center and Green Gulch, and who's the student of Rev. Andrew, who is a well-known Zen teacher and former abbot of both of those places. And Rev was my first teacher, the teacher really who inspired me to enter the path of Zen and really got me well-founded on it. So I thought, and she's going to talk about the Giyo Omero Samadhi.

[03:41]

So, oh. Wow, and she's going to be giving me four classes on the junior or somebody. Exactly those four days that I have to teach at Tassajara. And I thought, well, thank you for doing the work and background and getting the materials together for my talk. And so I signed up and and I looked at her of recommended readings, and one of them, one of them was called Just This Is It, Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness. I thought, that's interesting, I wonder what that's about, and so the next email, and it said that Dan Lane was coming from, was teaching from Chicago

[04:46]

a class on suchness. And just this is it. And I thought, well, that's interesting. I guess I'll go to that too. And on the night, and so I thought, whoa, I don't have to do anything. I'm just going to go to these classes. It's going to be great. And then I On the night of dance class, I wanted to run upstairs, I was on my laptop to be at the class, and I'm gonna run upstairs and get a notebook so I can take notes. And I have a shelf, or two shelves, of notebooks, or journals, poetry, and things that, for me, that I had written in. classes that I'd gone to.

[05:47]

So it could have been any one of those books that I picked. And then I originally started from the forward front because that's where I had other reading. But I took a look at the front of the book just Randomly, I just said, I wonder what's in here. Five verses that I had written in 2002 and 2004 on suchness. And other materials that related to that. So I was kind of, I remembered, Where I had written these poems, and it was in Scotland on the island of Iona, where I was doing retreats.

[06:58]

I preached there because they had a retreat house. And they were Christian-based, it was a retreat house run by Fintorn, which is a commune which was started by religious people in the 60s and 70s. and 80s, it was very, very popular site for people. So I was in a searching mode apparently in those years. And I was searching and sitting there and wondering about suchness. And it doesn't, I wish I could say that was all, but then I remember that when I was sitting on the cliffs, overlooking the ocean, I was sitting and doing zazen. And I was practicing suchness.

[08:03]

And what came into my awareness was this zendo. and I could see people sitting in it. I was there. You were there, Gary. And Sojin was there. And I felt completely, you know, present in that. I felt present in the words of where I was and the Sangha. And when I, so I stopped, I did my 40 minute period and I checked my watch and I calculated that there was a nine hour difference in time between where I was in Scotland and Berkeley. And it actually was 5.30 a.m.

[09:13]

in Berkeley. I was sitting with the sauna in Berkeley. Totally, any knowledge of intending to sit in this. So, what are these experiences? And when they come like this, and I've had other times in my life when I'm getting a message, or I'm getting messages, and the messages are coming through some experience sitting, or hearing another talk, whatever, and it seems like they're not connected, but how could they be connected? And how could those things, those events, come within a one month period? I certainly had nothing to do with the selections of the classes in San Francisco Cincinnati. I could have selected one of 30 notebooks to pick up.

[10:20]

It happened to be where I picked it up. So I thought about synchronicity. Carl Jung first described synchronicity and defined it. Jungian analyst, right? He's a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a student of Freud, and he coined the term for these experiences. Coincidence, he called it, they were coincidences. He called it synchronicity. He defined synchronicity of the inner and the outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect, yet holds significant meaning for the observer. Another way of expressing this is coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events such as some widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms or causality.

[11:31]

But I thought, well, some of these felt like that, but then I thought, what about synchronicity? I mean, no, serendipity. Well, serendipity is the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not looked for. Also, good luck in making unexpected and unfortunate discoveries. I said, well, that's certainly what I've been. Years ago, I talked to Sojin about my experience sitting in Iona. with the Sangha, and I asked him what he thought about synchronicity. And he said, there is no such thing as synchronicity or accidental coincidence. Even though we can't see the karmic circumstances there at play, he often told us that sitting zazen made us accident prone, prone to awakening. And when we enter deep samadhi,

[12:33]

and impermanence and interrelatedness of everything, then we can see, sometimes we can see the connections, the connections in our lives that we thought were separate but are interconnected. So these are happening. You could be, It seems like there's nothing, but if you can imagine if you really sit with it, there's some resonance that happens. What's that resonance? I always think of waking up as magic. I used to think of them as magic when I was a kid. Synchronicity and serendipity have, for me, And I think for other people, it happens, it happens.

