This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. It's a beautiful day. Such lucky people. A monk asked the Zen master, what was the Buddha's teaching of a lifetime? And the teacher replied, an appropriate response. So last Sunday, I entered Cloud Hall, a room right out there. And I was on my way to the Zendo to listen to the speaker. And when I arrived, there were two people, my friends, standing there.

[01:02]

with a look on their faces that there was definitely something wrong. So then one of them said to me, she's not here yet. And I knew right away they meant the speaker. And then the person said, what are you going to do? And my first thought was, me? Why me? then I remembered that I'm the abbess, and probably it would be me that would need to do something, like come in here unprepared to meet everyone, hopefully with an appropriate response. Anyway, the speaker showed up a few minutes later. She'd actually been there all along. You can't hear? Hakusho, can you help with that? I guess I should talk to see if it's working on.

[02:06]

Is that better? Good. You're welcome. Oh, yes. So anyway, I came on into the Zendo after that. And I have a feeling that one has, after a close call, a little bit of a tingle. So, anyway, this is what I want to talk about today. How do we respond appropriately when we're called on by the challenging and ever-changing circumstances in our lives? When loved ones are ill or when we have become ill or when the world that we assumed was a certain way that we could count on seems to have changed and ways we don't understand. So last time that I spoke here, which was a few Sundays ago, I called the sudden appearance of what seems to be an alternative reality a sea change.

[03:16]

A sea change is a term that Shakespeare used in his play The Tempest. And a sea change usually is a result of a lot of challenges and failures and missteps that create a metamorphosis in the main character. and hopefully toward a better outcome. And the example I gave is of the young prince, Shakyamuni, transforming into a Buddha. This was a sea change. So at that time, I also talked about Chinese Chan master Dongshan. In Japanese, he's called Tozan, Tozan Ryokai. And he's the founder of this particular school of Buddhism, called Sotozen, so the Soto is Tozan. And this school eventually arrived in Japan in the 12th century with Zen master Dogen, who'd gone to China and met a teacher from the Soto lineage.

[04:25]

And then it came here to California in the 20th century with Zen master Shinryo Suzuki Roshi. So in Dongshan's teaching, as in all Buddhist teaching, it is really important as students of the Dharma that we hear about, study, and eventually become adept at what are called the two truths. Two truths. The relative truth, the truth of our everyday lives, and the ultimate truth. which is much harder to see, although it's what we truly are. So Dongshan presents the two truths in a poetic form in a very beautiful poem called The Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, which we chant here once a week in the morning. So the students here are familiar with that poem.

[05:27]

And the names he uses for the two truths for the relative truth and the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth he calls the host. The host. And the relative truth is the guest. So this is fairly easy to understand, that relationship between a host and a guest. What's a little trickier is when you imagine the host to represent reality itself, you know, the entire universe. and the guest to represent each one of us as tiny little features of the universe. Suzuki Roshi called these two truths, or you could think of them as points of view, the big mind and the small mind. So when we first hear about two truths, I think there's something deeply familiar in hearing about big mind and small mind.

[06:37]

As though we've suspected something like that all along. And there's this end saying that goes, you know, this is your face before your mother and father were born. Your original face. Our original face. before you thought of yourself as a particular person of a certain age with very validating identifications like driver's license, social security number, marriage license, credit rating, and so on. And also how you might think of yourself not only without those identifications, but perhaps without your own name. without being called a name of any kind or a gender, any of those things that we tend to say, that we think of ourselves as, oh, I'm this or I'm that. Without all of that, what's left? Well, that's your original face.

[07:40]

Big mind. So there's a very famous and familiar story and features this consideration in the teaching. when Bodhidharma, who's the first Indian ancestor who traveled a long way to get to China, he's met by the emperor of China. The emperor of China knew who he was. He had a big name. I'm the emperor of China. So he meets this monk, traveling monk, and he says to him, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths, of the two truths? The emperor was pretty serious in his practice. He was a Buddhist, you know, He says, it was a real question. What's the highest meaning of the holy truths? And Bodhidharma says, vast emptiness, nothing holy. Big mind talking. And so the emperor's kind of taken back and he said, who are you facing me?

[08:44]

And again, from big mind, Bodhidharma says, don't know. This is an honest answer. Don't know. So Dungshan, at the moment of his own awakening, looked at his reflection in the water of a river that he was crossing, and he said, just this person, just this person, as if he was seeing himself for the very first time. and seeing himself in the light of these two truths, as both a guest of the universe and as the universe itself, hosting all that he held dear, as all of us hold dear. You know, the starry sky at night, the wind and the rain, a warm meal, and the wise and gentle teachings of the Buddha.

