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. Last Sunday, we started a three-week meditation intensive. And I introduce the topic for this meditation. A meditation topic for this intensive. Something like the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. Face-to-face. Meeting face-to-face. transmitting the teaching liberating all beings and I think I mentioned last Sunday also that I imagine that all Buddhas are sitting upright

[01:27]

in the center of all living beings. And since many living beings are suffering, they're sitting in the center of of all suffering they're sitting upright at peace in bliss at the center of all suffering they're sitting in stillness in the center of all suffering transmitting face to face peace and ease to all suffering beings.

[02:41]

And among the living beings that the Buddha is sitting in the middle of, some are ready and open. to receive this communion. And some do not feel ready. And the Buddha continues to sit there, continuing to transmit, helping beings get more and more ready and open to the transmission of this peace and this ease. transmitting the teaching, and part of the teaching is to say in this world, from the center of this world, to say that all living beings, each and every living being, is also sitting at the center of all living beings.

[04:03]

Buddha tells me that Buddha is sitting at the center and Buddha tells me that I'm sitting at the center and you're sitting at the center right now. Buddha is encouraging me to remember that. Remember that I'm sitting still right now at the center of all beings. Buddha's practice is to sit at the center of all life and observe all living beings. Buddha's practice is to sit upright in the center of all beings and observe all each and every all

[05:20]

living beings, to observe them with eyes of compassion. Sitting and observing all living beings with eyes of compassion. Sitting at the center of all beings, listening to the cries of all living beings with ears of compassion. I understand I seem to hear Buddha telling me that I'm at the center of all life and I feel encouraged to sit here and listen to the cries of the world.

[06:41]

To compassionately witness the cries of the world. To observe all living beings with eyes of compassion. I feel invited and encouraged by the Buddhas to practice that way. In other words, I feel invited by the Buddhas to practice like a Buddha. The Buddhist practice, I imagine, is very consistent, like every moment they observe all beings and listen to all beings. They really listen, like really let the cries in with no argument or resistance.

[07:50]

I feel invited to listen in that way. but I may have difficulty being consistent. I'm invited by those who have become consistent to learn to be steadily mindful, steadily remember to sit in stillness and listen to the cries of the world. Remembering this place and this time, remembering stillness, I feel, helps me listen to the cries. Remembering stillness helps me listen to the cries. Remembering stillness helps me remember to observe all living beings.

[08:54]

as fundamental there's a fundamental dimension of Buddhist practice this is my this right over here is where I usually sit during group meditation I sit there and I observe the people in the room I intend to sit here and observe the people in the room with eyes of compassion. And for me, when I give myself to that practice, I'm deeply moved by that practice. And I don't always cry when I observe beings with eyes of compassion. But... My eyes are on the verge of crying.

[09:57]

It's a very tender way of meditating. I enjoy it. Also, last Sunday I talked about giving up trying to control living beings Buddhas observe living beings but do not try to control them Buddhas are not in control of us they observe us and they give up trying to control us they're trying to transmit the teaching to us so that we can use it they're not trying to control us Practicing in this way... Practicing in this way, practicing like Buddhas, it dawns on the practice that the beings...

[11:58]

that we are observing with eyes of compassion they are also centers of all life I sit at the center of all life I intend I wish I vow to sit in my place and my place is the center and by really settling here, I observe all living beings. By observing all living beings, I really settle here. By observing, for example, myself and all my difficulties, to observe my own fragility with eyes of tenderness, I observe settle into my position here in stillness.

[13:02]

Settling into my position here in stillness helps me observe all living beings. In this way, settling more into the practice of observing all beings, the Buddhist practice dawns here. The Buddhist vision dawns here, dawns in my eyes. And from this practice, one sees that each living being is also the center, a center. Each living being, in whatever their experience is, is the center of all life. And each living being, which is the center, includes me and my practice.

[14:14]

And also, I am now given the vision that my practice includes them. They include my practice. They include my experience. Each one includes my experience, and I include the experience of each one. And each one includes everybody's experience. This is a pivotal activity. The Buddhas are pivoting between their experience and our experience they have experience and their experience is that their experience is our experience and our experience is their experience in this stillness of being ourself right here and opening

[15:25]

listen and observe all beings we also realize our experience is other people's experience other people's experience is our experience we realize the pivotal activity of buddhas and in this process of sitting still and listening to all beings in this process of observing all beings And being still, remembering to observe each and every being in stillness, in that practice, our body and mind drop away. We no longer hold on to our body. It doesn't disappear. It's just that we give up trying to control it. We are relieved of trying to control our body. And we're relieved of trying to control other people's bodies. This morning I asked a person, a human, who serves me as an attendant, I asked him to wait until the robe chant.

[16:48]

When we put our robes on in the morning, we do a robe chant. We recite it three times and then we put our robe on. I asked him, I requested that he wait until we finish the rogue chant before he put his robe on. And when I asked him, I got to look to see, was I trying to control him into waiting to put the robe on until we recited the rogue chant three times? I don't think I was trying to control him. I just asked him to do it. I just requested him to do it. And actually, I want him to do it. And I'll be observing tomorrow morning to see what he does. And he didn't say he would do it what I requested. He just said, I receive your request.

