This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Welcome. Last week... We started a intensive period of practice here. And we also had a talk last Sunday here. And I brought up a story It goes something like, one day, the world-honored one was walking alone the face of the earth together with his group.

[01:25]

And the World Honored One, the Buddha, pointed to the face of the earth and said, this is a good place to build a sanctuary. The leader of the divine beings, Indra, took a blade of grass, and stuck it in the ground and announced, the sanctuary is built. And the world honored one smiled. every day since last Sunday people in this valley beings in this valley have been making an effort day by day moment by moment to build a sanctuary up a place of refuge

[03:05]

a place to fly back to true awakening, a place to fly back to refuge, to stillness and silence. A place, a sanctuary to return to mysterious, intimate communication. Face-to-face meeting with other beings in stillness and silence.

[04:16]

to return to genuine conversation with others. We have been trying to remember to build a place to return to genuine face-to-face communication with others. in my case, with the confidence that such meetings face-to-face, genuine meetings face-to-face, in stillness, is the place where truth is living. It's the place where justice is realized. Today is, we say, today is Martin Luther King Jr.

[05:56]

's birthday. A day when we celebrate his birth and his life. One of his biographers said that this biography comes from a conviction that truth, and may I add justice, requires

[06:56]

a maximum effort to see through the eyes of strangers, foreigners, and enemies. This biographer also expressed the conviction that this is a basic principle of the life of Martin Luther King. and that this is a metaphor of American history. If we want justice, it is required that we make a place

[07:59]

where we can be quiet and still and look at each other's faces and express ourselves and listen to each other. Listen and learn. We need such a sanctuary, such a temple. And here we have one. A place where we repeatedly remember stillness and silence. And in that remembering, we talk to each other. We express ourselves and we welcome each other. this communication, or you could also say this justice, this communication, this responsible communication, is a place to express ourselves and be questioned.

[09:32]

to listen to others and ask questions. Following this talk, there will be an opportunity to question and respond. Part of this conviction about how justice is realized is to say that the basic situation of our life And the final situation of our life is face-to-face meetings. We all are being called upon to respond. We are all calling for a response. It's not easy to understand this, but this is being suggested

[10:34]

And most of us need some quiet. You may have heard many times that bodhisattvas listen to others. One of our great prototypic bodhisattvas is called the one who listens to the cries of the world. Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva. Listening to the cries of the world. And it's not mentioned that this listening occurs in stillness. And when listening, there's also... learning and there's also speaking and requesting responding by asking questions and being questioned in the turn back and forth this kind of relationship with everybody and including strangers enemies and foreigners

[12:07]

including people who do not want to talk to us and do not want to listen to us, and including people that we have a maybe feeling of disgust or repulsion towards, it is required that we meet those whom we find disgusting, and meet them in a fully responsible meeting. When this comes up, many people talk about how hard it is to meet others And I think when we feel that it's hard to meet an other, that it's hard to be quiet with another and still with another and look at another and give the other a gift because this genuine face-to-face conversation

[13:51]

starts with giving a gift. It starts with generosity. For example, it starts with giving your face. Or, and the other giving her face to you. And then proceeds to receive the face. or to have the gift of our face be received. And people say, it's so hard to give my face to that person. I'm afraid of what they'll do with it. Many children... For example, teenagers are afraid to go to school because they do not want to give their face to the other people at school.

[14:58]

They are afraid of what people will do with their face, that people will think their face is not attractive, that people will find their face disgusting, so they don't want to give their face. So I'm afraid to give my face. Yes. And the world honored one points to the face of the earth, which is your face. The Buddha points at your face, points at your fear, points at my fear. my fear of meeting. And the Buddha says, your fear of meeting the other, of meeting an enemy, is a good place to build a sanctuary.

[16:03]

Your resistance to others is part of the surface of the earth. Everything I feel, everything you feel, is the earth. Earth is covered by beings who are covered and filled with feelings and opinions. Every one of these beings is a place to build a meeting place and use that meeting place to meet. And in that meeting, face to face, is where justice exists. is realized, where truth is realized. The truth, what truth? The truth that I am completely others.

[17:18]

I am completely otherwise. You are completely other. I am completely not something by myself. And so are you. What am I? I am you. All of you. And more than all of you. I am all other. I am the whole other. And you are the whole other. I am whole other. You are whole other. And holy communion is between wholes, meeting. Holy communion with an H and whole with a W, meeting. You are the whole universe.

[18:29]

It's a big responsibility. But you're not the only one who has that responsibility. Everybody has the same responsibility in a slightly different way. Your responsibility is to beat everything as you. My responsibility each moment is to beat everything as me. And I cannot be me. I cannot be everything as me without face-to-face meeting with others. But face-to-face meeting with others keeps testing to see if I'm willing to be me. Of course I'm me, but it's a big job. a job to be what I am always.

[19:32]

And I can only do this job with others, which is what I am. So we make a place like this. And we make it every day. It's built in a way, but then we have to build it each day. And we build it by remembering what this place is for. This place is for stillness and silence and dramatic conversation with others. This place is here to realize justice together. And justice is the truth. So, The truth is already so. Justice is reality. But we have to work at it.

