This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Green Gulch. Feels like an intimate... I have some impulse to ask you all to come closer as we can get together. But I suppose it's okay if you stay exactly where you are. Thank you for coming out on this late August day. Kind of under this big blanket of fog, it's hard to know exactly what season we're in here. I suppose for many of you it feels like kind of late summer.

[01:02]

I'm aware that this is the last weekend before school starts for my daughter next week, so for me it actually has a tinge of the fall in it. It kind of feels like the turning of the season, that the summer's coming to an end and fall's about to begin. And it's actually a big year for my daughter. She's going into eighth grade, and so will be applying for high schools. And she's been at the same school that she's at now since she was two, so this will be her twelfth and final year at the school. And so it just feels like this year, a big transition that's about to happen. So that's kind of the precipice that I feel like I'm on after a very enjoyable summer, and a summer of a lot of activity here at Green Gulf. Those of you who have been coming throughout the year, probably been tracking our building project and may have noticed that things have changed this week.

[02:09]

Something's different this week than last week. So the Kaisando, the altar that was kind of in the back of the Zendo, has been moved back to its normal location in Cloud Hall because we finished with that phase of the project, the that phase of the building project is done. And this last week on this last Monday, we had a ceremony to kind of reopen, reopen cloud halls. The students have started to move back in. So this feels like a big accomplishment and a big milestone for us. And for me, you know, in some ways, it's not quite the culmination because we've got more building to do, but I'm starting to feel the culmination of years of work um you know at least at least seven maybe more but at least seven years of work that i've been involved in of beginning to think about planning for green gulch and the future of green gulch and what building and projects we might want to do that after many years of debate and struggle and going down certain alleyways that turned out to be blind alleyways and coming back and turning around

[03:21]

kind of culminated in the renovation of Cloud Hall and the building of this new building. So it's a kind of joyful time. I'm feeling happy to see these things come into fruition, come into completion. And I guess you all also managed to make it here this morning, despite the earthquake that happened last night. Were many of you awakened in the early morning? hours by the earthquake. I was, I think, like half asleep, half awake, probably somewhat dreaming, thinking about this talk that I was about to give when, like, the whole house, you know, started to shake in it. And, yeah, so I guess it was a 6.0, that's what I heard, kind of 6.0 magnitude earthquake up near Napa, the biggest earthquake in the Bay Area since the big one, 1989, what was that called? Loma Prieta, yeah. in 1989, but apparently not casualties I've heard of, and not some damage in Napa, but maybe not too much damage.

[04:26]

I haven't heard a lot about it, so I don't know if you had to brave any extra conditions to get here because of that. I had a couple stories I wanted to kind of bring up with you this morning, kind of maybe in association to some of the things I've been mentioning, the building projects here at Green Gulch in the turn of the season. Earlier this week, I was meeting with the apprentices, some of the apprentices, as I do somewhat regularly. And with one group, we're looking at cases from the Book of Serenity. This is kind of a classic koan collection, kind of Zen koan collection. And this week, the case that we happen to be looking at I'll just tell you, it's called Case 4. Buddha points to the ground, and this is basically how the case goes. The story goes, the world-honored one is walking with his congregation, and he points to the ground and says, this would be a good place for a sanctuary.

[05:38]

And Indra, the emperor of the gods, so I guess it's with the Buddha, says, picks up a blade of grass and puts it in the ground and says, the sanctuary is built. And Buddha smiles. So when I saw this case, first of all, I've been kind of fishing for like, what am I going to talk about this Sunday? You know, I often try and tune in as it gets closer to the time of the talk. Like, what information is the universe giving me to offer in my talk? And when I saw this case, I thought, oh, this will be just perfect. You know, having just done the ceremony for the building, I thought this is a perfect, you know, case for people like me, you know, religious... leaders with no kind of intent of their own who end up getting put on building committees and charged with raising lots of money and coming up with designs and building, you know, sanctuaries for the temple, you know, and then having opening ceremonies.

[06:43]

And then, you know, because of all the things that seem like great ideas on paper, but then don't actually quite work in the building and because of all the repairs and alterations that will need to be made, then announce, you know, fundraising will go on forever, you know, for this building. So for someone like me who's kind of involved with us, I thought, well, this is another approach, right? And maybe the Buddha's way seems better. This is a good place for a sanctuary. And what place is that? What's the place we happen to be, wherever we are? That's a good place for sanctuary. But not only where we happen to be, but where we happen to be with our congregation, with our spiritual friends, or just our good friends.