[13:36]

You meet somebody that sits on an airplane, and it could have been anyone in the world, and it turns out it's another Zen practitioner who's from San Francisco or something. You know, how does that happen? So it is the world, the world is not making it easy. I mean, the universe is, the universe and its magnificence, and its and it's all inclusiveness is constantly in a rising ceasing state with all sorts of resonance that go out. And our voices, the air bubbles go floating all around, the sound of our voice. One word we might say influences another person years later. So there are these things that we think are just accidents, but so do you say they're really not.

[14:43]

There's something in our interaction with the world that makes us accident-prone, and makes us prone to see these things. Or even, maybe I was looking for things about, looking, but I, I don't think so. It just felt like it was completely unexplained. So I had a poem that I wrote when I was sitting on the hill and sitting with the saga. I was drawn to climb the metal fence. I climbed to the top of the hill. This is passing the hill of angels. I was drawn to climb the metal fence. I climbed to the top of the hill. and sat cross-legged at the top, pondering, just this one is. In black robes sitting with me, I sat with the intention of opening my heart.

[15:47]

As I leaned from side to side, finding my center, I sensed my teacher in the same act. The Zendo appeared, dimly lit and silent, people I knew sitting facing the wall. I wondered at the vividness of this, were they all really there? I looked at my watch, it said 147. In the Berkeley Zendo, it was 547. Morning Zazen had begun. I was indeed sitting with my sangha. I could see a cushion between two figures inside myself. All encompassed all of this, and I encompassed all of it. So this was... an experience of just having this and finding out the time of it, but there's no thought, there's just an experience, there's just a visual, auditory, almost tactile experience of some reality.

[16:58]

view of reality. So Dogen, in his first fascicle, the Shobogenza of the Bendowa, I'm going to switch here, because of talking about this kind of meditation. And the meditation that I was what I was taught to call Jijinyusamayi. This was the name that we talked about a lot here. We don't talk about it as much anymore. Sojin talked about it a lot. Ji-ju means receive and you means use. So the term can be defined as self-receiving and fulfilling. And then zanmai, it's called ji-ju-yu zanmai. Zanmai, where the Sanskrit word samadhi. both the activity of meditation and the absorbed state of mind of a meditating person.

[18:05]

So he calls it self-receiving and fulfilling samadhi. Self-receiving means that we don't have to rely on others or the conditions of society. So Dogen starts with his first fascicle in the shogul genzo with telling us that practicing zazen is the Dharma gate for realizing Anyuttara samyak sambodi, defined as unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Anuttara samyak sambodi a lot more in the past too. So unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. Okamura, Shehabo Okamura explains this as, we can practice using our own family treasure Only body and mind, that's all we need. These five skandhas are the family treasure. In order to practice this zazen as jijuyuzamai, what we need is only this body, nothing else.

[19:13]

Even in a degenerate world, if we all practice enlightenment, practice enlightenment. Yet Dogen also says, From the time you begin practicing with a teacher, the practices of incense, burning, bowing, namudzu, which is chanting, the name of Buddha, the sutras are not all essential. Just sit, dropping, body and mind. And this, this just, dropping off body, don't concentrate on these things in our life, which we're doing. We're doing this. And Dogen, when he went to Japan, we know, I mean, India, we know that he was looking if we're all enlightened.

[20:25]

then why are we practicing? And so this Vendawa is his first look at that. If we're already enlightened, if all we need is our body. So on the one hand, he's saying, practice using your body and your mind, and your body and your mind is your teacher, is your family. And then he says, those are not essential. He says, all these things practicing with a teacher, incense burning, bowing, repentance, reading sutras are not at all essential. Still dropping, still just sit, dropping off body and mind. So it's always interesting to me because you're being told to drop off body and mind. You're being told to study and pay attention to mind and use your mind.

