So, as some of you know, we are planning Sojin Roshi's funeral at last, and that will take place at Green Gulch on 19th, and invitations will go out widely in the next couple of weeks. It'll be both in person and on Zoom, and we'll probably do it outdoors at Green Gulch. It can accommodate a lot of people. So this is a complicated, actually it's not that complicated a ceremony, but the choreography is very complicated. And so we have the opportunity to work with

[01:01]

friends from Green Gulch and our friends from Sotoshu Akiba Roshi and his staff and the lead officiant. So just to say structurally and that's going to be kind of widely construed But Sojin's disciples are mourners. So they're not the actual officiants. They don't lead the ritual aspects. And so the ritual aspects are people who are more in the extended family. So the chief officiant is going to be Kenshin Roshi, Rip. And Liz and I have had a couple of... wonderful conversations with him there to Green Gulch to meet with him to go further into details last week.

[02:10]

And we had a productive, very productive session. And then we were sitting in his home and talking about our families and what our children were doing. what our spouses were doing. And I mentioned that during the pandemic, Alex, Genpo, had spent a year and a half or so in Japan training with Shoto Harada Roshi at Sogenji. Now Harada Roshi, who I've... I've talked about before, was also one of my teachers. He was a disciple of Yamada Mumon Roshi, who was one of the really pivotal figures in Rinzai Zen in the second half of the, well, in the 20th century.

[03:20]

And he was also an important bridge figure between the East and West. He was very interested in what was happening in the West and he was also very interested in the proliferation of the lay dimension of Zen in Japan and here. And so he had made I should have thought of this in advance. He made two trips to San Francisco in the 70s, just one after Suzuki Roshi had died. And he went to Tassajara. And he gave talks there and spent a couple of days and met with the students and the photographs that

[04:26]

that Liz gave me from Sojun's many photo albums, I found a lovely photograph of very young Sojun Roshi with Mumman Roshi. He was very sprightly and, well, he was described by Victor Horry as And he looked and acted like a tiny, wispy, immaterial Taoist hermit. But he kind of was very Yoda-esque. Yoda-esque. But Victor Horry says, but inside the Dokusan room, he turned into a lion. He was ferocious. So... All the Tassahara students had met Muman Roshi and were very impressed with him.

[05:33]

And in the 80s, Reb was traveling in and he went to visit Muman Roshi at his temple. And at that point, Muman Roshi was In his last years he was frail and it was said that he didn't speak for the last five years of his life. And so when Reb went to visit, Numan Roshi's attendants sort of carried him out and put him in his formal robes. and put him in his seat, but there wasn't any real communication possible. And what Reb was telling me was, he was sitting there, who had impressed him so deeply, and then seeing him in this state, and the question that came up to Reb was,

[06:54]

What is a Zen master? So is the Zen... Momon Roshi, the Zen master, is he still there? Is he still a Zen master? And of course, Reb's frame of reference, Zen master is Suzuki Roshi, who was really pretty with it until the end. But what is a Zen master? This is a question I felt like Brett was asking this out loud, and he was offering that question to me. He didn't attempt to answer it. I didn't really pursue a discussion or a conversation with it, but it's really held on as a wonderful question in the last few weeks.

[08:17]

And some of you know that a book which is in its kind of last editing stages The book is called Turning Words, which is, it's a book of very short encounters with Buddhist teachers. And when I think about it, in each of the books, the person that I was hearing, or that I was engaged with, or that I heard about, was in that moment a Zen master for me. or Buddha. And so I've been thinking about that. What is a Buddha? What is a Zen master? What I've come to think about is

[09:27]

there are two requisites. The first one came to me, I hadn't really thought about it, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. So in preparation for a practice period, I've been reading in the Lotus Sutra, reading stories and also reading and there's a commentary by Gene Reeves, who's one of the primary Lotus Sutra scholars. And he sort of talks about the difference between God in the of Christian theological sense, and the Buddha.

[10:31]

And just one way of looking at it, God is portrayed as complete and self-sufficient, as an entity that is all-encompassing but is proceeding from this sense of fullness. And what Gene Reeves said is, the Buddha, a Buddha, cannot do what he or she vows to do without the help of others. And so when you look at... and all of the classical sutras, the first thing they do is set the scene.

