I am at home to face the truth and let the time tell us worse. Good morning. I'd like to introduce Steve Stuckey, yogin, who is coming to us today from San Rafael. And he told me he just moved from Mill Valley, and then before that he was at Green Gulch. And I've heard Steve speak a number of times at our Dharma talks, and I've always appreciated what he has to offer. Steve received Dharma transmission a year ago from Sojin, from our abbot Mel Weitzman, and he is currently holding, he's also a student of Mel's, and he is currently holding, having sitting groups meet in his home in San Rafael. Thank you for speaking to us today. One of the teachers in our lineage, Tungshan, the Yangshe in the 9th century, said, practice secretly, working within, like a fool, an idiot,

[01:42]

If you can achieve continuity, this is the host within the host. I always liked the permission to appear as a fool. And today is April Fool's Day, and I'm here on a fool's errand. to convey to you what you already have. Last night my spouse, Lane Olson, at dinner time said, it's necessary to have a construct in order to convey that which you can scarcely imagine.

[02:46]

This is our usual dinner time conversation. But she actually said that. So I said, does the construct completely include that which you're thinking of conveying? And she said, no, of course not. It's just a part. So anything that we set up to carry something, which is as vast as the dharma, the teaching, or reality itself, is feeble, kind of foolish. And still we do it.

[03:53]

We give these little Dharma talks. We have many, many words in the history of the Buddha Dharma teachings. And we need to realize what is behind the words, what is before the words, in order for the words to be at all helpful or useful. I have a theme for my talk today, which is the mountain practice and broom practice. So in case someone asks you what the talk is about, you can say, It was about mountain practice and broom practice. Sitting upright, as we do, is a pure expression of mountain practice.

[05:08]

In the Zen tradition, training temples were usually located on mountains. And when you sit in this posture, you actually become imperturbable like a mountain. You have a chance to express your true being, which is completely beyond any particular state of mind you might have, completely beyond any particular identity that you might prefer. So this mountain actually is the image of the unconditioned. That's one aspect of our practice.

[06:17]

And the other aspect of our practice is the broom. Picking up the broom, sweeping the floor, sweeping the ceiling, sweeping the cobwebs and the dust, real cobwebs and real dust. The phrase that I quoted at the beginning from Dungshan, practice secretly, working within, sounds like it's just referring to mountain practice. Sounds like it's just referring to being very quiet, turning inward, and cultivating some kind of a personal Buddha-like state.

[07:28]

And that's partly true. But I want to mention also that you can do this secret practice while you're engaged in activity. You don't have to show it or demonstrate it in any particular way. But the opportunity is always there to be completely yourself. We're not always so happy sometimes to be completely ourselves. It's not so comfortable. Just before I left Mel's office, I looked on his bulletin board.

[08:44]

He has a little quote from Suzuki Roshi, which says, is like stepping into a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink. Wonderful encouragement. Maybe you don't like that kind of life. Can you step onto that boat with dignity, wholeheartedly? A part of this broom practice is what we might call service, helping others.

[09:57]

is not here today. Maylee invited me to come speak. She's helping others. So she wanted to help others right here today by priming the pump a little bit. She told me that I should say something about BASE. Does everyone know what BASE is? It's something new created by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. It's an acronym for Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement, BASE. Home Base. Baseless. The bodhisattva's vow actually is the vow to extend practice to everyone, to save all beings, we say.

[11:22]

The bodhisattva's vow is included in both mountain practice and broom practice. It's really at the base of mountain practice and broom practice. The Bodhisattva's vow is to be present with all beings, all forms of life, all states of mind, all conditions, to be completely free of dismay and despair in the face of whatever it is that's in front of you. or whatever it is that you're in the midst of. So this practice of sitting upright actually expresses that intention to be fully present no matter what. So the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement is a program

[12:36]

to create a vehicle, a construct to convey this kind of liberation to people who are in social difficulty or also I think within a kind of a political context which is oriented towards creating peace. in this world in which people are very much polarized and in which people are very confused and frightened and in which many people have given up hope and don't understand that giving up hope can't be great. But giving up hope in a way that is free of despair is not easy to do without some kind of support and training.