[20:35]

That's part of the reality, is that we have to work at being in this conversation which we're already in. When the Buddha wakes up, the Buddha sees, oh, now I, together with everybody, Now I, together with the whole earth, realize the Buddha way. Oh, now I see that we're all in a conversation, that we're all together. Not me. I, the Buddha, do not establish justice by myself. I establish justice together. The earth establishes justice together with me and all beings. Together, we do this work. And Martin Luther King appears to be a person who gave his life to this work.

[21:46]

Or do we wish to give our life to the work of realizing the truth, which is justice, and requires that each of us accept our responsibility to have fully responsible meetings with others? And if they look like they're not accepting their responsibility, to have a conversation with us if they say, I'm not responsible for these problems, and I'm also not responsible to talk to you. I saw somebody recently saying, I'm not going to call on you. Somebody was asking this person a question. And the person said, I'm not going to call on you. The person was being called, I'm not going to call on you.

[22:51]

You have a terrible organization. I'm not going to call on you. Can I talk to you? I'm not going to call on you. Can I talk to you? I'm not going to talk to you. This is a good place to build a sanctuary. But it's hard. It's hard. It's hard is a good place to build a sanctuary. It's impossible. This is a good place to build a sanctuary. I don't want to. This is a good place to build a sanctuary. I do want to. This is a good place to build a sanctuary. It's hard to remember. This is a good place to... I'm afraid this is a good place. Every place is a good place to remember what we're here for. We're here to realize the truth. And the truth is... The truth is, face-to-face, wholehearted communication.

[24:01]

That's our reality of our life. We are doing this. And there's so many Zen stories that I can't tell you any. Well, I could, but... And maybe I will. But anyway, there's so many Zen stories of two people talking and one or more of them does not think... they're having an intimate conversation. And the intimate conversation goes on with one of them saying, come on, let's have an intimate conversation. And the other one may be saying, I don't want to have intimate conversation with you. But you must. Well, you know, we don't need to. We have to. And then the person wakes up and realizes that all the time when they were saying, I want to have a conversation with you, And the person was saying it's not necessary. They were having an intimate conversation. You know, I came here to learn to teach the truth from you and you don't teach me anything.

[25:06]

Would you please go wash your face? Would you please do your job? And then later in the story, the person realizes that all those times When she was asking, and all the time when the teacher was saying, you know, you have better things to do than talk to me. The whole time, there was this intimate transmission of the truth in both directions. And there was justice. But they had to keep working at it to realize it. And then the next day, it's the same. So I intend and I kind of believe that I gave my face to you this morning repeatedly.

[26:47]

I gave you face after face. Here's another one. This one wasn't here before. This is a new one. You could say, and it's older than the ones you gave earlier. Yeah, I can go with that. Anyway, I... I'm a professional face giver. It's my job to give my face. It's my job to receive your face. And then we could have a job performance review sometime about how skillfully I gave my face. and how skillfully I received yours. Maybe people could say, you know, I think you missed a few opportunities to receive some faces there. And I might say, well, how about now? Am I receiving your face telling me that I missed some chances?

[27:51]

A person might say, yeah, now you're, I feel like you're receiving my face telling you about the times you missed. Good work. Keep it up. Good boy. And this process of learning to receive others face and give ours. Yeah, it's a learning process. And it's a repetitive process. It happens over and over, like our breathing. So you've heard this story before, many of you.

[28:51]

I was watching my grandson about nine years ago eat his breakfast. This face was being given to him. And this face was adoring him. And then I saw his face, which he gave to me. And his face was going like this. Kind of grimacing, we might say. Looked uncomfortable. And I just kept looking at him. And he said to me, would you please stop looking at me? It's nine years later, and he's a little better able to stand this face being given to him. He can a little bit better, now that he's 17, stand up to this face, which looks at him with such love.

[30:00]

He can stand it for a little while now. Anyway, back when he was nine, he said, would you please stop looking at me? And I said, OK. And I looked at the ceiling. And after I looked at the ceiling for a while, he started talking to me again. And then I felt, well, I could look at him. But I realize I probably shouldn't look at him too much. But he's allowed to say, break time, granddaddy. Stop looking at me. Sometimes it's too intense when the face that loves you is looking at you. Not always. So right now, Buddha's face is looking at you.

[31:03]

Right now. And Buddha's looking at you and Buddha's saying, oh, you're identical to me. You're struggling and you don't understand that, but you are, I'm nothing but you. I have nothing but you. And I see you thinking about me and maybe even asking me to stop looking at you. But Buddha is looking at us and seeing that we are Buddha. I, together with all beings in the great earth, realize the Buddha way. I give my face to others who give me their face. And this is how we realize the Buddha way. But sometimes it's... Yeah.

