I'm so happy you could make it to Wednesday night lecture. We're going to follow the regular San Francisco Zen Center lecture form in that I'll make an incense offering. And I don't think there's anyone with fragrance sensitivities in the room. So I'll just leave the incense burning. And then we'll do three boughs together. We'll do the lecture chat, which the hosts will put up online. The hosts this evening are Joshin and Brendan, and thank you very much. And then once we do the chat, I'll probably speak for about 20 or 25 minutes. I feel like in this time of social distancing, it's important to leave time for people to participate.

[01:01]

And there's plenty to say if people don't have questions, but I want them to leave it open if there's questions or comments or sharing. So take a breath. Get comfortable. Let's balance ourselves from the buttock bones all the way up. Uplift your chest. And in three dimensions, make yourself a good container. for a Dharma event this evening. So make yourself tall, not just in the center of the body, but in your sides. And make yourself open in that there's a spread along the collarbones and along the abdomen. And make yourself deep in that from the back of your lower ribs to the front of the stern, There is a gentle diagonal lift, but without forcing.

[02:08]

So let the breath be your guide. Let the ease of your breath be a sense organ for the uprightness, openness, and depth of your posture this evening. Now we'll make an incense offering. As I make the offering to the Buddha, you can also make the offering to the Buddha or to anyone who needs help right now. Unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept.

[04:43]

I vow to taste the truth of the Tatavita's words. Good evening, everybody. Welcome again in this time of social distancing. I'd like to start with a poem. And this poem was written by Katie O'Meara and maybe inspired by someone in Italy. whose husband has been ill during this period of coronavirus. And the people stayed home and read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art and played games and learned new ways of being and were still. and listened more deeply.

[05:46]

Some meditated. Some prayed. Some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses. They made new choices. They dreamed new images. and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully as they had been healed.

[06:50]

So that brings us to the question, what will allow us to heal, to heal ourselves and the earth? What will allow us instead of, you know, binging endlessly on food and movies and only binging. I don't mean it's never okay to binge. It's okay to binge. You need to binge, binge. But if it's only binging or if it's only lying in a fetal position with the blankets over your head or mourning everything that we've lost, then we must ask ourselves, what are the spiritual resources that we could call on in this time of social distancing? What helps us stay connected to the earth, to ourselves, and to each other?

[07:57]

And the thing is, as humans, we're social animals. We're nourished by contact with other humans. And unless... We find practices to support our felt sense of interconnection. We'll pine for touch and connection. We'll lose our sense of connection that comes from mirroring and receiving and giving with each other. So let's take a few minutes to understand what are our spiritual resources to stay. in the realm of connection. So tonight we're going to focus on practices from the Zen tradition that support us to find a felt sense of intimacy in this extraordinary time. We have to start with patience. We must start with patience because that's what the situation is asking of us, first and foremost, to be able to stay at home.

[09:03]

But then we'll build on that. will accessibly, will find ways to address the feeling of lack and begin to develop step-by-step inner satisfaction, inner connection. And so I hope to save time to be comfortable and just with each other discuss the lecture material and see what you've been doing and what you've been calling on right now. So the background teachings that I'm going to use, in case you want to look them up later, are the bodhisattvas' six paramitas, the perfections of wisdom. And they establish this time as a bodhisattva gate. Bodhisattva means awakening beings. This time is a gate for awakening beings. But to do that, we have to... be in our best selves, and that's called perfection.

[10:07]

So there are bases of training to rest in our basic virtue and to relieve afflictions, both for ourselves and for others. And so tonight, in this material, I'm drawing heavily on the Avalokiteshvara chapter of the Samdhi Nirmalchana Mahayana Sutra, Samdhi Nirmalchana Sutra. And the second teaching I'll be drawing on is Buddha's Eightfold Path that help us understand what is specific action, particularly in the conventional world of shopping and calling people at this time. And then also I'll be drawing on some scientific findings that are pretty recent and established an understanding of the perceptual systems that condition how we experience the world. So how we experience the world can be either harmful or helpful depending on our perceptions.