[11:35]

They describe who's there, you know, who's teaching. And Gene Reeves says, we might even say that the Buddha could not be the Buddha without the great assembly. The Buddha, after all, is primarily a teacher and a preacher. And a teacher is not really a teacher unless there is one learner. Even more important in the Dharma Flower Sutra, it's another name for the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha needs others to carry on his teaching after he is no longer active in this world. So the Buddha is doubly dependent on the assembly. He needs others both to receive his teachings and to share them with others.

[12:38]

So, thinking better, I think that's one of the characteristics or one of the requisites for a Buddha that there be someone to teach. And when you think about what is a Zen master or what is a Buddha, what came to me is that their identity, that identity, if you will, is forged in relation to us, to each of us. In a sense, this is what Dogen is talking about when he talks about a Buddha and a Buddha. That in order for them, there has to be a meeting with another Buddha.

[13:49]

And that Buddha is us, even though we may not realize it. Of course, the thrust, of the the thrust of the Mahayana teachings and the thrust of Sojans and Siddhartha teachings is you yourself are Buddha. Each of us is Buddha. But where Buddha identity or that reality emerges in relationship to another Buddha. Our understanding emerges in the context of the relationship with a teacher or a Zen master. So that's, to me, that's one of the aspects, one of the requisites.

[14:53]

And perhaps we could talk about that more. But I think that's When I think about what Rev's experience might have been, having experienced Muman Roshi as a Zen master, and then experiencing him diminished capacity, still the Zen master was evoked for him. And so for Reb, perhaps the Zen master, that he is still alive. And we see that, you know, sometimes we see that in people, you know, yesterday, actually.

[15:56]

I went to see an old friend who I've known for years. He's a wonderful musician. And I hadn't known until some months ago that he had had a fairly early onset Alzheimer's and was really retreating from the world. And I went to visit him at what seems like an excellent place to me, some of you may know of it, called the Elder Ashram on Fruitvale. They had a picture of Suzuki Roshi on the wall. And a lovely place, and they brought out, my friend came out, he was walking with a walker, and we had brought a guitar. And I opened the case and handed him his lovely guitar instrument.

[17:05]

And he just took it naturally in his hands. And he started finding the notes. He started playing this sketch of a blues in E. And You know, his face relaxed. And so I felt, oh, he's still there. You know, there's suffering. There's loss. But the essential kind person that I knew for all those years, gifted person, you know, giving freely of his music. and going deeply with it, that person was still there. What is a Zen master?

[18:06]

So the other aspect or other dimension of a Zen master, a Buddha, a person of practice, what Dogen calls practicing Buddha. There's a lovely fascicle, it's number 23 in the Shogo Genso, it's called Gyobutsu Yuiji, which translates roughly as practicing Buddha. And he writes at the start of it, All Buddhas, without exception, make full use of their everyday for their practice. So this is their comportment, their activity. They make full use of their everyday behavior for their practice.

[19:13]

This is what is meant by a Buddha doing his practice. A Buddha doing his practice, her, a Buddha realizing enlightenment, or to a Buddha's transforming himself, nor does it refer to a Buddha as the embodiment of the Dharma, or to a Buddha as others see him embodied. It is beyond the state of a Buddha and his initial realization, or even his fundamental realization. And it is beyond the state of a Buddha in his inherent enlightenment. A Buddha who is in any of these can never stand shoulder to shoulder with a Buddha who is doing his practice. Keep in mind that Buddhas, being within the Buddha's way, do not go looking for realization.

[20:22]

This is a conundrum for us because we often have in the back of our minds some yearning for realization. But it's not something that we can accomplish according to Dogen and according to many of our teachers. Again, I know I've been referencing this in several talks, and I'm going to get around in more depth, perhaps later in the year, but I've been reading in Shin Buddhism. And there, the realization, it's very, they're very insistent. This is not something you can accomplish. It's what's given by the Buddhists.

[21:30]

And one receives it. And then one has a, somebody asked me, well, having a responsibility to enact it. That is the Buddha's practice. So keep in mind that Buddhas being within the Buddha's way do not go looking for realization. Proficient in one's daily conduct whilst on the path towards Buddhavood is what is meant by a Buddha just doing her practice. It is not something that is... by those who are, say, Buddhas as embodiments of the Dharma.

[22:32]

So in other words, the second requisite is basically Buddha activity, Zen master activity. There's the necessary components. So you have those two components. You have the necessity of an assembly, someone to work with, or perhaps something to work with. And the work itself. Those are the dimensions of our Dharma activity, our Dharma life. And so we have the Sangha as a field. We have the Maha Sangha as a field. Everything and everyone that we encounter as a field.

