The question, like, what is this? So imo is a very key word, which Dogen used. Just this. Traditionally, the Buddha is called the Tathagata. Tathagata. Tathagata means thus come and thus go. It means just the way a thing is, just the way something is, in its essence, the essence of the way things are. So Nimo is just this. It also means it. Someone asked me what I was going to talk about today. I said, I'm going to talk about it. So, Suzuki Roshi says, it all can also be it.

[01:07]

In English you say, it is hot. That it is the sun and moon. The sun and moon is when you say, it is nine o'clock. Mekong is it for the time or the weather. But not only for the time or weather, everything is actually it. We are also it, you know, but we don't say it. Instead we say, instead of it, we say he or she, me or I. But actually we mean it. So if everything is it, It is at the same time a question mark. When I say it, you won't know exactly what I mean, so you may ask, what is it? So, it doesn't have any particular object. There's no particular object that is it, but whatever we point to, we can say, this is it.

[02:13]

So it has both a phenomenal meaning, comparative meaning, and a non-comparative meaning. So even though we say you are Mary or Joe, Mary or Joe is also it. So it covers everything and has no particular There's no particular shape or form, but everything I point to is it. So this is how we talk about fundamental reality and discriminated reality. fundamental reality.

[03:15]

In fundamental reality everything is simply it. In discriminated reality everything has a name. Discrimination means to divide and give a name. So discriminated reality is comparative reality after it's discriminated. and usually in our life we think of our life in the realm of discriminated reality and rarely do we see our life as a fundamental reality of it which is not discriminated or doesn't depend on discrimination so he says when I talk about time It may be a mail time or lecture time. We don't say so. We don't say, I'm sorry, we don't know. So it may be a question mark for everyone.

[04:19]

You may say, what time is it? Or is it time for lecture? So it or know is something definite at the same time a question. So this is very important for us to know. Right now, it is hot, but it is not always hot. Very appropriate. This is a summertime lecture. Summertime it will be cold, we hope. So in the sense of time, there's continuous time and discontinuous time. Continuous time is called now. Any time you want, you can say, this is now. Discontinuous time is made up. We say one o'clock, two o'clock, springtime.

[05:22]

Phenomenal time. Phenomenal meaning discriminated time. Discriminating time is where we usually find ourselves. And we don't often think so much about non-discriminating time, which is continuous time. But discriminating time is continuous time cut up into little pieces. So if we have one big piece of cloth, We take and cut it into many pieces and then we fashion it into all kinds of clothing and materials to use. We take one whole piece of cloth and cut it into little pieces. This is how we live our life.

[06:25]

by taking this piece of cloth, cutting it into little pieces and making clothing and objects and so forth. And we did this with other materials as well. But we don't usually, or not usually aware of the one piece of cloth. Even if we cut the one piece of cloth into a thousand tiny pieces, it's still one piece of cloth in the realm of continuous time and discontinuous time. So no matter how many little pieces we chop time into, it's still one continuous time. As a matter of fact, the only time there is, is now. We take past and future The past is an idea in the present.

[07:28]

Future is an idea that hasn't happened. We do speak about past and future as if they don't exist. We think of the past as existing sometime back there, and the future as something that will happen. Future is just an idea. And of course, we think about the future, and plans for the future, therefore the future happens. But there's no future that's coming to us, or that we can take hold of. So, these are ideas and concepts, and we live in the realm of ideas and concepts, and our ideas and concepts create our world. So we're living, as you say, human beings are self-creating.

[08:30]

We're continuously self-creating by our, this is called the world of karma, of course. Karma is volitional action. That's all it means. Karma means a volitional action. something that you do, an action or a thought, that creates an effect. And the effect creates another action, which creates another effect in snowballs. And thus, the effect is called the fruit of the action. So every action has a result. And through action and result, we crawl our lives down one path or another. We can always change our path and change the direction of the karmic consequence. So we have that freedom. Life is not saint or determined.