[11:15]

And so the six paramitas, the eightfold path, science, and my training in Zen, particularly the training of San Francisco Zen Center. So patience first. Patience first. Patience is a part we took called shanti. Patience. So the first practice of patience is stay home. The second practice of patience is even if you've washed your hands 20 times, Wash them 21 times. Have what we don't want, especially if through some chance we happen to become ill or a friend or a loved one becomes ill.

[12:20]

So we have to, patience is the ability to hold insults and we tend to experience things that happen that we don't want, or when things even happen that we do want at the end, we tend to experience that as an insult to something about ourselves. So we must practice patience so that we have the wherewithal to hold big picture in mind rather than obsessing on the insulting and hateful aspects of what's going on. And then, just like before we chanted, how do we build an upright, open, and deep practice container of body, speech, and mind? So we have to be patient to understand that it takes many, many repetitions, even a million repetitions or two million repetitions, to be tall enough, wide enough, and deep enough to hold on, to uphold ourselves.

[13:27]

in any circumstance that occurs, to hold the negative emotions that arise and to contemplate the positive experiences that occur that are outside of or greater than what our previous psyche could hold. You know, in the Diamond Sutra, it's called patient acquiescence. in dharmas that are nothing of itself. Dharma that's nothing of itself and which fails to be produced. So enlightenment fails to be produced. And enlightenment is nothing in itself. We have to be patient with our limitations in this situation. And so when we have to be able to hold the negative emotions that arise, that takes patience, it takes that big container. so that we can stabilize our relationship with those emotions and settle into the messages they have for us.

[14:34]

For instance, our rage at the situation could turn into an understanding of what need isn't being met, what boundary of ours is being transgressed, what respect haven't we yet felt or understood in this situation. fear comes up, anxiety comes up. And the deeper message of fear can be, what support do I need? And sadness and grief certainly come up. And the hidden message of sadness is, how much time do I need? How big does my perspective need to be? How does my understanding of gratitude need to change? But none of those hidden messages can be heard, can be felt or responded to unless and until we can practice patience.

[15:36]

Patience can be as simple as a negative emotion comes and you just take 10 breaths and it's there. And yet there's a bigger picture in which it embraces. And so the sustaining of patience allows us to build many good things in our practice, both conventionally and also in our ability to endure that which is larger than ourselves. The practice of patience allows us to actually give ourselves time to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, to touch, and to build a mind that can the moment by moment by moment, day by day by day, month by month by month, lessons that events, just as they are, are always giving to us.

[16:40]

Those big messages become developed as our heart becomes more upright, more open and deeper. with the practice of patience. So please don't ignore patience. It seems like, oh, patience, patience. No, I'm not patient. I can't be patient. But yes, you can be a little more patient. We can be a little more patient. And so patience is the ground on which right effort can occur. And... Right effort is a basic practice for all six of the Kharaguttas or professions. You can't hold or sustain right view, for instance, without making an effort necessarily. Right view is easy when you're being wise, but what about when you're not being wise? Like in a situation like this, when someone gets too close to you and you get scared.

[17:43]

That's something that happened to me. The other day, I was on the street taking a walk, and someone came close to me and kept walking close to me no matter what. I wasn't very wise. I was scared. So right effort meant understanding that my fear, if I'd already given them feedback when they haven't done anything different, then my safety, is my responsibility. So I have to stop and let them go on. That takes an effort to do. Right effort supports our putting the ideals of our deep intention, our generosity, our ethics, and our patience into action. Right effort supports the mental and emotional development that we call right wisdom. And so what

[18:45]

do we need to do what are we talking about when we're talking about right effort well right effort is when we meet each day with consistency consistency is difficult to do not because it's difficult to do once but because it's difficult to patiently repeat the effort and action that we're trying to learn but the consistency builds like a muscle as we work through obstacles and difficulties that arise at this time. Like groceries, groceries are difficult at this time. Laundry, you have to use a laundromat, it's difficult. But keep a consistent mind. And that will grow our capacity for consistency grows. Not judging oneself or another until conceptualization loses its grip on us.

