This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Welcome to Green Elch. A monk asked Jingguan, what is the great meaning of Buddhism? And Jingguan said, what is the price of rice in Lu Jing? This end story from the Book of Serenity is open to interpretation. So that's what I'm going to do this morning.

[01:01]

I'm going to interpret what's going on here between the monk and his teacher. And in particular, what the price of rice in Lujing has to do with all of us sitting here in this room today. And then somewhere along the way, I would like to mention how every aspect of our lives is completely co-arisen with the entire world. in fact, with the entire universe. And that is really what this story is all about. Think globally, act locally. So I want to propose that the great meaning of Buddhism is knowing and caring how our neighbors, whether across the ocean or next door, are doing.

[02:05]

But even more than that, that we are offering support wherever and however we can. Sometimes when I give a talk, I feel very enthusiastic and inspired by life and by the great joy of practicing Zen here at Green Gulch Farm. It's a beautiful place. at Green Gulch in the fall, at Tassajara in the spring. Wonderful. Wonderful. And then there's other times recently when I feel sad and somewhat overwhelmed by the suffering that is erupting in this world. Great sorrows.

[03:08]

Great sorrows with beautiful names like Ebola, Liberia, Syria, Korea, Mill Valley. Places we call home. Sorrows are everywhere. Everywhere where fear is arising in the face of illness, violence, lust, Madness. Rage. Truly everywhere. And I have spent many years studying the teaching that these troubles are manifestations of the mind. And that my desire for these troubles to be over is the cause of my own suffering. I have no doubt about that.

[04:14]

Not even the slightest. Because I know how easily I'm distracted. And yet each time I return, the troubles reappear. And so does my suffering in the face of them. I have a deep wish that something will change. These troubles will go away and things will get better. I wish for something that we can do. We can decide. Maybe even make into a law. Laws that are based not on argumentation about who's right and who's wrong, but on an understanding of the needs and the suffering of others. Compassion.

[05:16]

So this deep wish is especially true for the types of suffering for which there are known cures. Cures based in kindness and in a deep regard for the welfare of our neighbors. Cures such as education, health care, homeless shelters, meaningful work, non-violence, zero emissions. You know, things that we can do but that we don't. Here at Zen Center, we call devoting ourselves to the relief of suffering the Buddha way. When I'm at the Marin Interfaith Council, we call it like-heartedness, because we know better than to quibble over language, particularly about the differences between our religious traditions.

[06:40]

And that, too, is the Buddha way. not to quibble. So my response to this question by Jingguan, what is the price of rice in Luling, is to say, I don't like the price of rice in Luling. I don't think the price is fair. And I don't like the way most rice is being grown or how it's distributed. I also don't like the price of oil or coal or medicine, weapons. These things are terribly expensive. So what's a girl to do, as my therapist used to say? What am I to do about the suffering that arises in my mind at those horrifying headlines which pop up on my computer screen each and every morning?

[07:52]

Somehow I subscribe to the New York Times headlines. You know, there they are. I don't always open. So you all know I'm not making this stuff up. You are pretty well-informed people in this room. You know what's up. So I ask all of us the same question. What can we do? What is there to do? What have we ever done? We and all the other like-hearted people of this world, they are a legion. And I also ask myself what the correct understanding is of the Buddha's teaching of non-attachment and renunciation. You know, there's a very real temptation to hide from the world, to run away.

[09:04]

And that's in fact what the young prince did, leaving his child and his young wife. going off into the forest. But then I remind myself he wasn't yet the Buddha. So I did try to hide from the world, I thought. That was the idea. Only to discover there is no place to go. And that is because this world, with all of its beauty and its sadness, is precisely what this person is designed to witness, to feel, and to be. No matter where I sit or stand, there I am, born from this world, a child of this place, in which the only true refuge is my one and only sacred life.

[10:12]

This one that I'm experiencing right here, right now. In the good company of all of you. You are my world and I am yours. And therefore, however I respond to what I see and to what I think in each and every moment is all that I can ever know. all I can know of the world and all that the world can ever know of me. And yet, somehow that sounds choiceless. That these transient encounters between the world and each of us are all we have. But

[11:17]

there's a crack. There's a crack that runs through everything as Master Leonard Cohen sings. And that's how the light gets in. I watched on YouTube yesterday Dear Leonard singing this beautiful song called Anthem from which that verse is taken. There's a crack in everything and that's how the light gets in. And he said to the audience, which happened to be in London at the time, before he sang the song, what a privilege to be able to gather in moments like this when so much of the world is plunged into darkness and chaos. And it's The same for us here today. What a privilege we have.

[12:20]

Maybe we've always had, most of us here, privileged people. Some say too much privilege. Maybe so. And yet for all of us, some days it's just such a blur. It's hard to imagine having space, time, or energy to make choices or to set an intention for transforming ourselves, let alone for transforming the world. We just don't have time. Or where do we start? Don't have a plan. We're not well organized. But still, here we are in this old barn, you know, sitting together. And whether we know it or not, we have come here to witness the suffering of the world and to worry about it.

