Hello everyone in Berkeley, California, and also everyone online. Welcome to our Saturday Dharma Talk, Ongoing Practice. Today, Ryushin Andrea Thatch will be giving the lecture. Ryushin Andrea Thatch is a senior priest at BCC and the current class coordinator. She came to BCC in the late 90s by way of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. and is a long-time student of Sojin Mel Weitzman and Shohaku Okamura. Sojin ordained her in 2005 and entrusted her with Dharma Transmission in 2015. She loves the mountain, yes, singular, being with people no matter the circumstances, and the shepherd herder mix who shares her home. Please give your attention to Ryushin, as I will. Thank you, Ross.

[01:04]

You're welcome. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Berkeley Zen Center. A particular welcome to some old friends and to people who are relatively new and to people who are here for the first time. Thank you for coming. And of course, hello to those of you who are on the Zooms and don't. Well, this was a hard talk for me to put together. I've been thinking about it for a couple of months, and I'd say it took a long time to get a handle on it. It's hard to believe all of what I'm about to say sometimes, even though I have an experience of it. And this morning it took another turn, another slippery turn in my hands, so let's see how this goes. The title of this talk is One Bright Pearl. And the inspiration of it came from a ritual that I was present at as part of a presentation that was done.

[02:12]

It's a year-long series of lectures that are being given through the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, which is the national organization for priests and ordained teachers. And the focus this year is on women teachers. It so happens that yesterday was the International Day of the Woman, and I originally wasn't going to say anything about this, but it came to me this morning that I want to say 20 years ago, we didn't chant the women's names in this sendo. They weren't chanted anywhere, actually, so it's a relatively new occasion. And 20 years ago, there were very few women teachers, maybe a score. of them throughout the country, and now there are hundreds. So this particular ritual was put together by Dr. Paula Arai. She's a well-known sociologist and scholar of Buddhist studies, especially women's rituals.

[03:16]

She currently is a professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and teaches here frequently, teaches there, which is in Berkeley here, frequently, and I'd really recommend if you're at all interested to to have a chance to experience this. So this was the opening talk, and it was also a ritual that she created around recognizing and honoring the women's lineage, and particularly Mahapashapati having the courage and chutzpah to go forward and ask that women actually be included as legitimate practitioners of the Buddha Dharma. And so this ritual, and the ritual was about the legitimate inheritance of this practice and the pearl, there was a pearl, the one bright pearl, there was a pearl that was passed around as part of this ritual, which I think was about very concretely demonstrating the salvific message of Buddhist understanding was possible to be transmitted by women.

[04:31]

So in this very simple ritual, the pearl, this pearl, a kind of lumpy, irregular pearl, was brought in in a ritualistic way and presented to the first of a circle of people. And the circle of people, a bit to my surprise, weren't all women, but they were a variety of people. There were tall people and there were short people. There were young people. There were old people. There were people of all races. There were people of all genders. There were people of all levels of ordination, including people who were not ordained. And then every color of the rainbow of the rakasu, which is the ordination garment that you'll see some of us here in the Zendo wearing. passed in the way that we make offerings, so brought in, held high, the person who is receiving it makes a bow, the person passes it and makes a bow, and said, the whole world in the ten directions is one bright pearl.

[05:38]

It was so powerful for me to see the pearl passed around through all of the different people who are there in the circle representing all of us, representing all of us everywhere, that I was quite taken aback about that and wanted to share that experience with you today in some way. The pearl is, well, you know, I won't exactly say, although I will at some point say something, but it's round. even irregular and malformed, but more round than not, like our lives are round, and usually a color that's white here representing purity or being undefiled, or to say in Buddhism, white is a kind of color that is all-inclusive. And the passing around signified to me something about how we all co-create this within ourselves,

[06:42]

and with each other. And together we create this, what Sojin Roshi called, one-room schoolhouse and the beloved community of Hozan Roshi. So the whole world in the Ten Directions is a teaching of an ancient Chinese Tang Zen master. Zen didn't really quite exist like that then, but we'll call it that for now. named Gensha. And like many teachers from that era that have been passed down, whose teachings have been passed down, it's usually encapsulated in one phrase. And his one phrase was, the whole world in the ten directions is one bright pearl. There's a fascicle or a selection in a collection of teachings by Dogen Zenji. For those of you who don't know, it's the founder of the particular school of Zen practiced here at Berkeley Zen Center.