[19:47]

Strength. As I said, moral action in this situation or any situation requires the strength and it builds the strength to learn from failures. Enthusiasm and discipline until we stop losing what we've developed. Persistence until we drop dualistic separation. So right effort has very conventional building blocks. And so what's an example of a kind of right effort that we can make during shelter in place? So I want to build on what Abbot David said in the Dharmet last night in Zazen and in the work meeting today. And I'm paraphrasing, but basically, It was like what I said at the beginning of this talk, that we depend on mirroring from other people and touch because we're social animals.

[20:58]

We're built that way. And so he realized that he was spending so much time online relating to a flat screen that he was losing awareness in his body. And David, you know, you're not the only one with you on that one, 100%. It's hard. You know, all the hugging myself in the world, it's not the same thing as relating to or being able to relate to the example of other people just in front of me, their uprightness, their breathing, and so on, and being able to respond to that. And so David was involved. encouraging us to bring awareness into our bodies during the day. And that takes effort to remember that we don't just have bodies, we are embodied. So that's helped him notice where he's holding tension. And tension's like an armory, it's like a small-lined armory that disassociates us from what is.

[22:05]

And actually, I want to build on that by saying that there's two kinds of awareness. So David was touching objects around the house to, you know, here's a piece of paper, touching the paper, to the papers touching me to get a sensation of touch. And that's the physical sensation of touch, which is called discriminative or objective touch or sensing. And there's actually mindful ways to sense. And I suggest, highly recommend the work of Charlotte Selfer and Charles Brooks. And Lee Klinger-Lesser is carrying on that work in Marin. And Charlotte Selfer used to teach sensory awareness at San Francisco Sense Center and all over the place. in Mexico as well, and Sanibel Island, all over the place, until she was over 100 years old, and she was amazing.

[23:15]

She was joined by her husband. So there are ways to practice sensory awareness, but sensory awareness brings us beyond discriminative awareness, which is sensing. So the objects of our sensations, for instance, a wall. Walls are hard. You can't have fingers and walls in the same place at the same time. And so that hardness is something that we can sense with our hands. The warmth or heat of the chair or exhaust that we're sitting on, of the air around us, is another quality. It's color. These are qualities of rupa or form. And that's discriminative awareness. But what makes that an actual... right effort or wise effort when it comes to the practice of awakening in the context of social distancing. Just discriminative awareness of touch won't do it.

[24:21]

We have to understand that there's also a socially effective touch, which we're missing. So, Touch is used for social communication. Like when we hug people, that's social communication. Or, you know, like if we tap someone and say, excuse me, that's a form of communication. And a lot of information can be transmitted extremely succinctly. And it's one of our main ways of communication. Think of the way a mother holds a child. You know, think of the way. When you haven't seen someone for a long time, you put your hand on them and look into their eyes. You know, so this is emotional touch or subjective touch. And Suzuki Roshi was an amazing example of this. If you ever look at the videos of him, which are up online, you'll see that how he holds things.

[25:27]

Or how he bows, how he meets the floor when he bows, how he holds a cup and drinks. And I'm using the present sense because it touches me right here. You know, because the small thing that he's doing tells the whole story. It tells the big picture story in the touch of the cup, the warmth of the tea, the fragrance of the tea, the taste of the tea, the feeling of the tea. And as it flows down. So it's a combination of discriminative touch because we had not drank tea that was too hot. And also affective touch. Effective touch, you know, if you're familiar with the vagal work that's been coming out of the different neurological systems that we have and the different sorts of neuroendocrine communication that goes on in the body. it's part of the dorsal or relatedness pathway in the body and the consistent practice of interconnection.

[26:38]

You know, whether a person is right with us or not, the consistent practice of interconnection, which has both objective and subjective elements, is satisfying. We experience that touch in us. There was a study that was initiated by Stanford nurses one time, probably about 15 years ago. I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong or whatever, but the nurses discovered that on their watch, people who were prayed for did better, whether they knew whether the person was praying knew their name or not. So that's an example of a subtle touch. So those are the two types of awareness. And what are some practices to awaken and develop our capacity to hold both simultaneously?

