This morning, just after breakfast, three students who had been to Japan, who had just come back from Japan, presented us with this brand-new bell. It's quite a beautiful bell. Albert, Bill, and Alan were in Japan doing a short practice period at Rinzōin, Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi's temple. And they said that someone just appeared with a bell wrapped up in a blanket. And I think I've got my story straight. They just appeared at the temple with a bell and a blanket and said, do you want this?

[01:09]

Or what can you do with this? Or it's yours? I think he said, this is a Buddhist bell, so some Buddhists should have it. This is a Buddhist bell, so some Buddhists should have it. And for years, Everyone who rings the bell has... I wouldn't say complained. Pretty close. Pretty close. Complained about working with this old bell. Which Michael Phillips gave me quite a few years ago. He said his grandfather got it in Japan But everybody worked with that bell, trying to make a good sound. This bell has a marvelous sound.

[02:09]

Why don't you ring it for everybody, Alan? This one's easy. This bell, it's easy, very easy to get a good sound from this bell. So I don't know whether that's good or bad. We all appreciate it, and we all appreciate the sound of the bell. But if we have something that's not such good quality, then we have to work a lot harder to get something out of it. So, in a sense, you can say, I am ringing this bell, but from the other side, the bell is ringing me.

[03:26]

I create the sound of the bell, and the sound of the bell creates me. When I have to work for something, then I become actualized. If all I have to do is press a button, life becomes too easy. So we say the sound of the bell is the sound of Buddha. So I don't know whether it's better to have a poor bell or a good bell. I truly don't know. But I really appreciate having this wonderful bell.

[04:32]

When I hear the sound of the bell, The sound of the bell is very deep and resonant. My response is to want to bow. It brings up a response in me. When the bell isn't so good, when it sounds like a garbage can lid, which sometimes sounds very good, then it doesn't bring up that response, But I bow anyway, which is good. That's also maybe even better. So we really don't know what's good and what's not good. And I think everything has two sides. The old bell, it wasn't such a good bell.

[05:34]

but it had a very good sign in that it really made us work. And it made me scowl. People don't like it so much when I scowl, but in the olden days, not too long ago, when the person ringing the bell would hit a sour note, I would turn around say something with my face, but my face looks worse than it is. So now there's no need to do that anymore, we feel. However you hit the bell, it's going to sound good. Even if you hit this bell in a bad way, it will sound better than when you hit the other bell in a good way. sort of. But it doesn't mean that we should become lazy or stop thinking about how we do something.

[06:49]

It's not like pressing a button. This bell has infinite wonderful qualities. So we should still make the effort to bring out infinite, wonderful qualities of this bell when we use it in order to bring out the infinite, wonderful qualities of ourself. Using the bell is the same as using our eating bowls. The bell is kind of like a bowl, as a matter of fact, kind of like an eating bowl. We say the eating bowl is... the first bowl is Buddha's head. That's called the orioke bowl, Buddha's head. And so we handle it very carefully and as a matter of fact the monk's eating bowl has a round bottom just like the bell and has to sit on a little dish.

[08:00]

So it really has no no place to stand and needs something to make it, to give it a home. And in the same way, this bell is like Buddha's head. And if it's his Buddha's head, how will you deal with it? How will you handle it? How will you make a Buddha sing? So we still have the same problem, but we're upgraded. The problem really hasn't changed. Basic problem. How do we actualize ourself? This is the problem. This is what our practice is about. How do we actualize ourself wholly, totally, and completely in one single act?

[09:01]

How do we sound ourself when we sound the bell? The bell is an expression of our deep nature. So if the bell has too good a sound, then we can rely on the bell instead of relying on our oneness with it. things are too good, we don't have to work, and then we lose ourself. We lose the purpose of our practice. When we sound the bell, the striker, the body, and the mind, and the bell, are all one piece. So, at the moment of sounding the bell, everything disappears into one huge, complete sound.

[10:15]

It's the same as when we hit each other with a stick, with a kyusaku. At the moment of hitting, there's no stick, no me, and no you. just whack. When we sound the bell, it's just boom. And in that one sound, the whole world is swallowed up. You know the story of Master Umong. Umong was a very famous Zen master. And one of the schools of Zen, or Chang in China, descends from him. He was a disciple of Shui Feng, but his first teacher, whose name I can't remember, was a very severe teacher.

