words. Good evening. And hello to everyone online. Nice to see everyone. So this will be the last class that I am leading, and next week we'll have Shinshu Roberts, who wrote Meeting the Myriad Things, and that'll be Zoom only, online only. And if you haven't already sent in questions to ask Shinshu, so the way she's going to do it is she will do a presentation and it will be based on all of our questions. So as many of them as she can integrate into what she shares. And then I think there will also be some time for Q&A in her talk. But she will integrate that from her understanding how all that might fit together. So far I've only received about five or six questions, and they've all been wildly different, which is great. So please send them in. And it's also good to know if there are themes, then she would focus more on that too.

[01:03]

Let's see. So I was thinking I might just hit highlights of the rest of Ganjo Koan, which is most of it, tonight. I'm going to do some of that, but I'm also going to try to kind of do an overview all the way to the end. So this will be interesting because I haven't mapped out totally how that's going to work. So this will be a little bit creative as we go along. And to reiterate, Genjo Koan, the words, can be translated as reality actually and presently taking place. That's Genjo. And koan is the intersection of the individual relative or the universal absolute. So the actualizing or manifesting or realizing, in other words, making real, bringing forth the simultaneous truth of oneness and separation or sameness and difference or non-duality and non-duality or the absolute and the relative.

[02:17]

And how do we live this? Like Indra's net is an image that's often used. Everything is interconnected and it's at where the net crosses. There's a little light of each one of us. But what does that look like? How do we actually live that out? So we ended last time and partly my talk is to study the Buddha way is to study the self. So we'll go on from there, and I should say that I'll give four talks during the Sashin, and those will touch on certain themes in a practice way from Genjo Koan, and particularly practice relevant to Sashin. I wanted you to just be able to reference it if you wanted to look at it. If you're not super familiar with it, as I'm going through it, you can just... follow along and see it. I think it would just take too much time to chant the entire rest of it.

[03:23]

So, thanks for asking. So, when you first seek Dharma, you imagine you are already far away from its environs. So, in order to... communicate awakening, Dogen uses lots of everyday things like time and space and images, because what else do we have to work with? If you just say the absolute, that doesn't really communicate anything. But this sense of when you're first practicing Dharma, you're first encountering it, and you feel like... oh, these other people know what's going on, or somebody else does, and it's not me, and I don't understand, and I'm far, far away from this. And this idea that there's some place that we want to get to, or some particular way of being that we want to get to, because it's clearly not this moment, and it's clearly not this self.

[04:30]

But Dharma is already correctly transmitted. You are immediately your original self. So this original self, Buddha nature, is right here, right now. It's inseparable from the myriad factors that have shaped or formed us from beginningless time throughout space. I was thinking about my parents, our parents. Once upon a time, each one of us existed at a point where a sperm had just entered an ovum. And a split second before that, we, however you want to think about that, was actually in two different locations inside of a sperm and inside of an ovum. And not long before that, they were in two completely different bodies. And then we're a self.

[05:33]

So when does the self arise? That's a big conversation currently. When does it become a baby rather than an embryo? So there are no hard and fast lines between anything, actually. Even between this and that, it's like mostly this is all space. At the atomic level, it's all space. But particularly people and what we think of as ourselves. There's a body, but what's in my body, what's out of my body. So we're looking outside or inside to find fixed things. And we can't quite find them. Dharma is already correctly transmitted. You are immediately, now, no separation, your original self.

[06:34]

And then the task, of course, is how to realize that. When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. So the boat is us. And it, because it doesn't exactly work. If you just watch the boat, you can't tell that the boat's moving because it looks very solid under you. It's just there. But it's really, if we look at ourself, then we think we see, we think that other things are moving in relationship to us, as opposed to we're moving, you know, the mind is moving. It's not the flag moving, it's the mind moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves, that there's impermanence. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind, you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent.

[07:40]

When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self. So we think of ourselves as kind of a... Many of us think of it as kind of like a self, or a part of ourself anyway, as a kind of a still stable fixed point in the universe. But when we look and notice our breath rising and falling, our thoughts coming and going, our feelings arising and passing, we can see that everything is just in flux. So how do we... learn to see from outside of our own limited point of view. We can imagine seeing through others' eyes and that can actually be very helpful to just really imagine what it would be like to be someone else or what would another person think or feel. But ultimately we can't see anyone's experience other than our own.

