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. One of the reasons I'm here is to participate in leading a poetry workshop and The intended other leader, Naomi Shihab Nye, is not here. But I am going to read a poem by her. Is this sound okay? Yeah? It feels kind of funny from where I am. It's a little bit like I'm underwater or something. But if it's okay with you, that's fine. So it wasn't okay.

[01:09]

You were just being nice. Well, keep it up. It's a very short poem, so listener, it'll be over before you notice. Crossing the Creek. Which stone do you look at? The one you're stepping onto or the next? This one's a little slick, but can't get across without it. And I read this poem earlier this evening. It reminded me of something a Zen teacher said to me once. He said, the Dharma, the truth of practice, is like a good joke. Everybody gets it. I feel like the same with this poem. We all get it. Things arise in our lives.

[02:17]

Whether we want to look at them as slick stones, obstacles, challenges, disasters, defeats, loss. They arise in our lives and then Is this a closing or an opening? Is this a misfortune or an opportunity? Is this an ending or a beginning? Somewhere in the magic of her simple, obvious statement. Naomi's hinting at something. I think our lives are always like this. Somewhere in the obvious activities that we're going through, something is being hinted at.

[03:27]

How we meet this day reflects how we meet our life. The attitude we bring to it is indicative of what will shape the attitude of our life. And in a setting like this, in a Zen center, In many ways, and Tasahara is a wonderful example. This room, this building is the center. This building is the center of the center. And in the center of the center, the Buddha is the center. Each morning and noontime meal, we bring food.

[04:31]

and make a ritual offering to the Buddha before we eat. Symbolic nourishing of the spirit of awakening, the activity of awakening, nourishing that capacity within us that can meet the opportunity rather than cast it as defeat, that can turn the ending into a new beginning, that can see the mundane and find within it some inquiry towards what it is to follow the path of a human life, what it is to get in touch with what I'm sure if you can say what's important.

[05:37]

I mean, what's important rises and falls so readily. The name of this workshop comes from one of Naomi's books. It's called The Words Under the Words. Underneath the Urgencies of the Day. Underneath the Utility of the Day. The Demands of the Day. What is there asking to be nourished? How is it that what guides our life, what helps remind us of the resilience, the resourcefulness, the ingenuity that helps our life to flow? The courage, the patience, the compassion that holds our tender being upright, What is it that nourishes these qualities?

[06:40]

So in the center of the center of the center of that question, Buddha. When you look at the geography and the topography of this valley, this building's in the middle. A couple of years ago we were threatened with floods and we hired someone who was a hydrologist, geologist. In other words, studies the water flow in relationship to geology and topography. And he said, oh, this building is the place to be if there's a disaster. And I thought, works for me. Many times it felt like I came here because of impending disaster.

[07:55]

Most of them of my own imagining. But even so, it offered its shelter. It's far away from the slopes. that it's not susceptible to landslides. It's high enough. It's not susceptible to floods. And it's not too bad in fire either. So each morning we come here to sit close to Buddha. And then throughout our day we we follow the path that is being presented. Sometimes just the simple utility of keeping the place running.

[08:55]

And then within that, the slippery stones, the obstacles, the challenges, You may think that since we all meditate that our lives are just harmonious bliss. Well, some of the ways that harmonious bliss presents itself might seem otherwise. living together. And who's not living in this way? Who is not living in some way wanting to stay close to what's important, to what's vitalizing their life, to what's helping to bring to it a clarifying reference?

[10:06]

It's helping to discover within the challenges of a life sense of freedom is there anyone on this whole planet who somewhere in their being is not engaged in their own version of this you know in Islam five times a day you're called to prayer and in the Christian tradition they would ring the bell was four times a day in the tradition was when that bell was rung when you heard the bell being run you stopped right there in that spot and you prayed and I must confess I can't remember the prayers it was to say and it's the Angeles yeah because that's why you say the Angeles four times a day

[11:16]

And in the Zen kitchen, we strike the mindfulness bell. Totally impractical thing to do when you're busy making food for 140. We strike the mindfulness bell and do nothing. Essentials, useless, pointless activity. and somehow makes sense of our day, draws into focus the utility of our engagement, and it helps us stimulate something that we might call the big picture. Okay, I'm crossing the creek at this moment.

