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 evening. Thank you to the abbess, Christina Lindner and Rosalie Curtis, the Tonto, for the invitation to speak tonight. And of course, thank you to my teacher, Blanche, Zen K. Blanche Hartman. My name, for those of you who don't know, is Kedu Nshut. Are there any first timers to the temple tonight? Welcome, welcome. Must not be giant fans. That's okay. Or if you are, thank you, still. So this, we're in the middle of a practice period. And this is the fifth week out of 11, or the hump week out of 10, because the last week is Sashin.

[01:09]

And I remember that my first practice spirit at Tassajara, a bit into it, the Tanto said, We come here to live in community. And I thought, huh? I will say that except for the summer, the five months previous to that practice period, I had done insight meditation before. And so I didn't have the Zen background, though I visited here. So I really thought, what? I came here to practice my practice. You know, previous to that, I'd done one day, these are in sight, one day or seven days or ten days or a whole month even.

[02:12]

But it was all in silence. Every few days in the longer retreats, you could go talk to a teacher for 15 minutes. But I even had my own room during all those times. So it always just felt like I was practicing for myself. And I sat a lot at home and went to groups. But I really had the sense that, you know, and in fact, that's all I was working towards was how to do more, longer and longer practice and really thinking, how can I... get better at what I'm doing, you know. And so when Natanto said that, I thought, oh no, this is not what I signed up for. And yet that is the practice of Zen. In fact, I say it now when it gives Azen instruction.

[03:13]

I say we come, and a lot of Zen is community practice. We turn as one. When you go to bow in your seat, the people to the sides will bow too, and they're doing it with you. When you turn around and bow to the room, you're bowing to the whole assembly, all the people who are practicing past, present, and future. And then later on in that practice period, So Tassajara is the monastery of Zen Center, San Francisco Zen Center. And Leslie James, and I will use her name because it's important, because Leslie has been there and done practice period more than anybody. Wouldn't that be true, Blanche? And all of Zen Center's history. She lived there pretty much year round.

[04:16]

So having seen many students come and go at Tassajara, my memory is of one of her first talks, well, she said something to this effect. Your baggage has arrived. Maybe you lost it, you know, at the airport on the way here. Maybe you left it, consciously or unconsciously, at Jamesburg, which is the end of the 14 miles of unpaved roads the mountain and down the mountain that takes 45 minutes to an hour. So maybe you thought you left it there, but it's been found and it has arrived. So perhaps, perhaps now that you're at the midpoint of a practice period, it's starting to feel a little bit like, what the heck?

[05:20]

What did I come here to do? What's going on? And especially if you read the website and it says the theme of the practice period is living in harmony with all beings. Taking refuge in Sangha. I know having talked to past directors at these centers, at a certain point in the practice period, they have to deal with people wanting to change roommates. They don't like this job that they have or the crew that they work with. So it's just starting to get a little bit, maybe, maybe, you know, a little bit kind of murky and thick. And you're like, what the heck? So I thought tonight, I would talk about a topic which I hope would be encouraging, and that is the topic of traditionally right intention, or sama-sankhapa in Pali, or samya-sankhapa in Sanskrit.

[06:43]

It is the second factor of the Eightfold Path which is the fourth of the Four Noble Truths, of course. So it follows right view or right understanding, or another way to think of that is right perception. Then comes right intention, often also translated as thinking or thought. Now these two, so there are eight of the Eightfold Path, and they're broken up broadly into three sections. The wisdom, the ethical or skillful conduct, and the mental development. Now, right view and right intention or right thinking is considered a wisdom practice. And then follows that is right speech, right action, and right livelihood. How you are, what

[07:47]

becomes your behavior. So that's the part of ethical or skillful conduct. Another way to think about it is that often you hear that Buddhism, or sometimes Zen, has two wings, right? The wisdom wing and the compassion wing. So this is another way that that shows up. And then the thing that helps so that you fly evenly, and with ease, and skillfully, is the third, which is the mental development. Right effort, or diligence, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Now, sama, or sammyak, traditionally is translated as right, And it's right more in the sense of not so much right and wrong, but as imperfect or complete or enough.

[08:55]

Enough. Or correct or accurate. And this one I really like that goes with intention, I think, is true. True intention. And the way I think of that true, and not so much as true and false, but as trued. like aligned or in alignment with. And sankapa or sankalpa usually is translated as purpose or intention, resolve, aspiration, motivation, commitment, or attitude. Gil Fransdell says literally a word in Pali is thinking or thought. Bhikkhu Bodhi has this to say. He says, the term right intention is often translated as right thought, refers specifically to the purposive or cognitive aspect of mental activity.