[07:44]

The name of that fascicle is Ika Myoju, or One Bright Pearl. And it's the first of, one of the first of four or five fascicles of that collection Shobo Genzo that Dogen wrote when he returned from China. He was just as low with a religious verb. He had found the answer he had been searching for. His teachings are teachings of great faith, and there's no question or doubt in his mind. He was a young man then, and I think even particularly more so felt that way. The earlier fascicles are ones that those of us who've been around for a while and those of you who stay will be familiar with quickly. This lecture, this fascicle, was first delivered a little after that when he was at the height of his philosophical creativity.

[08:55]

I wanted you to hear, for those of you who aren't as familiar with him, I wanted you to hear something about his language, just the way in which he speaks in poetry and turns our thinking, challenges it, challenges our nonlinear thinking. So when you listen, when you listen to this, for those of you who may not be so used to listening, although it's a fairly familiar audience, Listen for the feel of it. Try to understand it with your mind. It won't make much sense, but you may have a feel for it. One bright pearl is able to express reality without naming it, and we can recognize this pearl by its name. One bright pearl communicates directly through all time, being unexhausted throughout through all the past, it arrives through all the present.

[10:00]

While there is a body and a mind now, they are one bright pearl. That stalk of grass, that tree, is not a stalk of grass, is not a tree. The mountains and rivers of this world are not the mountains and rivers of this world. They are the bright pearl. All the universe is one bright pearl. I won't explain it explicitly, but I will touch on these different points throughout the talk. Let me read it just one more time so that you hear this strange thing. One bright pearl is able to express reality without naming it, and yet we can recognize the pearl by its name. It might be tree. It might be cherry blossom. It might be Gary. It might be Tanika.

[11:02]

One bright pearl communicates directly through all time. Nothing's missing in this moment. Being unexhausted through all the past, it arrives thoroughly to the present. While there is a body and mind now, They are the bright pearl. That stalk of grass, this tree, is not a stalk of grass, is not a tree. The mountains and rivers of the world are not the mountains and rivers of this world. They are the bright pearl. All the universe is one bright pearl. What is this pearl? Well, you might call it the enlightened nature of all things. the thing, or the Dharma body in action. In our awakening, we are like the oyster swallowing the moon, swallowing the moon whole.

[12:08]

The oyster with its hard, closed shell that's almost impossible to open, and the moon being our inherent wholeness. The pearl starts with an irritation, some debris that the oyster can't get rid of from the ones too. That's also kind of like our life. Genshaw was a little like us. Before he was a practitioner, he was a fisherman. It was steady work. He'd drift on the river all day long. He wasn't looking for anything particular besides his simple life. And little did he know, or little was he looking for the golden fish of enlightenment. But somehow, one day, he left his boat and went up into the mountain.

[13:10]

And after some time, he found a teacher there. And he practiced really diligently. Unlike a lot of the people who were in the monastery, he hadn't studied sutras. He hadn't been immersed in practice in some way, but he just worked really hard continuously through day and night, let's say. And at some point, with some understanding, as was the tradition then, he prepared to go on pilgrimage. As he was leaving to go down the mountain to go seek other teachers to test his understanding and to see what more he could get out of this practice, he badly smashed his toe against a rock. Ouch! And in that bloody mess, he thought, if everything is empty, why does my toe hurt? So he hobbled back to his teacher, who said, haven't you gone yet? And he answered, Bodhidharma didn't come to the East, and the second ancestor didn't return to the West.

[14:21]

That is, they practiced where they were. They didn't need to seek understanding anywhere else. He had found the right amount of problem right where he was with his robbing toe and his newly realized question. which might have been something like, what is the real relationship between my understanding of things as they are and the insubstantial, that things are changing and insubstantial, and the fact that my toe really hurts. And he understood the answer to his question didn't lie with someone else. It only rested with him. That is, it was for him to understand and that no one else could tell him. The irony of going on pilgrimage is that one usually feels ready to go when you're actually really ready to sit down and get serious. So irritation is not something bad.

[15:25]

That's not always so easy to believe. The one bright pearl of Master Gen Chao's universe includes everything equally, equally and without discrimination about its value or moral quality. In Genshaw's case, a broken toe might have been, in our case, broken marriage, a child's death, a serious illness, a lost job or feeling lost in trying to begin a career. In Genshaw's case, that was a gateway to discovering something incomplete in his experiential understanding. In order to discover that which is not seen or understood, sometimes it has to be really difficult or really hard. Actually, I think that's almost always the case to break through our usual ways of thinking and our usual ideas of ourselves. Like Gensha and his broken toe, we have to really feel it in our bodies, or at least deeper than the usual ways we think about things.