[21:30]

And then you're supposed to drop it. How does this work? Because Sogen and Sogen always gave us challenges by giving us one way to look at it. We should practice and study and do all these things and read and whatever. And then they also gave us the other drop, let it all go away. So I was thinking about Dongshan and his Dongshan, or Tozan Yokai, who was one of our earlier ancestors. I was thinking about his story. Maybe if I go back there. So one day, the story that the, abbreviated story is one day Dongshan was lost in thought and his teacher, Jung-Yong, said, you are now in charge of this great matter.

[22:36]

You must be most thoroughgoing. Dongshan departed without further comment. Later, when he waded across the stream, he looked down, saw his reflection, and he awakened to the meaning of the previous exchange. And he then wrote the following verse. Just don't seek from others, or you'll be far away from yourself. I go on alone, everywhere I meet. It is now me. I now am not it. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness in the state of Jijusamai. So, in this, in this, in this verse, he's, and the way we can read it is, there is an object in your vision. The mirror image in the water comes to you and reveals itself in your opening to including.

[23:38]

If you come forth as you, with all your conditioning and identity and impose your vision on it, if you're treating it as separate from yourself, a creation of light and water, you won't see, you won't see the real, the real vision in the water. You're seeing your creation, your creation of a vision. So, he is saying, It now is me. So he's recognizing this oneness of this vision. Now is me. In fact, I'm not it.

[24:42]

And this is a koan, so maybe some of the other things I say will make more sense of it. But it basically is looking at going forth in the world, and I think I'm going to say something later. looking at things, and telling stories about them, and seeing them, and judging them, and creating them with your own conditioning. You're not really, you're just seeing something separate puts away, as opposed to letting yourself be aware, letting the experiences, letting the sounds, letting the words, letting the sights, enter your awareness and emerge with your awareness rather than separate. So that's really the idea. So, you know, I asked the question, how can Dogen

[25:58]

We need our own body and mind, and then in the next paragraph say, drop these. So how can we remain in our body, conscious of our skandhas, conscious of the world around us, and at the same time drop it all? He doesn't explicate this in the Benda Wabba. In later teaching, distinguishes between bare awareness, which is awareness without naming and identifying and conceptual thinking. where we name, distinguish, concoct, detailed, and extensive stories of beliefs. Dogen later says, as if he were there is a path through which the unsurpassed complete enlightenment of all things returns to the person in Zazen. That person and the enlightenment of all things intimately and imperceptibly assist each other. Therefore, this Zazen drops off body and mind, cuts away previous tainted views and thoughts, awakens genuine Buddha Dharma universally.

[27:08]

Dogon says, when one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this samadhi, even for a short time, all living beings of the Dharma world in the 10 directions and six realms become clear and pure in body and mind. realize great emancipation in their own original face. So this points us to the creation of reality. We sit in this state of samadhi. We are doing something. We are creating karma by our sitting. And the state of samadhi we attain through sitting, which as I say is our action, where our world arises in its original form and manifest of ultimate reality. So, is ultimate reality this explosion?

[28:15]

Oh, I, you know, do I have to have this explosion of experience, this being here dropping body and mind? Or as I was doing Kenyan and walking and Zaza and mine through the paths, the flowers arise. There's bright, a bright yellow flower. There's purple little flowers. There's ferns. There's different kinds of ferns. whole world that you're walking through. If you see it, if you let it in, if it's part of your reality, then every step can be like that. But that's not going to be because we're human beings and we have our egos and we have our life to live in, whatever.

[29:23]

But this is the idea that you can be in this state. This state is something that We're taught to take your zazen outside. It's not just some magical thing that happens. It happens. It happens whenever you open your eyes to see it. So Dogen says, another aspect of this is Dogen reminds us in the Bendawa, that both sentient and non-sentient beings are participating in awakening. He writes at this time, all things in every direction in the universe would work. So everyone receives the benefit of wind and water caused by this functioning and all are imperceptibly helped by the wondrous and incomprehensible influence of Buddha.