[07:52]

That's the place for the sanctuary, because it's our quality of being together, our compassion, our kindness, our encouragement, our generosity that we share with one another, and the quality of being together that's the real sanctuary. the real Vatican or Notre Dame. So while it may be important to build buildings for a place of practice, I thought looking at this case is helpful to remind us all that wherever we are is the place of sanctuary, or can be the place of sanctuary. I guess that's what the koan poses to us, is how do we meet each moment?

[08:54]

How do we meet each experience of our life as if it is a sanctuary? So, you know, I made one kind of observation about the koan already, that, you know, Buddha's traveling, you know, with his congregation, you know, so he's with the congregation. It's not just by himself that he kind of says this is a good place for the sanctuary. It's with others that he's doing this. And then it's, I think, kind of noteworthy that Indra is the other kind of main character in the koan. Indra, as I mentioned, is the emperor of the gods and, you know, predates kind of Buddhism. So Indra, I think, was a central god in Vedic religion and had his palace on Mount Meru. which is kind of the axis mundi of the cosmology of the Vedic world and Buddhism, too, for that matter.

[09:57]

And then above Indra's palace was this net, this kind of miraculous net of jewels, which is described as kind of being infinite in dimension, this infinite net of jewels. with the kind of joule on each knot of the net. And each joule reflected at the capacity to reflect all the other joules in the net. And then in that reflection also reflected those joules' capacity to reflect all the other joules. So you get this infinite regression of reflection, kind of like you have two mirrors facing each other, except it's more multidimensional, I guess, not just two jewels, it's endless jewels reflecting each other and reflecting their reflections. So this is above Indra's palace on Mount Meru.

[11:02]

And Indra's net, this image of this endless inter-penetration and inter-reflection, became a really important symbol in Mahayana Buddhism for the understanding of the nature of the universe, that this is the nature of the universe, completely interpenetrating and interdependent, so that whatever happens in one place completely affects the rest of the universe. So Indra is the one in the story with the Buddha, and I think It's interesting both in terms of this image of Indra's net, but also because Indra does actually predate Buddhism, so speaks also to the inclusivity of Buddhism, that it's okay for Indra to be a god. He doesn't have to renounce his place as emperor of the gods to be part of Buddha's congregation. And in fact, Buddhism is always incorporated.

[12:07]

whatever native religions it's found. So from that time, Shakyamuni Buddha kind of incorporated the religious beliefs and practices and doctrines of the time. And then as Buddhism has moved from country to country, that's always been the case. There's always been this kind of spirit of inclusivity, never having to recant or abandon anything to join the sangha, but able to incorporate all practices and doctrines, because really the truth of our human life does include everyone else, and does include everyone because we all suffer in the same way, we all delight in similar ways, all have the same longings, even if we express these or define them somewhat differently.

[13:18]

So there is that vision of kind of inclusivity in the koan. It really contains everything. And Indra reads Buddha's mind perfectly when he points to the ground and says, this is a good place for a sanctuary. It's not enough simply for the Buddha to say, this is a good place for sanctuary or for us to hear, everywhere is sacred. You know, we've heard this, everywhere is sacred. This is a good place for sanctuary. But it also requires a response. It requires us to do something. And Indra doesn't hesitate in his response. He picks up the grass and... and puts it in the ground, saying the sanctuary is built. We have everything we need. Let's practice. Just go ahead and practice.

[14:20]

We don't need anything else. And I thought maybe in that very spirit, we could do the same thing. We could just take... I know some of you came for the meditation before the talk, but I thought maybe we could all just sit... together with this koan, just as I've kind of offered it to you, with this practice of this is the sanctuary, this place right here. So go ahead and take a moment just to kind of settle into your body, find an upright sitting posture. Allow yourself to really feel grounded where you're sitting, feeling the support of the chair or cushion you're on, feeling the ground beneath your feet, beneath your sitting bones, your legs.

[15:27]

And maybe take a deep breath, just as I did. Just take a deep breath. Let go. and allow yourself to feel supported by the earth. I do feel like the earth is another important part of this koan, the earth that supports the blade of grass. So now each of us allow ourselves to feel supported by the earth, that we don't have to completely hold ourselves up by ourselves. You might even imagine roots growing down into the earth, supporting you. And now take a moment to bring some awareness to your spine, allowing the spine to lengthen, allowing the back to lengthen and broaden.

