And welcome to Green Gulch, one of our last spring days before it turns summer. We did a bird walk on Friday and we're immersed in the world of sound. There's so many birds here at Green Gulch, and we had someone come and help us sort out the sounds. Different birds that I tend to hear all mingle together to someone who is actually tuned in and trained, can't hear. You know, that's a tohi, and that's a Swainson's thrush. and song sparrow.

[01:08]

And the robin I learned has what I considered, I thought the robin was very ordinary and not that much of a singer, but 400 different combinations of songs and different kinds of bird statements. in this morning's Chronicle there was a book review on a book called The Silence of the Songbirds which is having to do with the dramatic decline in songbird populations. And it raises the question why should we care? And then the The book evidently argues that these songbirds are actually valuable to humans because they are pollinators and fruit eaters and insect eaters and scavengers and nutrient recyclers.

[02:22]

And everyone is affected. The songbird tribes, various tribes and races of songbirds decline. So it's characteristic of human beings to be concerned about something only as it affects us. We tend to adopt and create reasons for things based upon our own self-interest. the usual thing, the usual approach. And it's quite normal, but it's helpful to see that our own self is everywhere, right? In the flowers that are being pollinated or not. In the insects that are in some balance with the bird population or not.

[03:34]

And that we also as a human species are in balance or not. So here we are. Actually, I was surprised to see so many people. I thought everyone's either running the dipty today or going to the mountain play. I appreciate those of you who decided to come and spend some time considering the Dharma. Dharma means truth or it means reality. Reality itself. What can we say about reality itself? This moment

[04:37]

is unique. There's never been another moment like this one. And each of you here today have found your way here through your own various unique paths and your karma. Very fortunate karma. that actually brings you a place of stopping, a place where you can stop and have a chance to see what's right in front of you and what's right present within you in a fresh way. So my thought is to how to support you, how to encourage you and how to They go beyond the whole matter of success and failure.

[05:43]

Go beyond considerations of the past and the future. And actually get to know what's happening right now, floating here in this Dharma Hall. There's been a primary recognition in Buddhism from early on that our thought and our mind actually creates who we are. So I wanted to read the opening lines from the Dhammapada. I've actually combined translations from Eknath, Eswaran, and Gil Franzel. So listen to these lines, the opening lines from the Dhammapada, early teaching of the Buddha.

[06:49]

Our life experience is shaped and preceded by our mind. We become what we think, led by mind, made by thoughts of mind. When speaking or acting with a corrupted mind or an evil thought, suffering follows just as the wagon wheel follows the hoof print of the ox. All experience is preceded by mind. Habits of thought. We become what we think, led by mind, made by our thoughts. When speaking or acting with a peaceful mind, a pure, uncorrupted thought, joy, happiness follows like a never departing shadow.

[08:04]

So my wish for each of you is to understand how your mind is already pure, actually. That the karmic tendencies and thoughts that you already have can actually be in balance and at peace so that you can move forward from here without fear. It occurs to me that the base of what the Dhammapada calls the corrupted thought actually is fear. And then I want to focus on a part of fear actually that comes up in what I call the tyranny of the intransitive verb be.

[09:14]

For years I've been working with my own tendencies. Tendencies that as Zen students we think and we notice that there's a tendency to think and then fix on the thought, to get stuck. like glued to a thought. Thoughts become kind of sticky. And then as we are, say, caught in our habits of thought, then that becomes a kind of slavery to the past. A kind of slavery to ways of thinking, and just as the Dhammapada says, that dictate A state of mind that follows. So just for example, last week I was driving down Highway 101 from Sonoma County early in the morning.

[10:26]

And I must confess, I tend to drive in the fast lane. I tend to drive fast, driving. And there's another car in front of me. Now I know that it's recommended to have three seconds of space, right? I count, so when you notice, you know how that works, you notice when say the bumper of the car in front of you passes a certain point, then I count one elephant, two elephants, three elephants. But if I actually count three elephants, that's a big space. at 70 miles an hour. And then everybody is frustrated. So I usually drive at one and a half elephants. So I got one elephant, two, and then that's the space.

[11:29]

But I know that that's kind of pushing it a little, so I have to stay extra alert. So one elephant, two, One elephant, two. And this is in the dark, early morning driving. And then this pickup truck kind of roars up beside me on the right side. And there's another truck in front of him or her who's driving. Now, I'm assuming. I didn't see the driver. But then, of course, as he comes up beside me, then he cuts right in front of me into that one and a half elephant space. And I noticed the thought comes up, what a jerk. The thought comes up in my mind, what a jerk. And so after years of practicing compassion, this thought still came up, what a jerk.