[30:31]

to actualize the enlightenment at hand. The grass, the trees, the earth affected by this function, great brilliance and endlessly expound the deep and wondrous Dharma. Grasses, trees, fences, and walls demonstrate and exalted the sake of living beings. But ordinary and sage in turn, living beings both ordinary and sage express the sake of grasses and trees, fences and walls. And this is Dogen's, even in his first fascicle, he wanted us to recognize and include in sentient beings with us. It was not just about us people, it was always about including the entire universe, whatever phenomena it brings us. But Dogen also cautions us, however, these various mutual influences do not mix into the perceptions of .

[31:40]

Because they take place within stillness without any fabrication. And they are enlightenment itself. So this is what I was talking about with the water, water image. If we take the perceptions and go with the perceptions to our storehouse consciousness and begin remembering and begin placing it and begin conceptualizing it. We don't, we don't see it. We lose sight of what's really there. It's not there anymore. It's your telling about what kind of flower you see and when they grow and maybe you should buy some to plant in your yard. It's everything. but just being present, being one with that flower for that second millisecond that you pass it.

[32:44]

So Dogen cautions us, however, these various mutual influences do not mix, again, I'm saying the same thing, do not mix into the perceptions of this person sitting. take place within stillness, without fabrication, and they are enlightened itself. If practice and enlightenment were separate, as people commonly believe, it would be possible for them to perceive each other. But that which is associated with perceptions cannot be the standard of enlightenment because deluded human sentiment cannot reach the standard of enlightenment. So this reminds me of the line in the Genjo Koan, To carry the self forward and illuminate myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and illuminate self is a moment. In Bendawa, Dogen says, the grasses, trees, and earth, affected by this functioning, together radiate great brilliance and endlessly expound the deep wonder storm.

[33:51]

Grasses and trees, fences and walls, demonstrated, exalted for the sake of all beings, both ordinary and sage. so that we hear it twice. In turn, living beings, both ordinary and sage, express and unfold and fold it for the sake of grasses and trees, fence and walls. So I also found in that book that I had pulled out, observing the ocean on a promontory reaching towards Iona Abbey, brilliant sparks emerge from the ocean's death as though coming from a fiery core. Vulcan's fireworks, celebrating the holiness of this place, vibrating waves below the waves, drawing, drawing with tremendous magnetic force, enough to unbalance a human form that ventures to know its root. Surges of energy come from the earth, rocking, rocking the body of a living pilgrim, the sensation of a blessing from an ancient black rope priest.

[34:58]

So these descriptions are pointing to this thusness or suchness that one can experience in awakening to the state of emptiness. In other words, if we give things form, if we let everything go in our GGUs online, we let everything go, all our visions, everything. that things, what we see is the emptiness of those things. We see the rising and ceasing, the no self. So we see that. And so, if that's what, and what we see is what Dogen calls, It's ultimate reality, the ultimate way things appear to us.

[36:09]

The way that they really are. Apart from any name, they're not. They're just, there's something going on in our awareness. There's something we open to. Some people think of it, you know, when we think about emptiness or when we practice somebody that there's nothing there. We can go into the delusion that there's nothing. There's a voidness, right? There's one way to talk about it. It's void. But instead of... if we think of Shunyata as experiencing the insubstantiality of all persons and entities, understood as empty of inherent or substantive.

[37:19]

Sajnism includes this, but also includes that understanding that things are empty because of their interdependence as each particular event is the elaborate product of the dependent causation of many conditions, which we call dependent co-arising. He adds such thing as suchness. We're supposed to aim for it, but there is no such thing as suchness. It's not a noun. It's a way that things are experienced. Suchness is not something to acquire. and emptiness is. And from a Buddhist perspective, ultimately, in reality, all things are not things, are not substantially and inherently existent objects. All words and objects are adverbs. They're descriptions. They're impermanent descriptions.

