and perfect. It is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of Tatakata's words. Good morning. Good morning. Wonderful to see so many of you this morning and I see some new faces. Would you just put your hand up if you're here for the first time? Wonderful. Welcome. My name is Linda and I practiced years ago and I've been back through the past year and will continue indefinitely. I'm practicing more or less indefinitely because I've been invited to be the next abbot.

[01:30]

This is the first talk that I'm giving since I've been invited to be the next abbot. The newsletter article came out, so it shared many of my feelings. For those of you who haven't read it yet, The one thing I wanted to say is that the feeling of gratitude for your trust and support is just, it's really humbling. It's just, yeah, it's a little overwhelming sometimes. And I'm so grateful for the many things that I get to do and asked to do in this role because it keeps me very grounded just in the day-to-day of moving forward together. Thank you all so much. So when I read a couple of things, I had a talk going one very distinct direction and in the last couple of days it decided that it wanted to do something else.

[02:55]

We'll see how this all fits together. Like where to start, because I could start from any one of a number of places. But I'll start with this. When I read the position description for Abbott, I was surprised at what a good match it was in many ways. I was like, that's kind of weird. And then I... I reflected on the 20 plus years that I spent training at San Francisco Zen Center in particular. And I thought, you know, I'd always heard that it was really good training, but nobody seemed to know how to talk about it as training. Like people were very confused, like what is Zen training? Or like, this is just work or whatever. But it is the... to lead a temple.

[03:57]

It's just amazing. The range of roles that I've had over 20 years, from being just on general labor when I first arrived, which, you know, after you've been there for a while, you realize what a gift it is. And the work leader says, would you please go clean the bathroom? So simple. You don't need to think about anything. And gradually you get rules that involve some thinking and some feedback. Anyway, it's a different form of practice. And I think I appreciated all of them, but there are many aspects of practice that have, and training, that have become clear to me only since stepping out of that container as I think to have the space to reflect when you're not right in it.

[04:57]

And Sojan Roshi was always happy that Greg and I were there. He's like, it's good that you're there. I know exactly where you are and what you're doing every hour of the day. And he loved Tassahara a lot. And he also loved that we were taken care of San Francisco Zen Center, taking care of the temple, making sure that it continued to be a resource and a refuge and a place for times to come. And that was a form of his expression of gratitude to his teacher, Suzuki Roshi, who had founded San Francisco Zen Center because he wanted to bring Zen to the West. So he felt like that was part of his responsibility. He was here, but he also became co-abbit of San Francisco Sun Center at a difficult time.

[06:06]

So he was both for some years. So when we were asked to come back to Berkeley Sun Center, one year ago, it's like one year almost to the day, we arrived on August 31st. last year. It was an easy, yes, of course, we'll come to our home temple. And we were just at Tassajara again a week ago. We just got back on Monday. And again, it was a wonderful funeral in the Valley. And partly because of some of the people that I was talking to when I was there, I was reflecting on What made it such a particularly wonderful feeling this summer? Some of the previous summers, especially since the pandemic, have been challenging. Not so many people coming back after the pandemic and doing a different model and a lot of stretching in a lot of ways.

[07:15]

And part of it, part of it was that they shifted their whole model and that seems to be working really well this summer. It took a while to find that. And it reminded me again that it, and this is one of my time at Tassajara in particular, it's not going to feel easier right from the beginning if you're making changes. It's probably going to be uncomfortable. And that's okay. And it can smooth out. But learning to not freak out Things are uncomfortable or bumpy or not the way you wanted or not the way you'd expected or you might be more or less okay but other people are having difficult experiences and to find some trust in a larger container because you've gone through many cycles of apparent chaos over and over again because we shift roles

[08:23]

pretty much everyone together a couple times a year. So everyone's in a new role and it's just like, yeah, that's what it means. That's okay. And I think all, pretty much all organizations, all Zen centers are going through some times of change and flux for various reasons. And damn it. Whatever. To keep coming back to that fundamental trust in the practice place and people has been really nourishing for me and really supports me. I was thinking about not just Zen practice, which I think is a lot of what people think about when they come here.