[27:46]

So the types of touches that we have, we have to check our ability sense of touch to see if it really is satisfied or if it's not satisfied. It won't be satisfied just with discriminative touch, just with objective touch. So we have to check with ourselves and say, does this touch act as a bridge for me to the integration of body and mind? Does it nourish me to practice the middle way? Like in my emotions, there are glomming onto them, nor withdrawing from them. Does this touch that I'm putting forward or experiencing right now build my sense of relationship and interconnection in the world? Does it integrate subjective touch, which is the emotional touch, with objective touch, which is the discriminator?

[28:51]

And these are things we can check with ourselves because the objective touch happens with a narrow perceptual system that's based on seeing moving objects and doing things to them or fleeing from them. Whereas the subjective touch or the middle way between subjective and objective touch promotes a respectful social integration, whether person is near or far, whether it's with a cup of tea or with another human being, and we can practice this. And through patience with our failures, through the effort of repetition, we can build the capacity of body, of heart, and of mind to hold the infinite benefits that that kind of touch can bring. So we practice, we can, one of the easiest ways to practice touch is to think, may I be well and happy.

[29:59]

Okay? May I touch myself with safety, with food, with sleep, with cleanliness, with exercise. May I nourish my senses with beauty, even if I'm watching the cherry blossoms. or the poppies bloom online, even if I'm hearing the opera online or singing myself. And may these develop my consciousness. May I be armored with my basic intention. May I apply it to virtuous action. Good food instead of bad food. May it be for everyone's benefit. for their freedom or their release from suffering. And just like I put a mask on myself, even if it's just a cloth mask, then may it start with my own well-being and spread to everyone.

[31:06]

Because everyone's well-being is our well-being. So I just have one more thing, and then... Questions and answers or discussions. And this thing is a follow-up that went viral. It's by Brother Richard Hender, who's an Irish Capuchin mom, and it's called Lockdown. Here we go. I'm just going to read it once, then you have a chance to see. He says, yes, there is fear. Yes, there is isolation. Yes, there is panic buying. Yes, there is sickness. Yes, there is even death. But they say that in Wuhan, after so many years of noise, you can hear the birds again. They say that after just a few weeks of quiet, the sky is no longer thick and fused, but blue and gray and clear.

[32:13]

They say that in the streets of Assisi, people are singing to each other across the empty squares, keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the west of Ireland is offering free meals and delivery to the house band. Today, a young woman I know is busy spreading flyers with her number through the neighborhood so that elders may have someone to call on. Today, churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary. All over the world, people are slowing down and reflecting.

[33:16]

All over the world, people are looking at their neighbors in a new way. All over the world, people are waking up to a new reality, to how big we really are, to how little control we really have, to what really matters, to love. So we pray. And we remember that, yes, there is fear, but there does not have to be hate. Yes, there is isolation, but there does not have to be loneliness. Yes, there is panic buying, but there does not have to be meanness. Yes, there is sickness, but there does not have to be disease of the soul. Yes. There is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love.

[34:20]

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now. Today, breathe. Listen. Behind the factory noises of your panic, the birds are singing again. The sky is clearing. Spring is coming. and we are always encompassed by love. Open the windows of your soul and though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, sing! So let's chant and then Q&A. Being are numberless I vow to save them delusions are inexhaustible I vow to end them Dharma gates are boundless I vow to enter them Buddha's way is unsurpassable

[35:41]

I vow to be comment. Thanks. Let's open it up. If you have a comment or question, please click on your participant button at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Then click on the blue raise hand button on your participant window. There's no questions or comments. Well, please interrupt me any time. We do have a question from Terry. Okay, Terry. Yes, I would like to, what you said about having, I can't remember the word you used, but setting up a regular, you know, trying to make your life more consistent.

