For more information on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, please visit our website at www.ancientdragon.org. Our teachings are offered to the community through the generosity of our supporters. To make a donation online, please visit our website. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Good morning. So I'm talking today about Dongshan and the five positions, the five... Degrees, Five Ranks, sometimes it's called, which is a core teaching of Soto Zen. And so I want to talk, I spoke yesterday for two and a half hours on this, so this will be a shorter version of that. And I want to start off by talking about Wayan Buddhism.

[01:04]

So Huayan is the Chinese name for the Flower Ornament Sutra or the Avatam Saka Sutra. And the Huayan school developed in China. It's Kegon in Japanese. And it had a tremendous influence on Soto Zen. and Dongshan. And so, to start with, I will talk about Huayen and the Fourfold Dharma, Datu. But Huayen Buddhism is kind of the background of Soto Zen. And it's—well, Dongshan, my teacher, Tenshin Reb Anderson, has called Dongshan, the founder of Sojozen in China, or Zhaodong as it's called in Chinese, has called him the sixth ancestor of Huayen.

[02:06]

So this is— Hua Yan has five ancestors. A recent academic scholar conference agreed that Hua Yan is deeply embedded in all East Asian Buddhist schools. So I want to talk about Hua Yan and the Fourfold Dharma Datu. So this is... about the Sandokai, first of all, by Shuto, who was the harmony of difference and sameness is something we chant regularly. And this is about how we share our teaching with our experience of the ultimate, of the universal, with our everyday activity, in our everyday activity. so, uh, Sando Kai is harmony of difference and sameness. Sameness is a way of talking about oneness or the ultimate or the universal or wholeness.

[03:12]

and, uh, uh, same and difference is about the particulars. So the phenomenal reality, our regular everyday reality, and, uh, Though in Huaien, there was this fourfold Dharmadhatu, amongst other things in Huaien. But we'll start with that. The fourfold Dharmadhatu was, first of all, the Dharmadhatu of Shö. events, the particular realities, than the dharmadhatu or the dharma realm of li, principles, or the ultimate or universal reality, which is what we taste in our Sazen and our facing the wall and our uprightness, we face the ultimate. And yet the third of the four full Dhammadattu is the mutual non-obstruction of Li and Shi.

[04:20]

So the ultimate and the particular Dhammadattu. mutually non-obstruct each other, mutually interface. So the ultimate is in the particulars. And the particulars express the ultimate. So this is basic teaching of Li and Shi, of the ultimate and the particular and how they interface in our life. The ultimate doesn't exist except in the particulars. in the phenomenal reality and yet the phenomenal reality uh each bit of the phenomenal reality each bit of our everyday activity does express the ultimate wholeness of zazen and of the mutual non-obstruction of Li and Shi. The fourth Dharmadhatu is the mutual non-obstruction of Shi and Shi, which is more challenging in some ways, that the particulars, the phenomenal reality, does not obstruct the other phenomenal reality.

[05:35]

So how is it that our particular expression of the ultimate in our everyday activity informs all the other particular realities. So this mutual non-obstruction of She and She, well, I mentioned that Dongshan can be considered the sixth Hua Yan ancestors. So the first one is Dushan, 557 to 640. The second is Zhu Yan, who was 600 to 668. Fasang is very important as the third ancestor. Fasang was the teacher of the Empress Wu, who was the greatest, most powerful empress of China. In that period, Fa Zong is 643 to 712, and he taught Empress Wu using the Hall of Mirrors.

[06:49]

Another teaching of Hua Yan is Indra's Net, that each particular event informs every other particular event. as a way of demonstrating that to Empress Wu, Fuzong had this hall of mirrors, where there were mirrors on the four walls, and then the intermediate spaces, so eight mirrors around the room, and then top and bottom. And in the center was a Buddha. And the Buddha, in each mirror, interacted with the Buddhas in each other mirror. And there's actually a room like this at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah in Northern California, where I visited. So this is a way that Empress Wu saw the Buddha interpenetrating with all the other Buddhas in the phenomenal realm. And so this is the mutual non-obstruction of She and She.