[12:32]

And then the next thought would have been, you are a jerk. You are a jerk. And at that point I noticed, okay, now here I'm caught by my own decision to categorize the person by the action. That the action of cutting in front of me was just the action cutting in front of me. He's just finding his own space to dry, right? And so as I'm backing off, slowing down so that I can get back to one and a half elephants, I'm reflecting on how I can actually be more creative and take better care of myself. Because as soon as I know that as soon as I'm holding this view that that person is a jerk,

[13:43]

That also defines me. That defines me as a person who's holding this view. That defines me as the person who is actually in that instant cultivating ill will. That defines me as a person who in the first statement of the Dhammapada says that when you are holding an evil thought, a thought of ill will, then suffering follows just as surely as the wagon wheel follows the hoof print of the ox. So there's a real tendency with the intransitive verb be, say you are a jerk. He is a jerk. There's a real tendency then to take that and make it... permanently fixed, right?

[14:49]

So if we should pull off the road at the next exit together or at a gas station and I happen to see that person, would I still have some attitude, right? Would I feel just completely friendly, you know, saying hello? Or would it be tainted by my notion that that person It's a jerk. And of course, I'm sure that people do the same to me, right? So there's a sense, even in that little incident, you know, and of course the intensity is heightened because we're driving 70 miles an hour and we know that there's some danger. And there's a little bit of fear underneath. And it may add to the intensity of the way in which I remember that incident.

[15:52]

Because there's fear. Recent studies of the brain and memory are showing that adrenaline contributes to memory. The intensity of an experience in which either your fear or anger comes up intensifies the experience which is related to how we are coming to understand trauma. So you have some experience that is seriously threatening to you. The adrenaline actually that comes up, is generated in your hormonal system, actually contributes to the way in which your chemistry and cells organize around that memory and make it more potent. So a lot of thoughts may come and go as you're driving down the road, but when someone actually scares you by their action, that actually tends to contribute to the karmic formation of a reification of the intransitive verb be with whatever object you put on it.

[17:06]

Our meditation practice actually allows us to release those formations. If we do that, if we actually step back, recover some perspective, soften the mind, let go as we're beginning to form that thought that builds upon the other thought, we actually have the capacity to free ourselves. And it's a lot of work over time, actually. You'll notice thoughts, attitudes, and configurations that come up that have sometimes been repeated and repeated and repeated again, and you've come to believe them in some part of your system, your whole inner anatomy, you've come to believe it.

[18:13]

It doesn't mean that you wholeheartedly believe it, but it means that there's a part of you that believes it. There's some aspect of your, say, inner system. So to take another example, if there's a parent who says, my child is difficult, My child is difficult. And I've heard people say this. My child is difficult. I'll sometimes say it to the child, right? You are difficult. The confusion that arises is that this is the whole being of the child is being labeled as difficult. Being equated with the word is, or are, you are, the word is, is saying that difficult and you are the same, equal.

[19:24]

So when someone then receives this, the child receives this, or I receive the message that I am difficult, In a way, it's a kind of wound, a kind of complete distortion of the reality of being. It's taking, you know, one action or behavior or maybe a set of actions and behaviors and saying that that's who you are. That's who I am. And we've been very, say... casually or carelessly kind of do this in our thinking. And then it goes into our speaking. And then it goes into our belief that we carry. So you may discover yourself at some point saying, I am difficult.

[20:37]

Or Or I am a failure. Or I am trouble. And sometimes I have people come to me and say, I don't know why, but I feel that everything that I try to do, I'm really afraid it's not going to work. I'm afraid that Because I am a failure, that everything that I do has this kind of prediction of failure. And really what it is, is just a part of one's being that has been, say, mislabeled, mistakenly then believed in. And so this is what the Dhammapada is pointing out, is how thought and mind leads to suffering.

[21:50]

So what is adopted as a belief at one time, like that wheel on the wagon, comes around again and again, unless it's examined and carefully investigated and understood, to really be an error in perception. Unless that's understood, it tends to perpetuate. So what happens in our culture is that various errors of childhood and adulthood get perpetuated. Various errors of one generation get perpetuated. So it's a big job for us to actually stop and sit with the faith and the conviction that we actually want to see what is just as it is.