[23:33]

And perhaps that can be summed up as the activity of respect. And we know, as an idea, that makes complete sense. Again and again, being irritated, being hurt, we catch ourselves with the feelings of non-respect. And right there is an opportunity to turn. So I thought, I haven't done this in a while, I thought I would sing you a song, if that's okay. And I've sung this before, but I don't think I've sung it for quite a while.

[24:35]

Many of you know it, it's a song from the Lotus Sutra, chapter 20, called Our Hero, by our friend, Greg Fane and Ben Gustin. And it talks about the bodhisattva and ever disparaging. The bodhisattva who practices respect. So I'll try it today. This is funny little message just popped up in my Zoom saying, playing music?

[25:42]

Professional audio, audio section settings. I'm gonna leave it. There's a book called the Lotus Sutra That you really ought to know about. A holy book that has the power To remove all fear and doubt. And this book tells the story of a man Who means the world to me. He could just as well have been a woman Except for male hegemony. They call him the Bodhisattva, never disparage, the Bodhisattva never despise. And I'm making it my life's ambition to see the world through his pure eyes. Because he says, I would never disparage you or keep your arms left.

[26:45]

Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you, or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see, you'll be here someday. I love you. So that last part was a chorus, which you can sing. It comes around a few more times. Now the Bodhisattva, never disparaging, lived countless Kalpas in the past. In the time of the counterfeit Dharma, He was something of an outcast, Because the monks and nuns of his time, They were noted with their arrogance and vanity. And these are the folks who exercised great power and authority. But my boy, he never concerned himself if they treated him like a freak.

[27:49]

He just bowed to everybody equally, And these are the words he'd speak. I would never disparate you, Or keep you at arm's length. I only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you, Or put you down in any way, Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see, You'll be your Buddha someday. He never read or recited the scriptures much. He only liked to practice respect. But the monks and nuns of his time, they didn't mean it like you might expect. And they reviled him, and they wished that he would go. Because they all had self-esteem issues, like everybody else I know.

[28:55]

So they beat him and Celted him with clubs and stones, and tried to drive him away. But he'd just walk to a safe distance, and he'd turn around and say, I would never disparage you, or keep you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I can advise you or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you. And so it went on for years and years. from scorn and abuse. Still our hero, he shed no tears, or did he ever wonder what's the use. He came to the end of his natural life span, he lay down fixing to die.

[29:58]

And he heard the Holy Lotus Sutra being preached in the sky, and his life was extended for millions of years, he's living to this day. And in the pages of the Lotus Sutra, You still can hear him say, I would never disparage you, Or keep you at arm, Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength, I would never despise you, Or put you down in any way, Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see, You'll be a Buddha someday. Clear to me, I can plainly see. You'll be a Buddha someday. The song, it's a really good song, and it really encapsulates that whole chapter.

[31:20]

He only liked to practice respect. But the monks and nuns of his time, they didn't always treat meat like you might expect. And so one of the things and I've talked about this before, is an important line. So they insulted him, they beat him, they beat him, and they pelted him with clubs and stones, and they wanted him to disappear. He'd run off to a safe distance, and he'd turn around and say, sometimes the Zen master has to do that. Sometimes the teacher has to have a safe distance, but the thing is, he'd turn around and say, I would never despise you. The thing that, you know, I feel, I just feel that it really is something that communicates through all the teachings of Suzuki Roshi.

[32:39]

and I certainly with Sojin was this great ability to accept each person, accept us with our flaws, sometimes commenting on them or helping us encounter our shortcomings, encounter the places that we have to, we should be working. To be able to see that and to be able to, which is what a teacher does, which is what all of the Dharma does. And at the same time, to communicate this very deep acceptance. So those two aspects of what is a Zen master, what is a Buddha, coincides in having an assembly, having a student, and accepting that student or that assembly.

[34:10]

from right where they are. And, you know, it's very clear to me from, from reading and listening to Suzuki Roshi, his students, that he had this, he had developed this remarkable ability to see everyone in such a way that they felt seen. Now, I don't want to idealize this too much. One of the things I was thinking as I was preparing this talk is that maybe a Buddha isn't a Buddha for everyone.

