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. Oh my goodness, look at that. It's a beautiful looking letter. Welcome everybody to Green Gulch. Let's see what it says. Thank you for coming out here on that long drive. You had to go really all the way around the twisty road, didn't you? Let's see, what do we have here? So there's a smaller letter for me, and it says, Dear Linda, that's my name, please read my letter to the children at Green Gulch, and then give them a little something, which I'll give you later. Love... Mother Earth. Oh, my goodness.

[01:02]

This is a letter from Mother Earth. Dear children of the Earth. It's a letter. Let's see what she says. Dear children of the Earth, I'm writing this letter to ask for your help. Do you know who I am? I am the planet Earth. But I am much more than just a planet. I am your home. I am your Mother Earth. And just like you, there's only one of me. So I'm very special. I need to be loved and cared for just like you. And here's a beautiful picture of mountains that are on the Earth. Let me tell you more about myself. I'm the boulders and trees you love to climb. I'm the wet sand at the beach that squishes under your bare feet.

[02:08]

I'm the grass you lie down on when you look up at the clouds. I'm the rivers and lakes and oceans you love to swim in. I'm the cool green forests, the hot red deserts and the cold white glaciers. I love to hug you with my warm sunshine. tickle you with my wind, and kiss you with my rain. We've gotten lots of kisses in the last weeks, haven't we, from Mother Earth? Now let me ask you something. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? You see your eyes, of course. You see your hair, your nose, and your mouth. And if you smile, you see your teeth. Do you know what I see when I look in the mirror? I see all the animals walking on my land. I see all the birds flying in my sky. I see all the fishes, whales, and dolphins swimming in my oceans.

[03:13]

And all of these animals I see are my children. I don't know if you can see, this is a big fish swimming in the ocean. But there's something else I see when I look in the mirror. I see all of you. I see you because you are my children too. All of the animals that live on me are your brothers and sisters. We're all one big family. But many people still don't know they are my children and that all of the animals are their sisters and brothers. They still don't know that we're one big family. Here's part of our family, the big elephant. The animals have told me, we're worried, Mother Earth. We're afraid because our homes are being destroyed by people who don't know better or don't care.

[04:20]

They don't know that we're their brothers and sisters. Mother Earth, these people are cutting down our forests. dumping garbage in your oceans and rivers and filling your sky with pollution. Tell me, my children, where will the animals live when my forests are all gone? Where will the whales and dolphins swim when my oceans are too dirty to live in? And where will the birds fly when my sky is poisoned? Imagine what life would be like with no wild animals living on me. What if there were no elephants left in Africa, no tigers in India, no pandas in China? What if there were no penguins in Antarctica, no kangaroos in Australia, no grizzly bears in the United States? Here's some more pictures of animals.

[05:23]

Imagine my oceans with no whales or dolphins or my empty blue sky with no birds. I would be lonely. Wouldn't you be lonely too? And so, my children, I need your help. Mother Earth needs our help. And the animals need your help too. But Mother Earth, you ask, how can I help you? and all my sisters and brother animals, when you're so big and I'm so small. Well, my children, let me tell you something. I'm not so big. As a matter of fact, I'm quite small. When you go outside at night and look up at all the millions and millions of stars, you'll see how small I really am. Compared to the night sky, I'm no bigger than you. There's some night sky with tigers. But because I look so big, people think I don't know what they do to me.

[06:38]

They think I can't feel what they do to me. But I do know. And I do feel. My children When many people do a little thing to me, it becomes a big thing. It's very important for each person to stop doing things that hurt me or hurt their sisters and brother animals. Remember, there's only one of me, but there are billions of people. So when each person does a little something to help me, it makes a big difference, a very good difference. Lion and more tigers. Now, what do you think is the biggest, most important thing you can do to help me? Mother Earth is asking us, what do you think? What?

[07:39]

Pick up trash is a wonderful thing. If billions of people picked up trash. Yes. Say it again. Plant things. Yes, yes, yes. Well, this is what the letter says. What do you think I need from you more than anything else in the world? I will tell you. What? She didn't say that. She didn't say that. But this is what she says. Mother Earth said... I need you. This is what Mother Earth says. I need you to love me. I need you to love me. That's all. Just love me as much as I love you. Because when you love me, you will care for me. And when you care for me, you will protect me.