[23:02]

We want to see what is just as it is. We want to see Dharma as truth without all the taint and the corruption of all those habits of thought. All those erroneous beliefs that have been either adopted or foisted upon us, or in the previous generation adopted, or in the previous generation of that adopted. So the whole legacy of whatever is erroneous in our culture is radically investigated in question radically in the sense of looking at the root in our practice in our Dharma practice so in the heart sutra that we chant say rupa

[24:08]

Or form is shunyata, or emptiness. Form is emptiness. That intention of that statement, to say that form is emptiness, is to question what we mean by form. That emptiness is actually the intention You could say it's the antithesis of form, but that's really not quite correct because it includes the antithesis of the antithesis, right? But it calls form into question. To say form is emptiness is to say that form is actually not form. That what we constitute as form is actually something else. It's actually a dynamic, interconnected flowing. It's actually not something that's fixed.

[25:12]

That what is making it fixed is our own decision in how we see it and name it. So part of our practice then is to be more subtle in how we name things. To actually name form as emptiness is a very powerful statement. to remind ourselves that actually what we usually think of as a person is just a kind of a caricature. And that if we think that, say the label that we put on that person, that person is difficult, that person is trouble, that person is the enemy, that person is angry, Whenever we say that, and if we also say, oh, so anger is emptiness. Trouble is emptiness.

[26:18]

That what seems to be a trap is actually open and free. So we're reminded in the Heart Sutra that the What we have grasped is actually the way in which we are creating our own suffering. The grasping of things in that way is creating our own suffering. And so we say to actually delve deeply into not knowing, not holding on to things, is the way of being free from suffering. So Zazen then is a gate of release from the tyranny of the intransitive verb be. Dogen works with this in many of his writings.

[27:28]

I just wanted to read a little bit from two. Of course, one of the most obvious ones would be from the fascicle called Uji, time being. So he's saying that there are really no beings separate from time. That the momentary existence of something is that the nature of being and the time itself cannot be separated. Even though you do not measure the hours of the day as long or short, far or near, you still call it 12 hours. Well, we would call it 24 hours, but in this system it's 12. 24 hours.

[28:30]

Because the signs of times coming and going are obvious, People do not doubt it. Although they do not doubt it, they do not understand it. So he's talking about those people who do not understand it. When sentient beings doubt what they do not understand, their doubt is not firmly fixed. Because of that, their past doubts do not necessarily coincide with the present doubt. Doubt itself is nothing but time. The way the self arrays itself is the form of the entire world. See each thing in this entire world as a moment of time. Things do not hinder one another just as moments do not hinder one another. The way-seeking mind arises in this moment.

[29:34]

A way-seeking moment arises in this mind. Thus the self setting itself out in array sees itself. This is understanding that the self is time. So this is the self setting itself out in array. It's actually seeing the phenomenal world or the myriad things, the other people and the other, say, beings that you may be aware of as self. That's how you see yourself, by seeing what's in front of you. And in this moment, he says, this is understanding that the self is time. So So then Dogen talks about how what we usually think of as fixed is actually dynamically in movement.

[30:41]

And so in his fascicle, The Sansui Kyo, The Mountains and Rivers Sutra, he takes what we may see as what's most solid and permanent or imperturbable as a mountain. as the mountain is actually not something fixed. And he talks about it like this. You should examine green mountains walking and your own walking. You should examine walking backwards and backward walking and investigate the fact that walking forward and backward has never stopped since the very moment before it If walking stops, Buddha ancestors do not appear. Green mountains master walking in eastern mountains, never... In eastern mountains, master traveling on water.

[31:46]

Accordingly, these activities are a mountain's practice, keeping its own form without changing body and mind. A mountain... practices in every place. Don't make the mistake of saying that a green mountain cannot walk, or an eastern mountain cannot travel on water. When your understanding is shallow, you doubt the phrase, green mountains are walking. When your learning is immature, you are shocked by the words, flowing mountains, without fully understanding even the words, flowing water. you drown in small views and narrow understanding. The characteristics of mountains manifest their form and life force. There is walking, there is flowing, and there is a moment when a mountain gives birth to a mountain child. Because mountains are Buddha ancestors, Buddha ancestors appear in this way.

[32:54]

So to say that the mountains are walking, which may sound shocking, or to say that the mountains are flowing, is actually to investigate the tendency to say, the person who just caught in front of me is a jerk. So investigate carefully whenever you make some decision that you think you know, oh, that person in front of me is a jerk or that person is trouble. Now this is wonderful because our language usually doesn't work this way, right? And we need to, you could say, elevate our language to poetry, which is what Dogen's doing here, really, is elevating language to poetry.

