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 evening, everyone. My name is Shundo. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes? Okay. I'd like to thank Abbot and Michael for inviting me to make a spectacle of myself two evenings running in the Zen Do. And I'd like to start with a story, one of these Zen stories that's a thousand years old and yet is still worth discussing in the present day. When Dong Shan took his leave, Nguyen said, make a thorough study of the Buddha Dharma and broadly benefit the world. Dongshan said, I have no question about studying the Buddha Dharma, but what is it to broadly benefit the world?

[01:05]

Nanyuan said, not to disregard a single being. Not to disregard a single being. So I realize that I have many different constituencies here this evening. There are those who have been practicing intimately in the valley together, for weeks or months or years. There are those who came yesterday returning to a beloved place, an important place in their lives, including myself in that constituency. And there are those who are coming maybe for the first time, arrived for the first time yesterday, and probably still wondering what the heck is going on, especially with the ceremony we had last night. It's a very powerful ceremony. It may have been quite... quite the opening experience for being here. But we've all been new here. We've all been here for the first time. We've all wondered what lay behind the door.

[02:08]

I remember my first visit to Tassahara, I was kind of terrified to go behind the men's bathhouse door because I had no idea what it looked like behind there. I was going behind the door and thought, oh, this bathing. It was very quiet in some way. When you first come to the Zendo, when you're first trying to figure out what's happening, there's a very particular quality to that. There's a very particular kind of attention that we need when we're new somewhere and there are a lot of rules and regulations and forms and guidelines and you're trying to do your best to follow or to make sense of what's happening. And also, we're not talking a lot of time. So how is it to be moving in community without the usual social lubricants of small talk? It's a great, it's a wonderful learning experience. It's this deep learning curve, but it's a very powerful, powerful moment, I think. I really want to add that even if we're not talking to each other, we're still meeting each other, and we meet each other with presence, and this is an important part of the practice here.

[03:19]

And those of you who are here for a week, like the Monterey group is, the Trump group is, I do just want to encourage you, if you're not already feeling that you're doing so, to make the most of being here. Tassajara is an incredible place. We have opportunities that we don't get elsewhere, not least of which is being removed from the hindrances of being online. In my group, we've been talking about how many more hours in the day there seem to be when you're not constantly checking your screens. Maybe you miss it, maybe you don't. But whatever response you've been having in the last 24 and a few hours, just notice that. Notice how it is to move at human speed. You all drove a long way to be here, even if you just came from Monterey.

[04:24]

Now that we're here, we're just walking, walking and meeting each other. And I know that when I come to Tassajara, I move differently. It feels like I don't have the burdens of my city life. I don't have that constant distraction, that constant call elsewhere. I'm right here. And sometimes, you know, when you come in, it seems that the valley is very kind of narrow and constricted. And then as you stay, as you walk around, the valley opens up. You feel the spaciousness. And right now, it's a particularly auspicious time to be here. Not only do we have the beautiful landscape that we always have, and the incredible summer heat. We had a supermoon last night, or the last few nights. So I was lucky enough to see it in the city on Monday night. My partner and I walked over so we could see it rising above the Bay Bridge.

[05:28]

It's kind of orange, in fact. And then the next night, here it is, rising above the hills of Tassajara, very, very bright. So if you didn't see it last night, it's going to rise even later tonight. But maybe if you get up early, you'll see how bright the full moon is in Tassajara. It's quite incredible. And then later in the week when the moon is not up, chance to see stars that you don't see gently. And we're hitting the elements. And we can be face to face with a lizard, or as I was just before, getting dressed, a whole chain of ants running up and down the wall of the bathroom. Make the most of these encounters. Treasure them. Taste them. Save them. Don't taste the ants, but taste the connection, the meeting. So, you know, I've heard Tassahara described as a wonderful Buddha field. You know, this place, this practice place that has been venerated long before Europeans came to America.

