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 morning, everyone. Thank you for coming to the talk this morning. This is I always think of Labor Day, Labor Day weekend, Labor Day as the end of summer. It used to be the beginning of school when I was growing up, going to public school. It would start the day after Labor Day. And it's also some other holidays that come around this time. The Jewish New Year starts, I think, at sundown. the 6th, and the mid-autumn ceremony, the moon cake or moon festival celebrated in China and maybe other Asian countries is coming up.

[01:15]

So it's the feeling of the turning, the turning of the season, the turning of the year. And I wish you all the best of health and well-being and wish for you to take good care of yourselves and everyone who lives with you and speaks with you in the 10 directions. I wanted to talk today about a few things that I've been turning. studying, and so I wanted to share those with you. I don't think it's necessarily a deep study that I want to do with you today, but just encourage our practice in the simplest way, in a way that I feel is completely possible for each person to meet their lives, to help

[02:26]

respond to the times that were in in a skillful way. This has been such a horrendous week with hurricanes, floods, death, regime overturned for refugees. And of course, with the backdrop of the ever-present backdrop of COVID and more and more people becoming ill and the spike, the surge. So how do we practice? How do we practice in times like these? And what is the path? What is our way? There's a translation of the Bodhisattva vows, the four vows, which we chant at the end of our lecture.

[03:34]

The first is beings are numberless. I vow to save them. The second is desires are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. That's a kind of shared translation, but... There's other translations of that second bodhisattva vow, which is desires or afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to cut through. So I wanted to look at this, look at desires, look at how we work in a skillful way and practice with our desires. And the trouble that we can get in sometimes with desires and craving and skillful ways to work with that. There's a Buddha in his past life, Shakyamuni Buddha, was different bodhisattvas, different Buddhas.

[04:51]

Bhaisajaraja. Bhaisajaraja, which translates as Medicine King Buddha. And Bhaisajaraja, the Medicine Buddha, some of you may be familiar with the iconography of this Buddha. The color is lapis lazuli blue, and he carries a bowl a begging bowl, a medicine bowl, but in the bowl are mountains. You know, the whole world is held in that bowl. And Medicine Buddha made, Medicine King Buddha made all these vows. And one of the vows is this, the third vow. I vow that I shall grant by means of boundless wisdom, all beings with the inexhaustible things that they require and relieving them from all pains and guilt resulting from materialistic desires.

[06:05]

Although clothing, food, accommodation, and transport are essentials, it should be utilized wisely as well. Besides self-consumption, the remaining should be generously shared with the community so that all could live harmoniously together. So this is one of Medicine King's vows, that he would grant all the things that we need. And we do need things. We need as people. You know, thinking of the refugees, I received a notice of how to help the Afghan refugees coming into the Bay Area. And you go to actually Amazon, which wasn't that happy about it. And they're listing all the things you can order that get sent to them.

[07:10]

Shampoo, diapers, toothpaste, deodorant. You know, stuff, we require materialistic things. We require things for our health and safety and well-being. Food, clothing, shelter, medicine. So the Medicine King Buddha grants these things everything we require. relieving us of the pain of guilt, you know, I have and you don't have, because we can feel that. I'm so privileged. I have all these things, and these people have nothing but fear and distress. However, Medicine King Buddha says, after you utilize what you need wisely for your self-consumption, it says, then the remaining should be generously shared,

[08:10]

with the community, so that all may live harmoniously. So there is a place for desires. And, you know, it's really an extreme that sometimes people get some idea about that they cut off, that they, you know, end desires. I think what can happen sometimes is this. vow to end desires becomes a desire in and of itself, which is very strong. And this kind of endless round and round with attachment to that desire. So this translation of desires or afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to cut through. How do we cut through? And part of it is this practice of generously sharing with the community, the material things that we have, and also to understand how desires work in our, and the endless quality of desires work in our body mind.

[09:30]

Um, So in studying recently some of Suzuki Roshi's earliest lectures from 1965, and he talks about, there's two lectures that were during a session in 1965, and he brings up the relationship with things. The most important thing is our relationship with, each moment with the things of our life, whether it's human beings or objects or these requisites for health and safety and well-being. What is our relationship with them? How do we care for them? How do we respond and treat them when they come into our lives and when they go out of our lives? This is this endless,

[10:37]

coming and going of things because of the truth of impermanence. So one of the things that Suzuki Roshi mentions about the relationship to things is that he quotes, he doesn't quote verbatim, but he references Dogen's instructions to the head cook, where Dogen says, The head cook handles the utensils, the ladles, the spoons, the wooden stirring sticks, pots and pans, the fire. You handle those as if they were your own eyesight. Your relationship with these things is very intimate. And out of this relationship, out of this proper relationship of the things of your life as not really... things separate from you, but Buddha Dharma arising in that form, in the form of a ladle or a pot or clothing.

