Well, this morning is what we call Kids Zendo, where we spend the first bit of time talking to the kids. So, hi kids. What's your name? Do you have a name? What is this? That's good enough. What's her name? Yeah, what's her name? David. Me? You are David. Yeah. And you are? Agniriega. Agniriega. Agniriega. Yeah. OK. And I'm JitterBob.

[01:04]

Well, today I have a good subject. Do you know what it is? I'll tell you. It's garbage. You know what garbage is? What? What is garbage, David? Rotten stuff. Icky stuff? Rotten. Rotten stuff. Right. Is that good or bad? Bad. Good, bad. It's bad. It's bad because you don't like it. Why is it bad? Because it's rotten. No, because it's fertilizer. Well, that's the end of the poem. Is garbage good or is garbage bad?

[02:09]

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But when I smell it, it makes me sick. Sad. Sad. We don't like garbage because it smells bad. Garbage smells bad. But garbage has a good side as well as a bad side. Did you know that? I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why garbage is okay. Garbage may not be okay. You know, garbage is disintegrating. That's why it's not so bad.

[03:12]

Put all these nice orange peels and cabbage and stuff like that together, it's garbage. And then when it gets together, it starts doing this little dance called disintegrating. and breaking down and breaking down. And then they put it in a big pile. And all these little animals start going through it. And then it starts getting hot. And then it starts breaking down, breaking down, and pretty soon it's something else. And then when it's something else, we put it in the ground. And when we put it in the ground, The tree, all the plants have roots and the roots are like straws. And when it rains, the rain goes into the ground and mixes with the compost.

[04:18]

It's called compost. You know that. And then it becomes soup. Yeah, it's soup. Fertilizing. Fertilizing. But I call it soup. The reason why I call it soup is because the trees use straws called roots to go and suck it up. And then it becomes food for the plants. And then it starts to smell very good and doesn't smell bad anymore. But it's no longer garbage. That's why. something else, called compost. You're sure? So, what was bad once is now good. So, what's bad turns into something good, and what's good circles around and becomes bad again.

[05:28]

So it goes around in circles which are called cycles. The life cycle of a bird and a cat. The life cycle of a bird and a cat? Can you tell me about that? Yes. Then they turn into an adult, right? And then they do it all over again. Wow. First they start out young, then they get middle-aged, and then they get old. Then they have babies and then that's the cycle, right?

[06:36]

So things go in cycles, circles. So you guys seem to know a lot about compost. And garbage. So, when one thing, when the cycle of one thing is complete, then something else is born, right? and then something is born and then something dies and then something is born. That's life cycles. Which happens all the time.

[07:38]

I know that you call a pumpkin and then it starts to rot and then it goes down into the compost and then another pumpkin grows up and then there's another bunch of pumpkins and then it goes down. That's right. Well, thank you very much, kids, for educating me. And these two guys in front are the best. Andros, and comedy. We need a little comedy in our life. Oh, oh, oh, oh! That one wasn't recording.

[08:57]

So today I'm going to comment on a koan that everybody should, more or less everybody knows, and I've talked about this many times. It's called, this is case 19 of the Numon Kon, and it's called, Namsen's Ordinary Mind is the Way. This is a case that involves Joshu, or Jojo, and Nanquan in the Tang Dynasty in China, two very famous, well-known Zen masters. But Zhou Xu, of course, was much younger, and Nanquan was his teacher. So, Zhou Xu asked Nanquan, what is the way? What is the Tao? Ordinary mind is the way," Nansen replied.

[10:49]

Shall I try to seek after it? Joshua asked. If you try for it, you will become separated from it, responded Nansen. How can I know the way unless I try for it, persisted Joshua. Nansen said, the way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion. not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true way, beyond doubt, you will find that it is as vast and boundless as outer space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?" With these words, Zhou Xu came to a sudden realization. And then Yunlan has a comment. He says, before Joshu's questions, it cannot offer a plausible explanation.