[12:24]

And Naomi wrote this poem during one of our workshops. So there. And now it's in a book. Of course, a book of her poems. But it got a whole page to itself. It's a very interesting process when we're engaged. Of course, these are, in a way, delicious ideas. And yet, they're nothing more than just an introduction. They're nothing more than saying, okay, you paused. Do it. Be it. Let this initiate the vow, the intention, the resolve, the activity of practice.

[13:35]

The term we use in Zen and in many Buddhist sects in America. Do it. Be it. Engage it. Practice it. Renew it. And then the question becomes, how? How does a human being give in the tendencies of habit, of preferencing, of avoiding, of judging, of thinking about it rather than being part of it? This is what you discover when you do Zazen that these tendencies are extraordinarily persistent they're woven into our neurological makeup they're encoded in our body we hold them in our face

[14:56]

in our voice, in our breath, in how we turn towards and turn away from each other. How? How do they not simply define us, control us? How do the conditioned nature of our existence How does the lotus flower of unconditioned expression come forth? And this is the quest of Zen practice. How? So I'd like to answer that question this way. Start with Copernicus. who several hundred years ago discovered, to the dismay of many at the time, that the earth went round the sun.

[16:08]

It's always struck me as very interesting that that, what we now consider an obvious, irrefutable fact, that that in its time was a spiritually disruptive statement. He got into his share of trouble for putting that forward, for seeing that the earth went round the sun. Because surely we, or maybe more particularly me, is the center of the universe. We are close. And certainly collectively we're the center of the universe. And of course, that being the case, it would all evolve around us. And then we get this disruptive piece of information.

[17:10]

Nope. Sorry. And now, you know, we have so much more, you know. Not only does our Earth go around the sun, I mean, if we can call it our Earth, it's a bit of a stretch all by itself. And our sun is part of a bigger system, and that system is part of a bigger system. And that is part of a bigger system. And we're still speculating on where all this ends. So this is what we know. we know objectively, scientifically. And I doubt there's a person in this world that would say, no, no, no. And yet, I doubt that there's a person in this world that doesn't every day live in a world where the sun goes round the earth.

[18:14]

That the sun comes up somewhere around a royal cycle crosses over the sky and I think settles close to Big Sur. And when it comes up we have a psychological response. I think many of us do. I do. I usually feel Optimistic? Relieved? No, really, I don't. Especially if you live in this valley in the winter. This is today's heat coming in. It's an exciting proposition. And it sets with some sense of settling, resolve. So be it.

[19:19]

And in its exquisite kindness, it puts on a little bit of a visual display for us. So the world we live in, and then in this interesting way, we know this isn't exactly true. The sun doesn't come up with a royal cycle and saddle in Big Sur. But still, it's alluring. It seems resonant with our individual experience to live in that world. Okay, still got 15 minutes. This is a proposition, this world of two truths. This is a proposition that's very close to the teachings of Zen practice and of Buddhist practice.

[20:29]

In Buddhist practice we're taught, and like good Buddhists we believe it, everything changes. We're taught that every moment is an interaction of all its constituents, parts and factors and forces, and they collectively give birth. And that any meaning or relevance, even to call it this and that, is contextual. And we go, uh-huh, got it. The earth goes round the sun. I'm really for that. And then we go off and we live in an entirely different world. And proposition of practice in some way is quite simple.

[21:42]

Forget either or. Don't cling fearfully me world, and don't cling idealistically to the other world, this virtuous, wise world of the earth going around the sun. But let that inform, guide, teach us not to grasp some tightly. And it so happens I have another poem on this very subject. Oh, heart, why can't you learn that there's nothing to do in the world except live in it? Why can't you take its deep gifts, the birds, the cars in the rain, the lost keys,

[22:53]

the brokenhearted. The beautiful thing, and I think I'm using the word beautiful correctly, you don't have to agree, is that we can savor constructs of our own human invention. We can see how we come into relationship with this world that we're intrinsically part of. We can see how we participate in defining it having it be a closing or an opening, an obstacle or an opportunity.

