This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Good morning on this very beautiful early spring day full of bird songs. And welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple. Is there anyone here for the first time today? Great, well, special welcome to you. I hope you find something in the experience of being here that will be beneficial to you in your lives. So today we're having a one-day sitting at City Center. Some of us started sitting in soon after 5.30 this morning, and we'll be sitting till 6 this afternoon.

[01:01]

And it's the one day sitting right in the middle of a 10-week winter practice period. And the theme of our practice period is waking up in the midst of our lives, the Bodhisattva way. Today I'll be talking about one of the traditional bodhisattvas. But before I start talking about the theme of the day, I'd like to just introduce myself. My name is Tova Green, and I'm co-leading this practice period with Rosalie Curtis, our head of practice. And I want to thank the abbots who invited me to co-lead the practice period, and Rosalie, It's a wonderful partner to work with, and I'd like to thank all of you for being here today, because we wouldn't be having a talk if you weren't here. What I'll be focusing on today is one of the traditional bodhisattvas.

[02:14]

A bodhisattva is an awakening being, and bodhisattvas take a vow, to live their lives for the benefit of all beings. And that can take many different forms. One of the most beloved bodhisattvas is Quan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion. I placed a statue of her on the altar this morning. Sometimes Quan Yin is... appears in masculine form, sometimes feminine form. And the name Kuan Yin, well Kuan Yin is the Chinese name, the Sanskrit or Indian name is Abalokiteshvara, Regarder of the Cries of the World, or Hearer of the Cries of the World. And in different parts of the

[03:16]

In different countries in Asia, Kuan Yin takes on different names and is revered in so many countries. The name in Tibet is Chenrezig. In Japan, Kanon or Kanzeon. And in Korea, Kanzeon. and see in Vietnam, Kwan Nam, and all these, I haven't been to all of those countries, but the ones I have visited, I've seen temples devoted to Kwan Yin and beautiful statues, some of them very large, that emanate this, a feeling of peacefulness and compassion, although compassion isn't always peaceful.

[04:21]

Compassion, the definition of compassion is a feeling with others' suffering, and sometimes that... ability to feel with or empathize with or care about others' suffering leads us to want to help and take... not exactly take care of others, but respond to the needs of others. And it's important in that thinking about responding to the needs of others and caring for others to also direct... concern towards ourselves and think of ourselves as one of the many beings that need care. So to be compassionate is to wish that a being is free from pain.

[05:33]

And to... view life compassionate, we have to be able to be present for pain, to not turn away from it, and to also be aware of the causes and conditions that cause the suffering to arise. Compassion is one of four It's called four Brahma-viharas, or abodes of the Buddha. Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, or joy in the joy of others, and equanimity are the four. And it's helpful to think of compassion in that context, because in order to be present for the suffering of others, we also need to be able to recognize joy in others and ourselves, and to be able to practice equanimity, to develop an ability to stay on an even keel, you might say, when we're facing painful situations, either in ourselves, in friends and family, or on the street, or in the larger world when we're reading the newspaper.

[06:57]

There's so much pain and suffering, and how can we... be present for it without being overwhelmed by it, and then shutting down. So, just to say a few words about Kuan Yin, Kuan Yin is depicted often as having, well, it's said to have a thousand hands and arms, and in each hand there's an eye, an eye of compassion. And Kuan Yin is also Sometimes there's a temple in Kyoto that I visited that has a thousand Kuan Yin statues, and each one has, I think, 50 arms. And in each arm, there's a different implement or tool. Kuan Yin has many ways of helping and uses skillful means.

[07:58]

So some... statues of Kuan Yin may have only one or two, often a flask with healing nectar, or a willow whisk, which is also for healing. The Kuan Yin statue on the altar is called a fish basket Kuan Yin, and she's holding a basket that has a fish in it, and it's said that under the fish there's a copy of the Lotus Sutra, which the Lotus Sutra is a text that has a chapter that extols the virtues and healing qualities of Kuan Yin. It's quite beautiful and talks about how Kuan Yin can intervene in very challenging situations like a ship being tossed at sea or someone being attacked by bandits. And Kuan Yin's presence can help resolve the situation or dispel fear or dispel grief. Just...