[10:04]

The cognitive aspect being covered by the first factor, right view. It would be artificial, however, to insist too strongly on the division between these two functions. From the Buddhist perspective, the cognitive and purposive sides of the mind do not remain isolated in separate compartments, but intertwine and interact in close correlation. Emotional predilections influence views and views determine predilections. Thus, a penetrating view of the nature of existence gained through deep reflection and validated through investigation brings with it a restructuring of values that sets the mind moving towards goals commensurate with the new vision. So the application of mind needed to achieve those goals is what is meant by right intention.

[11:05]

So that gives you more of a sense why it's a wisdom practice. Now, be very clear that in Buddhism, right view has to do with being clear or understanding the four noble truths and the nature of suffering. So in the middle-length discourse, the Buddha meditated and noticed that there are two categories to his thoughts. In the first category, he tended to have thoughts of desire, or desire in the sense of lust, traditionally. Ill will and harmfulness were sometimes translated as violence. And in the other kind of realm, he would have thoughts of renunciation, good will, and harmlessness. So in the discourse, the Buddha said that

[12:08]

our practice is to dispel the former, desire, ill will, and harmfulness, and to strengthen the lather, renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness. Perhaps in modern speak, we could say that we want to be aware, notice it's pretty close to beware, of the tendency of our thoughts in the realms of desire, ill will, harmfulness, and then see what happens. Notice it didn't say not to have these thoughts, but you want to be aware of them. And then we can say that we want to cultivate thoughts of renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness, and again, to see what happens when you have these kinds of thoughts. And how do we do this, though?

[13:10]

Thich Nhat Hanh, when he talks about right intention or motivation or right thinking, and actually he focuses a lot on the thinking aspect or to see it in the realm of thinking, and he suggests these four practices. First, you ask yourself, are you sure? then you ask yourself, what am I doing? And then you recognize your habit energies, and then you cultivate bodhicitta. So I thought I'd go through these main three intentions that we want to cultivate, renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness. Try to figure out where these questions that Thich Nhat Hanh suggests would go and then give some examples how we might practice with that and see that in our everyday life.

[14:17]

So first again is the intention of renunciation. Renunciation seems so monastic-like or extreme. You can think of it as relinquishment to let go. In fact, the Pali word for renunciation is ekema. And the etymology of it means to go out or to go forth. So seeing it as an opening up. So Bhikkhu Bodhi again says, to develop the intention of renunciation, we have to contemplate the suffering tied up with the quest for worldly enjoyment. So that makes it a little easier than this whole thing about desire. So it's pretty easy when you go to sit down or when you go to practice. Isn't it the first week or the first day or two days of a sashim?

[15:22]

All you can think about is all the things you could be doing, right, or eating. That tends to be my thing, right? I could be having a hamburger or, you know, I always say that. I did act. actually not care very much about ketchup before I went to Tassajara. I mean, I would put it on my hot dogs or hamburger. But now I love ketchup. Because we didn't get it very much. And it was always like, oh, yeah. In fact, this last Saturday, we had tofu scramble. And I was like, yeah, ketchup. I actually had heard we were having it. And then there was no ketchup. Right? So... This sense of desire is easy to see for things or experiences. That's the other thing. I tend to, especially in silent retreat, which not so much in Zen because we have a lot of activity, but when I go to insight retreat, I tend to access a jhana state called piti, which is euphoria.

[16:34]

And it has a lot of energy, and you feel a lot of energy. And I love that. Who wouldn't like to feel euphoria, right? And I'd gone in to talk to a teacher, and I was like, I feel so good. And the energy of it is very light. They say if you're going to levitate, that's the jhana state you're going to levitate in because it's really light, right? And after a while, the teacher, after several visits, They were like, I think you're a little attached to this. And I said, well, what's wrong with it? You know, it's good. But attachment, now here's the thing. This is why I'm talking about this, not to be excited about it, though it still has a place in my heart, is that whatever state we have, good or bad, the practice is... Where do we see how we grasp onto it? It's not so much the state.

[17:34]

Right? But where is the grasping? And then what do we do when we want to grasp? Or as we grasp? So another place I think that can get really a little more difficult, but it is... where we need to let go of a kind of desire, and I think you see it a lot, or it seems to me it shows up, I certainly experience it in community or sangha a lot, is the desire for a sense of self, of being somebody or something. Easy to do in a monastery. There's lots of hierarchy issues. You know, you think, if I've done X number practice period, I should be this. You know, like a Tassajara usually takes the fourth or, when I was there, takes the fourth or fifth practice period before you become a Doan.

