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. Welcome, beloved Sangha. Welcome to those here at Unity Church and welcome to those of you who are viewing from home. My name is Jisad Tova Green. I usually am called just Tova. I'm a resident priest at Beginner's Mind Temple City Center, and I'm very moved to be giving the talk this morning. Is anyone here for the first time today?

[01:00]

Welcome, special welcome to you. So this talk is occurring on the day of a one-day sitting. And because of that, we won't have questions and answers today. Those of us who are participating in the one-day sitting are spending the day in silence, aside from announcements and this talk. And it's our second one-day sitting of the fall practice period. And our theme for the practice period is Welcoming Beginner's Mind, the title of a book that we've been studying by Galen Ferguson. Before going any further, there are a number of people I want to thank this morning. I'd like to thank Abbott David for inviting me to join with Eli Brown-Stevenson and Timothy Wicks in co-facilitating, co-leading this fall practice period.

[02:17]

It's a wonderful experience to be working with Tim and Eli and teaching together. I want to thank my teacher, Agent Linda Cutts, who lives at Green Gulch Farm, for her wisdom and encouragement. And I would also like to thank our Eno Kevin, our Doan Berk, my Chico Choku, and the church staff who are helping to make this, everyone is helping to make this day come together. And thanks to all of you for being here. The title of my talk today is Welcome Everything. And what does that actually look like and feel like in this particularly challenging week?

[03:21]

Some of you may be feeling a range of emotions after Tuesday's election and dealing with the ongoing wars in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the storms, droughts, and wildfires. Even in Southern California, there have been some fires recently and close to home. And you may have other personal issues that you're feeling challenged by, a loved one who might be ill, experiencing conflict with a colleague or a friend. And how do we welcome such experiences? So before going further, I'd like to just invite you to take a few moments to feel your body

[04:26]

to settle in your body. Just notice any sensations you may be having in your body. To notice any emotions you're aware of right now. And any thoughts that keep recurring or I'm in and out. It can be helpful to just notice what our state of body, mind and heart is at the beginning of any time. I think it's helpful to take a moment to check in with ourselves. I think it's very important to come together at times like this.

[05:33]

And that's part of my gratitude for all of you for coming here, perhaps looking for community. Last night, I attended an event at the East. It was sponsored by the East Bay Meditation Center, a center in Oakland. extremely welcoming and inclusive. And they found a permanent home. They bought a building, and they were doing a fundraiser to turn that building into a meditation center. And the event featured a dialogue between writer and activist Angela Davis and the Buddhist teacher Lama Rod Owens. And David and Eli and I all went.

[06:38]

And it was held at the Scottish Rite Temple, which is a very large and beautiful auditorium, right on Lake Merritt. Every seat was filled, and they said there were 1,500 people watching online. which says to me that it's really important to be with sangha at this time and listen to teachings that can encourage us and to resource ourselves, to take good care of ourselves in body, emotions, and thoughts. So... And to appreciate the three treasures that we have, or three jewels, Buddha, the teachings. Buddha, when I say Buddha, I don't mean just the historical Buddha, but each of us has Buddha nature to appreciate the teachings we receive from both the scriptures that...

[07:52]

the readings or study that we do and also from community sangha. So welcoming has many aspects to it. And when I gave a talk about welcoming recently in another Zen center, and when I talked about welcoming everything, someone who was going through a very difficult personal time asked, how do I welcome something that is unwelcome? And some of you may have that question too. how do I welcome something that I really don't want?

[08:53]

I don't want to be experiencing this, but I am. What does it mean to welcome everything? And there's many teachings that can help us with this. Last Sunday, I went to Green Gulch Farm where my own teacher, Linda Cutts, was giving a Dharma talk. And she referred to Pema Chodron's book, The Places That Scare You. Some of you may be familiar with this book. And the subtitle is A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. And although it was written, I think it was published in 2001, it's just as relevant now as it was then. And I found my copy, which I usually put my name and the date that I study a book in the front. And this was September 2001 when I got it, which was just after 9-11.

[10:01]

And I think our country was in quite a bit of turmoil then. And I want to share some teachings from... Pema Chodron's book. She starts by talking about bodhicitta. That's a Sanskrit word. Bodhi is awakening, and chitta is the mind or heart-mind awakening the heart. And she talks about what she calls the excellence of bodhicitta. And there's a quote here from a book that I still love, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. And Pema Chodron says, when I was about six years old, I received the essential bodhicitta teaching from an old woman sitting in the sun.

