This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning and a hearty welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple to all of you. I haven't sat on the Dharma seat for a while, partly because, as you see, I'm sitting on a different one now. And I kind of struggled against that for a while. One of my students, who of course is also one of my teachers, suggested to me why don't we do a workshop on celebrating aging?

[01:03]

And I thought, celebrating? And then I thought, well, yes, I mean, the alternative to aging is dying. Yes, I think I'll celebrate aging. It's very important for us to recognize that how we live our life is the most important thing for us to work on in our life, to live our life in a way that contributes to the well-being of everyone instead of draining the energy out of everyone. to find out what that is for this particular being. What is the way to live my life that will benefit beings, that will open my heart completely, that will...

[02:22]

hopefully leave the world a better place than it was when I found it. I think each of us wants to do that. And one of the things that I understand about practice, I mean, how I came to practice was discovering that I was going to die because my close friend and contemporary suddenly died, and getting it that, oh, I will too. It's not just, you know, yeah, right, everybody dies later when I'm old, don't talk about it now. It became very urgent for me, and that's how I got into this practice. I met someone, namely Suzuki Roshi, who looked like he knew how I should live in this impermanent life. And so here I am, 40 years later. More than 40, but... And when it came time for me to give this talk, I realized I just have one string left in my bow.

[03:38]

And that I think I have... So I have some quotations here that I will share with you that I think you've heard before, those of you who've been here before. Number one, the Dalai Lama... who says that his practice is, every morning when I wake up, I think today I am fortunate to have woken up. I'm alive. I have a precious human life. I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to wake up completely for the benefit of all beings. I'm going to have kind thoughts towards others. I'm not going to get angry or think badly about others. I'm just going to benefit others as much as I can. I try to remember to say this to myself every morning when I wake up.

[04:46]

But I always remember to say it to you every time I sit on the seat because I think... This is the bodhisattva vow. To live in a way that benefits beings. And of course... We know... I'm trying to think where I have... the five recollections, because, yeah. This is something that the Buddha suggested one should remember every day. It's called the five remembrances, and it's in the Upajihatnas Uttara.

[05:54]

I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. I'm of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health. I am of the nature to die. There's no way to escape death. All that is dear to me and everyone I love is subject to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. I inherit the results of my actions in body, speech, and mind. My actions are the ground on which I stand. So there, in a nutshell, is the reason that how I live my life matters.

[07:01]

How I live my life will result in how I experience my life. And therefore, it behooves me to pay some attention to it, to notice what I'm doing as I'm doing it. That's the great value of being in the present moment is you're not going to do something stupid because you weren't paying attention. If you're here in your mind and body with all of your actions of body, speech, and mind, you will take care to conduct yourself in a way that doesn't cause harm. If you're caught up in some idea of yourself or just daydreaming and not paying attention or acting on a strong emotion without taking a look at it and saying, hmm, maybe I'll sit with this a little while.

[08:14]

If you're actually present in your life, we're all intelligent enough to conduct ourselves in an appropriate way. But sometimes we get carried away. So our practice is to pay attention so that we don't get carried away and act in ways, you know, oh, I wish I hadn't said that. Oh, I wish I hadn't done that. Has that ever happened to you? Yeah, me too. So... This practice is to encourage us to be here in this moment as we're acting so that we are aware of what we're doing. Because I think we can trust ourselves that if we're aware, our choices will be much, much more beneficial to everyone.

[09:21]

And, no, this is not going to be news to you probably, but I'm going to share with you a prayer that was written by my Dharma sister, Maylee Scott, who unfortunately died some years ago. But Maylee was also a disciple of... Sojin Weizmann over at Berkeley. She was also a devoted peace activist out at the Naval Weapons Station in Concord. She would join demonstrations quite regularly against shipping armaments out of there. And this metta prayer that she... wrote I really like very much.

[10:30]

May I be well, loving, and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises. May I know and be intimate with body-mind, whatever its feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly. Breathing in and out, in and out, aware, moment by moment of the risings and passings. May I be attentive and gentle towards my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness.

[11:35]

May I perceive others with sympathy and understanding. May I move towards the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion and her thousand hands, her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye in it, the instinctive knowing of what to do. May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others and persist mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results. May I know that my peace is and the world's peace are not separate, that our peace in the world is a result of our work for justice. May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful.

