Good morning. Somehow it's still morning. Thank you everyone for your for your efforts so far. Session is never a never an easy endeavor. It's uh could be a difficult or difficult practice, a lot of effort involved. I appreciate everyone working so hard as kind of as I do typically in the short work period of session, so moving from place to place, going around a sense of checking in on different things, you know, and like chopping ice out of the ground and chopping vegetables up in the kitchen. But all these like different activities which uh which are needed, which we need to do. So thank you for bringing bringing your your heart and uh in enthusiasm and if not enthusiasm, your your will in order to just get it done, you know. It's uh it's um it's a large property. Um the fact of impermanence is all around, uh especially in the winter. Well, sometimes in the summer, spring and fall, but uh but but the winter for for sure, so but we're here and and for each person has made a an effort, a special effort, to um transition from one calendar to a to the next, to move from 2019 into 2020. Tomorrow we'll we'll spend that the time actually of moving into midnight. We we sit Zarzen into the new year, which is um a special thing to do each year. So I wanted to bring up a few words from from Master Dogen, of course, great exemplar of uh Soto tradition, of which is Yokoji is a Soto lineage temple. Yesterday we had them mentioned in the memorial service for uh for Master Dogen, and then a couple of generations down from him, Master Keizan, who are seen as being the father and mother of Soto Zen in Japan, figures very strongly in our lineage, and very strongly in the in Zen Buddhism in the United States. There's a lot of um, of course, uh Soto temples, so looking for it, like Ng Getsu is living at uh San Francisco Zen Center and a very successful um Soto Zen center. So it's extraordinary that these uh teachings have been uh preserved and maintained and brought down to today. You know, often though in in being in the place of giving a talk, I'm reminded reminded about the beginning in the Tao De Qing that it says the Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao. So there's that. As soon as uh we begin to talk about things, it's it can be somewhat uh removed. You know, as appreciate with uh Ted's talks that he um always includes the reminder that uh words are pointers, Dhamma talks are pointers, pointing back to uh each one of our uh living experience. So, like a reminder, a pointer, a message, these words pointing at who, what, and how one already is, but that who, how, and what, the truth of that often becomes obscured with our uh conditioned habits, thoughts, structures, um, all of the above. Session is a wonderful process in settling body and mind, you know, just plugging directly into the into the schedule. The schedule is quite simple, it repeats the same each day. Once you you kind of get it down at the at the beginning of a session, or you've done a couple of sessions, you don't really need to look at it anymore. We just move from uh one activity to the other, to the next activity. And it's important to approach each activity with um with the same full awareness, you know, because we we find that we we prefer, of course, some activities over another. That's just part of the uh human condition. But with with with session, we really stretch the muscles of uh awareness. We allow our awareness to be uh to open and to become more broader and more intimate with the with our living experience. Something which is often again obscured or can be, we feel like it can be lost in the midst of the bustle of everyday life, activities and responsibilities where our lives so so often just become about getting the next thing done. So in the short period, we do have to sit and to move through these different uh activities that we have. Um, I encourage us all to be as present and alive for it as possible. To be to be immersed as much as possible in what whatever it is that we are doing. And the interpretation of what we think and feel about that, you know, we can revisit that if necessary after the session. But it's not really so so relevant. Okay, so I'm gonna bring up a few words from one of Master Dogen's uh most famous writings, if not his most famous writing. Um Genjo Koan, actualizing the fundamental point. We won't cover the whole thing today. So but it's quite short, but really stands as one of the the great uh writings of um of Zen Buddhism, and broader than that, just one of the great writings, the great writings of uh um of reality. Okay, so he says, as all things are Buddha Dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice and birth and death, and there are Buddhas and sentient beings. As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no Buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death. The Buddha way is basically leaping clear of the many and the one. Thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas. Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread. As all things are Buddha Dharma. It said that the Buddha on becoming enlightened, his great awakening on seeing the morning star, declared that I all beings, the great earth. There's a couple of different translations here. One is simultaneously attain the way, or I all beings, the great were earth, are the wisdom and virtue of the awakened one to us. Important part there is I all beings, the great earth. So all things, all people, animals, plants, inanimate, rocks, grass, sky, the stars, all things simultaneously attain away. All things are included in that awakening. You know, and for what the awakening, if we take the uh uh um dipstick into our own idea of how awakened or enlightened we are, you know, and and and look at that, it's like how much does that include? What is it what does it include? Is everybody in all things, is everybody included in that? It's a good way to look about where for each of us we often uh draw lines of what's included and and what isn't. Those things that we uh keep on the outside. You know, some things we we need to keep on the outside at least for a period of time. You know, so practice is a process in that way. But the fundamental point, the what are the name title of the piece here actually actualizing the fundamental point? Fundamental point is all things are Buddha Dharma. All things. Buddha awakened, the awakened one. Dharma. Everything that appears so teachings, this reality, awake reality, all things. How could all things not be that? How could there be anything on the outside of that? So he doesn't ask it as a question but just states that, as all things clearly are Buddha Dharma, but there is then uh delusion and realization. And we see that. This is mapping out this experience we see that for each one of us and for everybody else, there seems to be that relative fact. There is all kinds of degrees of um delusion, upside-down views, as the Buddha termed it, and realizations, understandings of truth. There is practice, there is birth and death, quite clearly, and there are Buddhas and sentient beings, there are those who attain the way, or those who are acknowledged as Buddhas, or those who are acknowledged as uh teachers or practitioners, and there are those who've never heard anything about it. And there are those who practice and live deluded ways and go on doing that. Everything is allowed, all all ways are admitted into the great way. You know, any way that somebody or something shows up, there's always space. All things are Buddha Dhamma, all things are included, the most eluded to the most enlightened. But then he says, you know, as the myriad things are without an abiding self, which is really a key point of uh Buddhist thought, of Buddhist philosophy, of Buddhist practice, the Buddhist realization, as all things are myriad things are without an abiding self, are a separate, existent, defined, fixed me identity. So much of this practice comes down to understanding that, a relationship to that, this one here, the one we call me, the one with the name. As just in our human life, and those things that reinforce that with our family and culture and just our day-to-day life, helps to instill, helps to put over the top the fact that there is this existent one, this self. And of course, Buddhism directly challenges that and says, where then is this enduring fixed one? For each, you know, we're not we don't really exist as things, as people, you know, as separate things. But a person is much more of a process. Like you're a pro I'm a process rather than a thing. So I'm different today than yesterday for each one of us. Like broadly similar as yesterday, but different. A little older, a little wiser, maybe, right? But but different. You know. It's a curious thing to have a name. You know, that name that we take as being us, and yeah, it was just something that we was picked out of a book, if we're a little older or if we're younger, you know, like Googled on the internet for cool names. Maybe. Or maybe we have a Dharma name, or a new name, you know, but that that name again is a pointer. It's a pointer. But it doesn't encapsulate or fix or define what this one is, each one of us. He says myriad things as myriad things are without an abiding self. There is delusion. There is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth, no death. There is no fixed, there is no separate, there is no defined any of these things. It's also consistent of a heart sutra that we that we chant each day. So we have this great fact where it says, he said, the Buddha way is basically, and I like the way I understand that when he says basically, meaning at its most basic or at its most fundamental, not like basically like, well, it'll just give you the cliff notes. But rather, the Buddha way is basically, at its most fundamental, leaping clear of the many and the one, or not being stuck or trapped by discrimination or oneness. Typically, a human being is immersed in discrimination, I mean in the world of opposites and the world of things, live in a dualistic experience in the world. We live in that and find that basically dissatisfactory. The human condition of a Buddha's motivation to practice. Hold on. This is all impermanent. There's nothing last, there's nothing to hold on to. What's going on? How why why invest in this? How can we how can we not how can we be happy in a burning house? Although a lot of the world seems to just get on with the world of discrimination, you know, and just take that for what it is, and there are all kinds of um philosophies and religions and ideas and beliefs and things that are uh conjured up to help get us from A to Z with as much peace of mind as possible before you know we disappear. So we live this fact of what he says, you know, discrimination of the many here, you know, in a world of things, in a world of appearing and disappearing forms. But then when we come to practice as our zen, that's a zen, then we we are uh challenged. The mind is challenged, the mind that understands things, the mind that gathers known facts, is then challenged. And we we we are turned over and over, we're turned to look at the one, or turned to look at the intrinsic principle of this experience, where all of the ups and downs, the blacks and whites, the left and you know, all of these opposites dissolve. And this is the