[11:15]

I was walking by her house one day, feeling lonely, unloved, and mad, kicking anything I could find. Laughing, she said to me, little girl, don't you go letting life harden your heart. Right there, I received this fifth instruction. We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid. or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice. So how do we open ourselves to what scares us, or to how do we develop bodhicitta? And one of the main ways she talks about is through meditation, through our practice, through finding our strengths within ourselves and our ability to sit through physical pain.

[12:29]

That doesn't mean not taking care of our bodies and moving when we need to, but to really attending to what we're feeling rather than turning away from it. turn towards the places that scare us, she says. And that reminded me of teachings that I first became familiar with when I volunteered for the Zen Hospice Project. I did the volunteer caregiving training. It was my last year at Green Gulch Farm. I was living at Green Gulch. I did the training, and then I volunteered at Laguna Honda Hospital once a week on my day off. And I learned so much from that experience. And we learned then about what, at that time, were called the five precepts of Zen hospice caregiving.

[13:30]

They were formulated by Frank Ostaseski, who was one of the early directors of Zen Hospice Project. And he later changed the way he referred to them to the five invitations instead of the five precepts, and wrote a book called What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. And following my volunteer year at Zen Hospice Project, I worked there for a year, and then I... did hospice social work for three years. My background is in my professional work with social work. And I found these five invitations extremely helpful. So I'll just tell you what they are. The first one is don't wait.

[14:35]

And I think that's the message we get every day in the Zendo. It's on the Han. Awake, awake, each one. Don't waste this life. If there's something that we really feel is important to do, don't put it off. We don't know how much time we have. And then the second one, which I'm going to go into more fully, is welcome everything, push away nothing. very similar to the message from Pema Chodron. And then the third, bring your whole self to the experience. That means every emotion you might be feeling, everything that you know or that you've learned that you can access in a situation where you might not initially know how to respond, But if you trust yourself, you will know.

[15:39]

And bring your whole self and all that shaped you. We can't help it, actually. We are, I like the phrase, we arise dependently. We arise dependently. We are connected to everything and all the experiences that have shaped us. and even shaped our parents, grandparents, and ancestors going back farther than that. And then the fourth one is find a place of rest in the middle of things. And that can be, you know, if you're doing something or experiencing something that's difficult, can you take a moment to pause? look up at the sky or notice something in your surroundings that is pleasurable.

[16:44]

And in the middle of a busy day, can you take a breath, take a deep breath, or schedule in some time to do something you enjoy? And then the last one is cultivate don't know mind, very much like beginner's mind, where you don't have all the answers. You realize you don't have all the answers. And maybe you have a lot of questions. Or maybe you're talking with someone you might not agree with. Can you cultivate don't know mind and be curious? What is this other person expressing? rather than immediately dismissing what they have to say. So those five precepts, I think, are very helpful in daily life, not just at the bedside of someone who's ill or close to death.

[17:54]

And I thought I would share just a few of... Frank Ostaseski's words. So he says, to welcome everything and push away nothing is an invitation to discover a deeper dimension of our humanity, to tap into something beyond our habitual selves. We can gain access to some part of us that includes, but is not driven by, our reactivity. And then he talks about our relationship to pain, which can be physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain. And I think this is particularly relevant to those who will be sitting all day or sitting, walking, sitting, practicing together all day.

[18:59]

But I think it applies to everyone who's here. He says we can shift our relationship to pain by the way we give our attention to it, by turning toward it rather than trying to bury it or run in the opposite direction. One teacher of mine suggested that we begin by putting out the welcome mat. We invite in what hurts. We sit down with it and get to know it really well. In this way, we come to understand the nature of the experience and the deeper causes not always evident at first glance. And then finally, in this chapter, he says, turning toward our suffering is a critical part of welcoming everything and pushing away nothing.

[20:01]

This invitation means that no part of ourselves or our experience can be left out. Not the joy and wonder, nor the pain and anguish. All are woven throughout the very fabric of our lives. When we embrace the truth, we step more fully into life. So that can be difficult to do. and yet I think that's what our practice helps us to do, to be present moment to moment with what's pleasant, what's unpleasant, what's neutral, what's painful, what's difficult, and I would say also it's, I find it very supportive to do that with others.

[21:03]

And, you know, in the zendo in the morning or evening, if you come to the zendo, you may feel the support of others in the room and also others who've sat there for decades before. And, you know, we're alone together. Many people refer to zazen in that way. when we're sitting with other people. And that can include joining the online Zendo in the morning or evening. It's not, I mean, some people can't get here in person, and there's still a way to find that support with our practice. So... There's a poem by Jane Hirschfield, a Bay Area poet, one of my favorite poets, that points to turning towards what's unpleasant or difficult.

