Bernie Glassman

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, he ref- he reflected and shared with me that going back to, um, Bernie Glassman, who was his Dharma brother-

Mm-hmm

... uh, who ...

... fully grok it.

Mm-hmm.

And, and this, this comes from, you know, Bernie Glassman in my lineage.

It's like we're giving you these h- r- there are profound teachings about the three treasures and being one with the three treasures.

That moment you can inhabit of you don't know, you know, then you have a chance, you know, so it takes a little bit of curiosity.

There was a great Zen guy, Bernie...

Bernie Glassman? Bernie Glassman, yep.

That was a big thing of his in the last years, I think, of his life, you know, all not knowing, you know, not knowing.

You know, m- I said earlier that metta is that capacity for us to include everyone with some degree of equality, yeah? Yeah.

You know, um, Roshi and I, many years ago, spent time out with Bernie Glassman, Roshi, it- at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

We were there together and, and I remember a story that His Holiness Dalai Lama said.

He went to Auschwitz.

we, we don't know.

And my f- beloved teacher and a good friend of Frank's, uh, Glassman Roshi, Bernie Glassman, um, he and his wife, Jishu Angyo Holmes, uh, articulated these three tenets of what is it to rest in radical openness in not knowing.

And it's so hard because those of us who are Western-educated types, and probably a lot of Eastern people, but our identity is very, uh, enmeshed in knowing, and that's where our power rests.

Mm-hmm.

There, there's a, a-- This is a really nice write-up about oryoki that I, I wanted to share.

It's, uh, Bernie Glassman and Mazumi Roshi.

It's, it's in their book, um, "The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment," which is also on these same eight aspects of, of a adult or a Buddha.

"Our oryoki are considered as important as our life, as Buddha, as Buddha's life itself.

Yeah.

You know, Bernie Glassman, the Roshi, who died a number of years ago, you're familiar with him? Yeah, why? I mean, who he is.

That was his big deal, not knowing.

He really, really shared that

There's another book that I referenced called the, uh, Hazy Moon of Enlightenment, which is, um, also speaks to these eight characteristics.

And, uh, Bernie Glassman and Maezumi Roshi wrote that book, and they-- there's a, a piece in it that I thought was-- encapsulates a lot of about this, um, having few desires.

If we carefully examine ourselves, we see all kinds of desires, and yet actually there is nothing to gain.

At the same time, there's nothing to lose either.

What is the third choice?

So in the middle, I'll go for my one and only non-fiction book, which is The Dude and the Zen Master by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman.

And they're old friends and they go way back.

And obviously Jeff Bridges, I assume everybody and yourself knows who Jeff Bridges is, but it's specifically through the lens of the character he played in The Big Lebowski, The Dude.

with that character.

And he was like, what are you talking about? What do you mean? That wasn't the intention.

So then he sits down with his friend, Bernie Glassman, who I think has passed now, but was this Zen master, as he's called in the book.

And they just talk about... life and anxiety and depression and all these things that they've struggled with and the ways that they navigate it and it's just a lovely conversation between two old friends but there's so much wisdom in there and my copy of that book is probably the most like dog-eared book that i own because when life gets tough i go back to to that and a couple of other books that are on similar topics but that one in particular It's got me through some rocky patches, I think.