[07:58]

He also taught Empress Wu through the golden lion. So each bit of the lion is a lion. The ears and the nose and the tail and so forth, all of which are part of the lion, but also each part of the lion was gold. So this was a golden lion that was in the front hall of Empress Wu's palace. So just to finish off, Chenguan was the fourth ancestor in Huayan, and Zhongmi was the fifth, 780 to 831. He was actually a Chan teacher as well, Chan or Zen. Zongmi is the fifth, and Dongshan, who's the founder of our Soto lineage, can be considered the sixth, not formally, but Henshin said that Dongshan is the sixth ancestor in Huayen.

[09:11]

So this leads up to, again, Shito was a couple generations after the sixth ancestor, and then a few generations before, Dongshan. And Chateau wrote The Harmony of Difference and Sameness. So again, this is about how our glimpse of the ultimate of the universal our sense of the universal or the ultimate or of wholeness basic wholeness is uh part of everything in uh the in um all the differences all the particulars uh all of the um all of the particulars of the phenomenal world. So in Dongshan's verses on the five degrees, he talks about the phenomenal and the real.

[10:21]

So the real is the sameness or wholeness or the upright, and the... Phenomenal is the inclined. So this is also talked about in terms of the difference between inclined and real. And there's different ways they're talked about. So host and guest. um, minister and vassal, um, in Chinese, uh, society were, were considered parallel to, uh, the, uh, ultimate and the particular or the ultimate and the phenomenal. Um, so, um, one thing about these five degrees of Dong Shan is that they, um, are poetic. Dogen, who brought the Soto lineage from China, the Cao Dong lineage from China to Japan and founded Soto Zen, which we practice here, is

[11:28]

did not like the five degrees or five ranks because he thought that there was so much systematic talk about this system of the five degrees that the five degrees don't really... fit as a system. It's too tempting to think of the five degrees as the ultimate and the particular and this is not how Dongshan actually presented them. Dongshan, you know, so a historical footnote. Dongshan lived in the 800s. These recorded sayings of Dongshan didn't appear until the 1000s. So the academic scholars question whether these five degrees are actually

[12:37]

something that Dongshan wrote about. However, that Dongshan wrote about them is kind of poetic. It's not systematic. Later on, there were systems, and I'll talk about that a little bit. But the five verses of Dongshan about the phenomenal within the real and the real within the phenomenal and so forth go like this. The phenomenal within the real at the outset of the dead of night before moonlight, do not be surprised to meet without recognizing a glimmer faintly familiar from olden days. So this is the phenomenal within the real. This is the first of the five degrees. And, um, now in the Sando Kai, uh, Shito, Sekito in Sino-Japanese, had talked about night and day, or light and dark, and dark is where the ultimate happens.

[13:47]

Dark is where the real happens, where the ultimate reality, all things are as one. because they can't be distinguished. In the light, we can see the particulars. We can see the different aspects of reality. So phenomena within the real at the outset of the dead of night before moonlight do not be surprised to meet without recognizing a glimmer faintly familiar from olden days. So this is the glimmer within the darkness. But phenomena within the real we can see from this glimmer. The real within the phenomenal is the second degree. An old woman waking late at dawn stands before an ancient mirror, clearly seeing her face, but nothing else genuine. Don't turn away from your visage, reaching for reflections.

[14:52]

So this old woman waking late at dawn stands before an ancient mirror. So this is the phenomenal within the real, the real being the ancient mirror, clearly seeing her face but nothing else genuine. Don't turn away from your visage, reaching for reflections. So this is more apparent in the five degrees versions of Hongzhi. But this old woman is like the Song of the Jewel of Marisamadhi, where there's a... When the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance. This is the ancient woman, the stone woman, who gets up to dance. And... Yet here, this is before the wooden man begins to sing, an old woman waking late at dawn stands before an ancient mirror, clearly seeing her face but nothing else genuine, don't turn away from your visage, reaching for reflections.