[11:22]

And when students used to come to see him in Dongsang, he could tell by the sound of their footsteps whether or not he should open the door. And if the students, if it was somebody that he thought wasn't ready, he wouldn't open the door. But when he did let a student into the door, he would grab them and say, say it, say it. And if a student couldn't say anything, he'd throw them out. A very severe teacher. He probably got really quick results, too. But he probably didn't have very many students. But when Uman came to see him, Uman knocked on the door and the teacher opened the door and a little crack

[12:32]

And he took a look at Uman, and he shut the door again. And the next day, Uman came back again. Knocked on the door. Teacher opened the door. Closed it. And the third day, he came back. And when the teacher opened the door, Uman put his foot through the door. He was really going to get in. And the teacher went, and broke his leg. And Uman said, Ha! Everything, the whole universe disappeared in his ouch. This was Uman's first enlightenment experience. But he had to continue practicing for many, many more years before his practice was mature.

[13:48]

But he became a very mature teacher. What does his body look like? I don't tell you. So anyway, we're very grateful for this new bell. Also we have a new Mukugyo. This makes a nice sound when we chant. Very nice hollow sound. This Mukugyo is in the shape of a fish. Sometimes in the Zen monasteries they have a long fish. which they used to call the monks to meals. But this is a different shape of a fish.

[14:51]

And I'm not sure what all the symbols are on the mokugyo, but there are two dragons holding a ball in between their jaws. So anyway, we're quite upgraded. My... which gives me confidence in the feeling that if we just continue our practice over and over again without expecting anything, things will come to us. This is... I think... a good understanding for us, rather than trying to acquire something, just to do our practice with what we have, just to be satisfied with what we have, and to work with what we have, and to work with what we have to the best of our ability.

[16:03]

So again, then he says, for the tenzo, for the cook, for the chief cook, The cook who's cooking for the students should be able to make a wonderful meal out of a few blades of grass. Not to worry so much about if you have good ingredients or poor ingredients, not to judge the quality of the ingredients, but whatever appears, to figure out how to use it in the best way. This is really the secret of our practice, how to deal with whatever comes without judging or discriminating too much. and making an effort to figure out something that may not be so easy to figure out.

[17:19]

I remember years ago when we used to run out of money and food, we'd always look in the back of the cupboard. And there was always something in the back of the cupboard that was there for years, but you never used it because it wasn't something that you necessarily felt like using. So you didn't want to throw it away, but you kept sticking it in the back of the cupboard. And so when we ran out of food and money, we'd look in the back of the cupboard in the corner and say, oh yeah, look at this, look at that, and make some wonderful meal that never would have happened otherwise.

[18:26]

Maybe you have some questions or something you'd like to discuss or something comes up for you. Well, I just got back to Tassajara and they have a much larger bell, but I heard that And when I came to this dinner this morning, I heard this fella say, that's very good. I'd like to talk to her. I think the practice must be decent. It's a great lesson in mindfulness. I recently went on a retreat with Tikna Ham for children and their families.

[19:43]

And there was a small mindfulness bell that each of the children would take turns holding. And he had a little talk with them about not hitting the bell, and that the bell, you were to invite the bell to ring. that the bell had its own sound to bring to us. And I think that the children really paid attention to this bell before they invited it. The sound, they had to tap it very gently so as not to frighten it or to hit it out of the blue. And it was very gentle. And a couple of weeks ago, we were eating in a restaurant, and they kept dinging the bell, you know, when the food was ready.

[20:47]

And when we, when the bell was sounding, we had to kneel down and retreat to it to stop eating and breathe three times. It would be a reminder to return to your breathing and return to your stop. I would have a really hard time. And it's wonderful having another bell here. But I'm not so worried that it would make us lazy. It has its own depth of sound. Yeah, I appreciate that very much. To bring forth the voice of the bell, to find out what is that voice, that's what we have to do. Suzuki Roshi used to say when we'd hit the mokugyo too hard, somebody would start beating on the mokugyo and say, if we keep that up it'll have a heart attack.

