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. I'm so pleased to be able to be here at Tassajara after a long time. as I was recovering from a mishap with a large SUV while I was crossing a street, I wasn't allowed to come over the road for a long time. And I missed Tassajara greatly. I missed coming here. And coming here as I came over the road and saw the green leaves of this late spring, tears came to my eyes and I felt so happy.

[01:14]

And I've been thinking about what is it that makes a monastery? What is it that makes a sacred place to practice. For both people who live here and for people who live in a monastery of one, we all have the same question. How do we create a place? How do we participate in our lives in such a way that it supports our deepest intention, the intention that when it comes right down to it is what we really most deeply want to do. And so that question has been coming up again and again, walking in the gate, saying hello to the people in the office, teaching yoga,

[02:26]

giving zazen instruction, tasting the lettuce that tastes like it's been washed three times, you know, no grit. That question presents itself in the form of everything that comes up this weekend, you know. when I came into my cabin 1D, I'm staying in cabin 1D, the pillow was horizontal and then on top of it was a second pillow that had been placed at an angle. You know, at kind of the perfect angle to lie down on that freshly made bed and feel a sense of great ease. And it made me think of the hands that had placed that pillow there and tucked in the edges and cut the flowers, swept the floor, and before that, painted the room, because it's pretty freshly painted, ironed the curtains, and created the...

[03:57]

mind with which all that was done. And how do we live this way? What is it to live this way? What is it to live in a way that reflects this kind of care and attention that doesn't require a special grand bed? It's a simple bed that's been made with care. And so I thought about the Summer Monastery and how the Summer Monastery is a monastery. And the guests who come, the people in the retreat, are coming to a monastery and practicing yoga and Zen. Or practicing care and attention for their own lives.

[04:59]

coming here from all directions, doing what we all do together, and then going back in the many directions to many places with that happiness, love, and care. So, before that, I was already thinking about a monastery and thinking about coming to Tassajara, and I was talking with Conan about it, and she sent me the Guidelines of Conduct for Summer Zen Training. And I thought maybe the monastery is in what people do. I wonder if I refreshed my mind about people's intention in practicing together, whether it would help me understand where the monastery is. And as I was reading these guidelines, they're a little bit different from the guidelines that I... received the various times that I've lived here for a long time.

[06:04]

They've been rewritten, and they're clearer in many ways. And they clearly relate to 2,500 years of monastic guidelines in India, China, and Japan, to hundreds and thousands and maybe millions of people who have tried this before. and who are trying this now all over the world. So, Zen temple, it says here, is a place that's defined by pure standards that enable residents to live with each other in mutual respect, peace and harmony. This way of life is the body and mind of Zen training and practice. Please follow these guidelines completely and wholeheartedly. And then the guidelines all begin embracing and sustaining this, or embracing and sustaining that.

[07:11]

Embracing is wide and sustaining is deep. So... I'm not going to go through all the guidelines because there are too many to go over them right now, but I'll pick out a few and look at them and what I see there. So here's one. This is the very first set. Embracing and sustaining Zendo attendance and decorum. So, you know, if you're a guest, you might think, well, what does that have to do with me? I guess I'm invited to morning zazen. But several people who are here for a few days have asked me, how can I sit? How can I make arrangements in my life to sit? And so what I want to say is that these guidelines about zendo attendance are part of a group of rules that go under the general name of fuxin.

[08:21]

which means all invited. And all invited in Zen speak, you know, in Japan, and also in the cultural transmission in this monastery, means all. No matter what the position in the monastery, we're invited to join the morning schedule and sit zazen. And actually, everyone here is invited to join zazen, to sit. And maybe if you're sitting at home, if you have an intention to sit at home, if you sit up for five minutes, if you sit down for five minutes, the big difference is between not sitting and sitting. It's not between sitting for five minutes and sitting for an hour. And know that if you do sit zazen for five minutes, that you are joining a practice in which all are invited, in which the instructions are named something like, please refresh my memory, but a ceremony for the universal practice of seated meditation.

