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. Welcome, everyone. Welcome to Roxana. Anyone else new today? Yeah, I was going to say you're a little familiar, but been a little while. Yeah, true for all of us. So it's a great pleasure to welcome in person in the Zendo, Tegan Dan Layton, our emeritus' guiding teacher and great teacher of the Dharma for many years, including 50 years of Zazen.

[01:06]

And so Taigen is going to share that with us today. So thank you very much, Taigen. You're welcome. Thank you. So good morning and welcome. Good morning. I see many old friends here and online and some people I don't know, which is wonderful. So, yes, 50 years ago, actually tomorrow, January 20th, 1975, was my first formal Zazen instruction and the beginning of my everyday Zazen practice. So I want to celebrate that by talking today. And there's actually going to be two parts to this. The first part is what we call a way-seeking mind talk. how I came to practice. So often people give away Seeking Minds off their first talk and I did it when I was at Tassajara in 1990.

[02:09]

But I want to say how I came to practice 50 years ago tomorrow. And then the second part of the talk will be some of what I have learned from 50 years of Zen practice. And it's traditional to say I haven't learned anything. I haven't gotten anything from it, but I'll say some things. So I grew up in Pittsburgh, as did Eve. I was raised Jewish, although secular. My father was a medical researcher, scientist. I was actually, but I did go to Sunday school, Negro school, and I was barred mitzvahed at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, which was a few blocks from my house, where there was a massacre in 2018 by a white supremacist.

[03:13]

Among the dead were a high school classmate of mine, and a man who lived across the street from me, the man was growing up. But my first conversion was a year after my bar mitzvah when I converted to atheism. So I had this conversion experience where I saw that it didn't make sense. There's no creator deity. I'm not saying this for anybody else, but just for myself, that there was no creator deity, and therefore, everything was infinite in space and time. So that's, you know, this realization I had, which I still feel. But in my early teens, maybe starting then anyway, I...

[04:18]

I kind of felt like I wanted meaning for my life and I didn't see much meaningful to do. So there was a period where I just felt lost and intense questioning about everything. In some ways I was kind of, I was doing all kinds of things, Some part of me was miserable, just that nothing was worth doing. And those feelings were crystallized by the Vietnam War, as was raging in my mid-teens. And so I started, became active in the peace movement, the peace activities, starting in high school in Pittsburgh. I continued when I went off to college in New York at Columbia College in New York, and I was part of the occupation of the buildings, my buildings there.

[05:36]

In spring 1968, a few weeks after Dr. King was killed, and actually tomorrow is also, amongst many other things, Martin Luther King Day, and I think every year before this, Martin Luther King Day, I talked about him and what he was really about, which was not just civil rights, but working against poverty and working against the war. Anyway, I was amongst 700 people arrested at Columbia in spring 1968, and I've continued these activities now and then since then, including as a Zen priest and teacher. I've been arrested seven times for civil disobedience or war protest. So, part of that questioning though came to be

[06:51]

kind of exploring what's real. And maybe this is a hallmark of Zen practice. What is reality in our strange, difficult lives and world? Can you all hear me okay? Yeah. So, yeah. What's truly real? So I was exploring reality in various ways, protesting war and racism as the Columbia protests were about, but also actively experimenting with LSD and actually the stronger hallucinogens. I didn't know that Zazen was available as a practice, or else I wouldn't have needed to do that, maybe. But in my generation, many people came to Zen practice after having had some experience of hallucinogens.

[07:58]

So in high school, I had read Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, one of the good early books. There weren't many books. Now there are libraries about Buddhism and Zen. lots and lots of books and have contributed some myself. But, um, A Signed Flesh and Bones was a, uh, it remains a good book about Zen practice. So, in, um, 1970, I had left school. I wasn't subject to the draft anymore, so I was able to without being shipped off to Vietnam. And last three months of 1970, I had the opportunity to spend time in Japan.

[09:08]

So I spent three months going around to Buddhist temples in Kyoto and Nara. My parents were living in Tokyo at the time, and my father's grad paid for my place there. And I've talked about this here at Ancient Dragon before, but for three months I just was blown away going around to Zen and other Buddhist temples in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, and in Nara, the older capital, and just amazed at the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues and the protector statues and the Zen gardens, rock gardens in Kyoto, and just really blown away by that. But I didn't know that there was any way for me to actually be part of that world, to actually engage in Zen practice. I didn't know about San Francisco Zen Center and Suzuki Roshi.