[09:30]

It's like Zazen. Zazen is Zen practice. Zen training, and what's the difference between Zen practice and Zen training? Or is there any difference? I think in terms of practice, maybe not. But when we think about Zen practice, I think our thoughts go to Zazen. When we think about Zen training, it's like, well, what's that? Because practice is how we approach everything. And the training is, I mean, you could say that it is everything. It's not just sitting on the cushion. It's serving and washing dishes and taking care of the garden. giving and receiving feedback and learning how to bow and learning how to do all the forms. And I think part of the training is that we voluntarily place ourselves in a position where the fundamental practice, whenever possible, is to just say, yes, I accept.

[10:42]

I will. Yes, I will. In Japanese, the word hai is yes, and basically it's like, hi, I will. Will you please chop three gallons of carrots? Hi. Will you please do whatever? Hi. And then, in a way, and that seems challenging. It is challenging. But then, as you go along, you realize that there's another side, which is more challenging, if you're really all in. then you have to learn when to say no. And that can be difficult if you're a person who likes to say yes, and you're like yes, I'm wholehearted about practice, but now there's too much because I keep saying yes. So now how do I balance? So all of these things, it's not one or the other, but it's how we approach each moment fresh, and yet with all of the practices and resources,

[11:46]

that we have developed over time, but not getting stuck on anything. I'm curious about what Suzuki Roshi had to say in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. And I was also maybe curious to see if Sojin had written anything, as he likes to do in his books. So I went in the Abbott's office and he has a lovely friend. very well-worn and loved of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. And before I got really into it at all, I opened it up and there was, this might have been lecture notes that he wrote. So I just wanted to share something with this. The heading is Four Aspects of Practice. And above aspects it says opportunities. So four opportunities for practice. And they are zazen, dokasan, work, and study.

[12:52]

And next to each one where it says like zazen, it says my experience. And then dokasan, my experience. Work, my experience. Study, my experience. And then various other topics under that. And my first thought was like... So he's starting with his experience. It sounds a little self-centered, my experience. I thought, well, that's really what we have. Fundamentally, that's what we have, is our own experience. We don't have someone else's experience. How is it for us? And that's what we base things on. And it's not about elevating self or identity or saying that it doesn't exist or shouldn't exist. We all have a self. We all have a self composed of many, many aspects.

[13:58]

And if you just say, I let that all go, then we're neither relating so skillfully with ourselves or with others because then we can't realize that our experience is different from theirs and their experience is different from ours. And that's really important to be aware of, especially if you're in this seat, but for everyone. For everyone. When we take We take the rupa, we do what's called confession and repentance, you know, we say, all my ancient twisted karma, I now fully avow. This avow is to be posture in the midst of our own karmic conditioning.

[15:02]

yeah, this is who I am in this moment, this is who I've been in my life, and to turn 12 and not get stuck on it. So that's quite a practice right there, to not grab onto it and to not push it away, to not think we shouldn't be here. But this is the basic practice that we do with everything, so of course we're doing it with ourselves as well as with others. And the more that we can do this, we can find freedom with ourselves and within ourselves and freedom in the world. Because we're becoming increasingly less reactive to whatever arises. Within our own experience, our emotions, our thoughts, our feelings and stuff.

[16:08]

Oh, there are some interesting thoughts which are leading to excitement, or disappointment, or whatever it is. It's like, oh, there's that. Hello, again. Have some warmth and gentleness. To not try to get rid of it, but not hold on. That freedom. It's basically all about our own experience because even if it's happening outside of us, it's happening inside of us. Whatever response we're having is happening inside of us even though a person or whatever it is is happening apparently somewhere else. But we know about it in here. So this freedom In times when many freedoms are being undermined, this is the freedom that cannot be taken away.

[17:17]

And it's also hard to maintain. It's a big challenge to maintain that kind of freedom. Because again, it takes some doing, it takes some effort, some turning toward, and it also takes Yeah, big challenges and I was going to say big rewards, and I'm like, there's a better word here. It's the fruits of practice. This is the fruit of practice, is finding these touchstones of freedom, these touchstones of being. This is really what Zen Training is about, is setting up situations, various forms, Zazen, Dokusan, meeting with the teacher, work, and study.