[09:48]

which means when we sit down, we decide to do it, and then we fulfill our intention. And we go at the time that we decide to go, or if we don't go at that time, we notice that, or are accountable to ourselves or other people to do that. So I suggest, you know, if you're in a monastery of one, You're not really in a monastery of one. You're in a monastery of several million people who are doing this. And you can probably find someone to tell your intention to who would listen and who would, by listening, help you to do it. Here, I'll tell you how it's done. Everybody's expected. invited, but strongly invited, I would say even strongly encouraged, I would say even strongly encouraged in a very accountable way, in that if you're not coming, you're expected to make a little note of that on the, there's a pad of paper on the pillar back there, about one, two pillars in from the door and facing the garden.

[11:11]

It's actually a very nice view. If you stand there and write, I can't come to the zendo because the cat is sick, you can actually see the garden at the same time. And that reminds you that, oh, is the cat really that sick? Or, you know, anyway. So you're accountable for that. And you realize that when you have... an activity like this, you really do want to be on time because your presence makes the difference to somebody else. So if, let's say, all the guests come for zazen 15 minutes before the regularly scheduled period of zazen and find a seat, then as everybody else comes in, they see a guest sitting there and want to help the guest. Or if a resident is sitting 15 minutes before to sit a little bit longer in the morning, when the second resident comes in, he or she sees the first resident and says, oh, you know, this person is sitting.

[12:28]

How encouraging. And... The meditation seat has such a long and profound history. It's called the seat of awakening. And when we bow to that seat to sit down, the feeling is sitting here on this seat is just like the Buddha sitting, going to his place under the Bodhi tree to become awakened. And when you turn around and bow, and other people return the bow, the feeling is just like the earth and all beings in it are Buddha's witness. Thank you for witnessing and helping me, everybody. And that's the feeling of sitting. And we make it so by doing it and by enacting this ceremony with and for everyone we can see and everyone we can't.

[13:32]

There's so many of these guidelines. But the gist of the guidelines is how can we have a harmonious place, a community in which people understand what's expected so that we can act together in harmonious ways. So we can demonstrate a kind of harmony that comes when everybody is enacting life in a way that's a resource for everybody else. This is so unusual in this world to clearly and unequivocally, wholeheartedly give that gift of the material resource of our presence and practice and the fearlessness that that gives. Those resources are our gift. that we give and our gift that we receive all at the same time.

[14:35]

So much so that as I go home and as the other people in our retreat go home in all the directions there are at many distances, we will feel the presence of the people sitting here day after day. And we will know that we can call each other or write each other in the retreat and say, are you sitting for five minutes like we said? Thank you, that helps me. So just go over the names of the categories of these guidelines because they're They're good ones. We have zendo attendance in decorum. We have embracing and sustaining the practice of Dharma discussion.

[15:40]

That means entering an intimate space with someone and being accountable to them for our deepest desire. We have embracing and sustaining silence as a practice. In the monastery, people agree that there are certain times that are silent. So after this lecture ends and the drum and bell happen, certain parts of the monastery are silent, like the courtyard where residents live. And residents keep silence, or at least functional talking, because it feels right and good. to give each other that gift. There's embracing and sustaining the practice of bowing. We have this bow. Why don't you just try it if you haven't done it in a while, like in seconds, of joining the palms.

[16:47]

It's called gasho, which is short for gatsu-sho, which means joining the palms. OK, so join your palms and this thick part of the palm by the wrist can come to this part close to the throat, but about a hand's distance in front so that the tips of the fingers are about level with the nose. You see the join of the hands. And then we bow from the waist to about 30 degrees. And do you feel what that feels like when you do it? So when you do that with somebody, say, I see someone across the room, and I bow to you, and you bow to me, we're acknowledging something very deep and profound about each other. It's an intimate practice. It's an acknowledging practice. It's a practice in which one can create a monastery of two for the time of an exhalation.

