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. The unsurpassed roadmap and wondrous Dharma is bravely met with even a hundred thousand million Kappas. Now I can see and hear it, accept and maintain it. May I uphold the meaning of the fact of the truth. Good morning, everyone.

[01:18]

Good morning. So we are in the middle of commissioning, actually, the beginning, morning of the third day of the day session, and also the last day of the practice commitment. So I want to talk today about the mysterious pivot. But just to review what we've been talking about the last couple of days of this session, it's just been wonderful. Really settled, calm, steady, quiet, upright. So we started talking about sessioning as an opportunity for settling, for calm, for taking a backward step that turns the light inwardly to illuminate ourselves.

[02:36]

So this basic column I'll show who we've been studying in this practice period, or using as an inspiration in this practice period, talks about serenity. Finding our calm settings in the midst of this difficult life, a difficult world sometimes. So this mysterious divot, this, in fact, is called the J-Kid, or J-Machine. We've been chanting this morning, the Guideposts for Child Illumination.

[03:58]

Moksha says, a restriction penetrating into subtle radiance is leaking gold on a jay loom. And that character for loom also means a machine or an opportunity. So subtle radiance is what we are, what we is, as we settle, we can hear the subtle radiance all around us that, as Hamsa says, has been here from the very beginning. As I said yesterday, it's even before the beginning. So this is not about discovering something new.

[05:08]

It may be new to us, but it's about settling into what is already. So this mysterious pivot is about finding also says, upright and inclined yield to each other. Light and dark are interdependent. So this pivot is this wonderful, radiant opportunity to open up into what's sometimes called silent illumination, or serene illumination, this calming, this serenity, and also this insight, this uprightness, and then we also inquire towards all of the phenomena in the festive world.

[06:31]

How do we appreciate this mysterious pit? It's not exactly that we need to do something about it. We're so conditioned by our culture to try and fix things and acquire things and accumulate commodities or whatever. This is something deeper. It's not something we do. It's something that we observe, feel, sense, see with our ears, hear with our eyes, not be caught up in psychics. Yeah. This is the mysterious period of our life, upright and equine. lots of ways to talk about it, none of which are actually exactly it, of course.

[07:39]

But this ultimate universal reality and our particular world of habits and tendencies and so forth that we get caught up in. And also that given what is after that, which is the basis of this practice that we incline towards, that we actually care about taking care of our world, taking care of our lives, taking care of our bodies and minds, taking care of our friends and family and neighborhood, as you want to see in your neighborhood.

[08:45]

And Homscher, in this Guide for Specialist Illumination, says, if illumination neglects your energy, then aggressiveness appears. So they're not separate, actually. The settling allows insights to arise. talks about it in the sutra. But if we get too stuck on one side or the other, we can get off balance. We can lose the series within it. If illumination neglects serenity, aggressiveness appears. But if serenity neglects illumination, murkiness, and we can waste this wonderful opportunity So yesterday we did a meditation on space and actually also on time and seeing spaciousness and seeing how right now in this being time all times it's being

[10:09]

And when we sit upright, like Buddha, even for a little bit of it, it says, all of space awakens. This is very simple. Actually, we all can sit. So we focus within. And out of that comes awareness, comes expression. comes sharing, comes creativity. How do we... Hamsa talks a lot about response, mutual response. It's sort of what Devan is talking about when he says, when we sit a little bit, the whole world awakens. There's this mutual responsiveness. This responsibility, this ability to respond

[11:11]

Between us and the world. And the world informs us. Nature informs us. Walking in the nature area enriches us. Soothes us. And the nature area is, you know, right in the middle of a busy city like Chicago, with trees outside, full canopies of There are birds singing all around us. There are cats on the Zoom screen. Nature is in this room. Nature is not something out there. How do we appreciate this mysterious pivot, this jade pivot, this synchronicity between settling and insight, between the space

[12:36]

between the space between our shoulders and the space between our ears. And the space can hear to the great, great Michigan. Or whatever is around here in the next part of Michigan or Ontario. Or there's someone here from Italy. So we've been reading these practice instructions from Aung San Suu Kyi from a long time ago, the 1100s, probably a few years from now. And as I said yesterday, can we imagine the people walking by on Monday or Friday, so maybe it's 1,200 years from now, and it's a booklet.