[15:59]

So this is a sequel to the wooden man starts to sing and the stone woman gets up to dance. The third is coming from within the real. So maybe I should say how he sees the five, the phenomenal within the real, the real within the phenomenal, coming from within the real. moving within both and then arriving within both. So coming from within the real is the third of these. Amid nothingness, there is a path apart from the dusts. if you can simply avoid the current emperor's taboo name, you will surpass the eloquence of orators of past dynasties. So this is emerging from within the real. This is like the third day of Sashin, of a five or seven day Sashin, when you're coming forth from merging with oneness, merging with wholeness. And so this is moving within both.

[17:09]

Two swords crossed in a duel that need not be... No, the coming from within the real is a nothingness. There is a path apart from the dusts. If you can simply avoid the current emperor's taboo name, you will surpass the eloquence of orators of past dynasties. So that's coming from within the real. Then moving within both... And you can see how these are poetic rather than didactic or doctrinal aspects of the five. But moving within both, two swords crossed in a duel that need not be avoided, skillfully wielded like a lotus amid flames, Longshan writes, naturally have vigor to ascend the heavens. So moving within both is when there is this... Recognition or activation of both the ultimate or the principle or the real and the phenomenal or the particular, moving within both, two swords crossed in a duel that need not be avoided.

[18:18]

skillfully wielded like a lotus amid flames, and it's said that all Buddhas sit amid flames, naturally have vigor to ascend the heavens. So this is moving within both, and then arriving within both is the fifth of the five degrees, or five ranks, five positions, neither falling into being nor non-being. Who dares harmonize? So this harmonization of sameness and difference is the fifth rank to harmonize the arriving within both the phenomenal and the real. People deeply wish to escape the stream of the ordinary and yet after all return to sit in the warm coals and ashes. so neither falling into being or non-being, who dares harmonize? People deeply wish to escape the stream of the ordinary, and yet, after all, return to sit in the warm coals and ashes.

[19:29]

So, we may wish to escape the stream of the ordinary, of the particulars, of the phenomenal, particularly in this time when we all know about the cruelty regime of the billionaires that has taken them. And it's a shame that they don't want to serve you until I'm sitting here. Well, it is. Yeah. I'm sorry. Oh, I got it. Sorry about that. Okay. So, uh, yeah, it's, um, Ryan has left us and he had some comments about the, um, about this warm coals and ashes.

[20:31]

So we return to sit amid the warm coals and ashes of the phenomenal of the particular, of the cruelty regime of the billionaires, but we return to sit in the warm cold holes and ashes. People deeply wish to escape the dream of the ordinary. So this is a dream, this ordinary reality that we are sitting in. So there's also five verses of Dongshan that are about five degrees or five positions of accomplishment. Hakuen and the Rinzai school in Japan and the Linji school in China looked at these five degrees as degrees of accomplishment. Well, maybe I can go over those briefly.

[21:37]

Dongshan's five verses on the five degrees of accomplishments, looking upon as the first one, the sage kings from the outset took as their model Emperor Yao, one of the great semi-historic emperors of Chinese lore, ancient China, and governed the people with ceremony, their dragon waists bent respectfully. Passing through the crowded markets and streets, benevolent rule was celebrated and cultures flourished. So this was looking upon, this is the first degree. Again, these are five degrees of accomplishments, so-called achievements. The second one, for whom do you bathe and apply makeup and adornments? This is serving. The cuckoo's call urges all wanderers home.