[10:10]

So I ended up coming back to the States, going back to Pittsburgh, going back to college. Anyway, in 1970, it was actually a good time in my life. I had a good job as a film editor for a good while before I gave that up to do full time zen practice. But on January 20th, 1975, somebody told me about the New York Zen Center, which was on the Upper West Side where I lived in Manhattan. And I went to Zazen instruction with Reverend Kondo Nakajima, who was the teacher there. And with that first Zazen instruction, I knew, oh, this is it for me. And I've been... committed to sotas and practice since then, I just, I felt this sense of wholeness.

[11:22]

I don't know that I would have called it that then, but I just felt like, oh, doing massage, and I felt like, oh, everything's okay in some way. And, um, Nakatima-sensei also talked, I don't know if it was in the first southern instruction or the first talk I went to of his a couple days later because I started going to the zendo that was open in the evening and I went many times a week, but he started talking about Dogen, who was the founder of Japanese Soto Zen in the early 1200s. There were not very good translations available then, but he talked about One Bright Pearl. The entire universe is One Bright Pearl, which is . Anyway, and so all my practice, my teaching, my writing, and all the books since then, have been about, where did this Dogen come from?

[12:34]

Because I ended up going back to school and doing Buddhist studies and learning a little bit of Japanese. Anyway, So, again, really got me from the start. Due to family circumstances, I emigrated from New York City to San Francisco in 1978 and connected with my teacher, Tensioner Van Disham then. So, but really, you know, coming to practice is stuff that happened before January 20th, 1975, which was a good preparation in various ways, or I don't know, some preparation. But Zazen, you know, I just continue studying Zazen every day. Starting in 1983, I lived at Tassajara Monastery in the mountains south of, near Monterey.

[13:42]

at San Francisco Zen Center's Monastery. I was there for three years. In 1986, I was priest ordained by Reb in his first group. In 1990, I was Shuso, head monk, for a practice period at Tassajara with Lance Hartman, who was a wonderful teacher at San Francisco Zen Center, and a teacher for Phuketis too. In 2000, I had drama transmission with Reb at San Francisco Zen Center. three weeks in Tassajara. So, anyway, I don't need to go through my whole resume, but I just, you know, so this is, so tomorrow is 50 years of Zen practice, which is kind of weird. In some ways, you don't need to do 50 years of Zen practice. One period of Zazen is perfect. even if you're struggling with your legs and all the thoughts and feelings are rolling around in your monkey mind and whatever, anyway.

[14:52]

And tomorrow also happens to be inauguration day for our new billionaire regime. So we're going to need attention and resilience and resistance to cruelty in whatever ways are possible. We're still facing wars. Vietnam War eventually ended, but we've had wars ever since. So a huge amount of our tax dollars have been going to and are still going to sponsoring genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. And intentional mass slaughter of children, doctors, journalists, teachers, the leveling of everything in Gaza, all the infrastructure is as bad as the places in LA or worse. I heard the word scholasticide, so they intentionally, Israel destroyed all the universities and schools in Gaza.

[16:03]

Of course, and it's necessary to say that this was that the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel was terrible, horrible. But the response to it was just terrific. And thanks to our government and our tax dollars. Oh, and I wanted to mention an old friend of mine, Linda Hess, who was a scholar at Stanford and practices at the Berkeley Zen Center where, oh, my good friend from 1968, Alan, was not Alan Smoky, passed away recently. But Linda wrote a piece in Lion's Roar, which you can find online, about her response to

[17:09]

Gaza and the genocide, and as a fellow Jewish Buddhist, and talking about how important anger is, and I've talked over the years about practicing with anger, but Linda talks very much about the value of anger. So there's some tendency, sometimes in Zen, to try and suppress our anger. And the point of this practice isn't to get rid of our feelings. including our anger. How do we use it? How do we respond? I can't read the notes I wrote here. Anyway. Okay. So, you know, I'm talking about my early history in Zen practice and how I came to Zaza in practice. And, of course, We talk about avowing our ancient twisted karma and there's a long history of horrible things, terror in the Mideast and in the world.

[18:26]

So, one of the most important Zen stories of the many, many, many is the box co-audit, which the punchline of which is not to ignore karma, not to ignore cause and effect, not to ignore history. And the billionaire regime is going to try and, well, there's already banning of books and so forth. So, both world and communal history and personal history are, we have to study. Dogen said to study the ways to study the self. So, we, Sitzazen and The difficult part of zazen isn't, you know, sitting with your legs in some funny position, but actually just feeling what you feel. Anger, sadness, hopefully joy sometimes, but also confusion, all the ancient twisted karma.