[22:17]

It's a very short poem called A Cedary Fragrance. Even now, well, I'll just say Jane Hirschfield spent several years at Tassajara, where many of the cabins are not heated, and there may be sinks, but the water is never warm, even in winter, in your cabin. So she writes, Even now, decades after, I wash my face with cold water, not for discipline, nor memories, nor the icy awakening slap, but to practice choosing to make the unwanted wanted. So that phrase, choosing to make the unwanted wanted, how do we do that?

[23:19]

And it doesn't mean resignation or giving up. openness to possibility, and also an awareness. Another really, I think, helpful teaching is that everything changes. You know, we live with a lot of change and uncertainty, and accepting the reality of pain and suffering doesn't mean or some of the things that are changing do change. It doesn't mean that we agree with everything that is happening by facing it. And we may not agree with everything that's facing it, and then find what is an appropriate response there. So coming back to meditation,

[24:28]

I treasure the words of Suzuki Roshi. I'm sure many of you do as well. And in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, there's a section called The Marrow of Zen. And here he talks about the four horses, which is... not really on the topic of what I want to talk about, but I think it's really helpful when you're doing a one-day sitting to hear this story. And then he does apply it to our zazen practice and sitting with some difficult things as they arise. But the beginning of this section, he talks about four kinds of horses excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones.

[25:33]

The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of the whip. The second best will run as well as the first one does, just before the whip reaches its skin. The third one will run when it feels pain on its body, the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn how to run. When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse. If it is impossible to be the best one, we want to be the second best. This, I think, is the Suzuki Roshi still saying, This, I think, is the usual understanding of the story and of Zen. You may think that when you sit in zazen, you will find out whether you are one of the best horses or one of the worst horses.

[26:41]

Here, however, there is a misunderstanding of Zen. If you practice Zen in the right way, it does not matter whether you are the best horse or the worst one. When you consider the mercy of Buddha, how do you think Buddha will feel about the four kinds of horses? He will have more sympathy for the worst one than the best one. And then Suzuki Roshi talks about sitting in the middle of our problems or our difficulties. and says, in the zazen posture, in the zazen posture, which you have acquired by long, hard practice, your mind and body have great power to accept things as they are, whether they are agreeable or disagreeable.

[27:46]

And in continuous practice, Under a succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations, you will realize the marrow of Zen and acquire its true strength. And I do think that sitting or meditating, whether it's standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, does help us increase our to be with painful experiences in our lives carries over from sitting with some discomfort, whether it's about what we're experiencing physically or emotionally. I think it really does carry over when we're dealing with difficult situations and may want to feel a need to

[28:53]

somehow space out or escape or ignore what's in front of us. But practice and particularly the support of others can really help us in difficult times. I think it's also very important along with that and being aware of what's difficult and turning towards it, to also really nourish ourselves in getting enough rest, physically nourishing ourselves, eating well, sleeping enough, talking with friends, talking with teachers, finding people who you feel nourished by.

[29:58]

So I would encourage all of us to take good care of ourselves today and every day, but especially in this time, I think it's going to continue to be a challenging time for a while, maybe always. I would kind of, you know, we really don't know what to expect. But in the midst of that, I think we can find our own bodhicitta, our own awakening mind, our own spacious mind, and our compassion, caring for others and for our communities and our planet. So, I want to just encourage everyone who is participating in the one day sitting today to take good care of yourself find moments of rest in the middle of things if you want to talk with a teacher several of us will be available and you will be able to sign up to talk with someone and

[31:22]

if you're doing the one-day sitting. Also, this coming week, for everyone, David Zimmerman and I will be doing two listening circles, one on Tuesday evening in person in the conference center at 7 o'clock, and one online on Thursday evening at 6 o'clock. If you feel that you would benefit from listening to others and being heard yourself, please consider attending one of those. And also, Abbot David wrote a beautiful statement that was in yesterday's Sangha News. I would encourage you to read it. I think we really can... learn from one another, support one another, and be kind to ourselves and one another in these difficult days.

[32:40]

And if you are participating in this talk and leaving afterwards, please be gentle with yourself. as you move through the day. So I think that's where I would like to end my comments today. It's a beautiful day outside, don't forget. And please cherish yourselves and one another. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:40]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.0