[08:47]

We can broaden it, we can deepen it, but but we are still manifesting Genjo Koan even in our limited view. And please ask questions whenever you have them. Because Genjo Koan is manifesting continually everywhere, even when I'm completely deluded as I am a lot of the time. I'm not living in an awakened state all the time. That is reality as it's happening in this moment. You are manifesting your total self in this moment. I mean, other people look at you and say, there's Linda. I mean, they might say, there's Linda and I totally...

[09:49]

Buddha nature is completely available to see right now, and now I'm seeing another side of Linda, but it's still, for other people, it's just us. Yes. There's a question on the line. Two Lindas side by side, indeed. Yes, question. Thank you. I just said if I'm in my limited view, how is it that I'm manifesting the entire universe? The question was, if I'm in my limited view, how can I be manifesting Genjo Koan? How could I be manifesting reality in that moment? And I said we can't stop doing that actually. That is what's always happening regardless of what our experience is and how it feels. Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again.

[10:54]

So now it's talking about time, past and past, present, future. Yet do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. So I just wanted to read a little bit from... Sojin's introduction to, in the three commentaries book, about Nishiari Bokasan, which references firewood and ash. And Sojin writes, Nishiari seems to have had a good sense of humor and playfulness with a down-to-earth, non-dualistic approach, as when he talks about the well-known fire and ash passage. He says, go where there is ash and ask... Right now you have a very fluffy body, but you used to be called firewood, which was very solid and flammable when put into a fire.

[11:56]

You were burned little by little and got yourself to where you are now. Do you think the ash will agree with this? It will surely reply, nonsense, I have never met anyone called firewood. He also talks about the same thing with beans and tofu. Beans become tofu. From the tofu maker's point of view, beans are boiled and turned into tofu. It appears that beans are before and tofu after. But this is a perspective from outside and goes through the same thing. So, yes, this is how we, he's saying that the ash or we or the beans are like us. You know, we don't experience it this way. And yet there's this transformation, but it's not that one becomes the other.

[12:56]

It doesn't like poof, turn into something. It changes and yet it's entirely what it is. Birth is an expression completely... Sorry. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. This ash is ash now. And it does not become, just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death. There are somewhat different commentaries on this. But what I'm resonating with currently is this is about there's no rebirth of the self. There's no set self, lifetime to lifetime, that keeps being reborn. like my past lives that I can remember. It's that the life force keeps reinvigorating in different forms.

[13:59]

Yes? Yes. The question was, is that true moment to moment as well? And my answer is yes. Things are continually creating and recreating and fluxing moment to moment. and they're both the same and different. So, yes. This being so, it is an established way in Buddhadharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha's discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no death, that there is no thing called birth and no thing called death. It's not that we don't die, but there is no thing that is death. There is no thing that is birth. And now they're finding that the death process is so much more fluid and uncertain than they ever understood that it goes through all these different changes and that people can be in states that we thought were death and then people come back from that.

[15:16]

So clearly that is not like the point of no return. So even in that, it's like these mushy boundaries between things that we want to make as human beings and that we need to make as human beings. Skip down. When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, You think it is already sufficient. And this is kind of the flip side of thinking that when we first seek Dharma, we imagine we're far away from its environs. So we've gotten a good dose of Dharma at this point, and we think, yeah, that's good. You know, like, I've got it now. I think I've got it. So you think it's like whatever you have is already sufficient. And when Dharma fills your body and mind, in other words, when we're in a more awakened, less delusional state, you understand that something is missing.

[16:30]

So the something is missing is like, you know, when you get closer and closer to another person, you realize more and more that you really don't know them and that they're a mystery. and that we're a mystery, even to ourselves and to other people. So we can't know ourselves totally, we can't know others totally, and we can't know the world totally. We can be aware in this moment, but we can only see this much. So the understanding that something is missing is just that we can't see the whole, and we have the humility to know that. to live from that place. For example, when you sail out in a boat to the midst of an ocean where no land is in sight and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular and does not look any other way. So, the feeling is that this image comes from Dogen's journey to China when he sailed there, which was quite a long and arduous journey and

[17:42]

People only made the voyage like once every two or three years and took quite some time. And he was probably on a boat before that, but always inside of the shore. And suddenly now he's out and there's like, there's nothing. You know, there's no land in sight. And you view the four directions. And the ocean looks circular and does not look any other way. Like we can't see anything else other than that. But the ocean is neither round nor square. Its features are infinite in variety. So this is not just the ocean. This is the world. This is everything, every being in the world. Its features are infinite in variety. You could think of the coastline as fractals that are infinitely tiny. They just keep going and going and going into more and more granular levels. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel.