[24:04]

And something in this is liberating. Something in this allows the experience of existence to be something more than a replay of what's already happened. Something in this allows for the liberated act in the moment. The lotus flower of the unconditioned rising in the ocean of conditioned existence. And this liberated act requires no special skill, no ingredient that isn't already present in the moment. It simply requires this curious act of beauty.

[25:19]

This poetic expression of the dance two worlds. This patient, compassionate response to the persistence of our human tendency to say it's the way I want it to be. I want the sun to come up here and I want it to go down there. And that wanting includes liking it and disliking it. It includes being annoyed when the sky is cloudy and being annoyed when the sun is too hot. And then the practice of Zen

[26:25]

is embodying and enacting this truth of these two worlds and how they dance together. Of not getting stuck in one, the idealization of scientific truth or the propositions of the nature of reality, how they may be. and not being stuck in the intrigues of our human arisings. And the very intersection of them is where the spark that initiates the awakening happens. If you think about it for a moment, if the world according to me didn't run into some kind of obstacle, if it didn't run into some kind of challenge, wouldn't we just simply drift along inside its definitions?

[27:52]

Isn't there a way in which we need this slick rock to know that there's rocks? Isn't there a way this slick rock invites us to pay attention? Isn't it its own version of mindfulness bell? Or the call to prayer? There is this poet, these deep gifts. Oh heart, why can't you learn that there's nothing to do in the world except live in it? Why can't you take these deep gifts? The practice of Zazen and the practice of Zen is simply

[29:04]

to nourish and enact that which helps us be nourished by these gifts. Whether it's doing zazen, attending a poetry workshop, or just simply following the course of how your life's unfolded. In the tradition of Zen, we make a big fuss about this. Because it's endlessly intriguing, at least to me, how we're fully endowed with this capacity and we can so easily disconnect from it.

[30:18]

How we can wake up in a thousand moments and then get stuck in the next one. Beautiful mystery. And how do we study that mystery? We study it in those moments of intersection. Those moments where we grasp at the running water and try to make it still. Where we try to say, do it my way. Do it according to what I want and what I don't want. And we grasp at other people, our interactions with them. Hoping, demanding, waiting for them to comply with how it is for us.

[31:29]

And sometimes they do. And very annoyingly, sometimes they don't. the whole process be held more with the sense of awe than a sense of something's broken and it needs to be fixed. See, this is where poetry really comes in. Because even when something's broken and you write a poem about it, That's enormously helpful. Because you've discovered in that so-called brokenness the beauty of existence. Every life is utterly and completely amazing.

[32:39]

And when you sit satsang, you discover that every time you do, there is an unfolding that's never happened before and will never happen again. And there's something about sitting close to Buddha. There's something about... putting Buddha at the center of the center of the center that inspires, informs this process. There's something wonderfully senseless about bringing food to a piece of stone and thinking it gets nourished by it.

[33:48]

It's not a very scientific notion. And yet we stand with silent reverence while it happens. in that silent reverence the nourishment takes place and we're just struck how did that happen you know that the very Buddha being of our silent reference reverence nourished the Buddha being of all being in a simple, obvious and utterly mysterious way.

[34:58]

This is the way of Zen. utterly obvious and mysterious. So, we cross the creek and we follow the many paths that radiated from the center of the center of the center in some ways each one of us on our own path in some ways our paths criss-crossing interfering with each other or is it

[36:11]

inspiring, supporting, and enlightening each other. And what is it that turns that occurrence and defines it one way or the other? The world of Zen just generates Endless questions. Questions are much more fun than answers. You get an answer and it's like, okay then. Well, that's done. You get a question and it's like, okay. Gee. an interesting notion let me explore that for myself I hope I hope you heard something in this that made you think hell let me check that out let me see how that is well are there slick rocks in my life

[37:39]

Are there experiences that cause me to close and turn away, that sap my enthusiasm, vitality or commitment? Are there occurrences that I insist upon defining as defeat? Or what is it? What is that quality of being? What cracks open our unquestioning conviction of what is and what isn't?

[38:46]

Thank you. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

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