[17:51]

I should add that just as the hands come together this way, the left and right hand come together in one position of joining. Left and right join as one. When we bow, two people join as one intention and one vow. Embracing and sustaining diversity is an expression of the phrase that's repeated in many different ways, all beings. All beings, however conceived in all realms of existence. As a matter of fact, the Diamond Sutra says it beautifully. It's the basic vow of an awakening being. As many beings as there are comprehended under the term beings.

[18:56]

Born from a womb or miraculously born with form, without form. I'm sorry, I'm forgetting the words right now. Let's see. As many beings as there are comprehended under the term beings. Help me, please. born from a womb, moisture-born, or miraculously born. With perception, without perception, I've misplaced the words right now. Excuse me. But it names many, many types of beings. All these beings I must lead to nirvana, to that realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind. And yet, when each being has been led to nirvana, no being at all has been led to nirvana. Nirvana is just this.

[19:59]

It's what happens at the root of the bow. And why? Beings, beings, as no beings, have they been taught by the Tathagata, the Buddha. Therefore, we understand them as beings. We speak of beings. So it means... Say I want to practice with you, and we are practicing together, and I think, let's save each other, which means, in this case, let's bow to each other, or let's sit together, or let's speak with each other, let's be accountable to each other. All my ideas of you have to be dropped because you're not who I think. So I can't think of you as a being who I have to save. And that's how you save me and I save you. And so that is a monastery of one, but one means as one. And that's the spirit in which we do our work.

[21:04]

Embracing and sustaining appropriate sexual conduct is one of the 16 bodhisattva presets. And it's clearly defined in the monastic setting for safety so that people who come here to practice and are at the beginning of the practice are kept safe from certain kinds of relationships in which they're expected to stay the same and relate to another person as the same person they were five minutes ago. Because you're rapidly changing in the first six months of practice. And also you're very vulnerable when you drop various ideas and return to who you really are and what you really want. That's a very vulnerable time. So these practices are incredibly important. And what it means is a practice of as one with intimacy, actual intimacy, the intimacy of giving each other what we need and not what we want at any particular time.

[22:18]

moment embracing and sustaining appropriate dress and deportment anyway just it goes on and these are the summer practices that create the monastery so how do we create a monastery as a yoga practice as a yogic practice well we talked about it in um in the yoga workshop zen and yoga workshop it starts with the practice of cleanliness purification and contentment that happens when you give yourself a moment of rest and a moment of a practice that's good for us. But then it goes deeper to a practice of deeper discipline and relation to our vow. Discipline isn't imposed from outside. It's a question of can we do what we really want to do? Can we drop other things? Can we do what's the most important thing? for us. So it involves feeding our intention by doing things that express it.

[23:25]

It involves studying the self and what comes up to find out more about ourselves and our intention. And it involves dedicating what we do, dedicating our efforts to something greater than ourselves. And that's profound discipline. If you do that, you create a monastery that's this shape. And so in the monastery that we build together as a community, we create a very special place in which it's relatively easy to concentrate on the most important thing, in which the activities of creating a guest season are a gift, a practice of giving. And the people who come as guests are also in the practice of giving support for the community as a whole all year.

[24:28]

So everyone joins in that practice. And so the monastery can very quickly give a feeling of concentration and purity. But The monastery can't teach you how to do it in every possible way. Only home life can do that. Only life in the world can do that. So at some point we all have to learn how to create a monastery in this form in relation to other people in their forms. So the monastery can give things and it can't give other things. And so The practice is ours to cultivate, to condition. I want to close with a koan from the Book of Serenity.