[06:31]

And it's been venerated by Europeans for 130, 40 years. This place is being, you know, handed down to us. And this week, we are creating it together. We're creating Tassahara together this week. And those of you who are at the work circle this morning, you've heard, you know, James who was leaving and his mother. You know, I hadn't met either of them before, but you could feel. You could feel the impact that being at Tassajara for a few days or a few months has on people. It's a powerful place. And it leaves its mark on us. And we internally leave our mark on Tassajara. So, because of the time I spend here, I happened to have sat Tangaria with the abbot and central abbot David, which dates me somewhat. There's more lessons here that was already white, I think, then. We were all a lot younger.

[07:34]

And as I came here, I saw names and faces of people that I've practiced with over 20 years. They've come and gone, I've come and gone, but people who are part of my practice history. And as I walk around, I see rocks that I've placed over the years. things that I've built. And as it happened, when I went into my cabin, there was a photograph that I'd taken back in 2003, one spring morning on the Tony Trail, and we still had film cameras. Very few opportunities to take pictures. So yeah, I first came to live at Tassar in 2002, and I did several two-year, a couple of two-year stretches and some three-month stretches. And then I lived at City Centre for some time as well. And I left Zen Centre in 2015, so it's been already quite a few years. And when I first left Tassahara, I dreamt about Tassahara, I think every night for several weeks, because it was so powerful.

[08:41]

And these days I find myself dreaming about community a lot. And, you know, being part of the crowd with a purpose. And recently I had a very powerful dream where I had some inner power, some glowing inner power that was kind of a beneficial inner power, thankfully. And a whole bunch of Zen Center people came to investigate, like, hey, what's going on? And then Christina Lane here, the former abbess, who some of you know, who was the personification of a heart-based practice, also kind of appeared in the dream as if she was kind of guiding me with what to do with this power. And, you know, I woke up thinking, oh, we all have this power within us. You know, I think probably many of us are here because we feel this and we want to bring this power for the benefit of the world. You know, this kind of loving kindness, this wish to do good. Maybe we don't always know how to do it.

[09:44]

Maybe we don't have the space to manifest this power. But here at Tassajara, there is space to manifest it, even if you're just here for one week. There is a container that is built, a strong container. And the power of the community here I think is particularly important right now. And again, this is a discussion I've had several times in the groups that I teach. I think we are still all recovering from the pandemic, from the isolation. from the kind of mistrust of not knowing what was going to happen or how safe we were. The amazing sense of isolation and fear. And so I think it's especially important now as we kind of pick up more social activities to recognize and appreciate the power of being in community.

[10:45]

I mean, living in community is already an incredibly powerful and kind of radical statement in some ways. You know, I always appreciated that when I was living at Zen Center. The kind of collective strength of the community was something, you know, even as a strong introvert, the collective strength of living in community was something I always appreciated. One of the things about being a community is we have a particular responsibility. I know when I say this, some people who have been here over the summer might be rolling their eyes, because they have many responsibilities, and they have to take over somebody else's job, and then they have to do something else, and there's always another thing for them to do. But, you know, we can come down here, and the Tenzo feeds us. The Tenzo feeds us delicious food. Sesame soybeans accepted, I'm sorry.

[11:47]

When I was at the city centre in charge of Kishina, I vowed never to cook sesame soybeans because they disagreed with me so much. But I'm grateful for the food. I'm grateful to be fed. Certainly grateful for blondies. And the Ina sets out this place for us so that we can sit together. Everyone is taking their place, taking their role. Within that, we make our own effort. We are always supported. A director goes to meetings so that we don't have to go to meetings. I wanted to talk a little bit more for those who weren't familiar with it about the ceremony last night because it is a powerful ceremony. It's a monthly ceremony that dates back to the time of the Buddha. What holds a community together is that we are Living, endeavoring to live a life of vow. A life of vow takes us away from a life of habit.

[12:49]

You know, we all have our own particular habits, we all have our own particular foibles. And we can vow to be in the world in a way that, you know, benefits beings rather than kind of causes harm. And so, you know, I just want to go through briefly the elements of the ceremony for those who aren't maybe familiar with it. And we started with an avowal and repentance, you know, our karmic repentance. And, you know, these words sound loaded, you know, confessing and repenting our ancient twisted karma. It sounds, you know, like a bit of a downer. But I think there is something incredibly powerful about understanding the causes and conditions that brought us to where we are in our lives. our personal causes and conditions, our individual lives, our family causes and conditions, cultural causes and conditions, and societal causes and conditions.