[18:30]

These are all opportunities to see oneself, to see others. to be present. And they're all different ways that we can explore that. Because there isn't just one. It's not just to be good at zazen and finding complete freedom from zazen, but being trapped every time you get up from the cushion. It's like, how do we extend zazen mind throughout our life? And beyond that, how do we share that with others? Equanimity in ourself, that we can share that with others just by our presence. Maybe we want to talk about it. Maybe someone wants to hear from us about it. But also just being that is probably the most powerful thing. So Sotun had another piece of paper in his book

[19:38]

And this was divided into two pieces, two parts. One was sitting and the other was movement. And under that he had walking, working, one with the activity. And I like that because a lot of times people can get confused about work practice. And that was one of the four areas that I had read that's very traditional in Zen training, and Zen training is work. And it wasn't always so, for sure. In Buddhist time and in India generally, monks did not work, period. Could not work, could not handle money. Received alms, bed for food, once a day. When Buddhism went to China, that did not work. Very different culture.

[20:39]

So huge change for Buddhism to be able to come to China and be taken up. Because then the monks started working. They were farming and they were taking care of their own food. There's a lot of work. I can tell you, from living at Tassajara, there's a lot of work to do. just to take care of a community of people living together. And we were not farming. So we had food brought in, but you still have to cook it and prepare, serve it, and all the maintenance things. And I was thinking about Sojin talking about his work experience, his experience of work practice. And Sojin loved work practice. And I think that was a really big part of his practice. At Tosahara, during practice periods, there was always one day in a monastic week that was a work day, where we worked all day.

[21:45]

And he loved working in the shop and doing wood projects. He'd been a painter of both fine art and house painting and varnishing. He loved all of that. And my dad was really into working with his hands, and I think I picked that up from him. That affinity for that, although my dad worked in an office, he worked with numbers. And I think that that kind of work at home was grounding for him. And I've been... reflecting for years on how the meaning and the significance of the work seems to have changed generationally among the people who've been coming to Tassajara, San Francisco Zen Center. You know, my mom and dad grew up during the Depression.

[22:48]

I grew up in the sixties and seventies. And it wasn't grind culture then. It was really, Different. So just the association with work or with certain activities can be like, I don't want to do that. That's definitely not where it's at. The associations are really powerful, I think, for some people, not for all people. And depending on what culture you grew in or what part of the country or where you came from, what your background was, what your family values are. It can have very different relationships. Word, work. What does it mean? Which is why I was happy to see movement. Can we talk about it? Maybe it's skillful to talk about movement practice or practice and activity, practice off the cushion, because probably most people wouldn't...

[23:53]

serving our formal oryoki breakfast on Saturday mornings as being work. But if you're at Tazkara and you're on some crew, you're definitely on some crew and that's your work. But if you start thinking things that we do here that aren't sitting or ceremonies or maybe, you know, delightful conversation over tea and cookies after the talk, then I think one is that you may miss opportunities to explore what practice looks like in other areas. Like if you're washing the dishes, if you're cleaning up the tea cups after the talk, An offering, or a ... My mom used to love to wash the dishes.

[25:05]

It was just very ... I'm not a meditator by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it was very meditative for her. It was very familiar, very repetitive, and when it was done, it was done. It had a nice closure to it. She was in the rack, drawing them off. mop everything down, done, satisfied. I never liked dishes. Because for me, they came with my mother's anxiety and control about exactly how I did it. So it took me a while to learn to, you know, being out of the house, to enjoy dishes and enjoy simple activities like that without getting so much of my own stuff. my conditioning involved in it. So one side is the practice of engaging with anything as practice, finding freedom within whatever, and in a genuine way, not the tech companies are like, let's do meditation because then you're all very focused and doing your work better.

