This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzz.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. As some of you know, last weekend we had a number of ceremonies and the mandala of the zendo seating has changed, and welcome to the new abiding abbess, Fu Schrader, who's now sitting there, and this is the seat now for me to give talks. And even a slight change everything looks different, right?

[01:00]

Yeah. I just wanted to call your attention to the altar. There's a painting on the altar of Mahapajapati. Mahapajapati was the Buddha's aunt, the sister to his mother, who died seven days after Gautama Buddha, before he was the Buddha, when he was born, his mother died after seven days, and her sister, Gautami, was the foster mother for the Buddha, as well as his aunt. And she, after the Buddha's enlightenment, she also wanted to become... practitioner and follow the Buddha in his way of life and asked that a woman's order like the men's order be established and she asked three times and expressed very sincerely her wish to go forth into the homeless life as it's called with a number of other women and

[02:23]

the Buddha refused a number of times, three times, until there was an intercession by Ananda, who was also the Buddha's cousin and a monk. And this is a kind of famous story in the Buddhist literature, this particular exchange, where he asked the Buddha, is there any reason... that the full realization of one's enlightened, realizing one's true self is that, is there any difference between a man and a woman for realizing your true self? And the Buddha said, no, there's no difference. So therefore, Lord, O Lord, says Ananda, Please let the women go forth into the homeless life to practice in this form.

[03:28]

And the Buddha changed his mind. This is the only place in the Pali Canon or in the literature where the Buddha changed his mind around this point. And so Mahapajapati became the first leader of the nuns' order with, it says, a group of 500 women. And there's also a further addition to that story, which my sense is that it was added later on. And I think other scholars feel that this is probably true. This was an additional, an addendum to this. whereby the women, in order to go forth into the homeless life, had to accept eight special rules. Whether the Buddha actually placed those rules or whether it came later from another sphere, it's really unknown.

[04:41]

And these eight special rules really... ensured that the women's order would not thrive and would not, and it did die away in India. Some of them were you had to have a monk present for ordinations, for the full moon and new moon gatherings. You couldn't teach men. Men could teach women, but women could just teach women. Nuns could teach nuns. So this created conditions whereby donations and support went to the people who could teach a wider group, and the nun's order became subservient in many ways. And this was, you know, reflective of the culture and so forth. But the practices themselves, there was no difference. The meditation practices, the vinya, taking...

[05:42]

particular taking up rules of deportment and so forth were very similar, although women had more rules. But also a monk ordained for one day in relation to a nun who had been ordained for 100 years, he would go first, she would bow down to him, and these things were placed in the... organizing features of the nun's order. So yesterday and today, this is a created ceremony that Zen Center created, I think, in the 90s, late 90s, to honor Mahapajapati and the women's order and to have more balance in our liturgy and in making an effort to bring forth women's stories and teachings.

[06:43]

But it really is unbalanced. There's quite a plethora of tales and stories and koans. Although this year there's a book that just came out, 100 koans with women as the protagonist. So there's efforts being made in scholarship and other places to have some balance. So one of our offerings is this memorial service, the evening. of the 8th and the morning of the 9th, which coincides with International Women's Day. We just chose a date. And so that painting was done by a student during a practice period. And when you're on your way out or before you leave, you might take a look at it. Mahapachapade means great leader of a great assembly. One of the classes during the practice period here is on the Lotus Sutra, and I've been teaching that class and wanted to bring up some of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra for you today and also talk about Chapter 25, which is a beloved chapter which eventually became its own sutra, treated almost as its own sutra, recited and apart from the Lotus Sutra.

[08:13]

It has its own life. The Lotus Sutra is quite revered, and in fact, when we recite what's called the Ten Names of Buddha, we include this name of the Lotus Sutra as treating it as a Buddha, as an awakened energy, an awakened being. And it's, I think, due to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which are so, which were revolutionary, I think, at the time, and also are transformative and support awakening. So it's mentioned in these ten names of Buddha, including this Lotus Sutra is kind of shorthand for the, wonderful dharma, the lotus flower, the wonderful dharma of the lotus flower.

