Master Wutzu said, Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of another. Tell me, who is that other? Master Wuman made comments. He says, if you can see this other and distinguish him or her clearly, then it is like encountering your father at the crossroads. You will not need to ask somebody whether or not you're right. And then in his verse, he says, don't draw another's bow. Don't ride another's horse. Don't discuss another's faults. Don't explore another's affairs. It's a very short koan. Utsu said, Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of another.

[01:02]

Tell me, who is that other? Shakyamuni, of course, is the past Buddha. And Maitreya is the future Buddha who will appear 10 million years from now, maybe. And in between is... Who? This another, the character for this another also means that one. So this can also be read as even Shakyamuni and Maitreya are servants of that one, which is So this has a kind of little ambiguous meaning.

[02:05]

Another has the feeling of objectivity. And that one has the feeling of subjectivity. But if So, who does Buddha bow to? This is a question. Who does Buddha make obeisance to? Even Shakyamuni and Maitreya make obeisance or bow to that one, another. We just finished bodhisattva ceremony where we acknowledge all of our past karma and renew our intention to practice and we bow many times to all the buddhas and the bodhisattvas.

[03:25]

But who are these buddhas and bodhisattvas? When we bow to Buddha, Who do we bow to? This is a question that always comes up when we give instruction to beginners. Someone will say, well, who are we bowing to? And even after 10 years of practice, someone will say, who are we bowing to? This is a very good question. So the answer of who are we bowing to is you're bowing to yourself. How do you bow to yourself? Matter of fact, you know, you can't even see your own eyes.

[04:36]

And you can't see your own nose. Well, you can. Strictly speaking, we don't see our own face. So who do we bow to when we bow? When we bow, it's pretty hard to bow in this direction. We're only bowing in that direction. So if you bow far enough in that direction, you'll meet yourself. Eventually you'll meet yourself if you bow in that direction. everything comes around, but nevertheless. So who is this myself? That's the question. So that question, one question begs the other. If I bow to myself, then who is this myself that I'm bowing to? So they're in this,

[05:38]

fundamental koan. Who is myself? And how do I bow to myself? So, Buddha statue, you know, is... Buddha figure is a kind of focal point for our actions. We make a beautiful Buddha figure in order to acknowledge our feeling about Buddha. But strictly speaking, there's no Buddha. Buddha is just an idea, a concept that we have. But behind Buddha is Buddha nature. So when we talk about Buddha, we shouldn't get mixed up with some person or even some person from the past who was born 2,500 years ago.

[06:58]

When we talk about Buddha, we talk about Buddha nature, our own fundamental nature, the fundamental nature of everything. So who does Shakyamuni Buddha bow to? In our lineage, our understanding of lineage, we say that when you have real understanding, then you are the teacher of Shakyamuni Buddha. You are the teacher of Maitreya Buddha. Matter of fact, you are Shakyamuni Buddha.

[08:10]

Who is Maitreya Buddha? Maitreya Buddha is like the messiah. Comparable to a messiah in the West. And when will this messiah appear? People are always waiting for somebody to do something. They always feel rather helpless. I was talking to somebody the other day And he was very, you know, kind of dissatisfied with Zen in America and in Japan and in Tibet. Well, you know, when some real... We just keep going until some real religious leader appears. That's wonderful. But...

[09:14]

How will this religious leader appear? Who is your religious leader? There was a book about 10 years ago. It was kind of cute. It said, the title of it was, what do you do, what do we do until the Messiah comes? Kind of a nice title. What will we do until the Messiah comes? Well, let's see. You know, why we offer incense is to invite somebody, invite something, to invite the spirit of prajna to settle in our practice. when we have service we offer incense and offering the incense is inviting the spirit of prajna or buddha nature to arise we say to come and visit us but nothing comes from outside to visit so it's just a way of saying let that arise from within us because this is

[10:43]

It's no place else but here. Maitreya Buddha is no place else but right here. Shakyamuni Buddha is no place else but right here. There's no Buddha out there or no Tushita Heaven where Maitreya Buddha is waiting to come down. Maitreya Buddha is right here. Who's going to save us? Nobody. Often, very often, when I talk to people about practice, sound very discouraged.

