This is July 10 2022, and I'm going to talk more in this teisho about Buddhism as a religion. That was my last teisho as well, this is kind of a going further into it. I see that I gave something similar, my records show I gave a similar teisho 18 years ago. I hope that those of you who heard it and remember it can put up with hearing something similar today. I'm drawing from a an excellent book called just simply Buddhism: A Concise Introduction. And this is by Huston Smith and Philip Novak. This for anyone who wants to learn more about just Buddhism in general, not specifically Zen, but Buddhism in general. This is one of the two or three that I would most strongly, most highly recommend Buddhism by Smith and Novak, who since Smith is an old pal of Roshi was an old pal of Roshi Kapleau. Very brief, personal story. When I was in my early years on staff, I was in Boston during a staff break, and I got it in my head that I wanted to go visit Houston Smith at MIT, and where he was a professor of religion, and I got to far as his door, the door of his office and they had in gold, you know, Huston Smith, and I retreated. I told him, I told him that once we I had some contact with him many years later, he told me, he said, "Oh, I wish you had come in!" Really wonderful, friendly, unpretentious guy. So what I'm going to talk about is here somewhat distinguished between Zen as such, and Buddhism, again, remember Zen are emerged out of the soil of Buddhism and for most of the history of Zen, it was almost it was it was a sect, it was a school of Buddhism, you became a Zen Buddhist. But in now, in this century, and in the West, you don't have to be a Buddhist to practice Zen. I think the linkage historically was largely a monastic one, that to practice and you became a Buddhist monk. And now you can distinguish between the two. I think you could put a slash mark between Zen and Buddhism. You can practice them and not be a Buddhist. But if you practice them long enough, you see that it confirms, especially through awakening, it confirms Buddhist doctrine. So here is a chapter in the book Buddhism. Chapter is called the rebel saint. And the author's here speak of their six six features. He's says Here, eat six features that contribute importantly to religion, but equally each can clog its works. In the Hinduism of the Buddha's day, memories from India 2500 years ago and Buddhism even scholars will say that Buddhism sort of emerged from Hinduism. In the Buddhism of the Buddha's day, the six features of religion had done so the authors say here, all six of them, and the six of them, just briefly now, our authority, that is the six aspects to say every religion in general authority, ritual, speculation, tradition, grace, and mystery.