[09:48]

Now out of his deep gratitude for recognizing his own dual nature, his dual citizenship, one vast and beyond his comprehension and the other one quite small and yet quite capable of caring for others. So he began to share, as the Buddha did, a pathway that he'd found to this miraculous realization of who he truly was. And so he wrote a poem on the occasion of the river crossing. See if you can hear this dance between the guest and the host, the big mind and the small mind, yourself and the universe, each of you and the universe. Taking heed not to seek it elsewhere, as if it were distant from myself. I now go on alone, just this person. Yet I meet him everywhere. He's now exactly me, but I am not now him.

[10:58]

Now you see it, now you don't. You should meet in this way, for only then can you realize thus, that just this is it. Right now, right now. It's hard to believe. But right now is where we are most tender and most intimate. So this poem reminded me of the Christian and the Sufi mystics who have always spoken in such loving terms of their own encounters with the host. And even though their language and their explanations are different depending on which tradition they were traveling when they had their encounters, the feelings haven't changed. You know, we humans share a certain set of feelings in common, particularly that possibility of awe and wonder. So I've really always enjoyed reading the mystics.

[12:02]

When I was young, in particular, I liked Saint Teresa of Avalar, who was prone to ecstatic trance. And during her meditations, that's what confirmed her faith. And there was also Saint Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote beautiful songs. She wrote texts on botany, and she invented a whole new language. And she'd started having mystical experiences when she was three years old. And she said, I saw all things in the light of God from that time on. Just this person. Our face reflected in the water, in the mirror of the world. And then there is the much-loved Rumi, a famous Sufi poet. who gave humanity some of the most beautiful spiritual language of them all, especially for those of us inclined toward a kind of poetical vision in which this relative tiny self is embraced by the great universe and conjoined there, this loving embrace.

[13:10]

Rumi's a lover. He loves his encounter. He calls it the beloved. The host is the beloved. even when it's only just a momentary glimpse. Here's a Rumi poem. It's called Any Chance Meeting from a Book Called Say I Am You. In every gathering, in any chance meeting on the street, there's a shine, an elegance rising up. Today, I recognize that, that jewel-like beauty is the presence Our loving confusion. The glow in which watery clay gets brighter than fire. The one that we call a friend. I begged, the small one says. Is there a way into you? A ladder? The big one says. Your head is the ladder.

[14:12]

Bring it down under your feet. The mind... This great globe of awareness is a starry universe that when you push off from it with your foot, a thousand new roads come clear, as you yourself do at dawn each day, sailing through the light. It's good to read, Rumi, when you're feeling low. Again, a booster shot. Zen's contribution to the mystical literature is in bringing the high-flying visionaries back down to earth with a thud. So here's a Zen story that's told in the Tenzo Kyokun, the instructions to the Zen cook, written by Zen master Dogen. One day, Wu Zhao was working as the Tenzo at a monastery in the Wutai Mountains.

[15:15]

when suddenly the Bodhisattva Manju Sri appeared above the pot where he was cooking. Wu Zhao hit him with a spoon. Later he said, even if Shakyamuni Buddha were to appear above the pot, I would hit him too. So in Zen, this kind of visionary experience is viewed as nothing more than the appearance of a hungry ghost or of our very vivid imaginations. It's called makyo. And the first Zen ancestor, Shakyamuni Buddha, was awakened when he realized that Mara, the evil one, who is the master of illusions, was trying to scare him away from his meditation on the true nature of reality. the true meaning of the guest within the host, which is what the young man was trying to find, you know. Who was he really? He had a suspicion, but no confirmation yet.

[16:21]

So as the young prince sat there for long hours under the Bodhi tree, many scary images appeared before him. There were armies of vicious orcs and goblins. followed by seductive men and women calling his name quite sweetly. Come and play with us. But he sat there. He just was very determined to stay still and to wait, see what was next. And what was next was Mara, the evil one himself, who appeared shrouded in a dark mist. And Mara says to the young prince, well, I tried my best to scare you away from the seat of enlightenment, so now I will destroy you myself. To which the prince responded, no, you won't, because I know who you are. Amara hissed, you don't know who I am.