[09:18]

And that title, Myoho Renge Kyo, is sometimes chanted as its own complete practice, just chanting the name. Myoho is wondrous or subtle. Ho is dharma. Renge is a particular kind of lotus flower, this white lotus or pundarika. Myoho Renge Kyo is sutra or teaching. So the wonderful, subtle, wondrous Dharma teaching of the Lotus is the name of the sutra. And just maybe the three most important points that are teachings, although it's thick with teachings, the Lotus Sutra, but I would say the three most important are number one, how it is that Buddhas appear in the world, that awakened ones appear in the world.

[10:20]

How come they appear in the world? And the Lotus Sutra is very clear that Buddhas appear in the world for one reason only, and that is out of compassion for beings and to open the teaching and demonstrate or display or show the teachings and to help people to enter into the teachings, into Buddha's wisdom, and realize Buddha's wisdom and completely enter. So these four open, demonstrate, realize, and enter completely. That's the only reason that awakened ones appear in the world, to help this to happen. And the Lotus Sutra then shows and teaches how the Buddha does this, how the Buddha shows and demonstrates and helps people to enter.

[11:24]

And one of the main ways is through skillful means. Skillful means, that word ho-ben in Japanese or upaya in Sanskrit is translated as sometimes expedient means, tactfulness, skillful modes, skillful means. I think when we say skillful means, it sets it up that it's a means to an end. I think the Lotus Sutra is saying skillfulness itself is its own reward, you might say, or it's like that practice and realization together within skillful modes. There is realization. It's not in order to get somewhere else. I think it's the kind of inner teaching of it. However, in the Lotus, it describes many, many, many different kinds of skillful ways to help people to open and enter and realize and be able to see because it's demonstrated Buddha's wisdom, awakened wisdom.

[12:37]

Suzuki Roshi gave a series of lectures about the Lotus Sutra in 1968 and 69 in Tassajara, and there's a quote from somebody who was there during those lectures, and he said they were incredibly boring and dry. I think Suzuki Roshi read from the scripture and commented, and you can read those, they're all online. He was very, very, I mean, in the second chapter, which is called Skillful Beings, second chapter of the Lotus Sutra, when teaching about it, Suzuki Roshi says, now listen to me, all of you. This is, if you understand this right here, you will understand all of Soto Zen, all of my teaching, all of the teaching of transmission and teacher and disciple, you know, right here. This is in this chapter of skillful means. And skillful means, it's not like a secondary thing, like the real thing is something else, but then we try this skillful thing because we can't do the real thing.

[13:53]

Actually, the teaching is that there is just skillful means. The ultimate teaching is ineffable, unthinkable, inconceivable, ungraspable. It can't be conceptualized. It's outside of perception. As soon as we open our mouths and start speaking, we're in the conventional realm and in the world of skillful modes, skillful means. That's how we are together. And that's not a secondary or provisional kind of a thing. This is how we help each other, skillful means. And this tactfulness or expediency has three parts to it. It has to be appropriate for who you're speaking with, and not only the person or the situation, but for you, yourself.

[14:54]

It has to be appropriate for you. And then skillful, it's kind of a circular. Skillful means has to be skillful, and it has to be effective is the third part of skillful means. So you can try many things with your best intentions, but it may not work. We may not have a wide enough view. Our eyes of practice may not be mature enough or developed enough to actually be effective. So then we try something else. And there's stories in the Lotus Sutra where parables where someone tries something and doesn't work. It tries to save the children from the burning house by yelling at them and they don't pay any attention. Well, then maybe I should haul them out bodily. That's not going to work. It's going to take too long. So skillful means you try different things.

[15:55]

You don't really know right at the beginning. You have to learn what's skillful in a particular situation and keep trying over and over. So The Lotus Sutra teaches the reason Buddhas appear in the world, to open, demonstrate, realize, and enter, help beings to do that. Skillful means. Skillful means means anything will, anything's possible, anything that works, that's effective, skillful, and appropriate, you can try. It's not relegated. It has to be beneficial and to really help someone enter, but it can be anything. And I think the koans, you know, that have all sorts of surprising things that happened in koan stories are all skillful means. You know, they're expressions of Buddhist wisdom. For that moment, that time, that person, I'm going to pinch his nose, you know, and...