[22:38]

Countless flowers have fallen, yet the cry continues among jagged peaks and deep wooded thickets. So in the phenomenal realm, there is this serving that is countless flowers have fallen, yet the cry continues among jagged peaks in deep wooded thickets. So this is the cuckoo's call. For whom do you bathe and apply makeup and adornments? That's the second one of serving. The third is accomplishing. Flowers blossoming on a withered tree in a spring beyond Kalpos. Riding backwards on the jade elephant chasing the qilin, which is the kirin in Sino-Japanese. now hidden beyond the myriad lofty peaks the moon is clear and breeze pure at the approach of sunrise so this is the third accomplishment which is also like emerging from connection with the ultimate again these are poetic rather than didactic

[23:50]

categories. Flowers blossom on a withered tree. Plums blossom on the same withered branches as last year is one way this is put. in spring beyond countless flowers blossom, riding backwards on a jade elephant chasing the Qilin or the Kirin, which is this kind of magical animal, like a unicorn with one horn, with the head of a dragon and the body of a monkey, a donkey, excuse me. now hidden beyond the myriad lofty peaks. The moon is clear and breeze pure at the approach of sunrise. Then the fourth is accomplishing mutually. Ordinary beings and Buddhas do not inhibit each other. Mountains are naturally high, waters naturally deep. What the myriad distinctions and numerous differences show is that where the partridges call out, hundreds of flowers bloom afresh.

[25:02]

So this is accomplishing mutually. Accomplishment of accomplishment is the head sprouting horns is no longer bearable. The mind desiring Buddhahood is a cause for shame. In the endless empty kalpa, nobody has ever known why to journey south and seek the 53. Bodhisattva God. So this is about the last chapter of the Flower Ornament Sutra, the Avatamsaka or Huayen Sutra, in which there's a pilgrim, Sudhana. So we're actually up to this in The readings of the Flower Ornament Sutra, the Hua Yan Sutra, that happen monthly, the first Friday evening of each month, we're reading together this Flower Ornament Sutra, and we're actually up to this last chapter, which is... the pilgrim Sudhana journeying south and seeking the 53 Bodhisattva guides.

[26:09]

So there are 53 different Bodhisattvas, all in various different forms. Okay, that was a quick reading of the five verses on the five degrees of accomplishment. But what happened with this, with Dongshan's teaching about this, is... Part of the story, and this I'll just cover briefly, Saoshan, who was one of the disciples of Dongshan, and sometimes it's said that Saodong or Sotok is a combination of the names of Saodong and Dongshan. But Soto or Cao Dong has the Cao first, so actually the Cao is a reference to Cao Shi, the sixth ancestor who taught at Cao Shi.

[27:11]

So anyway, the Soto school, really the five ancestors, the six ancestors or whatever, are the – that start with Huineng and then through Sekito and Song of the Harmony of Difference and Sameness, and then going to Yunyan, the teacher of Dongshan, and Dongshan's five verses But Saushan made a big deal about these five, these five. And he. systematized these five degrees. And this is a big part of Sōtō history. Sao Dōng in China, Sōtō in Japan, were all about

[28:24]

these five degrees as a system. And it was very tempting for people to think of the five degrees or five positions as a system of how the ultimate and the particular integrate. And so Dogen really disliked the five degrees. He didn't dislike Dongshan. He talked about Dongshan a lot. But he disliked the five degrees because he thought they were too much of an attractive system for understanding Soto Zen. But actually... Now, Dongshan's verses and those five verses, the two versions of them that I read, were all that Dongshan said about the five degrees or five positions.

[29:30]

So, Shaoshan and various teachers thereafter, I talked about Hongzhi's version of the five verses in yesterday's, were about the system of of seeing how the ultimate and real interact. The ultimate and real and the particulars interact. How the harmonizing of difference and sameness interact. And was seen as a very attractive system for understanding this. So before I talk about Dogen's work, inclusion of the five though, I want to talk about, um, biological pentamerism. So, you know, as binary beings, we have a front and a back, we have a left and a right, male and female, uh, there are, you know, we're, we're trying to now have, um,

[30:41]

more than just male and female, more than just two possible genders, but of course the billionaire regime is changing it to, you know, you have to have either he or she, you can't use other pronouns. So anyway, They and them. I don't know if other people have pronouns listed. Um, I don't, yeah. Uh, Paul Cathy has he and him listed on online. Um, so, um, At any rate, the binary thinking, subject and object, object and subject, the way we think is so much folded into Tunis. But in the Cambrian epoch, which is hundreds of millions of years ago, there were echinoderms, which are five...