[08:46]

And when you care for me and protect me, you will save your home and the homes of your sister and brother. Animals. Here's a picture of Mother Earth with some bears. My children, tell your friends and other people what I've told you. Tell them. Tell them I'm their only home and that I need them to love me and care for me and protect me. Tell them all the animals are their sisters and brothers. and that we are all one big family. And tell them, too, that I always know when they do little things to help me. There's a lion, big lion, relaxing. My dear children of the earth, I will now end my letter to you. Remember, I am your home, and just like you, there's only one of me.

[09:53]

If you love me, Care for me and protect me. I will always be your home forever and ever. I love you with all my heart, Mother Earth. Well, that was a wonderful letter from her. And she sent a little gift for everybody to remember about loving and protecting and taking care of her. So today I hear you're going out into Green College Farm to look at all the things that Mother Earth is beginning to bring as gifts to us for springtime. Is that right? We're going to see some springtime things? No, we're going to talk about being ready to see things. Yes. Yes, good. OK, well, thank you all for coming. And these are from Mother Earth to you, these little heart stickers that you can put on to show that you're going to remember to love

[10:54]

and protect and take care of Mother Earth, okay? So thank you all for coming. You can come up and get your sticker, okay? Thank you. I hope we have enough. You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. Did you get one? I have another one. For your friend, sure. Did you get one? There you go. I have two extra for my family. Your family? I hope we have enough. If we don't have enough, I'll ask for them back. Do you need one for a friend? Here you go. Okay. We want to make sure we've got enough for everybody. Got? You got one already. Okay. Did you get one? Did you get one? You're welcome. Did anybody... not get a sticker everybody have a sticker did you get one yes okay why are you going to help with the kids could you take these to make sure everybody got one did you oh skyler this little person did get one there you go

[12:11]

You're welcome. Did you get a sticker? Skyler, who's helping with the program, has more, okay? Yeah. Ah. Thank you all again for coming and making the the detour. This is going to be going on for the next couple months, this Highway 1 closure.

[13:34]

So, uh, uh, we really appreciate your making the effort to, uh, come all the way around. Well, that was very exciting, that special delivery letter. Goodness. Goodness gracious. Um, so I am, um, recently back from spending the fall at Tassajara, where I was leading the fall practice period there, and then holidays and the January intensive here. And now we're settling back into the regular daily schedule, a new practice period that our abbess Phu will be leading with her, and we have new apprentices. And there's a springtime feeling, a fresh opening again to our daily, everyday mind, ordinary practice.

[14:48]

And Tassajara, just like we are, is experiencing lots and lots of rain and snow on the ridge. The waterfalls are huge. The creek is raging, or I should say, riding high, it's high and wide, and hopefully our spirits are also in that same feeling, coursing along with high spirits. This is difficult times, and there are always difficult times for us, inner difficult times, inner and outer family, difficulties, work, society, culture, the world, the earth. So how do we practice with difficulties? I asked my daughter, who's, I don't know if she's called a millennial or not, but anyway, she's a younger person, what would she like me to speak about today?

[15:54]

And she said, where do you draw energy Where do we draw energy when we're feeling so hopeless or when we have a sinking mind? She didn't use that term. That's a Buddhist term. So that was a wonderful suggestion because it's not just for the times we face now. These are practices for a lifetime. Practices as we course along throughout all parts of our life, times in our life. As some of you know, I went to Washington, D.C. for the march a couple of weeks ago now, and I'm imagining many of you participated as well in some kind of expression that day or that weekend.

[16:55]

And my I've been trying to settle for myself, what is it that's the most important thing right now? Where do I draw energy in order to share energy and be with others and create energy, wholesome energy? I woke up this morning having had a dream, which I'm going to tell you just a little bit about. And when I woke up, it was a strong enough dream that I thought, should I talk about this in lectures? Is this real? Did this happen or not? And then realizing it was a dream image. And the image was that everybody had gotten cut by a knife. small cuts all over all these people.

[17:57]

And I thought, when I woke up, I thought I should really talk about that in lecture. And as I prepared for the lecture, I understood better what that dream was talking about. And I'll see if I can circle round back to come to that. My husband and I are reading, that is, he's reading out loud to me the second in the trilogy called The Subtle Knife. And that also occurred to me when I woke up with this dream about this subtle knife that's in the story that has the sharpest imaginable blade, like can cut through metal and just... And also it can go to other worlds, cut open little... parts that can't be seen where you open to another world.