[12:37]

So this practicing of loving kindness and friendliness is a very important part of how I want to live my life. There are sort of four states of mind that the Buddha encourages us to cultivate. They're sometimes called the four... There we go, let's see in your moment. They are the four... Well, four emotions. The bottom of the heart is the... of the great ones they are loving kindness or metta compassion or karuna empathetic joy I forget the poly for that no?

[14:14]

the pecca thank you it's very nice that's my t-shirt and equanimity or paya, even-mindedness or non-preference. And in particular, I find that loving-kindness sort of embodies the whole thing almost. And in addition to... In addition to being present in the present moment, being awake and aware in the present moment, the great...

[15:20]

Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh introduced us here at Zen Center to not just to mindfulness of the present moment, which he did with great energy, but also to smile. He put a big emphasis on smiling. He used to say, if I come into the kitchen and you're cutting carrots and I ask you, what you're doing, I'd rather have you say breathing and smiling, Ty, than cutting carrots. Breathing and smiling, he urged his students to be aware of all the time. In every moment, we were breathing, and in every moment, he was encouraging smiling. You'd be surprised how difficult that is. I don't know if you've ever noticed.

[16:22]

I mean, those of you who live at Zen Center and we're going to be served breakfast in the morning and we come into the kitchen and stand in a circle face to face. Have you ever tried to get everybody to smile in that circle? I mean, here somebody's cooked us a nice breakfast. We're going to be fed. We're going to say good morning to everyone. So I think we need to work on it a little bit. And this is not just Thich Nhat Hanh. There is, I love this website that I subscribe to called gracefulness.org. It's Brother David Steindlrast's website. And he doesn't call it gratefulness, he calls it gratefulness. But he puts out quotations. One a day. They come up on my screen as having been sent at 12.02 a.m.

[17:28]

every morning. So they're the first thing that come up for me. And this is a Mongolian proverb. It says, a heartfelt smile gives warmth for three winters. Warmth enough for three winters. And I understand winters are rather cold in Mongolia. So that's... a lot of warmth from a heartfelt smile. So you might remember that. And just calling on other cultures, this is from Hafiz, who was a great Sufi poet and teacher. When all your desires are distilled, you will cast just two votes to love more than and to be happy. I think he's indicating there that that's really just one vote, that being happy will be a natural result of loving more.

[18:36]

And the more we can cultivate loving kindness daily, hourly, momentarily, all the time, noticing when we're closing down and breathing there and opening up again. We will be the happier for it. Now, of course, everybody else around us will be happier for it as well. But just looking out for number one in this case, you will feel happier if you recognize the warmth and connection of ourselves with everyone, without exception. We are totally interdependent and inter... Thich Nhat Hanh uses the word interbeing. How we live in the world is interbeing. We are all being. My being and your being and everybody's being who's alive are intertwined and interdependent and really inseparable.

[19:49]

So that working on unconditional love as the basis for our whole life is worth every moment we spend on it. The payback is big. Or as Hafi says, the payback is happiness. So Suzuki Roshi says, if you can just appreciate each thing one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything. So to appreciate everything What's right in front of us all the time is the direction that I see suggested by teacher after teacher after teacher.

[21:04]

And since it doesn't always come up like that, the first thing on your mind, as I said to Leanne, celebrate? I'd like to sing an old song. I think it's from about the 1930s, but I'm not sure. But some of you may have heard it and can sing along with me if you like. Look for the silver lining when air a cloud appears in the blue. Remember somewhere the sun is shining, and so the best thing to do is let it shine for you. A heart full of love and gladness will always something. Will always banish.

[22:09]

Well, I better look at the words. Always banish sadness and strife, so always look for the silver lining, and you will find the sunny side of life. That's why I'm not a concert artist. But I do like the sentiment, and I want to point out that's not... any great Zen master. That's just two people singing in a musical written by Jerome Kern. And I don't want to be a Pollyanna. I just want to point out what actually happens. If you look for what's to appreciate in this moment, you will find what's to appreciate in this moment.