[17:01]

And that worked. That was effective. There's probably a gazillion stories that weren't passed down because they weren't effective. We don't hear about those. And then the third main thing, so we have why Buddhas appear in the world. Skillful means the third in the Lotus Sutra would be the one vehicle. This is one of the main teachings. And basically it's a kind of... writing or balancing and reconciliation of some difficulties maybe within the Buddhist world, some conflicts, some disagreements that back in the day, thousands of years ago, had developed. Conflicts develop within community, right? Within family, within community, where we have different takes on how things should be and There will be conflicts.

[18:02]

It's how we work with them that's the most important thing. It's not if you practice, you won't have any. It's if you practice, you can skillfully work with them. So after the Buddha died, there was different understandings of how he wanted the teaching to be carried on, and there was... there were many schools that ended up being developed. Those who didn't want to change anything, the way of the elders, the Theravada, and then the more progressive, the Mahasangikas, who wanted to drop some of the, they chose some minor rules to drop, which the Buddha said was okay, but the Buddha didn't say which ones. So the old wisdom way of the elders said, we're not changing anything because we don't know which ones he wanted to change. And the progressive groups said, we're going to change some things. And the Mahasangikas developed into maybe 18 or more schools.

[19:03]

And the Mahayana, which was a lay practice-driven, kind of developed even further from there. And there eventually became... some disagreements or maybe not respecting one another or denigrating one or the other. In fact, I read recently that the old wisdom school, the Soros Buddhism and Theravada, these schools, felt that the Mahayana, the great vehicle, yana is vehicle, that these new teachings were being taught by demons, you know, that they were writing these sutras and like... because they were saying the Buddha said this. But the Buddha didn't say that. Shakyamuni Buddha had died. And they're writing these and people are taking them up. But it was, they were upset. So the Lotus Sutra comes along. Over time it was written and probably finished in about 100 common era, but written over years.

[20:12]

in sections and verses and then prose added. And it said, this reconciliation and love, it said, all these different ways that the Buddha taught, all these different schools, the people who were there with the Buddha and had a particular ideal of practice and the Mahayana bodhisattva ideal, all those are just skillful means. These are just skillful means and different ways to address different people at different times, at different phases in their practice. And actually, everybody together is really just one vehicle, not the great vehicle or the shravakayana, those who are shravakas, the hearers, the vehicle of the hearers, or the Pratyeka Buddhayana, the vehicle of those solitary enlightened beings who don't teach and don't know how they got it, how they realized because they had no teacher and they're not going to teach.

[21:21]

That's its own kind of hermit group. Those people and the Mahayana and not only those categories but all beings and animals and they're all together and they all are have the capacity and the nature to realize Buddhahood, to realize full awakening, just like Shakyamuni Buddha did. Now this, some of us have been exposed to this. It doesn't sound so like a revelation or like the good news or something. But I think at that time when there was only one Buddha for many, you know, thousands and thousands of people, and to hear in the Lotus Sutra that they too could realize Buddhahood, their Buddha body, it was almost, and the Lotus Sutra talks about this, they were overjoyed.

[22:22]

They were ecstatic. It's like they couldn't believe it. They would dance for joy. They threw their robes up in the air, and the robes turned around like flying saucers. This is the Lotus Sutra, and it has stories like that. They were incredibly joyful, rejoicing. And this teaching that there's just one vehicle, the ekayana, the one vehicle, it's the Buddha vehicle, and everybody's on it. And you can't not be on it because your nature itself is awakened, enlightened nature. And we just practice. And there's nothing to worry about, you know, because you're all in this one vehicle. And this is explained by parables. So those three main teachings, why Buddhas appear, skillful means, and then everybody is Buddha nature.

[23:23]

The reality of our existence is Buddha. Buddha means awakened. Buddha nature, awakened nature. So this... It was hard for people to hear. They couldn't believe it, but they wanted to believe it, et cetera. And it reconciled. Everybody's together. We don't have to. We have different paths, but it's all one path. It looks like different paths and detours and wrong turnings, like Jung said, but there are no detours or wrong turnings. It's all individuation. It's all on the path, the one path. So that's a little, kind of a quick synopsis of the Lotus Sutra, which is really revered and, as I said, treated this teaching of reconciliation and love and inclusion. It has this very inclusive feeling is, you know, included in the names of the Awakened One, the names of Buddha.