[19:03]

So that image also of opening to worlds upon worlds, not being in a barrier, in a walled-in space of our own making, of our own world, made by our hearts and minds, but being able to open. open a little crevice even to peek in and to allow flowing. So one of the things that I know is important at all times of our life and during difficult times is taking good care of ourself. And that may mean different things to the different people, There's some very basic, basic practices of taking care of yourself. One is paying attention to your breath, your body and breath.

[20:05]

Are you breathing? You know, asking, where is my breath? Can I take a deep breath? And how does that become that subtle opening to another world or view or sensitivity? Another standard practice that's spoken about quite a bit is the way of taking care of yourself, which has to do with refraining from or being very mindful of what we bring into our consciousness, what we bring into our hearts and minds through the sense doors. So if we're flooded by image and word and sound 24 hours a day, we will lose our equilibrium, lose a settled calmness which is necessary for our wisdom to flow, a settled calm that we can touch into.

[21:17]

And we will become befuddled, muddled, And it will be harder to sort, to understand, to make good decisions, and to act based on good decisions. So maybe some of you have been practicing this already, but I've found nowadays, rather than getting a daily newspaper or a magazine or having the radio on at certain times, it can be literally, as we know, 24 hours a day being fed, being offered and opening to and reading and taking up various stories, news, anecdotes. And often these things are kind of half-baked, meaning that it isn't a completely thorough thing

[22:24]

completely being offered. It's a little tidbit, a little something that grabs you, and if you look at it more fully, there's not much there. But the effect was disturbing, you know, or the image stayed in their mind, or there's some fear that got fed, or anxiety, and so forth. So I was reminded of Thich Nhat Hanh talking about, during the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese master Thich Nhat Hanh, being in this country and hearing by letter in the 70s what was going on in his country to his fellow monks and nuns and the community and villages. And from my understanding about how he practiced with this, he didn't open the mail every single day and read these horrific, stories about he created a time and a place to settle and then read the mail like once a week in order to sustain his own ability to respond without being flooded.

[23:49]

Flooded. And when we're flooded, it's pretty hard to weigh and evaluate what's going on. So this is a practice of taking good care of yourself and to decide what and where you're going to receive these kinds of news and stories and then how often and when and from whom. And do you get the breaking news, banners that are ongoing every two seconds or constantly, and the sharing of things that are unsubstantiated, or what? The Buddha spoke at length in the Pali Canon about what it takes to make good decisions,

[24:51]

What do we need in our life to be able to evaluate things and then act? Because our karma is body, speech, and mind, but first it's mind. What is our intention? What is our motivation? What are we believing in and following in our mind so that we speak and act? And he named ten very powerful fallacies thinking and the way people talk that are fallacious? Is that the word? Fallacies that are not that if you dig deeper you can see that this is not something to be trusted. This is a molding of the truth according to usually greed and hate and delusion as well. So the he There's many places in the Pali Canon where he talks about these.

[25:55]

One is reporting information as true. It's reported, so that makes it true. This is a fallacy. And this is written, you know, 2,000 plus, 2,500 years ago, where the Buddha was talking about these things, and they were passed on and orally transmitted. But they're so current, you know. reported information as true as a fallacy. Traditional values, beliefs, and practices that we believe those are truths, this is also a fallacy. Just because it's been done since who knows when or people believe in that way does not make it true. And to be able to look at our own way of thinking, our own beliefs, and where is, rather than taking it, because it's always been. And the Buddha, in his case, was talking about things like the caste system in India at the time, which was social norm, tradition.

[27:07]

People believed, you know, a certain caste was made from Brahma's foot, so that meant they needed to be servants, you know, these kinds of things. This kind of information passed on with speculation, imagination, beliefs that were fallacy. So he cautioned people. Often these talks were given to lay people, but of course, you know, lay, ordained, it doesn't matter. This is just how human beings bring wisdom into their life and take care of themselves themselves. and the way they make decisions and act. Other things the Buddha said are fallacies, are that social truths are actual truths, that the texts are true, that logical reasoning is always true. You can logically prove various things, but what's at the back of it, you know?