[13:51]

And we make an effort to be honest about that and be clear about it. And I can certainly hold up my hand and say I've failed this many, many times in my Zen Center years. But we keep trying. We keep trying to live understanding our outcome. And again, we make our own effort, and in this we're always supported by others. And so the second part of the ceremony is paying homage, homage to the Buddhists, homage to the Bodhisattvas. We take note of those who have gone before, whose example shows us how we can practice today, especially with the Bodhisattvas who each embody one particular kind of behavior. Manjushri is the Bodhisattva over wisdom, right there with a sword that cuts through delusion on the altar. Samantabhadra is the Bodhisattva of activity, often pictured riding elephants. Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion, she is right at the back of the altar.

[14:55]

So these are models that we can aspire to. And it showed that it's possible for us to practice in this way. And we chant at another time, Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we. We in the future shall be Buddhas and ancestors. And it's very hard for us to believe that because we don't have the perspective. But it's true. And we honor those who've made their effort and show us how we can do that. And then we have our four bodhisattva vows that we take regularly. We're trying to live our best as bodhisattvas. And when I was chanting them last night, right here, I kind of felt the first two were almost kind of like downers. You know, beings are numberless, I vow to save them. It's like, oh my God, that's impossible. Delusions are exhaustible, I vow to end them.

[15:56]

Oh God, how can I even get started on that? But the second two were kind of more, you know, guiding you upwards. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. This means that every single moment of our lives is a Dharma gate. Can we vow to enter that Dharma gate? Moment after moment after moment. That's the effort. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. And then we do the refugees, taking refuge in Buddha, the teacher, right there, private place on the altar. Fantastic Buddha. We went and buried in the Bocci Ball Court in 2008. It's been buried again since then. Anyway, I'm talking ancient history again. So all my stories are so old that all my Tassajara stories are very, very old now.

[17:01]

We take refuge in Buddha. We take refuge in Dharma, the teaching, the truth that Buddha expressed, but it wasn't his discovery. It's the truth from which the Buddhas arose. And we take refuge in Sangha. This is everybody here. This is everybody around us. This is every being, every being that we can try not to disregard. And taking refuge is not kind of going off and hiding somewhere. So I'm not a Japanese scholar, but I think ki-e, the Japanese word for taking refuge, that those of you who've sewn any of these robes will be familiar with. It's kind of throwing yourself into something wholeheartedly that then holds you up. And then we had the precepts. These particular ways of body, speech and mind that are likely to trip us up. likely to cause problems, cause issues.

[18:02]

All the commentaries that Michael read after the precepts are very, very beautiful. If you don't know, I encourage you to study them. I was thinking to include some from the pure precepts, going to refrain from all evil, making every effort to live in enlightenment. Living and being lives for the benefit of all beings. But I also wanted to particularly highlight the commentary on the sixth precept, I vow not to slumber. The commentary is in the Buddha Dharma, go together, appreciate together, realize together, actualize together. And this actualizing is kind of the meat of Zen practice. Because we can study it. We can sit. We can do all the practices. We can realize it.

[19:04]

We can understand what it's all about. But until we actualize it, until we embody it, it's not our practice. It's not the practice that leaps forward and helps all beings. Don't permit thought-finding. Don't permit, as a talk, do not corrupt the way. Wonderful words for the community. It's inevitable in community that we don't like everybody that we're hanging out with. Even in Tassajara, there's people that, you know, we just don't get on with. Nevertheless, we can vow, you know, to follow this way. And I wanted to change tacks a little bit. I'll change tack a little bit. So I've become somewhat vogue. I don't know quite how. I'm a little bit of a historian of Suzuki Roshi and some of his history at Zen Center. I've listened to and worked with a lot of the talks that he gave.

