and unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect karma. It is rarely deadlift, even a hundred thousand million Kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I am bound to taste the truth of the Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes. And can you hear me okay online? Hello to all of you online. Wow, what a full house. It's so wonderful to see the strength of the Sangha, the strength of Berkeley Sangha. Thank you all so much for being here today. And are there any Anyone new here today for the first time? Great.

[01:25]

Well, maybe we could just take a minute and just turn to your neighbor and say hello, and if you don't know them by name, just introduce yourselves. Beautiful. Thank you. This is great, we can continue with tea now. Oh, look what I started. We're getting to the end of the practice period, the spring practice period. We've been studying the Lotus Sutra And we finished the last class. We got through all 28 chapters. And we have, you know, it's been kind of increasing in conversation in the classes, which has just been so powerful to hear from everyone.

[02:33]

You know, as it says in the Lotus Sutra, you know, only a Buddha together with a Buddha, and we bring forth the Dharma together. So, it's really joyful. And we start Sushin on Wednesday, and then we'll finish next Sunday, and... Tomorrow there will be a very joyful ceremony, a priest ordination, Shuke Tokuro, with Joe Buckner and Clay Taylor. So today I wanted to talk about Buddha's robe, because that is what they will be receiving. If you're new, you may see people sitting with either blue small robes around their neck called rakasu, or those of us who've been ordained as priests wearing full okesa. So all of them are equally Buddha's robe. It's the same robe.

[03:34]

I mean, every one of ours is literally the same robe. So there is that power of the robe, and that's what I want to talk about today. a fascicle, an essay by Dogen Zenji, an ancestor in our school who lived in the 13th century, and he wrote a fascicle called The Power of the Robe. I'm just going to read sections of it and then comment on it. Of course, that makes me think of Sojun Roshi because he used to do that a lot. I'll also be talking a little bit about the resonances I've found, we've found, between Dogen and the Lotus Sutra before Dogen went to China and became the Zen lineage.

[04:42]

He practiced Tendai Buddhism, and there the main text is the Lotus Sutra. So all his early training was in the Tendai sect, and he was deeply steeped in the Lotus Sutra. And reading this fascicle again, I realized again how deeply he'd absorbed the Lotus Sutra and how much it was showing in his teaching and his writing. Actually, I wanted to start where Dogen ends his essay. It's the postscript. So Dogen had been very frustrated in his monastic training in Japan. He had a very high aspiration from a very young age, and he wasn't finding what he was seeking in Japan. He went to different places, he studied deeply, but he had this burning question.

[05:52]

He completely believed, as the Lotus Sutra taught, that we all have Buddha nature, that we will all be Buddha. What he didn't understand was why then do we have to practice so hard and so long? Why does this take lifetimes? If we already have what we need, If we already are Buddha, why do we have to practice? And nobody could really answer that to his satisfaction. So he determined to go to China. At that time, ships only went every few years. It was very dangerous. He was finally able to go. And he had a series of very powerful experiences while he was there. I should say that although Buddhism had been in Japan for hundreds of years, by the early 1200s, it was not at a good time for Buddhism in many ways. And it was not a good time for Japan either.

[06:54]

It was very, there was a lot of turmoil, famine, national disasters, unsettled, you know, wars and feuding things going on, and Buddhist monks and monasteries were caught up in that in various ways. So this was written not so long after he came back from China, and he was just so full of fervor and devotion, he's always a devotion type, but he finally found a place where he can fully put his heart, mind, body, and he's just wanting to share. But he came back to Japan. Rather than staying in China where he could have just practiced, he wanted to come back and share. His Bodhisattva vow was so strong.

[07:56]

I want to share this with the people in Japan who don't know, don't have this teaching yet. So this postscript says, once when I was in Song, China, practicing on a long sitting platform, like these, these long sitting platforms, I observed the monks around me. At the beginning of zazen in the morning, they would hold up their kashayas, place them on their heads, and chant a verse quietly with palms together. Great is the robe of liberation. the road beyond form, the field of benefaction, I wear the tatataka's teaching to awaken countless beings. This was the first time I had seen the kashaya. The kashaya is an Indian pronunciation of okesa. It's kesa and then o is an honorific, so it's the okesa.