[28:10]

And so forth. There's ten also persuasive skills validates the message is a fallacy. Someone may be a very skilled persuader using all sorts of methods, and this does not mean what the person is saying is valid. And also another fallacy is that individual authority is a dependable criteria for making a decision. So what the Buddha says over and over again is that we need to evaluate carefully, cautiously, and make the decision from our own wisdom that's gathered information, that's weighed things and balanced things, and that we need the freedom and inner freedom to make these kinds of decisions.

[29:14]

that have consequences, our decisions. So the inner freedom to be able to act in an upright way is very, very important. And what does that mean exactly, our inner freedom? And during this time in particular, but really for many years, whenever I come upon some difficult situation where I can't understand how somebody could say that or do that or act in that way, I've found it very helpful to reflect almost immediately on the Buddhist teachings of the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion that are clouding the mind, that those words and actions are flowing from a mind suffused with greed, hate, and delusion.

[30:20]

To me, that may sound like a simplification, but it, to me, gives a kind of bedrock way to start to understand what could possibly be going on here. So the Buddha, in talking about greed, as not having inner freedom. If we have greed for sensory things, for material things, for power, our mind is clouded. And we're not free to balance and evaluate. It's very specific, narrow lust after certain things. And there's not much room for generosity. In fact, Dogen's definition of generosity is non-greed. So the greed, this is a quote from the Buddha in translation, the greedy thought, I will be powerful, power is important to me, produces numerous unwholesome effects.

[31:41]

overwhelmed by greed and devoid of self-control, one makes others suffer unjustly through punishment, imprisonment, destruction of wealth, and character assassination and banishment. This is from the Akusalamula Sukta in the Mahavagga from the Pali Canon. So this is this thought around greed for power produces these actions that are devoid of compassion and wisdom and balance and produces these kinds of actions. It makes others suffer. This is 2,500 years ago. This connecting of greed and greed for power and the effect on others. And when the mind is filled with malice and hatred, ill will, anger, this is also grudges, you know, harboring ill will, then there's the urge to destroy this dissatisfaction and frustration and destroy others or what you see as the causes of that rather than our own inner states suffused with hatred.

[33:11]

And this will fail to reflect wisdom or to make a space for wisdom and compassion as well. And I would say both of these are delusions. Delusion might be another way of looking at being filled with greed and hate and confusion about what's what. So... being filled with malice. We have a belief that hatred will then make it right if we could just destroy this and that. And the Buddha is teaching that hatred was never gotten rid of by hatred or destroyed by more hatred. And those stickers that the kids got, you know, this love. Love is not complacency or some kind of sentimentalism.

[34:14]

It's something deep and basic out of which can flow great wisdom, great compassion, great creativity that we need. So the Buddha says, the absence of greed brightens one's wisdom, preparing the way for numerous wholesome effects. And it establishes mental calmness. And it safeguards individual morality. Because we can do things out of greed and hate that really go against our own ethical, moral, what we hold to be core for us. But infused with greed and hate, we can go against that. So we need mental calmness for the wisdom, and then this compassion, which means absence of greed, absence of hate, in order to evaluate and go forth and respond.

[35:34]

When I say go forth, I mean respond accurately and in accord with conditions. and to make the right decisions for ourself and to help others and convey to others what might be a wholesome and good decision. So this is also the Buddha, presence of compassion and respect as a requirement for right decisions. Compassion and respect is a requirement for making the right decisions. I've mentioned now for taking care of ourselves, breathing, and I want to add to that breathing in a moment, but breathing, being very aware of what we ingest through the sense doors, and then being able to evaluate what it is we're hearing and seeing with calm and wisdom and balance and

[36:49]

do the work that we need to do to find out without falsely accepting whatever. The other couple ways of taking care of ourselves are our zazen practice. When I said breath before, I was thinking more of, throughout the day, finding our breath in in action in our ordinary activities, coming back to breath, driving, at work, whatever. And I think many of you have this practice. It's just remembering it. Can we remember? And how that opens to a freshness right in the middle of difficulties. Our Zazen practice meditation practice, whatever your practice is, now more than ever is a time to commit to not letting that be cut off or to dwindle or take, you know, you have more important things to do.