[26:23]

And it's not about that, it's about freedom. And because we're all finding together in a tradition and a place and a way that is very focused on community. Sangha is the community. doing things in harmony, which can feel so good. Like, if you get to serve with the same serving crew at Tassajara, and we eat Orioki three times a day, every day, and you're working with the same, you know, four or five other people, you get really in harmony, and it's so . It's like doing a dance together, you know, and you get it kind of clicked in, you know, it's like, how to do that? But there's... You know, lots of ways we can find harmony with each other.

[27:25]

How do you move around the kitchen together without bumping into each other, without getting irritated, doing the kitchen dance? When you're pressed for time, you're doing this dance together. So, I would encourage any or all of you, if you haven't already, to sign up for some of the the other roles, like learning to play the bells, or Kokyo doing the chants for service, or washing dishes, whatever it is. And to approach it specifically with a mind of practice, like how can this be? How can I practice with this in this moment? What's arising for me? What's in front of me? Who else is around me? Who am I relating to and how?

[28:26]

And if you've been doing those for a while, one of the most amazing ways to learn more about is to teach it, to share it. So if you're willing to take more of a leadership role, let someone know. Someone who's wearing a robe like this or a rakka suit. Because it's really found that I do things for others. I show up for others in ways that I often don't for myself. There's another person there, and I genuinely want to support them and help them, and something is called for in doing that, in working together. So all of these really deep opportunities for practice. One of the other things that taking care of the temple does is it creates this kind of web of care and attention that can really be felt.

[29:48]

It can be felt by Enter a space. So many people live right upstairs over there. So I see people peering in the cage or wandering around sometimes, and they want to know what this place is. And they all comment how good it feels. The gardens are really well kept. Thank you, Mira, and everyone who also helps with that. Mira can't do it by herself, for sure. It's like all the people who help with the gardening. And the zendo is so well cared for. It's clean, but it goes somewhere beyond that. It receives care every day. Every day that it's open, it receives care. I used to play string instruments, mostly a bass, a string bass.

[31:02]

And at a certain point in my life, I stopped playing, and I kept the bass around for a while, but after a few years, I realized that I really needed to let it go and pass it on to someone who was . Because instruments in particular, wooden instruments, like string instruments, need to be played. There's something very important that happens with the wood cells, that it needs to be kept open. If it doesn't have that, it gives kind of a dead tongue. And I think the same is true for Zen centers, for temples, for zendos, for places of practice, that it needs to have that care and love. into it, and that that is palpable. I did mention I didn't much care for a long time for washing dishes, neither did I care for cleaning because, yeah, my mom.

[32:11]

And then, I guess it was my third summer at Tassajara when we were supporting the guest season, so it's mostly work in the summer. morning and evening Zazen, but the day was a full day of work. And I was asked, I was really thinking that I was going to be just all ceremonial. I'd been on the Doha in Rio. I thought that was going to be good. And I was asked to be the head of cabin crew. And I did my very best to be encouraging and inspiring from people and to take it up completely. But what she was a student who came, fortunately, like right at the beginning of guest season, and she wanted to be on Cabin Crew. Tell me why. And she had originally come as a guest. She told me which cabin she'd been in so I could just picture it, you know, the little Redwood cabin on the creek.

[33:22]

And she said when she first walked in, she had this, this feeling of, you know, light and and order and just how everything was taken care of. Like she could see that, you know, although it's old, you know, that it was, that it was well cared for. And that touched her so much and she felt like, I really want to give that experience to other people. I want to be on cabin crew so I can be part of that, part of that kind of offering. And that really opened my eyes to the possibility that pretty much anything that we do as an offering can be done with generosity, can be done as practice. even when it's not obvious, even when it's not easy.

[34:25]

And sometimes I think, especially when it's not easy, because if I had also loved cleaning, and I have friends who do, you know, that's their kind of happy place or their calming place. It's like I'm stressed out, I'm going to clean the entire house. that it's just something that you like, but work for a little bit, maybe a lot, something shifts, something changes. So that willingness to take up something can be very profound. It's what makes it a practice, what makes it effective. So I want to leave some time for questions.