[24:27]

So I want to speak now about one of the chapters in the Lotus Sutra, which is chapter 25. Chapter 25 is called The Universal Gateway of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. And this chapter is treated as its own sutra. I think I mentioned it's chanted daily in Japanese temples. And we're chanting it now at noontime here for during the practice period and the verse section. And this is a particular, it doesn't feel like Zen. You know, those of you, the aesthetic of Zen kind of earthy, grounded nature images, pretty simple like this room, you know, nothing too fancy.

[25:30]

The 25th chapter in all of the Lotus Sutra is quite flowery, quite lots of images that are inconceivable images, including, you know, dragons and demons and scorpions and bandits. The Lotus Sutra was, before writing, you know, it was, and before our entertainment training, possibilities, to hear someone recite the Lotus Sutra which people memorized or enacted or draw it would be really exciting and really interesting, the narrative of it. So the 25th chapter has some of this and this language and these images and these immeasurable qualities of existence and the worlds upon worlds, all of this is the Lotus Sutra's way and also Indian Mahayana Buddhism way of describing what's impossible to describe, of trying to get at the unremitting, unthinkable, unnameable Buddha Dharma.

[26:46]

But they give it a try, you know. When Suzuki Roshi was giving these lectures, someone said to him, and this is why Zen students sometimes don't like the Lotus Sutra, it's like And this person said to Suzuki Roshi that if they didn't like it, it was too fancy. It was just so fancy, you know, cascades of pearls and umbrellas and parasols. And Suzuki Roshi said, it's not fancy enough. It's like what it's trying to get to and demonstrate through these images, and it doesn't, you know, it doesn't touch it, the inconceivable, uh, world of our existence, the reality of our existence. So it's not fancy enough. That was very helpful for me. Oh, okay. It's not even fancy enough. So what is this? So in the 25th chapter, the universal gateway of Avalokiteshvara.

[27:48]

Avalokiteshvara is a bodhisattva, an enlightenment being, one who's vowed to live for the benefit of others and do this work of showing, demonstrating, and helping people enter and realize. And skillful means, bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are very close to Buddhas in this way, really. It's pretty hard to distinguish that they use skillful means to help beings in any way possible. And this particular bodhisattva is the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. We have one in this room back-to-back with Shakyamuni and Manjushri on the back of the altar when you come down the stairs. We have Avalokiteshvara who takes any form that's useful, that's helpful. This is the female form, Guan Yin. And the name Avalokiteshvara or Guan Yin or...

[28:53]

the other names in different languages means, name itself means or kanon in Japanese. The kan part or guan means to listen and to see. It's sometimes perceive. Perceive is kind of seeing and hearing at the same time. The one who perceives. So it's observing deeply listening, deeply seeing. That's this first character of the name. And then what are they deeply listening and perceiving? The sounds of the world. And this sound, that's for guan yin, or guan shi yin, sounds of the world, or kan on, or kan ze on, the one who hears the sounds. And these sounds are not just any old sound. although that's one of the practices, all the sounds of the world, but in particular, lamentation, cries, cries of suffering from the world, that this bodhisattva is attuned to the cries of the world.

[30:08]

They regard, the regardor of the cries of the world. Regard is both seeing and attuning to, listening, seeing, regarding. So that's the name of this bodhisattva, the one who hears the cries of the world, a regardor of the cries of the world. Avalokiteshvara has some other meanings in it, one who looks down and hears the sounds of the world, or these lamentations. So that's this bodhisattva's work, is listening to the cries of the world. But not just listening, but responding, skillfully responding. That's the main job. When you call for help, infinite compassion responds. This is the teaching of this 25th chapter. And in this chapter, the prose part, there's another bodhisattva named Infinite Mind.

[31:13]

And Infinite Mind asks the Buddha, how come this bodhisattva is named... One who hears the cries of the world or regarded the cries of the world, how come that he or she is called that? And then the Buddha says that this Buddha's practice is to listen and respond. And the listening itself is responding. It's not that we listen and then respond later. Our deep listening to one another to ourselves is a response to our pain and suffering or the pain and suffering of another. The listening itself relieves suffering. And I think we know this when we speak with someone who is really listening, who hears us, hears our cry or our lamentation or our struggle.