[11:46]

They say something like, well, at first I had a lot of enthusiasm for practice, but after a while I wonder, why am I doing this? And I don't feel like I'm getting anything. And then I become kind of discouraged because I don't feel like I'm getting something. And that's right, if you have an attitude of wanting to get something, you'll be very discouraged, because nothing will appear. This is like the law of practice. If you want something, nothing will appear. The second law of practice is... I'm making this up.

[12:49]

The second law of practice is, in order to make practice come alive, you have to give. You just have to make yourself an offering. You have to offer yourself completely to what you're doing. then, unexpectedly, something appears. But you can't ask for it. And you can't expect it. And you can't shake the tree and make the apple come down. So, actually, there's only a given. There's also receiving. Receiving is the counterpart of giving. So when you give yourself to the practice, you stimulate generosity.

[13:59]

And then you receive something. You stimulate the nature of generosity. This is hard for a lot of people to understand, because we just want something. We want enlightenment, or we want to feel better, or we want to improve ourselves, or we want to be calm or peaceful. These are good things to want. They're very good things to want. We want to be stronger, imperturbable, and so forth. They're all very good things to want. Good qualities. But you can't... You know, it's like going into the supermarket.

[15:09]

Oh, I like these avocados. And I like these apples. You can't select what you want. Not like that. And you can't select the things you want and put them in your bag and leave the store. That doesn't work. Practice is like making a vow. I don't like to say vow, I like to say an intention. Vow is good, but I would not say to someone, to any of you, you should make a vow. I would say, if you want to practice, you should really have a strong intention to practice.

[16:14]

And whatever your intention is, you should honor that intention. If you want to practice, then you should decide, well, I'll sit in zazen three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then you put that on your calendar. And when the time comes, you've been up till midnight, And the night before, oh, wait a minute. That's not following your intention. Following your intention is, even if you've been up until midnight, when the alarm goes off, you get up and stumble to the Zen door and sit like this. If you don't honor your intentions, then you're actually lost. This is how we get lost in our life.

[17:16]

If you think about all the things that you promised yourself that you would do, or others, and didn't do, and look back on that, you'd be amazed at all the intentions that you had that you didn't honor. And it kind of, in a way, cripples us keeps us, holds us back. So that's why we have such a thing as Bodhisattva Ceremony. We avow all of our ancient, unrealized intentions and renew our intention, honor our intention to continue. And this is actually the most important thing about practice, is that you have an intention and you honor it.

[18:22]

That's really all there is to it. Everything else flows from there. Enlightenment. Peace. It's all there in your intention, keeping intention, and also in falling off. You know, we also fall off of our intention, but when we fall off of our intention, we come back. Matter of fact, we're always falling off. That's the nature of our life, is to have this intention and to fall off, and then to come back. One of the problems we have is that we feel, now that I've fallen off, I can't come back. Or I've been bad.

[19:27]

So the nature of practice is to make the effort, that no matter what happens, to keep my intention. You know, we usually, often, one of the problems we have is that we get caught up in our feelings. We always have to honor our feelings, but feelings are very fleeting and not reliable. The most unsubstantial thing in this world is our feelings. They're just like foam. We can have a strong feeling, and then the next moment it's a weak feeling. We can have a good feeling, and then the next moment it's a bad feeling. We can have a feeling about somebody that's very sweet, and then the next moment we can have a feeling about somebody that's very angry.

[20:42]

This is just some small examples, but feelings, to be guided by feelings, is very uncertain. So, because feelings are so fleeting, and they just come and go, one after the other. So, the only reliable thing is our intention. And when you rely on your intention, then feelings will come and go. There are good feelings, bad feelings, desirable feelings, undesirable feelings. But they don't take you off of your path, because your path is guided by your intentions. That's maybe the hardest thing. That's what makes practice so difficult.

[21:44]

Because we want to go with our feelings. We just want to go with our feelings. You know, people say, when I'm happy, I like to go to the zendo. Or when I'm feeling awful, I like to go to the zendo, because it makes me feel better, or something like that. That's not practice. Practice is, no matter how I'm feeling, when it's time to go to the zendo and sit zazen, I go to the zendo and sit zazen. whether I'm feeling good or bad, laughing, crying, having a good time. It doesn't matter. When it's time to sit Zazen, at midnight you turn into a pumpkin. You just do what your intention is. And then you begin to see what the nature of feelings is. You can really examine the true nature of feelings when you go by your intentions. You can see how feelings come and go and are influenced by all kinds of things.