[16:30]

Maybe a little bit like that blade of grass sticking up reaching up for the sky, quivering with life. There's a vitality and uprightness in the spine. And now just return to this place, to this sanctuary. where you are right now seated. This is the place and everything you need

[17:36]

The sanctuary is built. It's right here in the body. In this spot on the earth. Nothing lacking. nothing elsewhere.

[18:43]

Can you give your heart, your whole heart, to this place? To this sanctuary? right here. So I appreciated the stillness in the room.

[22:50]

I felt like we all did find that place of sanctuary. So this is also a story about taking refuge, right? Sanctuary is maybe another word for kind of shelter or protection, I think it's part of the root. the Sanskrit for the refuges in Buddhism, which are kind of this fundamental practice. Because it does raise this question for me of what do we take refuge in, especially when things are difficult. It's something to find that moment of stillness and presence in a space like this, but how do we find it continuously in our lives when we're stuck in traffic, when we're in a long line at the grocery store, when we're tangled in some bureaucratic hassle.

[24:11]

can we there too feel that this is the place, this is a good place for a sanctuary and build the sanctuary for ourselves. Also, the story also reminds me of a story that's often told about one of the early teachers at Gringold's Farm. He wasn't a Zen teacher or a Buddhist teacher, I'm sure some of you have heard this story before. His name was Harry Roberts. And I actually don't know exactly how the connection was made with Green Golds. I think he was in the land actually before the Zen Center came here. I think he worked the land when it was a dairy farm prior to when Green Zen Center acquired the land and then developed a relationship with the folks from Zen Center as they started to settle the land And Harry came from kind of southern Oregon, near the kind of Klamath River Valley, and was part Yurok Indian, part Irish.

[25:22]

But he had received kind of training in the kind of Yurok ways and had an uncle named Robert Spot, who was a medicine man in the Yurok tradition. And so I had apprenticed with him and studied with him. And there was this story that Harry used to love to tell about the way that his uncle would select his students to undergo kind of shamanic training with him. So this is kind of very, I don't know, prestigious is the right word, but kind of esteemed place in the Yurok community to be a medicine man. to not anyone who wanted to do it, you know, could do it. And so I guess when Robert was looking for disciples, he would ask them to find five plants, some aspect of plant life, some aspect of flora that they had never...

[26:34]

seen before that they'd never encountered before and these are people who are very kind of very familiar with the land who know the flora you know very well so that was that was kind of the task that you had to kind of overcome if you were going to be selected into the apprenticeship and so um most of the most of the would-be apprentices, would-be disciples immediately headed off to the far-flung reaches of their habitat, of the land that they were living on, trying to find flora that they had never encountered before. But he would always pick the students who, whether because of their wisdom or their... denseness didn't even take a step and simply look kind of straight down at their feet and found five, you know, objects of flora right where they were that they didn't know and didn't encounter.

[27:35]

So I've always, as I say, it's a story that's often told, Harry told it a lot, and then it's been kind of passed down through the generations at Sun Center and Green Gulch. And it's a story I've always really appreciated. because of the kind of wisdom that it offers similar to this koan of everything that we need is right here. It's at our fingertips. And this sense of needing something else, kind of longing that there's some place better to be, some place where things will be revealed to us other than where we are, kind of cuts right through that. There's something very kind of encouraging about that. But when I was kind of Thinking about the story again, in terms of telling it today, what I was struck was it's not simply that everything that you need is at your feet or at hand. That's a big part of the story. But it's also that these were unknown flora, that it was unknown flora that was also right beneath their eyes or right beneath the feet.

[28:36]

So also kind of a reminder that there's also mystery always right in front of us. And what we seem to know or what seems most mundane or prosaic, if we were to take another look, we would realize there are whole worlds there that we don't know and don't understand yet. So I was appreciating this kind of aspect of the story as well. Not only do we have everything that we need, but there's mystery even in that which we think we know. Mentioned to a kind of Dharma friend of mine that I was thinking about talking about this case for the talk today. She reminded me, which I'd heard her talk about before, that she'd heard another Sun Center teacher talk about this case shortly before she received jukai, before she received lay ordination.