[35:27]

Thank you very much. You may have questions, or you may just want to share. Just a little closer so I can see people. I wanted to circle back to this yes and no. Yes, I will. And then being around longer and maybe if you're the kind of person who has to learn to say no. And just to add something that a surgeon said to me on more than one occasion, which was when you're saying yes to, excuse me, to something, when you're saying no to something, you're saying yes to something else. So it's never, right, just one or the other. It's realizing what the yes is for and what the no is for. Yes. And thank you for saying this.

[36:30]

I was really saying no to wasting time. Anyone else? Anyone online? Thank you, Linda. When you were talking, there were a number of things oh, I'm interested in that, or oh, I don't like that. It's kind of back and forth. Much more on the oh yeah, I like that. But one of the things when you're talking about work, and when you're at Tosfari, you're working, training, that you're doing this training. And I've felt from early, I'm doing some training, but what I saw is simply my practice is training, getting up and coming and sitting. seeing something that needs to be done and doing it or getting help with it. So the longer you talked, I started realizing that even with a yes, no, and pretty much everything, I sort of look at it as, used to it was practice.

[37:44]

I'm practicing. And when someone would say something about, oh, my God, I can't believe you're doing that. And I said, it's called a practice. It's not called a perfect. And I'm practicing. You know, I'm just going to keep doing that. But there's been this addition of participating that I feel like that when I think about saying yes or saying no, when I think about what I like or what I don't like, I return to am I participating? And I don't mean specifically with the thing, but I mean overall. It's kind of like interchangeable with practicing. And that's what I started. thinking about when you were talking is that there's a participation and that will shift with me. If I can slow down for a moment, do you want to say yes? Why do you want to say no? And where's the participation? So anyway, it really made me think a lot about, because it did kind of, I just felt like, well, I'm working and I'm training.

[38:49]

So it was really good to hear the whole thing. And yes, You've got to learn how to do all that extra stuff. Thank you for taking that on. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's easy to say yes here because I trust the person or the community asking me to say yes. And even if I don't know it at the time, I trust it, it's coming from a good place, and I would think in some capacity if I don't immediately understand that. It's much more challenging outside of a community like this. Can you talk a little bit about practice, how to decide yes and no outside of this community? I think in many ways it's the same, especially about the yes, no, and the discernment.

[40:02]

I mean, I think the heart of practice is the same. It's funny, since you asked what's the difference, I'm finding more about what's the same. You might want to do something, out in the world, and it's like, this takes too much time, whatever. Or you might wanna do something here, and it's like, but I don't have time. So I think they're very much in relation, and because we have one body, and 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week, they have to be in some kind of balance. But if you're talking about just the wholehearted yes, never know how it's going to turn out, for one. Someone can say, you know, this is going to be great. Trust me, I've got you. And all kinds of things could happen, which maybe have nothing to do with either of you, but it can go south in a major way, right?

[41:12]

And there are, you know, I would say, I think the practice is not about whether you're saying yes or no so much as finding wholeheartedness. If you're asked to stay late at work and you really didn't want to and you were told you were gonna get off early and now you have to work through the evening or whatever, make up your own disappointment at work story. Don't have to make it up, right. How can you be wholehearted in a way that does not add to your discontent or suffering? Even if you really don't want to be there, think you shouldn't be there, and if you really think you shouldn't be there, like what's going on is not wholehearted, to think about how you do something else.

[42:18]

And if it's not possible to do something else, due to causes and conditions, how to make as much peace as you can without abandoning your heart and those you love. We have a couple questions online. Michael. Can't hear you. Okay, we're going to go to the next person. We'll come back to you, okay? Leslie and Jake. Hi. We all say hello. Hi. Hi, Lynn. Great talk. With work, I found that during machine work periods, I love the work usually, but it was very hard for me when the clapper sounded to end.