[20:05]

Thankfully, many of the talks were recorded. I was particularly interested a few years ago when we found the set of the real tapes, for those of you who don't have to know what a real tape is, of the very first sesshin that was given at Tassahara. As I don't know, Zen Zen would bought Tassahara in 1967. It was kind of officially opened on July the 4th, 1967. They did a summer practice period, as much as you're doing a summer practice period now. But the kicker was they did a sesshin. I'm not completely convinced I know how many days there are in sesshin, because even Suzuki Roshi in the talks doesn't seem to know how many days there are left in the sesshin. But nevertheless, it was the 20th through at least to the 24th of August. You can imagine sitting in sesshin. Obviously, they weren't in this room. at that time, because at that time, the Zendai was back down by the creek in what's now the Student 18 area. It had previously been the bar of the Tassahara Hotel that stood on this site. Very auspicious room, obviously. But there was a sesshin going on in the middle of August.

[21:11]

I'm not sure if they still had guests visiting during that week, but certainly they were sitting a lot in the middle of the heat. But what I find interesting is what Suzuki Roshi chose to talk about So obviously he'd had this long ambition. And reading the Zen Center history, it seems that for at least five years before Tassajara was born, people from Zen Center were going out around the Bay Area, to Jena, to various places, to find a monastic location, a place where they could do this kind of monastic practice. And obviously when Tassajara was found, Suzuki wrote, yeah, this is the place. And so he had this chance to start, you know, for the first time outside of Asia, a Zen training monastery. You know, this is Tassahara's legacy in history, in which we're doing our best to continue to this day. And so it's his chance to really go deep with some of his students who've been within for two, three or four years.

[22:14]

But what he talked about in that first session was mostly Durban's Genjo Koan. And the reason that's interesting is that nowhere in the Genjo Koan does Dogen talk about Zazen. So he was giving, you know, even in the middle of a session where he wants his students to be sitting, sitting, sitting all day, he's talking about this text where there's no mention of Zazen. So, and it was, the Genjo Koan was written originally for a lay follower. So it was designed for people living a lay life. And again, if it's not a text that you know, I really encourage Lifelong study of it. It's three pages long, and I was thinking, which bit should I talk about? But the title of Genjo Koan in the chant book we have here is actualizing the fundamental point. So that actualizing again, that making it real in this moment, the fundamental point, the deepest concern, the ultimate. There are many translations of the title with four characters, but there's many ways you can.

[23:18]

It's really like making it real right now. How do we make it real right now? And he's not talking about zazen. He's talking about how do we make it real in our lives. Again, even though it was written in 1231, it's entirely valid and relevant today. But I just want to talk about one section tonight. And it's what I call Dovan's five-part harmony. Some of you are very, very familiar with this. Some of you may have never heard it. So he says, to study the Buddha way, is to study the self. To study the self is to actualize. Sorry, to study the self is to forget the self. And sometimes you just hear people talking about those two lines, because it's a great combination. But he goes on, to forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind, as well as the bodies of minds of others, drop away.

[24:20]

Fifth part. No trace of realization remains, and this no trace continues endlessly. So at this point you're thinking, what is he talking about? So to study the self, this is what I was talking about with our karma. We study everything that has made us who we are. We study what it is, this skin bag, as we often call it in Zen, this aging body. You start young and enthusiastic, and you end up older. But we try to understand our lives. When we understand, I think there's a point at which when you understand your life, you're not caught or bothered by it in the same way. You're not constantly second-guessing yourself. You're not constantly wondering what's going on here. And that's part of forgetting the self. One way that I experienced forgetting the self was when I first started doing the role that I was in last night, the chant leader.

[25:22]

Again, I'm an introvert. I'm English. I hate the sound of my own voice. How on earth could I be leading a chant? I'm not used to, I said grew up not being used to express myself wholeheartedly. That was not encouraging to where I came from. So the idea of standing up in front of everybody and chanting loudly was kind of terrifying. It was only when I remembered or realized there wasn't me doing that. It was the Dharma expressing itself, because the things you're chanting, it's not you, it's the Dharma. The Dharma is expressing itself, I just happened to be the person expressing it at that moment, because that was my role that day. After that, I was able to chant, lead to chant. So that's when you forget the self. And when you forget the self, you can't be actualized by a million things. So this is the same as Dharma gates are boundless. Like the myriad things are everything around us.