[08:56]

But in this translation it's kashaya. This was the first time I had seen the kashaya held up in this way, and I rejoiced, tears wetting the collar of my robe. Although I had read the verse of veneration for the kashaya in the Agama Sutta, I had not known the procedure. Now I saw it with my own eyes. What text is that? This is Kaz Tanahashi's translation that's in that big two-volume set. Shobhagenzo, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye. Then I made a vow to myself, however unsuited I may be, I will become an authentic holder of the Buddha Dharma, receiving authentic transmission of the true Dharma and with compassion show the Buddha ancestors authentically transmitted Dharma robes to those in my land.

[10:01]

So it is with that feeling that he came back and that he wrote this fascicle. So it starts off, Bodhidharma, who brought Buddhism from India to China. Bodhidharma, the high ancestor of Mount Song, alone transmitted the authentic teaching of the robe to China. Hui Nung, who would later become Zen master Daijian, the sixth ancestor, received a robe from Hongren at Mount Huangmei and maintained it for the rest of his life. This robe is still enshrined at the Baolin Monastery in Mount Chaoshi, where he taught. So when he received the robe, it's not the same as receiving a robe.

[11:07]

You receive your robe in a priest ordination ceremony, ordained as a monastic. This was a transmission ceremony. He received the fifth ancestor's Buddha robe as a mark of the transmission. from teacher to student, acknowledging Huy Nung as his student and successor. Over the generations, one emperor after another requested that the robe be brought to the palace. When it was, people made offerings and bowed to it. Thus, the robe has been worshipped as a sacred object. The emperors kept asking for this to be brought, so that it could be brought to the capital periodically, from Shaolin Temple, and... No, sorry, no longer Shaolin, not Longmei. And he gave orders about how it would be correctly respected en route.

[12:13]

And the emperor said, we regard this robe as a national treasure. There is more merit in seeing the Buddha robe, hearing the teaching of it and making offerings to it than in presiding over the billion worlds. To be the king of a nation where the robe exists is an outstanding birth among innumerable births and deaths. It is indeed the most supreme birth. So Dogen's veneration of the robe, of the kishaya, can sound extreme or one-sided or hyperbolic. But after studying the Lotus Sutra, I realized this is, you know, in the Lotus Sutra, they hold up the Lotus Sutra above everything else.

[13:16]

But in reading it over, I came to see, we came to see together that it's, What it's pointing to is the non-separation of everything. So in one sense, you could say that the robe is the most important thing, or the transmission is the most important thing, because it's all one. There's no way that you can separate one thing from another. You can't separate the robe out from the teaching or anything else within the Buddha Dharma. But for Dogen, That feeling, because of his direct experience, was focused on the rogue. And then he expanded across to many other things, too. And I thought of Suzuki Roshi, who we used to say, you know, the most important thing. He talked about the most important thing quite a bit.

[14:19]

If you look through his talks and writings, You'll see that he said, I don't know, something like 17 different things for what the most important thing is. So it's not that it's the most and we make a hierarchy and there's the most and the least. It's on this moment, this moment, the only one we have, what is the most important thing? So in this moment, Dogen is teaching the power of the rope. and it's the most important thing. Akashaya has been called the garment of emancipation. The hindrances of actions and defilements and the effects of unwholesome actions are all removed by it. So back in the Buddha's time,

[15:23]

Monks only had three possessions. They left home, they ordained, shaved their heads and beards, and they had received three things. One was a robe, one was their bowl for receiving alms and eating, and one was a needle to be able to repair their robes. It is regrettable that we have been born in a remote land in the age of declining Dharma. However, we have the joy of meeting the teaching of the robe transmitted from Buddha to Buddha, heir to heir. In what lineage has Shakyamuni's teaching of the robe been transmitted as authentically as it has been in ours? We are thousands of miles away from the land where the Buddha was born. on the other side of mountains and oceans. We are unable to go there, but due to the influence of our past good actions, we are no longer blocked by mountains and oceans, nor excluded by our ignorance in this remote place.

[16:33]

We have met the true teaching and are determined to practice it day and night. We maintain, uphold, and guard the kishaya continuously. He was talking about Japan to China and India, but sometimes we might feel that we're in a remote land. And do we really have the right teaching? So grateful that we do. We have really received that directly from our ancestors over time, but also warm hand to warm hand, person to person. The power of the Buddha rope. The Buddhadharma cannot be known and understood except by ancestors who transmit the Buddha's true Dharma. When you follow the path of Buddha, you should joyfully appreciate the Buddha rogue, the Buddhadharma. You should continue this authentic tradition even for hundreds and thousands of future generations.