[23:11]

There's plenty to appreciate. Not the least of which is being alive. You know, I had a heart attack about 25 years ago now. And when I survived it, I was quite appreciative. And that's the moment at which I discovered that life was a gift. I hadn't noticed it until then. I just took it for granted. But every day, every moment of life, I find, is a gift. Even when I'm not always happy, I'm glad to be alive. And, you know, if I am alive, maybe there's something I can do that will help to turn my thoughts from lots to celebrate to, oh, yeah, I'm alive. I like it. there's another quote I think you might appreciate from Joni Baez.

[24:21]

You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when, but you can decide how you're going to live now. And there's an African saying. One of the things I like about Brother David's website is He draws from many cultures. There's an African saying, those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly, your wholeness when you're broken, your innocence when you feel guilty, and your purpose when you are confused. one of the things I like to notice is that there's wisdom in every culture and it's not so different from culture to culture.

[25:25]

It may be said in a little different way but human beings are human beings and we have the same sort of tendencies and the same sort of awakening to how things are and how we might be more how we want to be if we're paying attention. So for me, I really find it, I really like to recite in my head by myself many times a day the Buddha's teaching on loving kindness. And we chant it, of course, once a week. We chant it in morning service. But I chant it pretty much every day, and often just... The payoff lines for me are suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit.

[26:40]

So let one cultivate... an infinite goodwill toward the whole world. I come back to that passage over and over and over again. The image of cultivating an infinite goodwill toward the whole world is so inspiring to me that It makes me feel better right on the spot. Now, there's one quote here which I really like and it's by David R. Hawkins. Does anybody know who he was? But he said, make a gift of your life and lift all by being kind, considerate,

[27:41]

forgiving and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give. He should be better known for that quote, I think. And the Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. And Mother Teresa said, We ourselves feel that what we're doing is just a drop in the ocean.

[28:44]

But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. And here's one that I like, that I find very true for me. The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see. That definitely happened to me on the day I walked out of the hospital after my heart attack. That recognizing that life from the get-go is a gift and that every day I wake up it's a gift anew, has changed the world I live in. And I think that's why Brother David felt that was the most... He wrote a book called Gratefulness, or Gratefulness, as he says it, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer.

[30:02]

So I don't really have anything, you know, I say, I don't have anything more to teach than that, and yet I don't think it's skimpy. I think it's very full. I think we don't have copies of the... of the metta-sutta around, but I think there are enough people here who know it that would it be all right with you if we chanted it together? Well, we do have some sutra books, but I don't know if we have time. I guess we've got time for it. Does anybody want a sutra book? If some people would like sutra books, we can hand out those to people who want it. If you want one, just put your hand up.

[31:42]

So loving-kindness meditation, we'll see. Probably says loving-kindness meditation. Yeah, you might have to share. Okay. Loving kindness meditation. This is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise, who seeks the good and has obtained peace.

[32:47]

One be strenuous, upright, and sincere without pride, easily contented and joyous. Let one be submerged by the things of the world. Let one take on oneself the burden of riches. Let one's senses be controlled. Let one be wise but not puffed up. And let one not desire great possessions even for one's family. Let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong in high or middle or low realms of existence, are visible or invisible. Near or far, born to be born, may all beings be happy. Let no one deceive another, nor despise any being in any state.

[33:51]

Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another, even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child. So with a boundless mind should we cherish all living things, suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit. So let one cultivate an infinite goodwill toward the whole world, standing or walking, sitting or lying down, during all one's waking hours. Let one practice away with gratitude. not holding to fixed views, endowed with insight, freed from sense appetites. One who achieves the way will be freed from the duality of birth and death. Thank you for joining in with me on that. The reason I am so encouraged by this sutra is

[35:00]

I think, besides its obviousness, is Mahagosananda was a great Cambodian monk who visited here on some occasions. And on one occasion, when there was a great gathering of sangha, which was arranged by Green Gulch and Spirit Rock, at Spirit Rock, he was there The Dalai Lama was there. There were people from all of the various Buddhist traditions that are practicing here in this country today. And this was late in Mahagosananda's life when he had some senile dementia by that time and had someone sort of with him all the time so that he didn't get lost in an unfamiliar environment. And I saw him sitting alone, and I went over to pay my respects.

[36:05]

And as I approached him, I had, when he was just sitting there smiling, but I had a physical sensation of loving kindness emanating from him like a physical force as I was approaching him to bow. And... That's how I want to be when I grow up. And I wish the same for all of you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost 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. May we fully enjoy the Dorma.

[37:02]

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