[18:39]

A Doan, in the bigger realm of the word, is the person that, well, the specific definition is the person who hits the bell, right? But it's the Doan Rio, or the people who do all the instrument, do the Tenkin, and all that. And Many people can get really upset if they don't think that when it gets there, they should be that. So that's a place in which we can really, for most of us, the harder part to work with. Now, Gil Fransdale, in a way to think about, it's again not just classically again, it's the desire and specifically of lust. But he said it isn't so much the lust as in we think about sex or sexual activity, but the obsessive quality. So often we have this obsessive quality to be something or somebody.

[19:42]

So one place, I'm going to talk about that, is when I was... At Truklam, which is a Zen monastery, I was in the nunnery side in Vietnam, I worked with this teacher, who actually is going to be here next week, to translate a book of the master. And every day I would work with her. And there, they practice renunciation, as in they do not own anything of their own. They're a sign. like sets of clothing and two bowls that they use. And they do have their name on it, but they wash it. But really, they're not supposed to own anything that nobody else has. In fact, you know, there's a story about, do you guys know what laughing cow cheese is? The cheese that comes in the round with a picture of a cow with an earring, laughing.

[20:47]

It comes from France, you know, it's part of the colonization of Vietnam. They brought this cheese and it's very popular in Vietnam. and but it comes in eight pieces in a box and one piece is like this big right and there was a story about how um they do repentance every two weeks and this woman family had come to visit and had given her a box of cheese laughing cow cheese and she ate a few of her own. She did not give it to the storage nun to redistribute to everyone else, but she ate some. And then at the last piece, she felt very bad, so then she gave it to another nun in her building, right? And then that nun gave it away to another nun because after she accepted it, then she felt bad because she was relinquishing, right? So then it came to this part of repentance and the original...

[21:49]

sinner for lack of a better word you know repented that she did not relinquish this right so you can think you know you could think that seemed kind of extreme and in fact that was my thought when i heard about it i was not allowed to go to the um repentance because i'm not a nun in that tradition but i heard about it afterward and at first i thought it was really um extreme And then I think about, well, what would it be like if I did let go to that degree in everything? That's why it's called practice. We think about, what would it be like if I practiced like that? And not so much judge ourselves or other people to what degree we practice. So next, is the intention of non-aversion or loving kindness, or metta.

[22:56]

Bhikkhu Bodhi says, to develop the intention of goodwill, we have to consider how all beings desire happiness and causes thoughts of goodwill to arise. The loving wish that they be well, happy, and peaceful. Now notice that the development of happiness Insider wisdom, through contemplation of the practice of right or true or wise intention, begins individually. Renunciation is really more of an individual practice. But at this point, we've moved into engagement. It's no longer my practice of intention. Because when you practice non-aversion, of course you can practice towards yourself. And in fact, when you practice metta, you start with yourself. But the bulk of the practice of metta, first you start with yourself, then you practice with a benefactor, then a neutral person, then a difficult person, and then to all beings.

[24:02]

So the majority of it is more of an interactive. Do you get my sense? Right? So now we move into, so when we think, you know, often I know it's my tendency that when I do something wrong and someone calls me and I say, well, I meant it in a good way. I meant it. My intention was good. But this is where it becomes not only is your intention, your individual intention important, but the impact. of your intention also is very important and is taught in Buddhism and is taught, in fact, in the next two sections. The majority of the practice of intention is not my own practice. It's kind of a recurring theme here, right? So Thich Nhat Hanh says the way we can work with that is we ask ourself, what am I doing?

[25:05]

And it will help you to overcome the habit of wanting to complete things quickly and being present for what is right now. And along with that comes the third question, or the third suggestion he had for practice, which is to recognize your habit energies. So what are you doing and what does your habit energy often go together? For instance, I work as a social worker, mostly case management at a low-income senior housing site. And when things are really busy, I have meetings, there are crises, I get very task-oriented. And I noticed this one time where it was around last holiday. where this client came to see me.

[26:08]

Now, you know, part of being a social worker is that people usually only come to you when they want something. Mostly they don't come to just, you know, say you're doing a good job, right? Or just see how you're doing. But mostly they want something. So it's kind of built in the sense when someone comes to my office, right, that they want something. So when I'm busy, I see somebody. And I go, my tendency is to go, okay, what do they want, either internally or externally, right? So I noticed this man had come, and I was very busy, and I thought, he said, that he wanted me to get on the computer to a specific site and buy a computer for him, you know, and to shop for him, basically, right? And I was like, I'm sorry. you know, my job is not to shop for you, you know, but there's a computer center just a half a block down the street.