[16:37]

Be grateful for your difficulties. Be grateful for our difficulties now, at least sometimes. Gensha says they're none other than one bright pearl. Without them we can't understand that ourselves, our humanity's, or anyone else's. Genshya describes the bright pearl in different ways. He borrows from the parable in the Lotus Sutra to say it's like a hidden jewel sewn into a beggar's robes when he is drunk, and only revealed when he is ready. And the pearl, Dogen says, is hidden under the fearsome black dragon's chin, deep within its wear. In Buddhism, dragons are the symbol of power, mystery, and protection. The dragon of the black pearl might be seen as that which stands guard over the most difficult of our inner work that we have to do as people in untangling our karma.

[17:41]

That pearl here is the vehicle of wisdom and strength, and so the hardest work that untangling is our most difficult karma. This pearl, which is experienced through the work to discover that it is ever present, this pearl is the freedom, the freedom that's possible within whatever the personal, societal, historical, intergenerational, or systemic fetters that bind us spiritual. This one bright pearl is not a place where everything works the way we want it to. It is not a place where there are no problems or that we are at ease. It is not a white pearl, though maybe you two are used to seeing pearls as white and pure. Gensha Doge's pearl is bright.

[18:43]

The Japanese for bright is myo. Myo can be translated as wondrous, mysterious, profound, or strange. Strange as in unfathomable. And although we're talking about it now, we cannot really fully appreciate its nature, but we can experience it. The pearl is bright because it's alive. That being alive includes everything. It's always moving, it's always changing, which is maybe why when we read at the beginning of his talk, a stalk is not a stalk and a tree is not a tree, as Dogen says. It's all one bright pearl. It's always in motion. The mountains and rivers are not as they appear. They're always moving and changing, not just in how we can, from one moment to another or one person to another, see things as differently,

[19:52]

but because they are always in motion. As Doken says in a later fascicle, they are always walking, always transforming across time from moment to moment. Alive. My first experience of this, or of things as they are, was at a 30-day silent retreat many, many years ago at Guy House. It was in my early practice years. and I had been sitting very quietly in my room. It was an asana retreat. There was no schedule. You kept your own, and so I just sat for hours on end, very concentrated. When the time came to go for lunch, those were the only things that were suggested, but not requirements. It was time to go eat. It was also the time of the first Iraq War, which felt not so much different than the current wars in Ukraine and in Gaza.

[20:54]

So all of this was in this world for me as I was walking down a corridor and came to a part where they were all windows, and suddenly it hit me. My mind exploded, that is, it broke through in some way, and I understood that the bombs falling then on civilians were nothing other than things as they were. They were nothing other than one bright pearl, not good or bad, but just part of what was in this reality of our human existence. The one bright pearl is manifesting life, is life manifesting life. Life with a big L, if you would, a big life that contains all of us, manifesting the life in each thing. in each of us. It is present in the young woman who's dying of cancer but oh so very still in her efforts to make it to her beloved brother's wedding.

[22:04]

Or the person age 80 who's been living with multiple sclerosis for over 50 years and can barely move one hand like that in her bed for years. still encouraging the five-year-old daughter of her caregiver in her efforts to be an artist. Where the old man taking each breath with lungs terminally diseased with emphysema with the same appreciative care of an old Zen master. That is, too, one bright pearl. Pearls are all different colors, shapes, and experiences. The one bright pearl encompasses it all. So you might ask, well, geez, this is pretty great. How did Genshaw realize his understanding? The world of Zanzen is our one bright pearl. Dogen came to China to answer the question of why we need to practice.

[23:11]

The question might have been, if it's all one bright pearl, why sit? Okamura Roshi says, just sit is the answer to Dogen's final question. All of Dogen's understanding and expression arose not from study, from koans or sutras or Dharma conversations with his teacher. They came from sitting Zazen. Okamura says that the only thing we can say is that we just sit. I'm quoting here, we just sit practice We just sit to practice, not because we want to practice, not because we want to be better than who we are now, not for any purpose, but just to practice for the sake of practice. Nothing else. Genshya didn't need to go on pilgrimage. He sat down right where he was. Of course, just to say, many, perhaps most people, first walk in the gate here,

[24:16]

and come to practice because they're looking for something, maybe something concrete like a social network or a partner, because they're anxious or stuck, or because something in life is missing, it's just fine. But sometimes, at some point, you just come to sit because that's just what there is to do. In a certain way, there's almost no choice about it. Sitting is sitting us. There is a quality or attitude and practice of sitting zazen that's very important. It's that attitude that asks for nothing, but it's just only responding because we are somehow called to sit. It's an attitude of not wanting anything out of the practice. Okamura says, At the beginning of one of the really intensive retreats that is the style of retreat at his practice place that he gave me for, the only instruction is, and the only instruction that's given the entire Sashim is, it's just you, the white wall, and Buddha.