[29:37]

And... And then, I guess, after hearing that talk, maybe in between that time and the time of her ordination, she kept having, I think, these dreams. I think that's what she said. She kept having these dreams or visions of, like, this blade of grass trying to be planted in the earth and the earth, like, opening up, like, this huge chasm in the earth opening up and the blade of grass kind of sinking down into the earth. And... And I appreciated her, and I started to think about that. I appreciated her telling me about that, because in some ways it feels like a very simple story. This is a place to build a sanctuary, and you plant the grass, and it's kind of done. But there's this kind of dream or feeling that she had around it kind of suggests there's also some darker side, potentially, or some shadow side, or something actually to really be wrestled with in the colon. It may not be as simple as it appears. And when she... mentioned this to her teacher, I think years later, about this, that she kept having that vision.

[30:45]

He said, well, you have to put it in the right place. So again, you know, this is a good place for sanctuary, but it depends on our response. It depends on our response to make it so. And sometimes that takes great care and precision. Some people say that's the whole point of Zen practice. There's a famous Zen exchange with a great Zen teacher. A student asks him, what is the teaching of a lifetime of practice? And he says an appropriate response. But in turning this dream that she had, and I didn't talk with her at length and don't know her that well, and didn't know her at the time she was having this dream, so this probably says more about my psyche than hers. that image of the earth kind of opening up and the blade of grass disappearing, you know, had various kind of resonances for me.

[31:49]

And one was of shame. I think this is like, it feels to me like almost a kind of primordial image, archetypal image of shame, of feeling like we want to disappear, you know, or feel swallowed. by the earth. There's no place on earth for us. There's no place among humanity for us. And I don't know if that's what it was about for her, but it just made me think, maybe, again, mostly I'm talking about myself or probably my own life, like, what kind of barrier is that to feeling that this can be a sanctuary, that I have all I need, that everything is sufficient, the quality of my own shame, somehow I'm getting in the way of that. And then I was reflecting, again, that it was a story about refuge, again, about making this the place of sanctuary, making this a place of refuge, and that basic practice of ours, which we do every morning, we take the refuges,

[33:00]

that we precede that by confession and repentance. So there may be something about needing to acknowledge our shortcomings or something about meet ourselves in that way that clears the space, allows the space for us to accept this as the place of sanctuary. And then I was also recently reminded of a dream I had had long ago. I was at Tassajara recently and bumped into someone there and was reminded of a conversation that we'd had maybe 15, 18 years ago. And she was telling me of this dream that I had kind of reported to her at the time as I was really wrestling myself with... what direction my life was going to take if I was going to kind of continue on in Zen practice and perhaps become a priest, as I have, or leave Zen center and do something altogether different.

[34:09]

And I had this dream that a dog had kind of fallen off a cliff or precipice and was in this kind of deep gorge. And I think it was the dog, at the time there was a community dog at Tasara named Zori, and it was this really... Very loving, very affectionate dog, you know, kind of big black dog that just everyone in the community adored, just very friendly. And so I think it was Zori. I think Zori had fallen off this cliff. Actually, if you go to Tasaha these days and if you do the Overlook Trail, you kind of go up the hill to the top of the mountain there, there's a memorial post for Zori. It says Zori on it, so Zori's ashes are still there. Anyway, so I think Zori had fallen off this precipice. And so in the dream, I had to go... That's what I felt called. I felt like I needed to go rescue this dog I needed. So anyway, so for this other person, her sense of this is really kind of pivotal, kind of central dream for me in terms of what, how do I rescue this dog?

[35:12]

How do I connect with this love dog in my life? And maybe also speaking to some precipice I felt that I was on in my life as a young man. what direction was I going to take? And it felt a little fraught or difficult. And I was thinking, too, about how it is often necessary to make some kind of descent. We often think of spiritual practice in terms of the transcendent, in connecting with something higher or bigger or larger or light. But I guess my experience of Zen practice is that the work is often done by descending, that we need to descend some gorge or valley or precipice. And then I was sharing this story with someone else, and it reminded them of a kind of modern retelling, or kind of modern, but a retelling that they'd heard of the story of Persephone.

[36:20]

Do you all know the myth of Persephone? Persephone, the Greek myth of Persephone. So Persephone is the daughter of Demeter. Demeter was kind of the goddess of the harvest or of the cornfields, kind of the earth goddess in Greek mythology. And she had this daughter, some accounts named Persephone, and some originally named Kore, I think they pronounce it. And at one point, Hori is kind of off in, the way that the story is often told, is kind of off in some fields of flowers and sees some beautiful flowers little ways away in the meadow apart from her kind of friends. And she wanders because she wants to be the first to this beautiful flower. And perhaps it's a kind of narcissist. And when she's about to pick it, Hades snatches her and brings her... down to the underworld. So that's how the story is often told, and then she's trapped there, basically, with Hades, until Demeter realizes she's missing, and then Demeter kind of goes in search of her, and in her grief for not being able to find Persephone, kind of withdraws her