[17:35]

This is Buddhadharma, freshly actualized. It's not just something that happened in the past. happens every time. We venerate the robe, we see the robe, we put it on our head and recite the verse and wear it. We do this every morning, together, just as Dogen did in China. So, Dogen in this fascicle talks about not only the lofty side of things, but the very practical and specific things about the types of robes that there are, a little bit of the history of the robe, how to wear it, what cloth to use, how to wash it, and then the powers of the kishaya.

[18:36]

So he says there are three, and they're all mixed up together. It's not like he's going through, he just goes back and forth between these different ways of talking about the robe. There are three types of kishaya, a five-panel robe, a seven-panel robe, and a great robe, such as a nine-panel robe. One who is engaged in authentic practice receives only such robes as these, which are enough to offer to the body, and does not keep other types of robes. For work and traveling far or near, a five-panel robe is worn, and the rakasus, the smaller robes, have five panels. For conducting formal activities or joining the assembly, a seven-panel robe is worn, and that would be the usual everyday okesa. for guiding humans and devas and arousing their respect and trust, you should wear a great robe, such as a nine-panel robe.

[19:42]

So this is a nine-panel robe, and it's for teaching, for guiding. Also, a five-panel robe is worn when it is mild. A seven-panel robe is added on top of it when it is cold. A great robe is further added when it is severely cold. Long ago in midwinter, when it was so cold that the bamboo was cracking, the Tatataka wore a five-panel robe in the early evening. This is Shakyamuni trying to decide the details of the robes. So he wore a five-panel robe in the early evening. Later at night it got colder, so he added a seven-panel robe. At the end of the night, when it became even colder, he further added a great robe. The Buddha then thought, in the future, when the cold is severe, good monks can use these three robes to warm the body. He talks about the ways to wear the kishaya.

[20:47]

He says the most common way is to have the left shoulder covered and the right shoulder bared. In India, they didn't wear any... They didn't wear something like this under it, it was just against their bare skin and then undergarment over the lower part of their body. And then there's also a way with the great robe to wear it over both shoulders. And he describes how to put on the kishaya, which I thought was amazing to get into that detail. You start by placing both ends on your left shoulder and upper arm, hanging the ends over your left elbow. If you put on a great kashaya, you start by bringing the ends over the left shoulder and letting them hang down the back. There are many other ways to put on the kashaya. You should study deeply and make inquiries of your teacher. How would your teacher like you to do this? And I thought, this is amazing that he's writing this in here. I'm not sure anyone would figure it out just on their own, on how to put it on correctly.

[21:54]

That was beautiful. Those who arouse an aspiration and wish to receive a kashaya should receive an authentically transmitted one, that is, from one's authentically transmitted teacher. Do not receive a kashaya with a new design. What is called an authentically transmitted kashaya is what has been transmitted from Bodhidharma and Vainam, heir to heir, directly from the Tatataka, without a generation's gap. This is the authentically transmitted kishaya worn by Dharma heirs and Dharma descendants. So if you look on paintings of old Buddhist paintings, whether they are in India or Tibet or China or Japan, you can see that they all have this patch robe pattern.

[22:57]

At one time it became clear that there was a need to have some particular garment for Buddhist monks to wear so that they would be able to be recognized when they were out on alms rounds. And the Buddha was thinking about this. One day he was standing with his attendant Ananda and they were looking over rice fields. And he said, I think this would be a good design. and it was in this patchwork design of overlapping panels offset, because that's how the rice fields were there, where it was flat in India, so they could do these big open areas, and the joins between the panels were raised walkways, and then it was the water where the rice grew in between. So he was looking out at this and reflecting the... That would be a good design for it.

[24:00]

It could also be made out of scraps of cloth, rather than needing to have one whole piece of cloth. So, Ananda made that happen. And when Dogen went over, one of the things that he wanted to find was what is the most correct and authentic form of the kashaya. And periodically, things have come, you know, there have been different adaptations of the robe over the centuries, but every so often someone comes back and says, what's the most authentic thing? What's the farthest back that we can go and say, that's it. The power of the kashaya transmitted by Buddha ancestors is clear and easy to accept.