practice we find this in the practice of Zarzen. And in another place, Master Dogan talks about Zazen as being sitting unconstructed in stillness, not constructing things. And we've all of us that have come to Zarzen know that impulse and that drive to continue to construct an abiding self while on the cushion. It's like me, the ingredients of my life, the present story of those things that are going on that are that keep drifting through the ears. And some of the more identified we are with that, the more apt we are to hook in into that story and to just pursue it and continue to construct. And that's when we fall away from not doing Zarzen. Doing Zarzen is to sit unconstructedly, you know, which really means to there is nothing to create or to do. You know, the temple has already been built, the creation has already been made, if it was ever made. But then to be unconstructed is to allow all things to be as they are without disturbance, inside and outside. Say inside and outside as perceived externals, just as they are, perceived internals, just as they are. All the thoughts, the feelings, the sensations, the view across the room, whether it's light or dark, whether the sound or silence, but just as it is, as this one is. If we move within that, we pick one thing up, just one thing, then the other side goes dark. He says that somewhat a little further on. We pick what we we notice something and we bring something into awareness and we we hold it up, then everything else goes dark. But if we can sit without without preference, without value system, then we sit immersed as this great mystery, as this present awareness. All things then stop. We see to whatever depth, to whatever degree, we see what it has meant when we talk about the one or the intrinsic of an absolute principle. You see where these opposites dissolve. You see where things, all things, all this inside and outside, that is just this, this in all directions. And but as as Zen students, for often that is um can become a trap, becomes a snare. Because when that when that is experienced, then there's a natural, often a natural impulse to want to settle down and live there. Because it's a place of no I earn, no body-mind, no suffering, no old age and death, no up and down. There's just this, you know, and there's a there's an urge then to perhaps to to settle there. But you know, whether we try to settle there or not, life disavows us of that soon enough. You know, you can only sit so long before you have to go to the bathroom, or or your legs hurt to the point anyway, you know, or you can't stay in that place because there's ice to be chopped out of the path, or whatever else needs to be done. So a lot of our practice is this inquiry into what is this self? It may begin at the place of who am I and what is this? You know, and we really begin to unpack that, but not unpack that in the way of intellectual, you know, well, oh now I know it's because of what happened to me with, you know, that has its place, but it doesn't get to the bottom of it. As we begin to unpack that with awareness, a self, you be we we begin to really to see or to know what oneness is, to have that be apparent. And Master Dogan says here, then this way. This great way is basically leaping clear of the many and the one, not falling into either place, not falling or being stuck in just the world of forms and things, the rising and falling of karma, leaping clear of that. Not that it disappears, but we know it doesn't define us. It's only relatively important what happens. It's never absolutely important. We leap clear of a one. It's not just about being in the place of it's. How about when we leap clear of both positions, when that is really mapped out? That is like the path of practice of Zazen and the application of Zarzen and present awareness in all activities, it's order to make this apparent, the leaping clear of the many and the one. Where you can't be found, you have no place to settle down, or no need of a place to settle down in. But there is just this great mystery and appearance of being alive now, as this, and finding one's purpose, one's function in this present experience. You know, when that is really made real or realized, then the story of one's life is just the story of one's life. You know, which for most of us is probably a long, faintly amusing anecdote. Maybe that's just me. You know, but but often but that often I bring this up because often, you know, we we block ourselves with the conditions of me. And as much as possible in this practice, we put that aside in order to be involved intimately with the function of me now. And make that real to the point that that is the only place that you need to experience. That is the place where you live. To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. Which is uh you know a wonderful line. The points again builds on the last paragraph. To imagine that there is this me-self that goes forward in the world of things, the the the basic on, you know, which is taken as how it is by most people, I would I would imagine. Master Dogen says with confidence, that's a that's delusion from a standpoint of Zen, a standpoint of awakening. And he turns that over and says that the myriad things or the ten thousand things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. And we can find this realization and actualize that in all of these activities of the day. Now, rather than always me going forward toward things, how about when things just come forward and realize themselves? We can realize this or experiment, find this in Zarzen. Again, when when things are put aside, when we cease all involvements and look for nothing else, there's no