[11:51]

Even though Joshu comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another 30 years before he can truly understand it. And then Mulan has a verse. He says, the spring flowers, the autumn moon, summer breezes, winter snow. If useless things do not clutter your mind, you have the best days of your life. So, going back to the beginning, Joshu asks Nansen, what is the way? In China, the Buddhists picked up the Daoist term Tao for the way of everything, but basically meaning the way-seeking, the way of the Dharma.

[13:04]

How do we practice the Dharma? What is the way to do that? How do we do that? Mount Senn said, ordinary mind is the way. So ordinary, this word ordinary is very interesting. We usually often think ordinary means less than special. We have special and ordinary. And in a way, special kind of means Satori or enlightenment or realization, something like that. Liberation. But we have to be very careful because this is the usual way of thinking about ordinary, about special. And ordinary means what I do every day. You know, I get up in the morning, I brush my teeth.

[14:11]

These are ordinary activities. getting up in the morning, brushing my teeth, going to the bathroom, whatever. And routine, sort of routine stuff. And so we have this kind of dichotomy between ordinary and special. As Zen students, we know that the ordinary is not just ordinary, in that sense. Even though we know that, we still don't believe it. Because, you know, when we come to the Zendo, it's a special event, in a sense, because the Zendo has the atmosphere of practice. reason for the formality of the zendo is to create the atmosphere of practice.

[15:20]

So when I step into the zendo, I know what I'm doing. I mean, we think that anyway. In a certain sense, we know, oh, this is the zendo, this is where you sit zazen and where you practice zen. This is the zen practice. And then, because it has the form, has a very strict form. And then when we go out, leave the zendo, it's formless practice. It's like if you light a match in a closet, the whole closet lights up. If you light a match in the desert in the daytime, it doesn't make any difference. So walking into the zendo is like lighting a match in the closet. the practice lights up. But when you walk out and go to work, get in your car and drive down the freeway, it's like lighting a match in the desert in the daytime.

[16:24]

Where is the practice? So, Nonsense says ordinary mind is the way. But what is ordinary? We talk about big mind and small mind. Small mind is ordinary, but actually, big mind is ordinary. Enlightenment is ordinary. The problem that we have about trying to touch enlightenment is that we think it's extraordinary. And as long as we think it's extraordinary, we can never, we stumble past it. This is called seeking the way.

[17:25]

And so, Joshua asked Nonson, what is the way? Ordinary mind is the way. Nonson replied, shall I try to seek for it? Well, of course we should try to seek for it. But if you seek for it, you become separated from it. Because when you seek for it, it becomes something to seek for. It becomes a thing. And what you're seeking for separates you from it. This is why in Zazen, We think, no gaining mind. Don't think, I'm sitting Zazen to become Buddha, or sitting Zazen to become enlightened. If you pursue in that way, you stumble past it.

[18:32]

We have a lot of dissatisfaction in our life. The first noble truth is usually translated as suffering, but it's more like dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction in our life, and the dissatisfaction is caused by thinking that what we want is over there or someplace else. It can't be Washington, D.C. or mopping the floor. So Johnson said, so Joshua asked, shall I seek after it

[19:41]

And Joshu, I'm sorry, shall I seek after it? Joshu asked. If you try for it, you'll become separated from it, responded Nansen. How can I know the way unless I try for it? Persisted Joshu. And Nansen said, the way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion. Not knowing is confusion. So if I don't seek after it, nothing happens. And if I do seek after it, I just become confused. So this is the koan of practice. You have to seek for it without seeking. In other words, just practice. The commentator here has a nice Sikhita.

[20:51]

He says, when you are in Samadhi, you are simply in Samadhi, and your mind is peaceful, there is no seeking after the way and no separation from it. Once you You are neither seeking nor separate. Usually when we want something, we feel that what we want is some place out there. And so we go searching for it. But practice is searching for it here. We're never separate from it, but we feel separate.