[25:00]

The authentic transmission had been handed down from person to person. The true form has been shown to us directly. It still exists, as this dharma has been inherited up to the present. The ancestors who received Akashaya are all teachers and students who merged their minds and received dharma. Therefore, you should make a kashaya in the manner authentically transmitted by Buddha ancestors. Have you ever found something of one of your ancestors, grandparents or older than that, and realized that this was theirs, this was actually used, and imagined them using it, and realizing that this has come down to you, this is part of your history, this is part of your ancestry. I think Dogen was just feeling so connected with this whole lineage. To be born to the abundance of this dharma and to wear a kashaya even once and maintain it for a moment is no other than wearing an amulet that assures the attainment of unsurpassable enlightenment.

[26:18]

So this resonates with the Lotus Sutra a lot, all these predictions and assurances that everyone will have enlightenment. But just to wear the kashaya, just to wear the bukesa, is to have this assurance that you will attain awakening. When one phrase or one verse permeates your body and mind, It becomes a seed of illumination for limitless kalpas and brings you to unsurpassable awakening. Moment by moment, a thought appears and disappears without abiding. Moment by moment, a body appears and disappears without abiding. Yet the power of practice always matures. Akashaya is neither made nor not made. neither abiding nor not abiding.

[27:22]

It is the ultimate realm of Buddha and Buddha. A practitioner who receives it unfailingly attains and experiences its power. So here's, you know, as in Yuebutsu Yobutsu, only a Buddha and a Buddha. And in the Lotus Sutra, there's this Buddha and a Buddha. It is the ultimate realm of Buddha and Buddha. of abiding and not abiding, of made and not made. And again, the Lotus Sutra, it's not this or that. So all the details of how to care for the robe, what kind of cloth to use, are completely affirming its physical existence as an object, as a thing in the phenomenal world, and revering it. Why do you revere it? You revere it because it's a manifestation of ultimate reality.

[28:26]

This wish that we all have to touch into that place. Everything is a manifestation of it, but here, with the robe, Because in a situation like this, there's a lot of focus on it and it's easier to see. It's like shining a light. It's like shining a light on the power of the rogue as a manifestation of awakening, of the Buddha Dharma, of the lineage of ancestors. You should know that Akashaya is what all Buddhas respect and take refuge in. It is the Buddha body, the Buddha mind. It is called the clothing of emancipation, the robe of the field of benefaction, the robe beyond form, the unsurpassable robe, the robe of patience, the tatataka's robe, the robe of great love and great compassion, the robe as a victorious banner, the robe of unsurpassable complete enlightenment,

[29:38]

receive it indeed with utmost respect. This is why you should not alter it." It is the Buddha body, the Buddha mind, and it has all these different names, all these different epithets of the robe. Either silk or common cloth is used as the material for a robe. So we go from peaks of the mountains to, what is the robe made of? Not like some appendix over here, like, this is what you should sew your robe out of. No, it's completely interwoven. It's non-separate. Either silk or common cloth is used as the material for a robe, according to the situation. It is not necessarily true that common cloth is pure and silk is impure, those who are renouncing possessions, greed.

[30:42]

On the other hand, it would be unreasonable and laughable to exclude common cloth and only choose silk. According to the usual practice of Buddhas, the robe of discarded cloth is regarded as excellent. So from the Buddha's time, there have been listed the 10 types of discarded cloth. These include burned cloth, cloth chewed by oxen, cloth chewed by rats, cloth from corpses, cloth that was used for women's menses. People throughout India throw away such cloth on streets or fields, just as we do with excrement cleaning cloth. So a robe of discarded cloth is actually called a robe of excrement cleaning cloth. Practitioners pick up such robes, wash them, and repair them for use.

[31:42]

There can be pieces of silk and common cloth among them. Give up discrimination. Give up discrimination between silk and common cloth and study the meaning of discarded cloth. Long ago, a monk washed such a robe of discarded cloth in Anavatapta Lake. when the dragon king rained down flowers in admiration and respect. So this flips things upside down. We would usually think, if this is such an amazing venerated object, it shouldn't be made out of the most special materials. From the time of the Buddha, it's been, no. You could say discarded cloth. It's also donated cloth, but it's cloth that comes to you. It's not cloth that you have to grasp after. In this country, I think different traditions.