[11:45]

And you handle those according to this relationship. So Dogen says, you know, things that go on a high place should go on a high place. Things on a low shelf, a low place, go on a low place. It's not a matter of status. It's a matter of the relationship. And certain things are better cared for and express our relationship with them when we put them high, even higher than us. It's like in the morning when we, after our period of Zazen, There is the release of stillness. There's the time drum and bell, and then the Han, and then we chant the robe chant. And that practice includes taking a robe, if you have a rock sewer in Okesa, and you place it on your head, which is the highest place in your body, right, is on your head.

[12:54]

And you place your robe on your head. And celebrate, you know, great robe of liberation, field far beyond form and emptiness, wearing the Chattagata's teaching, saving all beings. This is not just a one-time thing when one receives their robe. And many of you, I know, have received Buddha's precepts and the clothing of Buddha's precepts, which is Buddha's robe. We place it high on top of our head, and when we put it away, it goes on a high shelf or on our altar. We don't put it on the floor or something. So Suzuki Roshi, a little further in this talk, brings up something which I think maybe was a little puzzling to him. I just listened to the talk because I wanted to hear it.

[13:58]

The audio, I studied the transcript, but I wanted to hear the audio at this point in the talk because he says, he's talking about everything in its right place. According to our relationship, not because they're better than other things. Each thing has equal value, universal equal value. we treat things according to that, to their form and function. And so high things in high places, et cetera. And then he brings up, this is in 1965 at Sokoji Temple. This is the Sangha in its earliest years studying so closely with Suzuki Roshi. And he says,

[14:58]

In America, you put scriptures on the floor where you walk. We don't, you know, meaning we in Japan or Japanese practice, we don't put scriptures, sutras on the floor. But I don't know how to do it, how to treat those scriptures in your way of life. Until I find out some way, I don't say, don't put scriptures on the floor. So to me, that was a kind of generosity and tolerance and patience with the Sangha who he was practicing with. That was... really so encouraging to me, you know, not scolding, not you're doing it wrong.

[16:06]

It should be this way. This is the right way. It was more, this is what you're doing. I don't understand it. That's not the way I practice. However, until I find out your way, I'm not going to say, don't put them on the floor. And then he goes on and says, but this is not supposed to, be not supposed to be treated as rubbish, you know. And I didn't know, I wanted to hear his words, how he said that. And it was, it wasn't like raising his voice or like, you're treating the scriptures like rubbish. It wasn't like that. You can listen to it, the talk if you want to. It was just kind of The scriptures are not treated in the same way as sweepings from the floor or rubbish that we would throw in the garbage or recycling or whatever. This is not rubbish, he said.

[17:10]

Scripture should be put on table or on the altar or in your hand. And then he says, those small things are very important. These small things are very important. And, you know, when I started the talk, I said, these are ways we can practice that are flowing from our understanding of our true nature and our relationships and interrelationships with all things, all beings, the great earth. The small things express this and matter. How we greet one another. How we bow in passing or say good morning to one another.

[18:10]

Listen to one another. Take care of all the objects of our life, especially each other. And these things... The more we take care of the details and small things of our life, the more we understand taking care of each other and vice versa, taking good care of each other. Maybe we start with taking care of somebody who's very, very important to us, like a loved one or a teacher. And out of that, we realize, oh, this is how we take care of every aspect of our life. And this is endless practice. So this kind of practice, taking care of each thing in this way, appeases, this is from the next Sashin lecture, this appeases our innermost desire.

[19:23]

What will appease your suffering, your agitation, your irritation, and how can you appease it? So this caring for things in this way touches something that we want, that we need to touch, and this is possible. Now, you might say, well, that's all about desires, to appease. And I want to, you know, turn this a little bit with you. I recently listened to a, I was going to say a lecture, but it wasn't a lecture. It was an interview on Terry Gross Fresh Air with the, psychiatrist Anna Lemke.

[20:26]

Some of you may have heard it. And she was talking about her new book called Dopamine Nation. And I found it so useful in our understanding of desires are inexhaustible. I vow to end them or afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to cut through. How do we cut through? Because This psychiatrist, Anna Lemke, was teaching that and describing that our, and this is neuroscience from the last 75 years or so, has found that the pleasure and pain centers are in the same place in the brain. She works with addiction. basically, and has many clients who are addicted to many substances.