need to steer. There's no need to keep the hand on the wheel of like of conscious thought. Of course, we find that even, you know, that happens whether we want it to or not, because that's what's been practiced often. But as you like cease to steer, and rather rather than aiming towards allowing to come forward, you find that you're in the right place for whatever this expression requires of us. You know what to do. It turns towards the intuitive function or the appropriate function. Living that way rather than just a pure idea, intellectual approach way of what I think I should or other people should be doing. Which again is concerned with just our gathered preferences. Session is very good at challenging those. We find ourselves doing all kinds of things you don't want to do over and over. But if we allow that me identity or that sense of what I want to do, we put that aside and rather trust the vehicle of practice, which has worked pretty well for these thousands of years, then we can just we can let that value system go and really become fully involved in whatever this is, regardless of what this is. Why not? I mean, if you if we can find ourselves awake and alive in whatever this experience is, what else is there to do? What other zen is there? Those who have great realization of delusion are Buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. So that's for all of us who know that, you know, that is the that's the path of practice. You get great realization of delusion. Because you just make the make we make the same mistakes over and over. Or you run into the brick wall of Zen, you know, that uh the that we can't solve, can't really work that out. You run into that over and over, you just keep at it. There's a reason that you know in this practice, many people, it's just like it's not usually something that you just jump in and you're kind of done in six weeks or something, right? It's usually. I remember going in to see Tanchi Roshi Wants, and there's a line from Dogen which really sunk in for me, and I I just understood it like for the first time. And I I said this to him, I told him, and he goes, Yeah, it's funny, it usually takes like ten years. And it was about ten years of being here, you know, for for for that uh for that to like to feel like that that had sunk in. And that's it, you know, that's that's the path of practice. You have great realization of delusion because you you you know understand it. You understand you keep shining the light on the way our own mind and our own patterns and the way that we live. And and you map out and and understand then what causes suffering and what can be done about it. What things that can be, you know, but as they are, and that's it, but we accept and live with and make the best of, and those things which we're causing, or you can find the causes for, that can be ceased. So you have great realization of delusion as as you go on. You know, the other side of it is as he says here, that um you know, you're coming into practice, you tend to be deluded about realization. But but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. So when I started in practice, I was very encouraged by reading all of the Enlightenment stories. And I was thinking that's what I'm that's that's what I'm gonna do. I want some of that. Now, whether that was greatly deluded about realization or not, it served as an effective goad. You know, in order to see why not, if these people can realize in this way, why not me? And that's true for every one of us, why not me? Because if it's like if it doesn't include you, then the Buddha's a liar when he says, I all beings a great earth. Because it's everyone, and that includes, always includes this one. When Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they do not necessarily notice that they are Buddhas. However, they are actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddha. I'm sure, I know for myself, I'm sure for you, I've met many Buddhas who do not know they say Buddhas. They've never heard of Buddhism. I meet Buddhas like working at um, I met a Buddha working at Del Taco in Sanacinto down there. That's where I go on a Sunday. I was smiling. It's like taking multiple orders on the headset, dealing with some dickish person in front of them. Still smiling, and then here's your bag of whatever, you know. I just like I I open my Zagu and bow to people who can who do that. There are Buddhas everywhere. There are people who are awake and alive, living their lives and helping people and being of service in every direction. That's an extraordinary thing. They don't have to call themselves Buddhas. They don't necessarily notice. And in this practice, you know, for each of us, you know, as you deepen our realization and actualization, again, those labels they don't they don't have to they don't have to be carried around. You have to think I'm a Buddha now. I don't think anybody really thinks that. You know, the actualization of the life and the quality of the experience is much more important than any of the labels. Again, the Buddha, that's another, just another pointer. Okay, I wanted to just get to this section so I don't go on all day. Um key section, I mean, this is a wonderful writing, and it's just a couple of pages. And if you haven't studied it or read it, then I I really recommend looking at it. And um in here, you know, and uh skipping ahead a couple of paragraphs, Master Dogan really nails down the process of practice. He says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the body and mind of others, drops away. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. So I I've not just me, I I guess many people could draw a parallel behind this, um these five main points here, and and say the um the five ranks in to study the Buddha way is to study the self. You know, we've been bringing that up. It's an active study of the reality of self. So that's the study of the way. It's not studying an outside philosophy or a method, you know, we can use those kinds of things, but it all comes down to study of self nature. That's the study of the way. And then he says, you know, and in in uh a version of the five ranks, that position is called shift. Shift. You know, it's just that's the shift from coming from the place of working it out, maybe coming into practice and and trying to work it out. And then, or sit in Zazen or doing meditation and still constructing. You know, that's not it. That's not studying the self. You need to make the shift, you need to shift, to move, to look at this broader self, to experience this more deeply, to go well beyond me and mine, and to look at so that when you study self, everywhere you look, that's it. That's this one, that's this self. You know, but not and then not drawing those lines of separation on the outside when a body, you know, I end here, or maybe here. Or maybe they'll include three family members, but that's it. Right? Yeah, dogs included, yeah. To study the self, then, is to is to forget the self. Or in this, you know, and uh again, I'm using a a different version of the five ranks, a position is called um surrender. So you make the shift and then forget the self or surrender, you know, surrender to reality over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. You know, move or shift and trust one's innate experience. Look at look into or look at this life as it is as it is arranged in all directions, surrender to reality, don't fly back and come back to self-construction being the main event. That's what really gets disrupted. Study the self, forget the self. You don't need the self, you don't need something called self or buddha or the or or enlightenment or delusion. We need those labels, they can all be forgotten. Living comes forward, living is much more important. This experience to to forget, then the self is to be actualized by myriad things or ten thousand things. There's enough in every direction, there's enough life going on to fully occupy this one's activity. Is there not? In every direction, there's enough going on in my like front room to like or cabin, right? And there's enough every in every direction, there's enough to be going on with. Trust in the script you've been handed in this life that it's the right one. You live in the right life. This is the one you are, not another one. You didn't land the big role you wanted, maybe. Right? And that's always a projection. I mean, people who are, you know, talk about big roles or people who are like big actors or whatever, it's like you think those people are happy because they're famous and they got a lot of money? Not necessarily. So when actualized by myriad things, your body and as well as the bodies and minds of others drops away. Achievement. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. Well, that's enough. That's enough for a lifetime, or at least a lifetime. You know, we're very prone to this. If you're anything like me, you know, or create an other. That's often, you know, that's the the real root of the problem there. You know, something on the outside, something defined, something that's separate, something that I have no involvement in, something that I feel better than, something on the outside. Who or what is that? You know, it's a body and mind of another. He says, he tells us here, body and mind as well as the body and mind of others drops away. When you can't find self, you can't find other, you can't find the point, you can't find the meaning. Then what? Then what, you know? Then you have to bring it. You have to bring it. You have to bring all of the meaning yourself to whatever this is. But bringing that meaning, you know, it's finding that meaning in whatever seat we are, whether it's a seat of Zazen or the seat of other activity. You know, in my experience, I mean, this is how many, a lot of sessions, a lot of New Year's sessions, you know, in many ways, some like Christmas ends, and then it's just like, oh no. Christmas is over. New Year's session. Here we go. Yeah. There's a busy one, and you know, you get a lot of inquiries, a lot of people just want to come for one night or can do that, and it's just all very busy, and it's always like, oh god, what's the weather doing? And you look in, and it's always like lately there's just been these apocalyptic weather warnings, with you know, which then just become, oh, it's gonna be okay on the last minute. So, you know, in a sense, it's like not looking forward to it, you know. But then when being involved, every time that I like when I'm involved in a session or involved in a in a in a period of Zazen, you find that there is just enormous value. There is uh enormous value in uh finding no value, yeah. But that time where you can just sit, you know, we're all so busy all the time. I know you your lives must be so busy, like oh Christmas and this thing, and how much is on the credit card and the whole nine whole nine yards, and then to be able to come up at least, and and take in the teachings of uh snow and mountain and cold and sky and and and everything else, and to just have that time to be just as is. Just as is. Nothing else looked for. You don't need to find something else, you don't need to like find some realization to come, but like trust this, trust this one that we already are, each one of us. Live this life. And um thank you for for listening and finish.