[08:59]

and bring calmness and ease to situations that are very threatening and challenging, and viewing everything with the eyes of compassion and also speaking with a beautiful voice. The voice of the rolling tides is the phrase in that chapter of the Lotus Sutra. So Kuan Yin is also thought of as someone, not someone, but a being that responds readily. without premeditated thought to the cries of the world. There's a beautiful story, a koan, that explores this ability of kuan yin to respond, and it's in two of the collections of teaching stories or koans, the Book of Serenity and the Blue Cliff Record. And it's the story of two Dharma brothers who are having a conversation.

[09:59]

One of them is Yunyan, and the older Dharma brother is Dao Wu. And Yunyan starts by asking, what does the bodhisattva of compassion do with all those hands and eyes? And you might wonder, so many hands and eyes. And Dao Wu says... It's like reaching back for a pillow in the night. And I think that image is so comforting. You know, often I wake up in the middle of the night and sometimes I'm worried or anxious and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Or I wake up in the middle of a dream that's disturbing and there's my pillow. And it's so helpful to be able to reach back and find that pillow in the middle of the night. I mean, this is a metaphor, but it's still, I think it's very, it's powerful, I think partly because it's so common and every day and we really can relate to what it's like to reach back for a pillow in the night.

[11:07]

So Yunnan said, with that explanation, I understand. And then Dao asked, what do you understand? Yunnan said, all over the body, hands and eyes. So it's not just these hands and eyes, but all over, hands and eyes. And Dawu said, well, that's a good answer, but you only got 80%. And then he says, throughout the body, hands and eyes. So the compassion is not just skin deep, it's in every pore of our bodies. And There's a commentary on this story by Dogen, who was the founder of our school of Soto Zen, and he says there's really no difference between compassion all over the body and compassion throughout the body. That the body of compassion is actually part of... It's a way in which we're...

[12:19]

all connected with each other and with all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past, that this vast compassion is available to us. It permeates everything. And we may not always be aware of it as we go through our day, but it's accessible to us. And I think that's in part why it can be helpful to have a statue or an image of you know you wonder is and I think this is a question when we study bodhisattvas are they out there or are they in here or is there any difference are they both in here and out there but I enjoy having a statue of Kuan Yin on my altar I can look at her in the morning and be reminded of that quality that I can cultivate as I go through the day so uh One of the texts we're studying in the practice period is by Taigen Leighton, who teaches now in Chicago.

[13:29]

He was a student and then a teacher at Zen Center, and he started his own group called the Ancient Dragon Temple in Chicago. And his book, Faces of Compassion, brings up the question about bodhisattva archetypes, the bodhisattvas like Kuan Yin and... Others, Manjushri, who's a bodhisattva embodying wisdom, have qualities in them that are available to us, and we may see them in other people. For example, the Dalai Lama, who is giving... He's actually in San Francisco today giving a talk at Davies, which is quite a rare, I think, presence in the Bay Area. But he's considered... an emanation of Quan Yin, an incarnation, actually an incarnation of Quan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion. And he talks about compassion as being his religion.

[14:31]

And in the way in which he is able to forgive even the Chinese who have invaded Tibet is quite remarkable. And his ability to listen, he is known for his... listening to different sides of a conflict, and his voice, which I've only heard once, but again, the voice, a strong, kind voice of compassion in our world, which really needs voices like his. So anyway, Taigen, in writing about... and in writing about this koan of the bodhisattva with 84,000, or an infinite number of hands and eyes, says, can we see the thousand hands?

[15:33]

Actually, thousand hands are just, it means very many hands and eyes, infinite number of hands and eyes. Sometimes it's called 84,000 hands and eyes. But may we see the thousand hands of Kuan Yin as an image of our sangha, our community, with each person lending a hand with his or her own skills and voice to the total body of our community. And I really love that vision. I couldn't say all of us who are here today and all the people who aren't here but are part of the wider sangha of Zen Center lend their... voices, their hands, their eyes to bringing, I'd say, compassion to the world in which we live. And I thought of this today when I was sitting in the zendo in the meditation hall.