[32:15]

And the deep listening of another meets us in a way that nothing else. They don't have to fix it. They don't have to do anything. They can't, in many cases, relieve or change the fact that a family member is dying or whatever it is. But the deep presence and listening relieves suffering. And this, I think, is demonstrated over and over and over daily, really. So this Bodhisattva is not a kind of being that's floating around in the world, disembodied. This bodhisattva is each one of us, actually. We have the capacity to listen to each other and to listen to ourselves deeply and respond to our pain and our anxiety, our worry, our disappointments. It's just the struggles of our life.

[33:18]

Are we listening to ourselves or are we averting and distracting and trying to get away? We can each ask ourselves that. And are we calling, are we asking for help from the bodhisattva of infinite compassion? Are we calling upon compassion? The name of the chapter is Universal Gateway. This is the gateway. Another translation is... gateway in all directions of the Regarder of the Cries of the World. This is appropriate practice for all situations, at all times, in all places, to open to compassion and allow compassion to, you know, to be there, love and compassion. There's no world where this is not of benefit, this Basic, basic practice. And that's what the chapter 25 basically is saying.

[34:23]

So I'll read you a little bit. And this, as I said, some people have some reaction to it, you know. So the Buddha's answering infinite mind. He's saying, why is this bodhisattva called regard to the cries of the world? And... The Buddha says, listen to the deeds of Avalokiteshvara, aptly responding in every quarter. This is that universal, every quarter, all directions, compassion response. Who with immense vow, deep as oceans, throughout kalpas, that's an immeasurable length of time, beyond reckoning, has served many, many awakened beings. Hearing the name, or seeing the form, of Avalokiteshvara with mindful remembrance is not in vain, for the woes of existence can thus be relieved. So right there it's saying, hearing the name, hearing the name of the one who hears the cries of the world, hearing that name of infinite compassion, or seeing the form, seeing compassion enacted,

[35:37]

relieves our suffering, relieves the woes of existence. Compassion has a deep healing ability. It will be unforgettable when you're met with compassion. We never forget. And the woes of existence can thus be relieved. And then it has all these circumstances, and I won't read them all, but... Even if someone with harmful intent should push you into a fiery pit by mindfully invoking Avalokiteshvara's power, the pit of fire will turn into a pool. Now immediately you might say, wait a minute, just wait a minute here. Somebody pushed me into a fiery pit and I call out, Kuan Yin, you know, it's not going to help. However, to look more deeply into this, What is it to be pushed into a fiery pit? Has anybody ever insulted you or made a nasty remark or said something and immediately you're like filled with anger and how dare you and you're so mean and you're in a fiery pit immediately.

[36:41]

We get pushed into fiery pits a lot, you know, or reading something about somebody did a cruel thing to someone and we can feel... you know, filled with fiery anger and wanting to, you know, the extreme, revenge, retaliation, all sorts of stuff. This is the pushing. If someone with harmful intent should push you into a fiery pit, yeah. What's the practice? I'm in a fiery pit. By mindfully invoking Avalokiteshvara's power. The power. What is the power? Is... this compassion for oneself. I'm in pain. I'm consumed in flames about this. That's the deep listening, to notice that and with compassion meet it. This is hard. This is difficult. And then you can feel that it turns into a cool pool by enveloping yourself, mindfully invoking.

[37:45]

Mindfulness is also always appropriate. So you can think of this metaphorically, you can think of it literally if you want to. I think it's kind of fun to think of it literally. If cast adrift on a vast sea, menaced by dragons, fish or demons, by mindfully invoking Avalokiteshvara's power, the billowing waves cannot drown you. Well, you know, what is it to be menaced by dragons and fish or demons? I think sometimes people feel that, like they have, and people say that to me sometimes, they feel like they have demons within them that, you know, are compelling them to do stuff that is breaking precepts, or they don't want to, or their addictions are like demons. So this is, you know, we can look at it literally, we can look at it any way we want to, and the practice is calling up infinite compassion

[38:46]

right then and there. And the billowing waves won't drown you. You won't be drowned in that. You can find your way. This, as I said, this is chanted daily in Japanese monasteries. And I want to tell you also a story about Suzuki Roshi's mother. But one of our, one of the teachers... who was at Tassajara, a Japanese teacher, someone asked him, what do you miss most about, or what's the difference between being at Tassajara monastery and Japanese monastery, what do you miss? And he said what he missed the most, which the person thought he was going to say something totally different, what he said he missed the most was chanting the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra every day. So this, I think the effect of calling up these images and mindfully invoking Avalokiteshvara's power, or Gwant Kanon's power, can be a daily practice, reminding ourselves.