[09:33]

You're continually making it up. So, Continuous time is sometimes called eternal time. I like to use the word continuous because eternal has certain connotations. It's okay to use it as long as you don't get stuck in the connotations. But it's the continuous time is the continuous moment of now. And it only becomes discriminated when there's activity. When there's activity, we begin to have discriminated time, which is what we call time. But the important point is to not base our life on discriminated time, but on continuous time.

[10:40]

That's the basis. So, in our Zen practice, we're always allowing ourselves to depend on the fundamental. So in the last talk, Suzuki Goichi says, although we have to live in a world of delusion, we shouldn't base our life on the world of delusion, but on the world of, on the realm of reality, which is continuous time. of realizing what it means to be just thus. So, when we talk about time, we can see that time is continuous, and also that time is definite. Definite means discontinuous. When our childhood is half passed out, we point out a certain time.

[11:42]

Now, time is discontinuous. But time, by its nature, is continuous. So, the one word has two sides. Continuity and discontinuity. And that is the nature of reality. In the Mahayana, we talk about the two truths. It's easy to get mixed up, so we talk about two truths. One is the truth of discriminated time that we live in, and the other is the truth of non-discriminated time, or basic reality, which is not changing. So, Dharma Zazen Rinpoche talks about practice not as something special, but something continuous. Something mixed up with everything. So, I think I have to explain that a little bit.

[12:43]

He doesn't talk about practice as special, but something continuous. Something mixed up with everything. So, something mixed up with everything is continuous time. Or emptiness. Emptiness is mixed up with form. Form is mixed up with emptiness. You can't separate them. You can't separate continuous time from discontinuous time because they're one thing. Discontinuous time is the activity of continuous time. Continuous time is the fundamental of discontinuous time, the essence. So essence and form go together. He says, if you fall to the ground, stand up by the ground.

[13:52]

He has the ground to help you stand up. That's wonderful. He says, if you fall on the ground, stand up by the ground. But does that make sense? If you fall on the ground, you stand up by the ground in that place. Also, he says, if you fall on the ground, stand up by emptiness, by nothing. Without discussing why this is, we can't have a complete understanding of our teaching. Actually, we stand up by the ground, but he says that we shouldn't. What does that mean? If you think you can always stand up by the ground, and I don't mean falling on the ground, you'll fall on the ground quite easily. You know, how about, oh, that's okay if I fall to the ground, I can just stand up on the ground. If I practice with this kind of prejudice, it's easier I dare. That's wrong practice. So this part is important. It is like enlightenment.

[14:53]

If you are not enlightened, you will be somebody that usually makes mistakes. As far as I am aware, I am already on top of the ground. So it's kind of like, you know, anything we do that we say, well, it's okay, I can always fix it, you know. It's okay if I'm out and drink, I can always go back to AA. So this is a very subtle point. Of course we have to stand up by the ground, but if we stick to the idea of the help of the ground all the time, we will lose the training of falling to the ground. In other words, even though I make a mistake, we should not make the same mistake many, many times. Certainly it's okay because we know how to get up. So really what I'm talking about now is practice. This is not what we know when we're sharing reality. Things do not happen twice in the same way.

[15:56]

You know about the things happening twice in the same way? There was a hunter who went out hunting one day and he was standing by a stump. And a rabbit came out of the woods real fast and ran by and ran into the stump and killed itself. And he said, boy, this is an easy way to hunt. So the next day he got out his rifle, stood by the step, and nothing happened. So, the ground is not always the same. It can be a stick sometimes, or it can be a stone. It can be water. The ground is it. So it means anything, not just ground. It means to practice away without trying to repeat the same experience.

[16:56]

So this is what happens often, you know, in zazen. Someone will say, zazen was so easy yesterday, and today it's so awful, so hard. So my legs hurt today, or my mind was going, and I couldn't stop it. We think in that way. So we want to have some perfect thing called good zazen. But there is no such thing as good zazen or bad zazen. Good zazen and bad zazen is in the realm of discrimination. Zazen is just zazen. It's just whatever is happening on this moment is it. This is the point of zazen. This is the essence of zazen. Whatever it is that's happening on this moment is it. But we don't appreciate everything that's happening on this moment because we think there's something better than this.