[22:57]

And what makes us the most unhappy is trying to get happy. When we try and get happy, we become really unhappy. Because even if we get happy for a little while, we get unhappy again. And then we try to get happier. And this continual effort to get happy makes us very unhappy. So when people ask me, how can I renew my practice? How can I sustain my practice? How can I feel encouraged in my practice? I just say, renew your intention. Just follow your intention. Don't get pulled off by, I'm sleepy, or I'm lazy, or I'm hungry, or I have a girlfriend or a boyfriend who just arrived.

[24:04]

These are difficult things to deal with in practice. We were going this way, and suddenly we're going that way. And then after a while, How did I get here? As a matter of fact, if you look at your life, you think, well, how did I get here? We got here through our intentions, or through our feelings, or through our delusions, because we make our life. The point is that we create our own life in cooperation with the world around us, we create our own life, moment after moment. And it's possible to correct that. It's possible to come back on course. But what is the course? What am I supposed to be doing?

[25:09]

So the best way to know what we're supposed to be doing is to head for the zero point. When you reach the zero point, then you can see all the way around. You have a great perspective for your life. But as long as you're standing on five, six, seven, or something, then everywhere you look, you only have a partial view. So it's really hard to tell how to go or how to start from a new place. So in practice, we're always starting from zero. Zero is buddha nature. that has no special shape or form. Our lives actually have no special shape or form, truly.

[26:25]

But when we step out and do something, we take on a shape and a form, and we give shape and form to our life. So our practice is And the intention of practice is to continually keep coming back to zero point. This is no special viewpoint, but it's the viewpoint of impartiality. And impartiality is following intentions If you just follow your intention, then you don't fall into partiality. If you follow the intention of practice, that is, of true practice, you don't fall into partiality.

[27:36]

Because partiality is influenced by I want, I don't want, I like, I don't like. As soon as you fall into I like, I don't like, I want, I don't want, then you fall into partiality and you can't see completely. And this is the biggest cause of our suffering. Master Mubon says, if you can see this other, or that one, and distinguish him or her clearly, then it is like encountering your father at the crossroads. You will not need to ask somebody whether or not you're right. Encountering your father at the crossroads means, maybe not your daddy, but your true

[28:40]

Essence, your true source. Encountering your father at the crossroads is like your true source. And then he says in his verse, don't draw another's bow. Don't ride another's horse. Don't discuss another's faults. Don't explore another's affairs. In other words, rely on yourself. How do you rely on yourself? So if you say, don't draw another's bow, means do draw your own bow, do ride your own horse, do look at your own faults, and be careful about your own affairs.

[29:55]

Be very careful about your own affairs, to take care of your own affairs. So what does drawing your bow mean? You're drawing your bow is setting up your intention. What is your true intention? And what will you follow? And stick with, no matter what happens. You know, sometimes people say, I can't make a decision. I don't know which way to go. But you have to make a decision, and you have to go some way. So even making a wrong decision can be better than not making any decision. Because even if you make a wrong decision, you have a way to go.

[31:01]

And then you have the opportunity to study your life from the point of view of that wrong decision. an opportunity to reach reality through your wrong decision. But we may think, well, reality is not what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for is happiness. If you're looking for happiness, then you probably can't make up your mind. But if you're looking for reality, it's okay to make a wrong decision. No problem. because you will fall into reality. You will have the opportunity to examine reality from the point of view of your wrong decision. No problem. But if you make no decision, then you're stuck.

[32:06]

Better to make a good decision, right? But sometimes the wrong decision is the right decision. When you really have a good understanding and practice, wherever you are, whatever happens, it's a place to practice. If you have this understanding, whether you make a right decision or a wrong decision, you have a way to go. And don't ride another's horse. Yes, ride your own horse. How do you ride your own horse? What's your effort? Horse is like, you know, the thing that goes. The horse is the animal that makes it work. So, hop on your own horse.

[33:10]

Don't wait for someone. Or don't rely on someone else. Carry your own load. Make your own rhythm in your life. In order to practice, we have to have some limitation. Because the more we do and the more we have, the more superficial or shallow our life becomes. And the less we have to rely on, we're forced to go deeper into our life. So when we come to practice, we have to narrow our life down.