[18:43]

It only looks circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this. And this reference, it is like a palace, it is like a jewel. You know, what this is saying is that the same reality looks different to different beings, different types of beings. The ocean is a palace to dragons. That's how they perceive it. To a fish, the ocean is home. To a hungry ghost, it's a pool of blood. And to a human, it's water. And that's just how we experience it. That's how we see it. That doesn't make it what it is. There's no it. There's just ways of experiencing it. And it is like a jewel. That's the multifaceted... nature of reality and the precious view of that, of being able to see this multifaceted reality, the jewel of seeing it all these different ways.

[19:48]

Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. So this is... This is taking that image again of the ocean. It's moving it to the dusty world and the world beyond conditions. But you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. It can reach only that far, as far as your understanding reaches. In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety. Whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet or in a drop of water. I love this. Whole worlds are there. If you're interested in the natural world, that probably feels very alive in terms of

[20:58]

birds and the different kinds of birds and how do they build their nests and what are their songs and when do they come and go or you know it might be about rocks or plants or people or whatever that there's just this like interest and curiosity and engagement about you know I mean we're all part of the natural world we are definitely part of the natural world and how does how is that you know how are all the How does it manifest? Yeah, I mean, now we know that it's not just in a drop of water, but with microscopes, we know just how much there is in a drop of water, which is crazy. You know, and the little beings that live on the edges of our eyelids and, you know, these crazy, tiny, tiny, tiny beings. And it just keeps going. So... And I think Dogen's bringing this in, not just to make an analogy or a metaphor, but to keep in mind that the surfaces that we, you know, or the constructs that we make in our mind based on the surfaces that we see are not all that's there.

[22:19]

So how do we bring that continual curiosity to our lives? And I would guess that many of you have ways that you engage in that quite readily. That's somewhere where your attention turns and you have kind of an ongoing interest or curiosity and other areas where it's just not awakened and maybe it even seems boring. You know, it's just like, that's opaque to me. I have no interest in that. Yes. Oh. Microphone? Oh, no. Okay. Yes.

[23:25]

Is it to bring awareness to things that are more complex than maybe what we can realize at a given moment? Or am I misreading this? Yeah, so the question was, what is Dogen's kind of motivation in bringing all these images and metaphors forward? Is it to help us awaken curiosity to think about, are there whole levels that we're not seeing? I think on one level, he'd been searching for the answer to this question. He had total faith that we are all Buddha Dharma. And why do we have to work so hard? What's the connection between that? And when he finally met his teacher, Rujing, and realized that for himself and realized that practice realization... are not two separate things.

[24:31]

He really wanted to share that. So this is his way of trying to share that experience that he had. I mean, we're all living this and we're all deluded and causing harm, you know, globally in a sense, you know, it's like we're not, you could say we're not living our very best lives. because we're suffering in many ways. And he's like, oh, how can I express this? This was written in 1233 when he was 33 years old. So it was pretty soon after he got back from China, maybe five years, something like that. And then he kept reworking this to try to communicate more clearly in it. So that's my guess, is to try to... He was very passionate about sharing the true Dharma and very focused on that.

[25:36]

And he's trying to express his understanding that worked for him. And it's challenging to find a way in with these images and these words to have it land for us 800 years later. very different cultures. And I think hard then, too. I don't think that made it a whole lot easier. So, anything else? Nope. Okay. Now, if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, This bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

[26:43]

For the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others. The place, the way... has not carried over from the past, and it is not merely arising now. So, again, if we're trying to construct it in our mind before moving in it, in other words, before acting, before living, before manifesting, we'll never get to it. We'll just keep creating things in our minds, creating... analogies and pictures in our minds, trying to keep making better maps rather than being actually where we are, fully realizing that. Accordingly, in the practice enlightenment of the Buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it. Doing one practice is practicing completely.

[27:46]

So we actually paradoxically kind of transcend our limited self by just becoming our limited self completely. You know, there's nothing to get rid of here and there's no other self. It's like just to manifest yourself as you are with all limitations and perceived limitations, actual limitations, whatever. There's nowhere to go. We can... We can start being here anytime. And it's very, it can be, at least for me, it's a rather palpable difference when I'm actually here. It's subtle, but I can notice the difference. It's almost like things light up a little bit and there's more spatial orientation. In a sensory realm, it feels more alive and present, like going to 3D mode instead of... Yeah. Like, it's like, oh, okay.