[18:00]

There's got to be something better than this. When you sit on the fourth dais of shin and your legs are screaming, you say, there has to be something better than this. But That's just in the realm of discrimination. So that's what we call the realm of delusion. Although there is something called better and worse. We get stuck in better and worse. If we discriminate on the basis of like and dislike, We can't accept what we have right now, because we want something else. And as soon as you want something else, you start suffering. Buddha says, the problem we have is suffering caused by the desire for something else.

[19:03]

How to accept the fundamental reality of what's happening on each moment is enlightened practice. We don't define enlightenment, but we talk about what are the effects of enlightenment or what is the expression of enlightenment. Expression of enlightenment is to accept things just as they are on each moment with gratitude. You can say, well, I don't feel gratitude for this. Enlightened practice is to accept your situation at each moment without discriminating between like and dislike, even though you may not like it. It doesn't mean you can't change. It simply means that you're grounded in fundamental reality.

[20:14]

It's hard to stay grounded in fundamental reality. You know, when we sit sadhana, we sit very still. And the more still we sit, the easier it is to accept whatever is present. Because we're being grounded in fundamental reality of now. Now, this is it. Well, we have a koan, very famous koan. What is it? That's the koan that, sometimes they have the koan mo. But you know, the koan mo is, the answer to the koan mo is it. Mo is it. What is mo? Mo is it. What is, what is it? The answer to that is, this is it. It is this.

[21:20]

And in my line of thought, it comes out right. So we're always trying to repeat the same experience. So there's nothing wrong in our practice. But on the other hand, there's always something provided for you. Always. According to the circumstances, you will have some aid to practice our way. Even when a pain arrives as an aid, by the pain I have, you practice our way. The pain is it. It is anything, but at the same time, it is some definite experience or particular problem. It can be drowsiness. It can be hunger. It can be hot weather. So hot weather, or cold weather, or hunger, or mosquitoes, or the paramilitaries, can all add to your practice, with which you stand up and establish your practice.

[22:21]

So not all Buddha's teaching, but everything, can be an aid to us. So, as I was saying yesterday, there are no obstacles, there are only opportunities in practice. This is how I can tell a mature student from an immature student. An immature student will complain. A mature student does not complain, but always accepts everything as it is, without resentments. Without anger. Totally based on fundamental reality. Without trying to avoid something and without hanging on to something. This is called perfect freedom. So emo, G, means things. And emo, N, is someone who is practicing zazen.

[23:27]

Someone practicing something. That is reality. Or we could say someone doing something. That emo is a discontinuous particular being which has form and color. Form and color is a kind of technical term in Japanese Buddhism, which means phenomena, the world of phenomena. I'm trying to find my place. Yeah. So I'm practicing something that is reality. Oh, we could say something is a discontinuous particular being which has form and color. in the realm of discrimination. But as Dalai Lama Zazenji says, practice is something continuous, something mixed up with everything.

[24:29]

So, sometimes, you know, Dalai will say, practice continues on forever. This is how you have to understand practice continues on forever. The fundamental reality of practice continues on forever. The forms are always changing. But the fundamental reality is continuous. And the forms are always arising out of the fundamental reality. And the forms are the fundamental reality. And the fundamental reality is the forms. But at the same time, forms are forms. And fundamental reality is fundamental reality. So wherever you are is it. But at the same time, everything is continuously changing. So if you stand with it as the fundamental reality, you can't get lost.