[25:29]

And it's a simple koan. I wouldn't usually bring up koans in the summer lectures because they're unfamiliar. But koans are the stories, the literature of Zen. And there are stories about ancient teachers and people who are examples of the practice. The word koan itself means public case. So it's like a case of law that's used as a precedent for other situations. Except these are precedents for awakened activity. So some of the koans are about emptiness. Some of the koans are about form. Some of the koans are about fun. They're all fun in a directed way. So they're all important examples for us. And in this particular koan, the Buddha, the world-honored one, was walking with his immediate community.

[26:34]

And just walking, say, by the dining room, he pointed to the ground with his finger and said, this spot is good for a sanctuary. This spot would be good to build a sanctuary. And Indra, the king of the gods, who was walking next to Buddha, picked up a blade of grass, put it in the ground, and said, the sanctuary is built. And the Buddha smiled. So, on the surface, a very simple story. The Buddha was just walking someplace and said, this spot is good to build a sanctuary. And Indra, the king of the gods, so a very auspicious person, picked up any blade of grass and put it in that spot just as a single act and said, the monastery is built.

[27:43]

The sanctuary is built. And the Buddha smiled, which is Buddha-speak for yes. Thank you. And so I think this is an important story because it means that when you go home, you can point to your car. and say this spot would be good to build sanctuary who at that moment is doing the pointing if that person is serious and then some very fortunate part of you may or auspicious part of you may say the sanctuary is built and then someone in there will smile

[28:43]

So there's probably time for one question or comment. And anyone would like to say something? Any thoughts, feelings, perceptions coming your way? Thank you for welcoming visitors. If we didn't have a guest season, we would have to invent one. Because you can't always breathe in. Right? At some point you have to breathe out. And that's the breathing in and breathing out of the temple. So you're welcome, and I mean really, really welcome. So we actually have time for another question or another comment.

[29:47]

Anyone? How would you answer someone who says that Buddhism shouldn't be engaged politically in the current issues and should be concerned with the domestic life or not Did you hear the question? How would you answer somebody who says that Buddhists shouldn't be concerned with social engagement or be in the political sphere, but just be monastics? Okay? So who is the person? I don't have to name names, but a friend, a Buddhist, a non-Buddhist...

[30:50]

What's their concern? I guess it comes from the question of whether we measure our ethics from standard of humans or a universal harmony of human beings at the top. And I guess my answer to that person would be, what do you feel called to do? And if the person was objecting to something I was doing or that my group was doing, I would tell them, I would divulge our motivations for doing it. So, for instance, we used to have a group, San Francisco Zen Center used to have a group that sat in the civic center downtown with a sign that said, no more nukes.

[31:54]

And so we got many comments for that. Some people would go by and honk the horn. Congratulations. Yes, we support you. And others would say, go back where you came from. Or you're not supposed to be taking political positions. You're excluding everyone who believes in nuclear bombs and in nuclear energy. What's wrong with you? And so then we had to explain ourselves and be accountable to those people. And we just said, we believe that this is what's appropriate for us to do. And the person said, no, I don't think so. And then we might say something like, let's agree to disagree. We might say something like, as an institution, we've decided that we want to support this particular cause.

[33:11]

So, for instance, San Francisco Zen Center, when Proposition 8 was being passed in San Francisco, put a statement on the front desk that talked about marrying, about the marriage ceremony being equally accessible. to couples of all types. And so there were many different types of comments about it, but the institution had agreed that the marriage ceremony is about a statement of intention and joining one's relationship to society as a whole, that it's a religious practice. And we weren't talking about... whether people should get married as Buddhists or shouldn't get married. But the institution wanted to support that position. And so we explained ourselves institutionally and not just personally.

[34:12]

So anyway, we do this in a variety of ways. We could speak about how to create the monastery and what the boundaries of the monastery are. And we will be speaking about this for many years to come. But this is just I wanted to let you know what I've been thinking about this week and bring up the question. And I hope we can have more conversations about this. I hope during the day when now it's time for monastic practitioners to sound the drum and bell and rest. Thank you very much for your intention and see you on the path. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[35:17]

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

[35:32]

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