[13:29]

And we've come here to pray. You know, not to something outside of this room. That's okay. You know, I don't have a problem with that. But really, I think we've come to pray to one another. Please, let's find a way to help. Please. And that's why I'm sad, because I don't know what to do. I don't know how to help. I'm pretty sure that talking isn't enough. You know, we talk a lot, and still there are more weapons, more poverty, more starvation, more violence, and more carbon pouring into the air. I actually thought, you know, I thought about going to West Africa.

[14:40]

I thought about it. I imagined it. And then I went on YouTube and watched as this young doctor put on his hazmat suit. Layers and layers of plastic and tape and gloves and boots and goggles. And it's over 100 degrees in there and he can hardly breathe. And if he stays longer than two hours, he will faint. And then I thought, I'm too scared. I'm not going there. just too afraid. And so instead, I sit here with your permission to speak and to tell you about my fear and my shame. And I am aware of the privilege I have to be safe, or so it seems.

[15:43]

It's so painfully beautiful here on planet Earth. A place to which I and all who live here are terribly, terribly attached. The statue behind you on the altar is of Shakyamuni Buddha. And it depicts the moment in his own spiritual journey when Filled with doubt, he reached down with his hand to touch the earth, to ask for permission to sit there peacefully, to consider the source of suffering in this human world. He had a great hope that he could learn for himself, you know, what it is and how to find a cure. And he did. It took a while. But he did.

[16:49]

And then he told others and the good news spread to all parts of the world as it continues to spread to this very day. And that's why we bow in gratitude. So before I go on and tell you about what he said, I want to say a little bit more about his and our dear sponsor, planet Earth. And I want to tell you this as a reminder of what it is that we are sitting on here today and how easy it is for us to take it all for granted. So again, I went online and I looked up the words core, mantle, and crust. And what I learned is that no one has ever really seen below the surface of the earth.

[18:01]

The farthest we've ever drilled down is about from here to San Francisco, a little under 17 miles. But by using sound waves and, you know, deductive reasoning, we have figured out that we are sitting on a very large and very hot ball, made primarily of iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, sulfur, and nickel. So this is the part of the lecture in which I wanted to tell you about how we and all aspects of our lives are codependent with the entire world, in fact, with the entire universe. And that's because, according to some, 13.8 billion years ago, there was a great explosion in elegantly named the Big Bang.

[19:09]

And after that, the debris from that explosion, mostly hydrogen and helium, formed great clouds which, by and by, came together into clumps. And those clumps grew tighter and denser by the force of gravity until they burst into light. And those are the stars, which I was looking at this morning on my way to the Zendo. And then around those stars, other hot clumps began forming into balls and to spin. That's what made them round, because they were turning like a potter's wheel. And one of those clumps, the one we call Earth, was hit repeatedly by giant asteroids of ice, which brought the water for the rivers, the lakes, and the seas.

[20:20]

And then eventually, through what we call deep time, the Earth cooled enough that it started to rain. And it rained for millions of years. And as a result, the surface of the Earth, the crust, which is about 30 miles thick, right here below my seat, that's not as far as San Jose. Under the oceans, it's only 10 miles thick. So the crest arrived at what has been called the Goldilocks condition. Not too hot and not too cold. Just right. Just right for this very life to burst into the scene, although no one has come up with a good theory for that one as yet. from the lip of a mortar of flower blooms.

[21:30]

Now below the crust is the mantle. It's super hot and it's slowly oozing about, which is why the continents are crashing into one another. It's also what causes earthquakes and volcanoes along the Pacific Rim, which is called the Ring of Fire, including our very own San Andreas Fault, right over here. It's a rather minor point, but my grandmother's house burned down in 1904 because of an earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. And then finally, so to speak, floating inside the mantle at the center of the earth is the core. It's 5,000 miles down, about from here to London, which is solid, mostly iron, and very, very hot, about 6,000 degrees, which is the same temperature as the surface of the sun.

[22:51]

I don't know if you're believing any of this, but I found it all utterly amazing. Because it does sound like a children's fairy tale. It's a story. And it is a story. It's a story that's being told by scientists. Science means to know. Science is to know. And many of us have come to believe in science the way others believe in God. And there's been a lot of distress over that for many centuries. And to this very day, the wars are not over. There's a good book about this by Karen Armstrong called Battle for God. And as for me, I really... appreciate, along with kind-heartedness, light-heartedness.

[24:02]

I appreciate the relief and the joy that comes from having a good sense of humor. So there was a cartoon in The New Yorker of two physicists standing there in front of a collider. Some of you see it? One of them has a clipboard And he's saying to the other one, once you have a collider, every problem starts to look like a particle. Think globally, act locally, which is, you know, much easier to do if you have your own clipboard with a to-do list. What's a girl to do? So all of this is not really very far away from what the Buddha discovered and taught following his own enlightenment.