[39:55]

Suzuki Roshi's mother, Suzuki Roshi heard this 25th chapter at his mother's knee. She would chant it in the house while doing things and cleaning, and they were very poor when he grew up. He didn't have the right outfit to wear to school. He His father was a priest as well, and they had just started from the government. There was like an edict for the priests to marry, and it was not that well accepted by the culture and the society. They didn't receive that many donations. Anyway, they were very poor. The house leaked. They had to have umbrellas in the house. The house leaked on the tatami. The roof leaked. Anyway, his mother would chant this, you know, if from Mount Sumeru's lofty peak someone were to throw you down by mindfully invoking Avalokiteshvara, Kiteshvara's power, etc.,

[41:05]

No one would harm you if bandits come. And he didn't like it that his mother chanted this. He thought it was very superstitious, and he was embarrassed that she would be chanting this. But later, when he grew up and took up priest practice himself, he understood what it was that was needed, how she was finding compassion for herself by drawing on this sutra. So these are some of the points of this. There's, after naming all these circumstances, bandits and demons and so forth, then it says, calling out to this bodhisattva, O you of the true gaze, of the pure gaze, of the gaze of broad and great wisdom,

[42:07]

of the compassionate gaze, of the gaze of goodwill, ever longed for, ever revered. So this face, the face of compassion, is a true, pure, broad. And this bodhisattva is a bodhisattva of both wisdom and compassion. That compassion is the heart of the wisdom. Wisdom whose heart is compassion is this bodhisattva, which is not outside ourselves. We can awaken these energies within ourselves of wisdom and compassion, responding to suffering. And the face, this true gaze and pure gaze and gaze of goodwill, gaze of compassion, These are called the Five Gazes.

[43:11]

And right before this lecture, I took a little nap. I was getting very, very tired, and I just lay down at the desk and had this little tiny dream, a little nap dream, which I wanted to tell you, because it was a dream about the 25th chapter. So I was with some people, and I was holding this little baby, And I'll tell you something else after this. And people, we were talking, and Grace Damon was there. Those of you who know Grace, she's a resident here. And the mother of the baby, I'm not exactly sure who it was. It might have been another resident here. And I'm carrying the baby. And we're talking about something. And the baby wanted to join the conversation and said, kind of in baby talk, which I understood, she said, Grace has a TV, too. I think we were talking about television, watching something.

[44:14]

And this little baby said, Grace has a TV, but they said it in baby talk. And I heard what she said. And I said, yes, Grace has a TV, too. And the baby just smiled like... You heard me. You understood me. You heard what I said. And then I told the other people, did you hear what he just said? He or she, I can't remember. Did you hear what he just said? He said, Grace has a TV. Grace doesn't have a TV, by the way. And I realized when I woke up, oh, that's the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra in my dream. This... Completely being there, and the person, they're not even articulate yet, hardly. You can't quite understand, but you're with, I happen to be in the dream, and this happens. I know mothers who the baby says, and they say, oh, she wants you to pick her up or something.

[45:15]

They understand. That's attunement, you know, at that level where you're right there. And so this gaze, you know, the face-to-face and the gaze, this is incredibly important for our development, for our transformation into beings that are able to do this very practice of attuning to one another, listening, truly listening. And a friend of mine told me about this experiment that was done with this. It's called the Still Face Experiment. Maybe some of you know it by a doctor, Tronek. It's on YouTube if you want to see it. And the experiment was proving that babies very, very, very young, like this baby was about a year, are so responsive and

[46:24]

attuned to what's going on and others around them completely. And in this video, the experiment, the mother's with this little baby and she's talking to him and they're playing. The baby points. The mother looks up and, oh, look at that. And it's back and forth. They're having such a good time, so happy, just coursing along in loving, back and forth, flowing, communication. And then the experiment, the mother turns her head and then she turns back and she does what's called still face. And she has no expression, no affect. And it takes like a second. The baby picks up on this like, what's wrong? And it tries to engage. It does everything. And it It tries pointing again, like we just did that pointing thing, and the mother's like, absolutely nothing, two minutes.