[28:53]

Oh, look, there's all of you out here. You know, you're actually here. There's a whole being in each person. But we all have moments of that during the day, and it's just that. But just living from that place, experiencing that we are actually part of the world and not separate from it. We participate completely in the universe all the time. Can we recognize that we are participating in the universe? Our words, our action are forming our little corner of the universe which radiates out continually. Dogen says, all things coming and carrying out practice enlightenment through the self is realization. It's not about... leaving the self behind, it all happens through the vehicle of the self. Domyo Burke comments, all of Dogen's teaching, all of the Genjo Koan, all of our practice is fundamentally about this paradoxical nature of our existence.

[30:12]

how we realize, actualize, and live in harmony with the absolute as a limited being. Not in spite of our limited being. Not once we transcend our limited being. Not only when we give up our limited being. Not when we discover an alternative unlimited being. We remain a limited being and we awaken to how simultaneously All things are being and there are no real boundaries around or within being. I love that. Like all the ways we could say, no, I'm not that or, you know, it's like, no, it's this one, no other. Here is the place. Here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of Buddha Dharma.

[31:19]

So our understanding and our realization and our ability to see arises simultaneously. Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be distinctly apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. So it's there and we can't know it in the way that we would like to know it. The inconceivable may not be distinctly apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Is the fundamental point that is actualized the purpose of consciousness or the locus or location of consciousness?

[32:22]

Okay, so is the actualizing the fundamental point, this fundamental point, the purpose of practice? No. Or is it the point you're actualizing your consciousness from? The boundary is not distinct. It is a co-arising of these factors that come together, and it's not any one of them, and it's not just the additive response. But we just can't separate them anymore, any more than... You know, I had some chili for dinner and I can't separate the beans and the tomatoes and the things anymore. Especially not now when they're in my belly.

[33:24]

But these are just very crude analogies for something that is... I mean, it is literally beyond... Our human minds can... can't imagine something bigger than our human minds, but we can't encompass it because our human minds are human minds and not the universe. So we have to be human beings with human minds, which is perfect, just as it is. And could use a little work. Let's see. Zen master Bauchu of Mount Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why then do you fan yourself?

[34:26]

So this is Dogen's question, right? The nature of wind is permanent. Buddha nature extends everywhere. And there is no place it does not reach. Why are you fanning yourself? Why practice? And Boucher replies, although you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere. What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere? asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself and the monk bowed deeply, indicating that he understood. He got it. The master just responded by continuing to practice, continuing to, even though the wind is permanent, you still have to participate. You have to do it. This is your part to do. This is your place, so to speak, your lot. In Genjo and Koan, it's like keeping to one's lot. We still have to practice.

[35:28]

This is what we do, even though the world goes on. We still have to uphold that. Jim? I had a question for a while, and it has to do with the English word realize. Maybe you've talked about this and I missed it, but it has two meanings, right? One is to see something you didn't see, to understand something, and one is to effectuate something. Yes. I take it as meaning both of those things. The question was realize has two meanings, two senses. One is to... make something real to actualize it, to realize, and the other is to understand it. And I think this is a wonderful word because it's used both ways. And that's why it can be, you know, it can be translated as actualized or manifested or realized, but it has both senses. There's an understanding that happens, but there's also a putting it into practice, like bringing it into, like,

[36:31]

It's not just a thing that happens in your head, and it's not just a thing that happens through acts of body, speech, and mind. Realization is this both and, that we are living in some... Well, in terms of our practice, we're saying we're starting off from a point of view of delusion where we're not experiencing that. And... that we're getting closer over time and through practice to being more in alignment with that, which is why Dogen increasingly was focused on how we act. Later in life, it wasn't just about having this monastery he was taking care of. I was listening to some of Norman's talks about Genjo Koan, and he was talking about close to the end of, in the last few years of Dogen's life.

[37:34]

You know, he had been kind of forced out of Kyoto. He went off to the mountains. And at this point, I forget if it was the emperor or the, you know, the shogun. It was now moving into a shogun, you know, into warlords, basically. And he was called in to, called to Kamakura, I think, to to meet with, you know, this high person and like the emperor. And he did not want to go, but he did. And apparently he was appalled because they knew they were going to ask him to like take over something. And they did. And he was appalled that they would think that the teaching of Buddha nature could be used to support the shogunate. And he turned it down. But he came to realize just how important it was that it's not like anything goes.