[25:31]

There's no way to get lost. If it is so, in fact if this is so, then so and doing as in already includes everything. So and I cannot be separate from the world. Some action cannot exist without the background of the whole world. No, and the same thing cannot be apart from other things. So, so and I, doing, and something is the same thing. If I have a sound thought, then I can say, something, something, something. What is that? That is complete realization. Everything happens in this way. So if you stick to the idea of help or enlightenment, that's all a mistake. You have separated yourself from everything. So I may say, well, he studies Soto Zen, but he denies the enlightenment experience. People used to, because Suzuki Roshi didn't emphasize practicing to create an enlightenment experience people often criticized him as he doesn't have an enlightenment experience but uh you know when satan's in practice and enlightenment are not separate practice

[26:59]

joy adds enlightenment, and enlightenment is practice. So instead of emphasizing an enlightenment experience, Suzuki Roshi emphasized practice. In other words, practical, to do something, to actually engage in practice, and not to chase after some idea called enlightenment. If we continuously act on our practice, Throughout self-enlightenment practice, enlightenment is there. You don't have to create some idea called enlightenment. But when I don't realize the enlightenment, even though I'm already practicing in the midst of enlightened practice, we don't always realize that. So instead of talking about enlightenment, we usually talk more about realization. To have to realize what you're really doing. So he said, this is not so.

[28:02]

We Soto students do not stick to anything. We have complete freedom of practice, complete freedom of expression. Our practice is the loving expression of our true nature or reality. So for us it is not possible to stick to anything. Moment after moment we practice in a renewed, refreshed way. This is enlightened practice, that every moment is a brand new birth, actually, of life. We also think about birth and death as happening at each moment. Each moment is a moment of renewal. And in order to have renewal, something has to get right. So our life gives way to new life, moment by moment. So we have various ways of thinking about birth and death.

[29:06]

One is, I was born on a certain day and I lived my life and then I died. That's one way of thinking about birth and death. But birth and death are happening at each moment as well. This is... how we can actually study the reality of birth and death. And we should study it all the time. You can study it in a moment and continuously. So birth and death are not something to fear, but if we understand it, the reality of birth and death, we can say that everything is just right. just as it should be. Somebody said, you know, I can't stand the fact that we die.

[30:07]

Well, that's because you don't understand the reality of our life. It's too bad. That just causes pain and suffering. Imagine the pain and suffering of, I'm angry because we have to die. So, you know, what is the great matter? We should be studying the great matter. Dogen talks about the great matter. The great matter is the matter of birth and death. What is it? What is it really? You know, there's life. But life is not the opposite of death. Birth is the opposite of death. Because birth and death are the inspiration and expiration. Inspiration is coming to life.

[31:11]

Expiration is letting go. That's what we call our breath, inspiring, inspired, and expired. And so expired means dying. Inspired means coming to life. And we do that continuously all the time. Life itself is continuous. Life is like it. Life is immo. And it's not affected by birth and death. This is the fundamental. So, life itself is continuous, but birth and death are the changing of like night and day. So, we don't like it, but, you know, they're my friends, you know, both of my friends in our life.

[32:14]

So, we don't really like it. Wait a minute, wait a minute, not yet, but unfortunately, we don't have a lot to say about it. But if we can accept our life on each moment as just as it is, we can accept everything as it's supposed to be. So, we have to realize that nothing belongs to us. That's very fundamental. You know, we have our claws and we have our money and we have our this and that, and we say, that's our mind. but they're not mine, nothing is mine. Nothing is my property, nothing is mine. Everything is just stuff to work with, well, like her, to pass the time with. But when I get really caught up in all this, and to take it very seriously, very seriously,

[33:23]

So, our practice should be independent from past practice and future practice. We cannot sacrifice our present practice for some future attainment. He's talking about enlightenment. If I'm always thinking about enlightenment, then this man is unsatisfactory. From always thinking about something better in the future, this moment becomes unsatisfactory. So that's called wasting your life. Because you don't see the value of this moment. We totally miss the value of the present moment by wishing for something better in the future. Not that something will change and you'll enjoy something that you think is better in the future. See, this is much better. Maybe, it may be better, but fundamentally, it's not any better.

[34:27]

Fundamentally, everything is the same. But discriminatively, things are better and worse. So, we can't sacrifice our present practice for some future attainment, because all buddhas attain enlightenment in this way, and all buddhas in the future will attain enlightenment in this way. In this way means not in a particular way. Certainly, as it may be, sometimes wrong, sometimes right. According to the circumstances, it may have been another school. Some may attain enlightenment when selling a flower or hearing a sound. Some may attain enlightenment when taking a hot bath or going to the restroom. Much I put on it may attain enlightenment in various ways, so actually there is not a certain way or it runs out of way. We have discussed practice rather abstractly, but this is what it means. Where ever it is, we should accept it. When ever it is, we should accept it. But in all those ways, moment after moment, where ever it may practice our way, there is no other way to attain enlightenment.