[27:13]

So will you go do that? And he kept saying, well, what kind of social worker are you that you won't help me? So then I just found myself going more like, well, it is not as far as I know to shop. And I'm really, you know, I'm really sorry. I'm very busy, but, you know, so... Then he goes later, and I go up front, and he's sitting in the lobby, and then the manager comes to me and says, X, you know, told me you wouldn't help him. Do you know? And I said, I started to say the whole story, and then they're like, I don't think he wanted to shop for a computer. He wanted to just print out this page, which I printed out for him, about how there's a program to give computer to low-income people. And I was like, oh, you know, because in my busyness of having tasks, a meeting to get to this other task, I did not stop and listen to what he really wanted.

[28:16]

So this is where wrong perception, where our tendency to think in a certain way can get in our way, and we need to practice stopping and really being present. So what am I doing? Am I there to listen to people and see what it is they want and how is it that I can help them? Because it was no big deal. Printing out something, no problem. But it was because I didn't take the time and read into it. So this, I realized, was a certain kind of habit energy I have, right? So now, when I'm busy, I intentionally practice by taking some deep breaths when someone comes and really listening. And in fact, at this point, when I have many tasks, I actually share what's going on with me.

[29:25]

In fact, in this way, I actually have not only non-aversion, towards the person wanting something from me, but I also practice non-aversion or goodwill towards myself because by stopping, I can validate my need. Of course, you have to do it in a professional way, but I often say, X, I'm really busy right now. Is this something that we need to care for right now? And then I stop and listen, right? And if it is not a crisis, then I say, can we take care of it later and then make an appointment, like have a very specific time? Does that make sense? All right. So again, the classic way to work with the cultivation of the intention of non-aversion and loving kindness is metta. Bhikkhu Bodhi again said, metta is not just sentimental goodwill. nor is it a conscientious response to a moral imperative or divine command.

[30:31]

It must become a deep inner feeling characterized by spontaneous warmth rather than by a sense of obligation. Now, I want to really caution people. I know we don't practice metta here in terms of, you know, like a... guided meditation. But at insight places I go to, they practice the four Brahma, Bihara. In fact, they have a whole practice where it's just dedicated to metta. And so you go through these, you know, may I be filled with loving kindness, may I be well, may I have inner and outer safety, may I be peaceful in at ease, and may I be happy. May, you know, my benefactor be la la la, right? Now, They always say that you need to sit in a very comfortable way. Like if you're in pain, do not stay in pain, but find a comfortable posture, right? Because the intention of the thing is to give ease.

[31:37]

So you don't want to be in pain and then giving out pain, you know, or gritting like, man, you'll be feeling long kindness, right? And the other thing is, I know that people have a tendency to myself at times. Also, if you're, let's say, sitting in sashim and your eyes are supposed to be down, but you notice someone doing something that bugs you, you know, a lot, and it just seems to be bugging you more and more and more, you know, the way they walk or the way they served you or whatever, right? And so then I know that I've gone and done May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be well. So the intention is really more, can you not bug me? So this is not the true practice of metta. So do be aware of your intention, of your practice of the intention of non-harm, non-aversion.

[32:41]

So the last is a practice of non-harm. or the non-injury. Now, Gil Fransdell makes a very, I think, useful distinction. He says, you know, the last was the practice of working against ill will. Now we're talking about non-injury, and in fact, the translation is often not to be violent. So this is the more extreme. Again, Bhikkhu Bodhi said, To develop the intention of harmlessness, we have to consider how all beings wish to be free from suffering. So first it was an individual practice of renunciation. Then it's a practice in a way of interaction, of interpersonal and maybe even sangha practice. But now we take it to an even bigger level.

[33:45]

Not just being sympathetic, or empathetic towards our own, to know your own pain and be empathetic towards someone else's pain, but now understanding that the whole world and all beings are suffering and want to end suffering. See, this has become even vaster. All right? So in this is the practice or the cultivation of bodhicitta. And bodhicitta is the intention of saving all beings before yourself. So Thich Nhat Hanh, who most of you probably know, originated, engaged Buddhism. And when asked in 2003, this is from the Shambhala Sun edition, the interviewer is John Malkin, he says,

[34:47]

Will you describe the origins of engaged Buddhism and how you became involved in compassion-based social change? Thich Nhat Hanh said, engaged Buddhism is just Buddhism. When bombs begin to fall on people, you cannot stay in the meditation hall all the time. Meditation is about the awareness of what is going on, not only in your body and in your feelings, but all around you. When I was a novice in Vietnam, we young monks witnessed the suffering caused by the war. So we were very eager to practice Buddhism in such a way that we could bring it into society. This was not easy because the tradition does not directly offer engaged Buddhism. So we had to do it by ourselves. That was the birth of engaged Buddhism. Buddhism has to do with your daily life, with your suffering, and with the suffering of the people around you.