[31:44]

Five-ness. So the Jewelmare Samadhi by Dongshan talks about five-ness, and these five degrees are about the five-ness embedded in the five degrees. In echinoderms like starfish or... other five-fold creatures were dominant in the Cambrian era. When the Cambrian era ended, they were not the dominant species of life on Earth, but they persisted, of course. But if... evolution had proceeded in a different way, these five might have become intelligent, and they would have had a five-fold way of seeing things. So, you know, we are binary creatures.

[32:56]

We're left and right and front and back. So we see things in terms of two-ness. But actually, you know, it might have been five-ness, that was seen as the ultimate. So anyway, this is just a footnote in my chapter on the five degrees. I want to talk about Dogen's response, though, to the five-fold... The fiveness. He talks about fiveness, but he doesn't talk about the five degrees or five positions because he doesn't like all of the scholarship that happened in China after Shaoshan and that happened in Japan as well later on.

[33:59]

When Dogen was revived in the 1600s, although he was never completely obscured in Soto Zen, but in the 1600s there was a kind of revival of Dogen. But also there were scholar monks then who... use the five degrees as a formal way of talking about what Soto Zen is. Let's see. Maybe I just have time to go through one of Dogen's uses of fiveness. The other one is in the Genjo Koan, in the beginning of Genjo Koan, but I'll skip that. So in Ehe Koroku, which I translated with Shohaku Okamura, Dogen's extensive record, Dogen says in Jodo or Dharma Hall discourse number 256 out of 531, Dharma Hall discourses in volumes 1 to 7 of the Ehe Koroku, he says, sometimes I, Ehe, enter the ultimate state and offer profound discussion, simply wishing for you all to be steadily ultimate in your mind field.

[35:28]

So when I first came to this particular Dharmahal discourse in translating Ehe Koroku, I was amazed at how Dogen saw his different versions or different types of teaching and how he wished for you all to be steadily intimate in your mind field is the first one. In the beginning, sometimes Ai-ehei, sometimes is being time, though Dogen's essay Being Time, Uji, is sometimes. Sometimes Ai-ehei enter the ultimate state and offer profound discussion, simply wishing for you all to be steadily intimate. in your mind field. This is the first degree, this is the first of five that are put together in the Dharma Hall discourse.

[36:33]

The second, sometimes within the gates and gardens of the monastery, I offer my own style of practical instruction. So this is the Ehe Shingi, the Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community. and how those within the gates and gardens of the monastery, I offer my own style of practical instruction, simply wishing you all to disport and play freely with spiritual penetration. So all of the forms of the Zendo, All of the forms of the monastic residential lifestyle in those temples are simply wishing for all of the students to sport and play freely with spiritual penetration. So in the Ehe Shingi he talks, he includes the tenzo kyoko and how the tenzo sees all of the different people, different beings that he has to prepare food for, simply wishing you all to support and play freely with spiritual penetration.

[37:47]

So this is the second example. The third, sometimes I spring quickly, leaving no trace, simply wishing you all to drop off body and mind. Dropping off body and mind is a phrase that Dogen uses regularly to describe Zazen. Just dropping off body and mind. That doesn't mean getting rid of body and mind. It means dropping off attachments based on body and mind. Dogen springing quickly, leaving no trace, simply wishing you all to drop off body and mind. So that's his third. And the fourth, sometimes I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment, simply wishing you all to trust what your hands can't hold. So this is about faith, Rudogin. This is, sometimes I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment.