[38:25]

But how do I know if this world of emptiness, then how do I know what to do? We're told that intuitively, once you understand intuitively, you'll know what to do. You'll take the right next step. You'll take the right action. You'll do the right thing. You'll do the compassionate, wholesome thing. How do we know, though? How do we know that it's compassionate? How do we know that we intuit that this is the way? I often felt that I, Sojin often talked about it too, and he using his intuition. So one time I asked Sojin when I was discussing my experiences of insight and wondering about the phrase intuitive knowing what to do. Why, how do we know? How do we see or understand or intuit in Zazen?

[39:28]

And how do we know if that, what we see intuitively, what, oh, I get it, you know, the I get it type of experience, or quiet, I know what I need to do here. How do I know if it's true? I think it's true I'm in my state of somebody, it's come up, I'm open to whatever. So Sojin said, when I asked him, that that's right. How can I trust my sitting, my samadhi? And he said, just watch what happens after you do it. So he's saying, you know, accept but verify, right? Because we are, we can't, we're always suffering from delusion within delusion. How do we know? It seems so great, I put together this whole thing in my mind.

[40:31]

It's such a wonderful thing I'm gonna do. And a lot of it is delusion. Again, making up and conceptualizing what we're gonna do, rather than take the next step. So this is not, I don't have any answers for any of this, by the way. The way that Akamara response to this practice and verification. I couldn't believe that he talked about the practice and verification as Sonia did. R1, he says practice and verification, again, practice and verification, R1. This means if we use our family treasure, that is the five skandhas, body and mind, and practice this Jiju Yuzan Mai, with this realization With this practice, verification is already there. Practice and verification, enlightenment and realization are not something we may attain at some time in the future.

[41:37]

Long and hard practice. We don't have any guarantees. We don't have any guarantees. Of course, our practice may be hard or difficult for many reasons. Still, if we practice, verification is there. For Dogen, it only depends on whether we arouse bodhicitta, the aspiration to awaken together in practice or not. I always think of my practice of Zen as a big question mark. I'm reading, I'm studying, I'm trying to trust but verify, I'm trying to be awake, I'm trying to be awake. How does that answer Dogen's question, which he was answering, that how can everybody be enlightened and then you still have to practice?

[42:53]

so uh we have an inherent ability our awareness in our body and our skandhas we've got a brain and we've got things coming at us and we have the opportunity so we have this we are made of this and this happens but we're not making and we don't make a thing of it we're practicing and we're And we're looking at our skandhas. We're hearing from our skandhas. We're hearing from our conceptual thinking. We're hearing from all of this. But we don't objectify. These are adverbs and adjectives and verbs. They're ways of pointing to something that can't be spoken. So what is, what is it we do?

[44:01]

Ah, gee juniors are mine. Nothing. We do nothing. We do nothing. But we are the experience, and everything around us, and having that experience. I kind of imagined that that little yellow flower was quite happy that I smiled at it. That I thought that we take care of it. It's part of our saga, as much as anything is. So I will finish. with one of the other poems for the stanzas that I wrote on that. I'm looking for this just, this is it.

[45:04]

Sitting in a sanctuary on the island of Iona, I'm close to this understanding. It feels that I'm on a stronger foundation. There's a place inside me that's whole, whole, complete as it is. And this is not just enough. but everything. What more can there be dwelling in this place of no place, in the body of nobody? Drinking in this light, this air, this earth, this green grass, this sea, all living creatures. So just Let's just be quite a minute to give people a chance to think about it, share their experience of this. How do we do the true practices then?

[46:07]

Can everyone hear me? I'll go next, because that's what people often say in Al-Anon. Okay, I'll go next, because there's this silence nobody wants to share. And I don't think that's a coincidence, the naming Al-Anon. What was coming up for me towards what you were sharing was, that this is intimacy. What is it to be intimate? And furthermore, what naturally emerges from intimacy that's actually caring, because we were talking about take care, and that the taking care of includes as far as one can experience.

[47:37]

And a lot of what I experience is the serenity prayer. The serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference. Well, that's that intuiting. or the flower coming towards me. So my question is, in Zazen, when I feel that tension or churning of that kind of a thing, that I can make something happen, I'm feeling a real tightness. I'm uncomfortable in my skin. How can I be intimate that includes everything?