[21:58]

We're never separate from our true self, but we feel separate. This is our problem. If you go seeking for it, it feels like it's out there somewhere. There's something to get. So practice or the way is letting go rather than getting something. As someone once said, it's like finding a pearl in a pile of shit. The pearl is there, but it's surrounded by this pile of shit.

[23:02]

How do you let go of all that so that you can actually see the pearl? Because the pearl is there. What we're looking for is there. What we seek is already there. But we go looking for it someplace else. The way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion, not knowing is confusion. Realization is not a matter of knowledge. Prajna is not knowledge. It's intuition.

[24:06]

So, intuition means directly knowing, and directly knowing means there has to be something real that knows. What knows is something real, not acquired. So, knowledge is acquired, but intuition is real. It's already something. It's already there. So, it's not a matter of knowing or not knowing. It's a matter of realizing our true self. And when you realize that, you know it. So, when you have really reached the true way, beyond doubt, you will find that it is vast and boundless, or ungraspable, actually, as outer space.

[25:16]

How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong? With these words, Joshua came to a sudden realization. I want to go back to the question, what is the way? What is the way sounds like a question. But if you take away the question mark, the answer is in the question. So the question, keeping the question, is the most important thing. People say, well, how do I practice when I'm not in the zendo? The question is, what is the way? It's a question, but it's also an answer. Because what's right in front of us is the way. The way is always present, wherever we are. But because we think it's someplace else, we don't recognize it.

[26:25]

The most ordinary activity, you know, Zen activity, if you go to Ryotaku-ji in Japan, Rinzai Monastery, well-known monastery, the monks all day long are doing nothing but sweeping the ground. They do other things too, they cook and have other activities, but their main activity for work during the day is raking and sweeping. It's not so complicated, but our lives are very complicated. Very complex. Again, more complex. I mean, look at this thing. Complex. More and more complex. We have to know so many more things just in order to move, to communicate.

[27:38]

Communication used to be pretty simple. Say somebody, you know, and then the telephone came along. Telephones becoming obsolete. So, if we realize If we feel and realize that our life is a life of practice, and realize that our life is continuous practice, then all the events and problems that we meet are problems of practice. If they're not problems of practice, then they take on a different tone. They're more desperate. But if we realize that practice is at the core of the way we engage all of our activities, meaning whatever I meet, whatever situation I meet is a practice situation, it becomes very different.

[28:59]

Because I realized that every situation is a situation of the way. It's a dharma situation. And it's a situation which calls for what? What is practice right here? What is practice waiting for the light to change? What is practice waiting for the best to come? What is practice when somebody confronts you and you get angry and you fall into a rage? These are all practice situations. And when it's in the realm of practice, It just takes on a different tone. So, Mo Man's comment, non-same dissolved and melted away before Joshu's questions, and could not offer a plausible explanation.

[30:18]

Sounds like Joshu couldn't deal with the situation, but that's not what it means. I mean, Nansen, Nansen presented him, let everything fall away so that he could present to Joshu the correct response. So Nansen's response was a response with his true body. And even though Joshua comes to a realization, he must delve into it for another 30 years before he can fully understand it.

[31:32]

So Joshua comes to a realization through nonsense words. But of course, even though he understands this, he has to mature. Often when we give someone a Dharma transmission, they're supposed to go away. and mature their realization before they do anything. That used to happen in China quite a bit, when a teacher would say to his student, go up on that mountain and just stay there for 30 years. Don't try to do anything. Just let your practice mature. And then at some point, people start going up the mountain. to study with that person. I know somebody who I was talking to recently who, because they had dormant transmission and set up a place to put out their shingle, was very disappointed.

[32:48]

because people didn't come. So I said, do you have a garden? Well, sort of. I said, just pay attention to your garden and work around your house. And if you take care of your garden, and not worry about whether someone comes or doesn't come, something may happen. You know, without trying to make something happen, you just take care of your practice. If we just take care of our practice, things happen without trying to happen. This is ordinary mind. Just take care of it.