[21:58]

So, to bring out the voice of the bell, to bring out the voice in the wood, to bring out the voice in each other. How do we meet each other in such a way that we bring out a true voice? As I always say, everyone has a good voice. But when it's our own voice, it's beautiful. When we haven't found our voice yet, then it's not so beautiful because it's not really our own voice. Some dogs don't have such nice voices either. I don't know.

[25:08]

to get used to it. But all the work that everybody gives, the hours and hours of work that everybody puts into practicing the spells, it makes us appreciate it and also helps us to know what to do with it. There's always some place to put your feet. So, I don't really advise giving, you don't have to. Just to pay close attention to it, which means that you're, I really found that you're in a circle. I mean, there's some place else that I think is a good place. Of course, I think, I think it's critical to know more deeply. Yes, very kind and forgiving.

[26:53]

I like that. The other one was not. kind and not forgiving. Well, I think that it also inspired you because you sounded very good.

[27:56]

The two belts ringing together, it makes a very interesting sound. May God bless you. Being satisfied with what we have doesn't mean complacent.

[29:34]

Mostly it means material things, not so much our understanding. We may not be so satisfied with our understanding, Although, it's also not so good to be greedy about gaining understanding or enlightenment. If we become too greedy, either spiritually or materially, we fall into the same trap. If we want too much materially, the material side is necessary. These are called the two wheels of the Dharma, the spiritual wheel and the material wheel. And when the spiritual wheel is turning, the material wheel will turn also.

[30:39]

If the material wheel is turning, it doesn't necessarily mean that the spiritual wheel is turning. So maybe the spiritual wheel is the gear drive tied to the engine. And the material wheels are like the trailers. They go along with it, but they don't move it. Although it's necessary to have a place to practice, food, a place to sleep, some money, automobiles, Beer? Automobiles. Automobiles. One automobile. Two. But we need to have material things. But whatever we have, we should appreciate. And before we reach out for more to evaluate, is this enough or do I really need so much more?

[31:48]

Is it necessary to have so much more? And so, how to be satisfied using what we already have? And how to use what we have all the way to the end? You know, there was an old Zen master in China, and he's not alone in this, but somebody, he used to have, keep sewing, patches on his robes. And his robes kept getting heavier and heavier. And people used to comment on that, you know. He'd say, well, you know, I left home with this robe 40 years ago. And I keep patching it. It's been my companion for 40 years. Should I throw it away now and get another one? A new one? I mean, it would be unthinkable to just discard this companion of 40 years.

[32:50]

So, just kept using the same robe over and over. And Suzuki Roshi used to talk about this monk in Japan who had tabis. Tabis are white Japanese socks. And he said there's this one monk that had this pair of tabis that had been repaired so many times that the original Tommy was no longer there. But these are extreme examples. But how to use something, how to appreciate something. You know, our material things, we tend to get new things and discard things a lot, but we don't see them You know, when we use something over a long period of time, the object we use obtains a personality which myself and the object kind of fuse.

[33:59]

And it influences me. It creates me in some way, and I change it in some way. You know, like an old pair of pants or an old spoon. or an old coat, they fit somehow, you know? You and the object fit together. So, to be able to appreciate and work with something, that relationship is important. The relationship that we have with things is important. And when we use them for a long, long time, we create a certain kind of relationship which is very important and valuable not only for ourselves but for the objects and we learn how to become one with things we can see how objects are not separate from ourselves

[35:12]

And also it's a great challenge to do a lot with a little. That's, I think, one of the major challenges of Zen practice is to be able to do a lot with a little. And we learn that with our posture in Zazen. How to use the least amount of effort to do the most amount of work. And then we feel some real satisfaction in our life. If we have to use a lot of effort or use a lot of materials to do some small task, it doesn't feel right. So, spiritually, also, if we want to gain too much knowledge or understanding or enlightenment and we keep working too hard, then we become a little bit greedy and avaricious for spiritual things.

[36:23]

So it's important to have a steady practice which just goes day to day and is involved with the day-to-day objects and things of our life. And over a long period of time, what needs to appear and what needs to come to us will come to us. We have to have that kind of faith in life itself, that when we just do our part, without wanting or grasping too much, what we need will appear, like this bell. I have a question regarding the Zen heritage in Japan. I need to talk about culture. And it's been there for hundreds of years, even though now a lot of people don't practice as much. But I'm sure there's a reason for that. But if you look at the way they behave nowadays, you know, like, for example, I read in magazines about the environment, that there's a real problem with the way they love trees in the Philippines.

