So, I believe this is day six of Ra's decision. Is that right? Some nodding hints, yes? We're in agreement, general reality? Because I've been confused about what day it was a few times this week. I think it's a good indication of like, you are really in session. Yeah. It's been pretty powerful for me. You may recall that in Rob's Wayseeking Mind talk, he said that I advised him to do a digital detox. It was definitely a case of take my advice, I can't use it. This week I have now looked in my laptop at all.

[01:01]

That's been pretty potent. That's something for me to think about going forward. How much that and what it's like to not do that. And I want to say that it's kind of a privilege. I'm retired. I don't have kids. I could do that for a week. Set up the autoresponder. Of course, those emails are anyway. As we all know. Yeah, as I said in our last talk, I quoted Yushin Filwellin saying that Sashin could be like a very, very quiet, very smart party, little sparks of joy. all along the way. So I thought I would share a Sesshin story.

[02:03]

When, you know, I lived in Tassajara for a long time, sometimes in the summer, Linda and I did a crazy thing, which is in the summer, guest season at Tassajara, if you're a continuing monk or an all summer student, you get a six day vacation in the middle of the summer, and you can choose when you take that vacation. And three times, I came to Berkley Zen Center, and sat that five-day choose sushi. Totally nuts. And usually the director, Taza Haro, would be kind of generous. He's like, you're just such a crazy thing. You can have a little less travel time. And I've always tried to, maintain a connection with, you know, this is my heart's home, PCC, you know, my home temple. And, of course, to be with my teacher. When Baika and her friend, Baika, was Shuso, she was sitting over there, or calling me this right now, right?

[03:20]

That's historically, in your practice, the Shuso Sea. that monk as student for the practice period. And she just sits facing outward for the entire practice period. I happen to be sitting next to her, where Ben is, and warm, lazy afternoon, you hear somebody audibly snoring. Like the whole center could hear. And Baika very quietly got up from her seat, walked over there to where the kiyosaku is, picked up the kiyosaku, walked to behind me, and she... An act of love.

[04:23]

The snoring stopped. Happy Rahatsu, everybody. Happy Rahatsu. When I finish this talk, whatever happens, we're gonna go and have a wonderful day. A celebration, right? Yeah. A big celebration of Buddhist enlightenment. And it's something very worthy of celebrating. 2,500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama retreat, maybe for seven days. Who knows? And as the story goes, the morning, pre-dawn, looked up and saw the morning star and Buddhist enlightenment, something where they were celebrating.

[05:37]

I was thinking a while ago, what is it actually that we're celebrating? And I thought maybe they were celebrating the third noble truth. Cessation of suffering is possible. A message of salvation, a message of liberation. But there is a way, there is a way for us, for us, all of us, here, gathered here in this temple. I'm pretty sure that nobody in this session is like, no, I'll just talk to people, you know what I mean? I feel confident in saying everybody here is like, yeah, the Buddha way, I want to do that. Walk that path that the Buddha walked.

[06:37]

I appreciate it, Reverend Judy. enlightenment, whatever that is. How do we understand that? It really depends on who you talk to. In Zen, we talk about Kensho or Satori a lot of the time. A moment of seeing things as it is. Soja Roshi said, curtains park. They go back again. So, you know, I mean, that's real. That's a well-documented phenomenon, Kencha, Satori, and I wish that for all of us. I don't think it's a necessity, actually, to practice Buddha. Well, funny thing, I like.

[07:58]

If you are in the Huayen school of Buddhism, or in Japan, Keikan school of Buddhism, the flower ornament school, which is an entire branch of Buddha, just upholds, recites, teaches, and studies the Avatamsaka Sutra. If you remember that one, this gigantic Mahayana Sutra, That is completely psychedelic. Check it out sometime. Some people in the Huayen school would say that the Clavadana Sutra is the thought that occurred in Buddha's mind at the moment of awakening. Whoa. I like that a lot. Some religions might ask you to believe in some far-out things.

[09:01]

That's a far-out thing I could get behind, to be honest. I like that. I like that. In the... which is us, we'll talk more about this steady, enduring, practice-realization that Domain taught. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, well, Kensho and Satori are real. And if you have such an experience, you should talk to a teacher about it. I highly recommend that. And the teacher might say something like, that's great. What an encouragement for your practice. To wash your bowl. Or, you know, Are we having steel cut-ups for breakfast tomorrow? Or, you know, just, please continue. Please continue your practice.

[10:04]

Yeah. You're not done. It's not a woman done. Woo-hoo, I had a camp show. Mom's all the way now. Yeah, good luck with that. But, what Reverend Judy was talking about, Gyoji. Continuous practice. And this is realization to not separate. So, in Shogo Genso, Bandawa, teacher Dogen, says famously, and if you're going to memorize something by Dogen, this is a pretty good one. Although this inconceivable Dharma is abundant in each person. It is not actualized without practice. It is not experienced without realization.

