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. One of the aspirations that we express, that we sing in this valley, is may we exist in muddy water with purity like a lotus may we exist in the mire of all misery with purity and beauty and truth like a lotus we aspire to this

[01:01]

We sing this prayer. We sing it at the end of every formal meal in this hall. The lotus flower, the lotus plant, which produces the lotus flower, does not wallow in the mire. in the mud. It embraces, with all of its roots, it embraces the mud. And this embrace uplifts the plant into this beautiful process of life. We vow to embrace the mud, to embrace all misery, wholeheartedly and produce the lotus flower of wisdom and compassion.

[02:09]

That's how we aspire to respond to the misery. By embracing it. By bearing witness to it. By listening to it. observing it with ears and eyes of compassion. And today we have, we call today here, Arbor Day. And we're going to plant some trees. One of our responses to all this suffering is to plant trees. The other I just mentioned is to witness the suffering. We also grow vegetables in response to suffering.

[03:21]

And then we share the vegetables which inspire other people to live a life of compassion. When they see those vegetables, they feel inspired to practice like a lotus. And we grow flowers, and we bake bread, and we cook meals, and we practice meditation in this valley in order to grow lotuses in this world of suffering. to inspire other people to plant lotuses and grow lotuses. We want these lotuses to reproduce. And while we plant lotuses and trees and bear witness to the suffering of the world, we offer all these activities and others which I haven't mentioned, but basically we offer all, we aspire to offer all of our daily activities.

[05:09]

brushing our teeth, saying hello, listening to suffering, opening doors, sitting down, standing up. All of our daily activities are opportunities for dedication of our life to the Buddha's wisdom. to the Buddha mind. And we receive a teaching which is hard to believe and hard to understand. It's maybe not so hard to believe that listening to suffering, listening to the cries of the world is kind. That may not be so difficult to believe. and understand.

[06:11]

But we have some other practices which are more difficult to believe and understand. For example, we have a teaching which says, when you express the Buddha mind, In all your activities of daily life, the whole phenomenal world becomes the Buddha's mind. And the entire sky turns into enlightenment. We have our daily life, and we have an opportunity to dedicate it, to dedicate anything good about it, to the Buddha mind.

[07:19]

And in this way, in this way of dedicating all of our activity to proclaim our activity as the Buddha mind, to uphold our activity, all of our activities, each of our activities as the Buddha mind, the entire phenomenal world becomes the Buddha mind. And the entire sky becomes enlightenment. and all beings are liberated. This is hard to believe, most hard to believe, and hard to understand. So we have some maybe easy things to believe, like planting trees, and growing organic vegetables, and listening with ears of compassion. And we have more difficult things to listen to and believe. Today I'm going to plant a Japanese maple tree, which I had been taking care of since it was a little tiny baby.

[08:41]

Now it's two feet tall. I'm going to plant it today. I'm going to try to plant it today. But you know, little girls may interfere with me. Who knows? I heard ones coming to visit me. She may have other things in mind. And I follow her instructions. But I'm going to try to plant a Japanese maple tree. Which is, by the way, a child of some other Japanese maple trees which I've been taking care of for about 30 years. And I try to remember while I'm thinking about practicing planting trees, to offer this planting, to offer this planting activity to express the Buddha mind seal.

[09:48]

By the way, what is the Buddha mind seal? What is the Buddha mind? What is Buddha's wisdom? nothing I can or will say will reach it. And still, maybe I'll say something about the Buddha mind, the Buddha mind seal, the Buddha mind mudra. I suggest that the Buddha mind is a relationship. It is a reality of relationship. It is a being called

[10:52]

Buddha mind is a being called. I am calling you. Now don't you hear me. I am calling you. A Buddha mind seal is a being called by an other. And it is responding to that other. The Buddha mind isn't just an other, it's a relationship between me and an other.

[12:10]

It's a relationship between, may I say, you and an other. An other that's calling to you and that you're responding to. The Buddha is other in the sense that it is that which we have no idea about. You may think Buddha is a really great old lady or a great young man. I don't know what you think Buddha is, but go right ahead and think away. Buddha is other than whatever. it's whatever you feel Buddha is, and so on. Buddha is the realization, the mind which realizes that nothing exists by itself, including that realization.