[38:37]

Like if everything is empty, then you can do whatever. That he really came to see the value of precepts and actions and karma as being really vital and started revising some of his texts to highlight that more at the end of his life. So this feeling about what we do really matters. So from this vast interconnected view, which is now so available to us, like the whole butterfly theory of change that ripples out in terms of climate, what we do, it may have a very tiny effect, but we're all interacting on each other. The actualization of the Buddha Dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this.

[39:40]

If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent. Because of that, the wind of the Buddha's house brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river. So, you know, Buddha nature is permanent in the sense that it is always there, like the universe is there, but it's always changing. But the underlying nature is there, and Because of that, it's so funny to talk about because of this, but because of the existence of this, the wind of the Buddha's house, the particular, the wind of the Buddha's house is like the family style, how you express it.

[40:46]

In your own family, it might be the wind of my house. Well, in Soto Zen, they talk about the wind of the, family house of Soto Zen is careful attention to detail. And I love that. It expresses Soto Zen, this very careful attention to detail. So every family, every clan, every country has their own particular manifestation of how you express the being of you. And the wind of the Buddha's house... brings forth the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river. So how do we bring forth the beauty and wonder of existence, of life, of being, for the benefit of all beings? Domino Burke says, The nature of wind is Buddha nature, and waving a fan is spiritual practice. The essence of the question being discussed here is this.

[41:50]

Zen teaches that everything in the universe is part of one seamless reality. And this reality, when perceived directly, is complete, luminous, and precious. And not only that, the universe is complete, luminous, and precious, and you are intimately part of its perfection, whether you realize it or not. Realizing it for yourself is nice, but ultimately... Reality isn't dependent on your teaching. So we don't have to do anything, right? And she said, this is not a philosophical question. It's about what really matters in life. It's about how you should live, how you should live out your aspirations, and embody compassion. Should you try to transcend the world of suffering, maybe by abiding in oneness? Or should you practice the way of the bodhisattva, vowing to save all beings? by using whatever means you can.

[42:52]

And she said, in our actual lived experience, there is no problem with devoting ourselves wholeheartedly to practice and benefiting all beings, even when we know that getting caught up in ideas of perfection, self, benefit, and beings just gets in the way. It's entirely possible to work for change without being attached to the results. It's not just possible, it's necessary. The complete luminous universe is only complete and luminous because it includes our efforts. Yeah. That's Domio Burke. B-U-R-K. her first name. I know her from Tassajara. There's a lot of stuff online and there's a lot of teachings on there.

[44:03]

I don't know if they have like a real practice place, do you know Linda? They have like a daily practice or anything? Yeah, I don't know. But anyway, she's pretty great. Gen X maybe, so a little on the younger side and a woman, which I also like. Yeah, so let's do some breakout groups and have a chance to talk about this. I think my summary of the question is, what does genjo koan, either the word or the fascicle, mean for you in your own life, on and off the cushion, in moments of delusion and moments of suffering? in moments of freedom and awakening. Or it could be, how do you experience or articulate or give language to the practice of genjo koan? Is it living a life of vow, following the bodhisattva path?

[45:08]

Because that's been my impetus in having this class, is what does this mean to you, not intellectually, but in practice? How can this be alive for you? How is it or how might it be alive for you in your life? Any questions about the prompt? The task at hand? The matter at hand? Okay, so I'd love to hear some of what was, what's staying with you or what questions you have or they may not be questions that you want answered but they're like, What's alive from the conversations? Anyone? I think the mic is not working so well. Oh, great. Okay. Let's try it with the mic, and then we'll see if you can hear.

[46:09]

Testing. Hold it like this. I didn't really volunteer to say something. But... You've got to say something sometimes. Mike is working for us. Great. We had an in and out of illumination and obscurity reflecting on our experience. And then we talked about just dealing with this in and out. At least that's what I was thinking about. They may present it differently. Dealing with in and out rather than being unhappy about being out or trying to prolong being in or something like that. Did you get that okay online?