[19:32]

So Aishin told me about her talk last Sunday where she talked about one of Dogen's important sayings that to carry yourself forward and experience all the things of the world is delusion. That's the definition of delusion. We project ourselves and our ancient twisted karma and our ideas and viewpoints on all the things in the world that we experience that we think of as out there. And then in that In the same essay, again, Jacoan Dogen says, then, thereafter, that myriad things come forth and experience themselves, it is awakening. So, to allow everything to arise, and to see that we are part of this, we're not separate from this at all. So, that's what's really difficult about Zaza. And, so I want to... So that's the first part of my talk, my way-seeking mind talk.

[20:42]

But now I want to say a little bit or try to say something about what I've learned from 50 years of Zen practice. Well, one thing is that awakening, sometimes translated as enlightenment, it's kind of a mistranslation, but anyway, awakening is an ongoing process. When the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni, 2,500 years ago, more or less, in northeastern India, when he became the Buddha, when he had his great, unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening, didn't just stop then. He kept practicing every day, kept awakening every day. So, Dogen talks about this as, Buddha going beyond Buddha. So as I described that first Zazen instruction, January 20, 1975, I, you know, I don't know what I would have called it then, I'm not sure what to call it now, but I saw that there is a wholeness in the world.

[22:04]

and in our lives, and that we can just sit. We have this capacity to just sit. And that from the first time, Dogen says elsewhere, from the first time you sit Zazen, Buddha is there. And in our first intentions to spiritual practice, Buddha is there. And also, our continuing ongoing practice is Buddha going beyond Buddha. As our life changes, as the world changes, as we are in new situations, there are new opportunities for awakening, for feeling joy and anger and sadness. seeing the suffering of the world. And that awakening doesn't end in each new situation, maybe with each new inhale and exhale.

[23:15]

There is the possibility of awakening. So that ongoing awakening is one important thing I want to say about Zen practice. Another is just to trust yourselves, to trust ourselves. Radical trust. Not faith in some text or some deity or some dogma, but deep trust in ourselves. And this is part of Zazen, and this is something that develops in Zazen. And something that we struggle with too, but we trust ourselves. When I finished my Dharma transmission with Red at Tassajara, as I was getting on the suburban to go back to Jamesburg and back to San Francisco, back to the Bay Area,

[24:32]

He said to me, don't run away from yourself. So I think I know I had that tendency at times. And when we really deeply feel in Zazen, our ancient twisted karma, or whatever, It's important also to trust ourselves, to feel pain, but to also feel this wholeness. So, just don't run away from yourself. Another thing I've learned is that Zazen and Zen practice is about communion with deep reality, that we don't necessarily realize it.

[25:43]

Dogen says in Genja Koan, Buddhists don't necessarily know they're Buddhists, but that in some way, Zazen allows us this connection, this deep communion with, I like the word communion for that, with ultimate reality, universal reality, and with this sense of wholeness, which is available to everyone, to all of us, even with our personal difficulties and our anger or sadness at the horrible things that happen in systems of suffering in the world. There is this sense of wholeness, this connection with deep reality that our Zen practice allows us.

[26:56]

And it's not enough just to feel that. and this takes a while to realize, and Dogen talks about expressing Zazen. So this sense of reality, this sense of wholeness, needs to be enacted. It needs to be expressed in our lives, in each of our lives, in our sanghas and communities, and in our response to the world. So, Yeah, this expression of Zazen. Zen is about creativity. Anastasia is here online and she's starting a reading of ancient dragon people who want to explore creativity, Zen creatives. Zazen is about creativity.

[27:57]

Zazen supports all of your creative activities. your so-called regular creative activities, music, writing, reading, gardening, cooking, just going for walks, one of my practices now. So nobody can tell you how to be Buddha. Each one of us, we have our own way of expressing Buddha. So this asana practice is about expressing and enacting Buddha. So we sit together in the zendo or at home, but with a Buddha. There's a Buddha over there, you can see, sitting up on top of the altar.