[35:12]

Maybe a Zen master isn't a Zen master for everyone. With all respect, I know that there are people who didn't feel fully seen by Sojin. There are people who probably don't feel fully seen by me. And I understand that and sort of like don't fight against it but I think that just so you know my vow and my practice really expressed in this song this is what I'm trying to do at the same time as I have flaws and shortcomings and all of our teachers are human you know some of these Zen masters had tempers you know and some of them were not every able to see everybody but in a broad sense that was their vow that's what they tried to do and I

[36:41]

And this is what, if you read, actually, if you read the Sutras, if you read the Lotus Sutra, I think early in the Lotus Sutra, you know, the Buddha talks about three or four vehicles. He talks about the Shravaka, the hero vehicle, the Prachika Buddha, the self-enlightened vehicle. the Bodhisattva vehicle and the one vehicle. And when he says he's going to teach the one vehicle assembly gets up and walks out. So at that moment, he was not a Buddha for them. But he wasn't rejecting them. You know, if we walk away from the master, if we. Buddha, it's important to consider whether we are walking away from something that is valuable, someplace where we might learn.

[38:01]

This is one of the experiences, I will say, this is a really important experience for me with Sojin. Because he could be very critical of me. Often. But sometimes I didn't think so. Sometimes I was hurt. And sometimes the Zen master will hurt your feelings. But what I learned in practice. was try not to, I would try not to be reactive. I sort of, I'd step back. I'd run off to a safe distance. And I would think, there's something true here.

[39:11]

There's something useful. That is being communicated. And I'm going to. I'm going to reflect. And think on that. Because this is a person. Whom I respect. Who has wisdom. And who I feel. There's a bond of. Trust and love between us. So. Where is. And really, this is not something that somehow was special between me and Soju. Once you undertake that kind of practice, then you apply that

[40:14]

in every relationship and interaction. There may be wailing and gnashing of teeth, but there still can be the very deep self-inquiry of what's the truth here? Is there something I can learn that is going to Help me, you to the line of Dharma. And I think in a sense that was my interpretation of what Reb was saying. That was an element there. All of a sudden he was confronted by this person that he had great respect and appreciation for, and it didn't appear to be the same person, got to this question.

[41:25]

What is a Zen master? What is, you know, what am I experiencing in this situation that points me back to the Dharma? And our whole everyday experience I love this passage from Gyobutsu Yuiji. All Buddhas without exception make full use of their everyday behavior for their practice. That includes thoughts, our everyday doubts, our everyday sitting down cross-legged as we're doing today during Sashin. And so, each of us has the opportunity to manifest ourselves as Buddha.

[42:31]

Each of us has the opportunity to manifest ourselves as the Zen master. And I'm not saying that kind of facile-ly. I'm saying that this is our responsibility. From the moment we have the first sense of way-seeking mind, with that arises our responsibility. Responsibility to ourself and our responsibility to All that we come into contact with. So to never disparage. Never despise. Because it should be clear to all of us that each of us is going to be a Buddha someday.

[43:39]

So I'm going to stop there. questions, answers, comments. I'm happy to encourage people who perhaps don't speak so frequently, but also I don't want to discourage people who have real questions or comments. So just be lean in your expression, if you will. So thank you. I'll turn it back to Blake, is that right? Good morning. Feel free to raise your digital hand and I'll call on you. Ross Blum. Thank you.

[44:44]

I'm really happy that you had that experience with your friend. uh dementia that you gave a guitar and you saw him come alive so to speak um thanks let me just say um i was i was going there you know i just i was i was just sort of preparing myself for for something that was going to be yeah very painful and uh I was, it was sweet, you know. It was really. I'm really happy that you had that experience. And the story with Reb and Yamada Muman reminded me of the koan, Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha. And I don't know what was going on with Reb, but for me, when I've been around someone who is so-called diminished, the last days of Sojin Roshi,

[45:45]

He was still a teacher for me in that he was a mirror, and I got to see my sadness and my feeling of loss and grief come alive that he couldn't say, Ross, you should be feeling this way. It was up to me to kind of realize in myself what was being reflected, and he was just there. And it really brought that koan alive, sun face, moon face. for me. So again, thank you for your talk today. Thank you. Yes. You know, it's the thing that when we have a teacher, when we see someone as a teacher, it's like we're allowing them to be that mirror. Precisely. That's what I felt was the gist of what Rev's experience was. You know, so that the difficulty of seeing someone that you care about diminished still, it throws us back in our own practice, you know, in a really, you know, deep, instructive way.