[32:48]

In the sewing tradition that I'm familiar with, we buy a new cloth because that's kind of the most plain. Everyone has the same fabric, basically. If you're all sewing with a group of people, you'll use the same fabric. Every so often, someone will read this fascicle and want to find discarded cloth and dye it. So you find the cloth and then you dye it. You dye it some dark color, whatever dye is available, like indigo dye or saffron or things like that, and then you sew it together. And sometimes I feel like that impulse, just watching people do this, comes from a very pure motivation. But it also means that you stand out because your rakasu is not like everybody else's. And it can be kind of cool, you know, because it has all different shades and a little difference. I feel that's interesting. Rather than just being the rope that you cover with, it can be special.

[33:51]

So there's all kinds of ways to flip grasping and what's good and what's pure around from one side of the other. Once a monk asked the old Buddha Hui Nung, is the robe you received at midnight on Mount Hong Mei cotton cloth, common cloth, or silk? What is it? Hui Nung said, not common cloth, not silk. Dovan says, know that a kishaya is neither silk nor common cloth. This is a profound teaching of the Buddha way. So in the midst of all the specifics of instructions, he keeps coming back to affirming the rogue, the heart of the rogue is beyond that. I think many of us don't relate to, for example, the American flag, the way many people used to, as a profound symbol.

[35:02]

regardless of what condition it was in. And we were treated as respect and as something that had deep meaning. This is even more so. It is clear that our body, mind, and environs are immediately transformed when we leave the household and receive the precepts. But we often do not notice this because of our ignorance. Study the shape, color, and measurement of Buddha kashayas. See whether they have size or are sizeless. When we do the rogue chat, it's like a field far beyond form and emptiness. It's said to cover heaven and earth, literally. Those who have the aspiration for enlightenment should without fail receive the authentic transmission of the ancestors. As Dharma descendants, we have not only encountered the rarely encountered Buddha Dharma, but we have seen, studied, and received the authentically transmitted Buddha Kishaya.

[36:11]

In this way, we see the Tathataka. We hear the Buddha expound the Dharma. We are illuminated by the Buddha. We enjoy the Buddha's enjoyment. We receive the one-to-one transmission of the Buddha's mind. We attain the Buddha's marrow. Thus, we are intimately wrapped in the kashaya of Shakyamuni Buddha. We personally accompany the Buddha and receive this kashaya from the Buddha. Even today, we receive the kashaya directly from the Buddha. This is how to wash a kashaya. You put it unfolded into a clean wooden tub Cover it thoroughly with boiled water that has been purified by incense and leave it for one hour. That's it. Another way is to boil water mixed with pure ash and cover the kashaya until the water cools.

[37:15]

Nowadays it is common to use ash water. And then you rinse it many times. Do not scrub it with your hands or stomp on it. After thus removing sweat and oil stains, mix fragrant powder of sandalwood or aloeswood with cold water and rinse the kashaya in it. Then hang it on a clean rod to dry. It's quite large. Hang it on a clean rod to dry. When it completely dries, fold it and put it high on the altar. Burn incense, spread flower petals, circumambulate the kashaya clockwise, and bow to it. Kneel and put your palms together. Hold up the kashaya with both hands. Chant the kashaya verse and put it on properly. I lived at Tassajara Monastery for many years, and periodically people would wash their ocasas, and there was, in fact, we don't have washers and jars, it's in the middle of the wilderness, buckets and liners and clotheslines.

[38:24]

But to hang your okesa up or your sitting robes, there's a long wooden pole, and you periodically see the okesa draped over it. Before I run out of time, I just wanted to say a little bit about the power of sewing practice. In Japan, it's been tradition for a very long time to purchase your robes. There's particular guilds that do that. They sew the robes, and then the monks receive them, or somebody gives them to them, but they always receive a pre-made robe according to...

[39:28]

specific designs in Japan. They're tied a little bit differently than ours are. Other than that, they're the same robe. But when Suzuki Roshi brought Zen to this country, he felt that it would be very good, when he was able to do this, to have people sew their own robes. So a group of people just finished sewing or I think many people finish sewing robes for a jukai, a lei ordination that will happen in October. And Clay and Joe, who will ordain tomorrow, can also finish sewing theirs. And it takes quite a long time to sew. And with every stitch that you put in the robe, and there are many. This is all hand-stitched, double-stitched in some places. With every stitch you recite to yourself, Namu Kiei Butsu, I take refuge in Buddha.

[40:35]

You chant that silently. I think for many of you, this is very familiar information. You've probably heard talks about So in Buddha's robe, in reading of the Okesa, around the time of ordinations, more than once. But just as going to repeated ordinations feels very joyful and very encouraging, renewing practice, I wanted to bring this forward again because it's a way to remember The repetition has a deep meaning just to do it again and again.