[47:27]

And the baby, it loses its posture, it's writhing, it's trying every way to get, come back, you know, mother, come back. And then she, you know, and the baby like dissolves, it's like, and it's, she's not hurting, she's just not responding. It's quite something. You can find it on YouTube under Still Face Experiment. The pain of it, I think, for me is knowing how many babies, how many of us had a caregiver or a mother who, because of that person's own suffering or depression or illness or couldn't respond, and the We're built for this. This is our inheritance. This is our life force, energy, interconnected life together.

[48:31]

And when that's not possible, the pain is excruciating, which you can see. So here, the true gaze, the gaze of goodwill, the compassionate gaze, the broad wisdom gaze. This is the gaze of infinite compassion that we can practice and make efforts to be in attunement, listen deeply to ourselves and another. And then this calling on this practice of Responding to the call, that's the bodhisattva of infinite compassion, responds to the cries of the world. That's it. That's their main practice, listening and responding. And this can be our main practice, too. And to take it up fully brings benefit to whoever

[49:45]

become in contact with our self-included. It's getting a little bit late. I just wanted to, in the conclusion of this chapter, this Bodhisattva who's been asking about the deeds and why the name, the importance of the name and the deeds, Then he wants to make an offering to Kanoon. Avalokiteshvara is right there. So he takes this pearl necklace and he wants to offer it to Kuan Yin. And she refuses. She says, no, no. And he tries again. And the third time, and finally the Buddha intercedes and says, out of compassion for this Bodhisattva, would you please take this necklace? And Avalokiteshvara receives it then and then... breaks it in two and gives one half to Shakyamuni Buddha and the other to the many treasures Buddha who makes a cameo appearance again in this chapter, in this tower.

[51:02]

And you might think, well, what is that about, this little refusing the gift? And the gift... Avalokitesvara, or Kuan Yin, whatever, the Infinite Compassion Bodhisattva says in this exchange, don't let me get in between as an intermediary. Don't think I'm going to ask you to come and help me and not have a relationship with awakened nature. The gift goes to my source teacher. It goes to the enlightened one, Shakyamuni. And the many treasures Buddha is the symbol for Buddha nature itself. So the gift goes to Shakyamuni, the groundless ground of whom is Buddha nature. And then we find, well, that's our ground too, Buddha nature.

[52:04]

So we want to give a gift to compassion. Compassion says... Let's give it to awakened nature and Buddha nature, the source, which is our own nature. So the gift comes to us, which we give to compassion, who gives it to Shakyamuni. And it's this kind of circle of back and forth, giving and receiving, responding and attuning. So this point about the necklace in there is an interesting... that kind of turns that whole chapter. So, I gave the talk yesterday in the City Center and I ended the lecture with a song, which is my, it's kind of a 25th chapter, it is the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra Song,

[53:08]

And I think you all know it, and you can join in with me. And this is, you know, calling on compassion and the call and response. It's You've Got a Friend. Carol King, You've Got a Friend. Let's see if I can get a good... When you're down and troubled And you need a helping hand. And nothing, no, nothing is going right. Close your eyes and think of me. And soon I will be there to brighten up even your dark You just call out my name and you know wherever I am I'll come running to see you again Winter, spring, summer and fall

[54:33]

All you've got to do is call, and I'll be there, be there. Well, you've got a friend. And there's another verse. Should we sing the second verse? Okay. If the sky above you should turn dark and full of clouds, And that old north wind should begin to blow. Keep your head together and call my name out loud. And soon I will be knocking upon your door. You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running to see you again.

[55:48]

Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you got to do is call. And I'll be there. Yes, I will. You've got a friend. Ain't it good to know you've got a friend? People can be so cold. They'll hurt you and desert you. They'll take your soul if you let them. but don't you let them. Don't you let them. Thank you 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.

[56:51]

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.

[57:08]

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