[16:36]

For those of you who are new, you may not have ever experienced how we eat breakfast in the zendo. It's called Oriyoki. and it's a way in which we eat from three bowls. We're sitting in meditation position, and a crew of servers comes in and brings the food, three pots, and they very carefully serve everybody in the zendo. And when they serve us two people at a time, they approach and we bow, they put down their pot, we hold our bowl, they fill it, We let them know how much we want by signals, hand signals, because it's all done in silence. And when everyone is fed, we eat, and then they bring in seconds, and then they bring in water to wash our bowls, and then they bring in buckets for the water. And it's just this beautiful dance of cooperation.

[17:38]

Every seat in the Zendo was filled this morning, and the servers just moved through the Zendo building effortlessly it seemed. And I know it takes a lot of concentration and coordination, but it's such a wonderful act of giving and receiving. And I see that as all the hands and eyes together creating such a beautiful offering of food. And you may think of other moments in your life when people come together and to do something that couldn't be done by one person, and how wonderful it is when there's that kind of cooperation. So we often think of compassion as directed towards others, but how can we also direct it towards the hungry and hurting parts of ourselves?

[18:41]

I think compassion is something we all long for in our lives. Sometimes you might wonder what gets in the way of feeling compassion towards ourselves. I think one of the things that comes up is self-judgment. Sometimes when we think about the bodhisattva vow or Think of someone like the Dalai Lama or someone with the qualities of Quan Yin. We may feel short. How can we reach or extend ourselves or think of... We may, instead of feeling encouraged by... the bodhisattvas, we may feel that we just don't measure up, we'll never be able to do things of that perhaps level of openness or spaciousness.

[19:56]

And in the light of that, can we cultivate compassion for ourselves just for even thinking about it, for having a willingness to look into ourselves and to be open to waking up, however that may look and however difficult that may be due to various experiences we've had in our lives that may make it hard for us to appreciate ourselves. In preparing for the talk, I came upon a poem that I have loved and I haven't thought of in a long time. I want to share it with you. It's St. Francis and the Sow by Galway Canal. The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don't flower, for everything flowers from within of self-blessing.

[21:02]

Though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness. to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch, it is lovely, until it flowers again from within of self-blessing. As St. Francis put his head on the creased forehead of the sow and told her in words and in touch, blessings of earth on the sow, And the sow began remembering all down her thick length, from the earthen snout all the way through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail, from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine down through the great broken heart to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering

[22:06]

from the 14 teats into the 14 mouths, sucking and blowing beneath them. The long, perfect loveliness of Sal. So everything flowers from within of self-blessing, though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness. So at times when it may be difficult to see our own loveliness, it can help to be with people who are more spacious with us than we can be with ourselves at that moment. And I wanted to share a story from an experience I had with my teacher quite a while ago. I was a student at Tassajara. And in that practice period, I was her attendant, or her Anja, it's called.

[23:11]

And my job included taking care of her cabin, filling up her jars with snacks, cleaning the altar, doing whatever she needed that would be helpful to her. One day she asked me to iron her juban. A juban is this shirt that we wear under our robes. And she told me to be especially careful with it because the sleeves were made of a very delicate material and the body of it was cotton so that if I ironed it all on the cotton setting, the sleeves might be damaged. So I had to use a lower setting on the iron for the sleeves. So at Tassajara, the ironing boards are in the dining room. There are two. And I went with this juban, and a friend of mine was standing at the other ironing.