[41:35]

Who are we at that time already? You could take questions. Wonderful. Thank you very much. If there's any questions. We'll also take questions online. and if you could wait for Joe Ray to bring you the microphone for the folks online. Susan. Thank you, Karen. I mean, Lynn was doing things like that a lot. Are there other places besides kind of represents the U.S., probably Europe, where people sew their own robes, or how much has that tradition spread and taken over? Definitely in Europe, absolutely. And sewing in the style that we do, the nyoho-e style, where the flap goes over the shoulder rather than being both sides on the front, as they do in Japan.

[42:48]

I'm not sure what they do in other countries. And actually sewing one's own robe is becoming more of a thing in Japan as well. And especially among, and they're special robes because they're hand sewn, so they have some distinction. And the style of robe was given to Huizu Suzuki, who is Suzuki Yoshi's son. And I understand that he's worn it for some special ceremonies in Japan, you know, this different style. the different style from what they, visually, from what you see in Japan. And I don't know what they do in China or elsewhere, but I think in most places they probably have that tradition where it's possible to maintain that, but I don't know how it works. That would be interesting to find out. Thank you, Linda. Anyone else?

[43:48]

All right, thank you. Just curious, could you talk about the wearing and the sewing of the grove with our intention to save all beings? I think they're intimately related. I think they're not really separable. We're not doing this for ourselves. and often the ceremonies are done together with other people. But I should have said, you know, the main thing about the ceremony, about the ordination, is not the robe. I mean, this is what Dogen is centering. But it's a precept ceremony. It's taking the bodhisattva precepts. The ten grave precepts, the three pure precepts, and refuges.

[44:54]

This is to save all beings, so intimately related, inseparably related. I agree. I think that's sort of my okesa for it helps to remind me I'm just curious, in terms of outside the sense that you're wearing the robe, you don't need to wear the robe to be warm. I guess in Dogan's days, that's what he did. But, so you wear the robe here, but then outside in the world, how does that help you kind of hang in here with your precepts? Well, I put it on. pretty much every morning, so that helps. It's nice that I live here, so Zazen is readily accessible, and I get to do it with a whole group of people.

[46:02]

Many people I know who sit mostly at home actually do the rope chant every morning before they begin sitting to remind them. But there are so many practices that people have to bring their vows and their attention to mind, which I think is It's a way to keep our practice fresh. Can I see something? Yes, Greg. Oh, no. You have to wait for the microphone. Mike? And then Mary will be after that. One time when we were in Houston, and we go to Houston a lot to practice with Houston Zen Center and Galen Godwin-Roshi, you know, Well, women's rights are under attack all around this country, but in Texas in particular. And we went to a demonstration, a big demonstration in Houston with Galen, the three of us, and Galen said, we will wear our rock suits.

[47:10]

Their robes are typically worn for any Buddhist ceremony or gathering, or whenever you feel it's appropriate, you want to carry that with you. There are also tiny rakasus that you can make, I mean they vary from like here to here, that you can wear under your clothes, that it developed in a little pouch around your neck, next to your heart. And it originally developed during periods of intense persecution of Buddhists, where They couldn't wear their ocasas or they'd be attacked or killed, so they made little private secret ones. And Mary had her hand up. Thank you. I think my question is very similar or the same as Ed's question, which is the ritual of doing the same thing every day, how is that, I almost want to call it a mind management practice?

[48:25]

How does, what happens in your mind when you... We can't hear online. Oh, you could just repeat the question. The question was, What goes on in my mind when I put on the robe in the morning? I think basically because it's leading into zazen, I'm just being completely with what we're doing. Like zazen with chanting, zazen with putting on the robe. And every so often, you know, I'll hear it more deeply again. Wearing the Tathataka's teaching, saving all beings, that's like boom. Because it can also become rote. But just paying attention and receiving the words, having your awareness to receiving the words is powerful.

[49:39]

Thank you. and Finn behind you, Hax. Thank you, Linda. I was thinking about the equivalence of the robe with the Dharma, specifically, and also with the way you can layer the different kinds of robe depending on conditions. Can you also do that with the Dharma? Oh, I think that would be called skillful means. Yes, because you're meeting the conditions that are arising in this moment. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by layering the teachings, but I would say trust your practice to refine your understanding of that over time. Sojourn used to say, I study to verify my practice, not to get something from it, And that's what practice discussion or Doka-san is, too.