[48:55]

So you're talking about including things that may be uncomfortable and challenging. And particularly that whether I'm conscious of it or not, I, there's, somewhere in there, there's this, I don't know what to call it, an upside down view that I can make something happen. Well, I think the practice of which I spoke is having that be there and having it be something you get to be familiar with, just like you're familiar with everything else that we encounter.

[49:57]

Seeing it, it's just like giving it your attention, not your verbal attention, not your storytelling attention, just your, it's okay to be there, and I'm giving it my full attention. So receiving that's going on whenever we encounter something else or some insentient or sentient thing. So it's that, Recognizing, of course, not when we say drop body and mind, and maybe that's what you're getting at. It sounds like we're saying drop body and mind meaning that you're not paying attention to your body. And yet we always tell people, do Zazen instruction when you're sitting Zazen, pay attention to your body. How do you be with your body without

[51:04]

the body becoming a thing, recognizing that the body is not a thing. The body is empty of all existence, of all separateness. So if you just want to talk about your own experiences, it doesn't have to be a question. Philip Sherrard has his hand. Okay, Philip, hi. Oh, you're muted, Philip. Okay. Gotcha. It was difficult to follow, but I appreciated the parts that I was able to grasp.

[52:10]

And I wanted to ask you to please, please read your last poem. It was beautiful. And I'd like to hear it again. Okay. Thank you. Sitting in a sanctuary on the island of Iona, I'm close to this understanding. It feels that I am on a stronger foundation. There is a place inside me, complete. as it is, this is all there is, and this is not just enough, but everything. What more can there be, dwelling in this place of no place, in the body of nobody, drinking in this life, this earth, this green grass, this sea, all living creatures. Thank you. So that really describes it that you're there, right?

[53:13]

You're there, but you're... And there's a feeling of union and wholeness and oneness with where you are, what's happening right now. It's not just... The one thing is the one of many things that are happening to you right now, actually. Think about it. There's all sorts of biological things happening to you. There are things happening to you. So having that idea, that kind of mind of letting off of everything It can't be everything, but it can be the arising and ceasing and flowing.

[54:26]

And our physical sensations are certainly, they're not a thing. They're a passing thing that has to do with something else that has to do with something else that has to do. All of our things have their causes the conditions that brought them up at that particular time. We know that. And sometimes you have to, for example, if you're ill, recognize that, oh, I think I ate something like . You did do it, right? And so we have to take action when we recognize that we have, there is something in us, in our bodies. It has to be attended to. So it's not dropping body and mind so that you don't... It's dropping the conceptual part of it.

[55:27]

The synchronicity of everything that happened is just mind-numbing. I would just be speechless to go on with the synchronicity. that you were looking forward finding it coming back to yourself yeah yeah thank you magnificent world you know in its way yes and awful Yeah?

[56:31]

Oh, but we're late, but where were the hands? Gary? No? Are we taking more questions? I guess so, because apparently I didn't see. Apparently I didn't see that there were hands. Uh, you know, I always have trouble. You have to put it, like, straight. That's impossible. Your synchronicity idea made me think of a story I just read about

[57:36]

You may have heard this before, but there's a bunch of squashes in the garden, and they're arguing with each other. And the Zen master comes up and says, stop that arguing. And the squashes come down, it stops him. And then, When they're done, they're much more peaceful and one of the squashes puts his hand up and touches the top of his head and feels something connected there. And that's the kind of story where we're all really connected through some sort of step. I tried. Well, it's as good as anything, right? If you start, if you look at interconnectedness, in the garden there's all these giant squashes in our garden.

[58:46]

And I wonder how they get along, you know? Because some of them are really big, they're really crowding out the other ones. They're having an effect on each other, whether they say it or not, they express it in turning brown. That's good for a closer. Beats are numberless. I am bound to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. are boundless I am out to enter them Buddha's way is unsurpassable I am out to become it beings are numberless I am out to awaken with them delusions are inexhaustible I am out to enter

[60:10]

I am. Confident. not in our one-day city this morning, please come again another time.

[62:02]

The rest of us will do outdoor kinhen.

[62:05]

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