I'm sorry, [...] I'm sorry. Good morning. As I was walking down the stairs, I was thinking, Well, who are we? You know, many of us in this assembly are spending the day doing zazen and other ritual forms of soto zen.

[01:33]

So as I was walking down the stairs, who are we that we're drawn to do such a thing? And then as I entered the room, I noticed a kind of a reverence, a deep trust, and maybe a little anxiety, just to top it all, in entering this room and being expected to say something. And I thought, Maybe that's my approach to Zen practice. Reverence, trust, and a little anxiety. When I was thinking about who are we, I was thinking about... I'm sort of addicted to the news.

[02:41]

like I look at it every day expecting it to change. You know, it does seem like the world, like the U.S., like the administration of the Constitution. is in a turmoil. And as I was contemplating that, I was thinking about what comes up in my mind is those terrible images of Gaza. Now what's happening in the Ukraine is kind of secondary.

[03:50]

And then what's happening in Sudan and the Belgian Congo, well, maybe we don't even get that far. And in the midst of all of that, us to come here and sit. Try to connect to the moment. Try to have our own internal system maybe be less agitated. Maybe be more settled, more attentive in the immediacy and beauty of the moment.

[04:54]

And that set me thinking about what is it to take refuge? Are we here? those of us who are motivated to spend the day up until dinner time in doing zazen. And it's even a particular style of zazen, shikantaza, to attend to what's arising in the moment. There's a term in Zen, face-to-face. And really, we're face-to-face with what's happening in Gaza. We're face-to-face with what's happening in Ukraine.

[06:08]

We're face-to-face to what's happening in Sudan. and we're face to face with ourselves. The response to all of that, that wonderful, amazing, mysterious combination of emotions, of how we're trying to handle our response. And in Shikantaza, there is just this very simple notion of be face to face with whatever arises. Just experience the experience that's being experienced.

[07:12]

principle is quite straightforward and simple, and the practice of it is enormously complex. It's as enormously complex as our world is in our own version of reality, in how we make sense of our world, our subjective world, how we relate to it, And then we bring all that to the moment. To sitting, as many of us will do, on our cushion. And as best we can, dedicate ourselves to the complexity of being ourselves. And within early Buddhism, what I think my own notion is it carries forth into Zen Buddhism because it's very applicable to our lives.

[08:44]

There's two words in Pali. Well, one word in Pali and one word in Sanskrit. Shingi and Virya, you know. And shingi is often translated as discipline. It's the conduct that facilitates a kind of internal alchemy. What helps any one of us and every one of us to be present for what's going on for us. to feel it, to watch our mind and heart as they relate to what's being taken in. So there's that inner Shingi, and then there's an outer Shingi.

[09:55]

It's like, oh, how do I behave in this world? What values do I attempt to stay true to? A while ago, but almost six months ago now, I read a piece by Aristotle. Here's a quote from Aristotle. And he was saying, in terms of staying true, somehow it was translated from the Greek as anger. And it's my own notion. It's... You know, anger has a certain kind of hostility to it.

[11:00]

And I think... Staying true to what's important to us, to the values we want to uphold, to the way we want to relate to the world. Staying true to that is more like bringing forth goodness. Our own and through our... interactions with others in an attempt to bring forth what we all value. And I think of Zazen, in particular Shikantasa, that staying true to the moment as the enactment of that kind of inner Shingi.

[12:06]

You know, I was thinking of us in this world of turmoil and thinking of those, including myself, who are doing the one day sitting. And we have lots of little details. We have details for everything. for how you step onto the tatami, whether it's for a service or whether it's for a lecture. We have different rules for both of them. Through that pattern of rules, are we attempting to create an orderly, a predictable, a benevolent version of reality. Or just a benevolent version of this situation.

[13:17]

And as we do that, how do we involve The quote I read about Aristotle, let me use the word anger, which was the translation that I read. It said, knowing the degree of anger that's appropriate for the moment. Knowing the version of staying true that's appropriate to this moment. Am I trying to coerce the moment? Am I just simply being distracted from it? And what came up in my mind

[14:31]

was Thich Nhat Hanh's poem of Know Me by My True Name. And I'm just going to read a tiny bit of it. It's a wonderful poem. I still arrive in order to laugh and cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. What kind of disposition helps us to stay true? to what's important to us.

[15:34]

They have a symbiotic relationship, that's my thought, that staying true helps us discover what we value, the principles we want to live by, the way we want to relate to others. And those principles, as we internalize them, as we try to live them within ourselves, it can have a wonderful impact on us. And it's interesting, you know, in my own experiments of trying to practice in this way of staying true, sometimes what's apparent to me is the ways in which I don't quite stay true to it.

[17:01]

Maybe I grasp at something that agitates me Maybe I just space out in the moment. Maybe I take what I think I should be staying true to and, to use a common word, weaponize it. If you don't agree with me, there's something wrong with you. Or you're not doing it right. And all this we bring to the moment. And often Shingi, which is the kind of Zen version of the early rules of Buddhism, of which there were literally hundreds.

[18:05]

But that's staying true. and what it asks of us. And as I'm saying, it helps us to discover the principles we want to live by and how to live by them. And there's a way in which it's more of a heartfelt endeavor than just an intellectual endeavor. When we bring our heart, when we bring what's important to us, when we remember how we want to be in the world, when we remember how to treat ourselves and others in a way that brings

[19:13]

in a way that brings appreciating ourselves and others. As we do that, the way our mind is usually endeavoring to define who we are, define the moment, and define the response to it. We're drawing into a more intellectual disposition. And as we can feel the heartfeltness of staying true, how in a way It enhances being alive.