[24:19]

And so I started with the sleeves on a low setting, and then I turned it up, and I was talking to my friend, and suddenly I realized that I had burned a hole in the sleeve. And I felt terrible. So I tried to mend it, but it didn't look very good. So I had to bring it back to my teacher and tell her what I had done. And she received it. And then I just felt really badly until I was able to talk with her in a, we call it dokasan, it's a one-on-one meeting. And I apologized and I... told her how badly I was feeling. And she said, and we examined what had happened, that I wasn't paying attention, and then also what the consequences can sometimes be when you have a momentary lapse of attention. It could be something much worse could happen, but in this case it was just burning a hole.

[25:23]

But she also told me it was her ceremonial juban, And she had received it when she became the abbess, so it was a real loss for her. But she said that my job was to feel my remorse and to pay more attention next time, and her job was to accept that she had a less-than-perfect juban. And I was incredibly appreciative of that response. felt it was extremely compassionate. I expected to, I don't know what, I thought the worst possible consequence would be, she would say, you cannot be my Anja anymore, or, you know, but, because, you know, I think sometimes we, well, anyway, I expected to be punished, but I wasn't punished, and I think that teaching has stayed with me, and, you know,

[26:23]

when I'm dealing with a situation now in which I regret something I did or said, I try to remember that voice of compassion and the teaching that if I can feel the remorse and then think about what I might do the next time or how I can meet that kind of situation in a different way the next time it arises. So... Kuan Yin has a great capacity for listening and hearing with empathy and active listening. And I think it's interesting that my teacher's name, her dharma name, first part of it is Jiko, which is light of compassion. And she gave me the dharma name Jisan.

[27:30]

And the second part of my name is Miocho, so Jisan is Mountain of Compassion, and Miocho is Wondrous or Subtle Listening, which in the second part of your name is the name you're trying to aspire to. But I think that having been given that name is one of the things that I think helps me to... think a lot about speech and listening and exploring what is kind speech, what is wise speech, what is beneficial speech. And it's a lifelong practice, I think, for all of us, paying attention to how we listen and how we speak. But last Sunday... A friend of the Sangha, I think she's here today, Peggy Denial, taught some of us how to make Bodhisattva altar cards.

[28:37]

And in the cards we had quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh about four of the Bodhisattvas, one of whom is Quan Yin. And I thought his words about Quan Yin were really beautiful. It's a Quan Yin blessing, so I wanted to share them because they have to do with listening. We will sit and listen without any prejudice. We will sit and listen. without judging or reacting. We will sit and listen in order to understand. We will sit and listen so attentively that we will be able to hear what the other person is saying and also what has been left unsaid.

[29:47]

We know that just by listening deeply, we already alleviate a great deal of pain and suffering in the other person. and I would add, and in ourselves. A number of people who practice here have taken part recently in a year-long contemplative care training program, and another one just started. And many people have also volunteered at hospices, and many have studied to become chaplains. I think in all of those ways and also... They're not the only ways, but ways we can practice just sitting and listening, being present for someone who is suffering. I think teachers, social workers, parents and friends, we often have the opportunity to listen deeply and to just be present for someone.

[30:50]

It can make a huge difference. And... Just checking the time. Can we also bring that quality of attention to ourselves? And can we do that in our sitting? So today we have, for those of us who are in the one-day sitting, an opportunity to tune in to ourselves, to pay attention to how we speak to ourselves. as well as to how we listen to ourselves. Can we be compassionate? Can we be gentle and kind when self-judgment arises? Can we be present for our feelings of irritation, anger, sadness, and joy for whatever comes up? Can we just fully be there?

[31:51]

So... I'd like to share a without needing to act on them. So during this one day sitting, we can practice listening to our own voice and practice speaking to ourselves compassionately. So I'd just like to end with maybe a dedication of merit. It's a way of extending whatever benefit may come of our

[32:57]

being here for the talk and our sitting today and whatever we do later on in the day to all beings. So today and every day, may we bring the eyes and ears of compassion to ourselves and to all those we encounter. For some of us, we'll do this in silence as we resume sitting. For others, leaving Zen center, can you bring compassion for yourself and others into your day? May our practice benefit all beings. May all beings reach back for a pillow in the night and find it there. Thank you very much. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[34:14]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[34:17]

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