There seems to be kind of a good feeling in the room. This is, of course, a very unusual morning, a very joyful morning. Even the sun's coming out now. So we're doing things differently. We've never had two people speaking at our Sunday morning occasion before, but I thought it would be appropriate this morning. I actually invited five people to speak this morning, but the only one who accepted was... So I hope this is enough. In our talk at this time, during this first phase of the ceremony, we will not be so specifically mentioning all the ways that we're overjoyed and grateful.

[01:32]

will save most of that for the ceremony itself. But of course that's what we feel. And I thought that maybe I could speak about the form of the ceremony so that you would actually be able to be initiated into the the way the ceremony will go and I thought my partner could maybe speak from his point of view about how he sees the whole overall Green Gulch event. Does that seem okay? And it's really wonderful to see everybody this morning.

[02:35]

Some familiar faces, many, many familiar faces, and many faces that I haven't seen for a long time. So this event is bringing a lot of people together. And hopefully this will continue. This place will continue to bring many people together. I just came back from Tassajara, where I've been leading the practice period, the fall practice period. And although I saw this building under construction from time to time, this is the first time I've seen it at this stage. So this morning is a wonderful surprise for me to see the more or less finished product. And I'm really pleased beyond my expectations as to the way it turned out. It's a beautiful building. I remember my first contact with Green Gulch was in the early 50s when I used to take my Model A and drive up the coast exploring Highway 1.

[03:56]

Those were great days. And I looked down at this valley just before getting to Muir Beach, and I thought, what a great place this is. Imagine somebody living here. I would love to live there someday. I really thought that. I thought, God, if I could think of any place I'd like to live, it's in that wonderful green valley. And lo and behold, beyond my wildest expectations, not just myself, but so many other people have the opportunity to share this place and uncounted people probably had the same dream as myself. I remember also when Suzuki Roshi died and while he was alive he talked about having a place What we talked about was a farm.

[05:01]

And so that never came to fruition when he was alive. And Bakeroshi kept that in his mind. And it was one of the first things on his agenda when he became abbot. And I remember the day that he asked us to, the older members of Zen Center, he invited us to a meeting and he served us strawberries and cream. And he said, there's this wonderful place across the bay. The Nature Conservancy and Mr. Wheelwright are willing to make this place available to Zen Center. And we have to do it within a couple of days." This is his style. And we scratched our heads and searched our souls and decided that we'd go ahead with it.

[06:03]

So This is the beginning of our stewardship of this valley. And the Green Gulch has always been a place that nobody knows exactly what it is. And trying to establish exactly what it is has not always been easy. we think of it as a place where we practice our Soto Zen. But there have been many... Green Gulch has always been the kind of leading edge of Zen Center since we've had it. And it's been the place of wide events

[07:10]

not narrow events, like Tassajara is the narrow event of Zen Center. In order to enter Tassajara as a student during a practice period, you have to go through the narrow door of what we call Tangaryo, which is just sitting for five days without kin-hin. but just five days of just nothing but zazen. This is the narrow door. And the practice is a very narrow practice of just zazen and work and various activities. Whereas Green Gulch is the wide open door to the public. You don't have to do anything special to come here. You can decide how you practice except for the residents. Residents have a kind of narrow door. But the public has a very wide door And we have many events which cater to the public and invite the public.

[08:21]

So these are the two opposite ways of practicing. And during the crisis of the middle 80s, Zen Center, or Gringotts, almost lost its identity. because there was a lot of confusion at that time. We lost our leadership. And in the interim of reestablishing our leadership, Green Gulch was open to all kinds of practices. So we had to decide, what's our real practice at Green Gulch? what is our real identity at Green Gulch? And we decided that our main practice at Green Gulch was our Soto Zen, Zazen practice.

[09:23]

And if we know what our real identity is, then we can be open to all kinds of things. But if we don't know who we are, and we're open to all kinds of things, we'll just get pulled around by so many different ways. So to keep our practice very simple and our identity clear and we can know who we are and be open to so many different kinds of ways to practice and introduce people to so many different things. and that's what we've been trying to do, and I think we've accomplished that very well. So there's a great variety of ways to practice at Green Gulch, and we can invite various teachers from different traditions to also present their way here without losing our own way.