[47:05]

Indeed it does. Thank you. Sue Moon. Hi. Thank you very much, Hozan. Well, first, I just want to say it's also the case that everybody keeps getting diminished. We're all impermanent. And then there's not a sort of borderline where you're fine. And then all of a sudden you're in this other state of being demanded. You know, it's a continuum. So we have to watch out about category. We have to continually be exercising that and remembering. person. They're just different in many ways. But I just wanted to ask quickly that wonderful fascicle, which one is that again? Yobutsu, G-Y-O-B-U-T. Yobutsu.

[48:05]

Y-U-I-J-I. And is that in the double volume of Shobogenzo? Which number is that? Well, I don't know. What is it in English? In Nishijima, it's number 23. Thanks. Very nice. Thanks so much for this talk. They're using different core tests. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Helenora Preston. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks. So I'm thinking about the part where you say he runs into the hills to be at a safe distance. Well, he didn't say run into the hills. He just runs off to a safe distance. Runs off to a safe distance. And then there's the other part about I won't keep you at arm's length.

[49:05]

Let me just... Or I will never disparage you or keep you at arms. Right. Yeah. Okay. And I'm thinking about that tension. And I think my question, how do we know how far to run away or I forget it, but you know, like, I think I run too far into the hills. And is the love felt from that far away? It's kind of like, and how do we not have to run so far? I think it's, you know, this is, of course, very subjective. And this is the message of that chapter. And you can go and read that chapter, chapter 20 of the Lotus Sutra. Is to find out what that safe distance is.

[50:09]

for yourself. So in other words, to have a distance of safety while being in relationship at the same time. And I think we've talked about this. You know, there have been people in my life, not here actually, I'm happy to say, where the relationships have become difficult or restrained. And my practice has been just never to sever that relationship. But the safe distance was to offer a respectful friendliness. you know, a practice of friendliness where, honestly, I might not feel all that friendly.

[51:16]

But to practice respectful, and to inquire how that person is, just not to ignore that person when there might be an encounter. And I take the really long view, and in some cases, It's taken five or ten years of that. And then, now then, this has been an experience that's happened several times in my life. By pursuing that practice after a time, sometimes that person asks me for a favor. Or they ask me to help with something. And it's like, oh, there's a bid for relationship that I must take up. And, you know, that doesn't mean I'm not, it doesn't mean that it's as if nothing has transpired between us, but it means an opportunity to do something

[52:36]

deeply creative in our relationship in relation in our in self actually and that's what i think uh that's what i think this this song is about so thank you use that as best you can thanks katie g Thanks for your talk. It's very nice. Yeah, it is nice. It's a beautiful day. Ross's comment reminded me of when I was feeling a lot of loss as my father declined, which was a long decline with a lot of losses along the way. I think so.

[53:37]

Yeah. Yeah. And someone said to me, I don't remember who it was, that when I was struggling with feeling like the parent-child relationship had flipped in certain ways, certainly in terms of the amount of caregiving going one way or the other. And they said, you know, he's still in the sense that he's going before. and showing me what it is to be a person at that stage of life. And I found that really helpful to recognize that there was loss, there was also continuity, and that it helped me understand parenting and our relationship as parent and child in a broader, deeper,

[54:38]

way and i guess i was just wondering if if you feel that that holds to this teacher student relationship that that you were talking like talking about like where is or who is the zen master i think so that's that's really helpful i mean i think that parents, children as an archetype. Inevitably, it's a process of leading and letting go. you know, those things don't come up, come up together, or they may, you know, one aspect may be predominant at any point in time.

[55:51]

But I think that goes with that question that I was asking that I, that I, I mean, I really learned this was for me in my relationship. which was not always easy. It is, you know, just like, what is the teaching here? So like with your father, what is the teaching that he was giving you by just being himself, not necessarily through any intention or any, you know, direction but just by being himself what is the teaching uh and you know those teachings are so rich that's really that's that's how we learn how to live and that's how we learn how to die and i think there was that capacity in that my father like i could be there for it

[57:06]

because he did try to continue to take care of me as much as he could. That's really fortunate, you know. That's a good opportunity that you had. And I did not have this opportunity with, well, actually I had it with Sojin, but I did not have it with my parents. But those of you who are, who have the opportunity to journey with your parents, you know, that's incredibly fortunate. I just am so happy for you to have that opportunity. And just remember, our turn is coming. Our turn has arrived. You know, so, All that we learn can be applied to who we are and where we go and how we are with our friends and family.

[58:21]

To be a Buddha for them. So thank you. I think this is, if there's nothing else, I think this is a good place to end. What do you think, Blake? I think that it is a good thing to end.

[58:46]

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