[33:58]

Using language in a way that is to free you from your usual way of thinking about things. So to read just a little more from the Sansui Kyo, when dragons and fish see water as a palace, it is just like human beings seeing a palace. They do not think it flows. If an outsider tells them what you see as a palace is running water, the dragons and fish will be astonished. Just as we are, when we hear the words, mountains flow. Nevertheless, there may be some dragons and fish who understand that the columns and pillars of palaces and pavilions are flowing water. So he's saying here that some human beings actually may understand that what you think of and we usually think of as being fixed and permanent is actually flowing.

[35:11]

So the possibility arises particularly in people who take the time to stop and sit and consider what is it that I'm actually seeing? What is it that I'm actually hearing? We name birds when we hear the sound of certain bird calls. And yet the name of the bird is not the sound. The sound is actually completely free of the name. It's just Sometimes helpful for us to function in this world, to be able to speak to each other and say, ah, did you hear? Did you hear the great horned owl? And someone else says, yes. And we know that what we heard is completely beyond description. But it tells us that we actually are connected.

[36:15]

reminds us that we actually, hearing that sound, are connected by it. People working in the kitchen are experiencing time being as getting up and moving in relation to clock time, right? So we keep checking. We check our own being with the being of the clock time. So again, if an outsider tells these dragons and fish what you see as a palace is running water, the dragons and fish will be astonished. just as we are when we hear the words mountains flow.

[37:20]

Nevertheless, there may be some dragons and fish who understand that the columns and pillars of palaces and pavilions are flowing water. You should reflect and consider the meaning of this. If you do not learn to be free from your superficial views, you will not be free from the body and mind of an ordinary person. And the body and mind of an ordinary person is the body and mind of someone suffering. You will not understand the land of Buddha or even the land or the palace of ordinary people. So Dogen's working with this whole matter of what we tend to take for granted, but what we usually don't notice is causing great suffering. Well, you may disregard as just a passing thought.

[38:25]

Oh, because someone hurts me, they are mean. Suddenly, we have defined them as mean. And in doing so, we have defined ourselves. First time I did that today. It's like a heartbeat, isn't it? We have defined ourselves as one who is suffering, creating trouble actually for oneself by believing. that someone else over there is fixed in a certain way. Now I've been, on Wednesday, the Dharma talk here, I did a little song and I'm gonna do it again.

[39:43]

And some of you will remember it. And this actually came from studying the Heart Sutra. Form is emptiness. Sunyata. Sunyata is emptiness. And combined with the actual difficulty of life, right? We're always bumping into the realities of form. The limitations of our own body seem to be so sometimes heavy and difficult. And so as I was climbing up, walking up the road, actually trying to run, actually in those days I could still run. This was in the 80s. And I was running up the road at Tassajara. And it's very steep. And it became harder and harder as I was going.

[40:46]

And then I realized that I felt that I'm carrying this heavy weight. And so the word schlepping came to mind. Schlepping, it's kind of like dragging something, right? And so I'm dragging my body up. And then I realized, actually, that's just a belief that I'm carrying, an extra burden. And what's happening is I'm just schlepping shunyata. Emptiness. And that actually the whole universe is actually producing my ability to schlep. So I'm actually supported by everything in schlepping. So it's actually shunyata schlepping shunyata. So... Then with the rhythm of walking, it kind of came out like this.

[41:47]

What a hard way to go. No virtue, you know. No treasure to find. Shlepan shunyata with no, no, no. Never mind. Shlepan shunyata. Hmm. Hmm. Shlepan shunyata. Hmm. Hmm. Well, toil up the mountain. Birds wonder why. Sweating and streaming. How lightly they fly. Fearful of living. We care. Vastness, no holiness, Bodhi man said, and it's Shlep and Shunyata. Hmm, hmm, Shlep and Shunyata.

[42:52]

Hmm, hmm, Shlep and Shunyata, the view is so fine. Shlep and Shunyata, keep walking that line. Shlep and Shunyata, the path turns to dust. Shlep and Shunyata, we do, do, do. Shlepan Shunyata. Hmm. Hmm. Shlepan Shunyata. Hmm. Hmm. Shlepan Shunyata. Just climb up the track. Shlepan Shunyata. The bones creak and crack. Shlepan Shunyata. Hang on. Flex your toes. Shlepan Shunyata. The how long? Long, long. The breath only knows. Shlepan Shunyata. If you can realize that it is shunyata that schleps shunyata through you and be a wonderful vessel of carrying emptiness, you'll feel a lot of joy, actually.

[44:22]

Let's just sit for a couple of minutes and consider. Thank you for listening in vastness.

[46:41]

May our intention equally thin through where we be in place with the true merit.

[46:57]

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