[33:49]

Ordinary mind has practice. Ordinary activity has practice. And ordinary activity is extraordinary activity. Within the ordinary activity is the extraordinary activity. When we wake up, we realize that. This is fantastic, sweeping the floor. What an incredible thing to be doing. But we really want so much. It's not that we can't do complex things and have extraordinary experiences, but The extraordinary is within the ordinary. Neman, in his verse, says, the spring flowers, the autumn moon, summer breezes, winter snow.

[34:59]

These are the four seasons, right? If useless things do not clutter your mind, you have the best days of your life. So what are useless things? useless things are vanity, right? Something that you focus on which doesn't come to anything. So when spring comes, enjoy spring. When winter comes, enjoy winter. It's not just the seasons, it's like whatever comes to us. Whatever comes to us is a we can accept and enjoy even if we don't like it. How do you turn garbage into compost in your life? Suzuki Roshi said something like, all of our, what we call our problems,

[36:09]

and our things we don't like and the garbage of our life we put in the tree of practice and that makes our practice grow. So there's nothing, everything has value. I won't say value, everything has virtue. It's a little different. It's incomparable. Every moment, we don't have anything but each moment and it will never return. So, how do we turn every moment into a virtuous moment so that we can see it's incomparable Every moment is an incomparable experience.

[37:13]

And whether we think it's good or bad, a good experience can be wonderful. A bad experience can also be valuable. Matter of fact, what we work with is difficulty. If we know how to work with difficulty, it's not the same. This is called practice. It looks like we don't have time for questions. OK, we do have time. If you have one. I think just asking the question, keep asking the question because there's no formula. And so, what is the ray is the question all the time.

[38:23]

It is a continual question. Joshua had to deal with it 30 years more, right? So that means it's continuous. It's not like we always have to keep asking this question, and it's only answered every moment. on every situation. There's no formula. So, if I'm in a certain situation, I'll say, well, what is the way? I won't say what is the way, but I'll say, how do I practice in this situation? What does that mean? And then I'm thrown back on myself, because I'm not trying to change the situation. My effort is to get as deeply in myself as I can, to draw as deeply from my well as possible to deal with situation. And that's the practice. You just draw from as deeply as you can, and that helps you to go deeper.

[39:25]

That forces you to go deeper, to come up with something that works, that's real. So, you know, it's a great opportunity. And if we think, well, it's so hard to do, that's a kind of obstacle. It's not hard or easy. It seems hard. Some things seem easy. But the hard one can draw more satisfaction when you go deeper, because what is satisfying is going deeper. to bring up something that we didn't know we have. It took like five minutes to figure out whether I should be wearing gloves, really, or a spacesuit, or similar. Yeah, metaphor. Yeah, metaphor.

[40:27]

I don't know. You know, I can start really thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah. Don't take things too literally. Well, that's the way we are. So could there be a pile of pearl hidden within a pile of pearls? Um, well... Yes. Yeah. Because everything has a purpose. Everything has a value. The first time you said, if your mind isn't cluttered with useless things, it's the best day of your life.

[41:34]

You have the best days of your life. The best days, what, of time? You don't have useless things cluttering your mind? No, it's just when they don't. I mean, when they do. Oh. It's when they do. I'm not telling you what to do. See, when they don't clutter your mind, you have the best days of your life. Oh. Then would you tell me what to do? Okay, who's the last one? I just talk about it all the time. You demonstrate it. You don't say it, but you demonstrate it. No, I talk about it. I talk about it too. I talk about it as the foreground movie horrors. Loving kindness. Compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Equanimity, which is the most valuable one.

[42:39]

It means you don't let it throw you. So when I think, how do I practice? For me, I think, how do I love? Because it's a bigger idea of love than romantic love or some kind of gay idea of love. Right. Because love is one of those words like, know if it means anything you want to mean. So, if we use the four boundary horrors, the reason why those are four aspects of love is because they're not self-indulgent.

[43:24]

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