[36:57]

What was the word you used? I would just consistency was one of the words. Consistency was one of the words for my effort. Talk more on that because it's always been an issue for me. And then it's my life has gotten even more kind of scattered. And, you know, when I sleep, when I do whatever is all all over the place. So I'd love to for you to talk more about that. Well, consistency is hard, you know, because, Terry, you're kind of an independent soul for one thing. And a lot of your life, a lot of the life energy that you show all the time is based on response. You know, so... You have a creative response, but what's consistent in that creative response is that you register what is actually happening so that you're responding accurately.

[38:07]

And one can start by being, by keeping the, keeping attention on what is happening the same in every moment. And that's one of the basic forms of consistency. So for you, responding is a really well-practiced form of consistency, except in instead of focusing on the objectives of what's out there, who's out there, to focus on the unity of what's coming in of what's being received and of who's receiving it, to focus on that touch point. That is a touch point of body, speech, and mind that has the same content in every moment.

[39:15]

It's the same in every moment. But we can practice consistency also. Consistency has an element of making the same kind of effort. So to have consistency, we have to have an intention for our effort. Like, okay, I have an intention that during this time of stay at home, I'm going to eat nourishing food, which means that I have to eat a certain number of vegetables every day. So it means I have to know that I have that intention. And then when the opportunity comes up to eat vegetables or not eat vegetables, I have to eat the vegetables, which means I have to buy the vegetables. So I have to be thinking about vegetables when I get the food and not about something else. So that's consistency. Consistency happens in the present, but the present includes

[40:18]

making an intention for the future. And so I hope that makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. That's helpful. Yeah. I thought I saw some other, another comment. We have a question from Catherine. Yes. I've never done this before. Hi. Hi. Oh, and I was late because I was pressing a million buttons and... Oh, don't worry. Calling Mexico and places I didn't know what number. In any case, thank you. Thank you very much. I struggle with patience. And I really need the patience for dummy version. I practice with it all the time. But I find... I need more patients now and I wouldn't say I have less patients, but because there's so many more situations that require patients that it's wearing thin.

[41:24]

And when I bumped into a neighbor, the laundromat in brief, she gave me a definitely an idea that I wasn't, that I was looking very agitated. So I just, I just would love, you said a lot tonight. I just would love any more, tidbits about patients. In a second, it can leave me. Okay. So what I would suggest is, okay, let's say that you've had an intention to become strong and someone at the gym handed you 50 pounds. He would walk away and you pick up the five pounds or the three pounds or two pounds. So that's in a nutshell my offering to you this evening is to, in your life, look for difficulties that you're not ready to meet yet and get support for them.

[42:26]

And find the two or three pound ones to practice with. Don't worry, next week you can do three or five pounds, but this week it's two or three pounds. And that will allow you to stabilize your practice of patience at a realistic level so that it can begin to grow. It can nourish that practice of patience by remembering your intention. And what I would suggest is you get 10 little pieces of paper and you post them all over your apartment or your house, like on your mirror and on your computer or whatever. And you can write patience. And you can put little smiley faces or whatever you want that will encourage you to look at those signs. And just do that for a week. So thank you. And I think we have time for one more question because it's about 828. And I promise to let everybody rest at 830.

[43:31]

We have one other question that was written in the chat window. Takato asks, Takato asks, what do I do with the desire to go out into the sun on a beautiful day, twice, three times? Is there greed for sunshine? I think sunshine is a nutrient. You know, we're built to need it. So there are safe ways to get sunshine. There's opening a window and sitting in the sun. There's going up on the roof of the building and being in the sun. There's walking into a courtyard and being in the sun. And there's walking around the block at times when other people aren't there and being in the sun. There's sunshine with social distancing. And it's nourishing to be out there and to be in the rhythm of our stuff on the ground or just to feel the breeze on the face of the hands and move with it.

[44:37]

I would say do what you need to do. The things that we were talking about with patients are many. And the supports also need to be many. And sunshine is a good one. So thank you. I think we're out of time. And so I have to stop. But please feel free to... Get in touch one way or the other if this sparks anything for you. I want to thank you so much for your presence and your practice in my life. You're important to me. And your intention is felt by me. And I'm looking forward to being able to see you in person. in the right way, at the right time.

[45:38]

Thank you so much. And good evening. Get some good rest.

[45:44]

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