[13:43]

The word despair came up at Gringotts for me just a few weeks ago. I was at a Chuso ceremony and I asked the head student, Because he had talked about hope, I asked him, what's at the end of hope? At the very end of hope? And he said, despair. And then I asked him, what is at the end of despair? And he said he didn't know. And I encouraged him to check into that. People may feel that despair is the actual end. But actually, in our practice of being willing to face anything, we can even be present with despair.

[14:53]

We can be present with the end of hope. And discover that, amazingly enough, another breath arises. In the end, the Bodhisattva is not supported by anything, not even some idea of hope. So we say, The buck stops here. We say, don't put another head above your own. So the bodhisattva really takes responsibility. Now it can be confusing.

[16:08]

I want to tell a little story about Norman's Mountain Seat Ceremony. But before I tell that story, I want to fulfill my obligation to Meili and say just a little bit more about the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. From what I understand from reading the brochure, and there are probably brochures here someplace in the community room or something. I'll show you what it looks like. It is a volunteer program for people who can take some time and work for very little or no money or arrange for contributions to do something, to work in a situation that combines some training and practice

[17:18]

Combine sitting zazen and taking some classes and some real work, which may be working with a hospice, it may be working with distributing food to people who are hungry, or maybe something that can be created according to your own interests and skills. Some of the things they mention here are, in addition to the ones that I just said, Emotional support at the Women's Cancer Resource Center. Assistance to the Urban Community Garden Project. And the time frame, I think it's something like a six month period. Are there people here who are doing this right now? Are there any people who are volunteers in the BASE program right now?

[18:21]

I just thought there might be, because this was supposed to be the day, the first of April that it begins. Anyway, this is a little brochure, so if any of you are interested, take a look. In the community room, right? On the porch. There's a kind of freedom in your activity when you don't need to do anything, when you're completely content to do nothing, and you're completely at home in the present moment.

[19:30]

At that time, there's a kind of freedom in your activity. So what you do in your engagement with other people has a kind of a lightness to it. Often people's activity has some kind of a selfishness. Most of us are trained, actually, from an early age to be kind of selfish. We feel that we have to base our activity with some kind of a self-serving goal.

[20:32]

And of course, everyone feels that. consciously or more subtly. In the most recent Berkley Zen Center newsletter, there's a talk by Suzuki Roshi and it begins with a statement that it's okay to have an idea of time if you are unselfishly expressing yourself. And you need some idea of time to express yourself. And I think you would say it's okay to have some idea like

[21:35]

the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. In order to express yourself completely, you may have to set something up, an organization, a series of meetings. Prepare lunch. But know that when you do that, as you set it up, you are fully expressing yourself unselfishly. Fully expressing yourself for the complete benefit of everyone. Now when Norman Fisher Zoketsu recently became the abbot of Zen Center.

[22:43]

There was a ceremony at the Page Street Zendo in San Francisco and at a certain point in the ceremony he stepped up on a platform about like this high and stood up there in front of everyone. Some of you were probably there. Was anyone there? in the room, a couple of people, several people. So he stood there on the mountain and invited people to come and ask questions. And it was arranged beforehand that certain people would ask questions and I was one of those people. I was the last one. So naturally, when it came time for me to ask a question, all the good questions had been asked already.

[23:48]

But I still felt I had some question about how he felt about setting up this position of being the abbot, of being in the center of the Sangha. And so I asked him, in reference to an old koan, to speak the Dharma, or to build a temple, is to create some dust, to stir up some dust. And stirring up some dust, even though you're doing a good thing, old Zen masters make a face. So this is the old koan and I said, Norman, how do you feel about stirring up some dust?

[24:54]

And he said, well, of course, this is what I remember. I remember that he said, when you look closely at dust, you see that it is nothing but light. And when you look closely at light, you see it as dust. So, that was pretty helpful. I said, so then I said, if dust appears as light, And light appears as dust. How do we know where to turn? And he said something like, you come from kindness or you go through the door of kindness.