[29:02]

expressing Buddha in our own way, in our own body-mind. This needs to be expressed. It needs to be enacted. Zazen is a kind of performance art. We're performing Buddha on our seats. And then we take that out into our lives, in the world, and somehow share this sense of communion with reality and wholeness in our everyday activities with family, with friends, in our work activities, in our efforts to respond to the suffering in the world in whatever way we each find to do that. So your creative activities support your Zazen. and vice versa. So Zazen, sometimes when I'm in the middle of a writing project, I will, a whole paragraph of words will appear in Zazen.

[30:13]

But whatever creative activities you're involved with, they support your Zazen and vice versa. Another thing that I really, realized more deeply, more recently, and maybe I knew it from the first time I was in, but realized it more deeply in the last several years, that ultimately we cannot control anything. Of course, you know, all of you have various skill sets and things that you can take care of and do a good job of, but we can't control what happens in our body-minds, in the world, around us. We can't ultimately control anything.

[31:17]

And the desire to have control is a source of most of the suffering in the world. The billionaires who think they can control all of us and what we read and what we know anyway. Whether or not we have housing and so forth, healthcare. Ultimately, we can't control it. Even the very powerful people, you know, are miserable because they think they want to control more. Ultimately, we cannot control anything. But always, always, with every breath, We are expressing something. So that's the creative part of Zen practice. To take responsibility, not that we can control what and how we are expressing to us either, but we express something. As we're sitting on our seat in the Zen Do, or at home, as we're going for a walk, as we're engaging with coworkers,

[32:25]

When I was practicing, oh, Ancient Dragon used to have a group down at Rockefeller Center in Hyde Park, where David Ray is from, and the other people, Howard used to be. And there was a woman who came regularly there, and one day she said in the discussions, it was a weekly group, After she'd been coming for a while, she said, I got on my elevator in my building and this woman I know said to me, what have you been doing? And she said, something different. So we're always expressing something. How do we take care of that? How do we take care of the world? As best we can. The great teacher said that the whole Buddhist practice was about an appropriate response.

[33:35]

So how do we respond appropriately to the difficulties of our posture, the difficulties of our confusion, hearts and minds, and difficulties of the world? How do we respond helpfully? So I'll close with a relevant quote from my favorite American Dharma poet, Bob Dylan, who said, each of us has our own special gift, and you know this is true. And if you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you. So Zen practice is about respect. The precepts are about respect. Important. bodhisattva precepts that some of us have taken formally and that all of you are receiving just by the fact of your sitting zazen.

[34:47]

Even those of you, some of you are here for the first time, I think, or just recently. And it's wonderful to see lots of old trends in the Zendo and online, and also new people I don't know. That's great. So respecting everyone. Sometimes it's difficult when we see people who are causing harm. But how do we see that there is possibilities? Even in this difficult world, there are many possibilities. We don't know. Not knowing is another slogan of Zen. We don't... We can't control, we can't totally understand. Even, you know, there are people here of various high degrees and very well educated and very intelligent and so forth.

[35:47]

But there's something, there's everything. Maybe we don't know, we can't control. And yet, we can commune with, through Zazen and Zen practice and other Zen practices, with this deep reality with this fundamental wholeness. Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, said that we're always losing our balance against the background and perfect balance. So, respect. Even in difficult situations, in this difficult world, there are many possibilities. And we may need some resilience and resistance even to the new billionaire regime that's starting tomorrow. But still, if there are many possibilities in our lives in the world.

[36:51]

Okay. I guess that's what I want to say. And thank you all for helping me celebrate 50 years. So anyone who has comments, questions, responses in the room or online, Beau, you can help call on people online. So feel free. I want to hear your responses. Oh, that's the other thing about Zen practice. Listening. Really listening and respecting each other. So. Thank you. Thank you so much, Titan. We're sharing a lifetime of Dharma. And you're continuing to share with us, which is really wonderful. Tigin gives many seminars and more Dharma talks here and everywhere in the Zen world. And we have about five minutes for discussion.

[37:54]

So maybe ten, since we intend to go over a little bit. But, Eve, you have a comment? I have a question. Back in 1975, what did you think the world was going to look like in 2025? And if anything has surprised you, what is it? What has surprised me? That's a good question. Everything. It's all, you know, how can you... Nothing happens according to your expectations. It's just not possible. This is not the Dharma talk you expected to hear. This is not the Dharma talk I expected to give, even though I wrote notes and followed them on. So, to be willing to be surprised,

[38:58]

is an important part of practice. So in 1975, what did I think the world would be like 50 years later? I don't know, I can't remember. I did read a lot of science fiction in the 70s. So I, you know, I mean obviously we don't have like the Jetsons and cars flying around or like in Blade Runner or whatever. I noticed that too. Anyway, it's an interesting question, and what has surprised me? Did you think the Middle East was going to look like this? Well, it was a mess then, and it's been a mess for a long time. So, you know, I just want to say, I talked about my long peace activities, and I guess who also has been a peace activist, and do not believe that human beings need to have war.