[38:49]

In being time, at times, I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment, which is the Jiju Zabai, this samadhi, this concentration of self-fulfillment, which is... This self-realizing, accepting its own function, literally, it means self as a compound. Accepting one's function means self-fulfillment. It means self-realization. It means self-enjoyment. So enjoying oneself is simply wishing you to trust what your hands can hold. So Dogen enters the samadhi of self-fulfillment. This is the fourth of this five-fold aspect of what Dogen is talking about here. Sometimes I enter the samadhi of self-fulfillment, wishing you all to trust what your hands can hold.

[39:52]

So faith in Buddhism is not the same as belief as it is in Western Buddhism. Christianity or Judaism or Islam, faith in some teacher, some deity, some being, some scripture, just trusting what your hands can hold, having faith in what your hands can hold, what you can do right now. So this is the fourth of the five that Dogen is expressing. And then suppose someone suddenly came forth and asked this mountain monk, Dogen himself, what would go beyond these teachings, these four kinds of teachings? And Dogen says... maybe after a pause, I would simply say to them, scrubbed clean by the dawn wind, the night mist clears.

[40:57]

Dimly seen, the blue mountains form a single line. So this is not the same exactly as the five degrees of Dongshan, but it's a five-fold approach that Dogen is offering that in some ways echoes the Five Degrees. Again, the Five Degrees is a poetic teaching. It's not a doctrinal teaching, although Zhaoshan and other Soto scholar monks tried to make it something that was systematic, and that's what Dogen rejected. But here he's saying, I would simply say, scrub clean by the dawn wind, the night mist clears. Dimly seeing the blue mountains form a single line. So this is the oneness that includes both. Dimly seeing the blue mountains, which, you know, are up and down, especially at Heiji in northern China.

[42:05]

Japan, where Dogen was, where he founded his temple after his assembly moved from Kyoto, they formed a single line, dimly seen. So I think I'm out of time now, but I'm happy to hear any questions or comments or discussion by anyone about these five degrees. Well, thank you, Taigen. I would say that was about 20 wonderful Dharma talks in one, which is more than fivefold. No, 20-fold. Maybe if you were like echinoderms. I feel like an echinoderm, like I was just thinking of my body. Five, you know, two arms, two legs, and a head. Yes, that's right. And five fingers also, which is, you know, but thank you so much for also this encouragement to not be stuck. in wholeness or particularity, but to embrace everything in this body and mind.

[43:17]

And Bodhisattvas, please offer your questions to Taigen and Lu. Maybe you could help with the people online since your screen is maybe a little more amplified than mine. So does anyone in the room right now have a comment or question? I see Neo's on. Way up in the back there. Yeah, please. Yeah. Good morning. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. My question is, is maybe, you know, there was so much there, as August pointed out, as maybe just a tiny aspect. And I think it's what's said in reference to the four dogma doctors in the five ranks, but since they overlap so much, I think it might be useful to be clarified for me. And this is just the, you know, the lines moving within both and arriving within both.

[44:20]

And I know what the both are. I'm not clear what moving and arriving mean in this context. Could you help with me, help that with me? Well, yeah, there's moving... Okay, so the fourth, yeah, of Dongshan's verse, moving within both, is that both are part of the whole. Both the ultimate and the particular, both the sameness and difference, are part of the whole. And... So they're moving within both. Arriving within both means that they're not no different, that they're the same, that the oneness of the ultimate wholeness and the oneness of the particulars are exactly the same. So arriving within both is... So... Yeah, that both are fully integrated.

[45:26]

There's no difference between the sameness and difference. There's no sameness of the sameness and difference either. They're just both together. So moving within both is moving into the realm where both are operating. Arriving within both is that they're actually the same. Okay, thank you. That is helpful. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Other comments or questions online or in the room? And Taigen, I think you gave yesterday a seminar that probably people could still sign up for if she wanted the whole talk. Yes, actually, yeah, there's a recording of the two-and-a-half-hour version of this talk, which includes things from Hongzhe and more from Saoshan and Hakuen, the Linji approach.