[11:06]

So, in my estimation, that's what we're up to. We're enacting enlightenment. We are being practice realization. We are enacting Put a mind. I brought notes. Long version, short version. This is just for moral support. So, great teacher, Matsu, one of the back in the classic era, Tang Dynasty, China, Golden Age of Zen, so-called, famously said,

[12:23]

Pick up the stick to say this. This very mind is Buddha. This very mind is Buddha. Okay. Cool. Great. Problem. Right? Good. We're good. is that I've been practicing so many years and I'm still such a mess. What's up with that? Another thing you hear is, I don't know who gets credit for this one. If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. So violent. Don't like it. But I get it. annihilate the Buddha if Buddha is something separate from you.

[13:30]

Still, I think for a lot of us, this is difficult to accept. One time in Tassahara, visiting teacher Miohan Elbert, from Shasta Abbey, the advent of Shasta Abbey, who is an English woman who has what you would call a cut-glass accent, an upper-class British accent. And she gave a drama talk, and she was expressing this sentiment. She said, I'm a beastly, beastly person. I couldn't possibly have beauty of nature. After she left, I want to tell you, the rest of the practice period, we'd be walking around going, I'm a busy, busy person.

[14:41]

It's difficult to accept. Remember in chapter two of the Lotus Sutra, 5,000 disciples come. Like, uh-uh, no. Like, just, no, I'm sorry, no. We're out. They just left. Couldn't handle it. Relatable, I think. Blanche Hartman said she first came to city center, and she heard Suzuki Roshi saying, you're perfect just the way you are. He hasn't got to know me yet. I just got here.

[15:42]

I think we all do that. I think we all do that. It's difficult to accept. And I think this maybe is where the faith aspect comes in. Now, from then, at the end of Linda's last Dharma talk, he asked about faith Buddhism. And Michiren, Shimran, and Dogen, more or less contemporaries, and all three of them, were responsible for transplanting or transmitting three very important schools from China to Japan and energizing them such that those three are still really a big deal to this very day. And I am lucky enough, I know a Nichiren priest.

[16:49]

His name is Ryue Michael. Maybe some of you have met him. Maybe Scott invited him here. He taught a class on the Lotus Sutra. This is really cool. Maybe we should try to get him back. Very wonderful man. Very sweet man. I know a Gerlander priest. His name is David Brasher. Semi-famous, I think. He's written a few books. I got to know David online. Back when the internet was something with a novelty. Any of you remember dial-up monets? Some of you are like, no. It wasn't even a Buddhist chat room. It was just like a random chat room.

[17:52]

It was, hey, I'm a good as two. He's somewhere in the UK. Yeah, I wish I had saved those conversations. Several of you, I wound up inviting David to come, and Caroline, David and Caroline Brazier, to come. And he came to the city center, he came to Tassajara. I remember very fondly, David would say, bonbu. This is what, they say this a lot in Shimbudism, Pure Land, Amida, whatever you want to call it. Bonbu means foolish sentient beings, which is all of us. Linda, where are my glasses?

[19:06]

Where are they? I have looked everywhere. I'm pretty sure somebody's swiping. Yeah. Don't do. It could be comic. It could be tragic. Don't do. Foolish sentient beings. That's all. Accepting that. Acknowledging that. Be comfortable with that. Inishing Buddhism. There's two aspects to this. Bombu is the foolishness of sentient beings and also the wisdom of the person who acknowledges their own foolishness.

[20:15]

And if such a person does that thoroughly, they say, they are not separate from the Buddhas. I think this resonates very closely to Suzuki Roshi's beginner's mind. two great women Zen teachers, Reverend Linda and Reverend Judy, both spoke about falling.

[21:42]

Very inspiring. So I thought, okay. or something about folly. Or I could share a poem from the great Zen. It's a seasonal poem. I like it so much I memorized it. Are you ready? Front. Showing back. The falling maple leaf. Want to hear it again?

[22:45]

Showing front. Showing back. The falling maple leaf. See? A seasonal problem. Now, I think quite likely that most of us little old me-believes would prefer to only show front. Don't look at that part. I don't want you to see that part. I don't want to see that part. The gifts of zazen is seeing that part. Seeing all parts.

[23:46]

Staying present for whatever arises. I like it. I don't like it. It don't matter. Showing front. showing back. Just falling, tumbling through the air. So if you feel like you only want to show the front, I'm here to tell you, you have no say in the matter. You have no say in the matter. We can relax with that.

[24:51]

Another Blanche story. She started here in Brooklyn, or maybe it was over on Dwight Way, back in the day, Blanche and Lou Hartman. She said, Mel one time, Tazahara, Tazahara, I keep hearing people talk about Tazahara. What's the big deal about Tazahara? And Mel said, well, maybe it's because Tazahara, everybody can see you. So you might as well see it too. But of course, that's not what he does in our life. That's anywhere that people come together to practice together in Sangha. Showing front, showing back.

[25:55]

No problem. And I think about our beloved Abbot, Hosanna Oshin. Sozhen used to say like that a lot. He would say, I don't like it when people talk about life. There is only life which includes birth and death. Birth and death is how the Chinese decided to translate the Sanskrit word. So as you see in Shobha Genzo, birth and death is told in talking about samsara.