[17:23]

And the young prince, transforming into an awakened one, said, you are myself. And with that, Mara vanished into the mist. And there the Buddha sat under a tree on the grass with butterflies and bees flying all around in the sight of a lovely young woman carrying a jar of clean water on her head. Precious water. Water protected. And for the first time, this young man knew that he wasn't separate from the universe. He wasn't alone. There was nothing outside of himself. The host was within the host. Great mind, great mind, in all directions. And he said, the entire universe in the ten directions is the true human body. So then I wanted to return to this question that I asked at the beginning, you know, what's an appropriate response to the changing circumstances in our lives?

[18:38]

And just as with the two truths, there are two kinds of responses. The first is an enlightened response that's connected with our big mind, our big view of things, such as the ones that were given by the Buddha. The responses he gave we call the Dharma. or the truth or the teaching of reality itself, by reality itself. In the very beginning of his teaching career, the Buddha didn't offer a lot of systematic instructions to his disciples, but rather he simply responded to each one of them by turn as various situations arose. To one he said, don't lie. To another he said, don't steal. And another, don't speak of the faults of others. Don't sexualize people. Don't hold grudges. And don't withhold your support from anyone or any person or any being.

[19:47]

And so on. And in this way, the guidelines for our life and community were formed. And little by little, those guidelines were written down and collected in a body of literature called the Vinaya, the rules of deportment. Many of those rules we still hold very dear in our efforts to live together here on this land in peace and harmony with one another. In this tradition, the Mahayana tradition in which our school of Zen is located, we call these guidelines from the Buddha the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. So what the Buddha was basically recommending to his disciples and to those of us who are living here today and practicing today was a kind of opposite world from the usual, in which rather than devoting ourselves to ourselves, to our own benefit, we devote ourselves to others, to someone else.

[20:55]

Someone once asked, you know, what do you do when you're feeling discouraged? And the teacher responded, You know, do something for someone else. In a search for liberation from suffering, the young prince actually undermined his own self-confidence, his self-love, his self-conceit, and his ignorance. What we call self-clinging, which was a very radical act that diverted... the flow of his ambition away from collecting more goodies for himself to basically turning his interest and energy toward preserving the precious resources of this planet for everyone else. So this is the primary vow, first to awaken and then to live for the benefit of others. And the way we do that is by endeavoring to help them awaken as well.

[21:59]

That's what it means to save all beings. Save them from suffering the darkness of delusion. So the people around Zen Center that you see who are wearing robes in those small squares that are hanging from straps around their necks, called raksus, those people have asked and received the Bodhisattva precepts. And we do that in a formal ceremony in order to celebrate their commitment to these vows, these promises, these efforts that we make to understand and to live an enlightened life as a human being. I've told this before, but one time I went in to my teacher, I was in a bit of an upset about the world, as often I am, especially these days. And I held on to my robes and I said, how is this going to save the world? And he said, well, it might save it from you. Lots of nodding heads.

[23:00]

Yes, we can only hope. So when we take this vow to live for others, you know, it's much like a marriage. And we do it before witnesses, our family, our friends, our community. And then I think it's true that for a brief moment or two, together we actually see into the heart of creation herself. You know, that big mind, that wholesomeness, that's at the source of our human life. Our own true body, our own true life. And it's from that place that we respond appropriately. The other kind of response, which may or may not be appropriate, is based on good intentions, albeit from a very limited understanding. Anytime we respond from the point of view of our small minds often leads us to get into certain kinds of trouble. You know, I think we all know that. There's the inevitable exaggerations or misunderstandings, miscommunications.

[24:07]

You know, you push the wrong send button and all those emails go out to the wrong people. I mean, it's just nonstop. Getting in trouble over and over again. And the results that arise from our small mind's response to the world are referred to in the Buddhist teaching as the karmic consequences. Karma. Karma means action. Actions that we take that have results guaranteed in the future. It's like Amazon delivery, you know. You do something and sure enough, here comes the outcome. Oh no. Did I order that? Yes, you did. Yes, you did. So karmic responses are made up of illusions about how we see the world, how we see reality. Just like the illusions that the Buddha saw while he was waiting there under the tree. And he was attacked by Mara with his squadron of demons. In fact, without the illusions, there really is quite enough for us to do right here on the ground.

[25:15]

We don't have to be all caught up in our fear-filled or lust-filled fantasies. I mean, we really can just make pots of soup to feed one another, feed the hungry monks. It's enough. Whack that vision right off the pot. Get out of here. I'm busy. I've got work to do. The laws of karma are quite simple, although they are somewhat hard to believe and they're quite hard to see. You have to study these things somewhat and then try to see if you can apply them to this fairly unstructured present moment. But when we look very deeply at our human world and we look at the patterns of cause and effect, the one that we all create together, the workings of karma are not as mysterious as they may seem or may sound. It's worth the trouble. The basic law is that good intentions and good deeds lead to good results, and bad intentions and bad deeds lead to bad results.