[37:45]

kind of powers of life and energy and bounty, which support the harvest and growth. And so everything starts to wither and the season turns cold, things stop growing. And so the earth starts to become barren as Demeter looks for Persephone and can't find her until eventually Zeus seeing kind of a dire, kind of situation on Earth, in part because the people don't even have anything to offer to the gods anymore, goes to Hades and says something must be done. You need to release Persephone back to Demeter. And Hades kind of reluctantly... grieves and asks her if she's eaten anything while she's been in the underworld. And she's been so grief-stricken that she hasn't eaten anything. So he tells her that her mother is grieving for her and that she's going to, and he's going to let her return.

[38:52]

And she's kind of overjoyed. And he says, but before you go, would you just have something to eat with me? And she eats seven pomegranate seeds and then goes back you know, up to the earth and finds her mother who, you know, overjoyed to see her, but then asked her if she's had anything to eat while in the underworld. And she says she has the seven, has had the seven seeds. And Demeter again is grief-stricken because the agreement was if she'd had nothing to eat in the underworld, then she could return. But because she's eaten something, she's obliged to stay with Hades. So they make some agreement that because she ate seven seeds, seven months of the year she'll spend in the underworld and five months of the year on earth. And that's the, for the Greeks, that's the story of how the seasons came to be. So I imagine it's April through August that are the months that Persephone is kind of with us and Demeter is supporting the harvest.

[39:57]

And September is when Persephone goes underground with Hades and things start to wither and die. But as I said, it was a kind of retelling of the story that the person kind of pointed me to, in which it's not that Hades snatches Persephone and takes her into the underworld. Actually, while Persephone is kind of wandering the earth with her mother, Demeter, they see Pan. And, um, and Pan has a dog and, um, and Persephone is, again, in the story, Corrie, her name's Corrie, this woman's kind of taken, taken with the dog and Pan says, go, tells the dog, go, go with her. And so, so, uh, Corrie and the dog become, you know, close companions and the dog follows, you know, goes around everywhere with her as she's exploring and learning about their, with their mother and then exploring on her own. And, um,

[40:59]

But then the dog eats a poison mushroom. That's one account of what happens anyway. He eats a poison mushroom and dies. And of course, never seen kind of death before, doesn't know what's happening, but recognizes the dog's spirit as starting to head into the underworld and follows the dog under. So this is why I reminded the person of the dream that I had had of the dog that had kind of fallen off the precipice that needed to be rescued. And so it's actually Corrie kind of willingly following the dog into the underworld that leads her to Hades. And then she actually falls in love with Hades. It's a very different story than this other telling. She actually falls in love with Hades. And then does also eventually kind of return to her mother, but has a very different kind of feeling about it. Anyway, it's maybe just like a very long aside in some way, but yeah, I guess spoke to me in terms of the, well, I guess not only the turning of the season and yeah, sense of loss or acceptance of

[42:25]

kind of destruction or of death that maybe is also part of our real capacity or ability to, again, accept whatever is as refuge, as a place of sanctuary. Because often there is some loss in our experience. There's some sense we have of something missing, perhaps. of something having been lost, that is what prevents us from kind of fully, again, accepting this place as everything we need for practice. And for me, there was a kind of recent moment of this kind of poignant moment, I guess it was even just like last weekend before last weekend, I was at the airport.

[43:27]

I was putting my daughter on a plane. She was flying to go visit her cousin in Southern California and just was going by herself. And we didn't want to pay for the airline accompaniment for her, but they did let me kind of walk her to the gate. But then she was kind of on her own for there. And as she was kind of heading down the walkway to the kind of runway to the plane after she'd kind of given her ticket, her boarding pass to the steward. She kind of gave one look back at me and kind of waved and just headed down the runway and was so in the wonderful side of it, so kind of confident and self-assured. It was so clear she didn't need me at all, that she totally had this. And in that moment, I just saw her leaving home. I mean, she's only in eighth grade now, but I basically saw her four years from now leaving home. and the way she's already starting to leave home. And there's incredible kind of poignancy for me there, or kind of feeling sadness or loss in the midst of, and would I want it any other way?