[35:55]

You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time. Don't forget that the next step in the Eightfold Path or the next class is about ethical conduct or how our activity is in the world, right speech, right action, and right livelihood. So how you practice and are with your thoughts or your intention or your attitude determines how you act in the world. So in the midst of this practice period, or in the midst of your life, what is right or true or wise intention? What are the qualities, not only of your thoughts, but how you live, especially in relation to others and in the world?

[37:00]

In Buddhism, it's not so much who is doing this practice, But how is the practice being done? In our individual and in our sangha, be it people in this room or this building or this practice period, and then with the greater sangha outside these walls and eventually all beings. Thank you very much. Q and A, or comments. Does anyone have any? Yes, Mimi.

[38:05]

Hi, Mimi. Could you just repeat those three suggestions that take not far away? Uh-huh, four. The first is to say, are you sure? Are you sure? About your perception or your thought. And then ask yourself, what am I doing? And then recognize your habit energies or your habitual tendencies you can think of. Or Trungpa would say your neurosis. Hmm? and then cultivate bodhicitta. Morichitta is the intention or the movement and the energy towards wanting all beings to know that they're in light, which means that they're free.

[39:23]

And that's your main intention, that all beings know that and not only yourself. That's confusing, huh? Yeah. to think of non-harm, or to have the intention of non-harm as the most important thing. Here's an example, I think, to me, a very concrete example of this. This teacher that I'm talking about, Niko, which means Abbas, Niko Twei, who's coming next week, she, when I worked with her, we had gone into this little conflict, nothing major, And then, you know, we were talking about it afterwards. And she says, whenever someone comes to me and tells me there's some kind of conflict they have with me, I say, I'm sorry I was wrong and I will do better next time.

[40:35]

And I said, what if it's not your fault? And she said, doesn't matter i just say i'm sorry i was wrong and i will do better next time and i said well if they hit you and she said i say i'm sorry i was wrong and i will do better next time you know and for me i was like wow you know i mean my to be honest my first response was like cool like you are so cool you know really it was like you are so cool and then i was like oh every time do you know like i can't you know what if i what if i'm not wrong right and then and then i was just like and so for i don't know x period of time i think i don't remember it was a day or two or something i just kept thinking wow I couldn't be like that.

[41:38]

No way. I don't even want to be like that. But then I thought about it as, you will never have any conflict. If someone came to you and said, you did this, this, and this, or I don't like this, this, and this about you, and your response was always, I'm sorry, I would do better next time, then there's no fighting involved, is there? There's never any fighting back. I still tell you, I don't know if I can do it. In fact, I know I can't do it, to be perfectly honest. I just can't, you know, but it's, and I, honestly, part of me is like, I'm not even sure that would be my aspiration. I want it to be my aspiration, but I'm not really sure I'm capable, to be honest. But imagine, right? So it's like always thinking, how is it that there isn't conflict? It's totally letting go of self. Because if you think, the part I get stuck on is, but I'm right.

[42:41]

There's the I in there, right? Even, you know people, even when they're wrong, they're right, right? So there's an I in there. Wrong or right, doesn't matter. As long as there's an I, there's no bodhicitta. Yes. Kind of thing. Well, I includes yourself, but I is not necessarily first. So what if you just said that to me without the I part? Try it. Try, no, really. Do you want to try? I don't remember. What if oneness included you and... I don't know.

[43:49]

I can't remember exactly what you said. That would help maybe how I phrased it. I mean, I know somebody who practiced not saying I. Sometimes it was really difficult talking to her. But I admire her practice. Somebody from here many years ago. told you know I don't know Japanese but there's I'm told there's no program in Japanese it's all contextual there is okay I'll forget that then actually in Vietnamese I will tell you in Vietnamese language there is no I that's not in relation to someone else there's no program that's not in relation to someone else I cannot sit here and say I I it depends on who I'm talking to For instance, Blanche is older than me, so I would always say M, which means younger person, or con, really, which is even more deferential, like child, because she's very much older. But if someone was, you're younger than me, aren't you, Eric?

[44:50]

Then he would be M, and I would be Chi, and the informal, the older sister, or Ko, where really I would be Ko, which is Miss, but also means none. So there's no way... to talk about a pronoun. You can't even say he without any relation to yourself or to another person. There you go. So that would be something like that, I would think. Maybe. I don't know, to be honest. I don't know. These days I try not to know for sure. Anybody on this side? All right, bedtime. Thank you. 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.

[45:52]

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 Dorma.

[46:06]

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