[34:15]

We have to put some limitation on our life so that it's like water. If you put water in a flat dish, you don't get much. It doesn't have any depth. So if you have a nice deep bowl, it'll hold a lot of water. It has some form, some shape to it. Your practice has to have some form and some shape. And then within that shape, it holds some deep water. and you can go down to the root. So this is one of the things that people struggle with, you know, and especially in our society, because there's so much opportunity. The curse of our society is that there's so much opportunity, and it keeps us strung out.

[35:21]

Oh, the things that a king, only a king would have in the past. Every one of us has the opportunity to have today. It's amazing. The kings were some of the most distraught people because they had so much. So it's hard to put limitations on ourselves. One of the hardest things but necessary. If we want to practice, we have to put some limitation on our life. And just putting limitation on our life will be a big relief. Because you don't have to run after everything you see. You don't have to own everything that is advertised. One TV set might be enough. That's right.

[36:32]

Just look to yourself. Examine your own life. Don't blame others for what's happening to you. You made me angry. No. You did something and I got angry. you walked by, you made me fall in love with you. No, you walked by and I fell in love. So, in other words, take responsibility for your own feelings. Take responsibility for your own thoughts and your own actions. Don't blame. If you can really refrain from blaming, then you can really examine yourself in a very clear way, no matter what, even if someone else is in the wrong.

[37:43]

This is a really important point. Even if someone else appears to be at fault, don't blame. See if you can do that. See what that brings up for you. And don't explore in others' affairs. Just take care of your own life. Don't gossip about someone else. Don't pick into someone else's life. Just make sure that you're doing the right thing. Just make sure that you're following your own intentions. But the main thing is, if you want to, if you want, you know, there's an old saying, if you want the tiger's cub, you have to go into the tiger's cave.

[38:50]

If you really want something, you have to do something. But better to just do it without looking for something. This is the great secret of practice. You know, the koan Mu is one of the fundamental koans, maybe the first koan that most Zen students receive. If you understand Mu, then you'll have Kensho. But if you recite Mu all day long with the idea of having Kensho, you will never have Kensho. Just recite Mu, period. If you think that by sitting Zazen you'll become enlightened, never happen.

[39:54]

Just sit Zazen. So Dogen Zenji, you know, has a very famous, we all know Dogen Zenji's from his Genjo Koan, his saying about practice. He says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. That's studying the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. If you want to study yourself, or the self, you have to forget the self.

[40:57]

So that's major koan. How do I study the self? By forgetting the self. Another way of saying that is to, instead of saying to study, to attain, to attain the Buddhadharma, is to attain the self. To attain the self is to forget the self. You know, according to Buddhadharma, there is no self. This self is not a real self. It's a dynamic flowing of elements. dynamic flowing of buddha nature. Each one of us is a dynamic flowing of buddha nature.

[42:04]

There is nothing that you can grasp. So to forget the self is to realize, to forget our idea of the self, to forget our false idea about who we are. is to attain to our true self. And the only way to do that is to not want anything. Then we can see clearly who we are. And when we bow, we bow in gratitude When we have some understanding, we bow in gratitude. That's all. We bow to our true self with gratitude. So, instead of trying to get something from practice or from the dharma, we should have to serve the dharma.

[43:23]

Buddha and Maitreya are servants of what? The Dharma. It. What is the example of Buddha? To serve the Dharma, to serve truth. That's all there is. When you serve, then you're fed. You know the old story of the chopsticks, the long chopsticks. What's the difference between heaven and hell? Well, in heaven, I mean in hell, there are people seated at a long table and each, all the people have wonderful meal, you know, piled up on a table, but they all have these long chopsticks. And the chopsticks are so long that when they pick up the food, the chopsticks are so long they can't get into their mouths.

[44:29]

And in heaven, it's exactly the same place. It looks exactly the same. Same people, same food, same chopsticks. But when they pick up the food, they put it into the mouths of the person on the other side of the table. So I'll end with Dogen's story. He says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self, and to study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be confirmed by the 10,000 things. When actualized by myriad things, your body-mind, as well as the body-mind of others, drops away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly.

[45:30]

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