[26:24]

The crickets, the creek, the trees, the stars, the comets, the satellites, the annoying person who's sitting next to you and sniffling through Zazen, all these things. And instead of getting in the way with our ideas and opinions, and I know the Monterey group is studying Xin Xin Ming, so like, when you let go of those preferences, when you let go of your idea of like, this person is annoying me, It's not that they stop annoying you, but it doesn't get in the way of experiencing the moment with the person. And this is the important thing. Can you put aside that, oh my God, this person is so annoying, and meet that person in that moment without your, I call them blinkers generally, but without your preconceptions getting in the way. And when you do that, there is an actualization that happens with people, with trees, with lizards, you name it. It can happen. I remember one time I came down here and I was due to give a talk.

[27:32]

I was the director at City Centre and I had not had time to prepare a talk. And I came down here, I went to the bars, I was lying in the creek, a dragonfly came by, dipped in the water and flew up. And that was it. Then I had a talk to give. It was literally getting out of the way, suddenly the moment produced itself. Dogen's way of talking about it, the way I understand it, is everything is expressing its enlightenment. Everything. Crickets are expressing cricket enlightenment right now. So are we going to join in? Because we can join in. We have that power, we have that capacity within us, if we can get out of our own way. And that's your body and mind and the body and mind of others dropping away.

[28:33]

Because all those interfering thoughts, all those second-guessings, all those confusions don't get in the way of experiencing them. No trace of realization remains and this no trace continues endlessly. So we think there's some kind of enlightenment out there that if we behave right, if we do all the right things. I certainly had this delusion for many, many years when I came to Zen practice. Oh, if I do all this stuff, suddenly there'll be this moment when I can grab this thing called enlightenment. And Suzuki Roshi was very clear with his students. I think in the 60s they had a lot of ideas about enlightenment. He was very, very clear. And he was channeling Dogen a lot. And if you read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, you can hear Dogen in what Zizigyoshi is saying, even when he's not quoting him directly. Any idea you have about enlightenment is not enlightenment. When you let go of all those ideas, there's this endless enlightenment that's happening already.

[29:35]

The crickets are telling you all about it. The trees are telling you all about it. The creek is telling you all about it. All the time. So can we join in? Maybe this is, you know, expanding the Dharma with this body, as the commentary for the last preset code. To expand the Dharma with this body is foremost. We actualize the moment with everything else. We're making our own effort, but everything else is supporting us, just as it does in community. We have to make our own effort, and when we do that, everything is supporting us. To expound the Dharma with this body is formal. The virtue returns to the ocean of reality. It's not ours to keep. We're bodhisattvas, we give this stuff away. At the end of the ceremony, Mako gave away all the merit that we generated through our chanting and bowing and offering.

[30:41]

We give it away because we don't want to keep it for ourselves. It's no good to us. But we can benefit the world with it through this generosity, through this generosity of giving. We give in community. We give to other people. We give them our presence. Nothing people like more than presence. And you show up for somebody. Even if you don't like them, you show up for them. They know it. You can do this walking down the street. You can be there for, be present for a situation. Somebody knows that. It's a lot safer to do with babies and dogs. You can do it with people too. The virtue returns to the ocean of reality. We're just a part of the reality that's unfolding right now, all around us. We make our effort and we are supported by everybody. It's unfathomable. So do not try to get your head around it because you just get in your own way when you do that. Let it happen.

[31:44]

Just accept it with respect and gratitude. So going back to Dongshan, when Dongshan took his leave, Na Nguyen said, make a thorough study of the Buddha Dharma and broadly benefit the world. Dongshan said, I have no question about studying the Buddha Dharma, but what is it to broadly benefit the world? Not to disregard a single being. The way we don't disregard a single being is by forgetting the self, being actualized by the things. And these beings are sentient and non-sentient. Dongshan was eventually enlightened by understanding how insentient beings express the Dharma, whether that's the mountains or the waters or anything else.

[32:56]

And there's something about love in all this. Again, it's a love that is offered without thought of anything coming back. It's an unconditioned love that we can offer to the present moment, can offer to each other. Perfection of just giving without any thought about what's coming back to us. And again, we can do this when we get out of our own way. And that's what it means to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. And this is how we get the chance to become Buddha's way. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[34:04]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[34:12]

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