[38:06]

I think that will sustain us that will express, actually, the reality of our life. We're not sitting in order to sustain us, to be, you know, on the front lines of our life. It's more this is a time to express completely, inconceivably, the reality of our life, this one life together with everyone. So it's how precious it is to have been this life exposed to this teaching and practice and to take it up as one of the most full expression of your love and compassion and wisdom. Another way to take care of ourselves is to

[39:12]

not forget beauty. And when I say beauty, I mean nature. I mean music and poetry and the word literature and these things which I feel are essential to to a full life and around life. And of course, there are times when we let go of those things to concentrate on, you know, in an intensive or a practice period, you know, concentrate more on our meditation, our zazen, and study. However, not to forget the importance, the deep importance of beauty and art in our life. It's not secondary, you know. I've been reading Jane Hirschfeld's new collection of essays.

[40:18]

Let's see, what's the name of it? Ten Windows, How Poetry Saves the World, or Responds to the World. Sorry, Jane, can't remember the exact title. Anyway, in this book she brings up how reading a poem and opening to that image and those words, how it gets inside of us in a way that nothing else can. When we read the word orange, she said, they have shown that we read the word orange and our taste buds respond. It's an art and poetry This is a visceral, physical response. It's not just some mental thing. This is a full body, all over the body, hands and eyes, throughout the body, hands and eyes that respond and are touched.

[41:23]

She mentions the story of the cellist of Sarajevo. Maybe you've heard of the cellist of Sarajevo. This is during The Siege of Sarajevo, this cellist whose name is Vedran Smailovich, I'm not sure if that's exactly how you spell it, was a cellist in the opera, and he played in these, you know, they were bombing Sarajevo, you know, mercilessly, and he would take his cello into these bombed-out places and in the square, places where there had been snipers, and he would go there and play specialist one piece, Alpinone Adagio in G minor.

[42:26]

And I brought it. I thought we could just hear a little of it. So picture the bombing of this city. people in hiding, and this cellist coming out by himself into the open, exposed, totally vulnerable. Was it bravery? Was it love? And playing his cello, undefended, just expressing completely. I think my mic will pick this up. This is, can you hear me?

[44:43]

A YouTube, the live version. It's not one single person, as you can tell, playing this. So you can hear the rest of it. Maybe you know the piece. and giving itself through its music to that town and to all of us. Vulnerable, completely vulnerable. The word vulnerable comes from vulnus, the Latin, which means wound. And wound, to be able to be wounded, to be able to, and wound is an old English word, wound, which means an injury to living tissue caused by a cut or a blow or another impact, typically in which the skin is broken.

[46:05]

Also injury to one's feelings, vulnerability. So the dream I had about these cuts all over, somehow when I was preparing for this talk this morning, I felt that image and Vedran Somailovich playing undefended and vulnerably able to be wounded and all of us wounded and able to be wounded and able to wound others that this is we have to pay attention to this and settle right there.

[47:08]

The word bodhicitta which translates as Bodhi, heart, mind, awakening, heart, mind, is described in this book, Go to the Places that Scare You by Pema Chodron, which was written in 2001. And when I ascended the mountain sea to be Abbas in the year 2000, I asked her to include some words in the ceremony and she sent that as an admonition for me, go to the places that scare you. And I remember thinking, wouldn't we usually say, don't go to the places that scare you? But this is the admonition, go to the places that scare you. When we're in those places that scare us, we're vulnerable and Without going there, if we stay away, we will be walled up and trying to keep everybody out or any information out because we don't want to be wounded or we're too, you know, vulnerable.

[48:35]

But when we go to the places that scare us and open, there. That's where bodhicitta comes. It comes, she describes it, Pema Chodron does, as a kind of wound. And a kind of wound of the heart. And out of that comes and flows compassion and love and the effort to be there for others and take care of oneself as well, and practice and vows. So the wounded healer is another image, you know, to be able to help others. We have to be able to feel our own wounds and be vulnerable. That's how we are able to be with others.

[49:40]

And the bodhicitta is the kind of seed of the bodhisattva vow, or is the bodhisattva vow. When one feels this heart-awakening wound and listens to the cries of the world, something powerful and unstoppable comes flowing out. So this image of a

[50:42]

subtle knife that opens into worlds that might scare us, actually, but with a settled mind and a heart-mind full of loving-kindness, compassion, generosity. I was going to say, you don't have to worry. I think what I mean by that is, this is our way. And by walking that way, we can find out how to trust that way. Thank you all very much. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[52:04]

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