[25:32]

Good luck. I added that. Just you. We're the one who sits on the cushion and has to make the effort to keep our posture upright. to attend to our breath, what we're doing. The white wall means there's no distraction, there's no embellishments. It's just seeing your mind as it is unfold, moment after moment, hour after hour, day after day, with no escape. Buddha is kind of like the compass, the points on a compass, or the precepts, pointing each of us as we sit in the direction that we want to head. Another important quality of zazen is being fully independent. Or, zazen is a life of non-reliance on others for our practice.

[26:37]

This is also very important. Very important. Not to expect anything and to realize that practice is reliant just on our own efforts and no one else. The bright pearl is what sets us on the cushion and awakens us to take refuge in the three treasures, Uva, Dharma, and Slava. What's sometimes called the small self, or you might say the everyday, usually preoccupied self, is actually part of the complete network of interdependence too. There's no problem with it. No need to fix it. Deep need to see it and accept it. We might call it the lived expression of this moment, one bright pearl. And it, too, got us onto the cushion. Whatever brought you here is what got you here. Practice without looking to see if you're noticed.

[27:42]

Just express your sincerity in practice. Dogen's very early writing, Bendowa, is translated as the wholehearted practice of the way. That sincere, wholehearted practice, we all realize it when we see it here, It's one of the reasons it's such a delight to have relatively more people here in the community because we found it. The practice is fresh and encouraging to the rest of us. We just take care of the practice, not waiting to be told to do or not wanting to be seen for what we do. Oh, how many times can I remember sitting in that corner there As the Doshi and Sojin would make the morning rounds, putting my hands in gaasho and wondering, did he see how upright I sat? Most of us wonder, are we doing good enough? Did anyone see my sincere efforts here?

[28:46]

I really can't be sincere. We have a lot of instructions now in our style of practice at Berkley Zen Center. And that's not bad. It certainly helps with infusion and saves time. It's very efficient in a very American kind of way. But really, the way that I learned was by watching my teacher and watching the people who were senior to me who seemed to be settled. Teachers can be helpful to talk to, but if you watch, you should be able to see the practice. The teacher should be showing you the practice and how they move, what they're doing, how they relate, how they handle things. We are always embodying the practice and how we work with each other, how we respond to each other, how we work in timing in the Doan Rio and service in the morning.

[29:51]

Are we attuning? Are we attuning to the room? the room attuning to what the instruments are doing it. That's the way in which we learn the practice and feel the practice. Sojin Roshi once got down the end of a period of morning zazen on his knees on the lower tan in that corner there to help demonstrate how to fluff the kapok and cushion to a student that was fumbling, fumbling, making a mess of it. That teaching will be passed on for years to come. One bright pearl on sitting the Sazen means to notice what's needed and just do it. Just do it in harmony with what else is going on, what other people are doing. That's much harder and much more creative, but it's also a whole lot of fun.

[30:54]

More relational. One time a student walked in, and Senda was filled with 60 people. We were having sashim. Six pots of polenta walked in. We were still, I think we were still serving off the back table somehow in the back. 60 people walked in. Six servers walked in and number five tripped. spilled a big pot of polenta all over the entranceway. There was no way in or way out. It was breakfast. A lot of time scheduled, right? Two or three people scurried over to the kitchen and got their towels. The head server kept directing the serving to continue. The rest of the pots came in and breakfast was served almost seamlessly. Everyone was fed and the poor student who was probably pretty embarrassed, was completely saved. It was no mistake. It's just family.

[31:55]

That's the practice of One Black Pearl. What we do is guided by our own desire to wake up, because it feels really good to be awake. Therefore, Zazen is our only true teacher. Non-reliance, of course, so this sounds almost like a paradox, right? I'm saying you're not reliant on anyone, and that's the way to sit zazen. But it doesn't mean being fully independent, of course. We sit zazen with each other in the zendo, and although we're each maintaining our posture, we're each feeling our breath, we're each bringing our attention back to the moment, we feel the connection with each other in the zendo. That's part of the joy is the support that we feel, is the connection really, not so much support, but the connection that we feel with each other.