[26:14]

This is very important, that this compassion, actually, is the basis of our action. So then I asked him, can you convey this kindness to the entire Sangha? And then Norman standing, he's a pretty big guy, standing up on the platform. He took one step forward. So Norman stepping forward is manifesting the broom practice on the mountain. So then I stepped forward, and then he took another step.

[27:30]

If he took too many steps, he'd fall off the platform, but he came right to the edge of the platform, so I came up and we embraced. Then I stepped back and did three bows, and he did three bows up on the platform. And I felt pretty good that he actually understood that there's room for the broom on the mountain, and was willing to step forward to meet people. Now, there's an image in Zen practice or a series of images called the ox-herding pictures. And the ox-herding pictures show a kind of a progress through different stages of practice.

[28:36]

And in some depictions of the ox-herding pictures, the last picture is the image of coming down from the mountain. kind of a jovial character, a jovial Buddha coming down from the mountain, having completely realized everything that there is to realize. So then the image is re-entering the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands. re-entering the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands." Now I think there's a feeling sometimes when people look at the Oxford pictures that people think they may need to wait until they have become a Buddha before they can come to the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands.

[29:52]

And there's two things wrong with that. One, you're forgetting that you're already a Buddha. And two, you're forgetting the Bodhisattva vow, which is already fully operational. When does the Bodhisattva save all beings? So whether you're sitting, when it's time to sit, or you stand up and go out the door, meet people, whatever your posture is, at this time you can be cultivating your practice

[30:59]

your fool's practice in your foolish heart, willing to hear people, because the Bodhisattva actually begins by listening to the suffering, listening to the people who are stepping out of a boat. Some people are afraid of sinking. Some people have no idea that that's even possible. Being willing to be present with all these people in their different states of mind means that you're willing to be present with yourself in all of your different states of mind and not shrink and flinch or panic You might break into a sweat.

[32:01]

You might not feel so good. The Bodhisattva doesn't have to feel good before entering a marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands. There's a story about a boy whose sister was dying of cancer. And the family, I believe it was a bone marrow transplant that they decided was necessary. All the members of the family took a test to find out who was the most compatible.

[33:09]

And the parents were not so compatible. They really wanted to give themselves to save their daughter. It turned out that the little brother, who was seven or eight years old, had the best match. And so the family asked the boy how he felt about giving his own bone marrow to save his sister. And he said, OK. And so they went to the hospital and did the the procedure. I don't know exactly what's involved. And afterwards he was lying there on the gurney in the hospital and I think he had an IV in his arm and he was there for a while and one of the doctors was passing through the room and he raised his other hand and the doctor came over and said, yes, what is it?

[34:31]

And he said, When do I start to die? And then the doctor realized that the boy had thought that giving the bone marrow to his sister meant that he would die. And he was completely willing to do that. So sometimes when I feel kind of stingy with my time, and one of my daughters comes up with some new wrinkle in the day.

[35:35]

Last night it was lost car keys Actually, I lost car keys and it was the third time. And sometimes I feel like, you know, do I have to drive again to take another key? Yes. Yes, I do. So the Bodhisattva vow is not always some great thing. The actual embodiment of Brahman practice is sometimes what we call everydayness.

[36:45]

It's actually conveyed in our everyday presence, our everyday effort. Every once in a while, something amazing happens. And if you look closely, you see, if you see the dust as light, you might think, ah, even the dust is amazing. And it's constantly changing. So I'm happy to be here with you. It's wonderful.

[37:50]

It's wonderful to sit with other people. It's wonderful to have some sense of a common Dharma practice. And we know that we need to remind each other what we're doing. Every time I come to the Berkeley's Zen Dojo, I see some old faces and some new faces. So please continue your mountain practice. Doesn't this temple have a mountain name? Plum Mountain. Here we are on Plum Mountain, listening to the grass whips the neighbors mowing their scraggly lawns.

[39:05]

So it's a beautiful morning here on April Fool's Day. See if you can find the balance of being completely sincere and wholehearted and playful and lighthearted. Thank you.

[39:56]

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