[27:01]

Samsara, the world we live in. a world of suffering, pain, delusion, mistakes, craziness, people hurting each other, all of it, all of it. And the great Nagarjuna, a long time ago, I think, established to everyone's satisfaction that Samsara and Nirvana are just two sides of the same coin, or two sides of the same loop. Fall out. Showing front, showing back. Just fall out. It's not separate from Buddha.

[28:29]

It's not separate from Buddha's mind, ever. We come together, we practice together, and you see glimpses and these sparks of joy. Incredibly encouraging. It keeps me at it. It keeps me coming back. So, in the wrong time? Yeah. I wasn't even going to take questions because we're just going to go right into the ceremony. Is that all I do? You know, I could take a question or so. Anyway, thank you for your attention. Thank you for your talk, Greg.

[29:41]

You're welcome. Thank you. Your talk brought up a question that has been in my mind, reminded me of a question that I had, at one point, Codron, sitting in that seat, so most of the advice happened, gave a talk and said in sort of as an aside, that there's a gradual, sudden school of Buddhism, referred to enlightenment. And he said, don't worry, we're in the sudden school. And he proceeded on. But this doesn't feel very sudden. It feels very, very gradual. I'm wondering if you can explain that. Yeah. So relatable. Yeah, and I think that this is where the faith aspect comes in. Ad infinitum, because Soja said it to me so many times, trust your practice.

[30:49]

Trust your practice. I also trust the lineage of Buddhas and their sisters, those who walk this path before us. And then, The way I see it is faith and verification. It's not blind faith. It's not the kind of faith that Mark Twain said, faith is believing in things you can't possibly be true. It's not that kind of faith. It's every step. Trust. Verification. Trust. Verification. And we just walk the path. And we walk the path together. Together. And you talk with your good friends in the Dharma.

[31:50]

Spiritual friends. And you talk to teachers. We all walk this path together. Same path as we walk by all the Buddhist ancestors. Their enlightenment is not separate from their enlightenment. And that's what's going on now. I want to say take my word for it. I have to take your word for it. You get glasses, you do. The verification comes along. You're still here. I noticed. Yes, Joel. Hi. Thanks, Greg.

[32:59]

I was reminded of this story, which I figured I'd put out there, when you were talking about your struggles with not looking at technology. My good friend Karla Enchinocho, Karla Enchinocho, in her sinful days before she became a Zen priest, was a professor, a dean at Duke University. And she told a story, which is a big-shot team friend of hers, said she went away for three months summer vacation, didn't look at any email or anything, returned, pressed the select all key. It was a lead key. Exactly. And she was still .

[34:02]

Thank you. That little delete button is your friend. Yes, Heather. Thank you, Ray. In this session, I've been really sitting with the idea of trying to really take in the idea of me as a Buddha, like beyond the intellectual. Great. Really take it in. Yes, yes. And then there's some pain that I've been working with for a number of months, and it's a little bit of a broken record. And so I've been trying to get past the skipping part.

[35:09]

And so my question is about faith, because the way I've been trying to get past the skipping part is through visualization. And I've been visualizing like a Buddha superhero. And every time the record starts to skip, do you know who Captain Underpants is? I do. Linda's hero. What the way she's studying Spanish is reading Captain Underpants in Espanol. You can talk about that. I've done that as well. So my visualization is it kind of looks like Captain Underpants, but he's wearing a t-shirt. and it says Hans Jan on it. And every time the record starts to skip, it's like Hans Jan! I'm someone who likes humor to break the habit, but every now and then I think, oh, that's a good tool.

[36:18]

And I think, oh no, you're just avoiding something. Could be. My question is about faith development, and in this case it's visualization, but I'd like some more faith, so how do I get that? Well, I think it's, I wanna just go back to what I said to Dan. None of it happens all at once. Pasito, pasito, baby steps. Faith verification. It's a wonderful visualization practice. Yeah, coming to the rescue, you know.

[37:20]

And I would add that the skipping You may not like it. This is the ground of enlightenment. This is where Captain Underpants is rising from. So, yeah, maybe don't try too hard. Because Difficult to accept. There's a Buddha mind too. Samsara, Nirvana, two signs. It's just, you know, if you grasp it, I'm not just kidding. I don't want that. That's samsara. If you don't, that's Nirvana. Okay. It's just the activity of my mind right now.

[38:26]

Okay. I'm afflicted. I'm afflicted. Sometimes Linda and I are really good about keeping silence during Sashim. This is not that Sashim. Yeah, I was pretty afflicted this morning. Myself. What's going on? Feeling pretty strong. I don't think I should try to get past that. I think I best feel it completely. I trust this too is the ground of awakening.

[39:33]

There is great teaching here. All right, Carol, it's 1105. It would be good to conclude. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining together in enacting the awakening of the Book of Mind in alms. Beings are numberless. I want to awaken with them. Delusions are exhaustible, I vow to end them.

[40:23]

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