[47:11]

Great. Any questions? Question was, did you want a rebuttal? Wait, what do you want me to share? Okay, yeah. So Genjo Collins had me thinking about the impermanence of the self and sort of the atemporal nature of facets of who you are. And that's been helping me deal with some trauma of the last few years as we've been studying Genjo Koan this month and kind of thinking about my karmic residue that gets transformed moment to moment and how I can't become the self that I was even 30 seconds ago, much less 10 or 20 years ago. And I

[48:17]

was talking about sort of the nature of things, and the nature of firewood being this one nature. But redwood forests, for example, things fall from the trees. They gather on the forest floor. There's a fire that burns to ash, and then new trees grow from that. And so in that way, you do get firewood from ash. But firewood, or a log that has been cut, Even if it has the same dimensions as another one, they're fibrous. It's a bundle of fibers that never take the same form twice, you know, ostensibly. But like these two columns right here, same dimensions, same nature of column, different wood. And the wood carries the karmic residue of the tree, right? So when wood is transformed through fire into ash, that entropy is dispersed and the karmic residue loses its form and then, you know, new wood can arise in its place but will never be the same despite being a product of the same entropy.

[49:30]

Great. Anyone online? Libby, hi. Our group was big on Genjo Koan acting appropriately in the present situation with loving kindness and compassion. And we asked how that carries into our relationships. And one of our members remembered that Suzuki Roshi said, not two, but one. You hear that? Let's see. So they were talking in their group about... how Genjo Koan manifests in the present world situation and bringing loving kindness to making a practice of that. I know I missed some of that, but was that close enough, Libby? Okay, yeah. And Gary? Yeah, the Genjo Koan came through.

[50:37]

Can you hear me okay? Yeah, still having trouble hearing. Still having trouble. I think I'm not turning it up correctly, but I don't know where to do that. I mean, I see this, is that... Are there you fine online? Yeah, I can hear really well online, but you guys can't hear. Usually there's like a function on the keyboard to increase volume if you're going through the laptop. I've got Blake working on it, so I'm going to think he's going to find it. Okay. Okay, try it now, Gary. How's this? Better? Can you hear me? Okay.

[51:39]

Great. Go ahead. You can hear me? Okay. Okay. Yeah, it mostly came through in our group with swimming for William and I, how we connect with people at the pool, which sounds strange because you think of it as an isolated sport, but you can actually get to know people by name and maybe not have a lot of talking. So no idle talk, but we're still connecting and we're still all part of that pool at one time. Rondi, oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say names, but one other person said something about Tai Chi and feeling really connected to nature through the Tai Chi process or forms. Great, thank you. Did you hear the point about the pool? I love that because when you're swimming, you're not talking to people, but you have to be very aware of one another.

[52:40]

Zazen, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's sometimes like a contact sport. Yes, that's true. Once in a while. Actually inadvertent. Right. And Jeremiah. Hello. I'll try and speak loud, too. My way I've really been thinking about Genjo Koan is right up in the beginning. You know, it I did not memorize it, so I don't have the words from the text. But the idea that, you know, you can move forward and experience the myriad things, or you can let them come to you and almost be experienced by them, you know? And I think of that as people. I'm just only talking about people right now as the things.

[53:44]

And I historically always thought of myself as a helper and a fixer. My younger brother, for example, has a very hard time to this day just talking to me about stuff because he really changes who he is as soon as he gets in my presence because he's worried I'm just going to start trying to fix him. You know? And so... Who he is and who he's showing up as changes as soon as I'm present. And I increasingly, like, I just don't want, I want to let all that go. I want to let go of the diagnosing and prescribing people's problems while they're talking to me. And I want people to just be able to come forward and actually be more fully themselves without me changing how they're showing up. Great.

[54:45]

Thank you. Maybe one more? Hannah has her hand up. I don't see it. Who? Hi, Hannah. Yes. We talked about interaction with in part, about interaction with people as we go through our just normal day. So, being present with who we meet, whether we know them or not, sometimes being present to organize something that we're going to do together, but sometimes just passing a person on the sidewalk. Also, seeing nature as we encounter it. We talked some about the magic of using jeweler's loops where you can see nature 30 times magnified and that makes it pretty interesting.

[55:48]

That's mainly what we talked about. Thank you all. It's been really a joy to bring forth, to just explore this. This is very different than anything I've tried doing before. I've Learned a lot and found out. Well, I can see just how far my eye of practice reaches, which isn't terribly far. And I have lots more to explore. So thank you for all doing this together and the online folks too. And thank you, Blake, as always, for the tech support and whoever is doing tech support online. Thank you very much for doing that. Gary. Mary. Mary, thank you so much. And we'll chant the four vows.

[56:31]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_94.72