[20:20]

It brings to it a thoroughness. It brings to it a kind of trust in ourselves. An attempt to trust ourselves. into interacting with others in a way this is what sangha is to be able to be say well there's me which I am committed to and there is we that I'm committed to and then the Bodhisattva says and that we includes everyone. Or as Thich Nhat Hanh says, you know, that we includes not everyone, but every being.

[21:30]

And when we can bring that to our cushion, to our moment of dedicating ourselves to presence. And in doing that, sitting in meditation, sitting in shikantaza, experiencing whatever arises, when we can do that, It hardens our heartfulness. There's a saying in Zen, when we can do that, something in us softens.

[22:31]

And even breathing becomes more accessible. then in our practice there's this wonderful and sometimes utterly frustrating challenge to adhere to these details that Soto Zen, this style of Zen that we practice here is so filled with little details of how to bow, how to stand, when to chant, when to bow. And these little details can become assured.

[23:42]

You know, should is organized and conceptualized by mind. And of course, it creates its own values, its own staying true. But it's tempered, it's informed by, it's enriched by what is heartfelt. In a way our practice is the practice of discovering the deep wisdom and compassion of what's heartfelt. And so sometimes Shingi becomes described as a discipline.

[24:48]

A discipline that you should adhere to. But if that's all it is, then it's just a conceptual prohibition. And sometimes we can manage to comply with prohibitions. But I would say there's something more vital within us than just complying with prohibitions. There's something within us that wants to experience the abundance of life. And with that, I want to read a little poem by Joy Harjo.

[25:55]

Praise the rain, the seagull drive, the curl of the plant, the raven tog. Praise the hurt, the house slack, the stand of trees, the dignity. Praise the dark, the moon cradle, the sky fall, the bear sleep. Praise the mist. The warrior name. The earth eclipse. The fire leap. Praise the backwards. Praise the upward sky. Praise the baby cry. The spirit food. Praise canoe. Praise the fish rush. The hole for frog. The upside down. Praise the day. Praise the cloud cup. The mind flat. Forget it all. The alchemy of how our heart and mind can collaborate.

[27:07]

It's not to say that just our emotional life has a truth to it. Actually, working with our intellect, working with the standards we hold for ourselves, how we conceptualize the world, how we conceptualize me and we and other. as Aristotle says, to know how to set boundaries, to know how to uphold principles, all in the service of staying true. And then with virya, virya is

[28:17]

It's like the Swiss army knife of Buddhist practice. It has so many aspects to it. It ranges from making the effort to not just be stuck in habits, not just be stuck in our agitations, not just being stuck in the anxieties that can arise in our heart-mind. And then at the other end, virya is a flowing energy, a kind of healing goodness. that when we feel it, something in us trusts it completely.

[29:25]

And then in between this effort that we make in the service of staying true, then the persistence of when the mind wanders Notice, acknowledge, be in that moment where you've ended up, experience it, and gently, as patiently as we can be, return to the intentionality of being present. So effort, persistence, and I would add in, maybe replace with persistence with patience.

[30:31]

And then as we persist, it gives rise to a softening that we can start to make our effort in a way that has a sense of continuity. In early Buddhism, the image that's used is entering the stream, entering the current of practice. As we give ourselves over to the details of practice, as we allow our expression of being to be influenced by the details of practice of mind and heart and of the particulars of the moment.

[31:38]

As we give over to that, there's a kind of supportive energy that arises. Sometimes you can hear it in the chanting. We're chanting and the voices start to harmonize. And it sort of shifts from a number of people are attempting to chant the same thing at the same time. It becomes... harmonious and in that harmony it's a kind of symphony and we're carried along by it that's the image of being a stream enter and then as we engage that influence giving over

[32:52]

to the energy of the moment. And as we do that, it's fullness. Each moment is exactly what it is. And it's completely what it is. And as we give over, as we learn how to give over, then it feels effortless. It feels buoyant. It feels we can relax into it. Now that might seem like an exotic moment. Someone recently was talking to me about the influence of drugs on presence.

[34:10]

And does that help or does that hinder? I don't know. I guess on the drug side, I have very little experience and it was a long time ago. But when we experience this energy of virya, it helps us in an extraordinary way. And we can practice the energy, the enjoyment of virya. If we just, literally, you can set up for yourself a moment where you experience the taste of something, the sign of something, the

[35:27]

sensory experience of body, of breath, even the sensory experience of mind. Every moment is a Dharma gate. Every moment opens us or can open us to experience it fully. So even in this world where it can seem, what chaos? What suffering? I grew up in Northern Ireland, and I read a couple of days ago, I read an article that was comparing Northern Ireland to Gaza.

[36:46]

And I thought, what's happening in Gaza is quite literally a hundred times more painful than what happened in Northern Ireland. It is true that to come to some agreement, the warring sides in Northern Ireland had to discover forgiveness. And certainly in a heartfelt way, I wish that for what's happening in the Middle East, in Gaza, in all of Palestine, in all of Israel, and everywhere else.

[37:51]

So can we sit down on our cushion and allow ourselves to be nurtures us. And through nurturing us, nurtures others. Can we sit down and call that forth and let the moment be what it will? Can we cultivate that kind of trust? A trust that doesn't have a selected outcome, but a trust that has a deep willingness to be what is.

[39:02]

So I'd like to end with the last part of Joy Harjo's poem. Praise the mind. Forget it all. Praise crazy. Praise sad. Praise the path on which we're led. Praise the roads of earth and water. Praise the eater and the eaten. Praise beginnings. Praise the end. Praise the song. Praise the singer. Praise the rain. It brings more rain. Praise the rain. Thank you. Thank you.

[40:17]

Thank you. but I think it's a very good thing.

[40:50]

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