[26:24]

For example, I was also going to add that there is a devil in the details, however. It sounds simple. Good leads to good, bad leads to bad, but it's not a direct line. Recently we were studying here at Zen Center the importance of understanding that our intentions regarding one another are maybe not as important as the impact we have on one another. And I think we'd all like to be able to just excuse ourselves and probably have many times by saying, well, that's not what I meant. That wasn't my intention. And I think we all know that that doesn't usually go very well. So I think oftentimes the best answer from our limited karmic point of view is simply to say that you're sorry. And that you'll do your best not to do it again. Now that you know. Now that you know.

[27:29]

So then I thought, well, you might be wondering by now if it's even possible to make an appropriate response without the full, complete, perfect enlightenment of a Buddha. And the answer is, probably not. So, however, and gratefully, there's a pathway and some guidelines that have been laid down by the Buddhas and ancestors which do provide us with an appropriate set of helpful hints to guide us along the way toward that full realization of reality itself. the big mind. So I've already mentioned the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. That's a set of guidelines. There are also six perfections, and there are also the Eightfold Path, and there are a lot of other numbered sets of helpful ways to practice. Much like the guidance systems that come along with our modern automobiles, the teachings of the Buddhist tradition

[28:43]

can help us to arrive safely at our destination before we have complete understanding. And I think the destination for most of us is probably to be living in a peaceful and harmonious life and world together with all beings. Something simple like that. We can imagine it. But how do we get there from here, where we are now? We seem to have made a U-turn Master Dongshan, whose enlightenment poem I recited at the beginning of the talk, he also wrote a guidance system that's made up of five positions, or five ranks, which I've been talking about in the current practice period that's going on here at Green Gulch right now. We're a few weeks into the practice period. So last time I spoke on Sunday, I mentioned two of the five ranks and talked about them a bit. So I'm not going to say much more about them right now in any detail, but I'll give you kind of an outline of what it's all about.

[29:49]

The five ranks are basically a very simple way for a spiritual seeker to orient themselves to the ultimate truth, to the big mind. By making very good use of our small mind, of our thinking mind, our karmic mind, which otherwise might be simply blocking away. you know, through its endless chatter, distractions, discursive thinking, you know, about this and that and this and that. So these guidelines help us to line up our thinking, to use our thinking in order to direct ourselves toward what might be a deeper truth, more useful understanding. In order to do that, it's important for people, sincere people, who wish to see the truth to calm down, Like the example I often give is if you're on a horse that's trotting, everything looks like it's moving like that.

[30:50]

The horizon looks like that. People look like that. But if you stop the horse and get off, you can actually see more clearly what's going on around you. So calming down is called shamatha, or tranquility practice. So that's the first step. And as my teacher said to some of us, quite a while ago, he said, why don't you spend the next 10 years just focusing on calming down? And then we'll talk. Okay. So, very important. Calm the mind, discern the real. Once we've calmed our minds, then we're encouraged to see the vastness of the universe, perhaps as a surprise meeting in the dark. That's usually how it comes, like a flash of lightning in the night sky. The Dalai Lama mentions that, this flash of lightning in the night sky. It's like, oh, there it is. I think most people have had an experience like that at one time or another.

[31:56]

Usually children have them quite commonly. They're full of awe. They're not surprised by mystery. And we get older, we sort of shrink ourselves away from being surprised in that way, but I think it happens anyway. Get hit by a car, that's good. I mean, in your car, not walking, but that's kind of a big wake up. Whoa, where was I? It doesn't matter, I'm here now. Brings you right back. Brother David Stendlerost, who's a very good friend of our community, Benedictine monk. He calls these encounters a spiritual emergency, like your spiritual life is emerging. I think Leonard Cohen calls it that crack in everything through which the light gets in. I think we all have a sense of that, just that little moment or glimpse. But then that's not the end of the story. If you continue in this way, continue exploring and opening these cracks, wedging them a little bit, eventually there comes a time when

[33:05]

The process of awakening, this small mind or the tiny self, is treated to more than a mere glimpse of the big mind, of the vast universe, and actually comes to recognize itself as the vast universe. Of course, what else could we be? How would we get out of here? What other universe can we go to? This is our home, and we are children of not only this planet, but of this entire world. you know, spectacular outer space thing that's going on. The pictures are coming in all the time, like, whoa, galaxies and black holes. Amazing. I asked one of those guys, what's out there after that? And they said, we don't talk about that. What you see is what you get. So this intimacy that the Buddhists call... a true meeting or face-to-face is the big mind meeting the small mind and the small mind meeting the big mind.