[43:23]

For example, I remember painting. And I would have just a few square feet to finish. And I was so tempted to keep going. But that was very hard for me. But after a while of doing it, many years of doing that, I began to see that beginnings and endings are just words. And it got at my compulsiveness to always switch. have a kind of a drive to finish things, like see one thing through to the end. Well, for a while I was thinking I wasn't doing that. But after a while, I kind of got that. It's okay not to finish the painting. So thanks for bringing that up. Do you have any feelings toward that yourself? Yes. I mean, yeah, for me it was raking generally. It was like, But this is still, you know, and I still notice it in the morning at Soji here, it's like, but, but, but, yeah.

[44:31]

But isn't it amazing how something just ending work when the clappers go can be such a window into, like, who we are and such, you know, it's like, one thing about doing these kinds of roles or activities with the consequences of doing it right or wrong are both pretty low. It's like a low bar. So it gives you a lot more space in which to explore. And repetition, that's the main principle of Zen, Zen trainings and practice, Zen. is repetition because you see it go around and it's like, oh, there go the clappers and there I go again. How great, now I can look, now I can see, now I can let go. Thank you.

[45:32]

Michael, should we try again? Yep, now it's working. It didn't let me unmute before. More of an observation than a question. You said something that stuck with me where You're like these work practices and opportunity to see yourself and see others. And they made me think of there's some jobs and some opportunities for work practice that for me, the ego trip arises of, but if I get this wrong, what will people think of me? Or if I mess this up, it's going to mess other people up and everybody's depending on me. I think Wrench and Bunce kind of popped that bubble. She wrote a long time ago about her early experience at Tassajara saying, well, with work stuff, they'll give you 10 seconds of instruction until you'll be fine. And then you learn how to do it right by doing it wrong. So how all of these are just opportunities for awareness and practice, no matter what's arising, whether it's ego-based concerns or whether it's just

[46:45]

you know, this not liking whatever it might be. So more of just a comment and observation. So thank you. Thank you Linda Roshi for your talk and everybody for your questions, which has been helpful for me. I wanted to particularly be grateful for that little four aspects piece that you picked up from Sojin's notes because in many ways I feel like I'm sort of the opposite from that perspective in that the works so immediately appealing The chanting, the bowing, the dish washing, all felt like ah. I think the first time I did real work practice, somebody said, give yourself to the task at hand.

[47:51]

And I'm like, that seems great. The bus head felt awful. And it's really having had It is teaching you the same stuff, right? It's that that's been slowly leaking in to be like, can I respond to all this screaming to get up or to grip my teeth against discomfort or without overdoing it either? That same, the yes, the no, and to balance that. This is, I think, really clarified. in which that very same process is what I've been very slowly learning to appreciate on the cushion. So, thank you. I feel you. I had very similar experiences. Asim was hard, and things that involved my body were more accessible.

[48:55]

Whether it was Tai Chi, and I used to be a massage therapist, and I used to feel like my hands are the smartest part of my body. Like they know things, and if I get my mind involved, it's going to mess it up. So it's taken a while to play well together. I saw somebody's hand over there. Linda. Hi, thank you. Like everybody else, I'm just kind of... reflecting back and then more stuff comes out. When you first gave that list, zazen, doksan, work, and study, my first thought was, oh, that sounds pretty, mostly isolated, mostly individual, except doksan, but still that's only two people.

[49:57]

Then you brought forth the togetherness of work practice. One of the things that I think has been happening in transition from, say, Japanese Zen to American Zen, and in this place, to Hosang, to the first woman at Berkeley Zen Center, is more and more, less and less, I don't know, only being aware of that individual practice. And more and more, so highly animated speeches, for me, it's all relationship, like all the way. Every part of it is about connection and relationship, or maybe discovering what is love. Discovering what is love. We have time for one more. We've got one online.

[50:57]

Great. Hi, Len. Hi, hello. Thank you. I very much, you know, I really would like to work on together and alone and as a community on this freedom that can't be taken away and the letting go and not getting stuck. And I've heard this notion much aware about, you know, sovereignty within, as it were. And I wonder if you have any more, you say, you know, this. You're holding on, in some way, you're holding on to freedom that can't be taken away, but you're letting go.