[10:25]

So in a way, we know who we are, and on the other side, we don't know who we are. And it's very important not to know who we are too much. So to have a foundation in our traditional way gives us the advantage of letting flowers grow out of that foundation, new flowers and new plants and new ways. Zen in America must change and transform in time. But if we do it all at once, we'll lose our way. So to make a strong foundation, create a strong foundation in traditional practice and to see the various plants and flowers grow, new ones, new ways, new transformation, always looking for transformation.

[11:39]

But transformation needs to prove itself. So there's always a tension between new transformation and old steady foundation. And that tension is necessary. So sometimes we find ourselves in a state of confusion. From time to time we find ourselves in a state of confusion. But the confusion is the matrix for growth. So we appreciate our confusion. or I hope we appreciate our confusion. When things get too steady and too correct, that's the time to watch out, I think, time to really look at ourselves. Once we stop having confusion and problems,

[12:44]

we start to die. So I think American Zen will be in this state of upheaval and a little bit of confusion, but with a very strong foundation. And it will be very exciting and interesting, even though excitement is not so much what we're looking for. So in our excitement and in our confusion, if we just learn to settle into it, I think we'll be all right. So I hope that we can contribute something to our society. And I think that we already have contributed something, but we shouldn't feel so good about it. There's a long way to go and we all have a lot to learn.

[13:48]

Green Gulch will be a wonderful place from now on to give people a sense of themselves, a sense of our true foundation, our real life. And all of us can contribute. So I really feel very strongly about how we provide for the non-resident community. When I look at this gathering, non-resident community seems to be overwhelming in this group. So how do we do our best, actually, to make a place, a way, give people a way to practice? And to me, that's really important for our future.

[14:58]

Green Gulch is not only an asset for Marin County, but... for anyone who wants to come and benefit by what we have to offer. We have priest practice and lay practice. And sometimes people say, what's the difference between a priest practice and lay practice? Sometimes they're indistinguishable. And they think, well, that's a problem. But for me, that's not a problem. When the priest practice and the lay practice are completely indistinguishable, that means everything is just right. When they look too different, that may be a problem. So I can see that in the future, from now on, we have many happy hours of sitting in this new zendo.

[16:31]

And I wonder if Tenshin Sensei wants to say something else. Thank you very much for what you said. As you were speaking, I felt that you were making your commentary on the text of Green Gulch. And my scholarly mind immediately thought of commentaries on your commentaries, point by point. which I will try to restrain myself. But I want to say thank you for mentioning Baker Oshie's contribution. Not only did he bring Zen Center in contact with Mr. Wheelwright and Nature Conservancy,

[17:49]

But he pulled us, as Mel suggested, rather strongly. We dug our heels in a little bit. And as a result of getting involved at Green Gulch, we have had many, many years of difficulty that we wouldn't have had if we hadn't gotten Green Gulch. We were doing pretty well. We had the city center in Tassajara. We had things under control. But Green Gulch has kept us in almost a constant state of crisis. But as Mel said, that's the, what is it? I don't know if this is correct, but the growing edge, the cambium layer of a tree is always in crisis, right? Is that right, Wendy? So it's been difficult, but it's been alive.

[18:58]

And I remember when I first went to Tassajara, I heard it was a valley. And what I thought of a valley as a place like this, and I was expecting something like this. And so when I got there, I was shocked to find out it wasn't a valley. It's a canyon. It's a very narrow place. And I didn't like it. It was so narrow, tight. It smelled funny. And lots of flies. But over the years I got used to it and I realized how important that narrow place is. But still, this wide valley is wonderful too. And so Zen Center is great because it has a narrow valley and a wide valley. And we learn things in the wide valley that we can't learn in the narrow valley and vice versa.

[20:03]

So hopefully we all can practice in both the narrow and the wide, although we may have to specialize in one or the other. Anyway, he said many other important things, but if I talk about them all, it'll get too long, so maybe some other day. I'd like to talk about, I guess, first of all, to talk about that we have named, we never named this place, this building. When we first came in, there wasn't a door here exactly, but there was just a big hole. And we came in here and we looked at this space, which was a hay barn. There used to be cows down below. We looked at this space and we saw in the back there was a raised platform. We realized immediately, this is the meditation hall. So we called it the Zendo, the meditation hall.