[34:08]

It's kind of like your right and left hand coming together. Are they one? Are they two? Where's the connector? Somewhere back here. Somewhere in here. Just this person. And so although we have now met ourselves in our true vastness, At that time, often people are quite dazed by the encounter. It can be disorienting, to say the least. And somehow there's this feeling that maybe you've lost your head, you know, like lost your mind. So that's a very good time to go check in with a teacher or a doctor, depending on if you're afraid or not. But usually they'll tell you, no, your head's still there. You're fine. It's okay. Not to worry. Everything's okay. Just keep on working and go back to the kitchen and make some more soup.

[35:10]

The most helpful thing to do. Just go back to work. So this poetic device of the five ranks is simply Dongshan's way of helping us to distinguish and then pivot with these two aspects of ourselves that are continuously trying to dominate our view. Either the big guy or the little guy is trying to block the other one. So it's kind of like a parent with a little child. So throughout a long process of infolding and then unfolding, by and by, spiritual pilgrims return to the everyday mind. Everyday mind is the way, with all of its quirks and misalignments. So what began as a tiny initiatory glimpse becomes this unblinking gaze into the vastness and aliveness of creation herself, which shows up as colors and smells and tastes and touch, feelings, words, birds, people.

[36:20]

This is it. Just this is it. This is the miraculous appearance. arising before us moment after moment. They're so used to it. It's kind of like, this is it? This is it? Yeah. This is it. This is what we get for being alive. So this very world, there's nothing dark or hidden away. It's all revealed. And it's from this place that an appropriate response is given again and again. as the big mind chooses to live in the midst of this suffering world. Or in other words, when the small mind has grown a very big heart. So next time I'm going to be talking a couple Sundays from now, I think I'm going to speak about the fifth rank, Dongshan's fifth rank and final rank, enlightenment of the Buddha, which is called homecoming.

[37:23]

Homecoming. which is the one place on Earth that we can reside in peace and safety. That's our wish, to be home. So may all beings find their way home, and may all of us be willing to be companions for those who've gotten lost or displaced along the way. So before I end this morning, I wanted to mention something to all of you that I told my community here the other night, And it has to do with our dear friends and neighbors at Congregation Rod of Shalom in San Rafael. I've been a close friend with the rabbi there, Stacy Friedman, for many years. And we met at the Marin Interfaith Council, along with some wonderful Dominican sisters and some Sufis and Presbyterians and you name it. We got to be friends. It's a wonderful thing.

[38:26]

Anyway, I went with Tom Peters, who's the president of the Marine Community Foundation. He and I met with her because there had been bomb threats, as you may know, at the Jewish Community Center in San Rafael. And swastikos had been painted on walls, and little children in elementary school have given the Nazi salute. And apparently it's been 40 or 50 years since these things have happened to this scale, in this county. So something's happening to our neighbors, to ourselves, that we should be afraid of. And it has to do with dangerous ways of speaking about other people. othering them, making them other.

[39:29]

So Tom and Stacey and I were talking about getting together. We're going to have some conferences and convenience, some convening of different parts of our community. Along with the foundation, we're in Interfaith Council and the police. And the superintendent of public instruction, Mary Jane Burke, is very kindly and already active in working with the kids, teaching them what they don't know. They're ignorant. They don't know what that is. They just know they're not supposed to do it. But not why. So we have to keep teaching ourselves and our children over and over again not to hate. Not to hate. is not ended by hate. Hate is ended by not hating anybody, ever. So even though there's this climate of hatred in this country, there always has been, and in this world it's not new, it's just that it's getting loose.

[40:38]

It's being encouraged. Not enough strength going back, pushing back. So I'm calling all of you to be strong, to push back, to not hate, please to help any way you can. So for this reason, I want to dedicate the merit of whatever good comes from our practicing here in this valley together to the well-being and safety of our Jewish neighbors, of our African-American neighbors, our Middle Eastern neighbors, our Latino neighbors, our Asian neighbors, and any others that I've forgotten, Native American neighbors. and to all of those who are suffering under this thinly veiled and malicious expression of racial and religious hatred that is being broadcast in this world each and every day. And of course, to our dear planet Earth, as she continues coursing through both darkness and light in this vast and mysterious universe.

[41:48]

Thank you all for your kind attention. 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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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