[17:49]

which is fine with me. He could have also said, I do not receive your request. And if I really gave that from this place of stillness, if that's where this request came from, this stillness, where body and mind drops away, body and mind drops away, and the dropped away body and mind says, I have a request. drop-drop bodies and minds can talk. And they can also be quiet. And they can dance. And they can sit. Buddhas have activity. And the activity comes from being mindful of our position. in the universe, which is at the center, including everybody.

[18:58]

So everybody I'm talking to is myself. And of course, otherwise. Everyone that's other than myself is included in myself. And I'm included in everyone that is other than me. What I really am is a self and otherwise. The Buddha activity is pivoting between self and other. That's what the Buddhas are. That's peace. And that's ease. It's pivoting with everybody because that's being true to who we really are. We are ourself and we are otherwise. We observe ourself because ourself is one sentient being. and we observe all other sentient beings, in this way we enter into the face-to-face transmission between self and otherwise.

[20:01]

We enter into Buddha's pivotal activity of face-to-face communion. And from this place and from this action, from this practice, the appropriate actions arise. which might be to sit quietly for another moment in a meditation hall. But when a bell rings, it might be to get up and walk with the group. Or it might mean to get up and go to the restroom. Or it might be to sing a song. The appropriate action arises from Accepting the responsibility of being the center of the universe. Accepting the responsibility of being the center or a center of the universe is necessary in order to respond appropriately to all beings.

[21:17]

Appropriately means to apropos to the point. What point? The point of responding like Buddhas respond. Appropriate to responding compassionately and wisely. So now it seems quite simple to me that if I practice, if I learn to practice observing sentient beings with eyes of compassion, observing sentient beings with eyes of compassion, I accept my position at the center. I accept stillness. And from such a practice, the compassionate response will spontaneously arise. I don't have to do anything other than that because beings will touch me.

[22:21]

They will touch my eyes. They will touch my ears. They will touch my skin. They will touch my mind. And if I'm accepting the responsibility of being here and I accept the responsibility to observe all beings, when they touch me, the appropriate response will come up. Some people say almost like magic. It's spontaneous. It's not without causes. It's just that it arises out of the interaction, not outside it. I have nothing to say before I meet your face. But when I meet your face, suddenly I have something to say. And if I'm accepting the responsibility of being here, in other words, the responsibility of being here means the responsibility of being still, then because I'm being responsible, the appropriate response will be allowed to arise.

[23:42]

The including of you will be allowed. The being included in you will be allowed. And, you know, when I talk like this, I... Whenever I talk, when I talk like this, I channel all of you. But no matter what I'm talking about, I channel all of you. I'm always channeling, you're always being channeled into me. I am the channeling of all of you. That's what I am. So in this consciousness, various thoughts arise, but really all of you are included in the arising of this thought. And so I'm just saying that as sort of a background to the thought arose a few seconds ago, which, yeah, which I think a lot of other people think too, and that is that some people are not included in me.

[24:55]

So our current events in the United States are, you know, somebody's talking about practicing like a Buddha, and then people are saying, well, but there are exceptions. to who's included in me and who I'm included in. In other words, I don't really accept this teaching. I'm resisting that I'm included in that person. Now, it is possible... to feel like I do not include that person. That person is not included in me. In other words, I don't act like that.

[25:57]

I never act like that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That may be really true, that you will never act like that. You will never act like that. But you are you, and you are that. You will never act like that, but the way you'll never act is you. The things you'll never do are you. You're included in all the things you'll never do. And all the things you'll never do are included in you because you are the center of all the things you'll never do. And all the things you'll never do are also the center of all the things you do do. This is Buddha's vision and we have a chance to imagine seeing like a Buddha.

[27:10]

Of course, the Buddha never does the slightest unkindness. Of course. The Buddhas are totally tender to all beings, including the people who are not tender. Buddhas are tender to the most cruel people and also to the slightly cruel people. and also to the people who are almost always tender. Buddhas observe everybody with eyes of compassion. And they see, this person who's doing something which I will never do, this person is me. They're just like me, doing what I'll never do. This is Buddha's peace and bliss, which the Buddha is trying to transmit to everybody who's doing the things that Buddha will never do.

[28:21]

Buddha is trying to transmit this practice to the people who are doing things which Buddha will never do and which Buddha wishes nobody would ever do and which almost everybody wishes nobody would ever do. But Buddha is also seeing that they're included in that person who's doing this impossibly inappropriate thing. And that person is included in Buddha. And from there is where the response that's appropriate to helping this person wake up comes. The teaching which helps this person learn compassion while they're doing something. that Buddha would never do. I think that this Dharma talk wasn't too short, was it?

[29:44]

Was it long enough? Yeah. I was a little worried that it was going to be too short and some of you would be disappointed how short it was. But it's not too short, right? It's all right? Okay? Ready? One, two, three, it's over. There's a question and answer, though, about... the whole universe which you can come to. 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.

[30:44]

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