[40:00]

I know that's a radical thing to say because through most of our history, not necessarily our prehistory, there have been wars and aggression and our society now is built around militarism. Dwight Eisenhower, whose presidency I remember, warned us about the military industrial congressional complex and so forth. Anyway, Now Republicans. Both parties have supported, strongly supported men's slaughter of children in Gaza and the rest of that. Anyway, but I don't believe it's necessary. Part of what's, so maybe what I didn't say about what I've learned about some practices is that there, you know, it's possible to cooperate. It's impossible to work together. Sangha is about our struggling to do that and actually doing it.

[41:04]

So I guess in 1975, I would have been surprised that I'd still be here in 2025. That's one answer. Anyway, thank you for your question and thank you for your practicing. Other comments, questions, responses? I think Howard has a question. Howard, hi. Offering. I have a lot of expectations. Sorry? I have a lot of expectations about the question I'm about to ask, so I'm just going to take it anyway. What comes after 50 years of Zazen practice? More Zazen practice. Expectation not. Thank you. Sometimes it's better. Nicholas online. Hey, Nicholas. Hi. First of all, I feel so grateful for you. And I think we're just so lucky to have such an esteemed and wise teacher that we have access to in Chicago.

[42:13]

And so thank you for that. And I just wanted to quickly comment on the issue of control and the deep teaching of powerlessness, which I find myself embracing more and more. That's a good power to have, to embrace powerlessness. Yes, it is. And it just makes things so much easier because it's just so true, right? And it is part of the don't know mind, which is, you mentioned that too, and it feels, you know, sometimes it feels like I have power, I can make decisions, I can take actions. For instance, I can decide to go get a coffee at Starbucks, but I'm powerless over what happens. I could meet the love of my life. I could find a $100 bill on the street. I could get shot when I get to Starbucks. I really don't know. None of us really know. And that's the sense of control, I think, that you were talking about, is that we think we do know.

[43:19]

We listen to a bunch of talking heads and read a lot of blogs of people that think they really know. No one does, and that's just the truth. Thank you. I'm really happy that you and I are practicing together. And just about Starbucks, I haven't been to Starbucks in a little while, but I have gone many times to Starbucks. But one practice I've heard when you go to Starbucks is to talk to the baristas about appreciating that Starbucks is unionizing and hoping that they get paid decently. So let's Starbucks practice with you. Oh, hey, Bryant. Yes, this is not a question or it's an appreciation. On this occasion, it strikes me deeply that the thing I'm most grateful about in having met you is your example of embodying the Dharma, not just teaching it verbally, but in the times I've seen you break up in tears over some atrocious thought that came to mind or any of the other compassionate things that you do that, to my perception, are not contrived, but

[44:48]

arise spontaneously from your nature. And I think you were embodying the Dharma possibly before you even had that first zazen instruction, and you just sort of, in a positive way, met something that clarified that pre-existing, maybe, character that you had. So thank you for your example and for being you. And thank you for being you, Brian. And, you know, you reminded me of something else I could say, which is, now I forgot it already again. Oh, yeah, I wanted to say something more about Nakajima Sensei, where I first practiced, where I had that slasana instruction 50 years ago, it was long, that he was a very well-trained Soto Zen priest. He had trained at Sojiji, one of the two at quarter temples of Soto Zen, some of you may have.

[45:49]

But he was totally non-charismatic. And the Zen-do there was much more like this Zen-do than San Francisco Zen Center of Greenville or Tassajara, one of those big places. There were two rooms with tatamis and sabbatons and zafus. and the main room was about this size, maybe a little smaller. But it was a place where I could go and sit satsan every evening, have doksan once a week, could give Dharma talks, we did seven-day sashins twice a year and one-day sittings every month. But Nakajima sensei himself was just, I don't know, Charismatic is one word. His English was terrible. Worse than Kategori Roshisi. Because he worked in, I think for Mitsui or some Japanese company downtown.

