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 by people like you. So as I think many of you know by now, the theme of the practice period is Gyoji, continuous practice. And I'd like to start by reading the first paragraph. On the great road of Buddha ancestors, there's always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment and nirvana, there's not a moment's gap. Continuous practice is the circle of the way. This being so, continuous practice is undivided,

[01:02]

not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your practice affects the entire earth and the entire sky in all ten directions. Although not noticed by others or yourself, this is so. At our practice period tea this evening, we practiced with a repeating question. What does practice ask of you? And this is indeed a repeating question. Because what's in front of you, what's inside of you, is always changing. And... The intention to practice brings forth this request.

[02:07]

What does practice ask of you? In some ways, when we ask it that way, it's looking towards our inner resource. What does practice ask of you? And to that regard, it's a wonderful... antidote to our karmic tendencies. Our karmic tendencies are more like, what am I going to get from this? How is this going to work for me? So to be asked, what are you going to give? It loosens up, lightens up, alleviates that deep-rooted karmic pattern, maybe as deep as our very wish to survive. And then there's also maybe a more subtle way in which it supports us, that it implies that we're capable of practicing, where it implies that this capacity

[03:30]

The practice is here. The capacity to hear the request is here. To perceive what's going on in the realm of the Dharma. When we ask ourselves that question, what is practice asking me, that's implied there. This question loosens up, lightens up. The heaviness of our calming burden. When will I ever get what I want? When are things going to be just the way that suits me? The people who annoy me stop annoying me. And the people who I want to love me, love me and adore me.

[04:31]

He's not good enough, but elusive. And even if they did, it would be temporary because everything changes. So to engage this question, what does practice ask of me? Gauge it repeatedly. This is continuous practice. It's not a one-time event. It's an endlessly repeated event. It's a little bit like exercising a muscle. As you exercise, it becomes stronger. It's not like you exhaust it.

[05:36]

It's not like you exhaust your capacity to ask the question. In asking it wholeheartedly, something is enlivened. Something is sustained and supported. The capacity to respond in that way. has a miraculous consequence that we start to experience what's happening as an opportunity to practice. That it occurs to us, well, maybe I should respond to the request of practice in this moment, in this situation. And so Dogen Zenji says, On the great road of the Buddha ancestors, there's always been unsurpassable practice.

[06:40]

It means that it's not that when everything's just right, when you get to the mountain peak, when you get to the serene state of mind, when you're surrounded by just the right exalted company, then you can practice. Now, the question... What does practice ask of me applies to every state of mind, to every situation, to every person, every interaction. It's not qualified. It's not conditioned. There's no occurrence when that question cannot be asked. It's not surpassed by any karmic condition. And this is the... the spirit, the endeavor, the heart of Buddhas. And we are all Buddhas.

[07:45]

So here's a poem I quoted on Saturday by a Portuguese poet. He wrote this for a friend of his. I read a little bio on him that said, this guy wasn't really very well known in his whole life as a poet. And I was thinking, that's a great thing about being a poet. You really don't get much out of it. If you're doing it for the money or the fame, you're really not gonna last very long. In a way, it's like, this is the spirit of our practice. We practice because practice is practice. Because what could make more sense than being awake in the life we already are and causing less suffering to ourselves and others. So here's his poem to his friend. To be great, be whole.

[08:51]

Don't exaggerate or leave like any part of you. Don't exaggerate. That wonderful creative capacity we have to add a little extra. I'm such a terrible person. I'm the worst Zen student there's ever been. Nobody's ever had as hard a time as sitting as me. Nobody's knees have ever heard as much as mine. Or maybe you flip it on its head. I don't think anybody here gets it the way I do. Someone said to me once, well, here's my dilemma.

[09:57]

I look at other people and I think, oh, they just don't get it the way I do. How can I help them? I thought, hmm. Don't exaggerate. Not to say that we don't have an emotional life And we don't have this wonderful capacity to create fascinating storylines to what's going on. But right there in the middle of that, what does practice ask of me? It tunes us back into

[10:58]

The marvelous thing about our capacity to practice is that for a lot of our usual states of mind, we don't know how much we know. For most of us, it becomes apparent in particular moments, in particular states of mind. moments we watch how we exaggerate we watch how we embellish we watch how we confuse ourselves and in watching them and noticing them it's like there's a deep sobriety the capacity to just go it just is what it is

[12:04]

It's just this state of mind. It's just this situation. It's just this interaction. It's just this physical or emotional sensation. And that deep knowing within us aligns completely with the way of all the Buddhas. be living a life completely we are completely ourselves all the time even though we have a well practiced story that says this is not quite enough this is not quite completely itself I'm not quite complete to be great be whole be complete

[13:08]

This requires a very subtle kind of work. What creates that shift from those well-worn, well-exercised, habitual patterns that qualify, that limit, that criticize, that exaggerate what's going on? What creates the shift from those habits To something marvelously simple and direct. When Michelangelo was asked how he made the statue of David. You know, like this big block of marble. And out of it he crafted this amazing statue. You know, it's solid stone, but it flows like water. You know, it's solid stone. but it's completely alive. And I asked him how he did it.