[13:43]

1,200 years from now is what? That is my three years. The year 3523, is that right? Can you imagine the year 3523? Anyway, as I mentioned a number of times, one of my favorite, many favorite practice instructions from Hongzhi is to graciously share yourself. And the beginning of this is a little funny. He says, in a great rest at a great altar, lips become moldy and mountains of grass grow on their tongue. He's talking about sashim, or monastic practice. Just stop it. Sit in. And look straight ahead. The arm is totally let go. Wash clean.

[14:45]

respond with brilliant light to such unfathomable depths as the waters of autumn, or the waters in the spring, or the moon stamped in the sky. I love that, the moon stamping in the sky. It's not how we usually think of it. We, you know, science teaches us that there's this spherical thing called the moon circling us. But when we look up and see the full moon, stamped in the sky. Wow. Okay. He says, then he must know that there is a path on which to turn yourself around. So this has to do with this mysterious pit. We turn around. We turn within. We find our own inner calmness and settledness, quietness. Enjoy our inhale and enjoy our exhale.

[15:48]

Face the wall. face sounds, see the sounds in our ears, hear the texture of the wall. It says this is penetrating from the topmost all the way down to the bottom. When we investigate our roots, we go back to their opening source. I like that because that's what Taige is. So, in wonder, we turn to the journey. So, this is wonderful. And we all know about all the horrible things in the world. We don't ignore that. We don't forget that. We don't neglect that. We know about all the difficulties in our own lives. And we don't ignore that. We face that. with whatever commonness or serenity is possible.

[16:56]

Again, Tsuji Hiroshi talked about, Tsuji Tsuji talked about losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. So this uprightness is perfect balance, this ultimate reality. And yeah, we lose our balance. We get swayed to one side or another, and then we can't come back. and settle again. Feng Shui says, and when you return to the journey, avail yourself of the path and walk ahead. With the hundred grass tips in the busy marketplace, graciously share yourself. This is the up-inciting part. There's some Tibetan people, Tibetan experience. There's a wonderful book by a Tibetan teacher. I can't remember the name exactly, but it's something about graciousness.

[18:00]

So graciousness, share yourself. So we're talking about how Zazen is a creative practice. Zazen supports all our creative activities. So we have here therapists and librarians and hospice workers and philosophers, teachers and bachelors and attorneys. and the partners. All of that creative activity and creative practice relationships and childcare. All of that is part of our zazen, but also in our zazen we are expressing Buddha.

[19:11]

We are sharing Buddha. We are sitting like Buddha, upright. Ending thought. So this zazen, under the performance art, the performing Buddha, on our seats. The zazen is a performance art. Together, as Sangha, we are supporting each other. People have different parts of different positions. Looking in the kitchen, reading people coming in, hitting the bells, helping people make a chance, serving meals. All of this is graciously sharing ourselves. All of this is creative performance of who we are. How can we feel going for a walk?

[20:36]

That's a creative act. How can you feel washing the dishes? That's a creative act. How can you see driving? That's a creative act. All of this is expressing . We don't have to think about it that way. It's not about thinking yet. It's just runway, settle. We have this experience of calm and insight, of settledness and spaciousness. And when we sustain this practice of the time, special, we're expressing this, performing all of this. It's true that sometimes we have dramatic experiences that the bottom of the bucket falling out is the occasional expression.

[21:38]

Well, just everything opens up. And so there are people here who've had such experiences. And that's wonderful. And don't hold on to it. You can't do that. The world is moving. The planet is rotating. I think that's how we all understand it now. So just enjoy this mysterious pivot. It is mysterious. We can't get a hold of it, but there's this shifting between turning within and settling and generosity, being kind all around us and to ourselves too. It looks serious. How do we recognize it and support it and let it support us? It's precious, this chain pivot.

[22:41]

So Hongzhi was an important influence on Dogen who brought this tradition of the concept of Zen China to Japan. So I wanted to share a few lines from Dogen. And Dogen, of course, in our whole tradition, stresses the importance of the Bodhisattva vow, which we'll chant at the end of this, that we are not practicing just for ourselves. Of course, ourselves is included in all being, but we take the body suffer without a benefit, all being. So we are practicing for the benefit of everyone we know, everyone we've ever known or will know, all the suffering beings, all the joyful beings, all the beings who are erupting and playing in samadhi or otherwise.