[13:23]

And we have a relationship with that other. and it's calling to us, and we're responding, and that relationship is the Buddha mind seal. It's kind of like the sealing, the circle, by which we are one with Buddha. This, also this Buddha Mayan seal is a transcending of affliction. It's a transcending of the mud, of misery. And it is a realization of peace and justice.

[14:29]

It's a relationship of transcending all affliction and realizing peace and justice. It's that kind of relationship. And it comes to pass in the responsibilities of a face-to-face relationship. It's a relationship and it's a face-to-face relationship with an other which is beyond our ideas of the other. Every person you meet is an opportunity for this relationship

[15:42]

with the other, with an other. This fall, here in the valley, we have been studying ten pictures about ox herding. Ten pictures about an ox herder and an ox. Or you could say an ox herder, a cow herder and a cow. Or a bull herder and a bull. We've been studying these pictures and there's also verses from hundreds of years ago about the relationship between

[16:46]

an ox herder and an ox. We have been making extensive explorations into the face-to-face relationship between the ox herder and the ox. And this relationship as we investigate it opens on to further investigations and further explorations of social existence and social justice. one more class.

[17:46]

And after the class is over, I don't know what we're going to do. Or what's going to become of us and the ox. But I hope, I aspire to continue exploring the face-to-face relationship with this ox, which is really, I mean, ultimately invisible. And every person I meet, that invisible ox is here. And I want to continue to explore the relationship with the ox in every face-to-face encounter. Buddhist or Buddha precepts, Buddhist ethics, Bodhisattva ethics, Bodhisattva vows, speak.

[19:13]

These vows speak. These vows are speaking out of... the face-to-face relationship with an other. A lot of times people, actually someone said to me quite recently, not more than ten minutes ago, but quite recently, someone said to me, any advice about how to practice the bodhisattva precepts, which are the precepts for beings who aspire to perfect awakening for the welfare of all beings. Bodhisattvas aspire to become lotus flowers in the mud. We have ethics, teachings of ethics for them. Which we write down in English and Chinese and so on.

[20:21]

Sanskrit, Tibetan. And a lot of times we think, oh, here I am and the ethics are over there. So what I said, what I'm saying now is that these ethics come up out of a relationship. They speak, they're the relationship speaking. So when you hear the ethical precept of not killing or not lying or or not misusing sexuality, or not taking what's not given. When you hear the ethics of embracing and sustaining all beings, when you hear that, I advise this person to remember that that's the talking of your relationship with the other. You're already in the relationship of that precept.

[21:24]

It's not like you should do the precept. That precept is telling you about how you are related with the other. The precepts come from our relationship with the Buddha. When people hear about these ethical precepts for bodhisattvas, they sometimes feel that they want to practice these precepts.

[22:42]

I want to practice embracing and sustaining all beings. I want to practice embracing and sustaining all right action. I want to practice embracing and sustaining all good. I want to practice not killing, not stealing. So now I'm saying that maybe what they actually want to practice is this relationship, this intimate communion between the one that's calling you and the one you're responding to. But you want to practice that relationship and use these precepts for that purpose and use tree planting for that purpose and use listening to others

[23:45]

suffering for that purpose. I want to practice these precepts. I want to be like these precepts. And here's another kind of somewhat difficult point which I think it might be important to mention is that my desire to live this relationship with the one who's calling me and the one I'm responding to. My wish, my desire to realize that, to live that way, will never be satisfied. it's important to mention that because some people are trying do wish they do have the desire to realize the relationship of the one that's calling them and the one they're responding to they sense that that is their life actually and they want to realize it they desire that and this is the desire that grows the buddhas the buddhas have

[25:15]

all desire this. They desire to respond to the call and they also call in response to the call that they hear. They hear a call to them and they respond. And we hear their response as a call to us and we respond. Buddhas want us all to realize that intimate relationship. They desire it. But they know already that that desire will never be satisfied. But we beginners sometimes think that there may be something wrong when we're not satisfied. This is a desire which will not ever be satisfied. Even if you're a Buddha... There are desires which are satisfied.