[46:34]

So if you want to register for that and sign up, you can still get a copy of that recording. And you can register on the Ancient Dragon website. So for any other comments or questions about this blindness, that is... Oh, Paul Cathy has a question. I had a question. I don't want to, you know, get us off track talking about the five ranks, but was curious if you could just briefly expand on your mentioning of how Dogen interpreted faith as what's in the hand or trusting what's in the hand. Yes. So translating Chinese into English is a challenge because Chinese characters have numbers of overtones and other meanings involved.

[47:46]

And as compounds, as two together, Chinese characters have... yet other meanings, like self-fulfillment for accepting one's function. So it's complicated. But as a translator from Chinese, faith is... There's a Chinese character. Actually, it's partly a person... and their word so it's a person and their word is is faith but um standing by their word is faith but in in the in in buddhism it's more like trust it's more like trusting or trusting what your hands can hold is what uh dogan says in the fourth uh fourth of this five um Trusting what your hands can hold is more what faith is about. Faith is about trust.

[48:47]

It's about confidence in Buddhism. It's about not trusting in some external deity, although it's complicated because there is trust and faith in Bodhisattva figures, for example. But it's not the same as... faith in, you know, the Almighty, faith in the ultimate deity. And, you know, with apologies to all the people here who are also Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever, as well as Buddhist, and it's possible to, I know, I don't understand it theologically, but I know I've seen people who are both Christian and Buddhist. And so, you know, that faith is, um confidence in something and in buddhism it's just taking the next step you know just the next moment so faith is difficult to translate trusting is maybe a more a better translation um

[49:56]

or faith in Buddhism than it is in Western religion. So that's a little bit about that. Thank you. And Asian has a comment. I'm wondering if maybe said a different way, would this be trusting that you have what you need to get through this life? Yeah, yes, yes. That's trusting that, well, you know, how we pass away, how we die is a complicated issue. Do we die peacefully or do we die violently or something in between? And how is it that we die is the whole question that is part of Zen practice, it's an element, it's a deeply personal element of Zen practice, trusting that we have, that we are what we are, trusting that we can be what we are.

[51:11]

There's a dot above Chris Cadman's picture on the website. I don't know if it is. I wanted to just follow up. I didn't mean trusting that we have, you know, what we need to get all the way through to the end of this life, but to like along the way. As compared to trying to control and trying to plan and trying to grasp, trusting what your hands can hold is maybe trusting that your hands can't hold everything, but... Yeah, trusting the next step. Yeah. Trusting the next step is a good way to talk about faith and Buddhism, I think. Trusting what your hands can hold would be another way. Trusting how we each see our life as it is today, now. Trusting that we can hold the memories of... You know, we may have regrets or we may have fears for the future, but we can at least trust that our hands can hold.

[52:25]

Maybe that's a really beautiful place for us to end this conversation today with these open hands. I'm thinking that this might be a time for us to do the Bodhisattva vows. And thank you very much, Taiga, for sharing this kind of sometimes difficult but incredibly foundational and broad teaching with us and leaving us with these hands. Thank you. We'll chant the four Bodhisattva vows, and then I'll have announcements, and I'll make some announcements before the Eno does today. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are nameless.

[53:33]

We allow to preempt. Deletions are infestable. We rot into cups of red wine, till our minds are boundless. We bow to enter them, but others say they are less aggressive. We need help to realize this. [...] to the members of Sway, as well as the rest of the world. We are happy to be allowed to say that we, in Sway, are not afraid of this.

[54:36]

We are happy to be allowed to say that we are not afraid of this. We are happy to be allowed to say that we are not afraid of this. We are happy to be allowed to say that we are not afraid of this. We are not supposed to wait to learn. This way is unsurpassable. We are not supposed to realize it.

[55:03]

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