[32:57]

We bow to each other, we turn and we move in some kind of choreography of movement. We attend to each other's harmonizing our action. We give attention and respond, and preparing meals on our sashim days, cleaning up after tea and during soji, we notice and intuit what's being done. We don't have to be told, and we don't stand around willing to do that. That's the activity of the one right rule. Non-reliance means that we're completely reliant on each other to support the practice in a selfless way. to share, not for ourselves, but because it needs to be done, and we care to do it. What a refreshing antidote that is to so much of the cultural tilt these days. So here I'm going to be quoting from a wonderful little book by Dharma's sister, Hoko Karnigas, who's the current advent at San Shinji, called, Understanding San Shin's Style of Practice.

[34:10]

Here's the paradox, she writes. We recognize that we are and have always been completely interconnected with everything else, but we're not reliant on any of it to determine our actions or our understanding for us. We endeavor to see the same reality the way Buddha did and endeavor to create and maintain a wholesome community right in the midst of both non-reliance and interconnectedness. We are able to be both sides in one action. The existence of things arose. They are not dependent upon our opinions. Meeting them in that space harmoniously is no idea of gaining anything. It's a ton of fun, I have to say. It's such a creative space to practice in that way. to get out of one's own head and to be in the flow of things as they're really happening.

[35:13]

Like we did with chanting this morning. Chant with your ears, following the Kokyo's voice. Dogen says, towards the end of this classical in one translation, how can we fail to love the pearl? The colors and lustres are infinite. Each and every aspect of the color and luster are the virtue of the entire ten direction world. Dogen's love is perhaps the closest to the Greek word agape, which points to the intimacy of interconnectedness. This is the same love Martin Luther King describes in The Beloved Community. It is the intimacy of interdependency, inhabiting and living a self-reliant life and functioning freely as part of a whole. Each of us is within the essential Each of us is in an essential part of the one bright pearl, no matter our physical form or unique circumstances in life.

[36:17]

This is all the many faceted, different colors and shapes and lusters, all essential and equal man. This is every mind state we each have and every being we encounter. It's like seeing the passing of the pearl in the ritual and seeing the whole universe through the individuals in that circle. It's just like responding to someone in need and seeing the whole universe through the individual. It's just like responding to someone in need without evaluating whether their need is legitimate or if the likely outcome is worthwhile. Dogen clearly emphasizes relationships and action. There's a mutuality of love between us as individuals in the ten direction world. We love and live the one bright pearl as simultaneously the one bright pearl loves and lives us.

[37:18]

It can be challenging in these times of division, suffering, injustice to keep going in our efforts to respond. But I hope the one bright pearl will offer you some encouragement in your efforts. Thank you for your attention. How much time do we have? About 12 more. If you have a question, just raise your hand. And if you're online, please raise your digital hand. I see Marley has her digital hand up. Marley. Thank you, Ryushin, for your talk. It covered so much, but there's a piece of it that I think is...

[38:28]

sitting with me, maybe troubling with me that I'd like to ask about. You used a very powerful image talking about a moment where you saw neither good or bad in the bombs falling on people. And I can see how there's a way in a retreat you can feel that. And yet also that's obviously not what you would say to somebody who had suffered that bomb who walked to your face. So where, where's the other side of that? Where's the responding to suffering in, in the seeing the bright pearl in it? That's what a great question that is. What an app question that is. I think that's one of the reasons putting this talk together was so difficult because I have felt immersed in the troubles of, around us and I have felt immersed in the illnesses and deaths of friends here.

[39:35]

Seeing things as they are helps me have the stability to respond to what is. So if I'm in my mind railing against the idea, the opinion that something shouldn't be happening, in my mind I don't like it. I want it to go away. I can't very easily. I can't fully really show up to the person who's experiencing that. That's the stability. Actually, that insight has been a source of great stability for me in my work, where I am always responding to people who are in quite dire physical circumstances. Is that at all helpful? Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Thank you.

[40:43]

So this is somewhat similar to Maury's question, but I was, you said when the person walked in with a polenta and threw it around the room. And then people came and cleaned it up, and the students sort of got passed. They said that was one bright pearl. But, you know, my question is, you know, what if they hadn't? What if it had just been a complete disaster? Wouldn't it have wrapped in one bright pearl? It would have been. I just wanted to point that out. A lumpy one bright pearl. Question brought by the head server, as she said. Sue Osher. Thank you. I'm very moved by the talk and you brought the image very much alive in this person in a new way.