[21:29]

She was saying addiction is a spectrum disease, and from drugs of all kind down to addictions to our cell phones, et cetera, gambling. So there's behavioral addictions, and there's substances, but they're very... and you can be a little addicted or greatly addicted. So I wanted to share with you this because to me it was, you know, the middle way which the Buddha taught between the extremes of hedonism or pleasure-seeking and And also nihilism or grabbing and pulling away. But we practice uprightness, middle way practice. And she described from a neuroscience point of view how that works and how desires become, how they turn and we become attached in such a way that

[22:47]

We are suffering terribly. So into craving. And this also, you know, when we think of the Four Noble Truths, we have the truth of suffering. We have the origin of suffering. What is the origin of suffering in the Four Noble Truths? It's craving. It doesn't say just desires. Because we have to have desires in order to live. But this craving, which is different than desires. And the third is the cessation of that, of the Noble Truths. The third and the fourth is the path to the cessation, which is the Eightfold Path. So Buddhism to me is, you know, these basic, basic teachings of Middle Way, Four Noble Truths. This interview was really helpful in illuminating something for me, which I wanted to share with you.

[23:52]

So she described this pleasure pain that is in the same place in the brain. And, of course, we have to have pleasure when we eat and make love and are with family members and love our pets. etc., there's pleasurable feelings that arise, and these are built in. Otherwise, we may not go after food when we need food, etc. Now, and this book is called Dopamine Nation, so the reward system of dopamine gets activated. And so, She described it as a teeter-totter, which I thought was a very useful image. When we have pleasure, the pleasure side, pleasure and pain are like a teeter-totter.

[24:54]

The pleasure side goes up and the pain side goes down. But after a while, when the body wants homeostasis and the pleasure-pain... needs to be evened out so the pleasure is high. And the pain, she called them pain gremlins, which was a useful image, jump on the teeter-totter to make it go down and come back into evenness. And they stay on the teeter-totter. So if there's going to be pleasure, there is going to be pain, which may be very Not even noticed as pain. She was describing eating a piece of chocolate. And then after the piece of chocolate is done, feeling like you maybe want another piece or feeling maybe unsatisfied or this pleasure stimulus is over and maybe you're feeling restless or kind of longing to have another piece.

[26:10]

This is part of what's going to go on in our body-mind. And so it increases the sense of pain, which may not even be noticed as pain, but just noticed as wanting some more, feeling kind of irritated or something. So then... You can see how this... So then we're feeling irritated and unhappy and restless. And so then we do the pleasurable activity again. And then the gremlins, you know, they jump on the teeter-totter more. And then they don't go away. They stay there until... And this is the picture of addiction. In order to just feel normal, regular, not even pleasure, one needs the substance, etc.

[27:25]

So it was this picture of desires are inexhaustible and how we can get on this loop in which the pain and irritation, and she named all these things, insomnia, dysphoria, meaning just a feeling of unease, and that we want the pleasurable experience or the substance or the activity, again, in order to just not feel that, and pleasure doesn't even come in, etc. So, This is this becoming craving. Craving for these activities. So. One of the one of the quotable quotes from her was.

[28:28]

Hedonism or the pursuit of pleasure leads to. ultimately to anhedonia. Anhedonia is lack of joy. So the total opposite of what we may have wished, some pleasure, relief of suffering, relief of discomforts of all kinds, mentally, physically, emotionally, leads to lack of joy in our life. So, desires, afflictions are inexhaustible. I vowed to cut through to me what was understanding how this works. She also said, if you just wait a while, like this thought of, I'd like another piece of chocolate, if you just wait...

[29:37]

you will come into homeostasis. And I think we know this. We know, you know, something like, oh, gee, I wish I had a hafaj sundae, you know. And you can go out and find that, maybe, or make one for yourself. However, I've noticed, if I just, I can watch that thought arise as a desire, as a wish, as a craving, and also not acting, just practicing with that arising and letting it go, and it will eventually go. Now this is, I'm talking about something not the same way as with addictions, but she has She worked with many clients, and one thing that she asked them to do with behaviors, for example, gambling and phone use, social media, as well as certain substances, not all.

[30:52]

Some drugs need to be titrated very slowly over time. But she asks people to be abstinent for four weeks, and she tells them, It's going to be, you know, you're doing these things to relieve your suffering, but it's not relieving your suffering. In fact, it is causing your suffering. And I'm asking, she asks them to meet their suffering and see it through and get all the help in place that you're going to need for this. to come back into homeostasis, et cetera. So this kind of looking at this, knowing the range of activities, especially during COVID, I think for some people,

[32:08]

How do we take good care of ourselves? How do we be in relationship to the things of our world that come into our lives? What is the proper relationship, including the desires that we have that are necessary? One of the most important desires that we have is our wish for To wake up, you know, our way-seeking mind or our beginner's mind, Shoshin. That's Suzuki Roshi's translation of the characters, Shoshin, which, like if you look it up in the dictionary of characters, it means the initial resolve or mind of the novice or the new person, this initial resolve. wanting to wake up, wanting to relieve suffering for ourselves and others.