[21:04]

And that's what we've always called it, but we never gave it a name other than that. So now we're on the verge of giving it a name, and the name we've almost come up with, the community still hasn't completely settled, is Dharma Sea, or perhaps Dharma Ocean. So would those who like Dharma Sea please raise their hand? And those who like Dharma Ocean, please raise your hand. So how many for Dharma Ocean? How many for Dharma Sea? One more time, how many for Dharma Ocean? How many for Dharma Sea? It's interesting, more people voted the second time. How many people for Dharma Ocean? What's Dharma? Sea.

[22:05]

She said, would you define those words? Oh, what's ocean? Dharma ocean. What did you think I said? What did you think I said? Okay, dharma ocean and dharma sea, not dharma she. Dharma sea. Sea or ocean? Which do you prefer, sea or ocean? Huh? Okay, you think about it. I'll check back. And behind here, we also remodeled the room behind here, the building behind here where the monks live.

[23:12]

And we used to call it, in Japanese, we're gaitan, which means the seats outside the main zendo. But that doesn't apply, really, because we don't have... It's more of a dormitory or residence hall or study space. So the name we thought of calling it is cloud hall. And... And we had a little bit of a misgiving about that because of the association with code hall. Anyway, the image right here is this is called Green Dragon Zen Temple, right? And dragons live in the sea or in the ocean. And they swim and dive in this ocean. And when they do, they create clouds and rain above them. So trying to draw the motif of this dragon of truth playing in the ocean of this valley, playing in the sea, and creating clouds and rain.

[24:17]

So that's where it came up with those names. Although we haven't written them down yet, so there's still time. Yesterday, we actually started this ceremony yesterday. We built a new altar here, which you see, and we had our, what do you call it, the patron of perfect wisdom, the prince of sweetness and light, Manjushri Bodhisattva, had been resting over in the tea house for six months while construction was going on, and we carried him back in here. yesterday and we put him up there and we opened his eyes. We opened his eyes with a chant, which is, the chant is from the Lotus Sutra, which is, with eyes of compassion regarding all living beings.

[25:24]

great accumulation of happiness, a sea immeasurable. With this chant we open the eyes of our leader sitting in the middle here. So now he's here with us and we're ready for the ceremony to open this space. The main parts of the ceremony are that we will, I guess, enter this space again. We hoped to have this talk in the tent and then have you come in here to enter, but we're going to have to do it another way of having you leave and come back in. And when you come back in, If you wish, you may offer incense to this space, to this practice, and then come in and take your seats. And then a procession will come in and we will make offerings.

[26:36]

We will offer simple things, food, tea, and uh... water and and we also offer our our homage our alignment with actually i don't know what so please consider what we're lining up with here what you're lining your life with and then When we align ourselves with something, especially something which we consider to be the most important thing in our life, for example, if we align ourselves with great compassion, universal compassion, or if we align ourselves with perfect wisdom, if we align ourselves with complete freedom for all beings, then it's important, part of the Buddha's teaching is important that

[27:45]

that this alignment not be done in a kind of one-sided way. In other words, we say that turning away from what is most important to us and also touching it are both wrong. And as Mel said, in our confusion in the confusion and tension we feel in relationship to our highest good, we oftentimes can't stand it, and we either say, okay, I'm checking out, or okay, I'm going to get it. It's hard for us to stand in the proper relationship to the truth without turning away from it or taking hold of it. without eliminating the confusion that human beings feel in the intense relationship with truth, with the paradoxical relationship with truth.

[28:51]

That you are not it and it actually is you. That you have it right now and yet don't take it personally. You have it right now, but don't take it personally. And yet, you personally must take care of it, even though it's not yours. So we say stewardship, but even stewardship is how to stay close to this thing and not do anything with it. How to grow it without controlling it. So to symbolize this, in this ceremony we'd like to have you walk around this empty hall that has perfect wisdom somewhere in the middle of it.