[50:44]

It's like, here's what's going on. Here's my practice. Can we look at this together? Thank you. Anyone else? Is that Carol? Uh-huh. Thank you, Linda, for your talk. One of my teachers told me, this is going back to what Buddha said, what the pattern represents when you look down the rice fields. And then they told me that that represents kind of everyday life. You know, we work, we're producing, but it's nothing elaborate. We're just dealing with our everyday life, which is working, producing food, bringing it home to our family. Have you ever heard anything like that? I haven't, but I love it. Well, I have heard one thing like that.

[51:46]

May I tell you a story? About Sujit Sojan? No, I want to tell you. I just want to say that it was Darlene Ho in my head. Don't do that. That was her interpretation. I also want to say while the microphone is coming up that I love this as, you know, there are layers and layers of meaning and insight and understanding that accumulate over time. You know, is that what it really meant? That's what it really means now. And now that becomes the meaning that we have and that we pass on. So yes, all of it. Shortly after I ordained here, In April of 2002, I went back to Tazahara for summer guest season. And of course, Mel used to come to Tazahara every summer, hang out with students, not even any particular reason just to be there.

[52:48]

And we went to guest dinner together. It was pizza. And there was a guest at our table who said, oh, there's a Dharma talk tonight? And we were like, yeah. He said, who's giving the Dharma talk? And I'm like, that guy? And he looked at Mel and said, oh, wow, great. Should I wear anything in particular? And Mel said, no, no, it's fine, fine. And I was like, kind of proud of being a newly ordained priest. I said, well, I'm going to be wearing my Sunday best. And Sojan said, he looked at me. He said, I'm just going to be wearing my regular everyday clothes. Take that! Which I think is a really perfect way to end, because again, you know, it's like the excrement cleaning cloth, the precise instructions about how to wash, the day-to-day minutia of what you do with how you make a robe, how you care for a robe, is not separate from the robe as dharma, the robe as awakening.

[54:04]

the robe as covering heaven and earth. They're not two things. And this is our practice to fully realize that. Thank you very much. of all. everybody online.

[57:13]

My name is Shoray. I'm today's Saturday director. And I have some announcements. This Sunday, which is tomorrow, at 11 a.m., BCC will celebrate the priest ordinations of esteemed members Joe Buckner and Clay Taylor. Due to space constraints in the Zendo, in-person attendance is by invitation only this time. But please join the ceremony in the online Zendo. The reception after at 12.30 is open to all. On Monday, beginning at 7.30 a.m., we'll have an online Shosan ceremony. There will be no 7.30 a.m. online Zazen that day. Next Wednesday, June 11th, begins our five-day Sashin. For those not participating in the Sashin, there will be no regular in-person Zazen. Non-attendees can join us online. You can see the website four times. Monday, June 16th, and Thursday, June 19th will be Zendo holidays.

[58:14]

Informal Zazen only at times to be announced. BCC students and members are strongly encouraged to meet and develop a relationship with the teacher or practice leader. Our abiding teachers, Reverend Greg and Reverend Linda, other teachers and senior students are available for formal DocuSan or practice discussion. Please visit the BCC website Teachers tab for contacts and for information about practice interviews. Today, the library we've opened for browsing from 11.30 until noon, and Maria Theresa is available if you have any questions. Also, just a reminder to the Sangha to please lock the community room door prior to the 9.30 lecture for whoever's the last to exit. For more information about our programs or membership, please check the bulletin board outside. You can see the Zoom chat or visit the website, berkeleyzencenter.org. To make a donation to support BCC, there is a box set up in the courtyard. You can also visit the website and click on the generosity tab.

[59:17]

Lastly, I will need two volunteers who can stay after tea to help wash teacups. One and two, thank you. And lastly, those in the Zendo, please vote. Sorry, Mary, you have an announcement? Thank you. I need one or two, probably two strong volunteers at 11.45. Thank you, there's one. One more strong volunteer. Set the Zendo for your reversal. Thank you. Thank you. All right, lastly, those in the Zendo, please maintain silence as we exit until we are off the Zendo porch, and feel free to socialize in the courtyard. And those online, please feel free to unmute and share a greeting. Thank you. THANK YOU.

[61:15]

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