[33:11]

This is innermost desire, innermost request. This is necessary. This is, Suzuki Roshi calls it, you know, miraculous. This wish we have, this way-seeking mind, this beginner's mind. We want this. We want to support this desire. We're not trying to And, you know, we can also get confused and turn that desire into wanting stuff, wanting like spiritual materialism, wanting, Suzuki Roshi uses, as we know many, many times, gaining idea, wanting and being attached to a certain kind of pleasure, maybe, that will be very confusing. Because this gaining idea, wanting something for ourselves in this way, rather than the wish to wake up for the benefit of all beings, this innermost desire, this beginner's mind that makes this resolve, that if we want something for ourselves,

[34:34]

And are attached to our own pleasure, which we equate with relieving of suffering. Wow. That kind of gaining idea is not based on our true, the way we actually exist. That's more based on the delusion of separate self. And we want this for ourselves. So, yes. There's desires and innermost requests that motivate us, that is part of our intention, that we want to cultivate and care for. And knowing that we can get caught in, you know, sitting in order to not feel our pain, not feeling suffering. using it in a way to get away from, escape from, rather than understanding how our true nature arises in the form of suffering and pain that we can realize the way it functions.

[36:01]

So the preciousness of beginner's mind, precious meaning delicate, because we can get very confused, you know, about our practice life, which is why it's important not only to practice and sit, but to also study. Sutra and Dharma talks and study with others, ask questions. So there's sometimes we say three Zen practices of three-legged stool with Zazen as one leg, study, and then talking with Dharma friend, talking with teachers. And some people sit a lot. and never talk with anybody, and never study.

[37:09]

And other people might study a lot, and know a lot about Buddhism, and yet never sit. Or maybe they ask lots of questions, but don't sit, don't have a practice themselves. And some people talk a lot to teachers, but never study, etc. So how to have those evened out so your three-legged stool is nice and even. And that can help us when we get confused and get caught about what is our Zen practice. So... The other day I was out and about doing some errands, and there was somebody I know, I've known for many, many years, maybe 40 years, who is not friendly to me for various reasons.

[38:28]

And I hadn't seen this person since way before COVID. to be where I was doing errands and see this person. They were masked, and I was masked, and I recognized them. Oh, that's so-and-so. And I was, you know how it is with masks. You kind of have an eye contact greeting, and I said hi, and the person walked right by me quickly and didn't say hello or acknowledge me. I experienced the knowing that this person is angry with me, and I think I've probably been upset with this person as well. Somehow, after all this time and COVID and so much suffering in the world, to meet a living being that I've known for 40 years and be actually happy to see them.

[39:36]

And then this just walk right by was I experienced, I think, a kind of pain in my heart of I understood that this is going on, the grudge or not grudge, what is it, chip, whatever it is, this is continuing. But I realized I had kind of let it go. I'm done with this. And it was just two masked bandits meeting each other in a store. So this thing I said in the beginning, that the small things matter, it also reminded me recently, the children's verse, sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me. And the person who said this, I can't remember if it was at a Dharma talk or not.

[40:37]

They said, that's not true. It will break your heart. Names will hurt. They will break your heart. And I felt a little bit like that, like something as small as this moment of just that action, that taking the opportunity to once more, because this has happened before, give me a hit, you know, in this way. So realizing how we do affect each other, we do break each other's hearts, it does matter. As I said before, saying hello, greeting each other, bowing to one another in whatever form that bow takes. Maybe it's just, hi, how are you doing?

[41:38]

Not necessarily a formal bow that you would do in a practice place. You know, carefully writing our emails with respect and gratitude and giving each other the benefit of the doubt. These are ways, you know, That we can take care of each other and take care of, you know, each other as Buddha Dharma that's arisen, that's appeared and manifested as this difficult situation, as this misunderstanding. And this isn't to sweet things under the rug or not acknowledge our differences. or our disagreements, our seeing things in different ways. How do we do that, though?

[42:40]

That's based on our true nature, that we don't even share it, that we are. How do we have our practice flowing from that space, that truth, all the time? So thank you very much for your attention. And often at the end of a talk, later on in the day, I say to myself, oh, I forgot. I forgot to say something. I think what I'd like to do is end this with a summer poem that I learned by heart called

[43:45]

From Blossoms by Lee Young Lee. And it's a poem that holds the summer and our lives in. So I learned it by heart. Let's see if I can recite it for you. From blossoms comes this brown bag of peaches. I bought from the boy at the bend of the road when I turned towards signs painted peaches. From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all. Comes the dust of summer, dust we eat. Oh, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hand, adore it, then bite into round jubilance,

[45:14]

There are days we live where death is nowhere in the background. From joy to joy to joy. From wing to wing. From blossoms to blossoms. To impossible blossoms. To sweet impossible blossoms. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:05]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_98.12