[46:57]

But one time, the most of them was just sitting in the evening, but we started sitting in the morning sometimes, and I went out one morning and saw him walking to the subway to go to work. And you wouldn't have even noticed him. He was in a business suit, and he had hair, trying to see somebody who has hair like he did. Anyway, not long, but he wasn't shaved head. And you wouldn't even notice him. He was just so unassuming. Anyway, so I had three and a half years of practicing there before I went to San Francisco Zen Center, which was a whole different context. Anyway. Just wanted to mention that you reminded me of that first. If we have time, I'm really interested in your responses or questions or both. You know, I was just thinking 50 years, obviously, and daily practice over that time span, right?

[48:00]

I mean, I know that that's very important for you, right, to sit. Like, there must be, you know, times or must have been times where you felt like resistance to, you know, that day or periods of time where you just maybe felt, well, you know, I'm saying for myself too, there are times where I feel that like difficulty to sit that day or whatever, or even longer stretches where it's like, okay, day to day, it's difficult. So I'm just wondering like, um, you know, how you've worked with that feeling of, you know, resistance to sitting because you have sat so much, um, And what has kept you sitting daily over all of those years? Well, just that I enjoy it. I mean, even if it's difficult. But I have to make a confession. So I sat every day for many, many years. And Lou Richman, a friend of mine who's a teacher, who's a center teacher, wants...

[49:01]

Excuse me of being the Lou Gehrig of Zen. But actually, in the last couple of years during the pandemic, I'm not sitting every day anymore. So that's much of a pleasure. I sit several, a few times a week. I have another practice that I try and do every day of walking around my neighborhood for 30 or 40 minutes for a period and chanting Dharani's. And that's a good way of practice, too. But anyway... Yeah, the question about resistance. Of course, resistance is part of Zaza. Because when you sit and really are willing to feel what you feel, there's stuff that's uncomfortable or painful. Anyway, there's lots more I can say about that. It has to do with just trusting yourself and just doing it and just knowing that it's like brushing your teeth.

[50:09]

You don't brush your teeth once and then you don't need to do it anymore. It's like an everyday thing. Or cleaning the Zen Dome. Yeah. All those things are everyday things. I don't know if that's helpful or not. Which we'll be doing soon. One more question from you, and then we need to clean our temple. I know the rest is history, but I still don't feel like I understand, well, did you go to a Zen Center of all places? Why did I go to a Zen Center? Yeah, was it something that you read, or something that a friend said, or is it ultimately incomprehensible? No, you know, I mentioned I've had this wonderful opportunity to spend three months going around to Uda's temples in Japan, so I have this connection. felt this connection with Buddhism, but I didn't know that I could have any, you know, relationship to it. Not just then, but, you know, various Japanese Buddhist schools.

[51:10]

And, you know, I felt this connection to Japan, which led me to go back in 1990, so that would have been 15 years after. No, in 1990, yeah, after my Shusuf ceremony, I went back to live in Kyoto for three years, which I did, and translated Dogen, the Shohaku of Gomorrah, at a temple outside. But, you know, so I had this background, but I didn't know I could do anything. So somebody mentioned to me, I can say his name, but I don't know, I lost touch with him, that there was this Zen priest on the Upper West Side where I was living. And so, oh, so I checked it out and, you know, I didn't know what would happen, but there it was. This is it. I knew it. January 20th, 1975. So, thank you.

[52:19]

Oh. is a time when we'll do our final, you know, vows, and then announcements, work, period. We'll change the four vows. Yeah, we'll change the four vows, then we'll do announcements and work, period. And then I believe that we will do that be around then. If you have other questions, you can get them answered. So thank you so much, Tanya, for sharing this rich history, which is well into the tapestry of our song come forever. And thank you, Hougesu, for taking care of Ancient Dragon's Endgate, keeping it going and allowing it to thrive and have new people come. It's great. Thank you to the people working on the website.

[53:23]

Yes. ...equally extend to every being in place with the true neurites of the dumbest way. Beings are numberless. We vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. We vow to cut through them. Karma gates are boundless. We vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. We vow to realize it. Beings are endless. We vow to free them. Delusions are intolerable. We vow to cut through them.

[54:23]

Karma-based are boundless. We vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. We vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. We vow to free them. Delusions are exhaustible. We vow to cut through them. Dharma gates are boundless. We vow to enter them. But without us, the way is unsurpassable. we vow to realize it.

[55:15]

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