[26:17]

This is not one of those. This is the desire which grows from the hunger for it. The hunger feeds it. It's fed by its own hunger. It gets stronger and stronger in its dissatisfaction. I shouldn't say dissatisfaction. in it not being satisfied. Because this practice is not dissatisfaction and it's not satisfaction. So excuse me for saying this, but satisfaction cannot be got. But that's not the part I'm asking you to forgive me for. It's the next part. The next part is Also, you can't get no satisfaction. You can't get satisfaction and you can't get no satisfaction.

[27:27]

And that's the way Buddhas are. They don't get satisfaction and they don't get no satisfaction. What they get is the inconceivable joy of calling and being responded to and being called and being responded to Buddhas are called to I am calling you you are calling me this is the great joy of the Buddha life is this responsive is this responsibility this responsibility is transcendence This responsibility is freedom. The life of this responsibility is freedom from affliction and realization of peace and justice. I cannot make the world a place of justice. You can't either. But our relationship, the way it really is, realizes justice.

[28:37]

It realizes social reality, which is not that I make myself or I make you, but that we call each other and respond. We are responsible beings in this responsibility, in this intimate responsibility, we realize peace and justice. This practice of mutual responsibility, this practice, this intimate responsiveness between us, we also call our meditation practice. We sit in this room and practice responding to the call and being called. And this responsibility is an activity.

[29:49]

It's an active life of calling and being responded to, of being called and responding to. It's our life. Our life is action. Our actions are like this. And this is hard to believe and hard to understand. that our actions are responses to being called, and our actions are calls for a response. We're calling for something. We're being asked for something. This activity, this way of living, is, we say, it's a deportment. It's a form of deportment. It's the deportment of Buddhas. And it's a deportment beyond hearing and seeing.

[30:53]

It's an invisible, inaudible deportment. There is also visible and audible deportment. Like, for example, planting a Japanese maple tree. listening to a person's voice. These are audible and visible departments which we practice. But these are also dedicated to an inaudible call and an inaudible response which is simultaneous and ever-present with our visible and invisible with our visible and audible activity, which we're involved in, as you know, all day long. But all these activities are opportunities to dedicate our activity to a deportment beyond hearing and seeing.

[32:02]

If you desire to realize this deportment this deportment beyond hearing and seeing, which realizes peace and justice. This is a kind of, what I'm about to say, I'm going to say, and it may be shocking, so if you don't want to hear it, maybe you should leave the room. Buddha guidance suggested visible and audible and smellable and tasteable and touchable and thinkable activity can be good but it is not sufficient for peace and

[33:09]

and justice. In addition to doing these audible and visible activities, we must do them in relationship, not by yourself. We must do them in a relationship where we are being called to do visible things. And we are responding to the call in a face-to-face relationship. We need this face-to-face relationship for our actions to bring peace and justice. The same action with the understanding that we're doing it in relationship. The second part is necessary.

[34:13]

Otherwise we just stay within our own little version of doing what will bring peace and justice. And we see the results of people staying within their own idea of what that is. The result is at risk of war. As Mr. Keats says, therefore ye soft pipes, play on. Not to the fleshy ear, but more endeared, pipe to the spirit, ditties of no tone. Young time.

[35:17]

Okay. She first said 1110. I thought, I'm surprised it's that late. It's okay. Really, it's okay. I asked for it. So I heard a song recently, which I heard a long time ago, but I heard it again in a new way. And please forgive me for changing the song to kind of like resonate more literally with this talk I gave today. Would you forgive me ahead of time? Thank you very much. Anybody who does not want to hear me mess with a famous song, please, you can leave now.

[36:29]

Again, for me, it's a song about relationship with the other, which we want to know, and that's good, but we never will completely. satisfy that desire. But it's about continuing to want to know the other and to take care of that relationship. That's the way I hear it and go something like this today. You know that it would be untrue You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Buddha we can go no higher Come on Buddha light my fire Come on Buddha light my fire Try to set the night on fire

[37:49]

The time to hesitate is through No time for wallowing in mire I know I'll never really reach you But still a hunger feeds desire Come on Buddha, light my fire Come on Buddha, light my fire Try to light the night on fire. I feel called to respond in this way. Whoever called me, this is my response. And I call you to respond to me.

[38:53]

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. zc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:27]

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