[14:20]

And he said, I just took away everything extra. That shift of heart and mind that just allows the moment to be complete. It doesn't need anything extra. It doesn't need anything to be added to it. It's already complete. It's unsurpassable. This is the unsurpassable way of the practice of the Buddhas and ancestors. This creates the basis. This creates the foundation that holds our karmic limitations.

[15:24]

Through our karmic life, we set up these patterns of holding back and grasping for what we don't have. Holding back from what's here and grasping for what's not here. And it confuses us and it hurts us. From this foundation of original completeness. From this, when we can allow this shift of heart. This shift of mind. That lets our karmic life be held. by the original completeness of being. Agitation and suffering are optional. They're extra. They're not intrinsic. This is the teaching of the Dharma.

[16:35]

This is what allows the capacity to expand. In India, they call a developed practitioner a mahatma, a great being. So this poet, Ferdinand Masao says, to be great, Be whole. Be complete. Don't exaggerate. Don't intoxicate yourself with great desires and great disasters. And don't leave any part of you. ourselves what does practice ask of me everywhere we look every part of ourself all of our interactions every part of the world we turn towards it we need it and ask what is it to practice with this

[18:11]

What is it to practice with this feeling? What is it to practice with this situation? What is it to practice with what's happening in Burma? What is it to practice with the fact that most of the time when I try to count my breaths from one to ten, I don't get past two or three? what is it to practice with the notion that I feel like I should be making an important decision in my life, but I don't quite know what it is I'm dealing with. Sometimes what's in front of us is very concrete. It's very definite, tangible, and sometimes it's loosely.

[19:15]

it's very subtle. It's like being saddled and concentrated in Zazen and just sensing a certain holding back, a subtle request to open to greater beauty. And then sometimes it's like feeling like you're stewing in a well-cooked stool of emotions. And you're immersed in the middle and you don't feel it all clear. What is it to practice with this? This is continuous practice. And as we start to take up this practice It's a little bit like when we start to take up, say, something like physical yoga or some kind of physical activity.

[20:29]

When you start to take it up, it feels kind of onerous and unpleasant. When you start to do yoga, you try to stretch some part of your body that's not used to stretching. It feels like this is too much. This hurts too much. This ass too much. This isn't making my life easier. This is making my life worse. But as you learn how to release into it. As you learn to let the body stretch. To let something soften and open. into the request. The very flavor of it shifts from being something onerous and burdensome, unpleasant, making life more difficult.

[21:35]

It starts to feel like, yeah, this is challenging. But right in that challenge is some expansion. As we start to practice with, what is it to practice with this? We realize it has its own kind of sweetness. Sometimes you end up in a situation and you think, okay, let's see what we're gonna do with this. Right now, I don't have a clue. I don't know how this is gonna work out. down so this continuous practice of meeting life in all its dimensions in this way we build a capacity life becomes a discovery life becomes a renewal of intention and we become

[22:53]

person of intention we become a person of continuous practice we become a Buddha and an ancestor because that capacity has always been there and that has always been the deep request of our being because what do we want to be We want to be whole. We want to be authentically and completely the person we are. So this is vow. This is intention. And then Dogen Zenji goes on and he says, vow, intention, practice, Immersion in engagement under vāna.

[23:57]

There's singularity. They weave together. As we come, you know, sometimes, you know, a day later, a week later, Several years later, we can ask, okay, what would it be to practice with that? But the request of practice is to get closer and closer to real time. Not that reflection is not useful. Often it's very useful. But the closer we can get to real time, like here's the situation. Okay, what is it to practice with this? So this is what Dogi Zenji is saying. When it comes into real time, aspiration, practice, voting mind, nirvana, all coincide.

[25:06]

This is how it is. Noticing the arising of contraction, of pulling away. of reactiveness and letting it be held with the deep trust and confidence of what is to practice with this. And letting that initiate, experiencing it fully and not resisting, not contracting, not struggling against. Dogen Zenji says in another fascicle. It's like a hammer striking the great bell of emptiness. You know, we think of the monks being murdered and mistreated in Burma.