[41:50]

My name. I have a question about where you find home. What does the bright pearl, how does that inform where you feel at home? Where do you belong? What do you trust? Yes. What do you trust? I think it's a matter of remembering. And maybe opening. I think the times that it's harder to remember, times when, at least for me, I'm more closed down. I'm more closed down because I don't want what's happening to be happening.

[42:53]

I don't want to believe it's just part of what is. Yeah, I think it's what you said to Marley, too. What we push away and can't face, we can't respond to. And you see a flow, especially in our Zendo practice. You see how people get in, it's such an acknowledgement. That kind of watching you. So thank you. Thank you, Sue, for our years of practice together. Cheryl? I know you've been very close to Hosang's care, and I'm wondering how that has affected your experience of the curl. Again, I feel it's very alive, it's breathing, meaning sometimes

[44:04]

I feel restricted and very, very sad. But Pearl is sad too. That's all part of it. And when I can open to my sadness just being what it is, I can be present to everything that's there. It's what I'm bringing to it. It's not the reality of things. I don't know how he's feeling. I don't know what his experience is necessarily, but I know what my experience is. So to open to allow it to just have some space and be. What about for you, Cheryl? When we had our town hall, I mentioned my mantra to him, which was, get better, come back, carry on this lineage. And so I have felt like

[45:04]

I felt the loss and also the scary notion that some part of this may end. Does it stay there? No. When we breathe, we breathe with a soft belly. When we breathe, we allow the flow all the way in and all the way out. When our breath gets caught, then we get caught. The entirety of practice is just sitting. It's not talking to teachers.

[46:08]

It's not sort of everything else that we just sit. On one hand I get that, but on the other hand, it's not true that I experienced that sort of creation of the brawl that we're going against, that sort of irritation that creates something. This has been for me being in a relationship being in relationship with, you know, the world outside, not the wall in front of you. I'm wondering if you can say something about that tension, that sort of inward, sort of monastic versus outward orientation. Yeah, thank you, Rich. That's a really great question. I didn't mean to imply that there's no place for study or speaking with the teacher, for example. But I wanted to emphasize the importance of Zazen and the importance of our practice being our own.

[47:12]

We have to put our own effort to it. You know, a good teacher will help you maybe see what you don't see. And certainly we practice together and it's a very important part of practicing together, that we practice together. But the bottom line is the practice is our own and no one's going to do it for us. So that's the point I wanted to emphasize today. No one else online. Judy. Thank you, Ryushin. Because One Bright Pearl can actually bring up a visualization, a visual image of that. I'm wondering if you could say something about the pearl's posture and our embodiment and practicing posture.

[48:17]

So we don't get stuck in the image of this brown or slightly round, but actually this body, this whole universe. How else can I say it? The image of a pearl seems like it's a concrete object, and we passed around a concrete object, but I see the pearl actually as being a representative of the Dharmakaya, of the movement of all of total reality throughout space and time. So in this person, as if you want to say, in this moment, this mind, this body, as Dogen says in that passage that I read, is, of course, the posture of Zazen. which is itself a flexible and open and breathing and alive posture.

[49:25]

Is that what you mean when you're questioned? Well, that's very helpful because it gives an entry point for the nuances of the emphasis on Zazen as practicing particularly with posture. Yeah, thank you. I think, is that time? All right, thank you very much for your... Oh, one more, yes. Please, your name. My name is Aya. Aya, thank you. The better kind. Thank you very much for the talk. Today's season, my mind is monkey mind, so it goes everywhere.

[50:35]

But somehow it goes to a place. When I went to Japan last year, I went to Kumamoto Prefecture. There is a mountainside in a cave that Musashi Miyamoto, wrote five rings. He lived in a samurai era. He was an extremely good samurai. That means he killed so many people. So in his end of life, he devoted to Buddhism and he went to the cave and very famous. He wrote five rings. So I went there in the mantel side, and that view, you saw a lot of Buddhas, different kinds of Buddha statues, kind of writing down many of them.

[51:43]

And they said you could find just like you, one of them. And I picked the one that the most laziest one, lying down. I thought that was me. And it's quiet, so soft rain, and green, lots of birds singing, and lots of Buddha statues there. Somehow I thought, that's here. And I appreciate everybody's here just to disconnect everything, disconnect myself, just for the moment, and it was very special. Thank you very much. Thank you for that very beautiful image.

[52:44]

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