[23:55]

How can we graciously share ourselves? So, about this, one of my many favorite parts of Dogen's extensive record, he says, the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors, this isn't just the subject matter, the family style of all Buddhas and all ancestors, is first. Arouse the vow to say all that it means. By removing suffering and providing joy. This is a joyful sanctus. It also is a practice that sometimes is painful, but not suffering. Removing suffering, providing joy. Yeah, I was just remembering the... It's a Tibetan book. That's what it's about.

[25:00]

It's about this kind of event. Who was that? Yes, great. Yeah, thank you. So our practice is to save all the beings. Sometimes people don't like this, but say, we can do this. We say, free all of them. This is a liberating practice. We free all of the beings. We save all of the beings. We free all of the beings. All beings. All beings. Everyone. Even when people think we're not like you. But removing suffering and providing joy, only this family style, Dogen says, is inexhaustibly bright and clear.

[26:05]

In the lofty mountains, we see the moon for a long time. As clouds clear, we first recognize the sky, cast loose down the precipice, moonlight shares itself within the 10,000 volts. So here Dogen is echoing Holmes's wonderful nature metaphors that we've talked about and enjoyed this practice period. Only this this style is inexhaustible, bright and clear. In the Lofty Mountains, we see the moon for a long time. And that's true. If you go up in the mountains and practice for a practice period or move to some monastery in the mountains, you'll have a chance to see the moon for a long time.

[27:12]

But he's also talking about session and sustained practice. So for three days, and some of us have just joined us today, but during the third day, either way. We have had this opportunity to see the moon for a long time. The moon, in East Asian references, is the round moon, the hall moon, the corner. To see the moon for a while has to sustain our practice, has to be very intensive practice. Clouds clear. And then we first recognize the sky. It's not that the sky wasn't there before. The spaciousness and openness of reality is where we is, reaching us, reaching us on our seats. Clouds clear.

[28:20]

And we know about the clouds. We all have these. clouds of sadness, clouds of regret, clouds of frustration, clouds of difficult challenges that get in the way of our seeing openness, spaciousness, illumination. But when we settle into this terrain of illumination, at some point, Doesn't mean necessarily permanently, because God's coming through, but God's clear and we see his kind. Right in Samadhi is Vajna, the Six Ancestors, just right in our settlement is insight, no elimination. Cast loose down the precipice, the moonlight shares itself graciously within the 10,000 beams of the wall of the grassroots.

[29:30]

And then there's this interesting ending to this short, this was in 1251, next to last year of its teaching. Again, cast loose down a precipice. This nor life, this nola, shares itself within the 10,000 past lives. Even when climbing the bird's path, taking good care of yourself, the spiritual power, so we don't try to take care of, fix all the world, or everything that's going wrong in the world, or in our life, or our relationships, or whatever. We also take good care of ourselves. Because we're not separate from everything happening in the world. Everything happening in our lives.

[30:33]

Our lives are not separate from the moments. But he says, even when climbing up the bird's back. So this is, you know, this Soto tradition that we practice here. I'm reading Hongzhe and Dogen. and represents the Zipi Roshi Road to California. Now here we are in Chicago, and it was right back to China, the Dongshan. Dongshan talked about the bird's path. And we've been blessed with this zixing, birds singing all around our ,, giving us beautiful colors. But I don't, we don't know. I mean, there are theories about how birds know that, where to migrate, you know, where some birds migrate for thousands of miles.

[31:38]

They have, as last year and last century, you know, it's, we can't see the birds there. We see jet trails when the airplane birds fly over. We don't know. We can't, Our path, our path, our path as human beings, as particular examples of this fullness. We don't know. We may have ideas and expectations, but nothing ever happens exactly according to our expectation. This isn't the cost I had. expected to give. I don't have some notes, but we're alive. We're alive. Each one of us is alive. The world is alive. Mountains are alive.

[32:42]

They've shifted over time. It's a larger lifespan than we used to see. Anyway, all of that. And Oksha says, Dogen says, Dogen says, taking good care of yourself is spiritual power. So we take, so, you know, as I started out by saying, this is, we're not practicing just for ourselves. This is not a self-help practice. And we need to take good care of ourselves. for the sake of doing what is often worth seeing how we're not separate from all beings. How we don't ignore all beings. So that's a little bit of token. Since we've done this practice period on puncture and cultivating the empty field, I'll close with a selection.