[26:22]

And in our empathy, we conjure up an us and a them, a good and a bad. People who deserve to be loved and people who deserve to be hated. And then our practice, the request of our practice, illuminates that very duality. We appreciate that it's that very duality that has brought about the situation that we're now hating. And that the greatest help we can offer is to not perpetuate that very duality. So our intention, our practice. Bodhi mind, awakening mind, and the release of agitation and suffering.

[27:33]

They coalesce. They align. Or as Kaz translates in Dogen's words, Kaz Tanahashi in this translation, it forms a circle of the way and it's never cut off. This request is always present. This request always offers the opportunity to open, release, and engage directly in liberation, nirvana. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there's not a moment's gap. This is to meet it in the moment and give over to it completely.

[28:41]

But I would add, even to reflect on it later, even if you go through a two hour march and the whole time you're secretly under your breath, cursing and swearing at the military hunter in Burma. Even if later you reflect on that and think, is that what it is to practice? And something, some wisdom voice, some compassion voice says, not exactly. Sometimes tasting. The bitterness turns us towards the sweetness. There is no state of mind that reaches beyond the vow of practice.

[29:57]

The vow of practice is unsurpassable. Then Dogen Zenji continues. This being so, continuous practice is undivided. Continuous practice offers constant, continuous opportunity. It's not like, well, you can practice at the Zen center, but you sure as heck can't practice when you're thinking about the military junta in Burma. You sure as heck can't practice when you think of this or that. You know the violence that's caused by utter confusion and suffering. It's undivided and it's not forced by you or others.

[31:09]

It's not under the sway of the authority of your karmic life. You can get as angry as you like at the world and that might have some influence, some But it's not going to bring around liberation. When you're trying to stretch and loosen your body, you can grit your teeth and try to force your body to do something. someone else can grab your body and try to force it to do something.

[32:15]

This is not the way. Not to say that doesn't have a consequence. The way is to realize from the very beginning there is nothing that needed to be forced. That the root is to release that which contracts and holds back. And this is not something you can force, this is something you give over to. It's like any learning, any learning process we go through. We give over to the activity And in the process of giving over in full engagement, something is learned.

[33:18]

And that learning is not forced by you and it's not forced by others. You can present yourself to the situation. Someone else can bring it forth. But what is it to practice with this is to give over to it, is to engage it. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. There's something in us all that knows. Because there's something in us all that has spent a lifetime living The relationship between the contraction of suffering and the expansion of liberation. Something in its nose, what it is to let the body soften and breathe deeply.

[34:31]

That that heals our heart, our body, our mind. Everything in us knows that agitation and hatred don't really make us feel better. To return to what's deeply known. Supporting others through our example, through our being to return. And to recognize that bringing that into our collective being, our collective karma, supports us and supports others. As Dogen Senji says, it means your practice affects the entire world and the entire sky.

[35:42]

in all the ten directions. Although not noticed by you or others, it is so. And here's how the poet put it. Be complete in each thing. Let me start the start. To be great, be whole. Don't exaggerate and don't leave out any part of you. Be complete in each thing. Practice completely with each experience. Put all you are into the least of your acts. So too, in each lake, with its lofty life, the whole moon shines.

[36:45]

It's not that through some magical occurrence, the stream of our karmic life is gonna disappear. All those ways we have feeling a lacking and giving rise to a yearning or feeling an aversion or confusion or fear or bitterness or resentment or disappointment or loneliness. And it's not that this great karmic stream is going to disappear. It's that right in the middle of it. When this continuous practice is allowed to be continuous, is supported to be continuous it gives rise to an illumination of that very same karmic life and that which already knows is allowed

[38:15]

to know. And I would say it's a great relief to us. Because some wise part of us, some deeply compassionate part of us is saying, why are you behaving like this? Do you really think this is a good idea? Align in that way when aspiration, practice, engagement and nirvana coincide. Something in our being sparkles. Something in our being experiences. the beautiful fact that awakening in the moment is not dependent upon any special condition and as we glimpse this as we taste it as we return to it we learn how to trust being alive

[39:46]

We learn how to trust being the person that we already are. We learn how to trust being in this world as it is. And to trust being in this world is to engage this world. Doesn't mean we don't join the protest march about what's happening in Burma. It means we completely join the protest march. that's our response to what is it to practice with this and in doing that activity if it's revealed to us that this is completely wrong then we completely stop because there's nothing to cling to

[40:51]

the great way of the Buddha ancestors, there's always, always unsurpassable practice. Thank 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 the practice of giving by offering your financial help. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May all beings be happy.

[41:33]

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