[25:06]

He said, among other things, the world is not what you think. And he also said, well, or maybe I said, I don't know, if you're not in awe, you're distracted. I think what he actually said was, I and the whole universe are enlightened at the same time. I and the whole universe are enlightened at the same time. What does that mean? Who is that I? Well, that's each of you. So the reason that I went off on this geophysical digression is that I hope to illustrate how infrequently I think we take the time to appreciate the enormity, complexity, and rarity of the true facts of our life on Earth. The true facts of life.

[26:08]

If you're not in awe, you're distracted. Carl Sagan said as he looked at a photograph of the Earth taken from Voyager as it was leaving the solar system, He said, oh, the pale blue dot. Putting things into perspective. And although he lacked a rocket ship or a microscope or a telescope or even electricity, the Buddha began his own explorations of the universe the old-fashioned way by looking into the workings of his own mind, which is still highly recommended to this day. unless you happen to have a lot of equipment of your own. But in order to do that, in order to study himself, the prince first needed to find a way to concentrate, to pay attention, to focus his awareness.

[27:15]

We kind of jump around, have you noticed? Like butterflies, from thing to thing. So this initial step for studying reality is called shamatha, tranquility practice, calming the mind so that you can discern what's real, what's so, not just the agitation of your own consciousness. I think all of you have at many times in your lives experienced tranquility, you know, peacefulness, been at ease, perhaps For some of you, by sitting near the ocean or by a fire, or maybe running, walking, or laying in the bath. Calming is not only good for your health, it's good for viewing your life. For considering carefully what is actually happening in any given moment.

[28:20]

Are you thinking about the future or about the past? Is there anger, sadness, fear, anxiety, stress? Personally, I find watching the Giants play baseball a good way to study tranquility. Not. They make me crazy. So for some of you, it may be that your mind produces images, pictures. That's somewhat how my mind works. I often think in visual metaphors. And Zen uses a lot of those as well, like the cypress tree in the garden, or a hammer striking emptiness, or a volcano erupting through the crust of the earth.

[29:28]

had arise in my mind when I was trying to think of a way of talking about the sadness I felt about the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson in August. Young man, unarmed, 18-year-old boy. We all know about that. Terribly painful. Again, once again. And then I thought about the other volcanoes erupting, you know, the ones I mentioned, the Ebola in Syria, Libya, Dallas, New York, Mill Valley. And we can go on naming them until we've named every living creature on the earth. Because being alive is to be mortal. And the Buddha called this matter of mortality the great.

[30:29]

The great matter of birth and death. How we respond to our mortality, to birth and death, depends entirely on that crack that runs through everything. The crack of light that illuminates pathways of compassion and wisdom. Or not. It's a light for making choices. We get to choose which way to go, each one of us. And the outcome of those choices leads to or away from transformations. So it really helps if we have already determined somewhere along the way the intention that is guiding those choices. What is your intention?

[31:31]

Where are you going? On what basis will you decide how to respond to anything? I used to call this morality, ethics. I don't know. It's hard to find that basis in our culture. Is everything okay if you don't get caught? I don't know. So I think many of you already know that the intention that the Buddha recommends is called the Bodhisattva vow, which is the vow to live for the benefit of others. That vow takes a lot of concentration, a lot of patience, and a lot of creativity to find new ways to bring it into our everyday life.

[32:39]

To do what we intend to do. It's hard. It's really hard. I think many of you have heard the story of the Zen master who was sitting in meditation when a samurai approached to ask him about the great matter of birth and death. The master said, I can't teach you fearlessness because you are ignorant and you wouldn't understand. The samurai drew his sword, very angry, and he said to the teacher, don't you know that I'm the one who can kill you? And the teacher said, don't you know that I'm the one who can be killed?" The samurai laid his sword down, bowed his head, and asked the teacher to help free him. So it's no coincidence that what is written on the Han outside of this room, the one that struck to call us to meditation in the morning, it says, everyone, birth and death is a great matter

[33:47]

Impermanence is swift. Always be mindful of this. Don't waste time. It's guaranteed pretty much that the time will come for each of us when things get really loud and really scary. And perhaps by having opened ourselves to the world, as the Buddha recommends, through the practices of generosity, of ethics, of patience, of enthusiasm, and of concentration. When that time comes, we just may know which way to turn, how far to go, and who to ask for help. Wisdom is the fruit of this faithful practice. So I want to end today with another story about farming.

[34:50]

This one is also from the Book of Serenity. Dichang asked Shui Shan, where do you come from? Shui Shan said, from the South. Dichang said, how is Buddhism in the South these days? Shui Shan said, there is extensive discussion. Ditsan said, well, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat? Treslan said, what can you do about the world? Ditsan said, what do you call the world? So please consider making some time in your own busy lives to plant and tend to and cultivate. Nourish yourselves with something that you have tended by your own hands.

[35:52]

Thank you so very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[36:24]

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