[52:01]

Yes. I can really, you know, my experience, you know, So everything on Sojourn is my experience. I can only tell you what my experience is. And I think the more specific we are about, and honest, about our own experience, the more other people can see. You know, it's like Rembrandt's self-portraits are extremely specific, and yet many people think they're like art critics. It's like the universal everyman. But the everyman is not a stick figure. It's like a particularity. So my own particularity of that is that when I get tangled in whatever form of bondage, non-free, suffering happens to be coming up at the moment, What eventually works when I remember it, because it's so counterintuitive, it's going against the stream, against the karmic stream, is to turn fully toward whatever is there and present and is, you know, as much as I can see in the moment, the root cause of what's going on.

[53:24]

But first, what I'm actually feeling. What is my literal experience of it? What's the energy of it? How is it painful? How is it sticky? And the more I've been willing to turn toward that and be intimate with the parts of my experience that I tried so hard to get away from, much harder than I tried to get away from dishes and houses, it was a life project. to get away from that. And when I got really, really close to succeeding, I found myself searching for what I'd lost of myself, and I had to go back and find it. So that's my path, just that turning toward what's most difficult, but not with my head, not trying to figure it out, because that's where I kept going wrong.

[54:27]

I kept explaining it to myself and sometimes to others. And it never worked and it left me more disappointed. But to just let it be, let my heart be broken in that moment. Because then things started to move. They went from being stuck to moving. And in that movement, there was new life. many many years ago when I started finding my way in this it usually took a good cry and a long nap and then I'd wake up with some refreshment and the world was fresh and I felt connected to myself and I felt connected to others and I just my hands were open again they weren't like this and they weren't like this so for me That's been my path. But I think somewhere you know, each of us knows, we have to go and what we need to do.

[55:37]

And I think that's our way seeking mind, and it's what's brought all of us here today. And we may go away and come back and go away and come back, but there's something in us that knows. And to just, through all the confusion and the upset, find our way back to that little thread of, it's something over here, not there. And then we get a little closer. It really helps to do it together. Thank you. Thank you very much. Peace. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.

[56:38]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are impossible. I vow to become it. I vow to awaken with them.

[57:40]

Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. I vow to become it. Next Monday is a Zendo holiday.

[60:00]

There will be no regular Zazen service or way-seeking mind talk. Informal Zazen will be offered at 5.40 p.m. only. Dave Rushman's class on Dogen Zenji's mountains and watersuits will be introduced this Thursday evening. The class is in person only. For more information, you can check our website. Next Saturday's Dharma talk will be given by Greg Fane Roshi. Shoto Harada Roshi will be visiting Berkeley Zen Center on Saturday, September 6th at 2 p.m. This is a rare trip of his to the Bay Area to perform a memorial service for our late abbot Hozan Roshi. The service will be in the zendo and is open to all BCC members and friends. Some teaching or Q&A may follow depending on the timing of the ceremony. The Saturday program is open to everyone. It starts at 6 a.m. and includes Oreoki breakfast, a formal practice of quietly eating together.

[61:02]

If you'd like to learn more about participating in Oreoki or volunteering for any Saturday practice roles to support programming, you can come talk to me during our informal tea in the courtyard. A group has been meeting to consider ways for BCC to address racism. If you wish to participate, contact Karen Sundheim. for emails and the links for recurring activities, and she's also here today. For more information about our program or about membership, you can check our bulletin board in the courtyard or see the links in the Zoom chat or visit the website, berkeleyzencenter.org. If you'd like to make a donation today to support our temple, there'll be a box set up in the courtyard, and you can also visit the website, click the generosity tab. Lastly, I need two people who say after tea to help with washing teacups. Tom, thank you. One more person. Thank you so much. Those in the Zendo, please maintain silence as you exit, and then feel free to socialize out in the courtyard.

[62:11]

And those online, feel free to share greetings. Hi, everyone. Hi. Good to see you. Good to see you. Hi. Hi. Jake and Leslie, good to see you. Leslie and Jake, hello. Yes, good to see you, Leslie and Jake. Hope things are going. Good to see you. Bye-bye. Good to see you. Have a good day, everyone. Have a good day.

[62:46]

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