[35:34]

So, you know, Because anything, whatever it is that sounds like a problem, is also an aid. So we don't say, I wish I didn't have this problem, but how can I use this problem, rather than how can I be used by this problem? So, do you have any questions yet? You said everything is as it should be? And you also said that we can't change our actions. You didn't say that? No, no, no, no, no. I said it is not fake. Not, not fake. That means someone was deterred and they can't change it. So you can't change actions. Absolutely. That's what Buddhism is based on. Right. So isn't that a contradiction? Of what? If you're able to change things... Yes, if you're able to change, change.

[36:43]

But then it's not as it should be, or is it still as it should be? It's still as it should be. Change whatever it is, it's as it should be. In other words... You know, we're talking about an attitude, not about a role. You have to understand that. We're not talking about, this is the role, we're talking about this is an attitude with which we approach our life. And if you start picking on things, then you never know when to remove. So we have to understand that. We also have to understand that a talk, an expressiveness, expresses something that you should understand rather than something that is going to inform you. So, and I have to learn between the lines, or as it's said, the back of the page, which is where the moral lies. So, you know, unless I put out exceptions and say, what about this?

[37:47]

We have to be careful because We can always change. Karma is not fixed. Whatever action I do determines who they are and what they have become. That's just, that's the law. So, but we can change your karma. We can change and it's going a different direction. You always have more freedom because everything's fixed. But when I asked you before, you said we're all going to the same place. We have different destinies, we have different... But we're going to the same place. So what... We have different destinies. Destiny means destination. Right. And destiny means, because of what you do, you go to some place that has a direction. Right? So I have a direction, and that direction's round, different. You know, that's the moment of the moment. Okay. But in a world of continuous time, There is no special direction.

[38:54]

Everything is completely still. So, activity arises out of stillness. But to best ordinary activity, to best ordinary activity is to not be guarded in our reality. Because in the most children, there is no... there is not very clear of a grasp in the mind of familiar as still. And then look at the world. You think it's stable, and then, boom, everything changes. And then, boom, it changes again. There's no stability here. The only stable place is in the fundamental reality, which is Aum's stillness. And the stillness is the same all night. That's why we all meet. We all meet in stillness, in the fundamental reality. But the discriminating reality is when we all Sometimes wait and sometimes don't. That's all the problems.

[39:58]

But it's all based on fundamental reality. So when we touch the fundamental reality, we have the possibility of being enlightened. Whether we are or not. But we can always change our direction. Otherwise, you'll be hopeless. And who knows, it might be hopeless anyway. So that's why I make us, you know, pray so well and so forth. But all is fine with each other because this is the land of duality, the land of discrimination, the land of denial. Sometimes it's love, sometimes it's peace, sometimes it's war. And it's all mixed up, but... Then all the peace and renewal are always there. Because that's our discriminated nature. It's the nature of duality.

[41:01]

It's just always going on. You talk about suffering so much. What about joy? Yeah, I didn't talk about it so much. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. It's more than my question, but that's enough of a question I guess. It is, yeah. The Buddha's time was more or less based on the Four Noble Truths. So, the First Noble Truth is, everyone has a problem in this world. And their problem is the problem of suffering. It was just a warning that there's no joy. It's simply talking about the problem, not talking about the other side. Of course there's joy and so forth. Although, in some cases, the understanding is that even our joy is suffering.

