This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This great assembly is deeply welcomed by and respected into the heart of Zen into the heart of Buddha's wisdom and compassion into the heart of Buddha Dharma we just

[01:01]

chanted and unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect, Dharma. Dharma is a Sanskrit word, which is almost an English word. I don't know if it's made it into the English dictionary yet. The Sanskrit word has many meanings, and I'd like to bring up three this morning. An unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect truth. Dharma can mean truth. An unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect teaching. unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect phenomena.

[02:08]

A truth, a teaching, and a phenomena. And the last line we... Yeah, and then the last line is... I, we vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. So Tathagata is one of the epithets for the awakened one. For an awakened one. Buddha. Buddha means awakened one. And one of the Buddha's epithets is Tathagata. Which can mean which could mean Tata means thus. And following Tata is either Gata, which means gone to thus, or it could be Agata, Tata Agata, Tata Agata.

[03:27]

Gone to thus means or come from thus. And what is thus? Thus is the teaching. Thus is the Dharma. Thus is the truth of the Buddhas. And now that we've heard the word thus, and we've heard the statement that the teaching of the Buddhas is thus, Now that we've heard that, a question might arise. What's thus? Yeah. And one of the famous Zen stories, a student comes to see a teacher and the teacher says, what is it that thus comes? The teacher asks the student,

[04:29]

about this, what is this, the target, what is this that thus comes? And the student, the amazing student says, to say it's this, misses the point, or it doesn't hit the target. Teaching, the Dharma, of the Buddha is thus. And again, if you question it, I would say, good. What is it? But also, as I mentioned to the group of people who are here for a three-week intensive, I saw the first page of a Harvard Medical School newsletter. And it said, question everything. And I thought, yeah, right.

[05:33]

And then it said, question everything you've been told. But it didn't say including that. Question everything, including question everything. Question everything you've been told is the spirit and question that. As I often say, everything I say is questionable. I want it to be questioned. Because in making the offerings to offering ourselves and being questioned, we become free of our narrow, naturally self-centered consciousness. Also, I've been saying over and over that many of us are living in the middle of many afflictions.

[06:54]

We're struggling with many afflictions. The affliction of our own mind, thinking about ourselves and thinking about others, mind thinking about how others are towards us and how we are towards them. We have afflicted ways of thinking and feeling about ourselves and others. And we also are afflicted by what we think others are doing to others. We're afflicted by, we're in pain, we're feeling horrible about the way some humans are treating other humans and the way some humans are treating plants and animals. We're in the ocean of affliction. Many of us. All of us? Someone just recently said to me, describing...

[08:10]

a situation that she's in. She said, I'm feeling, I have feelings of being disrespected, of being taken for granted. And taken for granted is very similar to disrespected. Taken for granted means people take you as you come up in their mind. Respect means to look again. So people have these impressions of us, and if they take those impressions for granted, like you're an employee, take that for granted means not respecting the employee. I feel abused. I feel exploited. Good people say that to me. And then some of them, after they say that, they say, what should I do?

[09:15]

How should I relate to this abuse, this disrespect, this exploitation, this being taken for granted? And I might say, or I did say recently, well, under those circumstances, would you like To make a donation to awakening? Under the circumstances, would you like to give a gift, an offering to Buddha? While you're being abused, would you like to make an offering to awakening? Which has a great potential of liberating everybody in this abusive situation. Would you like to make a gift? Would you like to offer some blessings in the middle of being mistreated? Would you like to offer some blessings in the midst of seeing others mistreating each other?

[10:16]

And I don't remember if the person said, yes, I do want to make a gift to Buddha in the midst of my being disrespected. These feelings and perceptions of being disrespected. I do. And when I see others being disrespected, which really pains me when I see that. Yes, I'm in pain. It's painful for me to see people not respecting each other. Yes. Yes. And it's a joy to see people expecting each other, to be kind to each other. That's a joy, yes. But when they're not, when they're abusing each other and exploiting each other, do I want to make a gift to awakening? I didn't ask the person. But I do. I want to make a gift if I'm being disrespectful.

[11:21]

A gift of kindness, of patience, of generosity. A gift of compassion. That's what drew me to Zen. It's to see people who are abused, who are disrespected, who... when they were abused and disrespected and falsely accused of evil, they gave gifts. They gave kindness. And then what really got me was when some of those people were then received apologies for the abuse and praise for their great patience and kindness, they came back with the same thing. The response is always to give a gift to Buddha. So I think actually now that I remember, after this recently this person told me about this abuse, I said, do you want to make a gift to Buddha? And they did say yes.

[12:25]

And I said, well, if you wish to make a gift to great awakening in this world of affliction, if you want to contribute to awakening and compassion and wisdom, then enter samadhi. then enter into a state of mind which is undistracted that is completely present and open to everything in the universe and flexible and soft and not holding on to itself or pushing anything away. Enter into that state which we call samadhi, which is translated sometimes as concentration. But I don't know of an English word that embraces all that wonder of this state of mind, which in the Buddhist tradition in India and China and Japan, and now here, is called samadhi.

[13:39]

which can be translated as being collected and present. But it's not a tight collection. It's not a tight undistractedness. It's an undistractedness which is completely willing to open to being distracted. It welcomes all distractions. And what welcomes all distractions is undistractable. It welcomes all movement. It is immovable. It welcomes all cries. It is silent. It's open to listen to the cries of the world and it questions them. What are you? Who is it that's calling? Why are your ears so big, Grandma?