[33:45]

This is the selection of this course that I, you know, the primal words, the practice of selection, the primal words of what I call positive and appropriate activity. So I'll read you a little bit of this. Expansive and inherently spiritual, we find an inherently bright, awakened mind can permeate universally without grasping some merit of its elimination. And can apprehend without being bound by the discursive thinking.

[34:54]

Of course, as human beings with human consciousness, we do have discursive thinking, and we could use it to benefit all beings. And even in this very subtle session, in the third day, I dare say that some of you have had some discursive thinking during this session. We don't have to be caught by it. Emerging from manifestations of existence and non-existence, surpassing the emotions of deliberation and discussion, not getting rid of deliberation and discussion, but going beyond. Merely interact positively and appropriately without dependence on others, but mutuality with others. All breeders, all ancestors, all leaves and all flowers Beautiful flowers out there. They all relate in this manner. We're responding that you're not grasped at once.

[35:58]

We are illuminating that you're not attached to conditions. We all are conditioned beings. You don't have to get caught. And we do get caught, and there's a thing I felt. And then we get caught again, and then we let go. Then, Aung San Suu Kyi says, they can stay wide open and unhindered. Only this heavenly ring, this intimate awareness, appears complete everywhere. Let yourself accept. So, this is all around you. This is on your seat, wherever you are. This is how he is. How can you accept it? and that's difficult, but we save all living beings, which means all parts of beings, ourselves and others, and we remove suffering and good life.

[37:03]

Thank you for all the joy. It's a shame. So for those of us who are in this session. And for all of you who have been part, probably part of this practice commitment period, we will have a question asked, question ceremony this afternoon, Shosan ceremony, where you will each have the opportunity to ask a question or just make a statement to say something for all of us about practice and our practice questions. But since we are joined by a few people who are not in the session or not in the practice period, we can have brief, very brief time for comments and responses. So anyone online who can help me with that will hear brief comments or responses.

[38:06]

And if there aren't any, Aisha? Oh, Aisha, would you welcome to come to the Shoshan ceremony? Go ahead. Well, I have a different question for the Shoshan ceremony, but this one is related. Oh, my gosh. To what you were talking about. You know, I've heard you say or Hangzhou say many times that when we sit upright and awaken, the world awakens. And today, though, I was thinking about that old saying. rhetorical question if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it doesn't make a sound and I was wondering if Those two things are related. I know the answer to the tree falling in the forest is You know the tree maybe makes a vibration, but it takes Someone hearing it to interpret it as sound and I wonder if it's it's similar for sitting and the world awakening

[39:24]

It's similar. It's exactly not separate at all. But when the tree falls in the forest, now we know, thanks to modern science, and of course, you know, ancient rulers and ancestors said similar things, that does make a sound, and all the other trees hear it. So we know, thanks to science, that in forests, there are mycorrhizal networks of fungus underneath the forest, and when one tree dies, falls, other trees hear it. Trees share warnings about things happening with other trees, even if there's a species of trees. And trees share nutrition with other trees. So, yeah, good question. When a tree falls in the forest, all the trees hear it. When a tree blooms or brings out its leaves in the forest, the whole forest, It's joyful, so thank you for the question.

[40:29]

Thank you all for hearing the trees. And I can spread. Or wherever you want. So. Get where people in the practice period. You're welcome to come online this afternoon. Time. There's the Shosan ceremony. So come around three o'clock online if you're in the practice period and you can participate in Shosan ceremony. And anyway, thank you all. Please enjoy the day. Please enjoy your life. Please graciously share yourself. Please feel what you feel. So we'll close with the Bodhisattva Vows and then we'll have some Bhikkhu now. We ought to free them.

[41:40]

Delusions are an exhaustible hope. We ought to fight through them. Not against our own lusts. We ought to enter them. We have to realize that beings are nevertheless. We have to free them. And that which is in his eyes is possible, for we are not to touch through them. And by the gates of our own blessings, we are able to surrender them. Roll out of this way, Jesus, how's the rest of the world? Will we rise to realize it? In the inside, in our blessings, we come out to be men.

[42:43]

Solutions are insufferable. We need your help to come back to reality. [...]

[43:06]

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