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Well, hello everyone.

Um, well, this is my first talk, and I'm, uh, happy to be here doing this.

So when I first thought about doing this, uh, Dharma talk today, um, or teaching, um, came to mind is why climb a mountain? And, uh, maybe more to the point, uh, what does it take to climb a mountain? And I'm relying upon, um, some basic foundations of the Zen practice, and those are called the three pillars.

The three pillars are rooted in 13th century China, excuse me, found roots in 13th century, um, from Master Guifeng Yamei.

But in our tradition, in our Renzai tradition and our lineage, uh, Master Hakuin, um, used and systemized the three pillars as an outline for his koan development.

Um, Hakuin, uh, said that faith, doubt, and tenacity, um, any man that lacks any of these shouldn't even sit down, shouldn't even take a seat to meditate.