[29:55]

In Asia, usually they have highly trained professional priests do the circumambulation. And they do it very beautifully, very elegantly. with great serenity and deep compassion. But we thought today, instead of having an elite crew of highly trained priests do it, we'd have everybody do it. And so it will be kind of a mess. But we'd like to try it anyway. We'd like to ask all of you to walk around this empty hall. in one big fat doughnut, one big circle of human flesh, as an expression of our relationship with awakening.

[31:02]

that we stay close to it, we always walk around it, we're always in relationship to it, but we can't get it. We want to get it, and that's fine. So let's walk around this space. And while we walk around, if it's okay with you, we ask you to pay homage, to line yourself up with perfect enlightenment, complete enlightenment. We were talking about that maybe you could say as you walk around, you could quietly say, homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. But maybe even less sectarian would be, because maybe there's some other Buddhas that you want to align with. Maybe, what, homage to complete, perfect, awakening. How does that work?

[32:04]

Homage to complete perfect awakening. Can you say that? Homage to complete perfect awakening. So as we walk around this space, out that door, or out this door, and then around clockwise, and back in that door over there, or if that doesn't work, in this door, anyway, Swarm around in your way. Let's make a great circle around this hall of aligning our hearts, our bodies, and our minds with, did I say complete, perfect awakening? Do it. Walk around three times. And when you've done it, have a seat. And it may not be the seat you had when you left, but just take a seat. And then we'll hear from various people specific expressions of our gratitude for all that's gone into making this space renewed and safe.

[33:21]

So if this is the epicenter of an earthquake, it might survive. There's really a foundation down there. And then after all that, after all those offerings, after all the expression of alignment and appreciation, then we dedicate all that goodness that we as a group have created, we give it away, we toss it away, we give it over to the welfare of this little world. The other day I was listening to a tape of Vivaldi And it was vocal music.

[34:27]

I think a female soprano was singing. And at one part, she was accompanied by, I think, a recorder. Renaissance instrument. And I was listening to it, and as I listened more, I heard, I could hear, there was this, I could hear this other noise besides the sound of her voice in the recorder. And it was, I think, the sound of the musician playing the recorder, inhaling. And when I first heard it, I thought, oh, kind of ugly. This unexpected sound of him inhaling. It wasn't part of my planned idea of the music. And he sounded a little bit urgent. He was urgently trying to get air.

[35:30]

He was passionately trying to get air to make this music. And I thought, well. Isn't that like all of us? Trying to get some air to make some music. And sometimes with urgency. The woman's voice when she was exhaling, the sound she made when she was exhaling was beautiful and the sound that that he made when he was blowing into the horn was beautiful. But this unexpected sound, which at first I thought was ugly, not beautiful, was most moving to me. We just are poor little preachers who are trying to get some air. And there's not much time to get the air we need, but we get our air, and then we sing our song.

[36:40]

On top of all that, we're confused. So today we make our little effort, and we have been making effort now here for twenty years, and with this building we can continue to make effort for quite a while. It's just a little effort, it's just a little . And let's not take it personally or too seriously. So do you have sort of a sense of how the ceremony will go? So first of all, please leave. Then they'll turn the chairs around. Then please come back in and offer incense as you enter if you wish.

[37:44]

Have a seat. We'll come and make offerings. We'll pay homage to the great ones. We'll walk around paying homage to perfect enlightenment. We'll sit down and we'll hear expressions of appreciation, gratitude and love, and then we'll give it all away and be free of all this goodness. And then you can have cake. Is there anything that you'd like to say? Sounds good to me. What? Oh, the first offering will be a tea offering. And the tea offering will be made in the formal Zen tea ceremony way. And that will be made over there in the corner.

[38:45]

And the tea teacher who will be making it is Nakagawa Sensei, who is one of Suzuki Sensei's comrades in tea ceremony. And then so we'll offer that first cup of tea to the enlightening being of sweetness and light. And then we'll make other offerings of material things and Dharma songs and so on. Okay? Somehow... Huh? Something... something's left undone, so see you later.

[39:34]

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