[42:03]

Because, well, without joy there's suffering and within suffering there's joy. When you have joy, you know it's going to be gone. Well, that's right. Joy doesn't last very long. You have to catch it as it flies, as someone said. Catch the joy as it flies by. But it's possible to love a life of enjoyment, but that's on a deeper level. When you touch reality, the enjoyment of touching reality is not dependent on circumstances. So the joy that we usually think about is the joy which is dependent on circumstances. So we're joyful, we're in a place of joy, we're all joyful, we're suffering, and then we're joyful and then we're suffering. But, and I, [...] and

[43:06]

There's a dead jar that runs through everything. But I was thinking that when we talk about reality versus delusions... Not dresses, but... Well, reality and delusions that we live in. It seems that cultivating a joyous attitude helps you to embrace things emo. Absolutely. Because if you suffer all the time... I've noticed talking to people, I think, Oh, you're afraid to be hurt. Oh, you're afraid to be hurt. That's right. Now you're afraid to be hurt. And so then they want to shut out a lot of things because those things may hurt them. That's right. And there's more delusion, I think, in that, I'm asking you, than in joy. So joy comes from accepting everything as it is. You're not going to accept anything as it is. You're going to have another pain to stop joy. It doesn't eliminate joy. So when I talk about joy, it's something separate from pain.

[44:17]

So Buddha talked about pain. So that's why we talk about pain a lot. He talked about pain and what is called the physician. First of all, heroes are subject to suffering. And the reason why is because of desire, unfulfilled desire, which is called delusion. Delusion in that reaching for something unattainable. or the rush for something which is unattainable, because we can't... I'm sorry to spoil it, but I don't realize the cure. The cure is to realize that there is a way out of that. And the way out of that is to call it the Dharma, which leads you away from the illusion of suffering, or the delusion of... or how I get into suffering.

[45:21]

Right? So, what is the end of suffering? That's what Buddhism is about. Not so much about suffering, but how to get rid of suffering. So, when you get rid of suffering, you have joy. Right? So, it's like, when we first say, this is joy, this is joy, then we've got a misunderstanding. So it's simply, how do you cure yourself? And then joy is a result of something. Happiness is a result of something. Right? So we're talking about higher love rather than trying to get joy. We're trying to get happiness. There's no such thing as a happiness or a joy. Joy is the result or the expression of something. So long as you have freedom, you have joy. but to try and manufacture it, which we do all the time.

[46:23]

I call society giant manufacturers. So I'm manufacturing. I wonder why we don't enjoy the simple things as much as we know we should, but we sometimes forget how much great pleasure there is in just having a healthy body and breathing and cool water on a hot day. I don't see this. There's such a great joy in it, and yet we focus in on, oh, it's the time. I would say hearing bands are subject to overstimulation. You know, I often felt so heartbroken that all the farmers left the farms, you know, for the city. Once hearing, what is that, their song? They're gonna keep them down. So we fed each other all this stuff. And when you get fed, you know, it just exaggerates and blows up your... I would appreciate this moment whenever you're... That's right.

[47:30]

Then you're grounded. You don't need so much. You could say a couple words. I recognized yesterday, I don't know actually for myself, I do know the difference for other people, but I do not know for myself what is the difference in compassion for myself and indulgence. I do not know what's the difference. Well, compassion is for others. Indulgence is for ourselves. Well, the words pretty much, but as an artist, I said it a little differently. Yeah, I said it a little differently yesterday. I hate repeating myself. Things are changing. Yeah, well, this is it.

[48:33]

Yeah, because there's no one answer. Now, language is really tricky. And when you say acceptance, you say something about the kind of acceptance that is the understanding of acceptance that's an acceptance of resignation that expresses itself through not doing and then the acceptance that Right. The acceptance I try to imagine and think of is we're still small but we'll try and stuff it in. That's not acceptance. Acceptance is growing bigger to expand to include everything. That's called big mind. Big mind expands to include everything. And then it's not suffering. It's only suffering when we find our limitation And we don't have room for what's present.

[49:34]

The secret of Dzogchen and our life of practice is to expand, to accept everything. Because if you don't expand, you can't really accept. So you just grow bigger to encompass everything. And just with that, because I feel like a little bit not hearing something, if you could say something on It's responding, not necessarily reacting. Reaction is to be caught by something. Responding is to go to that fundamental place and open up, and then you know how to respond. Time.

[50:37]

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