[14:46]

Why are your teeth so big, Grandma? How do we settle into this state called samadhi? Another way to say it is, how do we find our place right where we are? If you want to make a gift to awakening, if you want to make a donation to promote awakening in this world, then enter samadhi. Then find your place right where you are in the middle of an ocean of more or less horrible affliction. Find Not my place. Find your place in the middle of an inexhaustible ocean of misery.

[15:49]

So we've got the ocean of misery. How about finding our place right here where we are? And finding our way in the middle of many kinds of discomfort and pain. We are already here, but when we're surrounded by pain, we have a habit as animals to try to get out of here. If you want to make a gift, don't make it from out of here. Make it from here. If you want to make a gift to more misery, then make it from someplace else. If you want to make a gift to awakening, make it from where you already are. I'm endeavoring to make gifts here now, and before I started, I settled into where I am right here.

[16:58]

I entered samadhi before I gave my gift to you. This gift doesn't come from me, really. It comes from me being where I am. That's the kind of gift I want to give. Me being here, right where I am. The practice of generosity comes forth. The practice of patience and gentleness and respect and appreciation comes forth from finding our place right where we are. And it's hard It's hard to settle in completely in the middle of all of our discomforts. It's hard. And during this retreat, people are working at it. They are uncomfortable. The people in this retreat are uncomfortable. Not all the time. But they're so uncomfortable that some of them actually say, I'm sick.

[18:03]

And they leave the room because they feel so uncomfortable. They can't sit up anymore. So they go rest. And after they rest and feel not so tormented by their body and mind, they come back and join the rest of us who are also basically the same situation, but we're able to sit here and support each other to be where we are in this room and no place else because that's the truth. And also, by the way, When we are where we are and nowhere else, we also are everywhere else. This presence pervades the entire universe. So when I'm feeling disrespected, if I wish to settle into samadhi so I can make a gift, I need to observe the disrespect, which is observe my feeling that I'm being disrespected.

[19:29]

Observe and listen to my thought that I'm being disrespected. Listen to my perception that people are... abusing me, and being unjust to me. And be kind to that thought. And if I can be kind to that thought, then I can also be kind to the person who I think is being disrespectful. But first of all, I have this painful feeling of being disrespected. I have the painful feeling of being treated unjustly. So I want to practice respect to disrespect. I want to practice being just to feelings and perceptions of injustice. Then that practice is entering samadhi, and then I can give a gift to what appears to be disrespect to disrespect.

[20:42]

and what appears to be injustice and unkindness. And also, in the work, if I'm having trouble being respectful or being patient and gentle with these difficult feelings and perceptions, or even if I'm not having difficulty, I need help from others to really, truly settle into where I am right now. I'm talking to you right now about settling into where I am right now, and you're helping me do that practice. You're questioning me, so I'm questioning myself. Am I really settled into being... right where I am. So we cannot do this practice all by ourselves.

[21:48]

And nobody else is going to do it for us. The practice of settling into right where we are, we do together with all beings. We don't do it by ourself. Another thing I saw just last night was a quote of a person who is credited with being the founder of Saturday Night Live. I don't know if he is, but some people say he's the founder. And now there's celebration of Saturday Night Live. It's 50 years now. 75 to 25. 50 years of Saturday Night Live. And so the young man... who was there at the beginning, is still there. And I didn't read the whole article. I just find these gifts.

[22:52]

And the gift I found was, he said, if I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm in the wrong room. And again, I thought, yeah. But then I thought, well, it's not actually that you're the smartest person in the room. But if I think I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm in the wrong room. In other words, if I think I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm not really where I should be. I'm in a dreamland where I'm smarter than somebody. Or some people are, I guess, in another dreamland where they're not as smart as some people. Now, I know that half the people in the country are below average. But nobody is better than anybody. Buddha is not better than deluded, confused, frightened, impatient, miserable people.

[23:59]

Buddha is not better. Buddha is nothing but practicing with all the suffering people. What is a Buddha? A Buddha is what a Buddha does. A Buddha is the practice of a Buddha. And the practice of the Buddha is to practice with all beings. And the Buddha does not think, okay, now I'm going to descend to be with these poor creatures. These creatures. These poor creatures, these are poor creatures. They are suffering. Yes, they are crying and I'm listening to them and I'm questioning them. And I'm not smarter than them. I'm just love of them. I'm just compassion with them.

[25:02]

I'm just samadhi with them. I'm just... right where I am right now with them. And that's what I am. I'm nothing in addition to that. But I like that statement. If I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm in the wrong place. I'm not where I should be. But I can have the thought, I'm the smartest person in the room. I can say that, and then I can laugh. What a silly thing that is. I can be totally right here thinking that I'm the smartest person in the room. I don't, by the way, but I did say that. I'm the smartest person in the room. And I can say that without believing it at all. I don't. Do you?

[26:03]

Can you find a room where you're the smartest one? Maybe not this room because there's a lot of people here. And maybe you can find some other room where there's maybe just a couple people. Like you and your spouse. Or you and your mother. And then you have a chance of being the smartest person in the room. Once again, the flower adornment scripture says, if you wish to make offerings to the great awakening, enter samadhi. Completely be present right where you are. That's where you make the offerings to this world from. And this is a tough place to sit. It's really hard sometimes. And sometimes it's not so hard.

[27:08]

Or it's less hard. That's what's required according to the teaching. That's what everybody wants us to do, is find our place right where we are and make abundant offerings to the liberation of all beings by waking up. Okay. That was not so long, but that's enough. 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 sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[28:09]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.2