[37:31]

They go there, and they cut everything. And there's no management of the trees. They try to learn from each other. And there's a number of things. I don't know if you're talking about Japanese culture, or Buddhism, or Zen. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. It's a very complex problem, but simply. although Buddhism and Zen influenced Japanese culture a lot.

[38:46]

And what you see that you love about Japanese culture is the Buddhist influence. The Buddhist and some Shinto influence. Religious influence. But in the last 50 years or so, the culture has become extremely materialistic. It just changed because, and especially after the war, because America defeated Japan, and they felt that they were defeated people, and they were influenced by the people who had defeated them. That is a major one. I mean, there are a lot of influences, but that's the major one. So they became very materialistic like we in the United States. And young Japanese people know very little about their heritage.

[39:48]

We have such a dominating influence in the world. Our materialistic culture has such a dominating influence in the world that in a way it's too bad, you know. cultures are being wiped off, just like the rainforests, the cultures are being wiped out. And somehow, there's also a counter-influence, you know, but it's pretty difficult in the face of materialism. In the face of so much pessimism, maintain optimism? Well, in the face of so much pessimism, you maintain optimism by just doing your practice. If you are attached to results, then you become pessimistic. But if you just do something for the sake of itself, then you can remain... It's neither pessimistic or optimistic, exactly, but it's...

[41:04]

sane or able to move and smile because, say, if you want peace or you want something, conservation, then you just work for it. But, and you work hard for it, but you don't work for it being attached to the result. It's just, that's what I have to do. and then you have a way to go. It can also be discouraging. And how do you... I guess discouragement and pessimism and optimism are all aspects of the ego? They're related to result. Which is tied to the ego. I didn't want to say ego exactly. We all have ego. Even peace people have ego. But, yeah, it's tied to the ego. It's tied to, ultimately.

[42:10]

I have a question. When you say to do something without expecting, without... I would try to do something that seems to be rare to me because it gives me the energy to do something. So even if it's not just for me, it's just for everybody. not hope that I change something or I get a result. I guess I wouldn't do it. I would say I wouldn't put my energy in it. I would try to do something else. So... Yeah. Well, the result, the effort you put into practice contains the result within the effort. The result is within the effort. Instead of looking for a result in the future, you look for the result of the effort you're doing now. This is why right now is our life.

[43:23]

We don't know how the future will be. There is no such thing as the future. The future is just an idea. Another question, in doing deeds that one thinks is good, I've done a little bit of reading, but it talks about doing something to try to be good and linking that with a result, or wanting gratification for that, or wanting doing a deed which is good, there are two different ways to do it. One is just without recognition for that, and the other is to receive recognition for it, or which to me is linked in with results. Yes, it is.

[44:24]

And I don't know what the two terms are, or the terms for the doing of something without knowing about the result or knowledge. I don't know about what the terms, if there are any special terms, but... It's not that we shouldn't want a result. I didn't say we shouldn't want a result. I said we shouldn't be attached to results. I did this and it didn't happen. The result didn't happen or fail or something. But what I did was valuable. If you're only doing something for results, then you forget what you're doing. If you're doing something for out there, tomorrow, then you can't appreciate what you're doing right now. You can appreciate it, but if you're attached to the result, then you think that what you did was not worthwhile.

[45:26]

But right now, what you're doing has got to be it. Because there's only now. We just live our life, you know, this moment, this moment, this moment, this moment. Why waste your time? We have to bring each moment to life. And each moment contains its own past and its own future. But the future is just an idea. The past is already gone. But the past influences this moment, has influenced this moment. And this moment will influence the future if there is such a thing. But you shouldn't take anything for granted. Two things occurred to me about the bill, that even receiving a gift can require effort or a solid effort, because I was looking at it all the time when we were down in the storeroom thinking, I would be glad someone didn't give it to me to have to get back here.

[46:41]

And sometimes you're willing to make that effort for yourself, but you might not be willing to make it for others. And these people were a vehicle in a way just for the dog to come back. Yep. I didn't touch it yet, but I don't think I would have wanted to be the vehicle. It was quite hard to accept that. You can bring it if you want. And discount all the nice things you've said. Thank you very much.

[47:18]

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