[44:40]

I wouldn't. I mean, this is the way it should be. And still there's some loss there. So I think, anyway, I think the story of Persephone also maybe touched on that. for me, of her travels to the underworld and something about the necessity of that. In this retelling, as I said, her name before she descends is Cori. And then she's named Persephone by Hades, which means married to destruction. They get married. So Persephone actually means married to destruction. And I feel like this is the kind of dark side of the koan of... this is a good place to build a sanctuary is kind of to accept that we have to accept destruction just as in any building project. There is destruction. Building site is always a place of destruction first, you know, before it's a place where anything's, anything's erected.

[45:42]

And, you know, although I was, um, maybe saying the Buddha's method of building a sanctuary is better. This is the place, here is the sanctuary. There's something to be said also for actual building buildings where people can practice. And hopefully you all feel that here today, that there's something about this space which does hold the practice and encourage the practice. And I know when I was recently at Tassajara, I... felt that there's just something very encouraging about being in this place that for years and years and years has held and supported the practice. So I think we need both. The risk of a building is it can obscure the view of something beyond. But sometimes without a building, no Buddha will appear to us at all. No encouragement will appear to us at all. And, you know, where does the temple come from?

[46:50]

Where does the building come from, the sanctuary? It comes from the kindness and the generosity and the love of everyone who's taken the trouble to support it, you know, in one way or another. And I think this is actually kind of the deep... secret of Dharma, that it is kindness and generosity and love and compassion which activates space, which is the cause for appearance in the world. Actually, the commentary on this case is the story of... I realize I didn't bring a clock, so I have no idea what the time it is. The commentary on this case is a story of Buddha in a previous life, a much earlier... lifetime where he encountered a Buddha of that generation. So there's this understanding in Buddhism that you can't become a Buddha alone, only a Buddha together with a Buddha.

[47:52]

So there's a story of Shakyamuni Buddha's meeting of a Buddha before he was a Buddha. And so he was going to hear this Buddha Dipankara speak, but it was a kind of rainy, kind of muddy day. And there was no kind of clear pathway for Dipankara to come into town to give his Dharma talk. And so Buddha, in his previous life, when he was just a kind of normal person sent in being, kind of threw himself down over a mud puddle, kind of with his long hair, using his long hair to cover the mud puddle so Dipankar could walk over him, literally, you know, to find some clean path of entry to give his talk. And Dipankar pointed at him and said, this is a good place to build a sanctuary, which I think is also associated with Shakyamuni Buddha being predicted to become a Buddha. But it's that... gesture of kind of throwing ourselves down in the mud, that kind of spirit of generosity, as I say, that not only causes temples to appear, but I'm suggesting all appearance actually comes from that.

[49:00]

And even though it's a lot of trouble to build a building and a lot of trouble to live our lives or deal with all the appearances that we deal with and a lot of trouble to face our own kind of afflictive emotions in the face of all these troubles that ultimately, in practice, I think we learn to see that these are all expressions of love. And maybe as we do so then can have some more appreciation for our own suffering and others' suffering. Well, I'm imagining I've gone on quite long enough. So that might be a good place to stop. Maybe I'll read... There's a verse on the case, which actually Norman Fisher adapted into his own.

[50:06]

So maybe I'll just read the verse on the case and maybe close with one other poem I was thinking about, too. So Norman's version of the verse on this case is, the quivering grass tips, where else do you find the timeless spring? Take what's here. Use it. Every blade of grass is Buddha's 16-foot golden body that enters the dust for love of the world and is the world. Within the dust, be the host. Outside the dust, be the guest. And wherever you are, be content. What else could you want? And even the wanting shows you this. The quivering grass tips, where else do you find the timeless spring?

[51:08]

Take what's here, use it. Every blade of grass is Buddha's 16-foot golden body that enters the dust for love of the world and is the world. Within the dust, be the host. Outside the dust, be the guest. And wherever you are, be content. What else could you want? And even the wanting shows you this. maybe one other poem about finding our place right where we are. It's a poem called Lost by David Wagoner. Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost. Sorry, I have to start over.

[52:14]

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost. Wherever you are is called here. And you must treat it as a powerful stranger. Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers. I have made this place around you. If you leave it, you may come back again, saying, here. No two trees are the same to raven. No two branches are the same to wren. If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows where you are.

[53:26]

You must let it find you. Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost. Wherever you are is called here, and you must treat it as a powerful stranger, must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you. If you leave it, you may come back again, saying, here. No two trees are the same to raven. No two branches are the same to wren. If what a tree does or a bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost. Stand still.

[54:28]

The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you. 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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[55:12]

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