[32:11]

And also, you know, I went to San Francisco Zen Center to get support to practice what I thought was going to be Zen training. For example, learning to sit still and silent and to be upright. But I didn't have this idea of face-to-face transmission, but I did feel like I needed a teacher to help me learn how to be silent and upright, to tell me if I was doing it in an authentic way. And so then I did meet a person, a Zen priest, who was willing to sit upright with me and to have face-to-face meetings with me. And I felt very grateful that this person, this Zen priest named Suzuki, was willing to give me his face.

[33:23]

And when he gave me his face, I often felt like this is what I came for, is to get this face. I didn't in the early days think I came to learn how to give my face. I didn't really understand that I was coming to learn how to receive that face. But I wanted the face. And one time, another Zen priest taught me how to do some special liturgical performances, special chants. And I learned them from this other professional chanter priest. And after I learned them, Suzuki Roshi asked me to show him what I learned. So he invited me into a room and he asked me basically to sing to him.

[34:34]

And he watched me. He gave me his face while I was giving him my singing face. I didn't say to him, I wasn't nine years old. I was a little older. So I didn't say, granddaddy, stop looking at me. I didn't say that. What I said was, to this face, this Buddha face, giving me everything, which I wanted. But now it was so intense, I said to the Buddha, I don't want to take any more of your time. Maybe I should go. That's what I did say.

[35:38]

I didn't say, I want to get out of this space. I want to get away from all this love. I cannot stand it. Let me out of here. That's how I felt, but I knew he loved me, but if someone loves you and you know it, maybe you should just get out of the room just in case they might stop. He's like, yeah, got the love? See you later. Anyway, whatever it was, I wanted to get out of the room. And I gave him the generous opportunity of not giving me any more of his face. And he said, it's OK, you can stay. Go ahead, keep singing. So I kept singing. Like this.

[36:47]

Something like this, except it was like 47 years ago. So it sounded a little different when I did it then. But it sounded something like this. Like that. I sang to him like that. for a little longer than that and he was looking at me and he was listening to my voice he was giving his life face and his ears to me how fortunate could I be to receive all this face time and ear time and what did I feel like I don't want to take any more of your time

[37:57]

But he was willing to give it and he actually wanted to continue. So I did stay in the room. I did not run out. There are, however, many Zen stories of where the Zen student runs out of the room. They cannot stand the love. So then I continued to sing and then he... gave me some feedback other than just giving his face. So giving his face is feedback. My face comes in the room. His response is his face. In response to his face, I give my face. My face starts talking and saying, I don't want to take any more of your time. His face says, it's okay, you can stay. Keep singing. And I sing. And then he says, you know, the way you're singing is just like the way this teacher sings.

[39:02]

His teacher's name was Tatsugami Roshi. The way you sing is just like him. I learned to sing like this Japanese man, this Japanese priest. He said, and when Tatsugami Roshi does it, sings that way, it's beautiful. But he's a 65-year-old Japanese man. You shouldn't do it like him. So then he had me chant. He asked me to give him my singing face, and I did, even though I wanted to go someplace else. I gave it to him, and he watched me, and then he gave me his face in the form of telling me how to smooth out my singing and take out all the parts of my singing that were like this old Japanese man and make it more like my singing, not his. He's giving me all this instruction, all this intention, all this face-to-face meeting, and I can barely stand there.

[40:10]

But I did stand there, so now I can tell you that story. Of course, I could have left earlier and told you this story with me leaving. So that was a Zen story I just told you. Happened in a Zen monastery with two Zen priests. Actually, one Zen priest, because I hadn't yet been ordained. It was a month before I became ordained by him as a Zen priest. But still it's a Zen story, okay? About face-to-face meeting. and about how the student wants to get away from this compassionate teacher who's giving him just what he wants, but he can't stand it, and the teacher patiently accepts the students trying to get away from this gift, which the student's so grateful for, but can't stand to receive.

[41:15]

That's the story. So now I just want to say, ask, I'm calling. No, I'm calling to you. I'm calling upon you. I'm asking you a question. I'm going to ask you a question. The question is, do you want to build a sanctuary, a place for stillness and silence? where we can work on meeting others in fully responsible, genuine, face-to-face conversation. Do you want to practice that way in order to realize the truth and justice for all?

[42:19]

Do you want to? Okay. Well, I do too. So, let's do it. Let's help each other remember that we want to work in this way together to realize peace and justice and truth. They go together. And it's hard when somebody says, I'm not going to call on you. you're you're a terrible person I'm not going to talk to you it's it's hard but do you want to build a sanctuary even when it's that hard even when there's fear of this angry face do you want to build a sanctuary in that fear do you want to you want to great

[43:21]

So two people do, and I have a feeling if I asked some other people, they would say, yes, I do. I do want to build sanctuaries moment by moment to return to the work of peace and justice in this world. I want to remember that. This is my job to do this work. And there's no limit to this job. You can all have this same job. Thank you for supporting me to do this work. I support you to do this work. You don't have to be a Zen priest to do this work.

[44:24]

But if you're a Zen priest, you better do this work. 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 to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit S.F. zc.org and click giving may we fully enjoy the Dharma

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